You are told so very often, I am
sure.'
As a general principle, Dolly DID know it, and WAS told so, very often.
But the coachmaker had turned out, years ago, to be a special donkey;
and whether she had been afraid of making similar discoveries in others,
or had grown by dint of long custom to be careless of compliments
generally, certain it is that although she cried so much, she was better
pleased to be told so now, than ever she had been in all her life.
'I shall bless your name,' sobbed the locksmith's little daughter, 'as
long as I live. I shall never hear it spoken without feeling as if my
heart would burst. I shall remember it in my prayers, every night and
morning till I die!'
'Will you?' said Joe, eagerly. 'Will you indeed? It makes me--well, it
makes me very glad and proud to hear you say so.'
Dolly still sobbed, and held her handkerchief to her eyes. Joe still
stood, looking at her.
'Your voice,' said Joe, 'brings up old times so pleasantly, that, for
the moment, I feel as if that night--there can be no harm in talking
of that night now--had come back, and nothing had happened in the mean
time. I feel as if I hadn't suffered any hardships, but had knocked down
poor Tom Cobb only yesterday, and had come to see you with my bundle on
my shoulder before running away.
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