"I beg your pardon, sir," quavered the boy, alarmed at the gruff tone and iron hand. Twisting his head about, he got a glimpse of a very fat man with a round red face and protruding blue eyes. "What made ye look so hard at my baker's boy? Anything wrong?" "No-o!" "Must ha' been. You glared after him like a tiger." "Nothing was the matter except I was so hungry,--and--when I smelled the bread and meat--I couldn't help it, I suppose." For the first time since he had become a pupil at Christ's Hospital, Samuel gave voice to his privations, and, unmanned by sheer want and exhaustion, the truth came out, while tears of misery rained down his pallid cheeks. "Hungry!" The ejaculation came like the report of a small cannon. Samuel could only nod in speechless, desperate assent. "Come in here!" roared the captor, enforcing his order with a ferocious tug at the blue collar. Samuel feared that he had somehow trespassed upon the big man's rights, and that punishment was likely to follow. He longed vaguely to run, but weakness held him chained, and he felt himself being pushed before his jailer through the toy-shop and into a small parlor at the rear. "Mother! This Blue Coat is so hungry that he nearly devoured our dinner through his eyes as the baker brought it in." "Hungry?" echoed a piping feminine voice, and from the farther corner of the parlor a little woman approached with a napkin thrown over her arm. "Sakes alive, ain't you had no dinner over to the school?" she asked in a motherly tone that set Samuel's heart beating. "No. We don't have any dinner on Saturdays. They give us a little supper when we go back," and Samuel explained the holiday system. "What, then, did you have for breakfast?" "A slice of bread and a cup of beer." "How perfectly outraging! Our dinner is just ready, so sit up to the table as quick as you can. 'Tain't a fancy meal, but it's good enough to fill up a hollow, faintin' stomach. How perfectly outraging!" Before Samuel could consent or object, he was thrust into a chair at the small round table, where several steaming dishes awaited the pleasure of the party. Host and hostess took their places, and a heaped-up plate was speedily set before the astonished guest. "Eat that slice of hot mutton," adjured the woman pleasantly; "and after that, you'll find those potatoes and beans pretty satisfyin'." The substantial repast seemed a kingly banquet to Samuel, and he ate with almost wolfish appreciation. His plate was like the widow's cruse of oil, which was promptly refilled as soon as emptied; and the fat man and the little woman looked on, the while, with benevolence shining from their faces.