To all appearance the house was tenantless. I tried the
door of a side kitchen or scullery: it was fastened, but the rusty bolts
yielded to no very forcible pressure; and I once more penetrated into
the kitchen, that exhaustless magazine which had furnished ham and eggs,
greens and bacon, with other sundry and necessary condiments, to the
progenitors of our race for at least two centuries. A marvellous
change!--to me it appeared as if wrought in a moment, so recently had
memory reinstated the scenes of my youth in all their pristine
splendour. Now no smoke rolled lazily away from the heavy billet; no
blaze greeted my sight; no savoury steam regaled the sense. Dark,
cheerless, cold,--the long bars emitted no radiance; the hearth unswept,
on which Growler once panted with heat and fatness.
Though night was fast approaching, I could not resist the temptation of
once more exploring the deserted chambers, the scene of many a youthful
frolic. I sprang with reckless facility up the vast staircase. The
shallow steps were not sufficiently accommodating to my impatience, and
I leapt rather than ran, with the intention of paying my first visit to
that _cockaigne_ of childhood, that paradise of little fools--the
nursery.
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