The Woodville Republican. [volume] (Woodville, Miss.) 1847-1853, 1850-05-14

Il think she got TO be mohe timid, and
more frghtened-like, of late; and that hard
word was like blow to her But she was
always the same to me. She never chan.
ged to her foolish Peggotty, didn't MY sweet
girl"
Here Peggotty stopped. and softly beat
upon my hand little while.
"Tke last time that | saw her like her
own old self, was the night when you came
home, my dear. The day YOU went away,
she said to me, i never shall see my pretty
darling again. Some thing tells me so, that
tells the truth, know
"She tried to hold up after that; and ma
ny time, when they told her she was
thoughtless and hght-hearted, made believe
to be so; but it was all bygone then She
never told her husband what she had told
me-she was afraid of saying it to anybody
else-tlll one night, little more than a
week before it happened, when she said to
him: My dear, think am dying
"1t's off my mind now, Peggotty, she
told me, when | laid her in her bed that
night. He will believe it more and more,
poor fellow, every day for a few DAYS to
come; and then it will be past. am very
tired. If this is sleep, sit by me while
sleep: don't leave me. God bless both my
children! God protect and keep my father.
less boy.'
'1 never left her afterwards" said Pegot-
ty. "She often talked to them two down
stairs-for she loved them; she couldn't
bear not to love any one who was about
her-but when they went away from her
bedside, she always turned to me, as if there
was rest where Peggotty was, and never fell
asleep in any other way.
''On the last night, in the evening, she
kissed me- and said If my baby should
die too, Peggotty, please let them lay him
in my arms, and bury us together. lit was
done; for the poor lamb lived but day be-
yond her) Let my dearest boy go with
us to our resting-place' she said, and tell
him that his mother, when she lay here bless
ed him not once, but thousand times"
Another silence followed this. another
gentle beating on my hand
at was pretty far in the night" said
Peggotty. "when she asked me for some
drink; and when she had taken it, gave
me such patient smile, the dear so beau
tiful -
"Daybreak had come, and the sun was
rising, when she said to me, how kind and
considerate MIR. Copper6eld had always
been to her, and how he had borne with her,
and told her, when she doubted herself, that
a loving heart was better and stronger than
wisdom, and that he was happy man in
hers 'Peggotty my DEAR she said then.
put me nearer to you, for she was very
weak, Lay your good arm underneath my
neck, she said, and turn me to you, for your
face is going far off, and | want it to be
near. put it as she asked and oh Davy .
the time had come when my first parting
words to you were true-when she was glad
to lay her poor head on her stupid cross old
Peggotty's armand she died like a child
that mad gone to sleep"
Thus ended Peggotty's narration. From
the moment Of my knowing of the death of
my mother, the idea of her as she had been
of late had vanished from me. | remember
ed her from that instant, only as the young
mother OF my earliest impressions, who had
been used to wind her bright curls round
and round her finger, and to dance with me
at twilight IN the parlor What Peggotty
had told ME now, was so far from bringing
me back to the later period, that it rooted
the earlier image in my mind. 1t may be
curious, but it is true. In her death she
winged her way back to her calm untrou.
bled youth, and cancelled all the rest
/ The mother who lay in the grave, was
the mother of my infancy the little creature
in her arms, was myself, as had once been,
hushed forever on her bosom.
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