It was not easy to determine, for she was timid and fearful of being

repulsed. Here was a crying child, and there a noisy wife. In this, the

people seemed too poor; in that, too many. At length she stopped at

one where the family were seated round the table - chiefly because

there was an old man sitting in a cushioned chair beside the hearth,

and she thought he was a grandfather and would feel for hers.

There were besides, the cottager and his wife, and three young sturdy

children, brown as berries. The request was no sooner preferred, than

granted. The eldest boy ran out to fetch some milk, the second

dragged two stools towards the door, and the youngest crept to his

mother's gown, and looked at the strangers from beneath his

sunburnt hand.

God save you, master,' said the old cottager in a thin piping voice; 'are

you travelling far?'

Yes, Sir, a long way' - replied the child; for her grandfather appealed

to her.

'From London?' inquired the old man.

The child said yes.

Ah! He had been in London many a time - used to go there often once,

with waggons. It was nigh two-and-thirty year since he had been there

last, and he did hear say there were great changes. Like enough! He

had changed, himself, since then. Two-and-thirty year was a long time

and eighty-four a great age, though there was some he had known

that had lived to very hard upon a hundred - and not so hearty as he,

neither - no, nothing like it.

'Sit thee down, master, in the elbow chair,' said the old man, knocking

his stick upon the brick floor, and trying to do so sharply. 'Take a

pinch out o' that box; I don't take much myself, for it comes dear, but

I find it wakes me up sometimes, and ye're but a boy to me. I should

have a son pretty nigh as old as you if he'd lived, but they listed him

for a so'ger - he come back home though, for all he had but one poor

leg. He always said he'd be buried near the sun-dial he used to climb

upon when he was a baby, did my poor boy, and his words come true

you can see the place with your own eyes; we've kept the turf up,

ever since.'

He shook his head, and looking at his daughter with watery eyes, said

she needn't be afraid that he was going to talk about that, any more.

He didn't wish to trouble nobody, and if he had troubled anybody by

what he said, he asked pardon, that was all.

The Old Curiosity Shop