Christian life -- Juvenile fiction; Family -- Juvenile fiction
Miss Huntingdon was not the only person in the family at Flixworth Manor
who entertained a deep affection for Amos Huntingdon, and highly valued
him. Harry the butler loved him as if he had been his own son. The old
man had been inherited with the estate by its present owner, who
remembered him almost as long as he could remember anything, and had a
sincere regard for him, knowing him to be one of those old-fashioned
domestics who look upon their employer's interests as their own.
Harry's hair was now snowy-white, but he retained much of his vigour
unimpaired, the winter of his old age being "frosty, but kindly." So he
had never gone by any other name than "Harry," nor wished to do so, with
his master and his master's friends. However, in the kitchen he
expected to be called "_Mr_. Frazer," and would answer to no other name
when addressed by boys and strangers of his own rank. When the first
child was born Harry took to her with all his might. He knew that his
master was disappointed because she was not a boy, but that made no
difference to Harry. Nothing pleased him better than to act now and
then as nurse to Miss Julia when she was still in long clothes; and many
a peal of hearty and innocent mirth resounded from the kitchen premises
as the servants gazed, with tears of amusement running down their faces,
at _Mr_. Frazer, by the nurse's permission, pacing up and down a sunny
walk in the kitchen garden, with steps slow and grotesquely dignified,
holding the infant warily and tenderly, affirming, when he gave her back
to the nurse, in a self-congratulatory tone, that "little miss" would be
quiet with him when she would be so with no one else; which certainly
might be cause for some wonder, seeing that he would usually accompany
his nursings with such extraordinarily guttural attempts at singing as
were far better calculated to scare any ordinary baby into temporary
convulsions than to soothe it to rest when its slumbers had once been
broken. And how the old man did rejoice when the little thing could
toddle into his pantry! And no wonder that she was very ready to do so,
for Harry had an inexhaustible store of plums, and bonbons, and such
like enticements, which were always forthcoming when little miss
gladdened his heart with a visit. So they were fast friends, and
thoroughly understood each other.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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