"Pay! Now if you begin to talk like that I'll go back again. I should most likely have been a neer-do-weel all my days, and maybe have died a drunkard, if it hadn't been for you, Dick, and the good words of the Book. Besides, I've got plenty," and he pulled out a handful of silver from one pocket and the little bank book from the other and tapped it merrily. "All saved from the paws and the jaws of the 'Brown Bear,' that squeezes all the comfort out of so many homes in Venley. If only I'd got all the money that have gone out of my pocket that way, I shouldn't need to stoke for a living now. But if God will give me health and work I shan't come to the workhouse yet awhile! That's where the Fowley's are shaping for. Both drinking, and the children left anyhow, and everything going to rack and ruin." "I should like to see the baby again and little Susy," said Dick, "but I could never go back." "I should think not! Why, you've nearly doubled since you've had decent living and no nagging." Next day, with Mr. Dainton's kind help, Paddy got work. Trade was specially good in Ironboro', and his honest face carried its own recommendation. That summer Teddy persuaded Dick to join the boys' cricket club in connection with the Sunday School the Daintons attended. On Sundays he and Paddy always sat together in the game church. The Sunday's rest and the games in the marshes were a great means of health, after the heat of the Works and the close study of other evenings. Out in the fresh air with other boys listening to Teddy's fun or Paddy's latest joke his face lost the pinched and anxious look it had worn at Venley. He grew tall and strong, and as he threw his heart into play as keenly as into work, he soon became an important member of the club's junior eleven. But though he enjoyed the play as much as anyone he never lost sight of his aim to become a clever engineer, and many a half-hour was stolen from sleep for his books and drawing and models. Mrs. Garth sometimes said he ate and drank and dreamed engines, his thoughts were so filled with the work done at Lisle and Co.'s. But the months went by with no other tidings from his uncle, though Dick never forgot to pray for his return. When his apprenticeship was halfway through he went with Teddy for a long ramble one summer evening. Beyond the marshes the road skirted a belt of stunted woodland. This was Pat's happy hunting ground, though he never found any rabbits there. Running in and out of the tangled bushes they heard him begin to bark loudly, and then he rushed back to his master in great excitement and tried to hurry them on, and following quickly they left the road and plunged into the undergrowth. And there, under the shelter of a clump of elder, they saw a man, unconscious, on the ground. He looked like a tramp, his clothes were so old and broken, and his face was deadly pale. Teddy looked scared and suggested going for the police, but Dick had more courage.