Sunday morning with breakfast finished, fresh straw and rushes laid upon the floors and I am ready to go out for a long and refreshing walk. Mother will not come; she has too much to do, she tells me, cooking and cleaning and patching up my work clothes where holes have appeared through long wear.
I put on my new winter robe. It has puffed sleeves and some fur lining and a velvet patch and was very expensive. I have saved money from my wages to buy it for the past year and a half so it is certainly a big event for me, wearing it for the first time. I walk into the kitchen and mother stops what she is doing to look at me and grin.
"Well, don"t you look the real young gent about town?" she asks, flippantly.
"It took long enough saving for it mother," I say lightly. "I may as well enjoy it
