Grateful Peter's new year's gift

by Ruth Lamb

On the last night of the year, in driving snow, twelve-year-old Peter Grant stands in a London street trying to sell baked potatoes and has taken three coppers. He lives in a cellar in a back court and has one true friend, old Sally, who took him in when his mother died. An unexpected present, an accident in the street and some glad tidings fill the four short chapters that follow. Ruth Lamb wrote many such stories for the Religious Tract Society, and this one is characteristic: a Victorian tale of poverty and kindness aimed at young readers, with its moral close to the surface and its picture of street trading drawn from life. It is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, with the first chapter free.