Stranica 191 [191]
LITTLE LORD FAUNILEROY. 171
————— ne
had lived with his elder brother, and had gone to a night-school ;
but, being a sharp boy, he had made the most of that brief educa¬
tion, and had spelled out things in newspapers since then, and prac¬
ticed writing with bits of chalk on pavements or walls or fences. He
-told Mr. Hobbs all about his life and about his elder brother, who
had been rather good to him after their mother died, when Dick
was quite a little fellow. Their father had died some time before.
The brother’s name was Ben, and he had taken care of Dick as
well as he could, until the boy was old enough to sell newspapers
and run errands. They had lived together, and as he grew older
Ben had managed to get along until he had quite a decent place.
in a store.
‘“ And then,” exclaimed Dick with disgust, " blest if he did nt go
an’ marry a gal! Just went and got spoony an had nt any more
sense left! Married her, an’ set up housekeepin’ in two-back rooms.
An’ a hefty un she was,—a regular tiger-cat. She d tear things to
pieces when she got mad, and she was mad a// the time. Hada
baby just like her,—yell day ’n’ night! An’ if I did nt have to
‘tend it! an’ when it screamed, she ’d fire things at me. She fired a
plate at me one day, an’ hit the baby— cut its chin. Doctor said
he ’d carry the mark till he died. A nice mother she was! Crackey !
but did nt we have a time—Ben’n’ mehself ’n’ the young un. She
was mad at Ben because he did nt make money faster; n at last
he went out West with a man to set up a cattle ranch. An’ had nt
been gone a week fore one night, I got home from sellin’ my papers,
n the rooms wus locked up n empty, ’n’ the woman o the house,
she told me Minna "d gone—shown a clean pair o heels. Some un
else said she "d gone across the water to be nuss to a lady as had a
little baby, too. Never heard a word of her since—nuther has
Ben. If I ’d ha’ bin him, I would nt ha’ fretted a bit—‘n I guess
he did nt. But he thought a heap o" her at the start. Tell you, he