"Get out o' Mr. Fletcher's road, ye idle, lounging, little-" "Vagabond," I think the woman (Sally Watkins, once my nurse), was going to say, but she changed her mind. My father and I both glanced round, surprised at her unusual reticence of epithets: but when the lad addressed turned, fixed his eyes on each of us for a moment, and made way for us, we ceased to wonder. Ragged, muddy, and miserable as he was, the poor boy looked anything but a "vagabond."

Dinah Craik was a 19th century British author and poet whose works continue to be read across the world today.

Studies from Life by Dinah Maria Mulock Craik. This book is a reproduction of the original book published in 1867 and may have some imperfections such as marks or hand-written notes.