FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135  
136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   >>   >|  
?" Mr. Waddington suggested. Alfred held out his hands eagerly. "Thank you very much," he said. "It is very kind of you. I am very fond of this sort of picture." Burton took Mr. Waddington by the arm and led him out into the warehouse. "Whose child is that?" the latter demanded curiously. "Mine," Burton groaned. "Can you guess what has happened?" Mr. Waddington looked puzzled. "You remember the day I went down to Garden Green? You gave me two beans to give to Ellen and the child. It was before we knew that their action was not permanent." "I remember quite well," Mr. Waddington confessed. "You remember I told you that Ellen threw them both into the street? A man who was wheeling a fruit barrow picked up one. I told you about that?" "Yes!" "This child picked up the other," Burton declared, solemnly. Mr. Waddington stared at him blankly. "You don't mean to tell me," he said, "that this is the ill-dressed, unwashed, unmannerly little brat whom your wife brought into the office one day, and who turned the ink bottles upside down and rubbed the gum on his hands?" "This is the child," Burton admitted. "God bless my soul!" Mr. Waddington muttered. They sat down together on the top of a case. Neither of them found words easy. "He's taken to drawing," Burton continued slowly, "hates the life at home, goes out for walks with the schoolmaster. He's got a list of books to read--classics every one of them." "Poor little fellow!" Mr. Waddington said to himself. "And to think that in three weeks or a month--" "And in the meantime," Burton interrupted, "here he is on my hands. He's run away from home--as I did. I don't wonder at it. What do you advise me to do, Mr. Waddington?" "What can you do?" Mr. Waddington replied. "You must keep him until--" "Upon children," Burton said thoughtfully, "the effect may be more lasting. No news, I suppose, of the tree?" Mr. Waddington shook his head sorrowfully. "I've had a private detective now working ever since that day," he declared. "The man thinks me, of course, a sort of lunatic, but I have made it worth his while to find it. I should think that every child in the neighborhood has been interviewed. What about the novel?" "Come back from the publishers," Burton replied. "I have sent it away to some one else." Mr. Waddington looked at him compassionately. "You were relying upon that, were you not?" "Entirely," Burton admitted. "If I don
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135  
136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
Waddington
 

Burton

 

remember

 

replied

 

admitted

 
declared
 
picked
 

looked

 
interrupted
 

meantime


publishers

 

classics

 
relying
 

schoolmaster

 
fellow
 

advise

 
compassionately
 
Entirely
 

interviewed

 

suppose


lasting

 

thinks

 

sorrowfully

 

detective

 

private

 

working

 

neighborhood

 

lunatic

 

effect

 

thoughtfully


children

 
Garden
 

happened

 

puzzled

 

confessed

 
permanent
 

action

 
picture
 

suggested

 
Alfred

eagerly
 

demanded

 
curiously
 
groaned
 

warehouse

 

street

 
muttered
 

bottles

 
upside
 

rubbed