SELF-REPROVAL. 61 



woman a reputed hoarder, yet the most notorious hedge- 

 breaker in the neighbourhood,, and as for her lodger (so rarely 

 abroad in daylight), we had scarcely seen him ; though we had 

 heard and often smiled at the popular prejudice which asso- 

 ciated, in more than resemblance of name and person, the 

 crippled young Tomkius with the dwarfish effigy on the Tom- 

 kins' Tomb. But as we saw him that morning, with his 

 distorted form, his shrunken legs as they dangled powerlessly 

 over the stout sinewy arm of Ms athletic bearer, which more 

 than equalled them in size his pale face resting on the tall 

 countryman's shoulder, looking paler as contrasted with a coun- 

 tenance ruddy with health and exercise, and moi;e ghastly from 

 the wounded cheek and dark matted hair clinging to the 

 temples, the countenance rigid as in death, and stamped with 

 one expression that of perpetual suffering, heightened only 

 by accidental pain ; as we saw the poor youth thus, our heart 

 smote us for not having seen and known more of him before. 

 Ah ! it told us, then our butterfly rambles and researches 

 occupy us overmuch, and have made us think too little of this 

 our afflicted neighbour ! But this was a time, not for thinking, 

 but for acting ; and, seeing there was no one of all the lookers- 

 on disposed to make a single effort towards saving the life 

 which (if not extinct already) hung trembling on a thread, we 

 despatched a boy in the crowd for the nearest surgeon ; and 

 finding the old mistress of the house utterly incapable of 

 thinking or doing anything, we took possession of her kitchen 



