They didn't feel that they were
doing anything out of the common way, and so were perfectly natural,
and had none of that condescension or consciousness of manner which so
outrages the independent poor. And thus they gradually won respect and
confidence; and after sixteen years he was looked up to by the whole
neighbourhood as the just man, the man to whom masters and men could
go in their strikes, and in all their quarrels and difficulties, and by
whom the right and true word would be said without fear or favour. And
the women had come round to take her advice, and go to her as a friend
in all their troubles; while the children all worshipped the very ground
she trod on.
They had three children, two daughters and a son, little Arthur, who
came between his sisters. He had been a very delicate boy from his
childhood; they thought he had a tendency to consumption, and so he had
been kept at home and taught by his father, who had made a companion of
him, and from whom he had gained good scholarship, and a knowledge of
and interest in many subjects which boys in general never come across
till they are many years older.
Just as he reached his thirteenth year, and his father had settled that
he was strong enough to go to school, and, after much debating with
himself, had resolved to send him there, a desperate typhus fever broke
out in the town.
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