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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.
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Untitled Article
and kindly looking 1 , ftfid his purpose waa soon ascertained , by the heavy keys that swung from his hand . It waa the sexton , who came to look after his charge—the -church . Was it possible that he could know anything of the being who had just claimed sanctuary for her child within its precincts ? In brief time he had heard her brief history : * We call her the " Welsh wanderer , " for she has wandered many a day
backwards and forwards , up and down the country that lies at the foot of the hills . For a k * ng while we never knew why she would stand looking at them at times as if her eye 9 would look through them , and then turn away with a sigh fit - to make the heart of a stout man ache . We never knew why she would live away by herself , and go and find her rest in the barns , and sit beneath the hedges talking in a strange tongue to the boy , who almost lives in her arms . But she always was
civil and kindly , and somehow or other , every body liked her that she came near . And whenever any body did her any little service , she would give such a look—it meant to be a blessing , but with her sad pale face and sorrowful smile , was more like a misery . We never knew who she was , nor whence she carne , except by her strange clothing , and that told us that she must have lived somewhere yonder up among the mountains . We never knew till last year in the harvesting , when
a man came down to get work ; I was in the field at the time ; and when he came where she was a reaping , as soon as she set eyes upon him , she gave such a shriek as I have heard tell of , but never heard beifore—threw down her sickle , flew to the hedge where her baby was asleep , caught it up , and the queer basket and the bundle , and ran into the cop 9 e that you see over the yard yonder . She did not come for awhile again , and when she did , it was to look shyer than she had done before . — -And then we knew why ; for the strange man had lived up
among the mountains where she had come from , and knew all about her sad story . She was a rich farmer ' s daughter ; but , from what the man said ( and he had been one of their serving men ) , he was not like a father to her . Her mother was an Englishwoman , and had lived in a gentleman ' s family . She never had but this one , and took great pride in teaching her to read and write , and all sorts of learning—but she died before the girl could know much about them . The father was a
hard man . It was work , work , work , the whole day long , and all to get gain b y bis labour . The girl grew up to be loved by all who could love anything ; and she loved everything she came near . They say she would stand and look at the sky as if she loved it , and tlie mountains as if she loved them , and the trees and the water , and the birds and the sheep , and all—but when her father came , he would make her shrink up
like that poor bush you see yonder , sir , that has been frightened out of its life by the hot sun . If he saw her turn from her work an instant , to look at a flower , or pick up a pebble-stone , or anything that took her ftney , it waa alvrays to call out at her in anger . She . was very partial to those kind of things , and had a box full of all sort * of curiosities that she had picked up , and she used to give them to the neighbours children from time to time , who flocked round her , when bar father was
trot near to scare them away , like ehiokena about a hen . The man saw with his own eyes her father take the box , and pebbles and all , and throw tkeminto the pond , saying it was a shame to waste time on such rubbish . It might be * trMe , but I tell you , air > to show what sort of a
Untitled Article
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1834, page 518, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2635/page/58/
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