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at the line of fires, with people grouped about them, and
the colour of the flames against the night; at the end of
the meadow was a line of great elms, and above the starry
sky. The children talked and laughed, and Athelny, a child
among them, made them roar by his tricks and fancies.
‘They think a rare lot of Athelny down here,’ said his wife.
‘Why, Mrs. Bridges said to me, I don’t know what we should
do without Mr. Athelny now, she said. He’s always up to
something, he’s more like a schoolboy than the father of a
family.’
Sally sat in silence, but she attended to Philip’s wants
in a thoughtful fashion that charmed him. It was pleasant
to have her beside him, and now and then he glanced at
her sunburned, healthy face. Once he caught her eyes, and
she smiled quietly. When supper was over Jane and a small
brother were sent down to a brook that ran at the bottom of
the meadow to fetch a pail of water for washing up.
‘You children, show your Uncle Philip where we sleep,
and then you must be thinking of going to bed.’
Small hands seized Philip, and he was dragged towards
the hut. He went in and struck a match. There was no fur-
niture in it; and beside a tin box, in which clothes were
kept, there was nothing but the beds; there were three of
them, one against each wall. Athelny followed Philip in and
showed them proudly.
‘That’s the stuff to sleep on,’ he cried. ‘None of your
spring-mattresses and swansdown. I never sleep so soundly
anywhere as here. YOU will sleep between sheets. My dear
fellow, I pity you from the bottom of my soul.’

Of Human Bondage