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"Indeed I do, sir!" replied Mrs Jones, with much earnestness. "Though he did come from nowheres in partiklar, an' don't b'long to nobody, he's a good boy, is little Slidder, and a better nurse you'll not find in all the hospitals." "I wish I had found him at home. Will you give him this card, and tell him to call on me to-morrow morning between eight and nine?
I replied emphatically that I did not think so, that wrong could never be made right by any means, and that the commencement of a course of even disinterested kindness on such principles would be sure to end ill. "Vell, then, I'll reconsider my decision, as the maginstrates ought to say, but never do." "That's right. And now we must part, Slidder," I said, stopping.
"Come, Slidder," said I, "you must learn to treat us with more respect, else I shall have to change my opinion of you." "Wery good, sir, that's your business, not mine. I wos inwited here, an' here I am. Now, wot 'ave you got to say to me? that's the p'int." "Can you read and write?" resumed the doctor.
Talking eagerly and fast, as we walked along, little Slidder told me how he had first been put on the scent by his old friend and fellow-waif, the Slogger. That juvenile burglar, chancing to meet with Slidder, entertained him with a relation of some of his adventures.
"There that's wot the Slogger told me," said little Slidder, with flushed cheeks and excited looks, "an' I made him give me an exact description o' the gal, which was a facsimilar o' the pictur' painted o' Miss Edie Willis by her own grandmother as like as two black cats."
I knelt by the poor woman's chair; she could not kneel with me in body, though she did in spirit, I doubt not. I had quite forgotten Slidder, but, on rising, observed that he had followed my example and gone down on his knees. "Were you praying with us, Slidder?" I asked, after we left Mrs Willis, and were walking up the alley, followed by Dumps.
My friend looked at the little creature before him with much surprise. After a few seconds' contemplation and thought, he continued "Well, Slidder, as my friend here says you are a good sort of boy, I am bound to believe him, though appearances are somewhat against you.
"My dear," said Mrs McTougall one evening to the doctor, "since that little boy Slidder came to stay with us things have become worse and worse; in fact, the house is almost unbearable." "My dear," responded Dr McTougall, "you amaze me; surely the boy has not dared to be rude insolent to you?" "Oh no, it's not that; but he must really be forbidden to enter the nursery.
Having thus delivered himself of his tale and parcel, the tall footman took his leave with many expressions of good-will. "Now, granny," remarked young Slidder, as he untied the parcel, and spread its contents on the small deal table, "I've got a wague suspicion that the 'ouse w'ich 'as gone to hashes is the wery 'ouse in w'ich Dr Mellon put his little dog last night. 'Cause why?
They knew very little about them personally, and nothing whatever of their previous history, as they had stayed only a short time in the town, and had been remarkably shy and uncommunicative the result, it was thought, of their having "come down" in life. Much disappointed, Slidder and I returned to London.
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