The Old Curiosity Shop


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The milk arrived, and the child producing her little basket, and  
selecting its best fragments for her grandfather, they made a hearty  
meal. The furniture of the room was very homely of course - a few  
rough chairs and a table, a corner cupboard with their little stock of  
crockery and delf, a gaudy tea-tray, representing a lady in bright red,  
walking out with a very blue parasol, a few common, coloured  
scripture subjects in frames upon the wall and chimney, an old dwarf  
clothes-press and an eight-day clock, with a few bright saucepans and  
a kettle, comprised the whole. But everything was clean and neat, and  
as the child glanced round, she felt a tranquil air of comfort and  
content to which she had long been unaccustomed.  
'How far is it to any town or village?' she asked of the husband.  
'
A matter of good five mile, my dear,' was the reply, 'but you're not  
going on to-night?'  
'
'
Yes, yes, Nell,' said the old man hastily, urging her too by signs.  
Further on, further on, darling, further away if we walk till midnight.'  
'There's a good barn hard by, master,' said the man, 'or there's  
travellers' lodging, I know, at the Plow an' Harrer. Excuse me, but you  
do seem a little tired, and unless you're very anxious to get on - '  
'
Yes, yes, we are,' returned the old man fretfully. 'Further away, dear  
Nell, pray further away.'  
'
'
We must go on, indeed,' said the child, yielding to his restless wish.  
We thank you very much, but we cannot stop so soon. I'm quite  
ready, grandfather.'  
But the woman had observed, from the young wanderer's gait, that  
one of her little feet was blistered and sore, and being a woman and a  
mother too, she would not suffer her to go until she had washed the  
place and applied some simple remedy, which she did so carefully and  
with such a gentle hand - rough-grained and hard though it was, with  
work - that the child's heart was too full to admit of her saying more  
than a fervent 'God bless you!' nor could she look back nor trust  
herself to speak, until they had left the cottage some distance behind.  
When she turned her head, she saw that the whole family, even the  
old grandfather, were standing in the road watching them as they  
went, and so, with many waves of the hand, and cheering nods, and  
on one side at least not without tears, they parted company.  
They trudged forward, more slowly and painfully than they had done  
yet, for another mile or thereabouts, when they heard the sound of  
wheels behind them, and looking round observed an empty cart  


Page
112 113 114 115 116

Quick Jump
1 133 265 398 530