en.'

'We will be happy,' cried the child. 'We never can be here.'

'No, we never can again--never again--that's truly said,' rejoined the
old man. 'Let us steal away to-morrow morning--early and softly, that
we may not be seen or heard--and leave no trace or track for them to
follow by. Poor Nell! Thy cheek is pale, and thy eyes are heavy with
watching and weeping for me--I know--for me; but thou wilt be well
again, and merry too, when we are far away. To-morrow morning, dear,
we'll turn our faces from this scene of sorrow, and be as free and
happy as the birds.'

And then the old man clasped his hands above her head, and said, in a
few broken words, that from that time forth they would wander up and
down together, and never part more until Death took one or other of the
twain.

The child's heart beat high with hope and confidence. She had no
thought of hunger, or cold, or thirst, or suffering. She saw in this,
but a return of the simple pleasures they had once enjoyed, a relief
from the gloomy solitude in which she had lived, an escape from the
heartless people by whom she had been surrounded in her late time of
trial, the restoration of the old man's health and peace, and a life of
tranquil happiness. Sun, and stream, and meadow, and summer days,
shone brightly in her view, and there was no dark tint in all the
sparkling picture.

The old man had slept, for some hours, soundly in his bed, and she was
yet busily engaged in preparing for their flight. There were a few
articles of clothing for herself to carry, and a few for him; old
garments, such as became their fallen fortunes, laid out to wear; and a
staff to support his feeble steps, put ready for his use. But this was
not all her task; for now she must visit the old rooms for the last
time.

And how different the parting with them was, from any she had expected,
and most of all from that which she had oftenest pictured to herself.
How could she ever have thought of bidding them farewell in triumph,
when the recollection of the many hours she had passed among them rose
to her swelling heart, and made her feel the wish a cruelty: lonely and
sad though many of those hours had been! She sat down at the window
where she had spent so many evenings--darker far than this--and every
thought of hope or cheerfulness that had occurred to her in that place
came vividly upon her mind, and blotted out all its dull and mournful
associations in an instant.

He