william are you going to leave your own son where s my own son replied the old man where why there that s no son of mine said philip with resentment o such wretch as that has any claim on me my children are pleasant to look at and they wait upon me and get my meat and drink ready and are useful to me i ve a right to it i m eighty seven you re old enough to be no older muttered william looking at him with his hands in his pockets i don t know what good you are we could have a deal more pleasure without you my son mr said the old man my son too the boy talking to me of my son why what has he ever done to give me any pleasure i should like to know i don t know what you have ever done to give me any pleasure said william let me think said the old man for how many the haunted han christmas times have i sat in my warm place and never had to come out in the cold night air and have made good cheer being disturbed by any such uncomfortable wretched sight him there is it twenty william forty it seems he muttered why when i look at my father sir and come to think of it dressing with an impatience and irritation that were quite new i m whipped if i can see anything in him but a of ever so many years of eating and drinking and making himself comfortable over and oyer again i � i m said the old man rambling on and weakly and i don t know as i ever was much put out by anything i m not a going to begin now because of what he calls my son he s not my son i ye had a power of pleasant times i recollect once � no i don t � no it s broken o� el it was something about a game of and a mend of mine but it s somehow broken off i wonder who he was � i suppose i liked him and i wonder what became of him � i suppose he died but i don t know and i don t care neither i don t care a bit in his drowsy and the shaking of his the hat head he mb hands into his waistcoat pockets jn one of them he found a hit of left there probably last night he now took oat and looked at eh said the old man ah it s a pity they re not good to eat i recollect when i was a little chap about as high as that and out a walking with � let me see � who was i out a walking with � no i remember how that was i don t remember as i walked with any one particular or cared for any one or any one for me eh there s good cheer when there s well i ought to have my share of it and to be waited on and kept warm and comfortable for i m eighty seven and a poor old man i m ty seven ty seven the pitiable manner in which as he repeated this he at the leaves and the out the cold eye with which his youngest son so changed regarded him the determined with which his eldest son lay hardened in his sin impressed themselves no more on s observation � for he broke his way from the spot to which his feet to have been fixed and ran out of the house his guide came crawling forth from his place of refuge and was ready for him before he reached the arches the haunted han back to the woman s he inquired back quickly answered stop nowhere on the for a short distance the boy went on before but their return was more like a flight than a walk and it was as much as his bare feet could do to keep pace with the s rapid strides shrinking om au who passed in his cloak and keeping it drawn closely about him as though there were mortal in any fluttering touch of his garments he made no pause until they reached the door by which they had come out he unlocked it with his key went in accompanied by the boy and hastened through the dark passages to his own chamber the boy watched him as he made the door fast and withdrew behind the table when he looked round come he said don t you touch me you ve not brought me here to take my money away threw some more upon the ground he flung his body on it immediately as if to hide it him lest the sight of it should tempt him to it and not until he saw him seated by his lamp with his face hidden in his hands began to pick it up when he had done so he crept near the fire and the haunted sitting down in a great chair before it took his breast some broken scraps of food and fell to and to staring at the blaze and now and then to glancing at his shillings which he kept clenched up in a bunch in one hand and this said gazing on him with in and fear is the only one companion i hare left on earth how long it was before he was aroused from his contemplation of this creature whom he dreaded so � whether half an hour or the night � he knew not but the stillness of the room was broken by the boy whom he had seen listening starting up and running towards the door here s the woman coming he exclaimed the stopped him on his way at the moment 