At the end of Chapter XIII ("The Sequel of My Resolution") of David Copperfield the young protagonist has finally reached his aunt's house after a long and difficult journey on foot. He thinks of the homeless:

The room was a pleasant one, at the top of the house, overlooking the sea, on which the moon was shining brilliantly. After I had said my prayers, and the candle had burnt out, I remember how I still sat looking at the moonlight on the water, as if I could hope to read my fortune in it, as in a bright book; or to see my mother with her child, coming from Heaven, along that shining path, to look upon me as she had looked when I last saw her sweet face. I remember how the solemn feeling with which at length I turned my eyes away, yielded to the sensation of gratitude and rest which the sight of the white-curtained bed — and how much more the lying softly down upon it, nestling in the snow-white sheets! — inspired. I remember how I thought of all the solitary places under the night sky where I had slept, and how I prayed that I never might be houseless any more, and never might forget the houseless. I remember how I seemed to float, then, down the melancholy glory of that track upon the sea, away into the world of dreams.

TopicLiterature - TopicLife - 2006-05-23

(correlates: SevenManes, 2007-09-17 - Artemesia Dusk, PeaceAndAffirmation, ...)