She hid her face in her spare hands and broke into sobbing.
"Oh, Betty! No!" she gasped.

"It's so long ago--it's so far away.

You never came--no one--no one--came!" The hunchbacked boy drew near.

He had limped up on his stick.

He spoke like an elderly, affectionate gnome, not like a child.
"Don't do that, mother," he said.