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The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
·
George Gissing
15
That
reminds
me
of
an
incident.
Near
a
hamlet,
in
a
lonely
spot
by
a
woodside,
I
came
upon
a
little
lad
of
perhaps
ten
years
old,
who,
his
head
hidden
in
his
arms
against
a
tree
trunk,
was
crying
bitterly.
I
asked
him
what
was
the
matter,
and,
after
a
little
trouble--he
was
better
than
a
mere
bumpkin--I
learnt
that,
having
been
sent
with
sixpence
to
pay
a
debt,
he
had
lost
the
money.
The
poor
little
fellow
was
in
a
state
of
mind
which
in
a
grave
man
would
be
called
the
anguish
of
despair;
he
must
have
been
crying
for
a
long
time;
every
muscle
in
his
face
quivered
as
if
under
torture,
his
limbs
shook;
his
eyes,
his
voice,
uttered
such
misery
as
only
the
vilest
criminal
should
be
made
to
suffer.
And
it
was
because
he
had
lost
sixpence!
I
could
have
shed
tears
with
him--tears
of
pity
and
of
rage
at
all
this
spectacle
implied.
On
a
day
of
indescribable
glory,
when
earth
and
heaven
shed
benedictions
upon
the
soul
of
man,
a
child,
whose
nature
would
have
bidden
him
rejoice
as
only
childhood
may,
wept
his
heart
out
because
his
hand
had
dropped
a
sixpenny
piece!
The
loss
was
a
very
serious
one,
and
he
knew
it;
he
was
less
afraid
to
face
his
parents,
than
overcome
by
misery
at
the
thought
of
the
harm
he
had
done
them.
Sixpence
dropped
by
the
wayside,
and
a
whole
family
made
wretched!
What
are
the
due
descriptive
terms
for
a
state
of
"civilization"
in
which
such
a
thing
as
this
is
possible?
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