EXTRACTS FROM AN ANONYMOUS JOURNAL. 59 



the crossed arms. He was evidently in great anguish of 

 mind. His soiled boots, dishevelled locks, and meagre 

 garments, were naturally suggestive of a tramp. But all 

 such ideas vanished from my friend's mind when in 

 response to his sympathetic enquiries, the lad held up 

 his head preliminary to speaking, revealing a pair of 

 beautiful hazel eyes much swollen from weeping, and a 

 comely oval face sure index of a guileless, honest heart. 

 So overpowered was his boyish nature at the sympathy 

 shown by my friend towards him, and at the prospect of 

 succour at hand, that all his pent up feelings burst forth 

 at once, and it was sometime before he could stammer 

 out a few words in reply to my friend's enquiry as to who 

 he was, and what he was there for. 



But all that S. C. M. could gather from the broken 

 sentences intermittently jerked out he was still sobbing 

 was that he belonged to some steamer in port, and that 

 he would "catch it" from the Doctor. As the night 

 was far advanced, and the boy was badly in need of 

 food and rest, my friend proposed to take him to his lodg- 

 ing and to give him both. It required very little persua- 

 sion to induce Thomas Periwinkle, to accept the invita- 

 tion and accompany him to his club. Having arrived 

 there and found an unoccupied bed, Tom straightway 

 went to lay himself down, and in five minutes was sound 

 asleep, so that when refreshments were brought, it was 

 with utmost difficulty that he could be made to take a 

 pup of tea and a few biscuits, 



