resolutely; "good-bye, guv'ner; goodbye, little 'un."

Old Oliver went in, leaving his door ajar, and his gas lit, as he had
said. He fed the hungry child with bread and butter, and used up his
half-pennyworth of milk, which he bought for himself every evening. Then
he lifted her on to his knee, with Beppo in her arms, and sat for a long
while waiting. The little head nodded, and Dolly sat up, unsteadily
striving hard to keep awake; but at last she let Beppo drop to the floor,
while she herself fell upon the old man's breast, and lay there without
moving. It chimed eleven o'clock at last, and Oliver knew it was of no
use to watch any longer.

He managed to undress his little charge with gentle, though trembling
hands, and then he laid her down on his bed, putting his only pillow
against the wall to make a soft nest for the tender and sleepy child. She
roused herself for a minute, and stared about her, gazing steadily, with
large, tearful eyes, into his face. Then as he sat down on the bedstead
beside her, to comfort her as well as he could, she lifted herself up,
and knelt down, with her folded hands laid against his shoulder.

"Dolly vewy seepy," she lisped, "but must say her prayers always."

"What are your prayers, my dear?" he asked.

"On'y God bless gan-pa, and father, and mammy, and poor Beppo, and make
me a good girl," murmured the drowsy voice, as Dolly closed her eyes
again, and fell off into a deep sleep the next moment.