Page 78 - An Australian Lassie

CHAPTER XVIII

ALMA'S SHTLLTNG

By ten o'clock Betty had made another shilling, having caught the workers of the city as they were going to
their day's toil.

And it must be owned it was a mysterious "something" about the child herself that arrested what attention she
drew. Perhaps it lay in the fresh rosiness of her face, in the clearness of her sweet eyes, in the brightness of her
young hair; for her courage ebbed away so soon as two or three were gathered around her; her voice sank to a
whisper, she drooped her head, trifled with one wristband or the other, stood first on one foot and then on the
other, and displayed the various signs of nervousness Mr. Sharman's stern eye provoked her to.

At eleven o'clock, John, who had made threepence by carrying a bag for a lady, looked Betty up at the
appointed corner and proposed lemonade and currant buns, for which she was quite ready.

Afterwards they stood for a valuable half-hour outside the waxworks and explored the markets, where Betty
sang "Scatter seeds of kindness," in spite of John's solemnly given advice to keep it for Sunday. Here she only
made a penny halfpenny by her song, but as she said to John--

"Every one must expect some bad hours."

Then, too, there was in her heart a feeling of certainty that a keen eyed, bent shouldered old gentleman would
be passing soon, and carry her away straight to the very threshold of fame, as Madam S--- 's old gentleman
carried her.

When they had become thoroughly acquainted with the markets, John suggested she should again "count up,"
with a view of deciding what sort of lodgings she could afford for the night.

Betty had not thought of such a trivial thing, leaving it possibly for her old gentleman to settle. But she was
more than willing to "count up" again.

So they went into a corner behind a deserted fruit stall, sat down upon an empty case, and made little stacks of
pennies and half-pennies and small silver coins.

She had two shillings and a penny, she found in all, and John told her she could afford to go to one of the
places he had seen this morning, where a bed and breakfast were to be had for sixpence.

"T have seen some places where they charge a shilling," said John. "Tt seems an awful lot to pay for a bed and
a bit of breakfast. But a sixpenny place will do for you, and as you're only twelve they might take you for
threepence."

"And where will you go?" asked Betty anxiously.

"Oh, T'd be sixpence, you see, because T'm thirteen and a half," said John. "T can't afford to pay sixpence. Tt's
always harder for a fellow to get on than for a girl. That's why you hear more about self-made men than
self-made women--they're thought more of. No bed for me, T expect, for some time to come. T'll have to sleep
in the Domain. T heard a fellow talking this morning, and he said he's been sleeping there for a week now.
And, you know, Peterborough, the artist T told you about--well, he slept for a week in a barrel!"

"How much money have you got?" asked Betty.