And when I got to him, he did not speak, or seem surprised to see me there, more than three miles from home, beside the Oldham beech-tree; but he put my arm in his, and kept stroking my hand, as if he wanted to soothe me to be very quiet under some great heavy blow; and when I trembled so all over that I could not speak, he took me in his arms, and stooped down his head on mine, and began to shake and to cry in a strange muffled, groaning voice, till I, for very fright, stood quite still, and only begging him to tell me what he had heard. 
And when I reached him, he did not speak, or seem surprised to see me there, three miles from home; but he put my arm in his, and kept stroking my hand; and when I trembled, he took me in his arms, and stooped down his head, and began to shake and cry in a strange muffled voice, till, in fright, I begged him to tell me what he had heard.
