Page 74 - Fairbrass
P. 74
too, envies the labouring man, whose boys
and girls know, as soon as they are able to
know anything at all, that there is no chance
of their father ever being able to leave them
anything, and so they learn to shift for
themselves,’
1 And is the labouring man unhappy
about anything ? ’ asked Fairbrass,
4 Rather ! 1 said the Kneeling Knight,
1 He's always thinking how little stands
between him and the workhouse (and,
indeed, there isn't much); and he envies
your father almost as much as he does your
grandfather— indeed, more, for heJs not so
old/
‘ But I should think, as he is so unhappy,
he is glad to be old,1 said Fairbrass. f He
wiH die all the sooner, poor fellow ! and
then his troubles will be at an end.’
‘ Oh, nobody who comes here, be the
fancied unhappiness what it may, wants to
die, ’ said the Kneeling K night
‘Are you sure of that?’ asked Fairbrass.
‘ They all say, “ Thy kingdom come,” and
