'
'You've not had overmuch good-will from them, neither,' said Alfred,
'since you came out.'
'What! not since I've been at Friarswood?' exclaimed Paul. 'Why, I
used to think all THAT was only something in a book.'
'All what?' asked Alfred.
'All about--why, loving one's neighbour--and the Good Samaritan, and
so on. I never saw any one do it, you know, but it was comfortable
like to read about it; and when I watched to your mother and all of
you, I saw how it was about one's neighbour; and then, what with that
and Mr. Cope's teaching, I got to feel how it was--about God!' and
Paul's face looked very grave and peaceful.
'Well,' said Alfred, 'I don't know as I ever cared about it much--not
since I was a little boy. It was the fun last Christmas.'
And Paul looking curious, Alfred told all about the going out for
holly, and the dining at the Grange, and the snap-dragon over the
pudding, till he grew so eager and animated that he lost breath, and
his painful cough came on, so that he could just whisper, 'What did
you do?'
'Oh! I don't know. We had prayers, and there was roast beef for
dinner, but they gave it to me where it was raw, and I couldn't eat
it. Those that had friends went out; but 'twasn't much unlike other
days.
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