"Not a bit!" said John Halifax, pleasantly.

Before we left I wanted to see his room; he carried me up, and we
both sat down on the bed that had been poor Bill's. It was nothing
to boast of, being a mere sacking stuffed with hay--a blanket below,
and another at top; I had to beg from Jael the only pair of sheets
John owned for a long time. The attic was very low and small, hardly
big enough "to whip a cat round," or even a kitten--yet John gazed
about it with an air of proud possession.

"I declare I shall be as happy as a king. Only look out of the
window!"

Ay, the window was the grand advantage; out of it one could crawl on
to the roof, and from the roof was the finest view in all Norton
Bury. On one side, the town, the Abbey, and beyond it a wide stretch
of meadow and woodland as far as you could see; on the other, the
broad Ham, the glittering curve of Severn, and the distant country,
sloping up into "the blue bills far away." A picture, which in its
incessant variety, its quiet beauty, and its inexpressibly soothing
charm, was likely to make the simple, everyday act of "looking out o'
window," unconsciously influence the mind as much as a world of
books.

"Do you like your 'castle,' John?" said I, when I had silently
watched his beaming face; "will it suit you?"

"I rather think it will!" be cried in hearty delight. And my heart
likewise was very glad.