The Child of Waterloo, or, The Horrors of the Battle-Field — page 95: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

92 THE CHILD OF WATERLOO. up. She approached the tree; it was a large one, and must have stood there many years—and the wonder was, how it had con- trived to resist the inclination to fall into the lake, for its weight must have been enormous, and the loosened fibers and roots must have lost much of their hold and strength in the earth. But there was the tree, and there it hung. Mabel looked around carefully, but she could not see an one near—she felt uneasy, and again looked around with much anxiety. ‘‘Oh, if he should not come,” she muttered to herself, ‘‘and I have been brought here to endure all this misery and anxiety— but see! what is this moving? it must be him!” | She stooped low, so as to catch the figure against the water, to enable her to distinguish whether it were human or not, After a careful examination she could make out the figure of a map, who was creeping low by the bank, and coming cautiously toward her, at aslow pace. She trembled excessively, and Jooked around, as if to ascertain where her promised protection could come from, and clasped her hands. ‘Heaven and my innocence protect and guard me!” she ut- tered aloud. ‘* Don’t yer be alarmed, Miss Mabel, dear—it’s only I—Brolick- bones—you know. Here 1m I—oh, it’s a nice little place that I have got here—bedad, it was made to fit me, I think.” ‘You. Brolickbones! where are you?” exclaimed Mabel, look- ing up, for the sounds seemed to come from the air above rather than ary where else. ‘‘ Yes, Miss Mabel, dear, here I am in the tree, sure. Bedad, where would you find such a place as this to hide in, eh ?” ‘‘In the tree? Oh, you are near. then!” “Yes, Iam, dear Miss Mabel. Don’t yer be frightened at the ugly brute, but hear what he has to say. I thought I’d conceal myself here, and hear all about it myself, and then Pd be down upon the wagabone like a hawk upon a wagtail.” As he spoke, Brolickbones drew himself out of the hollow of the tree, and looked out upon Mabel, who, now aware of her protector’s place of concealment, felt. reassured. ‘‘] am glad you are there,” she said. ‘' The place is lonely, and I know not who comes.” ‘* Whist, darling; do you hear anything ?” ‘‘Nothing; but [can see a man coming this way, very cau- tiously; he’s creeping yonder by the bank. Take care he don't hear you.” “He can’t do that, dear: he is a thief of the world, but he can’t hear all that way; and if he should ax ye, all ye have to say is, that you thought it a good time to say yer prayers. Is he coming ?” ‘Yes; but very slow. He is looking and peering about in every direction, as if he were suspicious; and now he is listening and kneeling down. Perhaps he contemplates doing some deed of wickedness.” ‘* Bedad, and if he does, he’ll have an old Waterloo man a top of him in no time af all, at all. 1 baven’t lost my old tricks of comicbooks. com