"--"Are you _alone?_"
inquired the old woman, in a harsh, deep tone, which made his heart
thrill with apprehension. "Yes," said the boy, "I am alone _here_; and
alas!" he added, with a burst of uncontrollable feeling, "I am alone in
the wide world also! Not a person exists who would assist me in
distress, or shed a single tear if I died this very night." "_Then_ you
are welcome!" said one of the men with a sneer, while he cast a glance
of peculiar expression at the other inhabitants of the cottage.
It was with a shiver of apprehension, rather than of cold, that the boy
drew towards the fire, and the looks which the old woman and her sons
exchanged, made him wish that he had preferred the shelter of any one
of the roofless cottages which were scattered near, rather than trust
himself among persons of such dubious aspect. Dreadful surmises flitted
across his brain; and terrors which he could neither combat nor examine
imperceptibly stole into his mind; but alone, and beyond the reach of
assistance, he resolved to smother his suspicions, or at least not
increase the danger by revealing them. The room to which he retired for
the night had a confused and desolate aspect; the curtains seemed to
have been violently torn down from the bed, and still hung in tatters
around it--the table seemed to have been broken by some violent
concussion, and the fragments of various pieces of furniture lay
scattered upon the floor.
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