Lom veads his Story. 203

I A ot

because they were girls; but they could read
as long as they liked without making their
eyes ache, and work busily all day without
being obliged to stop and rest.

In the evenings, when it was quite late, and
everybody else had gone to bed, Walter’s
father used to come and sit beside him. The
lamp was put out, and the fire was allowed to
burn low. Then, when it was so dark that
Walter could not see his father’s face, and his
father could not see Walter’s, he used to tell
aloud all the happy and unhappy secrets that
he had not liked even to whisper to anyone
through the day.

“Father,” he said, one night, “ Bernard 1S
going to be a soldier, and James a sailor, and
Annie and Jessie have always plenty to do;
but I can only be a cripple, and can’t work
like other people.”

This was a dreadfully unhappy secret that
he had thought about for many days, every
minute his head did not ache too much, and
had not liked to say aloud even to his father.
But this evening the room was darker than