The Project Gutenberg EBook of Sentimental Tommy, by J. M. Barrie

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: Sentimental Tommy
The Story of His Boyhood

Author: J. M. Barrie

Release Date: February 7, 2005 [EBook #14961]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SENTIMENTAL TOMMY ***

Produced by Charles Aldarondo, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed
Proofreading Team.

SENTIMENTAL TOMMY

THE STORY OF HIS BOYHOOD

BY J. M. BARRIE

AUTHOR OF "THE LITTLE MINISTER," "A WINDOW IN THRUMS," ETC.

1896

SENTIMENTAL TOMMY

THE STORY OF HIS BOYHOOD

CHAPTER I

TOMMY CONTRIVES TO KEEP ONE OUT

The celebrated Tommy first comes into view on a dirty London stair, and
he was in sexless garments, which were all he had, and he was five, and
so though we are looking at him, we must do it sideways, lest he sit
down hurriedly to hide them. That inscrutable face, which made the
clubmen of his later days uneasy and even puzzled the ladies while he
was making love to them, was already his, except when he smiled at one
of his pretty thoughts or stopped at an open door to sniff a potful. On
his way up and down the stair he often paused to sniff, but he never
asked for anything; his mother had warned him against it, and he carried
out her injunction with almost unnecessary spirit, declining offers
before they were made, as when passing a room, whence came the smell of
fried fish, he might call in, "I don't not want none of your fish," or
"My mother says I don't not want the littlest bit," or wistfully, "I
ain't hungry," or more wistfully still, "My mother says I ain't
hungry." His mother heard of this and was angry, crying that he had let
the neighbors know something she was anxious to conceal, but what he had
revealed to them Tommy could not make out, and when he questioned her
artlessly, she took him with sudden passion to her flat breast, and
often after that she looked at him long and woefully and wrung her
hands.

The only other pleasant smell known to Tommy was when the water-carts
pass