Jack's boy by the author of 'Fluffy' Author:Mary Seymour 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. A CHEQUEKED EXISTENCE. jjRS. BRIAN'S grandson might in a sense be considered as parish property, and his rearing was certainly conducted ... more »upon the co-operative system. At one period of the day he might be seen in Kate Murphy's arms, somewhere about Lisson Grove; at another he would be discerned within one of the empty baskets of a costermonger's truck, drawn by a much enduring donkey up and down the streets and turnings adjoining the MaryleboneRoad; the rarest place of all in which to find little Jack was his own rightful dwelling in William's Terrace. He was a sharp child, even before he hadreached his third birthday : it was that sharpness which is a positive pain to see among many children of the lowest classes, and it manifested itself in a capacity for remembering and repeating every bad word uttered within reach of his baby ears. Some of his indiscreet but admiring friends were in the habit of taking the little boy with them to the public-houses and spirit-vaults they frequented, and there he babbled oaths or sipped gin without any repugnance. Perhaps the least harmful of all the child's places of resort was when Mrs. Hayes (who had taken to sell flowers with the advancing spring-time) carried him as far as West- bourne Grove, where he won much notice and many buns from a neighbouring baker's, because his bright dark eyes gleamed out so quaintly from the depths of the old plaid shawl which was closely wrapped round him as a protection from the searching winds of March and April. But there were days when those most warmlyinterested in the fate of ' Jack's boy ' could not get the guardianship of him. These were days when Mrs. Brian's funds were at the lowest, and she turned the baby to account by letting him out to a street-singer at a not un...« less