Una's Friends

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. THE AMATEUR GOBLIN. Whate'er he did of gramarye Was always done maliciously, For, at a word, be it understood, He was always for ill and never for good. Scott. r I ''HERE was once upon a time a boy named Tommy. -- I am quite aware that this is a flat beginning to a fairy tale, Tommy...
More Description

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: THE PROFESSOR'S STORY. THE AMATEUR GOBLIN. Whate'er he did of gramarye Was always done maliciously, For, at a word, be it understood, He was always for ill and never for good. Scott. r I ''HERE was once upon a time a boy named Tommy. -- I am quite aware that this is a flat beginning to a fairy tale, Tommy being anything but a proper fairytale name. I know the other people will find such nice uncommon names that I feel my own short-comings very much. But there, what is a biographer to do ? Truth must be adhered to; it is Tommy's godfathers' and godmother's fault, not mine, and they never knew they were naming the future hero of a fairy story. And here I pause again, for Tommy was not a hero, by any manner of means. Neither was he altogethera villain, which is just as well, for Tommy isn't altogether a villain's name, so, being something betwixt and between, perhaps it matters less what he was called. He lived, I believe, somewhere in the North of England, but I don't know the name of the village, and if I did I shouldn't tell it you, for I'm not going to have you looking it out in the Gazetteer and picking all sorts of holes in my description. His father was dead, which was a great pity, as he might have licked his son into shape. His mother spoilt him and so did his two little sisters. They had the tempers of angels, and Tommy rode over them rough-shod; I believe, without exaggeration, they would have let him walk on the top of them in his hobnails, though he wasn't half worthy to black their dear little boots. There was only one person who ever stood up to Tommy, and that was his Auntie Oriana Jane. She was his father's sister, and when Tommy was born she lived with his parents and was the comfort that aunts frequently are, bless their dear hearts what shoul...