Page:Stories told to a child.djvu/219

, turning her eager black eyes on the old woman. 'What a good son Joe is to you!'

'Ah, that he be, dear,' was the reply; 'that he be; wrote he did, so pretty, "My dear mother," he says, "don't you go for to think I shall ever forget how good you was to me always, for I shall not," he says'—

Matilda's eyes flashed and glistened; she took a particular interest in this young man, though I did not know that till long afterwards.

'Tell us how it all was!' she. said, quickly.

'Why, you see, dear, he .was not my own, but I did as well as I could by him; and he be as fond of me like, ay, fonder, than he be of his father.'

'Yes, I know,' said Matilda.

'Well, dear, I went to Mr. T.'s house' (my father's), 'and I was very down at heart—very, I was; for Mr. Ball, he'd been that morning, and says he, "It signifies nothing that you've lived here so long," he says, "if you can't pay the rent." I says, "Mr. Ball, will you please to consider these weeks and weeks that my poor old man has been laid up wi' rheumatize." "But," he says, "I can put in younger and stronger than him; and besides that," he says, "I know you owe money at the shop, over all you owe to my employer.

'He was always a hard man,' said Matilda.

'Well, dear, he says, "It ain't no use my deceiving of you, Mrs. Grattan, but I must sell you up, for," says he, "the money I must have, and you must go into the workhouse; it's the best place by half for such as you." And, dear, it seemed hard, for, I'll assure Rh