Hurd lifted the boy in his arm.
"Where you bin, Will?
What were yo out for in this nasty damp?
I've brought yo a whole pocket full o' chestnuts, and summat else too." He carried him in to the fire and sat him on his knees.

The little emaciated creature, flushed with the pleasure of his father's company, played contentedly in the intervals of coughing with the shining chestnuts, or ate his slice of the fine pear--the gift of a friend in Thame--which proved to be the "summat else" of promise.

The curtains were close-drawn; the paraffin lamp flared on the table, and as the savoury smell of the hare and onions on the fire filled the kitchen, the whole family gathered round watching for the moment of eating.

The fire played on the thin legs and pinched faces of the children; on the baby's cradle in the further corner; on the mother, red-eyed still, but able to smile and talk again; on the strange Celtic face and matted hair of the dwarf.

Family affection--and the satisfaction of the simpler physical needs--these things make the happiness of the poor.