"Our first call was at Mr. V---'s. He was a widower, and, finding
his home lonely, had sought at Marchmont for a little one to love and
cheer him. He had taken the twin-like brothers, Freddy and Tommy,
whose sweet little faces bore some resemblance to his own. We found
the children at school, looking hearty and happy in the playground as
we passed the schoolhouse. Mr. V--- was from home, but his mother, a
pious woman, received us most kindly, and spoke affectionately of the
children. She took us to see her lovely flowerbeds of annuals, all
laid out with taste in front of the wooden house, and tended by her
own hands when house-work was over. My heart longed for the joy of
telling the happiness of these children to the aged pious grandmother
pining away in want and sickness, and forsaken by her own son, the
father of these boys.
"Passing onwards, we drove past a rosy-cheeked little fellow
climbing a bank. A month in the fresh air had so changed him from the
delicate, pale, thin boy, that we looked again ere we recognised
Alfred Bonkin. His widowed mother will sing for joy to hear of his
being thus educated, clothed, and fed, and growing up to an honest
life.
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