thout a flow of
tears. It was in vain to try. He broke down again, endeavouring to bless
her!
'That done my Em'ly good,' he resumed, after such emotion as I could
not behold without sharing in; and as to my aunt, she wept with all her
heart; 'that done Em'ly good, and she begun to mend. But, the language
of that country was quite gone from her, and she was forced to make
signs. So she went on, getting better from day to day, slow, but sure,
and trying to learn the names of common things--names as she seemed
never to have heerd in all her life--till one evening come, when she
was a-setting at her window, looking at a little girl at play upon the
beach. And of a sudden this child held out her hand, and said, what
would be in English, "Fisherman's daughter, here's a shell!"--for you
are to unnerstand that they used at first to call her "Pretty lady", as
the general way in that country is, and that she had taught 'em to
call her "Fisherman's daughter" instead. The child says of a sudden,
"Fisherman's daughter, here's a shell!" Then Em'ly unnerstands her; and
she answers, bursting out a-crying; and it all comes back!
'When Em'ly got strong again,' said Mr. Peggotty, after another short
interval of silence, 'she cast about to leave that good young creetur,
and get to her own country. The husband was come home, then; and the two
together put her aboard a small trader bound to Leghorn, and from that
to France. She had a little money, but it was less than little as they
would take for all they done. I'm a'most glad on it, though they was
so poor! What they done, is laid up wheer neither moth or rust doth
corrupt, and wheer thieves do not break through nor steal. Mas'r Davy,
it'll outlast all the treasure in the wureld.
'Em'ly got to France, and took service to wait on travelling ladies at a
inn in the port. Theer, theer come, one day, that snake. --Let him never
come nigh me. I doen't know what hurt I might do him!--Soon as she see
him, without him seeing her, all her fear and wildness returned upon
her, and she fled afore the very breath he draw'd. She come to England,
and was set ashore at Dover.
'I doen't know,' said Mr. Peggotty, 'for sure, when her 'art begun to
fail her; but all the way to England she had thowt to come to her dear
home. Soon as she got to England she turned her face tow'rds it. But,
fear of not being forgiv, fear of being pinted at, fear of some of
us being dead along of her, fear of many things, t
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