Lillyvick, and called upon them to thank and bless him.
And this wonderful domestic scene,--this family reconciliation was
brought about by Miss Morleena, eldest of the four little Kenwigses,
with the flaxen tails!
LITTLE NELL
[Illustration: LITTLE NELL AND HER GRANDFATHER]
LITTLE NELL
There was once an old man, whose daughter dying, left in his care two
orphan children, a son twelve years old, and little Nell, a younger
girl. The grandfather was now an old and feeble man, but gathering
himself together as best he could, he began to trade;--in pictures
first--and then in curious ancient things, and from the Old Curiosity
Shop, as it was called, he was able to obtain a slender income.
The boy grew into a wayward youth, and soon quitted his grandfather's
home for companions more suited to his taste, but sweet little Nell
remained, and grew so like her mother, that when the old man had her on
his knee, and looked into her mild blue eyes, he felt as if his daughter
had come back, a child again.
The old man and little Nell dwelt alone,--he loving her with a
passionate devotion, and haunted with a fearful dread lest she should be
left to a life of poverty and want, when he should be called to leave
her. This fear so overmastered him that it led him to the gaming-table,
and--for her sake--he became a professional gambler, hoping to lay by a
vast fortune for her future use.
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