The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-02-07


 Her grandfather feared enemies in l every ditch, beneath every bush, and his disordered imagination presented to him view of cell where he would be chained and scourged, and where, worse than all, Nell could never see him. His terror affected the child Separation from her grandfather was the greatest evil she could dread So she helped him to hurry on.
 After some days of flight, Nelrs money had all vanished. Tired, hungry and be- wildered, they were trudging along the high road when they came upon a smart little house on wheels, with white dimity curtains at the windows and green win dow shutters. In the open door at the end sat a stout lady, most comfortable to look at. She called to the two travellers and invited them to share her tea, an invita- tion which they accepted hungrily. | During the repast she entrusted them with the fact that she was Mrs. Jarley's Waxworks, the Delight of the Nobility and Gentry, patronized by Royalty, One Hundred Figgers the Full Size of Life.
  | plained. were at that moment jogging on ahead, bound for the next town, where she proposed to remain for some days to | delight and instruct the populace.
 Mrs. Jarley was evidently struck with | little NelTs appearance, and before the tea was put away she offered to keep her and her grandfather if Nell would learn to point out the figures and deliver | the little speech that went with each when they were on exhibition.
 The child assented gladly. It seemed to her as if peace and happiness had come at last. Her grandfather took a great pride in the stupendous collection and pottered about cheerfully. dusting the figures and doing other light tasks. The people of the town were greatly taken with the little lecturer, and some score of small boys fell desperately in love and constantly left inclosures, of nuts and apples at the waxworks door.
 The lady of the caravan was not slow to see this, and being a kind person by nature, she exerted herself to make little Nell comfortable and happy, a task in which she would have succeeded, had it not been for the girls anxiety about her grandfather. The old mans mind seemed to have become quite vacant. except for | one thing. When he heard the name of cards or saw anybody playing, he would flush and tremble, and his eyes would | gleam with crazed desire.
 | One day Nell came on him in the act | of stealing her poor little hoard of pennies that she had saved from the offerings of visitors, which Mrs farley allowed her to keep. He hurried away and re- turned that evening, haggard and shiyer- ing, to beg for more.
 His rawlings showed her that he was do- ing 1t all for her; that he wanted to win money to make her secure from want. When he lay asleep at last, she stopped | and kissed him, whispering: "God bless | you, poor, poor grandfather! Oh, they would indeed shut you up if they found l you now. You have only me to save you!"
 Her resolution was taken at once. If his | poor, crazed brain would impel him to rob her, it would lead him to rob their benefactress They must flee again. She aroused the old man before dawn, and he, | startled by the fear of pursuit. followed her without protest. She did not rest till | they had put many miles between them selves and the town.
 Now followed long, weary days of wan dering on endless roads; days of dust and heat and hunger nights spent in open | fields or under hedges, rain and suffering and privation through all of which the old man was the child, and the child the | guide and guardian.
 At last they came out of fields and coun- try places into a region where paths of ashes and cinders, pals of smoke, dirty streams and ditches, staring novels and black lanes showed that manufacturing | town was ahead of them.
 In pouring rain they entered it's din and turmoil and stood among the beating noises and the busy crowds as strange and confused as if they had lived thou sand years before and were raised from the dead and placed there by some mir l acle.
 They wandered up and down all day, but the child dared not appeal to any of the hurrying people. Shivering with the cold and damp, Ill in body and sick in spirit, she tried to soothe the complaints of the old man beside her and looked for some archway where they might spend the night.
 A miserably clad man, hurrying by, stopped and asked them if they needed shelter and led them to a great building, where he tended furnace. There, seep- ing on pile of ashes Nell and her grand xather passed the night. The next morn-