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    324 A STRANGE CHANGE.

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  • Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.

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    V _ Chapter I. On A Cloudless Morning 1 ...

    charge of tlie boy's future upon himself , and that he should not be liable In his to own shrink home from there any was difficult nothing duty 1 to forbid it might such ent an ail addition upon him to .

    his family : a sister who superintended his household for him was his only domestic companion , and his means were amply sufficient

    for what he wished to do . " How many of these little people pf your own have you ? " he

    asked of the woman . "Why four of them , sir , " she replied : " Tommy has one little

    sister younger , and another sister and brother older than he is . " " Four to provide for ! I am sure that is too much care and

    expense for you . I have been thinking -we must try and arrange , for me to take this little fellow off your hands ; I have neither wife nor

    children of my own , and would gladly have the charge of such a boy as this . "

    The woman hesitated . Poor as she was , and . burdened with her own children , she had no selfish eagerness to be relieved from this

    extra charge upon her care and affections . She looked wistfully down at the child as she

    answered"Why , if he would only be happy to go with you , I dare say it would be a very grand thing for himfor we have little enough to

    give him , God knows ! only I should , not like to think he was grieving after me ; for someway , " and there were tears in her eyes ,

    " one gets to love these poor little things , if even they ar'n't one's own . I should not like him to be grieving , and missing me , —

    though to be sure , if he should have to go into the workhouse "—and she paused .

    "I will tell you how we will arrange it , " said George Gilbert ; " my home is not in this townbut I shall be remaining here some

    weeks longer , and a sister , too , , with me , who , if all things fall out as I wishwill have to fill your place to this little boy ; let us try if

    by having , him with us during' this time , we cannot make him like us well enough to be content to go away with us when the time

    arrives for our departure . " After some further conversation and arrangement it was settled that ,

    as a first step , the two little boys should be taken home , and attired in their Sunday clothes ; that they should then both accompany

    Mr . Gilbert to the inn where he was staying , and which was close at handand that in the evening the mother should call there to take

    her own , boy home , leaving the other for the night , if he would only be willing to remain .

    In adopting this little outcast , George Gilbert had no romantic visions that its love wouldsome day in the futurefill a weary gap

    and yearning in his life ; , indeed , he had scarcely , considered what the child was to be in reference to himself . lie had only seen

    before him a helpless being , introduced , as it were , to his sympathies by the dearest portion of his own life . A singular

    resemblance in the expression of its countenance , and the uncommon color

    324 A Strange Change.

    324 A STRANGE CHANGE .

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1861, page 324, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011861/page/36/