Peace, woman,' said the gentleman, 'your boy was in possession of all

his senses.'

'He was,' cried the mother; 'and he was the more easy to be led astray

because he had them. If you save this boy because he may not know

right from wrong, why did you not save mine who was never taught

the difference? You gentlemen have as good a right to punish her boy,

that God has kept in ignorance of sound and speech, as you have to

punish mine, that you kept in ignorance yourselves. How many of the

girls and boys - ah, men and women too - that are brought before you

and you don't pity, are deaf and dumb in their minds, and go wrong in

that state, and are punished in that state, body and soul, while you

gentlemen are quarrelling among yourselves whether they ought to

learn this or that? - Be a just man, Sir, and give me back my son.'

You are desperate,' said the gentleman, taking out his snuff-box, 'and

I am sorry for you.'

'I AM desperate,' returned the woman, 'and you have made me so.

Give me back my son, to work for these helpless children. Be a just

man, Sir, and, as you have had mercy upon this boy, give me back my

son!'

The child had seen and heard enough to know that this was not a

place at which to ask for alms. She led the old man softly from the

door, and they pursued their journey.

With less and less of hope or strength, as they went on, but with an

undiminished resolution not to betray by any word or sigh her sinking

state, so long as she had energy to move, the child, throughout the

remainder of that hard day, compelled herself to proceed: not even

stopping to rest as frequently as usual, to compensate in some

measure for the tardy pace at which she was obliged to walk. Evening

was drawing on, but had not closed in, when - still travelling among

the same dismal objects - they came to a busy town.

Faint and spiritless as they were, its streets were insupportable. After

humbly asking for relief at some few doors, and being repulsed, they

agreed to make their way out of it as speedily as they could, and try if

the inmates of any lone house beyond, would have more pity on their

exhausted state.

They were dragging themselves along through the last street, and the

child felt that the time was close at hand when her enfeebled powers

would bear no more. There appeared before them, at this juncture,

going in the same direction as themselves, a traveller on foot, who,

with a portmanteau strapped to his back, leaned upon a stout stick as

he walked, and read from a book which he held in his other hand.

The Old Curiosity Shop