Part 27 (2/2)

'That would be too severe a trial, even for your willing legs,' said Nicholas, with a good-hu is some thirty and odd miles from London-as I found from a ain toh to loiter Let me relieve you of that bundle! Co back a few steps 'Don't ask ive it up to you'

'Why not?' asked Nicholas

'Letfor you, at least,' said Sht You will never kno I think, day and night, of ways to please you'

'You are a foolish fellow to say it, for I knoell, and see it, or I should be a blind and senseless beast,' rejoined Nicholas 'Let me ask you a question while I think of it, and there is no one by,' he added, looking hioodhis head sorrowfully 'I think I had once; but it's all gone now-all gone'

'Why do you think you had once?' asked Nicholas, turning quickly upon hih the answer in some way helped out the purport of his question

'Because I could remember, when I was a child,' said So, or at least it seeiddy at that place you took me from; and could never remember, and sometimes couldn't even understand, what they said tonow,' said Nicholas, touching him on the arm

'No,' replied his co how-' He shi+vered involuntarily as he spoke

'Think no more of that place, for it is all over,' retorted Nicholas, fixing his eyes full upon that of his coaze, once habitual to him, and common even then 'What of the first day you went to Yorkshi+re?'

'Eh!' cried the lad

'That was before you began to lose your recollection, you know,' said Nicholas quietly 'Was the weather hot or cold?'

'Wet,' replied the boy 'Very wet I have always said, when it has rained hard, that it was like the night I cah to see me cry when the rain fell heavily It was like a child, they said, and that made me think of it more I turned cold all over so in at the very same door'

'As you were then,' repeated Nicholas, with assumed carelessness; 'hoas that?'

'Such a little creature,' said Sht have had pity and mercy upon me, only to remember it'

'You didn't find your way there, alone!' remarked Nicholas

'No,' rejoined Smike, 'oh no'

'Who ith you?'

'A man-a dark, withered man I have heard thelad to leave him, I was afraid of him; but they made me more afraid of them, and usedto attract his full attention 'There; don't turn away Do you re over you once, and kissed your lips, and called you her child?'

'No,' said the poor creature, shaking his head, 'no, never'

'Nor any house but that house in Yorkshi+re?'

'No,' rejoined the youth, with a e lonesome room at the top of a house, where there was a trap-door in the ceiling I have covered htened ht: and I used to wonder as on the other side There was a clock too, an old clock, in one corner I reotten that room; for when I have terrible dreas and people in it that I had never seen then, but there is the rooes'

'Will you letthe theme

'No,' said Smike, 'no Come, let us walk on'

He quickened his pace as he said this, apparently under the i the whole of the previous dialogue Nicholas marked him closely, and every word of this conversation remained upon his memory

It was, by this tih a dense vapour still enveloped the city they had left, as if the very breath of its busy people hung over their schereater attraction there than in the quiet region above, in the open country it was clear and fair Occasionally, in some low spots they came upon patches of holds; but these were soon passed, and as they laboured up the hills beyond, it was pleasant to look down, and see how the sluggishinfluence of day A broad, fine, honest sun lighted up the green pastures and dimpled water with the seorating freshness of that early tiround seemed elastic under their feet; the sheep-bells were music to their ears; and exhilarated by exercise, and stith of lions

The day wore on, and all these bright colours subsided, and assu hopes softened down by ti into the cale But they were scarcely less beautiful in their slow decline, than they had been in their priives to every ti to night, as froentle and easy, that we can scarcelythey caained for two hu they were astir: though not quite so early as the sun: and again afoot; if not with all the freshness of yesterday, still, with enough of hope and spirit to bear them cheerily on

It was a harder day's journey than yesterday's, for there were long and weary hills to clireat deal easier to go down hill than up However, they kept on, with unabated perseverance, and the hill has not yet lifted its face to heaven that perseverance will not gain the summit of at last

They walked upon the rireedy interest as Nicholas read the inscription upon the stone which, reared upon that wild spot, tells of a rass on which they stood, had once been dyed with gore; and the blood of the murdered ives the place its naht Nicholas, as he looked into the void, 'never held fitter liquor than that!'

Onward they kept, with steady purpose, and entered at length upon a wide and spacious tract of doith every variety of little hill and plain to change their verdant surface Here, there shot up, alht so steep, as to be hardly accessible to any but the sheep and goats that fed upon its sides, and there, stood aoff so delicately, and round, that you could scarce define its li above each other; and undulations shapely and uncouth, sently side by side, bounded the view in each direction; while frequently, with unexpected noise, there uprose fro round the nearest hills, as if uncertain of their course, suddenly poised the vista of soht itself

By degrees, the prospect receded more and more on either hand, and as they had been shut out froain upon the open country The knowledge that they were drawing near their place of destination, gave thee to proceed; but the way had been difficult, and they had loitered on the road, and Sht had already closed in, when they turned off the path to the door of a roadside inn, yet twelve miles short of Ports with both hands on his stick, and looking doubtfully at S ood road?' inquired Nicholas

'Very bad,' said the landlord As of course, being a landlord, he would say

'I want to get on,' observed Nicholas, hesitating 'I scarcely knohat to do'

'Don't let o on if it was me'

'Wouldn't you?' asked Nicholas, with the same uncertainty

'Not if I knehen I ell off,' said the landlord And having said it he pulled up his apron, put his hands into his pockets, and, taking a step or two outside the door, looked down the dark road with an assulance at the toil-worn face of Smike determined Nicholas, so without any further consideration he made up his mind to stay where he was

The landlord led theood fire he remarked that it was very cold If there had happened to be a bad one he would have observed that it was very warive us for supper?' was Nicholas's natural question

'Why-ould you like?' was the landlord's no less natural answer

Nicholas suggested cold s, but there were no eggs-mutton chops, but there wasn't a h there had been more last week than they knehat to do with, and would be an extraordinary supply the day after tomorrow

'Then,' said Nicholas, 'I must leave it entirely to you, as I would have done, at first, if you had allowed me'

'Why, then I'll tell you what,' rejoined the landlord 'There's a gentle and potatoes, at nine There's e, and I have very little doubt that if I ask leave, you can sup with him I'll do that, in ahim 'I would rather not I-at least-pshahy cannot I speak out? Here; you see that I a in a very humble manner, and have made my way hither on foot It is entleure you see, I am too proud to thrust myself into his'