Colin Clink, Volume 1 (of 3)

with the promises they made to each other

bringing sorrow at its close: and now and then the lifting of Fanny's clean white apron to her eyes, or the sudden and unconscious fall of big tears upon her hands, as she kneeled to whiten the little hearthstone of the house, betrayed the presence of feelings in her bosom which put a seal upon the tongue, and demanded the observance of silence to keep them pent within their trembling prison-place. The mother, whose heart was more strongly fortified with the hope of her boy's well-doing, fel

thought, might surprise him at some unexpected moment with the memory of home, and of those he had left there; when, perhaps, the treatment he might receive from others would render the memory of that home a welcome thing. A small phial of ink, th

Colin entered the room, in high spirits at the an

the same time picking up one end of the

llable with a sudden and convulsive catching of the breath,

observed Colin,-"there is no good

ox, though, in reality, only to hide that grief which in any other manner she could no longer conceal. "We ca

I get on well, perhaps when I am grown up I shall be able to keep a little house of my own; and then you, and my mother, and I, will live there, and be as com

ausibility of her conversation. The natural expression of her countenance appeared to be that of clouded moroseness and grasping avarice; while a sort of equivocal crossing of the eyes, though only occasional, seemed to evince to those who could deeply read the human face divine, the existence of two distinct and opposite sentiments in her mind, to either of which she could, with equal show of truth, give utterance, as occasion might render necessary. Over all this, however, and, as it were, upon the surface, her life of traffic with the world seemed to

r to see us every

will let me,"

hat they do not use you so well as they ought to do, send, if you cannot come, directly; and, if there is nobody else to help you that is better able,"-Fanny stood up, and clasped both his hands with deep energy between her own,-"I will stand by you as long as I live. I am not abl

if ever he trusted to the labour of her hands for a single meal, No: he would save all his yearly wages, and bring them home for her and his mother; and in time he should be able to maintain them both by his own labour, without

do you mean?" asked

people do not treat us properly, we

, "and going you do not know where. Come back home if t

on the table for Colin; and many times was he made to feel that-however unconsciously to themselves-both his mother and Fanny anticipated all his slightest wants with unusu

nder such circumstances a mother best knows how to give; while Fanny stood by, weeping as she listened to it, and frequently sobbing aloud when some more striking observation, some more pointed moral truth, or apposite quotation fro