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Untitled Article
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Transcript
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
bare-armed and bare-footed ; the arms so slight and attendated , as to make you wonder at the strength that lifted the stout , ruddy , tired child so lightly . She pushed the hat that had occasioned a part of the mystery—but was , in fact , only in keeping with the rest of her costume—from her brow , discovering a broad expanse of forehead , and at the same time a nobility of expression in the face , which was one of its peculiar characteristics , but which , owing to the partial concealment , had until now remained unnoticed . At her back she bore a
lightly , but strongly-made basket , somewhat similar in shape to the coracle of the fisherman , to which was attached at either end a cord , fastened from side to side , so as to form two flexible handles . She threw it , and the small bundle it contained , on the ground—her hat next—and the whole of her beautifully formed head was given to view . She then dropped on her knees to the child , and taking the round ,
heated , tired face between her hands , kissed it repeatedly and tenderly —not smotheringly , but so lightly as if she would kiss away the slight shade fatigue had caused to rest upon it ; all the while murmuring' some words in a tone that was like that of a dove cooing to its young . It was a strange siglit to see the ruddy face of the boy by the side of his pallid mother . It was as if , like the fable of the pelican of the wilderness , she had drawn from her own veins the blood which had nourished him
into health and vigour . His dress was of the simplest possible make , and humblest material , but there was nothihg in his appearance to betoken the slightest discomfort . He wore , suspended from his neck , a small dog-whistle , which seemed neither to belong to the character of ornament or plaything . The mother rose from her knees and seated the child gently on the grass , and then moved towards a thickly-boughed dwarf tree at the end of the terrace . On her way she continually looked
back , and spoke to the boy in Welsh , and , from the exquisite tenderness of her voice , the harshness usually found in a language abounding in gutturals was entirely lost . She busied herself among the boughs of the tree , trying the different strengths of some , and twisting others skilfully and rapidly in and out , so as to form a kind of bower , She kept up a continued coo to the child during the whole of her work , hurried back to him the moment it was completed , and , with him in one
hand , and the basket and bundle in the other , again turned towards the tree . She succeeded in securing the cradle-basket to the bough , so that it would rock with a gentle touch , and then lifted the boy and laid him down within it , with the bundle for a pillow . She then took up the whistle , looked at him earnestly , pointed to it , spoke one steady , emphatic word , and then locked it in his little hand , with hers upon it ; again and again kissed him , and again and again drew back from the cradle to look at him . She then began tenderly to move it , and at the
same time to sing , in a low lulling tone , an air which at first recalled the well known * Rising of the Lark , ' but as it went on proved to he of an entirely different character . The traveller watched earnestly , and listened attentively . He was both poet and musician . He marked well the gesture and expression that accompanied the air . It served him for an after record , and although passing from his own mind , and given in his own language , it is yet a faithful ^ interpretation in words of the feeling that pervaded the whole scene .
Untitled Article
510 ThtWeUh Wander ** .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 516, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/56/
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