on her knee while i stood kicking her chair and complaining at last i said i can t think why he won t take us v i don t know said my sister timidly but he said something about not affording it and about trade being bad and he was afraid there would be great distress in the town what has that to do with us i shouted father s a doctor trade won t hurt him just then my father came into the room the door was open and he must have heard my last speech but he only said would any young man here like to go with me to see a patient i went willingly and we were soon in the street before long we left it for a one and then turned off into a dirty dark lane where surely the sun never shone i had never seen anything like it before the pathway was broken up children cried at the doors and in the street which was strewn with rags and bones and bits of old iron and shoes my father hurried me on as fast as he could and we turned at last into one of the houses we up staircase after staircase till we reached the top of � do you like flowers the house and stumbled through a door into the garret i thought at first that the room was empty but a faint good morning from the comer near the window drew my eyes that way there stretched on a sort of bed lay the patient we had come to see he was a young man about twenty six years old and two in the comer told that he was a his face lighted up with a glow of pleasure when my father came in i looked around the room there was nothing in it except the bed upon which the sick man lay and a small table the window was patched with newspaper but through the glass panes that were left in full glory streamed the sun and in the midst of the blaze stood a pot of in full bloom the soft yellow flowers looked so sweet that i was lost in admiration till i found the sick man s eyes fixed on mine you are looking at my bit of green he said in a pleased tone do you like flowers i asked coming up to the bed do i like them he exclaimed in a low voice yes i love them well enough � well enough and he looked fondly at the plant though it is long since i saw any but these you have not been in the country for a long time i asked i felt sad to think that he had perhaps lain there for months without a taste of fresh air or a run in the fields i never was in the country young gentleman i looked at my father yes he said in answer to my glance william was bom here he got hurt when a boy and has been lame ever since he was never out of town and never saw a green field the tears rushed to my eyes it is such a shame i said i am very sorry for you the sick man s eyes turned kindly upon me and he said thank you heartily you mean very kindly i used to say the same thing when i was younger and knew no better i used to think it was very hard but i know now how many things i have to be thankful for i looked around the room and began to count the furniture � one two three the many things were certainly not chairs and tables but he went on while i could work i got good wages and laid by a bit so i have what will keep me while i live and then i knew your father and the neighbors have be n very kind i have many who would have thought i could keep a bit of green like that plant of mine alive in a place like this but the sun could not come into a king s room better than it comes into mine indeed indeed i have much to be thankful for i ventured to ask him where did you get your plant he smiled that s a long story but it was this way my father died quite young and my mother soon after so that my brother ben and i were left alone but we were very fond of each other and got on very well i had plenty of work to do weaving and baskets and ben worked at the factory one saturday night he came home and said there was to be a cheap trip on monday into the country neither he nor i had ever been out of the town and he had made up his mind that we must go well you see the landlord had been there that day and had said he must have the rent by tuesday or he would turn us out i had some of it laid by and was looking to ben s wages to make it up but i couldn t bear to see his face for a bit of fresh air and so i thought i could stay at home and work on monday and he need never know so i pretended i didn t want to go and sent him off on monday without me it was late at night when he came back he had flowers in his hat and flowers in all his he had his handkerchief filled with hay and was carrying something under his coat he began laughing and crying eh bill you have missed something but i ve brought you a bit of green lad and then he lifted up his coat and there was the plant we did 