course of procedure on the part of the porter removed any lingering scruples the mite had in respect of his good faith.

“Ess, man. I dot kitty here in dundle all wite,” he repeated earnestly in his very impressive little way. “Oo musn’t tell nobody and I’ll so her to ’oo!”

“I won’t breathe a word of it to a soul, sir,” protested Jupp as solemnly and gravely as if he were making his last dying deposition; whereupon the mite, quite convinced of the porter’s trustworthiness and abandoning all further attempt at concealment, deposited his little bundle tenderly on the floor in front of the fireplace, and began to open it with much deliberation.

The little fellow appeared so very serious about the matter, that Jupp could not help trying to be serious too; but it required the exercise of all the self-command he possessed to refrain from laughing when the motley contents of the red handkerchief were disclosed.

Before the last knot of the bundle was untied by the mite’s busy fingers there crawled out a tiny tortoise-shell kitten, with its diminutive little tail erect like a young bottle-brush, which gave vent to a “phiz-phit,” as if indignant at its long confinement, and then proceeded to rub itself against Jupp’s leg, with a purring mew on recognising a friend.

“So that’s kitty,” said Jupp, holding the little thing up on his knee and stroking it affectionately, the animal signifying its satisfaction by licking the back of his hand with its furry little red tongue, and straightening its tiny tail again as stiff as a small poker.

“Ess, man. Dat’s kitty,” murmured the mite, too much occupied undoing the last knots of the bundle to waste time in further speech for the moment, struggling as he was at the job with might and main.

In another second, however, he had accomplished his task; and, lifting up the corners of the red handkerchief, he rolled out the whole stock of his valued possessions on to the floor.

“Dere!” he exclaimed with much complacency, looking up into Jupp’s face in expectation of his admiring surprise.

The porter was again forced to act a part, and pretend that he could not guess anything.

“Dear me!” he said; “you have brought a lot of things! Going to take ’em with you to London, sir?”

“Ess. Da’n’ma tate tare of zem.”

“No doubt, sir,” replied Jupp, who then went on to inspect gingerly the different articles of the collection, which was very varied in character.

They consisted, in addition to the tortoise-shell kitten fore-mentioned, of a musical snuff-box, a toy model of a ship, a small Noah’s ark, a half-consumed slice of bread and butter, an apple with a good-sized bite taken out of one side, a thick lump of toffee, and a darkish-brown substance like gingerbread, which close association in the bundle, combined with pressure, had welded together in one almost indistinguishable mass.

“I suppose, sir,” observed Jupp inquiringly, picking up all the eatables and putting them together apart on the seat next the little man—“I suppose as how them’s your provisions for the journey?”

“Ess. I ate dindin; an’, dat’s tea.”

“Indeed, sir! and very nice things for tea too,” said Jupp, beaming with admiration and good-humoured fun.

“I touldn’t det any milk, or I’d bought dat too,” continued the mite, explaining the absence of all liquid refreshment.

“Ah! that’s a pity,” rejoined the porter, thinking how well half a pint of milk would have mixed up with the other contents of the bundle; “but, perhaps, sir, the kitty would have lapped it up and there would have been none left. Would you like a cup of tea now, sir? I’m just agoing to have mine; and if you’d jine me, I’d feel that proud you wouldn’t know me again!”

“Dank ’oo, I’m so dirsty,” lisped the little man in affable acquiescence; and, the next moment, Jupp had spirited out a rough basket from under the seat in the corner, when extracting a tin can with a cork stopper therefrom, he put it on the fire to warm up.

From a brown-paper parcel he also turned out some thick slices of bread that quite put in the shade the half-eaten one belonging to the mite; and as soon as the tea began to simmer in the tin over the coals, he poured out some in a pannikin, and handed it to his small guest.

“Now, sir, we’ll have a regular picnic,” he said hospitably.

“All wite, dat’s jolly!” shouted the other in great glee; and the two were enjoying themselves in the highest camaraderie, when, suddenly, the door of the waiting-room was opened from without, and the face of a buxom young woman peered in.

“My good gracious!” exclaimed the apparition, panting out the words as if suffering from short breath, or from the effects of more rapid exertion than her physique usually permitted. “If there isn’t the young imp as comfortably as you please; and me a hunting and a wild-goose chasing on him all over the place! Master Teddy, Master Teddy, you’ll be the death of me some day, that you will!”

Jupp jumped up at once, rightly imagining that this lady’s unexpected appearance would, as he mentally expressed it, “put a stopper” on the mite’s contemplated expedition, and so relieve him of any further personal anxiety on his behalf, he having been puzzling his brains vainly for the last half hour how to discover his whereabouts and get him home to his people again; but, as for the little man himself, he did not seem in the least put out by the interruption of his plans.

“Dat nussy,” was all he said, clutching hold of Jupp’s trouser leg, as at first, in an appealing way: “Don’t ’et her, man, tate away poor kitty!”

“I won’t sir, I promise you,” whispered Jupp to comfort him; however, before he could say any more, the panting female had drawn nearer from the doorway and come up close to the fireplace, the flickering red light from which made her somewhat rubicund countenance appear all the ruddier.