The Young Captives / A Narrative of the Shipwreck and Suffering of John and William Doyley

utes by the lurid glare of some burning house set on fire by a hostile shell, and as quickly extinguished by the prompt watchfulness and energy of the f

s mistress' house to his mother's distant dwelling. When he had reached his destination, and made sure that his dreaded stepfather was away, he entered the living-room. To his great surprise it was dark and cheerless, and his blind mother sa

'has not Hannah got back yet from he

r coming back,' she said. 'Your stepfather has turned

ll day and most of the night too,-when the lives even of people who have their eyesig

When your father comes home he beats me if he finds the room cold, and do what I will I can't make the fire burn in the stove. The tinder will not light, though I have often struck the flint and steel together t

gulden of pay and his allowance of bread regularly every week. I only wish I was a journeyman, then I could go and fight and earn some money for you. And Hillner the Defensioner has got on first-rate; the officers all like him, and the governor himself talks to him ever so often. Our mistress loves to see him come into the house, and I'm sure she will marry him as soon as the sie

ke me know about such dreadful things? Have you a morsel of bread in your pock

t in our own Freiberg, where not even a beggar is allowed to starve, the g

thief,' said the woman, 'and he has been out ev

re now-a-days to have a crust of bread in my pocket. I only wish I c

r own hunger. 'Puss is only a dumb creature,' she said by way of excuse, 'but she

he wanted was your little house, and now that's

wife,' said the woman, 'that there might be

very kind and sweet-spoken he always use

in sudden terror. 'I can hear h

ed the room without a word of greeting to his wife. He threw his hat on the seat beneath which his stepson was crouching, and said angrily: 'It's a dog's life now-a-days. On one's legs day and night, always in danger, and never a kreuzer[1] by way of reward. All for the fatherland, forsooth, say the patriots! I am my own fatherland, and I keep my patriotism i

his hiding-place at all hazards, to go himself and fetch what was wanted. He was only restrained by the thought that if he did, h

bringing his fist down with a thundering crash o

roped her way out at the doo

en-faced journeyman I haven't paid off yet for his impudence in the forest; it seems as though I am not to get a hold on him. And never a kreuzer have I seen the colour of, to pay me for my house they pulled down. All right! It may turn out that what Freiberg won'

struck Conrad so sharply on the shin, that though the thick curtain broke the full force of the blow, the lad could hardly suppress a cry of pain. When, a little later, he saw his stepfather go into the inner room to hang up his great-coat, the boy ventu

' house has lots of visitors in it, but I'm sure they would find a corner for you somewh

e finger of scorn at me and call me names; and quite right, too. If I can do nothing else, I will at least take my good name with me down to

th respect for his mother. On his way he met Dollie, car

ked in astonishment. 'Are you not afraid to go along the

the little one very composedly. 'I always think

for people certainly do become accustomed

he is on duty to-night,' Dollie went on; '

your mother take

town. The Swedes have done something to the water-pipes there, and there is no more water. Only think! if a fire were to begin, and they couldn't put it ou

ttle maiden, though professing to be so brave

dred busy hands in the cold and darkness of that winter night must have struck an onlooker with surprise; but probably his surprise would have been even more excited by the unusual silence in which such heavy work was being done. That they might not attract the enemy's attention and so draw down an attack, the besieged were using the miners' dark lanterns, which open only on one side, instead of such torches or other lights as would generally be employed. From the top of the city wall and gate, these lanterns now shone down like the glimmering fires of innumerable glowworms, while, through the dusky twilight, lit up by their flickering rays, the soft white snowflakes fell steadily and quietly. The dim light and the falling snow combined to transform the brav

suddenly out, followed after a few seconds by the thundering explosion. Then a fiery curve traced itself against the sky, the end of which advanced hissing towards the city, and

coin worth about

man coin equal

that flows thr