THE PANSY.
CHARLIE IS DISCOURAGED.
A DARK EVENING.
HE was just discouraged, and that was the whole of it. He sat close to the stove, leaned his ragged elbow on his knee, and his cheek on a rather sooty hand, and gave himself up to troubled thought, the two books which had slipped from him, lying unheeded on the floor.
Let them lie there; what was the use in trying to study? Here was the third evening this week that he had been held, after hours, when he wanted to go to the night school and find out how to do that example! He might just as well give up first as last.
There was a loud stamping outside, and the door of the little flag station burst open, letting in a rush of spiteful winter air.
“Halloo!” said a boy of about fourteen, muffled to his eyes in fur.