nods, and on one side at least not without tears, they parted
company.

They trudged forward, more slowly and painfully than
they had done yet, for another mile or thereabouts, when
they heard the sound of wheels behind them, and looking
round observed an empty cart approaching pretty briskly.
The driver on coming up to them stopped his horse and
looked earnestly at Nell.

"Didn't you stop to rest at a cottage yonder?" he said.

"Yes, sir," replied the child.

"Ah! They asked me to look out for you," said the
man. "I'm going your way. Give me your hand--jump
up, master."

This was a great relief, for they were very much fatigued
and could scarcely crawl along. To them the jolting cart
was a luxurious carriage, and the ride the most delicious
in the world. Nell had scarcely settled herself on a little
heap of straw in one corner, when she fell asleep, for the
first time that day.

She was awakened by the stopping of the cart, which
was about to turn up a bye-lane. The driver kindly got
down to help her out, and pointing to some trees at a very
short distance before them, said that the town lay there,
and that they had better take the path which they would
see, leading through the churchyard. Accordingly, towards
this spot they directed their weary steps.

THE sun was setting when they reached the wicket-gate
at which the path began, and, as the rain falls upon the
just and unjust alike, it shed its warm tint even upon the
resting-places of the dead, and bade them be of good hope
for its rising on the morrow. The church was old and
grey, with ivy clinging to the walls, and round the porch.
Shunning the tombs, it crept about the mounds, beneath
which slept poor humble men, twining for them the first
wreaths they had ever won, but wreaths less liable to
wither and far more lasting in their kind, than some which
were graven deep in stone and marble, and told in pompous
terms of virtues meekly hidden for many a year, and only
revealed at last to executors and mourning legatees.

-119-