"Eliza's cooking an excellent dinner!" he said. And they went through the kitchen into the garden.
"You see what a piece of ground I have. We are enclosing it." And Owen saw two little boys painting a paling. "Now, do you like the green? It was too green, but this morning I put a little yellow into it; it is better now." They walked round the acre of rough ground overlooking the valley, Owen saying that Evelyn was quite a landed proprietor.
"But who are these boys? You have quite a number," he said, coming upon three more digging, or trying to dig.
"They are digging the celery-bed."
"But one is a hunchback, he can't do much work; and that one has a short leg; the third boy seems all right, but he isn't more than seven or eight. I am afraid you won't have very much celery this year." They passed through the wicket into the farther end of Evelyn's domain, which part projected on the valley, and there they came upon two more children, one of whom was blind.
"This poor child—what work can he do?"
"You'd be surprised; and his ear is excellent. We're thinking of putting him to piano-tuning."
"We are thinking?"
"Yes, Owen; these little boys live here with me in the new wing. I'm afraid they are not very comfortable there, but they don't complain."
"Seven little crippled boys, whom you look after!"