it was necessary to be very careful, as they were on their way to
an utterly strange place, with no resource whatever. A small loaf and
a morsel of cheese, therefore, were all she could afford, and with
these she took her place in the boat again, and, after half an hour's
delay during which the men were drinking at the public-house, proceeded
on the journey.

They brought some beer and spirits into the boat with them, and what
with drinking freely before, and again now, were soon in a fair way of
being quarrelsome and intoxicated. Avoiding the small cabin,
therefore, which was very dark and filthy, and to which they often
invited both her and her grandfather, Nell sat in the open air with the
old man by her side: listening to their boisterous hosts with a
palpitating heart, and almost wishing herself safe on shore again
though she should have to walk all night.

They were, in truth, very rugged, noisy fellows, and quite brutal among
themselves, though civil enough to their two passengers. Thus, when a
quarrel arose between the man who was steering and his friend in the
cabin, upon the question who had first suggested the propriety of
offering Nell some beer, and when the quarrel led to a scuffle in which
they beat each other fearfully, to her inexpressible terror, neither
visited his displeasure upon her, but each contented himself with
venting it on his adversary, on whom, in addition to blows, he bestowed
a variety of compliments, which, happily for the child, were conveyed
in terms, to her quite unintelligible. The difference was finally
adjusted, by the man who had come out of the cabin knocking the other
into it head first, and taking the helm into his own hands, without
evincing the least discomposure himself, or causing any in his friend,
who, being of a tolerably strong constitution and perfectly inured to
such trifles, went to sleep as he was, with his heels upwards, and in a
couple of minutes or so was snoring comfortably.

By this time it was night again, and though the child felt cold, being
but poorly clad, her anxious thoughts were far removed from her own
suffering or uneasiness, and busily engaged in endeavouring to devise
some scheme for their joint subsistence. The same spirit which had
supported her on the previous night, upheld and sustained her now. Her
grandfather lay sleeping safely at her side, and the crime to which his
madness urged him, was not committed. That was her comfort.

How