No one followed. Hand in hand they stood before the dismantled
chancel. Taffy heard the sound of shuffling feet on the walk
outside, and looked up into Mr. Raymond's face.
"Father!"
"Kiss me, sonny."
The _De Imitatione Christi_ slipped from Taffy's fingers and fell
upon the chancel step.
So his childhood ended.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE BUILDERS.
These things happened on a Friday. After breakfast next morning
Taffy went to fetch his books. He did so out of habit and without
thinking; but his father stopped him.
"Put them away," he said. "Some day we'll go back to them, but not
yet."
Instead of books Humility packed their dinner in the satchel.
They reached the church and found the interior just as they had left
it. Taffy was set to work to pick up and sweep together the scraps
of broken glass which littered the chancel. His father examined the
wreckage of the pews.
While the boy knelt at his task, his thoughts were running on the
Pantomime. He had meant, last night, to recount all its wonders and
the wonders of Plymouth; but somehow the words had not come.
After displaying his presents he could find no more to say: and
feeling his father's hand laid on his shoulder, had burst into tears
and hidden his face in his mother's lap. He wanted to console them,
and they were pitying _him_--why he could not say--but he knew it was
so.
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