I don't wonder that the old gentleman wants to keep it from you.' 'He don't think it's cruel, bless you,' said Kit, 'and don't mean it to be so, or he wouldn't do it--I do consider, mother, that he wouldn't do it for all the gold and silver in the world.

No, no, that he wouldn't.
I know him better than that.' 'Then what does he do it for, and why does he keep it so close from you ?' said Mrs Nubbles.
'That I don't know,' returned her son.

'If he hadn't tried to keep it so close though, I should never have found it out, for it was his getting me away at night and sending me off so much earlier than he used to, that first made me curious to know what was going on.

Hark! what's that ?' 'It's only somebody outside.' 'It's somebody crossing over here,' said Kit, standing up to listen, 'and coming very fast too.

He can't have gone out after I left, and the house caught fire, mother!' The boy stood, for a moment, really bereft, by the apprehension he had conjured up, of the power to move.