at
the end of a very long dreary lane; and many a day Alfred would have
given something if those boys' relations would only have been so good as,
with one consent, to leave them without letters.

It would not have mattered if Alfred had been a stouter boy; but his
mother had always thought he had his poor father's constitution, and
therefore wished him to be more in the house; but his idleness had
prevented his keeping any such place. It might have been the cold and
wet, or, as Alfred thought, it might have been the strain he gave himself
one day when he was sliding on the ice and had a fall; but one morning he
came in from Elbury very pale, and hobbling, as he said his hip hurt him
so much, that Harold must take the letters round for him.

Harold took them that morning, and for many another morning and evening
besides; while poor Alfred came from sitting by the fire to being a
prisoner up-stairs, only moved now and then from his own bed to lie
outside that of his mother, when he could bear it. The doctor came, and
did his best; but the disease had thrown itself into the hip joint, and
it was but too plain that Alfred must be a great sufferer for a long
time, and perhaps a cripple for life. But how long might this life be?
His mother dared not think. Alfred himself, poor boy, was always trying
with his whole might to believe himself getting better; and Ellen and
Harold always fancied him so, when he was not very bad indeed; but for
the last fortnight he had been decidedly worse, and his heart and hopes
were sinking, though he would not own it to himself, and that and the
pain made his spirits fail so, that he had been more inclined to be
fretful than any time since his illness had begun.

His view from the window was a pleasant one; and when he was pretty well,
afforded him much amusement. The house stood in a neat garden, with
green railings between it and the road, over which Alfred could see every
one who came and went towards Elbury, and all who had business at the
post-office, or at Farmer Shepherd's. Opposite was the farm-yard; and if
nothing else was going on, there were always cocks and hens, ducks and
turkeys, pigs, cows, or horses, to be seen there; and the cow-milking, or
the taking the horses down to the water, the pig-feeding, and the like,
were a daily amusement. Sloping down from the farm-yard, the ground led
to the river, a smooth clear stream, where the white ducks looked very
pretty, swimming