ecked
him by a look, adding, "Grandfather, these men suspect that we have
secretly left our friends, and mean to carry us before some gentlemen,
and have us taken care of, and sent back. If you let your hand tremble
so, we can never get away from them, but if you're only quiet now, we
shall do so easily."

"How?" muttered the old man. "Dear Nelly, how? They will shut me up in a
stone room, dark and cold, and chain me to the wall, Nell--flog me with
whips, and never let me see thee more!"

"You're trembling again!" said the child. "Keep close to me all day. I
shall find a time when we can steal away. When I do, mind you come with
me, and do not stop or speak a word. Hush! that's all."

"Halloa! what are you up to, my dear?" said Mr. Codlin, raising his head
and yawning.

"Making some nosegays," the child replied; "I'm going to try to sell
some. Will you have one?--as a present, I mean." Mr. Codlin stuck it in
his buttonhole with an air of ineffable complacency, and laid himself
down again.

As the morning wore on, the tents assumed a more brilliant appearance.
Men, who had lounged about in smock frocks and leather leggings, came
out in silken vests and hats and plumes, as jugglers or mountebanks.
Black-eyed gypsy girls, hooded in showy handkerchiefs, sallied forth to
tell fortunes. The dancing dogs, the stilts, the little lady and the
tall man and all the other attractions, with organs out of number, and
bands innumerable, emerged from the corners in which they had passed the
night, and flourished boldly in the sun.

Along the uncleared course, Short led his party, sounding the brazen
trumpet, and at his heels went Thomas Codlin, bearing the show, and
keeping his eyes on Nelly and her grandfather, as they rather lingered
in the rear. The child bore upon her arm the little basket with her
flowers, and sometimes stopped, with timid looks, to offer them at some
gay carriage, but, alas! there were many bolder beggars there, adepts at
their trade, and although some ladies smiled gently as they shook their
heads, and others cried: "See, what a pretty face!" they let the pretty
face pass on, and never thought that it looked tired or hungry, and
among all that gay throng, there was but one lady, who, taking her
flowers, put money in the child's trembling hand.

At length, late in the day, Mr. Codlin pitched the show in a convenient
spot, and the spectators were soon in the very triumph of the scene. The
child, sitting d