From that epoch, except when the child was asleep, Hester had never felt a moment's safety: not a moment's calm enjoyment of her.
It was as if an evil spirit possessed the child, and had just then peeped forth in mockery.
Why, bless thee, child,' said the old man, patting her on the head,
I would have found my way back to YOU, grandfather,' said the child boldly; 'never fear.
should I kill my own child that its life might be given for the life of the babe of Baleka?
Suffer none to enter the hut till I return," I said; "and speak no word of the child that seems to be dead.
Meanwhile, I will inquire among the neighbors; or, if necessary, send the city-crier about the streets, to give notice of a lost child.
My dear wife," replied the husband, laughing heartily, "you are as much a child as Violet and Peony.
But it touched my heart so forcibly to think of parting entirely with the
child, and, for aught I knew, of having it murdered, or starved by neglect and ill-usage (which was much the same), that I could not think of it without horror.
The doctor walked to a table on the other side of the room, upon which, under a towel, lay the body of a still-born
child.
That I'm wasting my life, never having a moment's peace, either with
child, or nursing a
child, forever irritable, peevish, wretched myself and worrying others, repulsive to my husband, while the children are growing up unhappy, badly educated, and penniless.
The parts that pleased her most were the Revelations and the Prophecies,--parts whose dim and wondrous imagery, and fervent language, impressed her the more, that she questioned vainly of their meaning;--and she and her simple friend, the old
child and the young one, felt just alike about it.
