John himself employed him, but Peter
knew enough to go only just so far, and there he stuck. He lived in a
little better place than he did at first, but he could never make his
way like John. And then Terence, as he grew up, made a good deal of
trouble. He never would learn anything useful and he never would do
anything useful. He never helped his father at all, and always his
father had to help him. If there was any fight or any accident or
anything troublesome or wrong within a mile, Terence was always in the
midst of it. He was constantly getting his head and his ribs broken,
and Peter was always having to pay for other people's things that he
had broken, from their heads to their windows.
Ellen's excuse for him, that he was never well and had never been
quite himself since he was born, was pretty well worn out. For,
people said, he had always been exactly the same ever since he was
born, and if that same was not himself, who was it? But Ellen kept
saying it none the less. Many a time Mrs. O'Brien tried to make her
believe that the boy was a changeling, and not her child at all, and
many a time she begged Ellen to let her only try a charm to see if he
was, but Ellen never would hear of it.
Pages:
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219