IV THE FRENCHIE 217 



zat you vill pay, an' you sell ze ognons — an' you 

 drink ! You Anglish ! You pig ! You fathead ! 

 You have ze head like an ognon ! I vould push 

 my knife into you. . . .' 



The onion-man was chucked out; for, after 

 all, Beautiful was an Englishman and the other 

 only a foreigner. But the joke went round. 

 'Thic ****** Frenchle said oP Beautiful had a 

 head like an onion. Blow'd If he an't, too!' 

 The kids got hold of It; the kids he liked In 

 his odd way. When they passed him In the 

 street they said as If to one another: 'Onions! 

 Onlonhead !' They did not, however, dare to 

 shout out after him; he never came down quite 

 to that; and after a time they forgot, or baited 

 some one else; while the name of Onlonhead, no 

 longer with any sting In It, was added to his other 

 name of Beautiful. 



For a time he hawked fish, selling them first 

 and paying afterwards out of his sales, until he 

 was found out to be a herring-hawk. That Is 

 to say, when the boats were coming in at night 

 he would help or pretend to help haul one of 

 them up, would take the half-dozen herrings that 

 were thrown out to him for his breakfast, run 

 and stow them away, go on to the next boat, 



