Page:Leah Reed--Brenda's summer at Rockley.djvu/98

84 lawyer in a neighboring town. Before he had accumulated much money, he had died rather suddenly. The income which he left his wife and daughter was hardly  enough to pay house-rent, even in a quiet street of  this town. But among his possessions was a little house on the back road. Mrs. Redmond decided that the very best thing that she could do was to occupy this house. In no other way could she live so cheaply; and although the neighborhood was certainly not a desirable one, she  intended to have her little girl so closely in her own care  that neither of them would be disagreeably affected by  their surroundings.

Until the coming of Fritz into the neighborhood, Amy had had a rather lonely time. I do not mean that she repined, or perhaps realized just how lonely she was. With her books and the society of her mother, she was very well satisfied. Her hands were seldom idle, and her mind was always busy. But her mother knew that it would be better for Amy to have more companionship of  her own age, and she regretted that she could not give her  daughter this companionship. Now the father of Fritz was an explorer,—an explorer who sometimes was away  from home for two or three years at a time. In his absence he left his young son in the care of his own elder brother,—a serious man, fond of study, who had little  idea of the proper way of bringing up boys. In other words, he was so afraid that some disaster would befall  Fritz in his father’s absence, that he was inclined to  coddle him. In the winter, when they were in the city,