But I could no more offer him the cold ham and pullet than take him by his beard and shake him.
"'Is he come, at last, at last ?' my poor mistress said, whose wits were wandering after her children.

'At last, at last! Then he will find them all.' "'Yes, ma'am, at last, at the last he will,' I answered, while I thought of the burial service, which I had heard three times in a week--for the little ones went to their graves in pairs to save ceremony; likewise of the Epistle of Saint Paul, which is not like our Lord's way of talking at all, but arguing instead of comforting.

And not to catch her up in that weak state, I said, 'He will find every one of them, ma'am.' "'Oh, but I want him for himself, for himself, as much as all the rest put together,' my dear lady said, without listening to me, but putting her hand to her ear to hearken for even so much as a mouse on the stairs.

'Do bring him, Betsy; only bring him, Betsy, and then let me go where my children are.' "I was surprised at her manner of speaking, which I would not have allowed to her, but more than all about her children, which she could only have been dreaming yet, for nobody else came nigh her except only me, miss, and you, miss, and for you to breathe words was impossible.
All you did was to lie very quiet, tucked up into your mother's side; and as regular as the time-piece went, wide came your eyes and your mouth to be fed.

If your nature had been cross or squally, 'baby's coffin No.