“I want to go to Charing Cross—is it much out of the way?”

“No, sir; it’s right on the way there.”

“Then, if you’ll show me the way to Charing Cross afterward, I will go round with you and look at your grandfather. Perhaps I can do something for him.”

“Oh, sir, how kind you are! I know’d you was a gentleman when I fust saw you.”

“When was your grandfather taken sick?”

“Two days ago,” said the boy.

Is he in bed?”

“Yes, sir. Leastways, he was when I came out. We didn’t have no breakfast.”

“I am sorry for that. Don’t you want to buy something to take to him?”

“If you’ll give me a shillin’, sir, I’ll ask him what he can eat. Sick folks can’t eat the same things as the rest of us.”