Little Nell Page #2

"Little Nell" is a central character from Charles Dickens' novel "The Old Curiosity Shop," published in 1840-1841. The story follows the life of young Nell Trent, a kind-hearted and innocent girl who lives with her grandfather in a curiosity shop in London. The novel explores themes of poverty, hardship, and the loss of innocence as Nell navigates a world filled with both kindness and cruelty. As her grandfather's health declines, their struggles lead them on a poignant journey filled with adversity, showcasing Dickens' characteristic empathy for the downtrodden and his commentary on social issues of the time. Ultimately, the tale is both a tender portrayal of familial love and a harrowing examination of fate and virtue.

• Children

								

the third morning came, it found the child much weaker, yet she made no
complaint. Faint and spiritless as they were, the streets were
insupportable; and the child, throughout the remainder of that hard day,
compelled herself to press on, that they might reach the country.
Evening was drawing on; they were dragging themselves through the last
street. Seeing a traveller on foot before them, she shot on before her
grandfather and began in a few faint words to implore the stranger's
help. He turned his head, the child uttered a wild shriek, and fell
senseless at his feet. It was the village schoolmaster who had been so
kind to them before.

The good man took her in his arms and carried her quickly to a little
inn hard by, where she was tenderly put to bed and where a doctor
arrived with all speed. The schoolmaster, as it appeared, was on his way
to a new home. And when the child had recovered somewhat from her
exhaustion, it was arranged that she and her grandfather should
accompany him to the village whither he was bound, and that he should
endeavor to find them some humble occupation by which they could
subsist.

It was a secluded village, lying among the quiet country scenes Nell
loved. And here, her grandfather being tranquil and at rest, a great
peace fell upon the spirit of the child. Often she would steal into the
church, and sit down among the quiet figures carved upon the tombs. What
if the spot awakened thoughts of death? It would be no pain to sleep
here. For the time was drawing nearer every day when Nell was to rest
indeed. She never murmured or complained, but faded like a light upon a
summer's evening and died. Day after day and all day long, the old man,
broken-hearted and with no love or care for anything in life, would sit
beside her grave with her straw hat and the little basket she had been
used to carry, waiting till she should come to him again. At last they
found him lying dead upon the stone. And in the church where they had
often prayed and mused and lingered, hand in hand, the child and the old
man slept together.
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