His mother's savings were brought to him by a faithful creature who had long served in their house, and who now more than once trudged all the way from home on this errand, and added her own humble earnings to the little stock.

Many a time the hours went very slowly for the necessitous man.

One Shrove Tuesday he rose in the morning, and found his pockets empty even of so much as a halfpenny.

His friends had not invited him to join their squalid Bohemian revels.

Hunger and thoughts of old Shrovetide merriment and feasting in the far-off home made work impossible.