He
heard the old thanksgivings for daily mercies, the old supplications
for their continuance, to which he had so often listened in weariness,
but which were now among his dear remembrances. He perceived the
slight inequality of his father's voice when he came to speak of the
absent one; he noted how his mother turned her face to the broad and
knotted trunk; how his elder brother scorned, because the beard was
rough upon his upper lip, to permit his features to be moved; how
the younger sister drew down a low hanging branch before her eyes; and
how the little one of all, whose sports had hitherto broken the
decorum of the scene, understood the prayer for her playmate, and
burst into clamorous grief. Then he saw them go in at the door; and
when Robin would have entered also, the latch tinkled into its
place, and he was excluded from his home.
"Am I here, or there?" cried Robin, starting; for all at once, when
his thoughts had become visible and audible in a dream, the long,
wide, solitary street shone out before him.
He aroused himself, and endeavored to fix his attention steadily
upon the large edifice which he had surveyed before. But still his
mind kept vibrating between fancy and reality; by turns, the pillars
of the balcony lengthened into the tall, bare stems of pines, dwindled
down to human figures, settled again into their true shape and size,
and then commenced a new succession of changes.
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