"They did, Neddy, _all_ the thieves in that reformatory* did; and I doubt if amongst the hundreds of thousands of subscriptions to the Patriotic Fund, any showed so much real generosity and self-denial as the contribution of the reformed thieves!" "Oh! there was hope for such men indeed!" exclaimed Neddy, the moisture rising into his eyes. "There must have been good in them, papa, and I should not wonder if some of them turned out really fine fellows." "I have no doubt of it," said his father with a smile. "And that poor boy-- yes, I hope that he may amend. Shall we hear anything more of him, papa?" "You know that we go out of town to-morrow. On my return I shall make inquiries regarding him at the Ragged School, and if I find that he is improving under the instruction which he will receive, I shall try to do something for him." "May I go with you?" said Neddy eagerly, "I should like to visit the school." "I think that I shall take you with me," replied his father. "What a glorious thing it is," exclaimed the boy after a pause, "to raise ragged schools and reformatories, to give the poor, the ignorant, and the wicked, a chance of becoming honest and happy! How I should like to build one myself!" "It would be more practicable for you," observed the gentleman, smiling as he rose from his seat, "to support those which are built already."** "But, papa, I can do so little!" "Every little helps, my son; the vast ocean is made up of drops. You may do something yourself, and try to interest others in the cause of the desolate poor. Were all the children of the middle classes in England to give each but one penny a-week, no wretched boy need wander about desolate in London, to perish both here and hereafter because no one cared for his soul!" [* The Reformatory in Great Smith Street, Westminster.] [** The office of the "Ragged School Union" is at 1 Exeter Hall, London. By this admirable society twenty-two thousand poor children have received instruction during the past year, while five hundred of the most destitute have been provided with homes in refuges and reformatories. To show the habits of prudence inculcated in the schools, it is only necessary to state that in the same year ragged scholars placed in saving-banks a sum of no less than three thousand four hundred and thirty-nine pounds! Seventy of those who now teach in the schools, were once ragged scholars themselves, thus imparting to others the benefits which they had received when poor ignorant children. But the funds of the society are by no means sufficient for the work before it, though many of its teachers are unpaid, seeking no reward upon earth. There are numbers of ragged children in London, as desolate as those whom I have described, who have never known the blessing of a ragged school, and who, if they implored the shelter of a refuge, must implore in vain, for they would find no room.]