CHAPTER XIII.
NEW BOOTS.
It was several weeks before Tony could scrape together enough money for his new boots, though he pinched and starved himself with heroic courage and endurance.

He did not mean to buy them at a shop; for he knew a place in Whitechapel where boots quite good enough for him were to be had for two or three shillings.

He was neither ambitious nor fastidious; old boots patched up would do very well to start with, if he could only manage to get them before aunt Charlotte came up to town again.

She had sent word she was coming the last Saturday in January; and early in the afternoon of that day, before the train could come in from Stratford, Tony started off to the place where he intended to make his purchase.
It was a small open space in one of the streets of Whitechapel, where there was an area of flags, lying off the pavement.

Several traders held possession of this square, sitting on low stools, or cross-legged on the ground, with their stock in trade around them.