"What are you doing here?"
"Don't tell anybody, sir; I'm hiding."
"What are you hiding from?"
"Don't tell anybody, if you please, sir."
"Where's your mother?"
"Mother is dead."
"Where's your father?"
"Hush! don't tell him! don't tell him! but look here!" He turned himself on his face and through the rags of his jacket and shirt my friend saw the boy's flesh was bruised and the skin broken.
[Illustration]
"Why, boy, who beat you like that?"