Austin and His Friends

Austin and His Friends

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Balfour
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Title: Austin and His Friends
Author: Frederic H. Balfour

Release Date: June 21, 2005 [eBook #16099]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AUSTIN
AND HIS FRIENDS***
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AUSTIN AND HIS FRIENDS
by
FREDERIC H. BALFOUR
Author Of "The Expiation of Eugene," etc.
London Greening & Co., Ltd.
1906

[Illustration: DAPHNIS AT THE FOUNTAIN]

* * * * *

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The old-fashioned ghost-story was always terrifying and ghastly;
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not introduced a single supernormal incident that has not occurred and
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* * * * *

Austin and His Friends

Chapter the
First
It was rather a beautiful old house--the house where Austin lived. That
is, it was old-fashioned, low-browed, solid, and built of that peculiar
sort of red brick which turns a rich rose-colour with age; and this warm
rosy tint was set off to advantage by the thick mantle of dark green ivy
in which it was partly encased, and by the row of tall white and purple
irises which ran along the whole length of the sunniest side of the
building. There was an ancient sun-dial just above the door, and all the
windows were made of small, square panes--not a foot of plate-glass
was there about the place; and if the rooms were nor particularly large
or stately, they had that comfortable and settled look which tells of
undisturbed occupancy by the same inmates for many years. But the
principal charm of the place was the garden in which the house stood.
In this case the frame was really more beautiful than the picture. On

one side, the grounds were laid out in very formal style, with straight
walks, clipped box hedges, an old stone fountain, and a perfect
bowling-green of a lawn; while at right angles to this there was a plot
of land in which all regularity was set at naught, and sweet-peas, tulips,
hollyhocks, dahlias, gillyflowers, wall-flowers, sun-flowers, and a
dozen others equally sweet and friendly shared the soil with gooseberry
bushes and thriving apple-trees. Taking it all in all, it was a lovable and
most reposeful home, and Austin, who had lived there ever since he
could remember, was quite unable to imagine any lot in life that could
be compared to his.
Now this was curious, for Austin was a hopeless cripple. Up to the age
of sixteen, he had been the most active, restless, healthy boy in all the
countryside. He used to spend his days in boating, bicycling, climbing
hills, and wandering at large through the woods and leafy lanes which
stretched far and wide in all directions of the compass. One of his chief
diversions had been sheep-chasing; nothing delighted him more than to
start a whole flock of the astonished creatures careering madly round
some broad green meadow, their fat woolly backs wobbling and jolting
along in a compact mass of mild perplexity at this sudden interruption
of their never-ending meal, while Austin scampered at their tails, as
much excited with the sport as Don Quixote himself when he dispersed
the legions of Alifanfaron. Let hare-coursers, otter-hunters, and
pigeon-torturers blame him if they choose; the exercise probably did
the sheep a vast amount of good, and Austin fully believed that they
enjoyed it quite as much as he did. Then suddenly a great calamity
befell him. A weakness made itself apparent