bright stars. At these times, she would recall
the old house and the window at which she used to sit alone; and then
she would think of poor Kit and all his kindness, until the tears came
into her eyes, and she would weep and smile together.

Often and anxiously at this silent hour, her thoughts reverted to her
grandfather, and she would wonder how much he remembered of their
former life, and whether he was ever really mindful of the change in
their condition and of their late helplessness and destitution. When
they were wandering about, she seldom thought of this, but now she
could not help considering what would become of them if he fell sick,
or her own strength were to fail her. He was very patient and willing,
happy to execute any little task, and glad to be of use; but he was in
the same listless state, with no prospect of improvement--a mere
child--a poor, thoughtless, vacant creature--a harmless fond old man,
susceptible of tender love and regard for her, and of pleasant and
painful impressions, but alive to nothing more. It made her very sad
to know that this was so--so sad to see it that sometimes when he sat
idly by, smiling and nodding to her when she looked round, or when he
caressed some little child and carried it to and fro, as he was fond of
doing by the hour together, perplexed by its simple questions, yet
patient under his own infirmity, and seeming almost conscious of it
too, and humbled even before the mind of an infant--so sad it made her
to see him thus, that she would burst into tears, and, withdrawing into
some secret place, fall down upon her knees and pray that he might be
restored.

But, the bitterness of her grief was not in beholding him in this
condition, when he was at least content and tranquil, nor in her
solitary meditations on his altered state, though these were trials for
a young heart. Cause for deeper and heavier sorrow was yet to come.

One evening, a holiday night with them, Nell and her grandfather went
out to walk. They had been rather closely confined for some days, and
the weather being warm, they strolled a long distance. Clear of the
town, they took a footpath which struck through some pleasant fields,
judging that it would terminate in the road they quitted and enable
them to return that way. It made, however, a much wider circuit than
they had supposed, and thus they were tempted onward until sunset, when
they reached the track of which they were in search, and