Oldal 189 [189]
LITILE LORD FAUNTLEROY. 169
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opened two bottles of ginger ale, and pouring out two glasses, pro¬
posed a toast.
“Here sto Azam /~ he said, lifting his glass, "an may he teach
em a lesson —earls an markises an’ dooks an’ all!”
After that night, the two saw each other often, and Mr. Hobbs
was much more comfortable and less desolate. They read the
Penny Story Gazette, and many other interesting things, and gained
a knowledge of the habits of the nobility and gentry which would
have surprised those despised classes if they had realized it. One
day Mr. Hobbs made a pilgrimage to a book store down town, for
the express purpose of adding to their library. He went to the clerk
and leaned over the counter to speak to him.
‘Il want,” he said, "a book about earls.”
" What!" exclaimed the clerk.
‘“ A book,” repeated the grocery-man, ‘about earls.”
‘T’m afraid,” said the clerk, looking rather queer, "that we have
nt what you want.”
“Have nt?" said Mr. Hobbs, anxiously. " Well, say markises
then — or dooks.”
‘¢T know of no such book,” answered the clerk.
Mr. Hobbs was much disturbed. He looked down on the
floor,— then he looked up.
‘None about female earls?” he inquired.
c [ "m afraid not,” said the clerk with a smile.
cc Well,” exclaimed Mr. Hobbs, ‘‘I I be jiggered!”
He was just going out of the store, when the clerk called him
back and asked him if a story in which the nobility were chief char¬
acters would do. Mr. Hobbs said it would —if he could not get an
entire volume devoted to earls. So the clerk sold him a book called
“The Tower of London,” written by Mr. Harrison Ainsworth, and
he carried it home.