King of Glory I hadto tell you about; and now I remember, at the trial to-day you seemed toknow very little about Him--nothing, in fact. Well, you shall not leavethis house without knowing, I promise you that. Why, God--God, littleDarrell, He's your best friend, and your poor mother's best friend, andDick's best friend, and my--that is, Jenks' best friend too. He lovesyou, child, and some day He'll take you to a place where many poorpeople who have been sad, and hungry, and wanting for everything downhere, are having rest, and good times for ever."
"And will God give me a good time in that place?" asked Flo.
"Yes. If you love Him He will give you a better time than the Queen hason her throne--a time so good, that you will never want to change withanybody in all the world."
"Tell me about God," asked Flo in a breathless voice, and she left herstool and knelt at Mrs Jenks' feet.
"God," said little Mrs Jenks, putting down her work and looking upsolemnly, "God--He's the Father of the fatherless, and you arefatherless. God's your Father, child."
"Our--Father--chart--'eaven," repeated Flo.
"Your Father in Heaven--yes, that's it."
Then the little woman paused, puzzled how best to make her story plainenough and simple enough for the ignorant child. Words came to her atlast, and Flo learned what every child in our England is supposed toknow, but what, alas! many such children have never heard of; many suchchildren live and die without hearing of.
Do we blame them for their social standing? do we blame them for fillingtheir country with vice and crime?
Doubtless we do blame them, we raise our own clean skirts and pass overon the other side. In church we thank God that we are not as these menare--murderers--thieves--unclean--unholy. Let them go to prison, and todeath--fit ends for such as they.
True! virtue is to them not even a name, they have never heard of it atall.
The fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness has never come in_their_ path. Their iniquities are unpurged, their sins unpardoned.
Christ, it is certain, would wash them white enough, and give them aplace in His kingdom; but they know nothing of Christ, and we who doknow, to whom His name is a sound too familiar to excite any attention,His story too often read, too often heard of, to call up any emotion--weare either too lazy, or too selfish, or too ignorant of their ignorance,to tell them of Him.
Now for the first time Flo learned about God, and about God's dear Son,our Saviour. A little too about Heaven, and a very little about prayer.
If she spoke ever so low, down in her dark cellar, God would hear her,and some day, Mrs Jenks said, He would come for her, and carry her awayto live with Him in Heaven.
Only a glimmering of the great truth could be given at one time to thechild's dark mind, but there is a vast difference between twilight andthick darkness, and this difference took place in Flo's mind that day.
She listened with hardly a question--a breathless, astonished look onher face, and when Mrs Jenks had ceased speaking, she rose slowly andtied on mother's old bonnet.
"May I come again?" asked Flo, raising her lips to kiss the littlewoman.
"Yes, my child, come again to-morrow. I shall look out for youto-morrow."
And Flo promised to come.
CHAPTER ELEVEN.
MAXEY'S YOUNG 'UN.
As Flo walked down the street, the wonderful news she had heard for thefirst time completely absorbed her mind, so much so that she forgot thatDick was a thief, that Dick and Jenks were both suffering from thepenalty of their crime, that she was returning to her cellar alone,without even Scamp to keep her company. The news she had heard was sogreat, so intensely interesting in its freshness and newness, that shecould think of nothing else.
She walked down, as her wont was, several by-streets, and took severalshort cuts, and found herself more than once in parts of the town whereno respectable person was ever seen.
The gutter children working at their several wretched trades calledafter her as she passed, one addressing her as "old bonnet," anotherasking how much she wanted a-piece for the flowers that dangled soludicrously on her forehead.
And being a timid child, and, London bred as she was, sensitive toridicule, she walked on faster and faster, really anxious to find anyquiet place where she could sit down and think. At last, as she waspassing a more open piece of ground, where a group of boys were playingpitch-and-toss, they, noticing her quickened movements, and ratherfrightened face, made a rush at her, and Flo, losing all presence ofmind, began to run.
Little chance would she have had against her tormentors, had not justthen a tall policeman appeared in sight, whereupon they considered itmore prudent to give up their chase, and return to their interruptedamusements.
Poor Flo, however, still believing them to be at her heels, ran fasterthan ever down a narrow lane to her right, turned sharp round a corner,when suddenly her foot tripped against a cellar grating, the grating,insecurely fastened, gave way, and the child, her fall partly broken bya ladder which stood against the grating, found herself bruised,stunned, almost unconscious, on the ground several feet below thestreet.
For some moments she lay quiet, not in pain, and not quite insensible,but too much frightened and shaken to be capable of movement.
Then a sound within a foot or two of her caused her heart to leap withfresh fear. She sat up and listened intently.
It was a stifled sound, it was the whine of a dog.
For Scamp's sake Flo had learned to love all dogs. She made her way,though not without pain, to this one now, and put her hand on its head.
Instead of being angry and resenting this freedom, as a strange dogmight, a quiver of joy went through the animal, its tail waggedviolently, its brown eyes cast melting glances of love at Flo, its smallrough tongue tried to lick her face and hands, and there, gagged andtied, but well fed, as yet unhurt, and a platter of broken meat by itsside, was her own dog, her lost dog, Scamp.
Flo laid her head on the head of the dog, and burst into tears of joy.
The pain of her fall was forgotten, she was very glad she had knockedagainst that broken grating, that by this means she had stumbled intothis cellar; her dog could accompany her home--she would not be solonely now.
With her own hands she unfastened the gag, and loosened the chain fromScamp's neck, and the dog, delighting in his recovered freedom, dancedand scampered madly round her, uttering great, deep bays of joy.
Alas! for Scamp, his foolish and untimely mirth excited undue attentionto him.
His loud and no longer muffled bark brought two men quickly into thecellar.
Flo had the prudence of mind to hide behind some old boards, and Scampwith equal prudence did not follow her.
"Down, you brute," said the short thick-set man whom Jenks on a formeroccasion had addressed as Maxey. "Wot a noise, 'ee's makin'; theperleece'll get scent of the young dawg wid his noise," and the cruelwretch shied a great blow at Scamp, which caused the poor animal toquiver and cry out with pain.
"'Ee'll be quiet enough afore the night is hover," said the man'scompanion, with a loud laugh. "Lor! won't it be fun to see thebull-dawg a tearin' of 'im? I'm comin' to shave and soap 'im presently;but see, Maxey, some one 'as been and tumbled inter the cellar, down bythe gratin', as I'm alive! See! them two bars is broke right acrost."
"Run and put them together, then, the best way possible," called outMaxey, "and I'll look round the cellar to give it to any one as is inhidin'."
How fast Flo's heart beat at those words, but Maxey, though he imaginedhe had searched in every available nook, never thought of examiningbehind the three thin boards almost jammed against the wall, and behindwhich the child had crushed her slight frame.
He believed that whoever had fallen into the cellar had beaten a hastyretreat, and after tying up Scamp more firmly than ever, took hisdeparture.
Now was Flo's time. She had only a few moments to effect her escape andthe dog's escape. A dreadful meaning had Maxey's words for her--herdog's life was in peril.
Never heeding an acute agony which had set in by this time in her rightfoot, she made her way to Scamp's side, and first putting her arms roundhis neck, entreated him in the most pathetic voice to be quiet and notto betray them by any more barking.
If dogs cannot understand words and their meanings, they are very cleverat comprehending tones and _their_ meanings.
Perfectly did this dog's clear intelligence take in that Flo meant themboth to escape, that any undue noise on his part would defeat theirpurpose. He confessed to himself that in his first joy at seeing her hehad acted foolishly, he would do so no more.
When she unfastened him he bounded up the ladder, and butting with hisgreat strong head against the broken grating, removed it again from itsplace, then springing to the ground, was a free dog once more. Half