{"product_id":"2940014486705","title":"The Carved Lions","description":"CHAPTER I.\u003cbr\u003eOLD DAYS.\u003cbr\u003eIt is already a long time since I was a little girl. Sometimes, when I\u003cbr\u003elook out upon the world and see how many changes have come about, how\u003cbr\u003edifferent many things are from what I can remember them, I could\u003cbr\u003ebelieve\u003cbr\u003ethat a still longer time had passed since my childhood than is really\u003cbr\u003ethe case. Sometimes, on the contrary, the remembrance of things that\u003cbr\u003ethen happened comes over me so very vividly, so very _real_-ly, that I\u003cbr\u003ecan scarcely believe myself to be as old as I am.\u003cbr\u003eI can remember things in my little girlhood more clearly than many in\u003cbr\u003elater years. This makes me hope that the story of some part of it may\u003cbr\u003einterest children of to-day, for I know I have not forgotten the\u003cbr\u003efeelings I had as a child. And after all, I believe that in a great\u003cbr\u003emany\u003cbr\u003eways children are very like each other in their hearts and minds, even\u003cbr\u003ethough their lives may seem very different and very far apart.\u003cbr\u003eThe first years of my childhood were very happy, though there were\u003cbr\u003esome\u003cbr\u003ethings in my life which many children would not like at all. My\u003cbr\u003eparents\u003cbr\u003ewere not rich, and the place where we lived was not pretty or\u003cbr\u003ePage 2\u003cbr\u003eThe Carved Lions\u003cbr\u003epleasant.\u003cbr\u003eIt was a rather large town in an ugly part of the country, where great\u003cbr\u003etall chimneys giving out black smoke, and streams--once clear\u003cbr\u003esparkling\u003cbr\u003ebrooks, no doubt--whose water was nearly as black as the smoke, made\u003cbr\u003eit\u003cbr\u003eoften difficult to believe in bright blue sky or green grass, or any\u003cbr\u003eof\u003cbr\u003ethe sweet pure country scenes that children love, though perhaps\u003cbr\u003echildren that have them do not love them as much as those who have not\u003cbr\u003egot them do.\u003cbr\u003eI think that was the way with me. The country was almost the same as\u003cbr\u003efairyland to me--the peeps I had of it now and then were a delight I\u003cbr\u003ecould not find words to express.\u003cbr\u003eBut what matters most to children is not _where_ their home is, but\u003cbr\u003e_what_ it is. And our home was a very sweet and loving one, though it\u003cbr\u003ewas only a rather small and dull house in a dull street. Our father\u003cbr\u003eand\u003cbr\u003emother did everything they possibly could to make us happy, and the\u003cbr\u003etrial of living at Great Mexington must have been far worse for them\u003cbr\u003ethan for us. For they had both been accustomed to rich homes when they\u003cbr\u003ewere young, and father had never expected that he would have to work\u003cbr\u003eso\u003cbr\u003ehard or in the sort of way he had to do, after he lost nearly all his\u003cbr\u003emoney.\u003cbr\u003eWhen I say \"us,\" I mean my brother Haddie and I. Haddie--whose real\u003cbr\u003ename\u003cbr\u003ewas Haddon--was two years older than I, and we two were the whole\u003cbr\u003efamily. My name--_was_ I was going to say, for now there are so few\u003cbr\u003epeople to call me by my Christian name that it seems hardly mine--my\u003cbr\u003ename is Geraldine. Somehow I never had a \"short\" for it, though it is\u003cbr\u003ea\u003cbr\u003elong name, and Haddie was always Haddie, and \"Haddon\" scarcely needs\u003cbr\u003eshortening. I think it was because he nearly always called me Sister\u003cbr\u003eor\u003cbr\u003e\"Sis.\"\u003cbr\u003eHaddie was between ten and eleven years old and I was nine when the\u003cbr\u003egreat change that I am going to tell you about came over our lives.\u003cbr\u003eBut\u003cbr\u003eI must go back a little farther than that, otherwise you would not\u003cbr\u003eunderstand all about us, nor the meaning of the odd title I have\u003cbr\u003echosen\u003cbr\u003efor my story.\u003cbr\u003eI had no governess and I did not go to school. My mother taught me\u003cbr\u003eherself, partly, I think, to save expense, and partly because she did\u003cbr\u003enot like the idea of sending me to even a day-school at Great\u003cbr\u003eMexington.\u003cbr\u003ePage 3\u003cbr\u003eThe Carved Lions\u003cbr\u003eFor though many of the families there were very rich, and had large\u003cbr\u003ehouses and carriages and horses and beautiful gardens, they were not\u003cbr\u003ealways very refined. There were good and kind and unselfish people\u003cbr\u003ethere\u003cbr\u003eas there are everywhere, but there were some who thought more of being\u003cbr\u003erich than of anything else--the sort of people that are called \"purse\u003cbr\u003eproud.\" And as children very often take after their parents, my father\u003cbr\u003eand mother did not like the idea of my having such children as my\u003cbr\u003ecompanions--children who would look down upon me for being poor, and\u003cbr\u003eperhaps treat me unkindly on that account.\u003cbr\u003e\"When Geraldine is older she must go to school,\" my father used to\u003cbr\u003esay,\u003cbr\u003e\"unless by that time our ship comes in and we can afford a governess.\u003cbr\u003eBut when she is older it will not matter so much, as she will have\u003cbr\u003elearnt to value things at their just worth.\"\u003cbr\u003eI did not then understand what he meant, but I have never forgotten\u003cbr\u003ethe\u003cbr\u003ewords.\u003cbr\u003eI was a very simple child. It never entered my head that there was\u003cbr\u003eanything to be ashamed of in living in a small house and having only\u003cbr\u003etwo\u003cbr\u003eservants. I thought it would be _nice_ to have more money, so that\u003cbr\u003emamma\u003cbr\u003ewould not need to be so busy and could have more pretty dresses, and\u003cbr\u003eabove all that we could then live in the country, but","brand":"All classic book warehouse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47178196844784,"sku":"2940014486705","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014486705_p0.jpg?v=1763609449","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014486705","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}