Read "To London Town" by Arthur Morrison online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
NOT for six weeks, at least, Johnny judged, could he beg the day's holiday that was to take him and Bessy back to the forest; and it might be more. That would be in July -- or even August -- and probably the weather would be more trustworthy then. As for Bessy, she counted the days on the almanack, and tapped the yellow-faced old barometer that had been gran'dad's, a dozen times a day. Johnny laughed at her impatience, and invented endless weather prophecies "just from America" putting the weather for the whole of July at every possible shade of unpleasantness, from blizzards to floods and thunderstorms.
The days went quietly -- they were even dull. Mr. Butson did what he could to make himself agreeable, and several times praised a set of callipers that Johnny had made -- a set of callipers that Johnny, in fact, thought very well of himself. So that he seemed not such a bad fellow, perhaps, after all, though a bit of a sponge.