Oldal 187 [187]
LITTLE LORD FAUNTLEROY. 167
heap o him, I did,—an’ we was friends, too — we was sort o’ chums
from the fust, that little young un an me. I grabbed his ball from
under a stage fur him, an’ he never forgot it; an’ he d come down
here, he would, with his mother or his nuss and he ’d holler:
‘Hello, Dick!’ at me, as friendly as if he was six feet high, when he
war nt knee high to a grasshopper, and was dressed in gal’s
cloes. He was a gay little chap, and when you was down on your
luck, it did you good to talk to him.”
“That "s so,” said Mr. Hobbs. "It was a pity to make a earl
out of 4zm. He would have shone in the grocery business — or dry
goods either; he would have sZoze/" - And he shook his head with
deeper regret than ever.
It proved that they had so much to say to each other that it
was not possible to say it all at one time, and so it was agreed that
the next night Dick should make a visit to the store and keep Mr.
Hobbs company. The plan pleased Dick wellenough. He had been
a street waif nearly all his life, but he had never been a bad boy, and
he had always had a private yearning for a more respectable kind of
existence. Since he had been in business for himself. he had made
enough money to enable him to sleep under a roof instead of out in
the streets, and he had begun to hope he might reach even a higher
plane, in time. So, to be invited to call on a stout, respectable man
who owned a corner store, and even had a horse and wagon, seemed
to him quite an event.
“Do you know anything about earls and castles?” Mr. Hobbs
inquired. ‘Id like to know more of the particklars.”
“There "s a story about some on ‘em in the Fenny Story
Gazette,” said Dick. “It’s called the ‘Crime of a Coronet; or, The
Revenge of the Countess May. It’s a boss thing, too. Some of
us boys re takin’ it to read.”
‘« Bring it up when you come,” said Mr. Hobbs, "an I Il pay for
it. Bring all you can find that have any earls in em. If there are