water.

But Nell retained her grasp upon the old man's arm, and long after he
was slumbering soundly, watched him with untiring eyes. Fatigue stole
over her at last; her grasp relaxed, and they slept side by side. A
confusion of voices, mingling with her dreams, awoke her, and she
discovered a man of rough appearance standing over her, while his
companions were looking on from a canal-boat which had come close to the
bank while she was sleeping. The man spoke to Nell, asking what was the
matter, and where she and her grandfather were going. Nell faltered,
pointing at hazard toward the west--and upon the man inquiring if she
meant a certain town which he named, Nell, to avoid more questioning,
said "Yes, that was the place." After asking some other questions, he
mounted one of the horses towing the boat, which at once went on.
Presently it stopped again, and the man beckoned to Nell: "You may go
with us if you like," he said. "We're going to the same place."

The child hesitated for one moment. Thinking that the men whom she had
seen with her grandfather might perhaps in their eagerness for the
booty, follow them, and regain their influence over him, and that if
they went on the canal-boat all traces of them must be surely
lost--accepted the offer. Before she had any more time for
consideration, she and her grandfather were on board, gliding smoothly
down the canal, through the bright water.

They did not reach their destination until the following morning, and
Nell was glad indeed when the trip was ended, for the noisy rugged
fellows on the boat were rough enough to make her heart palpitate for
fear, but though they quarrelled among themselves, they were civil
enough to their two passengers; and at length the boat floated into its
destination. The men were occupied directly, and the child and her
grandfather, after waiting in vain to thank them, or ask whither they
should go, passed out into a crowded noisy street of a manufacturing
village, and stood, in the pouring rain, distressed and confused.
Evening came on. They were still wandering up and down, bewildered by
the hurry they beheld, but had no part in. Shivering with the cold and
damp, ill in body, and sick to death at heart, the child needed her
utmost resolution to creep along. No prospect of relief appearing, they
retraced their steps to the wharf, hoping to be allowed to sleep on
board the boat that night. But here again they were disappointed, for
the gate