Transcribed from the 1909 Wells Gardner, Darton, & Co.edition ,
FRIARSWOOD
POST-OFFICE
by
C. M. YONGE,
author of “the heir of redclyffe”
with colouredillustrations
by
a. g. walker
sculptor
london:
WELLS GARDNER, DARTON, & CO., LTD.
3 & 4 Paternoster Buildings, E.C.
and 44 VictoriaStreet, Westminster, S.W.
CHAPTER I—THE STRANGE LAD
‘Goodness! If ever I did see such a pig!’said Ellen King, as she mounted the stairs. ‘Iwouldn’t touch him with a pair of tongs!’
‘Who?’ said a voice from the bedroom.
‘Why, that tramper who has just been in to buy aloaf! He is a perfect pig, I declare! I only wonderyou did not find of him up here! The police ought to hindersuch folk from coming into decent people’s shops! There, you may see him now!’
‘Is that he upon the bridge—that chap about thesize of our Harold?’
‘Yes. Did you ever see such a figure? Hisclothes aren’t good enough for a scare-crow—and thedirt, you can’t see that from here, but you might sowradishes in it!’
‘Oh, he’s swinging on the rail, just as I used todo. Put me down, Nelly; I don’t want to see anymore.’ And the eyes filled with tears; there was aworking about the thin cheeks and the white lips, and a long sighcame out at last, ‘Oh, if I was but like him!’
‘Like him! I’d wish something else before Iwished that,’ said Ellen. ‘Don’t thinkabout it, Alfred dear; here are Miss Jane’spictures.’
‘I don’t want the pictures,’ said Alfredwearily, as he laid his head down on his white pillow, and shuthis eyes because they were hot with tears.
Ellen looked at him very sadly, and the feeling in her ownmind was, that he was right, and nothing could make up for thehealth and strength that she knew her mother feared would neverreturn to him.
There he lay, the fair hair hanging round the white brow withthe furrows of pain in it, the purple-veined lids closed over thegreat bright blue eyes, the long fingers hanging limp anddelicate as a lady’s, the limbs stretched helplessly on thecouch, whither it cost him so much pain to be daily moved. Who would have thought, that not six months ago that poor cripplewas the merriest and most active boy in the parish?
The room was not a sad-looking one. There were spotlesswhite dimity curtains round the lattice window; and the littlebed, and the walnut of the great chest, and of the doors of thepress-bed on which Alfred lay, shone with dark and palegrainings. There was a carpet on the floor, and the chairshad chintz cushions; the walls were as white as snow, and therewere pretty china ornaments on the mantel-piece, many littlepictures hanging upon the walls, and quite a shelf of books uponthe white cloth, laid so carefully on the top of thedrawers. A little table beside Alfred held a glass with afew flowers, a cup with some toast and water, a volume of the‘Swiss Family Robinson;’ and a large book of printsof animals was on a chair where he could reach it.
A larger table was covered with needle-work, shreds of lining,scissors, tapes, and Ellen’s red work-box; and she herselfsat beside it, a very nice-looking girl of about seventeen, talland slim, her lilac dress and white collar fitting beautifully,her black apron sitting nicely to her trim waist, and her lighthair shining, like the newl