‘But why did not she take you as well?’
‘’Cause she said I was big enough to earn my own wittles and drink. But I must be off; here comes a bobby,’ said the boy, frightened at the appearance of one of the town police. Alas! he was too weak to run; he had had no food all day, and his only bed by night had been under some old waggon or in some old barn or loft, and, barefooted, he fell an easy prey to the representative of law and order.
‘Now, you young rascal,’ said the policeman, as he gave the lad a good shaking, apparently in order to test the strength of his ragged clothes, and, if possible, to make matters worse, ‘get out of this, and be off,’ an order which the poor lad would have obeyed had not the actress held his hand.
‘You know him,’ said she to the policeman.
‘Know him! of course I do. It was only last week I had him up before the magistrate.’
‘What for?’
‘For sleeping in the open air, and now here he is again. ’Tis very aggrawatin’. What’s the use of trying to do one’s duty if this sort of thing goes on?’
‘Is it a crime to sleep in the open air?’ asked the actress.
‘Well, you see, ma’am, it ain’t allowed by the magistrates; leastwise, not inside the borough.’
‘Poor little fellow!’ said the actress as she looked at the lad; ‘I’ll take him myself to the workhouse. There he would be out of harm’s way, and washed and fed, and made clean and comfortable.’