The Bride's Farewell
“Instead, he grew thinner and paler and his skinny arms and legs shrank until his body began to resemble that of a child half his age. Hunger and neglect intensified the old-man look about his face. Old Man was what they called him in lieu of a name, and the extremes of abuse he suffered filled his joints and bones so full of aches and pains that the name soon began to describe his condition.
One day, the master and the matron walked through the wards, pointing at this child, or this youth, and that man, and they were pulled out and loaded onto a rough cart and taken on a day’s journey to Andover. The talk along the way was of all they had heard about the conditions at their destination, and none of what they had to say encouraged Bean. And yet, up until the moment they arrived, he maintained some hope that a new place must offer improvement on his current existence.
What he found made him think of Pa’s descriptions of hell.
Perseverance seemed the only course of action, and so he did ...what was necessary to outlast his fate.MoreLess
One day, the master and the matron walked through the wards, pointing at this child, or this youth, and that man, and they were pulled out and loaded onto a rough cart and taken on a day’s journey to Andover. The talk along the way was of all they had heard about the conditions at their destination, and none of what they had to say encouraged Bean. And yet, up until the moment they arrived, he maintained some hope that a new place must offer improvement on his current existence.
What he found made him think of Pa’s descriptions of hell.
Perseverance seemed the only course of action, and so he did ...what was necessary to outlast his fate.MoreLess
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