



Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England




Scamp and I
A Story of City By-Ways
By L.T. Meade
Published by John F. Shaw and Co, 40 Paternoster Row, London EC.
This edition dated 1891.

Scamp and I, by L.T. Meade.

________________________________________________________________________

________________________________________________________________________
SCAMP AND I, BY L.T. MEADE.

CHAPTER ONE.

I'D CHOOSE TO BE A QUEEN.

The time was the height of the London season for 1875; the height of
that gay time when the parks, and streets, and shops are full, when
pleasure-promoters are busy keeping up a fresh supply of every form of
entertainment, when pleasure-seekers are flocking to the garden parties,
and strawberry parties, the operas, and theatres, and all other
amusements provided for them; when the world--the world at least of
Regent Street, and Piccadilly, of Eaton Square, and all Belgravia--looks
so rich and prosperous, so full of life and all that makes life
enjoyable.

It was that gay time when no one thinks of gloom, when ambitious men
dream of fame, and vain women of vanity, when the thoughtless think less
than any other time, and when money seems to be the one god that rules
in every breast.

This was the time in the merry month of May, when one afternoon, at the
hour when Regent Street is brightest and fullest, a little ragged urchin
of about ten pushed his way boldly through the crowd of carriages and
people surrounding Swan and Edgar's, and began staring eagerly and
fearlessly in at the windows.

He was the only ragged child, the only representative of poverty, within
