"And who provides for your mother and her large family of children?"
queried the man.
"Indeed, I do, sir," replied George, in a shrill tone. "I toil, oh, so
hard, sir, for we are very, very poor, and since my elder sister, Ann,
was married and brought her husband home to live with us I have to toil
more assiduously than heretofore."
"And by what means do you obtain a livelihood?" exclaimed the man, in
slowly measured and grammatical words.
"By digging wells, kind sir," replied George, picking up a tired ant as
he spoke and stroking it on the back. "I have a good education, and so I
am enabled to dig wells as well as a man. I do this daytimes and take in
washing at night. In this way I am enabled to maintain our family in a
precarious manner; but, oh, sir, should my other sisters marry, I fear
that some of my brothers-in-law would have to suffer."
"You are indeed a brave lad," exclaimed the stranger, as he repressed a
smile. "And do you not at times become very weary and wish for other
ways of passing your time?"
"Indeed I do, sir," said the lad. "I would fain run and romp and be gay
like other boys, but I must engage in constant manual exercise, or we
will have no bread to eat and I have not seen a pie since papa perished
in the moist and moaning sea."