On  this  day  it  had  become  evident  to  Pearson,  to
his  aged  guest,  and  to  Dorothy,  that  Ilbrahim's  brief
and  troubled  pilgrimage  drew  near  its  close.  The
two  former  would  willingly  have  remained  by  him,  to
make  use  of  the  prayers  and  pious  discourses  which
they  deemed  appropriate  to  the  time,  and  which,  if
they  be  impotent  as  to  the  departing  traveller's  recep
tion  in  the  world  whither  it  goes,  may  at  least  sus
tain  him  in  bidding  adieu  to  earth.  But  though  Ilbra-
him  uttered  no  complaint,  he  was  disturbed  by  the
faces  that  looked  upon  him  ;  so  that  Dorothy's  entrea
ties,  and  their  own  conviction  that  the  child's  feet
might  tread  heaven's  pavement  and  not  soil  it,  had
induced  the  two  Quakers  to  remove.  Ilbrahim  then
closed  his  eyes  and  grew  calm,  and,  except  for  now
and  then  a  kind  and  low  word  to  his  nurse,  might
have  been  thought  to  slumber.  As  nightfall  came
on,  however,  and  the  storm  began  to  rise,  something
seemed  to  trouble  t^£  repose  of  the  boy's  mind,  and
to  render  his  sense  ($f  Bearing  active  and  acute.  If  a
passing  wind  lingered  to  shake  the  casement,  he  strove
to  turn  his  head  towards  it ;  if  the  door  jarred  to  and
fro  upon  its  hinges,  he  looked  long  and  anxiously


124  TWICE-TOLD   TALES.
thitherward  ;  if  the  heavy  voice  of  the  old  man,  as  he
read  the  Scriptures,  rose  but  a  little  higher,  the  child
almost  held  his  dying  breath  to  listen  ;  if  a  snow-drift
swept  by  the  cottage,  with  a  sound  like  the  trailing
of  a  garment,  Ilbrahim  seemed  to  watch  that  some
visitant  should  enter.
