There was a piety too, a
reference in all she said to the pleasure and will of a reconciled God,
which added great charms to her narratives, and rendered them peculiarly
interesting to the little girl. Whilst Tamar was under her seventh year,
she never rambled beyond the moat alone; but being seven years old, and
without fear, she extended her excursions, and not unseldom ran as far
as Shanty's shed.
The old man had always taken credit to him self for the part he had had
in the prosperity of the little girl, and Mrs. Margaret did not fail to
tell her how she had first come to the Tower in Shanty's arms; on these
occasions the child used to say,--"then I must love him, must not I
ma'am?" And being told she must, she did so, that is, she encouraged the
feeling; and on a Sunday when he was washed and had his best coat on,
she used to climb upon his knees, for she always asked leave to visit
him on that day if he did not come up to the Tower, as he often did, to
ask for her, and being on his knees she used to repeat to him what she
had been learning during the week.
He was very much pleased, when she first read a chapter in the Bible,
and then it was that he first opened out to her some of his ideas on
religion; which were much clearer and brighter than either Mrs.
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