It is a great occasion for rejoicing among the men of rags and wretchedness when a member of their own order has achieved anything like fame. The assertion of their ability to enter the lists with "their betters" is the very pleasantest of all flatteries. It is, so to say, a kind of skirmish, before that great battle which, one day or other, remains to be fought between the two classes which divide mankind,-- those who have, and those who have not. I little suspected that I was, to use the cant so popular at present, "the representative of a great principle" in my late success. I took all the praises bestowed, most literally, to myself, and shook hands with all the dirty and tattered mob, fully convinced that I was a very fine fellow. "Mister Beatagh wants to see the boy that led him over the ditch," shouted out a huge, wide-shouldered, red-faced ruffian, as he shoved the crowd right and left to make way for the approach of the gentleman who had just won the race. "Stand up bowld, avic!" whispered one in my ear, "and don't be ashamed to ax for your reward." "Say ten guineas!" muttered another. "No; but twenty!" growled out a third. "And lashings of drink besides, for the present company!" suggested a big-headed cripple about two feet high. "Are you the lad that took the fence before me?" cried out a smart-looking, red-whiskered young man, with a white surtout loosely thrown over his riding costume. "Yes, sir," I replied, half modestly and half assured. "Who are you, my boy, and where do you come from?" "He's one of Betty Cobbe's chickens!" shouted out an old savage-faced beggar-man, who was terribly indignant at the great misdirection of public sympathy; "and a nice clutch they are!" "What is it to you, Dan, where the crayture gets his bread?" rejoined an old newsvender, who, in all likelihood, had once been a parlor boarder in the same seminary. "Never mind _them_, but answer me, my lad!" said the gentleman. "If you are willing to take service, and can find any one to recommend you--" "Sure, we'll all go bail for him--to any amount!" shouted out the little crippled fellow, from his "bowl;" and certainly a most joyous burst of laughter ran through the crowd at the sentiment. "Maybe ye think I'm not a householder," rejoined the fellow, with a grin of assumed anger; "but have n't I my own sugar hogshead to live in, and devil receave the lodger in the same premises!" "I see there 's no chance of our being able to settle anything here," said the gentleman. "These good people think the matter more their own than ours; so meet to-morrow, my lad, at Dycer's, at twelve o'clock, and bring me anything that can speak for your character." As he said these few words he brushed the crowd to one side with his whip, and forcing his way, with the air of a man who would not be denied, left the place.