第39章

'Do not talk so,' said the child.'Pray do not.Let us speak of something else.'

'Yes, yes, we will,' he rejoined.'And it shall be of what we talked of long ago--many months--months is it, or weeks, or days?

which is it Nell?'

'I do not understand you,' said the child.

'It has come back upon me to-day, it has all come back since we have been sitting here.I bless thee for it, Nell!'

'For what, dear grandfather?'

'For what you said when we were first made beggars, Nell.Let us speak softly.Hush! for if they knew our purpose down stairs, they would cry that I was mad and take thee from me.We will not stop here another day.We will go far away from here.'

'Yes, let us go,' said the child earnestly.'Let us begone from this place, and never turn back or think of it again.Let us wander barefoot through the world, rather than linger here.'

'We will,' answered the old man, 'we will travel afoot through the fields and woods, and by the side of rivers, and trust ourselves to God in the places where He dwells.It is far better to lie down at night beneath an open sky like that yonder--see how bright it is--than to rest in close rooms which are always full of care and weary dreams.Thou and I together, Nell, may be cheerful and happy yet, and learn to forget this time, as if it had never been.'

'We will be happy,' cried the child.'We never can be here.'

'No, we never can again--never again--that's truly said,'

rejoined the old man.'Let us steal away to-morrow morning--early and softly, that we may not be seen or heard--and leave no trace or track for them to follow by.Poor Nell! Thy cheek is pale, and thy eyes are heavy with watching and weeping for me--I know--for me; but thou wilt be well again, and merry too, when we are far away.To-morrow morning, dear, we'll turn our faces from this scene of sorrow, and be as free and happy as the birds.'

And then the old man clasped his hands above her head, and said, in a few broken words, that from that time forth they would wander up and down together, and never part more until Death took one or other of the twain.

The child's heart beat high with hope and confidence.She had no thought of hunger, or cold, or thirst, or suffering.She saw in this, but a return of the simple pleasures they had once enjoyed, a relief from the gloomy solitude in which she had lived, an escape from the heartless people by whom she had been surrounded in her late time of trial, the restoration of the old man's health and peace, and a life of tranquil happiness.Sun, and stream, and meadow, and summer days, shone brightly in her view, and there was no dark tint in all the sparkling picture.

The old man had slept, for some hours, soundly in his bed, and she was yet busily engaged in preparing for their flight.There were a few articles of clothing for herself to carry, and a few for him;old garments, such as became their fallen fortunes, laid out to wear; and a staff to support his feeble steps, put ready for his use.But this was not all her task; for now she must visit the old rooms for the last time.

And how different the parting with them was, from any she had expected, and most of all from that which she had oftenest pictured to herself.How could she ever have thought of bidding them farewell in triumph, when the recollection of the many hours she had passed among them rose to her swelling heart, and made her feel the wish a cruelty: lonely and sad though many of those hours had been! She sat down at the window where she had spent so many evenings--darker far than this--and every thought of hope or cheerfulness that had occurred to her in that place came vividly upon her mind, and blotted out all its dull and mournful associations in an instant.