Chapter XI.
A FRIEND IN NEED.
It was the poor schoolmaster—no other than the poor schoolmaster. Scarcely less surprised by the sight of the child than she herself had been at the sight of him, he stood for a moment without even trying to raise her from the ground.
Then he threw down his stick and book, and dropping on one knee beside her, tried to restore her, while her grandfather, standing idly by, wrung his hands and begged her to speak to him, were it only a single word.
“She is quite worn out,” said the schoolmaster, glancing upward into his face. “You have tried her too far, friend.”
“She is dying of want,” rejoined the old man, “I never thought how weak and ill she was till now.”
Without another word the schoolmaster took the child in his arms, and bidding the old man gather up her little basket and follow him, bore her away at his utmost speed.
There was a small inn within sight, towards which he hurried with his burden, and rushing into the kitchen, placed it on a chair before the fire.
The landlady soon came running in, followed by her servant girl, carrying vinegar, hartshorn, and smelling-salts; and under their treatment the child came to herself after a while, and was able to thank them in a faint voice.
Without suffering her to speak another word, the women carried her off to bed; and having covered her up warm, bathed her cold feet, and wrapped them in flannel, they sent for the doctor.
He came with all speed, and taking his seat by the bedside of poor Nell, drew out his watch and felt her pulse. Next he looked at her tongue, then he felt her pulse again. At last he said very gravely, “Put her feet in hot water, and wrap them up in flannel. I should likewise,” he went on, “give her something light for supper—say the wing of a roasted fowl.”
“Why, goodness gracious me, sir, it’s cooking at the kitchen fire this instant!” cried the landlady. And so, indeed, it was; for the schoolmaster had ordered it to be put down, and it was getting on so well that the doctor might have smelt it if he had tried—perhaps he did.
While her supper was preparing, the child fell into a deep sleep, from which they were forced to rouse her when it was ready. As she was greatly troubled at the thought of being parted from her grandfather, the old man took his supper with her.
Finding her still very restless about him, they made him up a bed in an inner room. The key of this chamber was on that side of the door which was in Nell’s room; the poor child turned it on him when the landlady had gone, and crept to bed again with a thankful heart.
In the morning the child was better, but she was very weak, and would need at least a day’s rest and careful nursing before she could go on her journey. The schoolmaster at once said that he had a day to spare—two days for that matter—and could well afford to wait. As the patient was to sit up in the evening, he said he would visit her in her room at a certain hour, and going out with his book, he did not return until that hour arrived.
Nell could not help weeping when they were left alone; whereat, and at the sight of her pale face and wasted figure, the simple schoolmaster shed a few tears himself.
“It makes me unhappy, even in the midst of all this kindness,” said the child, “to think that we should be a burden upon you. How can I ever thank you? If I had not met you so far from home I must have died, and he would have been left alone.”
“We’ll not talk about dying,” said the schoolmaster; “and as to burdens, I have made my fortune since you slept at my cottage.”
“Indeed!” cried the child joyfully.
“Oh yes,” returned her friend. “I have been chosen as clerk and schoolmaster to a village a long way from here, and a long way from the old one, as you may suppose, at five-and-thirty pounds a year. Five-and-thirty pounds!”
“I am very glad,” said the child—”so very, very glad.”
“I am on my way there now,” the schoolmaster went on. “They gave me the stage-coach hire—outside stage-coach hire all the way. Bless you, they grudge me nothing. But as I have plenty of time, I made up my mind to walk. How glad I am to think I did so!”
“How glad should we be!” said the child.
“Yes, yes,” said the schoolmaster, “certainly—that’s very true. But you—where are you going, where are you coming from, what have you been doing since you left me, what had you been doing before? Now, tell me—do tell me. I know very little of the world, but I have a reason for loving you. I have felt since the time you visited me in my home as if my love for the boy who died had been given to you.”
The kindness of the honest man gave the child a great trust in him. She told him all—that they had no friends or relations; that she had fled with the old man to save him from misery; that she was flying now to save him from himself; and that she sought a home where he would not be tempted again.
For some time the schoolmaster sat deep in thought; then he said that Nell and her grandfather should go with him to the village whither he was bound; and that he would try to find them some work by which they could make a living. “We shall be sure to get on,” said the schoolmaster; “the cause is too good a one to fail.”
They soon found that a stage-wagon would stop at the inn the next night to change horses. When the wagon came Nell was placed inside, and in due time it rolled away, the two men walking on beside the driver, and the landlady and all the good folks of the inn shouting out their good wishes and farewells.
What a soothing, drowsy way of travelling, to lie inside that slowly moving mountain, listening to the tinkling of the horses’ bells, the smacking of the carter’s whip, the smooth rolling of the great broad wheels, the rattle of the harness, the cheery good-nights of passing travellers, all falling lightly upon the ear!
Now and again Nell would walk for a mile or two while her grandfather rode inside, and sometimes even the schoolmaster would take her place and lie down to rest. So they went on very happily until they came to a large town, where the wagon stopped, and they spent the night.
When they had passed through this town they came into the open country, and after a long ride began to draw near the schoolmaster’s new home.
“See—here’s the church!” cried the delighted schoolmaster in a low voice; “and that old building close beside it is the school-house, I’m sure. Five-and-thirty pounds a year in this lovely place!”
They admired everything—the old gray porch, the fine old windows, the gravestones in the green churchyard, the old tower, the very weather-cock, the brown thatched roofs of cottage barns peeping from among the trees, the stream that ran by the distant water-mill, the blue mountains far away.
“I must leave you somewhere for a few minutes,” said the schoolmaster at length. “I have a letter to present, you know. Where shall I take you? To the little inn yonder?”
“Let us wait here,” said Nell. “The gate is open. We will sit in the church porch till you come back.”
“A good place, too,” said the schoolmaster, leading the way towards it, and placing his bag on the stone seat. “Be sure that I will come back with good news, and will not be long gone.”
So the happy schoolmaster put on a pair of new gloves which he had carried in a little parcel in his pocket all the way, and hurried off, full of pleasant excitement.
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