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

ALL IX A GARDEN FAIR. 47
-svild flowers growing in them ; nowhere will
you find the ducks waddling by the roadside
with more perfect trustfulness, as if there were
no tramps or gipsies in the world; surely, a
duck, of all creatures, must be sincere : she
would not pretend a trustfulness she did not
feci. Tlie roadside inns are picturesque and
dirty ;
their signs—brave old signs such as the
*Good Intent' and the 'Travellers Rest'
—
hang creak ily over the wooden trough full of
water for tlic horses. There is generally a
lioi^se and cart waiting ; the horse drinks at
the trough, the driver, leaning against a door-
j)ost of the inn with a nuig of beer in his hand,
drinks and exchanges opinions with the land-
lord ; the i)cople in the road roll as they walk,
with hands in pockets, lifting feet accustomed
to a clay soil— quite iw if they were hundreds
of miles from London ; the very children roll
in their walk ;
they roll up, ragged and brown,
like the cloud rack ; they are rosy and pic-
turesque children, save when they bang and
beat each other and cry with dirty knuckles in