All in a garden fair; the simple story of three boys ... - University Library

ALL L\ A GARDEN FAIR. 163
Oil that morning when lie was to mount the
desk of the City clerk for the first time, she
took him hi her arms and solemnly kissed lum
with tears. ' Go,' she said, ' go, my son ; re-
trieve the disgrace of your father. He failed,
poor man, not through any fault of his own
no, no—it was his partner's doing— it was all
John Stephens. But work, Allen, work, and
get a good name, and perhai)s some day you,
too, will be rich.'
So it seemed to him, as he walked home-
ward through the great forest, that there was
no one to trust except Claire. Will, to be
sure, might be trusted to keep a secret. But
he cared nothing at all about poetry ; he re-
garded books and litemture from the simplest
point of view, namely, as the means of con-
veying information. lie had no feeling for
style; did not understand, in spite of instruc-
tion, what it meant, and was careless of tlie
collocation of words, provided they conveyed
the meaning intended. Allen, on the contrary,
wiis quite hap[)y even if there was no meaning