If he should consent, there would be a constant remembrancer of his own defective person ever before him; it was quite enough to be sensible of his condition without so palpable an image haunting the precincts of his home. Then Kittie would be drawn from him to the poor boy, who had already enlisted more of her sympathies than he had ever done. He would like to please her, though, and it would be a sort of patronage toward the boy that might exalt himself in Kittie's estimation.
It was very singular how much influence the child exercised over him. He was pettish and cross toward her, and made it a great condescension to do any thing that she proposed; and yet, to thwart her in any one thing made him uneasy and miserable. "What would Kittie think?" and, "Would it please Kittie?" were questions that he was more willing to put to himself than to acknowledge to any body else. He could not mistake his cousin's wishes now, and he meant all the time to gratify her, but the perverse nature would have its vent, and so he said, very ungraciously,
"There's one thing—the pony needs better care than Jim ever gave it, and perhaps Archie might be gentle with it, and his father can mind the garden at odd times. I've half a mind to try him; but he must know his place, and not be thinking himself an equal just because we choose to benefit him."
Kittie did not care what he did, nor how he got there, so that he really had the permission, and before Willie had time to alter his mind she had flown out the gate, and was fast nearing the humble cottage. The workmen had dispersed, and the door and windows were closed, and the curtains all down, so that the child thought nobody was there, but she went quietly in, as she had been accustomed, and tapped at Archie's room. There was a sound of voices within, and she heard the old woman murmuring against the new proprietor of the ground for disturbing her in her old age; but she was scarcely prepared for such a burst of grief as met her from Archie, as she entered the room and spoke to him in her soothing gentle manner. His treasures were lying upon his bed ready for the packing in a small box that he held in his hand, and his books and clothes were piled up on the table awaiting their final destination.
The child had never seen him so pale and troubled in all his trying illness as he now looked, and his unconcealed, unsuppressed sorrow frightened her so that she had scarcely a word to say, until he became somewhat calm, and then she told him of the small house on her uncle's domains, and the permission he had to occupy it. "It is so much better than this, Archie!" said she, looking out the window upon the barren space, and around the room at the dingy and tottering walls. They were both very grateful—the old woman and the boy—but nobody could tell with what tenacity their affections clung to every splinter of the old building, and what a bitter step it was, that last one, over the threshold of their lowly home.
CHAPTER VIII.
The morrow had come, and the old woman knew that the word had gone forth against her humble tenement, and that there could be no appeal, so she quietly betook herself to the vacant cottage within the grounds of Mr. Lincoln with the feeling that "it was not long that she had to stay upon the earth anyhow, and it mattered little where she spent her few remaining days."
Archie said nothing to his grandmother about his own movements, but while she went her way to the new home he turned toward the beautiful cemetery, and there, upon the head of his mother's grave, he deposited the box of treasures, not with any false or superstitious notion, but from a sacred and loving impulse. It had seemed such a sacrilege, to him, to remove them from the spot where her own hand had placed them; besides, there was no hallowed nook in the strange home, and this was why he sought the most consecrated part of earth for these precious relics. All about, upon the graves of the poor, he had seen similar tokens, and had observed that even the most careless and light-hearted passer-by had never stooped to touch what a pious affection had made sacred. Some, it is true, had looked with contempt upon these simple tributes, and had suffered the words "heathen fanatics!" to escape their lips; but these same persons would spend hours before the costly ornaments above a richer body, and find in them no motive but a commendable and proper respect, whereas the Omniscient could note the pride engraven upon the one, and the sincere and earnest feeling that marked the other. It didn't matter much to Archie what any body said or thought. He knew that there his treasures were safe, and he felt them to be an appropriate monument until his secret wishes respecting his mother's ashes could be attained, so he left them, and sauntered slowly away. Gay parties, whose only motive in seeking the dwelling-place of the dead was the gratification of the outward senses, looked from their luxurious carriages upon the poor hunchback with a careless indifferent feeling as he passed along with bent frame and serious air, little dreaming of the great soul that tenanted so feeble a body.
One alone of a merry group paused, and leaned eagerly forward to give some token of recognition to the lad, whose errand there she could readily guess. "What is it, Kittie?" asked half a dozen of her light-hearted companions, as she smiled sweetly and bowed to the boy. "It can't be human;" and then they laughed as the child's sad face looked reproachfully at them. As if this miserable shell that, however attractive and beauteous now, must, one day, be clothed in a loathsome corruption, could affect in any way the glorious and undying principle within! Not "human!" because clad in an uncouth and unsightly garment! as well might we spurn the immortal spirits for once dwelling in clayey tenements, as to make a mock and derision of those who, for some wise but hidden purpose, are made to walk this earth with marred and uncomely figures. Not "human!" Kittie knew how much of humanity there was in the sorrowing heart that was even now beating with a pure and filial affection, as the weary steps plodded through the pleasant avenues. She remembered the deep and grateful feeling that was so constantly manifesting itself toward her gentle mother as she ministered to him on his sick bed, and she could appreciate his noble, and generous, and loving nature, while others saw but the distorted figure that came between them and an otherwise undisturbed beauty. Take heart, poor youth! There are kindred loving eyes on earth that beam even for thee!