She had a gentle voice and was full of
sympathy, and seeing our plight took us into the kitchen
behind the parlour, which was living- and working-room as
well, to dry ourselves by the fire.
"The greatest pleasure in life," said once a magnificent young
athlete, a great pedestrian, to me, "is to rest when you are
tired." And, I should add, to dry and warm yourself by a big
fire when wet and cold, and to eat and drink when you are
hungry and thirsty. All these pleasures were now ours, for
very soon tea and chops were ready for us; and so strangely
human, so sister-like did this quiet helpful woman seem after
our harsh experiences on that rough rainy day--that we
congratulated ourselves on our good fortune in having found
such a haven, and soon informed her that we wanted no "better
place."
She worked with her needle to support herself and her one
child, a little boy of ten; and by and by when he came in
pretty wet from some outdoor occupation we made his
acquaintance and the discovery that he was a little boy of an
original character. He was so much to his mother, who, poor
soul, had nobody else in the world to love, that she was
always haunted by the fear of losing him. He was her boy, the
child of her body, exclusively her own, unlike all other boys,
and her wise heart told her that if she put him in a school he
would be changed so that she would no longer know him for her
boy.
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