Nothink of the sort; I can beg or borrer or steal coats and pants, you know.
Ah, Slidder! said I, in a kind but serious tone, doubtless you can, but begging or borrowing are not likely to succeed, and stealing is wrong.
Dyou think so? returned the boy, with a look of innocent surprise. Dont you think, now, that in a good cause a cove might:
Take wot isnt hisn,
An risk his bein sent to prisn?
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, Ill reconsider my decision, as the maginstrates ought to say, but never do.
Thats right. And now we must part, Slidder, I said, stopping. Here is the second sixpence I promised you, also my card and address. Will you come and see me at my own house the day after to-morrow, at eight in the morning?
I will, replied the boy, with decision; but I say, all fair an above-board? No school-boardin nor nuffin o that sorthey? honour bright?
Honour bright! I replied, holding out my hand, which he grasped and shook quite heartily.
We had both taken two or three steps in opposite directions, when, as if under the same impulse, we looked back at each other, and in so doing became aware of the fact that Dumps stood between us on the pavement in a state of extreme indecision or mental confusion.
Hallo! I say! weve bin an forgot Punch! exclaimed the boy.
Dumps, said I, come along!
Punch, said he, come here, good dog!
My doggie looked first at one, then at the other. The two indicators in front rose and fell, while the one behind wagged and drooped in a state of obvious uncertainty.
Wont you sell im back? said Slidder, returning. Ill work it out in messages or anythink else.
But what of the bobbies? I asked.
Ah! true, I forgot the bobbies. Id ony be able to keep im for a week, praps not so long, afore theyd nab him.Go, Punch, go, you dont know ven youre vell off.
The tone in which this was uttered settled the point, and turned the wavering balance of the creatures affections in my favour. With all the indicators extremely pendulous, and its hairy coat hanging in a species of limp humility, my doggie followed me home; but I observed that, as we went along, he ever and anon turned a wistful glance in the direction in which the ragged waif had disappeared.
Chapter Four
In Which Dumps Finds Another Old Friend
One morning, a considerable time after the events narrated in the last chapter, I sat on the sofa waiting for breakfast, and engaged in an interesting conversation with Dumps. The only difference in our mode of communication was that Dumps talked with his eyes, I with my tongue.
From what I have already said about my doggie, it will be understood that his eyeswhich were brown and speaking eyeslay behind such a forest of hair that it was only by clearing the dense masses away that I could obtain a full view of his liquid orbs. I am not sure that his ears were much less expressive than his eyes. Their variety of motion, coupled with their rate of action, served greatly to develop the full meaning of what his eyes said.
Mrs Miff seems to have forgotten us this morning, Dumps, I remarked, pulling out my watch.
One ear cocked forward, the other turned back towards the door, and a white gleam under the hair, indicating that the eyes turned in the same direction, said as plainly as there was any occasion for
No; not quite forgotten us. I hear her coming now.
Ha! so she is. Now you shall have a feed. Both ears elevated to the full extent obviously meant Hurrah! while a certain motion of his body appeared to imply that, in consequence of his sedentary position, he was vainly attempting to wag the sofa.
If you please, sir, said my landlady, laying the breakfast tray on the table, theres a shoe-black in the kitchen says he wants to see you.
Ah! young Slidder, I fancy. Well, send him up.
He says hes ad his breakfast an will wait till you have done, sir.
Very considerate. Send him up nevertheless.
In a few minutes my protégé stood before me, hat in hand, looking, in the trim costume of the brigade, quite a different being from the ragged creature I had met with in Whitechapel. Dumps instantly assaulted him with loving demonstrations.
How spruce you look, my boy!
Thanks to you, sir, replied Slidder, with a familiar nod; they do say Im lookin up.
I hope you like the work. Have you had breakfast? Would a roll do you any good?
Thankee, Im primed for the day. I came over, sir, to say that granny seems to me to be out o sorts. Since Ive been allowed to sleep on the rug inside her door, Ive noticed that she aint so lively as she used to was. Shivers a deal wen it aint cold, groans now an then, an whimpers a good deal. It strikes me, nowthough I aint a reglar sawbonesthat theres suthin wrong with her inards.
Ill finish breakfast quickly and go over with you to see her, said I.
Dont need to urry, sir, returned Slidder; she aint wery badnot much wuss than ornaryony Ive bin too anxious about herpoor old thing. Ill vait below till youre ready.Come along, Punch, an jine yer old pal in the kitchen till the noo uns ready.
After breakfast we three hurried out and wended our way eastward. As the morning was unusually fine I diverged towards one of the more fashionable localities to deliver a note with which I had been charged. Young Slidders spirits were high, and for a considerable time he entertained me with a good deal of the East-end gossip. Among other things, he told me of the great work that was being done there by Dr Barnardo and others of similar spirit, in rescuing waifs like himself from their wretched condition.
Though some on us dont think it so wretched arter all, he continued. Theres the Slogger, now, he wont go into the ome on no consideration; says he wouldnt give a empty sugar-barrel for all the omes in London. But then the Sloggers a lazy muff. He dont want to workthats about it. Hed sooner starve than work. By consikence he steals, more or less, an finds a ome in the stone jug pretty frequent. As to his taste for a sugar-barrel, I aint so sure that I dont agree with im. Its big, you knowplenty of room to move, wich it aint so with a flour-barrel. An then the smell! Oh! youve no notion! Wy, thats wuth the price of a nights lodgin itself, to say nothin o the chance of a knot-hole or a crack full o sugar, that the former tenants has failed to diskiver.
While the waif was commenting thus enthusiastically on the bliss of lodging in a sugar-barrel, we were surprised to see Dumps, who chanced to be trotting on in front come to a sudden pause and gaze at a lady who was in the act of ringing the door-bell of an adjoining house.
The door was opened by a footman, and the lady was in the act of entering when Dumps gave vent to a series of sounds, made up of a whine, a bark, and a yelp. At the same moment his tail all but twirled him off his legs as he rushed wildly up the stairs and began to dance round the lady in mad excitement.
The lady backed against the door in alarm. The footman, anxious apparently about his calves, seized an umbrella and made a wild assault on the dog, and I was confusedly conscious of Slidder exclaiming, Why, if that aint my young lady! as I sprang up the steps to the rescue.
Down, Dumps, you rascal; down! I exclaimed, seizing him by the brass collar with which I had invested him.Pardon the rudeness of my dog, madam, I said, looking up; I never saw him act in this way before. It is quite unaccountable
Not quite so unaccountable as you think, interrupted Slidder, who stood looking calmly on, with his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face.Its your own dog, miss.
What do you mean, boy? said the lady, a gaze of surprise chasing away the look of alarm which had covered her pretty face.
I mean xactly what I says, miss. The dogs your own: I sold it to you long ago for five bob!
The girlfor she was little more than sixteenturned with a startled, doubting look to the dog.
If you dont blieve it, miss, look at the vite spot on the bridge of is nose, said Slidder, with a self-satisfied nod to the lady and a supremely insolent wink to the footman.