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twg_000012584900 | great comfort-- specially when you're hungry." "Ah! but that's because you are greedy, Tim. You always were too fond o' your grub." "Come, Bob, no slang. You know that mother doesn't like it. By the way, talkin' of mothers, is it on Wednesday or Thursday that you expect _your_ mother?" "Thursday, my boy," replied Bob, ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584901 | that _will_ be a day for me!" "So it will, Bob, I'm glad for your sake," returned Tim with a sigh, which was a very unusual expression of feeling for him. His friend at once understood its significance. "Tim, my boy, I'm sorry for you. I wish I could split my mother in two and give you half of her." | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584902 | "Yes," said Tim, somewhat absently, "it is sad to have not one soul in the world related to you." "But there are many who care for you as much as if they were relations," said Bob, taking his friend's arm as they approached the house. "Come along, come along, youngsters," shouted Mr Merryboy from the window, "the dinne... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584903 | and granny's gettin' in a passion. Look sharp. If you knew what news I have for you you'd look sharper." "What news, sir?" asked Bob, as they sat down to a table which did not exactly "groan" with viands--it was too strong for that--but which was heavily weighted therewith. "I won't tell you till after dinner--just to ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584904 | being late; besides, it might spoil your appetite." "But suspense is apt to spoil appetite, father, isn't it?" said Tim, who, well accustomed to the old farmer's eccentricities, did not believe much in the news he professed to have in keeping. "Well, then, you must just lose your appetites, for I won't tell you," said ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584905 | do you good--eh! mother, won't a touch of starvation improve them, bring back the memory of old times-- eh?" The old lady, observing that her son was addressing her, shot forth such a beam of intelligence and goodwill that it was as though a gleam of sunshine had burst into the room. "I knew you'd agree with me--ha! ha... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584906 | always do, mother," cried the farmer, flinging his handkerchief at a small kitten which was sporting on the floor and went into fits of delight at the attention. After dinner the young men were about to return to their saw-mill when Mr Merryboy called them back. "What would you say, boys, to hear that Sir Richard Brand... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584907 | of emigrants, is going to settle somewhere in Canada?" "I would think he'd gone mad, sir, or changed his nature," responded Bob. "Well, as to whether he's gone mad or not I can't tell--he may have changed his nature, who knows? That's not beyond the bounds of possibility. Anyway, he is coming. I've got a letter from a ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584908 | mine in London who says he read it in the papers. But perhaps you may learn more about it in _that_." He tossed a letter to Bob, who eagerly seized it. "From sister Hetty," he cried, and tore it open. The complete unity and unanimity of this family was well illustrated by the fact, that Bob began to read the | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584909 | letter aloud without asking leave and without apology. "Dearest Bob," it ran, "you will get this letter only a mail before our arrival. I had not meant to write again, but cannot resist doing so, to give you the earliest news about it. Sir Richard has changed his mind! You know, in my last, I told you he had helped | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584910 | to assist several poor families from this quarter--as well as mother and me, and Matty. He is a real friend to the poor, for he doesn't merely fling coppers and old clothes at them, but takes trouble to find out about them, and helps them in the way that seems best for each. It's all owing to that sweet Miss | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584911 | Di, who comes so much about here that she's almost as well-known as Giles Scott the policeman, or our missionary. By the way, Giles has been made an Inspector lately, and has got no end of medals and a silver watch, and other testimonials, for bravery in saving people from fires, and canals, and cart wheels, and--he's ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584912 | is Giles, and they say his son is to be taken into the force as soon as he's old enough. He's big enough and sensible enough already, and looks twice his age. After all, if he can knock people down, and take people up, and keep order, what does it matter how young he is? "But I'm wandering, I always | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584913 | do wander, Bob, when I write to you! Well, as I was saying, Sir Richard has changed his mind and has resolved to emigrate himself, with Miss Di and a whole lot of friends and work-people. He wants, as he says, to establish a colony of like-minded people, and so you may be sure that all who have fixed to | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584914 | go with him are followers of the Lord Jesus--and not ashamed to say so. As I had already taken our passages in the _Amazon_ steamer--" "The _Amazon_!" interrupted Mr Merryboy, with a shout, "why, that steamer has arrived already!" "So it has," said Bob, becoming excited; "their letter must have been delayed, and they m... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584915 | steamer that brought it; why, they'll be here immediately!" "Perhaps to-night!" exclaimed Mrs Merryboy. "Oh! _how_ nice!" murmured Martha, her great brown eyes glittering with joy at the near prospect of seeing that Hetty about whom she had heard so much. "Impossible!" said Tim Lumpy, coming down on them all with his w... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584916 | without dropping us a line from Quebec, or Montreal, to announce their arrival." "That's true, Tim," said Mr Merryboy, "but you've not finished the letter, Bob--go on. Mother, mother, what a variety of faces you _are_ making!" This also was true, for old Mrs Merryboy, seeing that something unusual was occurring, had al... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584917 | with her coal-black eyes, changing aspect with their varied expressions, and wrinkling her visage up into such inexpressible contortions of sympathetic good-will, that she really could not have been more sociable if she had been in full possession and use of her five senses. "As I had already," continued Bob, reading, ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584918 | thought it best that we should come on before, along with his agent, who goes to see after the land, so that we might have a good long stay with you, and dear Mr and Mrs Merryboy, who have been so kind to you, before going on to Brandon--which, I believe, is the name of the place in the backwoods | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584919 | where Sir Richard means us all to go to. I don't know exactly where it is--and I don't know anybody who does, but that's no matter. Enough for mother, and Matty, and me to know that it's within a few hundred miles of you, which is very different from three thousand miles of an ocean! "You'll also be glad to | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584920 | hear that Mr Twitter with all his family is to join this band. It quite puts me in mind of the story of the Pilgrim Fathers, that I once heard in dear Mr Holland's meeting hall, long ago. I wish he could come too, and all his people with him, and all the ladies from the Beehive. Wouldn't that be | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584921 | charming! But, then,--who would be left to look after London? No, it is better that they should remain at home. "Poor Mr Twitter never quite got the better of his fire, you see, so he sold his share in his business, and is getting ready to come. His boys and girls will be a great help to him in Canada, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584922 | instead of a burden as they have been in London--the younger ones I mean, of course, for Molly, and Sammy, and Willie have been helping their parents for a long time past. I don't think Mrs Twitter quite likes it, and I'm sure she's almost breaking her heart at the thought of leaving George Yard. It is said that their | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584923 | friends Mrs Loper, Mrs Larrabel, Stickler, and Crackaby, want to join, but I rather think Sir Richard isn't very keen to have them. Mr Stephen Welland is also coming. One of Sir Richard's friends, Mr Brisbane I think, got him a good situation in the Mint-- that's where all the money is coined, you know--but, on hearing... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584924 | to Canada, he made up his mind to go there instead; so he gave up the Mint--very unwillingly, however, I believe, for he wanted very much to go into the Mint. Now, no more at present from your loving and much hurried sister, (for I'm in the middle of packing), Hetty." Now, while Bob Frog was in the act of | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584925 | putting Hetty's letter in his pocket, a little boy was seen on horseback, galloping up to the door. He brought a telegram addressed to "Mr Robert Frog." It was from Montreal, and ran thus: "We have arrived, and leave this on Tuesday forenoon." "Why, they're almost here _now_," cried Bob. "Harness up, my boy, and off yo... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584926 | to lose!" cried Mr Merryboy, as Bob dashed out of the room. "Take the bays, Bob," he added in a stentorian voice, thrusting his head out of the window, "and the biggest wagon. Don't forget the rugs!" Ten minutes later, and Bob Frog, with Tim Lumpy beside him, was driving the spanking pair of bays to the railway station... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584927 | TWENTY SIX. HAPPY MEETINGS. It was to the same railway station as that at which they had parted from their guardian and been handed over to Mr Merryboy years before that Bobby Frog now drove. The train was not due for half an hour. "Tim," said Bob after they had walked up and down the platform for about five minutes, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584928 | "how slowly time seems to fly when one's in a hurry!" "Doesn't it?" assented Tim, "crawls like a snail." "Tim," said Bob, after ten minutes had elapsed, "what a difficult thing it is to wait patiently when one's anxious!" "Isn't it!" assented Tim, "so hard to keep from fretting and stamping." "Tim," said Bob, after twe... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584929 | wonder if the two or three dozen people on this platform are all as uncomfortably impatient as I am." "Perhaps they are," said Tim, "but certainly possessed of more power to restrain themselves." "Tim," said Bob, after the lapse of five-and-twenty minutes, "did you ever hear of such a long half-hour since you were born... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584930 | "except once long ago when I was starving, and stood for about that length of time in front of a confectioner's window till I nearly collapsed and had to run away at last for fear I should smash in the glass and feed." "Tim, I'll take a look round and see that the bays are all right." "You've done that | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584931 | four times already, Bob." "Well, I'll do it five times, Tim. There's luck, you know, in odd numbers." There was a sharpish curve on the line close to the station. While Bob Frog was away the train, being five minutes before its time, came thundering round the curve and rushed alongside the platform. Bob ran back of cou... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584932 | vainly trying to see the people in each carriage as it went past. "Oh! _what_ a sweet eager face!" exclaimed Tim, gazing after a young girl who had thrust her head out of a first-class carriage. "Let alone sweet faces, Tim--this way. The third classes are all behind." By this time the train had stopped, and great was t... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584933 | as friends and relatives met or said good-bye hurriedly, and bustled into and out of the carriages--commotion which was increased by the cheering of a fresh band of rescued waifs going to new homes in the west, and the hissing of the safety valve which took it into its head at that inconvenient moment to let off superf... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584934 | of the people rushing about on that platform and jostling each other would have been the better for safety valves! poor Bobby Frog was one of these. "Not there!" he exclaimed despairingly, as he looked into the last carriage of the train. "Impossible," said Tim, "we've only missed them; walk back." They went back, look... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584935 | even glancing under the seats in a sort of wild hope that his mother might be hiding there, but no one resembling Mrs Frog was to be seen. A commotion at the front part of the train, more pronounced than the general hubbub, attracted their attention. "Oh! where is he--where is he?" cried a female voice, which was follo... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584936 | by the female herself, a respectable elderly woman, who went about the platform scattering people right and left in a fit of temporary insanity, "where is my Bobby, where _is_ he, I say? Oh! _why_ won't people git out o' my way? _Git_ out o' the way," (shoving a sluggish man forcibly), "where are you, Bobby? Bo-o-o-o-o... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584937 | Frog! Bob saw her, but did not move. His heart was in his throat! He _could_ not move. As he afterwards said, he was struck all of a heap, and could only stand and gaze with his hands clasped. "Out o' the _way_, young man!" cried Mrs Frog, brushing indignantly past him, in one of her erratic bursts. "Oh! Bobby--where | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584938 | _has_ that boy gone to?" "Mother!" gasped Bob. "Who said that?" cried Mrs Frog, turning round with a sharp look, as if prepared to retort "you're another" on the shortest notice. "Mother!" again said Bob, unclasping his hands and holding them out. Mrs Frog had hitherto, regardless of the well-known effect of time, kept... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584939 | which Bobby's had reached when he left home. She now looked up with a startled expression. "Can it--is it--oh! Bo--" she got no further, but sprang forward and was caught and fervently clasped in the arms of her son. Tim fluttered round them, blowing his nose violently though quite free from cold in the head--which com... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584940 | in those regions. Hetty, who had lost her mother in the crowd, now ran forward with Matty. Bob saw them, let go his mother, and received one in each arm-- squeezing them both at once to his capacious bosom. Mrs Frog might have fallen, though that was not probable, but Tim made sure of her by holding out a hand | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584941 | which the good woman grasped, and laid her head on his breast, quite willing to make use of him as a convenient post to lean against, while she observed the meeting of the young people with a contented smile. Tim observed that meeting too, but with very different feelings, for the "sweet eager face" that he had seen in... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584942 | first-class carriage belonged to Hetty! Long-continued love to human souls had given to her face a sweetness--and sympathy with human spirits and bodies in the depths of poverty, sorrow, and deep despair had invested it with a pitiful tenderness and refinement--which one looks for more naturally among the innocent in t... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584943 | his heart went on in such a way that even Mrs Frog's attention was arrested. Looking up, she asked if he was took bad. "Oh! dear no. By no means," said Tim, quickly. "You're tremblin' so," she returned, "an' it ain't cold--but your colour's all right. I suppose it's the natur' o' you Canadians. But only to think that m... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584944 | Bobby," she added, quitting her leaning-post, and again seizing her son, "that my Bobby should 'ave grow'd up, an' his poor mother knowed nothink about it! I can't believe my eyes--it ain't like Bobby a bit, yet some'ow I _know_ it's 'im! Why, you've grow'd into a gentleman, you 'ave." "And you have grown into a flatte... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584945 | a laugh. "But come, mother, this way; I've brought the wagon for you. Look after the luggage, Tim--Oh! I forgot. This is Tim, Hetty--Tim Lumpy. You remember, you used to see us playing together when we were city Arabs." Hetty looked at Tim, and, remembering Bobby's strong love for jesting, did not believe him. She smil... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584946 | the tall good-looking youth, who seemed unaccountably shy and confused as he went off to look after the luggage. "Here is the wagon; come along," said Bob, leading his mother out of the station. "The waggin, boy; I don't see no waggin." "Why, there, with the pair of bay horses." "You don't mean the carridge by the fenc... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584947 | "Well, yes, only we call them wagons here." "An' you calls the 'osses _bay_ 'osses, do you?" "Well now, _I_ would call 'em beautiful 'osses, but I suppose bay means the same thing here. You've got strange ways in Canada." "Yes, mother, and pleasant ways too, as I hope you shall find out ere long. Get in, now. Take care... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584948 | Now then, Hetty--come, Matty. How difficult to believe that such a strapping young thing can be the squalling Matty I left in London!" Matty laughed as she got in, by way of reply, for she did not yet quite believe in her big brother. "Do you drive, Tim; I'll stay inside," said Bob. In another moment the spanking bays ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584949 | whirling the wagon over the road to Brankly Farm at the rate of ten miles an hour. Need it be said that the amiable Merryboys did not fail of their duty on that occasion? That Hetty and Matty took violently to brown-eyed Martha at first sight, having heard all about her from Bob long ago--as she of them; that Mrs | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584950 | Merryboy was, we may say, one glowing beam of hospitality; that Mrs Frog was, so to speak, one blazing personification of amazement, which threatened to become chronic--there was so much that was contrary to previous experience and she was so slow to take it in; that Mr Merryboy became noisier than ever, and that, what... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584951 | legs, to say nothing of his voice, he managed to create in one day hubbub enough to last ten families for a fortnight; that the domestics and the dogs were sympathetically joyful; that even the kitten gave unmistakeable evidences of unusual hilarity-- though some attributed the effect to surreptitiously-obtained cream;... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584952 | image in the matter of nodding and gazing and smirking and wrinkling, so that there seemed some danger of her terminating her career in a gush of universal philanthropy--need all this be said, we ask? We think not; therefore we won't say it. But it was not till Bob Frog got his mother all to himself, under the trees, n... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584953 | the waterfall, down by the river that drove the still unmended saw-mill, that they had real and satisfactory communion. It would have been interesting to have listened to these two--with memories and sympathies and feelings towards the Saviour of sinners so closely intertwined, yet with knowledge and intellectual power... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584954 | too closely. Towards the end of their walk, Bob touched on a subject which had been uppermost in the minds of both all the time, but from which they had shrunk equally, the one being afraid to ask, the other disinclined to tell. "Mother," said Bob, at last, "what about father?" "Ah! Bobby," replied Mrs Frog, beginning ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584955 | "I know'd ye would come to that--you was always so fond of 'im, an' he was so fond o' you too, indeed--" "I know it, mother," interrupted Bob, "but have you never heard of him?" "Never. I might 'ave, p'r'aps, if he'd bin took an' tried under his own name, but you know he had so many aliases, an' the | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584956 | old 'ouse we used to live in we was obliged to quit, so p'r'aps he tried to find us and couldn't." "May God help him--dear father!" said the son in a low sad voice. "I'd never 'ave left 'im, Bobby, if he 'adn't left me. You know that. An' if I thought he was alive and know'd w'ere he was, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584957 | I'd go back to 'im yet, but--" The subject was dropped here, for the new mill came suddenly into view, and Bob was glad to draw his mother's attention to it. "See, we were mending that just before we got the news you were so near us. Come, I'll show it to you. Tim Lumpy and I made it all | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584958 | by ourselves, and I think you'll call it a first-class article. By the way, how came you to travel first-class?" "Oh! that's all along of Sir Richard Brandon. He's sitch a liberal gentleman, an' said that as it was by his advice we were goin' to Canada, he would pay our expenses; and he's so grand that he never remembe... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584959 | there was any other class but first, when he took the tickets, an' when he was show'd what he'd done he laughed an' said he wouldn't alter it, an' we must go all the way first-class. He's a strange man, but a good 'un!" By this time they had reached the platform of the damaged saw-mill, and Bob pointed out, | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584960 | with elaborate care, the details of the mill in all its minute particulars, commenting specially on the fact that most of the telling improvements on it were due to the fertile brain and inventive genius of Tim Lumpy. He also explained the different kinds of saws--the ripping saw, and the cross-cut saw, and the circula... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584961 | as if his mother were an embryo mill-wright, for he _felt_ that she took a deep interest in it all, and Mrs Frog listened with the profound attention of a civil engineer, and remarked on everything with such comments as--oh! indeed! ah! well now! ain't it wonderful? amazin'! an' you made it all too! Oh! Bobby!--and oth... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584962 | appropriate phrases. On quitting the mill to return to the house they saw a couple of figures walking down another avenue, so absorbed in conversation that they did not at first observe Bob and his mother, or take note of the fact that Matty, being a bouncing girl, had gone after butterflies or some such child-alluring... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584963 | Lumpy and Hetty Frog. And no wonder that they were absorbed, for was not their conversation on subjects of the profoundest interest to both?--George Yard, Whitechapel, Commercial Street, Spitalfields, and the Sailor's Home, and the Rests, and all the other agencies for rescuing poor souls in monstrous London, and the t... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584964 | never could forget! No wonder, we say, that these two were absorbed while comparing notes, and still less wonder that they were even more deeply absorbed when they got upon the theme of Bobby Frog--so much loved, nay, almost worshipped, by both. At last they observed Mrs Frog's scarlet shawl--which was very conspicuous... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584965 | and wondered with quite needless surprise where Matty could have gone to. Bobby Frog, being a sharp youth, noted these things, but made no comment to any one, for the air of Canada had, somehow, invested this waif with wonderful delicacy of feeling. Although Bob and his mother left off talking of Ned Frog somewhat abru... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584966 | it does not follow that we are bound to do the same. On the contrary, we now ask the reader to leave Brankly Farm rather abruptly, and return to London for the purpose of paying Ned a visit. CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN. A STRANGE VISIT AND ITS RESULTS. Edward Frog, bird-fancier, pugilist, etcetera, (and the etcetera represent... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584967 | changed somewhat like the rest, for a few years have thinned the short-cropped though once curly locks above his knotted forehead, besides sprinkling them with grey. But in other respects he has not fallen off--nay he has rather improved, owing to the peculiar system of diet and discipline and regularity of life to whi... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584968 | subjected. When Ned returned from what we may style his outing, he went straight to the old court with something like a feeling of anxiety in his heart, but found the old home deserted and the old door, which still bore deep marks of his knuckle, on the upper panels and his boots on the lower, was padlocked. He inquire... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584969 | for Mrs Frog, but was told she had left the place long ago,--and no one knew where she had gone. With a heavy heart Ned turned from the door and sauntered away, friendless and homeless. He thought of making further inquiries about his family, but at the corner of the street smelt the old shop that had swallowed up so | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584970 | much of his earnings. "If I'd on'y put it all in the savin's bank," he said bitterly, stopping in front of the gin-palace, "I'd 'ave bin well off to-day." An old comrade turned the corner at that moment. "What! Ned Frog!" he cried, seizing his hand and shaking it with genuine goodwill. "Well, this _is_ good luck. Come ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584971 | boy!" It was pleasant to the desolate man to be thus recognised. He went along like an ox to the slaughter, though, unlike the ox, he knew well what he was going to. He was "treated." He drank beer. Other old friends came in. He drank gin. If good resolves had been coming up in his mind earlier in the | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584972 | day he forgot them now. If better feelings had been struggling for the mastery, he crushed them now. He got drunk. He became disorderly. He went into High Street, Whitechapel, with a view to do damage to somebody. He succeeded. He tumbled over a barrow, and damaged his own shins. He encountered Number soon after, and, ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584973 | the night in a police cell. After this Ned gave up all thought of searching for his wife and family. "Better let 'em alone," he growled to himself on being discharged from the police-office with a caution. But, as we have said or hinted elsewhere, Ned was a man of iron will. He resolved to avoid the public-house, to dr... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584974 | in moderation, and to do his drinking at home. Being as powerful and active as ever he had been, he soon managed, in the capacity of a common labourer, to scrape enough money together to enable him to retake his old garret, which chanced to be vacant. Indeed its situation was so airy, and it was so undesirable, that it | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584975 | was almost always vacant. He bought a few cages and birds; found that the old manager of the low music-hall was still at work and ready to employ him, and thus fell very much into his old line of life. One night, as he was passing into his place of business--the music-hall--a man saw him and recognised him. This was | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584976 | a city missionary of the John Seaward type, who chanced to be fishing for souls that night in these troubled waters. There are many such fishermen about, thank God, doing their grand work unostentatiously, and not only rescuing souls for eternity, but helping, more perhaps than even the best informed are aware of, to s... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584977 | it was in Ned Frog that attracted this man of God we know note but, after casting his lines for some hours in other places, he returned to the music-hall and loitered about the door. At a late hour its audience came pouring out with discordant cries and ribald laughter. Soon Ned appeared and took his way homeward. The ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584978 | followed at a safe distance till he saw Ned disappear through the doorway that led to his garret. Then, running forward, he entered the dark passage and heard Ned's heavy foot clanking on the stone steps as he mounted upwards. The sound became fainter, and the missionary, fearing lest he should fail to find the room in... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584979 | dwelt--for there were many rooms in the old tenement--ran hastily up-stairs and paused to listen. The footsteps were still sounding above him, but louder now, because Ned was mounting a wooden stair. A few seconds later a heavy door was banged, and all was quiet. The city missionary now groped his way upwards until he ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584980 | where in the thick darkness he saw a light under a door. With a feeling of uncertainty and a silent prayer for help he knocked gently. The door was opened at once by a middle-aged woman, whose outline only could be seen, her back being to the light. "Is it here that the man lives who came up just now?" | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584981 | asked the missionary. "What man?" she replied, fiercely, "I know nothink about men, an' 'ave nothink to do with 'em. Ned Frog's the on'y man as ever comes 'ere, an' _he_ lives up there." She made a motion, as if pointing upwards somewhere, and banged the door in her visitor's face. "Up there!" The missionary had reache... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584982 | and saw no other gleam of light anywhere. Groping about, however, his hand struck against a ladder. All doubt as to the use of this was immediately banished, for a man's heavy tread was heard in the room above as he crossed it. Mounting the ladder, the missionary, instead of coming to a higher landing as he had expecte... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584983 | his hat against a trap-door in the roof. Immediately he heard a savage human growl. Evidently the man was in a bad humour, but the missionary knocked. "Who's there?" demanded the man, fiercely, for his visitors were few, and these generally connected with the police force. "May I come in?" asked the missionary in a mil... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584984 | the mildness on for the occasion. He was naturally mild--additionally so by grace. "Oh! yes--you may come in," cried the man, lifting the trap-door. The visitor stepped into the room and was startled by Ned letting fall the trap-door with a crash that shook the whole tenement. Planting himself upon it, he rendered retr... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584985 | for the man was in a savage humour, and evidently the worse for drink. But missionaries are bold men. "Now," demanded Ned, "what may _you_ want?" "I want your soul," replied his visitor, quietly. "You needn't trouble yourself, then, for the devil's got it already." "No--he has not got it _yet_, Ned." "Oh! you know me t... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584986 | saw you till to-night, but I learned your name accidentally, and I'm anxious about your soul." "You don't know me," Ned repeated, slowly, "you never saw me till to-night, yet you're anxious about my soul! What stuff are you talkin'! 'Ow can that be?" "Now, you have puzzled _me_," said the missionary. "I cannot tell how... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584987 | it is no `stuff' I assure you. I think it probable, however, that your own experience may help you. Didn't you once see a young girl whom you had never seen before, whom you didn't know, whom you had never even heard of, yet you became desperately anxious to win her?" Ned instantly thought of a certain woman whom he | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584988 | had often abused and beaten, and whose heart he had probably broken. "Yes," he said, "I did; but then I had falled in love wi' her at first sight, and you can't have falled in love wi' _me_, you know." Ned grinned at this idea in spite of himself. "Well, no," replied the missionary, "not exactly. You're not a very | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584989 | lovable object to look at just now. Nevertheless, I _am_ anxious about your soul _at first sight_. I can't tell how it is, but so it is." "Come, now," said Ned, becoming suddenly stern. "I don't believe in your religion, or your Bible, or your prayin' and psalm-singin'. I tell you plainly, I'm a infidel. But if you can... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584990 | anything in favour o' your views, fire away; I'll listen, only don't let me have any o' your sing-songin' or whinin', else I'll kick you down the trap-door and down the stair an' up the court and out into the street--speak out, like a man." "I will speak as God the Holy Spirit shall enable me," returned the missionary,... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584991 | the slightest change in tone or manner. "Well, then, sit down," said Ned, pointing to the only chair in the room, while he seated himself on the rickety table, which threatened to give way altogether, while the reckless man swung his right leg to and fro quite regardless of its complainings. "Have you ever studied the ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584992 | somewhat abruptly. "Well, no, of course not. I'm not a parson, but I have read a bit here and there, an' it's all rubbish. I don't believe a word of it." "There's a part of it," returned the visitor, "which says that God maketh his rain to fall on the just and on the unjust. Do you not believe that?" | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584993 | "Of course I do. A man can't help believin' that, for he sees it--it falls on houses, fields, birds and beasts as well." "Then you _do_ believe a word of it?" "Oh! come, you're a deal too sharp. You know what I mean." "No," said his visitor, quickly, "I don't quite know what you mean. One who professes to be | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584994 | an infidel professes more or less intelligent disbelief in the Bible, yet you admit that you have never studied the book which you profess to disbelieve--much less, I suppose, have you studied the books which give us the evidences of its truth." "Don't suppose, Mr parson, or missioner, or whatever you are," said Ned, "... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584995 | wi' your larnin'. I'm too old a bird for that. Do you suppose that I'm bound to study everything on the face o' the earth like a lawyer before I'm entitled to say I don't believe it. If I see that a thing don't work well, that's enough for me to condemn it." "You're quite right there. I quite go | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584996 | with that line of reasoning. By their fruits shall ye know them. A man don't usually go to a thistle to find grapes. But let me ask you, Ned, do you usually find that murderers, drunkards, burglars, thieves, and blackguards in general are students of the Bible and given to prayer and psalm-singing?" "Ha! ha! I should r... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584997 | said Ned, much tickled by the supposition. "Then," continued the other, "tell me, honestly, Ned, do you find that people who read God's Word and sing His praise and ask His blessing on all they do, are generally bad fathers, and mothers, and masters, and servants, and children, and that from their ranks come the worst ... | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584998 | look here, Mr missioner," cried Ned, leaping suddenly from the table, which overturned with a crash, "I'm one o' them fellers that's not to be floored by a puff o' wind. I can hold my own agin most men wi' fist or tongue. But I like fair-play in the ring or in argiment. I have _not_ studied this matter, as | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
twg_000012584999 | you say, an' so I won't speak on it. But I'll look into it, an' if you come back here this day three weeks I'll let you know what I think. You may trust me, for when I say a thing I mean it." "Will you accept a Testament, then," said the missionary, rising and pulling one out of his | 60 | gutenberg | unknown |
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