"'We shall see,' said the Lion. 'Good-night.'
"When Lal's friend from the City had departed, I came out from the corner where I had been waiting, and Sam and I clambered up into our old place out of sight. At that time I considered the City Alderman a very horrid mean old man, and remembering Lal's words that he was a miser, I made a mental resolution that although this was the first specimen of the kind I had ever encountered, I never wished to meet another of the same sort.
"'Well?' inquired Lal, as I lay and looked up into his face before settling down for the night. 'What do you think of him?'
"''Ard-hearted, ain't 'e?' I replied.
"'Humph! yes, at present,' mused Lal.
"'Wot will yer give 'im ter take for it?' I asked.
"Lal smiled. 'Oh, a little prescription of my own.'
"'That bloke wot's just gone won't do nothink fer me. Can't yer suggest somethink else, Lal, somebody as I could go to as would give me some work?'
"'If you have patience,' answered Lal, 'and look around and get a few odd jobs, and a little grub for yourself and Sam every day for a little while, like the small London sparrow that you are—I beg your pardon, I should have said Skylark—I shall be able very shortly to bring our friend to a better frame of mind; at the present moment his sense of proportion is all wrong.'
"'Wot's sense of proportion, Lal?' I inquired.