ckle.

"Nurse says they sometimes let lodgings," I said; "and I should like
Nurse to see her sister; and," I candidly added, "I should like to see
her myself."

My father's uppermost wish was to please me; and as Oakford was known
to be healthy, and the doctor favoured the proposition, it was decided
according to my wishes. If we stayed long, my father was to go
backwards and forwards, and he was to fetch us when we went away. His
anxiety was still so great, and led him to watch me in a manner which
fidgeted me so much, that I think the doctor was only too glad that
the place should be sufficiently near to induce him to leave me to
the care of Nurse Bundle.

We went by coach to Oakford. I was not allowed to sit outside on this
journey. It was only a short one, however; and, truth to say, I did
not feel strong enough for any feats of energy, and went meekly enough
into that stuffy hole, the inside! Before following me, Nurse Bundle
gave some directions to the driver, of a kind that could only be
effectual in reference to a small place where everybody was known.

"Coachman! Oakford! And drop us at Mr. Buckle's, please, the saddler."

"High Street, isn't it?" said the fat coachman, looking down on Mrs.
Bundle exactly as a parrot looks down from his perch.

"To be sure; only three doors below the 'Crown.'"

With which Mrs. Bundle gathered up her skirts, and her worsted
workbag, and clambered into the coach.

There were two other "insides." One of these never spoke at all during
the journey. The other only spoke once, and he seems to have been
impelled thereto by a three hours' contemplation of the contrast
between my slim, wasted little figure, and Nurse Bundle's portly
person, as we sat opposite to him. He was a Scotchman, and I fancy "in
business."

"You're weel matched to sit on the one side," was his remark.

Once, when I was feeling faint, he opened the window without my having
spoken, and only acknowledged my thanks by a silent nod. When the
coach stopped in the High Street of Oakford, and Nurse Bundle had
descended, he so far relaxed, as he handed out me and the worsted
workbag, as to indulge his national thirst for general information by
the inquiring remark:

"You'll be staying at the 'Crown' the night, mem?"

"No, sir. We stop here," said Nurse Bundle.

I caught his keen blue eye at the window whilst the coach was delayed
by the getting out of our luggage. I do not think he missed one
feature of o