"'Yus,' I yelled, 'a friend, a fust-class friend. 'Ere, Sam, I'll 'elp yer up by yer paws,' and he scrambled up and licked my face. Then he looks at the Lion.
"'He'll do,' said Lal. 'Tell him not to attract attention by barking or making any more of that noise. You must both go to sleep; and I must say that you are a remarkably strange pair. However, here you are, and here you must stay.'
"When I woke up in the morning it was just beginning to be daylight. I spoke to Lal, but he wouldn't answer, he was cold and still, and didn't look as if he had ever spoken or moved in his life, and never would again. I folded the policemen's aprons up tight and thin like truncheons in case they missed them, clambered down, followed by Sam, and had a wash in one of the basins of the fountains, and got fairly clean and respectable, except my coat, all torn in half, which I couldn't help, and then I set out to see what I could find. It was Sam who nosed out something like a breakfast.
"Two stale buns in a bag. I should think some child had thrown them away—penny buns they were. I never tasted anything better, and Sam had some of them, and he thought they were all right.
"I made twopence that day, carrying a bag. The man who gave me the job gave me the unnecessary caution at the same time, not to run away with it, just as if such a thing was likely. Why, I could hardly lift it, and I couldn't have run two steps with it.
"He was an inquisitive man too, wanted to know if I had stolen the dog. I said no, I didn't steal. 'Well,' he asked, 'if you don't steal, how do you get a living?' I said, 'I'm getting it now.' He said it must be a hard job. I replied, 'Golly, you're right, governor, this 'ere bag is that 'eavy it drags me vitals out; wot's it got inside of it—bricks?' Then he drove me off and said I was a cheeky little devil, but he gave me twopence. Sam and I went to an eating-house and got two big lumps of pudding on the strength of it, and that fed us bang up for that day.
"I waited around at night with Sam, and directly I saw the Square was deserted, I hopped up into my old place and Sam after me.
"'Hullo!' said Lal, 'you two have turned up again, have you?'
"'Yuss,' I replied; 'it's the only 'ome we've got, yer know, Lal.'
"'I must see what I can do for you,' mused the Lion. 'There is a man I know who could give you work and help you at once, only his heart is very hard at the present time; unfortunately success hasn't softened him—he is a miser.'