The Purple Heights by Marie Conway Oemler
page 29 of 360 (08%)
page 29 of 360 (08%)
![]() | ![]() |
|
slack. The awful and mysterious smile of death fixed itself upon her
pale mouth. So passed Maria Champneys from her tiny house in Riverton, in the dawn of a winter morning, when the tide was turning and the world was full of the sound of water running seaward. CHAPTER III AT GRIPS WITH LIFE The best or the worst thing that can happen to a boy in this country is to be poor in it for a while, to be picked up neck and crop and flung upon his own resources; not always to remain poor, of course, for one may be damned quite as effectually and everlastingly upon the cross as off it; but to be poor long enough to acquire a sense of proportion by coming to close grips with life; to learn what things and people really are, the good and the bad of them together; to have to weigh and measure cant and sentimentality and Christian charity--which last is a fearsome thing--in the balance with truth and common sense and human kindness. It is an experience that makes or breaks. Peter had always adored his mother; but it wasn't until now that he realized how really wonderful she had been. How she had kept the roof over his head, and his stomach somehow satisfied, and had sent |
|