That Little Beggar Part 19

"You'll be a good boy, though," I said, "and not cry, or you will make her unhappy."

"Yes, I'll be the goodest boy," he promised me fervently, "and I won't make my Granny unhappy; not a little, tiny bit."

But when he saw her looking so sad his resolution somewhat failed, and, standing by her side, he gazed up into her face with his great eyes full of tears--eyes like violets with the dew upon them.

Suddenly, however, he brightened up, and turned to leave the room.

"Hulloa! where are you off to?" cried Uncle G.o.dfrey. "The dog-cart will be round in a minute, and you'll be nowhere to be found."

"I want to get something for my Granny; I want to get something very badly for her," he said eagerly as he paused; "and it's in my coat, and it's outside, where I put it, with your greatcoat in the hall."

"Slightly involved," Uncle G.o.dfrey remarked, laughing.

"What can the darling be bringing me?" Granny said, roused a little from the abstraction into which she had fallen.

She was not long left in doubt, for almost as she asked the question Chris returned, holding aloft a little, bright, red leather purse, the pride and joy of his heart. Opening it, he went back to Granny's side and showered its contents upon her lap--two halfpennies and four pennies, a sixpenny and a threepenny bit, and a bright farthing.

"It's all for you, my Granny, 'cause I'm going away," he said impulsively; "all for you! The golden farthing and everything?"

"No, no, my pet; I won't take it from you," answered Granny, much moved by this great gift.

"Yes, but you must, my Granny; it's all for you," he repeated, with a fleeting glance of regret at the red purse in its splendour.

"My darling, I won't take it all," she said, replacing the money in the purse, and putting it into his pocket--all save the "golden farthing", which she kept. "But, see, I will keep this as a keepsake from my own dear child."

"Yes, Granny; and you'll never spend it," Chris said seriously. "You'll keep it for always."

"For always, my Chris," she said tenderly, with a pathetic little tremble in her voice as she kissed him.

And now the dog-cart came round to the door, and we all went out into the hall.

Then, with a hug from me, and many a loving kiss from Granny as she clasped him in her arms, Chris was lifted up by the side of Uncle G.o.dfrey and driven away.

"Good-bye! good-bye! good-bye!" he called out shrilly, looking back and waving his hand, till his little voice grew faint in the distance.

As for Granny, she stood still on the door-step, heedless of the keen morning air, with one hand shading her eyes from the sunlight, while the other grasped tightly Chris's parting gift--the "golden farthing".

She stood there gazing after the dog-cart till it was out of sight. Then she turned in silence and went back into the house.

It seemed as if all the suns.h.i.+ne and brightness had gone out of it with the departure of that little beggar!

Many years have pa.s.sed since that summer's day when I found a little truant sobbing so bitterly by the roadside. Granny is a very old lady now, and my hair is becoming quite white. As for the little beggar himself, the ambition of his childhood is fulfilled, and he is one of the Queen's soldiers, having just pa.s.sed into Sandhurst, a fact in which Granny takes an overwhelming pride. So overwhelming, that I really fancy if you were to ask her to name the greatest general of the future, she would have but one answer for you. Cannot you guess what that answer would be?