138 Turnaside Cottage.

“What did they say to that?” I asked.

“Oh, nothing much, only they wished there was
more o’ your sort in the county. ‘True for you,
says I.”

“Oh, no, Tommy,” I said ; “you would not say
so if you knew how horrid Iam sometimes. I’m
not half the fellow you are.”

“You don’t know what I’m like inside, neither,”
returned Tommy. “’Taint all black, though; so I
won't say evil of me behind my back, and I advise
you not to, of yourself. ’Tisn’t wholesome, and
very unpleasant besides. And I’ve talked long
enough ; where’s Martha ?”

I explained that Martha, the tailors wife, who
was then attending to me, had gone up to see to
her potatoes, but would be down again.

“Cause Pll tell her to clean up particler to-
morrow morning; you might chance to have a
visitor ;” and Tommy took himself off.

My visitor was Master George, who had hitherto
been forbidden by Mrs. Prickard to come and see
me lest he should catch the fever, although the
doctor said that it was not infectious. I thought,
as I compared the bright, fresh young face with my
own sallow one, that his aunt had been quite right
to keep him out of all chance of such danger.
Master George told me how well Tommy had spoken