Excerpt from The Sins of the Children: A Study in Social Values

As the station platforms commanded the back garden of the new arrivals, the later of those who travelled down at the close of the working day could, during the ensuing summer months, Observe their evening diversions.

When the train drew up at the station, a glimpse was caught of the fresh-coloured man, a wan woman, a little girl, a dog, and a servant in the kitchen, all enjoying some measure of repose after the burden of the day; directly, however, the passengers were walking the platform, and the train had steamed away, a sudden animation possessed the family gathering. The middle-aged man would excitedly throw a ball into the air before catching it; his wife would leave her Chair and intently examine a plant; the servant would energetically handle an iron, while the little girl would play about the garden, the dog (his name was Spot barking at her heels.

All too soon, the new people ripened into old inhabitants, and with the passing of years the little girl grew surprisingly taller, while her white-faced, fading mother was rarely seen out of doors.

Then, to the grief of the little household, Spot, the dog, died of old age; with many lamentations from little Jeannie Pilcher, his mistress, he was buried in a corner of the garden.

This was Jeannie's first sorrow; its poignancy fastened on her memory, effacing considerably recollections of cloudless days. Soon, however, a grief came into her life which made what she had believed an overwhelming trouble to be of no moment.

Her mother passed away; although Jeannie's eight years did not enable her to appreciate duly her loss, she suffered keenly by reason of the deep and abiding distress her father knew.

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