"Shall I run and get it, uncle?" I said, as I saw him raise his hand to
his head and find no hat there to be taken off. "I should be back in a
minute!"
It was the first word spoken between us. "No, my little one," he
answered, wiping his forehead: his voice sounded far away, like that of
one speaking in a dream; "I can't let you out of my sight. I've been
wandering the moor all night looking for you!"
With that he caught me up again, and pressing his face to mine, walked
with me thus, for a long quarter of a mile, I should think. Oh how safe I
felt!--and how happy!--happy beyond smiling! I loved him before, but I
never knew before what it was to lose him and find him again.
"Tell me," he said at length.
I told him all, and he did not speak a word until my tale was finished.
"Were you very frightened," he then asked, "when you found you had lost
your way, and darkness was coming?"
"I was frightened, or I would not have gone to the lady. But I wish I had
staid on the moor for you to find me. I knew you would soon be out
looking for me. Until she came I comforted myself with thinking that
perhaps even then you were on the moor, and I might see you any moment."
"What else did you think of?"
"I thought that God was out on the moor, and if you were not there, he
would keep me company."
"Ah!" said my uncle, as if thinking to himself; "she but needs him the
more when I am with her!"
"Yes, of course!" I answered; "I need him then for you as well as for
myself.
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