appeared so contented as when thus employed. His pipe was laid aside,
his beer forgotten, and he would only think of amusing and caressing his
charge, or of lulling it to sleep. The bigger children would cluster
round him, clamber over him, empty his pipe, upset his can, take all
sorts of liberties with him, yet never meet with a rebuke. At times,
however, he would appear lost in uneasy thought; gazing with earnestness
upon the features of the sleeping infant, while tears would course each
other down his cheeks.

As I drove one morning up to the door of the inn, and passed the bench
on which the old soldier was, as usual, sitting, with his little flock
of children playing round him, one of them, a very young one, suddenly
backed into the road, and in another moment more would have been
crushed: but the old man sprang forward; with a vigorous and wonderful
effort he seized the child with his only arm, and threw it several feet
out of the way of danger; he fell with the exertion, and was among my
horse's feet. In suddenly drawing up, I had unwittingly done my very
worst by the poor fellow; for I had caused the animal to trample upon
him a second time, and a wheel had likewise passed over his body.

He was taken up insensible. We carried him to a bed, and after a little
time he recovered his recollection. But he was so severely injured, that
we feared every moment would be his last.

The first words he uttered were, "The child! the child!" We assured him
that the child was safe; but he would not believe us, and it became
necessary to send into the village to search for the little creature,
who had been hurried home with the others upon the confusion that the
accident had occasioned. He continued to call for the child, and was in
the greatest distress of mind till we had found it, and had taken it to