Produced by Juliet Sutherland, David E. Brown and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net [Illustration: _Frontispiece._ LITTLE NELL AND HER GRANDFATHER.] CHARLES DICKENS' CHILDREN STORIES RE-TOLD BY HIS GRANDDAUGHTER AND OTHERS WITH TWELVE FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS PHILADELPHIA HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY COPYRIGHT, 1900, BY HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY TROTTY VECK AND HIS DAUGHTER MEG. "Trotty" seems a strange name for an old man, but it was given to Toby Veck because of his always going at a trot to do his errands; for he was a porter, and carried letters and messages for people who were in too great a hurry to send them by the post. He did not earn very much, and had to be out in all weathers and all day long. But Toby was of a cheerful disposition, and looked on the bright side of everything. His greatest joy was his dear daughter Meg, who loved him dearly. One cold day Toby had been trotting up and down in his usual place before the church, when the bells chimed twelve o'clock, which made Toby think of dinner. "There's nothing," he remarked, "more regular in coming round than dinner-time, and nothing less regular in coming round than dinner. That's the great difference between 'em." He went on talking to himself never noticing who was coming near to him. "Why, father, father," said a pleasant voice, and Toby turned to find his daughter's sweet, bright eyes close to his. "Why, pet," said he, kissing her, "what's-to-do? I didn't expect you to-day, Meg." "Neither did I expect to come, father," said Meg, smiling. "But here I am! And not alone, not alone!" "Why, you don't mean to say," observed Trotty, looking curiously at the covered basket she carried, "that you?----" "Smell it, father dear," said Meg; "only smell it, and guess what it is." Toby took the shortest possible sniff at the edge of the basket. "Why, it's hot," he said. But to Meg's great delight he could not guess what it was that smelt so good. At last he exclaimed in triumph, "Why, what am I a-thinking of? It's tripe!" And it was. Just as Toby was about to sit down to his dinner on the doorsteps of a big house close by, the chimes rang out again, and Toby took off his hat and said, "Amen." "Amen to the bells, father?" "They broke in like a grace, my dear," said Trotty, "they'd say a good one if they could, I'm sure. Many's the kind thing they say to me. How often have I heard them bells say, 'Toby Veck, Toby Veck, keep a good heart, Toby!' A millions times? More!" "Well, I never!" cried Meg. While Toby ate his unexpected dinner with immense relish, Meg told him how her lover Richard, a young blacksmith, had brought his dinner to share with her, and had begged her to marry him on New Year's Day, "the best and happiest day of the whole year."