"'Oh, don't call me cocky,' entreated Lal, 'and what do you mean by that expression "hold on"? Is not my whole life a perpetual exhibition of "holding on"?'
"'You've been a first-class, tip-top pal to me, Lal, an' I wants ter know first where that there ring wot shined like blazes, and wot 'ung round my neck and then round 'is, 'as a-gone to? Ain't I to 'ave it no more?'
"'You will have the memory of it,' replied Lal; 'you have possessed it once, and I think you will have quite enough imagination left all through your life without it; in fact, in the future, at times you will have rather too much imagination for the comfort of your other fellow-creatures.'
"''Ave I got to go with 'im?' I asked; ''ave I got to say good-bye to you?'
"'Certainly,' replied Lal in his most stately way; 'you are going to have a very happy life; you are a fairly respectable kid now, but you will become more and more respectable until one will hardly recognise you at all. You are going to have a ready-made Father and Mother which I have provided you with.'
"'Ain't 'eard nothink about no Muvver yet,' I said; 'where's the Muvver come in?'
"'Ah! you wait and see,' whispered the Lion mysteriously.
"'Are you a-kiddin' me, Lal? if so, chuck it!'
"'Oh! dreadful, dreadful expressions!' lamented Lal. 'Undoubtedly the next time I see you I believe your grammar will have improved, and your vocabulary have become more select. I hope so!'
"It was at this point that something about Lal's eyes and attitude gave me the idea he was going to shut up for good, so to speak, and my feelings so overcame me, that without thinking I flung my arms round Lal's neck, that is to say, as far as they would go, and hugged him.