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


 ing their poor friend shared his breakfast of dry bread and coffee with them and they set forth once more.
 For two days and two nights they passed through a land where coal dust and factory smoke killed the vegetation and blackened the streets and houses and men; where all humanity, man and wom- an and child, worked slavishly to feed gasping engines; where everywhere, be- hind and ahead, to right and to left was the same interminable perspective of huge chimneys blasting all things alive and dead with their black smoke.
 With less and less of hope and strength she compelled herself to proceed. She had asked humbly for help at few doors and had been repulsed so that she dared not ask again. It was 24 hours since they came to an open road. After some miles the country became beautiful and cheerful again and they reached pic- turesque and prosperous looking village. Here, suddenly, Little Nelis strength left her and she fell in swoon.
 Providence had guided her to a safe
  pale, simple looking old gentleman came out of his cottage to succor her. He was the schoolmaster of the place and in the following days, while Little Nell was slowly recovering he and the old clergy man fitted out the adjoining cottage and appointed her grandfather to the post of caretaker of the church.
 xxr1.;1o r ;ttIa Mall her ndfa t1 CT were toiling over the long roads in their unreasoning flight, Quilp and his legal ad- wiser, MT. Brass, were striving eagerly but vainly to discover whither they had gone. Mir. Quilp was not actuated by any motives of philanthropy. Nells profiigate brother had fled with secret hoard, and Quilp, furious at the thought that any of it had escaped his hands, was bent on finding the fugitives
 He was convinced that Kit knew where they were, and Kits sturdy and con- temptuous refusal to tell the ugly dwarf anything about his beautiful Miss Nell confirmed the savage little monster in his belief.
 Poor Kit had obtained position as ser want and coachman for comfortable old couple, who gave him the enormous sum of a9O a year. payable quarterly. Quite unconscious of the bitter and dangerous enemy he was making he spent his time in planning how to lay out this vast wealth to the best advantage of his widowed mother and his remarkable brother, little Jacob, who, as Kit often told his employers, the Garlands, was one of the most extraordinary infants that ever lived
 His mind was occupied soon by another still more important subject. A gentle man suddenly arrived from foreign parts and turned out to be the brother of Nell g grandfather. When he found that the old man and the child had disappeared, he moved all the forces that wealth and af- lection could command to trace them. His lawyer was the same one whom the Gar lands had, and that kind couple took warm interest in the search, for Kit had sung Little Nelrs praises at every oppor- tunity.
 So 1t chanced that Kit became a fre- ments which were in the house of MT. Sampson Brass.
 MT. Brass was assisted In his work of squeezing clients and clients adversaries dry by his sister, Miss Sally Brass, who was justly considered by all her ac- quaintances as one of the most surpris- ing examples of animated nature extant
 She was lady of 35 with gaunt and bony figure and face so like her brothers that had it consorted with her maiden modesty to assume his clothes, it would have been impossible to tell which was Sampson and which was Sally Her complexion was a dirty yellow but the tip of her nose did its best to make up for 1t by glowing with bright red. She wore a simple gown, looking strange ly like the green curtain that hung at the office window. This was fastened sim ply with one large button at the neck and the costume was finished by won derful turban of brown gauge.
 These two legal talents had clerk who enriched their establishment with the social graces that they lacked-Mr. Rich ard Swiveller, Perpetual Grand Master of the Glorious Apollos, who met once a week in snug public houses and in- dulged in the elevating pastime of song and poetry, mostened with as much beer and gin and water as the distrust- ing spirit of the landlord could be pre- vailed upon to furnish.
 MT. Swiveller's main 'occoupation was to do as little as possible. When his em- ployers were absent, he varied this monotonous task with recitations in which the rosy wine and blighted hearts held predominant parts. At times when