 |
|
The worth of a baby, and How Apple-tree court was won. By Hesba Stretton
Sarah Smith
Paperback. General Books LLC 2009-08-20.
ISBN 9780217965712
|
|
|
|
Buy from Amazon.com
|
Publisher description
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: HOW APPLE-TREE COURT .WAS WON. CHAPTER I. LYING behind a row of large warehouses, which front a somewhat busy thoroughfare in London, is Apple-tree Court. Why it was ever called Apple-tree Court no one could tell ; for long years ago, farther back than the memory of the oldest inhabitant, there had been no trace of a tree, nor even of a blade of grass, springing green in the heart of those smoky and blackened dwellings. The entry which leads to it is not more than three feet wide, but the length of it is the full depth of the warehouses between two of which it runs ; a dark, low passage, where it is not pleasant to meet a person you do not know. The court contains about a dozen houses, but as each house is large enough to lodge as many as four families, provided they are not so luxurious as torequire more than one, or at the utmost, two rooms, the population is very nearly two hundred, and has at times exceeded even that number. The inhabitants are, however, constantly changing ; old tenants leave and new ones come in at a day's notice, sometimes with no notice at all; for the rooms are let by the week, and it is not a rare circumstance for a family to make a moonlight flitting on the last night of their tenancy to escape paying the weekly rent, which would be peremptorily claimed the next morning. The oldest inhabitant of Apple-tree Court was a meagre old woman who had lived in its most miserable garret for several dreary years. She was so yellow and withered that it seemed not improbable that she had been dead and buried for some time, and come to life again to resume her poor task of rag- picking in the dust-heaps collected from the streets. The only name she was known by, and which clung to her amid all the change of neighbours, was Old Rags and Bones ; and t
More books by Sarah Smith
Similar books
Rate the book
Write a review and share your opinion with others. Try to focus on the content of the book. Read our instructions for further information.
The worth of a baby, and How Apple-tree court was won. By Hesba Stretton
Book reviews » The worth of a baby, and How Apple-tree court was won. By Hesba Stretton
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
