David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Chapter 63 Page 8

then what Mas’r Davy kep from us so kind and thowtful, ‘tis my opinion she’d have drooped away.

But theer was some poor folks aboard as had illness among ‘em, and she took care of them; and theer was the children in our company, and she took care of them; and so she got to be busy, and to be doing good, and that helped her.’

‘When did she first hear of it?’ I asked.

‘I kep it from her arter I heerd on ‘t,’ said Mr. Peggotty, ‘going on nigh a year. We was living then in a solitary place, but among the beautifullest trees, and with the roses a-covering our Beein to the roof.

Theer come along one day, when I was out a-working on the land, a traveller from our own Norfolk or Suffolk in England