That was sufficient. Mrs. Box went down the ladder even quicker than she had gone up, rushed to the window, and stared up and down the street. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Freddie, hustling the two Eds in front of him, descended to the floor with such speed that just as the three were clear of it the step-ladder tottered and fell with a crash.
Master Fred's drums turning out to belong to a section of the paraders moving homeward through the next avenue, the Boxes speedily hurried off in that direction, leaving the Roverings to settle for the broken step-ladder and give their landlady notice that they had decided to move into back rooms on a side street.
THE STORY OF VICTORIA CROSS.
HOW "QUIET QUENTIN" WON THE VICTORIA CROSS.
"So you want me to tell you something about the Victoria Cross, eh?" said Private Jack Phillips, of the —th Lancers, as he sat over his bread and cheese outside the door of the "First and Last," amid a circle of open-mouthed listeners. "Well, I can just do that; for although I never got it myself (worse luck!), I've got a friend who did, only the other day; and he wasn't a soldier, neither, but only a sort o' clerk. Think o' that, now!
"There's a many different kinds of crosses, but I can only call to mind three or four just this minute. First and foremost, there's our own Victoria, made o' gun-metal (the guns taken in the Crimea, you know). There's a V to support the cross, which hangs from a clasp with two laurel branches on it; and upon the cross there's the English lion and crown, with 'For Valor' underneath, 'cause it's only given for some special feat o' bravery in presence of the enemy. The ribbon's red for the army, and blue for the navy; and there's a pension of ten pounds" (fifty dollars) "goes along with it.
"Then there's the Iron Cross of Germany, given for bravery in action, same as our own Victoria. Mr. Archibald Forbes, the great war correspondent that you've all heerd of, got it in the war of 1870 for bringin' in a wounded German under fire. Then there's the French Cross o' the Legion of Honor, started by old Napoleon Bonaparty when he was a-fightin' against us; but that's given to painters, and writers, and inventors, and all sorts o' fellows besides soldiers. They say old Nap used sometimes to give the cross off his own breast to any man that he saw do anything werry good; and the man that got it was fit to jump out of his skin for joy.