"Hush, my boy, hush!" said Dick softly. "And when I am, master, I'll never--never say I am. Don't send me away." "Tell him--tell him, mother," whispered Dick, who had been so near breaking down before that the boy's passionate appeal completely unmanned him. "There's nobody to care for there, master, and it's all whitewash. Miss Jessie, please ask him not to send me away." "Come here, Jack," said Mrs Shingle. "No, no, missus; I'll stop here on bread and water--I will, missus. Please let me stay!" "I--I only want you to go outside for a bit, Jack," said Dick, with his lips quivering. "Go out and play, my boy." "But," said the boy suspiciously, "you won't cut off, master, and leave me. Fain larks, you know." "No, no, no, my lad. Go and stop out in the court." The boy gazed keenly in his face, and then, with a suspicious look in his eyes, went outside. "It seems to me as the poorer people is the fonder they get of you, mother," said Dick pitifully. "Oh, my gal, what have we done, that we should be so poor? Here have I worked early and late for the few pence we drag together, and can't get on. It's because I'm a wretched bungler, and it would have been better if I'd never been born." "Dick, dear Dick," whispered his wife, as he sat down despairingly, and leaned his head upon his hand, while she bent over him. "Don't give way. I can bear anything but that." "I do try, my gal, harder than you think," he groaned; "and when I'm making most of a fool of myself, and laughing and singing, it's because I've got such a gnawing here." He raised his hand to strike his chest, but it was caught by Jessie, who drew it round her neck as she knelt at his feet. "And I've been so much trouble instead of a comfort, father; and it's all my fault," she sobbed. "Your fault, my precious!" he cried, as he took her piteous face in his hands and kissed it a dozen times over--"your fault! Why, you've been like sunshine in the place ever since you used to sit on your little stool there, and play with the bits of leather, and build houses with mother's cotton-reels. Your fault, my darling! There--there--there! It's all over, mother, and the sun's coming out again. It won't rain any more to-day." There was a pause here, and the little place was very silent as the cries of the children at play floated in. "There, we'll have Jack in again. And, look here: it's cowardly and mean of me to give up like that; but it's the last time. So there, mother," he said, smiling, as he rose and stood between them, "as a respectable tradesman I object to swearing, as is only allowable when you want to take an oath. I'm going to take an oath now, when I says I'll be cussed if I give way again, and--" "Here's a letter, master!" cried the boy, rushing in. "A letter?" said Dick, taking it with his apron. "Who's been a-writing to me? Perhaps it's about that money, mother, and we shall--Here, my eyes are all of a swim. Did the postman give it to you, Jack?"