نل و پدربزرگش پیدا شدن

Chapter twenty

Nell and her Grandfather are Found

The carriage travelled on all through the next day, stopping only to change horses, or for the passengers to eat. It was a very long and tiring journey and Kit became very cold sitting at the back of the carriage. Soon it was dark again and snowing and there were many miles still to travel.

At last, at around midnight, they arrived in the small village. Kit went ahead to look for Nell’s cottage and when he found it he saw a light through the window. He knocked on the door. There was no answer, but he could hear a strange noise coming from inside. It sounded like a person singing, or crying, or perhaps both. He felt cold and worried. He pushed open the door and went inside. There was a weak fire burning in the room and in front of it there was a person sitting in a chair. It was an old man who was crying and talking to himself. He looked up, and then Kit knew who it was. It was his old master from The Old Curiosity Shop!

‘Master’ cried Kit, and he ran to him.

‘Another ghost’ said the old man.

‘I’m not a ghost. I’m Kit. your old servant. Don’t you remember?’ asked Kit. ‘Where is Nell? Oh, please tell me where Nell is.’

‘There have been lots of ghosts this evening, and they have all wanted to know where she is,’ the old man replied. ‘She’s in the next room, sleeping.’

‘Oh, thank goodness’ cried Kit.

‘But she has been asleep for such a long time,’ said the old man weakly. ‘Why do you lie there, Nell? Your friends come to the door asking, ‘Where is the sweet girl?’ and they start crying. She is so tired that she doesn’t move at all when she is sleeping. She needs to rest, then she will get better. Yes, she will get better.’

Kit could not speak. He had begun to cry. A few moments passed and then the door opened and in walked Mr Garland, the single gentleman and Mr Marton. They saw how upset the old man was and heard from Kit what he had said about his granddaughter.

The single gentleman - the old man’s younger brother - walked slowly to him and began to speak.

‘I know that you are tired and very upset about little Nell. And I know that you must still be sad about the death of her mother and grandmother. You loved them all. But do you remember another person who you once loved - your brother? You used to look after him and you shared a happy childhood together. But then he left home to travel the world. Imagine if that brother returned now, to look after you, just as you had looked after him before.’ He stopped for a moment before saying gently, ‘Do you recognize me, good brother?’

The old grandfather looked at all the people in the room and began to move slowly towards the room where Nell lay. As he moved he spoke.

‘You are trying to make me forget her. You will never do that. She is the only friend or relative I have. She is everything to me,’ he said as he walked into her room, gently calling her name.

The others, who were worried about him, followed him quietly into Nell’s room. They all felt very sad and more than one of them was crying.

Nell was dead. She lay on the little bed, white and not moving.

The old man did not want to believe it. He held her hand, the same hand that had led him on their long journey, and said that he needed to keep it warm. But it was too late. Sweet, kind Nell was dead.

She had been dead for two days. When she died there had been friends around her, and she had died quietly and without any pain. She had never complained and had been thankful to everyone who looked after her. They said that she had often spoken of the people who had been kind to her. She had said more than once that she would like to see Kit again. She wished that someone would tell Kit that she loved and missed him.

The day of the funeral came and many people from the village, all of them dressed in black, came to say goodbye to Nell. She was buried in the same churchyard that she had looked after herself. Just as she had planted flowers on the graves of children there, her friends did the same for her grave.

After the funeral, Nell’s grandfather was taken back to the cottage. He went into Nell’s room to look for her, but of course she was gone and he was very upset. He then went to Mr Marton the schoolteacher’s house to look for her there. He could not, would not, believe that she had died.

The days passed and he spent every day sitting by her grave, waiting for her return. His friends and his brother tried everything they could to make him understand that she had gone. Sadly, several weeks later, on a sunny spring day, they found him lying dead on her grave. He was buried next to her, and so, at last, Nell and her grandfather were together again, just as he had wanted.