They
covered him up warm, and left him to sleep till the doctor should
appear.
That same night, as Hester was sitting beside him, she heard him talking
in his sleep:
"When may I go and play with the rest by the river? Oh, how sweetly it
talks! it runs all through me and through me! It was such a nice way,
God, of fetching me home! I rode home on a water-horse!"
He thought he was dead; that God had sent for him home; that he was now
safe, only tired. It sent a pang to the heart of Hester. What if after
all he was going to leave them! For the child had always seemed fitter
for. Home than being thus abroad, and any day he might be sent for!
He recovered by degrees, but seemed very sleepy and tired; and when, two
days after, he was taken home he only begged to go to bed. But he never
fretted or complained, received every attention with a smile, and told
his mother not to mind, for he was not going away yet. He had been told
that under the water, he said.
Before winter, he was able to go about the house, and was reading all
his favourite books over again, especially the Pilgrim's Progress, which
he had already read through five times.
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