'But Doctor Babbage may expel you,' said Smith; don't go, Boothby.'

'Let him, then, if he chooses.'

A very strong voice within Richard cried shame; but he would not listen to it; for he had begun in a very wrong spirit. In a few minutes, he had fastened his own strap to that of Parker, and, attaching them with more difficulty to the iron stanchion of the window, he dropped himself down on the roof he had pointed out, and, looking up, once more invited his friends.

'Coming, Parker? You must be quick if you mean to come with me. It's dangerous to stay here-come, liberty's sweet.'

'Here goes, then, for a spree!' exclaimed Parker, and he was by Richard's side in a moment, pulling down the straps with him, and falling on the roof, from which he would have rolled, had it not been for Richard's aid. 'Eh! that was a narrow miss,' exclaimed Parker, getting up; 'now, we're in for it: our return is cut off.'

'That's no odds,' said Richard. 'I don't want to get back. Come along.'

Parker looked more doubtful; but the die was cast, and scrambling down the wall, they were both soon in the street and out of sight.

'And now, what do you mean to do, Boothby? I don't half like this.'

'You'll like it well enough, if you let me guide you,' said Richard. 'How much money

have you?'

'Not a penny,' replied his companion, ruefully,

searching his pockets.

Richard thought.

Well, can you get some

eatables as you pass your house?'

'Perhaps some bread-and-cheese.'

"That will do; I have half-a-crown. You go along, and get the bread-and-cheese, and I'll wait at the corner for you. We'll go along by the collieries, and see some stirrings, and I'll show you how I'll manage when I'm cast on the wide world.'

CHAPTER V.

HE boys held on their way; the weather

THE

was unusually fine, being one of those premature summer days that so often come in the beginning of May, before the cold weather fairly departs. They had not fasted as yet, and the fine fresh air and exercise had raised their animal spirits; and as is too often the case, in the enjoyment of life and energy, they forgot the doubtful nature of their freak. They had long since passed the Old Coalpit,' and Richard had stolen into his home and brought away a favourite cross-bow. He had also tried experiments in the foraging line, but had failed; being detected by the cook at the larder door, and accosted by her in great surprise, he had rushed off at full speed. All Parker's bread-and-cheese was now gone, and as the usual tea-time was now drawing on, the boys began to want food again. They were now drawing near the second colliery hamlet they had met, and Richard proposed they should go down the pit.

'Have you ever seen a pit, Parker?'

Parker replied in the negative, and Richard suggested that it would be a good place to go to, to evade pursuit.

'No one will think of looking in a coalpit for us.'

'I should think not,' replied Parker. 'But you don't think of remaining there all night, do you?'

'Why not? We mustn't be particular,' said Richard. 'We couldn't find such a good sheltered place.'

'Well, I can't say I fancy it much,' said Parker. Hadn't we better go home to-night?'

'What a fellow you are!' said Richard; 'why, half the fun of being out is managing for ourselves, and seeing life for ourselves.'

Parker, however, demurred so strongly to the propriety of remaining the night in such a place of shelter, that after looking into a coal level for a few minutes, Richard compromised the matter by yielding the point of a sleeping apartment, and leading the way further on; and in due course of time they entered a village as little known to Richard as Parker, though from a love of rambling, the former knew more of the surrounding country than his companion. Being accustomed to the rough inhabitants, and in the habit of making friends with them, he was less shy in this new locality. The village was not

inviting at first sight, though prettily situated. A congregation of straggling rows of miserable. little cottages, built as cheaply as was consistent with their object, lay stretched out before them, with their blackened roadways, of which the pavement was coal. The majority of the cottages were conspicuous for little else than dirt and general slovenliness of aspect. Before most lay a heap of ashes, cabbage-stalks, and other rubbish of various kinds, and immediately underneath the single lower window was a store of good coal for family consumption, which, with the ashes, was well trodden into the general room on the ground floor of the houses of which the boys were able to see anything of the interior; and there was very little variety in the aspect of this certainly most unpicturesque hamlet. It was the hour when the men were leaving the pit, and they were met on their approach to, and passage through the village, by hundreds of men in miners' dresses, with safety lamps attached to their waists, their blackened faces. and hands increasing the general impression of coarseness and low mental power which they inspired; some strolled listlessly on, others were in full talk and active motion; most of them had a stooping, rambling gait from the habit of seldom working in a perfectly erect posture, and