to show his zeal by promptly returning it, for Miss Foster, it will also
be remembered, was a daughter of a former partner in the bank, and still,
as it was supposed, retained some interest in it. She had gone too far,
however, and the cashier could not venture to leave his post and follow
her. Knowing Mike and Tom perfectly well, he asked Mike to take the
sovereign at once to the lady. He promptly obeyed, and was in time to
restore it to its owner before it was missed. She was not particularly
sensitive, but the sight of Mike and Tom standing at the hall entrance
rather touched her, and she rewarded them with a shilling. She was also
pleased to inquire how Mike was getting on, and he briefly told her he
did not get on in any way, save as the most unsuccessful happily get on,
and so at last terminate their perplexities. Miss Foster, although well-
to-do, kept neither footman nor page, and a thought struck her. She
abhorred male servants, but it was very often inconvenient to send her
maids on errands. She therefore suggested to Mike that, if he and Tom
could station themselves within call, they would not only be useful, but
earn something of a livelihood. The bank wanted an odd man occasionally,
and she was sure that other people in the town would employ him.
Accordingly Mike and Tom one morning established themselves in the recess
of the bridge, after having given notice to everybody who would be likely
to assist them, and Mike set up a stock of boot-laces and shoe-laces of
all kinds. He thus managed to pick up a trifle. He wrapped sacking
round his legs to keep off the cold as he sat, and had for a footstool a
box with straw in it. He also rigged up a little awning on some sticks
to keep off the sun and a shower, but of course when a storm came he was
obliged to retreat. He was then allowed a shelter in the bank. The dust
was a nuisance, for it was difficult to predict its capricious eddies,
but he learnt its laws at last, and how to choose his station so as to
diminish annoyance. At first he was depressed at the thought of sitting
still for so many hours with nothing to do, but he was not left to