FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>  
t for a beast, let alone a man?" "No," answered a solemn voice behind. "No more did Tom, when you behaved to him in the very same way." It was Mrs. Bedonebyasyoudid. And, when the truncheon saw her, it started bolt upright--Attention!--and made such a low bow, that if it had not been full of the spirit of justice, it must have tumbled on its end, and probably hurt its one eye. And Tom made his bow too. "Oh, ma'am," he said, "don't think about me; that's all past and gone, and good times and bad times and all times pass over. But may not I help poor Mr. Grimes? Mayn't I try and get some of these bricks away, that he may move his arms?" "You may try, of course," she said. So Tom pulled and tugged at the bricks: but he could not move one. And then he tried to wipe Mr. Grimes' face: but the soot would not come off. "Oh, dear!" he said. "I have come all this way, through all these terrible places, to help you, and now I am of no use at all." "You had best leave me alone," said Grimes; "you are a good-natured forgiving little chap, and that's truth; but you'd best be off. The hail's coming on soon, and it will beat the eyes out of your little head." "What hail?" "Why, hail that falls every evening here; and, till it comes close to me, it's like so much warm rain: but then it turns to hail over my head, and knocks me about like small shot." "That hail will never come any more," said the strange lady. "I have told you before what it was. It was your mother's tears, those which she shed when she prayed for you by her bedside; but your cold heart froze it into hail. But she is gone to heaven now, and will weep no more for her graceless son." Then Grimes was silent awhile; and then he looked very sad. "So my old mother's gone, and I never there to speak to her! Ah! a good woman she was, and might have been a happy one, in her little school there in Vendale, if it hadn't been for me and my bad ways." "Did she keep the school in Vendale?" asked Tom. And then he told Grimes all the story of his going to her house, and how she could not abide the sight of a chimney-sweep, and then how kind she was, and how he turned into a water-baby. "Ah!" said Grimes, "good reason she had to hate the sight of a chimney-sweep. I ran away from her and took up with the sweeps, and never let her know where I was, nor sent her a penny to help her, and now it's too late--too late!" said Mr. Grimes. And he began crying and
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   >>  



Top keywords:
Grimes
 

school

 

bricks

 
Vendale
 

mother

 

chimney

 

heaven


bedside

 

strange

 

knocks

 

prayed

 
crying
 

reason

 
turned

looked
 

awhile

 

silent

 

sweeps

 

graceless

 

tumbled

 

spirit


justice

 

behaved

 

solemn

 

answered

 
upright
 

Attention

 

started


Bedonebyasyoudid

 

truncheon

 

coming

 

evening

 
pulled
 

tugged

 

natured


forgiving

 

terrible

 

places