MORNING SERIAL
FRANK was a real friend, a good man, and the kindest he had ever known. But the advice he had given — was there any truth in it? Would he become friends with those who had tormented him? Was life going to be easier in the foundry, now that the first humiliating day was over? He had fought, but he had gained no respect. Would he always have to fight them? The thoughts depressed him. Thrusting his hands deep into his pockets, his head bowed to the wind, he shuffled homewards along the dimly lighted streets.
*** He opened the back-lane door and trudged up the uneven, stone-flagged garden path. The light from the kitchen window splashed on to the grimy, whitewashed wall of the ad joining house. The bare branches of the lilac tree creaked and sighed in the wind, as though in melancholy welcome.
He stopped near the window. From within came the sound of quarrelling. His heart beat violently. Once again he began to tremble with fear and apprehension. He pressed himself against the wall. The shrill voice of his mother was raised in anger.
“When he came home to dinner, nothing but cheek he gave me. A fine way for a boy to be talking to his mother. And after all I’ve done for him.” “But, Millie,” his father’s voice was weak in protest, “he didn’t mean anything. He was just frightened. It was a big strain on him, that first morning in the foundry. Everything was new to him.
He had no friends. No one he knew worked in the foundry. It was a frightening experience, Millie — frightening. And you know what a nervous and sensitive boy he is.” “Rubbish to all that talk. I’ve heard it till I’m sick. Sensitive, indeed! Too cheeky and self-willed he is, if you ask me. He wasn’t going back to the foundry, oh no — that’s what he said. Fancy telling me that, after all the trouble I went to getting new things for him. A lot of money I’ve spent on Ieuan, I can tell you.
Then what did I get for traipsing down to meet him in the pouring rain? More cheek, that’s what. A fine thing for a mother to expect from her own son, isn’t it?