Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Fishers -- Juvenile fiction; Foundlings -- Juvenile fiction
"But do you know what Fellness is like?" persisted Dick. "There ain't no
shops at all--only one, where they sells flour, and bread, and 'bacca,
and tea, and sugar, and soap. They has meat there sometimes; but I never
sees no books, and I don't believe they ever has 'em there," concluded
the boy.
"Perhaps they keeps 'em in a box where you can't see 'em," suggested
Tiny, who was very unwilling to relinquish her hope.
"Pigs might fly, and they will when they sells books at Fellness,"
remarked Dick.
"Where does Harry Hayes get his from?" suddenly asked the girl; and at
the same moment she espied a speck on the horizon, which she decided was
a fisherman's boat. "He's coming, Dick, dad's coming," she exclaimed.
"Make haste--make haste and fill up the baskets;" and she tore away at
the seaweed, piling it into the baskets as fast as her small hands would
permit. "Now we'll carry one down," she said, taking hold of the handle.
"Catch hold, Dick;" for she wanted to be at the edge of the sands by the
time the boat touched the shore.
But Dick was in no such hurry to meet his father. "There's plenty of
time," he said, leisurely untying a knot in a piece of string.
"No there isn't, Dick; don't you know I'm going to Fellness in the
boat."
"But you're afraid," said the boy; "ain't father tried to coax you lots
o' times to go out with him, and yer never would? You'll just get to the
edge, and when yer sees it rock a bit yer'll run away."
"No, I won't, Dick, this time," said the little girl. But as she spoke a
shiver of fear and dread ran through her frame at the thought of the
swaying boat.
Dick saw it, and laughed. "Didn't I tell yer you was afraid," he said,
in a mocking tone; "what's the good of going down there, when you're
frightened?"
"But I want a book, Dick; I must learn to read, and find out what we
want to know. Oh, do make haste!" she added, as she saw the boat
approaching the shore.
Dick was still laughing, but he helped her carry the basket, though he
teased her as they went along about being frightened. They got across
the sands with their samphire, just as Coomber and Bob were springing
ashore.
"Oh, daddy, take me with yer to Fellness," called Tiny, shutting her
eyes as she spoke that she might not see the treacherous waves and the
swaying boat.
"Halloo, halloo! What now, deary?" exclaimed Coomber. And it was
wonderful to see the change in his hard face as he lifted the little
girl in his arms and kissed her.
"She says she'll go," said Dick, "but I don't believe she means it."
"Yes I do. You'll take me, daddy, won't yer--'cos I've picked a lot of
samphire--all that, and another basketful up there? Go and fetch it,
Bob, and daddy can put it in the boat. And I'm going, too."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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