Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ... "When the dew falls, surely the soil will soften! RIPENING FAST. fo Tommy's great surprise, there were no v, more attempts on granny's part to disturb him. His nights passed quietly enough now, and the evening school, which was punctually attended, became a source of great pleasure. He had no longer need to pick up scraps of printed paper in order to gain information, being well supplied with school books and others quite as instructive, though more interesting. And the natural talent, which could not be said to have lain dormant, but sadly wanted direction, was now being trained and pruned that it might bring forth fruit. All that was disagreeable' in his existence had become so much a matter of habit, and ceaseless industry left him so little time for discontented thought, that I doubt whether the street Arab of Seven Dials, even at this stage of his history, was not a very enviable personage. He had all that can give true happiness on earth: a true faith in God, daily preparing him for higher things; a devoted, unselfish affection for a heart, human like his own, and like his own stirred by a love and reverence for its Saviour. He had more--a conscious independence, as far as his fellow-creatures were concerned, without which there can be no real enjoyment of life; and plenty of work to do--a blessing which, in all its greatness, is appreciated by very few. It was perceptible now, however, even to Tommy, that May was fading--slowly, surely fading, like a flower, sick with longing for its home, when transplanted to a foreign land. Her life on earth was to be but a passing visit, and the child knew it. No voice in the Sunday school was raised with such yearning sweetness in its tones as May's, when the teacher struck the keynote of...