Read "A Child Shall Lead Them" by Mary E. Ropes online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
"THIS IS THE RAT THAT ATE THE MALT."
ON leaving his brother's room, Ratcliffe groped his way out of the house by the back door that led into the yard. He carefully locked it behind him, and was about to jump over the gate into the road, when the moon came suddenly from behind a cloud and shone full upon the yard and upon him. Like a guilty thing he shrank from the light, and had already placed one hand upon the top of the gate, when his eye was arrested by a small dark object that lay on the dust-heap in a corner. He made a step forward and picked it up; it was a book. This was all he saw, for the fickle moon retreated again behind the clouds, and all was dark once more, excepting for the flickering light of the lamp farther down the street.