"If I were to have some,
and Cousin Josiah, and all the others, there would be a very little share
for you; besides, when I went out the day before yesterday, I had as much
as I could eat."
"Oh, dear, that must have been nice," one of the boys said. "Only think,
having as much as one can eat. Oh, how much I could eat, if I had it!"
"And yet I daresay, Tom," John said, "that sometimes, before you came
here, when you had as much as you could eat, you used to grumble if it
wasn't quite what you fancied."
"I shall never grumble again," the boy said positively. "I shall be
quite, quite content with potatoes, if I can but get enough of them."
"The good times will come again," John said cheerily. "Now we will have a
story. Which shall it be?"
As the children sat round him, John was delighted to see that even the
two scanty meals they had had, had done wonders for them. The listless,
hopeless look of the last few days had disappeared, and occasionally
something like a hearty laugh broke out among them, and an hour later the
tanner came to the entrance.
"Come to the walls with me, John."
"What is it? What is the matter?" John said, as he saw the look of anger
and indignation on the wasted features of his cousin.
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