The cottage next door Author:Helen Shipton Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. " LOVE CASTETH OUT FEAR." |OR the next two or three days Tom saw very little of James's wife, though he felt a sort of pity and curiosity... more » that made him keep a look-out for her. He caught sight of her once or twice at the door, but he did not need to ask if his brother was come back. Her eyes were all swelled up with crying, and she looked such a miserable, forlorn little creature that she somehow reminded Tom of a little bird, only half fledged, which he had found the spring before, deserted under a hedge. All the week, as he went about his work, he was thinking about her and her little children, wondering what was to become of them, and remembering, with a feeling almost of shame, that it was his brother who had desertedthem, and left them to starvation or the workhouse. Thank God, one need not try to find a reason why a lad, who was not worse than his fellows, should be pitiful and tender over those who were so much weaker and more unhappy than himself. We are made so, and we cannot help it, unless we have hardened our hearts by very much wrong-doing. The upshot of Tom's thoughts was that on Friday night, when he had his wages paid him, he came home rather earlier than usual, and crept to the cottages by a back way, as if he were going to do something wrong. He went up to the back door, and stood just outside, awkwardly shifting from one foot to another, till presently he caught sight of his sister-in-law moving about inside. " I say, Mattie," he said softly; and she came to the door, her face brightening up a little at sight of him. " What is it, Tom ? Come in," she said; and he just stepped across the door-stone. " I suppose You've not heard anything —about him, I mean ? " he said very gruffly. " Not a word. I always knew he woul...« less