"There!" she said, "there he is!" as a step, hasty yet halting, was
heard on the pavement; and, turning up the light, she ran quickly to
open the door, which, to be sure, was unfastened, and to give the
greeting to her "boy," which, through many a year, had never been
omitted.
_Her_ boy,--you would have known that as soon as you saw him,--the same
eyes, same face, the same kindly look; but the face was thinner and
finer, and the brow was a student's brow, full of thought and
speculation; and, looking from her hearty, vigorous form, you saw that
his was slight to attenuation.
"Sit down, sonny, sit down and rest. There! how tired you look!"
bustling round him, smoothing his thin face and rough hair. "Now don't
do that! let your old mother do it!" It pleased her to call herself old,
though she was but just in her prime. "You've done enough for one day,
I'm sure, waiting on other people, and walking with your poor lame foot
till you're all but beat out. You be quiet now, and let somebody else
wait on you." And, going down on her knees, she took up the lame foot,
and began to unlace the cork-soled, high-cut shoe, and, drawing it out,
you saw that it was shrunken and small, and that the leg was shorter
than its fellow.
"Poor little foot!" rubbing it tenderly, smoothing the stocking over it,
and chafing it to bring warmth and life to its surface. Her "baby," she
called it, for it was no bigger than when he was a little fellow.
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