American library books ยป Other ยป Little Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett (simple e reader .txt) ๐Ÿ“•

Read book online ยซLittle Lord Fauntleroy by Frances Hodgson Burnett (simple e reader .txt) ๐Ÿ“•ยป.   Author   -   Frances Hodgson Burnett



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lean on me,โ€ they heard him say. โ€œHow glad the people are to see you, and how well they all seem to know you!โ€

โ€œTake off your cap, Fauntleroy,โ€ said the Earl. โ€œThey are bowing to you.โ€

โ€œTo me!โ€ cried Fauntleroy, whipping off his cap in a moment, baring his bright head to the crowd and turning shining, puzzled eyes on them as he tried to bow to everyone at once.

โ€œGod bless your lordship!โ€ said the courtesying, red-cloaked old woman who had spoken to his mother; โ€œlong life to you!โ€

โ€œThank you, maโ€™am,โ€ said Fauntleroy. And then they went into the church, and were looked at there, on their way up the aisle to the square, red-cushioned and curtained pew. When Fauntleroy was fairly seated, he made two discoveries which pleased him: the first that, across the church where he could look at her, his mother sat and smiled at him; the second, that at one end of the pew, against the wall, knelt two quaint figures carven in stone, facing each other as they kneeled on either side of a pillar supporting two stone missals, their pointed hands folded as if in prayer, their dress very antique and strange. On the tablet by them was written something of which he could only read the curious words:

โ€œHere lyeth ye bodye of Gregorye Arthure Fyrst Earle of Dorincourt Allsoe of Alisone Hildegarde hys wyfe.โ€

โ€œMay I whisper?โ€ inquired his lordship, devoured by curiosity.

โ€œWhat is it?โ€ said his grandfather.

โ€œWho are they?โ€

โ€œSome of your ancestors,โ€ answered the Earl, โ€œwho lived a few hundred years ago.โ€

โ€œPerhaps,โ€ said Lord Fauntleroy, regarding them with respect, โ€œperhaps I got my spelling from them.โ€ And then he proceeded to find his place in the church service. When the music began, he stood up and looked across at his mother, smiling. He was very fond of music, and his mother and he often sang together, so he joined in with the rest, his pure, sweet, high voice rising as clear as the song of a bird. He quite forgot himself in his pleasure in it. The Earl forgot himself a little too, as he sat in his curtain-shielded corner of the pew and watched the boy. Cedric stood with the big psalter open in his hands, singing with all his childish might, his face a little uplifted, happily; and as he sang, a long ray of sunshine crept in and, slanting through a golden pane of a stained glass window, brightened the falling hair about his young head. His mother, as she looked at him across the church, felt a thrill pass through her heart, and a prayer rose in it tooโ โ€”a prayer that the pure, simple happiness of his childish soul might last, and that the strange, great fortune which had fallen to him might bring no wrong or evil with it. There were many soft, anxious thoughts in her tender heart in those new days.

โ€œOh, Ceddie!โ€ she had said to him the evening before, as she hung over him in saying good night, before he went away; โ€œoh, Ceddie, dear, I wish for your sake I was very clever and could say a great many wise things! But only be good, dear, only be brave, only be kind and true always, and then you will never hurt anyone, so long as you live, and you may help many, and the big world may be better because my little child was born. And that is best of all, Ceddieโ โ€”it is better than everything else, that the world should be a little better because a man has livedโ โ€”even ever so little better, dearest.โ€

And on his return to the Castle, Fauntleroy had repeated her words to his grandfather.

โ€œAnd I thought about you when she said that,โ€ he ended; โ€œand I told her that was the way the world was because you had lived, and I was going to try if I could be like you.โ€

โ€œAnd what did she say to that?โ€ asked his lordship, a trifle uneasily.

โ€œShe said that was right, and we must always look for good in people and try to be like it.โ€

Perhaps it was this the old man remembered as he glanced through the divided folds of the red curtain of his pew. Many times he looked over the peopleโ€™s heads to where his sonโ€™s wife sat alone, and he saw the fair face the unforgiven dead had loved, and the eyes which were so like those of the child at his side; but what his thoughts were, and whether they were hard and bitter, or softened a little, it would have been hard to discover.

As they came out of church, many of those who had attended the service stood waiting to see them pass. As they neared the gate, a man who stood with his hat in his hand made a step forward and then hesitated. He was a middle-aged farmer, with a careworn face.

โ€œWell, Higgins,โ€ said the Earl.

Fauntleroy turned quickly to look at him.

โ€œOh!โ€ he exclaimed, โ€œis it Mr. Higgins?โ€

โ€œYes,โ€ answered the Earl dryly; โ€œand I suppose he came to take a look at his new landlord.โ€

โ€œYes, my lord,โ€ said the man, his sunburned face reddening. โ€œMr. Newick told me his young lordship was kind enough to speak for me, and I thought Iโ€™d like to say a word of thanks, if I might be allowed.โ€

Perhaps he felt some wonder when he saw what a little fellow it was who had innocently done so much for him, and who stood there looking up just as one of his own less fortunate children might have doneโ โ€”apparently not realizing his own importance in the least.

โ€œIโ€™ve a great deal to thank your lordship for,โ€ he said; โ€œa great deal. Iโ โ€”โ€

โ€œOh,โ€ said Fauntleroy; โ€œI only wrote the letter. It was my grandfather who did it. But you know how he is about always being good to everybody. Is Mrs. Higgins well now?โ€

Higgins looked a trifle taken aback. He also was somewhat startled at hearing his noble landlord presented in the character of a benevolent being,

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