Alone in London eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 102 pages of information about Alone in London.

Alone in London eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 102 pages of information about Alone in London.
nor Tony could find any fault with their darling.  Now and then there came letters from her mother, full of anxious questions about her, and loving messages to her, telling her to be a good girl till she came back, but never saying a word as to when there was any chance of her returning to England.  In one of these letters she sent word that a little sister was come for her out in India, who was just like what Dolly herself had been when she was a baby; but neither Oliver nor Tony could quite believe that.  There never had been such a child as Dolly; there never would be again.

CHAPTER XVI

A Bud fading.

A second summer went by with its long, hot days, when the sun seemed to stand still in the sky, and to dart down its most sultry beams into the dustiest and closest streets.  Out in the parks, and in the broad thoroughfares where the fresh breeze could sweep along early in the morning, and in the evening as soon as the air grew cooler, it was very pleasant weather; and the people who could put on light summer dresses enjoyed it very much.  But away among the thickly-built and crowded houses, where there were thousands of persons breathing over and over again the same hot and stagnant atmosphere, it seemed as if the most delicate and weakly among them must be suffocated by the breathless heat.  Old Oliver suffered very greatly, but he said nothing about it; indeed he generally forgot the cause of his languor and feebleness.  He never knew now the day of the week, nor the month of the year.  If any one had told him in the dog-days of July that it was still April, he would only have answered gently that it was bright, warm weather for the time of year.

But about old times his memory was good enough; he could tell long stories of his boyhood, and describe the hills of his native place in such a manner as to set Tony full of longings after the country, with its cornfields, and meadows, and hedge-rows, which he had never seen.  He remembered his Bible, too, and could repeat chapter after chapter describing his Master’s life, as they sat together in the perpetual twilight of their room; for now that it was summer-time it did not seem right to keep the gas burning.

Tony’s crossing had failed him altogether, for in dry weather nobody wanted it; but in this extremity Mr. Ross came to his aid, and procured him a place as errand-boy, where he was wanted from eight o’clock in the morning till seven at night; so that he could still open old Oliver’s shop, and fetch him his right papers before he went out, and put the shutters up when he came back.  To become an errand-boy was a good step forwards, and Tony was more than content.  He never ran about bare-headed and barefooted now as he had done twelve months before; and he had made such good progress in reading and writing that he could already make out the directions upon the parcels he had to deliver, after they had been once read over

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Alone in London from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.