only
thing he would do well was work in the garden."

"Same as he does now, sir?" I said, for I was deeply interested.

"Same as he does now," assented Old Brownsmith. "Then one day after I
had given him his treat, I suppose when he was about ten years old, I
found him in the garden. He had run away from the workhouse school."

"And did he stay here, sir?"

"No, I sent him back, Grant, and he ran away again. I sent him back
once more, but he came back; and at last I got to be tired of it, for
the more I sent him back the more he came."

The old gentleman chuckled and finished his bread and milk, while I
waited to hear more.

"I say I got tired of it at last, for I knew they flogged and locked up
the boy, and kept him on bread and water; but it did him no good; he
would run away. He used to come here, through the gate if it was open,
over the wall when it was shut, and he never said a word, only hung
about like a dog.

"I talked to him, coaxed him, and told him that if he would be a good
lad, and learn, I would have him to work some day, and he stared at me
just as if he were some dumb animal, and when I had done and sent him
off, what do you think happened, Grant?"

"He came back again, sir."

"Yes: came back again as soon as he could get away, and at last, being a
very foolish sort of old man, I let him stop, and he has been here ever
since."

"And never goes to school?"

"Never, Grant, I tried to send him, but I could only get him there by
blows, and I gave that up. I don't like beating boys."

I felt a curious shiver run through me as he said this, and I saw him
smile, but he made no allusion to me, and went on talking about Shock.

"Then I tried making a decent boy of him, giving him clothes, had a bed
put for him in the attic, and his meals provided for him here in the
kitchen."

"And wasn't he glad?" I said.

"Perhaps he was," said Old Brownsmith, quietly, "but he didn't show it,
for I couldn't get him to sleep in the bed, and he would not sit down to
his meals in the kitchen; so at last I grew tired, and took to paying
him wages, and made arrangements for one of the women who comes to work,
to find him a lodging, and he goes there to sleep sometimes."

I noticed that he said _sometimes_, in a peculiar manner, looking at me
the while. Then he went on:

"I've tried several times since, Grant, my lad, but the young savage is
apparently irreclaimable. Perhaps when he gets older somethin