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Paul Peabody; Or, the Apprentice of the World
Paul Peabody Or the Apprentice of the World Author:Percy Bolingbroke St. John General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1865 Original Publisher: Maxwell Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there may be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select ... more »from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: CHAPTER III. HICKS SMITH AND OTHERS. Hicks Smith was a day-scholar. His mother was a lone woman, who lived in a cottage half-a-mile away on the high road, and took in one lodger -- the long sexton -- to make her house lively, and keep down her expenses. Mrs. Smith had been better off. She was a tradesman's daughter, who had married her father's apprentice because he was handsome. He proved a wild spendthrift; and, when he had got as much money from his family as he could, went away and was heard of no more. He left her a son, of the age of Paul, and with this boy she went to live near Steepleday. Her father, who had a large family, gave her a regular weekly pittance, and she managed, by taking-in sewing, to live. She took a cottage, and let the upper room. It happened that the sexton, who was also a market-gardener, had a plot of ground near her house, and took a fancy to live there. He was a long man of about forty, neither ugly nor handsome -- one of those faces that look made to be pummeled, or to serve as blocks just to wear a hat. Mrs. Smith rather liked him, and people said it would end in a marriage. People were very much mistaken. Mrs. Smith had very good reasons for not marrying again, even if she had been sure that her husband had departed this life. One night, about ten o'clock, when the wind blew, and the rain poured, and the lightning flashed, Mrs. Smith sat alone in her parlour. There was a fire, a very small fire, that had been neglected and had nearly gone out; and there was a supper for two on a small table; but whether Mrs. Smith intended sharing her mea...« less