ed with
some risk. Andrew Swift sighed dolefully while Jessie or Silas Dexter
alluded to these matters of past experience: it was no easy matter to
talk him into a cheerful mood again; but the brave pair accomplished it
on their way home, when certainly either of them had as much need of a
comforter as he.

To have heard them, one might have supposed that no tears would be shed
when the tenement so long occupied by the flag-maker should come down.
Old Mortality will not be hindered in his thinking.

Andrew offered his son Silas to assist his neighbors in the labor of
removal, and his wife came with her service; and the rest of Salt Lane
was ready at the door to lend a helping hand, when it was understood
that the life and soul of the lane was going away to High Street.

Dexter's face was unusually bright while the work of packing went on. He
knew that for everybody's sake more light than usual must be diffused by
him that day. You know how it is that the brave win the notable
victories, when their troops have fallen back in despair, and would fain
beat a retreat. It is the living voice and the flashing eye, the courage
and the will. What is he, indeed, that he should surrender,--above all,
in the worst extremity?

How is death even swallowed up in victory, when the beleaguered spirit
dashes across the breach, and, unarmed, possesses life!

Dexter told Andrew Swift that Silas was worth a dozen draymen, and in
truth he was, that day; for he, and every one, were animated by the
spirit of the leader. Courage! at least for that day, though they dared
not look beyond it.

Thus these people went to High Street: into the house with many rooms,
four at least; into the rooms with many windows, and high ceilings,
which you could _not_ touch with your uplifted hand,--rooms whose walls
were papered, and whose floors should have carpets, for Dexter said the
house was leased for ten years, and they would make their home
comfortable. What ample scope they had! Many a fancy they had checked
before it became a wish in the old quarters, they were so cramped there,
though never in danger of suffocation, Heaven knows. Grandly the great
arch lifted over the old moss-grown roof. But now they need stifle no
fancy of all that should come to them; there was room in the house, and
behind it,--yes, a strip of ground in the rear, and against the brick
wall an apricot-tree and a grape-vine! Very Garden of Eden: was it big
enough for the Serpe