Earnshaw expected him by supper-time on the third evening, and she
put the meal off hour after hour; there were no signs of his
coming, however, and at last the children got tired of running down
to the gate to look. Then it grew dark; she would have had them to
bed, but they begged sadly to be allowed to stay up; and, just
about eleven o'clock, the door-latch was raised quietly, and in
stepped the master. He threw himself into a chair, laughing and
groaning, and bid them all stand off, for he was nearly killed - he
would not have such another walk for the three kingdoms.

'And at the end of it to be flighted to death!' he said, opening
his great-coat, which he held bundled up in his arms. 'See here,
wife! I was never so beaten with anything in my life: but you
must e'en take it as a gift of God; though it's as dark almost as
if it came from the devil.'

We crowded round, and over Miss Cathy's head I had a peep at a
dirty, ragged, black-haired child; big enough both to walk and
talk: indeed, its face looked older than Catherine's; yet when it
was set on its feet, it only stared round, and repeated over and
over again some gibberish that nobody could understand. I was
frightened, and Mrs. Earnshaw was ready to fling it out of doors:
she did fly up, asking how he could fashion to bring that gipsy
brat into the house, when they had their own bairns to feed and
fend for? What he meant to do with it, and whether he were mad?
The master tried to explain the matter; but he was really half dead
with fatigue, and all that I could make out, amongst her scolding,
was a tale of his seeing it starving, and houseless, and as good as
dumb, in the streets of Liverpool, where he picked it up and
inquired for its owner. Not a soul knew to whom it belonged, he