Conduct of life -- Juvenile fiction
IT was nearly twelve o'clock at night on the first Sunday of the New Year. The churches and chapels had all been closed for some hours; and none of the better class of shops had been opened during the day. Business had been set on one side, even by those workmen and labourers...
IT was nearly twelve o'clock at night on the first Sunday of the New Year. The churches and chapels had all been closed for some hours; and none of the better class of shops had...
2. CHAPTER II.THE figure which staggered on before them had once been that of a tall, well-built man, strong and upright, with a firm tread and a steady hand. Bessie had known him in his bett...
3. CHAPTER III.WHEN Rodney awoke in the morning, he had a vague remembrance of the night before, which made him raise his aching head, and look with a sharp prick of anxiety to see if his litt...
4. CHAPTER IV.AS the night drew on, and the time at which he was accustomed to seek the excitement of the spirit-vaults or beer-shops, a sore conflict began within Rodney's soul. With the dar...
5. CHAPTER V.ALL the neighbours said it was a mystery how the Rodneys lived for the next three months, for Rodney was away for days together, only coming home now and then during his sober i...
6. CHAPTER VI.RODNEY had not left the house many minutes when Bessie Dingle entered it, shading with her hand a candle which she had borrowed from a neighbour. She stepped softly across the r...
7. CHAPTER VII.AS soon as Mrs. Rodney was buried, Bessie entered upon her charge of Rodney and Nelly. She was little more than a child herself in years, but her life in the streets had given h...
8. CHAPTER VIII.IT was not long before the time came when Rodney was never really sober. When he could not stagger along the narrow streets to the spirit-vaults, he sent Nelly, as scores and hu...
9. CHAPTER IX.THREE days after Rodney's disappearance, Bessie was sitting at an apple-stall in her old place by the landing-stages, when the news ran along the line of basket-women that the b...
10. CHAPTER X.WITH bowed head and despair tugging at his heart, Rodney passed through the noise and business of the streets. He was bent upon seeing over again the poor place where his wife h...
11. CHAPTER XI.FOR a season Rodney's mind was clouded and bewildered. It is probable that if he had been in ordinary health and strength, he could not have held to his resolution to keep withi...
12. CHAPTER XII.IT was not many days after this that Rodney came to the conclusion that he ought not to stay any longer within the sheltering walls of the workhouse, to be a burden upon the poo...
13. CHAPTER XIII.IT was spring-time again—twelve months since his wife had died. The hedgerows were sweet with primroses and violets, whose fresh fragrance was full of sorrowful memories to Rodn...