each of the men, and spoke a kind word to them about their individual cases and ailments; and so they departed, answering his questions in the fewest words, and retreated to their dens, a sorrowful repentant crew.
All but Bunce, who still remained to make his own farewell. "There's poor old Bell,"' said Mr. Harding, "I mustn't go without saying a word to him; come through with me, Bunce, and bring the wine with you;" and so they went through to the men's cottages, and found the old man propped up as usual in his bed.
"I've come to say good-bye to you, Bell," said Mr. Harding, speaking loud, for the old man was deaf.
"And are you going away, then, really?" asked Bell.
"Indeed I am, and I've brought you a glass of wine; so that we may part friends, as we lived, you know."
The old man took the proffered glass in his shaking hands, and drank it eagerly. "God bless you, Bell!" said Mr. Harding; "good-bye, my old friend."
"And so you're really going?" the man again asked.
"Indeed I am, Bell."
The poor old bed-ridden creature still kept Mr. Harding's hand in his own, and the warden thought that he had met with something like warmth of feeling in the one of all his subjects from whom it was the least likely to be expected, for poor old Bell had nearly outlived all human feelings. "And your reverence," said he, and then he paused, while his old palsied head shook horribly, and his shrivelled cheeks sank lower within his jaws, and his glazy eye gleamed with a momentary light; "and your reverence, shall we get the hundred a year, then?"
How gently did Mr. Harding try to extinguish the false hope of money which had been so wretchedly raised to disturb the quiet of the dying man! One other week and his mortal
