| 326 | 327 | 328 | 329 | 330 |
| 1 | 133 | 265 | 398 | 530 |
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transferred to you who stood beside his bed. If this,' he added, looking
upwards, 'is the beautiful creation that springs from ashes, let its
peace prosper with me, as I deal tenderly and compassionately by this
young child!'
The plain, frank kindness of the honest schoolmaster, the affectionate
earnestness of his speech and manner, the truth which was stamped
upon his every word and look, gave the child a confidence in him,
which the utmost arts of treachery and dissimulation could never
have awakened in her breast. She told him all - that they had no
friend or relative - that she had fled with the old man, to save him
from a madhouse and all the miseries he dreaded - that she was flying
now, to save him from himself - and that she sought an asylum in
some remote and primitive place, where the temptation before which
he fell would never enter, and her late sorrows and distresses could
have no place.
The schoolmaster heard her with astonishment. 'This child!' - he
thought - 'Has this child heroically persevered under all doubts and
dangers, struggled with poverty and suffering, upheld and sustained
by strong affection and the consciousness of rectitude alone! And yet
the world is full of such heroism. Have I yet to learn that the hardest
and best-borne trials are those which are never chronicled in any
earthly record, and are suffered every day! And should I be surprised
to hear the story of this child!'
What more he thought or said, matters not. It was concluded that Nell
and her grandfather should accompany him to the village whither he
was bound, and that he should endeavour to find them some humble
occupation by which they could subsist. 'We shall be sure to succeed,'
said the schoolmaster, heartily. 'The cause is too good a one to fail.'
They arranged to proceed upon their journey next evening, as a stage-
waggon, which travelled for some distance on the same road as they
must take, would stop at the inn to change horses, and the driver for
a small gratuity would give Nell a place inside. A bargain was soon
struck when the waggon came; and in due time it rolled away; with
the child comfortably bestowed among the softer packages, her
grandfather and the schoolmaster walking on beside the driver, and
the landlady and all the good folks of the inn screaming out their good
wishes and farewells.
What a soothing, luxurious, drowsy way of travelling, to lie inside that
slowly-moving mountain, listening to the tinkling of the horses' bells,
the occasional smacking of the carter's whip, the smooth rolling of the
great broad wheels, the rattle of the harness, the cheery good-nights
of passing travellers jogging past on little short-stepped horses - all
made pleasantly indistinct by the thick awning, which seemed made
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