d small, hardly big enough "to
whip a cat round," or even a kitten--yet John gazed about it with an
air of proud possession.

"I declare I shall be as happy as a king. Only look out of the window!"

Ay, the window was the grand advantage; out of it one could crawl on to
the roof, and from the roof was the finest view in all Norton Bury. On
one side, the town, the Abbey, and beyond it a wide stretch of meadow
and woodland as far as you could see; on the other, the broad Ham, the
glittering curve of Severn, and the distant country, sloping up into
"the blue bills far away." A picture, which in its incessant variety,
its quiet beauty, and its inexpressibly soothing charm, was likely to
make the simple, everyday act of "looking out o' window," unconsciously
influence the mind as much as a world of books.

"Do you like your 'castle,' John?" said I, when I had silently watched
his beaming face; "will it suit you?"

"I rather think it will!" he cried in hearty delight. And my heart
likewise was very glad.

Dear little attic room! close against the sky--so close, that many a
time the rain came pattering in, or the sun beating down upon the roof
made it like a furnace, or the snow on the leads drifted so high as to
obscure the window--yet how merry, how happy, we have been there! How
often have we both looked back upon it in after days!

CHAPTER IV

Winter came early and sudden that year.

It was to me a long, dreary season, worse even than my winters
inevitably were. I never stirred from my room, and never saw anybody
but my father, Dr. Jessop, and Jael. At last I took courage to say to
the former that I wished he would send John Halifax up some day.

"What does thee want the lad for?"

"Only to see him."

"Pshaw! a lad out o' the tan-yard is not fit company for thee. Let him
alone; he'll do well enough if thee doesn't try to lift him out of his
place."

Lift John Halifax out of his "place"! I agreed with my father that
that was impossible; but then we evidently differed widely in our
definition of what the "place" might be. So, afraid of doing him harm,
and feeling how much his future depended on his favour with his master,
I did not discuss the matter. Only at every possible opportunity--and
they were rare--I managed to send John a little note, written carefully
in printed letters, for I knew he could read that; also a book or two,
out of which he might teach himself a little more.

Then I wait