us he ran into the house, crying out--
"Oh, Grannie, Grannie! dear me, dear me! there are two big ugly
blackamoors a-coming!"
Tom made a face, and looked at himself as if he did not much like the
compliment, though he might have felt he deserved it. I should have
caught up the little fellow and kissed him heartily, for I guessed that
he must be one of my dear sister Mary's children, and the first kindred
thing I had seen for many a long year. The cry brought out a neat, trim
old lady, in a mob cap. She gave me an inquiring glance through her
spectacles, and then, hurrying forward, caught me in her arms and kissed
me again and again on both cheeks in spite of my huge beard and
whiskers.
"My boy, my boy! you've came back at last to your old father and mother,
bless Heaven far it?" she exclaimed, holding me at arms' length to
examine my features, and then drawing me to her again. Tom pulled off
his hat, and scraped his feet, and hitched up his trousers, and looked
as if he expected to receive a similar welcome. Poor fellow! his heart
yearned, I dare say, to have the arms of his own old mother round his
neck. My mother looked at him to inquire who he was, and when I told
her, an expression of sorrow crossed over her features, and I too truly
guessed that she had some sad tidings for him. She, however, summoned a
maid-servant, to whom she whispered a few words, and then told her to
take him into the kitchen and make him comfortable. My father was out,
but while I was sitting in the parlour I heard him come in. My mother
went out to tell him that I had arrived, and he came hurrying in with
steps far more tottering than was formerly his wont. He wrung my hand
with both of his for more than a minute. From the tremulous motion of
his fingers, and the tone of his voice and his general appearance, with
sorrow I observed that he was much broken and aged. Still his playful
humour had not deserted him, and he soon began to amuse himself by
cutting jokes on my swarthy features and unshorn visage. Mary's little
boy, Jack, in a very short time, became perfectly reconciled to my
looks, and came and sat on my knee and let me dance him and ride him,
and listened eagerly to the songs I sang him and the stories I told.
Though I had not had a child in my hands for I don't know how many
years, it all came naturally, and the little chap and I became great
friends. Only my sister Jane, the one just above me in age, was at
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