Mechanically, I kneeled to my uncle, who folded me in his arms.
"The blessing and prayers of an unworthy sinner go with thee, my poor child!" said he. "Remember, whatever happens, thou wilt ever have a home and a portion in thy uncle's house."
"She may need it yet, if things go on as they have begun," muttered the priest.
My cousins kissed me, and sobbed out their farewells as well as they could for weeping. I went out to the side door, where the priest's sleek mule, and my uncle's two men were waiting with their animals. My uncle kissed me again as he lifted me to my place behind Jacob Saunders, and whispered:
"I shall come to see thee soon, dear child. Try to be happy, and remember my house and heart are always open when you need a home."
"Why did you send me away, then?" I said bitterly, more to myself than him.
He heard me though, and answered, solemnly:
"Because I was a hasty fool, child. Pray for your poor uncle, and if you can, for your own sake, forgive him."
The priest now mounted his mule, and exchanged a courteous farewell with my uncle and aunt. The beasts were put in motion, we turned the corner, and in a moment, I lost sight of the house where I had been so happy for four long months. It was many a year before I saw it again. So closed one chapter of my life. It always did seem to me that I left my childhood behind me at that moment.
I have been the more particular in my account of my days in London, as matters have so greatly changed since that time. The little almshouses where we used to go to carry milk to the poor bedesmen and women are all swept away, and the ground mostly built over. What became of the old people I know not, but Sir Thomas Audley came into possession of the land, which he afterward gave to Maudlin College at Cambridge. There is not a religious foundation of any kind left in London, and St. Anthony and his pigs are equally to seek. St. Paul's hath been burned to the ground—by lightning, as was believed at the time and long after, till the sexton confessed on his death-bed that it was by his own fault—and is now in process of rebuilding.