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The Old Curiosity Shop: Garland

Now the old man's servant, Kit, had obtained an excellent position near home by being strictly honest in his dealings with a kind old man, Mr. Garland. He had never lost his desire to find and help Nell and her grandfather. A strange gentleman appears in the story in search of the same personages. He proves to be the old grandfather's younger brother, who has lived abroad many years. He has made much money and has returned to share it with his aged relative, who has now disappeared. After one unsuccessful journey, he found out where Nell and her grandfather were living. Taking Kit and Mr. Garland along, the younger brother traveled to the village. They arrived there late at night, but Kit discovered the old man at once. He asked for Nell, and her grandfather said she was asleep. Then the younger brother, Mr. Garland, the schoolmaster, and an old man who had befriended Nell entered. Poor Nell had been dead for two days. "There upon her little bed she lay at rest. No sleep so beautiful and calm, so free from trace of pain, so fair to look upon. She seemed a creature fresh from the hand of God and waiting for the breath of life; not one who had lived and suffered death." Worn out by her long journey, her lack of food, her exposure, and the anxiety for her grandfather, she had never recovered from the strain, although her last days had been spent in perfect peace and joy.

The old man was found dead upon her grave not long afterward. How Kit's honesty had once been questioned because of a plot laid against him by the wretched Quilp and his lawyer; how his innocence had been proven through the testimony of the lawyer's servant-maid, a starved, abused child; how the humorous Dick Swiveller assisted in freeing Kit, and how he was rewarded; how the horrible dwarf met a well-deserved death by drowning--all these side-lights to the main story of Little Nell are told in Dickens's own inimitable way. But they must ever be regarded as mere accessories in the development of the short life history of one of the most pathetic and lovable characters in our literature.

O mightiest master of the pen of English fiction, we thank thee for the gift of Little Nell, to show us by her love and innocence and faith how much of God may reside in humanity.