They let him stay on -- he learned to do a few odd jobs about the place -- and there Captain Jim found him . He brought him home -- I 've always said it was a bad day 's work , though I s ` pose there was nothing else he could do . He thought maybe when Dick got home and saw his old surroundings and familiar faces his memory would wake up . But it had n't any effect . There he 's been at the house up the brook ever since . He 's just like a child , no more nor less . Takes fractious spells occasionally , but mostly he 's just vacant and good humored and harmless . He 's apt to run away if he is n't watched . That 's the burden Leslie has had to carry for eleven years -- and all alone . Old Abner Moore died soon after Dick was brought home and it was found he was almost bankrupt . When things were settled up there was nothing for Leslie and Dick but the old West farm . Leslie rented it to John Ward , and the rent is all she has to live on . Sometimes in summer she takes a boarder to help out . But most visitors prefer the other side of the harbor where the hotels and summer cottages are . Leslie 's house is too far from the bathing shore . She 's taken care of Dick and she 's never been away from him for eleven years -- she 's tied to that imbecile for life . And after all the dreams and hopes she once had ! You can imagine what it has been like for her , Anne , dearie -- with her beauty and spirit and pride and cleverness . It 's just been a living death . '' `` Poor , poor girl ! ''
said XXXXX again .
Anne Dick Jim Leslie Moore Ward day girl summer years