CHAPTER VII.

BILLY'S CLEAN FACE.

I CAN'T tell you how surprised Miss Allen was, when she found this was really Billy. She seated him among the scholars, by her side, and then gave him his second lesson.

"This was the story of the Saviour's love to little children. Billy sat with parted lips, and listened as if for his life.

"But I must hasten to tell you how the poor boy, after school was dismissed, found himself near his own home. He lived in what is called a tenement house, and in the one entry where he lodged there were, only think of it, ninety persons!

"On the Sabbath the men, and women too, were mostly out of doors, lounging in the dirty court. Now, as Billy entered it, the boys and girls stared at him in some surprise, thinking, of course, that he was a stranger.

"'Hollo!' at last shouted one fellow, 'it's our Bill! Look at him. What a prig! Oh! Oh!' And he laughed boisterously.

"Billy smiled quietly to himself, and, making his way through the door, started to run upstairs, when a woman called out,—

"'Who are ye after, if I may be so bold?'

"'It's Billy Foster, no mistake,' said another, 'but I can't tell what he's been doing to himself.'

"Billy's mother started to her feet when he entered. She stared at him with open mouth, not daring to speak until he said, laughing,—

"'Don't you know me, mother?'

"'And what has happened ye, Bill? Sure it's like a miracle ye are.'

"The boy eagerly related what had occurred, adding that he had promised to put aside his new jacket for Sunday wear.

"'Wait till I see will yer father know his own son,' she said; eagerly; 'sure I can't believe my own eyes.'

"Mr. Foster agreed with his wife, that it was little short of a miracle; but the next day the mother said,—

"'Feth, if soap and wather can do it for Billy, it can for Jack.' So she set to work, and washed and scrubbed all her children, greatly to the astonishment of the neighbors.

"'Sure and washing is a good thing,' she said to her husband, 'I'll be trying it on myself;' which she did. Then she argued that the room was not clean enough for such tidy looking folks; and when Mr. Foster came home at night from his wood-sawing, he saw her scouring the floor on her knees, the chairs being piled up on the bed.

"First her neighbor on the right, and then the neighbor on her left, imitated her example, until to the astonishment of the landlord, who came weekly for his rent, there was a gradual but thorough renovation of the place.

"It was astonishing how much more these poor people respected themselves, now that their persons and clothes and rooms were clean. Soon they began to ask themselves whether they, too, could not go to the mission school where Billy had been treated so kindly.

"All this was not done at once. It required a good deal of arguing on the part of Mrs. Foster to induce some of her lazy neighbors to commence a reformation, and Billy was called in from his play a great many times to describe the bath-room, the good nature of Mrs. Varney, and the kindness of the pretty lady in the school, before they would consent to follow so good an example.

"Miss Allen had thought often of Billy, and resolved to visit him in his home, not dreaming of all the changes wrought there by the sight of his clean, fresh face.

"She set out early Sunday morning, and was delighted to find Billy's two brothers and one sister ready to accompany her to the school.

"I cannot stop to tell you all the particulars," said Cousin Stuart, smiling, "for Lily is growing very sleepy; but I will say that Billy's clean face was the means of leading thirty persons, men, women, and children, to the mission school, where they learned to love the Saviour."

"That's a nice story," exclaimed Helen, "I wish mamma had heard it."

"I think so, too," said grandma. "I should like to see Billy."