Country life -- England -- Fiction; England -- Fiction; Family life -- Fiction; Railroads -- Fiction; Siblings -- Fiction
Peter was pointing, too. And what he was pointing at was a large white
sheet nailed against the fence. On the sheet there were thick black
letters more than a foot long.
Some of them had run a little, because of Phyllis having put the
Brunswick black on too eagerly, but the words were quite easy to read.
And this what the old gentleman and several other people in the train
read in the large black letters on the white sheet:--
LOOK OUT AT THE STATION.
A good many people did look out at the station and were disappointed,
for they saw nothing unusual. The old gentleman looked out, too, and at
first he too saw nothing more unusual than the gravelled platform and
the sunshine and the wallflowers and forget-me-nots in the station
borders. It was only just as the train was beginning to puff and pull
itself together to start again that he saw Phyllis. She was quite out of
breath with running.
“Oh,” she said, “I thought I'd missed you. My bootlaces would keep
coming down and I fell over them twice. Here, take it.”
She thrust a warm, dampish letter into his hand as the train moved.
He leaned back in his corner and opened the letter. This is what he
read:--
“Dear Mr. We do not know your name.
Mother is ill and the doctor says to give her the things at the end of
the letter, but she says she can't aford it, and to get mutton for
us and she will have the broth. We do not know anybody here but you,
because Father is away and we do not know the address. Father will pay
you, or if he has lost all his money, or anything, Peter will pay you
when he is a man. We promise it on our honer. I.O.U. for all the things
Mother wants.
“sined Peter.
“Will you give the parsel to the Station Master, because of us not
knowing what train you come down by? Say it is for Peter that was sorry
about the coals and he will know all right.
“Roberta.
“Phyllis.
“Peter.”
Then came the list of things the Doctor had ordered.
The old gentleman read it through once, and his eyebrows went up. He
read it twice and smiled a little. When he had read it thrice, he put it
in his pocket and went on reading The Times.
At about six that evening there was a knock at the back door. The three
children rushed to open it, and there stood the friendly Porter, who had
told them so many interesting things about railways. He dumped down a
big hamper on the kitchen flags.
“Old gent,” he said; “he asked me to fetch it up straight away.”
“Thank you very much,” said Peter, and then, as the Porter lingered, he
added:--
“I'm most awfully sorry I haven't got twopence to give you like Father
does, but--”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account