A Lucky Magpie 173 



there 'till it's all blown over.' Anyhow, Uncle 

 Jonas, like many of the neighbours of the new 

 Reformatory, were on the side of us boys, and 

 aided and abetted Nelly in her scheme for 

 getting me away. He never thought, poor 

 man, he was laying himself open to the law. 

 And that good uncle would have got himself 

 into a serious scrape if things had turned out as 

 they ought to have done, for I contrived to slip 

 away from the school the very next day, and 

 was hidden in the white cottage all that night. 



" I had got quite reckless ; for, as Nelly 

 said, when one is innocent, what does it matter? 

 And she was so exactly her old self, and took 

 such care of me burying my school dress in 

 the garden, and rigging me out in some old 

 things of her uncle's, and laughing at me in my 

 big coat, that I soon felt my pluck coming back 

 again, though I cried a good deal at first, from 

 fright as much as joy. And Mag, too, was 

 exactly his old self, and was not a bit ashamed 

 of me ; it was some one else he ought to be 

 ashamed of, as you shall soon hear. 



"Our good time was soon over. It was the 



