On that morning, to
their surprise, he appeared to have absolutely regained new strength,
and to have been gifted with something like renovated power of speech.
"I want to get up," said he, "and it's only Tom an' Dora that I'll allow
to help me. You're all good, an' wor always good to grandfather, but Tom
was my best son, and signs on it--everything thruv wid him, an' God will
prosper an' bless him. Where's Dora?"
"Here, grandfather."
"Ay, that's the voice above all o' them that went like music to my
heart; but well I know, and always did, who you have that voice from;
ay, an' I know whose eyes--an' it's them that's the lovely eyes--Dora
has. Isn't the day fine, Dora?"
"It is, grandfather, a beautiful day."
"Ay, thank God. Well then I want to go out till I look--take one look at
the ould places; for somehow I think my heart was never so much in them
as now."
It is impossible to say how or why the feeling prevailed, but the fact
was, that the whole family were impressed with a conviction that this
partial and sudden restoration of his powers was merely what is termed
the lightening before death, and the consequence was, that every word he
spoke occasioned their grief, for the loss of the venerable and virtuous
patriarch, to break out with greater force. When he was dressed he
called Dora to aid her father in bringing him out, which she did with
streaming eyes and sobbings that she could scarcely restrain.
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