The Project Gutenberg EBook of Two Prisoners, by Thomas Nelson Page

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: Two Prisoners

Author: Thomas Nelson Page

Illustrator: Virginia Keep

Release Date: September 7, 2010 [EBook #33667]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TWO PRISONERS ***

Produced by Al Haines

[Frontispiece: "_STRAIGHT AWAY THE BIRD FLEW_" _See p._ 63]

Two Prisoners

By Thomas Nelson Page

Illustrated in Color

by

Virginia Keep

New York

R. H. Russell

MCMIII

_Copyright, 1898_

_By_ ROBERT HOWARD RUSSELL

_Copyright, 1903_

_By_ HARPER & BROTHERS

_To the memory of_

ALFRED B. STAREY

_ACKNOWLEDGMENTS_

are made to Messrs. Harper & Brothers, in whose magazine, _Harper's
Young People_, when under the management of the late Alfred B. Starey,
some years ago, this story in a condensed form first appeared. The
story has been rewritten and amplified.--_T.N.P._

Illustrations

"Straight Away the Bird Flew" . . . . . . . . . _Frontispiece_

"Could See a Little Girl Walking About with her Nurse"

"Mildred Played Out-of-Doors all Day Long"

"'Are You a Princess?' Asked Molly"

"'Mother,' She Whispered"

Two Prisoners

Squeezed in between other old dingy houses down a dirty, narrow street
paved with cobble-stones, and having, in place of sidewalks, gutters
filled with gray slop-water, stood a house, older and dingier than the
rest. It had a battered and knock-kneed look, and it leant on the
houses on either side of it, as if it were unable to stand up alone.
The door was just on a level with the street, and in rainy weather the
water poured in and ran through the narrow little passage leaving a
silt of mud in which the children played and made tracks. The windows
were broken in many places, and were stuffed with old rags, or in some
places had bits of oilcloth nailed over the holes. It looked black and
disreputable even in that miserable quarter, and it was. Only the
poorest and the most unfortunate would stay in such a rookery. It
seemed to be in charge of or, at least, ruled over by a woman named
Mrs. O'Meath, a sh