with instead of going out in the street.'
'We can't afford to keep a baby, dear. You know, even as it is,
sometimes we have to go without things we want because we haven't the
money to buy them. Babies need many things that cost lots of money.'
'When I build our house when I'm a man, I'll take jolly good care not
to have a gas-stove in it. That's what runs away with all the money;
we're always putting pennies in the slot. And that reminds me: Charley
said I'll have to take a ha'penny to put in the mishnery box. Oh, dear,
I'm tired of sitting still. I wish he'd come. What time is it now,
Mother?'
Before she could answer both Frankie's anxiety and the painful ordeal
of sitting still were terminated by the loud peal at the bell
announcing Charley's arrival, and Frankie, without troubling to observe
the usual formality of looking out of the window to see if it was a
runaway ring, had clattered half-way downstairs before he heard his
mother calling him to come back for the halfpenny; then he clattered up
again and then down again at such a rate and with so much noise as to
rouse the indignation of all the respectable people in the house.
When he arrived at the bottom of the stairs he remembered that he had
omitted to say goodbye, and as it was too far to go up again he rang
the bell and then went into the middle of the road and looked up at the
window that Nora opened.
'Goodbye, Mother,' he shouted. 'Tell Dad I forgot to say it before I
came down.'
The School was not conducted in the chapel itself, but in a large
lecture hall under it. At one end was a small platform raised about
six inches from the floor; on this was a chair and a small table. A
number of groups of chairs and benches were arranged at intervals round
the sides and in the centre of the room, each group of seats
accommodating a separate class. On the walls--which were painted a
pale green--were a number of coloured pictures: Moses striking the
Rock, the Israelites dancing round the Golden Calf, and so on. As the
reader is aware, Frankie had never been to a Sunday School of any kind
before, and he stood for a moment looking in at the door and half
afraid to enter. The lessons had already commenced, but the scholars
had not yet settled down to work.
The scene was one of some disorder: some of the children talking,
laughing or playing, and the teachers alternately threatening and
coaxing them. The girls' and the very young children's cl
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