Fated to Be Free

Excerpt: ...I cannot eat rice pudding now, Jam roll, boiled beef, and such; From Stilton cheese this heart I vow Turns coldly as from Dutch. For crab, a shell-fish erst loved well, I do not care at all, Though I myself am in the shell And fellow-feelings call. I mourn not over tasks unsaid- This child is not a flat- My purse is empty as my head, But no-it isn't that; I cannot eat. And why? To shrink From truth is like a sinner, I'll speak or burst; it is, I think, That I've just had my dinner. Crayshaw was very zealous in the discharge of his promise; the ponies took a great deal of exercise; and old Grand, before the boys were dismissed to school, saw very decided and satisfactory progress on the part of his grandson, while the ponies were committed to his charge with a fervour that was almost pathetic. It was hard to part from them; but men are tyrannical; they will not permit boys to have horses at a public school; the boys therefore returned to their work, and the ponies were relieved from theirs, and entered on a course of life which is commonly called eating their heads off. John in the meanwhile tried in vain to supply the loss of the stately and erudite Miss Crampton. He wanted two ladies, and wished that neither should be young. One must be able to teach his children and keep them in order; the other must superintend the expenditure and see to the comforts of his whole household, order his children's dress, and look after their health. Either he was not fortunate in his applicants, or he was difficult to please, for he had not suited himself with either lady when a new source of occupation and anxiety sprung up, and everything else was set aside on account of it; for all on a sudden it was perceived one afternoon that Mr. Augustus Mortimer was not at all well. It was after bank hours, but...