Ambrose, as has been mentioned, though he did not dine, sat with his parents during dinner, either reading or drawing some simple object on the table, or joining in the conversation. As a rule he went to bed at dessert-time, having been given two or three strawberries (which were not reckoned among his ration), but when Mrs. Owen dined he was allowed to sit up and hear her sing one song. Here he turned to his father.
“Oh, papa,” he said, “may I for a great treat sit up a little later to-night and hear you read? I shall have heard Mrs. Owen sing, and have heard you read: it will make me so happy.”
“You wouldn’t understand it, my son,” said Canon Alington.
This was interpreted by Mrs. Owen to mean that he would read to them, and she clapped her hands again.
“How it pays to be brave!” she said. “Oh, thank you, dear Canon Alington!”
Ambrose never interrupted, and he waited, looking at his father through his spectacles till she had finished.
“But I could try, papa,” he said; “and I’m sure I should understand some of it, because it’s about books and pictures and music being meant to make us better, and I understand that. And when Uncle Hugh sings or Mrs. Owen sings I always feel that I want to be good. So I do understand some of it.”
“And it will make you happy?” asked his father.
“Yes.”
“Well, as I heard of a little boy to-day who gave away his strawberries to make a poor old woman happy, you shall sit up till half-past nine.”