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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
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