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THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. |
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" Yes, yes. She will. Go on."
" He is an old man, worn with care and work. He is a spare, dejected, thoughtful, grey-haired man. I see him now, despondent and bowed down, and striving against nothing. But, Bertha, I have seen him many times before; and striving hard in many ways for one great sacred object. And I honour his grey head, and bless him !"
The Blind Girl broke away from her; and throwing herself upon her knees before him, took the grey head to her breast.
" It is my sight restored. It is my sight!" she cried. " I have been blind, and now my eyes are open. I never knew him ! To think I might have died, and never truly seen the father, who has been so loving to me !"
There were no words for Caleb's emotion.
" There is not a gallant figure on this earth," exclaimed the Blind Girl, holding him in her embrace, " that I would love so dearly, and would cherish so devotedly, as this ! The greyer, and more worn, the dearer, father! Never let them say I am blind again. There's not a furrow in his face, there's not a hair upon his head, that shall be forgotten in my prayers and thanks to Heaven !"
Caleb managed to articulate " My Bertha !"
" And in my Blindness, I believed him," said the girl, caressing him with tears of exquisite affection, "to be so different! And having him beside me, day by day, so mindful of me always, never dreamed of this !"
" The fresh smart father in the blue coat, Bertha," said poor Caleb. " He's gone !"
" Nothing is gone," she answered. " Dearest father, no! Everything is here—in you. The father that I loved so well; the father that I never loved enough, and never knew; the Benefactor whom I first began to reverence and love, because he had such sympathy for me; All are here in you. Nothing is dead to me. The Soul of all that was most dear to me is here—here, with the worn face, and the grey head. And I am not blind, father, any longer!"
Dot's whole attention had been concentrated, during this discourse, upon the father and daughter; but looking, now, towards the little Haymaker in the Moorish meadow, she saw that the clock was within a few minutes of striking; and fell, immediately, into a nervous and excited state.
" Father," said Bertha, hesitating. " Mary."
" Yes, my dear," returned Caleb. " Here she is."
" There is no change in her. You never told me anything of her that was not true ?" |
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