lot in the Brown Borough. 'Ow 'e'd noticed the things 'e 'ad with them
blindish eyes of 'is, I don't know. I got to count on that boy no end.
Fair drunk with satisfaction, I use to feel. Call me a fool if you like,
cully, but it was three or four year before I got the idee that there
was anythink funny about Elbert. It was when it begun to look as if the
War 'ad come to stop, an' one couldn't look at any boy without countin'
up to see 'ow long 'e 'ad before the Army copped 'im. An' then I
calc'lated that Elbert should be rising fourteen now, an' I saw then
thet 'e 'adn't grown an inch since I first see 'im, nor 'e hadn't
changed 'is ways, but still 'e run about laughin', playin' 'is little
kiddy-game, with 'is face to the sun. An' then I remembered 'ow often
'e'd tol' me things thet seemed too 'istorical for sich as 'im to come
by honest, tales about blokes in 'istory--nanecdotes 'e'd use to pass
acrost about Admiral Nelson, or Queen Bess--she use to make 'im chuckle,
she did--an' a chap called Shilly or Shally, 'oo was drownded. An' I got
struck all of an 'eap, to think 'e was some sort of an everlasting boy,
an' p'raps 'e was a devil, I thought, an' p'raps I'd sold me soul
without knowin' it. I never took much stock of me soul, but I always
'ad that debt o' mine in me mind, an' I wanted to pay it clean. For them
London mists agin the sky in the Spring, an' for the moonlight, an' for
the sky just before a thunderstorm--all them things seemed to 'ave come
out of the same box, like, an' I didn't like feelin' as 'ow they was all
jest charity.... 'Owever, I got this idee about Elbert, an' I didn't
sleep a wink thet night, an' couldn't enjoy me starlight. In the mornin'
'e come as usual, with 'is pretty blind smile, an' I ses to 'im:
'Elbert,' I ses, 'You ain't a crool boy, are you? You wouldn't do
anythink to 'urt me?' Lookin' at 'im, I couldn't believe it. ''Urt you?'
'e ses quite 'appily; 'an' why wouldn't I 'urt you? I'd as lief send you
to the Devil as not,' 'e ses. Well, cocky, I don't mind tellin' you I
lost me 'ead at that. I run awiy--run awiy from my Elbert--Oh, Gosh! I