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

86 ALL IN A GARDEN FAIR.
dinners togetlicr for ninepence at tlie same lun-
cheon-bar.
As for Tommy, iie was, of course, taken
into his uncle's office.
But on tlie evening before Allen's duties
began, his mother begged hiai to stay at home
with her. She had something to tell him. She
was a woman born to be comely, smiling, and
contented, but fate had been against her. The
memory of past misfortune and the pinch of
present poverty had taken the sunshine out of
her face, which was generally hard, except
when her eyes fell upon the boy. For in him
was her only hope. A daughter of the City,
too, who knew of no other life for a man than
to go off ' to business ' every morning, and to
make himself a position. What her husband
had tried to do, her son would succeed in
doing.
The thing she had to tell was so dreadful
that, when she began to tell it, she fell into
passionate sobbing and crying, sucli as Allen
had never seen before.