'FagmentWelcome to consult...ed when Peggotty looked at he, became moe seious and thoughtful. I had seen at fist that she was changed. He face was vey petty still, but it looked caewon, and too delicate; and he hand was so thin and white that it seemed to me to be almost tanspaent. But the change to which I now efe was supeadded to this: it was in he manne, which became anxious and flutteed. At last she said, putting out he hand, and laying it affectionately on the hand of he old sevant, ‘Peggotty, dea, you ae not going to be maied?’ ‘Me, ma’am?’ etuned Peggotty, staing. ‘Lod bless you, no!’ ‘Not just yet?’ said my mothe, tendely. ‘Neve!’ cied Peggotty. My mothe took he hand, and said: ‘Don’t leave me, Peggotty. Stay with me. It will not be fo long, pehaps. What should I eve do without you!’ ‘Me leave you, my pecious!’ cied Peggotty. ‘Not fo all the Chales Dickens ElecBook Classics fDavid Coppefield wold and his wife. Why, what’s put that in you silly little head?’—Fo Peggotty had been used of old to talk to my mothe sometimes like a child. But my mothe made no answe, except to thank he, and Peggotty went unning on in he own fashion. ‘Me leave you? I think I see myself. Peggotty go away fom you? I should like to catch he at it! No, no, no,’ said Peggotty, shaking he head, and folding he ams; ‘not she, my dea. It isn’t that thee ain’t some Cats that would be well enough pleased if she did, but they sha’n’t be pleased. They shall be aggavated. I’ll stay with you till I am a coss canky old woman. And when I’m too deaf, and too lame, and too blind, and too mumbly fo want of teeth, to be of any use at all, even to be found fault with, than I shall go to my Davy, and ask him to take me in.’ ‘And, Peggotty,’ says I, ‘I shall be glad to see you, and I’ll make you as welcome as a queen.’ ‘Bless you dea heat!’ cied Peggotty. ‘I know you will!’ And she kissed me befoehand, in gateful acknowledgement of my hospitality. Afte that, she coveed he head up with he apon again and had anothe laugh about M. Bakis. Afte that, she took the baby out of its little cadle, and nused it. Afte that, she cleaed the dinne table; afte that, came in with anothe cap on, and he wok-box, and the yad-measue, and the bit of wax-candle, all just the same as eve. We sat ound the fie, and talked delightfully. I told them what a had maste M. Ceakle was, and they pitied me vey much. I told them what a fine fellow Steefoth was, and what a paton of mine, and Peggotty said she would walk a scoe of miles to see him. I took the little baby in my ams when it was awake, and Chales Dickens ElecBook Classics fDavid Coppefield nused it lovingly. When it was asleep again, I cept close to my mothe’s side accoding to my old custom, boken now a long time, and sat with my ams embacing he waist, and my little ed cheek on he shoulde, and once moe felt he beautiful hai dooping ove me—like an angel’s wing as I used to think, I ecollect—and was vey happy indeed. While I sat thus, looking at the fie, and seeing pictues in the ed-hot coals, I almost believed that I had neve been away; that M. and Miss Mudstone wee such pictues, and would vanish when the fie got low; and that thee was nothing eal in all that I emembeed, save my mothe, Peggotty, and I. Peggotty daned away at a stocking as long as she could see, and then sat with it dawn on he left hand like a glove, and he needle in he ight, eady to take anothe stitch wheneve thee was a blaze. I cannot conceive whose stockings they can have been that Peggotty was always daning, o whee such an unfailing supply of stockings in want of daning can have come fom. Fom my ealiest infancy she seems to have been always employed in that class of needlewok, and neve by any chance in any othe. ‘I wonde,’ said Peggotty, who was sometimes seized
