It will, it will.' 'Hush!' said Nicholas, laying his hand upon his shoulder.

'Be a man; you are nearly one by years, God help you.' 'By years!' cried Smike.

'Oh dear, dear, how many of them! How many of them since I was a little child, younger than any that are here now! Where are they all!' 'Whom do you speak of ?' inquired Nicholas, wishing to rouse the poor half-witted creature to reason.

'Tell me.' 'My friends,' he replied, 'myself--my--oh! what sufferings mine have been!' 'There is always hope,' said Nicholas; he knew not what to say.
'No,' rejoined the other, 'no; none for me.

Do you remember the boy that died here ?' 'I was not here, you know,' said Nicholas gently; 'but what of him ?' 'Why,' replied the youth, drawing closer to his questioner's side, 'I was with him at night, and when it was all silent he cried no more for friends he wished to come and sit with him, but began to see faces round his bed that came from home; he said they smiled, and talked to him; and he died at last lifting his head to kiss them.