CH. III.] Jack and his Sister. 57 



The first thing to be done, my wife said, 

 was to feed the children, and while she and 

 the other women busied about getting it 

 ready, I sat and watched them. Both were 

 remarkably pretty ; both dark, with finely cut 

 features, big eyes and thick soft black hair ; 

 but yet in different ways both had something 

 sad about them. The boy never sat still for 

 a moment, but kept glancing fearfully at me, 

 then at the women, and then at the door, as 

 if he expected something dreadful to happen, 

 and all the time kept grasping the arm of his 

 little sister with one hand as if for protection, 

 and clinging to the soft skin of Grindum's 

 neck with the other. If he caught my eye, 

 or if I spoke to him, he flinched as if I had 

 struck him, and turned livid and tugged so 

 hard at Grindum's skin that the poor dog's 

 eyes were pulled into mere slits, through 

 which I could see he yet went on blinking at 

 the fire. The girl sat half turned round to 



