Willy Burke, or, The Irish orphan in America - Digital Repository ...

THE IRISH ORPHAN IN AMERICA. 25
good, industrious person, and therefore I shall take this
boy under my own care. He shall be sent to one of the best
schools in the city, so that he may if so inclined make up
for lost time ; and when he is a few years older, he shall
be taken into my husband's counting-house as junior
clerk, where he will have a good salary. What say you,
Mrs. Burke ?"
" What can I say, ma'am, but that I 'm entirely obliged
to you for makin' such an offer, an' from my heart
out I thank you. Only it wouldn't become his mother to
spake so much in his praise, I 'd be making free to tell
you, ma'am, that I hope ye '11 find him a good boy, an' a
thankful one. With God's help I '11 get his little things
ready an' send him as soon as I can. But won't he come
home at night, ma'am, for a little time ? Maybe it 's not
long I 'd be with the cratures, an' I like to have them
about me while I *m in it !"
" Oh, certainly, Mrs. Burke ; he can go home, if you
wish it, every evening, and the sooner you can send him
it will be all the better. Good morning ; you can go
now, for I 'm rather hurried this morning".
The poor woman made a low curtsey and retired with
her son. All the way home they could talk or think of
nothing but the blessed news they had heard ;
and tears
of joy streamed from the eyes of the fond mother as she
painted in glowing language the advantages thus opened
to her darling son.
In a few days after Willy Burke was duly sent to school,
dressed, moreover, in an entire new suit ; and a proud
woman his mother was when she surveyed him in the
handsome new clothes before he set out on Monday morning.
When he came home at night she felt still prouder