I shall never be an old man; and if your hand placed me in the grave, and I could think, before I died, that you would come and look upon it sometimes with one of your kind smiles, and in the summer weather, when everything was alive--not dead like me--I could go to that home almost without a tear.' 'Why do you talk thus, poor boy, if your life is a happy one with me ?' said Nicholas.
'Because I should change; not those about me.

And if they forgot me, I should never know it,' replied Smike.

'In the churchyard we are all alike, but here there are none like me.

I am a poor creature, but I know that.' 'You are a foolish, silly creature,' said Nicholas cheerfully.

'If that is what you mean, I grant you that.