“Oh, nonsense! She isn’t exactly a lady, you know, only a sewing-girl. So there need be no trouble about speaking to her; I shouldn’t hesitate to do it myself. Just find out where she lives; but not a word about me, remember, and the dollar is yours.” “I—I’ll try, sir,” was the faltering answer. “That’s a brave fellow! Come here, just at dark, tell me all about it, and get your money.” The young man passed on as he spoke, leaving the money in Joseph’s hand, forgetting, also, to take his paper. “This is mine, all mine; he gave it to me,” thought the boy, gazing upon the money. “What a splendid man he is—and yet his eyes. I don’t like his eyes, they seem so tired. I wonder is he sick, or can’t he sleep at night? It looks like that. I wish he hadn’t asked me to do that other thing. How shall I speak to her? Not a lady because she sews! Why, grandma patches and mends, and turns, and washes, too; but I know she’s a lady, every inch of her. Then there’s sister Anna—isn’t she a lady, I wonder? I don’t like that man. He hasn’t the least idea what a lady is; I know he hasn’t.” Joseph moved along the garden wall as these thoughts filled his mind, and found himself at the corner in view of a large white marble house, with a good deal of ornamental ground lying around it. A flight of marble steps led to the side-walks, and scrolls of carved work ran down each side white as drifted snow. Robert would have recognized this house at once; but little Joseph had never seen it before, and stood gazing upon the steps, wondering if the lady, who was not a lady, because she took in sewing, would ever come out. The boy had been watching, perhaps ten minutes, when a female came gliding down those marble steps, in a brown dress and straw bonnet, that seemed strangely familiar to him. He started forward and, uttering a glad cry, met his sister Anna face to face. “Why Joseph, is it you? Dear child, how flushed his face is! What are you doing with all these papers, dear? Why, you look like a little newsboy!” “So I am, Anna—that is, I’m going to be, and earn lots of money. I’ve hollered out papers once, and it didn’t frighten me very much. Some day, Anna, I’ll come and call out, ‘Ledger! Ledger!’ right under your window; that is, when I can do it without shaking so.” Anna’s face had brightened beautifully when she first saw the boy; but you could see that tears lay close to her eyes as he ceased speaking. “Poor child! poor, dear child!” she said, laying one hand on his shoulder, “perhaps we may come to this; but I hope not—I hope not.”