But away among the thickly-built and crowded
houses, where there were thousands of persons breathing over and over
again the same hot and stagnant atmosphere, it seemed as if the most
delicate and weakly among them must be suffocated by the breathless heat.
Old Oliver suffered very greatly, but he said nothing about it; indeed he
generally forgot the cause of his languor and feebleness. He never knew
now the day of the week, nor the month of the year. If any one had told
him in the dog-days of July that it was still April, he would only have
answered gently that it was bright, warm weather for the time of year.
But about old times his memory was good enough; he could tell long
stories of his boyhood, and describe the hills of his native place in
such a manner as to set Tony full of longings after the country, with its
cornfields, and meadows, and hedge-rows, which he had never seen. He
remembered his Bible, too, and could repeat chapter after chapter
describing his Master's life, as they sat together in the perpetual
twilight of their room; for now that it was summer-time it did not seem
right to keep the gas burning.
Tony's crossing had failed him altogether, for in dry weather nobody
wanted it; but in this extremity Mr.
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