London's Heart: A NovelFarjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
London's Heart: A Novel
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
London (England) -- Fiction
would not be a very great grief to him if the child were to die
quietly in his arms. You may depend upon it that the home of this man
and woman is not a happy one, and that life is truly a burden to
them. See this other and better specimen. Working-man father and
working-woman mother, in precisely the same position of life as the
discontented man. He carries the baby carefully and tenderly, and the
mother walks briskly by his side. There are refreshing bits of colour
about the woman's dress, and the baby's dress is, pretty and bright.
Sometimes the man pauses, and his wife uncovers the baby's face, and
they both look at it lovingly while she makes a fuss and pretence
about setting something right with the baby's hood. He gazes about him
cheerfully and seems to say, "This is one of my brightest bits of
sunshine. I shouldn't enjoy my Sunday's walk without it. What a happy
day for me was the day I got married!" And he thinks that soon--in
twelve months, perhaps--his little treasure will be able to toddle
along by his side, and throw bread to the ducks in the Park. And
though the child is plump and heavy, love makes it light. Happy
father! Happy home!
No such reflections as these passed through the mind of Gribble junior
as he continued the enunciation of his sensible philosophy.
"My way is, to take things as they come, and to keep moving. You knock
your head against things, and you're sure to rasp your skin. What's
the use of fretting? You only chafe yourself, and nobody takes any
notice. Make the best of things. That's what I tell father; but he
doesn't agree with me. The consequence is, that he shows his weak
hand, as a body might say. And that's not wise. If you have a
weakness, keep it to yourself. Don't let the world see it. Father said
to me one night last week when he was shutting up--(he'd only taken
three and fourpence the whole day, and that's enough, I own, or isn't
enough, perhaps I ought to say, to drive a shopkeeper wild)--that if
he could catch hold of a co-operation manager, he'd pitch into him. I
told him that if he did, he'd very likely get locked-up for it; and he
said, 'Never mind, I shouldn't be the only martyr that's suffered in a
good cause.' The fact is, Mr. Wheels, father belongs to the old
school--he won't keep moving; and as all the world's on the move, he's
left behind. I belong to the new school; and I run along with the tide
as fast as I can. Mrs. J. G. belongs to the new school, and so does
her brother. His name is Thompson. He's got a shop about half a mile
from here. He advertises himself everywhere as Thompson the Great. He
has thousands of bills circulated: 'The great Thompson! the unrivalled
Thompson! Thompson the First! Come and see him to-night. No charge for
admission. Where's Thompson? Who's Thompson?' That's his style. He has
an illumination over his shop every night, with his portrait in the
middle--although he's not a handsome man by any means. And what do you
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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