Year: 1874




ready to sit down and cry weakly. Blu


I was at it again the next moment, and
| WOrkingwith the best Of them.


''Hand you better leave now
said one of my masters '' I'll see that
! everything is done"


! I gave him one look, and he laid his
| hand kindly on my shoulder, and said


no more to me about going and heard
/ him say ''POOr fellow! to some one by
him, as he turned away.


/ We came upon the biler quite half q
! dozen yards out of its place, ripped
/ right across where the rivets were
| while as for the engine il was one Gu.
| Fious bit of iron tangleo-rods, and bars,
| and pieces of iron and brass, twisted
/ and turned and bent about, like so
| much string and the great fy-wheel


was broken in half dozen places.


This showed us now where the great
| cellar-like place-the stOke-hOle-Was ;
and we worked down towards that but
| still clearing the way, for how could 1


tell where the child might be? Butit was


weary, slow work every now and then


rigging up shears and fastening ropes,
and pully, and sheaf, to haul up some
great piece of iron, or beam and,


willing as ever one was, we made very


little progress in the dark night.


Once we had to stop and batter down


wall with a scafold pole for the po-


lice declared it to be unsafe, and the


sergeant would not let Us work near it


until it was down; and all the while


was raYing like a madman at the check.


He was doing his duty, and not like


me, searching for the little crushed


form of my darling IN the cruel ruins.


The r,aOrn1a v,7oIa Aharz


would talk and say what they thought


so that could hear. One would say
she might still be alive, another would
shake his head, and so on when kept
stopping, in spite of all 1 tried not, lis
tening to what they said, and it all
seemed so much lost time.


The engine-Toom was now cleared,
and, In spite of my trembling and her-
ror, as every big piece was disturbed,
nothing had been found but all at
once, as we were trying to clear behind
the boiler, and get down to the stock
hole, one of the men gave a cry. I
caught at the man nearest to me, and
then lights, rubbish, the strange, wild
scene, all seemed to run round me,
and should have fallen, only the man
held me mp, and some one brought me
some brandy,


I was myself again directly, and
stumbling over the bricks TO where a
knot of men had collected, and po-
liceman had his bull's-eye lantern open,
and they were stopping to look at some
thing that lay just under beam they
had raised-to the left of where I ex-
pected she would be found.


GO Smashed" heard some one with
his back to me, say and then some
one else, ''Poor little thing, she must
have run past here -


Then, with my throat dry and my
eyes staring, crept up and thrust two
men aside, right and left, when the 9th
ers made way for me without speaking,
and, when I got close up, I covered my
face with my hands and softly knelt
down.


The policeman said something, and
some one else spoke cheerily but I
couldn't hear what they said, for my
very thought was upon what was go
ing to see. And now, for the first time, |
the great, binding tears came gushing |
TO my eyes, so that when I slowly took |
first one hand and then another, I was |
blinded, and could not see for a few |
moments till, STOPPING little lower, !
there, smashed and hattened, covered |
with mortar and dust, was my old red /
cotton handkerchief, tied around the |
basin and plate that held my dinner, |
dropped here by my little darling.


For few moments / was, as it were, |
struck dumb-it was so different sight /
to what had expected to see; and then /
I leaped mp and laughed, and shouted, |
and danced-the relief was so great.


"Come on - 1 cried again and then |
for an hour or more we we're at 1t, work
no Ts~rF,E n
the east, and tell us that it was day
break.


Late as it was plenty of people had
stopped all the time for, somehow or
another, hundreds had got TO know the
little bright, golden-haired thing that
trotted backwards and forwards every
day with my dinner basin. She was
too little to do it, but then, bless you,
that was our pride for the wife cOmbed
and brushed and dressed her up on
purpose. And fine and proud we used
TO be of the little thing, going and COM
ing-so old-faShioned. Why, lots of
heads used TO be thrust out to watch
her; and seeing how pretty and artless
and young she was, we used to feel that
every enc would try and protect her
and 1t was SO. Time after time, that
night, I saw motherly-looking women,
that did not know, with their aprons
TO their eyes, sobbing and crying and
thought didn't notice 1t then, 1 remem-
bered it well enough afterwards-ah
and always shall; while the way IN
which some of the men wOrked-Well-
bO-do men, who would have thought
themselves insulted If you'd offered
en- FIVE shillings for their nights job
showed how my poor little darling had
k- - all /
and often since, too, could have stop
ped this one and shook hands with
that one for their kindIOs only there's
always that shut-upness about an Eng
ishman that seems TO make him all
heart at time of sorrow, and q piece
Of solid bluntness at every other time.


Well, it was now Just upon morning,
and we were all worked mp TO pitch Of
excitement that nothing could be like.
We had been expecting 10 come upon
lhe poor child ali the afternoon and
night, but now there could be no DOUBT
1f it. She must be here for we were
down in the stoke-hole, working again
With more vigor than had been shown
Tor hours. Mems faces we're flushed,
and their teeth set. Thev didn't talk,
lnly In whispers /; and the stuff vent
lying out as fast as others could take 1t
away.


Easy, easy" the sergeant of the
police kept saying, as he and two Of his
men kept US we'll lit with the strong
light Of their lanterns.


But the men tore on, till at last the
place was about cleared out, and we
nad got out to a mass of brick wall
slopinQ against one side, and a little
on the other side, along with
some rubbish.


And now was the exciting time, a. We
vent. four of rs, at the brick wall,