`` I have come all this way , through all these terrible places , to help you , and now I am of no use at all . '' `` You had best leave me alone , '' said Grimes ; `` you are a good-natured forgiving little chap , and that 's truth ; but you 'd best be off . The hail 's coming on soon , and it will beat the eyes out of your little head . '' `` What hail ? '' `` Why , hail that falls every evening here ; and , till it comes close to me , it 's like so much warm rain : but then it turns to hail over my head , and knocks me about like small shot . '' `` That hail will never come any more , '' said the strange lady . `` I have told you before what it was . It was your mother 's tears , those which she shed when she prayed for you by her bedside ; but your cold heart froze it into hail . But she is gone to heaven now , and will weep no more for her graceless son . '' Then Grimes was silent awhile ; and then he looked very sad . `` So my old mother 's gone , and I never there to speak to her ! Ah ! a good woman she was , and might have been a happy one , in her little school there in Vendale , if it had n't been for me and my bad ways . '' `` Did she keep the school in Vendale ? '' asked Tom . And then he told Grimes all the story of his going to her house , and how she could not abide the sight of a chimney-sweep , and then how kind she was , and how he turned into a water-baby . `` Ah ! '' said Grimes , `` good reason she had to hate the sight of a chimney-sweep . I ran away from her and took up with the sweeps , and never let her know where I was , nor sent her a penny to help her , and now it 's too late -- too late ! '' said Mr. Grimes .
And he began crying and blubbering like a great baby , XXXXX his pipe dropped out of his mouth , and broke all to bits .
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