Little Jack Rag's "Day In The Country"."

absurd to have observed any such regulation in our case . Scores ol our company were such mites of things that Punch ' s Bayswater omnibus matron could have covered any half dozen of them with her skirts as easily as a hen covers her chicks with her wings . But then the back-alley

juvenile population of S pitalfields never were remarkable for obesity , and as for " ample skirts , " why the less that is said about them the more correct will be the

reader ' s idea of their dimensions . Not but that we were as respectable as circumstances would permit . I should hope so indeed . So scrupulous were the committee on this head , that it was a matter

for anxious discussion when the time drew near if they had not been a little too fastidious in insisting that the girls should all come wearing stockings as well as shoes , and whether it could not at this the last

moment be advisable to recal their severe edict that no child would be regarded as eligible , even though possessed of a ticket , who did not make its appearance with its face clean , its hair brushed , and some kind of cap or bonnet on its head . So deeply rooted was the conviction in the minds

of two or three of the committee that bitter disappointment and disastrous dashing of young hopes must ensue if the lastmentioned order were carried out that , good souls that they were , they had come provided with a few old caps and hats from the home storeas well as several pairs of

, decent small boots and shoes , for lack of which several aspirants for the day ' s delight , and who came quaking and in tears , would certainly have been disqualified . Nevertheless , at the mustering time and inspection before the start , our two hundred

made a passable show , though it cannot be denied that the assemblage presented features worthy of remembrance . One of which was the unlimited faith of the parents iu the saving virtue of hah oil . Alley dwellers are notin variably poverty-stricken , and

there were those amongst our two hundred who were well shod , wore comfortable clothes , and even aspired to gloves and parasols . But on these hair oil had HOD been lavished ; it was reserved for those who were most poorly clad . The extent of its application seemed to be governed b y the extent of deficiency in the child ' s attire . If it was merely a

pinafore short an extra anointing of the side locks was deemed an equitable makeweight . If the falling-off extended to pinafore and under skirts , leaving little else but the old frock to represent the entire suit , then the oleaginous sheen extended fore and aftand the child's very

, ears glistened with it . There was one young gentleman through whose dilapidated boot tops two perfect rows of toes were visible , and who had elaborately blacked and shined those members along with the remnant of upper leathers ; and another

, who in order to be within the law in the matter of head gear , had somehow procured a battered old white hat , and by padding inside with paper rendered it capable of being balanced atop of his ten-year-old bullet-head . A gift of one of the decent

old caps a visitor had thoughtfully brought with him happily relieved him of the manly responsibility . Ail " passed , " and in the vans at last , however , even to the boy whose jacket his

mother had ventured to wash , and which from natural decay had fallen all to pieces in the tub , causing him to appear with a rueful visage and in his shirt sleeves . In the vans , and rattling down Whitechapel Road with as much hilarious shouting and tootling of tin whistles as though

Squelcher ' s Alley was altogether a thing of the past , and future life was to be one long holiday . " Hip—hip—hooray ! " on the smallest provocation , or no provocation at all ; on passing two policemen at the street comer ; on passing the London

Hospitalthe salute being returned in a cordial though cripplish fashion by the out-patients about the gates ; on encountering a coalheaver asleep on three tons of coals in course of transit , on which the man in the inky smock frock and fantail wakes up , and

too lazy to withdraw his hands from beneath his head , elevates and waves one of his legs in friendly response to the cheering . About Stratford , however , we subside into a calmer mood , and it being now at least half an hour since-we left

home , bethink us of refreshment , and make short work of the luxury of luncheon , with which in the shape of a few biscuits and a bit of cheese we are each provided in a paper bag , thanks to the generosity of one of our lady patrons , who " knows what boys are , "