Full text of "Works"
WORKS OF CHAELES DICKENS.
VOL. XXIL
CHRISTMAS BOOKS.
'l ^yO^.
'CPi^
CHRISTMAS BOOKS.
By CHAELES DICKENS.
WITH ILLUSTRJTJONS.
LONDON :
CHAPMAN AND HALL, Limited.
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PEEFACE.
The narrow space witliin which it was necessary to confine
these Christinas Stories when they were originally published,
rendered their construction a matter of some difficulty, and
almost necessitated what is peculiar in their machinery. I
never attempted great elaboration of detail in the working
out of character within such limits, believing that it could not
succeed. My purpose was, in a whimsical kind of masque
which the good humour of the season justified, to awaken
some loving and forbearing thoughts, never out of season in
a Christian l-^nd.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL,
IN PROSE.
BEING A GHOST STORY OF CHRISTMAS.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
STAVE ONE.
MARLEY S GHOST.
Marley was dead, to begin •with. There isr no doubi
•whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed
by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief
mourner. Scrooge signed it. And Scrooge's name was good
upon 'Change, for anything he chose to put his hand to.
Old Marley -w^as as dead as a door-nail.
Mind ! I don't mean to say that I know, of my own know-
ledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I
might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coifin-nail as
the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. But the
wisdom of our ancestors is in the simile ; and my unhallowed
hands shall not disturb it, or the Country 's done for. You
wiU therefore permit me to repeat, emphatically, that Marley
was as dead as a door-nail.
Scrooge knew he was dead ? Of course he did. How
could it be otherwise ? Scrooge and he were partners for I
don't know how many years. Scrooge was his sole executor,
his sole administi'ator, his sole assign, his sole residuary
legatee, his sole friend, and sole mourner. And even Scrooge
was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event, but that he was
an excellent man of business on the very day of the funeral,
and solemnised it with an undoubted bargain.
The mention of Marley' s funeral brings me back to the
point I started from. There is no doubt that Marley was
dead. This must be distinctly understood, or nothing wonder-
ful can come of the story I am going to relate. If we were
not perfectly convinced that Hamlet's Father died before tlic
.T 2
4 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
plaj began, there would be nothing more remarkable in his
taking a stroll at night, in an easterly wind, upon his own
ramparts, than there would be in any other middle-aged gen-
tleman rashly turning out after dark in a breezy spot — say
Saint Paul's Church-yard for instance — literally to astonish
his son's weak mind.
Scrooge never painted out Old Marley's name. There it
stood, years afterwards, above the warehouse door : Scrooge
and i\Iarley. The firm was known as Scrooge and Marley.
Sometimes people new to the business called Scrooge Scrooge,
and sometimes Marley, but he answered to both names. It
was all the same to him.
Oh ! But he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone,
Scrooge ! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutch-
ing, covetous, old sinner ! Hard and sharp as flint, from
which no steel had ever struck out generous fire ; secret, and
self-contained, and solitary as an oyster. The cold within
him froze his old features, nipped his pointed noise, shrivelled
his cheek, stiffened his gait : made his pvps red, his thin lips
blue ; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty
rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin.
He carried his own low temperature always about with him ;
he iced his office in the dog-days ; and didn't thaw it one
degree at Christmas.
External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No
warmth could warm, no wintry weather chill him. No wind
that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent
upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty. Foul
weather didn't know where to have him. The heaviest rain,
and snow, and hail, and sleet, could boast of the advantage
over him in only one respect. They often " came down "
handsomely, and Scrooge never did.
Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, -mth glad-
some looks, " My dear Scrooge, how are you ? \^Tien will
you come to see me ? " No beggars implored him to bestow
a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or
woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and
such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blindmen's dogs appeared
to know him ; and when they saw him coming on, would tug
their owners into doorways and up courts ; and then would
wag their tails as though they said, " no eye at all is better
than an evil eye. dark master ! "
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. B
But -what did Scrooge care ! It was the very thing he liked.
To edge his way along the crowded paths of life, warning all
human sjTnpathy to keep its distance, was what the knowing
ones call " nuts" to Scrooge.
Once upon a time — of aR the good days in the year, on
Christmas Eve — old Scrooge sat .busy in his counting-house.
It was cold, bleak, biting weather : foggy withal : and he
could hear the people in the court outside, go wheezing up and
down, beating their hands upon their breasts, and stamping
their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them. The city
clocks had only just gone three, but it was quite dark already
— it had not been light all day — and candles were flaring in
the windows of the neighbouring offices, like ruddy smears
upon the palpable brown air. The fog came pouring in at
every chink and keyhole, and was so dense without, that
although the court was of the narrowest, the houses opposite
were mere phantoms. To see the dingy cloud come drooping
down, obscuring everything, one might have thought that
Nature lived hard by, and was brewing on a large scale.
The door of Scrooge's counting-house was open, that he
might keep his eye upon his clerk, who in a dismal little cell
beyond, a sort of tank, was copying letters. Scrooge had a
very small fire, but the clerk's fire was so very much smaller
that it looked like one coal. But he couldn't replenish it, for
Scrooge kept the coal-box in his own room ; and so surely as
the clerk came in with the shovel, the master predicted that it
would be necessary for them to part. Wherefore the clerk
put on his white comforter, and tried to warm himself at the
candle ; in which efibrt, not being a man of strong imagina-
tion, he failed.
"A merry Christmas, uncle! God save you!" cried a
cheerful voice. It was the voice of Scrooge's nephew, who
came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation
he had of his approach.
' Bah ! " said Scrooge, " Humbxig ! "
He had so heated himself with rapid walking in the fog and
frost, this nephew of Scrooge's, that he was all in a glow ;
his face was ruddy and handsome ; his eyes sparkled, and his
breath smoked again.
" Christmas a humbug, uncle ! " said Scrooge's nephew.
** You don't mean that, I am sure ? "
"I do," said Scrooge. "Merry Christmas! ^Vhat right
6 A CEfRISTMAS CAROL.
have you to be merry ? What reason have you to be merry P
You're poor enough."
" Come then," returned the nephew gaily. " What right
have you to be dismal ? What reason have you to be morose ?
You're rich eaougu."
Scrooge Lav.Jig no better answer ready on the spur of the
moment, said, " Bah ! " again ; and followed it up with
" Humbug ! "
" Don't be cross, uncle ! " said the nephew.
" What else can I be," returned the uncle, " when I live
in such a world of fools as this ? Merry Christmas ! Out
upon merry Christmas ! What 's Christmas time to you but
a time for paying bills without money ; a time for finding
yourself a year older, and not an hour richer ; a time for
balancing your books and having every item in 'em through
a round dozen of months presented dead against you ? If I
could work my wili" said Scrooge indignantly, " every idiot
who goes about with ' Merry Christmas,' on his lips, should
be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of
holly through his heart. He should ! "
" Uncle ! " pleaded the nephew.
" Nephew ! " rerurned the uncle, sternly, " keep Christmas
in your own way, and let me keep it in mine."
"Keep it! " repeated Scrooge's nephew. " But you don't
keep it."
" Let me leave it alone, then," said Scrooge. " Much good
may it do you ! Much good it has ever done you ! "
" There are many things from which I might have derived
good, by which I have not profited, I dare say," returned the
-nephew, " Christmas among the rest. But I am sure/l have
always thought of Christmas time, when it has come roimd —
apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin,
if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good
time ; a kind, forgi\dng, charitable, pleasant time ; the only
time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men
and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts
freely, and to think of people below them as if they really
were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of
creatures bound on other journeys. ^ And therefore, uncle,
though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket,
I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good ; and
I say, God bless it ! "
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. V
The clerk in the tank involuntarily applauded. Becoming
immediately sensible of the impropriety, he poked the fire,
and extinguished the last frail spark for ever.
" Let me hear another sound from you," said Scrooge,
" and you '11 keep your Christmas by losing your situation ;
You 're quite a powerful speaker, «ir," he added, turning to
his nephew. " I wonder you don't go into Parliament."
" Don't be angry, uncle. Come ! Dine -wdth us to-morrow."
Scrooge said that he would see him — yes, indeed he did.
He went the whole length of the' expression, and said that he
would see him in that extremity first.
" But why ? " cried Scrooge's nephew. " Why ? "
"Why did you get married ?" said Scrooge.
" Because I fell in love."
" Because you fell in love ! " growled Scrooge, as if that
were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than, a
merry Christmas. " Good afternoon ! "
" Nay, uncle, but you never came to see me before that
happened. Why give it as a reason for not coming now ? "
" Good afternoon," said Scrooge.
" I want nothing from you ; I ask nothing of you ; why
cannot we be friends ? "
" Good afternoon," said Scrooge.
" I am sorry, with all my heart, to find you so resolute.
We have never had any quarrel, to which I have been a party.
But I have made the trial in homage to Christmas, and I '11
keep my Christmas humour to the last. So A Meny Christ
mas, Tincle ! "
" Good afternoon ! " said Scrooge.
" And A Happy New Year ! "
" Good afternoon ! " said Scrooge.
His nephew left the room without an angry word, notwith-
standing. He stopped at the outer door to bestow the
greetings of the season on the clerk, who, cold as he was.
was warmer than Scrooge ; for he returned them cordially.
''There's another feUow," muttered Scrooge; who over-
heard him : " my clerk, with fifteen shillings a- week, and a
wife and family, talking about a merry Christmas. I '11 retire
to Bedlam."
This lunatic, in letting Scrooge's nephew out, had let two
other people in. They were portly gentlemen, pleasant to
behold, and now stood, with their hats off, in Scrooge's office
8 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
They had books and papers in their hands, and Lowed to
him,
" Scrooge and Marley's, I believe," said one of the gentle-
men, referring to his list. " Have I the pleasure of address-
ing Mr. Scrooge, or Mr. Marley ? "
" Mr. Marley has been dead these seven years," Scrooge
replied. " He died seven years ago, this very night."
" We have no doubt his liberality is well represented by
his surviving partner," said the gentleman, presenting his
credentials.
It certainly was ; for they had been two kindred spirits.
At the ominous word " liberality," Scrooge frowned, and
shook his head, and handed the credentials back.
" At this festive season of the year, Mr. Scrooge," said the
gentleman, taking up a pen, " it is more than usually desir-
able that we should make some slight provision for the Poor
and destitute, who suffer greatly at the present time. Many
thousands are in want of common necessaries ; hundreds of
thousands are in want of common comforts, sir."
" Are there no prisons ? " asked Scrooge.
*' Plenty of prisons, ' said the gentleman, laying down the
pen again^
"And the Union workhouses? " demanded Scrooge. " Are
they still in operation ? "
"They are. Still," returned the gentleman. "I wish I
could say they were not."
"The Treadmill and the Poor Law are in full vigour,
then ? " said Scrooge.
" Both very busy, sir."
" Oh ! I was afraid, from what you said at first, that some-
thing had occurred to stop them in their useful course," said
Scrooge. " I am very glad to hear it."
" Under the impression that they scarcely furnish Christian
cheer of mind or body to the multitude," returned the gentle-
man, " a few of us are endeavouring to raise a fund to buy
the Poor some meat and drink, and means of warmth. We
choose this time, because it is a time, of all others, when
Want is keenly felt, and Abundance rejoices. What shall I
put you down for ? "
" Nothing ! " Scrooge replied.
" YoTi wish to be anonymous ? "
*' I wish to be left alone," said Scrooge. " Sinco you ask
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 9
me what I wish, gentlemen, that is my answer. I don't make
merry myself at Christmas, and I can't afford to make idle
people merry. I help to support the establishments I have
mentioned — they cost enough : and those who are badly off
must go there."
" Many can't go there ; and many would rather die."
" If they would rather die," said Scrooge, " they had better
do it, and decrease the surplus population. Besides — excuse
me — I don't know that."
" But you might know it," observed the gentleman.
" It 's not my business," Scrooge returned. " It's enough
for a man to understand his own business, and not to interfere
with other people's. Mine occupies me constantly. Good
afternoon, gentlemen ! "
Seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point,
the gentlemen withdrew. Scrooge resumed his laboixrs with an
improved opinion of himself, and in a more facetious temper
than was usual with him.
MeanwhUe the fog and darkness thickened so, that people
ran about with flaring links, proffering their services to go
before horses in carriages, and conduct them on their way.
The ancient tower of a church, whose gruff old bell was
always peeping sHly down at Scrooge out of a gothic window
in the wall, became invisible, and struck the hours and
quarters in the clouds, with tremulous vibrations afterwards,
as if its teeth were chattering in its frozen head up there.
The cold became intense. In the main street, at the corner
of the court, some labourers were repairing the gas-pipes,
and had lighted a great fire in a brazier, round which a party
of ragged men and boys were gathered : warming their hands
and winking their eyes before the blaze in rapture. The
water-plug being left in solitude, its overflowings suddenly
congealed, and turned to misanthropic ice. The brightness
of the shops where holly sprigs and berries crackled in the
lamp heat of the windows, made pale faces ruddy as they
passed. Poulterers' and grocers' trades became a splendid
joke : a glorious pageant, with which it was next to impos-
sible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale
had anything to do. The Lord Mayor, in the stronghold of
the mighty Mansion House, gave orders to his flfty cooks and
butlers to keep Christmas as a Lord Mayor's household
should; and even the little tailor, whom he had fined five
10 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
shillings on the previous Monday for being drunk and blood-
thirsty in the streets, stirred up to-morrow's pudding in hie
garret, while his lean wife and the baby sallied out to buy
the beef.
Foggier yet, and colder ! Piercing, searching, biting cold.
If the good St. Dunstan had but nipped the Evil Spirit's nose
with a touch of such weather as that, instead of using his
familiar weapons, then indeed he would have roared to lusty
purpose. The owner of one scant young nose, gnawed and
mumbled by the hungry cold as bones are gnawed by dogs,
stooped down at Scrooge's key-hole to regale him with a
Christmas carol ; but at the first sound of
*' God bless you merry gentleman,
May nothing you dismay ! "
Scrooge seized the ruler with such energy of action, that the
singer fled in terror, leaving the key-hole to the fog, and even
more congenial frost.
At length the hour of shutting up the counting-house
arrived. With an ill-will Scrooge dismounted from his stool,
and tacitly admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the
Tank, who instantly snuffed his candle out, and put on
his hat.
" You '11 want all day to-morrow, I suppose ? " said Scrooge.
" If quite convenient, sir."
"It's not convenient," said Scrooge, "and it's not fair.
If I was to stop half-a-crown for it, you 'd think yourself ill-
used, I '11 be bound ? "
The clerk smiled faintly.
"And yet," said Scrooge, "you don't think me iU-used,
when I pay a day's wages for no work."
The clerk observed that it was only once a year.
" A poor excuse for picking a man's pocket every twenty-
fifth of December ! " said Scrooge, buttoning his great coat to
the chin. " But I suppose you must have the whole day. Be
here aU the earlier next morning-."
The clerk promised that he would ; and Scrooge walked
out with a growl. The office was closed in a twinkling, and
the clerk, with the long ends of his white comforter dangling
below his waist (for he boasted no great coat), went down a
slide on Cornhill, at the end of a lane of boys, twenty times,
m honor of its being Chi'istmas-eve. and then ran home to
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 11
Camden Town as hard as he could pelt, to play at blindman's
buff.
Scrooge took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy
tavern ; and having read all the newspapers, and beguiled the
rest of the evening with his banker' s-book, went home to bed.
He lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased
partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering
pile of building up a yard, where it had so little business
to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have
run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-
seek with other houses, and have forgotten the way out again.
It was old enough now, and dreary enough ; for nobody lived
in it but Scrooge, the other rooms being all let out as offices.
The yard was so dark that even Scrooge, who knew its every
stone, was fain to grope with his hands. The fog arid frost
80 hung about the black old gateway of the house, that it
seemed as if the Genius of the Weather sat in mournful
meditation on the threshold.
Now, it is a fact, that there was nothing at all particular
about the knocker on the door, except that it was very large.
It is also a fact, that Scrooge had seen it, night and morning,
during his whole residence in that place ; also that Scrooge
had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in
the City of London, even including — which is a bold word —
the corporation, aldermen, and livery. Let it also be borne
in mind, that Scrooge had not bestowed one thought on
Marley since his last mention of his seven-years' dead partner
that afternoon. And then let any man explain to me, if
he can, how it happened that Scrooge, having his key in
the lock of the door, saw in the knocker, without its under-
going any intermediate process of change — not a knocker,
but Marley' 8 face.
Marley's face. It was not in impenetrable shadow, as the
other objects in the yard were, but had a dismal liglit
about it, like a bad lobster in a dark cellar. It was not
dngry or ferocious, but looked at Scrooge as Marley used to
look : with ghostly spectacles turned up on its ghostly fore-
head. The hair was curiously stirred, as if by breath or
hot-air ; , and, though the eyes were wide open, they were
perfectly motionless. That, and its livid colour, made it
horrible ; but its horror seemed to be in spite of the face, and
beyond its control, rather than a part of its own expressioa.
12 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
As Scrooge looked fixedly at this phenomenon, it was a
knocker again.
To say that he was not startled, or that his blood was
not conscious of a terrible sensation to which it had been
d stranger from infancy, would be untrue. But he put his
hand upon the key he had relinquished, turned it sturdily,
walked in, and lighted his candle.
He did pause, with a moment's irresolution, before he shut
the door ; and he did look cautiously behind it first, as if he
half -expected to be terrified with the sight of Marley's pig-
tail sticking out into the hall. But there was nothing on
the back of the door, except the screws and nuts that held
the knocker on, so he said, " Pooh, pooh ! " and closed it
with a bang.
The sound resounded through the house like thunder.
Every room above, and every cask in the wine-merchant's
cellars below, appeared to have a separate peal of echoes of
its own. Scrooge was not a man to be frightened by echoes.
He fastened the door, and walked across the hall, and up the
stairs ; slowly too : trimming his candle as he went.
You may talk vaguely about driving a coach-and-six up a
good old flight of stairs, or through a bad young Act of
Parliament ; but I mean to say you might have got a hearse
up that staircase, and taken it broadwise, with the splinter-
bar towards the wall and the door towards the balustrades :
and done it easy. There was plenty of width for that, and
room to spare ; which is perhaps the reason why Scrooge
thought he saw a locomotive hearse going on before him
in the gloom. Half a dozen gas-lamps out of the street
wouldn't have lighted the entry too well, so you may suppose
that it was pretty dark with Scrooge's dip.
Up Scrooge went, not caring a button for that. Darkness
is cheap, and Scrooge liked it. But before he shut his
heavy door, he walked through his rooms to see that all
was right. He had just enough recollection of the face to
desire to do that.
Sitting-room, bed-room, lumber-room. All as they should
be. Nobody under the table, nobody under the sofa; a
small fire in the grate ; spoon and basin ready ; and the
b'ttle saucepan of gruel (Scrooge had a cold in his head) upon
the hob. Nobody under the bed; nobody in the closet;
nobody in liis dressing-gown, which was hanging up in a
A CIIEISTMAS CAROL. 13
suspicious attitude against the wall. Lumber-room as usual.
Old fire-guard, old shoes, two fish-baskets, washing-stand on
three legs, and a poker.
Quite satisfied, he closed his door, and locked himself in ;
double-locked himself in, which was not his custom. Thus
secured against surprise, he took off his cravat ; put on his
dressing-gown and slippers, and his night-cap ; and sat down
before the fire to take his gruel.
It was a very low fire indeed ; nothing on such a bitter
night. He was obliged to sit close to it, and brood over it.
before he could extract the least Sensation of warmth from
such a handful of fuel. The fireplace was an old one, built
by some Dutch merchant long ago, and paved all round with
quaint Dutch tiles, designed to illustrate the Scriptures.
There were Cains and Abels, Pharaoh's daughters. Queens of
Sheba, Angelic messengers descending through the air ou
clouds like feather-beds, Abrahams, Belshazzars, Apostles
putting off to sea in butter-boats, hundreds of figures to
attract his thoughts ; and yet that face of Marley, seven
years dead, came like the ancient Prophet's rod, and swallowed
up the whole. If each smooth tile had been a blank at first,
with power to shape some picture on its surface from the
disjointed fragments of his thoughts, there would have beeu
a copy of old Marley's head on every one.
" Humbug ! " said Scrooge ; and walked across the room.
After several turns, he sat down again. As he threw his
head back in the chair, his glance happened to rest upon a
bell, a disused beU, that hung in the room, and communi-
cated for some purpose now forgotten with a chamber in the
highest story of the building. It was with great astonish-
ment, and with a strange, inexplicable dread, that as he
looked, he saw this bell begin to swing. It swung so softly
in the outset that it scarcely made a sound ; but soon it rang
out loudly, and so did every bell in the house.
This might have lasted half a minute, or a minute, but it
seemed an hour. The bells ceased as they had begun, together.
They were succeeded by a clanking noise, deep down below,
as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the casks
in the wine-merchant's cellar. Scrooge then remembered to
Uave heard tliat ghosts in haunted houses were described as
dragging chains.
The cell;Lr-door flew open with a booming sound, and then
14 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
he heard the noise much louder, oa the floors below ; tliHii
coming up the stairs ; then coming straight towards his door
" It 's humbug stiU ! " said Scrooge. " I won't believe it."
His colour changed though, when, without a pause, it came
on through the heavy door, and passed into the room before
his eyes. Upon its coming in, the dying flame leaped up, as
though it cried " I know him ! Mar ley's ghost ! " and fell
again.
The same face : the very same. Marley in his pip'-tail,
usual waistcoat, tig-hts, and boots; the tassels on the Iaf:tex
bristling, like his pig-tail, and his coat-skirts, and the hair
upon his head. The chain he drew was clasped about his
middle. It was long and wound about him like a tail ; and
it was made (for Scrooge observed it closely) of cash-boxes,
keys, padlocks, ledgers, deeds, and heavy purses wrouglit in
steel. His body was transparent ; so that Scrooge, observing
him, and looking through his waistcoat, could see the two
buttons on his coat behind.
Scrooge had often heard it said that Marley had no bowels,
but he had never believed it until now.
No, nor did he believe it even now. Though he looked
the phantom through and through, and saw it standing before
him ; though he felt the chilling influence of its death-cold
eyes ; and marked the very texture of the folded kerchief
bound about its head and chin, which wrapper he had not
observed before ; he was still incredulous, and fought against
his senses.
" How now ! " said Scrooge, caustic and cold as ever.
" What do you want with me ? "
" Much ! " — Marley 's voice, no doubt about it.
'' Who are you ? "
" Ask me who I was."
" Who were you then ? " said Scrooge, raising his voice.
" You 're particular, for a shade." He was going to say " to
a shade," but substituted this, as more appropriate.
•' In life I was your partner, Jacob Marley."
" Can you — can you sit down '? " asked Scrooge, looking
doubtfully at him.
" I can."
" Do it, then."
Scrooge asked the question, because he didn't know whether
a gJiost so transparent might find himself in a conditioa to
c^^Uzyt^.^^
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 16
take a chair ; and felt that in the event of its being impos-
sible, it might involve the necessity of an embarrassing
explanation. But the ghost sat down on the opposite side of
the fireplace, as if he were quite used to it.
*' You don't believe in me," observed the Ghost.
"1 don't," said Scrooge.
• " What evidence would you have ''of my reality beyond
that of your own senses ? "
" I don't know," said Scrooge.
" "Why do you doubt your senses ? "
'' Because," said Scrooge, " a little thing affects them. A
slight disorder of the stomach makes them cheats. You may
be an undigested bit of beef, a blot of mustard, a crumb of
cheese, a fragment of an underdone potato. There 's more of
gravy than of grave about you, whatever you are ! "
Scrooge was not much in the habit of cracking jokes, nor
did he feel in his heart, by any means waggish then. The
truth is, that he tried to be smart, as a means of distracting
his own attention, and keeping down his terror ; for the
spectre's voice disturbed the very marrow in his bones.
To sit, staring at those fixed glazed eyes, in silence for a
moment, would play, Scrooge felt, the very deuce with him.
There was something very awful, too, in the spectre's being
provided with an infernal atmosphere of his own. Scrooge
could not feel it himself, but this was clearly the case ; for
though the Ghost sat perfectly motionless, its hair, and skirts,
and tassels, vrere still agitated as by the hot vapour from an
oven.
" You see this toothpick ? " said Scrooge, returning quickly
to the charge, for the reason just assigned ; and wishing,
though it were only for a second, to divert the vision's stony
gaze from himself.
" I do," replied the Ghost.
" You are not looking at it," said Scrooge.
" But I see it," said the Ghost, "notwithstanding."
" WeU ! " returned Scrooge, " I have but to swallow this,
and be for the rest of my days persecuted by a legion of
goblins, all of my own creation. Humbug, I tell you;
humbug I "
At this the spirit raised a frightful cry, and shook its chain
Tvith such a dismal and appalling noise, that Scrooge held on
tight to his chair, to save himself fi-om falling in a swoon.
16 A CHRISTMAS CABOL.
But how much greater was his horror, when the phantom
taking- off the bandage round his head, as if it were too
warm to wear in-doors, its lower jaw dropped down upon its
breast !
Scrooge fell upon his knees, and clasped his hands before
his face.
" Mercy ! " he said. " Dreadful apparition, why do you
trouble me ? "
" Man of the worldly mind! " replied the Ghost, "do you
believe in me or not ? "
" I do," said Scrooge. " I must. But why do spirits walk
the earth, and why do tliey come to me ? "
" It is required of every man," the Ghost returned, " that
the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow-
men, and travel far and wide ; and if that spirit goes not
forth in life, it is condemned to do so after death. It is
doomed to wander through the world — oh, woe is me ! — and
witness what it cannot share, but might have shared on earth,
and turned to happiness ! "
Again the spectre raised a cry, and shook its chain and
wrung its shadowy hands.
"You are fettered," said Scrooge, trembling. "Tell me
why ? "
" I wear the chain I forged in life," replied the Ghost.
" I made it link by link, and yard by yard ; I girded it on of
my own free will, and of my own free wiU I wore it. Is its
pattern strange to you ? "
Scrooge trembled more and more.
" Or would you know," pursued the Ghost, " the weight
and length of the strong coil you bear yourself? It was full
as heavy and as long as this, seven Christmas Eves ago. You
have laboured on it since. It is a ponderous chain ! "
Scrooge glanced about him on the floor, in the expectation
of finding himself surrounded by some fifty or sixty fathoms
of iron cable ; but he could see nothing.
" Jacob," he said imploringly. " Old Jacob Marley, tell
me more. Speak comfort to me, Jacob ! "
" I have none to give," the Ghost replied. " It comes
from other regions, Ebenezer Scrooge, and is conveyed by
other ministers, to other kinds of men. Nor can I tell you
what I would. A very little more, is all permitted to me.
I cannot rest, I cannot stay, I cannot linger anywhere. Mj
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 17
spirit never walked bej'ond our counting-house^mark me ! —
-in ]ife my spii'it never roved beyond the narrow limits of oux
money-changing hole ; and weary journeys lie before me I "
It was a habit with Scrooge, whenever he became thought-
ful, to put his hands in his breeches' pockets. Pondering on
what the Ghost had said, he did so now, but without lifting up
his eyes, or getting off his knees. =,
" You must have been very slow about it, Jacob," Scrooge
observed, in a business-like manner, though with humility
and deference.
" Slow ! " the Ghost repeated.
" Seven years dead," mused Scrooge. " And travelling all
the time ? "
" The whole time," said the Ghost. " No rest, no peace.
Incessant torture of remorse."
" You ti-avel fast ? " said Scrooge.
" On the wings of the wind," replied the Ghost.
" You might have got over a great quantit}'- of ground in
seven years," said Scrooge.
The Ghost, on hearing this set up another cry, and clanked
its chain so hideously in the dead silence of the night, that tlie
Ward would have been justified in indicting it for a nuisance.
" O ! captive, bound, and double -ironed," cried the phantom.
" ^t to know that ages of incessant labour, by immortal
xreatures, for this earth must pass into eteruitj' before the
good of which it is susceptible is all developed. Not to know
that any Christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere,
whatever it may be, will find its mortal life too short for its
vast means of usefulness. Not to know that no space of
regret can make amends for one life's opportimities misused I
Yet such was I ! Oh ! such was I ! "
" But you were always a good man of business, Jacob."
faltered Scrooge, who now began to apply tliis to himself.
" Business ! " cried the Ghost, wi'inging its hands again.
" Mankind was my business. The common welfare was my
business ; charity, mercy, forbearance, and benevolence, were,
all, my business. The dealings of my trade were but a di\)p
of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business ! "
It held up its chain at arm's length, as if that were the
cause of all its unavailing grief, and tiuug it heavily upon the
ground again.
" x\.t this time of the rolling year," the spectre said, "I
c
1*? A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
suffer most. Why did I walk through crowds of fellow -beings
with my eyes turned down, and never raise them to that blessed
Star wliich led the Wise Men to a poor abode ! Were there
no poor homes to which its light would have conducted me ! "
Scrooge was very much dismayed to hear the spectre goingf
on at this rate, and began to quake exceedingly.
" Hear me !" cried the Ghost. " My time is nearly gone."
" I will," said Scrooge. " But don't be hard upon me !
Don't bo flowery, Jacob ! Pray ! "
" How it is that I appear before you in a shape that you
can see, I may not teU. I have sat invisible beside you many
and many a day."
It was not an agreeable idea. Scrooge shivered, and wiped
the perspiration from his brow.
" That is no light part of my penance," pursued the Ghost.
" I am here to-night to warn you, that you have yet a chance
and hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my
procuring, Ebenezer,"
" You were always a good friend to me," said Scrooge.
" Thank 'ee!"
" You will be haimted," resumed the Ghost, " by Tliree
Spirits."
Scrooge's countenance fell almost as low as the Ghost's had
done.
" Is that the chance and hope you mentioned, Jacob ? " he
demanded, in a faltering voice.
" It is."
" I — I think I 'd rather not," said Scrooge.
" Without their visits," said the Ghost, "you cannot hope
to shun the path I tread. Expect the first to-morrow, w^hen
the beU toUs One."
" Couldn't I take 'em all at once, and have it over, Jacob ?"
hinted Scrooge.
" Expect the second on the next night at the same hour.
The third, upon the next night when thei last stroke of Twelve
has ceased to vibrate. Look to see me no more ; and look
that, for your own sake, you rem.omber what has passed
between us ! "
When it had said theee words, the spectre took its
wrapper from the table, and bound it round its head, as
before. Scrooge knew tliis by the smari; sound its teeth made,
wnen the jaws were brought together by the banda<^e. He
A CHRISTMAS CAUOL. 19
veutured to raise his eyes again, and found his supernatural
visitor confronting him in an erect attitude, with its chain
wound over and about its arm.
The apparition walked backward from him ; and at every
step it took, the window raised itself a little, so that when
the spectre reached it, it was wide open. It beckoned Scrooge
to approach, which he did. When they were within two
paces of each other, Marley's Ghost held up its hand, warn-
ing him to come no nearer. Scrooge stopped.
Not so much in obedience, as in surprise aud fear ; for on
the raising of the hand, he became sensible of' confused noises
in the air ; incoherent sounds of lamentation and regret ;
wailings inexpressibly sorrowful and self-accusatory. The
spectre, after listening for a moment, joined in the mournful
dirge ; and floated out upon the bleak, dark night.
Scrooge followed to the window : desperate in his curiosity.
He looked out.
The air was filled with phantoms, wandering hither and
thither in restless haste, and moaning as they went. Every
one of them wore chains like Marley's Ghost ; some few (they
might be guilty governments) were linked together ; none were
free. Many had been personally known to Scrooge in their
lives. He had been quite familiar with one old ghost, in a
white waistcoat, with a monstrous iron safe attached to its
ancle, "ndio cried piteously at being unable to assist a wretched
woman with an infant, whom it saw below upon a door-step.
The misery with them all was, clearly, that they sought to
interfere, for good, in human matters and had lost the power
for ever.
Whether these creatures faded into mist, or mist enshrouded
them, he could not tell. But they and their spirit voices
faded together ; and the night became as it had been when he
walked home.
Scrooge closed the window, and examined the door by
which the Ghost had entered. It was double-locked, as he
had locked it with his own hands, and the bolts were un-
distiu'bed. He tried to say " Humbug I " but stopped at the
first syllable. And being, from ttie emotion he had undergone,
or the fatigues of the day, or his glimpse of the Invisible
World, or the dull conversation of the Ghost, or the lateness
of the hour, much in need of repose, went straight to bed,
without undressing, and fell asleep upon the instaufc.
Sa A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
STAVE TWO.
THE FIRST OF THE THREE SPIRITS.
When Scrooge awoke, it was so dark, that, looking out of
bed, he could scarcely distinguish the transparent window
trom the opaque walls of his chamber. He was endeavour-
ing to pierce the darkness with his ferret eyes, when the
chimes of a neighboui-ing church struck the four quarters.
So he listened for the hour.
To his great astonishment, the heavy bell went on from .six
to seven, and from seven to eight, and regularly up to
twelve ; then stopped. Twelve ! It was past two when he
went to bed. Tlie clock was wrong. An icicle must have
got into the works. Twelve !
He touched the spring of his repeater, to correct this most
preposterous clock. Its rapid little pulse beat twelve, and
stopped.
" Why, it isn't possible," said Scrooge, " that I can have
slept through a whole day and far into another night. It
isn't possible that anything has happened to the sun, and this
is twelve at noon ! "
The idea being an alarming one, he scrambled out of bed,
and groped his -uay to the window. He was obliged to rub
the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing-gown before lie
could see anything ; and could see very little then. All he
could make out was, that it was still very foggy and ex-
tremely cold, and that there was no noise of people running
to and fro, and making a great stir, as there unquestionably
would have been if night had beaten off bright day, and
taken possession of the world. This was a great relief,
because " Three days after sight of this First of Exchange
pay to Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge or his order," and so fortli,
would have become a mere United States' secmity if there
were no days to count by.
fci'jruoge went to bed again, and thought, and thought, and
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. til
thought it over and over, and could make nothing of it. The
more he thought, the more perplexed he was ; and the more
he endeavoured not to think, the more he thought.
Marley's Ghost bothered him exceedingly. Every time he
resolved within himself, after mature inquiry, that it was all
a dream, his mind flew back again, like a strong spring re-
leased, to its first position, and presenfed the s;ime problem to
be worked all through, " Was it a dream or not ? "
Scrooge lay in this state until the chime had gone three
quarters more, when he remembered, on a sudden, that the
Ghost had warned him of a visitation when, the bell tolled
one. He resolved to lie awake until the hour was passed ;
aud, considering that he could no more go to sleep than go to
Heaven, this was perhaps the wisest resolution in his power.
The quarter was so long, that he was more than once con-
vinced he must have sunk into a doze unconsciously, and
missed the clock. At length it broke upon his listening ear.
" Ding, dong ! "
" A quarter past," said Scrooge, counting.
" Ding, dong ! "
*' Half-past ! " said Scrooge.
" Ding, dong ! "
" A quarter to it," said Scrooge.
" Ding, dong ! "
"The hour itself," said Scrooge, triumphantly, " and no-
thing else ! "
He spoke before the hour bell sounded, which it now did
with a deep, dull, hollow, melancholy One. Light flashed up
in the room upon the instant, and the curtains of his bed were
drawn.
The curtains of his bed were drawn aside, I tell you, by a
hand. Not the curtains at his feet, nor the curtains at his
back, but those to which his face was addressed. The curtains
of his bed were drawn aside ; and Scrooge, starting up into a
half-recumbent attitude, found himself face to face with the
unearthly visitor who drew tliem : as close to it as I am now
to you, and I am standing in the spirit at your elbow.
It was a strange figure — like a child : yet not so like a
child as like an old man, viewed through some supernatural
medium, which gave him the appearance of having receded
from the view, and being diminished to a child's proportions.
Its hair, which hung about its neck and down its back, was
22 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
white as if with age ; and yet the face had not a wrinkle in
it, and the tenderest bloom was on the skin. The arms were
very long and muscular ; the hands the same, as if its hold
were of uncommon strength. Its legs and feet, most deli-
cately formed, were, like those upper members, bare. It
wore a tunic of the purest white ; and round its waist was
bound a lustrous belt, the sheen of which was beautiful. It
held a branch of fresh green holly in its hand ; and, in sin-
gular contradiction of that wintry emblem, had its dress
trimmed with summer flowers. But the strangest thing about
it was, that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright
clear jet of light, by which aU this was visible ; and which
was doubtless the occasion of its using, in its duller moments,
a great extinguisher for a cap, which it now held under its
arm.
Even this, though, when Scrooge looked at it with increas-
ing steadiness, was not its strangest quality. For as its belt
sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another,
and what was light one instant, at another time was dark, so
the figure itself fluctuated in its distinctness : being now a
thing with one arm, now with one leg, now with t\venty legs,
now a pair of legs without a head, now a head without a
body : of which dissolving parts, no outline would be visible
in the dense gloom wherein they melted away. And in the
very wonder of this, it woidd be itself again ; distinct and
clear as ever.
" Are you the Spirit, sir, whose coming was foretold to
me ? " asked Scrooge.
" I am ! "
The voice was soft and gentle. Singularly low, as if instead
of being so close beside him, it were at a distance.
"Who, and what are you?" Scrooge demanded.
" I am the Ghost of Christmas Past."
" Long Past ? " inquired Scrooge ; observant of its dwarfish
stature.
"No. Your past."
Perhaps, Scrooge could not have told anybody why, if any-
body could have asked him ; but he had a special desire to
see the Spirit in his cap ; and begged him to be covered.
"What!" exclaimed the Ghost, "would you so soon put
out, with worldly hands, the light I give ? Is it not enough
that you are one of those whose jjassions made this cap, and
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 23
force me througli whole trains of years to wear it low upon
my brow ! "
Scrooge reverently disclaimed all intention to offend or any
knowledge of having wilfully "bonneted" the Spirit at any
period of his life, i He then made bold to inquire what busi-
ness brought him there.
" Your welfare ! " said the Ghost. -
Scrooge expressed himself much obliged, but could not
help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been
more conducive to that end. The Spirit must have heard him
thinking, for it said immediately : '
" Yonr reclamation, then. Take heed ! "
It put out its strong hand as it spoke, and clasped him
gently by the arm.
" Rise ! and walk with me ! "
It would have been in vain for Scrooge to plead that the
weather and the hour were not adapted to pedestrian purposes ;
that bed was warm, and the thermometer a long way below
freezing ; that he was clad but lightly in his slippers, dress-
ing-gown, and nightcap ; and that he had a cold upon him at
that time. The grasp, though gentle as a woman's hand,
was not to be resisted. He rose : but finding that the Spirit
made towards the window, clasped its robe in supplication.
"I am a mortal," Scrooge remonstrated, "and liable to
faU."
*' Bear but a touch of my hand there," said the Spirit, laying
it upon his heart, " and you shaU be upheld in more than this ! "
As the words were spoken, they passed through the wall,
and stood upon an open country road, with fields on either
hand. The city had entirely vanished. Not a vestige of it
was to be seen. The darkness and the mist had vanished
with it, for it was a clear, cold, winter day, with snow upon
the ground.
" Good Heaven ! " said Scrooge, clasping his hands together,
as he looked about him. " I was bred in this place. I was
a boy here ! "
The Spirit gazed upon him mildly. Its gentle touch,
though it had been light and instantaneous, appeared still
present to the old man's sense of feeling. He was conscious
of a thousand odours floating in the air, each one connected
with a thousand thoughts, and hopes, and joys, and cares long,
long, forgotten !
24 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
"Your lip is trembling," said the Ghost. "And what is
that upon your cheek ? "
Scrooge muttered, with an unusual catching in his voice,
that it was a pimple ; and begged the Ghost to lead him
where he would.
" You recollect the way ? " inquired the Spirit.
"Remember it!" cried Scrooge with fervour; "I could
walk it blindfold."
" Strange to have forgotten it for so many years ! " observed
the Ghost. " Let us go on."
They walked along the road. Scrooge recognising every
gate, and post, and tree ; until a little market-town appeared
in the distance, with its bridge, its church, and winding river.
Some shaggy ponies now were seen trotting towards them with
boys upon their backs, who called to other boys in country
gigs and carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were in
great spirits, and shouted to each other, until the broad fields
were so full of merry music, that the crisp air laughed to
hear it.
" These are but shadows of the things that have been,"
said the Ghost. " They have no consciousness of us."
The jocund travellers came on ; and as they came, Scrooge
knew and named them every one. Why was he rejoiced
beyond all bounds to see them ! Why did his cold eye
glisten, and his heart leap up as they went past ! Why was
he filled with gladness when he heard them give each other
Merry Christmas, as they parted at cross-roads and bye •wa3^s,
for their several homes ! What was merry Christmas to
Scrooge ? Out upon merry Christmas ! What goo.i had it
ever done to him ?
" The school is not quite deserted," said the Ghost. " A
solitary child, neglected by his friends, is left there still."
Scrooge said he knew it. And he sobbed.
They left the high-road, by a well-remembered lane, and
soon approached a mansion of dull red brick, with a little
weathercock -surmounted cupola, on the roof, and a bell hanging
in it. It was a large house, but one of broken fortunes ; for
the spacious offices were Kttle used, their walls were damp
and mossy, their windows broken, and their gates decayed.
Fowls clucked and strutted in the stables ; and the coach-
houses and sheds were over-run with grass. Nor was it more
retentive of its ancient state, witliiu ; for entering the dreary
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 25
hall, and glancing through the open doors of many rooms,
they found them poorly furnished, cold, and vast. There was
an earthy savour in the air, a chilly bareness in the place,
M'hich associated itself somehow with too much getting up
by candle-light, and not too much to eat.
They went, the Ghost and Scrooge, across the hall, to a
door at the back of the house. It opened before them, and
disclosed a long, bare, melancholy room, made barer still by
lines of plain deal forms and desks. At one of these a lonely
boy was reading near a feeble fire ; and Scrooge sat down
upon a form, and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he had
used to be.
Not a latent echo in the house, not a squeak and scuffle
from the mice behind the panelling, not a drip from the half-
thawed water-spout in the dull yard behind, not a sigh
among the leafless boughs of one despondent poplar, not the
idle swinging of an empty storehouse-door, no, not a clicking
in the fire, but fell upon the heart of Scrooge with softening
influence, and gave a freer passage to his tears.
The spirit touched him on the arm, and pointed to his
younger self, intent upon his reading. Suddenly a man in
foreign garments : wonderfully real and distinct to look at :
stood outside the window, with an axe stuck in his belt, and
leading by the bridle an ass laden with wood.
" Why, it 's Ali Baba ! " Scrooge exclaimed in ecstasy.
•'It's dear old honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes, I know. One
Christmas time, when yonder solitary child was left here all
alone, he did come, for the first time, just like that. Poor
boy ! And Valentine," said Scrooge, " and his wild brother,
Orson ; there they go ! And what 's his name, who was put
down in his drawers, asleep, at the gate of Damascus ; don't
you see him ! And the Sultan's Groom turned upside down
by the Genii : there he is upon his head ! Serve him right.
I 'm glad of it. What business had he to be married to the
Princess ! "
To hear Scrooge expending aJI the earnestness of his nature
on such subjects, in a most extraordinary voice between laugh-
ing and crying ; and to see his heightened and excited face ;
would have been a surprise to his business friends in the city,
indeed.
" There 's the Parrot ! " cried Scrooge. " Green body and
yellow tail, with a thing like a lettuce growing out of the top
C^
26 A CHEISTMAS CAROL.
of his head ; there he is ! Poor Robin Crusoe, he called him,
when he came home again after sailing round the island,
' Poor Robin Crusoe, where have you been, Robin Crusoe ? '
The man thought he was dreaming, but he wasn't. It wag
the Parrot, you know. There goes Friday, running for his
life to the little creek ! Halloa ! Hoop ! Halloo ! "
Then, with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual
character, he said, in pity for his former self, " Poor boy ! "
and cried again,
" I wish," Scrooge muttered, putting his hand in his
pocket, and looking about him, after drying his eyes with his
cuff : " but it 's too late now."
" Wliat is the matter ? " asked the Spirit,
"Nothing," said Scrooge. "Nothing. There was a boy
singing a Christmas Carol at my door last night, I should
like to have given him something : that 's all."
The Ghost smiled thoughtfully, and waved its hand : saying
as it did so, " Let us see another Christmas ! "
Scrooge's former self grew larger at the words, and the
room became a little darker and more dirty. The panels
shrunk, the windows cracked ; fragments of plaster fell out of
the ceiling, and the naked laths were shown instead ; but how
all this was brought about, Scrooge knew no more than you
do. He only knew that it was quite correct : that everything
had happened so ; that there be was, alone again, when all the
other boys had gone home for the jolly holidays.
He was not reading now, but walking up and down de-
spairingly. Scrooge looked at the Ghost, and with a mournfiil
shaking of his head, glanced anxiously towards the door.
It opened ; and a little girl, much younger than the boy,
came darting in, and putting her arms about his neck, and
often kissing him, addressed him as her " Dear, dear
brother."
" I have come to bring you home, dear brother I " said the
child, clapping her tiny hands, and bending down to laugh,
" To bring you home, home, home ! "
" Home, little Fan? " returned the boy.
"Yes!" said the child, brimful of glee. "Home, for
good and all. Home, for ever and ever. Father is so much
kinder than he used to be, that home 's like Heaven ! He
spoke so gently to me one dear night when I was going to
bed. that I was not afi-aid to ask him once more if you might
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 27
come home ; and he said Yes, you should ; and sent me in
a coach to bring you. And you 're to be a man ! " said the
child, opening her eyes; "and are never to come back here ;
but first, we 're to be together all the Christmas long, and
have the merriest time in all the world."
" You are quite a woman, little Fan ! " exclaimed the boy.
She clapped her hands and laughed,_ and tried to touch his
head ; but being too little, laughed again, and stood on tiptoe
to embrace him. Then she began to drag him, in her
childish eagerness, towards the door ; and he, nothing loth to
go, accompanied her.
A terrible voice in the haU cried, " Bring down Master
Scrooge's box, there ! " and in the hall appeared the school-
master himself, who glared on Master Scrooge with a ferocious
condescension, and threw him into a dreadful state of mind
by shaking hands with him. He then conveyed him and his
sister into the veriest old well of a shivering best-parlor that
ever was seen, where the maps upon the wall, and the
celestial and terrestrial globes in the windows, were waxy
with cold. Here he produced a decanter of curiously light
wine, and a block of curiously heavy cake, and administered
instalments of those dainties to the young people : at the
same time, sending out a meagre servant to offer a glass of
"something '•' to the postboy, who answered that he thanked
the gentleman, but if it was the same tap as he had tasted
before, he had rather not. Master Scrooge's trunk being by
this time tied on to the top of the cliaise, the children bade
the schoolmaster good-bye right willingly ; and getting into
it, drove gaily down the garden-sweep : the quick wheels
dashing the hoar-frost and snow from off the dark leaves of
the evergreens like spray.
" Always a delicate creature, whom a breath might have
withered," said the Ghost. " But she had a large heart ! "
" So she had," cried Scrooge. " You 're right. I will not
gainsay it, Spirit, God forbid ! "
" She died a woman," said the Ghost, " and had, as I
think, children."
" One child," Scrooge retvtrned.
" True," said the Ghost. " Your nephew ! "
Scrooge seemed uneasy in his mind ; and answered briefly,
" Yes."
Although they had but that moment left the school behind
28 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
them, tliey were now in the busy thoroughfares of a city,
where shadowy passengers passed and repassed; where
shadowy carts and coaches battled for the way, and all the
strife and tumult of a real city were. It was made plain
enough, by the dressing of the shops, that here too it was
Christmas time agaia ; but it was evening, and the streets
were lighted up.
The Ghost stopped at a certain warehouse door, and asked
Scrooge if he knew it.
" Know it ! " said Scrooge. " Was I apprenticed here ! "
They went in. At sight of an old gentleman in a Welsh
wig, sitting behind such a high desk, that if he had been two
inches taller he must have knocked his head against the
ceiling, Scrooge cried in great excitement :
" Why, it 's old Fezziwig ! Bless his heart ; it 's Fezziwig
alive again ! "
Old Fezziwig laid down his pen, and looked up at the
clock,' which pointed to the hour of seven. He rubbed his
hands ; adjusted his capacious waistcoat ; laughed all over
himself, from his shoes to his organ of benevolerce; and
called out in a comfortable, oily, rich, fat, jovial voice :
"Yo ho, there! Ebenezer ! Dick!"
Scrooge's former self, now grown a yoimg man, came
briskly in, accompanied by his fellow-'prentice.
** Dick Wilkins, to be sure ! " said Scrooge to the Ghost.
" Bless me, yes. There he is. He was very much attached
to me, was Dick. Poor Dick ! Dear, dear ! "
" Yo ho, my boys ! " said Fezziwig. " No more work to-
night. Christmas Eve, Dick. Christmas, Ebenezer ! Let 's
have the shutters up," cried old Fezziwig, with a sharp clap
of his hands, " before a man can say Jack Robinson ! "
You wouldn't believe how those two fellows went at it I
They charged into the street with the shutters — one, two,
three — had 'em up in their places — four, five, sis — barred
'em and pinned 'em — seven, eight, nine — and came back
before you could have got to twelve, panting like race-horses.
" Hilli-ho ! " cried old Fezziwig, skipping down from the
high desk, with wonderful agility. " Clear away, my lads,
and let 's have lots of room here ! Hilli-ho, Dick ! Chirrup,
Ebenezer! "
Clear away ! There was nothing they wouldn't have
cleared away, or couldn't have cleared away, with old
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 2P
Fezziwig looking on. It was done in a minute Every
movable was packed off, as if it were dismissed from public
life for evermore ; the floor was swept and watered, the lamps
were trimmed, fuel was heaped upon the fire ; and the ware-
house was as snug, and warm, and dry, and bright a ball-
room, as you would desire to see upon a winter's night.
In came a fiddler with a music-book, and went up to the
lofty desk, and made an orchestra of it, and tuned like fifty
stomach-aches. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial
smile. In came the three Miss Fezziwigs, beaming and
loveable. In came the six young followers whose hearts they
broke. In came all the young men and women employed in
the business. In came the housemaid, with her cousin the
baker. In came the cook, with her brother's particular
friend, the milkman. In came the boy from over the way,
who was suspected of not having board enough from his
master; trying to hide himself behind the girl from next
door but one, who was proved to have had her ears pulled by
her mistress. In they all came, one after another ; some
shyly, some boldly, some gracefully, some awkwardly, some
pushing, some pulling ; in they all came, anj'how and every-
how. Away they all went, twenty couple at once ; hands
half round and back again the other way ; down the middle
and up again ; round and round in various stages of affec-
tionate grouping ; old top couj^le alwaj's turning up in the
wrong place ; new top couple starting off again, as soon as
they got there ; all top couples at last, and not a bottom one
to help them ! When this result was brought about, old
Fezziwig, clapping his hands to stop the dance, cried out,
" WeU done!" and the fiddler plunged his hot face into a
pot of porter, especially provided for that purpose. But
scorning rest upon his reappearance, he instantly began again,
though there were no dancers yet, as if the other fiddler had
been carried home, exhausted, on a shutter, and he were a
bran-new man resolved to beat him out of sight, or perish.
There were more dances, and there were forfeits, and more
dances, and there was cake, and there was negus, and there
was a great piece of Cold Roast, and there was a great piece
of Cold Boiled, and there were mince-pies, and plenty of beer.
But the great effect of the evening came after the Iloast and
Boiled, when the fiddler (an artful dog, mind ! The sort of
man who knew his business better than you or I could have
so A CHRISTMAS CAP.OL.
told it him !) struck up " Sir Roger de Coverley."' Then old
Fezziwig stood out to dance with ^Nlrs. Fezziwig. Top couple,
too ; with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them ; three
or four and twenty pair of partners ; people who were not to
be trifled with ; people who would dance, and had no notion
of walking.
But if they had been twice as many — ah, four times — old
Fezziwig would have been a match for them, and so would
Mrs. Fezziwig. As to her, she was worthy to be his partner
in every sense of the term. If that 's not high praise, tell me
higher, and I '11 use it. A positive light appeared to issue
from Fezziwig' s calves. They shone in every part of the
dance like moons. You couldn't have predicted, at any given
time, what would become of them next. And when old
Fezziwig and Mrs. Fezziwig had gone all through the dance ;
advance and retire, both hands to your partner, bow and curtsey,
corkscrew, thread-the-needle, and back again to your place ;
Fezziwig " ciit " — cut so deftly, that he appeared to wink
with his legs, and came upon his feet again without a stagger.
When the clock struck eleven, this domestic ball broke up.
Mr. and Mrs. Fezziwig took their stations, one on either side
the door, and shaking hands with every person individually
as he or she went out, wished him or her a Merry Christmas.
Wlien everybody had retired but the two 'prentices, they did
the same to them ; and thus the cheerful voices died away,
and the lads were left to their beds ; which were under a
counter in the back-shop.
During the whole of this time, Scrooge had acted like a
man out of his wits. His heart and soul were in the scene,
and with his former self. He corroborated everything,
remembered everything, enjoyed everything, and underwent
the strangest agitation. It was not until now, when tlie
bright faces of his former self and Dick were turned from
them, that he remembered the Ghost, and became conscious
that it was looking full upon him, while the light upon its
head burnt very clear.
"A small matter," said the Ghost, "to make these silly
folks so full of gratitude."
" Small ! " echoed Scrooge.
The Spirit signed to him to listen to the two apprentices,
who were pouring out their hearts in praise of Fezziwig;
and when he had done so said,
A CHRTSTMAS CAROL. 31
' M^ij ! Is it not ? He has spent but a few pounds of
your mortal money : three or four, perhaps. Is that so much
that he deserves this praise ? "
" It isn't that," said Scrooge, heated by the remark, and
speaking unconsciously like his former, not his latter self.
" It isn't that, Spirit. He has the power to render us happy
or unhappy ; to make our service lig^t or burdensome ; a
pleasure or a toil. Say that his power lies in words and
looks ; in things so slight and insignificant that it is impos-
sible to add and coimt 'em up : what then ? The happiness
he gives, is quite as great as if it cost a fortune."
He felt the Spirit's glance, and stopped.
" ^\T]at is the matter ? " asked the Ghost.
"Nothing particular," said Scrooge.
" Something, I think ? " the Ghost insisted.
" No," said Scrooge, " No. I should like to be able to
say a word or two to my clerk just now. That 's aU."
His former self turned down the lamps as he gave
utterance to the wish ; and Scrooge and the Ghost again
stood side by side in the open air.
"My time grows short," observed the Spirit. " Quick I "
This was not addressed to Scrooge, or to any one whom ho
could see, but it produced an immediate effect. For again
Scrooge saw himself. He was older now; a man in the
prime of life. His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of
later years ; but it had begun to wear the signs of care and
avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the
eye, which showed the passion that had taken root, and
where the shadow of the growing tree would ftill.
He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a
mourning-dress : in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled
in the light that shone out of the Ghost of Clmstmas Past.
" It matters little," she said, softly. "To you, very little.
Another idol has displaced me ; and if it can cheer and
comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I
have no just cause to grieve."
" What Idol has displaced you? " he rejoined.
" A golden one."
" This is the even-handed dealing of the world ! " he said.
" There is nothing on which it is so hard as povert}^ ; and
tiere is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as
the pursuit of wealth ! "
32 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
•'You fear the world too much," she answered, gently,
" All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being
beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your
nobler aspirations fall off one by one, untU the master-
passion. Gain, engrosses you. Have I not? "
"What then?" he retorted. "Even if I have grown so
much wiser, what then? I am not changed towards you."
She shook her head.
"Am I?"
" Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were
both poor and content to be so, imtil, in good season, we
could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry.
You are changed. When it was made, you were another
man."
" I was a bo3%" he said impatiently.
" Your o-«Ti feeling tells you that you were not what you
are," she returned. " I am. That which promised happiness
when we were one in heart, is fraught with misery now that
we are two. How often and how keenly I have thought of
this, I will not say. It is enough that I have thought of it.
and can release you."
" Have I ever sought release ? "
" In words. No. Never."
"In what, then?"
"In a changed nature ; in an altered spirit ; in another
atmosphere of life ; another Hope as its great end. In every-
thing that made my love of any worth or value in your sight.
If this had never been between us," said the girl, looking
mildly, but with steadiness, upon him; "tell me, would you
seek me out and try to win me now ? Ah, no ' "
He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition, in
spite of himself. But he said, with a struggle, " You think
not."
" I would gladly think otherwise if I could," she answered,
"Heaven knows! When I have learned a Truth like this.
I know how strong and irresistible it must be. But if you
■were free to-day, to-morrow, yesterday, can even I believe
that you would choose a dowerless girl — yoM who, in your
very confidence with her, weigh everything by Gain : or,
choosing her, if for a moment you were false enough to your
one guiding principle to do so, do I not know that yottr re-
pentance and regret would surely follow ? I do ; and I
A CHRISTMAS CAKOL. S3
release you. With a full heart, for the love of him you once
vrere."
He was about to speak ; but with her head turned from
him, she resumed.
" You may — the memory of what is past half makes me
hope you will — have pain in this. A very, very brief time,
and you wOl dismiss the recollection of it, gladly, as an un-
profitable dream, from which it happened well that you awoke.
May you be happy in the life you have chosen ! "
She left him and they parted.
" Spirit ! " said Scrooge, " show me no more ! Conduct me
home. Why do you delight to torture me ? "
*' One shadow more ! " exclaimed the Ghost.
" No more ! " cried Scrooge. " No more. I don't wish to
see it. Show me no more I "
But the relentless Ghost pinioned him in both his arms, and
forced him to observe what happened next.
They were in another scene and place ; a room, not very
large or handsome, but full of comfort. Near to the winter
fire sat a beautiful young girl, so like that last that Scrooge
believed it was the same, until he saw her, now a comely
matron, sitting opposite her daughter. The noise in this
room was perfectly tumultuous, for there were' more children
there, than Scrooge in his agitated state of mind could count ;
and, unlike the celebrated herd in the poem, they were not
forty children conducting themselves like one, but every child
was conducting itself like forty. The consequences were
uproarious beyond belief; but no one seemed to care; on the
contrary, the mother and daughter laughed heartily, and
enjoyed it very much; and the latter, soon beginning to
mingle in the sports, got pillaged by the young brigands most
ruthlessly. AVhat would I not have given to be one of them I
Though I never could have been so rude, no, no ! I wouldn't
for the wealth of all the world have crushed that braided
hair, and torn it down ; and for the precious little shoe, 1
wouldn't have plucked it off, God bless my soul ! to save my
life. As to measuring her waist in sport, as they did, bold
young brood, I couldn't have done it ; I should have expected
my arm to have grown round it for a punishment, and never
come straight again. And yet I should have dearly liked, I
own, to have touched her lips ; to have questioned her, that
she might have opened them ; to have looked upon the lashoa
34 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
of her downcast eyes, and never raised a bliisli ; to liave let
loose waves of hair, an inch of which would be a keepsake
beyond price : in short, I should have liked, I do confess, to
have had the lightest licence of a child, and yet to have been
man enough to know its value.
But now a knocking at the door was heard, and such a rush
immediately ensued that she with laughing face and plundered
dress was borne towards it in the centre of a flushed and
boisterous group, just in time to greet the father, who came
home attended by a man laden with Christmas toys and
presents. Then the shouting and the struggling, and the
onslaught that was made on the defenceless porter ! The
scaling him, with chairs for ladders, to dive into his pockets,
despoil him of brown-paper parcels, hold on tight by his
cravat, hug him roimd the neck, pommel his back, and kick
his legs in irrepressible affection ! The shouts of wonder and
delight with which the development of every package was
received ! The terrible announcement that the baby had been
taken in the act of putting a doll's frying-pan into his mouth,
and was more than suspected of having swallowed a fictitious
turkey, glued on a wooden platter ! The immense relief of
hnding this a false alarm ! The joy, and gratitude, and
ecstasy ! They are all indescribable alike. It is enough that,
by degrees, the children and their emotions got out of the
parlor, and, by one stair at a time, up to the top of the house,
where they went to bed, and so subsided.
And now Scrooge looked on more attentively than ever,
when the master of the house, having his daughter leaning
fondly on him, sat down with her and her mother at his own
fireside ; and when he thought that such another creature,
(juite as graceful and as full of promise, might have caUed
liim father, and been a spring-time in the haggai'd winter of
his life, his sight grew very dim indeed.
" Belle," said the husband, turning to his wife with a
smile, " I saw an old friend of yours this afternoon."
"Who was it?"
" Guess ! "
" How can I ? Tut, dont I know," she added, in the same
breath, laughing as he laughed. " Mr. Scrooge."
"Mr. Scrooge it was. I passed his office window; and as
it was not shut up, and he had a candle inside, I could
scarcely help seeing nim. His partner lies upon the point oi
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 3/5
Seatli, I liear ; and there he sat alone. Quite alone in the
world, I do believe."
" Spirit ! " said Scrooge, in a broken voice, " remove me
from this place."
" I told you these were shadows of the things that have
been," said the Ghost. " That they are -what they are, do not
blame me ! " ^
" Remove me ! " Scrooge exclaimed. " I cannot bear it ! '*
He turned upon the Ghost, and seeing that it looked upon
him with a face, in which in some strange way there were
-fragments of all the faces it had shown him, wrestled with it.
" Leave me ! Take me back. Haunt me no longer I "
111 the struggle — if that can be called a struggle in which
the Gliost. with no visible resistance on its own part was
undisturbed by any effort of its adversary — Scrooge observed
that its light was burning high and bright ; and dimly con-
necting that with its influence over him, he seized the ex-
tinguisher-cap, and by a sudden action pressed it down upon
its head.
The Spirit dropped beneath it, so that the extinguisher
covered its whole form ; but though Scrooge pressed it dowTi
•«ath all his force, he could not hide the light, which streamed
from under it, in an unbroken flood upon the ground.
He was conscious of being exhausted, and overcome by an
irresistible drowsiness ; and, further, of being in his own bed
room. He gave the cap a parting squeeze, in which his hand
relaxed ; and had barely time to reel to bed, before ho sauJc
into a heavy slo«^p.
86 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
STAYE THREE.
THE SECOND OF THE THKEE SPIRITS.
Awaking in tlie middle of a prodigiously tough snore, and
dtting up in bed to get his thoughts together, Scrooge had no
occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of
One. He felt that he was restored to consciousness in the
right nick of time, for the especial purpose of holding a
conference with the second messenger despatched to him
through Jacob Marley's intervention. But, finding that he
turned uncomfortably cold when he began to wonder which of
his curtains this new spectre would draw back, he put them
every one aside with his own hands, and lying down again,
established a sharr) look-out aU round the bed. For he
wished to challenge the Spirit on the moment of its appear-
ance, and did not msh to be taken by surprise and made
nervous.
Gentlemen of tha free and easy sort, who plume themselves
on being accquainied with a move or two, and being usually
equal to the time-of-day, express the wide range of their
capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for
anything from pitch-and-toss to manslaughter ; between which
opposite extremes, no doubt, there lies a tolerably wide and
comprehensive range of subjects. Without ventui'ing for
Scrooge quite as hardily as this, I don't mind calling on you
to believe that he was ready for a good broad field of strange
appearances, and that nothing between a baby and rhinoceros
would have astonished him very much.
Now, being prepared for almost anything, he was not by
any means prepared for nothing ; and, consequently, when the
Bell struck One, and no shape appeared, he was taken with a
violent fit of trembling. Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter
of an hour went by, yet nothing came. All this time, he lay
upon his bed, the very core and centre of a blaze of ruddy
Light, 'ffhich streamed upon it when the clock j)roclaimed the
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 37
hcvir ; and w^hich. being only light, was more alarming than a
dozen ghosts, as he was powerless to make out what it meant,
or would be at; and was sometimes appreliensive that he
might be at that very moment an interesting case of spon-
taneous combustion, without having the consolation of know -
ing it. At last, however, he began to think — as you or I
would have thought at fii'st ; for it is always the person not in
the predicament who knows what ought to have been done in
it, and would unquestionably have done it too — at last, I say,
he began to think that the source and secret of this ghostly
light might be in the adjoining room, from whence, on further
tracing it, it seemed to shine. This idea taking full possession
of his mind, he got up softly and shuffled in his slippers to
the door.
The moment Scrooge's hand was on the lock, a strange voice
called him by his name, and bade him enter. He obeyed.
It was his own room. There was no doubt about that.
But it had undergone a surprising transformation. The walls
and ceiling were so hung with living green, that it looked a
perfect grove ; from every part of which, bright gleaming
berries glistened. The crisp leaves of hoUy,mistletoe, and ivy
reflected back the light, as if so many little mirrors had been
scattered there ; and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the
chimney, as that duU petrifaction of a hearth had never known
in Scrooge's time, or Marley's, or for many and many a winter
season gone. Heaped up on the floor, to form a kind of
throne, were turkeys, geese, game, poultry, brawn, great
joints of meat, sucking-pigs, long wreaths of sausages, mince-
pies, plum-puddings, barrels of oysters, red-hot chestnuts,
cherry-cheeked apples, juicy oranges, luscious pears, immense
twelfth-cakes, and seething bowls of punch, that made the
chamber dim with their delicious steam. In easy state upon
this couch there sat a jolly Giant, glorious to see ; who bore a
glowing torch, in shape not imlike Plenty's horn, and held it
up, high up, to shed its light on Scrooge, as he came peeping
round the door.
" Come in ! " exclaimed the Ghost. " Come in ! and know
me better, man ! "
Scrooge entered timidly, and hung his head before tin's
Spirit. He was not the dogged Scrooge he had been ; and
though the Spirit's eyes were clear and kind, he did not liko
to meet them.
38 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
" I am the Ghost of Christmas Present," said the Spiiit.
" Look upon me ! "
Scrooge reverently did so. It was clothed in one simple
deep green robe, or mantle, bordered with white fur. This
garment hung so loosely on the figure, that its capacious
breast was bare, as if disdaining to be warded or concealed by
any artifice. Its feet, observable beneath the ample folds of
the garment, were also bare ; and on its head it wore no other
covering than a holly wreath, set here and there with shiaing
icicles. Its dark brown cui-ls were long and free ; free as its
genial face, its sparkling eye, its open hand, its cheery voice,
its unconstrained demeanour, and its joyful air. Girded round
its middle was an antique scabbard ; but no sword was in it,
and the ancient sheath was eaten up with rust.
" You have never seen the Hke of me before ! " exclaimed
the Spirit.
'' Never," Scrooge made answer to it.
"Have never walked forthwith the younger members. of
my family ; meaning (for I am very young) my elder brothers
born in these later years ? " pui'sued the Phantom.
" I don't think I have," said Scrooge. " I am afraid I
have not. Have you had many brothers, Spirit ? "
"More than eighteen hundred," said the Ghost.
" A tremendous family to provide for," muttered Scrooge.
The Ghost of Christmas Present rose.
"Spirit," said Scrooge submissively, "conduct me where
you will. I went forth last night on compulsion, and I learnt
a lesson which is working now. To-niglit, if you have aught
to teach me, let me profit by it."
" Touch my robe ! "
Scrooge did as he was told, and held it fast.
Holly, mistletoe, red berries, ivy, turkeys, geese, game,
poultry, brawn, meat, pigs, sausages, oysters, pies, puddings,
fruit, and punch, all vanished instantly. So did the room,
the fire, the ruddy glow, the hour of night, and they stood
in the city streets on Christmas morning, where (for the
weather was severe) the people made a rough, but brisk and
not unpleasant kind of music, in scraping the snow from the
pavement in front of their dwellings, and from the tops of
their houses, whence it was mad deliglit to the boys to see it
come plumping down into the road below, aud splitting into
artificial little snow-storms.
^^^-^^^Ji /^^^^ :^^^^:
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. S9
The house fronts looked black enough, and the •svindofl s
blacker, contrasting with the smooth white sheet of snow
upon the roofs, and with the dirtier snow upon the ground ;
which last deposit had been, ploughed up in deep furrows by
the heavy wheels of carts and waggons ; furrows that crossed
and-recrossed each other hundreds of times where the great
streets branched off; and made intricate channels, hard to
trace, in the thick yellow mud and icy water. The sky was
gloomy, and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy
mist, half thawed, half frozen, whose heavier particles
'descended in a shower of sooty atoms', as if all the chimneys
in Great Britain had, by one consent, caught fire, and were
blazing away to their dear hearts' content. There was
nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town, and yet was
there an air of cheerfulness abroad that the clearest summer
air and brightest summer sun might have endeavoured to
diffuse in vain.
For, the people who were shovelling away on the house-
tops were jovial and full of glee ; calling out to one another
from the parapets, and now and then exchanging a facetious
snowball — better-natured missile far than many a wordy jest
— laughing heartily if it went right, and not less heartily ii
it went wrong. The poulterers' shops were still half open,
and the fruiterers' were radiant in their glory. There were
great, round, pot-bellied baskets of chestnuts, shaped like the
waistcoats of jolly old gentlemen, lolling at the doors, and
tumbling out into the street in their apoplectic opulence.
There were ruddy, bro^Ti-faced, broad- girthed Spanish onions,
shining in the fatness of theii' growth like Spanish Friars, and
winking from their shelves in wanton sl;yTiess at the girls aa
they went by, and glanced demurely at the hung-up mistletoe.
There were pears and apples, clustered high in blooming
pyramids ; there were bunches of grapes, made, in the shop-
keepers' benevolence, to dangle fi-om conspicuous hooks that
people's mouths might water gratis as they passed ; there
were piles of filberts, mossy and brown, recalling, in their
fragrance, ancient walks among the woods, and pleasant
shufflings ankle deep through withered leaves ; there weie
Norfolk Biffins, squab and swarthy, setting off the yellow of
the oranges and lemons, and, in the great compactness of their
juicy persons, urgently entreating and beseeching to be carried
home in paper bags and eaten after dinner. The very gold
40 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
and silver fish, set forth among these choice fruits in a bowl,
though members of a dull and stagnant-blooded race, appeared
to know that there was something going on ; and, to a fish,
went gasping round and round their little world in slow and
passionless excitement.
The Grocers' ! oh the Grocers' ! nearly closed, with perhaps
two shutters down, or one ; but through those gaps such
glimpses ! It was not alone that the scales descending on the
counter made a merry sound, or that the twine and roller parted
company so briskly, or that the canisters were rattled up and
down like juggling tricks, or even that the blended scents of
tea and coffee were so grateful to the nose, or even that the
raisins were so plentiful and rare, the almonds so extremely
white, the sticks of cinnamon so long and straight, the other
spices so delicious, the candied fruits so caked and spotted
with molten sugar as to make the coldest lookers on feel faint
and subsequently bilious. Nor was it that the figs were moist
and pulpy, or that the French plums blushed in modest tart-
ness from their highly-decorated boxes, or that everything was
good to eat and in its Christmas dress; but the customers
were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the
day, that they tumbled up against each other at the door,
crashing their wicker baskets wildly, and left their purchases
upon the counter, and came running back to fetch them, and
committed hundreds of the like mistakes, in the best humour
possible ; while the Grocer and his people were so frank and
fresh that the polished hearts with which they fastened their
aprons behind might have been their own, worn outside for
general inspection, and for Christmas daws to peck at if they
chose.
But soon the steeples caUed good people aU, to church and
chapel, and away they came, flocking through the streets in
their best clothes, and with their gayest faces. And at the
same time there emerged from scores of bye-streets, lanes, and
nameless turnings, innumerable people, carrying their dinners
to the bakers' shops. The sight of these poor revellers appeared
to interest the Sjjii-it very much, for he stood with Scroogo
beside him in a baker's doorway, and taking off the covers aa
their bearers passed, sprinkled incense on their dinners from
his torch. And it was a very uncommon kind of torch, for
onc^ or twice when there were angry words between some
dinner-carriers who had jostled each other, he shed a few
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 41
drops of water on them from it, and their good humour was
restored directly. For they said, it was a shame to quarrel
upon Christmas Day. And so it was ! God love it, so it was !
In time the beUs ceased, and the bakers were shut up ; and
yet there was a genial shadowing forth of all these d)r>ners
and the progress of their cooking, in the thawed blotch of wet
above each baker's oven ; where the pavement smoked as if
its stones were cooking too.
" Is there a peculiar flavour in what you sprinkle from your
torch ? " asked Scrooge.
" There is. My own."
" Would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day ? "
asked Scrooge.
" To any kindly given. To a poor one most."
" Why to a poor one most ? " asked Scrooge.
" Because it needs it most."
"Spirit," said Scrooge, after a moment's thought. "I
wonder you, of all the beings in the many worlds about us,
should desire to cramp these people's opportunities of innocent
enjoyment."
" I ! " cried the Spirit.
" You would deprive them of their means of dining every
seventh day, often the only day on which they can be said to
dine at all," said Scrooge ; " wouldn't you ? "
" I ! " cried the spirit.
" You seek to close these places on the Seventh Day ? " said
Scrooge. " And it comes to the same thing."
" / seek ! " exclaimed the Spirit.
" Forgive me if I am wrong. It has been done in your
name, or at least in that of your family, " said Scrooge.
"There are some upon this earth of yours," returned the
Spirit, " who lay claim to know us, and who do their deeds of
passion, pride, ill-will, hatred, envy, bigotry, and selfishness
in our name, who are as strange to us and all our kith and
kin, as if they had never lived. Remember that, and charge
their doings on themselves, not us."
Scrooge promised that he would ; and they went on, in-
visible, as they had been before, into the suburbs of the town.
It was a remarkable quality of the Ghost (which Scrooge had
observed at the baker's), that notwithstanding his gigantic
size, he could accommodate himself to any place with ease ;
and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as gracefully and like
42 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
8 supernatural creature as it was possible lie could have done
in any lofty hall.
And perhaps it was the pleasure the good Spirit had in
showing off this power of his, or else it was his own kind,
generous, hearty nature, and his sjonpathy with all poor men,
*,hat led him straight to Scrooge's clerk's ; for there he went,
and took Scrooge with him, holding to his robe ; and on the
tlireshold of the door the Sj^irit smiled, and stopped to bless
Bob Cratchit's dwelling with the sprinklings of his torch.
Think of that ! Bob had but fifteen " Bob " a-week himself; he
pocketed on Saturdays but fifteen copies of his Christian name ;
and yet the ghost of Christmas Present blessed his four-roomed
house !
Then up rose Mrs. Cratchit, Cratchit's wife, dressed out but
poorly in a tAvice-turned gown, but brave in ribbons, which
are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence ; and she laid
the cloth, assisted by Belinda Cratchit, second of her
daughters, also brave in ribbons ; while Master Peter
Cratchit plunged a fork into the saucepan of potatoes, and
getting the corners of his monstrous shirt-collar (Bob's private
property, conferred upon his son and heir in honour of the
day) into his mouth, rejoiced to find himself so gallantly
attired, and yearned to show his linen in the fashionable Parks.
And now two smaller Cratchits, boy and girl, came tearing in,
screaming that outside the baker's they had smelt the goose,
and known it for their own ; and basking in luxurious thoughts
of sage and onion, these young Cratchits danced about the
table, and exalted Master Peter Cratchit to the skies, while he
(not proud, although his collars near choked him) blew the
fire, untn the slow potatoes bubbling up, knocked loudly at
the saucepan-Hd to be let out and peeled.
" What has ever got your precious father then ? " said Mrs.
Cratchit. " And your brother, Tiny Tim ! And Martha
warn't as late last Christmas Day by haLf-an-hour ! "
"Here's Martha, mother. " said a girl appearing asshespoke.
" Here 's Martha, mother ! " cried the two young Cratchits,
" Hurrah ! There 's such a goose, Martha ! "
" Why, bless your heart aHve, my dear, how late you are ! "
said Mrs. Cratchit, kissing her a dozen times, and taking ofl
her shawl and bonnet for her with ofiicious zeal.
" We' d a deal of work to finish up last night," replied the
girl, " and had to clear away this morning, mother!"
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 4S
'' Well ! never mind so long as you are come," said Mrs.
Cratcliit. " Sit ye down before the fire, my dear, and have a
warm, Lord bless ye ! "
" No no ! There 's father coming," cried the two young
Cratchits, Mdio were everywhere at once. " Hide, Martha, hide I ''
So Martha hid herself, and in came little Bob, the father,
with at least three feet of comfortei- exclusive of the fringe
hanging down before him ; and his threadbare clothes
darned up and brushed, to look seasonable ; and Tiny Tim
upon his shoulder. Alas for Tiny Tim, he bore a littlo
crutch, and had his limbs supported by an iron frame !
" Why, where 's our Martha ? " cried Bob Cratchit looking
round.
" Not coming," said Mrs. Cratchit.
"Not coming!" said Bob, with a sudden declension in
liis high spirits ; for he had been Tim's blood horse all the
As'ay from church, and had come home rampant. " Not
coming upon Christmas Day ! "
Martha didn't like to see him disappointed, if it were
only in joke ; so she came out prematurely from behind the
closet door, and ran into his arms, while the two young
Cratchits hustled Tiny Tim, and bore him off into the wash-
house, that he might hear the pudding singing in the
copper.
"And how did little Tim behave?" asked Mrs. Cratchit,
when she had rallied Bob on his credulity, and Bob hud
hugged his daughter to his heart's content.
" As good as gold," said Bob, " and better. Somehow he gets
tlioughtful, sitting by himself so much, and thinks the strangest
tilings jou ever heard. He told me, coming home, that he
hoped the people saw him in the church, because he was a
cripple, and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon
Christmas Day, who made lame beggars walk and blind men
see."
Bob's voice was tremulous when he told them this, and
trembled more when he said that Tiny Tim was growing
strong and hearty.
His active little crutch was heard upon the floor, and back
came Tiny Tim before another word was spoken, escorted
by his brother and sistei to liis stool beside the fire; and
while Bob, turning up hiS cuti'b — as if, poor fellow, they were
capa))le of being made more shalby — compounded some hot
t4 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
mixture in a jug with gin and lemons, and stirred it round
id round and put it on the hob to simmer ; Master Peter
and the • two ubiquitous young Cratchits went to fetch the
goose, with which they soon returned in high procession.
Such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose
the rarest of all birds ; a feathered phenomenon, to which a
black swan was a matter of course — and in truth it was some-
thing very like it in that house. Mrs. Cratchit made the
gravy (ready beforehand in a lirtle saucepan) hissing hot;
Master Peter mashed the potatoes with incredible vigour;
Miss Belinda sweetened up the apple sauce ; Martha dusted the
hot-plates ; Bob took Tiny Tim beside him in a tiny corner at
the table ; the two young Cratchits set chairs for everybody,
not forgetting themselves, and mounting guard upon their
posts, crammed spoons into their mouths, lest they should
shriek for goose before their turn came to be helj)ed. At
last the dishes were set on, and grace was said. It was
succeeded by a breathless pause, as Mrs. Cratchit, looking
slowly aU. along the carving-knife, prepared to plunge it in
the breast; but when she did, and when the long-expected
gush of stuffing issued forth, one murmur of delight arose
aU round the board, and even Tiny Tim, excited by the
two young Cratchits, beat on the table with the handle of
his knife, and feebly cried Hurrah !
There never was such a goose. Bob said he didn't believe
there ever was such a goose cooked. Its tenderness and
flavour, size and cheapness, were the themes of universal
admiration. Eked out by apple-sauce and mashed potatoes,
it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family; indeed, as
Mrs. Cratchit said with great delight (surveying one small
atom of a bone upon the dish), they hadn't ate it all at
last ! Yet every one had had enough, and the youngest
Cratchits in particular, were steeped in sage and onion to the
eyebrows ! But now the plates being changed by Miss
Belinda, Mrs. Cratchit left the room alone — too nervous to
bear witnesses — to take the pudding up, and bring it in.
Suppose it should not be done enough ! Suppose it should
break in turning out ! Suppose somebody should have got
over the wall of the backyard, and stolen it, while they were
merry with the goose — a supposition at which the two young
Cratchits became livid ! All sorts of horrors were supposed.
Hallo ! A great deal of steam ! The pudding was out ol
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 45
tlie copper. A smell like a washing-day ! That was the
cloth. A smell like an eating-house and a pastrycook's next
door to each other, with a laundress's next door to that !
That was the pudding ! In half a minute Mrs. Cratchit
entered — flushed, but smiling proudly — with the pudding,
like a speckled cannon-ball, so hard and firm, blazing in half
of half-a-quartern of ignited brandy, and bedight with
Christmas holly stuck into the top.
Oh, a wonderful pudding ! Bob Cratchit said, and calmly
too, that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by
Mrs. Cratchit since their marriage. Mrs. Cratchit said that
now the weight was off her mind, she would confess she had
lier doubts about the quantity of flour. Everybody had some-
thing to say about it, but nobody said or thought it was at
all a small pudding for a large family. It would have been
flat heresy to do so. Any Cratchit would have blushed to
liint at such a thing.
At last the dinner was all done, the cloth was cleared, the
hearth swept, and the fire made up. The compound in the
jug being tasted, and considered perfect, apples and oranges
were put upon the table, and a shovel full of chestnuts on the
fire. Then all the Cratchit family drew round the hearth, in
what Bob Cratchit called a circle, meaning half a one ; and at
Bob Cratchit' s elbow stood the family display of glass. Two
tumblers and a custard- cup without a handle.
These held the hot stviff from the jug, however, as well as
golden goblets would have done ; and Bob served it out with
beaming looks, while the chestnuts on the fixe sputtered and'
cracked noisily. Then Bob proposed :
" A Merry Christmas to us all, my dears. God bless us I"
Wliich aU the family re-echoed.
" God bless us every one I " said Tiny Tim, the last of all.
He sat very close to his father's side, upon his little stool.
Bob held his withered little hand in his, as if he loved the
child, and wished to keep him by his side, and dreaded that
he might be taken from him.
" Spirit," said Scrooge, with an interest he had never felt
before, " tell me if Tiny Tim will live "
" I see a vacant seat," replied the Ghost, " in the poor
chimney-corner, and a crutch without an owner, carefully
preserved. If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future
the child will die."
46 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
** No, no," said Scrooge. " Oh, no, kind Spirit ! say he
will be spared."
" Tf these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, none
other of my race," returned the Ghost, " will find him here.
What then ? If he be like to die, he had better do it, and
decrease the surplus popvdation."
Scrooge hung liis head to hear his own words quoted by the
Spirit, and was overcome with penitence and grief.
" Man," said the Ghost, "if man you be in heart, not
adamant, forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered
What the surplus is, and ^Vhere it is. Will you decide what
men shall live, what men shall die ? It may be, that in the
sight of Heaven, you are more worthless and less fit to live
than millions like this poor man's child. Oh God ! to hear
the Insect on the leaf pronouncing on the too much life
among his hungry brothers in the dust ! "
Scrooge bent before the Gliost's rebuke, and trembb'ng cast
his eyes upon the groimd. But he raised them speedily,, on
hearing his own name.
"Mr. Scrooge!" said Bob; " I 'U give you Mr. Scrooge,
the Founder of the Feast ! "
"The Founder of the Feast indeed I " cried Mrs. Cratchit
reddening. " I wished I had him here. I 'd give him a
piece of my mind to feast upon, and I hope he 'd have a good
appetite for it."
" My dear," said Bob, " the children ! Christmas day."
" It should be Christmas Day, I am sure," said she, " on
which one drinks the health of such an odious, stingy, hard,
unfeeling man as Mr. Scrooge. You know he is, Robert !
Nobody knows it better than you do, poor fellow ? "
" My dear," was Bob's mild answer. " Christmas Day."
" I 'U drink his health for your sake and the Day's," said
Mrs. Cratchit, " not for his. Long life to him ! A merry
Christmas and a happy new year ! He '11 be very merry and
very happy, I have no doubt ! "
Tlie children drank the toast after her. It was the first of
their proceedings which had no heartiness in it. Tiny Tim
drank it last of all, but he didn't care twopence for it.
Scrooge was the Ogre of the family. The mention of his
name cast a dark shadow on the party, which was not
dispelled for fidl five minutes.
After it had passed away, they were ten "Jrnes merrier than
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 47
before, from the mere relief of Scrooge the Baleful beiuj' done
with. Bob Cratchit told them how he had a situation in his
eye for Master Peter, which would bring in, if obtained, full
five-and-sixpence weekly. The two young Cratchits laughed
tremendously at the idea of Peter's being a man of business ;
and Peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fii'e from between
his collars, as if he were deliberating Mdiat particular invest-
ments he should favour when he came into the receipt of that
bewildering income. Martha, who was a poor apprentice at
a milliner's, then told them what kind of work she had to dc,
and how many hours she worked at a stretch, and how she
' meant to lie a-bed to-morrow morning for a good long rest ;
to-morrow being a holiday she passed at home. Also how
8he had seen a countess and a lord some days before, and how
the lord " was much about as tall as Peter ;" at which Peter
pulled up his collars so high that you couldn't have seen his
head if you had been there. All this time the chestnuts and
the jug went round and round ; and bye and bye they had a
song, about a lost child travelling in the snow, from Tiny Tim,
who had a plaintive little voice, and sang it very well indeed.
There was nothing of high mark in this. They were not
a handsome family ; they were not well di-essed ; their shoes
were far from being waterproof ; their clothes were scanty ;
and Peter might have known, and very likely did, the inside
of a pawnbroker's. But, they were happy, grateful, pleased
with one another, and contented with the time ; and w'hen
they faded, and looked happier yet in the bright sprinklings
of the Spirit's torch at parting, Scrooge had his eye upon
them, and especially on Tiny Tim, until the last.
By this time it was getting dark and snowing pretty heavily;
and as Scrooge and the Spirit went along the streets, the
brightness of the roaring fires in kitchens, parlors, and all
sorts of rooms, was wonderful. Here, the flickering of the
blaze showed preparations for a cosy dinner, with hot plates
baking through and through before the fire, and deep red
curtains, ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness.
There, all the cliildren of tlie house were rimning out into the
snow to meet their married sisters, brothers, cousins, uncles,
aunts, and be the first to greet them. Here, again, were
shadows on the window-blinds of guests assembling ; and
there a group of handsome girls, all hooded and fur-booted,
and all chattering at once, tripped lightly off to some neju
*8 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
neighbour's house ; where, wo upon the single man who saw
them enter — artful witches, well they knew it — in a glow !
But, if you had judged from the numbers of people on
their way to friendly gatherings, you might have thought that
no one was at home to give them welcome when they got
there, instead of every house expecting company, and piling
up its fires half-chimney high. Blessings on it, how the
Ghost exulted ! How it bared its breadth of breast, and
opened its capacious palm, and floated on, outpouring, with a
generous hand, its bright and harmless mirth on everything
within its reach ! The very lamplighter, who ran on before,
dotting the dusky street with specks of light, and who was
dressed to spend the evening somewhere, laughed out loudly
as the Spirit passed, though little kenned the lamplighter that
he had any company but Christmas !
And now, without a word of warning from the Ghost, they
stood upon a bleak and desert moor, where monstrous masses
of rude stone were cast about, as though it were the burial-
place of giants ; and water spread itself wheresoever it listed ;
or would have done so, but for the frost that held it prisoner ;
and nothing grew but moss and furze, and coarse, rank giass.
Down in the west the setting sun had left a streak of fiery red,
which glared upon the desolation for an instant, like a sullen
eye, and frowning lower, lower, lower yet, was lost in the
thick gloom of darkest night.
" What place is this ? " asked Scrooge.
"A place where Miners live, who labour in the bowels
of the earth," returned the Spirit. " But they know me.
See ! "
A light shone from the window of a hut, and swiftly they
advanced towards it. Passing through the wall of mud and
stone, they found a cheerful company assembled round a
glowing fire. An old, old man and woman, with their chil-
dren and their children's children, and another generation
beyond that, all decked out gaily in their holiday attire. The
old man, in a voice that seldom rose above the howling of the
wind upon the barren waste, was singing them a Christmas
song ; it had been a very old song when he was a boy ; and
from time to time they all joined in the chorus. So surely as
they raised their voices, the old man got quite blithe and loud ;
and so surely as they stopped, his vigour sank again.
The Spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold hir
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 49
robe, and passing *on above the moor, sped whitber ? Not to
eea ? To sea. To Scrooge's horror, looking back, he saw
the last of the land, a frightful range of rocks, behind them ;
and his ears were deafened by the thundering of water, as it
rolled, and roared, and raged among the dreadful caverns it
had worn, and fiercely tried to undermine the earth.
Built upon a dismal reef of sunken rocks, some league or
so from shore, on which the waters chafed and dashed, the
wild year through, there stood a solitary lighthouse. Great
heaps of sea-weed clung to its base, and storm-birds — born
of the wind one might suppose, as sea-weed of the water —
'rose and feU about it, like the waves they skimnled.
But even here, two men who watched the light had made a
fixe, that tlu'ough the loophole in the thick stone wall shed
out a ray of brightness on the awful sea. Joining their
horny hands over the rough table at which they sat, tliey
wished each other Merry Christmas in their can of grog ;
and one of them : the elder too, with his face aU damaged
and scarred with hard weather, as the figure-head of an old
ship might be : struck up a sturdy song that was like a gale
in itself.
Again the Ghost sped on, above the black and heaving sea
— on, on — until, being far away, as he told Scrooge, from any
shore, they lighted on a ship. They stood beside the helms-
man at the v/heei, the look-out in the bow, the ofiicers who had
the watch ; dark, ghostly figures in their several stations ; but
every man among them hummed a Christmas tune, or had a
Christmas thought, or spoke below his breath to his companion
of some by-gone Christmas Day, with homeward hopes belong-
ing to it. And every man on board, waking or sleeping, good
or bad, had had a kinder word for one another on that day
than on any day in the year ; and had shared to some
extent in its festivities ; and had remembered those he cared
for at a distance, and had known that they delighted to
remember him.
It was a great surprise to Scrooge, while listening to the
moaning of the mnd, and thinking what a solemn thing it
was to move on through the lonely darkness over an ^mkno^vu
abyss, whose depths were secrets as profound as Death : it
was a great surprise to Scrooge, whUe thus engaged, to liear
a hearty laugh. It was a much greator surprise to Scrooge
to recognise it as his own nephew's, and to find himself in a
E
50 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
bright, diy, gleaming room, with the Spirit standing smiling
by his side, and looking at that same nephew with approving
affability !
" Ha ! ha ! " laughed Scrooge's nephew. " Ha, ha, ha ! "
If you should happen, by any unlikely chance, to know a
man more blest in a laugh than Scrooge's nephew, all I can
say is, I should like to know him too. Introduce him to me,
and I 'U cultivate his acquaintance.
I^, is a fair, even-handed, noble adjustment of things, that
while there is infection in disease and sorrow, there is nothing
in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good-
humour. When Scrooge's nephew laughed in this way :
holding his sides, rolling his head, and twisting his face into
tlie most extravagant contortions : Scrooge's niece, by
marriage, laughed as heartily as he. And their assembled
friends being not a bit behindhand, roared out lustily.
" Ha, ha ! Ha, ha, ha, ha ! "
" He said that Christmas was a humbug, as I live ! " cried
Scrooge's nephew. " He believed it too ! "
" More shame for him, Fred ! " said Scrooge's niece, indig-
nantly. Bless those women ! they never do anything by
halves. They are always in earnest.
She was very pretty ; exceedingly pretty. With a dimpled,
surprised-looking, capital face ; a ripe little mouth, that
seemed made to be kissed — as no doubt it was ; all kinds of
good little dots about her chin, that melted into one another
when she laughed ; and the sunniest pair of eyes you ever
saw in any little creature's head. Altogether she was what
you would have called provoking, you know ; but satisfactory,
loo. Oh, perfectly satisfactory.
" He 's a comical old fellow," said Scrooge's nephew, "that's
the truth ; and not so pleasant as he might be. However,
his offences carry their own punishment, and I have nothing
IjQ say against him."
" I 'm sure he is very rich, Fred," hinted Scrooge's nieo«.
** At least you always tell me so."
" What of that, my dear ! " said Scrooge's nephew. " His
wealth is of no use to him. He don't do any good with it.
He don't make himself comfortable with it. He hasn't the
satisfaction of thinking — ha, ha, ha ! — that he is ever going
to benefit Us with it."
" I have no patience with him," observed Scrcoge's niew.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 51
Scrooge's niece's sisters, and all the other ladies, expressed the
same opinion.
"Oh, I have!" said Scrooge's nephew. "I am sorry for
him ; I couldn't be angry with hira if I tried. Who suffers
by his ill whims ! Himself, always. Here, he takes it into
his head to dislike us, and he won't come and dine with us.
What's the consequence ? He don't lose much of a dinner."
" Indeed, I think he loses a very good dinner," interrupted
Scrooge's niece. Everybody else said the same, and they
must be allowed to have been competent judges, because they
had just had dinner ; and with the .dessert upon the table
'were clustered round the fire, by lamplight.
" Well ! I am very glad to hear it," said Scrooge's nephew,
" because I haven't any great faith in these young house-
keepers. What do you say. Topper ? "
Topper had clearly got his eye upon one of Scrooge's niece's
sisters, for he answered that a bachelor was a wretched out-
cast, who had no right to express an opinion on the subject.
Whereat Scrooge's niece's sister — the plump one with the lace
tucker : not the one with the roses — blushed.
" Do go on, Fred," said Scrooge's niece, clapping her hands.
" He never finishes what he begins to say ! He is such a
ridiculous fellow ! "
Scrooge's nephew revelled in another laugh, and as it was
impossible to keep the infection off ; though the plump sister
tried hard to do it with aromatic vinegar ; his example was
unanimously followed.
"I was only going to say," said Scrooge's nephew, "that
the consequence of his taking a dislike to us, and not making
merry with us, is, as I think, that he loses some pleasant
moments, which could do him no harm. I am sure he
loses pleasanter companions than he can find in his own
thoughts, either in his mouldy old office, or his dusty cham-
bers. I mean to give him the same chance every year,
whether he likes it or not, for I pity him. He may rail at
Christmas till he dies, but he can't help thinking better of it
■ — I defy him — if he finds me going there, in good temper,
year after year, and saying, ' Uncle Scrooge, how are you ? '
If it only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk fifty
pounds, that's something ; and 1 think I shook him, yesterday."
It was their turn to laugh now, at the notion of his shakiii;^
Scrooge. But being thoroughly good-natured, and not mutih
52 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
caring what they laughed at, so that they laughed at any rate,
he encouraged them in their merriment, and passed the bottle,
joyously.
After tea, they had some music. For they were a musical
family, and knew what they were about, when they sung a
Glee or Catch, I can assure you : especially Topper, who
could growl away in the bass like a good one, and never sweU
the large veins in his forehead, or get red in the face over it.
Scrooge's niece played well upon the harp ; and played among
other tunes a simple little air (a mere nothing : you might
learn to whistle it in two minutes), which had been familiar
to the child who fetched Scrooge from the boarding-school, as
he had been reminded by the Ghost of Christmas Past. When
this strain of music sounded, all the things that Ghost had
shown him, came upon his mind ; he softened more and more ;
and thought that if he could have listened to it often, years
ago, he might have cultivated the kindnesses of life for his
own happiness with his own hands, without resorting to' the
sexton's spade that buried Jacob Marley.
But they didn't devote the whole evening to music. After
a while they played at forfeits ; for it is good to be children
sometimes, and never better than at Christmas, when its mighty
Founder was a child himself. Stop ! There was first a game
at blind-man's buff. Of course there was. And I no more
believe Topper was really blind than I believe he had eyes in
his boots. My opinion is, that it was a done thing between him
and Scrooge's nephew ; and that the Ghost of Christmas
Present knew it. The way he went after that plump sister in
the lace tucker, was an outrage on the credulity of human
nature. Knocking down the fire-irons, tumbling over the
chairs, bumping up against the piano, smothering himself
amongst the curtains, wherever she went, there went he ! He
always knew where the plump sister was. He wouldn't catch
anybody else. If you had fallen up against him, (as some of
them did) on purpose, he would have made a feint of endea-
vouring to seize you, vrhich would have been an affront to your
understanding, and woidd instantly have sidled off in the
direction of the plump sister. She often cried out that it
wasn't fair ; and it really was not. But when at last, he
caught her ; Vv-hen, in spite of all her silken rustlings, and her
rapid flutterings past him, he got her into a corner whence
there was no escape ; thou his conduct was the most execrable.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 5S
For liis pretending not to know her ; his pretending that it was
necessary to touch her head-dress, and further to assure him-
self of her identity by pressing a certain ring upon her finger,
and a certain chain about her neck ; was vile, monstrous I No
doubt she told him her opinion of it, when, anotner blind-
man being in office, they were so very confidential together,
behind the curtains.
Scrooge's niece was not one of the blind-man's bufi" party,
but was made comfortable with a large chair and a footstool,
in a snug corner where the Ghost and Scrooge were close
behind her. But she joined in the forfeits, and. loved her love
to admiration with all the letters of the alphabet. Likewise
at the game of How, When, and AVhere, she was very great,
and, to the secret joy of Scrooge's nephew, beat her sisters
hoUow : though they were sharp girls too, as Topper could
have told you. There might have been twenty people there,
young and old, but they all played, and so did Scrooge ; for,
wholly forgetting in the interest he had in what was going on,
that his voice made no sound in their ears, he sometimes came
out with his guess quite loud, and veiy often guessed right,
too ; for the sharpest needle, best Whitechapel, warranted
not to cut in the eye, was not sharper than Scrooge ; blunt
as he took it in his head to be.
The Ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood,
and looked upon him with such favour, that he begged like a
boy to be allowed to stay until the guests departed. But this
the Spirit said could not be done.
"Here is a new game," said Scrooge. "One half hoiir.
Spirit, only one !"
It was a Game called Yes and No, where Scrooge's nephew
had to think of something, and the rest must fiud out what ;
he only answering to their questions yes or no, as the case was.
The brisk fire of questioning to which he was exposed, elicited
from him that he was thinking of an animal, a live animal,
rather a disagreeable animal, a savage animal, an animal that
growled and grunted sometimes, and talked sometimes, and
lived in London, and walked about the streets, and wasn't
made a show of, and wasn't led by anybody, and didn't live
in a menagerie, and was never killed in a market, and was
not a horse, or an ass, or a cow, or a bull, or a tiger, or a dog,
or a pig, or a cat, or a bear. At every fresh question that
was put to him, this nephew burst into a fresh roar of
M A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
laughter ; and ■vras so inexpressibly tickled, that he -was
obliged to get up off the sofa and stamp. At last the plump
sister, falling into a similar state, cried out :
" I have found it out ! I know what it is, Fred ! I know
what it is ! "
"What is it?" cried Fred.
" It 's your uncle Scro-o-o-o-oge ! "
Which it certainly was. Admiration was the universal sen-
timent, though some objected that the reply to "Is it a bear?"
ought to have been "Yes; " inasmuch as an answer in the
negative was sufficient to have diverted their thoughts from
Mr. Scrooge, supposing they had ever had any tendency that
way.
" He has given us plenty of merriment, I am sure," said
Fred, " and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health.
Here is a glass of mulled wine ready to our hand at the mo-
ment ; and I say, ' Uncle Scrooge ! ' "
" Well ! Uncle Scrooge ! " they cried.
" A Merry Christmas and a happy New Year to the old
man, whatever he is ! " said Scrooge's nephew. " He wouldn't
take it from me, but may he have it, nevertheless. Uncle
Scrooge ! "
Uncle Scrooge had imperceptibly become so gay and light
of heart, that he would have pledged the unconscious com-
pany in return, and thanked them in an inaudible speech if
the Ghost had given him time. But the whole scene passed
off in the breath of the last word spoken by his nephew ; and
he and the Spirit were again upon their travels.
Much they saw, and far they went, and many homes they
visited, but always with a happy end. The Spirit stood
beside sick beds, and they were cheerful ; on foreign lands,
and they were close at home ; by struggling men, and they
were patient in their greater hope ; by poverty, and it was
rich. In almshouse, hospital, and jail, in misery's every
refuge, where vain man in his little brief authority had not
made fast the door, and barred the Spirit out, he left his bles-
sing, and taught Scrooge his precepts.
It was a long night, if it were only a night ; but Scrooge
had his doubts of this, because the Christmas HoKdaya
appeared to be condensed into the space of time they piassed
together. It was strange, too, that while Scrooge remained
unaltered in his outward form, the Ghost grew older, clearly
A CTirtTSTJTAS CAROL. 5-5
oldor. Scruoge had observed this change, but never spoke of
it, until they left a children's TweKth Night party, when,
looking at the Spirit as they stood together in an open place,
he noticed that its hair was gray.
"Are spirits' lives so short?" asked Scrooge.
" My life upon this globe is very brief," replied the Ghost.
" It ends to-night."
" To-night ! " cried Scrooge.
"To-night at midnight. Hark! The time is drawing
near."
The chimes were ringing the three quarters past eleven at
that moment.
" Forgive me if I am not justified in what I ask," said
Scrooge, looking intently at the Spirit's robe, " but I see
something strange, and not belonging to yourself, protruding
from your skirts. Is it a foot or a claw ? "
" It might be a claw, for the flesh there is upon it," was the
Spirit's sorrowful reply. " Look here."
From the foldings of its robe, it brought two children-
wretched, abject, frightftd, hideous, miserable. They knelt
down at its feet, and climg upon the outside of its garment.
" Oh, Man ! look here. Look, look, down here ! " exclaimed
the Ghost.
They were a hoj and girl. Yellow, meagre, ragged,
scowling, wolfish ; but prostrate, too, in their humility.
Where graceful youth should have filled their features out,
and touched them with its freshest tints, a stale and shrivelled
hand, like that of age, had pinched, and twisted them, and
pulled them into shreds. Where angels might have sat en-
throned, devils lurked, and glared out menacing. No change,
no degradation, no perversion of humanity, in any grade,
through all the mysteries of wonderful creation, has monster.s
half 80 horrible and dread.
Scrooge started back, appalled. Having them shown to
him in this way, he tried to say they were fiiue children, but
the words choked themselves, rather than be parties to a lie
of such enormous magnitude.
" Spirit ! are tney yours ? " Scrooge could say no more.
" They are Man's," said the Spirit, looking down upon
them. " And they chug to me, appealing fi-om their fathers.
This boy is Ignorance. Tliis girl is Want. Beware of them
hotli, and all of their degree, but most of all beware this buy,
56 A CIlllISTMAS CAROL.
for on his brow I see that written wliicli is Doom, unless the
writing be erased. Deny it ! " cried the Spirit, stretching out
its hand towards the city. " Slander those who tell it ye !
Admit it for your factious purposes, and make it worse ! And
bide the end ! "
" Have they no refuge or resoxirce ? " cried Scrooge.
" Are there no prisons ! " said the Spirit, turning on him
for the last time with his own words. " Are there no work-
houses ? "
The bell struck twelve.
Scrooge looked about him for the Ghost, and saw it not.
As the last stroke ceased to vibrate, he remembered the pre-
diction of old Jacob Marley, and lifting up his eyes, beheld a
solemn Phantom, draped and hooded coming, like a mist
tilong the ground towards him.
A CULlJSTiMAS CAKOL. 57
STAVE FOUR.
THE LAST OF THE SPIRITS.
The P]ia7itoni slowly, gravely, silently, approached. When
it came near him, Scrooge bent down upon his knee ; for in
tlie very air through which this Spirit moved it seemed to
scatter gloom and mystery.
It Avas shi'ouded in a deep black garment, which concealed
its head, its face, its form, and left nothing of it visible, save
one outstretched hand. But for this it would have been diffi-
cidt to detach its figure from the night, and separate it from
the darkness by which it was surrounded.
He felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside
liim, and that its mysterious pi'esence filled him with a solemn
dread. He knew no more, for the Spirit neither spoke nor
moved.
" I am in the presence of the Ghost of Christmas Yet To
Come ? " said Scrooge.
The Spirit answered not, but pointed onward with its
hand.
" You are about to show me shadows of the things that
have not happened, but will happen in the time before us,"
Scrooge pursued. " Is that so. Spirit ? "
The upper portion of the garment was contracted for an
instant in its folds, as if the Spirit had inclined its head. That
was the only answer he received.
Although well used to ghostly company by this time,
Scrooge feared the silent shape so much that his legs
trembled beneath him, and he found that he could hardly
stand when he prepared to follow it. The Spirit paused a
moment, as observing his condition, and giving him time to
recover.
But Scrooge Avas all the worse for this. It thrilled liim
with a vague uncertain horror, to know that behind the
dusky shroud, there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon
5R A CHRISTMA=! CAROL.
him, while he, though he stretched his own to the utmosf
could see nothing but a spectral hand and one great heap ol
black.
" Ghost of the Future ! " he exclaimed, " I fear you more
than any spectre I have seen. But as I know your purpose
is to do me good, and as 1 hope to live to be another man from
what I was, 1 am prepared to bear you company, and do it
with a thankful heart. Will you not speak to me ? "
It gave liim no reply. The hand was pointed straiglit
before them.
*' Lead on ! " said Scrooge. " Lead on ! The night is
waning fast, and it is precious time to me, I know. Lead on,
Spirit ! "
The Phantom moved away as it had come towards him.
Scrooge followed in the shadow of its dress, which bore hiin
up, he thought, and carried him along.
They scarcely seemed to enter the city ; for the city rather
seemed to spring up about them, and encompass them of its
own act. But there they were in the heart of it ; on 'Change,
amongst the merchants ; who hurried up and down, and
chinked the money in their pockets, and conversed in groups,
and looked at their watches, and trifled thoughtfully with
their great gold seals ; and so forth, as Scrooge had seen them
often.
The Spirit stopped beside one little knot of business men.
Observing that the hand was pointed to them, Scrooge
advanced to listen to their talk.
" No," said a great fat man with a monstrous chin, " I
don't know much about it either way. I only know he 'a
dead."
" When did he die ? " inquired another.
" Last night, I believe."
"Why, what was the matter with him ?" asked a tliird,
taking a vast quantity of snufl' out of a very large snuff-box.
" I thought he 'd never die."
" God knows," said the first with a yawn.
" What has he done with his money? " asked a red-faced
gentleman with a pendulous excrescence on the end of his
uose, that shook like the gills of a turkey-cock.
" I haven't heard," said the man with the large chin,
yawning again. " Left it to his company, perhaps. He
hasn't left it to me, That 's all I know."
A CHRTSTMAS CAROL. P9
Tliis pleasantry was received with a general laugh.
" It 's likely to be a very cheap funeral," said the same
speaker : " for upon my life I don't know of anybody to go to
it. Suppose we make up a party and volunteer ? "
" I don't mind going if a lunch is provided," observed the
gentleman with the excrescence on his nose. " But I must
be fed, if I make one." "-
Another laugh.
" Well, I am the most disinterested among you, after all,"
said the first speaker, "for I never wear black gloves, and I
never eat lunch. But I '11 offer to' go, if anybody else will.
When I come to think of it, I 'm not at all sure that I wasn't
his most particular friend ; for we used to stop and speak
whenever we met. Bye, bye!"
Speakers and listeners strolled away, and mixed with other
groups. Scrooge knew the men, and looked towards the
Spirit for an explanation.
The Phantom glided on into a street. Its finger pointed to
two persons meeting. Scrooge listened again, thinking that
the explanation might lie here.
He knew these men, also, perfectly. They were men of
business : very wealthy, and of great importance. He had
made a point always of standing well in their esteem : in a
business point of view, that is ; strictly in a business point of
view.
"How are you? " said one.
" How are you? " returned the other.
"Well ! " said the first. " Old Scratch has got his own at
last, hey ? "
" So I am told," returned the second. " Cold, isn't it ! "
" Seasonable for Chiistmas time. You are not a skaiter, I
suppose ? "
" No. No. Something else to think of. Good morning ! '
Not another word. That was their meeting, their conversa-
tion, and their parting.
Scrooge was at first inclined to be surprised that the
Spirit should attach importance to conversations apparently so
trivial ; but feeling assured that they must have some hidden
purpose, he set himself to consider what it was likely to be.
They could scarcely be supposed to have any bearing on the
death of Jacob, his old partner, for that was Past, and this
(Ghost's province was the Futui'e. Nor could he think of any
60 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
one immediately connected with, himself, to whom he could
apply them. But nothing doubting that to whomsoever they
applied they had some latent moral for his own improve-
ment, ho resolved to treasure up every word he heard, and
everything he saw ; and especially to observe the shadow of
himself when it appeared. For he had an expectation that
the conduct of his future self would give him the clue
he missed, and would render the solution of these riddles
He looked about in that very place for his own image ; but
another man stood in his accustomed corner, and though the
clock pointed to his usual time of day for being there, he saw
no likeness of himself among the multitudes that poured in
through the Porch. It gave him little surprise, however ; for
he had been revolving in his mind a change of life, and
thought and hoped he saw his new-bom resolutions carried
out in this.
Quiet and dark, beside him stood the Phantom, with its
outstretched hand. When he roused himself from his
thoughtful quest, he fancied from the turn of the hand, and
its situation in reference to himself, that the Unseen Eyes
were looking at him keenly. It made him shudder, and feel
very cold.
They left the busy scene, and went into an obscure part of
the town, where Scrooge had never penetrated before,
although he recognised its situation, and its bad repute. The
ways were foul and narrow ; the shops and houses wretched ;
the people half-naked, drunken, slipshod, ugly. Alleys and
archways, like so many cesspools, disgorged their offences
of smell, and dirt, and life, upon the straggling streets ;
and the whole quarter reeked with crime, with filth and
misery.
Far in this den of infamous resort, there was a low-browed,
beetling shop, below a pent-house roof, where iron, old rags,
bottles, bones, and greasy offal, were bought. Upon the floor
within, were piled up heaps of rusty keys, nails, chains,
hinges, files, scales, weights, and refuse iron of all kinds.
Secrets that few would Hke to scrutinise were bred and hidden
m mountains of unseemly rags, masses of corrupted fat, and
sepulchres of bones. Sitting in among the wares he dealt in,
by a charcoal stove, made of old bricks, was a grey-haired
rascal, nearly seventy years of age ; who had screened himself
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 61
from the cold air without, by a frousy curtaining of miscella-
neous tatters hung upon a line ; and smoked his pipe in all
the luxury of calm retirement.
Scrooge and the Phantom came into the presence of this
man, just as a woman with a heavy bundle slunk into
the shop. But she had scarcely entered, when another
woman, similarly laden, came in too ,- and she was closely
followed by a man in faded black, who was no less startled by
the sight of them, than they had been upon the recognition of
each other. After a short period of blank astonishment, in
which the old man with the pipe had joined them, they all
three burst into a laugh.
" Let the charwoman alone to be the first ! " cried she who
had entered first. " Let the laundress alone to be the second;
and let the undertaker's man alone to be the third. Look
here, old Joe, here 's a chance ! If we haven't all three met
here without meaning it !"
" You couldn't have met in a better place," said old Joe,
removing his pipe from his mouth. " Come into the parlour.
You were made free of it long ago, you know ; and the other
two an't strangers. Stop till I shut the door of the shop.
Ah ! How it skreeks ! There an't such a rusty bit of metal
in the place as its own hinges, I believe ; and I 'm sure
there 's no such old bones here, as m.ine. Ha, ha ! We 're
all suitable to our calling, we 're well matched. Come into
the parlour. Come into the parlour."
The parlour was the space behind the screen of rags. The
old man raked the fire together with an old stair-rod, and
having trimmed his smoky lamp (for it was night), with the
stem of his pipe, put it into his mouth again.
While he did this, the woman who had already spoken
threw her bundle on the floor and sat down in a flaunting
manner on a stool ; crossing her elbows on her knees, and
looking with a bold defiance at the other two.
"What odds then' What odds, Mrs. Dilber?" said tlie
woman. " Every person has a right to take care of them-
selves. He always did I "
"That's true, indeed!" said the laundress. "No mau
more so."
" Why then, don't stand staring as if you was afraid,
woman ; wlio 's the wiser ? We 're not going to pick holes iu
nacli other's coats, I suppose ? "
62 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
" No, indeed ! " said Mrs. Dilber and the man togetiier.
" We should hope not."
" Very well, then ! " cried the woman. " That 's enough.
Who 's the worse for the loss of a few things like these ? Not
a dead man, I suppose."
" No, indeed," said Mrs. Dilber, laughing.
" If he wanted to keep 'em after he was dead, a wicked old
screw," pursued the woman, " why wasn't he natural in his
lifetime ? If he had been, he 'd have had somebody to look
after him when he was struck with Death, instead of lying
gasping out his last there, alone by himself."
" It 's the truest word that ever was spoke," said Mrs.
Dilber. " It 's a judgment on him."
" I wish it was a little heavier judgment," replied the
woman; "and it should have been, you may depend upon
it, if I could have laid my hands on anything else. Open
that bundle, old Joe, and let me know the value of it.
Speak out plain. I 'm not afraid to be the first, tior
afraid for them to see it. We knew pretty well that we
were helping ourselves, before we met here, I believe. It 's
no sin. Open the bundle, Joe."
But the gallantry of her friends would not allow of tliis ;
and the man in faded black, mounting the breach fixst, pro-
duced his plunder. It was not extensive. A seal or two, a
pencil-case, a pair of sleeve buttons, and a brooch of no gi-eat
value, were all. They were severally examined and appraised
by old Joe, who chalked the sums he was disposed to give for
each, upon the wall, and added them up into a total when he
found that there was nothing more to come.
" That 's your account," said Joe, " and I wouldn't give
another sixpence, if I was to be boiled for not doing it.
Who 's next ? "
Mrs. Dilber was next. Sheets and towels, a little wearing
apparel, two old-fashioned silver teaspoons, a pair of sugar-
tongs, and a few boots. Her account was stated on the wall
in the same manner.
" I always give too much to ladies. It 's a ■weakness of
mine, and that's the way I ruin myself," said old Joe.
" That 's your account. If you asked me for another penny,
and made it an open question, I 'd repent of being so liberal,
and knock off half-a-crown."
" And now undo wiy bundle, Joe," said the first woma»
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 63
.Toe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of
opening it, and having unfastened a great many knots, dragged
x.ait a large heavy roll of some dark stuff.
" What do you caU this ? " said Joe. " Bed-curtains ! "
" Ah ! '' returned the woman, laughing and leaning for-
ward on her crossed arms. " Bed-curtains : "
" You don't mean to say you took 'em. down rings and all,
with him lying there ? " said Joe.
" Yes I do," replied the woman. " Why not ?"
" You -were born to make your fortune," said Joe, "and
.you '11 certainly do it."
" I certainly shan't hold my hand, when I can get anything
in it by reaching it out, for the sake of such a man as He was,
I promise you, Joe," returned the woman coolly. " Don't
drop that oil upon the blankets, now."
" His blankets ? " asked Joe.
" Whose else 's do you think ? " replied the woman. " He
isn't likely to take cold without 'em, I dare say."
" I hope he didn't die of anything catching? Eh ? " said
old Joe, stopping in his work, and looking up.
" Don't you be afraid of that," returned the woman. " I
an't so fond of his company that I 'd loiter about him for
such things, if he did. Ah ! You may look through
that shirt till your eyes ache ; but you won't find a hole
in it, nor a threadbare place. It 's the best he had, and
a fine one too. They 'd have wasted it, if it hadn't been
for me."
" What do you- call wasting of it ? " asked old Joe.
" Putting it on him to be buried in, to be sure," replied the
woman with a laiigh. " Somebody was fool enough to do it,
but I took it off again. If calico an't good enough for such a
purpose, it isn't good enough for anything. It 's quite as
becoming to the body. He can't look uglier than he did ic
that one."
Scrooge listened to iliis dialogue in horror. As they sat
grouped about their spoil, in the scanty light afforded by the
old man's lamp, he viewed them with a detestation and dis-
gust, which could hardly have been greater, though they had
been obscene demons, marketing the corpse itself.
" Ha, ha ! " laughed the same woman, when old Joe, pro-
ducing a flannel bag with money in it, told out their several
gains upon the ground. " This is the end of it, you see ? Ho
64 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
friglitened every one away from Kim wlieu he was alive, tn
profit us when he was dead ! Ha, ha, ha ! "
" Spirit ! " said Scrooge, shuddering from head to foot.
" I see, I see. The case of this unhappy man might be my
own. My life tends that way, now. Merciful Heaven, what
is this ! "
He recoiled in terror, for the scene had changed, and now
he almost touched a bed : a bare, uncurtained bed : on which,
beneath a ragged sheet, there lay a something covered up
which, though it was dumb, announced itself in awful
language.
The room was very dark, too dark to be observed with any
accuracy, though Scrooge glanced round it in obedience to a
secret impulse, anxious to know what kind of room it was. A
pale light rising in the outer air, fell straight upon the bed :
and on it, plundered and bereft, un watched, unwept, uncared
for, was the body of this man.
Scrooge glanced towards the Phantom. Its steady hand
was pointed to the head. The cover was so carelessly adjusted
that the slightest raising of it, the motion of a finger upon
Scrooge's part, woidd have disclosed the face. He thought of
it, felt how easy it would be to do, and longed to do it; but
had no more power to withdraw the veil than to dismiss the
spectre at his side.
Oh cold, cold, rigid, dreadful Death, set up thine altar here,
and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command :
for this is thy dominion ! But of the loved, revered, and
honoured head, thou canst not turn one hair to thy dread
purposes, or make one feature odious. It is not that the
hand is heavy and wiR fall down when released ; it is not that
the heart and pulse are still; but that the hand was open,
generous, and true ; the heart brave, warm, and tender ; and
the pulse a man's. Strike, Shadow, strike ! And see his
good deeds springing from the wound, to sow the world with
life immortal !
No voice pronounced these words in Scrooge's ears, and yet
he heard them when he looked upon the bed. He thought, if
this man could be raised up now, what would be his foremost
thoughts ? Avarice, hard-dealing, griping cares ? They have
brought him to a rich end, truly !
He lay, in the dark, empty house, with not a man, a
\roman or e child, to saj' he was kind to me in this or that,
A. CURTSTMAS CAROL. 65
and for the memorv of one kind word I will be kind to him..
A cat was tearing at the door, and there was a sound of
gnawing rats beneath the hearth-stone. What they \v^anted in
the room of death, and why they were so restless and disturbed,
Scrooge did not dare to think.
" Spirit! " he said, "this is a fearful ^lace. In leaving it,
I shall not leave its lesson, trust me. Let us go ! "
Still the Ghost pointed with an unmoved finger to the head.
" I understand you," Scrooge returned, " and I would do it
if I could. But I have not the power, Spirit. I have not the
power."
Again it seemed to look upon him.
"If there is any person in the town, who feels emotion
caused by this man's death," said Scrooge, quite agonised,
" show that person to me. Spirit, I beseech you I "
The phantom spread its dark robe before him. for a moment,
like a wing ; and withdrawing it, revealed a room by daj'-
light, where a mother and her children were.
She was expecting some one, and with anxious eagerness ;
for she walked up and down the room ; started at every
sound ; looked out from the window ; glanced at the clock ;
tried, but in vain, to work with her needle ; and could hardly
bear the voices of her children in their play.
At length the long-expected knock was heard. She hurried
to the door and met her husband ; a man whose face was
care-worn and depressed, though he was young. There was
a remarkable expression in it now ; a kind of serious
deKght of which he felt ashamed, and wliich he struggled to
repress.
He sat down to the dinner that had been hoarding for him
by the fire, and when she asked him faintly what news (which
was not until after a long silence), he appeared embarrassed
how to answer.
" Is it good," she said, " or bad ? " — to help him.
" Bad," he answered.
" We are quite ruined ? "
" No. There is hope yet, Caroline."
"1£he relents," she said, amazed, " there is I Nothing is
past hope, if such a miracle has happened."
" He is past relenting," said her husband. " He is dead."
She was a mUd and patient creature, if her face spoke trutli ;
but sho was thankful in her soul to hear it, and slie sdd so,
66 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
with clasped hands. She prayed forgiveness the next moment,
and was sorry ; but the first was the emotion of her heart.
" What the half-drunken woman, whom I told you of last
night, said to me, when I tried to see him and obtain a week's
delay ; and what I thought was a mere excuse to avoid me ;
turns out to have been quite true. He was not only very iU,
but dying, then."
" To whom wiU our debt be transferred ? "
" I don't know. But before that time we shall be ready
with the money ; and even though we were not, it woxdd be
bad fortune indeed to find so merciless a creditor in hia
successor. We may sleep to-night with light hearts, Caroline ! "
Yes. Soften it as they would, their hearts were lighter.
The childi-en's faces, hushed and clustered round to hear what
thej'' so little understood, were brighter ; and it was a happier
house for this man's death ! The only emotion that the Ghost
could show him. caused by the event, was one of pleasure.
" Lei me see some tenderness connected with a death," said
Scrooge; "or that dark chamber, Spirit, which we left just
now, wiU be for ever present to me."
The Ghost conducted him through several streets familiar to
his feet ; and as they went along, Scrooge looked here and
there to find himself, but nowhere was he to be seen. They
entered poor Bob Cratchit's house ; the dwelling he had visited
before ; and found the mother and the children seated round
the fire.
Q,xiiet. Very quiet. The noisy little Cratchits were as still
as statues in one corner, and sat looking up at Peter, who had
a book before him. The mother and her daughters were
engaged in sewing. But surely they were very quiet !
" ' And he took a child, and set him in the midst of them.' "
Where had Scrooge heard those words ? He had not
dreamed them. The boy must have read them out, as he and
the Spirit crossed the threshold. Why did he not go on ?
The mother laid her work upon the table, and put her hand
up to her face.
" The colour hurts my eyes," she said.
The colour ? Ah, poor Tiny Tim !
" They're better now again," said Cratchit's wife. " It makes
them weak by candle-light ; and I wouldn't show weak eyes
to your father when he comes home, for the world. It must be
near his time."
A CriUTSTMAS CAROL. 67
"Past it ratlier," Peter auswered, shutting up his book.
"But I think he has walked a little slower than he used, these
few last evenings, mother."
They were very quiet again. At last she said, and in a
steady, cheerful voice, that only faltered once :
"I have known him walk with — I have kno'wn him walk
with Tiny Tim upon his shoulder, very "fast indeed."
"And so have I," cried Peter. " Often."
" And so have I," exclaimed another. So had all.
"But he was very light to carry," she resumed, intent upon
her work, and his father loved him so, that it was no trouble :
no trouble. And there is your father at the door ! "
She hurried out to meet him ; and little Bob in his com-
forter— he had need of it, poor fellow — came in. His tea was
ready for him on the hob, and they all tried who should help
him to it most. Then the two young Cratchits got upon his
knees and laid, each child, a little cheek, against his face, as if
they said " Don't mind it, father." " Don't be grieved ! "
Bob was very cheerful with them, and spoke pleasantly to
all the family. He looked at the work upon the table, and
praised the industry and speed of IMrs. Cratchit and the girls.
They would be done long before Sunday, he said.
"Sunday! You went to-day, then, Robert?" said his
wife.
" Yes, my dear," returned Bob. "I wish you could have
gone. It would have done you good to see how green a place
it is. But you'll see it often. I promised him that I would
walk there on a Sunday. My little, little child ! " cried Bob.
" My little child ! "
He broke down aU at once. He couldn't help it. If he could
have helped it, he and his child would have been farther apart
perhaps than they were.
He left the room, and went up-stairs into the room above,
which was lighted cheerfully, and hung with Cliristmas.
There was a chair set close beside the child and there were
signs of some one having been there, lately. Poor Bob sat
down in it, and when he had thought a little and composed
himself, he kissed the little face. He was reconciled to what
had happened, and went down again quite happy.
They drew about the fire, and talked ; the girls and mother
working stiU. Bob told them of the extraordinary kindness of
Mr. Scrooge's nephew, whom he had scarcely seen but once.
68 A CHRISTJIAS CAROL.
and who, meeting him in the street that day, and seeing that
he looked a little — "just a little down you know," said Bob,
inquired what had happened to distress him. "On which."
said Bob, "for he is the pleasantest-spoken gentleman you
ever heard, I told him, ' I am heartily sorry for it, Mr.
Cratchit,' he said, ' and heartily sorry for your good wilb.'
By the bye, how he ever knew that I don't know."
" Knew what, my dear ? "
•' Why, that you were a good wife," replied Bob.
'' Everybody knows that I " said Peter.
" Very well observed, my boy ! " cried Bob. " I hope they
do. 'Heartily sorry,' he said, 'for your good wife. If I can
be of service to you in any way,' he said, giving me his card,
' that's where I live. Pray come to me.' Now, it wasn't,"
cried Bob, " for the sake of anything he might be able to do
for us, so much as for his kind way, that this was quite
delightful. It really seemed as if he had known our Tiny
Tim, and felt with us."
" I'm sure he's a good soul ! " said Mrs. Cratchit.
" You would be sure of it, my dear," returned Bob, "if
you saw and spoke to him. I shouldn't be at aU surprised — •
mark what I say ! — if he got Peter a better situation."
" Only hear that, Peter," said Mrs. Cratchit.
"And then," cried one of the girls, " Peter will be keeping
company with some one, and setting up for himself."
" Get along with you ! " retorted Peter, grinning.
" It 's just as likely as not," said Bob, " one of these days ;
though there 's plenty of time for that, my dear. But how-
ever and whenever we part from one another, I am sure we
shall none of us forget poor Tiny Tim — shall we — or this first
parting that there was among us ? "
"Never, fether ! " cried they all.
"And I know," said Bob, " I know, my dears, that when we
recollect how patient and how mild he was ; although he
was a little, little child ; we shall not quarrel easily among our-
selves, and forget poor Tiny Tim in doing it."
" No, never, father ! " they all cried again.
"I am very happy," said little Bob, " I am very happy I "
Mrs. Cratchit kissed him, his daughters kissed him, the two
young Cratchits kissed him, and Peter and himself shook
hands. Spirit of Tiny Tim, thy childish essence was from
God !
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 69
*' Spectre," said Scrooge, " something informs me that our
parting moment is at hand. I know it, but I know not how.
Tell me what man that was whom we saw l}^ng dead ? "
The Ghost of Christmas Yet To Come conveyed him, as
before — though at a different time, he thought : indeed, there
seemed no order in these latter visions, save that they were In
the Future — into the resorts of business men, but showed him
not himself. Indeed, the Spirit did not stay for anything,
but went straight on, as to the end just now desired, until
besought by Scrooge to tarry for a moment.
"This court," said Scrooge, "through which we hurry
now, is where my place of occupation is, and has been for a
length of time. I see the house. Let me behold what I
shall be, in days to come."
The Spirit stopped ; the hand was pointed elsewhere.
" The house is yonder," Scrooge exclaimed. " Why do
you point away? "
The inexorable finger underwent no change.
Scrooge hastened to the window of his office, and looked
in. It was an office still, but not his. The furniture was
not tbe same, and the figure in the chair was not himself.
The Phantom pointed as before.
He joined it once again, and wondering why and whither
he had gone, accompanied it until they reached an iron gate.
He paused to look round before entering.
A churchyard. Here, then, the wretched man whose name
he had now to learn, lay underneath the groimd. It was a
worthy place. Walled in by houses ; overrun by grass and
weeds, the growth of vegetation's death, not life ; choked up
with too much burying ; fat with repleted appetite. A worthy
place !
The Spirit stood among the graves, and pointed down to
One. He advanced towards it trembling. The Phantom was
exactly as it had been, but he dreaded that he saw new'
meaning in its solemn shape.
" Before I draw nearer to that stone to which you point,"
said Scrooge, " answer me one question. Are these tlie
ehadows of the things that Wni be, or are they shadows of
the things that May be, only ? "
Still the Ghost pointed downward to the grave by wliicli it
stood.
" Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if
70 A CnilTSTMAS CAROL.
persevered in, they must lead." said Scrooge. " But if the
courses be departed from, the ends will change. Say it is
thus with what you show me ! "
The Spirit was immovable as ever.
Scrooge crept towards it, trembling as he went ; and follow-
ing the finger, read upon the stone of the neglected grave his
own name, Ebenezek Sckooge.
" Am / that man who lay upon the bed ? " he cried, upon
his knees.
The finger pointed from the grave to him, and back again.
" No, Spirit ! Oh no, no ! "
The finger still was there.
" Spirit ! " he cried, tight clutching at its robe, " hear me !
I am not the man I was. I will not be the man I must have
been but for this intercourse. "Why show me this, if I am
past all hope ! "
For the first time the hand appeared to shake.
" Good Spirit," he pursued, as down upon the ground he
fell before it : " Your nature intercedes for me, and pities me.
Assure me that I yet may change these shadows you have
shown me, by an altered life ? "
The kind hand trembled.
" I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it
all the year. I Avill live in the Past, the Present, and the
Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me.
I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh, tell me I
may sponge away the writing on this stone ! "
In his agony, he caught the spectral hand. It sought to
free itself, but he was strong in his entreaty, and detained it.
The Spirit, stronger yet, repulsed him.
Holding up his hands in a last prayer to have his fate
reversed, he saw an alteration in the Phantom's hood and
dress. It shrunk, coUupsed, &nd dwindled down into a
bedpost.
<^-^A^/UzACiC)^y^.^ C^C^^oZc/D.
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 71
STAVE FIVE.
THE END OF IT.
Yes ! and the bedpost was his own. The bed was his own.
the room was his own. Best and happiest of all, the Time
before him was his o^vn, to make amends in !
" I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future ! "
Scrooge repeated, as he scrambled out of bed. " The Spirits
of all Three shaU strive within me. Oh Jacob Marley !
Heaven, and the Christmas Time be praised for this ! I say-
it on my knees, old Jacob ; on my knees ! "
He was so fluttered and so glowing with his good inten-
tions, that his broken voice woidd scarcely answer to his call.
He had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the Spirit.
and his face was wet with tears.
" They are not torn down," cried Scrooge, folding one of
his bed-curtains in his arms, " they are not torn down, rings
and all. They are here — I am here — the shadows of the
things that woidd have been, may be dispelled. They wiU be.
I know they will ! "
His hands were busy with his garments aU this time ;
turning them inside out, putting them on upside down, tearing
them, mislaj-ing them, making them parties to every kind of
extravagance.
" I don't know what to do ! " cried Scrooge, laughing and
crying in the same breath ; and making a perfect Laocoon of
himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I
am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy.
I am as giddy as a drunken man. A merry Christmas to
everybody ! A happy New Year to all the world ! HaUo
here ! WTioop ! HaUo ! "
He had frisked into the sitting-room, and was now standing
there : perfectly wiuded.
''Thei-e's the saucepan that the gruel waa in!" crie<l
72 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
Scrooge, starting off again, and going round tlie fire-place.
" There 's the door by which the Ghost of Jacob Marley
entered ! There 's the corner where the Ghost of Christmas
Present sat ! There 's the window where I saw the wandering
Spirits I It 's all right, it 's aU true, it all happened. Ha
ha ha ! "
Really, for a man who had been out of practice for so many
years, it was a splendid laugh, a most illustrious laugh. The
father of a long, long line of brilliant laughs !
" I don't know what day of the month it is," said Scrooge,
"I don't know how long I have been among the Spirits.
I don't know anything. I 'm quite a baby. Never mind.
I don't care. I 'd rather be a baby. Hallo ! Whoop !
Hallo here ! "
He was checked in his transports by the churches ringing
out the lustiest peals he had ever heard. Clash, clash,
hammer; ding, dong, bell. Bell, dong, ding; hammer,
clang, clash ! Oh, glorious, glorious 1
Running to the window, he opened it, and put out his
head. No fog, no mist ; clear, bright, jovial, stirring, cold ;
cold, piping for the blood to dance to ; Golden sunlight ;
Heavenly sky ; sweet fresh air ; merry bells. Oh, glorious.
Glorious !
" What 's to-day ?" cried Scrooge, calling downward to a
boy in Sunday clothes, who perhtips had loitered in to look
about him,
" Eh ? " returned the boy, with all his might of wonder.
" What 's to-day, my fine fellow ? " said Scrooge.
" To-day ! " replied the boy. " Why, Christmas Day."
" It 's Christmas Day ! " said Scrooge to himself. " I
haven't missed it. The Spirits have done it all in one night.
They can do anything they like. Of course they can. Of
course they can Hallo, my fine fellow ! "
" Hallo ! " returned the boy.
" Do you know the Poulterer's, in the next street but one,
at the corner? " Scrooge inquired.
" I should hope I did," replied the lad.
"An intelligent boy!" said Scrooge. "A remarkable
boy ! Do you know whether they 've sold the prize Turkey
that was hanging up there ? — Not the little prize Turkey :
the big one ? "
'' What, the one as big as me ? " retTirued the boy.
A CDRISTMAS CAROL. 78
" "\\Tiat a delightful boy ! " said Scrooge. " It 's a pleasure
to talk to him. Yes, my buck ! "
" It 's hanging there now," replied the boy.
" Is it?" said Scrooge. " Go and buy it."
" Walk-ER ! " exclaimed the boy.
"No, no," said Scrooge, "I am in earnest. Go and buy
it, and teU 'em to bring it here, that I may give them the
directions where to take it. Come back with the man, and
I '11 give you a shilling. Come back with him in less than
five minutes, and I '11 give you half-a-crown ! "
The boy was off like a shot. He must have had a steady
hand at a trigger who could have got a shot off half so
fast.
" I '11 send it to Bob Cratchit's," whispered Scrooge, rub-
bing his hands, and splitting with a laugh. " He shan't
know who sends it. It 's twice the size of Tiny Tim. Joe
Miller never made such a joke as sending it to Bob's will
be!"
The hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady
one ; but write it he did, somehow, and went down-stairs to
open the street door, ready for the coming of the poulterer's
man. As he stood there, waiting his arrival, the knocker
caught his eye.
" I shall love it as long as I live ! " cried Scrooge, patting
it with his hand. " I scarcely ever looked at it before. What
an honest expression it has in its face ! It 's a wonderful
knocker! — Here 's the Turkey. Hallo! Whoop! How are
you ! Merry Christmas ! "
It was a Turkey ! He never covdd have stood upon his
legs, that bird. He would have snapped 'em short off in a
minute, like sticks of sealing-wax.
"Why, it's impossible to carry that to Camden Town,"
said Scrooge. " You must liave a cab."
The chuckle with which he said this, and the chuckle with
which he paid for the Turkey, and the chuckle with which he
paid for the cab, and the chuckle with which he recompensed
the boy, were only to be exceeded by the chuckle with Avhich
he sat down breathless in his chair again, and chuckled till
he cried.
Shaving was not an easy task, for his hand continued to
shake very much ; and sluiving requires attention, even wh(m
you don't dance while you are at it. But if he had cut the
7i A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
end of his nose off, he ■would have put a piece of sticking"
plaister over it, and been quite satisfied.
He dressed himself "all in his best," and at last got out
into the streets. The people were by this time pouring forth,
as he had seen them with the Ghost of Christmas Present ;
and walking with his hands behind him, Scrooge regarded
every one with a delighted smile. He looked so irresistibly
pleasant, in a word, that tliree or four good-humoured fellows
said " Good morning, sir ! A merry Christmas to you ! "
And Scrooge said often afterwards, that of all the blithe
sounds he had ever heard, those were the blithest in his ears.
He had not gone fir, when coming on towai'ds him he
beheld the portly gentleman, who had walked into his count-
ing-house the day before, and said " Scrooge and Marley's,
I believe?" It sent a pang across his heart to think how
this old gentleman would look upon him when they met ; but
he knew what path lay straight before him, and he took it.
"My dear sir," said Scrooge, quickening his pace, and
taking the old gentleman by both his hands. " How do you
do ? I hope you succeeded yesterday. It was very kind of
you. A merry Christmas to you, sir ! "
" Mr. Scrooge?"
" Yes," said Scrooge. " That is my name, and I fear it
may not be pleasant to you. Allow me to ask your pardon.
And wiU you have the goodness" — here Scrooge whispered in
his ear.
" Lord bless me ! " cried tlie gentleman, as if his breath
were taken away. "My dear Mr. Scrooge, are you serious?"
" If you please," said Scrooge. " Not a farthing less.
A great many back-payments are included in it, I assure you.
Will you do me that favour ? "
" My dear sir," said the other, shaking hands with him,
" I don't know what to say to such munifi — "
" Don t say anything, please," retorted Scrooge. "Come
and see me. Will jon come and see me ? "
" I wiK ! " cried the old gentleman. And it was clear he
meant to do it.
" Thank'ee," said Scrooge. " I am much obliged to you.
I thank you fifty times. Bless you I "
He went to church, and walked about the streets, and
watched the people hurrying to and fro, and patted the
children on the head, and questioned beggars, and looked
A CURISTMAS CAROL. 75
down into the kitchens of houses, and up to the windows ;
and found that everything could yield him pleasure. He had
never dreamed that any walk — that any thing — could give
him so much happiness. In the afternoon, he turned his
steps towards his nephew's liouse.
He passed the door a dozen times, before he had the
courage to go up and knock. But he made a dash, and did it :
" Is your master at home, my dear?-" said Scrooge to the
girl. Nice girl ! Very.
" Yes, sir."
" Where is he, my love ? " said Scrooge.
" He's in the dining-room, sir, along with mistress. I '11
show you up-stairs, if you please."
" Thank' ee. He knows me," said Scrooge, with his hand
already on the dining-room lock. "I'll go in here, my dear."
He turned it gently, and sidled his face in, round the door.
They were looking at the table (which was spread out in
great array) ; for these young housekeepers are always
nervous on such points, and like to see that everything is
right.
" Fred ! " said Scrooge.
Dear heart alive, how his niece by marriage started !
Scrooge had forgotten, for the moment, about her sitting in
tlie comer with the footstool, or he wouldn't have done it, on
any account.
" Why bless my soul ! " cried Fred, " who 's that? "
" It 's I. Yoiu" uncle Scrooge. I have come to dinner.
Will you let me in, Fred ? "
Let him in ! It is a mercy he didn't shake his arm off.
He was at home in five minutes. Nothing could be heartier.
His niece looked just the same. So did Topper when he
came. So did the plump sister, when she came. So did
every one when they came. Wonderful party, wonderful
games, wonderful unanimity, won-der-ful happiness !
But he was early at the office next morning. Oh he was
early there. If he could only be there first, and catch Bob
Cratchit coming late ! That was the thing he had set his
heart upon.
And he did it ; yes he did ! The clock struck nine. No
Bob. A quarterpast. No Bob. He was full eighteen
minutes and a half behind his time. Scrooge sat with his
door wide open, that he might see him come into the Tank.
76 A CHRISTMAS CAROL.
His hat was off, before he opened the door ; his comfortei
too. He was on his stool in a jiffy ; driving away with his
pen, as if he were trying to overtake nine o'clock.
" Hallo ! " growled Scrooge, in his accustomed voice as
near as he coiild feign it. " What do you mean by coming
here at this time of day ? "
"I am very sorry, sir," said Bob. "I am behind my time."
" You are ! " repeated Scrooge. " Yes. I think you are.
Step this way, sir, if you please."
"It's only once a year, sir," pleaded Bob, appearing from
the Tank. " It shall not be repeated. I was making rather
merry yesterday, sir."
"Now, I '11 tell you what, my friend," said Scrooge. " 1
am not going to stand this sort of thing any longer. And
therefore," he continued, leaping from his stool, and giving
Bob such a dig in the waistcoat that he staggered back into
the Tank again : " and therefore I am about to raise your
salary I "
Bob trembled, and got a little nearer to the ruler. He
had a momentary idea of knocking Scrooge down with it,
holding him, and calling to the people in the court for help
and a strait-waistcoat.
" A merry Christmas, Bob ! " said Scrooge, with an
earnestness that could not be mistaken, as he clapped him on
the back. " A merrier Christmas, Bob, my good fellow, than
I have given you for many a year ! I '11 raise your salary,
and endeavour to assist your struggling family, and we will
discuss your affairs this very afternoon, over a Christmas
bowl of smoking bishop. Bob ! Make up the fires, and buy
another coal-scuttle before you dot another i. Bob Cratchit ! "
Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and
infinitely more ; and to Tiny Tim, who did not die, he was a
second father. He became as good a friend, as good a master,
and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other
good old city, town, or borough, in the good old world.
Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let
them laugh, and little heeded them ; for he was wise enough
to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good,
at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the
outset ; and knowing that such as these would be blind
anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle
up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive
A CHRISTMAS CAROL. 77
fonns. Kis own heart laughed : and that was quite enoue^h
for him.
He had no further intercourse with Spirits, but lived xipon
the Total Abstinence Principle, ever afterwards ; and it was
always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well,
if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be
truly said of us, and aU of us ! Aad so, as Tiny Tim
observed, God bless Us. Every One !
THE CHIMES;
A GOBLIN STORY
OF SOME BELLS THAT RANG AN OLD YEAR OUT
AND A NEW YEAR IN.
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.V.
THE CHIMES.
FIRST QUARTER.
Theke are not many people — and as it is desirable that a
story-teller and a story-reader should estabKsh a mutual under-
standing as soon as possible, I beg it to be noticed that 1
ccnfine this observation neither to young people nor to little
people, but extend it to all conditions of people : little and big.
young and old : yet growing up, or already growing do\Tn
again — there are not, I say, many people who would care to
sleep in a church. I don't mean at sermon-time in warni
weather (when the thing has actually been done, once or
twice), but in the night, and alone. A great midtitude of
persons will be violently astonished, I know, by this position,
in clie broad bold Day. But it applies to Night. It must
be argued by night. And I will undertake to maintain it
successfully on any gusty winter's night appointed for the
purpose, with any one opponent chosen from the rest, who
will meet me singly in an old churchyard, before an old church
door ; and will previously empower me to lock him in, if need-
ful to his satisfaction, until morning.
For the night-wind has a dismal trick of wandering round
and round a building of that sort, and moaning as it goes; and
of trying with its unseen hand, the windows and the doors ; and
seeking out some crevices by which to enter. And when it
has got in ; as one not finding what it seeks, whatever that
may be, it wails and howls to issue forth again ; and not
content with stalking ihrougli the isles, and gliding round and
round the pillars, and tempting the deep organ, soars up to
the roof, and strives to rend tho rafters : then flings itself
G
82 THE CHIMES.
despairingly upon the stones below, and passes, muttering, into
the vaults. Anon, it comes up stealthily, and creeps along the
walls, seeming to read, in whispers, the Inscriptions sacred to
the Dead. At some of these, it breaks out shrilly, as with
laughter; and at others, moans and cries as if it were
lamenting. It has a ghostly sound too, lingering within the
altar ; where it seems to chaunt in its wild way, of Wrong
and Murder done, and false Gods worshipped, in defiance of
the Tables of the Law, which look so fair and smooth, but
are so flawed and broken. Ugh ! Heaven preserve us,
sitting snugly round the fire ! It has an awful voice, that wind
at Midnight, singing in a church !
But, high up in the steeple ! There the foul blast roars and
whistles ! High up in the steeple, where it is free to come
and go through many an airy arch and loophole, and to twist
and twine itself about the giddy stair, and twirl the groaning
weathercock, and make the very tower shake and shiver !
High up in the steeple, where tlie belfry is, and iron rails are
ragged -n-ith rust, and sheets of lead and copper, shrivelled by
the changiug weather, crackle and heave beneath the un-
accustomed tread; and birds stuff shabby nests into corners
of old oaken joists and beams ; and dust grows old and grey ;
and speckled spiders, indolent and fat with long security,
swing idly to and fi'o in the vibration of the bells, and never
loose their hold upon their thread-spun castles in the air, or
climb up sailor-like in quick alarm, or di'op upon the ground
and ply a score of nimble legs to save one's life ! High up in
tlie steeple of an old church, far above the light and murmur
of the town and far below the flying clouds that shadow it, is
the wild and dreary place at night : and high up in the steeple
of an old church, dwelt the Chimes I teU of.
They were old Chimes, trust me. Centuries ago, these
Bells had been baptised by bishops : so many centuries ago,
that the register of their baptism was lost long, long before the
memory of man, and no one knew their names. They had
had their Godfathers and Godmothers, these BeUs (for my own
part, by the way, I would rather incur the responsibility of being
Godfather to a Bell than a Boy), and had had their silver mugs
no doubt, besides. But Time had mowed down their sponsors,
and Henry the Eighth had melted do^\Ti their mugs ; and they
now hung, nameless and mugless, in the church tower.
Not speechless, though. Fur from it. They had clear,
THE CHIMES. 83
loud, lusty, sounding voices, had these Bells ; and far and
wide they might be heard upon the wind. Much too sturdy
Chimes were they, to be dependent on the pleasure of the wind,
moreover ; for, fighting gallantly against it when it took an
adverse whim, they would pour their cheorfid. notes into a
listening ear right royally ; and bent on being heard, on
stormy nights, by some poor mother watching a sick child, or
some lone wife whose husband was at sea, they had been some-
times known to beat a blustering Nor' Wester; aye, "all to
fits," as Toby Veck said; — for though they chose to call him
-Trotty Veck, his name was Toby, and nobody could make it
anything else either (except Tobias) without a special act of
parliament ; he having been as lawfully christened in his day
as the Bells had been in theirs, though with not quite so much
of solemnity or public rejoicing.
For my part, I confess myself of Toby Veck's belief, for I
am sure he had opportunities enough of fonning a correct one.
And whatever Toby Veck said, I say. And I take my stand
by Toby Veck, although he did stand all day long (and weary
work it was) just outside the church-door. In fact, he was a
ticket-porter, Toby Veck, and waited tliere for jobs.
And a breezy, goose-skinned, blue-nosed, red-eyed, stony-
toed, tooth-chattering place it was, to wait in, in tlie winter-
time, as Toby Veck well knew. The M-ind came tearing round
the corner — especially the east wdnd — -as if it had sallied
forth, express, from the confines of the earth, to have a blow
at Toby. And fiftentimes it seemed to come upon him sooner
than it had expected, for bouncing round the corner, and
passing Toby, it would suddenly wheel round again, as if it
cried '' Why, here he is ! " Incontinently his little white apron
would be caught up over his head like a nauglity boy's
garments, and his feeble little cane would oe seen to wrestle
and struggle unavailingly in his hand, and his legs would
undergo tremendous agitation, and Toby himself all aslant,
and facing now in this direction, now in that, would be so
banged and buffeted, and touzled, and worried, and hustled,
and lifted off his feet, as to render it a state of things but one
degree removed from a positive miracle, that he wasn't carried
up bodily into the air as a colony of frogs or snails or other
very portable creatures sometimes are, and rained down again,
to the great astonishment of the natives, on some strange
corner of the world where ticket-portera are unknown
84
THE CUTMES.
But, ■windy weather, in spite of its using him so roaghly,
was, after all, a sort of holiday for Toby. That 's the fact.
He didn't seem to wait so long for a sixpence in the wind, as
at other times ; the having to fight with that boisterous
element took off his attention, and quite freshened him up,
when he was getting hungry and low spirited. A hard frost
too, or a fall of snow, was an Event; and it seemed to do him
good, someliow or other — it would have been hard to say in
what respect though, Toby ! So wind and frost and snow, and
perhaps a good stiff storm of hail, were Toby Veck's red-letter
days.
Wet weather was the worst ; the cold, damp, clammy wet,
that wrapped him up like a moist great-coat — the only kind of
great-coat Toby owned, or could have added to his comfort by
dispensing with. Wet days, when the rain came slowly,
thickly, obstinately doAvm ; when the street's throat, like his
own, was choked with mist ; when smoking umbrellas passed
nnd repassed, spinning round and round like so many tee-
totums, as they knocked against each other on the crowded
footway, throwing off a little "whirlpool of uncomfortable
sprinklings ; when gutters brawled and water-spouts were full
and noisy ; when the wet from the projecting stones and
ledges of the church fell drip, drip, drip, on Toby, making the
wisp of straw on which he stood mere mud in no time ; those
were the days that tried him. Then, indeed, you might see
Toby looking anxiously cut from his shelter in an angle, of the
church wall — such a meagre shelter that in summer time it
never cast a shadow thicker than a good-sized walking-stick
upon the sunny pavement — with a disconsolate and lengthened
face. But coming out a minute afterwards, to warm himself by
exercise, and trotting up and down some dozen times, he would
brighten even then, and go back more brightly to his niche.
They called him Trotty from his pace, which meant speed if
it didn't make it. He could have Walked faster perhaps ;
most likely ; but rob him of his trot, and Toby woidd have
talcen to his bed and died. It bespattered him with mud in
dirty weather; it cost him a world of trouble; he could have
walked with infinitely greater ease ; but that was one reason
for his clinging to it so tenacidftsly. A weak, small, spare
old man, he was a very Hercules, this Tob}', in his good
intentions. He loved to earn his money. He delighted to
believe — Toby was very poor, and couldn't well afford to part
THE cinMi':s. 85
with a delight — (hat he was worth his salt. With a shilling
or an eighteen-penny message or small parcel in band, his
courage, always high, rose higher. xVs he trotted on, he would
call out to fast Postmen ahead of him, to get out of the way ;
devoutly believing that in the natural course of things he must
inevitably overtake and run them down ; and he had perfect
faith — not often tested— in his being ^able to carry anything
that man eoidd lift.
Thus even when he came out of his nook to warm himself
on a wet day, Toby trotted. Making, with his leaky shoes, a
crooked line of slushy footprints in the mire ; and blowing on
his chilly hands and rubbing them against each other, poorly
defended from the searching cold by threadbare mufflers of
grey worsted, with a private apartment only for tlie thumb, and
a common room or tap for the rest of the fingers ; Toby, with
his knees bent and his cane beneath his arm, still trotted.
Falling out into the road to look up at the belfry when the
Chimes resounded, Toby trotted still.
He made this last excursion several times a day, for they
were company to him ; and when he heard their voices,
lie had an interest in glancing at their lodging-place, and
thinking how they were moved, and wliat hammers beat upon
them. Perhaps he was the more curious about these Bells,
because there were points of resemblance between themselves
and him. They hung there, in all weathers, with the wiml
and rain di'iving in upon them ; facing only the outsides of
all those houses ; never getting any nearer to the blazing
fires that gleamed and shone upon the Avindows, or came
puffing out of the chimney tops ; and incapable of participa-
tion in any of the good things that were constantly being
handed, through the street doors and area railings, to pro-
digious cooks. Faces came and went at many windows :
sometimes pretty faces, youthful faces, pleasant faces : some-
times the reverse : but Toby knew no more (though he often
Kjjeculated on these trifles, standing idle in the streets) whence
they came, or where they went, or whether, when the lip^!
moved, one kind word was said of liim in all the year, than
did the Chimes themselve^
loby was not a casuist — that he knew of, at least — and 1
don't mean to say that when he began to take to the Bells, and
to knit up his first rough ac<]uaintance with them into some-
thing of a closer and more delicate woof, he paissed through
83 THE CllIMI'S.
these considerations one by one, or helrl any formal review or
.yreat field-day in his thoughts. But wliat I mean to say, and
do say is, that as the functions of Toby's body, his digestive
organs for example, did of their own running, and by a great
many operations of which he was altogether ignorant, and the
knowledge of which would have astonished him very much,
arrive at a certain end ; so his mental faculties, without his
privity or concurrence, set aU these wheels and springs in
motion, with a thousand others, when tbey worked to bring
about his liking for the Bells.
And though I had said his love, I would not have recalled
the word, though it would scarcely have expressed his compli-
cated feeling. For being but a simple man, he invested them
with a strange and solemn character. They were so
mysterious, often heard and never seen ; so high up, so far
off, so full of such a deep strong melody, that he regarded
them with a species of awe ; and sometimes when he looked
up at the dark arched windows in the tower, he half expected
to be beckoned to by something which was not a Bell, and
yet was what he heard so often sounding in the Chimes. For
all this, Tol>y scouted with indignation a certain flying rumour
that the Chimes were haunted, as implying the possibility of
their being connected with any Evil thing. In short, they were
very often in his ears, and very often in his thoughts, but
always in his good opinion ; and he very often got such a crick
in his neck by staring with liis moutli wide open, at the
.steejile where they hung, that he was fain to take an extra trot
or two, afterwards, to cure it.
The very thing he was in the act of doing one cold day,
when the last drowsy sound of Twelve o'clock, just struck, was
liumming like a melodious monster of a Bee, and not by any
means a busy Bee, all through the steeple I
" Dinner-time, eh ! " said Toby, trotting up and uowa
before the church. " Ah ! "
Toby's nose was very red, and his eyelids were very red,
and he winked very much, and his shoidders were very near
his ears, and his legs were very stifi", and altogether he was
evidently a long way upon the frosty side of cool.
" Dinner-time, eh! " repeated Toby, using his right hand
muffler like an infantine boxing-glove, and punishing his chest
for being cold. " Ah-h-h-h ! "
He took a silent trot, after that, for a minute cr two.
THE CHIMES. 87
" There 's nothing," said Toby, breaking forth afresh, — but
here he stopped short in his trot, and with a face of great
ittterest and some alarm, felt his nose carefully all the way up.
It was but a little way (not being much of a nose) and he
flad soon finished.
"I thought it was gone," said Toby, trotting off again.
" It 's all right, however. I am sure I couldn't blame it if it
was to go. It has a precious hard service of it in the bitter
weather, and precious little to look forward to : for I don't
take snuff myself. It 's a good deal tried, poor creetur, at the
best of times ; for when it does get hold of a pleasant -whiff
or so (which an't too often), it 's generally from somebody
else's dinner, a-coming home from the baker's."
The reflection reminded him of that other reflection, which
he had left unfinished.
'' There 's nothing," said Toby, " more regular in its com-
ing round than dinner-time, and nothing less regular in its
coming round than dinner. That 's the great difference
between 'em. It 's took me a long time to find it out. I
wonder whether it would be worth any gentleman's while, now,
U) buy that obserwation for the Papers ; or the Parliament ! "
Toby was only joking, for he gravely shook his head in
self-depreciation.
" Why ! Lord ! " said Toby. " The Papers is full of obser-
wations as it is ; and so 's the Parliament. Here 's last
week's paper, now ; " taking a very dirty one from his
pocket, and holding it from him at arm's length; "full of
obserwations ! Full of obserwations ! I like to know the
news as well as any man," said Toby, slowly; folding it a littie
smaller, and putting it in his pocket again: "but it almost
goes against the grain with me to read a paper now. It
frightens me almost. I don't know what we poor people are
coming to. Lord send we may be coming to something better
in the New Year nigh upon us ! "
" Why, father, father ! " said a pleasant voice, hard by.
But Toby, not hearing it, continued to trot backwards and
forwards : musing as he went, and talking to himself.
" It seems as if we can't go right, or do right, or bo
righted," said Toby. " I hadn't much schooling, myself,
wlien I was young; and I can't make out whether we have
any business on the face of the earth, or not. Sometimes I
think we must have — a little ; and sometimes I think we must
** THE CUIMES.
be intruding. I get so puz-^led sometimes that I am not even
able to make up my mind whether there is any good at all in
us, or whether we are born bad. We seem to do dreadful
things ; we seem to give a deal of trouble ; we are always
being complained of and guarded against. One way or
another, we fill the papers. Talk of a New Year ! " said
Toby, moui-nfully. " I can bear up as well as another mau
at most times ; better than a good many, for I am as strong
as a lion, and all men an't ; but supposing it should really be
that we have no right to a New Year — supposing we really
are intruding "
" Why, father, father ! " said the pleasant voice again.
Toby heard it this time; started; stopped; and shortening
his sight, which had been directed a long way off as seeking
for enlightenment in the very heart of the approaching year,
found himself face to face with his own child, and looking
close into her eyes.
Bright eyes they were. Eyes that would bear a world of
looking in, before their depth was fathomed. Dark eyes, that
reflected back the eyes which searched them ; not flashinglj-,
or at the owner's will, but with a clear, calm, honest, patient
radiance, claiming kindred with that light which Heaven called
into being. Eyes that were beautiful and true, and beaming
with Hope. With Hope so young and fresh ; with Hope so
buoyant, vigorous and bright, despite the twenty years of work
and poverty on which they had looked ; that they became a
voice to Trotty Veck, and said i "I think we have some
business here — a little ! "
Trotty kissed the lips belonging to the eyes, and squeezed
the blooming face between his hands. ,'
"Why Pet," said Trotty. "What's to-do? I didn't
expect you to-day. Meg."
" Neither did I expect to come, father," cried the girl, nod-
ding her head and smiling as she spoke. " But here I am !
And not alone ; not alone ! "
" Why you don't mean to say," observed Trotty, looking
curiously at a covered basket which she carried in her hand,
" that you "
" SmeU it, father dear," said Meg, " Only smell it ! "
Trotty was going to lift up the cover at once, in a great
hurry, when she gaily interposed her hand.
" No, no, no/' said Meg, with the glee of a phi Id.
THE CHIMES. «y
" Lengthen it out a little. Let me just lift up the corner;
just the lit-tle ti-ny cor-ner, you know." said Meg, suiting the
action to the word with the utmost gentleness, and speairing
very softly, as if she were afraid of being overheard hy soir.e-
thiug inside the basket ; " there. Now. What 's that ! "
Toby took the shortest possible sniff at the edge of the
basket, and cried out in a rapture : -
" Why, it 's hot ! "
'•'It's burning hot!" cried Meg. "Ha, ha, ha! It's
scalding hot ! "
" Ha, ha, ha ! " roared Toby, with a sort of kick. •' It 's
scalding hot ! "
" But what is it, father ? " said Meg. " Come ! You
liaven't guessed what it is. And you must guess what it is.
I can't think of taking it out, till you guess what it is. Dou't
be in such a hurry ! Wait a minute ! A little bit more of
the cover. Now guess ! "
Meg was in a perfect fright lest he should guess right too
soon ; shrinking away, as she held the basket towards him ;
curling up her pretty shoulders ; stopping her ear with her
hand, as if by so doing she could keep the right word out of
Toby's lips ; and laughing softly the whole time.
Meanwhile Toby, putting a hand on each knee, bent doAvn
his nose to the basket, and took a long inspiration at the lid ;
the grin upon his withered face expanding in the process, as
if he were inhaling laugliing gas.
"Ah! It's very nice," said Toby. "It an't — I suppose
it an't Polonies?"
"No, no, no ! " cried Meg, delighted. "Nothinglike Polonies!"
" No," said Toby, after another sniff. " It 's — it 's mellower
than Polonies. It 's very nice. It improves every moment.
It 's too decided for Trotters. An't it ! "
Meg was in an ecstasy. He could not have gone wider of
the mark than Trotters — except Polonies.
" Liver ? " said Toby, communing with himself. " No.
There 's a mildness about it that don't answer to liver.
Pettitoes ? No. It an't faint enough for pettitoes. It wants
tlie stringiness of Cocks' heads. And I know it an't sausages.
I 'U tell you what it is. It 's chitterlings ! "
"No, it an't!" cried Meg, in a burst of delight. "No,
it an't ! "
"Why, what am I a thinking of!" said Toby, buddenJy
90 THE CHIMES.
recovering a position as near the perpendicular as it was
possible for him to assume. " I shall forget my own name
next. It 's tripe I "
Tripe it was ; and Meg, in high joy, protested he should
say, in half a minute more, it was the best tripe ever stewed.
" And so," said Meg, busying herself exultingly with hei
basket; "I '11 lay the cloth at once, father ; for I have brought
the tripe in a basin, and tied the basin up in a pocket-liand-
kerchief ; and if I like to be proud for oiu e, and spread that
for a cloth, and call it a cloth, there 's no law to prevent me ;
is there, father ? "
" Not that I know of, my dear," said Toby. " But they 're
always a bringing up some new law or other."
" And according to what I ■was reading you in the paper
the other day, father ; what the Judge said, you know ; we
poor people are supposed to know them all. Ha ha ! What
a mistake ! My goodness me, how clever they think us ! " .
" Yes, my dear," cried Trotty; "and they'd be very fond
of any one of us that did know 'em all. He 'd grow fat upon
the work he 'd get, that man, and be popular with the gentle-
folks in liis neighbourhood. Very much so ! "
" He 'd eat his dinner with an appetite, whoever he was, if
it smelt like tliis," said Meg, cheerfully. " Make haste, for
tliere 's a hot potato besides, and half a pint of fresh-drawn
beer in a bottle. Where will you dine, father ? On the Post,
or on the Steps ? Dear, dear, how grand we are. Two places
to choose from ! "
" The steps to-day, my Pet," said Trotty. " Steps in dry
weather. Post in wet. There 's a greater conveniency in the
steps at all times, because of the sitting down ; but thej' 're
rheumatic in the damp."
" Then here," said Meg, clapping her hands, after a
moment's bustle ; " here it is, all ready ! And beautiful it
looks ! Come, father. Come ! "
Since his discovery of the contents of the basket, Trotty
had been standing looking at her — and had been speaking too
—in an abstracted manner, which showed that though slie
was the object of his thoughts and eyes, to the exclusion even
of tripe, he neither saw nor thought about her as she was at
that moment, but had before him some imaginary rough
sketch or drama of her future life. Roused, now, by her
cheerful summons, he shook, off a melancholy shake of the
THE CHIMES. 9:
hoad which was just coming upon him, and trotted to her side-
As he was stooping to sit down, the Chimes rang.
" Amen ! " said Trotty, pulling off his hat and looking up
towards them.
"Amen to the Bells, father?" cried Meg.
"They broke in like a grace, my dear," said Trotty, taking
his seat. " They 'd say a good one, I am sure, if they could.
Many 's the kind thing they say to me."
" The Bells do, father' " laughed Meg, as she set the basin,
and a knife and fork before him. " Well ! "
"Seem to, my Pet," said Trotty,' falling to with grent
vigour. " And where 's the difference ? If I hear 'em, what
does it matter whether they speak it or not? Why bless you,
my dear," said Toby, pointing at the tower with his fork, and
becoming more animated under the influence of dinner, " how
often have I heard them bells say, ' Toby Veck, Toby Veck,
keep a good heart Toby ! Toby Veck, Toby Veck, keep a
good heart Toby ! ' A million times ? More ! "
" Well, I never ! " cried Meg.
She had, though — over and over again. For it was Toby's
constant topic.
" When things is very bad," said Trotty ; " very bad indeed
1 mean ; almost at the worst ; then it 's ' Toby Veck, Toby
Veck, job coming soon, Toby ! Toby Veck, Toby Veck, job
coming soon, Toby ! ' That way."
" And it comes — at last, father," said Meg, with a touch of
sadness in her pleasant voice.
" Always," answered the unconscious Toby. " Never fails."
While this discourse was holding, Trotty made no pause in
his attack upon the savoury meat before him, but cut and ate,
and cut and drank, and cut and chewed, and dodged about,
from tripe to hot potato, and from hot potato back again to
tripe, with an unctuous and unflagging relish. But happen-
ing now to look all round the street — in case anybody should
be beckoning from any door or window, for a porter — his
eyes, in coming buck again, encountered Meg : sitting opposite
to him, with her arms folded : and only busy in watching his
progress with a smile of happiness.
'' Why, Lord forgive me I " said Trotty, dropping his knife
and fork. " My dove ! Meg I why didn't you tell me what
a beast I was ? '
"Father?"
92 THE CIIIMKS.
" Sittiii<5 here," said Trotty, iu penitent explanation, "cram-
ming', and stuffing, and gorging myself; and you before me
there, never so muck as breaking your precious fast, nor
wanting to, when "
"But I have broken it, father," interposed his daughter,
laughing, " all to bits. I have had my dinner."
" Nonsense," said Trotty. " Two dinners in one day ! It
an't possible ! You might as well tell me that two Ne-'v
Year's Days will come together, or that I have had a gold
head all my life, and never changed it."
" I have had my dinner, father, for all that," said Meg,
coming nearer to him. " And if you '11 go on with yours,
I '11 tell you how and where ; and how your dinner came to
be brought; and — and something else besides."
Toby still appeared incredulous ; but she looked into hia
face with her clear eyes, and laying her hand upon his shoulder,
motioned him to go on while the meat was hot. So Trotty
took up his knife and fork again, and went to work. But
much more slowly than before, and shaking his head, as if lie
were not at all pleased with himself.
" I had my dinner, father," said Meg, after a little hesi-
tation, *' with — with Richard. His dinner-time was early ;
and as he brought his dinner with him when he came to see
me, we — we had it together, father."
Trotty took a little beer, and smacked his lips. Then he
said, •' Oh ! " — because she waited.
"And Richard says, father — " Meg resumed. Then stopped.
" What does Richard say, Meg ? " asked Toby.
" Richard says, father — " Another stoppage.
" Richard 's a long time saying it," said Toby.
" He says then, father," Meg continued, lifting up her eyes
at last, and speaking in a tremble, but quite plainly ,
" another year is nearly gone, and where is the use of waiting
on from year to year, when it is so unlikely we shall ever be
better olf than we are now ? He says we are poor now,
father, and we shall be poor then, but we are young now, and
years will make us old before we know it. He says that if
we wait : people in our condition : until we see our way quite
clearly, the way will be a narrow one indeed — the common
way — the Grave, father."
A bolder man than Trotty Veck must needs have drawn
upon hi,? boldness largely, to deny it. Trotty held his peace.
THE CIiniES. 93
*' And ho.v hard, father, to grow old, and die, and think
we might have cheered and helped each other ! How hard
ill all our lives to love each other; and to grieve, apart, to
see each other working, changing, growing old and jrrey.
Even if I got the better of it, and forgot him (which I never
could), oh .father dear, how hard to have a heart so full as
raine is now, and live to have it slowly drained out every drop,
U'ithout the recollection of one happy moment of a woman's
life, to stay behind and comfort me, and make me better ! "
Trotty sat quite still. INIeg dried her eyes, and said more
gaily : that is to say, with here a laugh, and there a sob, and
here a laugh and sob together :
" So Richard says, father ; as his work was yesterday made
certain for some time to come, and as I love him and have
loved him full three years — ah ! longer than that, if he knew
it I — will I marry liim on New Year's Day ; the best and
liappiest day, he says, in the whole year, and one that is
almost sure to bring good fortune with it. It 's a short
notice, father — isn't it ? — but I haven't my fortune to be
settled, or my wedding dresses to be made, like the great
ladies, father, have 1 ? And he said so much, and said it in
his way ; so strong and earnest, and all the time so kind and
gentle ; that I said I 'd come and talk to you, father. And
as they paid the money for that work of mine this morning
Oinexpectedly, I am sure ! ), and as you have fared very poorly
for a whole week, and as I couldn't help wishing there should
bo something to make this day a sort of holiday to you as
well as a dear and happy day to me father, I made a little
treat and brought it to surprise you."
" And see how he leaves it cooling on the step ! " said
another voice.
It was the voice of the same Richard, who had come upon
them unobserved, and stood before the father and daughter ;
hjoking do^-n upon them, with a face as glowing as the
ir(m on which his stout sledge-hammer daily rung. A
Handsome, well-made, powerfiJ youngster he was ; with eyes
that sparkled like the red-hot droppings from a furnace fire ;
black hair that curled altout liis swarthy temples rarely; and
a smile — a smile that bore out Meg's eulogiuin on his stjde of
conversation.
"See how he leaves it cooling on the step ! " said Richard
" Meg don't know what he likes. Not slie I "
94 THE CHIMES.
Trof.ty, all action and enthusiasm, imraediatoly reached up
his hand to Richard, and was going to address him in a
great hurry, when the house-door opened without any warning,
and a footman very nearly put his foot in the tripe.
" Out of the vaj's here, will j^ou ! You must always go and
be a settin on our steps, must you ! You can't go and give a
turn to none of the neighbou^'a never, can't you ! Will you
clear the road, or won't you ? "
Strictly speaking, the last question was iiTelevant, as they
Lad already done it.
" "What 's the matter, what 's the matter ! " said the gentle-
man for whom the door was opened ; coming out of the house
at that kind of light-heavy pace — that peculiar compromise
between a walk and a jog-trot — with which a gentleman upon
the smooth down-hiH of life, wearing creaking boots, a watch-
chain, and clean linen, may come out of his house : not only
without any abatement of his dignity, but with an expression
of having importiint and wealthy engagements elsewhere.
" What 's the matter. What 's the matter ! "
" You 're alwa3's a being begged, and prayed, upon your
bended knees you are," said the footman with great emphasis
to Trotty Veck, " to let our door-steps be. Why don't you
let 'era be ? Can't you let 'em be ? "
" There ! That 'U do, that '11 do ! " said the gentleman.
" Halloa there ! Porter ! " beckoning with his head to Trotty
Veck. " Come here. What 's that ? Your dinner ? "
"Yes, sir," said Trotty, leaving it behind him in a
comer.
" Don't leave it there," exclaimed the gentleman.
" Bring it here, bring it here. So ! This is your dinner,
is it ? "
" Yes, sir," repeated Trotty, looking with a fixed eye and a
watery mouth, at the piece of tripe he had reserved for a last
delicious tit-bit ; which the gentleman was now turning over
and over on the end of the fork.
Two other gentlemen had come out with him. One was
a low-spu'ited gentleman of middle age, of a meagre habit,
and a disconsolate face ; who kept his hands continually in
the pockets of his scanty pepper-and-salt trousers, very large
and dog's-eared from that custom ; and was not particularly
well brushed or washed. The other, a fuU-si/ed, sleek, well-
conditioned gentleman, in a blue coat with bright buttons.
THE CHIMES. 95
and a white cravat. This gentleman had a very red face, as
it an undue proportion of the blood in his body were squeezed
up into his head ; which perhaps accounted for his haviug
also the appearance of being rather cold about the heart.
He who had Toby's meat upon the fork, called to the
first one by the name of Filer ; and they both drew near
together. Mr. Filer being exceedingly short-sighted, was
obliged to go so close to the remnant of Toby's dinner
before he could make out what it was, that Toby's heart
leaped up into his mouth. But Mr. Filer didn't eat it.
' This is a description of animal food. Alderman," said
Filer, making little punches in it, with a pencil-case, " com-
monly known to the labouring population of this coimtry, by
the name of tripe."
The Alderman laughed, and "winked ; for he was a merry
fellow. Alderman Cute. Oh, and a sly fellow too ! A know-
ing fellow. Up to everything. Not to be imposed upon.
Deep in the people's hearts ! He knew them, Cute did. I
believe you !
"But who eats tripe?" said Mr. Filer, looking round.
" Tripe is without an exception the least economical, and the
most wasteful article of consumption that the markets of
this country can by possibility produce. The loss upon a
pound of tripe has been found to be, in the boiling, seven-
eighths of a fii'th more than the loss upon a pound of any
other animal substance whatever. Tripe is more expensive,
properly understood, than the hothouse pine-apple. Taking
imo accoimt the number of animals slaughtered yearly within
the biUs of mortality alone ; and forming a low estimate of
the quantity of tripe which the carcases of those animals,
reasonably well butchered, would yield ; I find that the
waste on that amount of tripe, if boiled, would victiiol a
garrison of five hundred men for five months of thirty-
one days each, and a February over. The Waste, the
\V^aste ! "
Trotty stood aghast, and liis legs shook under him. He
seemed to have starved a garrison of five hundred men with
Lis own hand.
" Who eats tripe ? " said Mr. Filer, warmly. "Who eats
txipe?"
Trotty made a miserable l)Ow.
" You do, do you ? " said Mr. Filer. " Then I '11 tell you
96 THE CHIMES.
soTnetliing. \oii snatch your tripe, my friend, out of the
uiouths of widows and orphans."
" I hope not, sir," said Trotty, faintly. " I 'd sooner die
of want ! "
" Divide the amount of tripe before -mentioned, Alderman,"
said Mr. Filer, " by the estimated number of existing widows
and orphans, and the result will be one pennyweiglit of tripe
to each. Not a grain is left for that man. Consequent!}',
he 's a robber."
Trotty was so shocked, that it gave him no concern to see
the Alderman finish the tripe himself. It was a relief to get
rid of it, anyhow.
" And what do you say ? " asked the Alderman, jocosely, of
the red -faced gentleman in the blue coat. " You have heard
friend Filer. What do you say ? "
"What's it possible to say?" returned the gentleman.
"What is to be said? Who can take any interest in a
fellow like this," meaning Trotty; "in such degenerate
times as these. Look at him ! What an object ! The
good old times, the grand old times, the great old times I
Those were the times for a bold peasantry, and all that sort
of thing. Those were the times for every sort of thing,
in fact. There 's nothing now-a-days. Ah ! " sighed the
red-faced gentleman. " The good old times, the good old
times ! "
The gentleman didn't specify what particidar times he
alluded to ; nor did he say whether he objected to the
present times, from a disinterested consciousness that they
had done nothing very remarkable in producing himself.
"The good old times, the good old times," repeated the
gentleman. " What times they were ! They were the only
times. It 's of no use talking about any other times, or discuss-
ing what the people are in these times. You don't call these,
times, do you ? I don't. Look into Strutt's Costumes, and
see what a Porter used to be, in any of the good old English
reigns."
" He hadn't, in his very best circumstances, a shirt to his
back, or a stocking to his foot ; and there was scarcely a
vegetable in all England for him to put into his mouth," said
Mr. Filer. " I can prove it, by tables."
But still the red-faced gentleman extolled the good old
times, the grand old times, the great old times. No matter
THE CHIMES. 97
tn-hat anybody else said, he still went turning round and
round in one set form of words concerning them; as a poor
squirrel turns and tiims in its revolving cage ; touching the
mechanism, and trick of which, it has probably quite as dis-
tinct perceptions, as ever this red-faced gentleman had of his
deceased Millennium.
It is possible that poor Trotty's faith in these very vague
Old Times was not entirely destroyed, for he felt vague
enough, at that moment. One thing, however, was plain to
him, in the midst of his distress ; to wit, that however
these gentlemen might differ in details, his misgivings of
that morning, and of many other mornings, were well
foimded. "No, no. We can't go right or do right,"
thought Trotty in despair. " There is no good in us. We
are bom bad ! "
But Trotty had a father's heart within him ; which had
somehow got into his breast in spite of this decree ; and he
could not bear that Meg, in the blush of her brief joy, should
have her fortune read by these wise gentlemen. " God
help her," thought poor Trotty. " She will know it soon
enough."
He anxiously signed, therefore, to the young smith, to take
her away. But he was so busy, talking to her softly at a
little distance, that he only became conscious of this desire,
simultaneously with Alderman Cute. Now, the Alderman
had not yet had his say, but he was a philosopher, too —
practical, though ! Oh, very practical ! — and, as he had
no idea of losing any portion of his audience, he cried
" Stop ! "
" Now, you know," said the Alderman, addressing his two
friends, with a self-complacent smile upon his face, which was
habitual to him, " I am a plain man, and a praitical man ;
and I go to work in a plain practical way. That 's my way.
There is not the least mystery or difficulty in dealing with
this sort of people if you only imderstand 'em, and can talk to
'<!m in their own manner. Now, you Porter ! Don't you
ever teU me, or anybody else my friend, that you haven't
always enough to eat, and of the best ; because I know better
I have tasted your tripe, you know, and you can't ' chaff' me
You understand what 'chaff' means, eh? That's the rigth
word, isn't it? Ha, ha, ha! Lord bless you," said the
Alderman, turning to his friends again, ' ' it 's the easiest
H
•>8 THE CHIMES.
thing on eartli to deal with this sort of people, if you only
understand 'em."
Famous man for the common people, Alderman Cute '
Never out of temper with them ! Easy, affable, joking, know-
ing gentleman !
" You see my friend," pursued the Alderman, "there's a
gi*eat deal of nonsense talked about Want — * hard up,' you
know : that 's the phrase isn't it ? ha ! ha ! ha ! — and I
intend to Put it Down. There 's a certain amount of cant in
vogue about Starvation, and I mean to Put it Down. That 's
all ! Lord bless you," said the Alderman, turning to his
friends again, "you may Put Down anything among this sort
of people, if you only know the way to set about it ! "
Trotty took Meg's hand and drew it tlixough his arm. He
didn't seem to know what he was doing though.
" Your daughter, eh ? " said the Alderman, chucking her
familiarly under the chin.
Always affable with the working classes, Alderman Cute !
Knew 'what pleased them ! Not a bit of pride !
" Where 's her mother ? " asked that worthy gentleman.
" Dead," said Toby. " Her mother got up linen ; and was
called to Heaven when She was born."
" Not to get up linen there, I suppose," remarked the
Alderman pleasantly.
Toby might or might not have been able to separate his
wife in Heaven from her old pursuits. But query : If Mrs.
Alderman Cute had gone to Heaven, would Mr. Alder-
man Cute have pictured her as holding any state or station
there ?
" And you 're making love to her, are you ? " said Cute to
the young smith.
" Yes," returned Pdchard quickly, for he was nettled by the
question. "And we are going to be married on New Year's
Day."
, * ' WTiat do you mean ! " cried Filer sharply. " Married I "
"Why, yes, we're thmking of it. Master," said Richard.
We 're rather in a hurry you see, in case it should be Put
Down first."
" Ah ! " cried Filer, with a groan. " Put that down indeed.
Alderman, and you '11 do something. Married ! Married I '
The ignorance of the first principles of political economy on
the part of these people ; their improvidence ; their wicked-
TEE CHIMES. 99
ness ; is, by Heavens ! enough to — Now look at that couple,
wiU you ! "
WeU! They were worth looking at. And marriage
seemed as reasonable and fair a deed as they need have ia
contemplation.
" A man may live to be as old as Methusaleh," said ]\Ir.
Filer, " and may labour all his life for the benefit of such
people as those ; and may heap up facts on figures, facts on
figures, facts on figures, mountains high and dry ; and he can
no more hope to persuade 'em that they have no right or
business to be married, than he can hope ^ persuade 'em
that they have no earthly right or business to oe born. And that
we know they haven't. We reduced it to a mathematical
certainty long ago ! "
Alderman Cute was mightily diverted, and laid his right
forefinger on the side of his nose, as much as to say to both
his friends, " Observe me, will you ? Keep your eye on the
practical man ! " — and called Meg to him.
" Come here, my girl ! " said Alderman Cute.
The young blood of her lover had been mounting, wratli-
fully, within the last few minutes ; and he was indisposed to
let her come. But, setting a constraint upon himself, he came
forward with a stride as Meg approached, and stood beside
her. Trotty kept her hand within his arm stiU, but looked
from face to face as wildly as a sleeper in a dream.
" Now, I 'm going to give you a word or two of good advice,
my girl," said the Alderman, in his nice easy way. " It 's
my place to give advice, you know, because I 'm a Justice. You
know I 'm a Justice, don't you ? "
ISIeg timidly said, " Yes." But everybody knew Alderman
Cute was a Justice! Oh dear, so active a Justice always'
Wlio such a mote of brightness in the public eye, as Cute I
" You are going to be married, you say," pursued the
Alderman. "Very unbecoming and indelicate in one of your
sex ! But never mind that. After you are married, you '11
quarrel with your husband, and come to be a distressed wiie.
You may think not; but you will, because I tell you so.
Now, I give you fair warning, that I have made up my mind
to Put distressed wives Down. So, don't be brought before
me. You '11 have children — boys. Those boys will grow up
bad, of course, and run wild in the streets, without slioes and
6tO(.;kings. Mind, my young friend ! I 'U convict 'em summarily,
fOO THE CHIMES.
every one, for I am determined to Put Loys witliout slices and
stockings, Down. Perhaps your husband will die young
(most likely) and leave you with a baby. Then you '11 be
turned out of doors, and wander up and down the streets.
Now, don't wander near me, my dear, for I am resolved to
Put all wandering mothers Down. All young mothers, of all
sorts and kinds, it 's my determination to Put Down. Don't
think to plead illness as an excuse with me ; or babies as an
excuse with me ; for all sick persons and young children (1
nope you know the church-service, but I 'm afraid not) I am
determined to Put Down. And if you attempt, desperately,
and ungratefully, and impiously, and fraudulently attempt, to
drown yourself, or hang yourself, I '11 have no pity on you,
for I have made up my mind to Put all suicide Down ! If
there is one thing," said the Alderman, with his self-satisfied
smile, " on which I can be said to have made up my mind
more than on another, it is to Put suicide Down. So don't
try it on. That's the phrase, isn't it! Ha, ha! now we
understand each other."
Toby knew not whether to be agonised or glad, to see
that Meg had turned a deadly white, and dropped her lover's
hand.
" As for you, you dull dog," said the Alderman, turning
with even increased cheerfulness and urbanity to the young
smith, " what are you thinking of being married for? What
do you want to be married for, you silly fellow ! If I was a
fine, young, strapping chap like you, I should be ashamed of
being milksop enough to pin myself to a woman's apron-
strings ! Why, she '11 be an old woman before you 're a
middle-aged man ! And a pretty figure you '11 cut then, with
a draggle-tailed wife and a crowd of squalling children crying
after you wherever you go ! "
O, he knew how to banter the common people, Alderman
Cute!
" There ! Go along with you," said the Alderman, " and
repent. Don't make such a fool of yovirself as to get
married on New Year's Day. You '11 think very differently
of it, long before next New Year's Day : a trim young fellow
like you, with all the girls looking after you. There ! Go
along with you ! "
They went along. Not arm in arm, or hand in hand, or
interchanging bright glances ; but, she in tears ; he gloomy
THE CHIMES. 101
and doTTQ-looking. "Were tliese tlie hearts that had so lately
made old Toby's leap up from its faintness ? No, no. Tho
Alderman (a blessing on his head !) had Put thein Down.
" As you happen to be here," said the Alderman to Toby,
" you shall carry a letter for me. Can you be quick ? You 're
an old man."
Toby, who had been looking after Meg, quite stupidly,
made shift to miirmur out that he was very quick, and very
strong.
" How old are you ? " inquired th^ Alderman.
" I am over sixty, sir," said Toby.
" O ! This man 's a great deal past the average age, you
know," cried Mr. Filer, breaking in as if his patience would
bear some trying, but this was really carrying matters a little
too far.
" I feel I 'm intruding, sir," said Toby. " I — I misdoubted
it this morning. Oh dear me ! "
The Alderman cut him short by giving him the letter from
his pocket, Toby would have got a shilling too ; but Mr
Filer clearly showing that in that case he would rob a certain
given number of persons of niaepence-half-penny a-piece,
he only got sixpence ; and thought himself very well off to
get that.
Then the Alderman gave an arm to each of his friends, and
walked off in high feather ; but, he immediately came hurry-
ing back alone, as if he had forgotten something.
" Porter ! " said the Alderman.
" Sir ! " said Toby.
" Take care of that daughter of yours. She 's much too
handsome."
" Even her good looks are stolen from somebody or other
I suppose," thought Toby, looking at the sixpence in his hand,
and thinking of the tripe. " She 's been and robbed five
hundred ladies of a bloom a-piece, I shouldn't wonder. It 's
very dreadful ! "
" She 's much too handsome, my man," repeated the Alder
man. " The chances are, that she '11 come to no good, I
clearly see. Observe what I say. Take care of her ! " With
which, he hurried off again.
" Wrong every way. Wrong every way ! " said Trotty,
clasping his hands. " Bom bad. No business here ! "
The Chimea came clashing in upon him as lie said the
102 THE CHIMES.
words. Full, loud, and sounding — but with no encourage-
ment. No, not a drop.
" The tune 's changed," cried the old man, as he listened
"There's not a word of all that fancy in it. Why should
tliere be ? I have no business with the New Year nor with
tlie old one neither. Let me die ! "
Still the Bells, pealing forth their changes, made the very
air spin. Put 'em down, Put 'em down ! Good old Times,
Good old Times ! Facts and Figures, Facts and Figures !
Put 'em down, Put 'em down ! If they said anything they
said this, until the brain of Toby reeled.
He pressed his bewildered head between his hands as if to
keep it from splitting asunder. A well-timed action, as it
happened ; for finding the letter in one of them, and being by
that means reminded of his charge, he fell, mechanically, into
his usual trot, and trotted off.
THE CHIMES. 106
SECOND QUAETER.
The letter Toby had received from Alderman Cute, was
addressed to a great man in the great district of the town.
The greatest district of the town. It must have been the
greatest district of the town, because it was commonly called
"the world" by its inhabitants.
The letter positively seemed heavier in Toby's hand, than
another letter. Not because the Alderman had sealed it
with a very large coat of arms and no end of wax, but
l.ecause of the weighty name on the superscription, and the
ponderous amount of gold and silver with which it was
associated.
" How different from us ! " thought Toby, in all simplicity
and earnestness, as he looked at the direction. " Divide the
lively turtles in the bills of mortality, by the number of
gentlefolks able to buy 'em ; and whose share does he take
'.>ut his own ! As to snatching tripe from anybody's mouth —
he 'd scorn it ! "
With the involuntary homage due to such an exalted
character, Toby interposed a corner of his apron between the
letter and his fingers.
" His children," said Trotty, and a mist rose before hir
eyes ; " his daughters — Gentlemen may win their hearts and
marry them ; they may be happy wdves and mothers ; they may
he handsome like my darling M — e — "
He couldn't finish her name. The final letter swelled in
liis throat, to the size of the whole alphabet.
" Never mind," thought Trotty. " I know what I mean.
That 's more than enough for me." And with this consolatory
rumination, trotted on.
It was a hard frost, that day. The air was bracing, crisp,
and clear. The wintry sun, though powerless for warmth,
looked brightly down upon the ice it was too weak to melt,
and set a radiant glory there. At other times, Trotty might
104 THE CHIMES.
have learned a poor man's lesson from the wintry sun ; but,
lie was past that, now.
The Year was Old, that day. The patient Year had lived
through the reproaches and misuses of its slanderers, and
faithfully performed its work. Spring, summer, autumn,
winter. It had laboured through the destined round, and
now laid down its weary head to die. Shut out from hope,
high impulse, active happiness, itself, but messenger of many
joys to others, it made appeal in its decline to have its toihng
days and patient hours remembered, and to die in peace.
Trotty might have read a poor man's allegory in the fading
year ; but he was past that, now.
And only he? Or has the like appeal been ever made, by
seventy years at once upon an English labourer's head, and
made in vain !
The streets were full of motion, and the shops were decked
out gaily. The New Year, like an Infant Heir to the whole
world, was waited for, with welcomes, presents, and rejoicings.
There were books and toys for the New Year, glittering
trinkets for the New Year, dresses for the New Year, schemes
of fortune for the New Year ; new inventions to beguile it.
Its life was parcelled out in almanacks and pocket-books ; the
coming of its moons, and stars, and tides, was known before-
hand to the moment : all the workings of its seasons in their
days and nights, were calculated with as much precision as
Mr. Filer could work sums in men and women.
The New Year, the New Year. Everywhere the New
Year ! The Old Year was abeady looked upon as dead ; and
its effects were selling cheap, like some di-owned mariner's
aboardship. Its patterns were Last Year's, and going at a
sacrifice, before its breath was gone. Its treasures were mere
dirt, beside the riches of its unborn successor !
Trotty had no portion, to his thinking, in the New Year or
the Old.
" Put 'em down, Put 'em down ! Facts and Figures, Facts
and Figures ! Good old Times, Good old Times ! Put 'em
down. Put 'em down ! " — his trot went to that measure, and
would fit itself to nothing else.
But, even that one, melancholy as it was, brought him, in
due time, to the end of his journey. To the mansion of Sir
Joseph Bowley, Member of Parliament.
The door was opened by a Porter. Such a Porter ! Not
AT SIR JOSEPH BOWXEY S.
THE CnOIES. 105
of Toby's order. Quite anotlier thing. His place was the
ticket though ; not Toby's.
This Porter underwent some hard panting before he could
speak ; having breathed himself by coming incautiously out
of his chair, without first taking time to think about it and
compose his mind. "When he had found his voice — which it
took him some time to do, for it was.- a long way off, and
hidden under a load of meat — he said in a fat whisper,
" Who 's it from ? "
Toby told him.
" You're to take it in, yourself," said the Porter, pointing
to a room at the end of a long passage, opening from the
hall. " Everything goes straight in, on this day of the year.
You 're not a bit too soon ; for, the carriage is at the door
now, and they have only come to town for a couple of hours,
a' purpose."
Toby wiped his feet (which were quite dry already) with
great care, and took the way pointed out to him ; observing
as he went that it was an awfully grand house, but hushed
and covered up, as if the family were in the country.
Knocking at the room door, he was told to enter from within ;
and doing so found himself in a spacious library, where, at a
table strewn with files and papers, were a stately lady in a
bonnet ; and a not very stately gentleman in black who wrote
from her dictation ; while another, and an older, and a much
statelier gentleman, whose hat and cane were on the table,
walked up and down, with one hand in his breast, and looked
complacently from time to time at his own picture — a full
length ; a very full length — hanging over the fire-place.
"What is this?" said the last-named gentleman. "Mr.
Fish, will you have the goodness to attend? "
Mr. Fish begged pardon, and taking the letter from Toby,
handed it, with great respect.
" From Alderman Cute, Sir Joseph."
"Is this all? Have you nothing else, Porter?" inquired
Sir Joseph.
Toby replied in the negative.
" You have no bill or demand upon me — my name is
Bowley, Sir Joseph Bowley — of any kind from anybody, have
you? " said Sir Joseph. " If you have, present it. There is
a cheque-book by the side of Mr. Fish. I allow nothing to
be carried into the New Year. Every description of accoaut
106 THE CHIMES.
is settled in tliis house at the close of the old one. So that if
death was to — to — "
" To cut," suggested Mr. Fish.
" To sever, sir," returned Sir Joseph, with great asperity,
" the cord of existence — my affairs would be found, I hope,
in a state of preparation."
" My dear Sir Joseph ! " said the lady, who was greatly
younger than the gentleman. " How shocking ! "
" My lady Bowley," returned Sir Joseph, floundering now
and then, as in the great depth of his observations, " at this
season of the year we should think of — of — ourselves. We
should look into our — our accounts. We should feel that
every return of so eventful a period in human transactions,
involves matter of deep moment between a man and his — and
his banker."
Sir Joseph delivered these words as if he felt the full
morality of what he was sajdng ; and desired that even
Trotty shoidd have an opportunity of being improved by such
discourse. Possibly he had this end before him in still
forbearing to break the seal of the letter, and in telling
Trotty to wait where he was a minute.
"You were desiring Mr. Fish to say, my ladj^ — " observed
Sir Joseph.
"Mr. Fish has said that, I believe," returned his lady,
glancing at the letter. " But, upon my word. Sir Joseph, 1
don't think I can let it go after all. It is so very dear."
" What is, dear ? " inquired Sir Joseph.
"That Charity, my love. They only allow two votes for a
subscription of five pounds. Really monstrous ! "
"My lady Bowley," returned Sir Joseph, "you surprise
me. Is the luxury of feeling in proportion to the number of
votes ; or is it, to a rightly-constituted mind, in proportion to
the number of applicants, and the wholesome state of mind to
which their canvassing reduces them ! Is there no excite-
ment of the purest kiud in having two votes to dispose of
among fifty people ? "
"Not to me, I acknowledge," returned the lady. "It
bores one. Besides, one can't oblige one's acquaintance.
But you are the Poor Man's Friend, you know. Sir Joseph.
You think otherwise."
" I am the Poor Man's Friend," observed Sir Joseph,
glancing at the poor man present. " As such I may be
THE CHIMES. 107
taunted, .ks such I liave been taunted. But I ask no other
title."
" Bless him for a noble gentleman ! " thought Trotty.
" I don't agree with Cute here, for instance, said Sir
Joseph, holding out the letter. I don't agree with the Filer
party. I don't agree with any part}'. My friend the Poor
Man, has no business with anj-thing of that sort, and nothing
of that sort has any business ^vith him. My friend the Poor
Man, in my district, is my business. No man or body of
men has any right to interfere between my friend and me.
That is the ground I take. I assume a — a paternal character
towards my friend. I say, 'My good fellow, Iwill treat you
paternally.' "
Toby listened with great gravity, and began to feel more
comfortable.
"Your only business, my good fellow," pursued Sir Joseph,,
looking abstractedly at Toby ; "your only business in life is
with me. You needn't trouble yourself to think about any-
thing. I will think for you ; I know what is good for you ;
I am your perpetual parent. Such is the dispensation of an
all-wise Providence ! Now, the design of yoiu' creation is —
not that you should swill, and guzzle, and associate your
enjoyments, brutally, with food ; " Toby thought remorse-
fully of the tripe ; " but that you should feel the Dignity of
Labour. Go forth erect into the cheerful morning air, and —
and stop there. Live hard and temperately, be respectful,
exercise your self-denial, bring up your family on next to
nothing, pay your rent as regularly as the clock strikes, be
punctual in your dealings (I set you a good example ; you
will find Mr. Fish, my confidential secretary, with a cash-box
before him at all times); and you may trust to me to be your
Friend and Father."
" Nice children, indeed. Sir Joseph ! " said the lady, with a
shudder. " Rheumatisms, and fevers, and crooked legs, and
asthmas, and all kinds of horrors I "
" My lady," returned Sir Joseph, with solemnity, *' not the
less am I the Poor Man's Friend and Father. Not the less
shaU he receive encouragement at my hands. Every quarter-
day he will be put in communication with Mr. Fish. Every
New- Year's Day, myself and friends will drink his health.
Once every year, myself and friends will address him with the
deepest feeling. Once in his life, he may even perhaps
108 THE CHIMES.
receive ; in public, in tlie presence of the gentry ; a Trifle
from a Friend. And when, upheld no more by these
stimulants, and the Dignity of Labour, he sinks into his
comfortable grave, then my lady" — here Sir Joseph blew his
nose — " I wiU be a Friend and Father — on the same terms —
to his children."
Toby was greatly moved.
" O ! You have a thankful family, Sir Joseph ! " cried his
wife.
" My lady," said Sir Joseph, quite majestically, " Ingrati-
tude is known to be the sin of that class. I expect no other
return."
" Ah ! Born bad ! " thought Toby. " Nothing melts us."
" What man can do, I do," pursued Sir Joseph. " I do
my duty as the Poor Man's Friend and Father ; and I
endeavour to educate his mind, by inculcating on all occasions
the one great moral lesson which that class requires. That
is, entire Dependence on myself. They have no business
whatever with — with themselves. If wicked and designing
persons tell them otherwise, and they become impatient and
discontented, and are guilty of insubordinate conduct and
black-hearted ingratitude ; which is undoubtedly the case ;
I am their Friend and Father still. It is so Ordained. It is
in the nature of things."
With that great sentiment, he opened the Alderman's
letter ; and read it.
"Yerj polite and attentive, I am sure!" exclaimed Sir
Joseph. " My lady, the Alderman is so obliging as to
remind me that he has had ' the distinguished honour ' — he
is very good — of meeting me at the house of oiir mutual
friend Deedles, the banker; and he does me the favor to
inquire whether it will be agreeable to me to have WiU Fern
put down,"
" Most agreeable ! " replied my lady Bowley. " The
worst man among them ! He has been committing a robbery,
I hope ? "
" Why no," said Sir Joseph, referring to the letter. " Not
quite. Very near. Not quite. He came up to London, it
seems, to look for emplojrment (trying to better himself —
that 's his story), and being found at night asleep in a shed,
was taken into custody, and carried next morning before the
Alderman. The Alderman observes (very properly) that he
THE CHIMES. 109
is deiennined to put this sort of thing down ; and that if it
will be agreeable to me to have Will Fern put down, he will
be happy to begia with him."
" Let him be made an example of, by all means,'' returned
the lady. " Last winter, when I introduced pinking and
eyelet -holing among the men and boys ia the village, as a
nice evening employment, and had the lines,
0 let us love our occupations,
Bless the squire and his relations,
Live upon our daily rations,
And always know our proper stations,
set to music on the new system, for them to sing the while ;
this very Fern — I see him now — touched that hat of his, and
said, ' I humbly ask your pardon, my lady, but an^t I some-
thing different from a great girl ?/ I expected it, of course ;
who can expect anything but insolence and ingratitude from
that class of people. That is not to the purpose, however.
Sir Joseph ! Make an examj^le of him ! "
" Hem ! " coughed Sir Joseph. " Mr. Fish, if you 'U have
the goodness to attend — "
Mr. Fish immediately seized his pen, and wrote from Sir
Joseph's dictation.
" Private. My dear Sir. I am very much indebted to
you for yoiu* courtesy in the matter of the man William Fern,
of whom, I regret to add, I can say nothing favorable. I
have uniformly considered myself in the light of his Friend
and Father, but have been repaid (a common case I gi'ieve to
say) with ingratitude, and constant opposition to my plans.
He is a turbulent and rebellious spirit. His charascter will
not bear investigation. Nothing will persuade him to be
happy when he might. Under these circumstances, it
appears to me, I own, that when he comes before you again
(as you informed me he promised to do to-morrow, pending
your inquiries, and I tliink he may be so far relied upon), his
committal for some short term as a Vagabond, would be a
service to society, and would he a salutary example in a
country where — for the sake of those who are, through good
and evil report, the Friends and Fathers of the Poor, as well
as with a view to that, generally speaking, misguided class
themselves — examples are greatly needed. And 1 am," and
so forth.
no THE CHIMES.
"It appears," remarked Sir Joseph when he had signed
this letter, and Mr. Fish was sealing it, "as if this were
Ordained : really. At the close of the year, I wind up my
account and strike my balance, even with William Fern ! "
Trotty, who had long ago relapsed, and was very low-
spirited, stepped forward with a rueful face to take the letter.
"With my compliments and thanks," said Sir Joseph.
" Stop ! "
"Stop!" echoed Mr. Fish.
" You have heard, perhaps," said Sir Joseph, oracularly,
" certain remarks into which I have been led respecting the
solemn period of time at which we have arrived, and the duty
imposed upon us of settling our affairs, and being prepared.
You have observed that I don't shelter myself behind my
superior standing in society, but that Mr. Fish — that
gentleman — has a cheque-book at his elbow, and is in fact
here, to enable me to turn over a perfectly new leaf, and
enter on the epoch before us with a clean account. Now, my
friend, can you lay your hand upon your heart, and say, that
you also have made preparation for a New Year ? "
"I am afraid sir," stammered Trotty, looking meekly at
him, "that I am a — a — little behind-hand with the world."
"Behind-hand with the world!" repeated Sir Joseph
Bowley, in a tone of terrible distinctness.
" I am afraid sir," faltered Trotty, "that there's a matter
of ten or twelve shillings owing to Mrs. Chickenstalker.
" To Mrs. Chickenstalker ! " repeated Sir Joseph, in the
same tone as before.
" A shop sir," exclaimed Toby, "in the general line. Also
a — a little money on account of rent. A very little sir. It
oughtn't to be owing, I know, but we have been hard put to
it, indeed ! "
Sir Joseph looked at his lady, and at Mr. Fish, and at
Trotty, one after another, twice all round. He then made a
despondent gesture with both hands at once, as if he gave the
thing up altogether.
" How a man, even among this improvident and im-
practicable race ; an old man ; a man grown grey ; can look
a New Year in the face, with his affairs in this condition:
how he can lie down on his bed at night, and get up again ia
the morning, and — There!" he said, turning his back on
Trotty. " Take the letter. Take the letter ! "
THE CHIMES. Ill
" I heartily wish it was otherwise, sir," said Trotty.
anxious to excuse himself. " We have been tried very hard.''
Sir Joseph still repeating "Take the letter, take the
letter ! ' and Mr. Fish not only saying the same thing, but
giving additional force to the request by motioning the
bearer to the door, he had nothing for it but to make his bow
and leave the house. And in the street, poor Trotty pulled
his worn old hat do^vn on his head, to hide the grief he felt
at getting no hold on the New Year, anywhere.
He didn't even lift his hat to look up at the Bell tower
when he came to the old chiu-ch on 'his return. He halted
there a moment, from habit : and knew that it was growing
dark, and that the steeple rose above him, indistinc-t and
faint, in the mui-ky air. He knew, too, that the Chimes
would ring immediately ; and that they sounded to his fancy,
at such a time, like voices in the clouds. But he only made
the more haste to deliver the Alderman's letter, and get out
of the way before they began ; for he dreaded to hear them
tagging " Friends and Fathers, Friends and Fathers," to the
burden they had rung out last.
Toby discharged himself of his commission, therefore, with
all possible speed, and set off trotting homeward. But what
with his pace, which was at best an awkward one in the street ;
and what with his hat, which didn't improve it ; he trotted
against somel>ody in less than no time, and was sent stagger-
ing out into the road.
" I beg your pardon, 'I 'm sure ! " said Trotty, pulling up
his hat in great confusion, and between the hat and the torn
lining, fixing his head into a kind of bee-hive. " I hope I
haven't hurt you."
As to hurting anybody, Tohy was not such an absolute
Samson, but that he was much more Hkely to be hurt himself :
and indeed, he had flown out into the road, like a shuttlecock.
He had such an opinion of his own strength, however, that ho
was in real concern for the other party : and said again,
" I hope I haven't hurt you ? "
The man against whom he had run ; a sun-browned,
sinewy, country-looking" man, with grizzled hair, and a rough
chin; stared at him for a moment, as if he suspected him to
be in jest. But, satisfied of his good faith, he answered :
" No, friend. You have not liurt mo."
" Nor the child, I \w\)c?" said Trotty.
112 THE CHIMES.
"Nor the child," retm-ned the man. "I thank you
kindly."
As he said so, he glanced at a little girl he carried in his
arms, asleep : and shading her face with the long end of the
poor handkerchief he wore about his throat, went slowly on.
The tone in which he said " I thank you kindly," pene-
trated Trotty's heart. He was so jaded and foot-sore, and so
soQed with travel, and looked about him so forlorn and
strange, that it was a comfort to him to be able to thank any
one : no matter for how little. Toby stood gazing after him
as he plodded wearily away, with the child's arm clinging
round his neck.
At the figure in the worn shoes — now the very shade and
ghost of shoes — rough leather leggings, common frock, and
broad slouched hat, Trotty stood gazing, blind to the whole
street. And at the child's arm, clinging round its neck.
Before he merged into the darkness the traveller stopped ;
and looking round, and seeing Trotty standing there yet,
seemed undecided whether to return or go on. After doing
first the one and then the other, he came back, and Trotty
went half way to meet him.
" You can tell me, perhaps," said the man with a faint
smile, " and if you can I am sure you will, and I 'd rather
ask you than another — where Alderman Cute lives."
" Close at hand," replied Toby. " I '11 show you his house
with pleasure."
" I was to have gone to him elsewhere to-morrow," said the
man, accompanying Toby, "but I 'm uneasy imder suspicion,
and want to clear myself, and to be free to go and seek my
bread — I don't know where. So, maybe he'll forgive my
going to his house to-night."
"It's impossible," cried Toby with a start, "that youx
name 's Fern ! "
"Eh ! " cried the other, turning on him in astonishment.
" Fern ! Will Fern ! " said Trotty.
"That's my name," replied the other.
" Why, then," cried Trotty, seizing him by the arm, and
looking cautiously roimd, " for Heaven's sake don't go to him !
Don't go to him ! He '11 put you down as sure as ever you
were born. Here I come up this alley, and I '11 tell you what
I mean. Don't go to him."
His new acgfuaintance looked as if he thought him mad ;
THE CHIMES. 118
hut lie bore him company nevertheless. When they were
shrouded from observation, Trotty told him what he knew, and
what character he had received, and all about it.
The subject of his history listened to it with a calmness
that suTfirised him. He did not contradict or interrupt it,
once. He nodded his head now and then — ^more in corrobora-
tion of an old and worn-out story, it appeared, than in refuta-
tion of it ; and once or twice thi-ew back liis hat, and passed
his freckled hand over a brow, where every fuiTow he had
ploughed seemed to have set its ima^e in little. But he did
no more.
" It 's true enough in the main," he said, "master, I could
sift grain from husk here and there, but let it be as 'tis. What
odds? I have gone against his plans ; to my misfortun'. I
can't help it ; I should do the Kke to-morrow. As to character,
them gentlefolks will search and search, and pry and pry, and
have it as free from spot or speck in us, afore they'll help us
to a dry good word ! — Well ! I hope they don't lose good
opinion as easy as we do, or their lives is strict indeed, and
hardly worth the keeping. For myself, master, I never took with
that hand " — holding it before him — " what wasn't my own ;
and never held it back from work, however hard, or poorly
paid. Whoever can deny it, let him chop it off ! But when
work won't maintain me like a human creetur ; when my
living is so bad, that I am Hungry, out of doors and in ; when
I see a whole working life begin that way, go on that way,
and end that way, without a chance or change ; then I say to
the gentlefolks ' Keep away fr'om me ! Let my cottage be.
My doors is dark enough without your darkening of 'em more.
Don't look for me to come up into the Park to help the
show when there 's a Birthday, or a fine Speechmaking, or
what not. Act your Plays and Games without me, and be
welcome to 'em and enjoy 'em. We 've now to do with one
another. I 'm best let alone ! ' "
Seeing that the child in his arms had opened her eyes,
and was looking about her in wonder, ho checked himself
to say a word or two of foolish prattle in her ear, and stg-nd
her on the ground beside him. Then slowly winding one of
her long tresses round and round his rough forefinger like
a ring, while she hung about his dusty leg, he said to Trotty,
"I'm not a cross-grained man by natur', I believe; and
oasy satisfied, I 'm sure. I bear no iU will against none of
I
114 THE CHIMES.
■"em. I ouly want to live like one of tlie Almiglity'a creeturs,
I can't — I don't — and so there's a pit dug between me,
and them that can and do. There 's others like me. You
might tell 'em off by hundreds and by thousands, sooner than
by ones."
Trotty knew he spoke the truth in this, and shook his head
to signify as much.
"I've got a bad name this way," said Fern; "and I'm
not likely, I 'm afeared, to get a better. 'Tan't lawful to be
out of sorts, and I am out of sorts, though God knows, I 'd
sooner bear a cheerful spirit if I could. Well ! I don't know
as this Alderman could hurt vie much by sending me to
gaol ; but without a friend to speak a word for me, he
might do it ; and you see — ! " pointing downward with his
finger, at the child.
" She has a beautiful face," said Trotty.
" Why, yes ! " replied the other in a low voice, as he gently
turned it up with both his hands towards his own, and looked
upon it steadfastly. " I 've thought so many times. I 've
thought so, when my hearth was very cold, and clipboard very
bare. I thought so t'other night, when we were taken like
two thieves. But they — they shouldn't try the little face too
often, should they Lilian ? That 's hardly fair upon a man ! "
He sunk his voice so low, and gazed upon her with an air
so stern and strange, that Toby, to divert the current of his
thoughts, inquired if his wife were living.
" I never had one," he returned, shaking his head, " She 's
my brother's child : a orphan. Nine year old, though you 'd
hardly think it ; but she 's tired and worn out now. They'd
have taken care on her, the Union — eight and twenty mile
away from where we live — between four walls (as they took
care of my old father when he couldn't work no more, though
he didn't trouble 'em long) ; but I took her instead, and she 's
lived with me ever since. Her mother had a friend once, in
London here. We are trying to find her, and to find work
H)o ; but it 's a large place. Never mind. More room for us
to, walk about in, Lilly ! "
Meeting the child's eyes with a smile which melted Toby
more than tears, he shook him by the hand.
" I don't so much as know your name," he said, "but I've
opened my heart free to you, for I 'm thankfid to you ; witli
g;ocd reason. I'U take your advice and keep clear of this — "
THE CHIMES. 116
" Justice," suggested Toby.
" Ah ! " he said. " If that 's the name they give him.
This Justice. And to-morrow will try whether there 's better
fortun' to be met with, somewheres near London. Good
night. A Happy New Year ! "
" Stay ! " cried Trotty, catching at his hand, as he relaxed
his grip. " Stay ! The New Year never can be happy to
me, if we part like this. The New Year never can be happy
to me, if I see the child and you, go wandering away, you don't
know where, without a shelter for your heads. Come home
with me ! I 'm a poor man, living in a poor place ; but I
can give you lodging for one night and never niiss it. Come
home with me ! Here ! I 'U take her ! " cried Trotty, lifting
up the child. " A pretty one ! I'd carry twenty times her
weight, and never know I 'd got it. Tell me if I go too quick
for you. I 'm very fast. I always was ! " Trotty said this,
taking about six of his trotting paces to one stride of his
fatigued companion ; and with his thin legs quivering again,
beneath the load he bore.
" ^Miy she 's as light," said Trotty, trotting in his speech
as well as in his gait ; for he couldn't bear to be thanked, and
dreaded a moment's pause; "as light as a feather. Lighter
than a Peacock's feather — a great deal lighter. Here we are,
and here we go ! Round this first turning to the right. Uncle
Will, and past the pump, and sharp off up the passage to the
left, right opposite the public house. Here we are, and here
we go. Cross over. Uncle Will, and mind the kidney pieman
at the comer ! Here we are and here we go ! Down the
Mews here. Uncle Will, and stop at the black door, with
' T. Veck, Ticket Porter,' wrote upon a board ; and here we
are, and here we go, and here we are indeed, my precious
Meg, surprising you ! "
With which words Trotty, in a breathless state, set the child
down before his daughter in the middle of the floor. The
little visitor looked once at Meg ; and doubting nothing in that
face, but trusting everything she saw tliere ; ran into her arras.
"Here we are, and here we go!" cried Trotty, running
round tlie room and clioking audibly. " Here, Uncle Will,
here's a fire you know! Why don't you come to the fire?
Oh here we are and here we go ! Meg, my precious darling*,
where 's the kettle ? Here it is and here it goes, and it '11
bile in no time ! "
116 THE CHIMES.
Trotty really had picked up the kettle somewhero or
other in the course of his wild career, and now put it on
the fire : while Meg, seating the child in a warm corner,
knelt down on the ground before her, and pulled off her
shoes, and 'ijied her wet feet on a cloth. Ay, and she laughed
at Trotty Vjo — so pleasantly, so cheerfully, that Trotty could
have blessed her where she kneeled: for he had seen that,
when they entered, she was sitting by the fire in tears.
"Why, father!" said Meg. "You're crazy to-night, I
think. I don't know what the BeUs would say to that. Poor
little feet. How cold they are ! "
" Oh they 're warmer now ! " exclaimed the child. " They're
quite warm now ! "
"No, no, no," said Meg. "We haven't rubbed 'em half
enough. We 're so busy. So busy ! And when they 're
done, we '11 brush out the damp hair ; and when that's done,
we '11 bring some colour to tlie poor pale face with fresh
water ; and when that 's done we '11 be so gay, and brisk, and
happy—"
The child, in a burst of sobbing, clasped her round the
neck ; caressed her fair cheek with its hand; and said, " Oh
Meg ! oh dear Meg ! "
Toby's blessing could have done no more. Who could do
more !
" Why father ! " cried Meg, after a pause.
" Here I am, and here I go, my dear ! " said Trotty.
" Good Gracious me ! " cried Meg. " He 's crazy ! He 's
put the dear child's bonnet on the kettle, and hung the lid
behind the door ! "
" I didn't go to do it, my love," said Trotty, hastily repair-
ing this mistake. " Meg, my dear ? "
Meg looked towards him and saw that he had elaborately
ctationed himself behind the chair of their male visitor, where
with many mysterious gestures he was holding up the six-
pence he had earned.
'- 1 see, voy dear," said Trotty, " as I was coming in, half
an ounce of tea lying somewhere on the stairs; and I'm
pretty sure there was a bit of bacon too. As I don't re-
member where it was, exactly, I 'U go myself and try to
find 'em."
WitJi this inscrutable artifice, Toby withdrew to purchase
the viands he had spoken of, for ready money, at Mrs.
TITE CniMES. 117
Cliitkenstallver's ; and presently came back, pretending that
lie had not been able to find them, at first, in tho dark.
" But here they are at last," said Trotty, setting out the
tea-things, " all correct ! I was pretty sure it was tea and a
rasher. So it is. Meg my pet, if you '11 just make the tea,
while your unworthy father toasts the bacon, we shall be ready
immediate. It's a curious circumstance," said Trotty, pro-
ceeding in his cookery, with the assistance of the toasting-fork,
*' curious, but well known to my friends, that I never care,
myself, for rashers, nor for tea. I like to see other people
eujoy 'em," said Trotty, speaking very loud to impress the fact
upon his guest, " but to me, as food, they are disagreeable."
Yet Trotty sniffed the savour of the hissing bacon — ah '
— as if he liked it ; and when he poured the boiling water
in the tea-pot, looked lovingly down into the depths of
that snug caldron, and suffered the fragrant steam to curl
about his nose, and wreathe his head and face in a thick cloud.
However, for all this, he neither ate nor drank, except at the
very beginning, a mere morsel for form's sake, which he
appeared to eat with infinite relish, but declared was perfectly
uninteresting to him.
No. Trotty' s occupation was to see Will Fern and Lilian
eat and drink ; and so was Meg's. And never did spectators
at a city dinner or court banquet find such high delight in
seeing others feast : although it were a monarch or a pope :
as those two did, in looking on that night. Meg smiled at
Trotty, Trotty laughed at Meg. Meg shook her head and
made belief to clap her hands, applauding Trotty; Trotty con,
veyed, in dumb-show, unintelligible narratives of how and
when and where he had found their visitors, to Meg ; and they
were happy. Very happy.
" Although," thought Trotty, sorrowfully, as he watthed
Meg's face ; " that match is broken off, I see ! "
"Now, I'U tell you what," said Trotty after tea. "The
little one, she sleeps with Meg, I know."
" With good Meg ! " cried the child, caressing her. " With
Meg."
"That's right," said Trotty. "And I shouldn't wonder
Lf she kiss Meg's father, won't she? 1 'm Meg's father."
Mightily delighted Trotty was, when the child went timidly
towards him, and having kissed him, fell back upon 'Moij
a^ain.
118 THE CHIMES.
" She 's as sensible as Solomon," said Trotty. " Here we
come, and here we — no, we don't — I don't mean that — I — what
was I saying, Meg, my precious ? "
Meg looked towards their guest, who leaned upon her chair,
and with his face tia-ned from her, fondled the child's head,
half hidden in her lap.
" To be sure," said Toby. "To be sure ! I don't know
what I am rambling on about, to-night. My wits are wool-
gathering, I think. Will Fern, you come along with me.
You 're tired to death, and broken down for want of rest. You
come along with me."
The man still played with the child's curls, still leaned upon
Meg's chair, still turned away his face. He didn't speak, but
in his rough coarse fingers, clenching and expanding in the
fair hair of the child, there was an eloquence that said enough.
" Yes, yes," said Trotty, answering unconsciously what he
saw expressed in his daughter's face. " Take her with you,
Meg. Get her to-bed. There ! Now Will, I '11 show you
where you lie. It 's not much of a place : only a loft ; but,
having a loft, I always say, is one of the great conveniences of
living in a mews ; and till this coach-house and stable gets a
better let, we live here cheap. There 's plenty of sweet hay
up there, belonging to a neighbour ; and it 's as clean as
hands and Meg can make it. Cheer up ! Don't give way.
A new heart for a New Year, always ! "
The hand released from the child's hair, had fallen,
trembling, into Trotty's hand. So Trotty, talking without
intermission, led him out as tenderly and easily as if he had
been a child himself.
Returning before Meg, he listened for an instant at the door
of her little chamber ; an adjoining room. The child was
mxirmuring a simple Prayer before lying dovm. to sleep ; and
when she had remembered Meg's name, "Dearly, Dearly"
— so her words ran — Trotty heard her stop and ask for his.
It was some short time before the foolish little old feUow
could compose himself to mend the fire, and draw his chair to
the warm hearth. But when he had done so, and had trimmed
the light, he took his newspaper from his pocket, and began
to read. Carelessly at first, and skimming up and down the
columns ; but with an earnest and a sad attention, very soon.
For this same dreaded paper re-directed Trotty's thoughts
into the channel they had taken aU that day, and wliich the
THE CHIMES. 119
claj''s events had so marked out and shaped. His interest in
the two wanderers had set him on another course of thinking,
and a happier one, for the time ; but being alone again, and
reading of the crimes and violences of the people, he relapsed
into his former train.
In this mood he came to an account (and it was not the fij'st
he had ever read) of a woman who had laid her desperate
hands not only on her own life but on that of her young child,
A crime so terrible, and so revolting to his soul, dilated with
the love of Meg, that he let the joiu'nal drop, and fell back in
'his chair, appalled !
" Unnatural and cruel ! " Toby cried. " Unnatural and
cruel ! None but people who were bad at heart, born bad,
who had no business on the earth, could do such deeds. It 's
too true, aU I 've heard to-day ; too just, too full of proof.
We 're Bad ! "
The Chimes took up -the words so suddenly — burst out so
loud, and clear, and sonorous — that the Bells seemed to strike
him in his chair.
And what was that, they said ?
" Toby Veck, Toby Veck, waiting for you Toby ! Toby Veck,
Toby Yeck, waiting for you Toby ! Come and see us, come
and see us. Drag him to us, drag him to us. Haunt and hunt him,
haunt and hunt him. Break his slumbers, break his slumbers !
Toby Veck, Toby Veck, door open wide Toby, Toby Veck Toby
Veck, door open wide Toby — " then fiercely back to their
impetuous strain again, and ringing in the very bricks and
plaster on the walls.
Toby listened. Fancy, fancy ! His remorse for having run
away from them that afternoon ! No, no. Nothing of the
kind. Again, again, and yet a dozen times again. " Haunt
and hunt him, haunt and hunt him. Drag him to us, drag him
to us ! " Deafening the whole town !
" Meg," said Trotty, softly : tapping at her door. " Do
you hear anything ? "
" I hear the Bells, father. Surely they 're very loud to-
night."
" Is she asleep'' " said Toby, making an excuse for peep-
ing in.
" So peacefully and happily ! I can't leave her yet though,
father. Look how she holds my hand ! "
" Meg ! " whispered Trotty. " Listen to the Bells 1 "
!20 THE CHIMES.
She listened, with her face towards him all the time. But
it underwent no change. She didn't understand them.
Trotty withdrew, resumed his seat by the fire, and once
more listened by himself. He remained here a little time.
It was impossible to bear it ; their energy was dreadful.
"If the tower-door is really open," said Toby, hastily laying
aside his apron, but never thinking of his hat, " what's to
hinder me from going up in the steeple and satisfying myself ?
If it 's shut, I don't want any other satisfaction. That 's
enough."
He was pretty certain as he slipped out quietly into the
sti-eet that he should find it shut and locked, for he knew the
door well, and had so rarely seen it open, that he couldn't
reckon above three times in all. It was a low arched portal,
outside the church, in a dark nook behind a column ; and
had such great iron hinges, and such a monstrous lock, that
there was more hinge and lock than door.
But what was his astonishment when, coming bare-headed
to the church ; and putting his hand into this dark nook, with
a certain misgiving that it might be unexpectedly seized, and
a shivering propensity to draw it back again ; he found that
the door, which opened outwards, actually stood ajar !
He thought, on the first surprise, of going back ; or of
getting a light, or a companion ; but his courage aided him
immediately, and he determined to ascend alone.
"What have I to fear?" said Trotty. "It's a church!
Besides the ringers may be there, and have forgotten to shut
the door."
So he went in, feeling his way as he went, like a blind
man ; for it was very dark. And very quiet, for the chimes
were silent.
The dust from the street had blown into the recess ; and
lying there, heaped up, made it so soft and velvet-like to the
foot, that there was something startling even in that. The
narrow stair was so close to the door, too, that he stumbled at
the very first ; and shutting the door upon himself, by striking
it with his foot, and causing it to rebound back heavily, he
couldn't open it again.
This was another reason, however, for going on. Trotty
groped his way, and went on. Up, up, up, and round and
round ; and up, up, up higher, higher, higher up !
It was a disagxeeable staiicase for that groping work ; so
THE CHIMES. 121
low and narrow, that his groping hand was always touching
something ; and it often felt so like a man or ghostly figure
standing up erect and making room for him to pass without
discovery, that he would rub the smooth wall upward search-
ing for its face, and downward searching for its feet, while a
chill tingling crept all over him. Twice or tlirice, a door or
niche broke the monotonous sui'face ; and then it seemed a
gap as wide as the whole church ; and he felt on the brink of an
abyss, and goiog to tumble headlong down, until he found
the wall agaia.
Stni up, up, up ; and round and round ; and up, up,
up ; higher, higher, higher up !
At length the dull and stifling atmosphere began to freshen :
presently to feel quite windy : presently it blew so strong, that he
could hardly keep his legs. But he got to an arched window in
the tower, breast high, and holding tight, looked down upon the
house-tops, on the smoking chimneys, on the blurr and blotch of
lights (towards the place where Meg was wondering where he
was, and calling to him perhaps), all kneaded up together in a
leaven of mist and darkness.
This was the belfry, where the ringers came. He had
caught hold of one of the frayed ropes which hung down
through apertures in the oaken roof. At fii'st he started,
thinking it was hair ; then trembled at the veiy thought of
waking the deep BeU. The Bells themselves were higher.
Higher, Trotty, in his fascination, or in working out the spell
upon him, groped his way. By ladders new and toilsomely,
for it was steep, and not too certain holding for the feet.
Up, up, up ; and climb and clamber ; up, up, up ; higher,
higher, higher up !
Until, ascending through the floor, and pausing with his
head just raised above its beams, he came among the BeUs.
It was barely posssible to make out their great shapes in the
gloom ; but there they were. Shadowy, and dark, and dumb.
A heavy sense of dread and loneliness feU instantly upon
him, as he climbed into this airy nest of stone and metal.
His head went round and round. He listened and then raised
a wild " HaUoa ! "
HaUoa ! was mournfully protracted by the echoes.
Giddy, confused, and out of breath, and frightened, Toby
looked about him vacantly, and sunk dowTi in a swoon.
1S2 THE CHIMES.
THIED QUAETEPo.
BiACK are the brooding clouds and troubled tlie deep
•waters, when the Sea of Thought, first heaving from a calm,
gives up its Dead. Monsters uncouth and wild, arise in pre-
mature, imperfect resurrection ; the several parts and shapes
of different things are joined and mixed by chance ; and when,
and how, and by what wonderful degrees, each separates from
each, and every sense and object of the mind resumes its usual
form and lives again, no man — though every man is every day
the casket of this t}^e of the Great Mystery — can tell.
So, when and how the darkness of the night-black steeple
changed to shining light; when and how the soHtary tower
was peopled with a myriad figures ; when and how the
whispered " Haunt and hunt him," breathing monotonously
through his sleep or swoon, became a voice exclaiming in the
waking ears of Trotty, "Break his slumbers;" when and
}iow he ceased to have a sluggish and confused idea that such
things were, companioning a host of others that were not ;
there are no dates or means to tell. But, awake, and standing
on his feet upon the boards where he had lately lain, he saw
tliis Goblin Sight.
He saw the tower, whither his charmed footsteps had
brought him, swarming with dwarf phantoms, spirits, elfin
creatures of the Bells. He saw them leaping, flying, dropping,
pouring from the Bells without a pause. He saw them, round
liim on the ground ; above him in the air, clambering from
him, by the ropes below ; looking down upon him, fi-om the
massive iron-girded beams ; peeping in upon him, through
the chinks and loopholes in the walls ; spreading away and
away from him in enlarging circles, as the water ripples give
place to a huge stone that suddenly comes plashing in among
tiiem. He saw them, of all aspects and aU shapes. He saw
them ugly, handsome, crippled, exquisitely formed. He saw
them young, he saw them old, he saw them kind, he saw
THE CIirMES. 123
them cruel, he saw them merry, he saw them grim ; he saw
them dance, and heard them sing ; he saw them tear their
hair, and heard them howl. He saw the air thif!k with them.
He saw them come and go, incessantly. He saw them riding
downward, soaring upward, sailing off afar, perching near at
hand, all restless and all violently active.^ Stone, and brick,
and slate, and tile, became transparent to him as to them. He
saw them in the houses, busy at the sleepers' beds. He saw
them soothing people in their di'eams ; he saw them beating
them with knotted whips ; he saw them yelling in their ears ;
he saw them plajing softest music on their pillows ; he saw
them cheering some with the songs of birds and the perfume
of flowers ; he saw them flashing awful faces on the troubled
rest of others, from enchanted mirrors which they carried in
their hands.
He saw these creatures, not only among sleeping men but
waking also, active in pursuits irreconcileable with one
another, and possessing or assuming natures the most opposite.
He saw one buckling on innumerable wings to increase his
speed ; another loading himself with chains and weights, to
retard his. He saw some putting the hands of clocks forward,
some putting the hands of clocks backward, some endeavouring
to stop the clock entirely. He saw them representing, here a
marriage ceremony, there a funeral ; in this chamber an
election, in that a ball; he saw, everywhere, restless and
untiring motion.
Bewildered by the host of shifting and extraordinary figures,
as well as by the uproar of the Bells, which all this while were
ringing, Trotty clung to a wooden pillar for support, and
turned his white face here and there, in mute and stunned
astonishment.
As he gazed, the Chimes stopped. Instantaneous change !
The whole swarm fainted ; their forms collapsed, their speed
deserted them ; they sought to fly, but in the act of falling
died and melted into air. No fresh supply suoieeded them.
One straggler leaped down pretty briskly from the surface of
the Great Bell, and alighted on his feet, but lie was dead and
gone before he could turn round. Some few of the late
company who had gambolled in tlie tower, remained there,
spinning over and over a little longer ; but these became n*
every turn more faint, and few, and feeble, and soon went the
way of the rest. The last of all was one small hunchback,
{24 THE CIIIMEg.
^ho had got into an eclioing corner, where he twirled and
twirled, and floated by himself a long time ; showing such
perseverance, that at last he dwindled to a leg and even to a
foot, before he finally retired ; but he vanished in the end, and
then the tower was silent.
Then and not before, did Trotty see in every BeU, a bearded
figure of the bulk and stature of the BeU — incomprehensibly,
a figure and the Bell itself. Gigantic, grave, and darkly
watchful of him, as he stood rooted to the ground.
Mysterious and awful figures ! Besting on nothing ; poised
in the night air of the tower, with their draped and hooded
heads merged in the dim roof; motionless and shadowy.
Shadowy and dark, although he saw them by some light
belonging to themselves — none else was there — each with its
muffled hand upon its goblin mouth.
He could not plimge down wildly through the opening
in the floor; for, all power of motion had deserted him.
Otherwise he would have done so — ay, would have thrown
himself, head-foremost, from the steeple-top, rather than have
seen them watching him with eyes that would have waked and
watched although the pupils had been taken out.
Again, again, the dread and terror of the lonely place, and of
the wild and fearful night that reigned there, touched him like
a spectral hand. His distance from all help ; the long, dark,
winding, ghost-beleaguered way that lay between him and the
earth on which men lived ; his being high, high, high, up
there, where it had made him dizzy to see the birds fly in the
day ; cut off from all good people, who at such an hour were
safe at home and sleeping in their beds ; all this struck coldly
through him, not as a reflection but a bodily sensation.
Meantime his eyes and thoughts and fears, were fixed upon
the watchful figures : which, rendered unlike any figures of
this world by the deep gloom and shade enwrapping and
enfolding them, as well as by their looks and forms and super-
natural hovering above the fioor, were nevertheless as plainly
to be seen as were the stalwart oaken frames, cross-pieces, bars
and beams, set up there to support the Bells. These hemmed
them, in a very forest of hewn timber ; from the entangle-
ments, intricacies, and depths of which, as from among the
boughs of a dead wood blighted for their Phantom use, they
kept their darksome and unwinking watch.
A blast of air — how cold and shrill ! — came moaning
THE CHTMES. 125
th7X)iigh the tower. As it died away, the Great Bell, or the
Goblin of the Great Bell, spoke.
''What visitor is this ! " it said. The voice was low and
deep, and Trotty fancied that it sounded in the other figures
as well.
"I thought my name was called by. the Chimes*" said
Trotty, raising his hands in an attitude of supplication. " I
hardly know why I am here, or how I came. I have listened
to the Chimes these many years. They have cheered me
often."
" And you have thanked them ? " said the Bell-.
" A thousand times ? " cried Trotty.
"How?"
" I am a poor man," faltered Trotty, " and could only thank
them in words."
"And always so?" inquired the Goblin of the Bell.
" Have you never done us wrong in words ? '
" Xo ! " cried Trotty eagerly.
" Never done us foid, and false, and wicked wrong, in
words ? " pursued the Goblin of the Bell.
Trotty was about to answer, "Never!" But he stopped,
and was confused.
" The voice of Time," said the Phantom, "cries to man,
Advance ! Time is for his advancement and improvement ;
for his greater worth, his greater happiness, his better life ;
his progress onward to that goal within its knowledge and its
view, and set there, in tlie period when Time and He began.
Ages of darkness, wickedness, and violence, have come and
gone — millions uncountable, have suffered, lived, and died — to
point the way before him. Who seeks to turn him back, or
stay liira on his course, arrests a mighty engine which will
strike the meddler dead ; and be the fiercer and the wilder,
ever, for its momentary check ! "
" I never did so to my knowledge, sir," said Trotty. "It-
was quite by accident if I did. I wouldn't go to do it, I 'm
sure."
" Who puts into the mouth of Time, or of its servants," said
the Goblin of the Bell, " a cry of lamentation for days which
have had their trial and their failure, and have left deep
traces of it which the blind may see — a cry that only serves
the present time, by showing men how much it needs their
help wliea any ears can listen to regrets for such a past - who
126 THE CIlTMEg.
does this, does a wrong. And you have done that wrong to
us, the Chimes."
Trotty's first excess of fear was gone. But he had ffelt ten-
derly and gratefully towards the Bells, as you have seen ; and
when he heard himself arraigned as one who had offended them
so weightily, his heart was touched with penitence and grief.
" If you knew," said Trotty, clasping his hands earnestly
— " or perhaps you do know — if you know how often you
have kept me company ; how often you have cheered me up
•when I 've been low ; how you were quite the plaything of
my little daughter Meg (almost the only one she ever had)
when first her mother died, and she and me were left alone ;
you won't bear malice for a hasty word ! "
" Who hears in us, the Chimes, one note bespeaking dis-
regard, or stern regard, of any hope, or joy, or pain, or sorrow,
of the many-sorrowed throng ; who hears us make response to
any creed that gauges human passions and affections, as it
gauges the amount of miserable food on which humanity may
pine and wither ; does us wrong. That wrong you have done
us ! " said the Bell.
" I have ! " said Trotty. " Oh forgive me ! "
" Who hears us echo the dull vermin of the earth : the
Putters Down of crushed and broken natures, formed to be
raised up higher than such maggots of the time can crawl or
can conceive," pursued the Goblin of the Bell ; "who does so,
does us WTi-ong. And you have done us wrong ! "
" Not meaning it," said Trotty. " In my ignorance. Not
meaning it ! "
" Lastly, and most of aU," pursued the Bell. " ^\Tio turns
his back upon the fallen and disfigured of his kind ; abandons
them as vile ; and does not trace and track with pitying eyes
the imfenced precipice by which they fell from good —
grasping in their fall some tufts and shreds of that lost soil,
and clinging to them still when bruised and dying in the gwU
below ; does wrong to Heaven and man, to time and to
eternity. And you have done that wrong! "
"Spare me," cried Trotty falling on his knees; "for
Mercy's sake ! "
" Listen ! " said the Shadow.
" Listen ! " cried the other Shadows.
" Listen ! " said a clear and childlike voice, which Trotty
thought he recognised as having heard before.
THE CIITMKS. 127
Tlie organ sounded faintly in the church below. Swelling
by degrees, the melody ascended to the roof, and filled the
choir and nave. Expanding more and more, it rose up, up ,
up, up ; higher, higher, higher up ; awakening agitated hearts
within the burly piles of oak, the hoUow bells, the iron-bound
doors, tlie stairs of solid stone ; imtil the tower walls were
insufficient to contain it, and it soared into the sky.
No wonder that an old man's breast could not contain a
Bound so vast and mighty. It broke from that weak prison iu
a rush of tears ; and Trotty put his hands before his face.
" Listen ! " said the Shadow.
" Listen ! " said the other Shadows.
" Listen ! " said the child's voice.
A solemn strain of blended voices, rose into the tower.
It was a very low and mournful strain — a Dirge — and as he
listened, Trotty heard his child among the singers.
" She is dead ! " exclaimed the old man. " Meg is dead !
Her Spirit calls to me. I hear it ! "
" The Spirit of your child bewails the dead, and mingles
with the dead — dead hopes, dead fancies, dead imaginings of
youth," returned the Bell, " but she is living. Learn from her
life, a living truth. Learn from the creature dearest to your
heart, how bad the bad are born. See every bud and leaf
plucked one by one from off the fairest stem, and know how
bare and wretched it may be. Follow her ! To desperation ! "
Each of the shadowy figures stretched its right arm forth,
and pointed downward.
"The Spirit of the Chimes is your companion," said the
figure. "Go! It stands behind you ! "
Trotty turned, and saw — the child ? The child Will Fern
had carried in the street ; the child whom Meg had watched,
but now, asleep !
" I carried her myself, to-night," said Trotty. " In these
arms ! "
" Show him what he calls himself," said the dark figures,
one and all.
The tower opened at his feet. He looked down, and beheld
his own form, lying at the bottom, on the outside : crushed
and motionless.
" No more a living man ! " cried Trotty. " Dead ! "
" Dead ! " said the figures altogether.
" Gracious Heaven ! And the New Year — '
128 THE CHIMES.
" Past," said the figures.
" What ! " he cried shuddering, " I missed my way, and
coming on the outside of this tower in the dark, fell down — -
a year ago ? "
" Nine years ago ! " replied the figures.
As they gave the answer, they recalled their outstretched
hands ; and where their figures had been, there the Bells were.
And they rung ; their time being come again. And once
again, vast multitudes of phantoms sprung into existence ;
once again, were incoherently engaged, as they had been
before ; once again, faded on the stopping of the Chimes ; and
dwindled into nothing.
" What are these ? " he asked his guide. " If I am not
mad, what are these ? "
" Spirits of the Bells. Tlieir sound upon the air," returned
the cliild. " They take such shapes and occupations as the
hopes and thoughts of mortals, and the recollections they have
stored up, give them."
" And you," said Trotty wildly. " What axe you ? "
" Hushj hush ! " returned the child. " Look here ! "
In a poor, mean room ; working at the same kind of
embroidery, which he had often, often, seen before her ; Meg,
his own dear daughter, was presented to his view. He made
no effort to imprint his kisses on her face ; he did not strive
to clasp her to his loving heaii; ; he knew that such endear-
ments were, for him, no more. But, he held his trembling
breath, and brushed away the blinding tears, that he might
look upon her ; that he might only see her.
Ah ! Changed. Changed. The Hght of the clear eye, how
dimmed. The bloom, how faded from the cheek. Beautiful
she was, as she had ever been, but Hope, Hope, Hope, oh
where was the fresh Hope that had spoken to him like a
voice !
She looked up from her work, at a companion. Following
her eyes, the old man started back.
In the woman grown, he recognised her at a glance. In
the long silken hair, he saw the self-same curls ; around the
lips, the child's expression lingering still. See ! In the eyes,
now turned inquiringly on Meg, there shone the very look
that scanned those features when he brought her home !
Then what was this, beside him !
Looking with awe into its face, he saw a something reigning
TEE cm MI'S. 129
there : a loftv something, undehned and indistinct, which
made it hardly more than a remembrance of that child — as
yonder figure might be — yet it was the same : the same : and
wore the dress.
Hark. They were speaking !
"Meg," said Lilian, hesitating. "How often you raise
your head from your work to look at nae ! "
"Are my looks so altered, that they frighten you?" asked
Meg.
" Nav, dear! But you smile at that yourself! '\\Tiy not
smile when you look at me, Meg? "
"I do so. Do I not?" she answered : smiling on her.
"Now you do," said Lilian, " but not usually. When you
think I 'm busy, and don't see you, you look so anxious and
so doubtful, that I hardly like to raise my eyes. There is
little cause for smiling in this hard and toilsome life, but you
were once so cheerful."
" Am I not now ! " cried Meg, speaking in a tone of strange
alarm, and rising to embrace her. " Do / make our weary
life more weary to you, Lilian ! "
"You have been the only thing that made it life," said
Lilian, fervently kissing her ; " sometimes the only thing that
made me care to live so, Meg. Such work, such work ! So
many hours, so many days, so many long, long nights of
hopeless, cheerless, never-ending work — not to heap up riches,
not to live grandly or gaily, not to live upon enough, however
coarse ; but to earn bare bread ; to scrape together just
enough to toil upon, and want upon, and keep alive in us the
consciousness of our hard fate! Oh Meg, Meg!" she raised
her voice and twined her arms about her as she spoke, like
one in pain. " How can the cruel world go round, and bear
to look upon such lives ! "
" Lilly ! " said Meg, soothing her, and putting back her
hair from her wet face. " Why, Lilly ! You ! So pretty
and so young ! "
"Oh Meg!" she interrupted, holding her at arm's-length,
and looking in her face imploringly. " The worst of all, the
worst of all ! Strike me old, Meg ! Wither me and shrivel
me, and free me from the dreadful thoughts that tempt me in
my youth I "
Trotty turned to look upon his guide. But, the S])irit of
the child had taken flight. Was gone.
130 THE CHIMES.
Neither did lie himself remain in the same place ; for Sii
Joseph Bowley, Friend and Father of the Poor, held a great
festivity at Bowley HaU, in honour of the natal day of Lady
Bowley. And as Lady Bowley had been born on New Year's
Day (which the local newspapers considered an especial pointing
of the finger of Providence to number One, as Lady Bowley' 3
destined figure in Ci-eation), it was on a New Year's Day that
this festivity took place.
Bowley Hall was full of visitors. The red-faced gentle-
man was there. Mr. Filer was there, the great Alderman
Cute was there — Alderman Cute had a sympathetic feeling
Avith great people, and had considerably improved his
acquaintance with Sir Joseph Bowley on the strength of hia
attentive letter : indeed had become quite a friend of tha
family since then — and many guests were there. Trotty's
ghost was there, Avandering about, poor phantom, drearily ;
and looking for its guide.
There was to be a great dinner in the Great HaU. At
which Sir Joseph Bowley, in his celebrated character of
Friend and Father of the Poor, was to make his great speech.
Certain plum puddings were to be eaten by his Friends and
Children in another Hall first ; and, at a given signal. Friends
and Children flocking in among their Friends and Fathers, were
to form a famil}' assemblage, with not one manly eye therein
unmoistened b}' emotion.
But there was more than this to happen. Even more than
this. Sir Joseph Bowley, Baronet and Member of Parlia-
ment, was to play a match at skittles — real skittles — with his
tenants !
"Which quite reminds one," said Alderman Cute, "of the
days of old King Hal, stout King Hal, bluff King Hal. Ah.
Fine character ! "
" Very," said Mr. Filer, dryly. " For marrying women
and murdering 'em. Considerably more than the average
number of wives by the bye."
" You '11 marry the beau tifid ladies, and not murder 'em,
eh?" said Alderman Cute to the heir of Bowley, aged twelve.
" Sweet boy ! We shall have this little gentleman in Parlia-
ment now," said the Alderman, holding him by the shoulders,
and looking as reflective as he could, " before we know where
\\<^ are. We shall hear of his successes at the poll ; his
spoochos in the house ; his oveifui-es froia Governments ; hie
THE CHIMES. 131
brilliant achievements of all kinds ; ah ! we shall make our
little orations about hun in the common council, I '11 be
bound ; before we have time to look about us ! "
" Oh, the difference of shoes and stockings ! " Trotty
thought. But his heart yearned towards the child, for the
love of those same shoeless and stockingiess boys, predestined
(by the Alderman) to turn out bad, who might have been tlie
children of poor Meg.
" Richard," moaned Trotty, roaming among the companj'
to and fro ; " where is he ? I can't find Richard ! Wliere
is Richard ? "
Not likely to be there, if still alive ! But Trotty's grief
and solitude confused him ; and he still went wandering
among the gallant company, looking for his guide, and saying,
" Where is Richard? Show me Richard ! "
He was wandering thus, when he encountered Mr. Fish,
the confidential Secretary : in great agitation.
"Bless my heart and soul!" cried Mr. Fish. "Where's
Alderman Cute? Has anybody seen the Alderman? "
Seen the Alderman ? Oh dear ! Who could ever help seeing
the Alderman? He was so considerate, so affable, he bore
so much in mind the natural desire of folks to see him, that
if he had a fault, it was the being constantly On View. And
wherever the great people were, there, to be sure, attracted
by the kindred sympathy between great souls, was Cute.
Several voices cried that he was in the circle round Sir
Joseph. Mr. Fish made way there ; foimd him ; and took
liim secretly into a window near at hand. Trotty joined them.
Not of his own accord. He felt that his steps were led in
that direction.
"My dear Alderman Cute," said Mr. Fi.sli. "A little
more this way. The most dreadful circumstance has occurred.
1 have this moment received the intelligence. I think it will
"c best not to acquaint Sir Joseph with it till the day is over.
Vou understand Sir Joseph, and will give me your opinion
'I'he most frightful and deplorable event ! "
" Fish ! " returned the Alderman. " Fish ! My good
fellow, what is the matter ? Nothing revolutionary, I hope !
No — no attempted interference with the magistrates ? "
" Deedles, the banker," gasped the Secretary. " Deedles,
Brothers — who was to have been here to-day — high in office
in the Goldsmiths' Company — "
132 THE CniMES.
" Not stopped ! " exclaimed the Alderman. " It can't be 1 "
" Shot himself."
" Good God ! "
" Put a double-barrelled pistol to his mouth, in his own
counting-house," said Mr. Fish, " and blew his brains out.
No motive. Princely circumstances ! "
" Circumstances ! " exclaimed the Alderman. " A man of
noble fortune. One of the most respectable of men. Suicido,
Mr. Fish ! By his own hand ! "
" This very morning," returned Mr. Fish.
" Oh the brain, the brain ! " exclaimed the pious Alderman,
lifting up his hands. "Oh the nerves, the nerves; the
mysteries of this machine called Man ! Oh the little that
unhinges it : poor creatures that we are ! Perhaps a dinner,
Mr. Fish. Perhaps the conduct of his son, who, I have
heard, ran very wild, and was in the habit of drawing bills
upon him without the least authority ! A most respectable
man. One of the most respectable men I ever knew ! A
lamentable instance, Mr. Fish. A public calamity ! I shall
make a point of wearing the deepest mourning. A most
respectable man ! But there is One above. We must
submit, Mr. Fish. We must submit ! "
What, Alderman ! No word of Putting Down ? Remem-
ber, Justice, your high moral boast and pride. Come, Alder-
man ! Balance those scales. Throw me into this, the empty
one, no dinner, and Nature's founts in some poor woman,
dried by starving misery and rendered obdurate to claims for
which her offspring has authority in holy mother Eve. Weigh
me the two, you Daniel, going to judgment, when your day
shall come ! Weigh them, in the eyes of suffering thousands,
audience (not unmindful) of the grim farce you play. Or
supposing that you strayed from your five wits — it 's not so
far to go, but that it might be — and laid hands upon that
throat of yours, warning your fellows (if you have a fellow)
how they croak their comfortable wickedness to raving heada
and stricken hearts. What then ?
The words rose up in Trotty's breast, as if they had been
spoken by some other voice within him. Alderman Cute
pledged himself to Mr. Fish that he womd assist him in
breaking the melancholy catastrophe to Sir Joseph, when the
day was over. Then, before they parted, wringing Mr. Fish's
hand in bittomoss of soul, he said, "The most respectable of
THE OHTMES. 133
men ! " And added that lie hardly knew (not even he), why
such afflictions were allowed on earth.
" It 's almost enough to make one think, if one didn't
know better," said Alderman Cute, " that at times some
motion of a capsizing nature was going on in things, which
affected the general economy of the social fabric. Deedles,
Brothers ! "
The skittle-playing came off with immense success. Sir
Joseph knocked the pins about quite skilfully ; Master Bowley
ook an innings at a shorter distance also ; and everybody
said that now, w^hen a Baronet and the Son of a Baronet
played at skittles, the country was coming round again, as
fast as it could come.
At its proper time, the Banquet was served up. Trotty
involuntarily repaired to the Hall with the rest, for he felt
himself conducted thither by some stronger impidse than his
owTi free will. The sight was gay in the extreme ; the ladies
were very handsome; the visitors delighted, cheerful, and
good-tempered. When the lower doors were opened, and the
people flocked in, in their rustic dresses, the beauty of the
spectacle was at its height ; but Trotty only murmured more
and more. " Where is Richard ! He should help and com
fort her ! I can't see Richard ! "
There had been some speeches made; and Lady Rowley's
health had been proposed ; and Sir Joseph Bowley had
retiu-ned thanks, and had made his great speech, showing by
various pieces of evidence that he was the born Friend and
Father, and so forth ; and had given as a Toast, his Friends
and Children, and the Dignity of Laboiir ; when a slight dis-
turbance at the bottom of the hall attracted Toby's notice.
After some confusion, noise, and opposition, one man broke
through the rest, and stood forward by himself.
Not Richard. No. But one whom he had thought of, and
had looked for, many times. In a scantier supply of light,
he might have doubted tlie identity of that worn man, so old,
and grey, and bent ; but with a blaze of lamps upon his
gnarled and knotted head, he knew Will Fern as soon as ho
6tej)ped forth.
" What is this ! " exclaimed Sir Joseph, rising, " Who
gave this man admittance ? This is a criminal from prison !
Mr. Fish. sir. will you have the goodness — "
" A minute I " suid WiU Fern. " A minute ! My Lady,
134 THE CHIMES.
you was born on this day along with a New Year. Get me
a minute's leave to speak."
She made some intercession for him. Sir Joseph took hia
seat again, with native dignity.
The ragged visitor — for he was miserably dressed — looked,
round upon the company, and made his homage to them with
a humble bow.
" Gentlefolks ! " he said. " You 've drunk the Labourer.
Look at me ! "
" Just come from jail," said Mr. Fish.
" Just come from jail," said Will. " And neither for the
first time, nor the second, nor the third, nor yet the fourth."
Mr. Filer was heard to remark testily, that four times was
over the average ; and he ought to be ashamed of himself.
" Gentlefolks ! " repeated Will Fern. " Look at me ! You
see I 'm at the worst. Beyond all hurt or harm ; beyond your
help ; for the time when your kind words or kind actions
could have done me good," — he struck his hand upon his
breast, and shook his head, " is gone, with the scent of last
year's beans or clover on the air. Let me say a word for
these," pointing to the labouring people in the hall ; " and
when you 're met together, hear the real Truth spoke out for
once."
"There's not a man here," said the host, "who would
have him for a spokesman."
" Like enough. Sir Joseph. I believe it. Not the less
true, perhaps, is what I say. Perhaps that 's a proof on it.
Gentlefolks, I 've lived many a year in this place. You may
see the cottage from the sunk fence over yonder. I 've seen
the ladies draw it in their books, a hundred times. It looks
weU in a picter, I 've heerd say ; but there an't weather in
picters, and maybe 'tis fitter for that than for a place to live
in. Well ! I lived there. How hard — how bitter hard, I
lived there, I won't say. Any day in the year, and every
day, you can judge for your o^m selves."
He spoke as he had spoken on the night when Trotty found
him in the street. His voice was deeper and more husky,
and had a trembling in it now and then ; but he never raised
it, passionately, and seldom lifted it above the firm stern level
of the homely facts he stated.
" 'Tis harder than you think for, gentlefolks, to grow up
decent, commonly decent, in such a place. That I growed up
THE CniML'S. 13.-5
a man and not a brute, says sometlaiug for me — as I wao
tlien. As I am. now, there 's nothing can be said for me or
done for me. I 'm past it.''
" I am glad this man has entered," observed Sir Joseph,
looking round serenely. " Don't disturb him. It appears to
be Ordained. He is an example : a living example. I hope
and trust, and confidently expect, that if will not be lost upon
my Friends here."
" I dragged on," said Fern, after a moment's silence,
"somehow. Neither me nor any other man knows how;
but so heavy, that I couldn't put a cheerful face upon it, or
make believe that I was anything but what I was. Now,
gentlemen — you gentlemen that sits at Sessions — when you
see a man with discontent writ on his face, you says to one
another, ' he 's suspicious. I has my doubts,' says you^
' about Will Fern. Watch that fellow ! ' I don't say, gen-
tlemen, it ain't quite nat'ral, but I saj' 'tis so ; and from tliat
hour, whatever Will Fern does, or lets alone — all one — it
goes against him."
Alderman Cute stuck his thumbs in his waistcoat-pockets,
and leaning back in his chair, and smiling, winked at a
neighbouring chandelier. As much as to say, " Of course !
I told you so. The common cry ! Lord bless you, we are up
to all this sort of thing — myself and human nature."
" Now, gentlemen," said Will Fern, holding out his hands,
and flushing for an instant in Ids haggard face. '' See how
your laws are made to trap and hunt us when we 're brought
to this. I tries to live elsewhere. And I 'm a vagabond.
To jail with him ' I comes back here. I goes a nutting in
your woods, and breaks — who don't? — a limber branch or
two. To jail with him ! One of your keepers sees me in
the broad day, near my own patch of garden, with a gun.
To jail with him ! I has a nat'ral angry word with that man,
when I 'm free again. To jail with him ! I cuts a stick.
To jail with him ! I eats a rotten apple or a turnip. To
jail with him ! It 's twenty mile away ; and coming back I
begs a trifle on the road. To jail with him ! At last the
constable, the keeper — anybody — finds me anywhere, a doing
anything. To jail with him, for he 's a vagrant, and a jail-
bird known ; and jail 's the only home he 's got."
'iTxe Alderman nodded sagaciously, as who shoidd soy,
" A very good homo too ! "
136 THE CHIMES.
•* Do I say tliis to serve my cause ? " cried Fern. " "Who
can ^ive me back my liberty, who can give me back my good
name, who can give me back my innocent niece ? Not all
the Lords and Ladies in wide England. But gentlemen,
gentlemen, dealing with other men like me, begin at the
righc end. Give us, in mercy, better homes when we 're a
lying in our cradles ; give us better food when we 're a work-
ing for our lives ; give us kinder laws to bring us back when
we 're a going wrong ; and don't set Jail, Jail, Jail, afore us,
everywhere we turn. There an't a condescension you can
show the Labourer then, that he won't take, as ready and as
grateful as a man can be ; for, he has a patient, peaceful,
willing heart. But you must put his rightful spirit in him
first ; for, whether he 's a wreck and ruin such as me, or is
like one of them that stand here now, his spirit is divided
from you at this time. Bring it back, gentlefolks, bring it
back ! Bring it back, afore the day comes when even iis
Bible changes in his altered mind, and the words seem to him
to read, as they have sometimes read in my own eyes — in
Jail : ' "Whither thou goest, I can Not go ; where thou
lodgest, I do Not lodge ; thy people are Not my people ; Nor
thy God my God 1 '"
A sudden stir and agitation took place in the Hall. Trotty
thought at first, that several had risen to eject the man ; and
Jience this change in its appearance. But, another moment
showed him that the room and all the company had vanished
from his sight, and that his daughter was again before him,
seated at her work. But in a poorer, meaner garret than
before ; and with no Lilian by her side.
The frame at which she had worked was put away upon a
shelf and covered up. The chair in which she had sat, was
turned against the wall. A history was written in these
little things, and in Meg's grief-worn face. Oh ! who could
fail to read it !
Meg strained her eyes upon her work until it was too dark
to see the threads ; and when the night closed in, she lighted
her feeble candle and worked on. Still her old father was in-
visible about her ; looking down upon her ; loving her — how
dearly loving her ' — and talking to her in a tender voice
about the old times, and the Bells. Though he knew, poor
Trotty, thougli ho knew she could not hear him.
A great part of the evening had worn awuy, when a knock
THE CHIMES. 137
came at her door. She opened it. A man was on the
threshold. A slouching, moody, drunken sloven, wasted by
intemperance and vice, and with his matted hair and unshorn
beard in wild disorder; but, with some traces on him, too,
of having been a man of good proportion and good features
m his youth.
He stopped until he had her leave" to enter ; and she,
retiring a pace or two from the open door, silently and
sorrowfully looked upon him. Trotty had his wish. He
saw Richard.
" i\Iay I come in, Margaret ? "
" Yes ! Come in. Come in ! "
It was well that Trotty knew him before he spoke ; for
with any doubt remaining on his mind, the harsh discordant
voice would have persuaded him that it was not Richard but
some other man.
There were but two chairs in the room. She gave hers,
and stood at some short distance from him, waiting to hear
what he had to say.
He sat, however, staring vacantly at the floor ; with a
lustreless and stupid smile. A spectacle of such deep de-
gradation, of such abject hopelessness, of such a miserable
downfall, that she put her hands before her face and turned
away, lest he should see how much it moved her.
Roused by the rustling of her dress, or some such trifling
Bound, he lifted his head, and began to speak as if there had
been no pause since he entered.
'' Still at work, Margaret ? You work late."
" I generally do."
" And early ? "
" And early."
"So she said. She said you never tired ; or never owned
that you tired. Not all the time you lived together. Not
even when you fainted, between work and fasting. But I
told you that, the last time I came."
" You did," she answered. " And I implored you to tell
me nothing more ; and you made me a solemn promise,
Richard, that you never would."
" A solemn promise," he repeated, with a drivelling laugh
and vacant stare. " A solemn promise. To be sure. A
solemn promise ! " Awakening, as it were, after a time, in
the bame manner as before ; he said with sudden animation,
138 THE CHIMEa.
" How can I help it, Margaret ? What am I to do ? She
Las been to me again ! "
" Again ! " cried Meg, clasping her hands. " 0, does she
think of me so often ! Has she been again ? "
" Twenty times again," said Richard. " Margaret, she
haunts me. She comes behind me in the street, and thrusts
it in my hand. I hear her foot upon the ashes when I 'm at
my work (ha, ha ! that an't often), and before I can turn my
head, her voice is in my ear, sajdng, ' Richard, don't look
round. For heaven's love, give her this ! ' She brings it
where I live ; she sends it in letters ; she taps at the window
and lays it on the sill. "V^Tiat can I do ? Look at it ! "
He held out in his hand a little purse, and chinked the
money it enclosed.
" Hide it," said Meg. " Hide it 1 When she comes again,
tell her, Richard, that I love her in my soul. That I never
lie down to sleep, but I bless her, and pray for her. That
in my solitary work, I never cease to have her in my thoughts.
That she is with me, night and day. That if I died to-morrow,
I would remember her with my last breath. But, that I
cannot look upon it ! "
He slowly recalled his hand, and crushing the purse together,
said with a kind of drowsy thoughtfulness :
" I told her so. I told her so, as plain as words could
speak. I 've taken this gift back and left it at her door,
a dozen times since then. But when she came at last, and
stood before me, face to face, what could I do ? "
" You saw her ! " exclaimed Meg. " You saw her ! O,
Lilian, my sweet girl ! O, Lilian, Lilian ! "
" I saw her," he went on to say, not answering, but
engaged in the same slow pursuit of his own thoughts.
" There she stood : trembling ! ' How does she look, Richard ?
Does she ever speak of me ? Is she thinner ? My old place
at the table : what 's in my old place ? And the frame she
taught me our old work on — has she burnt it, Richard ? '
There she was. I hear her say it."
Meg checked her sobs, and with the tears streaming from
her eyes, bent over him to listen. Not to lose a breath.
With his arms resting on his knees ; and stooping forward
in his chair, as if what he said w^ere written on the ground
in some half legible character, which it was his occupation to
decipher and connect ; he went ou.
THE CHIMES. 139
" ' Richard, I have fallen very low ; and you may gness
how much I have suffered in having this sent back, when I
can bear to bring it in my hand to you. But you loved her
once, even in vay memory, dearly. Others stepped in between
you ; fears, and jealousies, and doubts, and vanities, estranged
you from her ; but you did love her, even in my memory ! '
I suppose I did," he said, interrupting himself for a moment.
"I did! That's neither here nor there. '0 Richard, if
you ever did ; if you have any memory for what is gone and
lost, take it to her once more. Once more ! Tell her how I
-begged and prayed. Tell her how I laid my head upon your
shoulder, where her own head might have lain,' and was so
humble to you, Richard. Tell her that you looked into my
face, and saw the beauty which she used to praise, all gone :
all gone : and in its place, a poor, wan, hollow cheek, that
she would weep to see. TeU her everything, and take it back,
and she "noil not refuse again. She will not have the heart ! "
So he sat musing, and repeating the last words, until he
woke again, and rose.
" You won't take it, Margaret ? "
She shook her head, and motioned an entreaty to him to
leave her.
" Good night, Margaret."
" Good night ! "
He turned to look upon ner; struck by her sorrow, and
perhaps by the pity for himself which trembled in her voice.
It was a quick and rapid action ; and for the moment some
flash of his old bearing kindled in his form. In the next he
went as he had come. Nor did tliis glimmer of a quenched
fire seem to light him to a quicker sense of his debasement.
In any mood, in any grief, in any torture of the mind or
body, Meg's work must be done. She sat down to her task,
and plied it. Night, midnight. Still she worked.
She had a meagre fire, the night being very cold ; and rose
at intervals to mend it. The Chimes rang half-past twelve
while she was thu.s engaged ; and when they ceased she heard
a gentle knocking at the door. Before she could so much as
wonder who was there, at that unusual hour, it opened.
O Youth and Beauty, happy as ye should be, look at this !
O Youth and Beauty, blest and blessing all within your reach,
and ^\■orking out the ends of your Beneficent Creator, look
at this .'
140 THE CHIMliS.
Slio saw the entering figxire ; screamed its name ; cried
" Lilian ! "
It was swift, and fell upon its knees before her : clinging to
her dress.
" Up, dear ! Up ! Lilian ! My own dearest ! "
" Never more, Meg ; never more ! Here ! Here ! Close
to you, holding to you, feeling your dear breath upon my face ! "
' ' Sweet Lilian ! Darling LiHan ' Child of my heart — no
mother's love can he more tfTirl^r — lav your head upon my
breast ! "
'"Nevermore, Meg. Never more! When I first looked
into your face, you knelt before me. On my knees before
you, let me die. Let it be here ! "
" You have come back. My Treasure ! We will live
together, work together, hope together, die together ! "
" Ah I Kiss my lips, Meg ; fold your arms about me ;
press me to your bosom ; look kindly on me ; but don't raise
me. Let it be here. Let me see the last of your dear face
upon my knees ! "
O Youth and Beauty, happy as ye should be, look at this !
O Youth and Beauty, working out the ends of your Beneficent
Creator, look at this !
" Forgive me, Meg ! So dear, so dear ! Forgive me ! I
know you do, I see you do, but say so, Meg ! "
She said so, with her lips on Lilian's cheek. And with her
arms twined round — she knew it now — a broken heart.
" His blessing on you, dearest love. Kiss me once more !
He sufiered her to sit beside His feet, and dry them with her
hair. O Meg, what Mercy and Compassion ! "
As she died, the Spirit of the child returning, innocent and
radiant, touched the old man v^ith its hand, and beckoned
him away.
THE CUIAIES. l&l
F^UETIL^TJAETEIt.
Some new remembrance of the ghostly flgiires in the Bells ;
some faint impression of the ringing of the Chimes ; some
giddy consciousness of having seen the swarm of phantoms
reproduced and reproduced until the recollection of them lost
itself in the confusion of their numbers ; some hurried know-
ledge, how conveyed to him he knew not, that more years had
passed ; and Trotty, with the Spirit of the child attending
him, stood looking on at mortal company.
Fat company, rosy-cheeked company, comfortable company.
They were but two, but they were red enough for ten. They
sat before a bright fire, with a small low table between them ;
and unless the fragrance of hot tea and muffins lingered longer
in that room than in most others, the table had seen service
very lately. But all the cups and saucers being clean, and in
their proper places in the corner cupboard ; and the brass
toasting-fork hanging in its usual nook, and spreading its four
idle fingers out, as if it wanted to be measured for a glove ;
there remained no other visible tokens of the meal just finished,
than such as purred and washed their whiskers in the person
of the basking cat, and glistened in the gracious, not to say
the greasy, faces of her patrons.
This cosy couple (married, evidently) had made a fair
division of the fire between them, and sat looking at the
glowing sparks that dropped into the grate ; now nodding off
into a doze ; now waking up again when some hot fragment,
larger than the rest, came rattling down, as if the fii-e were
coming with it.
It was in no danger of sudden extinction, however ; for it
gleamed not only in the little room, and on the panes oi
window-glass in the door, and on the curtain half drawn
across them, but in tlie little shop beyond. A little shop,
quite crammed and cliolcod with the abundance of its stock ;
A perfectly voracious little shop, witli a maw us accommodating
142 THE cniMii:s.
and full as any shark's. Cheese, butter, firewood, soap, pickles,
matches, bacon, table-beer, peg-tops, sweetmeats, boys' kites,
bird-seed, cold ham, birch brooms, hearth-stones, salt, vinegar,
blacking, red-herrings, stationery, lard, mushroom-ketchup,
staylaces, loaves of bread, shuttlecocks, eggs, and slate-pencil •
everything was fish that came to the net of this greedy little
shop, and all articles were in its net. How many other kinds
of petty merchandise were there, it would be difficult to say ;
but balls of packthread, ropes of onions, pounds of candles,
cabbage-nets, and brushes, hung in bunches from the ceiling,
like extraordinary fruit ; while various odd canisters emitting
aromatic smells, established the veracity of the inscription
over the outer door, which informed the public that the keeper
of this little shop was a licensed dealer in tea, coffee, toba(;co,
pepper, and snuif.
Glancing at such of these items as were visible in the
shining of the blaze, and the less cheerful radiance of two
smoky lamps which burnt but dimly in the shop itself, as
though its plethora sat heavy on their lungs ; and glancing,
then, at one of the two faces by the parlor-fire ; Trotty had
small difficulty in recognising in the stout old lady, Mrs.
Chickenstalker : always inclined to corpulency, even in the days
when he had known her as established in the general line,
and having a small balance against him in her books.
The features of her companion were less easy to him. The
great broad chin, with creases in it large enough to hide a
finger in ; the astonished eyes, that seemed to expostulate
with themselves for sinking deeper and deeper into the yield-
ing fat of the soft face ; the nose afflicted with that disordered
action of its functions which is generally termed The Snuffles ;
the- short thick throat and labouring chest, with other beauties
of the like description ; though calculated to impress the
memory, Trotty could at first allot to nobody he had ever
known : and yet he had some recollection of them too. At
length, in Mrs. Chickenstalker' s partner in the general line,
and in the crooked and eccentric line of life, he recognised tlie
former porter of Sir Joseph Bowdey ; an apoplectic innocent,
who had connected himself in Trotty's mind with Mrs.
Chickenstalker years ago, by giving him admission to the
mansion where he had confessed his obligations to tliat lady,
and drawn on his unlucky head such grave reproach.
Tiotty had little interest in a change like this, after the
THE CIHMl-S. 143
changes lie liad seen ; but association is very strong sometimea ;
and he looked involuntarily behind the parlor-door, where
the accounts of credit customers were usually kept in chalk
There was no record of his name. Some names were there,
but they were strange to him, and infinitely fewer than of
old ; from which he argued that the porter was an advocate of
ready money transactions, and on coming into the business had
looked pretty sharp after the Chickenstalker defaulters.
So desolate was Trotty, and so mournful for the youth and
promise of his blighted child, that it was a sorrow to him,
even to have no place in Mrs. Chickenstalker' s ledger.
" What sort of a night is it, Anne ? " inquired the former
porter of Sir Joseph Bowley, stretching out his legs before the
fire, and rubbing as much of them as his short arms could
reach ; with an air that added, " Here I am if it 's bad, and
I don't want to go out if it 's good."
" Blowing and sleeting hard," returned his wife ; " and
threatening snow. Dark. And very cold."
" I 'm glad to think we had muffins," said the former
porter, in the tone of one who had set his conscience at rest.
" It 's a sort of night that 's meant for mufiius. Likewise
crumpets. Also Sally Lunns."
The fonner porter mentioned each successive kind of eatable,
as if he were musingly summing up his good actions. After
which, he rubbed his fat legs as before, and jerking them at
the knees to get the fire upon the j'et unroasted parts, laughed
as if somebody had tickled him.
" You're in spirits, Tugby, my dear," observed his wife.
The firm was Tugby, late Chickenstalker.
"No," said Tugby. "No. Not purticiJar. I 'm a little
elewated. The muffins came so pat ! "
With that he chuclded until he was black in the face ; and
had so much ado to become any other colour, that his fat legs
took the strangest excursions into the air. Nor wore they
roduced to anything like decorum until Mrs. Tugby had
thumped him violently on tlie back, and shaken him us if he
were a great bottle.
" Good gracious, goodness, lord-a-mercy bless and save the
man ! " cried Mrs. Tugby, in great terror. " What 's lie
doing
Mr. Tug't)y wiped his eyes, and faintly repeated that he
found himself a little elewated.
144 TH^ CHIMES.
"Then don't be so again, that's a dear good soul," said
Mrs. Tugby, " if you don't want to frighten me to death, with
yoiir struggling and fighting ! "
Mr. Tugby said he wouldn't ; but, his whole existence was
a fight, in which, if any judgment might be founded ou the
constantly-increasing shortness of his breath and the deepen-
ing purple of his face, he was always getting the worst of it.
" So it 's blowing, and sleeting, and thi-eatening snow ; and
it's dark, and very cold, is it, my dear?" said Mr. Tugby,
looking at the fire, and reverting to the cream and marrow of
his temporary elevation.
" Hard weather indeed," returned his wife, shaking her
head.
" Aye, aye ! Years," said Mr. Tugby, " are like
Christians in that respect. Some of 'em die hard ; some
of 'em die easy. This one hasn't many days to run, and is
making a fight for it. I like him aU the better. There 's a
customer, my love ! "
Attentive to the rattling door, Mrs. Tugljy had already
risen.
" Now then ! " said that lady, passing out into the little
shop. " What 's wanted ? Oh ! I beg your pardon, sir, I'm
sure. I didn't think it was you."
She made this apology to a gentleman in black, who, with
his wristbands tucked up, and his hat cocked loungingly
on one side, and his hand in his pockets, sat down astride on
the table-beer barrel, and nodded in return.
" This is a T)ad business up stairs, Mrs. Tugby," said the
gentleman. " The man can't live."
" Not the back-attic can't ! " cried Tugby, coming out
into the shop to join the conference.
" The back-attic, Mr. Tugby," said the gentleman, " is
coming down stairs fast, and will be below the basement very
soon."
Looking by turns at Tugby and his wife, he sounded the
barrel with his knuckles for the depth of beer, and having
found it, played a tune upon the empty part.
" The baek-attic, Mr. Tugby," said the gentleman : Tugby
having stood in silent consternation for some time; "is
Going."
"Then," said Tugby, tui-ning to his wife, "he must Go.
you know, before he 's Gone."
THE CHIMES. 14fi
" I don't think you can move him," said the gentleman,
shaking his head. " I wouldn't take the responsibility of
saying it could be done, myself. You had better leave him
where he is. He can't live long."
"It's the only subject," said Tugby, bringing the butter-
scale down upon the coimter with a crash, by weighing his
fist on it, " that we 've ever had a wordaipon ; she and me ;
and look what it comes to ! He 's going to die here, after
aU. Going to die upon the premises. Going to die in our
house I "
" And where should he have died, Tugby ! " cried his
wife.
"In the workhouse," he returned. "What are work-
houses made for ? "
"Not for that," said Mrs. Tugby, with great energy.
" Not for that ! Neither did I marry you for that. Don't
think it, Tugby. I won't have it. I won't allow it. I 'd
be separated first, and never see your face again. When my
widow's name stood over that door, as it did for many many
years : this house being known as Mrs. Chickenstalker's far
and wide, and never known but- to its honest credit and its
good report : when my widow's name stood over that door,
Tugby, I knew him as a handsome, steady, manly, indepen-
dent youth; I knew her as the sweetest-looking, sweetest-
tempered girl, eyes ever saw ; I knew her father (poor old
creetur, he fell do-mi from the steeple walking in his sleep,
and killed himself ), for the simplest, hardest- working,
childest-hearted man, that ever drew the breath of life ; and
when I turn them out of house and home, may angels
turn me out of Heaven. As they woidd ! And serve me
right ! "
Her old face, which had been a plump and dimpled one
before the changes which had come to pass, seemed to shine
out of her as she said these words ; and when she dried
her eyes, and shook her head and her handkerchief at Tugby,
with an expression of fiz'mness which it was quite clear
was not to be easily resisted, Trotty said, " Bless her ! Bless
her ! "
Then he listened, with a panting heart, for what should
follow. Kno\\'ing nothing yet, but that they spoke of Meg.
If Tugby had been a little elevated in the parlour, he more
than balanced that account by being not a little depressed in
L
146 THE CHIMES.
tlio shop, where he now stood staring at his wife, without
attempting a reply; secretly conveying, howfever — either in
a fit of abstraction or as a precautionary measure — all tho
money from the till into his own pockets, as he looked at
her.
The gentleman upon the table-beer cask, who appeared to
bt; some authorised medical attendant upon the poor, was far
roo well accustomed, evidently, to little differences of opinion
between man and wife, to interpose any remark in this
instance. He sat softly whistling, and turning little drops of
beer out of the tap upon the ground, until there was a per-
fect calm : when he raised his head, and said to Mrs. Tugby,
late Chickenstalker :
" There's something interesting about the woman, even
now. How did she come to marry him?"
" Why that," said Mrs. Tugby, taking a seat near him, " is
not the least cruel part of her story, sir. You see they kept
company, she and Richard, many years ago. When they were a
young and beautiful couple, everything was settled, and they
were to have been married on a New Year's Day. But, some-
how, Richard got it into his head, through what the gentleman
told him, that he might do better, and that he 'd soon repent it,
and that she wasn 't good enough for him, and that a young
man of spirit had no business to be married. And the gentleman
frightened her, and made her melancholy, and timid of his
deserting her, and of her children coming to the gallows, and of
its being wicked to be man and wife, and a good deal more of
it. And in short, they lingered and lingered, and their trust
in one another was broken, and so at last was the match.
But the fault was his. She would have married him, sir,
joyfully. I 've seen her heart swell, many times afterwards,
when he passed her in a proud and careless way ; and never
did a woman grieve more truly for a man, than she for
Richard when he first went wrong."
" Oh ! he went wrong, did he ? " said the gentleman, pull-
ing out the vent-peg of the table beer, and trying to peep
down into the barrel through the hole.
" Well, sir, I don't know that he rightly understood him-
self, 5^ou see. I think his mind was troubled by their having
broke with one another ; and that but for being ashamed
before the gentlemen, and perhaps for being uncertain too,
how she might ^ake it, he 'd have g-one thi'ough any suffering
TEE CHIMES. 147
or trial to have had Meg's promise, and Meg's hand again.
That 's my belief. He never said so ; more 's the pity ! He
took to drinking, idling, bad companions : all the fine
resources that were to be so much better for him than the
Home he might have had. He lost his looks, his character,
his health, his strength, his friends, his work : everything I "
" He didn't lose ever}i;liing, Mrs. Tugby," returned the
gentleman, " because he gained a wife ; and I want to know
how he gained her."
" I 'm coming to it, sir, in a moment. This went on for
years and years ; he sinking lower and lower ; she enduring,
poor thing, miseries enough to wear her life away. At last
he was so cast down, and cast out, that no one would employ
or notice him ; and doors were shut upon him, go where he
would. Applying from place to place, and door to door ; and
coming for the hundi-edth time to one gentleman who had
often and often tried him (he was a good workman to the
very end) ; that gentleman, who knew his history, said, ' I
believe you are incorrigible ; there is only one person in the
world who has a chance of reclaiming you ; ask me to trust
you no more, until she tries to do it.' Something like that,
in his anger and vexation."
" Ah f" said the gentleman. " Well ? "
" Well sir, he went to her, and kneeled to her ; said it was
so ; said it ever had been so ; and made a prayer to her to
save him."
" And she? — Don't distress yourself, Mrs. Tugby."
" She came to me that night to ask me about li^'ing here.
* "What he was once to me,' she said, ' is buried in a grave,
side by side with what I was to him. But I have thought of
this ; and I will make the trial. In the hope of saving him ;
for the love of the light-hearted girl (you remember her) who
was to have been married on a New Year's Day ; and for the
love of her Richard.' And she said he had come to her from
Lilian, and Lilian had trusted to him, and she never could
forget that. So they were married ; and when they came
home here, and I saw them, I hoped that such prophecies as
parted them when they were young, may not often fulfil them-
.selves as they did in this case, or I wouldn't be the makers of
them for a Mine of Gold."
ITie gentleman got off the cask, and stretched himsolf.
observinff,
lis THE CHIMES.
" I suppose lie used her ill, as soon as they were
married ? "
" I don't think he ever did that," said Mrs. Tugby, shak-
ing her head and wiping her eyes. " He went on better for
a short time ; but, his habits were too old and strong to be
got rid of ; he soon fell back a little ; and was falling fast
back, when his illness came so strong upon him. I think he
has always felt for her. I am sure he has. I 've seen him,
in his crying fits and tremblings, try to kiss her hand ; and I
have heard him call her ' Meg,' and say it washer nineteenth
birthday. There he has been lying, now, these weeks and
months. Between him and her baby, she has not been able
to do her old work ; and by not being able to be regular, she
has lost it, even if she could have done it. How they have
lived, I hardly know ! "
"/know," muttered Mr. Tugby; looking at the till, and
round the shop, and at his wife ; and rolling his head .with
immense intelligence. " Like Fighting Cocks ! "
He was interrupted by a cry — a sound of lamentation —
fi-om the upper story of the house. The gentleman moved
hurriedly to the door.
"My friend," he said, looking back, "you needn't discuss
whether he shall be removed or not. He has spared you that
trouble, I believe."
Saying so, he ran up-stairs, followed by ]\Irs. Tugljy ; while
Mr. Tugby panted and grumbled after them at leisure : being
rendered more than commonly short-winded by the weight of
the till, in which there had been an inconvenient quantity of
copper. Trotty, with the child beside him, floated up the
staircase like mere air.
"Follow her! Follow her! Follow her!" He heard the
ghostly voices in the Bells repeat their words as he ascended.
" Learn it, from the creature dearest to your heart ! "
It was over. It was over. And this was slie, her father's
pride and joy ! This haggard wretched woman, weeping by
the bed, if it deserved that name, and pressing to her breast,
and hanging down her head upon, an infant ? Who can tell
how spare, how sickly, and how poor an infant ? Who can
tell how dear !
" Thank God ! " cried Trotty, holding up his folded hands.
" O, God be thanked ! She loves her child ! "
The gcntieman. not otherwise hard-hearted or indifferent to
THE CHIMES. 149
Buch scenes, tlian that lie saw them every day, and knew that
they were figures of no moment in the Filer sums — mere
scratches in the working of those calculations — laid his hand
upon the heart that beat no more, and listened for the breath,
and said, " His pain is over. It 's better as it is ! " Mrs.
Tugby tried to comfort her with kindness. Mr. Tugby tried
philosophy.
" Come, come ! " he said, with his hands in his pockets,
"you mustn't give way, you know. That won't do. You
must fight up. What would have become of me if / had
given way when I was porter, and we had as many as six
rimaway carriage-doubles at our door in one night ! But, I
fell back upon my strength of mind, and didn't open it ! "
Again Trotty heard the voices, saying, "Follow her!".
He tiu'ned towards his guide, and saw it rising from him,
passing through the air. " Follow her ! " it said. And
vanished.
He hovered round her ; sat down at her feet ; looked up
into her face for one trace of her old self; listened for one
note of her old pleasant voice. He flitted round the child :
so wan, so prematurely old, so dreadful in its gravity, so
plaintive in its feeble, mournful, miserable wail. He almost
worshipped it. He clung to it as her only safeguard ; as the
last unbroken link that bound her to endurance. He set his
father's hope and trust on the frail baby ; watched her every
look upon it as she held it in her arms ; and cried a thousand
times, " She loves it ! God be thanked, she loves it ' "
He saw the woman tend her in the night ; return to her
when her grudging husband was asleep, and all was still ;
encourage her, shed tears with her, set novirishment before
her. He saw the day come, and the night again ; the day,
the night ; the time go by ; the house of death relieved of
death ; the room left to herself and to the child ; he heard it
moan and cry ; he saw it harass her, and tire her out, and
when she slumbered in exhaustion, drag her back to con-
sciousness, and hold her with its little hands upon the rack ;
but she was constant to it, gentle with it, patient with it.
Patient ! Was its loving mother in her inmost heart and soid,
and had its Being knitted up with hers as when she carried
it unborn.
All this time, she was in want : languishing away, in dire
ard pining want. With the baby in her arms, she wandered
150 THE CHIMES.
Lere and there in quest of occupation ; and with its thin face
lying in her lap, and looking up in hers, did any work for
any wretched sum : a day and night of labour for as many
farthings as there were figures on the dial. If she had
quarrelled with it ; if she had neglected it ; if she had looked
upon it with a moment's hate ; if, in the frenzy of an instant,
she had struck it) No. His comfort was, She loved it
always.
She told no one of her extremity, and wandered abroad in
the day lest she should be questioned by her only friend : for
any help she received from her hands, occasioned fresh
disputes between the good woman and her husband ; and it
was new bitterness to be the daily cause of strife and discord,
where she owed so much.
She loved it still. She loved it more and more. But a
change fell on the aspect of her love. One night.
She was singing faintly to it in its sleep, and walking to
and fro to hush it, when her door was softly opened, and a
man looked in.
'■' For the last time," he said.
" William Fern ! "
" For the last time."
He listened like a man pursued : and spoke m whispers.
" Margaret, my race is nearly run. I couldn't finish it,
without a parting word with you. Without one grateful
word."
" What have you done ? " she asked : regarding him with
terror.
He looked at her, but gave no answer.
After a short silence, he made a gesture with his hand, as
if he set her question by ; as if he brushed it aside ; and
said.
" It 's long ago, Margaret, now ; but that night is as fresh
in my memory as ever 'twas. We little thought then," he
added, looking round, " that we shoiild ever meet like this.
Your child, Margaret ? Let me have it in my arms. Let
me hold yovir child."
He put his hat upon the floor, and took it. And he
trembled as lie took it, from head to foot.
** Is it a girl? "
" Yes."
He put his hand before its little face.
THE CHIMES. 151
" Soe how weak I 'm grown, Margaret, when I want the
courage to look at it ! Let her be, a moment. I won't hurt
her. It 's long ago, but — What 's her name ? "
" Margaret," she answered quickly.
" I 'm glad of that," he said. " I 'm glad of that ! '*
He seemed to breathe more freely y and after pausing for
an instant, took away his hand, and looked upon the infant's
face. But covered it again, immediately.
"Margaret!" he said; and gave her back the child.
" It's Lilian's."
" Lilian's ! "
" I held the same face in my arms when Lilian's mother
died and left her."
" When Lilian's mother died and left her ! " she repeated,
wildly.
" How shrill you speak ! W^hy do you fix your eyes upon
me so ? Margaret ! "
She sunk down in a chair, and pressed the infant to her
breast, and wept over it. Sometimes, she released it from
her embrace, to look anxiously in its face : then strained it
'o her bosom again. At those times, when she gazed upon
it, then it was that something fierce and terrible began to
mingle with her love. Then it was, that her old father
quailed.
" Follow her ! " was sounded through the house. " Learn
it, from the creature dearest to your heart ! "
" Margaret," said Fern, bending over her, and kissing her
upon the brow: "I thank you for the last time. Good
night. Good bye ! Put your hand in mine, and tell me
you '11 forget me from this hour, and try to think the end o/
me was here."
" What have you done ? " she asked again.
" There 'U be a Fire to-night," he said, removing from her.
" There 'U be Fires this winter-time, to light the dark nights,
East, West, North, and South. When you see the distant
sky red, they '11 be blazing. Wlien you see the distant sky
red, think of me no more ; or, if you do, remember wliat a
Hell was lighted up inside of me, and think you see its
tiames reflected in the clouds. Good iiiglit. Good bye I "
She called to him ; but he was gone. She sat down
stupefied, until her infant roused her to a sense of hunger,
cold, and darkness. She paced the room with it the liveloug
152 THE CHIMES.
night, husliing it and soothing it. She said at intervals,
" Like Lilian, when her mother died and left her! " Why
was her step so quick, her eyes so wild, her love so fierce and
terrible, whenever she repeated those words ?
"But, it is Love," said Trotty. "It is Love. She'll
never cease to love it. My poor Meg ! "
She dressed the child next morning with unusual care — ah
vain expenditure of care upon such squalid robes ! — and once
more tried to find some means of life. It was the last day of
the Old Year. She tried till night, and never broke her fast.
She tried in vain.
She mingled with an abject crowd, who tarried in the
snow, im.til it pleased some officer appointed to dispense the
public charity (the lawful charity; not that, once preached
upon a Mount), to call them in, and question them, and say
to this one, "go to such a place," to that one, " come next
week; " to make a football of another wretch, and pass him
here and there, from hand to hand, from house to house,
until he wearied and lay down to die; or started up and
robbed, and so became a higher sort of criminal, whose
claims allowed of no delay. Here, too, she failed.
She loved her child, and wished to have it lying on her
breast. And that was quite enough.
It was night : a bleak, dark, cutting night : when^
pressing the child close to her for warmth, she arrived out-
side the house she called her home. She was so faint and
giddy, that she saw no one standing in the doorway until she
was close upon it, and about to enter. Then, she recognised
the master of the house, who had so disposed himself — with
his person it was not difficult — as to fill up the whole entry.
" O ! " he said softly. " You have come back ? "
She looked at the child, and shook her head.
" Don't you think you have lived here long enough
without pajdng any rent? Don't you think that, without
any money, you 've been a pretty constant customer at this
shop, now ? " said Mr. Tugby.
She repeated the same mute appeal.
" Suppose you try and deal somewliere else," he said
" And suppose you provide yourself with another lodging.
Come ! Don't you think you could manage it ? "
She said, in a low voice, that it was very late. To-
morrow.
THE CHIMES. IHZ
" Now I see what you want," said Tugby ; " aud what
you mean. You know there are two parties in this house
about you, and you delight in setting 'em by the ears. I
don't want any quarrels ; I 'm speaking softly to avoid a
quarrel ; but if you don't go away, I '11 speak out loud, and
you shall cause words high enough to -please you. But you
shan't come in. That I am determined."
She put her hair back with her hand, and looked in a
sudden manner at the sky, and the dark lowering distance.
" This is the last night of an Old Year, and I won't carry
ill -blood and quarreUings and disturbances into a New One, to
please you nor anybody else," said Tugby, who was quite a
retail Friend and Father. " I wonder you an't ashamed of
yourself, to carry such practices into a New Year. If you
haven't any business in the world, but to be always giving way,
and always making disturbances between man and wife, you 'd
be better out of it. Go along with you ! "
" Follow her ! To desperation ! "
Again the old man heard the voices. Looking up, he saw
the figures hovering in the air, and pointing where she went,
down the dark street.
" She loves it ! " he exclaimed, in agonised entreaty for
her. " Chimes ! she loves it still ! "
" Follow her ! " The shadows swept upon the track she
had taken, like a cloud.
He joined in the pursuit ; he kept close to her ; he looked
into her face. He saw the same fierce and terrible expression
mingling with her love, and kindling in her eyes. He heard
her say " Like Lilian ! To be changed like LUian ! " and her
speed redoubled.
O, for something to awaken her ! For any sight, or soimd,
or scent, to call up tender recollections in a brain on fire ! For
any gentle image of the Past, to rise before her !
" I was her father ! I was her father ! " cried the old man,
stretching out his hands to the dark shadows flying on above.
"Have mercy on her, and on me! Where does she go?
Turn her back ! I was her father .' "
But, they only pointed to her, as she hurried on ; and said.
•■' To desperation ! Learn it from the creature dearest to your
heart ! "
A hundred voices echoed it. The air was nuide of breath
expended in those words. He seemed to take them in, at
154 THE CHIMES.
every gasp lie drew. They were everywhere, and not to be
escaped. And still she hurried on ; the same light in her eyes,
the same words in her mouth ; " Like Lilian ! To be
changed like Lilian ! "
All at once she stopped.
" Now, turn her back ! " exclaimed the old man, tearing
his white hair. "My child! Meg! Turn her back! Great
Father, turn her back ! "
In her own scanty shawl, she wrapped the baby warm.
With her fevered hands, she smoothed its limbs, composed its
face, arranged its mean attire. In her wasted arms she folded
it, as though she never would resign it more. And with her
dry lips, kissed it in a final pang, and last long agony of Love.
Putting its tiny hand up to her neck, and holding it there,
within her dress, next to her distracted heart, she set its
sleeping face against her : closely, steadily, against her : and
sped onward to the river.
To the rolling River, swift and dim, where Winter Night
sat brooding like the last dark thoughts of many who had
sought a refuge there before her. Where scattered lights
upon the banks gleamed sullen, red and dull, as torches that
were burning there, to show the way to Death. Where no
abode of living people cast its shadow, on the deep, impene-
trable, melancholy shade.
To the River ! To that portal of Eternity, her desperate
footsteps tended with the swiftness of its rapid waters running
to the sea. He tried to touch her as she passed him, going
down to its dark level ; but, the wild distempered form, the
fierce and terrible love, the desperation that had left aR human
check or hold behind, swept by him like the wind.
He followed her. She paused a moment on the brink,
before the dreadful plunge. He fell down on his knees, and
in a shriek addi'essed the figures in the Bells now hovering
above them.
"I have learnt it!" cried the old man. "From the
creature dearest to my heart ! 0, save her, save her ! "
He could wind his fingers in her dress ; could hold it ! As
the words escaped his lips he felt his sense of touch return,
and knew that he detained her.
The figures looked down steadfastly upon him.
" I have learut it! " cried the old man. " O, have mercy
on me in this hour, if, in my love for her, so young and good.
THE CHIMES. 155
I slandered Nature in the breasts of mothers rendered despe-
rate ! Pity my presumption, wickedness, and ignorance, and
save her ! "
He felt his hold relaxing. They were silent still.
"Have mercy on her!" he exclaimed, ''as one in whom
this dreadful crime has sprung from Love perverted ; fi-om the
strongest, deepest Love we fallen creatures know ! Think,
what her misery must have been, when such seed bears such
fruit. Heaven -nr^ant her to be good. There is no loving
mother on the earth who might not come to this, if such a life
had gone before. O, have mercy on my child, who, even at
this pass, means mercy to her own, and dies herself, and perils
her immortal soul, to save it ! "
She was in his arms. He held her now. His strength waa
like a giant's.
"1 see the spirit of the Chimes among you I " cried the old
man, singling out the child, and speaking in some inspiration,
which their looks conveyed to him. " I know that our
inheritance is held in store for us by Time. I know there is
a sea of Time to rise one day, before which all who wrong ua
or oppress us will be swept away like leaves. I see it, on the
flow ! I know that we miist trust and hope, and neither
doubt ourselves, nor doubt the good in one another. I have
learnt it from the creature dearest to my heart. I clasp her in
my arms again. 0 Spirits, merciful and good, I take your
lesson to my breast along with her ! 0 Spirits, merciful and
good, I am grateful ! "
He might have said more ; but, the Bells, the old familiar
Bells, his own dear, constant, steady friends, the Chimes,
began to ring the joy-peals for a New Year : so lustily, so
merrily, so happily, so gaily, that he leapt upon his feet, and
broke the spell that bound Ixim.
"And whatever you do, father," said Meg, " don't eat tripe
again, without asking some doctor whether it 's likely to agree
with you ; for how you have been going on, Good gracious ! "
She was working with her needle, at the little table by the
fire ; dressing her simple gown with ribbons for her wedding.
So quietly liappy, so blooming and youthful, so full of
beautiful promise, that he uttered a great cry as if it were an
Angel in his house ; then flew to clasp her in his arms.
But, he caught his feet in the newspaper, which hud fallen
156 THE CHIMES.
on the hearth ; and somebody came rushing m between
them.
" No ! " cried the voice of this same somebody; a generous
and jolly voice it was ! " Not even you. Not even you. The
first kiss of Meg in the New Year is mine. Mine ! I have
been waiting outside the house, this hour, to hear the Bells
and claim it. Meg, my precious prize, a happy year ! A life
of happy years, my darling wife ! "
And Richard smothered her with kisses.
You never in all your life saw anything like Trotty after
this. I don't care where you have lived or what you have
seen ; you never in aU your life saw anything at all approach-
ing him ! He sat down in his chair and beat his knees
and cried ; he sat down in his chair and beat his knees
and laughed ; he sat down in his chair and beat his knees
and laughed and cried together ; he got out of his chair
and "hugged Meg ; he got out of his chair and hugged
Richard ; he got out of his chair and hugged them both
at once; he kept running up to Meg, and squeezing her
fresh face between his hands and kissing it, going from
her backwards not to lose sight of it, and running up again
like a figure in a magic lantern ; and whatever he did, he
was constantly sitting himself down in this chair, and never
stopping in it for one single moment ; being — that's the truth
— beside himself with joy.
''And to-morrow's your wedding-day, my pet!" cried
Trotty. " Your real, happy wedding-day ! "
" To-day ! " cried Richard, shaking hands with him.
" To-day. The Chimes are ringing in the New Year. Hear
them ! "
They were ringing ! Bless their stui'dy hearts, they
WERE ringing ! Great Bells as they were ; melodious, deep-
mouthed, noble Bells ; cast in no common metal ; made by
no common founder ; when had they ever chimed Hke that,
before !
"But, to-day, my pet," said Trotty. "You and Richard
had some words to-day."
" Because he 's such a bad fellow, father," said Meg.
" An't you, Richard ? Such a headstrong, violent man '
He 'd have made no more of speaking his mind to that great
Alderman, and putting }dm down I don't know where, than lie
would of — "
THE CHIMES. 157
♦* — Kissing Meg," suggested Richard. Doing it too !
" No. Not a bit more," said Meg. " But I wouldn't let
him, father. Where would have been the use ! "
" Richard, my boy ! " cried Trotty. " You was turned up
Trumps originally ; and Trumps you must be, till you die !
But, you were crying by the fire to-night, my pet, when I
came home ! "Why did you cry by the fii-e ? "
"I was thinking of the years we've passed together,
father. Only that. And thinking you might miss me, and
be lonely."
Trotty was backing off to that extraordinary chair again,
when the child, who had been awakened by the noise, came
running in half-dressed.
"Why, here she is!" cried Trotty, catching her up.
Here 's little Lilian ! Ha ha ha ! Here we are and here we
go ! O, here we are and here we go again ! And here we
are and here we go ! And Uncle Will too ! " Stopping in
his trot to greet him heartily. " O, Uncle Will, the vision
that I 've had to-night, through lodging you ! 0, Uncle
WOl, the obligations that you've laid me under, by your
coming, my good friend ! "
Before Will Fern could make the least reply, a band of
music burst into the room, attended by a flock of neiglibours,
screaming "A Happy New Year, Meg!" "A Happy
Wedding! " "Many of 'em! " and other fragmentary good
wishes of that sort. The Drum (who was a private friend of
Trotty' s) then stepped forward, and said :
"Trotty Veck, my boy! It's got about, that your
daugliter is going to be married to-morrow. There an't
a soul that knows you that don't wish you well, or that
knows her and don't wish her well. Or that knows you
both, and don't wish you both all the happiness the New
Year can bring. And here we are, to play it in and dance it
in, accordingly."
Which was received with a general shout. The Drum was
rather drunk, by the bye ; but, never mind.
" ^^^^at a happiness it is, I 'm sure," said Trotty, " to be so
esteemed ! How kind and neighbourly you are ! It 's aU
along of my dear daughter. She deserves it ! "
They were ready for a dance in half a second (^leg and
Richard at the top) ; and the Drum was on the very brink oi
leathering away with all his power ; when a rombination of
158 THE CHIMES.
prodjfjious sounds was heard outside, and a good-liumoured
comely woman of some fifty years of age, or thereabouts, came
running in, attended by a man bearing a stone pitcher of
terrific size, and closely followed by the marrow-bones and
cleavers, and the bells ; not the Bells, but a portable collec-
tion, on a frame.
Trotty said " It 's Mrs. Chickenstalker ! " And sat down
and beat his knees again.
" Married, and not tell me, Meg ! " cried the good woman.
" Never ! I couldn't rest on the last night of the Old
Year without coming to wish you joy. I couldn't have
done it, Meg. Not if I had been bed-ridden. So here I
am ; and as it 's New Year's Eve, and the Eve of your
wedding too, my dear, I had a little flip made, and brought
it with me."
Mrs. Chickenstalker' s notion of a little flip, did honor
to her character. The pitcher steamed and smoked and
reeked like a volcano ; and the man who had carried it,
was faint.
" Mrs. Tugby ! " said Trotty, who had been going round
and round her, in an ecstasy.—" I should say. Chicken-
stalker — Bless your heart and soul ! A happy New Year,
and many of 'em I Mrs. Tugby," said Trotty when he
had saluted her; — "I should say, Chickenstalker — This is
William Fern and Lilian."
The worthy dame, to his surprise, turned very pale and
very red.
" Not Lilian Fern whose mother died in Dorsetshire ! "
said she.
Her uncle answered, " Yes," and meeting hastily, they
exchanged some hurried words together ; of which the up-
shot was, that Mrs. Chickenstalker shook him by both hands ;
saluted Trotty on his cheek again of her own free will ;
and took the child to her capacious breast.
" Will Fern ! " said Trotty, pulling on his right-hand
muffler. " Not the fi-iend that you was hoping to find ? "
" Ay ! " returned Will, putting a hand on each of Trotty's
shoulders. " And like to prove a' most as good a friend, if
that can be, ais .jue I found '"
" O " said Trotty. " Please to play up there. Will you
have the goodness ! "
To the music of the band, the bells, the marrow-bones
r-^^^r^^
THE DANCE AT TBOTTY VECK's.
THE CIliMES. 1/59
and cleavers, all at once ; and while The Chimes ^ ere yet in
lusty operation out of doors ; Trotty making Meg and
Richard second couple, led off Mrs. Chickenstalker down the
dance, and danced it in a step unknown before or since ;
founded on his own peculiar trot.
Had Trotty dreamed ? Or, are his joys and sorro'vs,
and the actors in them, but a dream ; himself a dream ; the
teller of this tale a dreamer, waking but now ? If it be
BO, O listener, dear to him in all his visions, try to bear in
mind the stern realities from which these shadows come ; and
in 3'our sphere — none is too wide, and none too limited for
such an end — endeavour to correct, improve, and soften them.
So may the New Year be a happy one to you, happy to many
more whose happiness depends on you ! So may each year
be happier than the last, and not the meanest of our
brethren or sisterhood debarred their rightful share, in what
OUT Great Creator formed them to enjoy.
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
A FAIRY TALE OF HOME.
DOT 8 FIRESIDE.
THE
CETCKET ON THE HEARTH.
CHIRP THE FIRST.
Thu kettle began it ! Don't tell me what ^Irs. Peerybingle
said. I know better. Mrs. Peerybingle may leave it on
record to the end of time that she couldn't say which of them
began it; but, I say the kettle did. I ought to know, I
hope? The kettle began it, full five minutes by the little
waxy-faced Dutch clock in the corner, before the Cricket
uttered a chirp.
As if the clock hadn't finished striking, and the convulsive
little Haymaker at the top of it, jerking away right and left
with a scythe in front of a Moorish Palace, hadn't mowed
down half an acre of imaginary grass before the Cricket joined
in at all !
Why, I am not naturally positive. Everyone knows that.
I wouldn't set my own opinion against the opinion of Mrs-
Peerybiugle, unless I were quite sure, on any account what-
ever. Notliing should induce me. But, this is a question of
fact. And the fact is, that the kettle began it, at least five
minutes before the Cricket gave any sign of being in existence.
Contradict me, and I '11 say ten.
Let me narrate exactly how it happened. I should have
proceeded to do so, in my very first word, but for tliis plain
consideration — if I am to tell a story I must begin at the
beginning ; and how is it possible to begin at the beginning,
without beginning at the kettle ?
It appeared as if tliere were a sort of match, or trial of
skill, you must understand, between the kettle and the
Cricket. And this is wliat led to it, and how it came about.
Mrs. Peerybingle, going out into the raw twilight, asd
164 THE CRICKET ON THE HEAKTH.
clicking over the wet stones in a pair of pattens that worked
innumerable rough impressions of the first proposition in
Euclid all about the yard — Mrs. Peerybingle filled the kettle
at the water butt. Presently returning, less the pattens (and
a good deal less, for they were tall and Mrs. Peerybingle was
but short), she set the kettle on the fire. In doing which she
lost her temper, or mislaid it for an instant ; for, the water
being uncomfortably cold, and in that slippy, slushy, sleety
sort of state wherein it seems to penetrate through every kind
of substance, patten rings included — had laid hold off Mrs.
Peerybingle' s toes, and even splashed her legs. And when
we rather plume ourselves (with reason too) upon our legs,
and keep ourselves particularly neat in point of stockings, we
find this, for the moment, hard to bear.
Besides, the kettle was aggravating and obstinate. It
wouldn't allow itself to be adjusted on the top bar; it
wouldn't hear of accommodating itself kindly to the knobs of
coal ; it would lean forward wdth a drunken air, and dribble,
a very Idiot of a kettle, on the hearth. It was quarrelsome,
and hissed and spluttered morosely at the fixe. To sum up
all, the lid, resisting Mrs. Peerybingle' s fingers, first of all
turned topsy-turvy, and then with an ingenious pertinacity
deserving of a better cause, dived sideways in — down to the
very bottom of the kettle. And the hull of the Royal George
has never made half the monstrous resistance to coming out
of the water, which the lid of that kettle employed against
Mrs. Peerybingle, before she got it up again.
It looked sullen and pig-headed enough, even then ; carry-
ing its handle with an air of defiance, and cocking its spout
pertly and mockingly at Mrs. Peerybingle, as if it said, " I
won't boil. Nothing shall induce me ! "
But, Mrs. Peerybingle, with restored good humour, dusted
her chubby little hands against each other, and sat down
before the kettle, laughing. Meantime, the jolly blaze
uprose and fell, flashing and gleaming on the little Haymaker
at the top of the Dutch clock, until one might have thought
he stood stock still before the Moorish Palace, and nothing
<^^as in motion but the flame.
He was on the move, however ; and had his spasms, two to
^he second, all right and regular. But, his sufferings when
the clock was going to strike, w^ere frightful to behold ; and
vhen a Cuckoo looked out of a trap-door in the Palace, and
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 165
gave note six times, it shook him, each time, like a spectral
voice — or like a something wiry, pluckiug at his legs.
It "was not until a violent commotion and a wliirring noise
among the weights and ro^ies below him had quite subsided,
tliat this terrified Haymaker became himself again. Nor
was he startled without reason ; for, these rattling, bony
skeletons of clocks are very disconcerting in their operation,
and I wonder very much how any set of men, but most of
all how Dutchmen, can have had a liking to invent them.
There is a popular belief that Dutchmen love broad cases
and much clothing for their own lower tselves; and they
might know better than to leave their clock3 so very lank and
unprotected, surely.
Now it was, you observe, that the kettle began to spend
the evening. Now it was, that the kettle, growing meUow
and musical, began to have irrepressible gurglings in its
throat, and to indulge in short vocal snorts, which it checked
in the bud, as if it hadn't quite made up its mind yet, to be
good company. Now it was, that after two or three such
vain attempts to stifle its convivial sentiments, it threw off all
moroseness, aU reserve, and burst into a stream of song so
cosy and hilarious, as never maudlin nightingale yet formed
the least idea of.
So plain too ! Bless you, you might have understood it
like a book — better than some books you and I coidd name,
perliaps. With its w^arm breath gushing forth in a light
cloud which merrily and gracefully ascended a few feet, then
hung about the chimney-corner as its own domestic Heaven,
it troUed its song with that strong energy of cheerfulness,
that its iron body hummed and stirred upon the fire ; and the
lid itself, tlie recently rebellious lid — such is the influence uf
a bright example — performed a sort of jig, and clattered like
a deaf and dumb young cymbal that had never known the u.se
of its twin brother.
That this song of the kettle's was a song of invitation and
welcome to somebody out of doors : to somebody at that
moment coming on, towards the snug small home and the
crisp fire : there is no doubt whatever. Mrs. Peerybingle
knew it, perfectly, as she sat musing before the hearth. It 's
a dark night, sang the kettle, and the rotten leaves are lying
by the way; and, above, all is mist and darkness, and, below,
all is mire and clay ; and there 'a only one relief iu all the
166 THE CKICKET ON THE HEAHTII.
sad and murky air ; and I don't know that it is one, for it 's
notiiina: but a glare ; of deep and angry crimson, where the
sun and wind together ; set a brand upon the clouds for being
guilty of such weather ; and the widest open country is a long
dull streak of black ; and there 's hoar-frost on the finger-
post, and thaw upon the track ; and the ice it isn't water,
and the water isn't free ; and you couldn't say that any-
thing is what it ought to be; but he's coming, coming,
coming '
And here, if you like, the Cricket did chime in ! with a
Chirrup, Chirrup, Chirrup of such magnitude, by way of
chorus ; with a voice, so astoundingly disproportionate to its
size, as compared with the kettle ; (size ! you couldn't see it !)
that if it had then and there burst itself like an over-charged
gun, if it had fallen a victim on the spot, and chirruped its
little body into fifty pieces, it would have seemed a natural
and inevitable consequence, for which it had expressly
laboured.
The kettle had had the last of its solo performance. It
persevered with undiminished ardour ; but the Cricket took
first fiddle and kept it. Good Heaven, how it chirped ! Its
shrill, sharp, piercing voice resomided tlirough the house, and
seemed to twinkle in the outer darkness like a star. There
was an indescribable little trill and tremble in it at its
loudest, which suggested its being carried off its legs, and
made to leap again, by its own intense enthusiasm. Yet
they went very well together, the Cricket and the kettle.
The burden of the song was still the same ; and louder;
louder, louder still, they sang it in their emulation.
The fair little listener — for fair she was, and young :
though something of what is called the dumpling shape ; but
I don't myself object to that — lighted a candle, glanced at
the Haymaker on the top of the clock, who was getting in a
pretty average crop of minutes ; and looked out of the
window, where she saw nothing, owing to the darkness, but
her own face imaged in the glass. And my opinion is (and
so woidd yours have been), that she might have looked a long
way and seen nothing half so agreeable. When she came
hack, and sat down in her former seat, the Cricket and the
kettle were stiU keeping it up, with a perfect fury of compe-
tition. The kettle's weak side clearly being, that he didn't
know when he was beat.
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 167
There was all the excitement of a race about it. Chirp,
chirp, chirp ! Cricket a mile ahead. Hum, hum, hum — m- — m !
Kettle making play in the distance, like a great top. Chirp,
chirp, chirp ! Cricket round the corner. Hum, hum,
hum — m — m ! Kettle sticking to him in his own way ; no
idea of giving in. Chirp, chirp, chirp ! Cricket fresher than
ever. Hum, hum, hum — m — m ! Kettle slow and steady.
Chirp, chirp, chirp ! Cricket going in to finish him. Hum,
lium, hum — m — m ! Kettle not to be finished. Until at
last, they got so jumbled together, in the hurry-skurry, helter-
skelter, of the match, that whether the kettle chirped and the
Cricket hummed, or the Cricket chirped and the kettle
hummed, or they both chirped and both hummed, it would
have taken a clearer head than yours or mine to have decided
with anything like certainty. But, of this, there is no doubt :
that, the kettle and the Cricket, at one and the same moment,
and by some power of amalgamation best known to them-
selves, sent, each, his fireside song of comfort streaming into
a ray of the candle that shone out through, the window, and
a long way down the lane. And this light, bursting on a
certain person who, on the instant, approached towards it
through the gloom, expressed the whole thing to him, literally
in a twinkling, and cried, " Welcome home, old feUow I
Welcome home, my boy ! "
This end attained, the kettle, being dead beat, boiled over,
and was taken off the fire. !Mrs. Peerybingle then went
running to the door, where, what with the wheels of a
cart, the tramp of a horse, the voice of a man, the tearing in
and out of an excited dog, and the surprising and mysterious
appearance of a baby, there was soon the very What 's-his-
name to pay.
Where the baby came from, or how Mrs. Peerybingle got
hold of it in that flash of time, I don't know. But a live
baby there was, in Mrs. Peerybingle's arms ; and a prettj'
tolerable amount of pride she seemed to have in it, when she
was dra^Ti gently to the fire, by a sturdy figure of a man,
much taller and much older than herself, who had to stoop
a long way down to kiss her. But, she was worth the
trouble. Six foot six, with the lumbago, might have done it.
"Oh goodness, John'" said Mrs. P. "What a state
you 're in with the weather ! "
He waa something the worse for it undeniably. The thick
168 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
mist hung in clots upon his eyelashes Hke candied thaw ; and,
between the fog and fire together, there were rainbows in his
very whiskers.
" Why, you see. Dot," John made answer, slowly, as he
unroUed a shawl from about his throat; and warmed his hands;
" it — it an't exactly summer weather. So, no wonder."
" I wish you wouldn't call me Dot, John. I don't like it,"
Baid Mrs. Peerybingle : pouting in a way that clearly showed
she did like it, very much.
"Why what else are you?" returned John, looking down
upon her with a smile, and giving her waist as light a squeeze
as his huge hand and arm could give. "A dot and" — here
he glanced at the baby — " a dot and carry — I won't say it,
for fear I should spoil it ; but I was very near a joke. I
don't know as ever I was nearer."
He was often near to something or other very clever, by
his own account : this lumbering, slow, honest John ; this
John so heavy, but so light of spirit ; so rough upon the
surface, but so gentle at the core ; so dull without, so quick
within ; so stolid, but so good ! Oh Mother Nature, give thy
children the true poetry of heart that hid itself in this poor
Carrier's breast — he was but a Carrier by the way — and we
can bear to have them talking prose, and leading lives of
prose ; and bear to bless thee for their company !
It was pleasant to see Dot, with her little figure and her
baby in her arms : a very doU of a baby : glancing with a
coquettish thoughtfulness at the hre, and inclining her delicate
little head just enough on one side to let it rest in an odd,
half-natural, half-affected, wholly nestling and agreeable
manner, on the great rugged figure of the Carrier. It was
pleasant to see him, with his tender awkwardness, endeavour-
ing to adapt his rude support to her slight need, and make
his burly middle-age a leaning-staff not inappropriate to her
blooming youth. It was pleasant to observe how Tilly Slow-
boy, waiting in the background for the baby, took special
cognizance (though in her earliest teens) of this grouping,
and stood wdth her mouth and eyes wide open, and her head
thrust forward, taking it in as if it were air. Nor was it less
agreeable to observe how John the Carrier, reference being
made by Dot to the aforesaid baby, checked his hand when
on the point of touching the infant, as if he thought he might
crack it ; and bending down, survej'ed it from a safe distance,
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTD. 189
with a kind of puzzled pride, such as an amiable mastiff miglit
be supposed to show, if he found himself, one day, the father
of a young canary.
" An't he beautiful, John? Don't he look precious in his
Bleep ? "
" Very precious," said John. " Very much so. He
generally is asleep, an't he ? "
" Lor, John ! Good gracious no ! "
" Oh," said John, pondering. " I thought his eyes was
generally shut. Halloa ! "
" Goodness John, how you startle one ! "
" It an't right for him to turn 'em up in that way ! " said
the astonished Carrier, "is it? See how he 's winking with
both of 'em at once ! and look at his mouth ! Why he 's
gasping like a gold and silver fish ! "
" You don't deserve to be a father, you don't," said Dot,
with all the dignity of an experienced matron. " But how
should you know what little complaints children are troubled
with, John ! You wouldn't so much as know their names,
you stupid fellow." And when she had tiirned the baby over
on her left arm, and had slapped its back as a restorative, she
pinched her husband's ear, laughing.
" No," said John, pulling off his outer coat. " It 's very
true. Dot. I don't know much about it. I only know that
I 've been fighting pretty stiffly with the wind to-night. It 's
been blowing north-east, straight into the cart, the whole way
home."
"Poor old man, so it has!" cried Mrs. Peerybingle,
instantly becoming very active. " Here ! take the precious
darling, Tilly, while I make mj'self of some use. Bless it, 1
could smother it with kissing it, I could ! Hie then, good
dog ! Hie Boxer, boy ! Ouly let me make the tea first,
John ; and then I '11 help j'ou with the parcels, like a busy
bee. 'How doth the little ' — and all the rest of it, you know,
John. Did you ever learn ' how doth the little,' when you
went to school, John ? "
" Not to quite know it," John returned. " I was very
near it once. But I should only have spoilt it, I dare say."
" Ha ha," laughed Dot. She had the blithest little laugh
you ever heard. " What a dear old darling of a dunce you
Rre, John, to be sure ! "
Not at aU disputing this position, John went out to see
170 THE CRICKET ON THE HKAKTil.
that the boy with the lantern, which had been dancing to and
fro before the door and window, like a Will of the Wisp,
took due care of the horse ; who was fatter than you would
quite believe, if I gave you his measure, and so old that his
birthday was lost in the mists of antiquity. Boxer, feeling
that his attentions were due to the family in general, and
must be impartially distributed, dashed in and out with bewil-
dering inconstancy; now, describing a circle of short barks
round the horse, where he was being rubbed down at the
stable-door ; now, feigning to make savage rushes at his
mistress, and facetiously bringing himself to sudden stops ;
now, eliciting a shriek from Tilly Slowboy, in the low
nursing-chair near the fire, by the unexpected application of
his moist nose to her coimtenance ; now, exhibiting an
obtrusive interest in the baby ; now, going round and roxmd
upon the hearth, and lying down as if he had estabKshed
himself for the night ; now, getting up again, and taking
that nothing of a fag-end of a tail of his, out into the weather,
as if he had just remembered an appointment, and was off,
at a round trot, to keep it.
" There ! There 's the tea-pot, ready on the hob ! " said
Dot ; as briskly busy as a child at play at keeping house. ,
"And there's the cold knuckle of ham; and there's the
butter ; and there 's the crusty loaf, and all ! Here 's a
clothes-basket for the small parcels, John, if you 've got any
there — where are you, John ? Don't let the dear child fall
under the grate, Tilly, whatever you do ! "
It may be noted of Miss Slowboy, in spite of her rejecting
the caution with some vivacity, that she had a rare and
surprising talent for getting this baby into difficulties : and
had several times imperilled its short life, in a quiet way
peculiarly her own. She was of a spare and straight shape,
this young lady, insomuch that her garments appeared to be
in constant danger of sliding off those sharp pegs, her
shoulders, on wliich they were loosely hung. Her costume
was remarkable for the partial development, on all possible
occasions, of some flannel vestment of a singular structure; also
for affording glimpses, in the region of the back, of a corset,
or pair of stays, in colour a dead-green. Being always in a
state of gaping admiration at everything, and absorbed,
besides, in the perpetual contemplation of her mistress's
perfections and the baby's, Miss Slowboy, in her little errors
-t"<(
THK SO.V(J OF Tin: KKTTLE.
THE CRICKET ON THE UEARTU. 171
of judgment, may be said to have done equal honour to her
head and to her heart ; and though these did less honour to
the baby's head, Avhich they were the occasional means of
bringing into contact with deal doors, dressers, stair-rails,
bedposts, and other foreign substances, still they were the
honest results of Tilly Slowboy's constant astonishment at
finding herself so kindly treated, and installed in such a
comfortable home. For, the maternal and paternal Slowboy
were alike unknown to Fame, and Tilly had been bred by
public charity, a foundling ; which word, though only differ-
ing from fondling by one vowel's length, is very different in
meaning, and expresses quite another thing.
To have seen Kttle Mrs. Peerybingle come back with her
husband, tugging at the clothes-basket, and making the most
strenuous exertions to do nothing at all (for he carried it) ;
would have amused you, almost as much as it amused him
It may have entertained the Cricket too, for anything I know;
but, certainly, it now began to chirp again, vehemently.
" Heyday ! " said John, in his slow way. " It 's merrier
than ever to-night, I think."
" And it 's sure to bring us good fortune, John ! It
always has done so. To have a Cricket on the Hearth, is the
luckiest thing in all the world ! "
John looked at her as if he had very nearly got the thought
into his head, that she was his Cricket in chief, and he quite
agreed with her. But, it was probably one of his narrow
escapes, for he said nothing.
" The first time I heard its cheerful little note, John, was
on that night when you brought me home — when you
brought me to my new home here ; its little mistress
Nearly a year ago. You recollect, John ? "
O yes. John remembered. I should think so !
"Its chirp was such a welcome to me ! It seemed so full
of promise and encouragement. It seemed to say, you
would be kind and gentle with me, and would not expect ( I
had a fear of that, John, then) to find an old head on the
shoulders of your foolish little wife."
John thoughtfully patted one of the shoulders, and then
the head, as though he woidd have said No, no ; he had had
no such expectation ; he had been quite content to take them
as they were. And really he had reason. They were ver/
comely.
172 TBE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
" It spoke tlie truth, John, when it seemed to say so : for
you have ever been, I am sure, the best, the most considerate,
the most affectionate of husbands to me. This has been a
happj'- home, John ; and I love tlie Cricket for its sake ! "
" ^\Tiy so do I then," said the Carrier. " So do I, Dot."
" I love it for the many times I have heard it, and the
many thoughts its harmless music has given me. Sometimes,
in the twilight, when I have felt a little solitary and down-
hearted, John — before baby was here, to keep me company
and make the house gay — when I have thought how lonely
you would be if I should die ; how lonely I should be, if I
could know that you had lost me, dear; its Chirp, Chirp,
Chirp upon the hearth, has seemed to tell me of another little
voice, so sweet, so very dear to me, before whose coming
sound, my trouble vanished like a dream. And when I used
to fear — I did fear once, John, I was very young you know —
that ours might prove to be an ill-assorted marriage, I being
such a child, and you more like my guardian than my
husband ; and that you might not, however hard you tried,
be able to learn to love me, as you hoped and prayed you
might ; its Chirp, Chirp, Chirp, has cheered me up again,
and filled me with new trust and confidence. I was thinking
of these things to-night, dear, when I sat expecting you ; and
I love the Cricket for their sake ! "
" And so do I," repeated John. " But Dot ? / hope and
pray that I might learn to love you ? How you talk ! I
had learnt that, long before I brought you here, to be the
Cricket's little mistress. Dot! "
She laid her hand, an instant, on his arm, and looked up
at him with an agitated face, as if she would have told him
something. iNext moment, she was down upon her knees
before the basket ; speaking in a sprightly voice, and busy
M'ith the parcels.
"There are not many of them to-night, John, but I saw
some goods behind the cart, just now ; and though they give
more trouble, perhaps, still they pay as well ; so we have no
reason to grumble, have we ? Besides, you have been
deliveriiig, I dare say, as you came ahmg ? "
" Oh yes," John said. " A good many."
" Why what 's this round box ? Heart alive, John, it 's a
wedding-cake ! "
" Leave a woman alone to find out that," said John
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTn. 173
admiringly. " Now a man would never have tliought of it !
Whereas, it 's my belief that if you was to pack a wedding-
cake up in a tea-chest, or a turn-up bedstead, or a pickled
salmon keg, or any unlikely thing, a woman would be sure
to find it out directly. Yes ; I called for it at the pastry-
cook's."
" And it weighs I don't know what — whole hundred-
weights ! " cried Dot, making a great demonstration of trying
to lift it. " Whose is it, John? Where is it going?"
" Read the writing on the other side," said John.
"Why, Jolm ! My Goodness, John ! "
" Ah ! who 'd have thought it ! " John returned.
"You never mean to say," pursued Dot, sitting on the
floor and shaking her head at him, " that it 's Gruff and
Tackleton the toymaker ! "
John nodded.
Mrs. Peerybingle nodded also, fifty times at least. Not in
assent — in dumb and pitying amazement ; screwing up her
lips, the while, with all their little force (they were never
made for screwing up ; I am clear of that), and looking the
good Carrier through and through, iu her abstraction. Miss
Slowboy, in the mean time, who had a mechanical power of
reproducing scraps of current conversation for the delectation
of the baby, with all the sense struck out of them, and all the
noims changed into the plural number, inquired aloud of
that young creature, Was it Gruffs and Tackletons the toy-
makers then, and Would it call at Pastry-cooks for wedding-
cakes, and Did its mothers know the boxes when its fathers
brought them home ; and so on.
" And that is really to come about ! " said Dot. " Why,
she and I were girls at school together, John."
He might have been thinking of her, or nearly thinking of
her, perhaps, as she Avas in that same school time. He
looked upon her with a thoughtful pleasure, but he made nu
answer.
"And he's as old! As unlike her! — ^^Tiy, how many
years older than you, is Gruff and Tackleton, John ? "
" How many more cups of tea shall I drink to-night at one
bitting, than Gruff and Tackleton ever took in four, I wonder! "
replied John, good-humouredly, as he drew a chair to the
round table, and began at the cold ham. " Aa to eating, I
eat but little ; but, that little I enjoy. Dot."
174 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
Even this^ his usual sentiment at meal times, one of his
innocent delusions (for his appetite was always obstinate, and
ilatly contradicted him) ; awoke no smile in the face of his
little wife, who stood among the parcels, pushing the cake-
liox slowly from her with her foot, and never once looked,
though her eyes were cast down too, upon the dainty shoe she
generally was so mindful of. Absorbed in thought, she stood
there, heedless alike of the tea and John (although he called
to her, and rapped the table with his knife to startle her),
until he rose and touched her on the arm ; when she looked
at him for a moment, and hurried to her place behind the
tea-board, laughing at her negligence. But, not as she had
laughed before. The manner, and the music were quite
changed.
The Cricket, too, had stopped. Somehow the room was
not so cheerful as it had been. Nothing like it.
" So, these are all the parcels, are they, Jolm ? " she aaid,
breaking a long silence, which the honest Carrier had devoted
to the practical illustration of one part of his favouiite
sentiment — certainly enjoying what he ate, if it couldn't be
admitted that he ate but little. " So these are all the parcels ;
are they, John ? "
" That's all," said John, "Why — no — I — " laying down
his knife and fork, and taking a long breath. " I declare —
I 've clean forgotten the old gentleman ! "
" The old gentleman ? "
" In the cart," said John. " He was asleep, among the
straw, the last time I saw him. I 've very neary remembered
him, twice, since ] came in ; but, he went out of my head
again. HaUoa! Yahip there! Rouse up! That's my
hearty ! "
John said these latter words outside the door, whither he
had hurried with the candle in his hand.
Miss Slowboy, conscious of some mysterious reference to
The Old Gentleman, and connecting in her mystified imagina-
tion certain associations of a religious nature with the phrase,
was so disturbed, that hastily rising from the low chair by
the fire to seek protection near the skirt of her mistress, and
coming into contact as she crossed the doorway with an
ancient Stranger, she instinctively made a charge or butt at
him with the only ofieusive instrument within her reach.
This instrument happening to be the baby, great commotion
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 175
and alarm ensued, whicli the sagacity of Boxer rather tended
to increase ; for, that good dog more thoughtful than his
master, had, it seemed, been watching the old gentleman in
his sleep, lest he shoidd walk off with a few young poplar
trees that were tied up behind the cart ; and he still attended
on him very closely, worrying his gaiters in fact, and making
dead sets at the buttons.
" You 're such an imdeniable good sleeper, sir," said John,
when tranquillity was restored ; in the mean time the old
gentleman had stood, bareheaded and motionless, in the
centre of the room ; " that I have half a mind to ask you
where the other six are — only that would be a joke, and I
know I should spoil it. Very near though," murmured the
Carrier, with a chuckle ; " very near ! "
The Stranger, who had long white hair, good features,
singularly bold and well defined for an old man, and dark,
bright, penetrating eyes, looked round with a smile, and
saluted the Carrier's wife by gravely inclining his head.
His garb was very quaint and odd — a long, long way
behind the time. Its hue was brown, all over. In his hand
he held a great brown club or walking-stick ; and striking
this upon the floor, it fell asunder, and became a chair. On
which he sat down, quite composedly.
" There ! " said the Carrier, turning to his wife. " That 's
the way I found him, sitting by the roadside ! Upriglit as a
milestone. And almost as deaf."
" Sitting in the open air, John ! "
"In the open air," replied the Carrier, "just at dusk.
' Carriage Paid,' he said; and gave me eighteenpence. Then
he got in. And there he is."
" He 's going, John, I think ! "
Not at all. He was only going to speak.
" If you please, I was to be left till called for," said the
Stranger, mildly. " Don't mind me."
With that, he took a pair of spectacles from one of his
large pockets, and a book from another, and leisurely began
to read. Making no more of Boxer than if he had been a
house lamb !
The Carrier and his wife exclianged a look of perplexity.
The Stranger raised his head ; and glancing from the latter
to the foi iner, said,
" Your ('itiifrliter, my good friend ? "
176 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
" "Wife," returned John.
"Niece ? " said the Stranger.
" Wife," roared John.
"Indeed?" observed the Stranger. "Surely? Very
young ! "
He quietly turned over, and resumed his reading. But,
before he could have read two lines, he again interrupted
himself, to say :
" Baby, yours ? "
John gave him a gigantic nod : equivalent to an answer in
the afSrmative, delivered tlirough a speaking-trumpet.
"Girl?"
" Bo-o-oy ! " roared John.
" Also very young, eh ? "
Mrs. Peerybingle instantly struck in. " Two months and
three da-ays. Vaccinated just six weeks ago-o ! Took very
fine-ly ! Considered, by the doctor, a remarkably beautiful
chi-ild ! Equal to the general run of children at five months
o-ld ! Takes notice, in a way quite won-der-ful ! May seem
impossible to you, but feels his legs al-ready ! "
Here, the breathless litttle mother, who had been shrieking
these short sentences into the old man's ear, until her pretty
face was crimsoned, held up the Baby before him as a stubborn
and triumphant fact ; while Tilly Slowboy, with a melodious
cry of " Ketcher, Ketcher " — which sounded like some un-
known words, adapted to a popular Sneeze — performed some
cow-like gambols around that all unconscious Innocent.
"Hark! He's called for, sure enough," said John.
" There 's somebody at the door. Open it, Tilly."
Before she could reach it, however, it was opened from
without ; being a primitive sort of door, with a latch that
any one could lift if he chose — and a good many people did
choose, for all kinds of neighbours liked to have a cheerful
word or two with the Carrier, though he was no great talker
himself. Being opened, it gave admission to a little, meagre,
thoughtful, dingy-faced man, who seemed to have made him-
self a great-coat from the sack-cloth covering of some old
box ; for, when he turned to shut the door, and keep the
weather out, he disclosed upon the back of that garment the
inscription G & T in large black capitals. Also the word
GLASS in bold characters.
"Good evening John!" said the little man. "Good
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 177
evening Mum. Goud evening Tilly. Good evening Unbe-
known ! How 's Baby Afum ? Boxer 's pretty will 1
hope ? "
" All thriving, Caleb," replied Dot. " I am sure you need
only look at the dear child, for one, to know that."
"And I 'm sure I need only look at you for another," said
Caleb.
He didn't look at her though ; he had a wandering and
thoughtful eye which seemed to be always projecting itself
into some other time and place, no matter what he said;
a description which will equally apply 'to his voice.
"Or at John for another," said Caleb. "Or at Tilly, as
far as that goes. Or certainly at Boxer."
" Busy just now, Caleb ? " asked the Carrier.
" Why, pretty well, John," he returned, with the distraught
air of a man who was casting about for the Philosopher's
stone, at least. " Pretty much so. There's rather a run on
Noah's Arks at present. I could have wished to improve
upon the Family, but I don't see how it 's to be done at the
price. It would be a satisfaction to one's mind, to make it
clearer which was Shems and Hams, and which was Wives.
Flies an't on that scale neither, as compared with elephants
you know ! Ah ! well ! Have you got anything in the
parcel line for me, John ? "
The Carrier put his hand into a pocket of the coat he hud
taken off; and brought out, carefully preserved in moss aud
paper, a tiny flower-pot.
" There it is !" he said, adjusting it with great care. " Not
so much as a leaf damaged. Full of buds ! "
Caleb's dull eye brightened, as he took it, and thanked
him.
" Dear, Caleb," said the Carrier. " Very dear at this
season."
" Never mind that. It would be cheap to me, whatever it
cost," returned the little man. " Anytlxing else, John?"
" A small box," replied the Carrier. " Here you are ! "
" ' For Caleb Plummer,' " said the little man, spelling nut
the direction. "' With Cash.' With Cash, John? I don't
think it 's for me."
" With Care," returned the Carrier, looking over liis
shoulder. " Where do you make out cash ? "
" Oh 1 To be sure ! " said Caleb. " It 's all right. With
t\
178 THE CKICKET ON THE HEARTH.
care ! Yes, yes ; that 's mine. It might have been with
cash, indeed, if my dear Boy in the Golden South Americas
had lived, John. You loved him like a son ; didn't you ?
You needn't say you did. I know, of course. * Caleb Pluramer.
With care.' Yes, yes, it's all right. It 's a box of dolls'
eyes for my daughter's work. I wish it was her own sight
in a box, John."
" I wish it was, or could he ■ " cried the Carrier.
" Thankee," said the little man. " You speak very hearty.
To think that she should never see the Dolls — and them a
staring at her, so bold, all day long ! That 's where it cuts.
\Vhat's the damage, John? "
" I '11 damage you," said Jolin, " if you inquire. Dot !
Very near ? "
" Well! it 's like you to say so," observed the little man.
" It 's yoiir kind way. Let me see. I think that's all."
" I think not," said the Carrier. " Try again."
"Something for our Governor, eh?" said Caleb, ' after
pondering a little while. "To be sure. That 's what I came
for ; but my head 's so running on them Ai'ks and things !
He hasn't been here, has he? "
" Not he," retui-ned the Carrier. "He 's too busy, courting."
" He 's coming round though," said Caleb; "for he told
me to keep on the near side of the road going home, and it
was ten to one he 'd take me up. I had better go, by the
bye. — You couldn't have the goodness to let me pinch Boxer's
tail, i\Ium, for haK a moment, could you ? "
" Vk^hy, Caleb ! what a question ! "
" Oh never mind. Mum," said the little man. "He mightn't
like it perhaps. There 's a small order just come in, for barking
dogs ; and I should wish to go as close to Natur' as I could
for sixpence. That 's all. Never mind, Mum."
It happened opportunely, that Boxer, without receiving the
proposed stimulus, began to bark with great zeal. But, as
this implied the approach of some new visitor, Caleb, post-
poning his study from the life to a more convenient season,
shouldered the round box, and took a hui-ried leave. He
might have spared himself the trouble, for he met the visitor
upon the threshold.
" Oh ! You are here, are you ? Wait a bit. I '11 take
you home. John Peerybingle, my service to you. ^lore of
my aomce to your pretty wife. Handsomer every dar!
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTE. 179
Better too, if possible ! And younger," mused the speaker in
a low voice, " that 's the devil of it ! "
" I should be astonished at your paying compliments, Mr,
Tackleton," said Dot, not with the best grace in the world ;
" but for your condition."
" You know all about it then ? "
*' I have got myself to bcHeve it somehow," said Dot.
" After a hard struggle, I suppose ? "
" Very."
Tackleton the Toy merchant, pretty generally known aa
Gruff and Tackleton — ^for that was the firm, though Gruff had
been bought out long ago ; only leaving his name, and as
some said his nature, according to its Dictionary meaning, in
the business — Tackleton the Toy merchant, was a man whose
vocation had been quite misunderstood by his Parents and
Guardians. If they had made him a Money Lender, or a
sharp Attorney, or a Sheriff's Officer, or a Broker, he might
have sown his discontented oats in his youth, and, after having
had the full-run of himself in ill-natured transactions, might
have turned out amiable, at last, for the sake of a little fresh-
ness and novelty. But, cramped and chafing in the peaceable
pursuit of toy -making, he was a domestic Ogre, who had been
living on children all his life, and was their implacable enemy
He despised all toys ; wouldn't have bought one for the
world ; delighted, in his malice, to insinuate grim expressions
into the faces of brown paper farmers who drove pigs to
market, bellmen who advertised lost lawyers' consciences^
moveable old ladies who darned stockings or carved pies ;
and other like samples of his stock in trade. In appalling
masks ; hideous, hairy, red-eyed Jacks in Boxes ; Vampire
Kites ; demoniacal Tumblers who wouldn't lie down, and were
perpetually flying forward, to stare infants out of countenance ;
his soul perfectly revelled. They were his only relief, and
safety-valve. He was great in such inventions. Anythijig
suggestive of a Pony nightmare, was delicious to him. He
had even lost money (and he took to that toy very kindly) by
getting up Goblin slides for magic lanterns, whereon the
Powers of Darkness were depicted as a sort of supernatural
sheU-tish, witli human faces. In intensifying the portraiture
of Giants, he had sunk quite a little capital ; and, though no
painter himself, he could indicate, for the instruction of his
artists, -with a piece of chalk, a certain furtive leer for the
180 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
countenances of those monsters, which was safe to destroy the
peace of mind of any young gentleman between the ages of
six and eleven, for the whole Christmas or Midsummer
Vacation.
What he was in toys, he was (as most men are) in other
things. You may easily suppose, therefore, that within the
^eat green cape, which reached down to the calves of his
legs, there was buttoned up to the chin an uncommonly
pleasant fellow ; and that he was about as choice a spirit
and as agreeable a companion, as ever stood in a pair of bull-
headed looking boots with mahogany-coloured tops.
Still, Tackleton, the toy-merchant, was going to be married.
In spite of all this, he was going to be married. And to a
young wife too, a beautiful young wife.
He didn't look much like a Bridegroom, as he stood in the
Carrier's kitchen, with a twist in his dry face, and a screw in
his body, and his hat jerked over the bridge of his nose, • and
his hands tucked down into the bottoms of his pockets, and
his whole sarcastic ill-conditioned self peering out of one little
corner of one little eye, like the concentrated essence of any
number of ravens. But, a Bridegroom he designed to be.
" In tliree days' time. Next Thursday. The last day of
the first month in the year. That 's my wedding-day," said
Tackleton.
Did I mention that he had always one eye wide open, and
one eye nearly shut ; and that the one eye nearly shut, was
always the expressive eye ? I don't think I did.
"That's my wedding-day!" said Tackleton, rattling his
money.
" ^\Tiy, it 's our wedding-day too," exclaimed the Carrier.
" Ha ha I " laughed Tackleton. " Odd ! You're just such
another couple. Just ! "
The indignation of Dot at this presumptuous assertion is
not to be described. What next? His imagination would
corapass the possibility of just such another Baby, perhaps.
The man was mad.
" I say! A word with you," murmured Tackleton, nudging
the Carrier with his elbow, aud taking him a little apart,
** Y''ou '11 come to the wedding ? We 're in the same boat,
you know."
" How in the same boat ? " inquired the Carrier.
"' A little disparity you know ; " said Tackleton, with
THE CRICKET ON THE nEAKTH. 181
another nudge. " Come and spend an evening with us,
beforehand."
" WTiy," demanded John, astonished at this pressing
hospitality.
"Why?" returned the other. "That's a new way of
receiving an invitation. Why, for pleasure — sociability, you
know, and all that? "
" I thought you were never sociable," said John, in his
plain way.
" Tchah ! It 's of no use to be anything but free with you
T see," said Tackleton. " ^Vhy, then, the truth is you have a
— what tea-drinking people call a sort of a comfortable
appearance together, you and your wife. We know better,
you know, but — "
" Xo, we don't know better," interposed John. "What
are you talking about ? "
" Well ! We don't know better then," said Tackleton.
"We'U agree that we don't. As you like; what does it
matter? I was going to say, as you have that sort of
appearance, your company will produce a favourable effect on
Mrs. Tackleton that will be. And, though I don't think your
good lady's very friendly to me, in this matter, stiU she can't
help herself from falling into my views, for there 's a compact-
ness and cosiness of appearance about her that always tells,
even in an indifferent case. You '11 say you '11 come ? "
"We have arranged to keep our Wedding-day (as far as
that goes) at home," said John. " We have made the promise
to ourselves these six months. We think, you see, that
home "
" Bah ! what 's home ? " cried Tackleton. " Four walls and
a ceiling ! (why don't you kiU that Cricket; I woidd ! I
always do. I hate their noise.) There are four walls and a
ceiling at my house. Come to me ! "
" You kiU your Crickets, eh ? " said John.
" Scrunch 'em, sir," returned the other, setting his heel
heavily on the floor. "You'll say you'll come? It's as
much your interest as mine, you know, that tlie women should
persuade each other that they 're quiet and contented, and
couldn't be better off. I know their way. Whatever one
woman says, another woman is determined to clinch, always.
There 's that spirit of emulation among 'em, sir, that if your
T^ife says to my wife, ' I 'm the happiest woman in the world.
182 THE CRICKET ON THE IIEARTn.
and mine 's the best husband in the world, and I dote on him,'
my wife will say the same to yours, or more, and half believe
it."
" Do you mean to say she don't, then ? " asked the Carrier.
" Don't ! " cried Tackleton, with a short, sharp, laugh.
" Don't what ? "
The Carrier had some faint idea of adding, " dote upon
you." But, happening to meet the half-closed eye, as it
twinkled upon him over the turned-up collar of the cape, which
was within an ace of poking it out, he felt it such an unlikely
part and parcel of anything to be doted on, that he substituted,
" that she don't believe it ? "
** Ah you dog ! You 're joking," said Tackleton.
But the Carrier, though slow to understand the full drift
of his meaning, eyed him in such a serious manner, that he
was obliged to be a little more explanatory.
" I have the humour," said Tackleton : holding up the
fingers of his left hand, and tapping the forefinger, to imply
'there I am, Tackleton to wit: ' " I have the humour, sir, to
marry a young wife, and a pretty wife : " here he rapped his
little finger, to express the Bride; not sparingly, but sharply;
with a sense of power. "I'm able to gratify that humour
and I do. It 's my whim. But — now look there ! "
He pointed to where Dot was sitting, thoughtfully, before
the fire ; leaning her dimpled chin upon her hand, and
watching the bright blaze. The Carrier looked at her, and
then at him, and then at her, and then at him again.
" She honours and obeys, no doubt, you know," said
Tackleton ; " and that, as I am not a man of sentiment, is
quite enough for me. But do you think there's anything
more in it ? "
"I think," observed the Carrier, "that I should chuck any
man out of window, who said there wasn't."
" Exactly so," returned the other with an unusual alacrity
of assent. "To be sure! Doubtless j'ou would. Of course
1 'm certain of it. Good night. Pleasant dreams ! "
The Carrier was puzzled, and made uncomfortable and
uncertain, in spite of himself. He couldn't help sho-w'ing it,
in his manner.
" Good night, my dear friend ! " said Tackleton, compas-
sionately. " I 'm off. We 're exactly alike, in reality, I see.
You won't give us to-morrow evening ? Well ! Next day
THE ClUCKET ON THE HEARTH. 183
you go out visiting, I know. I'll meet you there, and bring
my wife that is to be. It '11 do her good. You 're agreeable ?
Thankee. What 's that ! "
It was a loud cry from the Carrier's wife : a loud, sharp,
sudden cry, that made the room ring, like a glass vessel. She
had risen from her seat, and stood like one transfixed l)y
terror and surprise. The Stranger had advanced towards the
fire to warm himself, and stood within a short stride of her
chair. But quite still.
"Dot!" cried the Carrier. "Mary! Darling I "What's
the matter? "
They were all about her in a moment. Caleb, who had
been dozing on the cake-box, in the fii-st imperfect recovery of
his suspended presence of mind, seized Miss Slowboy by the
hair of her head, but immediately apologised.
"Mary!" exclaimed the Carrier, supporting her in his
arms. " Are you ill ! What is it ? Tell me, dear ! "
She only answered by beating her hands together, and
falling into a wild fit of laughter. Then, sinking from his
grasp upon the ground, she covered her face with her apron,
and wept bitterly. And then, she laughed again, and then
she cried again, and then she said how cold she was, and
sufi'ered him to lead her to the fire, where she sat down as
before. The old man standing, as before, quite still.
"I'm better, John," she said. "I'm quite well now —
I "
" John I " But John was on the other side of her. Why
turn her face tou^ards the strange old gentleman, as if address-
ing him ! Was her brain wandering ?
" Only a fancy, John dear — a kind of shock — a something
coming suddenly before my eyes — I don't know what it was.
It 's quite gone, quite gone."
"I'm glad it's gone," muttered Tackleton, turning the
expressive eye all round the room. "I wonder where it's
gone, and what it was. Humph ! Caleb, come here I Who's
that with the grey hair ? "
" I don't know, sir," returned Caleb, in a whisper. "Never
see him before, in all my life. A beautiful figure for a nut-
cracker; quite a new model. With a screw-jaw opening
down into his waistcoat, he'd be lovely."
" Not ugly enough," Baid Tackleton.
" Or for a fire-box, either," observed Caleb, in deep cou'
184 THE CRICKET ON THE IirARTH.
templf Hon, " what a model ! Unscrew his head to put the
matches in ; turn him heels up'ards for the light; and what a
firehox for a gentleman's mantel-shelf, just as he stands ! "
"Not half ugly enough," said Tackleton. "Nothing in
liim at all. Come ! Bring that box ! All right now, I
hope?"
" Oh, quite gone ! Quite gone ! " said the little woman
waving him hurriedly away. *' Good night ! "
" Good night," said Tackleton. " Good night, John Peery-
hingle ! Take care how you carry that box, Caleb. Let it
fall and I '11 murder you ! Dark as pitch, and weather worse
than ever, eh ? Good night ! "
So, with another sharp look round the room, he went out
at the door ; followed by Caleb with the wedding-cake on his
head.
The Carrier had been so much astounded by his Kttle wife,
and so busily engaged in soothing and tending her, that he
had scarcely been conscious of the Stranger's presence, until
now, when he again stood there, their only guest.
" He don't belong to them, you see," said John. " I must
give him a hint to go."
" I beg your pardon, friend," said the old gentleman,
advancing to him ; " the more so, as I fear your wife has not
been well ; but the Attendant whom my infirmity," he touched
his ears, and shook his head, " renders almost indispensable,
not having arrived, I fear there must be some mistake. The
bad night which made the shelter of your comfortable cart
>^may I never have a worse !) so acceptable, is still as bad as
ever. Would you, in your kindness, suffer me to rent a bed
here?"
" Yes, yes," cried Dot. " Yes ! Certainly ! "
" Oh ! " said the Carrier, surprised by the rapidity of this
consent. " WeU ! I don't object ; but, still I 'm not quite
sure that — "
" Hush! " she interrupted. " Dear John ! "
" Why, he's stone deaf," urged John.
" I know he is, but — Yes sir, certainly. Yes ! certainly I
1 '11 make him up a bed, directly, John."
As she hurried off to do it, the flutter of her spirits, and the
agitation of her manner, were so strange, that the Carrier
stood looking after her, quite confounded.
" Did its mothers make it up a Beds then ! " criod Miss?
THE CRICKET ON THE HEAKTH. ICj
Slowboy to the Baby; "and did its hair grow brown and
curly, when its caps was lifted off, and frighten it, a precious
Pets, a sitting by the fii-es ! "
With that unaccountable attraction of the mind to trifles,
which is often incidental to a state of doubt and confusion ,
the Carrier, as he walked slowly to and fro, found himself
mentally repeating even these absurd words, many times. So
many times, that he got them by heart, and was still conning
them over and over, like a lesson, when Tilly, after administer-
ing as much friction to the little bald head with her hand as
she thought wholesome (according to the practice of nurses),
had once more tied the Baby's cap on.
" And frighten it a precious Pets, a sitting by the fires.
What frightened Dot, I wonder ! " mused the Carrier, pacing
to and fro.
He scouted, from his heart, the insinuations of the Toy
merchant, and yet they filled him with a vague, indefinite
uneasiness. For, Tackleton was quick and sly ; and he had
that painful sense, himself, of being a man of slow perception,
that a broken hint was always worrying to him. He certainly
had no intention in his mind of linking anything that Tackle-
ton had said, with the unusual conduct of his wife, but the two
subjects of reflection came into his mind together, and he could
not keep them asunder.
The bed was soon made ready ; and the visitor, declining
all refreshment but a cup of tea, retired. Then, Dot — quite
well again, she said, qmte well again, — arranged the great
chair in the chimney corner for her husband ; filled his pipe
and gave it him ; and took her usual little stool beside him on
the hearth.
She always would sit on that little stool. I think she must
have had a kind of notion that it was a coaxing, wheedling,
little stool.
She was, out and out, the very best filler of a pipe, I should
say, in the four quarters of the globe. To see her put that
chubby little finger in the bowl, and then blow down the
pipe to clear the tube, and, when she had done so, afl'ect to
think that there was really something in the tube, and blow
a dozen times, and hold it to her eye like a telescope, with a
most provoking twist in her capital little face, as she looked
down it, was quite a brilliant tiling. As to the tobacco, she
was perfect mistress of the subject ; and her lighting of the
180 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTII.
pipe, -with a wisp of paper, when the Carrier had it in his
mouth — going so very near his nose, and yet not scorching it
— was Art, high Art.
And the Cricket and the Kettle, tuning up again, acknow
ledged it ! The bright fire, blazing up again, acknowledged
it ! The little Mower on the clock, in his unheeded work,
acknowledged it ! The Carrier, in his smoothing forehead and
expanding face, acknowledged it, the readiest of all.
And as he soberly and thoughtfully puffed at his old pipe,
and as the Dutch clock ticked, and as the red fire gleamed,
and as the Cricket chirped ; that Genius of his Hearth and
Home (for such the Cricket was) came out, in fairy shape,
into the room, and summoned many forms of Home about
him. Dots of all ages, and all sizes, filled the chamber.
Dots who were merry children, running on before him,
gathering flowers, in the fields ; coy Dots, half shrinking from,
half }delding to, the pleading of his own rough image ; newly
married Dots, alighting at the door, and taking wondering
possession of the household keys ; motherly little Dots,
attended by fictitious Slowboj's, bearing babies to be christened ;
matronly Dots, still young and blooming, watching Dots of
daughters, as they danced at rustic balls ; fat Dots, encircled
and beset by troops of rosy grand-children; withered Dots,
who leaned on sticks, and tottered as they crept along. Old
Carriers too, appeared, with blind old Boxers lying at their
feet ; and newer carts with younger drivers ( ' ' Peerybingle
Brothers," on the tilt) ; and sick old Carriers, tended by the
gentlest hands ; and graves of dead and gone old Carriers,
green in the churchyard. And as the Cricket showed him all
these things — he saw them plainly, though his eyes were fixed
upon the fii-e — the Carrier's heart grew light and happy, and
he thanked his Household Gods with all his might, and cared
no more for Gruff and Tackleton than you do.
But, what was that young figure of a man, which the same
Fairy Cricket set so near Her stool, and which remained there,
singly and alone ? Why did it linger still, so near her, with
its arm xipon the chimney-piece, ever repeating '* Married I
and not to me ! "
O Dot ! O failing Dot ! There is no place for it in all
vour Iiusband's visions; why has its shadow fallen on his
hearth !
TEE CRICKET ON THE HEARin. 187
CHIEF THE SECOXD.
Caleb Plummer and liis BKnd' Daughter lived all alona
by themselves, as the Story-Books say — and my blessing, -with
yours to back it I hope, on the Story-Books, for saying any-
thing in this workaday world ! — Caleb Plummer and his
Blind Daughter lived all alone by themselves, in a little
cracked nutshell of a wooden house, which was, in truth, no
better than a pimple on the prominent red-brick nose of
Gruff and Tackleton. Tlie premises of Gruff and Tackleton
were the great feature of the street ; but you might have
knocked down Caleb Plummer' s dwelling with a hammer or
two, and carried off the pieces in a cart.
If any one had done the dwelling-house of Caleb Plummer
the honor to miss it after such an inroad, it would have
been, no doubt, to commend its demohtion as a vast improve-
ment. It stuck to the premises of Gruff and Tackleton, like
a barnacle to a ship's keel, or a snail to a door, or a little
bunch of toadstools to the stem, of a tree. But, it was the
germ from which the full-grown trunk of Gruff and Tackleton
had sprung ; and under its crazy roof, the Gruff before last,
had, in a small way, made toys for a generation of old boys
and girls, who had played with them, and found them out,
and broken them, and gone to sleep.
I have said that Caleb and his poor Blind Daughter
lived here. I should have said that Caleb lived here, and
his poor Blind Daughter somewhere else — in an enchanted
home of Caleb's furnishing, where scarcity and shabbiness
were not, and trouble never entered. Caleb was no sorcerer,
but in the only magic art that still remains to us, the magic
of devoted, deathless love. Nature had been the mistress of
his study ; and from her teaching, all the wonder came.
Tlie Blind Girl never knew that ceilings were discoloured,
walls blotched and bare of plaster here and there, high
crevices unstopped and widening every day, beams mouldar-
188 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
ing and tending downward. The Blind Girl never knew that
iron was rusting, wood rotting, paper peeling off; the size,
and shape, and true proportion of the dwelling, withering
away. The BHnd Girl never knew that ugly shapes of delf
and earthenware were on the hoard ; that sorrow and faint-
heartedness were in the house ; that Caleb's scanty hairs were
turning greyer and more grey, before her sightless face. The
Blind Girl never knew they had a master, cold, exacting, and
uninterested — never knew that Tackleton was Tackleton in
short ; but lived in the belief of an eccentric humourist who
loved to have his jest with them, and who, while he was the
Guardian Angel of their lives, disdained to hear one word of
thankfulness.
And all was Caleb's doing; all the doing of lier simple
father ! But he too had a Cricket on his Hearth ; and listen-
ing sadly to its music when the motherless Blind Child' was
very young, that Spirit had inspired him with the thought
that even her great deprivation might be almost changed into
a blessing, and the girl made happy by these little means.
For all the Cricket tribe are potent Spirits, even though the
people who hold converse with them do not know it (which is
frequently the case) and there are not in the unseen world,
voices more gentle and more true, that may be so implicitly
relied on, or that are so certain to give none but tenderest
counsel, as the Voices in which the Spirits of the Fireside and
the Heartli address themselves to human kind.
Caleb and his daughter were at work together in their
usual working-room, which served them for their ordinary
living-room as well ; and a strange place it was. There were
houses in it, finished and unfinished, for Dolls of aU stations
in life. Suburban tenements for Dolls of moderate means;
kitchens and single apartments for Dolls of the lower classes ;
capital town residences for Dolls of high estate. Some of
these establishments were ali-eady furnished according to
estimate, with a view to the convenience of Dolls of limited
income ; others, could be fitted on the most expensive scale,
at a moment's notice, from whole shelves of chairs and tables,
fofas, bedsteads, and upholstery. The nobility and gentry
and public in general, for whose accommodation these tene-
ments were designed, lay, here and there, in baskets, staring
straight up at the ceiling ; but, in denoting their degrees in
society, and confining them to their respective stations (which
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 189
experience shows to be lamentably difficult in real life), the
makers of these Dolls had far improved on Nature, who is
often froward and perverse ; for, they, not resting on such
arbitrary marks as satin, cotton-print, and bits of rag, had
superadded striking personal differences which allowed of na
mistake. Thus, the Doll-lady of distinction had wax limbs of
perfect symmetry ; but, only she and her compeers. The
next grade in the social scale being made of leather, and the
next of coarse linen stuff. As to the common -people, they
had just so many matches out of tinder-boxes, for their arms
and legs, and there they were — established in their sphere at
once, beyond the possibility of getting out of it.
There were various other samples of his handicraft besides
Dolls, in Caleb Plummer's room. There were Noah's Arks,
in which the Birds and Beasts were an uncommonly tight fit,
I assure you ; though they could be crammed in, anyhow, at
the roof, and rattled and shaken into the smallest compass.
By a bold poetical licence, most of these Noah's Arks had
knockers on the doors ; inconsistent appendages perhaps, as
suggestive of morning callers and a Postman, yet a pleasant
finish to the outside of the building. There were scores of
melancholy little carts, which, when the wheels went round,
performed most doleful music. Many small fiddles, drums,
and other instruments of torture ; no end of cannon, shields,
swords, spears, and guns. There were little tumblers in red
breeches, incessantly swarming up high obstacles of red-tape,
and coming down, head first, on the other side ; and tliere
were innumerable old gentlemen of respectable, not to say
venerable appearance, insanely flying over horizontal pegs,
inserted, for the purpose, in their own street doors. There
were beasts of all sorts ; horses, in particular, of every breed,
from the spotted barrel on four pegs, with a small tippet for a
mane, to the thoroughbred rocker on his highest mettle. As
it would have been hard to count the dozens upon dozens of
grotesque figures that were ever ready to commit all sorts of
absurdities on the turning of a handle, so it woukl have been
no easy task to mention any human foUy, vice, or weakness,
that had not its type, immediate or remote, in Caleb
Plummer's room. And not in an exaggerated form, for very
little handles will move men and women to as strange
performances, as any Toy was ever made to undertake.
In the midst of all these objects, Caleb and his dauglitei
190 THE CRICKET ON THE IIEAETE.
sat at work. The Blind Girl busy as a Doll's dressmaker;
Caleb painting and glazing the four -pair front of a desirable
family mansion.
The care imprinted in the lines of Caleb's face, and his
absorbed and dreamy manner, which would have sat well oa
some alchemist or abstruse student, were at first sight an odd
contrast to his occupation, and the trivialities about him.
But, trivial things, invented and pursued for bread, become
very serious matters of fact ; and, apart from this considera-
sion, I am not at all prepared to say, myself, that if Caleb
had been a Lord Chamberlain, or a Member of Parliament,
or a lawyer, or even a great speculator, he would have dealt
in toys one whit less whimsical, while I have a very great
doubt whether they would have been as harmless.
" So you were out in the rain last night, father, in your
beautiful new great-coat," said Caleb's daughter.
" In my beautiful new great-coat," answered Caleb,
glancing towards a clothes-line in the room, on which the
sackcloth garment previously described, was carefully hung
up to dry.
" How glad I am you bought it, father I "
" And of such a tailor, too," said Caleb. " Quite a
fashionable tailor. It 's too good for me."
The Blind Girl rested from her work, and laughed with
delight. "Too good, father! What can be too good for
you ? "
"I'm half-ashamed to wear it though," said Caleb,
watching the effect of what he said, upon her brightening
face * ' upon my word ! When I hear the boys and people say
behind me, ' Hal-loa ! Here 's a swell ! ' I don't know
which way to look. And when the beggar wouldn't go away
last night ; and, when I said I was a very common man, said
* No, your Honor ! Bless your Honor, don't say that ! ' I
was quite ashamed. I really felt as if I hadn't a right to
wear it."
Happy Blind Girl ! How merry she was in her exultation .
"I see you, father," she said, clasping her hands, "as
plainly, as if I had the eyes I never want when you are with
me. A blue coat " —
" Bright blue," said Caleb.
" Yes, yes ! Bright blue ! " exclaimed the girl, turning
up her radiant face j " the colour I can just remember in the
CAIiEB AND HIS DAUGHTEE.
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 101
blessed sky ! You told me it was blue before ! A bright
blue coat" —
" Made loose to the figure," suggested Caleb.
" Yes ! loose to the figure ! " cried the Blind Girl,
laughing heartily; "and in it, you, dear father, with yoiir
merry eye, your smiling face, your free step, and your dark
hair — looking so young and liandsome ! "
"Halloa! Halloa!" said Caleb. "I shall be vain,
presently."
" / think you are, already," cried the Blind Girl, pointing
at him, in her glee. "I know you, father! Ha ha ha!
I 've found you out, you see ! "
How different the picture in her mind, from Caleb, as he
sat observing her ! She had spoken of his free step. She
was right in that. For years and years, he had never once
crossed that tlireshold at his own slow pace, but with a foot-
fall counterfeited for her ear ; and never had he, when his
lieart was heaviest, forgotten the light tread that was to
render hers so cheerful and courageous !
Heaven knows ! But I think Caleb's vague bewilderment
of manner may have half originated in his having confused
himself about himself and everything around him, for the
love of his BKnd Daughter. How could the Kttle man be
otherwise than bewildered, after laboui-ing for so many years
to destroy his ovra identity, and that of all the objects that
had any bearing on it !
" There we are," said Caleb, falling back a pace or two to
formi the better judgment of his work ; "as near the real
thing as sixpenn'orth of halfpence is to sixpence. What a
pity that the whole front of the house opens at once ! If
there was only a staircase in it, now, and regular doors to the
rooms to go in at ! But that 's the worst of my calling, I 'm
always deluding myself, and swindling myself."
" You are speaking quite softly. You are not tired,
father ? "
"Tired," echoed Caleb, with a great burst of animation,
"what should tire me, Bertha? / was never tired. What
does it mean ? "
To give the greater force to his words, he checked himself
in an involuntary imitation of two half-length stretching and
yawning figures on the mantel-shelf, who were represented as
in one eternal state of weariness from the waist upwards :
192 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
and hummftd a fragment of a song. It was a Bacchanalian
song, something about a Sparkling Bowl. He sang it with
.'in assumption of a Devil-may-care voice, that made his face a
thousand times more meagre and more thoughtful than ever.
" What ! You 're singing, are you V " said Tacldeton,
putting his head in at the door. " Go it ! I can't sing."
Nobody would have suspected him of it. He hadn't what
is generally termed a singing face, by any means.
" I can't afford to sing," said Tackleton. "I'm glad you
can. I hope you can afford to work too. Hardly time for
both, I should think ? "
" If you could only see him. Bertha, how he's winking at
me!" Avhispered Caleb. "Such a man to joke! you'd
think, if you didn't know him, he was in earnest — wouldn't
you now? "
The Blind Girl smiled and nodded.
" The bird that can sing and won't sing, must be made to
sing, they say," grumbled Tackleton. " What about the owl
that can't sing, and oughtn't to sing, and wiU sing ; is there
anything that he should be made to do ? "
"The extent to which he's winking at this moment!"
whispered Caleb to his daughter. " O, my gracious ! "
" Always merry and light-hearted with us ! " cried the
smiling Bertha.
" O ! you 're there, are vou ? " answered Tackleton. " Poor
Idiot ! "
He really did believe she was an Idiot ; and he founded
the belief, I can't say whether consciously or not, upon her
being fond of him.
" Well ! and being there, — how are you ? " said Tackleton
in his grudging way.
" Oh ! well ; quite well. And as happy as even you can
wish me to be. As happy as you woidd make the whole
world, if you could ! "
" Poor Idiot ! " muttered Tackleton. " No gleam of reason.
Not a gleam ! "
The Blind Girl took his hand and kissed it ; held it for a
moment in her own two hands ; and laid her cheek against it
tenderly, before releasing it. There was such unspeakable
affection and such fervent gratitude in the act, that Tackleton
himself was moved to say, in a milder growl than usual :
" What 's the matter nov? ? "
THE CRICKET ON THE IIEAP^TH. 193
" I stood it close beside my pillow when I went to sleep
last night, and remembered it in my dreams. And when the
day broke, and the glorious red sun — the red sun, father ? "
'/ Red in the mornings and the evenings. Bertha," said
poor Caleb, with a woeful glance at his employer.
" 'SMien it rose, and the bright light I almost fear to strike
myself against in waUcing, came into the room, I turned the
little tree towards it, and blessed Heaven for making things
so precious, and blessed you for sending them to cheer me ! "
" Bedlam broke loose I " said Tackleton under his breath.
" We shall arrive at the strait waistcoat and mufflers soon.
We 're getting on ! "
Caleb, with his hands hooked loosely in each other, stared
vacantly before him while his daughter spoke, as if he really
were uncertain (I believe he was) whether Tackleton had
done ami:hing to deserve her thanks, or not. If he could
have been a perfectly free agent, at that moment, required, on
pain of death, to kick the Toy merchant, or fall at his feet,
according to his merits, I believe it would have been an even
chance which course he would have taken. Yet Caleb knew
that with his own hands he had brought the little rose tree
home for her, so carefully, and that with his own lips he had
forged the innocent deception which shoidd help to keep her
from suspecting how much, how very much, he every day
denied himself, that she might be the happier.
" Bertha ! " said Tackleton, assuming, for the nonce, a
little cordiality. " Come here."
" Oh ! I can come straight to you ! You needn't guide
me ! " she rejoined.
" Shall I tell you a secret. Bertha? "
" If you will I " she answered, eagerly.
How bright the darkened face! Plow adorned with lig] it,
the listening head !
"This is the day on which little what 's-her-name, the
spoilt child, Peerybingle's wife, pays her regular visit to you
• — makes her fantastic Pic-Nic here, a'nt it ? " said Tackleton,
with a strong expression of distaste for the whole concern.
" Yes," replied Bertha. " This is the day."
"I thought 60," said Tackleton. "I should like to join
the party."
" Do you hear that, father ! " cried the Blind Girl, in an
ecstasy.
104 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARin.
" Yes, yes, I hear it," murmured Caleb, with the fixed
loot of a sleep-walker ; " but I don't believe it. It 's one of
my lies, I 've no doubt."
" You see I — I want to bring the Peerybingles a little
more into company with May Fielding," said Tackleton.
" I am going to be married to May."
•'■ Married ! " cried the Blind Girl, starting from him.
•' She 's such a con-founded idiot," muttered Tackleton,
"that I was afraid she'd never comprehend me. Ah, Bertha!
Married ! Church, parson, clerk, beadle, glass-coach, bells,
breakfast, bride-cake, favours, marrowbones, cleavers, and all
the rest of the tom-foolery. A wedding, you know ; a wed-
ding. Don't you know what a wedding is ? "
" I know," replied the Blind Girl, in a gentle tone. " I
understand ! "
"Do you?" muttered Tacldeton. "It's more than I
expected. Well ! On that account I want to join the party,
and to bring May and her mother. I '11 send in a little
something or other, before the afternoon. A cold leg of
mutton, or some comfortable trifle of that sort. You '11
expect me? "
" Yes," she answered.
She had droope^^^ her head, and turned away ; and so stood,
with her hands crossed, musing.
" I don't think you will," muttered Tackleton, looking at
her; " for you seem to have forgotten all about it, ali-eady.
Caleb ! "
" I may venture to say I 'm here, I suppose," thought
Caleb. " Sir ! "
" Take care she don't forget what I 've been saying to her,"
" She never forgets," returned Caleb. " It 's one of the
few things she an't clever in."
" Every man thinks his own geese swans," observed the
Toy merchant, with a shrug. " Poor devil ! "
Having delivered himself of which remark, with infinite
contempt, old Gruff and Tackleton withdrew.
Bertha remained where he had left her, lost in meditation.
The gaiety had vanished from her downcast face, and it was
very sad. Three or four times she shook her head, as if
bewailing some remembrance or some loss ; but her sorrowful
reflections found no vent in words.
It was not until Caleb had been occupied, some time, in
THE Cr.ICKET ON THE HEARTH. 195
yoking a team of horses to a wagon by the summary process
of nailing the harness to the vital parts of their bodies, that
she drew near to his working-stool, and sitting down beside
him, said :
" Father, I am lonely in the dark. T want my eyes, my
patient, willing eyes."
" Here they are," said Caleb. " Mways ready. They are
more yours than mine. Bertha, any hour in the four and
twenty. What shall your eyes do for you, dear? "
" Look round the room, father."
" All right," said Caleb. " No sooner said than done,
Bertha."
" Tell me about it."
"It's much the same as usual," said Caleb. "Homely,
but very snug. The gay colours on the walls ; the bright
flowers on the plates and dishes ; the shining wood, where
tliere are beams or panels ; the general cheerfulness and
neatness of the building; make it very pretty."
Cheerful and neat it was, wherever Bertha's hands could
busy themselves. But nowhere else, were cheerfulness and
neatness possible, in the old crazy shed which Caleb's fancy so
transformed.
"You have your working-dress on, and are not so gallant
as when you wear the handsome coat ? " said Bertha, touching
him.
" Not quite so gallant," answered Caleb. "Pretty brisk,
though."
"Father," said the Blind Girl, drawing close to his side,
and stealing one harm roimd his neck, " tell me something
about May. She is very fair?"
" She is indeed," said Caleb. And she was indeed. It
was quite a rare thing to Caleb, not to have to draw on his
invention.
" Her hair is dark," said Bertha, pensively, " darker than
mine. Her voice is sweet and musical, I know. I have
often loved to hear it. Her .shape — "
"There's not a Doll's in all the room to equal it," said
Caleb. " And her eyes ! — "
He stopped ; for Bortlia had drawn closer round his neck,
and, from the arm that clung about him, came a warning
pressiu'e which he understood too well.
He coughed a moment, hammered for a moment, and then
toa THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
fell back upon the song about tbe sparkling bowl, his infallible
resource in all such difficulties.
" Our friend, father, our benefactor. I am. never tired you
know of hearing about him. — Now, was I ever ? " she said,
hastily.
" Of course not," answered Caleb, " and with reason."
•' Ah ! With how much reason ! " cried the Blind Girl.
With such fervency, that Caleb, though his motives were so
pure, could not endure to meet her face ; but dropped hia
eyes, as if she could have read in them his innocent deceit.
" Then tell me again about him, dear father," said Bertha.
" Many times again ! His face is benevolent, kind, and
tender. Honest and true, I am sure it is. The manly heart
that tries to cloak all favors with a show of roughness and
unwillingness, beats in its every look and glance."
" And makes it noble," added Caleb, in his quiet despera-
tion.
" And makes it noble ! " cried the Blind Girl. "He ia
older than May, father."
" Ye-es," said Caleb, reluctantly. ' He 's a little older
than May. But that don't signify."
" Oh father, yes ! To be his patient companion in infirmity
and age ; to be his gentle niu-se in sickness, and his constant
friend in suffering and sorrow ; to know no weariness in work-
ing for his sake ; to watch him, tend him, sit beside his bed
and talk to him awake, and pray for him asleep ; what
privileges these would be I What opportunities for proving
aU her truth and her devotion to liim ! Would she do all
this, dear father ? "
" No doubt of it," said Caleb.
" I love her, father ; I can love her from my soul ! " ex-
claimed the Blind Girl. And saying so, she laid her poor
blind face on Caleb's shoulder, and so wept and wept, that he
was almost sorry to have brought that tearful happiness upon
her.
In the mean time, there had been a pretty sharp commotion
at John Peerybingle's, for, little Mrs. Peeryb ingle naturally
couldn't think of going anywhere without the Baby ; and to
get the Baby under weigh, took time. Not that there was
much of the Baby, speaking of it as a thing of weight and
measure, but, there was a vast deal to do about and about it,
and it all had to be done by easy stages. For instancy
THE CRICKET ON THE HKARTH. 197
when the Baby was got by hook and by crook, to a certain
point of dressing, and you might have rationally supposed that
another touch or two would finish him off, and turn him out
a tip-top Baby challenging the world, he was unexpectedly
extinguished in a flannel cap, and hustled off to bed ; where
he simmered (so to speak) between t\vo blankets for the best
part of an hour. From this state of inaction he was then
recalled, shining very much and roaring violently, to partake
of — well ? I would rather say, if you '11 permit me to speak
generally — of a slight repast. After which, he went to sleep
again. Mrs. Peerybingle took advantage of this interval, to
make herself as smart in a small way as ever 3'ou saw any-
body in aU your life ; and, during the same short truce. Miss
Slowboy insinuated herself into a spencer of a fashion so
surprising and ingenious, that it had no connection with her-
self, or anything else in the universe, but was a shrunken,
dog's-eared, independent fact, pursuing its lonely course with-
out the least regard to anybody. By this time, the Baby,
being all alive again, was invested, by the united efforts of
Mrs. Peerybingle and Miss Slowboy, with a cream-coloured
mantle for its body, and a sort of nankeen raised-pie for its
head ; and so in course of time they all three got down to
tlie door, where the old horse had already taken more than
the full value of his day's toll out of the Turnpike Trust, by
tearing up the road with his impatient autographs ; and
whence Boxer might be dimly seen in the remote perspective,
standing looking back, and tempting him to come on without
orders.
As to a chair, or anything of that kind for helping Mrs
Peerybingle into the cart, you know very little of John, if you
think that was necessary. Before you could have seen him
lift her from the ground, there she was in lier place, fresh
and rosy, saying, " John ! How can you ! Think of Tilly ! "
If I might be allowed to mention a young lady's legs, on
any terms, I would observe of Miss Slowboy's that then;
was a fatality about them which rendered them singularly
liable to be grazed ; and that she never effected the smallest
ascent or desceut, witliout recording the circumstance upon
them with a notch, as Robinson Crusoe marked the days upon
his wooden calendar. But as this might be considered lui-
genteel, 1 'U think of it.
"Jolui? You've t^ot the basket with the Veal and T lam-
193 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
Pie and things, and tlie bottles of Beer? " said Dot. " If you
haven't, you must turn round again, this very minute."
"You 're a nice little article," returned the Carrier, "to be
talking about turning round, after keeping me a full quarter
of an hour behind my time."
" I am sorry for it, John " said Dot in a great bustle,
" but I really could not think of going to Bertha's — I would
not do it, John, on any account — without the Veal and Ham-
Pie and things, and the bottles of Beer. Way ! "
This monosyllable was addressed to the horse, who didn't
mind it at aU.
" Oh do way, John ! " said Mrs. Peerybingle. " Please ! "
" It '11 be time enough to do that," returned John, " when I
begin to leave things behind me. The basket's here safe
enough."
"' What a hard-hearted monster you must be, John, not to
have said so, at once, and save me such a turn ! I declare I
wouldn't go to Bertha's without the Veal and Ham-Pie and
things, and the bottles of Beer, for any money. Regularly
once a fortnight ever since we have been married, John, have
we made our little Pic-Nic there. If anything was to go
wrong with it, I should almost think we were never to be
luckjr again."
" It was a kind thought in the first instance," said the
Carrier; " and I honor you for it, little woman."
" My dear John," replied Dot, turning very red, " Don't
talk about honoring me. Good Gracious ! "
"By the bye — " observed the Carrier. " that old gentle-
man,— "
Again so visibly and instantly embarrassed !
" He 's an odd fish," said the Carrier, looking straight along
the road before them. " I can't make him out. I don't
believe there 's any harm in him."
" None at all. I 'm — I 'm sure there 's none at all."
" Yes," said the Carrier, with his eyes attracted to her face
by the great earnestness of her manner. " I am glad you
feel so certain of it, because it 's a confirmation to me. It 's
curious that he shoxild have taken it into his head to ask leave
to go on lodging with us ; ain't it ? Things come about so
strangely."
" So very strangely," she rejoined in a low voice, scarcely
audible.
TUB CRICK KT ON THE HEARTH. 189
" However, he's a good-natured old gentleman," said John,
" and pays as a gentleman, and I think his word is to be relied
upon, like a gentleman's. I had quite a long talk with him this
morning : he can hear me better ah-eady, he says, as he gets
more used to my voice. He told me a great deal about him-
self, and I told him a good deal about myself, and a rare lot
of questions he asked me. I gave him information about my
having two beats, you know, in my business ; one day to the
right fi'om oui' liouse and back again ; another day to the left
from our house and back again (for he 's a stranger and don't
know the names of places about here) ; and he seemed quite
pleased. ' Why, then I shall be returning home to-night your
way,' he says, ' when I thought you 'd be coming in an exactly
opposite direction. That 's capital ! I may trouble you for
another lift perhaps, but I '11 engage not to fall so sound asleep
again.' He was sound asleep, sure-ly ! — Dot ! what are you
thinking of ?"
" Thinking of, John ? I — I was listening to you."
" O ! That 's aU right I " said the honest Carrier. " I was
afraid, from the look of your face, that I had gone rambling
on so long, as to set you thinking about something else. I
was very near it, I '11 be bound."
Dot making no reply, they jogged on, for some little time,
in silence. But, it was not easy to remain silent very long
in John Peerybingle's cart, for everybody on the road had
something to say. Though it might only be " how are you ! "
and indeed it was very often nothing else, still, to give tliat
back again in the right spirit of cordiality, required, not merely
a nod and a smile, but as wholesome an action of the lungs
withal, as a long-winded Parliamentary speech. Sometimes,
passengers on foot, or horseback, plodded on a little way
beside the cart, for the express purpose of having a chat ;
and then there was a great deal to be said, on both sides.
Then, Boxer gave occasion to more good-natured recog-
nitions of, and by, the Carrier, than half a dozen Christians
could have done ! Everybody knew him, all along the road —
especially the fowls and pigs, who when they saw hiui
approaching, with his body all on one side, and his ears pricked
up inquisitively, and that knob of a tail making the most of
itself in the air, immediately witlidrew into remote back
settlements, without waiting for the honor of a nearer
acquaintance. He had business every where ; going down all
200 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
the turnings, looking into all the wells, bolting in and out of
all the cottages, dashing into the midst of all the Dame-
Schools, fluttering all the pigeons, magnifying the tails of all
the cats, and trotting into the public-houses like a regular
customer. Wherever he went, somebody or other might
have been heard to cry, " HaUoa ! Here 's Boxer ! " and out
i;u,me that somebody forthwith, accompanied by at least two
or three other somebodies, to give John Peerybingle and hia
pretty wife. Good Day.
The packages and parcels for the errand cart, were numerous ;
and there were many stoppages to take them in and give them
out, which were not by any means the worst parts of the
journey. Some people were so full of expectation about their
parcels, and other people were so full of wonder about their
parcels, and other people were so full of inexhaustible
directions about their parcels, and John had such a lively
interest in ail the parcels, that it was as good as a play. Like-
wise, there were articles to carry, which required to be
considered and discussed, and in reference to the adjustment
and disposition of which, councils had to be liolden by the
Carrier and tlie senders : at which Boxer usually assisted, in
short fits of the closest attention, and long fits of tearing
round and round the assembled sages and barking himself
hoarse. Of all these little incidents. Dot was the amused and
opened-eyed spectatress from her chair in the cart ; and as
she sat there, looking on — a charming little portrait framed
to admiration by the tilt- — there was no lack of nudgings and
glancings and whisperings and envyings among the younger
men. And this delighted John the Carrier, beyond measure; for
he was proud to have his little wife admired, knowing that
she didn't mind it — that, if anything, she rather liked it
perhaps.
The trip was a little foggy, to be sure, in the January
weather ; and was raw and cold. But who cared for such
trifles ? Not Dot, decidedly. Not Tilly Slowboy, for she
deemed sitting in a cart, on any terms, to be the highest point
of human joys ; the crowning circumstance of eartlily hopes.
Not the Baby, I '11 be sworn ; for it 's not in Baby nature to
be warmer or more sound asleep, though its capacity is great
in both respects, than that blessed young Peerybingle was, all
the way.
You couldn't see very far in the fog, of course ; but you
THE CRICKEi' ON TUE HEARTH. 201
oould see a great deal ! It 's astonishing how much you may
see, in a thicker fog than that, if you will only take the
trouble to look for it. Why, even to sit watching for the
Fairy-rings in the fields, and for the patches of hoar-frost stiU
fingering in the shade, near hedges and by trees, was a
pleasant occupation, to make no mention of the unexpected
shapes in which the trees themselves came starting out of the
mist, and glided into it again. The hedges were tangled and
bare, and waved a multitude of blighted garlands in the wind;
but, there was no discouragement in this. It was agreeable
to contemplate ; for, it made the fireside warmer' in possession,
and the summer greener in expectancy. The river looked
chilly ; but it was in motion, and moving at a good pace —
which was a great point. The canal was rather slow and
torpid ; that must be admitted. Never mind. It would
freeze the sooner when the frost set fairly in, and then there
would be skating, and sliding; and the heavy old barges,
frozen up somewhere near a wharf, would smoke their rusty
iron chimney pipes all day, and have a lazy time of it.
In one place, there was a great mound of weeds or stubble
burning ; and they watched the fire, so white in the day time,
flaring through the fog, with only here and there a dash of
red in it, until, in consequence as she observed of the smoke
" getting up her nose," Miss Slowboy choked — she could do
an3'thing of that sort, on the smallest provocation — and woke
the Baby, who wouldn't go to sleep again. But, Boxer, who
was in advance some quarter of a mile or so, had already
passed the outposts of the town, and gained the corner of the
street where Caleb and his daughter lived ; and long before
they had reached the door, he and the BKnd Girl were on the
pavement waiting to receive them.
Boxer, l)y the way, made certain delicate distinctions of his
ovra, in his communication with Bertha, which persuade me
fully that he knew her to be blind. He never sought to
attract her attention by looking at her, as he often did with
other people, but touched lier invariably. What experience
he could ever have had of blind people or blind dogs I don't
know. lie had never lived with a blind master ; nor had
Mr. Boxer the older, nor Mrs. Boxer, nor any of his respect
able family on either side, ever been visited with bliuduessj
that 1 am aware of. He may have found it out for liiinself,
perhaps, but he hud got h< ilil of it sc mehow j and therefui-e
202 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
he had hold of Bertha too, by the skirt, and kept hold, until
Mrs. Peerybingle and the Baby, and Miss Slowboy, and the
ba.sket, were all got safely within doors.
May Fielding was ak-eady come ; and so was her mother — ■
a little queridous chip of an old lady with a peevish face,
who, in right of having preserved a waist like a bed-post, waa
supposed to be a most transcendant figure ; and who, iu
consequence of having once been better off, or of labouring
under an impression that she might have been, if something
had happened which never did happen, and seemed to have
never been particularly likely to come to pass — but it 's all
the same — was very genteel and patronising indeed. Gruff
and Tackleton was also there, doing the agreeable, with the
evident sensation of being as perfectly at home, and as
unquestionably in his own element, as a fresh young salmon
on the top of the Great Pyramid.
" May ! My dear old friend ! " cried Dot, running up to
meet her. " What a happiness to see you ! "
Her old friend was, to the fidl, as hearty and as glad as
she ; and it really was, if you '11 believe me, quite a pleasant
sight to see them embrace. Tackleton was a man of taste,
beyond all question. May was very pretty.
You know sometimes, when you are used to a pretty face,
how, when it comes into contact and comparison, with another
pretty face, it seems for the moment to be homely and faded,
and hardly to deserve the high opinion you have had of it.
Now, this was not at all the case, either with Dot or May ;
for May's face set off Dot's and Dot's face set off May's, so
naturally and agreeably, that, as John Peerybingle ■wfas very
near saying when he came into the room, they ought to have
been born sisters — which was the only improvement you
coidd have suggested.
Tackleton had brought his leg of mutton, and, wonderful to
relate, a tart besides — but we don't mind a little dissipation
when our brides are in the case ; we don't get married every
day — and in addition to these dainties, there were the Veal
and Ham-Pie, and " things," as Mrs. Peerybingle called
tliem ; which were chiefly nuts and oranges, and cakes, and
such small deer. When the repast was set forth on the
board, flanked by Caleb's contribution, which was a great
wooden bowl of smoking potatoes (he was prohibited, by
solemn compact, from producing any other viands), Tackleton
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 203
led his intended mother-in-law to the post of honour. For
the better gracing of this place at the high festival, the
majestic old soul had adorned herself with a cap, calculated to
inspire the thoughtless with sentiments of awe. She also
wore her gloves. But let us be genteel, or die !
Caleb sat next his daughter ; Dot and her old schoolfellow
were side by side ; the good Carrier took care of the bottom
of the table. Miss Slowboy was isolated, for the time being,
from every article of fui'niture but the chair she sat on, that
she might have nothing else to knock the Baby's head against.
As Tilly stared about her at the dolls and toys, they stared
at her and at the company. The venerable old gentlemen at
the street doors (who were all in full action) showed especial
Laterest in the party, pausing occasionally before leaping, a8
if they were Kstening to the conversation, and then plunging
■wildly over and over, a great many times, without halting for
breath — as in a frantic state of delight with the whole pro-
ceedings.
Certainly, if these old gentlemen were inclined to have a
fiendish joy in the contemplation of Tackleton's discomfiture,
they had good reason to be satisfied. Tackleton couldn't get
on at all ; and the more cheerful his intended bride became
in Dot's society, the less he liked it, though he had brought
them together for that purpose. For he was a regular dog
in the manger, was Tackleton ; and when they laughed and
he couldn't, he took it into his head, immediately, that they
must be laughing at him.
"Ah May! " said Dot. "Dear dear, what changes ! To
talk of those merry school-days makes one young again."
" Why, you an't particularly old, at any time ; are you? "
said Tackleton.
" Look at my sober, plodding husband there," returned
Dot. " He adds twenty years to my age at least. Don't you,
John ? "
" Forty," John replied.
"How many you 'U add to May's, I am sure I don't know,"
said Dot, laughing. " But she can't be much less than a
hundred years of age on her next birthday."
" Ha ha ! " laughed Tackleton. Hollow as a drum that
laugh though. And he looked as if he could have twisted
Dot's neck, comfortably.
" Dear dear ! " said Dot. " Only to remember how we
204 THE CRICKET ON THE IlEARTH.
used to talk, at school, about the hushands we would choose,
[ don't know how young, and how handsome, and how gay,
and how lively, mine was not to be ! And as to May's ! — Ah
dear ! I don't know whether to laugh or cry, when I think
what silly girls we were."
May seemed to know which to do ; for the colour flashed
into her face, and tears stood in her eyes.
" Even the very persons themselves — real live young men
— we fixed on sometimes," said Dot. " We little thought
how things would come about. I never fixed on John I 'm
sure ; I never so much as thought of him. And if I had told
you, you were ever to be married to Mr. Tackleton, why you 'd
have slapped me. Wouldn't you May ? "
Though May didn't say yes, she certainly didn't say no, or
express no, by any means.
Tackleton laughed' — quite shouted, he laughed so loud.
John Peerybingle laughed too, in his ordinary good-natured
and contented manner ; but his was a mere whisper of a
laugh, to Tackleton' s.
" You couldn't help yourselves, for all that. You couldn't
resist us, you see," said Tackleton. " Here we are ! Here
we are ! Where are your gay young bridegrooms now ! "
" Some of them are dead," said Dot ; " and some of them
forgotten. Some of them, if they could stand among us at
this moment, would not believe we were the same creatures ;
would not believe that what they saw and heard was real, and
we could forget them so. No ! they would not believe one
word of it ! "
" Why, Dot ! " exclaimed the Carrier. " Little woman ! "
She had spoken with such earnestness and fire, that she
stood in need of some recalling to herself, without doubt.
Her husband's check was very gentle, for he merely interfered,
as he supposed, to shield old Tackleton ; but it proved
efi'ectual, for she stopped, and said no more. There was an
uncommon agitation, even in her silence, which the wary
Tackleton, wlio had brought his half-shut eye to bear upon
her, noted closely, and remembered to some purpose too.
May uttered no word, good or bad, but sat quite still, with
her ej'es cast down, and made no sign of interest in what had
passed. The good lady her mother now interposed, observing,
in the first instance, that girls were girls, and byegones
byegonoe, and that so long as j'oung people were young and
TUR CRICKET ON THE HEARTIf. 206
thoughtless, they would probably conduct themselves like
young and thoughtless persons : with two or three other
positions of a no less sound and incontrovertible character.
She then remarked, in a devout spirit, that she thanked
Heaven she had always found in her daughter May, a dutiful
and obedient child : for wliich she took iio credit to herself,
though she had every reason to believe it was entirely owing
to herself. With regard to Mr. Tackleton she said, That he
was in a moral point of view an undeniable individual, and
That he was in an eligible point of view a son-in-law to be
desired, no one in their senses could doubt. (She was very
emphatic here.) With regard to the family into which he
was so soon about, after some soHcitation, to be admitted, she
believed Mr. Tackleton knew that, although reduced in purse,
it had some pretentions to gentility; and that if certaiii
circumstances, not wholly unconnected, she would go so far as
to say, with the Indigo Trade, but to which she would not
more particularly refer, had happened differently, it might
perhaps have been in possession of wealth. She then
remarked that she would not allude to the past, and would not
mention that her daughter had for some time rejected the
suit of Mr. Tackleton ; and that she would not say a great
many other things which she did say, at great lengtli.
Finally, she delivered it as the general result of her observa-
tion and experience, that those marriages in which there was
least of what was romantically and sillily called love, were
always the happiest ; and that she anticipated the greatest
possible amount of bliss — not rapturous bliss ; but the solid,
steady-going article — fi-om the approaching nuptials. She
concluded by informing the company that to-morrow was the
day she had lived for expressly ; and that •when it was over,
she would desire nothing better than to be packed up and
disposed of, in any genteel place of burial.
As these remarks were quite imanswera1)le — which is the
happy property of all remarks that are sufficiently wiile of the
purpose — they changed the current of the conversation, and
diverted the general attention to the Veal and Ham-Pie, the
cold mutton, the potatoes, and the tart. In order that the
bottled beer might not be slighted, John Peerybingle proposed
To-morrow : the Wedding-Day ; and called upon them to
drink a bumper to it, before he proceeded on his journey.
For you ought to know that he only rest^^d tliere, and gave
20G THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
the old horse a bait. He had to go some four or five milea
farther on ; and when he returned in the evening, he called
for Dot, and took another rest on his way home. This was
the order of the day on all the Pic-Nic occasions, and had
been, ever since their institution.
There were two persons present, besides the bride and
bridegroom elect, who did but indifferent honour to the toast.
One of these was Dot, too flushed and discomposed to adapt
herself to any small occurrence of the moment ; the other.
Bertha, who rose up hurriedly before the rest, and left the table.
" Good bye ! " said stout John Peerybingle, pulling on his
dreadnought coat. " I shall be back at the old time. Good
bye an ! "
" Good bye John," returned Caleb.
He seemed to say it by rote, and to wave his hand in the
same unconscious manner ; for he stood observing Bertha with
an anxious wondering face, that never altered its expression.
" Good bye young shaver ! " said the Jolly Carrier, bending
down to kiss the child ; which Tilly Slowboy, now intent upon
her knife and fork, had deposited asleep (and strange to say,
without damage) in a little cot of Bertha's furnishing; "good
bye ! Time will come, I suppose, "when you '11 turn out into
the cold, my little friend, and leave your old father to enjoy
his pipe and his rheumatics in the chimney-corner ; eh '?
Where 's Dot ? "
" I 'm here John ! " she said, starting.
" Come, come ! " returned the carrier, clapping his sounding
hands.
" Where 's the pipe ? "
" I quite forgot the pipe, John."
Forgot the pipe ! Was such a wonder ever heard of ! She !
Forgot the pipe !
" I 'U—I 'U fill it directly. It 's soon done."
But it was not so soon done, either. It lay in the usual
place — the Carrier's dreadnought pocket — with tlie little pouch,
her own work, from which she was used to fill it ; but her
hand shook so, that she entangled it (and yet her hand was
small enough to have come out easily, I am sure), and bungled
terrilily. The filling of the pipe and lighting it, those little
offices in which I have commended her discretion, were vilely
done from first to last. During tlie whole process, Tackleton
S-ood looking on maliciously with the half-closed eye ; which,
TEE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 207
whenever it met hers — or caught it, for it can hardly be said
to have ever met another eye : rather being a kind of trap to
snatch it up — augmented her confusion in a most remarkable
degree.
"■"Why, what a clumsy Dot you are, this afternoon ! " said
John. " I could have done it better myself, I verily believe ! "
With these good-natured words, he strode away, and
presently was heard, in company with Boxer, and the old horse,
and the cart, making lively music down the road. What time
the dreamy Caleb still stood, watching his bKnd daughter,
with the same expression on his face.
' "Bertha!" said CtJeb, softly. " TNTiat has happened?
How changed you are, my darling, in a few hours — since this
morning. You silent and dull all day ! What is it ? Tell
me ! "
"Oh father, father!" cried the Blind Girl, bursting into
tears. " Oh my hard, hard fate ! "
Caleb drew his hand across his eyes before he answered her.
"But think how cheerful and how happy you have been,
Bertha ! How good, and how much loved, by many people."
" That strikes me to the heart, dear father ! Always so
mindful of me ! Always so kind to me ! "
Caleb was very much perplexed to understand her.
"To be— to be bHnd, Bertha, my poor dear," he faltered,
"is a great affliction; but "
" I have never felt it ! " cried the Blind Girl. " I havo
never felt it, in its fullness. Never ! I havp sometimes
wished that I could see you, or could see him — only once,
dear father, only for one little minute — that I might know
what it is I treasure up," sh'> laid her hands upon her
breast, "and hold here ! That I might be sure I have it
right ! And sometimes (but tlien I was a child) I have wept,
in my prayers at night, to tliink that when your images
ascended from my heart to Heaven, they might not be the
true resemblance of yourselves. But I have never had these
feelings long. They have passed away, and left me tranquil
and contented."
" And they will again," said Caleb.
" But fatlier ! Oh my good gentle father, bear with me, if
1 am wi<;ked ! " said the Hliud Girl. " This is not the sorrow
that 80 weighs me down ! "
Her father could not choose but let his moist eyes overflow j
208 TUE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
she was so earnest and pathetic. But lie did not understand
her, yet.
" Bring her to me," said Bertha. " I cannot hold it closed
and shut within myself. Bring her to me, father ! "
She knew he hesitated, and said, " May. Bring May ! "
May heard the mention of her name, and coming quietly
towards her, touched her on the arm. The Blind Girl turned
immediately, and held her by both hands.
" Look into my face, Dear heart, Sweet heart I " said
Bertha. " Read it with your beautiful eyes, and tell me if
the truth is written on it."
" Dear Bertha, jes I "
The Blind Girl, stiU upturning the blank sightless face,
down which the tears were coursing fast, addressed her in
these words :
" There is not, in my soul, a wish or thought that is not for
your good, bright May ! There is not, in my soul, a grateful
recollection stronger than the deep remembrance which is
stored there, of the many many times when, in the full pride
of eight and beauty, you have had consideration for Blind
Bertha, even when we two were children, or when Bertha was
as much a child as ever blindness can be ! Every blessing on
your head ! Light upon your happy course ! Not the less,
my dear May ; " and she drew towards her, in a closer grasp ;
"not the less, my bird, because, to- day, the knowledge that
you are to be His wife has wrung my heart almost to break-
ing ! Father, INIay, Mary ! oh forgive me that it is so, for
the sake of all he has done to relieve the weariness of my dark
life : and for the sake of the belief you have in me, when I
caU Heaven to witness that I could not wish him married to
a wife more worthy of his goodness ! "
While speaking, she had released May Fielding's hands,
and clasped her garments in an attitude of mingled supplica-
tion and love. Sinking lower and lower down, as she pro-
ceeded in her sti-ange confession, she dropped at last at the
feet of her friend, and hid her blind face in the folds of her
dress.
" Great Power! " exclaimed her father, smitten at one blow
with the truth, "have I deceived her from her cradle, but to
break her heart at last ! "
It was well for aU of them that Dot, that beaming, useful,
busy little Dot; — for such she was, whatever faidts she had.
MES. FIELDING IMPROVES THE OCCASION.
TDE CRICKKT OX THE IIEARXn. 209
and hoAvever you may learn to hate her, in good time —it was
weU for all of them, I say, that she was there: or where tliis
would have ended, it were hard to teU. But Dot, recovering
her self-possession, interposed, before May could reply, or
Caleb say another word.
" Come come, dear Bertha ! come away ■wdth mo ! Give
her your arm, May. So ! How composed she is, you see,
already ; and how good it is of her to mind us," said the
cheer}' little woman, kissing her upon the forehead. " Come
away, dear Bertha. Come ! and here 's her good father will
come with her; won't you, Caleb ? To — be — sure I "
WeU, well ! she was a noble little Dot in such things, and
it must have been an obdurate nature that could have with-
stood her influence. When she had got poor Caleb and his
Bertha away, that they might comfort and console each other,
as she knew they only could, she presently came bouncing
back, — the saying is, as fresh as any daisy ; I say fresher —
to mount guard over that bridling little piece of consequence
in the cap and gloves and prevent the dear old creature from
making discoveries.
" So bring me the precious Baby, Tilly," said she, drawing
a chair to the fire ; " and while I have it in my lap, here 't=.
Mrs. Fielding, Tilly, will tell me all about the management
of Babies, and put me right in twenty points where I 'm as
wrong as can be. Won't you, Mrs. Fielding ? "
Not even the Welsh Giant, who, according to the popular
expression, was so " slow " as to perform a fatal surgical
operation upon himself, in emulation of a juggling-trick
achieved by his arch enemy at breakfast-time ; not even
he fell half so readily into the snare prepared for him,
as the old lady into this artful pitfall. The fact of Tackle-
ton having wallied out ; and furthermore, of two or three
people having been talking together at a distance, for two
minutes, leaving her to her own resources ; was quite
enough to have put her on her dignity, and the bewailment
of that mysterious convidsion in the Indigo trade, for four-and-
twenty hours. But this becoming deference to her experience,
on tlie part of the young mother, was so irresistible, that after
a short affectation of humility, she began to enligliten her with
the best grace in the world ; and sitting bolt upright before
the wicked Dot, she did, in half an hoiir, deliver more infallible
domestic recipes and precej)ts, than would (if acted on) have
p
210 THE rrilCKET ON THE HEARTH.
iitterlj' destroyed aud done up that Young Peerybingle, thougli
he had been an Infant Samson.
To change the theme, Dot did a little needlework — she
carried the contents of a whole workbox in her pocket ; how-
ever she contrived it, / don't know — then did a little nursing ;
then a little more needlework ; tlien had a little whispering
chat with May, while the old lady dozed ; and so in little
bits of bustle, which was quite her manner always, found it a
very short afternoon. Then, as it grew dark, and as it was
a solemn part of this Institution of the Pic-Nic that she should
perform all Bertha's household tasks, she trimmed the fire,
and swept the hearth, and set the tea-board out, and drew the
curtain, and lighted a candle. Then, she played an air or
two on a rude kind of harp, which Caleb had contrived for
Bertha, and played them very well ; for Nature liad made her
delicate little ear as choice a one for music as it woidd have
been for jewels, if she had had any to wear. By this time it
was the establislied liour for having tea ; and Tackleton came
back again, to share the nteal, and spend the evening.
Caleb and Bertha had returned some time before, and
Caleb had sat down to his afternoon's work. But he couldn't
settle to it, poor fellow, being anxious and remorseful for
his daughter. It was touching to see him sitting idle on
his working stool, regarding her so wistfidly, and always
saying in his face, " Have I deceived her from her cradle,
but to break her heart ! "
When it was night, and tea was done, and Dot had
nothing more to do in washing up the cups and saucers ;
in a word — for I must come to it, and there is no use
in piitting it off — when the time drew nigh for expecting
the Carrier's return in every sound of distant wheels, her
manner changed again, her colour came and went, and slie
was very restless. Not as good wives are, Avhen listening for
tlieir husbands. No, no, no. It was another sort of restless-
ness fi'om that.
Wheels heard. A horse's feet. The barking of a dog.
The gradual approach of aU the sounds. The scratching paw
of Boxer at the door !
"Whose step is that I " cried Bertha, starting up.
"Whose step?" returned the Carrier, standing in the
poi-tal, with his brown face ruddy a,s a winter berry from the
keen night air. " Why, mine."
TUE CKICKET OX THE IIEARTII. 211
" The other step," said Bertlia, " The maa's tread behind
you ! "
" She is not to he deceived," observed the Carrier,
laughing. '' Come aloug, sir. You '11 be welcome, never
fear ! "
Ho spoke in a loud tone ; and as he spoke, the deaf old
gentleman entered.
" He 's not so much a stranger, that you haven't seen him
once, Caleb," said the Carrier. "You'll give him house-
room till we go '? "
" Oh surely, John, and take it as an honor." ■
"He's the best company on earth, to talk secrets in,"
said John. " I have reasonable good lungs, but he tries
'em, I can tell you. Sit down sir. All friends here, and glad
to see you ! "
When he had imparted this assurance, in a voice that amply
corroborated what he had said about liis lungs, he added in
his natural tone, " A chair in the chimney-corner, and leave
to sit quite silent and look pleasantly about him, is all he
cares for. He 's easily pleased."
Bertha had been listening intently. Slie called Caleb to
her side, when he had set the chair, and asked him, in a low
voice, to describe their visitor When he had done so (truly
now ; with scrupulous fidelity), she moved, for the first time
since he had come in, and sighed, and seemed to have no
further interest concerning him.
The Carrier was in high spirits, good fellow that he was
and fonder of his little wife than ever.
" A clumsy Dot she was, this afternoon ! " he said, en-
circling her with his rough arm, as slie stood, removed
from the rest; "and yet I like her somehow. See yonder,
Dot ! "
Ho pointed to the old man. She looked down. I think
she trembled.
"He's — ha ha ha ! — he's fidl of admiration for you I "
said the Carrier. " Talked of nothing else, the whole way
here. Why, he 's a brave old boy. I like him for it ! "
"I wish he had had a better subject, Jolui;" she said,
with an uneasy glance about the room. At Tacldeton especi-
ally.
" A better subject J " cried the jovial John. " There 's no
such thing. Come ! off with the great-coat, off with tlie
212 TiJE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
thick shawl, off with the heavy wrappers 1 and a cosy half-
hour by the fire ! My humble service, Mistress. A game at
cribbage, you and I ? That 's hearty. The cards and board,
Dot. And a glass of beer here, if there 's any left, small
wife ! "
His challenge was addressed to the old lady, who accept-
ing it with gracious readiness, they were soon engaged upon
the game. At fii^st, the Carrier looked about him sometimes,
with a smile, or now and then called Dot to peep over his
shoulder at his hand, and advise him on some knotty point.
But his adversary being a rigid disciplinarian, and subject to
an occasional weakness in respect of pegging more than she
was entitled to, required such vigilance on his part, as left
him neither eyes nor ears to spare. Thus, his whole atten-
tion gradually became absorbed upon the cards ; and he
thought of nothing else, until a hand upon his shoulder re-
stored him to a consciousness of Tackleton.
" I am sorry to disturb you — but a word directly."
" I 'm going to deal," returned the Carrier. " It 's a
crisis."
" It is," said Tackleton. " Come here, man ! "
There was that in liis pale face which made the other rise
immediately, and ask him, in a hurry, what the matter
was.
" Hush ! John Peerybingle," said Tackleton. " I am sorry
for this. I am indeed. I have been afraid of it. I have
silspected it from tlie first."
" What is it ? " asked the Carrier, with a frightened
aspect.
" Hush ? I '11 show you, if you '11 come with me."
The Carrier accompanied him, without another word,
They went across a yard, where the stars were shining,
and by a little side door, into Tackleton' sown counting-house,
where there was a glass window, commanding the ware-room,
which was closed for the night. There was no light in
the counting-house itself, but there were lamps in the long
narrow ware-room ; and consequently the window was bright.
" A moment ! " said Tackleton. " Can you bear to look
tlirough that window, do you think ? "
" Why not ? " returned the Carrier.
" A moment more," said Tackleton. " Don't commit
a'ly violence. It 's of no use. It 's danp^erous too. You 're
TUE CRICKET ON THE HEAUTII. 213
a strong-made man ; and you might do murder before you
know it."
The Carrier looked h*m in the face, and recoiled a step as
if he had been struck. In one stride he was at the window,
and he saw —
Oh Shadow on the Hearth ! Oh truthful Cricket I Oh per-
tidicus Wife !
He saw her witli the old man — old no longer, but erect and
gallant — bearing in his hand the false white hair that had
won liis way into their desolate and miserable home. He sa\v
her listening to him, as he bent his head to whisper in her
ear ; and suffering him to clasp her round the waist, as they
moved slowly down the dim wooden gallery towards the door
by which they had entered it. He saw them stop, and saw
her tui-n — to have the face, the face he loved so, so presented
to his view ! and saw her, with her own hands, adjust the
lie upon his head, laughing, as she did it, at his unsuspicious
nature !
He clenched his strong right hand at first, as if it would
have beaten down a lion. But opening it immediately
again, he spread it out before the eyes of Tackleton (for
he was tender of her, even then), and so, as they passed
out, fell down upon a desk, and was as weak as any
infant.
He was wrapped up to the chin, and busy with his horse
and parcels, when she came into the room, prepared for
going home.
" Now John, dear ! Good night May ! Good night
Bertha ! "
Could she kiss them ! Could she be blithe and cheerful in
her parting ? Could she venture to reveal her face to them
without a blush ? Yes. Tackleton observed her closely, and
she did all this.
Tilly was hushing the Baby, and she crossed and re-crossed
Tackleton a dozen times, repeating drowsily :
" Did the knowledge that it was to be its wives, then,
wring its hearts almost to breaking ; and did its fathers
deceive it from its cradles but to break its hearts at last ! "
" Now Tilly, give me the Baby ! Good night, Mr. Tackle-
ton. Where 's John, for goodness sake ? "
" He 's going to walk beside the horse's head," said TarkJe-
ton ; who helped her to lier seat.
214 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
" My dear John. Walk ? To-night ? "
The muffled figure of her husband made a hasty sign in the
affirmative ; and the false stranger and the little nurse being
in their places, the old horse moved ofi". Boxer, the uncon-
scious Boxer, running on before, running back, running
round and round the cart, and barking as triumphantly and
merrily as ever.
When Tackleton had gone off likewise, escorting May
and her mother home, poor Caleb sat down by the fire
beside his daughter ; anxious and remorseful at the core ;
and still saying in his wistful contemplation of her, " have
I deceived her from her cradle, but to break her heart at
last ! "
The toys that had been set in motion for the Baby, had all
stopped and run down, long ago. In the faint light and
silence, the imperturbably calm doUs, the agitated rocking-
horses with distended eyes and nostrils, the old gentlemen at
the street doors, standing half doubled up upon their failing
liuees and ankles, the wry-faced nutcrackers, the very Beasts
upcm their way into tlie Ark, in twos, like a Boarding- School
out walking, might have been imagined to be stricken motioTi-
Ies« with fantastic wonder, at Dot being false, or Tacldf -ton
beloved, under anv combination of circumstances.
THE CrJCKET ON THE HEARTH. 215
CHIRP THE THIRD.
The Dutch, clock in the corner struck Ten, when the
Carrier sat down by his fireside. So troubled and grief- worn,
that he seemed to scare the Cuckoo, who, having cut his ten
melodious announcements as short as possible, plunged back
into the Moorish Palace again, and clapped his little door
behind him, as if the unwonted spectacle were too much for
his feelings.
If the little Haymaker had been armed with the sharpest
of scythes, and had cut at every stroke into the Carrier's
heart, he never could have gashed and wounded it as Dot had
done.
It was a heart so full of love for her ; so bound up and
held together by innumerable threads of winning remem-
brance, spun from the daily working of her many qualities of
endearment ; it was a heart in which she had enshrined her-
self so gently and so closely ; a heart so single and so earnest
in its Truth, so strong in right, so weak in wrong ; that it
could cherish neither passion nor revenge at first, and had
only room to hold the broken image of its Idol.
But, slowly, slowly, as the Carrier sat brooding on his
hearth, now cold and dark, other and fiercer thoughts began
to rise within him, as an angry wind comes rising in the
night. The Stranger was beneath his outraged roof. Three
steps would take him to his chamber door. One blow would
beat it in. "You might do murder before you know it,"
Tackleton had said. How could it be murder, if he gave the
villain time to grapple with him hand to hand ! He was the
younger man.
It was an ill-timed thought, bad for the dark mood of his
mind. It was an angry thought, goading him to some
avenging act, that should change the cheerfid house into a
haunted ])lace wliich lonely travellers would dread to pass by
uight ; and where the timid would see shadows struggling in
21G THE CRICKET ON THE IIEARin.
the ruined windows wlien the moon was dim, and hear wild
noises in the stormy weather.
He was the younger man ! Yes, yes ; some lover wlio had
won the heart that he had never touched. Some lover of her
early choice, of whom she had thought and dreamed, for whom
she had pined and pined, when he had fancied her so happy
by his side. O agony to think of it !
She had been above stairs with the Baby, getting it to bed.
As he sat brooding on the hearth, she came close beside him,
without his knowledge — in the turning of the rack of his
great misery, he lost all other sounds — and put her little stool
at his feet. He only knew it, when he felt her hand upon his
own, and saw her looking up into his face.
With wonder? No. It was his first impression, and he
was fain to look at her again, to set it right. No, not with
wonder. With an eager and inquiring look; but not with
wonder. At first it was alarmed and serious ; then, it changed
into a strange, wild, dreadful smile of recognition of his
thoughts ; then, there was nothing but her clasped hands on
her brow, and her bent head, and falling hair.
Though the power of Omnipotence had been his to wield at
that moment, he had too much of its diviner property of
Mercy in his breast, to have turned one feather's weight-
of it against her. But he could not bear to see her crouching
down upon the little seat where he had often looked on
her, with love and pride, so innocent and gay; and, when she
rose and left him, sobbing as she went, he felt it a relief to
liave the vacant place beside him rather than her so long-
cherished presence. This in itself was anguish keener than
all, reminding him how desolate he was become, and how the
great bond of his life was rent asunder.
The more he felt this, and the more he knew, he could have
better borne to see her lying prematurelj^ dead before him with her
little child upon her breast, the higher and the stronger rose his
wrath against his enemy. He looked about him for a weapon.
There was a gun, hanging on the wall. He took it down,
and moved a pace or two towards the door of the perfidious
Stranger's room. He knew the gun was loaded. Some
shadowy idea that it was just to shoot this man like a wild
beast, seized him, and dilated in his mind until it grew into a
monstrous demon in complete possession of him, casting out
all milder thoughts and setting up its undivided empire.
THE CKICKKT ON THE HEARTH. 217
That phrase is wrong. Not casting out his milder thoughts,
but artfully transforming them. Changing; them into scourges
to drive him on. Turning water into blood, love into hate,
gentleness into bKnd ferocity. Her image, sorrowing, humbled,
but still pleading to his tenderness and mercy with resistless
power, never left his mind ; but, staying there, it urged him
to the door; raised the weapon to his shoulder; fitted and
nerved his finger to the trigger ; and cried " Kill him ! In
his bed!"
He reversed the gim to beat the stock upon the door ; he
already held it lifted in the air ; some indistinct design wad
in liis thoughts of calling out to him to fly, for God's sake,
by the window —
When, suddenly, the struggling fire illuminated the whole
chimney with a glow of light ; and the Cricket on the Hearth
began to Chirp !
No sound he could have heard, no human voice, not even
hers, could so have moved and softened him. The artless
words in which she had told him of her love for this same
Cricket, were once more freshly spoken ; her trembling,
earnest manner at the moment, was again before him ; her
pleasant voice — O what a voice it was, for making household
music at the fireside of an honest man ! — thrilled through and
through his better nature, and awoke it into life and action.
He recoiled from the door, like a man Avalking in his sleep,
awakened from a frightful dream ; and put the gun aside.
Clasping his hands before his face, he then sat down again
beside the fire, and found relief in tears.
The Cricket on the Hearth came out into the room, and
stood in Fairy shape before him.
" ' I love it,' " said the Fairy Voice, repeating what he well
remembered, " 'for the many times I have heard it, and the
many thoughts its harmless music has given me.' "
" She said so ! " cried the Carrier. " True ! "
"'This has been a happy home, John; and I love the
Cricket for its sake ! '"
" It has been. Heaven knows," returned the Carrier. " She
made it happy, always, — until now."
"So gracefully sweet-tempered; so domestic, joj'ful, busy,
and light-hearted ! " said the Voice.
" Otherwise I never could have loved her as I did,"
returned the Carrier.
218 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
The Voice, correcting liim, said " do."
The Carrier repeated " as I did." But not firmly. His
faltering tongue resisted his con+rol, and would speak in its
own way for itself and him.
The Figure, in an attitude of invocation, raised its hand
and said :
" Upon your own hearth " —
"The hearth she has blighted," interposed the Carrier.
" The hearth she has — how often! — blessed and brightened,"
said the Cricket; "the hearth which, but for her, were only
a few stones and bricks and rusty bars, but which has been,
through her, the Altar of your Home ; on which you have
nightly sacrificed some petty passion, selfishness, or care, and
offered up the homage of a tranquil mind, a trusting nature,
and an overflowing heart ; so that the smoke from this poor
chimney has gone upward with a better fragrance than the
richest incense that is burnt before the richest shrines in all
the gaudy temples of this world ! — Upon your own hearth ;
in its quiet sanctuary ; surrounded by its gentle influences and
associations ; hear her ! Hear me ! Hear everything that
speaks the language of your hearth and home ! "
" And pleads for her ? " inquired the Carrier.
"All things that speak the language of your hearth and
home, 7nust plead for her ! " returned the Cricket. " For they
speak the truth."
And while the Carrier, with his head upon his hands,
continued to sit meditating in his chair, the Presence stood
beside him, suggesting his reflections by its power, and
presenting them before him, as in a glass or picture. It was
not a solitary Presence. From the hearthstone, fr'om the
chimney, from the clock, the pipe, the kettle, and the cradle ;
fi'om the floor, the walls, the ceiling, and the stairs ; from the
cart without, and the cupboard within, and the household
implements ; from everything and every place with which she
had ever been famiKar, and with which she had ever eutvtdned
one recollection of herself in her unhappy husband's mind ;
Fairies came trooping forth. Not to stand beside him as the
Cricket did, but to busy and bestir themselves. To do all
honour to her image. To pull him by the skirts, and point
to it when it appeared. To cluster round it, and embrace it,
and stre\\' flowers for it to tread on. To try to crown its fair
head with theii- tiny hands. To show that they were fond of
TDE CRICKET ON TUE HEARTH. 219
it, and loved it ; and that there was not one ugly, wicked, or
accusatory creature to claim knowledge of it — none but their
pla^-fid and approving selves.
His thoughts were constant to her image. It was always
there.
She sat plying her needle, before the fire, and singing to
herself. Such a blithe, thriving, steady httle Dot ! The fairy
figures turned upon him all at once, by one consent, with one
prodigious concentrated stare, and seemed to say " Is this the
light wife you are mourning for ! "
There were sounds of gaiety outside, musical- instruments,
and noisy tongues, and laughter. A crowd of young merry-
makers came j)oui'ing in, among whom were May Fielding and
a score of pretty girls. Dot was the fairest of them all ; as
young as any of them too. They came to summon her to joiu
theii- party. It was a dance. If ever little foot were made
for dancing, hers was, surely. But she lavighed, and shook
her head, and pointed to her cookery on the fire, and her table
ready spread ; with an exulting defiance that rendered her
more charming than she was before. And so she merrily
dismissed them, nodding to her would-be partners, one by one,
as they passed out, with a comical indifference, enough to
make them go and drown themselves immediately if they were
her admirers — and they must have been so, more or less ;
they couldn't help it. And yet indifference was not her
character. O no ! For presently, there came a certain Carrier
to the door ; and bless her what a welcome she bestowed upon
him !
Again the staring figures turned upon him all at once, and
seemed to say " Is this the wife who has forsaken you ! "
A shadow fell upon the mirror or the picture ; call it what
you will. A great shadow of the Stranger, as he first stood
underneath their roof; covering its surface, and blotting out
all other objects. But, the nimble Faii'ies worked like bees to
clear it off again. And Dot again was there. Still bright
and beautiful.
Rocking her little Baby in its cradle, singing to it softly,
and resting her head upon a shoulder which had its counter-
part in the musing figure by which the Fairy Cricket stood.
The night — I mean the real night : not going by Fairy
clocks — was wearing now ; and in this stage of the Carrier's
thoughts, the moon burst out, {.ud shone brightly in the sky.
220 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
Perhaps some calm and quiet light had risen also, :n his mind,
and he could think more soberly of what had happened.
Although the shadow of the Stranger fell at intervals upon
the glass — always distinct, and big, and thoroughly defined —
it never fell so darkly as at first. Wlienever it appeared, the
Fairies uttered a general cry of consternation, and plied their
little arms and legs, with inconceivable activity, to rub it out.
And whenever they got at Dot again, and showed her to him
once more, bright and beautifid, they cheered in the most
inspiring manner.
They never showed her, otherwise than beautiful and bright
for they were Household Spirits to whom falsehood is an
annihilation ; and being so, what Dot was there for them, but
the one active, beaming, pleasant little creature who had been
the light and sun of the Carrier's Home !
The Fairies were prodigiously excited when they showed
her, with the Baby, gossiping among a knot of sage • old
matrons, and affecting to be wondrous old and matronly her-
eelf, and leaning in a staid demure old way upon her
husband's arm, attempting — she ! such a bud of a little woman
— to convey the idea of having abjured the vanities of the
world in general, and of being the sort of person to whom it
was no novelty at all to be a mother ; yet in the same breath,
they showed her, laughing at the Carrier for being awkward,
and pulling up his shirt-coUar to make him smart, and
mincing merrily about tliat very room to teach him how to
dance !
They turned, and stared immensely at him when they
showed her with the Blind Girl ; for, though she carried cheer-
fulness and animation with her wheresoever she went, she
bore those influences into Caleb Plummer's home, heaped up
and running over. The Bind Girl's love for her, and trust in
lier, and gratitude to her ; her own good busy way of setting
Bertha's thanks aside ; her dexterous little arts for filling up
each moment of the visit in doing something useful to the
house, and really working hard while feigning to make
hoKday ; her bountiful provision of those standing delicacies,
the Veal and Ham-Pie and the bottles of Beer ; her radiant
little face arriving at the door, and taking leave ; the wonder-
ful expression in her whole self, from her neat foot to the
crown of her head, of being a part of the establishment — a
flomething necessary to it, which it couldn't be without ; aJ]
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 221
this the Fairifts revelled in, and loved her for. And once
again they looked upon him all at once, appealingly, and
seemed to say, while some among them nestled in her dress
and fondled her, " Is this the wife who has betrayed yoiix
confidence ! "
More than once, or t"n'ice, or thrice, in the long thoughtful
night, they showed her to him sitting on her favourite seat,
with her bent head, her hands clasped on her brow, her
falling hair. As he had seen her last. And when they found
her thus, they neither turned nor looked upon him, but
gathered close round her, and comforted and kissed her, and
pressed on one another, to show sympathy and kindness to her,
and forgot him altogether.
Thus the night passed. The moon went down; the stars
grew pale ; the cold day broke ; the sun rose. The Carrier
still sat, musing, in the chimney corner. He had sat there,
with his head upon his hands, all night. All night the faith-
ful Cricket had been Chirp, Chirp, Chirping on the Hearth.
All night he had listened to its voice. All night, the house-
hold Fairies had been busy with him. All night, she had
been amiable and blameless in the glass, except when that
one shadow fell upon it.
He rose up when it was broad day, and washed and dressed
himself. He couldn't go about his customary cheerful
avoc-ations — he wanted spirit for them — but it mattered the
less, that it was Tackletou's wedding-day, and he had arranged
to make his rounds by proxy. He had thought to have gone
merrily to church with Dot. But such plans were at an end.
It was their own wedding-day too. Ah ! how little he had
looked for such a close to such a year !
The Carrier expected that Tackleton woidd pay him an
early visit ; and he was right. He had not walked to and
fro before his own door, many minutes, when he saw the Toy
Merchant coming in his chaise along the road. As tlie chaise
drew nearer, he perceived that Tackleton was dressed out
sprucely for his marriage, and that he had decorated his
horse's head with flowers and favors.
The horse looked much more like a bridegroom than
Tackleton, whose half-closed eye Mas more disagreeably
expressive than ever. But the Carrier tool* little heed of this.
His thoughts had other occupation
•' JoJin Peerybingle ! " said Tackleton, with an air of coEr
222 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
dolence. " My good fellow, how do you find yourself this
morning ? "
" I have had but a poor niglit, Master Tackleton," returned
the Carrier, shaking his head : " for I have been a good deal
disturbed in my mind. But it 's over now ! Can you spare
me half an hour or so, for some private talk? "
" I came on purpose," returned Tackleton, alighting,
" Never mind the horse. He '11 stand quiet enough, with
the reins over this post, if you '11 give him a mouthful of
hay."
The Carrier having brought it from his stable and set it
before him, they turned into the house.
" You are not married before noon ? " he said, " I think ?"
" No," answered Tackleton. " Plenty of time. Plenty of
time."
When they entered the kitchen, Tilly Slowboy was rapping
at the Stranger's door ; which was only removed from it by a
few steps. One of her very red eyes (for Tilly had been cry-
ing all night long, because her mistress cried) was at the
keyhole; and she was knocking very loud, and seemed
frightened.
" If you please I can't make nol»(>dy hear," said Tilly,
looking round. " I hope nobody an't gone and been and rlied
if you please I "
This philanthropic wish. Miss Slowboy emphasised with
various new raps and kicks at the door, which led to no result
who.tever.
" Shall I go ? " said Tackleton. " It 's curious."
The Carrier, who had turned his face from the door, signed
to him to go if he would.
So Tackleton went to Tilly Slowboy' s relief; and he too
kicked and knocked ; and he too failed to get the least reply.
But he thought of trying the handle of the door ; and as it
opened easily, he peeped in, looked in, went in, and soon come
running out again.
" John Peerybingle," said Tackleton, in his ear. " I hope
there has been nothing^nothing rash in the night ? ''
The Carrier turned upon him quickly.
" Because he 's gone ! " said Tackleton ; " and the window 's
open. I don't see any marks — to be sure, it 's almost on a
level with the garden : but I was afraid there might have
boen some — some scuffle. Eh ? "
THE CRICKET ON THE IIEARTU. 223
He nearly shut up the expressive eye, altogether ; he looked
at him so hard. And he gave his eye, and his face, aud his
whole person, a sharp twist. As if he would have screwed
the truth out of him.
" Make yourself easy," said the Carrier. " He went into
that room last night, without harm in word or deed from me,
and no one has entered it since. He is away of his own free
will. I 'd go out gladly at that door, and beg m}^ bread from
house to house, for life, if I could so change the past that he
had never come. But he has come and gone. And I have
done with him ! "
" Oh ! — Well, I think he has got off pretty easy," said
Tackleton, taking a chair.
The sneer was lost upon the Carrier, who sat down too, and
shaded his face with his hand, for some little time, before
proceeding.
" You showed me last night," he said at length, " my
wife; my wife that I love; secretly" —
" And tenderly," insinuated Tackleton.
" Conniving at that man's disguise, and giving him oppor-
tunities of meeting her alone. I think there 's no sight I
wouldn't have rather seen than that. I think there 's no man
m the world I wouldn't have rather had to show it me."
" I confess to having had my suspicions always," said
Tackleton. " And that has made me objectionable here, I
know."
" But as you did show it me," piirsued the Carrier, not
minding him ; " and as you saw her, my wife, my wife that
I love " — his voice, and eye, and hand, grew steadier and
firmer as he repeated these words : evidently in pursuance oi
a steadfast purpose — " as you saw her at this disadvantage,
it is right and just that you should also see with my eyes, and
look into my breast, and know what my mind is upon the
subject. For it's settled," said the Carrier, regarding him
attentively. "And nothing can shake it now."
Tackleton muttered a few general words of assent, about
its being necessary to vindicate something or other ; but he
was overawed by the manner of his companion. Plain and
unpolished as it was, it had a something dignified aud noble
in it, which nothing but the soul of generous honour dweUing
in the man could have imparted.
" I am a plain, rough man," pursued the Cioricr, " with
224 THE CKICKET ON THE HEARTH.
very little to recommend me. I am not a clever man, as you
very well know. I am not a young man. I loved my little
Dot, because I had seen her o^row up, from a child, in her
father's house ; because I knew how precious she was ; because
she had been my life, for years and years. There 's many
men I can't compare with, who never could have loved my
little Dot like me, I think ! "
He paused, and softly beat the ground a short time with
his foot, before resuming :
" I often thought that though I wasn't good enough for her,
I should make her a kind husband, and perhaps know her
value better than another : and in this way I reconciled it
to myself, and came to think it might be possible that we
should be married. And in the end, it came about, and we
were married."
" Hah ! " said Tackleton, with a significant shake of hia
head.
" I had studied myself; I had had experience of myself;
I knew how much I loved her, and how happy I should be,"
pursued the Carrier. " But I had not -I feel it now —
sufficiently considered her."
"To be sure," said Tackleton. " Giddiness, frivolity,
fickleness, love of admiration I Not considered ! All left out
of sight ! Hah ! "
" You had best not interrupt me," said the Carrier, with
some sternness, " till you understand me ; and you 're wide
of doing so. If, yesterday, I 'd have struck that man down
at a blow, who dared to breathe a word against her, to-day
I 'd set my foot upon his face, if he was my brother ! "
The Toy Merchant gazed at him in astonishment. He went
on in a softer tone :
" Did I consider," said the Carrier, " that I took her — at
her age, and with her beauty — from her young companions,
and the many s(;enes of which she was the ornament ; in which
she was the brightest little star that ever slione, to shut her
up from day to day in my didl house, and keep my tedious
company ? Did I consider how little suited I was to her
sprightly humour, and how wearisome a plodding man like
me must be, to one of her quick spirit ? Did I consider that
it was no merit in me, or claim in me, that I loved her.
when everybody must, who knew her ? Never. I took
advantage of her hopeful nature and her cheerful dispo.sition ;
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 226
and I married her. I wish I never had ! For her sake ; not
for mine ! "
The Toy Merchant gazed at him, without winking. Even
the half-shut eye was open now.
" Heaven bless her ! " said the Carrier, " for the cheerful
constancy with which she has tried to keep the knowledge of
this from me ! And Heaven help me, that, in my slow mind,
I have not found it out before ! Poor child ! Poor Dot !
/ not to find it out, who have seen her eyes fill with tears,
when such a marriage as our own was spoken of ! I, who
have seen the secret trembling on her lips a hundred times,
and never suspected it, till last night ! Poor girl ! That I
could ever hope she would be fond of me ! That I could ever
believe she was ! "
" She made a show of it," said Tackletou. " She made
such a show of it, that to tell you the truth it was the origin
of my misgivings."
And here he asserted the superiority of May Fielding,
who certainly made no sort of show of being fond of him.
" She has tried," said the poor Carrier, with greater
emotion than he had exhibited yet; "I only now begin to
know how hard she has tried, to be my dutiful and zealous
wife. How good she has been ; how much she has done ;
liow brave and strong a heart she has ; let the happiness I
have known under this roof bear witness ! It wiU be some
help and comfort to me, when I am here alono."
"Here alone?" said Tackleton. "Oh! Then you do
mean to take some notice of this ? "
" I mean," returned the Carrier, "to do her the greatest
kindness, and make her the best reparation, in my power. I
can release her from the daily pain of an imequal marriage,
and the struggle to conceal it. She shall be as free as I can
render her."
" Make her reparation ! " exclaimed Tackleton, twisting and
turning his great ears with his hands. " There must be some-
thing wrong here. You didn't say that, of course."
The Carrier set his grip upon the coUar of the Toy Merchant,
and shook him like a reed.
" Listen to me ! " he said. " And take care that you hear
me right. Listen to me. Do I speak plainly ? "
" Very plainly indeed," answered Tackleton.
"As if I meant it?"
Q
226 THK CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
" Very much as if you meant it."
"I sat upon that hearth, last night, all night," exclaimed
the CaiTier. " On the spot where she has often sat beside
me, with her sweet face looking into mine. I called up
her whole life, day by day. I had her dear self, in its every
passage, in review before me. And upon my soul she is
innocent, if there is One to judge the innocent and guilty ! "
Staunch Cricket on the Hearth ! Loyal household Fairies !
"Passion and distrust have left me!" said the Carrier;
" and nothing but my grief remains. In an unhappy moment
some old lover, better suited to her tastes and years than I ;
forsaken, perhaps, for me, against her will; returned. lu
an unhappy moment, taken by surprise, and wanting time to
think of what she did, she made herself a party to his
treachery, by concealing it. Last night she saw him, in
the interview we witnessed. It was wrong. But otherwise
than this, she is innocent if there is truth on earth ! "
"If that is your opinion" — Tackleton began.
"So, let her go!" pursued the Carrier. "Go, with my
blessing for the many happy hours she has given me, and my
forgiveness for any pang she has caused me. Let lier go,
and have the peace of mind I wish her ! She 'U never hate
me. She '11 learn to like me better, when I 'm not a drag
upon her, and she wears the chain 1 have riveted, more
lightly. This is the day on which I took her, with so little
thought for her enjoyment, from her home. To-day she shall
retui'n to it, and I will trouble her no more. Her father and
mother will be here to-day — we had made a little plan for
keeping it together — and they shall take her home. I can
trust her, there, or anywhere. She leaves me without blame,
and slie will live so I am sure. If I should die — I may per-
haps while she is still young; I have lost some courage in a
few hours — she '11 find that I remembered her, and loved her
to the last I This is the end of what you showed me. Now,
it 's over ! "
" 0 no, John, not over. Do not say it 's over yet ! Not
quite yet. I have heard your noble words. I could not steal
away, pretending to be ignorant of what has affected me with
such deep gratitude. Bo not say it 's over, 'till the clock has
struck again ! "
She had entered shortly after Taekhmm, and had remaiued
thc-re. She never looked at Tuckletou. b;it fixed her OToa
TflE CRICKET CN THE HEARTfl. 227
upon her husbaad. But she kept awa}' from, him, setting
us wide a space as possible between them ; and though she
spoke with most impassioned earnestness, she went no nearer
to him even then. How different in this from her old self I
" Xo hand can make the clock which will strike again for
me the hours that are gone," replied the Carrier, with a faint
sraile. " But let it be so, if you wiU, my dear. It will strike
soon. It 's of little matter what we say. I 'd try to please
you in a harder case than that."
" Well I " muttered TacHeton. '' I must be off, for when
the clock strikes again, it 'U be necessary for me to be upon
my way to church. Good morning, John Peerybingle. I 'm
sorry to be deprived of the pleasure of j'our company. Sorry
for the loss, and the occasion of it too I "
"I have spoken plainly?" said the Carrier, accompanying
•lim to the door.
" Oh quite ! "
" And you '11 remember what I have said ? "
" Why, if you compel me to make the observation," said
Fackleton ; previously taking the precaution of getting into
nis chaise; " I must say that it was so very unexpected, that
I 'm far from being likely to forget it."
"The better for us both," returned the Carrier. "Good
bye. I give you joy ! "
" I wish I coiild give it to you," said Tackleton. "As I
can't ; thank'ee. Between oui'selves, (as I told you before, eh?)
I don't much think I shall have the less joy in my married
life, because May hasn't been too oflB.cious about me, and
too demonstrative. Good bye ! Take care of yourself."
The Carrier stood looking after him imtil he was smaller
in the distance than his horse's flowers and favors near
at hand ; and then, with a deep sigh, went strolling like a
restless, broken man, among some neighbouring elms;
TmwiUing to return until the clock was on the eve of
striking.
His little wife, being left alone, sobbed piteously ; but often
dried her eyes and checked herself, to say how good he was,
how excellent he was ! and once or twice she laughed ; so
heartily, triumphantly, and incoherently (still crjing all the
time), that Tilly was quite horrified.
" Ow if you please don't! " said Tillv. " It's enough to
dead and bury the Baby, so it is if you please."
228 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
" Will you bring him sometimes, to see his father, liUy,"
inquired her mistress, drying her eyes ; " when I can't live
here, and have gone to my old home ? "
" Ow if you please don't!" cried TiUy, throwing back
her head, and bxirsting out into a howl — she looked at the
moment uncommonly like Boxer ; " Ow if you please don't ?
Ow, what has everybody gone and been and done with every-
body, making everybody else so wretched ? Ow-w-w-w ! "
The soft-hearted Slowboy tailed off at this juncture into
such a deplorable howl, the more tremendous from its long
suppression, that she must infallibly have awakened the Baby,
and frightened him into something serious ( probably convul-
sions), if her eyes had not encoxmtered Caleb Plummer, lead-
ing in his daughter. This spectacle restoring her to a sense
of the proprieties, she stood for some few moments silent, with
her mouth wide open ; and then, posting off to the bed ou
which the Baby lay asleep, danced in a weird, Saint Vitus
manner on the floor, and at the same time rummaged with
her face and head among the bedclothes, apparently deriving
much relief from those extraordinary operations.
"Mary!" said Bertha. " Not at the marriage I "
" I told her you would not be there, mum," whispered
Caleb. " I heard as much last night. But bless you," said
the little man, taking her tenderly by both hands, "I don't care
for what they say. I don't believe them. There an't much
of me, but that little should be torn to pieces sooner than I 'd
trust a word against you ! "
He put his arms about her neck and hugged her, as a child
might have hugged one of his own dolls.
" Bertha couldn't stay at home this morning," said Caleb.
" She was afraid, I know, to hear the bells ring, and comdn't
trust herself to be so near them on their wedding-day. So we
started in good time, and came here. I have been thinking
of what I have done," said Caleb, after a moment's pause ;
" I have been blaming myself 'till I hardly knew what to do
or where to turn, for the distress of mind I have caused her ;
and I 've come to the conclusion that I 'd better, if you 'U
stay with me, mum, the while, tell her the truth. You '11
stay with me the while?" he inquired, trembling from head
to foot. " I don't know what effect it may have upon her ; I
don't know what she '11 think of me ; I don't know that she '11
ever care for her poor father afterwards. But it 's best for hei
THE CRICKET OK' THE HEARTH. 220
tliat she should be undeceived, and I must bear the cou-
Bequences as I deserve ! "
" Mary," said Bertha, "where is your hand ! Ah ! Here
it is ; here it is ' " pressing it to her lips, with a smile, and
drawing it through her arm. " I heard them speaking softly
among themselves last night, of some blame against you. They
were wrong."
The Carrier's Wife was silent. Caleb answered for her.
"They were wrong," he said.
" I knew it ! " cried Bertha, proudly. " I told them so. I
scorned to hear a word ! Blame her with justice ! " she
pressed the hand between her own, and the soft cheek against
her face. " No ! I am not so blind as that."
Her father went on one side of her, while Dot remained
upon the other : holding her hand.
"I know you all," said Bertha, "better than you think.
But none so weU as her. Not even you, father. There is
nothing half so real and so true about me, as she is. If I could
be restored to sight this instant, and not a word were spoken,
I could choose her from a crowd ! My sister ! "
" Bertha, my dear ! " said Caleb. " I have something on
my mind I want to tell you, while we three are alone. Hear
me kindly ! I have a confession to make to you, my darling."
" A confession, father ? "
" I have wandered from the truth and lost myself, my
child," said Caleb, with a pitiable expression in his bewildered
face. " I have wandered from the truth, intending to be kind
to you ; and have been cruel."
She turned her wonder-stricken face towards him, and re-
peated " Cruel ! "
" He accuses himself too strongly, Bertha," said Dot.
" You 'U say so, presently. You'U be the first to tell
him so."
" He cruel to me ! " cried Bertha, with a smile of
incredulity.
" Not meaning it, my child," said Caleb. " But I have
been : though I never suspected it tiU yesterday. My dear
blind daughter, hear me and forgive me. The world you
live in, heart of mine, doesn't exist as 1 have represented
it. The eyes you have trusted in have been false to you."
She turned her wonder-stricken face towards him still ; but
drew back, and clung closer to her friend.
230 TEE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
"Your road iu life was rough, my poor one," said Caleb,
" and I meant to smooth it for you. I have altered objects,
changed the characters of people, invented many things that
never have been, to make you happier. I have had conceal-
ments from you, put deceptions on you, God forgive me ! and
surrounded you with fancies."
" But living people are not fancies?" she said hurriedly,
and turning very pale, and still retiring from him. " You
can't change them."
" I have done so, Bertha," pleaded Caleb. "There is one
person that you know, my dove" —
" Oh father ! why do you say, I know ?" she answered, in
a term of keen reproach. " What and whom do / know ! I
who have no leader ! I so miserably blind ! "
In the anguish of her heart, she stretched out her hands, as
if she were groping her way ; then spread them, in a manner
most forlorn and sad, upon her face.
"The marriage that takes place to-day," said Caleb, "is
with a stern, sordid, grinding man. A hard master to you
and me, my dear, for many years. Ugly in his looks, and
in his nature. Cold and callous always. Unlike what I
have painted him to you in everything, my child. In every-
thing."
" Oh why," cried the Blind Girl, tortured, as it seemed,
almost beyond endurance, " why did you ever do this ! ^Vhy
did you ever fill my heart so full, and then come in like Death,
and tear away the objects of my love ! O Heaven, how blind
I am ! How helpless and alone ! "
Her afflicted father hung his head, and offered no reply but
in his penitence and sorrow.
She had been but a short time in this passion of regret,
when the Cricket on the Hearth, unheard by all but her,
began to chirp. Not merrily, but in a low, faint, sorrowing
way. It was so mournful, that her tears began to flow ; and
when the Presence wliich had been beside the Carrier aU
night, appeared behind her, pointing to her father, they fell
down like rain.
She heard the Cricket- voice more plainly soon, and wa3
conscious, through her blindness, of the Presence hovering
about her father.
" Mary," said the Blind Girl, " tell me what my homo is.
What it truly is."
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTn. 231
" It is a poor place, Bertha ; very poor and haro indeed,
The house will scarcely keep out wind and rain another winter.
It is as roughly shielded from the weather, Bertha," Dot
continued in a low, clear voice, " as your poor father in his
sackcloth coat."
The Blind Girl, greatly agitated, rose, and led the Carrier's
little wife aside.
" Those presents that I took such care of; that came almost
at my wish, and were so dearly welcome to me," she said,
trembling; "where did they come from? Did you send
them ? "
" No."
"Who then?"
Dot saw she knew, already, and was silent. The Blind
Girl spread her hands before her face again. But in quite
another manner now.
" Dear Mary, a moment. One moment. More this way.
Speak softly to me. You are true, I know. You'd not
deceive me now ; would you ? "
" No, Bertha, indeed ! "
" No, I am sure you would not. You have too much pity
for me. Mary, look across the room to where we were just
now — to where my father is — my father, so compassionate and
loving to me — and teU. me what you see."
" I see," said Dot, who understood her well, " an old man
sitting in a chair, and leaning sorrowfully on the back, with
his face resting on his hand. As if his child should comfort
iiim. Bertha."
" Yes, yes. She will. Go on."
" He is an old man, worn with care and work. He is a
spare, dejected, thoughtful, grey-haired man. I see him now,
despondent and bowed down, and striving against nothing.
But, Bertha, 1 have seen him many times before, and striving
hard in many ways for one great sacred object. And I honor
his grey head, and bless him ! "
The Blind Girl broke away from her ; and throwing herself
upon her knees before him, took the grey head to her breast.
*' It is my sight restored. It is my sight ! " she cried. '' I
have been blind, and now my eyes are open. I never knew
faim ! To think I might have died, and never truly seen the
father who has been so loving to me ! "
There were no words for Caleb's emotion.
232 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
" There is not a gallant fig^e on this earth," exclaimed
the Blind Girl, holding him in her embrace, " that I would
love so dearly, and would cherish so devotedly, as this ! The
greyer, and more worn, the dearer, father ! Never let them
say I am blind again. There's not a furrow in his face,
there 's not a hair upon his head, that shall be forgotten in
my prayers and thanks to Heaven ! "
Caleb managed to articulate, " My Bertha ! "
" And in my blindness, I believed him," said the girl,
caressing him with tears of exquisite affection, "to be so
different ! And having him beside me, day by day, so mindful
of me always, never dreamed of this ! "
" The fresh smart father in the blue coat, Bertha," said
poor Caleb. " He 's gone ! "
" Nothing is gone," she answered. " Dearest father, no !
Everything is here — in you. The father that I loved so well ;
the father that I never loved enough, and never knew ; the
benefactor whom I first began to reverence and love, because
he had such sympathy for me ; All are here in you. Nothing
is dead to me. The soul of all that was most dear to me is
here — here, with the worn face, and the grey head. And I
am NOT blind, father, any longer ! "
Dot's whole attention had been concentrated, during this
discourse, upon the father and daughter; but looking, now,
towards the Httle Haymaker in the Moorish meadow, she saw
that the clock was within a few minutes of striking, and fell,
immediately, into a nervous and excited state.
" Father," said Bertha, hesitating. " Mary."
" Yes my dear," returned Caleb. " Here she is."
" There is no change in her. You never told me anything
of her that was not true ? "
"I should have done it my dear, I am afraid," returned
Caleb, " if I could have made her better than she was. But
I must have changed her for the worse, if I had changed her
at all. Nothing could improve her. Bertha."
Confident as the Blind Girl had been when she asked the
question, her delight and pride in the reply and her renewed
embrace of Dot, were charming to behold.
" More changes than you think for, may happen though,
my dear," said Dot. "Changes for the better, I mean;
changes for great joy to some of us. You mustn't let them
startle you too much, if anv such should ever happen, and
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 233
affect you ! Are those wlieels upon the road ? You 've a quick
oar, Bertha. Are they wheels ? "
" Yes. Coming very fast."
" I — I — I know you have a quick ear," said Dot, placing
her hand upon her heart, and evidently talking on, as fast as she
could, to hide its palpitating state, " because I have noticed it
often, and because you were so quick to find out that strange
step last night. Though why you should have said, as I very
well recollect you did say. Bertha, ' whose step is that ! ' and
why you should have taken any greater observation of it than
of any other step, I don't know. Though, as I said just now,
there are great changes in the world : great changes : and we
can't do better than prepare ourselves to be surprised at hardly
anything."
Caleb wondered what this meant ; perceiving that she spoke
to him, no less than to his daughter. He saw her, with
astonishment, so fluttered and distressed that she could scarcely
breathe ; and holding to a chair, to save herself from faUing.
" They are wheels indeed ! " she panted, " Coming nearer !
Nearer ! Very close ! And now you hear them stopping at
the garden gate ! And now you hear a step outside the door
— the same step, Bertha, is it not ! — and now ! " —
She uttered a wild cry of uncontrollable delight ; and run-
ning up to Caleb, put her hands upon his eyes, as a young
man rushed into the room, and flinging away his hat into the
air, came sweeping down upon them.
" Is it over ? " cried Dot.
"Yes!"
" Happily over ? "
" Yes ! "
" Do you recoUect the voice, dear Caleb ? Did you ever
hear the like of it before ? " cried Dot.
" If my boy in the Golden South Americas was alive " —
said Caleb, trembling.
" He is alive ! " shrieked Dot, removing her hands from his
eyes, and clapping them in ecstasy ; " look at him ! See
where he stands before you, healthy and strong ! Yoixr own
dear son. Your own dear living, loving brother, Bertha ! "
AH honor to the little creature for hei transports ! All
honor to her tears and laughter, when the three were locked
in one another's arms ! All honor to the heartiness with
vhich she mot the sunburnt tailor-fellow, with his dark
234 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
streaming 'hair, half way, and nover turned her rosy little
mouth aside, but suffered him to kiss it, freely, and to press
her to his bounding heart !
And honor to the Cuckoo too — why not ! — for bursting out
of the trap -door in the Moorish Palace like a housebreaker,
and hiccoughing twelve times on the assembled company, as
if he had got drunk for joy !
The Carrier, entering, started back. And wfiU he might,
to find himself in such good company.
" Look, John ! " said Caleb, exultingly, " look here ! My
own boy, from the Golden South Americas ! My own son !
Him that you fitted out, and sent away yourself ! Him that
you were always such a friend to ! "
The Carrier advanced to seize him by the hand ; but,
recoiling, as some feature in his face awakened a remembrance
of the Deaf Man in the Cart, said :
" Edward ! Was it you ? "
" Now ten him all ! " cried Dot. " Tell him all, Edward :
and don't spare me, for nothing shall make me spare myself
in his eyes, ever again."
" I was the man," said Edward.
" And could you steal, disguised, into the house of your old
friend ? " rejoined the Carrier. " There was a frank boy once
— how many years is it, Caleb, since we heard that he was
dead, and had it proved, we thought? — who never would
have done that."
" There was a generous friend of mine, once ; more a father
to me than a friend ; " said Edward, " who never would have
judged me, or any other man, unheard. You were he. So I
am certain you will hear me now."
The Carrier, with a troubled glance at Dot, who still kept
far away from him, replied " Well ! that 's but fair. I will."
" You must know that when I left here, a boy," said Edward,
" I was in love, and my love was returned. She was a very
young girl, who perhaps (you may tell me) didn't know her
own mind. But I knew mine, and I had a passion for her."
" You had ! " exclaimed the Carrier. " You ! "
"Indeed I had," returned the other. "And she returned
it. I have ever since believed she did, and now I am siu'O
she did."
" Heaven help me ' " said the Carrier. " This is worse
than all."
THE CRICKET ON THE HEAUTE. 236
"Constant to her," said Edward, "and returning, full of
hope, after many hardships and perils, to redeem my part of
our old contract, I heard, twenty miles away, that she was
false to me ; that she had forgotten me ; and had bestowed
herself upon another and a richer man. I had no mind to
reproach her ; but I wished to see her, and to prove beyond
dispute that this was true. I hoped she might have been
forced into it, against her own desire and recollection. It
would be small comfort, but it would be some, I thought, and
on I came. That I might have the truth, the real truth ;
observing freely for myself, and judging for myself, without
obstruction on the one hand, or presenting my own influence
(if I had any) before her, on the other ; I dressed myself
vmlike myself — you know how ; and waited on the road — you
know where. You had no suspicion of me ; neither had — had
she," pointing to Dot, " until I whispered in her ear at that
fireside, and she so nearly betrayed me."
" But when she knew that Edward was alive, and had come
back," sobbed Dot, now speaking for herself, as she had
burned to do, all through this narrative ; " and when she
knew his purpose, she advised him -by all means to keep his
secret close ; for his old friend John Peerybingle was much
too open in his nature, and too clumsy in all artifice — being u
clumsy man in general," said Dot, half laughing and half
cr}dng — "to keep it for him. And when she — that's me,
John," sobbed the little woman — " told him all, and how his
sweetheart had believed him to be dead ; and how she had
at last been over-persuaded by her mother into a marriage
which the silly, dear old thing called advantageous ; and when
she — that 's me again, John — told him they were not yet
married (though close upon it), and that it would be nothing
but a sacrifice if it went on, for there was no love on her side ;
and when he went nearly mad with joy to hear it ; then she —
that 's me again — said she woxdd go between them, as she
had often done before in old times, John, and would sound
his sweetheart and be sure that what she — me again, John —
said and thought was right. And it was right, John ! And
they were brought together, Jolm ! And they were married,
John, an hour ago ! And here 's the Bride ! And Gruff and
Tackleton may die a bachelor ! And I 'm a happy little
woman. May, God bless you I "
She was an irresistible little woman, if that be anything to
•236 THE CRigKET ON THE HEARTH.
the piirpose ; and never so completely irresistible as in her
present transports. There never were congratulations so
endearing and delicious, as those she lavished on herself and
on the Bride.
Amid the tumtdt of emotions in his breast, the honest
Carrier had stood confounded. Flying, now, towards her
Dot stretched out her hand to stop him, and retreated as
before.
" No John, no ! Hear all ! Don't love me any more,
John, 'till you 've heard every word I have to say. It was
wrong to have a secret from you, John. I 'm very sorry. I
didn't think it any harm, till I came and sat down by you on
the little stool last night. But when I knew by what was
written in your face, that you had seen me walking in the
gaUery with Edward, and when I knew what you thought, I
felt how giddy and how wrong it was. But oh, dear John,
how could you, could you think so ! "
Little woman, how she sobbed again ! John Peerybingle
would have caught her in his arms. But no ; she wouldn't
let him.
" Don't love me yet, please John ! Not for a long time yet !
WTien I was sad about this intended marriage, dear, it was
because I remembered May and Edward such young lovers ;
and knew that her heart was far away from Tackleton. You
believe that, now don't you John ? "
John was going to make another rush at this appeal ; but
she stopped him again.
" No ; keep there, please John ! When I laugh at you, as
I sometimes do, John, and call you clumsy and a dear old
goose, and names of that sort, it 's because I love you, John,
so well, and take such pleasure in your waj^s, and wouldn't
see you altered in the least respect to have you made a king
to-morrow."
" Hooroar ! " said Caleb, with unusual vigour. " My
opinion ! "
" And when I speak of people being middle-aged, and
steady John, and pretend that we are a humdrum couple,
going on in a jog-trot sort of way, it 's only because I 'm such
a siUy little thing, John, that I like, sometimes, to act as a
kind of Play with Baby, and all that : and make believe."
She saw that he was coming ; and stopped him again. But
she was very nearly too late.
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 237
" No, don't love me for another minute or two, if you please
Jolin ! What I want most to teU you, I have kept to the
last. My dear, good, generous John, when we were talkmg
the other night about the Cricket, I had it on my lips to say,
that at first I did not love you quite so dearly as I do now ;
■when I first came home here, I was half afraid that 1
mightn't learn to love you every bit as well as I hoped and
prayed I might — being so very young, John ! But, dear
John, every day and hour, I loved you more and more. And
if I could have loved you better than I do, the noble words I
heard you say this morning would have made me. But I
can't. All the affection that I had (it was a great deal John)
I gave you, as you well deserve, long, long ago, and I have
no more left to give. Now, my dear husband, take me to
your heart again ! That 's my home, John ; and never, never
think of sending me to any other ! "
You never will derive so much delight from seeing a
glorious little woman in the arms of a third party, as you
would have felt if you had seen Dot run into the Carrier's
embrace. It was the most complete, unmitigated, soul-fraught
little piece of earnestness that ever you beheld in aU your days.
You may be sure the Carrier was in a state of perfect
rapture ; and you may be sure Dot was Hkewise ; and you
may be sure they all were, inclusive of Miss Slowboy, who
wept copiously for joy, and, wishing to include her yoxmg
charge in the general interchange of congratulations, handed
round the Baby to everybody in succession, as if it were some-
thing to drink.
But, now, the sound of wheels was heard again outside the
door ; and somebody exclaimed that Gruff and Tackleton was
coming back. Speedily that worthy gentleman appeared,
looking warm and flustered.
"Why, what the Devil's this, John Peerybingle ! " said
Tackleton. "There's some mistake. I appointed Mrs.
Tackleton to meet me at the church, and I '11 swear I passed
her on tlie road, on her way here. Oh ! here she is ! I beg youi
pardon, sir ; I haven't the pleasiore of knowing you ; but if
you can do me the favor to spare this young lady, she has
rather a particular engagement this morning."
" But I can't spare her," returned Edward. " I covildn't
think of it."
"What do you mean, you vagabond?'' said Tackleton.
238 TEE CraCKET ON THE HEARTH.
" I mean, that as I can make allowance for your beina;
vexed," returned the other with a smile, " I am as deaf to
harsh discoui-se this morning, as I was to all discoui-se last
night."
The look that Tackleton bestowed upon him, and the
start he gave !
" I am sorry sir," said Edward, holding out May's left
hand, and especially the third finger, " that the young
lady can't accompany you to church; but as she has been
there once, this morning, perhaps you'll excuse her."
Tackleton looked hard at the third finger, and took a
little piece of silver paper, apparently containing a ring
from his waistcoat pocket.
" Miss Slowboy," said Tackleton. " Will you have the
kindness to throw that in the fire ? Thank' ee."
" It was a previous engagement, quite an old engagement,
that prevented my wife fi'om keeping her appointment with
you, I assure you," said Edward.
" Mr. Tackleton will do me the justice to acknowledge that
I revealed it to him feithfully ; and that I told him, many
times, I never could forget it," said May, blushing.
" Oh certainly ! " said Tackleton. "Oh to be sure. Oh,
it 's all right, it 's quite correct. Mrs. Edward Plummer, I
infer ? "
"That's the name," returned the bridegroom.
" Ah ! I shouldn't have known you, sir," said Tackleton,
scrutinising his face narrowly, and making a low bow. " I
give you joy sir ! "
"Thank'ee."
"Mrs. Peerybingle," said Tackleton, turning suddenly to
where she stood with her husband; " I 'm sorry. You
haven't done me a very great kindness, but, upon my life I
am sorry. You are better than I thought you. Jolin Peery-
bingle, I am sorry. You understand me ; that 's enough.
It's quite correct, ladies and gentlemen all, and perfectly
satisfactory. Good morning ! "
With these words he carried it ofi", and carried himself
off too : merely stopping at the door, to take the fiowera
and favors from his horse's head, and to kick that animal
once, in the ribs, as a means of informing him that there
was a screw loose in his arrangements.
Of coua'se. it L'jciuue h seiious duty now, to make cucli j.
THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 239
day of it, as should mark these events for a high Feast and
Festival in the Peerybingle Calendar for evermore. Accord-
ingly, Dot went to work to produce such an entertainment,
as should reflect undying honor on the house and on every
one concerned ; and in a very short space of time, she was
up to her dimpled elbows in flour, and whitening the
Carrier's coat, every time he came near her, by stopping him
to give him a kiss. That good fellow washed the greens,
and peeled the turnips, and broke the plates, and upset irou
pots full of cold water on the fire, and made himself useful
in all sorts of waj'S : while a couple of professional assistants,
hastily called in from somewhere in the neighbourhood, as
on a point of life or death, ran against each other in all the
doorways and round all the corners, and everybody tumbled
over Tilly Slowboy and the Baby, everywhere. Tilly never
came out in such force before. Her ubiquity was the theme
of general admiration. She was a stumbling-block in the
passage at five and twenty minutes past two ; a man-trap in
the kitchen at half-past two precisely ; and a pit-fall in the
garret at five and twenty minutes to three. The Baby's head
was, as it were, a test and touchstone for eveiy description of
matter, animal, vegetable, and mineral. Nothing was in use
that day that didn't come, at some time or other, into close
acquaintance with it.
Then there was a great Expedition set on foot to go and
find out Mrs. Fielding ; and to be dismally penitent to that
excellent gentlewoman ; and to bring her back, by force, if
needful, to be happy and forgiving. And when the Expedi-
tion fia'st discovered her, she would listen to no terms at all,
but said, an tmspeakable number of times, that ever she
should have lived to see the day .' and couldn't be got to say
anything else, except " Now carry me to the grave : " which
seemed absui'd, on account of her not being dead, or anything
ai all like it. After a time she lapsed into a state of dreadful
calmness, and observed that when that unfortunate train of
circumstances had occurred in the Indigo Trade, she had fore-
seen that she would be exposed, during her whole life, to
every species of insult and contumely ; and that she was glad
to fiud it was the case ; and begged they wouldn't trouble
themselves about her, — for what was she? — oh, dear! a
nobody ! — but would forget tliat such a being lived, and would
take their course in life witJjuut her. From this bitterly
240 THE CRICKET ON TUE HEAKTH.
sarcastic mood, she passed into an angry one, in which sho
gave vent to the remarkable expression that the worm would
turn if trodden on ; and, after that, she yielded to a soft regret,
and said, if they had only given her their confidence, what
might she not have had it in her power to suggest ! Taking
advantage of this crisis in her feelings, the Expedition
embraced her ; and she very soon had her gloves on, and was
on her way to John Peerybingle's in a state of unimpeachable
gentility ; with a paper parcel at her side containing a cap of
state, almost as tall, and quite as stiff, as a mitre.
Then, there were Dot's father and mother to come, in
another little chaise ; and they were behind their time ; and
fears were entertained ; and there was much looking out for
them down the road ; and Mrs. Fielding always would look
in the wrong and morally impossible direction; and being
apprised thereof, hoped she might take the liberty of looking
where she pleased. At last they came ; a chubby little couple,
jogging along in a snug and comfortable little way that quite
belonged to the Dot family ; and Dot and her mother, side by
side, were wonderful to see. They were so like each other.
Then, Dot's mother had to renew her acquaintance with
May's mother ; and May's mother always stood on her gen-
tility ; and Dot's mother never stood on anything but her
active little feet. And old Dot — so to call Dot's father, I
forgot it wasn't his right name, but never mind — took
liberties, and shook hands at first sight, and seemed to think
a cap but so much starch and muslin, and didn't defer himseK
at all to the Indigo Trade, but said there was no help for it
now; and, in Mrs. Fielding's summing up, was a good-
natured kind of man — but coarse, my dear.
I wouldn't have missed Dot, doing the honors in her
wedding-gown, my benison on her bright face ! for any
money. No ! nor the good Carrier, so jovial and so ruddy,
at the bottom of the table. Nor the brown, fresh sailor-
fellow, and his handsome wife. Nor any one among them.
To have missed the dinner would have been to miss as jolly
and as stout a meal as man need eat ; and to have missed the
overflowing cups in which they drank The Wedding Day,
would have been the greatest miss of all.
After dinner, Caleb sang the song about the Sparkling Bowl.
As I 'm a living man, hoping to keep so, for a year or two,
he sang it through.
TDE CRICKET ON TUE nEARTH. Zil
And, by-tlie-bye, a most unlooked-for incident occurred,
just as lie finished the last verse.
There was a tap at the door ; and a man came stag'gerinj*;
in, without saying with your leave, or by yovir leave, with
something heavy on his head. Setting this down in the
middle of the table, symmetrically in the centre of the niirs
and apples, he said :
" Mr. Tackleton's compliments, and as he hasn't got no use
for the cake himself, p'raps you '11 eat it."
And with those words, he walked off.
There was some surprise among the company, as you may
imagine. Mrs. Fielding, being a lady of infinite discernment,
suggested that the cake was poisoned, and related a narrative
of a cake, which, within her knowledge, had turned a seminaiy
for young ladies, blue. But she Avas overruled by acclama-
tion ; and the cake was cut by May, with much ceremony and
rejoicing.
I don't think any one had tasted it, when there came
another tap at the door, and the same man appeared again,
having under his arm a vast brown paper parcel.
"Mr. Tackleton's compliments, and he's sent a few to\-3
for the Babby. They ain't ugly."
After the delivery of which expressions, lie retired again.
The whole party would have experienced great difficulty in
finding words for their astonishment, even if they had had
ample time to seek them. But, they had none at all ; for,
the messenger had scarcely shut the door behind him, when
there came another tap, and Tackleton himself walked in.
" Mrs. Peerybingle ! " said the Toy Merchant, hat in hand.
" I 'm sorry. I 'm more sorry than I was this morning. I
have had time to think of it. John Peerybingle ! I am sour
by disposition ; but I can't help being sweetened, more or
leas, by coming face to face with such a man as you. Caleb !
This unconscious little nurse gave me a broken hint last
night, of which I have found tlie thread. I blush to think
how easily I might have bound you and your daughter to me,
and what a miserable idiot 1 was, when I took her for one '
Friends, one and all, my house is very lonely to-night. 1
have not so much as a Cricket on my Hearth. I have scared
them all away. Be gracious to me • let me join this happy
party ! "
He was ut home in five minutes. You never sa-\v sudi a
242 THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH.
fellow. What Jiad he been doing with himself all his life,
never to have known, before, his great capacity of beinj^
jovial ! Or what had the Fairies been doing with him, to
have eifected such a change !
" John ! you won't send me home this evening; will you ?"
whispered Dot.
He had been very near it though.
There wanted but one living creature to make the party
complete ; and, in the twinkling of an eye, there he was, very
thirsty with hard running, and engaged in hopeless endeavours
to squeeze his head into a narrow pitcher. He had gone with
the cart to its journey's end, very much disgusted with the
absence of his master, and stupendously rebellious to the
Deputy. After lingering about the stable for some little time,
vainly attempting to incite the old horse to the mutinous act
of returning on his own account, he had walked into the tap-
room and laid himself down before tlie fire. But suddenly
yielding to the conviction that the Deputy was a humbug,
and must be abandoned, he had got up again, turned taU, and
come home.
There was a dance in the evening. With which general
mention of that recreation, I should have left it alone, if I
had not some reason to suppose that it was quite an original
dance, and one of a most xmcommon figure. It was formed
in an odd way ; in this way.
Edward, that sailor-fellow— a good free dashing sort of
fellow he was — had been telling them various marvels con-
cerning parrots, and mines, and Mexicans, and gold dust,
when all at once lie took it in his head to jump up from his
seat and propose a dance ; for Bertha's harp was there, and
she had such a hand upon it as you seldom hear. Dot (sly
little piece of affectation when she chose) said her dancing
days were over ; I think because the Carrier was smoking his
pipe, and she liked sitting by him, best. Mrs. Fielding had
no choice, of course, but to say her dancing days were over,
after that ; and everybody said the same, excejjt May ; May
was ready.
So, May and Edward get up, amid great applause, to dance
alone ; and Bertha plays her liveliest tune.
Well ! if you '11 believe me, they have not been dancing
five minutes, when suddenly the Carrier flings his pipe away,
takes Dot round the waist dashes out into the room, and
■i-ilE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. 243
Starts off with her, toe and heel, quite wonderfully. Tackleton
no sooner sees this, than he skims across to Mrs. Fielding,
takes her round the waist, and follows suit. Old Dot no
sooner sees this, than up he is, all alive, whisks off Mrs. Dot
into the middle of the dance, and is the foremost there.
Caleb no sooner sees this, than he clutches Tilly Slowboy by
both hands and goes off at score ; Miss Slowboy, firm in the
beHef that diving hotly in among the other couples, and
effecting any number of concussions with them, is your only
principle of footing it. "
Hark ! how the Cricket joins the music with its Chirp,
Chirp, Chirp ; and how the kettle hums I
But what is this ! Even as I listen to them, blithely, and
turn towards Dot, for one last glimpse of a little figure very
pleasant to me, she and the rest have vanished into air, and
I am left alone. A Cricket sings upon the Hearth ; a broken
child' s-toy Kes upon the ground ; aiid nothing- else remains.
THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
J. LOVE STORY.
THE BATTLE OE LIFE.
PART THE FIRST.
Once upon a time, it matters little when, and in stalwart
England, it matters little where, a fierce battle was fought.
It was fought upon a long summer day when the waving
grass was green. Many a wild flower formed by the
Almighty Hand to be a perfumed goblet for the dew, felt its
enamelled cup filled high with blood that day, and shrinking
dropped. Many an insect deriving its delicate colour from
harmless leaves and herbs, was stained anew that day by
dying men, and marked its frightened way with an unnatural
track. The painted butterfly took blood into the air upon the
edges of its wings. The stream ran red. The trodden
ground became a quagmire, whence, from sullen pools
collected in the prints of human feet and horses' hoofs, the
one prevailing hue still lowered and glimmered at the sun.
Heaven keep us from a knowledge of the sights the moon
beheld upon that field, when, coming up above the black Ihie
of distant rising-ground, softened and blurred at tlie edge by
trees, she rose into the sky and looked upon the plain, strewn
with upturned faces that had once at mothers' breasts sought
mothers' eyes, or slumliered happily. Heaven keep us from
a knowledge of the secrets whispered afterwards upon the
tainted wind that blew across the scene of that day's work
and that night's death and suffering ! Many a lonely moon
was bright upon the battle-ground, and many a star kept
mournful watch upon it, and many a wind from every quarter
of the earth blew over it, before the traces of the fight were
worn away.
They luiked and lingered for a long time, but survived in
248 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
little things ; for, Nature, far above the evil passions of men,
soon recovered Her serenity, and smiled upon the guilty
battle-ground as she had done before, when it was innocent.
The larks sang high above it ; the swallows skimmed and
dipped and flitted to and fro ; the shadows of the flying clouds
pursued each other swiftly, over grass and com and turnip-
field and wood, and over roof and church-spire in the nestling
town among the trees, away into the bright distance on the
borders of the sky and earth, where the red sunsets faded.
Crops were sown, and grew up, and were gathered in ; the
stream that had been crimsoned, turned a water-mill ; men
whistled at the plough ; gleaners and haymakers were seen
in quiet groups at work ; sheep and oxen pastured ; boys
whooped and called, in fields, to scare away the birds ; smoke
rose from cottage chimneys ; sabbath bells rang peacefully ;
old people lived and died ; the timid creatures of the field,
and simple flowers of the bush and garden, grew and withered
in their destined terms ; and all upon the fierce and bloody
battle-ground, where thousands upon thousands had been killed
in the great fight.
But, there were deep green patches in the growing com at
first, that people looked at awfully. Year after year they re-
appeared ; and it was known that underneath those fertile
spots, heaps of men and horses lay buried, indiscriminately,
enriching the ground. The husbandmen who ploughed those
places, shrunk from the great worms abounding there ; and
the sheaves they jdelded, were, for many a long year, called
the Battle Sheaves, and set apart ; and no one ever knew a
Battle Sheaf to be among the last load at a Harvest Home.
For a long time, every furrow that was turned, revealed some
fragments of the fight. For a long time, there were wounded
trees upon the battle-ground ; and scraps of hacked and
broken fence and wall, where deadly struggles had been
made ; and trampled parts where not a leaf or blade would
grow. For a long time, no village girl would dress her hair
or bosom with the sweetest flower from that field of death :
and after many a year had come and gone, the berries
growing there, were still believed to leave too deep a stain
upon the hand that plucked them.
The Seasons in their course, however, though they passed
as lightly as the summer clouds themselves, obliterated, in
tho lapse of time, even theso remains of the old conflict; axxd
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 249
■wore away such legendary traces of it as the neighbouring
people carried in their minds, until they dwindled into old
wives' tales, dimly remembered round the winter lire, and
waning every year. ^^Tiere the wild jflowers and berries had
so long remained upon the stem untouclied, gardens arose,
and houses were built, and children played at battles on the
turf. The wounded trees had long ago made Christmas logs,
and blazed and roared away The deep green patches were
no greener now than the memory of those who lay in dust
below. The ploughshare still turned up from time to time
some rusty bits of metal, but it was hard to say what use they
had ever served, and those who found them wondered and
disputed. An old dinted corslet, and a helmet, had been
hanging in the chui-ch so long, that the same weak half-blind
old man who tried in vain to make them out above the white-
washed arch, had marvelled at them as a baby. If the host
slain upon the field, could have been for a moment reanimated
in the forms in which they feU, each upon the spot that was
the bed of his untimely death, gashed and ghastly soldiers
would have stared in, hundreds deep, at household door and
window; and would have risen on the hearths of quiet homes;
and would have been the garnered store of barns and
granaries ; and would have started up between the cradled
infant and its nurse ; and would have floated with tlie stream,
and whirled round on the mill, and crowded the orchai'd, and
burdened the meadow, and piled the rickyard high with
dj-ing men. So altered was the battle-ground, where
thousands upon thousands had been killed in the great fight.
Nowhere more altered, perhaps, about a hundred years ago,
than in one little orchard attached to an old stone house with
a honeysuckle porch ; where, on a bright autumn morning,
there were sounds of music and laughter, and where two
girls danced merrily together on the grass, while some half-
dozen peasant women standing on ladders, gathering the
apples from the trees, stopped in their work to look down,
and share their enjoyment. It was a pleasant, lively, natural
scene ; a beautiful day, a retired spot ; and the two girls,
(juite unconstrained and careless, danced in the freedom and
gaiety of their hearts.
If there were no such thing as display in the world, my
private opinion is, and I hope you agree with me, that we
might get on a great deal better than we do, and might bo
250 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
infinitely more agreeable company than we are. It wa^
charming to see how these girls danced. They had no
spectators but the apple-pickers on the ladders. They were
very glad to please them, but they danced to please themselve.^'
(or at least you would have supposed so) ; and you could no
more help admiring, than they could help dancing. How
tliey did dance !
Not like opera-dancers. Not at all. And not like Madame
Anybody's finished pupils. Not the least. It was non
quadrille dancing, nor minuet dancing, nor even country-
dance dancing. It was neither in the old style, nor the new
style, nor the French style, nor the English style : though it
may have been, by accident, a trifle in the Spanish style,
which is a free and joyous one, I am told, deriving a delight-
ful air of off-hand inspiration, from the chirping little
castanets. As they danced among the orchard trees, and
down the groves of stems and back again, and twirled each
other lightly round and round, the influence of their airy
motion seemed to spread and spread, in the sun-lighted scene,
like an expanding circle in the water. Their streaming hair
and fluttering skirts, the elastic grass beneath their feet, tho
boughs that rustled in the morning air — the flashing leaves,
the speckled shadows on the soft green ground — the balmy
wind that swept along the landscape, glad to turn the distant
windmill, cheerily — everything between the two girls, and the
man and team at plough upon the ridge of land, where thfy
showed against the sky as if they were the last tilings in tho
world — seemed dancing too.
At last, the younger of the dancing sisters, out of breath,
and laughing gaily, threw herself upon a bench to rest. The
other leaned against a tree hard by. The music, a wandering
harp and fiddle, left off with a flourish, as if it boasted of its
freshness ; though, the truth is, it had gone at such a pace,
and worked itself to such a pitch of competition with the
dancing, that it never could have held on, half a minute
longer. The apple-pickers on the ladders raised a hum and
miirmur of applause, and then, in keeping with the sound,
bestirred themselves to work again like bees.
The more actively, perhaps, because an elderly gentleman,
who was no other than Doctor Jeddler himself — it was Doctor
Jeddler's house and orchard, you should know, and these wero
Doctor Jeddler's daughters — came bustling out to see ^'hat
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 251
was the matter, and who the deuce played music on his
property, before breakfast. For he was a great philosopher.
Doctor Jeddler, and not very musical.
"Music and dancing to-daij f " said the Doctor, stopping
short, and speaking to himself, " I thought they dreaded to-
day. But it 's a world of contradictions. Why, Grace, why,
Marion ! " he added aloud, " is the world more mad than
usual this morning ? "
" Make some allowance for it, father, if it be," replied his
younger daughter, Marion, going close to him, and looking
into his face, " for it 's somebody's bfrth-day."
"Somebody's birth-day, Puss," replied the Doctor. "Don't
you know it 's always somebody's birth-day ? Did you never
hear how many new performers enter on this — ha ! ha ! ha I
— it 's impossible to speak gravely of it — on this preposterous
and ridiculous business called Life, every minute ? "
" No, father ! "
"No, not you, of course; you're a woman — almost," said
the Doctor. " By the by," and he looked into the pretty face,
still close to his, " I suppose it's your birth-day."
"No! Do you really, father?" cried his pet daughter,
pursing up her red lips to be kissed.
" There ! Take my love with it," said the Doctor,
imprinting his upon them; "and many happy returns of the
— the idea ! — of the day. The notion of wishing happy
returns in such a farce as this," said the Doctor to himself,
"is good! Ha! ha! ha!"
Doctor Jeddler was, as I have said, a great philosopher,
and the heart and mystery of liis philosophy was, to look
upon the world as a gigantic practical joke ; as something too
absurd to be considered seriously, by any rational man. His
system of belief had been, in the beginning, part and parcel
of the battle-ground on which he lived, as you shall presently
understand.
" Well ! But how did you get the music ? " asked the
Doctor. " Poultry-stealers, of coui'se ! Where did the
minstrels come from ? "
"Alfred sent the music," said his daughter Grace, adjust-
ing a few simple flowers in her sister's hair, with which, in
her admiration of that jouthful beauty, she had herself
adorned it half-an-hour before, and which the dancing had
disarranged.
252 TEE BATTLE OF LIFE.
" Oh ! Alfred sent the music, did he ? " returned the
Doctor.
" Yes. He met it coming out of the town as he was
entering early. The men are travelling on foot, and rested
there last night ; and as it was Marion's birth-day, and he
thought it would please her, he sent them on, with a pencilled
note to me, saying that if I thought so too, they had come to
serenade her."
"Ay, ay," said the Doctor, carelessly, "he always takes
your opinion."
" And my opinion b(?ing favourable," said Grace, good-
humouredly ; and pausing for a moment to admire the pretty
head she decorated, with her own thrown back ; " and Marion
being in high spirits, and beginning to dance, I joined her.
And so we danced to Alfred's music till we were out of breath.
And we thought the music all the gayer for being sent by
Alfred. Didn't we, dear Marion ? "
" Oh, I dont know, Grace. How you tease me about
Alfred."
" Tease you by mentioning your lover? " said her sister.
"I am sure I don't much care to have him mentioned,"
said the wilful beauty, stripping the petals from some flowers
she held, and scattering them on the ground. " I am almost
tired of hearing of him ; and as to his being my lover "
" Hush ! Don't speak Kghtly of a true heart, which is all
your own, Marion," cried her sister, " even in jest. There is
not a truer heart than Alfred's in the world ! "
" No — no," said Marion, raising her eyebrows with a
pleasant air of careless consideration, "perhaps not. But I
don't know that there 's any great merit in that. I — I don't
want hira to be so very true. I never asked him. If he
expects that I . But, dear Grace, why need we talk of
him at all, just now ! "
It was agreeable to see the graceful figures of the blooming
sisters, twined together, lingering among the trees, conversing
thus, with earnestness opposed to lightness, yet, with love
responding tenderly to love. And it was very curious indeed
to see the younger sister's eyes suffused with tears, and some-
thing fervently and deeply felt, breaking through the wilful-
ness of what she said, and striving with it painfully.
The difference between them, in respect of age, could not
exceed four years at most ; but, Grace, as often happens in
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 253
such cases, -vrhen no mother watches over both (the Doctor's
wife was dead), seemed, in her gentle care of her young sister,
and in the steadiness of her devotion to her, older than she
was ; and more removed, in course of nature, from all com-
petition with her, or participation, otherwise than through her
sympathy and true aifection, in her wayward fancies, than
their ages seemed to warrant. Great character of mother,
that, even in this shadow and faint reflection of it, purifies
the heart, and raises the exalted nature nearer to the
angels !
The Doctor's reflections, as he looked after them, and heard
the purport of their discourse, were limited at first to certain
merry meditations on the foUy of all loves and likings, and
the idle imposition practised on themselves by young people,
who believed for a moment, that there could be anything
serious in such bubbles, and were always undeceived —
always !
But the home-adoming, self-denying qualities of Grace, and
her sweet temper, so gentle and retiring, yet including so
much constancy and bravery of spirit, seemed all expressed to
him in the contrast between her quiet household figure and
that of his younger and more beautiful child; and he was
sorry for her sake — sorry for them both — that life should be
such a very ridiculous business as it was.
The Doctor never dreamed of inquiring whether his
children, or either of them, helped in any way to make tlie
scheme a serious one. But then he was a Philosopher.
A kind and generous man by nature, he had stumbled, by
chance, over that common Philosopher's stone (much more
easily discovered than the object of the alchemist's researches),
which sometimes trips up kind and generous men, and has
the fatal property of turning gold to dross and eveiy precious
thing to poor account.
" Britain ! " cried the Doctor. " Britain ! Halloa ! "
A smaU man, with an uncommonly soui' and discontented
face, emerged from the house, and returned to this call the
unceremonious acknowledgment of " Now then! "
" Where 's the breakfast table ? " said the Doctor.
" In the house," returned Britain.
" Are you going to spread it out here, as you were told last
night ?" said the Doctor. " Don't you know that there are
Gentlemen coming ? That there 's business to be done this
254 TEE BATTLE OF LTFR.
morning, before the coach comes by ? That this is a very
particular occasion ? "
" I couldn't do anything, Doctor Jeddler, till the women had
done getting in the apples, could I ? " said Britain, his voice
rising with his reasoning, so that it was very loud at last.
" WeU, have they done now ? " returned the Doctor, look-
ing at his watch, and clapping his hands. " Come ! make haste '
where 's Clemency ? "
" Here am I, Mister," said a voice from one of the ladders,
which a pair of clumsy feet descended briskly. " It 's all
done now. Clear away, gals. Everything shall be ready for
you in half a minute. Mister."
With that she began to bustle about most vigorously ; pre-
senting, as she did so, an appearance sufficiently peculiar to
justify a word of introduction.
She was about thirty years old, and had a sufficiently plump
and cheerful face, though it was twisted up into an odd
expression of tightness that made it comical. But, the extra-
ordinary homeliness of her gait and manner, would have
superseded any face in the world. To say that she had two
left legs, and somebody else's arms, and that all four limbs
seemed to be out of joint, and to start from perfectly wrong
places when they were set in motion, is to offer the mildest
outline of the reality. To say that she was perfectly con-
tent and satisfied with these arrangements, and regarded
them as being no business of hers, and that she took her
arms and legs as they came, and allowed them to dispose of
themselves just as it happened, is to render faint justice to
her equanimity. Her di-ess was a prodigious pair of self-
willed shoes, that never wanted to go where her feet went ;
blue stockings ; a printed gown of many colours and the most
hideous pattern procurable for money ; and a white apron.
She always wore short sleeves, and always had, by some
accident, grazed elbows, in which she took so lively an
interest, that she was continually trying to turn them round
and get impossible views of them. In general, a little cap
perched somewhere on her head ; though it was rarely to be
met with in the place usually occupied in other subjects, by
that article of dress ; but, fi-om head to foot she was scru-
pulously clean, and maintained a kind of dislocated tidiness.
Indeed, her laudable anxiety to be tidy and compact in her owrx
coi? science as well as in the public eye, gave rise to one of hes
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 255
most startling evolutions, which was to grasp herself some-
times by a sort of wooden handle (part of her clothing, and
familiarly called a busk), and wi-estle as it were with her gar-
ments, until they fell into a symmetrical arrangement.
Such, in outward form and garb, was Clemency Newcome ;
who was supposed to have unconsciously originated a corrup-
tion of her own christian name, from Clementina (but no-
body knew, for the deaf old mother, a very phenomenon of age,
whom she had supported almost from a child, was dead,
-and she had no other relation ) ; who now busied herself iu
preparing the table, and who stood, at intervals, with her baro
red arms crossed, rubbing her grazed elbows with opposite
hands, and staring at it very composedly, until she suddenly
remembered something else it wanted, and jogged off to
fetch it.
" Here are them two lawyers a-coming. Mister I " said
Clemency, in a tone of no very great good- will.
"Aha!" cried the Doctor, advancing to the gate to meet
them. " Good morning, good morning ! Grace, my dear I
Marion I Here are Messrs. Snitchey and Craggs. Where 's
Alfred ? "
" He 'U be back directly, father, no doubt," said Grace.
" He had so much to do tliis morning in Ms preparations for
departure, that he was up and out by daybreak. Good morn-
ing, gentlemen."
"Ladies ! " said Mr. Snitchey, " for Self and Craggs," who
bowed, "good morning! Miss," to Marion, "I kiss your
hand." Which he did. " And I wish you" — which he might
or might not, for he didn't look, at first sight, like a gentle-
man troubled with many warm outpouiings of soid, in
behalf of other people, " a hundi-ed happy retxu-ns of this
auspicious day."
" Ha ha ha ! " laughed the Doctor thoughtfully, with liis
hands in his pockets. " The great farce in a hundi-ed acts ! "
" You wouldn't, I am sure," said Mr. Snitchey, standing a
Bmall professional blue bag against one leg of the table, " cut
the great farce short for this actress, at all events. Doctor
Jeddler."
" No," returned the Doctor. " God forbid ! INIay she live
to laugh at it, as long as she can laugh, and then say, with
the French wit, ' The farce is ended ; draw the curtain.' "
"The French wit," said Mr, Snitchey, peeping eliarplyinto
256 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
his blue bag, was wrong, Doctor Jeddler, and your pbilosopliy
is altogether wrong, depend upon it, as I have often told
you. Nothing serious in life ! What do you call law ? "
" A joke," replied the Doctor.
" Did you ever go to law ? " asked Mr. Snitchey, looking
out of the blue bag.
" Never," returned the Doctor.
" If you ever do," said Mr. Snitchey, " perhaps you '11
alter that opinion."
Craggs, who seemed to be represented by Snitchey, and to
be conscious of little or no seperate existence or personal indi-
viduality, offered a remark of his own in this place. It in-
volved the only idea of which he did not stand seised and
possessed in equal moieties with Snitchey ; but, he had some
partners in it among the wise men of the world.
" It 's made a great deal too easy," said Mr. Craggs.
" Law is ? " asked the Doctor.
" Yes," said Mr. Craggs, " everything is. Everything
appears to me to be made too easy, now-a-days. It 's the vice
of these times. If the world is a joke (I am not prepared to
say it isn't), it ought to be made a very difficult joke to crack.
It ought to be as hard a struggle, sir, as possible. That 's the
intention. But, it 's being made far too easy. We are oiling
the gates of life. They ought to be rusty. We shall have
them beginning to turn, soon, with a smooth sound. Whereas
they ought to grate upon their hinges, sir."
Mr. Craggs seemed positively to grate uj)on his own
hinges, as he delivered this opinion ; to which he communi-
cated immense effect — being a cold, hard, dry, man, dressed
in grey and white, like a flint ; with small twinkles in his
eyes, as if something struck sparks out of them. The three
natural kingdoms, indeed, had each a fanciful representative
among this brotherhood of disputants : for Snitchey was like
a magpie or a raven (only not so sleek), and the Doctor had a
streaked face like a winter-pippin, with here and there a dimple
to express the peckings of the birds, and a very little bit of
pigtail behind that stood for the stalk.
As the active figure of a handsome young man, dressed
for a journey, and followed by a porter bearing several pack-
ages and baskets, entered the orchard at a brisk pace, and with
an air of gaiety and hope that accorded weU with the morning,
these three drew together, like the brothers of the sister Fates,
^?7i
w.
ME. BRITAIN CAEYE3.
THK BAHLE TF LlFt;. y57
cr like tlie Graces most effectually disguised, or like the three
weird prophets on tne heath, and greeted him.
" Happy returns, AK! " said the Doctor lightly.
" A hundred happy returns of this auspicious day, Mr,
Heatlifield ! " said Snitchey, bowing low.
" Returns ! " Craggs murmured in a deep voice, all alone.
" Why, what a battery ! " exclaimed Alfred, stopping short,
" and one — two — three — all foreboders of no good, in tho
great sea before me. I am glad you are not the first I have
niet this morning : I should have taken it for a bad omen.
But, Grace was the first — sweet, pleasant Grace — so I defy
you all!"
" If you please, Mister, I was the first you know," said
Clemency Newcomo. " She was walking out here, before
sunrise, you remember. I was in the house."
" That 's true ! Clemency was the first," said Alfred. " So
I defy you with Clemency."
" Ela, ha, ha I — for Self and Craggs," said Snitchey.
" WTiat a defiance ! "
"Not so bad a one as it appears, maybe," said Alfred,
shaking hands heartily with the Doctor, and also with Snit-
cliey and Craggs, and then looking round. " Where are the
— Good Heavens ! "
With a start, productive for the moment of a closer partner-
ship between Jonathan Snitchey and Thomas Craggs than the
subsisting articles of agreement in that wnse contemplated, he
hastily betook himself to where the sisters stood together, and
— however, I needn't more particularly explain his manner
t)f saluting Marion first, and Grace afterwards than by
liintiiig that Mr. Craggs may possibly have considered it
"too easy."
Perhaps to change the subject Doctor Jeddler made a hasty
move towards the breakfast, and they all sat down at table.
Grace presided ; but so discreetly stationed herself, as to cut
off her sister and Alfred from the rest of the company. Snit-
chey and Craggs sat at opposite corners, with the blue bag
lietwecn them for safety; the Doctor took his usual position,
opposite to Grace. Clemency hovered galvanically about the
table as waitress ; and the melancholy Britain, at another
and a smaller board, acted as Grand Carver o+ a round of beef
li-nd a liam.
" Meat ? " said Britain, approaching Mr. Snitchey, with the
258 THE BATTLE OF L"FE.
carving knife and fork in his hands, and throwing the ques
tion at him like a missile.
" Certainly," returned the lawyer.
" Do you want any ? " to Craggs.
"Lean and well done," replied that gentleman.
Haying executed these orders, and moderately supplied the
Doctor (he seemed to know that nobody else wanted any-
thing to eat), he lingered as near the Firm as he decently
could, watching with an austere eye their disposition of the
viands, and but once relaxing the severe expression of his
face. This was on the occasion of Mr. Craggs, whose teetli
were not cf the best, partially choking, when he cried out
with great animation, " 1 thought he was gone ! "
"Now Alfred," said the Doctor, "for a word or two of
business, while we are yet at breakfast."
" While we are yet at breakfast," said Snitchey and Craggs,
who seemed to have no present idea of leaving off.
Although Alfred had not been breakfasting, and seemed to
have quite enough business on his Jiands as it was, he respect-
fully answered :
"If you please, sir."
"If anything could be serious," the Doctor began, "in
such a — "
" Farce as this, sir," hinted Alfred.
" In such a farce as this," observed the Doctor, "it might
lie this recurrence, on the eve of separation, of a double
birth-day, which is connected with many associations
pleasant to us four, and with the recollection of a long and
amicable intercourse. That 's not to the purpose."
"Ah! yes, yes. Dr. Jeddler," said the young man. "It
is to the purpose. Much to the purpose, as my heart
bears witness this morning ; and as yours does too, I know,
if you would let it speak. I leave your house to-day; I
(!ease to be your ward to-day ; we part with tender relations
stretching far behind us, that never can be exactly renewed,
and with others dawning yet before us," he looked down
at Marion beside him, " fraught with such considerations
as I must not trust myself to speak of now. Come, come!"
he added, rallying his spirits and the Doctor at once,
"there's a serious grain in this large foolish dust-heap,
Doctor. Let us allow to-day, that there is One."
"To-day ! " cried the Doctor. ' Hear him ! Ha, ha, ha!
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 259
Of all days in the foolish year. Why, on this day, the great
battle was fought on this ground. On this ground where we
now sit, where I saw my two girls dance this morning, where
the fruit has just been gathered for our eating from these
trees, the roots of which are struck in Men, not earth, — so
many lives were lost, tliat within my recollection, generations
afterwards, a churchyard full of bones, and dust of bones,
and chips of cloven skulls, has been dug up from underneath
our feet here. Yet not a hundred people in that battle knew
for what they fought, or why ; not a hundred , of the incon-
siderate rejoicers in the victory, why they rejoiced. Not half
a hundred people were the better for the gain or loss. Not
half-a-dozen men agree to this hour on the cause or merits ;
and nobody, in short, ever knew anything distinct about it, but
the mourners of the slain. Serious, too ! " said the Doctor,
laughing. " Such a system ! "
" But, all this seems to me," said Alfred, " to be very
serious."
" Serious ! " cried the Doctor. " If you allowed such things
to be serious, you must go mad, or die, or climb up to the top
of a mountain, and turn hermit."
"Besides — so long ago," said Alfred.
" Long ago ! " returned the Doctor. " Do you know what
the world has been doing, ever since? Do you know what
else it has been doing ? I don't ! "
" It has gone to law a little," observed Mr. Snitchey,
stiiTing his tea.
" Although the way out has been always made too easy,"
said his partner.
"And you'll excuse my sajdng. Doctor," pursued Mr
Snitchey, " having been already put a thousand times in
possession of my opinion, in the course of our discussions,
that, in its having gone to law, and in its legal system
altogether, I do observe a serious side — now, really, a some-
thing tangible, and with a purpose and intention in it — "
Clemency Newcorae made an angular tumble against the
table, occasioning a sounding clatter among the cups and
eaucers .
"Heyday! what's the matter there?" exclaimed tho
Doctor.
" It 's this evil- inclined blue bag," said Cleraoncy, " always
tripping up somebody ! "
260 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
" With a purpose and intention in it, I was saying',"
resumed Snitchey, "that commands respect. Life a farce.
Doctor Jeddler ? With law in it ? "
Tlie Doctor laughed, and looked at Alfred.
" Granted, if you please, that war is foolish," said Snitchey.
" There we agree. For example. Here 's a smiling country,"
pointing it out with his fork, " once overrun by soldiers —
trespassers every man of 'em — and laid waste by fire and
sword. He, he, he ! The idea of any man exposing himself,
voluntarily, to fire and sword I Stupid, wasteful, positively
ridiculous ; 3'ou laugh at your fellow-creatures, you know,
when you think of it ! But take this smiling country as it
stands. Think of the laws appertaining to real property ; to
the bequest and devise of real property ; to the mortgage and
redemption of real property ; to leasehold, freehold, and copy-
hold estate ; think," said Mr. Snitchey, with such great
emotion that he actually smacked his lips, " of the complicated
laws relating to title and proof of title, with all the contra-
dictory precedents and numerous acts of parliament connected
with them ; think of the infinite number of ingenious and
interminable chancery suits, to which this pleasant prospect
may give rise ; and acknowledge, Doctor Jeddler, that there is
a green spot in the scheme about us ! I believe," said Mr.
Snitchey, looking at his partner, " that I speak for Self
and Craggs ? "
Mr. Craggs having signified assent, Mr. Snitchey, some-
what freshened by his recent eloquence, observed that he
would take a little more beef and another cup of tea.
" I don't stand up for life in general," he added, rubbing
his hands and chuckling, " it 's full of folly ; full of some-
thing worse. Professions of trust, and confidence, and unsel-
fishness, and all that ! Bah, bah, bah ! We see what they 're
worth. But, you mustn't laugh at life ; you 've got a game
to play ; a very serious game indeed ! Everybody's playing
against you, you know, and you 're playing against them.
Oh '. it 's a very interesting thing. There are deep moves
upon the board. You must only laugh. Doctor Jeddler, when
you win — and then not much. He, he, he ! And then not
much," repeated Snitchey, rolling his head and winking his
eye, as if he would have added, "you may do this instead ! "
"Well, Alfred!" cried the Doctor, "what do you say
now?"
THE BATTLE ^F LIFE. 261
" I say, sir," replied Alfred, *' that the greatest favour you
could do me, and yourself too I am inclined to think, would
be to try sometimes to forget this battle-field and others like It
in that bi'oader battle-field of Life, on which the sun looks
every day."
" Really, I 'm afraid that wouldn't soften his opinions, Mr.
Alfred," said Snitchey. " The combatants are very eager and
very bitter in that same battle of Life. There 's a great deal
of cutting and slashing, and firing into people's heads from
behind. There is terrible treading down, and trampling on.
It is rather a bad business."
" I believe, Mr. Snitchey," said Alfred, " there are quiet
victories and struggles, great sacrifices of self, and noble acta
of heroism, in it — even in many of its apparent lightnesses
and contradictions — not the less difficult to achieve, because
they have no earthly chronicle or audience — done every day in
nooks and corners, and in little households, and in men's and
women's hearts — any one of which might reconcile the sternest
man to such a world, and fill him with belief and hope in it,
though two-fourths of its people were at war, and another
fourth at law; and that 's a bold word."
Both the sisters listened keenly.
" Well, well ! " said the Doctor, " I am too old to be con-
verted, even by my friend Snitchey here, or my good spinster
sister, Martha Jeddler ; who had what she calls her domestic
trials ages ago, and has led a sympathising life with all sorts
of people ever since ; and who is so much of your opinion
(only she 's less reasonable and more obstinate, being a
woman), that we can't agree, and seldom meet. I was born
dpon this battle-field. I began, as a boy, to have my thoughts
directed to the real history of a battle-field. Sixty years have
gone over my head, and I have never seen the Christian world,
including Heaven knows how many loving mothers and good
enough girls like mine here, anything but mad for a battle-
field. The same contradictions prevail in everything. One
must either laugh or cry at such stupendous inconsistencies .*
and I prefer to laugh."
Britain, who had been paying the profoundest and most
melancholy attention to each speaker in his turn, seemed
suddenly to decide in favour of the same preference, if a deep
sepulchral sound that escaped him might be construed into
a demonstration of risibility. Ilis face, however, was sa
262 THE BATTLE VP LIFE.
perfectly unaffected by it, both before and afterwards, tliat
although one or two of the breakfast party looked round
as being startled by a mysterious noise, nobody connected the
offender with it.
Except his partner in attendance, Clemency Newcome ; who,
rousing him with one of those favourite joints, her elbows,
inquired, in a reproachful whisper, what he laughed at.
" Not you ! " said Britain.
"Who then?"
" Humanity," said Britain. " That 's the joke ! "
" What between master and them lawyers, he 's getting
more and more addle-headed every day ! " cried Clemency,
giving him a lunge with the other elbow, as a mental
stimulant. " Do you know where you are ? Do you want
to get warning? "
" I don't know anything," said Britain, with a leaden eye
and an immoveable visage. " I don't care for anything. I
don't make out anything. I don't believe anything. And I
don't want anything."
Although this forlorn summary of his general condition
may have been overcharged in an access of despondency,
Benjamin Britain — sometimes called Little Britain, to distin-
guish him from Great ; as we might say Young England, to
express Old England with a decided difference — had defined
his real state more accurately than might be supposed. For,
serving as a sort of man Miles to the Doctor's Friar Bacon,
and listening day after day to innumerable orations addressed
by the Doctor to various people, all tending to show that his
very existence was at best a mistake and an absurdity, this
unfortunate servitor had fallen, by degrees, into such an abyss
of confused and contradictory suggestions from within and
without, that Truth at the bottom of her well, was on the
level surface as compared with Britain in the depths of his
mystification. The only point he clearly comprehended, was,
that the new element usually brought into these discussions
by Snitchey and Craggs, never served to make them clearer,
and always seemed to give the Doctor a species of advantage
and confirmation. Therefore, he looked upon the Firm as one
of the proximate causes of his state of mind, and held them
in abhorrence accordingly.
" But this is not our business, Alfred," said the Doctor
" Ceasing to be my ward (as you have said) to-day ; and
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 263
leaving us full to the brim of such learning as the Grammar
School down here was able to give you, and your studies in
London could add to that, and such practical knowledge as a
dull old country Doctor like myself could graft upon both ; you
are away, now, into the world. The first term of probation
appointed by your poor father, being over, away you go now,
your OMTi master, to fidfil his second desire. Aud long before
your three years' tour among the foreign schools of medicine
is finished, you '11 have forgotten us. Lord, you '11 forget us
easily in six months ! "
" If I do — But, you know better ; why should I speak to
you ! " said Alfred, laughing.
" I don't know anything of the sort," returned the Doctor.
" What do you say, Marion ? "
Marion, trifling with her teacup, seemed to say — but she
didn't say it — that he was welcome to forget them, if he could.
Grace pressed the blooming face against her cheek, and
smiled.
" I haven't been, I hope, a very unjust steward in the
execution of my trust," pursued the Doctor; "but I am to be,
at any rate, formally discliarged, and released, and what not
tliis morning ; and here are our good friends Snitchey and
Craggs, with a bagful of papers, and accounts, and documents,
for the transfer of the balance of the trust fund to you (I
wish it was a more difficult one to dispose of, Alfred, but you
must get to be a great man, and make it so), and other
drolleries of that sort, which are to be signed, sealed, and
delivered."
" And duly witnessed as by law required," said Snitchey,
pushing away his plate, and taking out the papers, which
his partner proceeded to spread upon the table ; " and Self
and Craggs having been co-trustees with you, Doctor, in so
far as the fund was concerned, we shall want your two
servants to attest the signatures — can you read, Mrs. New-
come ? "
" I a'n't married, Mister," said Clemency.
" Oh, I beg your pardon. I should think not," chuckled
Snitchey, casting his eyes over her extraordinary figure
" You can read ? "
" A little," answered Clemency.
" The marriage service, night and morning, eh ? " observed
the Inwypr. jocosely.
264 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
"No," said Clemency. "Too hard. I only reads a
thimble."
" Read a thimble ! " echoed Snitch ey. " What are you
talking about, young woman?"
Clemency nodded. " And a nutmeg-grater."
" Why, this is a lunatic ! a subject for the Lord nis;h
Chancellor ! " said Snitchey, staring at her.
— "If possessed of any property," stipulated Craggs.
Grace, however, interposing, explained that each of the
articles in question bore an engraved motto, and so formed the
pocket library of Clemency Newcome, who was not much given
to the study of books.
" Oh, that 's it, is it. Miss Grace ! " said Snitchey.
" Yes, yes. Ha, ha, ha ! I thought our friend was an
idiot. Slie looks uncommonly like it," he muttered, with a
supercilious glance. " And what does the tliimble say, Mrs.
Newcome ? "
"I a'n't married, Mister," observed Clemency.
" Well, Newcome. Will that do ? " said the lawyer.
" What does the thimble say, Newcome?"
How Clemency, before replying to this question, held one
pocket open, and looked down into its yawning depths for the
thimble which wasn't tliere,— and how she then held an
(Opposite pocket open, and seeming to descry it, like a pearl of
great price, at the bottom, cleared away such intervening
obstacles as a handkerchief, an end of wax candle, a flushed
dpple, an orange, a lucky penny, a cramp bone, a padlock, a
pair of scissors in . a sheath more expressly describable as
promising young shears, a handful or so of loose beads, several
balls of cotton, a needle-case, a cabinet collection of curl-papers,
and a biscuit, all of which articles she entrusted individually
and severally to Britain to hold, — is of no consequence. Nor
how, in her determination to grasp this pocket by the throat
diid keep it prisoner (for it had a tendency to swing, and
tv.dst itself round the nearest corner), she assumed and calmly
maintained, an attitude apparently inconsistent with the
human anatomy and the laws of gravity. It is enough that
rit last she triumphantly produced the thimble on her finger,
rind rattled the nutmeg-grater : the literature of both these
trinkets being obviously in course of wearing out and wasting
dway, through excessive friction.
'• That 's the thimble, is it, young ^^■oman ? " said Mr. Suit-
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 26i
chey, diverting himself at her expense. " And what does the
thimble say ? "
" It says," replied Clemency, reading slowly round as if it
were a tower, " For-get and for-give."
Snitchey and Craggs laughed heartily. " So new ! " said
Snitchey. " So easy ! " said Craggs. " Such a knowledge of
human nature in it ! " said Snitchey. " So applicable to the
affairs of life ! " said Craggs.
" And the nutmeg- grater ? " inquired the head of the Firm.
" The grater says," returned Clemency, "Do as you — wold
— be — done by."
"Do, or you'll be done brown, you mean," said Mr.
Snitchey.
" I don't understand," retorted Clemency, shaking her
head vaguely. " I a' n't no lawyer."
" I am afraid that if she was, Doctor," said Mr. Snitchey,
turning to him suddenly, as if to anticipate any effect that
might otherwise be consequent on this retort, " she 'd find it
to be the golden rule of half her clients. They are serious
enough in that — whimsical as your world is — and lay the
blame on us afterwards. We, in our profession, are little
else than mirrors after all, Mr. Alfred ; but, we are generally
consulted by angry and quarrelsome people who are not in
their best looks, and it 's rather hard to quarrel with us if we
reflect unpleasant aspects. I think," said Mr. Snitchey, "that
I speak for Self and Craggs ? "
"Decidedly," said Craggs.
" And so, if Mr. Britain will oblige us with a mouthful of
ink," said Mr. Snitchey, returning to the papers, " we '11 sign,
seal, and deliver as soon as possible, or the coach Mill be
coming past before we know where we are."
If one might judge from his appearance, there was every
probability of the coach coming past before Mr. Britain knew
where he was j for he stood in a state of abstraction, mentally
balancing the Doctor against the lawyers, and the lawyers
against the Doctor, and their clients against both, and engaged
in feeble attempts to make tlie thimble and nutmeg-grater
(a new idea to him) square with anybody's system of philo-
sophy ; and, in short, bewildering himself as much as ever
his great namesake has done with theories and schools. But,
Clemency, wlio was his good Genius — though he had the
meanest possible opinion of her understanding, by reason of
266 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
her seldom troubling herself with abstract speculations, and
being alwa5's at hand to do the right thing at the right time
— liaving produced the ink in a twinkling, tendered him the
further service of recalling him to himself by the application
of her elbows ; with which gentle flappers she so jogged his
memory, in a more literal construction of that phrase than
usual, that he soon became quite fresh and brisk.
How he laboured under an apprehension not uncommon to
persons in his degree, to whom the use of pen and ink is an
event, that he couldn't append his name to a document, not of
his own writing, without committing himself in some shadowy
manner, or somehow signing away vague and enormous sums
of money ; and how he approached the deeds under protest,
and by dint of the Doctor's coercion, and insisted on pausing
to look at them before writing (the cramped hand, to say
nothing of the phraseology, being so much Chinese to him),
and also on turning them round to see whether there was
anything fraudulent underneath ; and how, having signed his
name, he became desolate as one who had parted with his
property and rights ; I want the time to tell. Also, how the
blue bag containing his signature, afterwards had a mysterious
interest for him, and he couldn't leave it ; also, how Clemency
Newcome, in an ecstasy of laughter at the idea of her own
importance and dignity, brooded over the whole table with
her two elbows, like a spread eagle, and reposed her head
upon her left arm as a preliminar}' to the formation of certain
caoalistic characters, which required a deal of inlc, and
imaginary counterparts whereof she executed at the same
time with her tongue. Also, how, having once tasted ink,
she became thirsty in that regard, as tame tigers are said to
be after tasting another sort of fluid, and wanted to sign
everything, and put her name in all kinds of places, in brief,
the Doctor was discharged of his trust and all its responsi-
bilities ; and Alfred; taking it on himself, was faii'ly started
on the journey of life.
" Britain ! " said the Doctor. " Run to the gate, and watch
for the coach. Time flies, Alfred I "
"Yes, sir, yes," retui'ned the young man, hurriedly. " Dear
Grace ! a moment ! Marion — so young and beautiful, so
winning and so much admired, dear to my heart as nothing
else in life is — remember ! I leave Marion to you ! "
" She has always been a sacred charge to me, Alfred
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 26T
She is doubl}^ so, no^v. I will be faitliful to my trust, believe
me.
" 1 do believe it, Grace. I know it well. Who could look
upon your face, and hear your voice, and not know it ! Ah,
Grace ! If I had your well-governed heart, and tranquil
mind, how bravely I woidd leave this place to-day ! "
" Would you? " she answered with a quiet smile.
" And yet, Grace — Sister, seems the natural word."
" Use it ! " she said quickly. " I am glad to hear it. Call
-me nothing else."
"And yet, sister, then," said Alfred, " Marion and I had
better have your true and steadfast qualities serving us here,
and making us both happier and better. I wouldn't carry
them away, to sustain myself, if I could i "
" Coach upon the hiU-top ! " exclaimed Britain.
" Time flies, Alfred," said the Doctor.
Marion had stood apart, with her eyes fixed upon the
ground ; but, this warning being given, her young lover
brought her tenderly to where her sister stood, and gave her
into her embrace.
"I have been telling Grace, dear Marion," he said, "that
you are her charge ; my precious trust at parting. And when
I come back and reclaim you, dearest, and the bright prospect
of our married life lies stretched before us, it shall be one of
our chief pleasures to consult how we can make Grace happy ;
how we can anticipate her wishes ; how we can show our
gratitude and love to her ; how we can return her something
of the debt she will have heaped upon us."
The younger sister had one hand in his hand ; the other
rested on her sister's neck. She looked into that sister's eyes_
so calm, serene, and cheerful, with a gaze in which aii'ection,
admiration, sorrow, wonder, almost veneration, were blended.
She looked into that sister's face, as if it were the face of
some bright angel. Calm, serene, and cheerful, tlie face
looked back on her and on her lover.
"And wlien the time comes, as it must one day," said
Alfred, — " I wonder it has never come yet, but Grace knows
best, for Grace is always right, — when she will want a friend
to open her whole heart to, and to be to her something of
what she has been to us — then, Marion, how faithful we will
prove, and what delight to us to know that she, our dear good
sister, loves and is loved again, aa we would have her ! "
2C8 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
Still the younger sister looked into her eyes, and turned
not — even towards him. And still those honest eyes looked
hack, so calm, serene and cheerful, on herself and on her
lover.
" And when all that is past, and we are old, and living (as
we must!) together — close together — talking often of old
times," said Alfred — "these shall be our favorite times
among them — this day most of all ; and, telling each other
what we thought and felt, and hoped and feared at parting ;
and how we couldn't bear to say good bye • "
" Coach coming through the wood ! " cried Britain.
** Yes ! I am ready — and how we met again, so happily,
in spite of all ; we '11 make this day the happiest in all the
year, and keep it as a treble birth-day Shall we, dear ? "
" Yes ! " interposed the elder sister, eagerly, and with a
radiant smile. " Yes ! Alfred, don't linger. There 's no
time. Say good bye to Marion. And Heaven be with you ! "
He pressed the younger sister to his heart. Released from
his embrace, she again clung to her sister ; and her eyes, with
the same blended look, again sought those so calm, serene,
and cheerful.
"Farewell, my boy!" said the Doctor. "To talk about
any serious correspondence or serious affections, and engage-
ments and so forth, in such a — ha ha ha ! — you know what
I mean — why that, of course, would be sheer nonsense. All
I can say is, that if you and Marion should continue in the
same foolish minds, I shall not object to have you for a son-
in-law one of these days."
" Over the bridge ! " cried Britain.
" Let it come ! " said Alfred, wringing the Doctor's hand
stoutly. " Think of me sometimes, my old friend and guar-
dian, as seriously as you can ! Adieu, ]Mr. Snitchey ! Farewell,
Mr. Craggs ! "
" Coming down the road ! " cried Britain.
"A kiss of Clemency Newcome, for long acquaintance' sake!
Shake hands, Britain ! Marion, dearest heart, good bye '
Sister Grace ! remember ! "
The quiet household figure, and the face so beautiful in its
serenity, were tui-ned towards him in reply; but, Marion's
look and attitude remained unchanged.
The coach was at the gate. There was a bustle with the
luggage. The coach drove away. Marion never moved.
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 269
" He waves his hat to you, my love," said Grace. " Your
chosen husband, darling. Look ! "
The younger sister raised her head, and, for a moment,
turned it. Then, turning back again, and fully meeting, for
the first time, those calm eyes, fell sobbing on her neck.
"Oh, Grrace. God bless you! But I cannot bear to see
it, Grace ! It breaks my heart."
270 TUE BATTLE OF LIFE.
PART THE SECOND.
Snitchey and Ckaggs had a snug little office on the old
Battle Ground, where they drove a snug little business, and
fought a great many small pitched battles for a great many
contending parties. Though it could hardly be said of these
conflicts that they were running fights — for in truth they
generally proceeded at a snail's pace — the part the Firm had
in them came so far within the general denomination, that
now they took a shot at this Plaintiff, and now aimed a chop
at that Defendant, now made a heavy charge at an estate in
Chancery, and now had some light skirmishing among an
irregular body of small debtors, just as the occasion served,
and the enemy happened to present himself. The Gazette
was an important and profitable feature in some of their
fields, as in fields of greater renown ; and in most of the
Actions wherein they showed their generalship, it was after-
wards observed by the combatants that they had had great
difficulty in making each other out, or in knowing with any
degree of distinctness what they were about, in consequence
of the vast amount of smoke by which they were surrounded.
The offices of Messrs. Snitchey and Craggs stood convenient,
with an open door down two smooth steps, in the market-
place ; so that any angry farmer inclining towards hot water,
might tumble into it at once. Their special council-chamber
and hall of conference was an old back room up-stairs, with
a low dark ceiling, which seemed to be knitting its brows
gloomily in the coiisideration of tangled points of law. It
was furnished with some high-backed leathern chairs, gar-
nished with great goggle-eyed brass nails, of which, every
here and there, two or three had fallen out- — or had been
picked out, perhaps, by the wandering thumbs and fore-
fingers of bewildered clients. There was a framed print of
a great judge in it, every curl in whose dreadfiil wig had
made a man's haii- stand on end. Bales of papers filled tho
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 271
dusty closets, shelves, and tables ; and round the waiuscot
there were tiers of boxes, padlocked and fireproof, with
people's names painted outside, which anxious visitors felt
themselves, by a cruel enchantment, obliged to spell back-
wards and forwards, and to make anagrams of, while they
sat, seeming to listen to Snitchey and Craggs, without com-
prehending one word of what they said.
Snitchey and Craggs had each, in private life as in pro-
fessional existence, a partner of his own. Snitchey and
Craggs were the best friends in the world, and had a real
confidence in one another ; but, Mrs. Snitchey, by a dispen-
sation not uncommon in the affairs of life, was on principle
suspicious of Mr. Craggs ; and Mrs. Craggs was on principle
suspicious of Mr. Snitchey. " Your Snitch eys indeed," the
latter lady would observe, sometimes, to Mr. Craggs; using
that imaginative plural as if in disparagement of an objec-
tionable pair of pantaloons, or other articles not possessed
of a singular number ; "I don't see what you want with
your Suitcheys, for my part. You trust a great deal too
much to yoiu' Snitcheys, I think, and I hope you may never
find my words come true." While Mrs. Snitchey would
observe to Mr. Snitchey, of Craggs, " that if ever he -o^as led
away by man he was led away by that man, and that if ever
she read a double purpose in a mortal eye, she read that purpose
in Craggs's eye." Notwithstanding this, however, they were
all very good fi-iends in general : and Mrs. Snitchey and Mrs.
Craggs maintained a close bond of alliance against " the office,"
which they both considered the Blue chamber, and common
enemy, full of dangerous (because unknown) machinations.
In this ofiice, nevertheless, Snitchey and Craggs made honey
for their several hives. Here, sometimes, they would linger
of a fine evening, at the window of their council-chamber,
overlooking the old battle-ground, and wonder (but that was
generally at assize time, when much business liad made them
sentimental) at the folly of nmnkiud, who couldn't always be
at peace with one another and go to law comfortably. Here,
days, and weeks, and months, and years, passed over them ;
their calendar, the gradually diminisliing number of brass
nails in the leathern chairs, and the incnuising bvdk of papers
on the tables. Here, nearly three years' flight liad thinned
tbj on 3 and swelled the other, since the breakfast in the
orihnrd ; whou they sat together in considtation at night.
272 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
Not alone ; but with a man of thirty, or about that time of
life, negligently dressed, and somewhat haggard in the face,
but well-made, well-attired, and well-looking ; who sat in the
arm-chair of state, with one hand in his breast, and the other
in his dishevelled hair, pondering moodily. Messrs. Snitchey
and Craggs sat opposite each other at a neighbouring desk.
One of the fire-proof boxes, unpadlocked and opened, was
upon it ; a part of its contents lay strewn upon the table, and
the rest was then in course of passing through the hands of
Mr. Snitchey ; who brought it to the candle, document by
document ; looked at every paper singly, as he produced it ;
shook his head, and handed it to Mr. Craggs ; who looked it
over also, shook his head, and laid it down. Sometimes, they
would stop, and shaking their heads in concert, look towards
the abstracted client. And the name on the box being
Michael Warden, Esquire, we may conclude from these pre-
mises that the name and the box were both his, and that the
affairs of Michael Warden, Esquire, were in a bad way.
"That's all," said Mr. Snitchey, turning up the last paper.
'Really there 's no other resource. No other resource."
" All lost, spent, wasted, pawned, borrowed and sold, eh?"
said the client, looking up.
" All," returned Mr. Snitchey.
"Nothing else to be done, you say?"
" Nothing at all."
The client bit his nails, and pondered again.
"And I am not even personally safe in England? You
hold to that, do you ? "
"In no part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland," replied Mr. Snitchey.
" A mere prodigal son with no father to go back to, no
swine to keep, and no husks to share with them ? Eh ? "
pursued the client, rocking one leg over the other, and search-
ing the ground with his eyes.
Mr. Snitchey coughed as if to deprecate the being supposed
to participate in any figurative illustration of a legal position.
Mr. Craggs, as if to express that it was a partnership view of
the subject, also coughed.
" Ruined at thirty ! " said the client. " Humph ! "
"Not ruined, Mr. Warden," returned Snitf'hey. " Not so
bad as that. You have done a good deal towards it, I must
say, but you are not ruined. A little nursing" —
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 273
" A little Devil," said the client.
Mr. Craggs," said Snitchey, "will you oblige me with a
pinch of snuff? Thank you, sir."
As the imperturbable lawyer appKed it to his nose, with
great apparent relish and a perfect absorption of his attention
in the proceeding, the client gradually broke into a smile, and,
looking up, said :
" You talk of nursing. How long nursing ? "
" How long nursing ? " repeated Snitchey, dusting the snuflF
from his fingers, and making a slow calculation in his mind.
"For your involved estate, sir? In good hands? S. and
C.'s, say ? Six or seven years."
" To starve for six or seven years ! " said the client with a
fretful laugh, and an impatient change of his position.
"To starve for six or seven years, Mr. Warden," said
Snitchey, " would be very imcommon indeed. You might
get another estate by showing yourself, the while. But, we
don't think you could do it — speaking for Self and Craggs —
and consequently don't advise it."
" What do you advise ? "
" Nursing, I sa.j," repeated Snitchey. " Some few years
of nursing by Self and Craggs woidd bring it round. But
to enable us to make terms, and hold terms, and you to keep
terms, you must go away ; you must live abroad. As to
starvation, we could ensure you some hundreds a-year to
starve upon, even in the beginning — I daresay, Mr. Warden."
"Hundreds," said the client. "And I have spent thou-
sands ! "
"That," retorted Mr. Snitchey, putting the papers slowly
back into the cast-iron box, " there is no doubt about. No
doubt a — bout," he repeated to himself, as he thoughtfully
2)ursued his occupation.
The laAvyer very likely knew his man ; at any rate his dry,
bhrewd, whimsical manner, had a favourable influence on
llie client's moody state, and disposed him to be more free and
unreserved. Or, perhaps the client knew hi^ man, and had
elicited such encouragement as he had received, to render
some purpose lie was about to disclose the more defensible in
appearance. Gradually raising his head, he sat looking at
his immoveable adviser with a smile, which presently broke
into a laugh.
"After all," he said, " my iron-headed friend" —
274 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
Mr. Suitchey pointed out his partner. " Self and — excuse
me — Craggs."
" I beg Mr. Craggs's pardon," said the client. " After all,
my iron-headed friends," he leaned forward in his chair, and
dropped his voice a little, " you don't know half my ruin yet."
Mr. Snitchey stopped and stared at him. Mr. Craggs also
stared.
" I am not only deep in debt," said the client, "but I am
deep in " —
" Not in love ! " cried Snitchey.
" Yes ! " said the client, falling back in his chair, and sur-
veying the Firm with his hands in his pockets. ' ' Deep in love."
" And not with an heiress, sir ? " said Snitchey.
"Not with an heu-ess."
"Nor a rich lady?"
" Nor a rich lady that I know of — except in beauty and
merit."
" A single lady, I trust ? " said Mr. Snitchey, with great
expression.
" Certainly."
" It 's not one of Doctor Jeddler's daughters ? " said Snitchey,
suddenly squaring his elbows on his knees, and advancing his
face at least a yard.
" Yes ! " returned the client.
" Not his younger daughter ? " said Snitchey.
" Yes ! " returned the client.
" Mr. Craggs," said Snitchey, much relieved, " will you
oblige me with another pinch of snuff? Thank you! I am
happy to say it don't signify, Mr. Warden ; she's engaged,
sir, she's bespoke. My partner can corroborate me. We
know the fact."
" We know the fact," repeated Craggs.
" Why, so do I perhaps," returned the client quietly.
" What of that ! Are you men of the world, and did you
never hear of a woman changing her mind ? "
" There certainly have been actions for breach," said Mr.
Snitchey, "brought against both spinsters and widows, but,
in the majority of cases " —
" Cases !" interposed the client, impatiently. "Don't talk
to me of cases. The general precedent is in a much larger
volume than any of your law books. Besides, do you tliink I
have lived six weeks in the Doctor's house for nothing ? "
THE BATTLK OF LTF.'^:. 275
" I think, sir," observed Mr. Snitchey, gravely addressing
himself to his partner, " that of all the scrapes Mr. Warden's
horses have brought, him into at one time and another — and
they have been pretty numerous, and pretty expensive, as none
know better than himself, and you, and I— the worst scrape
may turn out to be, if he talks in this way, his having been
ever left by one of them at the Doctor's garden wall, with
three broken ribs, a snapped collar-bone, and the Lord knows
how many bruises. We didn't think so much of it, at the
time when we knew he was going on well under the Doctor's
hands and roof ; but it looks bad now, sir. Bad ? It looks
very bad. Doctor Jeddler too — our client, Mr. Craggs."
" Mr. Alfi-ed Heathiield too — a sort of client, Mr. Snitchey,"
said Cragg-s.
" Mr. Michael Warden too, a kind of client," said the
careless visitor, " and no bad one either : having played the
fool for ten or twelve years. However, Mr. Michael Warden
has sown his wild oats now — there's their crop, in that box ;
and he means to repent and be wise. And in proof of it,
Mr. Michael Warden means, if he can, to marry Clarion, ths
Doctor's lovely daughter, and to carry her away with him."
" Really, Mr. Craggs," Snitchey began.
" Really, Mr. Snitchey, and Mr. Craggs, partners both,"
said the client, interrupting him; "you know your duty to
your clients, and you know well enough, I am sure, that it is
no part of it to interfere in a mere love affair, wliich I am
obliged to confide to you. I am not going to carry the young
lady off, without her own consent. There 's nothing illegal
in it. I never was Mr. Heathfield's bosom friend. I violate
no confidence of his. I love where he loves, and I mean to
win where he would win, if I can."
" He can't, Mr. Craggs," said Snitchey, evidently anxious
and discomfited. " He can't do it, sir. She dotes on Mr.
Alfred."
" Does she ? " returned the client.
" Mr. Craggs, she dotes on him, sir," persisted Snitchey.
" I didn't live six weeks, some few months ago, in the
Doctor's house for notliing; and I doubted that soon,"
observed the client. " She would have doted on him, if her
sister could have brought it about ; but I watched them.
Marion avoided his name, avoided the subject: slirunk from
the le isi allusion to it, with evident distress."
276 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
" Wliy should slie, Mr. Craggs, you know? Why should
she, sir ? " inquired Snitchey.
" I don't know why she should, though there are many
likely reasons," said the client, smiling at the attention and
perplexity expressed in Mr. Snitchey' s shining eye, and at hia
cautious way of carrying on the conversation, and making
himself informed upon the subject; "but I know she does.
She was very young when she made the engagement — if it
may be called one, I am not even sure of that — and has
repented of it, perhaps. Perhaps — it seems a foppish thing
to say, but upon my soul I don't mean it in that light — she
may have fallen in love with me, as I have fallen in love with
her "
" He, he ! Mr, Alfred, her old playfellow too, you remem-
ber, Mr. Craggs," said Snitchey, with a disconcerted laugh;
" knew her almost from a baby ! "
" Which makes it the more probable that she may be tired
of his idea," calmly pursued the client, "and not indisposed
to exchange it for the newer one of another lover, who
presents himself (or is presented by his horse) under romantic
circumstances ; has the not unfavourable reputation — with a
country girl — of having lived thoughtlessly and gaily, with-
out doing much harm to anybody; and who, for his youth
and figure, and so forth — this may seem foppish again, but
upon my soid I don't mean it in that light — might perhaps
pass muster in a crowd with Mr. Alfred himself."
There was no gainsaying the last clause, certainly ; and
Mr. Snitchey, glancing at him, thought so. There was some-
thing naturally graceful and pleasant in the very carelessness
of his air. It seemed to suggest, of his comely face and well-
knit figure, that they might be greatly better if he chose : and
that, once roused and made earnest (but he never had been
earnest yet), he coidd be fiUl of fire and purpose. " A dan-
gerous sort of libertine," thought the shrewd lawyer, " to
seem to catch the spark he wants, from a young lady's eyes."
' ' Now, obseiwe, Snitchey, ' ' he continued, rising and taking
him by the button, " and Craggs," taking him by the button
also, and placing one partner on either side of him, so that
neither might evade him. " I don't ask you for any advice.
You are right to keep quite aloof from all parties in such a
matter, which is not one in which grave men hke you, could
iuterfere, on any side. I am briefly going to review in half-a-
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 277
dozen words, iny position and intention, and then I shall leave
it to 3'ou to do the best for me, in money matters, that you
can : seeing, that, if I run away with the Doctor's beautifiJ
daughter (as I hope to do, and to become another man under
her bright influence), it will be, for the moment, more charge
able than running away alone. But I shall soon make ah
that up in an altered life."
" I think it wiU be better not to hear this, Mr. Craggs ? ''
said Snitchey, looking at him across the client.
" / think not," said Craggs. — Both listening- attentively.
" Well ! You needn't hear it," replied their client. " I '11
mention it however. I don't mean to ask the Doctor's con-
eent, because he wouldn't give it me. But I mean to do the
Doctor no wrong or harm, because (besides there being
nothing serious in such trifles, as he says) I hope to rescue his
child, my Marion, fi-om what I see — I know — she dreads, and
contemplates with misery : that is, the return of this old
lover. If anything in the world is true, it is true that she
dreads his return. Nobody is injured so far. I am so harrieo
and worried here, just now, that I lead the life of a flying-
fish. I skulk about in the dark, I am shut out of my own
house, and warned off my own grounds ; but, that house, and
those grounds, and many an acre besides, wiU come back to
me one day, as you know and say ; and Marion will prob-
ably be richer — on your showing, who are never sanguine
■ — ten years hence as my wife, than as the wife of Alfred
Heathfield, whose retui-n she dreads (remember that), and in
whom or in any man, my passion is not surpassed. Who is
injured jet ? It is a fair case throughout. My right is as
good as his, if she decide in my favour ; and I wiU try my
right by her alone. You will like to know no more after this,
and I wiU teU you no more. Now you know my purpose,
and wants. When must I leave here ? "
" In a week," said Snitchey. " Mr. Craggs?"
" In something less, I should say," responded Craggs
"In a month," said the client, after attentively watching
the two faces. "This day month. To-day is Thursday
Succeed or fail, on this day month I go."
" It ' 8 too long a delay," said Snitchey; "much too long
But let it be so. I thought lie'd have stipulated for three,"
he murmui-ed to himself. "Are you going? Good night,
8ii '"
278 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
"Good night!" returned the client, shaking hands with
the Firm. " You '11 live to see me making a good use of
riches yet. Henceforth the star of my destiny is, Marion ! "
"Take care of the stairs, sir," replied Snitchey; "for she
don't shine there. Good night ! "
" Good night ! "
So they both stood at the stair-head with a pair of office
randies, watching him down. When he had gone away, they
stood looking at each otlier.
"What do you think of all this, Mr. Craggs ? " said
Snitchey.
Mr. Craggs shook his head.
" It was our opinion, on the day when that release was
executed, that there was something curious in the parting of
of that pair, I recollect," said Snitchey.
" It was," said Mr. Craggs.
" Perhaps he deceives himself altogether," pursued Mr.
Snitchey, locking up the fire-proof box, and putting it away ;
" or, if he don't, a little bit of fickleness and perfidy is not a
miracle, Mr. Craggs. And yet I thought that pretty face was
very true. I thought," said Mr. Snitchey, putting on his
great coat (for the weather was very cold), drawing on liis
gloves, and snuffing out one candle, "that I had even seen her
character becoming stronger and more resolved of late. More
like her sister's."
" Mrs. Craggs Avas of the same opinion," retiirned Craggs.
" I 'd reaUy give a trifle to-night," observed Mr. Snitchey,
who was a good-natured man, "if I could believe that Mr.
Warden was reckoning without his host ; but, light-headed,
capricious, and unballasted as he is, he knows something of
the world and its people (he ought to, for he has bought what
he does know, dear enough) ; and I can't quite think that.
We had better not interfere : we can do nothing, Mr. Craggs,
but keep quiet."
"Nothing," returned Craggs.
" Our friend the Doctor makes light of such things," said
Mr. Snitchey, shaking his head. " I hope he mayn't stand in
need of his philosophy. Our friend Alfred talks of the battle
of life," he shook his head again, " I hope he mayn't be cut
down early in the day. Have you got your hat, Mr. Craggs ?
I am going to put the other candle out."
Mr. Craggs replying in the airirmutive, Mr. Snitchey suited
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 279
the action to the word, and they groped their way out of the
council- chamber, now as dark as the subject, or the law in
general.
My story passes to a quiet little study, where, on that same
night, the sisters and the hale old Doctor sat by a cheerful
fire-side. Grace was working at her needle. Marion read
aloud from a book before her. The Doctor in his dressing-
gown and slippers, with his feet spread out upon the warm
rug, leaned back in his easy chair, and listened to the book,
and looked upon his daughters.
They were very beautiful to look upon. Two better faces
for a fire-side, never made a fire-side bright and sacred.
Something of the difference between them had been softened
down in three years' time ; and entlironed upon the clear brow
of the younger sister, looking through her eyes, and thrilling
in her voice, was the same earnest natvire that her own
motherless youth had ripened in the elder sister long ago.
But she stiU appeared at once the lovelier and weaker of tlie
two ; still seemed to rest her head upon her sister's breast, and
put her trust in her, and look into her eyes for counsel and
reliance. Those loving eyes, so calm, serene, and cheerful, as
of old.
'* ' And being in her own home,' " read Marion, from the
book ; " ' her home made exquisitely dear by these re-
membrances, she now began to know that the great trial of
her heart must soon come on, and could not be delayed. O
Home, our comforter and friend when others fall away, to
part with whom, at any step between the cradle and tlie
grave ' " —
" Marion, my love ! " said Grace.
" Why, Puss ! " exclaimed her father, " what 's the
matter? "
She put her hand upon the hand her sister stretched
towards her, and read on ; her voice still faltering and
trembling, though she made an effort to command it when
thus interrupted.
" 'To part with whom, at any step between the cradle and
the grave, is always sorrowful. 0 Home, so true to us, so
often slighted in return, be lenient to them that turn aw*iy
from thee, and do not haunt tlieir erring footsteps too re-
pit)aclifully ! Let no kind looks, no weU-remembered omiles,
280 THE BATTLE OF LIFR.
be seen upon thy phantom face. Let no ray of affection,
welcome, gentleness, forbearance, cordiality, shine frc>m thy
white head. Let no old loving word, or tone, rise up in
judgment against thy deserter; but if thou canst look harshly
and severely, do, in mercy to the Penitent ! ' "
"Dear Marion, read no more to-night," said Grace — for
she was weeping.
" I cannot," she replied, and closed the book. " The words
seem all on fire ! "
The Doctor was amused at this ; and laughed as he patted
her on the head.
"What ! overcome by a story-book ! " said Doctor Jeddler.
" Print and paper ! Well, well, it 's all one. It 's as rational
to make a serious matter of print and paper as of anything else.
But, dry your eyes, love, dry your ej'^es. I dare say the
heroine has got home again long ago, and made it up all
round — and if she hasn't, a real home is only four walls ; and
a fictitious one, mere rags and ink. What 's the matter now ? "
" It's only me. Mister," said Clemency, putting in her head
at the door.
" And what 's the matter with you ? " said the Doctor.
" Oh, bless you, nothing ain't the matter with me," returned
Clemency — and truly too, to judge from her well-soaped face,
in which there gleamed as usual the very soul of good-humour,
which, ungainly as she was, made her quite engaging.
Abrasions on the elbows are not generally understood, it is
true, to range within that class of personal charms called
beauty-spots. But, it is better, going through the world, to
have the arms chafed in that narrow passage, than the temper:
and Clemency's was sound, and whole as any beauty's in the
land.
"Nothing ain't the matter with me," said Clemency,
entering, " but — come a little closer. Mister."
The Doctor, in some astonishment, complied with this
invitation.
" You said I wasn't to give you one before them, you know,"
said Clemency.
A novice in the family might have supposed, from her
extraordinary ogling as she said it, as well as from a singular
rapture or ecstasy which pervaded her elbows, as if she were
embracing herself, that " one," in its most favoiirable interpre-
tation, meant a chaste salute. Indeed the Doctor himsell:
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. '2»1
seemed alarmed, for the moment; but quickly regained hia
composure, as Clemeucy, having had recourse to both her
pockets — beginning with the right one, going away to the
wrong one, and afterwards coming back to the right one again
— produced a letter from the Post-office.
" Britain was riding by on a errand," she chuclded, handing
it to the Doctor, " and see the mail come in, and waited for
it. There's A.H. in the corner. Mr. Alfred's on his journey
home, I bet. We shall have a wedding in the house — there
was two spoons in my saucer this morning. Oh Luck, how
slow he opens it ! "
All this she delivered, by way of soliloquy, gradually rising
higher and higher on tiptoe, in her impatience to hear the
news, and making a corkscrew of her apron, and a bottle of
her mouth. At last, arriving at a climax of suspense, and
seeing the Doctor still engaged in the perusal of the letter, she
came down flat upon the soles of her feet again, and cast her
apron, as a veil, over her head, in a mute despair, and
inability to bear it any longer.
"Here! Girls !" cried the Doctor. "I can't help it: I
never could keep a secret in my life. There are not many
secrets, indeed, worth being kept in such a — well ! never
mind that. Alfred 's coming home, my dears, directly."
" Directly ! " exclaimed Marion.
" What ! The story-book is soon forgotten ! " said the
Doctor, pinching her cheek. " I thought the news would dry
those tears. Yes. ' Let it be a surprise,' he says, here. But
I can't let it be a surprise. He must have a welcome."
" Directly ! " repeated Marion.
" Why, perhaps, not what your impatience calls ' directly.' "
returned the Doctor; " but pretty soon too. Let us see. Let
us see. To-day is Thursday, is it not ? Then he promises to
be here, this day month."
" This day month ! " repeated Marion, softly.
" A gay day and a holiday for us," said the cheerful voice
of her .sister Grace, kissing her in congratulation. "Long
looked forward to, dearest, and come at last."
She answered with a smile ; a mournful smile, but full of
sisterly affection. As she looked in her sister's face, and
listened to the quiet music of her voice, picturing the happiness
of this return, her own face glowed with hope and joy.
And with a something else ; a something shining more and
282 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
more througli all the rest of its expression ; for whicli I have
JiQ name. It was not exultation, triumph, proud enthusiasm.
They are not so calmly shown. It was not love and gratitude
alone, though love and gratitude were part of it. It emanated
from no sordid thought, for sordid thoughts do not light up
the brow, and hover on the lips, and move the spirit like a
fluttered light, until the sympathetic figure trembles.
Doctor Jeddler, in spite of his system of philosophy — which
he was continually contradicting and denying in practice, but
more famous philosophers have done that — could not help
having as much interest in the return of his old ward and
pupil, as if it had been a serious event. So, he sat himself
dovra in his easy chair again, stretched out his slippered feet
once more upon the rug, read the letter over and over a great
many times, and talked it over more times still.
"Ah! The day was," said the Doctor, looking at. the
fire, " when you and he, Grace, used to trot about arm-in-arm,
in his holiday time, like a couple of walking doUs. You
remember ? "
" I remember," she answered, with her pleasant laugh, and
plying her needle busily.
" This day month, indeed ! " mused the Doctor. " That
hardly seems a twelvemonth ago. And where was my little
Marion then ! "
" Never far from her sister," said Marion, cheerily, "how-
ever little. Grace was everything to me, even when she was
a young child herself."
" True, Puss, true," returned the Doctor. "She was a staid
little woman, was Grace, and a wise housekeeper, and a busy,
quiet, pleasant body ; bearing with our humours, and antici-
pating our wishes, and always ready to forget her own, even
in those times. I never knew you positive or obstinate, Grace,
my darling, even then, on any subject but one."
" I am afraid I have changed sadly for the worse, since,"
laughed Grace, still busy at her work. " What was that one,
father?"
"Alfred, of course," said the Doctor. "Nothing would
serve you but you must be called Alfred s wife ; so we called
you Alfred's wife ; and you liked it better, I believe ^odd as it
seems now), than being called a Duchess, if we could have
made you one."
" Indeed ? " said Grace placidly
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 283
"Why, don't you rememher?" iuqiiired the Doctor.
" I think I rememher something of it," she returned, "but
not much. It 's so long ago." And as she sat at work, she
hummed the burden of an old song, which the Doctor liked.
" Alfred will find a real wife soon," she said, breaking off;
••'and that will be a happy time indeed for all of us. My
three years' trust is nearly at an end, Marion. It has been a
very easy one. I shall tell Alfred, when I give you back to
him, that you have loved him dearly all the time, and that he
has never once needed my good services. May I tell him so,
love ? "
"Tell him, dear Grace," replied Marion, "that there never
was a trust so generoush^, nobl}'-, steadfastly discharged; and
that I have loved you, all the time, dearer and dearer every
day ; and O ! how dearly now ! "
" Nay," said her cheerful sister, returning her embrace,
" I can scarcely tell him that ; we will leave my deserts to
Alfi-ed's imagination. It will be liberal enough, dear Marion;
like your ovm."
With that, she resumed the work she had for a moment
laid down, when her sister spoke so fervently : and with it the
old song the Doctor liked to hear. And the Doctor, still
reposing in his easy chair, with his slippered feet stretched
out before him on the rug, listened to the tune, and beat time
on his knee with Alfred's letter, and looked at his two
daughters, and thought that among the many trifles of the
trifling world, these trifles were agreeable enough.
Clemency Newcome, in the meantime, having accomplished
her mission and lingered in the room until she had made her-
eelf a party to the news, descended to the kitchen, where her
coadjutor, Mr. Britain, was regaling after supper, surrounded
by such a plentiful collection of bright pot-lids, well-scoured
saucepans, burnished dinner covers, gleaming kettles, and other
tokens of her industrious habits, arranged upon tlie walls and
shelves, that he sat as in the centre of a hall of mirrors. The
majority did not give forth very flattering portraits of him,
certainly ; nor were they by any means unanimous in their
reflections ; as some made him very long-faced, others very
broad-faced, some tolerably well-looking, others vastly ill-
looking, according to tlioir several manners of reflecting :
which were as various, in respect of one fact, as those of so
many kinds of men. But they all agreed thai in the midst oi
284 TUJ; BATTLE OF LIFE.
them sat quite at his ease, an individual with a pipe in his
mouth, and a jug of beer at his elbow, -who nodded, con
descendingly to Clemency, when she stationed herself at the
same table.
"Well, Clemmy," said Britain, "how are you by this time,
and what's the news ? "
Clemency told him the news, which he received very
graciously. A gracious change had come over Benjamin
from head to foot. He was much broader, much redder, much
more cheerful, and much jollier in all respects. It seemed as
if his face had been tied up in a knot before, and was now
untwisted and smoothed out.
"There'll be another job for Snitchey and Craggs, I
suppose," he observed, puffing slowly at his pipe. " More
witnessing for you and me, perhaps, Clemmy ! "
" Lor ! " replied his fair companion, with her favourite
twist of her favoiuite joints. " I wish it was me, Britain ! "
" Wish what was you ? "
" A going to be married," said Clemency.
Benjamin took his pipe out of his mouth and laughed
heartily. "Yes! you're a likely subject for that!" he said,
" Poor Clem ! " Clemency for her part laughed as heartily
as he, and seemed as much amused by the idea. " Yes,"
she assented, " I 'm a likely subject'for that ; an't I ? "
" You 'U never be married, you know," said Mr. Britain,
resuming his pipe.
" Don 't you think lever shall though?" said Clemency,
in perfect good faith.
Mr. Britain shook his head. " Not a chance of it ! "
" Only think! " said Clemency. " WeU ! — I suppose you
mean to, Britain, one of these days ; don't you ? "
A question so abrupt, upon a subject so momentous,
required consideration. After blowing out a great cloud of
smoke, and looking at it with his head now on this side
and now on that, as if it were actually the question, and
he were surveying it in various aspects, Mr. Britain replied
that he wasn 't altogether clear about it, but — ye-es — he
thought he might come to that at last.
" I wish her joy, whoever she may be' " cried Clemency.
" Oh she '11 have that," said Benjamin, " safe enough."
" But she wouldn't have led quite such a jojd'ul life as she
will lead, and wouldn't have had quite such a sociable sort of
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 285
husband as she will have," said Clemency, spreading her-
self half over the table, and staring retrospectively at the
candle, "if it hadn't been for — not that I went to do it,
for it Avas accidental, I am sure — if it hadn't been for me ;
now would she, Britain?"
" Certainly not," returned Mr. Britain, by this time in
that high state of appreciation of his pipe, when a man
can open his mouth but a very little way for speaking pur-
poses ; and sitting luxuriously immovable in his chair, can
afford to tui-n only his eyes towards a companion, and that
very passively and gravely. " Oh ! I 'm greatly beholden
to you, you know, Clem."
" Lor, how nice that is to think of ! " said Clemency.
At the same time bringing her thoughts as well as her
sight to bear upon the candle grease, and becoming abruptly
reminiscent of its healing qualities as a balsam, she anointed
her left elbow with a plentiful application of that remedy.
" You see I 've made a good many investigations of one
sort and another in my time," pursued Mr. Britain, with
the profoundity of a sage; "having been always of an
inquiring turn of mind ; and I 've read a good many books
about the general Rights of things and Wrongs of things,
for I went into the literary line myself when I began life."
" Did you though ! " cried the admiring Clemency.
"Yes," said Mr. Britain: "I was hid for the best part
of two years behind a bookstall, ready to fly out if anybody
pocketed a volume ; and after tluit, I was light porter to a
stay and mantua-maker, in which capacity I was employed
to carry about, in oilskin baskets, nothing but deceptions —
which soui'ed my spirits and disturbed my confidence in
human natiu-e ; and after that, I heard a world of discus-
sions in tliis house, which soured my spirits fresh ; and my
opinion after all is, that, as a safe and comfortable sweetener
of the same, and as a pleasant guide through life, there 's no-
thing like a nutmeg-grater."
Clemency was about to offer a suggestion, but he stopped
her by anticipating it.
"Com-bined," he added gravely, "with a thimble."
"Do as you wold, you know, and cetrer, eh!" observed
Clemency, folding her arms comfortably in her delight
Rt this avowal, and patting her elbows. " Such a short
jut, au't it ? "
286 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
" I 'm not sure," said Mr. Britain, " that it 's what would
be considered good philosophy. I 've my doubts about that
but it were as well, and saves a quantity of snarling, which the
genuine article don't always."
" See how you used to go on once, yourself, you know ! "
said Clemency.
" Ah ! " said Mr. Britain. " But, the most extraordinary
thing, Clemmy, is that I should live to be brought round,
through you. That 's the strange part of it. Through you !
Why, I suppose you haven't so much as half an idea in
your head."
Clemency, without taking the least offence, shook it, and
laughed, and hugged herself, and said, " No, she didn't sup-
pose she had."
" I 'm pretty sure of it," said Mr. Britain.
" Oh ! I dare say you 're right," said Clemency. " I don't
pretend to none. I don't want any."
Benjamin took his pipe from his lips, and laughed till
the tears ran down his face. " What a natural you are,
Clemmy ! " he said, shaking his head, with an infinite
relish of the joke, and wiping his eyes. Clemency, without
the smallest inclination to dispute it, did the like, and laughed
as heai'tily as he.
"I can't help liking you," said Mr. Britain; "you're
a regular good creatiu-e in your way, so shake hands Clem.
Whatever happens, I '11 always take notice of you, and be a
friend to you."
"Will you?" returned Clemency. "Well! that's very
good of you."
" Yes, 3'es," said Mr. Britain, ginng her his pipe to knock
the ashes out of it ; "I '11 stand by you. Hark ! That 's a
curious noise ! "
" Noise ! " repeated Clemency.
" A footstep outside. Somebody dropping from the wall,
it sounded like," said Britain. " Are they all abed up
etairs ? "
" Yes, all abed by this time," she replied.
" Didn't you hear anything ? "
"No."
They both listened, but heard nothing.
" I tell you what," said Benjamin, taking down a lantern,
" I '11 have a look round, before I go to bed myself, for
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. or7
satisfaction's sake. Undo the door while I light this,
Clem my ! "
Clemency complied briskly ; but observed as she did so,
that he woidd onl}' have his walk for his pains, that it was
all his fancy, and so forth. Mr. Britain said "very likely; "
but sallied out, nevertheless, armed with the poker, and casting
the light of the lantern far and near in all directions.
" It 's as quiet as a churchyard," said Clemency, looking
after him ; " and almost as ghostly too ! "
Glancing back into the kitchen, she cried fearfully, as a
light figure stole into her view, " What 's that ! "
"Hush!" said Marion, in an agitated whisper. "\ou
have always loved me, liave you not ! "
" Loved you, child ! You may be sure I have."
'• I am sure. And I may trust you, may I not ? There is
no one else just now, in whom I can trust."
" Yes," said Clemency, with all her heart.
" There is some one out there," pointing to the door, " whom
I must see, and speak with, to-night. Michael Warden, for
God's sake retire ! Not now ! "
Clemency started with surprise and trouble as, following the
direction of the speaker's eyes, she saw a dark figure standing
in the doorway.
" In another moment you may be discovered," said Marion.
" Not now ! Wait, if you can, in some concealment. I will
oome presently."
He waved his hand to her, and was gone.
" Don't go to bed. Wait here for me ! " said Marion,
hui-riedly. " I have been seeking to speak to you for an hour
past. Oh, be true to me ! "
Eagerly seizing her bewildered hand, and pressing it with
both her own to her breast — an action more expressive, in
its passion of entreaty, than the most eloquent appeal in
words, — Marion withdrew ; as the light of tlie returning
lantern flashed into tlie room.
" All stiU and peaceable. Nobody there. Fancy, I suppose,"
said Mr. Britain, as he locked and barred the door. " One of
the effects of having a lively imagination. Ilulloa ! Why,
what 's the matter ? "
Clemency, who could not conceal the effects of her sur-
prise and concern, was sitting in a chair : pale, and trom-
bling from head to foot.
288 THE BATTLE OF LIF3.
" Matter ! " slie repeated, chafing her hands and elbows,
nervously, and looking- anywhere but at him. "That's good
in you, Britain, that is ! After going and frightening one out
of one's life with noises, and lanterns, and I don't know what
all. Matter! Oh, yes!"
"If you're frightened out of your life by a lantern,
Clemmy," said Mr. Britain, composedly blowing it out and
hanging it up again, " that apparition 's very soon get rid of.
But you 're as bold as brass in general," he said, stopping
to observe her; "and were, after the noise and the lantern
too. What have you taken into your head ? Not an
idea, eh ? "
But, as Clemency bade him good night very much after her
usual fashion, and began to bustle about with a show of going
to bed herself immediately. Little Britain, after giving utter-
ance to tlie original remark that it was impossible to
account for a woman's whims, bade her good niglit in
return, and taking up his candle strolled drowsily away to
bed.
When all was quiet, Marion returned.
" Open the door," she said ; " and stand there close beside
me, while I speak to him, outside."
Timid as her manner was, it still evinced a resolute and
settled purpose, such as Clemency coidd not resist. She softly
unbarred the door : but before turning the key, looked round
on the young creature waiting to issue forth when she should
open it.
The face was not averted or cast down, but looking full
upon her, in its pride of youth and beauty. Some simple
sense of the slightness of the barrier that interposed itself
between the happy home and honoured love of the fair girl,
and what might be the desolation of that home, and shipwreck
of its dearest treasure, smote so keenly on the tender heart
of Clemency, and so filled it to overflowing with sorrow and
compassion, that, bursting into tears, she threw her arms
round Marion's neck.
" It 's little that I know, my dear," cried Clemency, " very
little ; but I know that this should not be. Think of what
you do ! "
" I have thought of it many times," said Marion gently.
" Once more," urged Clemency. " TiU to-morrow." Marion
shook her head.
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 289
" For Mr. Alfred's sake," said Clemency, with homely eani-
estiiess. " Him that you used to love so dearly, once ! "
She hid her face, upon the instant, in her hands, repeating
" Ouce ! " as if it rent her heart.
"Let me go out," said Clemency, soothing her. " I '11 tell
him what you like. Don't cross the door-step to night. I 'm
Bure no good will come of it. Oh, it was an unhappy day
when Mr. Warden was ever bought here ! Think of your
good father, darling — of your sister."
" I have," said Marion, hastily raising her head. " You
don't know what I do. You don't know what I do. I 7imsi
speak to him. You are the best and truest friend in all the
^\-orld for what you have said to me, but I must take this
step. WiU you go with me. Clemency," she kissed her on
her friendly face, " or shall I go alone ? "
Sorrowing and wondering. Clemency turned the key, and
opened the door. Into the dark and doubtful night that lay
beyond the threshold, Marion passed quickly, holding by her
hand.
In the dark night he joined her, and they spoke together
earnestly and long ; and the hand that held so fast by
Clemency's, now trembled, now turned deadly cold, now
clasped and closed on hers, in the strong feeling of the speech
it emphasised unconsciously. "\Mien they retiu-ned, he
followed to the door, and pausing there a moment, seized the
other hand, and pressed it to his lips. Then, stealthily with-
drew.
The door was barred and locked again, and once again she
stood beneath lier father's roof. Not bowed down by the
secret that she brouglit there, though so young ; but with that
same expression on her face for which I had no name before,
and shining through her tears.
Again she thanked and thanked her humble friend, and
trusted to her, as she said, with confidence, implicitly. Her
chamber safely reached, she fell upon her knees ; and with
her secret weigliiug on heart, could pray !
Could rise up from her prayers, so tranquil and serene, and
bending over lior fund sister in her slumber, look upon her
face and smile — tliough sadly : murmuring as she kissed her
forehead, liow that Grace had been a mother to her, ever, and
she loved her as a child I
Could flraw tlie passive arm about her neck when lying
290 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
doAvn to rest — it seemed to cling there, of its own will, prt>
tectingly and tenderly even in sleep — and breathe upon the
parted lips, God bless her !
Could sink into a peaceful sleep, herself; but for one
dream, in which she cried out, in her innocent and touching
voice, that she was quite alone, and they had aU forgotten her.
A month soon passes, even at its tardiest pace. The month
appointed to elapse between that night and the return, was
quick of foot, and went by, like a vapour.
The day arrived. A raging winter day, that shook the old
house, sometimes, as if it shivered in the blast. A day to
make home doubly home. To give the chimney-corner new
delights. . To shed a ruddier glow upon the faces gathered
round the hearth, and draw each fireside group into a closer
and more social league, against the roaring elements without.
Such a wild winter day as best prepares the way for shut-out
night ; for curtained rooms, and cheerful looks ; for music,
laughter, dancing, light, and jovial entertainment !
All these the Doctor had in store to welcome Alfred back.
They knew that he could not arrive tiU night ; and they would
make the night air ring, he said, as he approached. All his
old friends should congregate about him. He should not miss
a face that he had known and liked. No ! They should every
one be there !
So, guests were bidden, and musicians were engaged, and
tables spread, and floors prepared for active feet, and bounti-
fid provision made of every hospitable kind. Because it was
the Christmas season, and his eyes were all unused to English
holly and its sturdy green, the dancing-room was garlanded
and hung with it ; and the red berries gleamed an English
welcome to him, peeping from among the leaves.
It was a busy day for all of them : a busier day for none
of them than Grace, wlio noiselessly presided everywhere,
and was the cheerful mind of all the preparations. ]\Iany a
time that day (as well as many a time within the fleeting
month preceding it), did Clemency glance anxiously, and
almost fearfully, at Marion. She saw her paler, perhaps, than
usual ; but there was a sweet composure on her face that
made it lovelier than ever.
" At night when she was dressed, and wore upon her head
a wreath that Grace had proudly twined about it — its mimic
TI!E BATTLE OF LIFR. 291
flowevs were Alfred's favourites, as Grace remembered when
she chose them — that old expression, pensive, almost sorrowfui,
and yet so spiritual, high, and stirring sat again upon her
brow, enhanced a hundred fold.
"The next wreath I adjust on this fair head, will be a
marriage wreath," said Grace ; "or I am no true prophet,
dear."
Her sister smiled, and held her in her arms.
" A moment, Grace. Don't leave me yet. Ai-e you sure
£hat I want nothing more ? "
Her care was not for that. It was her sister's face she
thought of, and her eyes were fixed upon it, tenderly.
" My art," said Grace, " can go no farther, dear girl ;
nor your beauty. I never saw you look so beautiful as now."
" I never was so happy," she returned.
" Ay, but there is a greater happiness in store. In such
another home, as cheerful and as bright as this looks now,"
said Grace, " Alfred and his young wife will soon be Uving."
She smiled again. "It is a happy home, Grace, in your
fancy. I can see it in your eyes. I know it ivill be happy,
dear. How glad I am to know it."
" Well," cried the Doctor, bustling in. " Here we are, all
ready for Alfred, eh ? " He can't be here until pretty late —
an liour or so before midnight — so there '11 be plenty of time
for making merry before he comes. He '11 not find us with
the ice unbroken. Pile up the fire here, Britain ! Let it
shine upon the hoUy till it winks again. It's a world of
nonsense. Puss ; true lovers and all the rest of it — all non-
sense ; but we 'U be nonsensical with the rest of 'em and give
our true lover a mad welcome. Upon my word ! " said the
old Doctor, looking at his daughters proudly, " I 'm not clear
to-night, among other absurdities, but that I 'm the father o{
two handsome girls."
" AH that one of them has ever done, or may do — may do,
dearest father — to cause you pain or grief, forgive her," said
Marion, " forgive her now, when her heart is full. Say that
you forgive her. That you will forgive her. That she sliall
always share your love, and — ," and the rest was not said,
for her face was hidden on the old man's shoulder.
" Tut, tut, tut," said the Doctor gently. " Forgive ! What
have I to forgive ? Heydey, if our true lovers come back to
flurry us Hke this, we must hold them at a distance i we must
292 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
seud expresses out to stop 'em short Tipon the road, and bring
'em on a mile or two a day, until we 're properly prepared to
meet 'em. Kiss me. Puss. Forgive ! Why, what a silly
child you are. If you had vexed and crossed me fifty times
a day, instead of not at all, I 'd forgive you everything, but
such a supplication. Kiss me again, Puss. There ! Pro-
spective and retrospective — a clear score between us. Pile up
the fire here ! Would you freeze the people on this bleak
December niglit ! Let us be light, and warm, and merry, or
I '11 not forgive some of you ! "
So gaily the old Doctor carried it ! And the fire was piled
up, and the lights were bright, and company arrived, and a
murmuring of lively tongues began, and already there was
a pleasant air of cheerful excitement stirring through all the
Jiouse.
More and more company came flocking in. Bright eyes
■sparkled upon Marion ; smiling lips gave her joy of his return;
sage mothers fanned themselves, and hoped she mightn't be too
youthful and inconstant for the quiet round of home ; impetuous
fathers fell into disgrace, for too much exaltation of her
beanty ; daughters envied her ; sons envied him ; innumerable
pairs of lovers profited by the occasion ; all were interested,
animated, and expectant.
Mr. and Mrs. Craggs came arm in arm, but Mrs. Snitchey
came alone. "Why, what's become of him?'" inquired the
Doctor.
The feather of a Bird of Paradise in Mrs. Suitchey's turban,
trembled as if the Bird of Paradise were aHve again, when she
said that doubtless Mr. Craggs knew. She was never told.
" That nasty office," said Mrs. Craggs.
" I wish it was burnt down," said Mrs. Snitchey.
*' He 's — he 's — there 's a little matter of business that keeps
my partner rather late," said Mr. Craggs, looking uneasily
about him.
" Oh — h ! Business. Don't tell me ! " said Mrs. Snitchey.
" We know what business means," said Mrs. Craggs.
But their not knowing what it meant, was perhaps the
reason why INIrs. Snitchey's Bird of Paradise feather quivered
80 portentously, and why all the pendant bits on Mrs. Craggs's
ear-rings shook like little beUs.
" I wonder you could come away, Mr. Craggs," said his
wife.
THE BAITLE OF LIFE. 293
*' Mr. Crag-gs is fortunate, I 'm sure I " said Mrs. Suitcliey.
" That office so engrosses 'em," said Mrs. Craggs.
" A person with an office has no business to be married at
all," said Mrs. Snitchey.
Then, Mrs. Snitchey said, within herself, that that look of
hers had pierced to Craggs' s soul, and he knew it ; and Mrs.
Craggs observed, to Craggs, that "his Snitcheys" were
deceiving him behind his back, and he would find it out wheu
it was too late.
Still, Mr. Craggs, without much heeding these remarks,
looked uneasily about him until his eye rested on Grace, to
whom he immediately presented himself.
" Good evening, ma'am," said Craggs. " You look charm-
ingly. Your — Miss — your sister. Miss Marion, is she "
" Oh she 's quite well, Mr. Craggs."
" Yes — I — is she here ? " asked Craggs.
"Here! Don't you see her yonder? Going to dance?"
said Grace.
Mr. Craggs put on his spectacles to see the better ; lookecr
at her through them, for some time ; coughed ; and put them,
with an air of satisfaction, in their sheath again, and in his
pocket.
Now the music struck up, and the dance commenced. The
bright fire crackled and sparkled, rose and fell, as though it
joined the dance itself, in right good fellowship. Sometimes,
it roared as if it would make music too. Sometimes, it flashed
and beamed as if it were the eye of the old room : it winked
too, sometimes, like a knowing Patriarch, upon the youthful
whisperers in comers. Sometimes, it sported with the hoUy-
boughs ; and, shining on the leaves by fits and starts, made
them look as if they were in the cold winter night again, and
fluttering in tlie wind. Sometimes its genial humour grew
obstreperous, and passed all bounds ; and then it cast into the
room, among the twinkling feet, with a loud burst, a shower
of harmless little sparks, and in its exultation leaped and
bounded like a mad thing, up the broad old chimney.
Another dance was near its close, when Mr. Snitchey touched
his partner, who was looking on, upon the arm.
Mr. Craggs started, as if his familiar had been a spectre.
" Is he gone ? " he asked.
" Hush ! He has been with me," said Snitchey, " for
three hours and more, lie went over ovojything. He lookod
294 THE BATTLE OF LIFL'.
into all our arrangements for him, and was very partiLular
indeed. He — Humph ! "
The dance was finished. Marion passed close before him,
as he spoke. She did not observe him, or his partner ; but.
looked over her shoulder towards lier sister in the distance, as
she slowly made her way into the crowd, and passed out of
their view.
" You see ! All safe and v/ell," said Mr. Craggs. " He
didn't recur to that subject, I suppose ? "
"Not a word."
" And is he really gone ? Is he safe away ? "
" He keeps to his word. He drops down the river with
tlie tide in that shell of a boat of his, and so goes out to sea
on this dark niglit !— a dtire-devil he is — before the wind.
There 's no sucli lonely road anywhere else. That 's one
thing. The tide flows, he says, an hour before midnight —
about this time. I 'm glad it 's over." Mr. Snitchey wiped
his forehead, which looked hot and anxious.
" What do you think," said Mr. Craggs, " about — "
"Hush!" replied his cautious partner, looking straight
before him. " I understand you. Don't mention names, and
don't let us seem to be talking secrets. I don't know what
to think ; and to tell you the truth, I don't care now. It s
a great relief. His self-love deceived him, I suppose.
Perhaps the young lady coquetted a little. The evidence
would seem to point that way. Alfred not arrived ? "
" Not yet," said Mr. Craggs. " Expected every minute."
" Good." Mr. Snitchey wiped his forehead again. " It's
a great relief. I haven't been so nervous since we 've been
in partnership. I intend to spend the evening now, Mr.
Craggs."
Mrs. Craggs and Mrs. Snitchey joined them as ne announced
this intention. The Bird of Paradise was in a staite of extreme
vibration, and the little bells were ringing quite audibly.
" It has been the theme of general comment, Mr. Snitchey,"
said Mrs. Snitchey. " I hope the ofiice is satisfied."
" Satisfied with what, my dear?" asked Mr. Snitchey.
** With the exposure of a defenceless woman to ridicui«
find remark," re'^urned his wife. "That is quite in the way
of tlie office, thiu is."
" I really, myself," said Mrs. Craggs, "have been so long
Accustomed to connect the ofiice with everything opposed to
TnE BATTLE OF LIFE. 295
vlomesticity, that I am glad to know it as the avowed enemy
of my peace. There is something honest in that, at all
events."
" My dear," urged Mr. Craggs, " your good opinion is
invaluable, but I never avowed that the office was the enemy
of your peace."
" No," said Mrs. Craggs, ringing a perfect peal upon the
little beUs. " Not you, indeed. You wouldn't be worthy of
the office, if you had the candour to."
" As to my having been away to-night, my dear," said Mi.
SnitcJiey, giving her his arm, "the deprivation has been mine,
I 'm sure ; but, as Mr. Craggs knows — "
Mrs. Snitchey cut this reference very short by hitching her
liusband to a distance, and asking him to look at that man.
To do her the favour to look at him !
" At which man, my dear ? " said Mr. Snitchey.
" Your chosen companion; I'm. no companion to you, Mr.
Snitchey."
" Yes, yes, you are, my dear," he interposed.
" No, no, I 'm not," said Mrs. Snitchey with a majestic
smile. " I know my station. Will you look at your chosen
companion, Mr. Snitchey; at your referee, at the keeper ot
your secrets, at the man you trust ; at your other self, in
short."
The habitual association of Self with Craggs, occasioned
Mr. Snitchey to look in that direction.
" If you can look that man in the eye this night," said
Mrs. Snitchey, " and not know that you are deluded, practised
upon, made the victim of his arts, and bent down prostrate to
his will by some unaccountable fascination which it is
impossible to explain and against which no warning of mine
is of the least avail, all I can say is — I pity you ! "
At the very same moment Mrs. Craggs was oracular on the
cross subject. Was it possible, she said, that Craggs could so
blind himself to his Snitcheys, as not to feel his true position.
Did he mean to say that he had seen his Snitcheys come into
that room, and didn't plainly see that there was reservation,
cunning, treachery, in the man ? WoiJd he tell her that his
very action, when he wiped his forehead and looked so stealthily
about him, didn't show that there was something weighing
on the conscience of his precious Snitcheys (if he had a con-
ecience), tliat wouldn't bear the light ? Did anybody but hia
293 TEE BATTLE OF LIFE.
Snitcheys come to festive entertainments like a burglar ? which,
by the way, was hardly a clear illustration of the case, as he
had walked in very mildly at the door. And would he still
assert to her at noon-day (it being nearly midnight), that hia
Snitcheys were to be justified through thick and thin, against
all facts, and reason, and experience ?
Neither Snitchey nor Craggs openly attempted to stem the
current which had thus set in, but, both were content to be
carried gently along it, until its force abated. This happened
at about the same time as a general movement for a country
dance ; when Mr. Snitchey proposed himself as a partner to
Mrs. Craggs, and Mr. Craggs gallantly offered himself to Mrs.
Snitchey; and after some such slight evasions as "why don't
you ask somebody else?" and "you'll be glad, I know, if I
decline," and "I wonder you can dance out of the ofiice "
(but this jocosely now), each lady graciously accepted, and
took her place.
It was an old custom among them, indeed, to do so, and to
pair off, in like manner, at dinners and suppers ; for they
were excellent friends, and on a footing of easy familiarity.
Perhaps the false Craggs and the wicked Snitchey were a
recognised fiction with the two wives, as Doe and Roe^
incessantly running up and down bailiwicks, were with the
two husbands ; or, perhaps the ladies had instituted, and
taken upon themselves, these two shares in the business, rather
than be left of it out altogether. But, certain it is, that each
wife went as gravely and steadily to work in her vocation as
her husband did in his, and would have considered it almost
impossible for the Firm to maintain a successful and respect-
able existence, without her laudable exertions.
But, now, the Bird of Paradise was seen to flutter down the
middle ; and the little bells began to bounce and jingle in
poussette ; and the Doctor's rosy face sj)un round and round,
like an expressive pegtop highly varnished ; and breathless
Mr. Craggs began to doubt already, whether country dancing
had been made "too easy," like the rest of life; and Mr.
Snitchey, with his nimble cuts and capers, footed it for Self,
and Craggs, and half a dozen more.
Now, too, the fire took fr-esh courage, favoured by the lively
wind the dance awakened, and burnt clear and high. It was
the Genius of the room, and present everywhere. It shone
iti people's eyes, it sparkled in the jewels on the juow}- necks
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 297
of girls, it twinkled at their ears £S if it whispered to them
elyly, it flashed about their waists, it flickered on the ground
and made it rosy for their feet, it bloomed upon the ceiling
that its glow might set off their bright faces, and it kindled up
a general illumination in Mrs. Craggs's little belfry.
Now, too, the lively air that fanned it, grew less gentle aa
the music quickened and the dance proceeded with new spirit ;
and a breeze arose that made the leaves and berries dance
- upon the wall, as they had often done upon the trees ; and the
breeze rustled in the room as if an invisible company of fairies,
treading in the footsteps of the good substantial revellers,
were whirling after them. Now, too, no feature of the
Doctor's face could be distinguished as he spun and spun ;
and now there seemed a dozen Birds of Paradise in fitful
flight ; and now there were a thousand little bells at work ;
and now a fleet of flying skirts was ruffled by a little tempest,
when the music gave in, and the dance was over.
Hot and breathless as the Doctor was, it only made him the
more impatient for Alfred's coming.
" Anything been seen, Britain ? Anything been heard ? "
" Too dark to see far, sir. Too much noise inside the house
to hear."
"That's right! The gayer welcome for him. IIow goes
the time ? "
" Just twelve, sir. He can't be long, sir."
" Stir up the fire, and throw another log upon it," said the
Doctor. " Let him see his welcome blazing out upon the
night — good boy ! — as he comes along ! "
He saw it — Yes ! From the chaise he caught the light, as
he turned the corner by the old church. He knew the rooui
from which it shone. He saw the wintry branches of the old
trees between the light and him. He knew that one of those
trees rustled musically in the summer time at the window of
Marion's chamber.
The tears were in his eyes. His heart throbbed so violently
that he could hardly bear his happiness. How often he had
thought of this time — pictured it under all circumstances —
feared that it might never come — yearned, and wearied for it
— far away !
Again the light ! Distinct and ruddy; kindled, he knew,
to give him welcome, and to speed him home. He beckccoii
with his hand, and waved his hat, and cheered out, loud, as if
298 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
the light were tliey, and they could see and hear him, as he
dashed towards them through the mud and mire, triumphantly
Stop ! He knew the Doctor, and understood what he had
done. He would not let it be a surprise to them. But he
could make it one, yet, by going forward on foot. If the
orchard gate were open, he could enter there ; if not, the waU
was <>asily climbed, as he knew of old ; and he would bo
among them in an instant.
He dismounted from the chaise, and telling the driver — ■
even that was not easy in his agitation — to remain behind for
a few minutes, and then to follow slowly, ran on with exceeding
swiftness, tried the gate, scaled the wall, jumped down on the
other side, and stood panting in the old orchard.
There was a frosty rime upon the trees, which, in the faint
light of the clouded moon, himg upon tlie smaller branches
like dead garlands. Withered leaves crackled and snapped
beneath his feet, as he crept softly on towards the house. The
desolation of a winter night sat brooding on the earth, and in
the sky. But, the red light came cheerily towards him from
the windows ; figures passed and re-passed there ; and the
hum and murmur of voices greeted his ear, sweetly.
Listening for hers : attempting, as he crept on, to detach
it from the rest, and half-believing that he heard it : he had
nearly reached the door, when it was abruptly opened, and a
figure coming out encountered his. It instantly recoiled with
a half-suppressed cry.
" Clemency," he said, " don't you know me ? "
" Don't come in ! " she answered, pushing him back. " Go
away. Don't ask me why. Don't come in."
" What is the matter ? " he exclaimed.
" I don't know. I — I am afraid to think. Go back. Hark ! "
There was a sudden tumult in the house. She put her
hands upon her ears. A wild scream, such as no hands could
shut out, was heard ; and Grace — distraction in her looks and
manner — rushed out at the door.
" Grace ! " He caught her in his arms. " "What is it !
Is she dead ! "
She disengaged herself, as if to recognise his face, and fell
down at his feet.
A crowd of figures came about them from the house.
Among them was her father, with a paper in his hand.
*' WTiat is it ! " cried Alfred, grasping his hair with, hia
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 299
hands, and looking in an agony trom face to face, as he bem
upon his knee beside the insensible girl. " Will no one look
at me ? Will no one speak to me ? Does no one know me ?
Is there no voice among you all, to tell me what it is ! "
There was a murmur among them. " She is gone."
" Gone ! " he echoed.
" Fled, my dear Alfred ! " said the Doctor, in a broken
voice, and with his hands before his face. " Gone from her
iiome and us. To-night ! She writes that she has made her
innocent and blameless choice — entreats that we will forgive
her — prays that we will not forget her — and is gone."
" AVith whom ? Where ? "
He started up, as if to follow in pursuit ; but, when they
gave way to let him pass, looked wildly round upon them,
staggered back, and sank down in his former attitude, clasping
one of Graces's cold hands in his o\\ti.
There was a hurried running to and fro, confusion, noise,
disorder, and no purpose. Some proceeded to disperse them-
selves about the roads, and some took horse, and some got
lights, and some conversed together, urging that there was no
trace or track to follow. Some approached him kindly, with
the view of offering consolation ; some admonished him that
Grace must be removed into the house, and that he prevented
it. He never heard them, and he never moved.
The snow fell fast and thick. He looked up for a moment
in the air, and thought that those white ashes strewn upon
his hopes and misery, were suited to them well. He looked
round on the whitening gi'ound, and thought how Marion's
foot-prints would be hushed and covered up, as soon as mado,
and even that remembrance of her blotted out. But hd novoi
felt the weather, and he never stirred.
3kO the baitle of life.
PAET THE THIRD.
The world had grown six years older since that night of
^lie return. It was a warm autumn afternoon, and there had
been heavy rain. The sun burst suddenly from among the
clouds; and the old battle-ground, sparkling brilliantly and
fiheerfully at sight of it in one green place, flashed a responsive
welcome there, which spread along the country side as if a
joyful beacon had been lighted up, and answered from a thou-
sand stations.
How beautiful the landscape kindling in the light, and that
luxuriant influence passing on like a celestial presence,
brightening everything ! The wood, a sombre mass before,
revealed its varied tints of yellow, green, brown, red : its
different forms of trees, with raindrops glittering on their
leaves and twinkling as they fell. The verdant meadow-land,
bright and glowing, seemed as if it had been blind, a minute
since, and now had found a sense of sight wherewith to look
up at the shining sky. Cornfields, hedge-rows, fences, home-
steads, the clustered roofs, the steeple of the church, the
stream, the watermill, aU sprang out of the gloomy darkness,
smiling. Birds sang sweetly, flowers raised their di'ooping
heads, fresh scents arose from the invigorated ground ; the
blue expanse above, extended and difi'used itself; already the
sun's slanting rays pierced mortally the sullen bank of cloud
that lingered in its flight; and a rainbow, spirit of aU the
colours that adorned the earth and sky, spanned the whole
arch with its triumphant glory.
At such a time, one little roadside Inn, snugly sheltered
behind a great elm-tree with a rare seat for idlers encircling
its capacious bole, addressed a cheerful front towards the
traveller, as a house of entertainment ought, and tempted him
with many mute but significant assurances of a comfortable
M^elcome. The ruddy sign-board perched up in the tree, with
its golden letters winking in the sun, ogled the passer-by.
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. SOI
fe'om among the green leaves, like a jolly face, and promised
good clieer. The litirse trough, full of clear fresh -svater, and
the ground below it sprinkled ^Yitll droppings of fragrant hay,
made every horse that passed, prick up his ears. The crimson
curtains in the lower rooms, and the piire white hangings in
the little bed-chambers above, beckoned, Come in ! with every
breath of air. Upon the bright green shutters, there were golden
legends about beer aud ale, and neat wines, and good beds ;
and an affecting picture of a brown jug frothing over at the
top. Upon the window-sills were dowering plants in bright
red pots, which made a lively show against the white front of
the house ; and in the darkness of the doorway there were
ttreaks of light, which glanced off fi'om the surfaces of bottles
and tankards.
On the door-step, appeared a proper figure of a landlord,
too ; for, though he was a short man, he was round and broad^
and stood with his hands in his pockets, and his legs just wide
enough apart to express a mind at rest upon the subject of the
cellar, and an easy confidence — too calm and virtuous to
become a swagger — in the general resources of the Inn.
The superabundant moistiu-e, trickling from everything after
the late rain, set him off well. Nothing near him was thirsty.
Certain top-heavy dahlias, looking over the palings of his neat
well-ordered garden, had swilled as much as they could cai-ry
— perhaps a trifle more — and may have been the worse for
liquor ; but, the sweet-briar, roses, wall-flowers, the plants at
the windows, and the leaves on the old tree, were in the
beaming state of moderate company that had taken no more
than was wholesome for them, and had served to develope
their best qualities. Sprinkling dewy di'ops about them on
the ground, they seemed profuse of innocent and sparkling
mirth, that did good where it lignted, softening neglected
corners which the steady rain could seldom reach, and hurting
nothing.
^ This village Inn had assumed, on being established, an
uncommon sign. It was called Tlie Nutmeg Grater. And
underneath that household word, was inscribed, up in the tree,
on the same flaming board, and in the like golden characters,
By Benjamin Britain.
At a second glance, and on a more minute examination of
bis face, you might have known that it was no other than
Benjamin Britain himself who stood in the doorway — reason-
302 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
ably changed by time, but for the better ; a very comfortable
host indeed.
" Mrs. B.," said Mr. Britain, looking down the road, " is
rather late. It 's tea time."
As there was no ]\Irs. Britain coming, he strolled leisurely
out into the road and looked up at the house, very much to
nis satisfaction. " It 's just the sort of house," said Benjamin,
" I should wish to stop at, if I didn't keep it."
Then, he strolled towards the garden paling, and took a
look at the dahlias. They looked over at him, with a helpless
drowsy hanging of their heads : which bobbed again, as the
heavy drops of wet dripped off them.
" You must be looked after," said Benjamin. " Memor-
andum, not to forget to tell her so. She 's a long time coming."
Mr. Britain's better half seemed to be by so very much hia
better half, that his own moiety of himself was utterly cast
away and helpless without her.
" She hadn't much to do, I think," said Ben. " There
were a few little matters of business after market, but not
many. Oh ! here we are at last ! "
A chaise -cart, driven by a boy, came clattering along the
road : and seated in it, in a chair, with a large well- saturated
umbrella spread out to dry behind her, was the plump figure
of a matronly woman, with her bare arms folded across a
Ijasket which she carried on her knee, several other baskets
and parcels lying crowded about her, and a certain bright
good-nature in her face and contented awkwardness in her
manner, as she jogged to and fro with the motion of her
carriage, which smacked of old times, even in the distance,
Upon her nearer approach, this relish of bygone days was not
diminished ; and when the cart stopped at the Nutmeg Grater
door, a pair of shoes, alighting from it, slipped nimbly through
Mr. Britain's open arm.s, and came down with a substantial
weight upon the pathway, which shoes could hardly havo
belonged to any one but Clemency Newcome. *
In fact they did belong to her, and she stood in them, aiid
a rosy comfortable-looking soul she was : with as much soap
on her glossy face as in times of yore, but with whole elbows
now, that had grown quite dimpled in her improved condition.
" You 're late, Clemmy ! " said Mr. Britain.
" Why, you see, Ben, I 've had a deal to do ! " she replied,
looking busily after tiie safe removal into the house of all the
THE BATTLE OP LIFE. 3fi3
pat^kag^s and baskets; "eight, nine, ten — where 'a eluveu ?
Oh ! my basket 's eleven ! It 's all right. Put the horse up,
Harry, and if he coughs again give him a warm mash to-night.
Eight, nine, ten. Why, where 's eleven ? Oh I forgot, it 'a
all right. How 's the childi'en, Ben ? "
" Hearty, Clemmy, hearty."
" Bless their precious faces ! " said Mrs. Britain, un-
bonneting her own round countenance (for she and her
husband were by this time in the bar), and smoothing her
hair with her open hands. " Give us a kiss, old' man ! " .
Mr. Britain promptly complied.
" I think," said Mrs. Britain, applying herself to her
pockets and drawing forth an immense bulk of thin books
and crumpled papers : a very kennel of dog's ears : " I 've
done everything. Bills all settled — turnips sold — brewer's
account looked into and paid — 'bacco pipes ordered — seven-
teen pound four, paid into the Bank — Doctor Heathfield's
charge for little Clem — you'll guess what that is — Doctor
Heathfield won't take nothing again, Tim."
" I thought he wouldn't," returned Britain.
'' No. He says whatever family you was to have, Tim,
he 'd never put you to the cost of a halfpenny. Not if you
M-as to liave twenty."
Mr. Britain's face assumed a serious expression, and he
looked hard at the wall.
" A'nt it kind of him ? " said Clemency.
" Very,'' returned Mr. Britain. " It 's the sort of kindness
that I wouldn't presume upon, on any account."
" No," retorted Clemency. " Of course not. Then there 'a
the pony — he fetched eight pound two ; and that a'nt bad,
is it ? "
" It 's very good," said Ben.
"I'm glad you're pleased!" exclaimed his wife. "I
tliought you would be ; and I think that 's all, and so no
more at present from yours and cetrer, C. Britain. Ha ha ha !
There ! Take all the papers, and lock 'em up. Oh ! Wait
a minute. Here 's a printed bill to stick on the wall. Wet
from the printer's. How nice it smells ! "
" W^hat 's this ? " said Tim, looking over the document.
" I don't know," replied his wife. " I haven't road a
■word of it."
" ' To be sold by Auction,* " read the host of the Nutmeg
304 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
Grator, "'unless previously disposed of by private con-
tract.' "
"They always put that," said Clemency.
" Yes, hut they don't always put this," he returned. " Lock
here, 'Mansion,' &c. — 'offices,' &c., 'shrubberies,' &c., 'ring
fence,' &c. ' Messrs. Snitchey and Craggs,' &c., ' ornamental
portion of the unencumbered freehold property of Michael
Warden, Esquire, intending to continue to reside abroad' ! "
"Intending to continue to reside abroad!" repeated
Clemency.
" Here it is," said Mr. Britain. "Look ! "
" And it was only this very day that I heard it whispered
at the old house, that better and plainer news had been half
promised of her, soon ! " said Clemency, shaking her head
sorrowfully, and patting her elbows as if the recollection of
old times unconsciously awakened her old habits. '' Dear,
dear, dear ! There '11 be heavy hearts, Ben, yonder."
Mr. Britain heaved a sigh, and shook his head, and said he
couldn't make it out: he had .left off trying long ago. With
that remark, he applied himself to putting up the bill just
inside the bar window. Clemency, after meditating in silence
for a few moments, roused herself, cleared her thovightfid
brow, and bustled off to look after the children.
Though the host of the Nutmeg Grater had a lively regard
for his good-wdfe, it w^as of the old patronising kind, and she
amused him mightily. Nothing would have astonished him
so much, as to have known for certain from any third party,
that it was she who managed the whole house, and made him,
by her plain straightforward tlirift, good-humour, honesty,
and industry, a thriving man. So easy it is, in any degree
of life (as the world very often finds it), to take those cheer-
ful natures that never assert their merit, at their own modest
valuation ; and to conceive a flippant liking of people for
t;heir outward oddities and eccentricities, whose innate worth,
i£ "we would look so far, might make us blush in tlie
comparison !
It was comfortable to Mr. Britain, to tliink of his o^vn
condescension in having married Clemency. She was a
perpetual testimony to him of the goodness of his heart, and
the kindness of his disposition ; and he felt that her being an
fesceUent wife was an illustration of the old precept that
«irtue is its own reward.
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 305
He liad finished waferiug up the bill, and had locked five
vouchers for her day's proceedings in the cupboard — chuck-
ling all the time, over her capacity for business — when,
returning with the news that the two INIaster Britains were
playing in the coach-house under the superintendence of one
Betsey, and that little Clem was sleeping "like a picture, '■"
she sat down to tea, which had awaited her arrival, on a little
table. It was a very neat little bar, with the usual display
of bottles and glasses ; a sedate clock, right to the minute (ic
was half-past five) ; everything in its place, and everything
furbished and polished up, to the very utmost.
" It 's tlie first time I 've sat down quietly to-day, I
declare," said Mrs. Britain, taking a long breath, as if she
bad sat down for the night; but getting up again immediately
to hand her husband his tea, and cut him his bread-aud-
butter ; " how that biU does set me thinking of old times ! "
" Ah ! " said Mr. Britain, handling his saucer like an
oyster, and disposing of its contents on the same principle.
" That same Mr. Michael Warden," said Clemency,
shaking her head at the notice of sale, "lost me my old place."
" And got you your husband," said Mr. Britain.
" Well ! So he did," retorted Clemency, " and many
thanks to him."
" Man's the creature of habit," said Mr. Britain, surveying
her, over his saucer. " I had somehow got used to you,
Clem; and I found I shouldn't be able to get on without you.
So we went and got made man and wife Ha ! ha ! We !
Who 'd have thought it ! "
"Who indeed!" cried Clemency. "It was very good of
you, Ben."
" No, no, no," replied Mr. Britain, with an air of self-
denial. " Nothing worth mentioning."
" Oh yes it was, Ben," said his wife, with great simplicity ;
" I 'm sure I think so, and am very much obliged to you.
Ah!" looking again at the bill ; "when she was known to
be gone, and out of reacli, dear girl, I couldn't help telling — ■
for her sake quite as much as tlieirs — what I knew, could 1?"
" You told it, anyhow," ODserved her husband.
" And Doctor .Teddler," pursued Clemency, putting down
her tea-cup, and Lxjking thouglilfully at the bill, " in his
grief and passion turned me out of lioiiso and home ! I
never have been bo glad of anything in all my life, as that I
■W6 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
didn't say an angry word to him, and hadn't an angry
feeling towards him, even then ; for he repented that truly,
afterwards. How often he has sat in this room, and told me
over and over again he was sorry for it ! — the last time, only
yesterday, when you were out. How often he has sat in this
room, and talked to me, hour after hour, about one thing and
another, in which he made believe to be interested ! — but only
for tlie sake of the days that are gone by, and because he
knows she used to like me, Ben ! "
" Why, how did you ever come to catch a glimpse of that,
Clem ? " asked her husband ; astonished that she should have
a distinct perception of a truth which had only dimly sug-
gested itself to his inquiring mind.
" I don't know, I 'm sure," said Clemency, blowing her
tea, to cool it. " Bless you, I couldn't tell you, if you was to
offer me a reward of a hundred pound."
He might have pursued this metaphysical subject but for
her catching a glimpse of a substantial fact behind him, in
the shape of a gentleman attired in mourning, and cloaked
and booted like a rider on horseback, who stood at the bar-
door. He seemed attentive to their conversation, and not at
all impatient to interrupt it.
Clemency hastily rose at this sight. Mr. Britain also rose
and saluted the guest. " WiU you please to walk up stairs,
sir. There's a very nice room up-stairs, sir."
^ank you," said the stranger, looking earnestly at Mr.
Britain's wife. " May I come in here ? "
" Oh, surely, if you like, sir," returned Clemency, admitting
him. " What would you please to want, sir ? "
The bill had caught his eye, and he was reading it.
" Excellent property that, sir," observed Mr. Britain.
He made no answer ; but, turning round, when he had
finished reading, looked at Clemency with the same observant
curioaity as before. " You were asking me," — he said, stiU
looking at her, —
"What you would please to take, sir," answered Clemency,
stealing a glance at him in return.
" If you will let me have a draught of ale," he said
moving to a table by the window, " and wiU let me have i\
here, without being any interruption to your meal, I shall ])e
much obliged to you."
He sat down as he spoke without any further parley, and
THE BATTLE OF LIFE, 307
looked out at the prospect. He was an easy, well-knit
figure of a man in the prime of life. His face, much browned
by the sun, was shaded by a quantity of dark hair ; and he
wore a moustache. His beer being set before him, he filled
out a glass, and di-ank, good-humouredly, to the house ;
adding, as he put the tumbler down again :
" It 's a new house, is it not ? "
" Not particularly new, sir," replied Mr. Britain.
"Between five and six years old," said Clemency: speaking
very distinctly.
" I think I heard you mention Doctor Jeddler's name, as 1
came in," inquired the stranger. " That bill reminds me of
him ; for I happen to know something of that story, by
hearsay, and through certain connections of mine. — Is the old
man living?"
"Yes, he's living, sir," said Clemency.
"Much changed?"
" Since when, sir ? " returned Clemency, with remarkable
emphasis and expression.
" Since his daughter — went away."
" Yes ! he 's greatly changed since then," said Clemency.
"He's grey and old, and hasn't the same way with him at
aU ; but, I think he 's happy now. He has taken on with
his sister since then, and goes to see her Yerj often. That
did him good, directly. At first, he was sadly broken down ;
and it was enough to make one's heart bleed, to see him
wandering about, railing at the world ; but a great change
for the better came over him after a year or two, and then he
began to like to talk about his lost daughter, and to praise
her, ay and the world too ! and was never tired of saying,
with the tears in his poor eyes, how beautiful and good she
was. He had forgiven her then. That was about the same
time as Miss Grace's marriage. Britain, you remember ? "
Mr. Britain remembered very well.
"The sister is married then," returned the stranger. He
paused for some time before he asked, " To whom ? "
Clemency narrowly escaped oversetting the tea-board, in
her emotion at t])is question.
" Did you never hear ? " she said.
" I should like to hear," he replied, as he filled his glass
again, and raised it to his lips.
" Ah ! It would be a lonjj story^ if it was properly told,"
303 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
said Clemency, resting her chin on the palm of her left hand,
and supporting that elbow on her right hand, as she shook
her head, and looked back through the intervening years, as
if she were looking at a fire. "It would be a long story, I
am sure."
" But told as a short one," suggested the stranger.
" Told as a short one," repeated Clemency in the same
thoughtful tone, and without any apparent reference to him,
6T consciousness of having auditors, " what would there be to
tell ? That they grieved together, and remembered her
together, like a person dead ; that they were so tender of her,
never would reproach her, called her back to one another aa
she used to be, and found excuses for her ! Every one knows
that. I 'm sure I do. No one better," added Clemency,
wiping her eyes with her hand.
"And so," suggested the stranger.
" And so," said Clemency, taking him up mechanically,
and without any change in her attitude or manner, " they at
last were married. They were married on her birth-day — it
comes round again to-morrow — very quiet, very humble like,
but very happy. Mr. Alfred said, one night when they were
walking in the orchard, ' Grace, shall our wedding-day be
Marion's birth-day ? ' And it was."
"And they have lived happily together?" said the stranger.
" Ay," said Clemency. " No two people ever more so.
They have had no sorrow but this."
She raised her head as with a sudden attention to the
circumstances under which she was recalling these events, and
looked quickly at the stranger. Seeing that liis face was
turned towards the window, and that he seemed intent upon
the prospect, she made some eager signs to her husband, and
pointed to the bill, and moved her mouth as if she were
repeating with great energy, one word or phrase to him over
and over again. As she uttered no sound, and as her dumb
motions like most of her gestures were of a very extraordinary
kind, this unmtelligible conduct reduced Mr. Britain to the
confines of despair. He stared at the table, at the stranger,
at the spoons, at his wife — followed her pantomime with
looks of deep amazement and perplexity — asked in the same
language, was it property in danger, was it he in danger,
was it she — answered her signals with other signals expressive
of the deepest distress and confusion — followed the motions of
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 309
her lips — guessed half aloud " milk and water," " monthly
warning," " mice and walnuts " — and couldn't approach her
meaning.
Clemency gave it up at last, as a hopeless attempt ; and
moving her chair by very slow degrees a little nearer to the
stranger, sat with her eyes apparently cast down but glancing
sharply at him now and then, waiting until he should ask
some other question. She had not to wait long ; for he said,
presently :
" And what is the after history of the young lady who
went away ? They know it, I suppose ? "
Clemency shook her head. " I 've heard," she said, " that
Doctor Jeddler is thought to know more of it than he tells.
Miss Grace has had letters from her sister, saying that she
was well and happy, and made much happier by her being
married to Mr. Alfred : and has written letters back. But
there 's a mystery about her life and fortunes, altogether,
which nothing has cleared up to this hoiir, and which — "
She faltered here, and stopped.
" And which " — repeated the stranger.
" ^\Tiich only one other person, I believe, could explain,"
said Clemency, drawing her breath quickly.
" Who may that be ? " asked the stranger.
" Mr. Michael Warden ! " answered Clemency, almost in a
shriek : at once conveying to her husband what she would
have had him miderstand before, and letting Michael Warden
know that he was recognised.
" You remember me, sir ? " said Clemency, trembling with
emotion; "I saw just now you did! You remember me,
that night in the garden. I was with her ! "
"Yes. You were," he said.
"Yes, sir," returned Clemency. "Yes, to be sxire. This
is my husband, if you please. Ben, my dear Ben, run to
Miss Grace — run to Mr. Alfred — run somewhere, Ben ! Bring
somebody here, directly ! "
" Stay I " said Michael Warden, quietly interposing himself
between the door and Britain. " What would you do?"
" Let them know that you are here, sir," answered Cle-
mency, clapping her hands in sheer agitation. "Let them
know that they may hear of her, from your own lips ; let
;hem know that she is not quite lost to them, but that she
will come Lome again yet. to bless her father and her loving
810 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
sister — even her old servant, even me," she struck herseli
upon the breast with both hands, "with a sight of her sweet
face. Run, Ben, run ! " And still she pressed him on
towards the door, and still Mr. Warden stood before it, with
his hand stretched out, not angrily, but sorrowfully.
" Or, perhaps," said Clemency, running past her husband
and catching in her emotion at Mr. Warden's cloak, " perhaps
she 's here now ; perhaps she 's close by. I think from your
manner she is. Let me see her, sir, if you please. I waited
on her when she was a little child. I saw her grow to be the
pride of all this place. I knew her when she was Mr. Alfred's
promised wife. I tried to warn her when you tempted her
away. I know what her old home was when she was like the
soul of it, and how it changed when she was gone and lost.
Let me speak to her, if you please ! "
He gazed at her with compassion, not unmixed with
wonder : but he made no gesture of assent.
" I don't think she ca7i know," pursued Clemency, " how
truly they forgive her ; how they love her ; what joy it would
be to them to see her once more. She may be timorous of
going home. Perhaps if she sees me it may give her new
heart. Only tell me truly, Mr. Warden, is she with you ? "
" She is not," he answered, shaking his head.
This answer, and his manner, and his black dress, and his
coming back so quietly, and his announced intention of con-
tinuing to live abroad, explained it all. Marion was dead.
He didn't contradict her; yes, she was dead! Clemency
sat down, hid her face upon the table, and cried.
At that moment, a grey-headed old gentleman came running
in : quite out of breath, and panting so much that his voice
was scarcely to be recognised as the voice of Mr. Snitchey.
" Good Heaven, Mr. Warden ! " said the lawyer, taking
him aside, " what wind has blown " . He was so blown
himself, that he couldn't get on any further until after a
pause, when he added, feebly, "you here?"
" An ill wind, I am afraid," he answered. '' If you could
have heard what has just passed — how I have been besought
and entreated to perform impossibilities — what confusion and
affliction I carry with me !"
" I can guess it all. But why did you ever come here, my
good sir? " retorted Snitchey.
" Come ! How shoidd I know who kept the house ? When
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 811
I sent my servant on to you, I strolled in here LecauB*
the place was new to me ; and I had a natural curiosity in
everything new and old in these old scenes ; and it was
outside the town I wanted to communicate with you, first,
before appearing there. I wanted to know what people would
say to me. I see by your manner that you can tell me. I f
it were not for your confounded caution, I should have been
possessed of everything long ago."
" Our caution ! " returned the lawyer, " speaking for Self
and Craggs — deceased," hei"e Afr. Snitchey, glancing at his
hat-band, shook his head, " how can you reasonably blame
us, Mr. Warden ? It was understood between us that the
subject was never to be renewed, and that it wasn't a subject
on which grave and sober men like us (I made a note of your
observations at the time) could interfere ? Our caution too !
When Mr. Craggs, sir, went down to his respected grave in
the fidl belief"
" I had given a solemn promise of silence imtil I should
return, whenever that might be," interrupted Mr. Warden;
" and I have kept it."
" WeU, sir, and I repeat it " returned Mr. Snitchey, '' we
were bound to silence too. We were bound to sUence in our
duty towards ourselves, and in our duty towards a variety of
clients, j-ou among them, who were as close as wax. It was
not our place to make inquiries of you on such a delicate
subject. I had my suspicions, sir ; but, it is not six months
since I have known the truth, and been assured that you lost
her."
" By whom ? " inquired his client.
" By Doctor Jeddler, himself, sir, who at last reposed that
confidence in me voluntarily. He, and only he, has kno^\^l
the whole truth, years and years."
*' And you know it ? " said his client.
"I do, sir!" replied Snitchey; "and I have also reason
to know that it will be })rokeu to her sister to-morrow evening.
The}' have given her that promise. In the meantime, perhaps
you '11 give me the honor of your company at my house ;
being unexpected at your own. But, not to run the chance of
any more such difficulties as you liave had here, in case' you
should be rerognised — tliough you 're a good deal changed ;
I think I might liave passed you mj'self, Mr. Warden — we
had better dine liere, and walk on in tlie evening. It 's a very
312 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
good place to dine at, Mr. Warden : your own property, by the
by. Self and Craggs (deceased) took a chop here sometimes,
and had it very comfortably served. Mr. Craggs, sir," said
Snitchey, shutting his eyes tight for an instant, and opening
them again, " was struck off the roll of life too soon."
" Heaven forgive me for not condoling with you," returned
Michael Warden, passing his hand across his forehead, " but
I 'm like a man in a dream at present. I seem to want my
wits. Mr. Craggs — yes — I am very sorry we have lost Mr.
Craggs." But he looked at Clemency as he said it, and
seemed to sympathise with Ben, consoling her.
" Mr. Craggs, sir," observed Snitchey, " didn't find life, I
regret to say, as easy to have and to hold as his theory made
it out, or he would have been among us now. It 's a great
loss to me. He was my right arm, my right leg, my right
ear, my right eye, was Mr. Craggs. I am paralytic without
him. He bequeathed his share of the business to Mrs. Craggs,
her executors, administrators, and assigns. His name remains
in the Firm to this hour. I try, in a childish sort of way, to
make believe, sometimes, that he 's alive. You may observe
that I speak for Self and Craggs — deceased sir — deceased,"
said the tender-hearted attorney, waving his pocket-handker-
cliief
Michael Warden, who had still been observant of Clemency,
turned to Mr. Snitchey when he ceased to speak, and whis-
pered in his ear.
"Ah, poor thing!" said Snitchey, shaking his head.
"Yes. She was always very faithful to Marion. She waa
always very fond of her. Pretty Marion ! Poor Marion !
Cheer up. Mistress — you are married now, you know, Cle-
mency."
Clemency only sighed, and shook her head.
" Well, well ! Wait till to-morrow," said the la\\^er,
kindly.
"To-morrow can't bring back the dead to life. Mister,"
said Clemency, sobbing.
"No. It can't do that, or it would bring back Mr. Craggs,
deceased," returned the lawyer. "But it may bring some
soothing circumstances ; it may bring some comfort. Wait
till to-morrow ! "
So Clemency, shaking his proffered hand, said she would ;
and Britain, who had been terribly cast down at sight of
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 318
his despondent wife (which was like the business hanging its
head), said that was right ; and Mr. Snitchey and Michael
Warden went up stairs ; and there they were soon engaged in
a conversation so cautiously conducted, that no murmur of it
was audible above the clatter of plates and dishes, the hissing
of the frying-pan, the bubbling of saucepans, the low, mono-
tonous waltzing of the jack — with a dreadful click every now
and then as if it had met with some mortal accident to its
head, in a fit of giddiness — and all the other preparations in
the kitchen for their dinner.
To-morrow was a bright and peaceful day ; and nowhere
were the autumn tints more beautifully seen, than from the
quiet orchard of the Doctor's licmse. The snows of many
winter nights had melted from that ground, the withered
leaves of many summer times had rustled there, since she had
fled. The honey-suckle porch was green again, the trees cast
bountiful and changing shadows on the grass, the landscape
was as tranquil and serene as it had ever been ; but where
was she !
Not there. Not there. She would have been a stranger
sight in her old home now, even than that home had been at
first, without her. But, a lady sat in the familiar place, from
whose heart she had never passed away; in whose true
memory she lived, unchanging, youthful, radiant with all
promise and all hope ; in whose affection — and it was a
mother's now, there was a cherished little daughter playing
by her side — she had no rival, no successor; upon whose
gentle lips her name was trembling then.
The spirit of the lost girl looked out of those eyes. Those
eyes of Grace, her sister, sitting with her husband in the
orchard, on their wedding-day, and his and Marion's birth-
day.
He had not become a great man ; he had not grown rich ;
he had not forgotten the scenes and friends of his youth ; he
had not fulfilled any one of the Doctor's old predictions. But,
in his useful, patient, unknown visiting of poor men's homes ;
and in his watching of sick beds ; and in his daily knowledge
of the gentleness and goodness flowering the by-paths of this
vrorld, not to be trodden down beneath the heavy foot of
poverty, but springing uj), elastic, in its track, and making its
way beautiful ; he had better learned and proved, in eaca
SI 4 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
eucceeding year, the truth of his old faith. The manner of
his life, though quiet and remote, had shown him how often
men still entertained angels, unawares, as in the olden time ;
and how the most unlikely forms — even some that were mean
and ugly to the view, and poorly clad — became irradiated l)y
the couch of sorrow, want, and pain, and changed to
ministering spirits with a glory round their heads.
He lived to better purpose on the altered battle-ground
perhaps, than if he had contended restlessly in more ambitious
lists ; and he was happy with his wife, dear Grace.
And Marion. Had he forgotten her ?
"The time has flown, dear Grace," he said, " since then ;"
they had been talking of that night; "and yet it seems a
long while ago. We count by changes and events within us.
Not by years."
" Yet we have years to count by, too, since Marion was with
us," returned Grace, " Six times, dear husband, counting to-
night as one, we have sat here on her birth-day, and spoken
together of that happy return, so eagerly expected and so long
deferred. Ah when will it be ! When will it be ! "
Her husband attentively observed her, as the tears collected
in her eyes ; and drawing nearer, said :
" But, Marion told you, in that farewell letter which she
left for you upon your table, love, and which you read so often,
that years must pass away before it could be. Did she not?"
She took a letter from her breast, and kissed it, and said
" Yes."
" That through those intervening years, however happy she
might be, she would look forward to the time when you would
meet again, and aU would be made clear ; and that she prayed
you, trustfully and hopefully to do the same. The letter runs
so, does it not, my dear? "
"Yes, Alfred."
" And every other letter she has written since ? "
" Except the last — some months ago — in which she spoke
of you, and what you then knew, and what I was to leam to-
night."
He looked towards the sun, then fast declining, and said
that the appointed time was sunset.
" Alfred ! " said Grace, laying her hand upon his shoulder
earnestly, " there is something in this letter — this old letter,
which you say I read so often — that I have never told you
TnE BATTLE OF LIFE. 315
But, to-niglit, dear husband, with that sunset drawing near,
and all our life seeming to soften and become hushed with the
departing day, I cannot keep it secret."
"What is it, love?"
" When Marion went away, she wrote me, here, that you
had once left her a sacred trust to me, and that now she left
you, Alfred, such a trust in my hands : praying and beseech-
ing me, as I loved her, and as I loved you, not to reject the
affection she believed (she knew, she said) you would transfer
to me when the new wound was healed, but to encoiu-age and
return it."
" — And make me a proud, and happy man again, Grace.
Did she say so ? "
" She meant, to make myself so blest and honored in your
love," was his wife's answer, as he held her in his arms.
" Hear me, my dear ! " he said. — " No. Hear me so ! " —
and as he spoke, he gently laid the head she had raised, again
upon his shoulder. " I know why I have never heard this
passage in the letter, until now. I know why no trace of it
ever showed itself in any word or look of yours at that time.
I know why Grace, although so true a friend to me, was hard
to win to be my wife. And knowing it, my ot\ti ! I know
the priceless value of the heart I gii-d within my arms, and
thank God for the rich possession ! "
She wept, but not for sorrow, as he pressed her to his heart.
After a brief space, he looked down at the child who was sit-
ting at their feet playing with a little basket of flowers, and
bade her look how golden and how red the sun was.
" Alfred," said Grace, rising her head quickly at these
words. " The sun is going down. You have not forgotten
what I am to know before it sets."
" You are to know the truth of Marion's historj', my love,"
he answered.
"All the truth," she said imploringly. " Nothing veiled
from me any more. That was the promise. Was it not ? "
" It was," he answered.
" Before the sun went down on Marion's birthday. And
you see it, Alfred ? It is sinking fast."
He put his arm about her waist, and looking steadily into
her eyes, rejoined :
" That truth is not reserved so long for me to tell, dear
(Jrace. It is to come from other lips."
3:6 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
" From other lips ! " she faintly echoed.
" Yes. I know your constant heai-t, I know how brave you
are, I know that to you a word of preparation is enough. You
have said, truly, that the time is come. It is. Tell me that
you have present fortitude to bear a trial — a surprise— a
shock : and the messenger is waiting at the gate."
"What messenger?" she said. "And what intelligence
does he bring ? "
" I am pledged," he answered her, preserving his steady
look, " to say no more. Do you think you understand me ? "
" I am afraid to think," she said.
There was that emotion in his face, despite its steady gaze,
which frightened her. Again she hid her own face on his
shoulder, trembling, and entreated him to pause — -a moment.
" Courage, my wife ! When you have fh'mness to receive
the messenger, the messenger is waiting at the gate. The suu
is setting on Marion's birth-day. Coui-age, courage, Grace ! "
She raised her head, and, looking at him, told him she was
ready. As she stood, and looked upon him going away, her
face was so like Marion's as it had been in her later days at
home, that it was wonderful to see. He took the child witn
him. She called her back — she bore the lost girl's name —
and pressed her to her bosom. The Kttle creature, being
released again, sped after him, and Grace was left alone.
She knew not what she dreaded, or what hoped ; but
remained tliere, motionless, looking at the porch by which
they had disappeared.
Ah ! what was that, emerging from its shadow ; standing
on its threshold ! That figure, with its white garments rustling
in the evening air ; its head laid down upon her father's
breast, and pressed against it to his loving heart ! O God !
was it a vision that came bursting from the old man's arms,
and, with a cry, and with a waving of its hands, and with a
wild precipitation of itself upon her in its boundless love, sank
down in her embrace !
" Oh, Marion, Marion ! Oh, my sister ! Oh, my heart's
dear love I Oh, joy and hai)piness unutterable, so to meet
again ! "
It was no dream, no phantom conjured up by hope and
fear, but Marion, sweet Mai-ion ! So beautiful, so happy, so
unalloyed by care and trial, so elevated and exalted in her
loveliness, that, as the setting sun shone brightly on her up-
THE BATTLE OF LTFR. Zl'i
turned face, she Tnight have been a spirit visiting the earth
upon some healing mission.
Clinging to her sister, who had dropped upon a seat and
bent down over her — and smiling through her tears — and
kneeling, close before her, -ndth botli arms twining round her,
and never turning for an instant from her face — and with
the glory of the setting sun upon her brow, and with the
soft tranquillity of evening gathering around them — Marion
at length broke silence ; her voice, so calm, low, clear, and
pleasant, well-tuned to the time.
" When this was my dear home, Grace, as it will be
now again" —
" Stay, my sweet love ! A moment ! O JMarion, to hear
you speak again."
She could not bear the voice she loved, so well, at
first.
" ^Mien this was my dear home, Grace, as it will be now
again, I loved him from my soul. I loved him most devo-
tedly. I would have died for him, though I was so young.
I never slighted his affection in my secret breast, for one
brief instant. It was far beyond all price to me. Although
it is so long ago, and past and gone, and everything is wholly
changed, I could not bear to think that you, who loved so well,
should think I did not truly love him once. I never
loved him better, Grace, than when he left this very scene
upon this very day. I never loved him better, dear one, than
I did thiit night when I left here."
Her sister, bending over her, could look into her face, and
hold her fast.
"But he had gained, unconsciously," said Marion, with a
o;entle smile, " another heart, before I knew that I had one to
give him. That heart — yours, my sister ! — was so yielded
up, in all its other tenderness, to me ; was so devoted, and
60 noble ; that it plucked its love away, and kept its secret
irom all eyes but mine — Ah ! what other eyes were quickened
by such tenderness and gratitude ! — and was content to sacri-
fice itself to me. But, I knew something of its depths.
I knew the struggle it had made. I knew its high, ines-
timable worth to him, and his appreciation of it, let him
love me as he would. I knew the debt I owed it. I had
its great example every day before me. "What you had
done for me, I knew that I coidd do, Grace, if I would, for
318 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
you. I never laid my head down on my pillow, but 1
prayed with tears to do it. I never laid my head down ou
my pillow, but I thought of Alfred's own words, on the
day of his departure, and how truly he had said (for I kne\»
that, knowing you) that there were victories gained every
day, in struggling hearts, to which these fields of battle were as
nothing. Thinking more and more upon the great endurance
cheerfully sustained, and never known or cared for, that there
must be, every day and hour, in that great strife of which he
spoke, my trial seemed to grow light and easy. And He who
knows our hearts, my dearest, at this moment, and who knows
there is no drop of bitterness or grief — of anything but un-
mixed happiness — in mine, enabled me to make the resolution
that I never would be Alfred's wife. That he should be my
brother, and your husband, if the course I took could bring
that happy end to pass; but that I never would (Grace, I then
loved him dearly, dearly ! ) be his wife ! "
"O Marion! O Marion!"
" I had tried to seem indifferent to him ; " and she
pressed her sister's face against her own; "but that was
hard, and you were always his true advocate. I had tried
to tell you of my resolution, but you would never hear me ;
you would never understand me. The time was drawing near
for liis return. I felt that I must act, before the daily inter-
course between us was renewed. I knew that one great pang,
undergone at that time, would save a lengthened agony to all
of us. I knew that if I went away then, that end must foUow
which lias followed, and which has made us both so happy,
Grace ! I wrote to good Aunt Martha, for a refuge in her
house : I did not then tell her all, but something of my story,
and she freely promised it. While I was contesting that step
with myself, and with my love of you, and home, Mr.
Warden, brought here by an accident, became, for some time,
our companion."
" I have sometimes feared of late years, that this might
have been," exclaimed her sister ; and her countenance was
ashy-pale. " You never loved him — and you married liim in
your self-sacrifice to me ! "
" He was then," said Marion, drawing her sister closer to
her, " on the eve of going secretly away for a long time. He
wrote to me, after leaving here ; told me what his condition
aad prospects really were ; and offered me his hand. He
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. 319
told nie lie had seen I was not happy in the prospect of
Alfred's return. I believe he thought my heart had no part
in that contract ; perhaps thought I might have loved him
once, and did not then ; perhaps thought that when I tried to
seem indifferent, I tried to hme indifference — I cannot tell.
But I wished that you should feel me wholly lost to Alfred —
liopeless to him — dead. Do you understand me, love ? "
Her sister looked into her face, attentively. She seemed
in doubt.
"I saw Mr. Warden, and confided in his honor; charged
him with my secret, on the eve of his and my departure. He
kept it. Do you understand me, dear ? "
Grace looked confusedly upon her. She scarcely seemed
to hear.
" My love, my sister ! " said Marion, " recal your thoughts
a moment ; listen to me. Do not look so strangely on me.
There are coimtries, dearest, where those who woidd abjure
a misplaced passion, or would strive against some cherished
feeling of their hearts and conquer it, retire into a hope-
less solitude, and close the M^orld against themselves and
worldly loves and hopes for ever. When women do so, they
assume that name which is so dear to you and me, and call
each other Sisters. But, there may be sisters, Grace, who, in
the broad world out of doors, and underneath its free sky, and
in its crowded places, and a-mong its busy Hfe, and trying
to assist and cheer it and to do some good, — learn the same
lesson ; and who, with hearts still fresh and young, and open
to aU happiness and means of happiness, can say the battle is
long past, the victory long won. And such a one am I ! You
understand me now ? "
Still she looked fixedly upon her, and made no reply.
" Oh Grace, dear Grace," said Marion, clinging yet more
tenderly and fondly to that breast from which she had been so
long exiled, " if you were not a happy wife and mother — if 1
nad no little namesake here — if Alfred, my kind brother, were
not your own fond husband — from whence could I derive the
ecstasy I feel to-night ! But, as I left here, so I have returned.
My heart has known no other love, my hand has never been
bestowed apart frojn it. 1 am still your maiden sister, un-
married, unbetrothed : your own old loving Marion, in whose
aii'ection you exist alone and have no partner, Grace I "
She understood her now Her face rela-sed ; sobs came tc
320 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
her r'^lief ; and falling on her neck, she wept and wept, and
fondled her as if she were a child again.
When they were more composed, they found that the
Doctor, and his sister, gooij Aunt Martha, were standing near
at hand, with Alfred.
" This is a weary day for me," said good Aunt Maitha,
smiling through her tears, as she embraced her nieces ; for
I lose my dear companion in making you all happy ; and what
can you give me, in return for my Marion ? "
" A converted brother," said the Doctor.
"That's something, to be sure," retorted Aunt Martha,
" in such a farce as — "
" No, pray don't," said the Doctor, penitently.
" Well, I won't," replied Aunt Martha. " But, I consider
myself ill-used. I don't know what 's to become of me
without my Marion, after we have lived together half-a-dozen
years."
" You must come and live here, I suppose," replied the
Doctor. "We shan't quarrel now, Martha."
'*■ Or you must get married. Aunt," said Alfred.
"Indeed," returned the old lady, "I think it might be a
good speculation if I were to set my cap at Michael Warden,
w^ho, I hear, is come home much the better for his absence in
all respects. But as I knew him when he was a boy, and I
was not a very young woman then, perhaps he mightn't
respond. So I '11 make up my mind to go and live with
Marion, when she marries, and until then (it will not be very
long, I dare say) to live alone. What do you say. Brother ? "
"I've a great mind to say it's a ridiculous world
altogether, and there 's nothing serious in it," observed the
poor old Doctor.
"You might take twenty affidavits of it if you chose,
Anthony," said his sister; "but nobody would believe you
with such eyes as those."
" It 's a world full of hearts," said the Doctor, hugging his
younger daugliter, and bending across her to hug Grace — for
he couldn't separate the sisters ; " and a serious world, with
aU its folly — even with mine, which was enough to have
swamped the whole globe ; and it is a world on which the
sun never rises, but it looks upon a thousand bloodless battles
that are some set-off against the miseries and wickedness
of Battle-Fields ; and it is a world we need be careful how
THE BATTLE OF LIFE. S2I
we libel, Heaven forgive iis, for it is a world of sacred mys-
teries, aud its Creator only knows wliat lies beneath tlie sur-
face of His lightest image ! "
You woidd not be the better pleased with my rude pen, if
it dissected and laid open to yoiu* view the transports of this
family, long severed and now reunited. Therefore, I will not
follow the poor Doctor through his humbled recollection of
the sorrow he had liad, when Marion was lost to him ; nor,
■ will I tell how serious he had found that world to be in
which some love, deep- anchored, is the portion of all humnn
creatures ; nor, how such a trifle as the absence of one little
unit in the great absurd account, had stricken him to the
ground. Nor, how, in compassion for his distress, liis sister
had, long ago, revealed the truth to him by slow degrees, and
brought him to the knowledge of the heart of his self-
banished daughter, and to that daughter's side.
Nor, how Alfred Heathfield had been told the truth, too, in
the course of that then current year ; and Marion had seen
hira, and had promised him, as her brother, that on her
birth-day, in the evening, Grace should know it from her
lips at last.
" I beg your pardon, Doctor," said Mr. Snitchey, looking
into the orchard, " but have I liberty to come in ? "
Without waiting for permission, he came straight to Marion,
and kissed her hand, quite joyfully.
" If Mr. Craggs had been alive, my dear Miss Marion,"
said Mr. Snitchey, " he would have had great interest in this
occasi(m. It might have suggested to him. Mr. Alfred, that
our life is not too easy perhaps ; that, taken auogether, it will
bear any little smoothing we can give it ; but Mr. Craggs was
a man who could endure to be convinced, sir. He was always
open to conviction. If he were open to conviction, now, I —
this is weakness. Mrs. Suite] ley, my dear," — at his summons
that lady appeared from behind the door, " you are among old
friends."
Mrs. Snitchey having delivered her congratulations, took
her husband aside.
" One moment; Mr. Snitchey," said that lady. " It is not
in my nature to rake up the ashes of the departed."
"No my dear," returned her husband.
*• Mr. Craggs is— "
T
322 THE BATTLE OF LTFB.
" Yes, my dear, lie is deceased," said Mr. Snitchey.
"But I ask you if jou. recollect," pursued his wife, "that
ev^ening of the baU ? I only ask you that. If you do ; and
if your memory has not entirely failed you, Mr. Snitchey ;
and if jou are not absolutely in your dotage ; I ask you to
connect this time with that — to remember how I begged and
prayed you, on my knees — "
" Upon your knees, my dear ! " said Mr. Snitchey.
"Yes," said Mrs. Snitchey, confidently, "and you know it
— to beware of that man — to observe his eye — and now to
tell me whether I was right, and whether at that moment he
knew secrets which he didn't choose to tell."
"Mrs. Snitchey," returned her husband, in her ear, "Madam.
Did you ever observe anything in my eye ? "
" No," said Mrs. Snitchey, sharply. " Don't flatter your-
self."
" Because, ma'am, that night," he continued, twitching her
by the sleeve, " it happens that we both knew secrets which
we didn't choose to tell, and both knew just the same pro-
fessionally. And so the less you say about such tilings the
better, Mrs. Snitchey ; and take this as a warning to have
wiser and more charitable eyes another time. Miss Marion,
I brought a friend of yours along with me. Here! Mistress!"
Poor Clemency, with her apron to her eyes, came slowly in
escorted by her husband ; the latter doleful with the presenti-
ment, that if she abandoned herself to grief, tlie Nutmeg
Grater was done for.
" Now, Mistress," said the lawyer, checking Marion as she
ran towards her, and interposing himself between them,
" what 's the matter with you ? "
" The matter," cried poor Clemency. — When, looking up in
wonder, and in indignant remonstrance, and in the added
emotion of a great roar from Mr. Britain, and seeing that
sweet face so well-remembered close before her, she stared,
sobbed, laughed, cried, screamed, embraced her, held her fast,
released her, fell on Mr. Snitchey and embraced him (much to
Mrs. Snitchey' s indignation), feU on the Doctor and embraced
him, fell on Mr. Britain and embraced him, and concluded by
embracing herself, tlirowing her apron over her head, and
going into hysterics behind it.
A stranger had come into the orchard, after Mr. Snitchey,
ctnd hud remained apart, near the gate, without being oVjsti'ved
THE SISTERS.
Til I'] BATTLE OF LIFE. 323
by any of the group ; for tliey had little spare attention to
bestow, and that had been monopolised by the ecstasies of
Clemency. He did not appear to wish to be observed, but
stood alone, with downcast eyes ; and there was an air of
dejection about him (though he was a gentleman of a gallant
appearance) which the general happiness rendered more re-
markable.
None but the quick eyes of Aimt Martha, however, remarked
him at all ; but, almost as soon as she espied him, she was in
conversation with him. Presently, goiug to where Marion
stood with Grace and her little namesake, she whispered
something in Marion's ear, at which she started, and appeared
sui'prised ; but soon recovering from her confusion, she timidly
approached the stranger, in Aunt Martha's company, and
engaged in conversation with him too.
" Mr. Britaio," said the lawyer, putting h.s hand in his
pocket, and bringing out a legal-looking document while this
was going on, " I congratulate you. You are now the whole
and sole proprietor of that freehold tenement, at present occu-
pied and held by yourself as a licensed tavern, or house of
public entertainment, and commonly cailea or known by tlie
sign of the Nutmeg Grater. Your wife lost one house, througii
my client, Mr. Michael Warden ; and now gains another. I
shall have the pleasure of canvassing you for the county, one
of these fine mornings."
" Would it make any difference in the vote if the sign was
altered, sir?" asked Britain.
" Not in the least," replied the lawyer.
"Then," said Mr. Britain, handing him back the convey-
ance, "just clap in the words, 'and Thimble,' will you be so
good ; and I '11 have the two mottoes painted up in the parlor,
instead of my wife's portrait."
"And let me," said a voice behind them; it was the
stranger's — ^Michael Warden's ; " let me claim the benefit of
those inscriptions. Mr. Heatlifield and Doctor Jeddler, I might
have deeply wi'onged you both. That I did not, is no virtue
of my own. I will not say that I am six years wiser than I
was, or better. But I have known, at any rate, that term of
self-reproach. 1 can urge no reason why you should deal
gently with me. I abused the hospitality of this house ; and
learnt my own dem(?ritH, with a shame I never have forgotten,
vet with some profit too I would fain hope, from one," he
324 THE BATTLE OF LIFE.
glanced at Marion, " to whom 1 made rny liumble supplication
for forgiveness, when I knew her merit and my deep un-
worthiness. In a few days I shall quit this place for ever.
1 entreat your pardon. Do as you would he done by! Forget
and forgave ! "
Time — from whom I had the latter portion of this story,
and with whom I have the pleasure of a personal acquaintance
of some five and thirty years' duration — informed me, leaning
easily upon his scythe, that Michael Warden never went away
again, and never sold his house, but opened it afresh, main-
tained a golden mean of hospitality, and had a wife, the pride
and honour of that country-side, whose name was Marion.
But, as I have observed that Time confuses facts occasionally,
I hardly know what weight to give to his authority.
THE HAUNTED MAN,
AND THE GHOST'S BARGAIN.
HAUXTED
THE HAUNTED MAN.
CHAPTER I.
THE GIFT BESTOWED.
EvEETBODX^ said so.
Far be it from me to assert that M'hat everybody saj's must
be true. Everybody is, often, as likely to be wrong as right.
In the general experience, everybody has been wrong so often,,
and it has taken in most instances such a weary while to find
out how wrong, that authority is proved to be fallible. Every-
body may sometimes be right ; "but that's no rule," as the
ghost of Giles Scroggins says in the baUad.
The dread word. Ghost, recals me.
Everybody said he looked like a haunted man. The extent
of my present claim for everybody is, that they were so far
right. He did.
Who could have seen his hollow cheek, his sunkea brilliant
eye ; his black-attired figure, indefinably grim, although well-
knit and well-proportioned ; his grizzled hair hanging, like
tangled sea-weed, about his face, — as if he had been, through
his whole hfe, a lonely mark for the chafing and beating of
the great deep of hiimanity, — but might have said he looked
like a haunted man ?
Who could have observed his manner, taciturn, thoughtful,
gloomy, shadowed by habitual reserve, retiring always and
jocund never, with a distrauglit air of reverting to a bygone
place and time, or of listening to some old echoes in his mind,
but miglit have said it was the nuinner of a haimted man ?
Who could have heard his voice, slow-speakmg, deep, and
grave, with a natural fulness and melody in it which ho
328 Tllli; DAUN'TED MAN.
seemed to set himself ao-fiinst and stop, but might have said
it was the voice of a haunted m;m ?
"Wlio that had seen him in his inner chaml3er, part library
and part laboratorv, — foi he was, as the world knew, far
and wide, a learned man in chemistry, and a teacher on
whose lips and hands a crowd of aspiring ears and eyes
hung daily, — who that had seen him there, upon a winter
night, alone, surrounded by his drugs and instruments and
books ; the shadow of his shaded lamp a monstrous beetle
on the wall, motionless among a crowd of spectral shapes
raised there by the fiiekering of the fire upon the quaint
objects around him ; some of these phantoms (the reflection
of glass vessels that held liquids), trembling at heart like
things that knew his power to uncombine them, and to give
back their component parts to fire and vapour ; — who that
liad seen him then, his work done, and he pondering in' his
chair before the rusted grate and red flame, moving his thin
moutli as if in speech, but silent as the dead, would not
have said that the man seemed haunted and the chamber
too.
Who might not, by a very easy flight of fancy, have believed
that everj'tliing about him took tliis haunted tone, and that he
lived on haunted ground ?
His dwelling was so solitary and vault-like, — an old, retired
part of an ancient endowment for students, once a brave edifice
planted in an open place, but now the obsolete whim of for
gotten architects ; smoke-age-and-weathei -darkened, squeezed
on every side by the overgrowing of the great city, and
ciioked, like an old well, with stones and bricks ; its small
quadrangles, Ij'ing down in very pits formed by the streets
and buildings, which, in course of time, had been constructed
above its heavy chimney stacks ; its old trees, insulted by
the neighbouring smoke, which deigned to droop so low
M hen it was very feeble and the weather very moody ; its
grass-plots, struggling with the mildewed earth to be grass,
or to win any show of compromise ; its silent pavement, un
accustomed to the tread of feet, and even to the observation
of eyes, except when a stray face looked down from the upper
world, wondering what nook it was ; its sun-dial in a little
bricked -up corner, where no sun had straggled for a himdred
years, but where, in compensation for the sun's neglect, the
snow would lie for weeks when it lay nowhfre else, and the
THE IIAUNL'ED MAN. S29
,'ilack east wind ■vrould spin like a huge hummin,'T-top, wlien
in all other places it was silent and still.
His dwelling, at its heart and core — within doors — at his
fireside — was so lowering and old, so crazy, yet so strong,
with its worm-eaten beams of wood in the ceiling and its
sturdy floor shelving downward to the great oak chimney-
piece ; so environed and hemmed in by the pressure of the
town, yet so remote in fashion, age, and custom ; so quiet,
yet so thundering with echoes when a distant voice was raised
or a door was shut, — echoes not confixied to the many low
passages and empty rooms, but rumbling and grumbling till
they were stifled in the heavj' air of the forgotten Crj'pt where
the Norm an arches were half buried in the earth.
You should have seen him in his dwelling about twilight,
in the dead winter time.
AYhen the wind was blowing, shrill and shrewd, with the
going down of the blurred sun. WTien it was just so dark,
as that the forms of things were indistinct and big — but not
whoUy lost. When sitters by the fii-e began to see wild
faces and figures, mountains and abysses, ambuscades and
armies, in the coals. When people in the streets bent down
their heads and ran before the weather. When those who
were obliged to meet it, were stopped at angry corners, stung
by wandering snow-flakes alighting on the lashes of their
eyes, — which fell too sparingly, and were blown away too
quickly, to leave a trace upon the frozen ground. When
windows of private houses closed up tight aud warm. When
lighted gas began to burst forth in the busy and the cpiiet
streets, fast blackening otherwise. When stray pedestrians,
shivering along the latter, looked down at the gLjwing fires
in kitchens, and sharpened their sharp appetites by snifling
up the fragrance of whole miles of dinners.
When travellers by land were bitter cold, and looked wearily
on gloomy Lindscapes, rustling and shuddering in the blast.
When mariners at sea, outlying upon icy yards, were tossed
and swung al)Ove the howling ocean dreadfully. When light-
houses, on rocl<s and headlands, showed solitary and W'atcliful;
and benighted sea-birds breasted on against their ponderous
lanterns, and fell dead. When little readers of story-books.,
by the fire-light, trembled to think of Cassim Baba cut into
quarters, Iianging in the llobbers' Cave, or had some small
misgivings that the fierce little old woman, with the crutch,
330 TIJE HAUNTED iMAX.
who used to start out of the box in the merchant Abudah's
bed-room, might, one of these nights, be found upon the
stairs, in the long, cold, dusky journey up to bed.
When, in rustic places, the last glimmering of daylight
died away from the ends of avenues ; and the trees, arching
overhead, were sullen and black. When, in parks and woods,
the high wet fern and sodden moss and beds of fallen leaves,
and trunks of trees, were lost to view, in masses of impene-
trable shade. When mists arose from dyke, and fen, and
river. When lights in old halls and in cottage windows were
a cheerful sight. When the miU stopped, the wheelwright
and the blacksmith shut their workshops, the turnpike-gate
closed, the plough and harrow were left lonely in the fields,
the labourer and team went home, and the striking of the
church clock had a deeper sound than at noon, and the church-
yard wicket would be swung no more that night.
When twilight everywhere released the shadows, prisoned
up all day, that now closed in and gathered like mustering
swarms of ghosts. When they stood lowering in corners of
rooms, and frowned out from behind half opened doors. When
they had full possession of unoccupied apartments. When
they danced upon the floors, and walls, and ceilings of in-
habited chambers while the fire was low, and withdrew like
ebbing waters when it sprung into a blaze. When they fan-
tastically mocked the shapes of household objects, making the
nurse an ogress, the rocking-horse a monster, the wondering
child, half-scared and half-amused, a stranger to itself, — the
very tongs upon the hearth a straddling giant with his arms
a-kimbo, evidently smelling the blood of Englishmen, and
wanting to grind people's bones to make his bread.
When these shadows brought into the minds of older people
other thoughts, and showed them dilferent images. When
they stole from their retreats, in the likenesses of foi-ms and
faces from the past, from the grave, from the deep, deep gulf,
where the things that might have been, and never were, are
always wandering.
When he sat, as already mentioned, gazing at the fire.
Wlien, as it rose and fell, the shadows went and came. When
he took no heed of them, with his bodily eyes ; but, let them
come or let them go, looked fixedly at the fire. You should
have seen him, then.
When the sounds that had arisen with the shadows and
A WILD NIOHT OFF THE LIGHTHOUSE.
TBE HAUNTED MAN, S31
come out of their hirking-places at tlie twilight summons,
seemed to make a deeper stilkiess all about him. When the
wind was rumbling in the chimney, and sometimes crooning,
sometimes howling, in the house. When the old trees out-
ward were so shaken and beaten, that one querulous old rook,
unable to sleep, protested now and then, in a feeble, dozy,
high-up " Caw ! " When, at intervals, the window trembled,
the rusty vane upon the turret-top complained, the clock
beneath it recorded that another quarter of an hour was gone,
or the fire collapsed and fell in with a rattle.
—When a knock came at his door, in short, as he waa
sitting so, and roused him.
" mo 's that ? " said he, " Come in ! "
Surely there had been no figure leaning on the back of
his chair ; no face looking over it. It is certain that no
gliding footstep touched the floor, as he lifted up his head
with a start, and spoke. And yet there was no mirror in the
room on whose surface his own form could have cast its
shadow for a moment : and Something had passed darkly and
gone !
" I 'm humbly fearful, sir," said a fresh-coloured busy man,
holding the door open with his foot for the admission of him-
self and a wooden tray he carried, and letting it go again by
very gentle and careful degrees, when he and the tray had got
in, lest it should close noisily, "that it's a good bit past the
time to-night. But Mrs. William has been taken off her legs
60 often "
" By the wind ? Ay ! I have heard it rising."
" — By the wdnd, sir — that it 's a mercy she got home at
all. Oh dear, yes. Yes. It was by the wind, Mr. Redlaw.
By the wind."
He had, by this time, put down the tray for dinner, and
was employed in lighting the lamp, and spreading a cloth on the
table. From this employment he desisted in a hurry, to stir
and feed the fire, and then resumed it ; the lamp he had lighted,
and the blaze that rose under his hand, so quickly changing
the appearance of the room, that it seemed as if the mere
coming in of his fresh red face and active manner had made
the pleasant alteration.
" Mrs. William is of course subject at any time, sir, to be
taken off her balance by the elements. She is not formed
superior to that."
332 THE HAUNTED MAN-
" No," returned Mr. Redlaw good-naturedly, though
abruptly.
" No, sir. Mrs. William may be taken off her balance by
Earth ; as, for example, last Sunday week, when sloppy and
greasy, and she going out to tea with her newest sister-in-law,
and having a pride in herself, and wishing to appear perfectly
spotless though pedestrian. Mrs. William may be taken off
her balance by Air ; as being once over-persuaded by a friend
to try a swing at Peckham Fair, which acted on her constitu-
tion instantly like a steam-boat. Mrs. William may be taken
off her balance by Fire ; as on a false alarm of engines at
her mother's, when she went two mile in. her night-cap.
Mrs. William may be taken off her balance by Water ; as
at Battersea, when rowed into the piers by her young nephew^
Charley Swidger junior, aged twelve, which had no idea of
boats whatever. But these are elements. Mrs. William must
be taken out of elements for the strength of her character
to come into play."
As he stopped for a reply, the reply was " Yes," in the
same tone as before.
"Yes, sir. Oh dear, yes!" said Mr. Swidger, still pro-
ceeding with his preparations, and checking them off as he
made them. " That 's where it is, sir. That 's what I
always say myself, sir. Such a many of us Swidgers I —
Pepper. Why there 's my father, sir, superannuated keeper
and custodian of this Institution, eigh-ty-soven year old.
He 's a Swidger ! — Spoon."
" True, William," was the patient and abstracted answer,
when lie stopped again.
"Yes, sir," said Mr. Swidger. "That's what I always
say, sir. You may call him xhe trunk of the tree ! — Bread.
Then you come to his successor, my unworthy self — Salt —
and Mrs. William, Swidgers both. — Knife and fork. Then
you come to all my brothers and their families, Swidgers,
man and woman, boy and girl. Why, what with cousins,
uncles, aunts, and relationships of this, that, and t'other
degree, and what-not degree, and marriages, and lyings-in,
the Swidgers — Tumbler — might take hold of hands, and make
a ring round England ! "
Receiving no reply at all here, from the thoughtful man
whom he addressed, Mr. William approached him neai-er, and
made a feint of accidentally knocking the table with a decanter
TUE UAUNTED MAN. 335
to rouso him. The moment he succeeded, he went on, as if
in great alacrity of acquiescence.
" Yes, sir ! That 's just what I say myself, sir. Mrs.
"William and me have often said so. ' There 's Swidgers
enough,' we say, ' witliout our voluntary contributions, —
Butter. In fact, sir, my father is a family in himself — Castors
— to take care of; and it liappens all for the Lest that we havo
no child of our own, though it 's made Mrs. William rather
quiet-Hke, too. Quite ready for the fowl and mashed potatoes,
sir ? Mrs. William said she 'd dish in ten mimites when I
left the Lodge ? "
" I am quite ready," said the other, waking as from a dream,
and walking slowly to and fro.
" Mrs. Williams has been at it again, sir ! " said the keeper,
as he stood warming a plate at tiie fire, and pleasantly shading
his face with it. Mr. Redlaw stopped in his walking, and au
expression of interest appeared in him.
" What I always say myself, sir. She will do it ! There 's
a motherly feeling in Mrs. William's breast that must and will
have went."
" What has she done ? "
" Why, sir, not satisfied with being a sort of mother to all
the young gentlemen that come up from a wariety of parts, to
attend your courses of lectures at this ancient foundation —
it 's surprising how stone-chaney catches the heat, this frosty
weather, to be sure ! " Here he turned the plates, and cooled
his fingers.
"Well?" said Mr. Redlaw.
" That 's just what I say myself, sir," returned Mr. William,
speaking over his shoulder, as if in ready and delighted assent.
" That 's exactly where it is, sir ! There ain't one of our
students but appears to regard Mrs. Williams iu that light.
Every day, right through tlie course, they put their heads into
the Lodge, one after another, and have all got sometliing to
teU her, or something to ask lier. ' Swidge ' is the appellation
by which they speak of Mrs. William in general, among
themselves, I 'in told; but that's wliat I say, sir. Better be
called ever so far out of your name, if it 's done in real liking,
than have it made ever so much of, and not cared about '
What 's a name for ? To know a person by. If Mrs. William
is kno\vn by something better than her name — I allude to
Mrs. William's qualities and disposition — never mind hei
334 THE HAUNTED MAX.
name, though it is Swidger, by rights. Let 'em call her
Swidge, Widge, Bridge — Lord ! London Bridge, Blackfriara,
Chelsea, Putney, "Waterloo, or Hammersmith Suspension — if
they like ! "
The close of this triumphant oration brought him and the
plate to the table, upon which he half laid and half dropped
it, with a lively sense of its being thoroughly heated, just as
the subject of his praises entered the room, bearing another
tray and a lantern, and followed by a venerable old man with
long grey hair.
Mrs. William, like Mr. William, was a simple, innocent-
looking person, in whose smooth cheeks the cheerful red of
her husband's official waistcoat was very pleasantly repeated.
But whereas Mr. William's light hair stood on end all over
his head, and seemed to draw his eyes up with it in an excess
of bustling readiness for anything, tlie dark brown hair of
Mrs. William was carefully smoothed down, and waved away
under a trim tidy cap, in the most exact and quiet manner
imaginable. Whereas Mr. William's very trousers hitched
themselves up at the ankles, as if it were not in their irongrey
nature to rest without loufi-c;^ about them, Mrs. William's
neatly-flowered skirts — rea and white, like her own pretty
face — were as composed and orderly, as if the very wind that
blew so hard out of doors could not disturb one of their folds.
Whereas his coat had something of a fly-away and half-ofif
appearance about the collar and breast, her - little bodice was
so placid and neat, that there should have been protection for
her, in it, had she needed any, with the roughest people.
Who could have had the heart to make so calm a bosom swell
Avith grief, or throb with fear, or flutter with a thouglit of
shame ! To whom would its repose and peace liave not
appealed against disturbance, like the inuoceni slumber of a
child !
" Punctual, of course, Milly," said her husband, relieving
her of the tray, " or it wouldn't be you. Here 's Mrs. WiUiam,
sir ! — He looks lonelier than ever to-night," whispering to his
wife, as he was taking the tray, " and ghostlier altogether."
Without any show of hurry or noise, or any show of herself
even, she was so calm and quiet, Milly set the dishes she had
brought upon the table, — Mr. William, after much clattering
and running about, having only gained possession of a butter-
hoid of gravy, which he stood ready to serve.
THE HAUNTED MAX. 33-5
" "WTiat is that the old man has in his arms ? " asked Mr.
Redlaw, as he sat down to his solitary meal.
" Holly, sir," replied the quiet voice of Milly.
"That's what I say myself, sir," interposed Mr. William,
striking in with the butter-boat. "Berries is so seasonable to
the time of year ! — Brown gravy ! "
" Another Christmas come, another year gone !" murmured
the Chemist, with a gloomy sigh. '• More figures in the
lengthening sum of recollection that we work and work at to
'our torment, till Death idly jumbles altogether,- and rubs all
out. So, Philip ! " breaking off, and raising his voice as he
addressed the old man standing apart, with his glistening
burden in his arms, from which the quiet Mrs. William took
small branches, which she noiselessly trimmed with her
scissors, and decorated the room with, while her aged father-
in-law looked on much interested in the ceremony.
" My dut}' to you, sir," returned the old man. "Should
have spoke before, sir, but know your ways, Mr. Redlaw —
proud to say — and wait till spoke to ! Merry Christmas, sir,
and happy New Year, and many of 'em. Have had a pretty
many of 'em myself — ha, ha! — and may take the liberty of
wishing 'era. I 'm eighty-seven ! "
" Have you had so many that were merry and happy ? ''
asked the other.
" Ay, sir, ever so many," returned the old man.
" Is his memory impaired with age ? It is to be expected
now," said Mr. Redlaw, turning to the son, and speaking lower.
"Not a morsel of it, sir," replied Mr. William. " That's
exactly what I say myself, sir. There never was such a
memory as my f;\tlier's. Ho 's the most wonderful man in the
world. He don't know wliat forgetting means. It 's the very
oV)servation I 'm always making to Mrs. William, sir, if
you '11 believe me ! "
Mr. Swidger. in his polite desire to seem to acquiesce at all
events, delivered this as if there were no iota of contradiction
in it, and it were all said in unbounded and uuqualified assent.
The Chemist pushed his plate away, and, rising from the
table, walked across the room to wliere the old man stood
looking at a little sprig of holly in his hand.
" It recals the time when many of those years were old and
new, then ? " he said, observing him atttentively, and touching
him on the shoulder. " Does it ? "
336 THE HAUNTED MAV.
" Oh many, many ! " said Philip, half awaking from liis
reverie. " I 'm eighty-seven ! "
"Merry and happy, was it?" asked the Chemist, in a low
voice. " Merry and happy, old man ? "
" May he as high as that, no higher," said the old man,
holding out his hand a little way above the level of his knee,
and looking retrospectively at his questioner, " when I first
remember 'em ! Cold, snnshiny day it was, out a-walking,
when some one — it was m}' mother as sure as you stand there,
though I don't know what her blessed face was like, for she
took iU and died that Christmas-time — told me they were food
for birds. The pretty little fellow thought — that 's me, you
understand — that bird's eyes were so bright, perhaps, because
the berries that they lived on in the winter were so bright. I
recollect that. And I 'm eighty-seven ! "
"Merry and happy!" mused the other, bending his dark
eyes upon the stooping figure, with a smile of compassion.
" Merry and happy — and remember Avell ? "
" Ay, ay, ay ! " resumed the old man, catching the last
words. " I remember 'em well in my school time, year after
year, and all the merry-making that used to come along with
them. I was a strong chap then, Mr. Redlaw ; and, if you'll
believe me, had'nt my match at foot-ball within ten mile.
Where 's my son William ? Hadn't my match at foot-ball,
William, within ten mile ! "
" Tliat 's Avhat I always say, father ! " returned the son
promptly, and with great respect. " You ake a Swidger, if
ever there was one of the family ! "
" Dear ! " said the old man, sliaking his head as he again
looked at the liolly. " His mother — my son William's my
youngest son — and I, have set among 'em all, boys and girls,
little children and babies, many a year, when the berries like
these were not shining half so bright all round us, as their
bright faces. Many of 'em are gone ; she 's gone ; and my
son George (our eldest, who was her pride more than all the
rest !) is fallen very low: but I can see them, when I look
here, alive and healthy, as they used to be in those days ; and
I can see him, thank God, in his innocence. It 's a blessed
thing to me, at eighty-seven."
The keen look that had been fixed upon him with so much
eaxnestness, had gradually sought the ground.
" When my circumstance s got to be not so good as formerly,
THE HAUNTED MAN. 337
through not being honestly dealt by, and I first come here to
be custodian," said the old man, " — which was upwards of
fifty years ago — where 's my son, "William ? More than half
a century ago. William ! "
" That 's what I say, father," replied the son, as promptly
and dutifully as before, "that's exactty where it is. Two
times ought 's an ought, and twice five ten, and there 's a
hundi-ed of 'em."
" It was quite a pleasure to know that one of our founders
or more correctly speaking," said the old man, with a great
glory in his subject and his knowledge of it, " one of the
learned gentlemen that helped endow us in Queen Elizabeth's
time, for we were founded afore her day — left in his will,
among the other bequests he made us, so much to buy holly,
for garnishing the walls and windows, come Christmas. There
was something homely and friendly in it. Being but strange
here, then, and coming at Cliristmas time, we took a liking
for his very picter that hangs in what used to be, anciently,
afore our ten poor gentlemen commuted for an annual stipend
in money, our great Dinner Hall. — A sedate gentleman in a
peaked beard, with a ruff round his neck, and a scroll below
him, in old English letters, ' Lord ! keep my memory green ! '
You know all about him, Mr. Redlaw?"
" I know the portrait hangs there, Philip."
" Yes, sure, it 's the second on the right, above the panel-
ling. I was going to say — he has helped to keep my memory
green, I thank him ; for, going round the building every year,
as I 'm a doing now, and fi-eshening up the bare rot ms with
these branches and berries, freshens up my bare old brain.
One year brings back another, and that year another, and
those others numbers ! At last, it seems to me as if the
birth-time of our Lord was the birth-time of all I have ever
had afi'ection for, or mourned for, or delighted in, — and
they 're a pretty many, for I 'm eighty-seven ! "
" Merry and happy," murmured Redlaw to himself.
The room began to darken strangely.
" So you see, sir," pursued old Philip, whose hale wintry
cheek had warmed into a ruddier glow, and whose blue eyes
had brightened while he spoke, " I have plenty to keep, when
1 keep this present season. Now where 's my quiet Mouse ?
Chattering 's the sin of my time of life, and tliere's half the
building to do yet, if the cold don't freeze us first, or the
z
33S THE HAUNl'ED MAN.
wiud dou't blow us away, or the darkness don't swallow
us up."
The quiet Mouse had brought her calm face to his side, and
silently taken his arm, before he finished speaking.
" Come away, my dear," said the old man. " Mr. Redlaw
won't settle to his dinner, otherwise, till it 's cold as the
winter. I hope you '11 excuse me rambling on, sir, and I wish
you good night, and, once again, a merry — "
" Stay !" said Mr. Redlaw, resuming his place at the table,
more, it would have seemed from his manner, to re-assure the
old keeper, than in any remembrance of his own appetite.
" Spare me another moment, Philip. William, you were going
to teU me something to your excellent wife's honor. It will not
be disagreeable to her to hear you praise her. "What was it?"
"Why, that's where it is, you see, sir," returned Mr.
WilHam Swidger, looking towards his wife in considerable
embarrassment. " Mrs. William 's got her eye upon me."
•' But you 're not afraid of Mrs. William's eye ? "
" Why, no, sir," returned Mr. Swidger, " that 's what I
say myself. It wasn't made to be afraid of. It wouldn't have
been made so mild, if that was the intention. But I wouldn't
like to — MiUy ! — him, you know. Down in the Buildings."
Mr. WiUiam, standing behind the table, and rummaging
disconcertedly among the objects upon it, directed persuasive
glances at Mrs. William, and secret jerks of his head and
thumb at Mr. Redlaw, as alluring her towards him.
'' Him, you know, my love," said Mr. William. " Down
in the Bidldings. Tell, my dear ! You 're the works of
Shakspeare in comparison with myself. Down in the
Buildings, you know, my love. — Student."
" Student ! " repeated Mr. Redlaw, raising his head.
"That's what I say, sir!" cried Mr. William, in the
utmost animation of assent. "If it wasn't the poor student
down in the Buildings, why should you wish to hear it from
Mrs. William's lips ? Mrs. William, my dear — Buildings."
" I didn't know," said Milly, with a quiet frankness, free
from any haste or confusion, " that William had said anything
about it, or I wouldn't have come. I asked him not to. It 's
a sick young gentleman, sir — and very poor, I am afraid —
who is too iU to go home this hoHday-time, and Kves, unknown
to any one, in but a common kind of lodging for a gentle-
man, down in Jerusalem Buildings. That 's all. sir,"
THE HAUNTED MAN. 839
" Why have I never heard of him?" said the Chemist,
rising hurriedly. " Why has lie not made his situation
known to me ? Sick ! — give me my hat and cloak. Poor !
— what house ? — what number ? "
" Oh, you mustn't go there, sir," said MiUy, leaving her
father-in-law, and calmly confronting him with her collected
little face and folded hands.
" Not go there ? "
•'Oil dear, no!" said Milly, shaldng her head as at a
most manifest and self-evident impossibility. '! It couldn't be
thought of ! "
" What do you mean ? \\Tiy not ? "
" Why, you see, sir," said Mr. William Swidger, persua-
sively and confidentially, "that's what I say. Depend upon
it, the young gentleman would never have made his situation
known to one of his own sex. Mrs. William has got into
his confidence, but that 's quite different. They all confide in
Mrs. William ; they all trust her. A man, sir, couldn't have
got a whisper out of him ; but woman, sir, and Mrs. WiUiam
combined — ! "
" There is good sense and delicacy in what you sa}^
William," retui-ned Mr. Redlaw, observant of the gentle and
composed face at his shoulder. And laying liis finger on his
lip, he secretly put his purse into her hand.
" Oh dear no, su- ! " cried Milly, giving it back again.
" Worse and worse ! Couldn't be dreamed of ! "
Such a staid matter-of-fact housewife she was, and so un-
ruffled by the momentary hasto of this rejection, that, an
instant afterwards, she was tidily picking up a few leaves
which had strayed from betweeii her scissors and her apron,
when she had arranged the holly.
Finding, when she rose from her stooping posture, that
Mr. Redlaw was still regarding her with doubt and astonish-
ment, she quietly repeated — looking about, the while, for any
other fragments that might have escaped her observation :
" Oh dear no, sir ! He said that of all the world he would
not be known to you, or receive help from you — though he is a
student in your class. I have made no terms of secresy with
you, but I trust to your honoui' completely."
" Wliy did he say so ? "
" Indeed I can't tell, sir," said Milly, after thinking a littlf?,
" because I am not at all clever, you know ; and I wante<l to
340 THE HAUNTED MAN.
be useful to him in making things neat and comfortable about
liim, and employed myself that way. But I know he is poor,
and lonely, and I think he is somehow neglected too. — How
dark it is ! "
The room had darkened more and more. There was a
very heavy gloom and shadow gathering behind the Chemist's
chair.
" What more about him ? " he asked.
" He is engaged to be married when he can afford it," said
Milly, " and is studying, I think, to qualify himself to earn a
living. I have seen, a long time, that he has studied hard
and denied himself much. — How very dark it is ! "
" It 's turned colder, too," said the old man, rubbing his
hands. " There 's a chill and dismal feeling in the room.
Where 's my son William ? • William, my boy, turn the lamp,
and rouse the fire ! "
Milly' s voice resumed, like quiet music very softly played :
" He muttered in his broken sleep yesterday afternoon,
after talking to me" (this was to herself ) "about some one
dead, and some great wrong done that could never be for-
gotten ; but whether to him or to another person, I don't
know. Not by him, I am sure."
" And, in short, Mrs. William, you see — which she wouldn't
say herself, Mr. Redlaw, if she was to stop here till the new
year after this next one — " said Mr. William, coming up to
him to speak in his ear, "has done him worlds of good!
Bless you, worlds of good ! All at home just the same as
ever — my father made as snug and comfortable — not a crumb
of litter to be found in the house, if you were to offer fifty
pound ready money for it — Mrs. William apparently never
out of the way — yet Mrs. William backwards and forwards,
backwards and forwards, up and down, up and down, a mother
to him ! "
The room turned darker and colder, and the gloom and
shadow gathering behind the chair was heavier.
" Not content with this, sir, Mrs. William goes and finds,
this very night, when she was coming home (why it 's not
above a couple of hours ago), a creature more klie a young
wild beast than a young child, shivering upon a door-step.
What does Mrs. William do, but brings it home to dry it, and
feed it. and keep it till our old Bounty of food and flannel is
given away on Christmas nioruiug ! If it ever felt a lira
TUE HAUNTED MAN. 341
before, it 's as mucli as it ever did; for it's sitting in the old
Lodge chimney, staring at ours as if its ravenous eyes would
never shut again. It 's sitting there, at least," said Mr.
William, correcting himself, on reflection, " unless it 's
bolted ! "
" Heaven keep her happy ! " said the Chemist aloud, " and
you too, Philip ! and you, William ! I must consider what
to do in this. I may desire to see this student, I '11 not detain
you longer now. Good night ! "
" I thankee, sir, I thankee ! " said the old man, " for
Mouse, and for my son William, and for myself. Where 's
my son William ? William, you take the lantern and go on
first, through them long dark passages, as you did last year
and the year afore. Ha, ha ! I remember — though I 'm
eightj'-seven ! ' Lord keep my memory green ! ' It 's a very
good prayer, Mr. Redlaw, that of the learned gentleman in
the peaked beard, with a ruff round his neck — hangs up,
second on the right above the panelling, in what used to be,
afore our ten poor gentlemen commuted, our great Dinner
HaU. ' Lord keep my memory green ! ' It 's very good and
pious, sir. Amen ! Amen ! "
As they passed out and shut the heavy door, which, how-
ever carefully withheld, fired a long train of thundering rever-
berations when it shut at last, the room turned darker.
As he fell a-musing in his chair alone, the healthy holly
withered on the wall, and dropped — dead branches.
As the gloom and shadow thickened behind him, in that
place where it had been gathering so darkly, it took, by slow
degrees, — or out of it there came, by some imreal, unsub-
stantial process — not to be traced by any human sense, an
awful likeness of himself.
Ghastly and cold, colourless in its leaden face and hands,
but with his features, and his bright eyes, and his grizzled
hair, and dressed in the gloomy shadow of his dress, it came
into its terrible appearance of existence, motionless, without a
sound. As he leaned his arm upon the elbow of his chair,
ruminating before the fire, it leaned upon the chair-back, close
above him, with its appalling copy of his face looking where
his face looked, and bearing the expression his face bore.
This, then, was the Something that had passed and gone
already. This was the dread companion of the hauiitod
moil!
342 THE HAUNTED MAN.
It took, for some moments, no more apparent heed of liim,
than he of it. The Christmas Waits were pbiying somewhere
in the distance, and, through his thoiightfuhiess, he seemed
to listen to the music. It seemed to listen too.
At length he spoke ; without moving or lifting up his face.
" Here again ! " he said.
" Here again ! " replied the Phantom.
"I see you in the fire," said the haunted man; "I hear
you in music, in the wind, in the dead stillness of the night."
The Phantom moved his head, assenting.
" Why do you come, to haunt me thus ? "
" I come as I am called," replied the Ghost.
"No. Unbidden," exclaimed the Chemist.
" Unbidden be it," said the Spectre. "It is enough. I
am here."
Hitherto the light of the fire had shone on the two faces —
if the dread lineaments behind the chair might be called a
face — both addressed towards it, as at first, and neither looking
at the other. But, now, the haunted man turned, suddenly,
and stared upon the Ghost. The Ghost, as sudden in its
motion, passed to before the chair, and stared on him.
The living man, and the animated image of himself dead,
might so have looked, the one upon the other. An awful
survey, in a lonely and remote part of an empty old pile of
building, on a winter night, with the loud wind going by
upon its journey of mystery — whence, or whither, no man
knowing since the world began — and tlie stars, in unimagin-
able millions, glittering through it, from eternal space, where
the world's bulk is as a grain, and its hoary age is infancy.
" Look upon me ! " said the Spectre. " I am he, neglected
in my youth, and miserably poor, who strove and suffered,
and still strove and suffered, until I hewed out knowledge
from the mine where it was buried, and made rugged steps
thereof, for my worn feet to rest and rise on."
" I am that man," returned the Chemist.
" No mother's self-denying love," pursued the Phantom,
" no father's counsel, aided me. A stranger came into my
father's place when I was but a child, and I was easily an
alien from my mother's heart. My parents, at the best, were
of that sort whose care soon ends, and whose duty is soon
done; who cast their offspring loose, early, as birds do theirs;
and, if they do well, claim the merit ; and if ill, the pity."
T1!E HAUNTED MAN. 343
It paused, and seemed to tempt and goad him with its look,
and with the manner of its speech, and with its smile.
" I am he," pursued the Phantom, " who, in this struggle
upward, found a friend. I made him — won him — bound
him to me ! We worked together, side by side. All the
love and confidence that in my earlier youth had had no
outlet, and found no expression, I bestowed on him."
" Not all," said Redlaw, hoarsely.
" No, not all," returned the Phantom. " I had a sister."
The haunted man, with his head resting on his hands,
replied, " I had ! " The Phantom, with an evil smile, drew
closer to the chair, and resting its chin upon its folded hands,
its folded hands upon the back, and looking down into his
face with searching eyes, that seemed instinct with fire, went
on :
" Such glimpses of the light of home as I had ever known,
had streamed from her. How young she was, how fair, how
loving ! I took her to the first poor roof that I was master
of, and made it rich. She came into the darkness of my life,
and made it bright. — She is before me ! "
" I saw her, in the fire, but now. I hear her in music, in
the wind, in the dead stillness of the night," returned the
haunted man.
" Did he love her?" said the Phantom, echoing his con-
templative tone. " I think he did once. I am sure he did.
Better had she loved him less— less secretly, less dearly, from
the shallower depths of a more divided heart ! "
" Let me forget it," said the Chemist, with an angry
motion of his hand. " Let me blot it from my memory ! "
The Spectre, without stirring, and with its unwinking, cruel
eyes still fixed upon his face, went on :
" A dream, like hers, stole upon my own life."
" It did," said Redlaw.
" A love, as like hers," pursued the Phantom, " as my
inferior nature might cherish, arose in my ovm. heart. I was
too poor to bind its object to my fortune then, by any thread
of promise or entreaty. I loved her far too well, to seek to
do it. But, more than ever I had striven in my life, I strove
to climb ! Only an inch gained, brought me something
nearer to the height. I toiled up ! In the late pauses of
my labour at that time, — my sister (sweet companion !) still
skfiring with me tlie expiring embers and the cooling hearth,
344 THE HAUNTED MAN.
— when day was breaking, what pictm'es of the future did
I see ! "
" I saw them in the fire, but now,'* he murmured. ''They
oome back to me in music, in the wind, in the dead stillness
of the night, in the revolving years."
" — Pictures of my own domestic life, in after- time, with
her who was the inspiration of my toil. Pictures of my
sister, made the wife of my dear fi-iend, on equal terms — for
he had some inheritance, we none — pictures of our sobered
age and mellowed happiness, and of the golden links, extend-
ing back so far, that should bind us, and our children, in a
radiant garland," said the Phantom.
"Pictures," said the haunted man, "that were delusions.
Why is it my doom to remember them too well ! "
" Delusions," echoed the Phantom in its changeless voice,
and glaring on him with its changeless eyes. " For my friend
(in whose breast my confidence was locked as in my own),
passing between me and the centre of the system of my hopes
and struggles, won her to himself, and shattered my frail
universe. My sister, doubly dear, doubly devoted, doubly
cheerful in my home, lived on to see me famous, and my old
ambition so rewarded when its sj)ring was broken, and then — "
" Then died," he interposed. " Died, gentle as ever,
happy, and with no concern but for her brother. Peace ! "
The Phantom watched him silently.
" Remembered ! " said the haunted man, after a pause.
" Yes. So well remembered, that even now, when years have
passed, and nothing is more idle or more visionary to me than
the boyish love so long outlived, I think of it with sympathy,
as if it were a younger brother's or a son's. Sometimes I
even wonder when her heart first inclined to him, and how
it had been afiected towards me. — Not lightly, once, I think.
■ — But that is nothing. Early unhappiness, a woimd from a
hand I loved and trusted, and a loss that nothing can replace,
outlive such fancies."
"Thus," said the Phantom, " I bear within me a Sorrow
and a Wrong. Thus I prey upon myself. Thus, memory is
my curse ; and, if I could forget my sorrow and my wrong, I
would ! "
" Mocker ! " said the Chemist, leaping up, and making,
with a wrathful hand, at the throat of his other self. " Why
have I always that taunt in my ears ? "
THE HAUNTED MAN. 346
" Forbear ! " exclaimed the Spectre in an awful voice.
" Lay a hand on me, and die ! "
He stopped midway, as if its words had paralysed him, and
stood looking on it. It had glided from him ; it had its arm
raised high in warning ; and a smile passed over its unearthly
features, as it reared its dark figure in triumph.
" If I could forget my sorrow and wrong, I woidd," the
Ghost repeated. "If I coidd forget my sorrow and my
.wrong, I would ! "
" Evil spirit of myself," returned the haunt6d man, in a
low, trembling tone, " my life is darkened by that incessant
whisper."
" It is an echo,'' said the Phantom.
" If it be an echo of my thoughts — as now, indeed, I know
it is," rejoined the haunted man, "why should I, therefore,
be tormented ? It is not a selfish thought. I sufi'er it to
range beyond myself. All men and women have their
sorrows, — most of them their wrongs ; ingratitude, and sordid
jealousy, and interest, besetting all degrees of life. Who
would not forget their sorrows and their wrongs ? "
"Who Avould not, truly, and be the happier and better for
it?" said the Phantom.
"These revolutions of years, which we commemorate,"
proceeded Redlaw, " what do they recal ! Are there any
minds in which they do not re-awaken some sorrow, or some
trouble ? What is the remembrance of the old man who was
here to-night ? A tissue of sorrow and trouble."
" But common natures," said the Phantom, with its evil
Bmile upon its glassy face, " unenlightened minds and
ordinary spirits, do not feel or reason on these things like
men of higher cultivation and profounder thought."
"Tempter," answered Redlaw, "whose hollow look and
voice I dread more than words can express, and from whom
some dim foreshadowing of greater fear is stealing over me
whQe I speak, I hear again an echo of my o^\^l mind."
" Receive it as a proof that I am powerful," retui'ned the
Ghost. " Hoar what I offer ! Forget the sorrow, wrong,
and trouble you have known ! "
" Forget them ! " ho repeated.
" I have the power to cancel their remembrance — to leave
but very faint, confused traces of them, that will die out
eoon,'' returned the Spectre. ' Say I Is it done ? '
S46 THE HAUNTliD MAN.
" Stay I " cried the haunted man, arresting by a terrified
gesture the uplifted hand. "I tremble "with distrust and
doubt of you ; and the dim fear you cast upon me deepens
into a nameless horror I can hardly bear. — I would not
deprive myseJf of any kindly recollection, or any sympathy
that is good for me, or others. What shall I lose, if I assent
to •^liis ? What else will pass from my remembrance ? "
•' No knowledge ; no result of study ; nothing but the
intertwisted chain of feelings and associations, each in its
turn dependent on, and noiuished by, the banished recollec-
tions. Those will go."
" Are they so many ? " said the haunted man, reflecting in
alarm.
"They have been wont to show themselves in the fire, in
music, in the wind, in the dead stillness of the night, in the
revolving years," returned the Phantom scornfully.
" In nothing else ? "
The Phantom held its peace.
But, having stood before him, silent, for a little while, it
moved towards the fii*e ; then stopped.
" Decide ! " it said, " before the opportunity is lost ! "
" A moment ! I call Heaven to witness," said the agitated
man, " that I have never been a hater of my kind, — never
morose, indifierent, or hard, to anything around me. If,
living here alone, I have made too much of all that was and
might have been, and too little of what is, the evil, I believe,
has fallen on me, and not on others. But, if there were
poison in my body, should I not, possessed of antidotes and
knowledge how to use them, use them ? If there be poison
in my mind, and through this fearful shadow I can cast it
out, shall I not cast it out ? "
" Say," said the Spectre, "is it done ? "
" A moment longer ! " he answered hurriedly. " I would
forget it if I could ! Have I thought that, alone, or has it
been the thought of thousands upon thousands, generation
after generation ? All human memory is fraught with sorrow
and trouble, ^ly memory is as the memory of other men,
but other men have not this choice. Yes, T close the bargain
lies ! I WILL forget my sorrow, wrong, and trouble ! "
" Say," said the Spectre, "is it done ? "
" It is : "
" It is. And take this with you, man whom I here
THE HAUNTED MAN. 347
reuounce ! The gift that I have given, you shall give again,
go where you will. "Without recovering youi'self the power
that you have yielded up, you shall henceforth destroy its
like in all w^hom you approach. Your wisdom has discovered
that the memory of sorrow, wrong, and trouble is the lot of
all mankind, and that mankind would be the happier, in its
other memories, without it. Go ! Be its benefactor ! Freed
from such remembrance, from this hoxir, carry involuntarily
,the blessing of such freedom with you. Its diffusion is
inseparable and inahenable from you. Go ! Be happy in
the good you have won, and in the good you do ! "
The Phantom, which had held its bloodless hand above
him while it spoke, as if in some unholy invocation, or some
ban; and which had gradually advanced its eyes so close to
his, that he coidd see how they did not participate in the
terrible smile upon its face, but were a fixed, unalterable,
steady horror ; melted from before him, and was gone.
As he stood rooted to the spot, possessed by fear and
wonder, and imagining he heard repeated in melancholy
echoes, dying away fainter and fainter, the words, " Destroy
its like in all whom you approach ! " a shrill cry reached his
ears. It came, not fr'om the passages beyond the door, but
from another part of the old building, and sounded like the
cry of some one in the dark who had lost the way.
He looked confusedly upon his hands and limbs, as if to be
assured of his identity, and then shouted in reply, loudly and
wildly ; for there was a strangeness and terror upon him, as
if he too were lost.
The cry responding, and being nearer, he caught up the
lamp, and raised a heavy curtain in the wall, by which he
was accustomed to pass into and out of the theatre where he
lectured, — which adjoined his room. Associated with youth
and animation, and a high amphitheatre of faces which his
entrance charmed to interest in a moment, it was a ghostly
place w^hen all tliis life was faded out of it, and stared upon
him like an emblem of Death.
"Halloa!" he cried. "Halloa! This way! Come to
the liglit ! " When, as he held the curtain with one hand,
and with the other raised the lamp and tried to pierce the
gloom that filled the place, something rushed past him into
the room like a wild cat, and crouched down in a corner.
" What is it? " he said, hastily.
848 THE HAUNTED MAN.
He might have asked "What is it?" even had he seen it
well, as presently he did when he stood looking at it gathered
up in its corner.
A bundle of tatters, held together by a hand, in size and
form almost an infant's, but, in its greedy, desperate little
clutch, a bad old man's. A face roimded and smoothed by
some half-dozen years, but pinched and twisted by the
experiences of a life. Bright eyes, but not youthful. Naked
feet, beautiful in their childish delicacy, — ugly in the blood
and dirt that cracked upon them. A baby savage, a young
monster, a child who had never been a child, a creature who
might live to take the outward form of man, but who, within,
would live and perish a mere beast.
Used, already, to be worried and hunted like a beast, the
boy crouched down as he was looked at, and looked back
again, and interposed his arm to ward off the expected blow.
" I '11 bite," he said, " if you hit me ! "
The time had been, and not many minutes since, when
such a sight as this would have wrung the Chemist's heart.
He looked upon it now, coldly ; but, with a heavy effort to
remember something — he did not know what — he asked the
boy what he did there, and whence he came.
" Where 's the woman ? " he replied. " I want to find the
woman."
"Who?"
" The woman. Her that brought me here, and set me by
the large fire. She was so long gone, that I went to look for
her, and lost myself. I don't want you. I want the woman."
He made a spring, so suddenly, to get away, that the diill
Boimd of his naked feet upon the floor was near the curtain,
when Redlaw caught him by his rags.
" Come ! you let me go ! " muttered the boy, struggling,
and clenching his teeth. " I 've done nothing to you. Let
me go, will you, to the woman ! "
"That is not the way. There is a nearer one," said
Bedlaw, detaining him, in the same blank effort to remember
some association that ought of right, to bear upon this
monstrous object. " What is yoiir name ? "
" Got none."
" Where do you live ? "
" Live ! What 's that ? "
The boy shook his hair from his eyes to look at him for a
THE HAUNTED MAN. 349
moment, and tlien, twisting round his legs and wrestling with
him, broke again into his repetition of " You let me go, will
you ? I want to find the woman."
'flie Chemist led him to the door. " This way," he said,
looking at him still confusedly, but with repugnance and
avoidance, growing out of his coldness. " I '11 take you to
her."
The sharp eyes in the child's head, wandering round the
room, lighted on the table where the remnants of the dinner
'were.
" Give me some of that ! " he said, covetously.
'' Has she not fed you ? "
" I shall be hungry again to-morrow, sha'n't I ? Ain't I
hungry every day ? "
Finding himself released, he bounded at the table like some
small animal of prey, and hugging to his breast bread and
meat, and his own rags, all together, said :
" There ! Now take me to the woman ! "
As the Chemist, with a new-born dislike to touch him,
sternly motioned him to follow, and was going out of the
door, he ti'embled and stopped.
" The gift that I have given, j^ou shall give again, go
where you will ! "
The Phantom's words were blowing in the wind, and the
wind blew chill upon him.
" I '11 not go there, to-night," he murmured faintly.
" I '11 go nowhere to-night. Boy ! straight down this
long-arched passage, and past the great dark door into the
yard, — you will see the fire shining on a window there."
" The woman's fii-e ? " inquired the boy.
He nodded, and the naked feet had sprung away. Ho
came back with his lamp, locked his door hastily, and sat
do^vn ia his chair, covering his face like one who was
frightened at himself.
i*'or now be was. indeed, alone. Alonej alone.
350 TUE HAUNTED MAN",
CHAPTER IL
THB GIFT DIFFUSED.
A SMALL man sat in a small parlour, partitioned off from a
small shop by a small screen, pasted all over with small
scraps of newspapers. In company with the small man, was
almost any amount of small childi^en you may please to name
— at least, it seemed so ; they made, in that very limited
sphere of action, such an imposing effect, in point of numbers.
Of these small fry, two had, by some strong- machinery,
been got into bed in a corner, where they might have reposed
snugly enough in the sleep of innocence, but for a constitu-
tional projiensity to keep awake, and also to scuffle in and out
of bed. The immediate occasion of these predatory dashes at
the waking world, was the construction of an oyster-shell wall
in a corner, by two other youths of tender age ; on which
fortification the two in bed made harassing descents (like
those accursed Picts and Scots who beleaguer the early
historical studies of most young Britons), and then withdi-ew
to their own territory.
In addition to the stir attendant on these inroads, and the
retorts of the invaded, who pursued hotly, and made lunges
at the bed-clothes, under whieli the marauders took refuge,
another little boy, in another little bed, contributed his mite
of confusion to the family stock, by casting his boots upon the
waters ; in other words, by launching these and several small
objects, inoffensive in themselves, though of a hard substance
considered as missiles, at the disturbers of his repose, — who
were not slow to return these compliments.
Besides which, another little boy — the biggest there, but
still little — was tottering to and fro, bent on one side, and
considerably affected in his knees by the weight of a large
baby, which he was supposed, by a fiction that obtains some-
times in sanguine families, to be hushing to sleep. But oh !
the inexhaustible regions of contemplation and watchfulness
THE HAUNTED MAN. 351
into -wliicli this "baby's eyes were then only bep^inning to
compose themselves to stare, over his iinconscious shoulder I
It was a very Moloch of a baby, on whose insatiate altar
the whole existence of this particular young- brother was
offered up a daily sacrifice. Its personality may be said to
have consisted in its never being quiet^ in any one place, for
five consecutive minutes, and never going to sleep when
required. " Tetterby's baby," was as well known in the
neighboxu'hood as the postman or the pot-boy. It roved from
door-step to door-step, in the arms of little Johnny Tetterby,
and lagged heavily at the rear of troops of juveniles who
followed the Tumblers or the Monkey, and came up, all on
one side, a little too late for everything that was attractive,
from Monday morning until Satiu-day night. Wherever
childhood congregated to play, there was little Moloch making
Johnny fag and toil. WTierever Johnny desired to stay, little
Moloch became fi'actious, and would not remain. Whenever
Johnny wanted to go out, Moloch was asleep, and must be
watched. Whenever Johnny wanted to stay at home, Moloch
was awake, and must be taken out. Yet Johnny was verily
persuaded that it was a faultless baby, without its peer in the
realm of England ; and was quite content to catch meek
glimpses of things in general from behind its skirts, or over
its limp flapping bonnet, and to go staggering about with it
like a very little porter with a very large parcel, which was
not directed to anybody, and could never be deKvered any-
where.
The small man who sat in the small parlor, making fruitless
attempts to read his newspaper peaceably in the midst of this
disturbance, was the father of the family, and the chief of
the firm described in the inscription over the little shop front,
by the name and title of A. Tetterby and Co., Newsmen.
Indeed, strictly speaking, he was the only personage answer-
ing to that designation ; as Co. was a mere poetical abstraction,
altogether baseless and impersonal.
Tetterby's was the corner shop in Jerusalem Buildings
There was a good show of literature in the window, chiefly
consisting of picture-newspapers out of date, and serial pirates,
and footpads. Walking-sticks, likewise, and marbles, were
included in the stock in trade. It had once extended into the
light confectionery line ; but it would seem that those
elegancies of life were not in demand about Jerusalem
352 THE HAUNTED MAN.
Buildings, for notliiug connected with that branch of commerce
remained in the window, except a sort of small glass lantern
containing a languishing mass of bull's-eyes, which had
melted in the summer and congealed in the winter until all
hope of ever getting them out, or of eating them without
eating the lantern too, was gone for ever. Tetterby's had
tried its hand at several things. It had once made a feeble
little dart at the toy business ; for, in another lantern, there
was a heap of minute wax dolls, all sticking together upside
down, in the direst confusion, with their feet on one another's
heads, and a precipitate of broken arms and legs at the
bottom. It had made a move in the millinery direction, which
a few dry, wiry bonnet-shapes remained in a corner of the
window to attest. It had fancied that a living might lie hidden
in the tobacco trade, and had stuck up a representation of a
native of each of the three integral portions of the British
empire, in the act of consuming that fragrant weed ; with a
poetic legend attached, importing that united in one cause
they sat and joked, one chewed tobacco, one took snuff, one
smoked : but nothing seemed to have come of it — except flies
Time had been when it had put a forlorn trust in imitative
jewellery, for in one pane of glass there was a card of cheap
seals, and another of pencil-cases, and a mysterious black
amulet of inscrutable intention labelled ninepence. But, to
that hour, Jerusalem Buildings had bought none of them. In
short, Tetterby's had tried so hard to get a livelihood out of
Jerusalem Buildings in one way or other, and appeared to
have done so indifferently in all, that the best position in the
firm was too evidently Co.'s; Co., as a bodiless creation,
being untroubled with the vulgar inconveniences of hunger
and thirst, being chargeable neither to the poor's-rates nor
the assessed taxes, and having no young family to provide for.
Tetterby himself, however, in his little parlor, as already
mentioned, having the presence of a young family impressed
upon his mind in a manner too clamorous to be disregarded, or
to comport with the quiet perusal of a newspaper, laid down
his paper, wheeled in his distraction, a few times round the
parlor, like an undecided carrier-pigeon, made an ineffectual
rush at one or two flying little figures in bed-gowns that
skimmed past him, and then, bearing suddenly down upon tho
only unoffending member of the family, boxed the ears of little
Moloch's nurse.
THE HAUNTED MAN. 358
" You bad boy ! " said Mr. Tetterby, " haven't you any
feeling for your poor father after the fatigues and anxieties of
a hard winter's day, since five o'clock in the morning, but
must you wither his rest, and corrode his latest intelligence,
■with your wicious tricks ? Isn't it enough, sir, that your
brother 'Dolphus is toiling and moiling in the fog and cold,
and you rolling in the lap of luxury with a — with a baby,
and everythink you can wish for," said Mr. Tetterby, heaping
this up as a great climax of blessings, " but must you make
-a wilderness of home, and maniacs of your parents? Must
you, Johnny? Hey?" At each interrogation, Mr. Tetterby
made a feint of boxing his ears again, but thought better of
it, and held his hand.
" Oh, father! " whimpered Johnny, "when I wasn't doing
anything, I 'm sure, but taking such care of Sally, and getting
her to sleep. Oh, father ! "
" I wish my little woman would come home ! " said Mr.
Tetterby, relenting and repenting, " I only wish my little
woman would come home ! I ain't fit to deal with 'em. They
make my head go round, and get the better of me. Oh,
Johnny ! Isn't it enough that your dear mother has provided
you with that sweet sister?" indicating Moloch; " isn't it
enough that you were seven boys before, without a ray of
gal, and that your dear mother went through what she did go
through, on purpose that you might aU of you have a little
sister, but must you so behave yourself as to make my head
swim ? "
Softening more and more, as his own tender feelings and
those of his injured son were worked on, Mr. Tetterby con-
cluded by embracing him, and immediately breaking away
to catch one of the real delinquents. A reasonably good start
occurring, he succeeded, after a short but smart run, and
some rather severe cross-country work under and over the
bedsteads, and in and out among the intricacies of the chairs,
in capturing this infant, whom he coudiguly punished, and
bore to bed. Tliis example had a powerful, and apparently,
mesmeric influence on him of the boots, who instantly fell
into a deep sleep, though he had been, but a moment before,
broad awake, and in the highest possible feather. Nor was
it lost upon the two young architects, who retired to bed, in
an adjoining closet, with great privacy and speed. The
comrade of the Intercepted One also shrinking into his nest
AA
S54 THE HAUNTED MAN.
Mnth. similar discretion, Mr. Tetterby, when lie paused for
breath, found himself vmexpectedly in a scene of peace.
" My little woman herself," said Mr. Tetterby, wiping his
flushed face, "could hardly have done it better ! I only wish
my little woman had had it to do, I do indeed ! "
Mr. Tetterby sought upon his screen for a passage appro-
priate to be impressed upon his children's minds on the
occasion, and read the following.
" ' It is an imdoubted fact that all remarkable men have
had remarkable mothers, and have respected them in after life
as their best friends.' Think of your own remarkable mother,
my boys," said Mr. Tetterby, *' and know her value while she
is stiU among you ! "
He sat down again in his chair by the fire, and composed
himself, cross-legged, over his newspaper.
" Let anybody, I don't care who it is, get out of bed a,gain,"
said Tetterby, as a general proclamation, delivered in a very
soft-hearted manner, " and astonishment will be the portion
of that respected contemporary!" — which expression Mr.
Tetterby selected from his screen. " Johnny, my child, take
care of your only sister, Sally ; for she 's the brightest gem
that ever sparkled on your early brow."
Johnny sat down on a little stool, and devotedly crushed
himself beneath the weight of Moloch.
" Ah, what a gift that baby is to you, Johnny ! " said his
father, " and how thankful you ought to be ! * It is not
generally known,' Johnny," he was now referring to the screen
again, " ' but it is a fact ascertained, by accurate calculations,
that the following immense per-centage of babies never attain
to two years old ; that is to say ' " —
" Oh, don't, father, please ! " cried Johnny. " I can't bear
it, when I think of SaUy."
Mr. Tetterby desisting, Johnny, with a profounder sense of
his trust, wiped his eyes, and hushed his sister.
*' Your brother 'Dolphus," said his father, poking the fire,
" is late to-night, Johnny, and will come home like a lump of
ice. What 's got your precious mother ? "
" Here 's mother, and 'Dolphus too, father ! " exclaimed
Johnny, " 1 think."
*' You 're right ! " returned his father, listening. " Yes,
that 's the footstep of my little woman."
The process of induction, by which Mr. Tetterby had come
THE HAUNTED MAN. Kf
to the conclusion that his wife was a little woman, was his
own secret. She would have made two editions of himself,
very easily. Considered as an individual, she was rather
remarkable for being robust and portly ; but considered with
reference to her husband, her dimensions became magnificent.
Nor did they assume a less imposing proportion, when studied
with reference to the size of her seven sons, who were but
diminutive. In the case of Sally, however, Mrs. Tetterby
had asserted herself, at last ; as nobody knew better than the
victim Johnny, who weighed and measured that exacting idol
every hour in the day.
Mrs. Tetterby, who had been marketing, and carried a
basket, threw back her bonnet and shawl, and sitting down,
fatigued, commanded Johnny to bring his sweet charge to her
straightway, for a kiss. Johnnj'- having complied, and gone
back to his stool, and again crushed himself, IMaster Adolphus
Tetterby, who had by this time unwound his Torso out of a
prismatic comforter, apparently interminable, requested the
same fav-or. Johnny having again complied, and again gone
back to his stool, and again crushed himself, Mr. Tetterby,
struck by a sudden thought, preferred the same claim on his
own parental part. The satisfaction of this third desire com-
pletely exhausted the sacrifice, who had hardly breath enough
left to get back to his stool, crush himself again, and pant at
his relations.
" Whatever you do, Johnny," said Mrs. Tetterby, shaking
her head, " take care of her, or never look your mother in the
face again."
" Nor your brother," said Adolphus.
" Nor your father, Johnny," added Mr. Tetterby.
Johnny, much affected by this conditional renunciation of
him, looked down at Moloch's eyes to see that they were
all right, so far, and skilfully patted her back (which was
uppermost), and rocked her with his foot.
"Are you wet, 'Dolphus, my boy?" said his father.
" Come and take my chair, and dry yourself."
" No, father, thankee," said Adolphus, smoothing himself
down with his hands. " I an't very wet, I don't think. Does
my face shine mucli, father? "
" Well, it does look waxy, my boy," returned Mr. Tetterby.
" It 's the weather, father," said Adolphus, polisliing his
cheeks on the worn sleeve of his jacket " What with rain.
S56 THE HAUNTED MAN.
and sleet, and wind, and snow, and fog, my face gets quite
brought out into a rash sometimes. And shines, it does — oh,
don't it, though ! "
Master Adolphus was also in the newspaper line of life,
being employed, by a more thriving firm than his father and
Co., to vend newspapers at a railway station, where his
chubby little person, like a shabbily disguised Cupid, and his
shrill little voice (he was not much more than ten years old),
were as well known as the hoarse panting of the locomotives,
running in and out. His juvenility might have been at some
loss for a harmless outlet, in this early application to traffic,
but for a fortunate discovery he made of a means of entertain-
ing himself, and of dividing the long day into stages of
interest, without neglecting business. This ingenious invention,
remarkable, like many great discoveries, for its simplicity,
consisted in varying the first vowel in the word " paper," and
substituting in its stead, at different periods of the day, aU
the other vowels in grammatical succession. Thus, before day-
light in the winter-time, he went to and fro, in his little oilskin
cap and cape, and his big comforter, piercing the heavy air
with his cry of " Morn-ing Pa-per ! " which, about an hour
before noon, changed to " Morn-ing Pep-per ! " which, at about
two, changed to ''Morn-ing Pip-per; " which, in a couple of
hours, changed to " Morn-ing Pop-per ! " and so declined with
the sun into " Eve-ning Pup-per ! " to the great relief and com-
fort of this young gentleman's spirits.
Mrs. Tetterby, his lady-mother, who had been sitting with
her bonnet and shawl thrown back, as aforesaid, thoughtfully
turning her wedding ring round and round upon her finger,
now rose, and divesting herself of her out-of-door attire,
began to lay the cloth for supper.
" Ah, dear me, dear me, dear me ! " said Mrs. Tetterby.
*' That 's the way the world goes ! "
" Wliich is the way the world goes, my dear ? " asked Mr.
Tetterby, looking round.
" Oh, nothing," said Mrs. Tetterby.
Mr. Tetterby elevated his eyebrows, folded his newspaper
afresh, and carried his eyes up it, and down it, and across it,
but was wandering in his attention, and not reading it.
Mrs. Tetterby, at the same time, laid the cloth, but rather
as if she were punishing the table than preparing the family
Slipper; hitting it unnecessarily hard with the knives and
THE HAUNTED MAN. 357
forks, slapping it with the plates, dinting it with the salt
cellar, and coming heavily down upon it with the loaf.
" Ah, dear me, dear me, dear me ! " said Mrs. Tetterby,
" That 's the way the world goes ! "
'' My duck," returned her husband, looking round again,
" you said that before. Which is the way the world goes ? "
"Oh, nothing," said Mrs. Tetterby.
" Sophia ! " remonstrated her hiisband, " you said thai
before, too."
" Well, I '11 say it again if you like," returned. Mrs. Tetterby.
" Oh nothing — there ! And again if you like, oh nothing — •
there ! And again if you like, oh nothing — now then ! "
Mr. Tetterby brought his eye to bear upon the partner of
his bosom, and said, in mild astonishment :
" ]\Iy little woman, what has put you out ? "
" I 'm sure / don't know," she retorted. " Don't ask me.
Who said I was put out at all ? I never did."
Mr. Tetterby gave up the perusal of his newspaper as a bad
job, and, taking a slow walk across the room, with his hands
behind him, and his shoulders raised — liis gait according per-
fectly with the resignation of his manner — addressed himelf to
his two eldest offspring.
"Your supper will be ready in a minute 'Dolphus," said
Mr. Tetterby. " Your mother has been out in the wet, to the
cook's shop, to buy it. It was very good of your mother so to
do. You shall get some supper too, very soon, Johnny. Your
mother 's pleased with you, my man, for being so attentive to
your precious sister."
Mrs. Tetterby, without any remark, but with a di^cided
subsidence of her animosity towards the table, finished her
preparations, and took, from her ample basket, a substantial
slab of liot pease pudding wrapped in paper, and a basin
covered with a saucer, which, on being uncovered, sent forth
an odour so agreeable, tliat the three pair of eyes in the two
beds opened wide and fixed themselves upon the banquet. Mr.
Tetterby, without regarding this tacit invitation to be seated,
etcjod repeating slowly, " Yes, yes, your supper will be ready
in a minute, 'Dolphus — your mother went out in the wet, to
tlie cook's shop, to buy it. It was very good of your mother
80 to do " — until Mrs. Tetterby, who had been exhibiting
sundry tokens of contrition behind him, caught him round the
neck, and wept.
858 THE HAUNTED MAN.
" Oh, 'Dolphus ! " said Mrs. Tetterby, " how could T go and
behave so I "
This reconciliation affected Adolphus the younger and
Johnny to that degree, that they both, as with one accord,
raised a dismal cry, which had the effect of immediately shut-
ting up the round eyes in the beds, and utterly routing the
two remaining little Tetterbys, just then stealing in from the
adjoining closet to see what was going on in the eating way.
" I am sure, 'Dolphus," sobbed Mrs. Tetterby, " coming
home, I had no more idea than a child unborn "
Mr. Tetterby seemed to dislike this figure of speech, and
observed, " Say than the baby, my dear."
" — Had no more idea than the baby," said Mrs. Tetterby.
— " Johnny, don't look at me, but look at her, or she '11 fall
out of your lap and be killed, and then you '11 die in agonies
of a broken heart, and serve you right. — No more idea I
hadn't than that darling, of being cross when I came home ;
but somehow, 'Dolphus " Mrs. Tetterby paused, and again
turned her wedding-ring round and round upon her finger.
"I see ! " said Mr. Tetterby. " I understand ! My little
woman was put out. Hard times, and hard weather, and hard
work, make it trying now and then. I see, bless your soul !
No wonder ! 'Dolf, my man," continued Mr. Tetterby,
exploring the basin with a fork, " here 's your mother been
and bought, at the cook's shop, besides pease pudding, a whole
knuckle of a lovely roast leg of pork, with lots of crackling
left upon it, and with seasoning gravy and mustard quite un-
limited. • Hand in your plate, my boy, and begin while it 's
simmering."
Master Adolphus, needing no second summons, received his
portion with eyes rendered moist by appetite, and withdrawing
to his particular stool, fell upon his supper tooth and nail.
Johnny was not forgotten, but received his rations on bread,
lest he should, in a flush of gravy, trickle any on the baby.
He was required, for similar reasons, to keep his pudding,
when not on active service, in his pocket.
There might have been more pork on the knucklebone, —
which knucklebone the carver at the cook's shop had assuredly
not forgotten in carving for previous customers, — but there
was no stint of seasoning, and that is an accessory dreamily
suggesting pork, and pleasantly cheating the sense of taste.
The pease pudding, too, the gravy and mustard, like the
THE HAUNTED MAN. 369
Eastern rose in respect of the nightingale, if they were not
absolutely pork, had lived near it ; so, upon the whole, there
\\ as the flavour of a middle-sized pig. It was irresistible to
the I'etterbys in bed, who, though professing to slumber
peacefully, crawled out when unseen by their parents, and
silently appealed to their brothers for any gastronomic token
of fraternal affection. They, not hard of heart, presenting
scraps in return, it resulted that a party of light skirmishers in
night-gowns were careering about the parlor all through
supper, which harassed Mr. Tetterby exceedingly, and once
or twice imposed upon him the necessity of a charge, before
which these guerilla troops retired in all directions and in
great confusion.
Mrs. Tetterby did not enjoy her supper. There seemed
to be something on Mrs. Tetterby's mind. At one time she
laughed without reason, and at another time she cried without
reason, and at last she laughed and cried together in a manner
so very unreasonable that her husband was confounded.
"My little woman," said Mr, Tetterby, "if the world goes
that way, it appears to go the wrong way, and to choke you."
"Give me a drop of water," said Mrs. Tetterby, struggling
with herself, " and don't speak to me for the present, or take
any notice of me. Don't do it ! "
Mr. Tetterby having administered the water, turned sud-
denly on the unlucky Johnny (who was full of sympathy),
and demanded why he was wallowing there, in gluttony and
idleness, instead of coming forward with the baby, that the
sight of her might revive his mother. Johnny immediately
approached, borne down by its weight ; but Mrs. Tetterby
holding out her hand to signify that she was not in a condition
to bear that trying appeal to her feeling's, he was interdicted
from advancing another inch, on pain of perpetual hatred from
all his dearest connections ; and accordingly retired to his
Btool again, and crushed himself as before.
After a pause, Mrs. Tetterby said she was better now, and
began to laugh.
" My little woman," said her husband, dubiously, " are you
quite sure you 're better ? Or are you, Sophia, about to break
out in a fresh direction ? "
" No, 'Dolphus, no," replied his wife. " I 'm quite myself."
With that, settling her hair, and pressing the palms of hej
hands upon her eyes, she laughed ag;ain.
360 THE HAUNTED MAN.
"What a wicked fool I was, to think so for a moment ! "
said Mrs. Tetterby. " Come nearer, 'Dolphus, and let me
ease my mind, and tell you what I mean. Let me tell you
all about it."
Mr. Tetterby bringing his chair closer, Mrs. Tetterby
laughed again, gave hiin a hug, and wiped her eyes.
" You know, 'Dolphus, my dear," said Mrs. Tetterby, " that
when I was single, I might have given myself away in several
directions. At one time, four after me at once ; two of them
were sons of Mars."
" We 're all sons of Ma's, my dear," said Mr. Tetterby,
"jointly with Pa's."
" I don't mean that," replied his wife, I mean soldiers —
Serjeants."
" Oh ! " said Mr. Tetterby.
" Well, 'Dolphus, I 'm siire I never think of such things
now, to regret them ; and I 'm siu"e I 've got as good a hus-
band, and woidd do as much to prove that I was fond of
him, as — "
" As any little woman in the world," said Mr. Tetterby.
"Very good. Very good."
If Mr. Tetterby had been ten feet high, he could not have
expressed a gentler consideration for Mrs. Tetterby' s fairy-
like stature ; and if ]\Irs. Tetterby had been two feet high,
she could not have felt it more appropriately her due.
" But you see, 'Dolphus," said Mrs. Tetterby, " this being
Christmas-time, when all people who can, make holiday,
and when all people who have got money, like to spend some,
I did, somehow, get a little out of sorts when I was in the
streets just now. There were so many things to be sold —
such delicious things to eat, such fine things to look at, such
delightful things to have — and there was so much calculating
and calculating necessary, before I durst lay out a sixpence
for the commonest thing ; and the basket was so large, and
wanted so much in it ; and my stock of money was so small,
and would go such a little way ; — you hate me, don't you,
'Dolphus?"
" Not quite," said Mr. Tetterby, " as yet "
" Well ! I '11 tell you the whole truth," pursued his wife,
penitently, " and then perhaps you will. I felt all this, so
much, when I was trudging about in the cold, and when I
saw a lot of other calculating faces and large baskets trudging
THE HAUNTED MAN. 361
about, too, that I began to think whether I mightn't have
done better, and been happier, if — I — hadn't — " the wedding
ring went round again, and Mrs. Tetterby shook her down-
cast head as she turned it.
"I see," said her husband quietly; "if you hadn't
married at all, oi- if you had married somebody else ? "
"Yes," sobbed Mrs. Tetterby. "That's really what I
thought. Do you hate me now , 'Dolphus ? "
" ^\Tiv no," said Mr. Tetterby, " I don't find that I do aa
yet."
Mrs. Tetterby gave him a thankful kiss, and went on.
" I begin to hope you won't, now, 'Dolphus, though I am
afraid I haven't told you the worst. I can't think what came
over me. I don't know whether I was ill, or mad, or what I
was, but I coiddn't call up anything that seemed to bind us
to each other, or to reconcile me to my fortime. All the
pleasures and enjoyments we had ever had — they seemed so
poor and insignificant, I hated them. I could have trodden
on them. And I could think of nothing else except our
being poor, and the number of mouths there were at home."
"Well, well, my dear," said Mr. Tetterby, shaking her
hand encouragingly, " that 's truth, after all. We are poor,
and there are a number of mouths at home here."
"Ah! but, Dolf, Dolf ! " cried his wife, laying her hands
upon his neck, " my good, kind, patient fellow, when I had
been at home a very little while — how different ! Oh, Dolf,
dear, how different it was ! I felt as if there was a rush of
recollection on me, all at once, that softened my hard heart,
and filled it up till it was bursting. All our struggles for
a livelihood, all our cares and wants since we have been
married, aU the times of sickness, all the hours of watching,
we have ever had, by one another, or by the children, seemed
to speak to me, and say that they had made us one, and that
I never might have been, or could have been, or would have
been, any other than the wife and mother I am. Then, the
cheap enjoyments that I could have trodden on so cruelly, got
to be so precious to me — On so priceless, and dear ! — tliat
I couldn't bear to think how much I had wronged them ;
and I said, and say again a hundred times, how coidd 1
ever behave so, 'Dolphus, how coidd I ever have the heart
to do it ! "
The good woman, quite carried away by her honest tender-
362 THE HAUNTED MAN.
ness and remorse, was weeping with all her heart, when she
started up with a scream, and ran behind her husband. Her
cry was so terrified, that the children started from their sleep
and from their beds, and clung about her. Nor did her gaze
belie her voice, as she pointed to a pale man in a black cloak
who had come into the room.
" Look at that man ! Look there ! What does he want ? "
" My dear," returned her husband, " I '11 ask him if
you '11 Let me go. What 's the matter ? How you shake ! "
" I saw him in the street when I was out just now. He
looked at me, and stood near me. I am afraid of him."
"Afraid of him! Why?"
" I don't know why — I — stop ! husband ! " for he was
going towards the stranger.
She had one hand pressed upon her forehead, and one upon
her breast ; and there was a peculiar fluttering all over her,
and a hurried unsteady motion of her eyes, as if she had lost
something.
" Are you ill, my dear ? "
" What is it that is going from me again ? " she muttered,
in a low voice. " What is this that is going away ? "
Then she abruptly answered : " lU? No, I am quite well,"
and stood looking vacantly at the floor.
Ker husband, who had not been altogether free from the
infection of her fear at first, and whom the present strangeness
of her manner did not tend to reassure, addressed himself to
the pale visitor in the black cloak, who stood still, and whose
eyes were bent upon the ground.
'•' What may be your pleasure, sir," he asked, " with us ? "
" I fear that my coming in unperceived," returned the
visitor, " has alarmed you ; but you were talking and did
not hear me."
" My little woman says — perhaps you heard her say it,"
returned Mr. Tetterby, " that it *s not the first time you have
alarmed her to-night."
" I am sorry for it. I remember to have observed her, for
a few moments only, in the street. I had no intention of
frightening her."
As he raised his eyes in speaking, she raised hers. It was
extraordinary to see what dread she had of him, and with
what dread he observed it — and yet how narrowly and
dosely.
THE HAUNTED MAN. 363
" My name," he said, " is Redlaw. I come from the old
college hard by. A young gentleman who is a student there,
lodges in your house, does he not?"
" Mr. Denham? " said Tetterby.
" Yes."
It was a natural action, and so slight as to be hardly
noticeable; but the little man, before speaking again, passed
his hand across his forehead, and looked quickly round the
room, as though he were sensible of some change in its
atmosphere. The Chemist, instantly transferring to him the
look of dread he had directed towards the wife, stepped back,
and his face turned paler.
"The gentleman's room," said Tetterby, "is up stairs, sir.
There 's a more convenient private entrance ; but as you have
come in here, it will save your going out into the cold, if
you '11 take this little staircase," showing one communicating
directly with the parlor, " and go up to him that way, if you
wish to see him."
" Yes, I wish to see him," said the Chemist. " Can you
spare a light ? "
The watchfulness of his haggard look, and the inexplicable
distrust that darkened it, seemed to trouble Mr. Tetterby. He
paused ; and looking fixedly at him. in return, stood for a
minute or so, like a man stupefied, or fascinated.
At length he said, " I 'U light you, sir, if you 'U follow
me."
" No," replied the Chemist, " I don't wish to be attended,
or announced to him. He does not expect me. I would
rather go alone. Please to give me the light, if you can spare
it, and I 'U find the way."
In the quickness of his expression of this desire, and in
taking the candle from the newsman, he touched him on the
breast. Withdrawing his hand hastily, almost as though he
had wounded him by accident (for he did not know in what
part of himself his new power resided, or how it was com-
mujiicated, or how the manner of its reception varied in
difi'erent persons), he turned and ascended the stair.
But when he reached the top, he stopped and looked down
The wife was standing in the same place, twisting her ring
round and round upon her finger. The husband, with his
head bent forward on his breast, was musing heavUy and
sullenly. The children, stUl clustering about the mother, gazed
364 THE HAUNTED MAN.
timidly after the visitor, and nestled together when they saw
him looking down.
" Come ! " said the father, roughly. " There 's enough oi
this. Get to bed here ! "
" The place is inconvenient and small enough," the mothei
added, " without you. Get to bed ! "
The whole brood, scared and sad, crept away ; little Johnny
and the baby lagging last. The mother, glancing con-
temptuously round the sordid room, and tossing from her the
fragments of their meal, stopped on the threshold of her
task of clearing the table, and sat down, pondering idly and
dejectedly. The father betook himself to the chimney-comer,
iXid impatiently raking the small fire together, bent over it aa
if he would monopolise it all. They did not interchange a
word.
The Chemist, paler than before, stole upward like a thief;
looking back upon the change below, and dreading equally to
go on or return.
" What have I done ! " he said, confusedly. " What am 1
going to do! "
" To be the benefactor of mankind," he thought he heard
a voice reply.
He looked round, but there was nothing there; and a
passage now shutting out the little parlor from his view, he
went on, directing his eyes before him at the way he went.
" It is only since last night," he muttered gloomily, "that
I have remained shut up, and yet all things are strange to me,
I am strange to myself. I am here, as in a dream. What
interest have I in this place, or in any place that I can bring
to my remembrance ? My mind is going blind ! "
There was a door before him. and he knocked at it. Being
invited, by a voice within, to enter, he complied.
" Is that my kind nurse?" said the voice. "But I need
not ask her. There is no one else to come here."
It spoke cheerfully, though in a languid tone, and attracted
liis attention to a young man lying on a couch, di-awn before
the chimney-piece, with the back towards the door. A meagre
scanty stove, pinched and hollowed like a sick man's cheeks,
and bricked into the centre of a hearth that it could scarcely
warm, contained the fire, to which his face was turned.
Being so near the windy house-top, it wasted quickly, and
with a busy sound, and the burning ashes di'opped down fast.
THE HAUNTED MAN. ^i
■'They ohmk -^hen they shoot out here," said the student,
smiling, " so, according to the gossips, they are not coffins,
but purses. I shall be well and rich yet, some day, if it
please God, and shall live perhaps to love a daughter ]Milly,
in remembrance of the kindest nature and the gentlest heart
in the world."
He put up his hand as if expecting her to take it, but,
being weakened, he lay stiU, with his face resting on his other
hand, and did not turn round.
The Chemist glanced about the room ; — at the student's
books and papers, piled upon a table in a corner, where they,
and his extinguished reading-lamp, now prohibited and put
away, told of the attentive hours that had gone before this
illness, and perhaps caused it ; — at such signs of his old health
and freedom, as the out-of-door attire that hung idle on the
wall ; — at those remembrances of other and less solitary scenes,
the little miniatures upon the chimney-piece, and the drawing
of home ; — at that token of his emulation, perhaps, in some
sort, of his personal attachment too, the framed engraving of
himself, the looker-on. The time had been, only yesterday,
when not one of these objects, in its remotest association of
interest with the living figure before him, would have been
lost on Redlaw. Now, they were but objects ; or, if any
gleam of such connexion shot upon him, it perplexed, and not
enlightened him, as he stood looking round with a.^dull
wonder.
The student, recalling the thin hand which had remained
so long untouched, raised himself on the couch, and turned' his
head.
" Mr. Redlaw ! " he exclaimed, and started up.
Redlaw put out his arm.
"Don't come near to me. I will sit here. Remain you,
where you are ! "
He sat do^vTi on a chair near the door, and having glanced
at the young man standing leaning with his hand upon the
couch, spoke with his eyes averted towards the ground.
" I heard, by an accident, by what accident is no matter,
that one of my class M'as iU and solitary. I received no other
description of him, than that he lived in this street. Begin-
ning my inquiries at the first house in it, I have found him."
*• I have been ill, sir," returned the student, not merely
with a modest hesitation, but with a kind of awe of him.
366 THE EAUNTED MAN.
"but am greatly better. An attack of fever — of the brain, I
believe — has weakened me, but I am much better. I cannot
say I have been solitary in my illness, br I should forget
the ministering hand that has been near me."
" You are speaking of the keeper's wife," said Redlaw.
" Yes." The student bent his head, as if he rendered her
some silent homage.
The Chemist, in whom there was a cold, monotonous apathy,
(vhich rendered him more like a marble image on the tomb of
the man who had started from his dinner yesterday at the
tirst mention of this student's case, than the breathing man
himself, glanced again at the student leaning with his hand
upon the couch, and looked upon the ground, and in the air,
as if for light for his blinded mind.
"I remembered your name," he said, "when it was
mentioned to me down stairs, just now ; and I recollect your
face. We have held but very little personal communication
together?"
" Very little."
" You have retired and withdrawn from me, more than any
of the rest, I think ? "
The student signified assent.
"And why?" said the Chemist; not with the least
expression of interest, but with a moody, wayward kind of
curiosity. " Why ? How comes it that you have sought to
keep especially from me, the knowledge of your remaining
here, at this season, when aU the rest have dispersed, and of
your being ill ? I want to know why this is ? "
The young man, who had heard him with increasing agita-
tion, raised his downcast eyes to his face, and clasping his
hands together, cried with sudden earnestness, and with
trembling lips :
" Mr. Hedlaw ! You have discovered me. You know my
secret ! "
"Secret ? " said the Chemist, harshly. " I know ? "
" Yes ! Your manner, so different from the interest and
sympathy which endear you to so many hearts, your tJtered
voice, the constraint there is in everything you say, and in your
looks," replied the student, "warn me that you know me.
That you woiJd conceal it, even now, is but a proof to me (God
knows I need none !) of your natural kindness, and of the baj
there is between us."
TEE HAUNTED MAN. 367
A vacant and contemptuous laugh, -was all his answer.
" But, Mr. Redlaw," said the student, " as a just man, and
a good man, think how innocent I am, except in name and
descent, of participation in any wrong inflicted on you, or in
any sorrow you have home."
" Sorrow ! " said Redlaw, laughing. " Wrong ! What
are those to me ? "
*' For Heaven's sake," entreated the shrinking student, " do
not let the mere interchange of a few words with me change
you like this, sir ! Let me pass again from your knowledge
and notice. Let me occupy my old reserved and distant place
among those whom you instruct. Know me only by the name
I have assumed, and not by that of Longford — "
** Longford ! " exclaimed the other.
He clasped his head with both his hands, and for a moment
turned upon the young man his own intelligent and thoughtful
face. But the light passed from it, like the sunbeam of an
instant, and it clouded as before.
" The name my mother bears, sir," faltered the young man,
" the name she took, when she might, perhaps, have taken one
more honoured. Mr. Redlaw," hesitating, " I believe I know
that history. WTiere my information halts, my guesses at
what is wanting may supply something not remote from the
truth. I am the child of a marriage that has not proved
itself a well assorted or a happy one. From infancy, I have
heard you spoken of with honor and respect — with something
that was almost reverence. I have heard of such devotion, of
such fortitude and tenderness, of such rising up against the
obstacles which press men down, that my fancy, since I learnt
my little lesson from my mother, has shed a lustre on your
name. At last, a poor student myself, from whom could I
learn but you? "
Redlaw, unmoved, unchanged, and looking at him with a
staring frown, answered by no word or sign.
" I cannot say," pursued the other, " I should try in vain
to say, how much it has impressed me, and affected me, to find
the gracious traces of the past, in that certain power of winning
gratitude and confidence which is associated among us students
(among the humblest of us, most) with Mr. Redlaw's generous
name. Our ages and positions are so different, sir, and I am
so accustomed to regard you from a distance, that I wonder
at my own presumption when I touch, however lightly, on
368 THE HAUNTED MAN.
that theme. But to one who — I may say, who felt no common
interest in my mother once — it may be something to hear,
now that is all past, with what indescribable feelings of
affection I have, in my obscurity, regarded him ; with what
pain and reluctance I have kept aloof from his encouragement,
when a word of it would have made me rich ; yet how I have
felt it fit that I should hold my course, content to know him,
and to be unknown. Mr. Redlaw," said the student, faintly,
" what I would have said, I have said ill, for my strength is
strange to me as jet ; but for anjiihing unworthy in this fraud
of mine, forgive me, and for all the rest forget me ! "
The staring frown remained on Redlaw' s face, and yielded
to no other expression until the student, with these words,
advanced towards him, as if to touch his hand, when he drew
back and cried to him :
" Don't come nearer to me ! "
The young man stopped, shocked by the eagerness of his
recoil, and by the sternness of his repulsion ; and he passed his
hand, thoughtfidly, across his forehead.
"The past is past," said the Chemist. "It dies like the
brutes. Who talks to me of its traces in my life ? He raves
or lies ! "What have I to do with your distempered dreams ?
If you want money, here it is. I came to offer it ; and that is
all I came for. There can be nothing else that brings me
here," he muttered, holding his head again, with both his
hands. " There can be nothing else, and yet "
He had tossed his purse upon the table. As he fell into
this dim cogitation with himself, the student took it up, and
held it out to him.
"Take it back, sir," he said proudly, though not angrily.
* I wish you could take from me, with it, the remembrance of
your words and offer."
" You do ? " he retorted, with a wild light in his eyes. " You
do?"
" I do ! "
The Chemist went close to him, for the first time, and took the
purse, and turned him by the arm, and looked him in the face.
" There is sorrow and trouble in sickness, is there not? " he
demanded, with a laugh.
The wondering student answered, " Yes."
" In its unrest, in its anxiety, in its suspense, in all its train
of physical and mental miseries ? " said the Chemist, with a
THE HAUNTED MAN. SCO
wiLl uueartkly exiJliilioii. " All best forp^otten, arc tb.07
not ? "
The student did not answer, but again passed liis hand,
confusedly, across his forehead. Redlaw still held him by
the sleeve, when MiUy's voice was heard outside.
"I can see very well now," she said, "thank j'ou, Dolf.
Don't cry, dear. Father and mother will be comfortable
again, to-morrow, and home will be comfortable too. A
gentleman with him, is there ! "
Redlaw released his hold, as he listened.
"I have feared, from the first moment," he murmured to
himself, " to meet her. There is a steady quality of goodness
in her, that I dread to influence. I may be the murderer of
what is tenderest and best within her bosom."
She was knocking at the door.
" Shall I dismiss it as an idle foreboding, or still avoid
her?" he muttered, looking uneasily around.
She was knocking at the door again.
" Of all the visitors who could come here," he said, in a
hoarse alarmed voice, tuxning to his companion, " this is the
one I should desire most to avoid. Hide me ! "
The student opened a frail door in the wall, communicating,
where the garret-roof began to slope towards the 3oor, with
a small inner room. Kedlaw passed in hastily, and shut it
after him.
The student then resumed his place upon the couch, and
called to her to enter.
" Dear Mr. Edmund," said MiUy, looking round, " they told
me there was a gentleman here."
" There is no one here but I."
" There has been some one ? "
" Yes, yes, tliere has been some one."
She put her little basket on the table, and wont up to tlio
back of the couch, as if to take the extended hand — but it Avas
not there. A little surprised, in her quiet way, she leaned
over to look at his face, and gently touched him on the brow.
"Are you quite as well to-night? Your head is not so
cool as in the afternoon "
" Tut 1 " 6uid the student, petulantly, " very little
ails me."
A little more surprise, but no reproach, was expressed iu
her face, as she withdrew to the other side of the tabla
SB
370 THE HAUNTED MAN.
and took a small packet of needlework from iier laskefc.
But sue laid it down again, on second thoughts, and going
noiselessly about the room, set everything exactly in its place,
and in the neatest order ; even to the cushions on the couch,
which she touched with so light a hand, that he hardly
seemed to know it, as he lay looking at the fire. When all
this was done, and she had swept the hearth, she sat down,
in her modest little bonnet, to her work, and was quietly busy
on it directly.
" It 's the new muslin curtain for the window, Mr.
Edmund," said Milly, stitching away as she talked. " It will
look very clean and nice, though it costs very little, and will
save your eyes, too, from the light. My William says the
room should not be too light just now, when you ai'e recover-
ing so well, or the glare might make you giddy."
He said nothing ; but there was something so fretful and
impatient in his change of position, that her quick fingers
stopped, and she looked at him anxiously.
" The pillows are not comfortable," she said, laying down
her work and rising. " I will soon put them right."
"They are very well," he answered. " Leave them alone,
pray. You make so much of everything."
He raised his head to say this, and looked at her so
thanklessly, that, after he had thrown himself down again,
she stood timidly pausing. However, she resumed her seat,
and her needle, without having directed even a murmuring
look towards him, and was soon as busy as before.
"I have been thinking, Mr. Edmund, that you have been
often thinking of late, when I have been sitting by, how
true the saying is, that adversity is a good teacher. Health
will be more precious to you, after this illness, than it has
ever been. And years hence, when this time of year comes
round, and you remember the days when you lay here sick,
alone, that the knowledge of your iUness might not afflict
those who are dearest to you, your home will be doubly
dear and doubly blest. Now, isn't that a good, truo
thing?"
She was too intent upon her work, and too earnest in
what she said, and too composed and quiet altogether, to be
on the watch for any look he might direct towards her in
reply ; so the shaft of his ungrateful glor.ce fell harmless, and
did not wound her.
THE HAUNTED MAN. 371
" All ! " said Milly, with her pretty head inclining thought-
fully on one side, as she looked down, following her busy
fingers with her eyes. " Even on me — and I am very
different from you, Mr. Edmund, for I have no learning,
and don't know how to think properly — this view of sunh
things has made a great impression, since you have been
lying iU. "WTien I have seen you so touched by the kind-
ness and attention of the poor people down stairs, I have
felt that you thought even that experience some repayment
for the loss of health, and I have read in your face, as plain
as if it was a book, that but for some trouble and sorrow
we should never know half the good there is about us."
His getting up from the couch, interrupted her, or she was
going on to say more.
" We needn't magnify the merit, Mrs. William," he rejoined
slightingly. " The people down stairs will be paid in good
time I dare say, for any little extra service they may have
I'endered me ; and perhaps they anticipate no less. I am
much obliged to you, too."
Her fingers stopped, and she looked at him.
" I can't be made to feel the more obliged by your
exaggerating the case," he said " I am sensible that you have
been interested in me, and I say I am much obliged to you.
What more would yoii have ? "
Her work fell on her lap, as she still looked at him
walking to and fro with an intolerant air, and stopping now
and then.
" I say again, I am much obliged to you. ^Vhy weaken
my sense of what is your due in obligation, by preferring
enormous claims upon me ? Trouble, sorrow, affliction,
adversity ! One might suppose I had been dying a score of
deaths here I "
" Do you believe, Mr. Edmund," she asked, rising and
going nearer to him, " that I spoke of the poor people of the
house, with any reference to myself? To me?" laj'ing her
hand upon her bosom with a simple and innocent smile of
astonishment.
"Oh! I think nothing about it, my good creature," he
returned. " I have had an indisposition, which yoiix solici-
tude— observe ! I say solicitude — makes a great deal more o^
than it merits ; and it 'a over, and we can't perpetuate it."
He coldly took a book, and cat down at the table.
372 THE IJAUNTED MAN.
She watched him for a little while, until her smile was
quite gone, and then, returning to where her basket was
said gently :
" Mr. Edmund, would you rather be alone ? "
"There is no reason why I should detain you here," ho
replied.
" Except — " said Milly, hesitating, and showing her
work.
" Oh ! the curtain," he answered, with a supercilious laugh.
" That 's not worth staying for."
She made up the little packet again, and put it in her
basket. Then, standing before him with such an air of
patient entreaty that he could not choose but look at her,
she said :
" If you should want me, I will come back willingly.
When you did want me, I was quite happy to come j there
was no merit in it. I think you must be afraid, that, now
you are getting weU, I may be troublesome to you ; but I
should not have been, indeed. I should have come no
longer than your weakness and confinement lasted. You owe
me nothing ; but it is right that you should deal as justly
by me as if I was a lady — even the very lady that you love;
and if you suspect me of meanly making much of the
little I have tried to do to comfort your sick room, you do
yourself more wrong than ever you can do me. That is
why I am sorry. That is why I am very sorry."
If she had been as passionate as she was quiet, as indig-
nant as she was calm, as angry in her look as she was
gentle, as loud of tone as she was low and clear, she might
have left no sense of her departure in the room, compared
with that which fell upon the lonely student when she went
away.
He was gazing drearily upon the place where she had
been, when Redlaw came out of his concealment, and came to
the door.
" When sickness lays its hand on you again," he said,
looking fiercely back at him, " — may it be soon ! — Die here !
Rot here I "
" "What have you done ? " returned the other, catching
ut his cloak. " What change have you wrought in me ?
What curse have you brought upon me ? Give me back
myself ! "
THE HAUNTED MAN. 373
•'Give me back my selV." exclaimed Redlaw like a mad-
man. "I am infected! T am infectious! I am charged
with poison for my own mind, and the minds of all mankind.
Where I felt interest, compassion, sympathy, I am turning
into stone. Selfishness and ingratitude spring up in my
blighting footsteps. I am only so much less base than the
wretches whom I make so, that in the moment of their trans-
formation I can hate them."
As he spoke — the yoxmg man still holding to his cloak —
lie cast him off, and struck him : then, wildly hurried out into
the night air where the wind was blowing, the snow falling,
the cloud-drift sweeping on, the moon dimly shining ; and
where, blowing in the wind, falling with the snow, drifting
with the clouds, shining in the moonlight, and heavily loom-
ing in the darkness, were the Phantom's words, " The gift
that I have given, you shall give again, go where you will ! "
Whither he went, he neither knew nor cared, so that he
avoided company. The change he felt within him made the
busy streets a desert, and himself a desert, and the multitude
around him, in their manifold endurances and ways of life, a
mighty waste of sand, which the winds tossed into imintelligi-
ble heaps and made a ruinous confusion of. Those traces
in his breast which the Phantom had told him would " die
out soon," were not, as yet, so far upon their way to death,
but that he understood enough of what he was, and what he
made of others, to desire to be alone.
This put it in his mind — he suddenly bethought him-
self, as he was going along, of the boy who had rushed into
his room. And then he recollected, that of those with
whom he had communicated since the Phantom's disappear-
ance, that boy alone had shown no sign of being changed.
Monstrous and odious as the wild thing was to him, he
determined to seek it out, and prove if this were really so ;
and also to seek it with another intention, which came into his
thoughts at the same time.
So, resolving ^^^th some difficulty where he was, he directed
his steps back to the old college, and to that part of it whore
the general porch was, and where, alone, the pavement was
worn by the tread of the students' feet.
The keeper's house stood just within the iron gates, forming
a part of the chief quadrangle. There was a little cloister
outside, and from that sheltered place he knew he could look
374 THE HAUNTED MAN.
in at the window of their ordinary room, and see who was
within. The iron gates were shut, but his hand was familiar
with the fastening, and drawing it back by thrusting in his
wrist between the bars, he passed through softly, shut it again
and crept up to the window, crumbling the thin crust of snow
with his feet.
The fire, to which he had directed the boy last night,
shining brightly through the glass, made an illuminated
place upon the ground. Instinctively avoiding this, and
going round it, he looked in at the window. At first, he thought
that there was no one there, and that the blaze was redden-
ing only the old beams in the ceiling and the dark walls ; but
peering in more narrowly, he saw the object of his search
coiled asleep before it on the floor. He passed quickly to the
door, opened it, and went in.
The creature lay in such a fiery heat, that, as the
Chemist stooped to rouse him, it scorched his head. So
soon as he was touched, the boy, not half awake, clutched his
rags together with the instinct of flight upon him, half rolled
and half-ran into a distant corner of the room, where, heaped
upon the ground, he struck his foot out to defend himself.
" Get up ! " said the Chemist. " You have not forgotten
me?"
" You let me alone ! " returned the boy. " This is the
woman's house — not yours."
The Chemist's steady eye controlled him somewhat, or in-
spired him with enough submission to be raised upon his feet,
and looked at.
" Who washed them, and put those bandages where they
were bruised and cracked ? " asked the Chemist, pointing to
their altered state.
" The woman did."
" And is it she who has made you cleaner in the face,
too?"
" Yes, the woman."
Redlaw asked these questions to attract his eyes towards
himself, and with the same intent now held him by the chin,
and threw his wild hair back, though he loathed to touch
him. The boy watched his eyes keenly, as if he thought
it needful to his own defence, not knowing what he might
do next ; and Redlaw could see well, that no change cauLC
over him.
THE HAUNTED MAN. 3V£
*' Where are they ? " he inquired.
" The woman's out."
" I know she is. Where is the old man with the white hair,
and his son?"
" The woman's husband, d 'ye mean ? " inquired the boy.
" Aye. Where are those two ? "
" Out. Something's the matter, somewhere. They were
fetched out in a hurry, and told me to stop here."
" Come with me," said the Chemist, " and I '11 give you
money."
" Come where ? and how much will you give ? "
" I 'U give you more shillings than you ever saw, and bring
you back soon. Do you know your way to where you came
from?"
" You let me go," returned the boy, suddenly twisting out
of his grasp. " I 'm not a going to take you there. Let me
be, or I 'U heave some fire at you ! "
He was down before it, and ready, with his savage little
hand, to pluck the burning coals out.
What the Chemist had felt, in observing the effect of his
charmed influence stealing over those with whom he came in
contact, was not nearly equal to the cold vague terror with
which he saw this baby-monster put it at defiance. It chilled
his blood to look on tlie immoveable impenetrable thing, in
the likeness of a child, with its sharp malignant face turned
up to his, and its almost infant hand, ready at the bars.
" Listen, boy ! " he said. "You shall take me where you
please, so that you take me where the people are very miser-
able or very wicked. I want to do them good, and not to
harm them. You shall have money, as I have told you,
and I wiU bring you back. Get up ! Come quickly ! "
He made a hasty step towards the door, afraid of her
returning.
" Will you let me walk by myself, and never hold me,
nor yet touch me ? " said the boy, slowly withdrawing the
hand with which he threatened, and beginning to get up.
"I will!"
" And let me go before, behind, or anyways I like ? "
"I will!"
"Give me some money first then, and I '11 go "
The Chemist laid a few shillings, one by one, in Ms
extended hand To count them was beyond the boy's knoW'
37S THE HAUNTED MAN.
ledge, but he said " one," every time, and avariciously looked
at each as it was given, and at tlie donor. He had no-
where to put them, out of his hand, but in his mouth ; and lie
put them there.
Redlaw then wrote with his pencil on a leaf of his pocket-
book, that the boy was with him ; and laying it on the table,
signed to him to follow. Keeping his rags together, as usual,
tlie boy complied, and went out with his bare head and liia
naked feet into the winter night.
Preferring not to depart by the iron gate by which he had
entered, where they were in danger of meeting her whom he
so anxiously avoided, the Chemist led the way, through some
of those passages among which the boy had lost himself, and
by that portion of the building Avhere he lived, to a small
door of which he had the key. When they got into the street,
he stopped to ask his guide — who instantly retreated frojn him
— if he knew where they were.
The savage thing looked here and there, and at length,
nodding his head, pointed in the direction he designed to
take. Redlaw going on at once, he followed, somewhat less
suspiciously ; shifting his money from his mouth into his
hand, and back again into his mouth, and stealthily rubbing
it bright upon his shreds of dress, as he went along.
Three times, in their progress, they were side by side.
Three times they stopped, being side by side. Three times
the Chemist glanced down at his face, and shuddered as it
forced upon him one reflection.
The first occasion was when they were crossing an old
churchyard, and Redlaw stopped among the graves, utterly at
a loss how to connect them with any tender, softening, or
ponsolatory thought.
The second was, ^hen the breaking forth of the moon
induced him to look up at the Heavens, where he saw her
in her glory, surrounded by a host of stars he still knew by
the names and histories which human science has appended
to them ; but where he saw nothing else he had been wont to
see, felt nothing he had been wont to feel, in looking up
there, on a bright night.
The third was when he stopped to listen to a plaintive
strain of music, but could only hear a tune, made manifest to
him by the dry mechanism of the instruments and his own
ears, with no address to any mystery within him, without a
THE HAUNTED MAN. S7"
whisper in it of the past, or of the future, powerless upon
him as the sound of last year's running water, or the rusliiiig
of last year's wind.
At each of these three times, he saw with horror that in
epite of the vast intellectual distance between them, and their
being unlike each other in all physical respects, the expression
on the boy's face was the expression on his own.
They journeyed on for some time — now through such
crowded places, that he often looked over his shoulder, think-
ing he had lost his guide, but generally finding him within
his shadow on his other side ; now by ways so quiet, that he
could have counted his sliort, quick, naked footsteps coming
on behind — until they arrived at a ruinous collection of houses,
and the boy touched him and stopped.
" In there! " he said, pointing out one house where there
were scattered lights in the windows, and a dim lantern in
the doorway, with " Lodgings for Travellers " painted on it.
Redlaw looked about him ; from the houses, to the waste
piece of ground on which the houses stood, or rather did not
altogether tumble down, unfenced, undrained, unlighted, and
bordered by a sluggish ditch ; from that, to the sloping line
of arches, part of some neighbouring viaduct or bridge with
which it was surrounded, and which lessened gradually,
towards them, until the last but one was a mere kennel for a
dog, the last a plundered little heap of bricks ; from that, tu
the child, close to him, cowering and trembling with the cold,
and limping on one little foot, Mhile he coiled the other round
his leg to warm it, yet staring at all these things with that
frighful likenoss of expression so apparent in his face, that
Redlaw starred from him.
" In there ! " said the boy, pointing out the house again.
"I'Uwait."
" Will they let me in ? " asked Redlaw.
" Say you 're a doctor," he answered with a nod. " There 's
plenty ill here."
Looking back on his way to the house-door, Redlaw saw
nim trail himself upon the dust and crawl within the shelter
of the smallest arch, as if he were a rat. He had no pity for
the thing, but he was afraid of it ; and when it looked out of
its den at him, he hiu'ried to the house as a retreat.
" Sorrow, wrong, and trouble," said the Chemist, with d
painfid effort at some more distinct remembrance, " at least
378 THE HAUNTED MAN.
haunt tliis place, darkly. He can do no harm, who brings
forge tfulness of such things here ! '"
With these words, he pushed the yielding door, and
went in.
There was a woman sitting on the stairs, either asleep or
forlorn, whose head was bent down on her hands and knees.
As it was not easy to pass without treading on her, and as she
was perfectly regardless of his near approach, he stopped, and
touched her on the shoulder. Looking up, she showed him
quite a young face, but one whose bloom and promise were all
stt'ept away, as if the haggard winter should unnaturally kill
the spring.
With little or no show of concern on his account, she
moved nearer to the wall to leave him a wider passage.
" WTiat are you?" said Redlaw, pausing, with his hand
upon the broken stair-rail.
" What do you think I am ? " she answered, showing him
her face again.
He looked upon the ruined temple of God, so lately made,
so soon disfigured ; and something, which was not compassion
— for the springs in which a true compassion for such miseries
has its rise, were dried up in his breast — but which was
nearer to it, for the moment, than any feeling that had lately
struggled into the darkening, but not yet wholly darkened,
night of his mind — mingled a touch of softness with his next
words.
" I am come here to give relief, if I can," he said. " Are
you thinking of any wrong ? "
She frowned at him, and then laughed ; and then her
laugh prolonged itself into a shivering sigh, as she dropped
her head again, and hid her fingers in her hair.
" Are you thinking of a wrong ? " he asked, once more.
"I am tliinking of my life," she said, with a momentary
look at him.
He had a perception that she was one of many, and that
he saw the type of thousands when he saw her, drooping at
Ids feet.
" What are your parents ? " he demanded.
" I had a good home once. My father was a gardener, fcir
away, in the country."
"Is he dead?"
" He 's dead to me. Ail such things are dead to me. Yon
THE EAUNTED MAN. 379
a gentleman, and not know that ! " She raised her eyes
again, and laughed at him.
" Girl ! " said Redlaw sternly, " before this death, of all
such things, was brought about, was there no wrong done to
you ? In spite of all that you can do, does no remembrance
of wrong cleave to you ? Are there not times upon times
when it is misery to you ? "
So little of what was womanly was left in her appearance,
that now, when she burst into tears, he stood amazed. But
he was more amazed, and much disquieted, to note that in
her awakened recollection of this wrong, the first trace of her
old humanity and frozen tenderness appeared to show itself.
He drew a little off, and in doing so, observed that her
arms were black, her face cut, and her bosom bruised.
" What brutal hand has hurt you so ? " he asked.
" My OAvn. I did it myself ! " she answered quickly.
" It is impossible."
" I 'U swear I did ! He didn't touch me. I did it to
myself in a passion, and threw myself down here. He
wasn't near me. He never laid a hand upon me ! "
In the white determination of her face, confronting him
with this untruth, he saw enough of the last perversion and
distortion of good surviving in that miserable breast, to be
stricken with remorse that he had ever come near her.
" Sorrow, wrong, and trouble ! " he muttered, txxming his
fearful gaze away. " AU that connects her with the state
from which she has fallen, has those roots ! In the name of
God, let me go by ! "
Afraid to look at her again, afraid to touch her, afraid to
think of having sundered the last thread by which she held
upon the mercy of Heaven, he gathered his cloak about him,
and glided swiftly up the stairs.
Opposite to him, on the landing, was a door, which stood
partly open, and which, as he ascended, a man with a candle
in his hand, came forward from within to shut. But this man,
on seeing him, drew back, with much emotion in his manner,
and, as if by a sudden impulse, mentioned his name aloud.
In the surprise of such a recognition there, he stopped,
endeavouring to recollect the wan and startled face. He had
no time to consider it, for, to his yet greater amazement, old
Philip came out of the room, and took him by the hand.
"Mr. Redlaw," said the old man, " this is like you, this is
380 THE HAUNTED MAN.
like you, sir ! you Imve heard of it, and have come after us to
render any help you can. Ah, too late, too late ! "
Redlaw, with a bewildered look, submitted to be led into
the room. A man lay there, on a truckle-bed, and William
Swidger stood at the bedside.
" Too late !" murmured the old man, looking wistfully into
the Chemist's face ; and the tears stole down his cheeks.
" That 's what I say, father," interposed his son in a low
voice. " That 's where it is, exactly. To keep as quiet as
ever we can while he 's a dozing, is the only thing to do.
You 're right, father ! "
Redlaw paused at the bedside, and looked down on the
figure that was stretched upon the mattress. It was that of a
man, who should have been in the vigour of his life, but on
whom it was not likely that the sun would ever shine again.
The vices of his forty or fifty years' career had so brxinded
him, that, in comparison with their efi'ects upon his face, the
heav}^ hand of time upon the old man's face who watched him
had been merciful and beautifying.
" Who is this ? " asked the Chemist, looking round.
" My son George, Mr. Redlaw," said the old man, wringing
his hands. " My eldest son, George, who was more his
mother's pride than all the rest ! "
Redlaw's eyes wandered from the old man's grey head, as
he laid it down upon the bed, to the person who had recog-
nised him, and who had kept aloof, in the remotest corner of
the room. He seemed to be about his own age ; and although
he knew no such hopeless decay and broken man as he
appeared to be, there was something in the turn of his figure,
as he stood with his back towards him, and now went out at
the door, that made him pass his hand uneasily across his
brow.
"William," he said in a gloomy whisper, "who is that
man ? "
" Why you see, sir," retxirned Mr. William, " that 's what
I say, myself. Why should a man ever go and gamble, and
the like of that, and let himself down inch by inch till he
can't let himself down any lower ! "
" Has he done so ? " asked Redlaw, glancing after him with
the same uneasy action as before.
" Just exactly that, sir," returned WiUiam Swidger, " as
I 'm told. He knows a little about medicine, sir, it seems ,
THE HAUNTED MAN. 381
and having been wayfaring towards London with my unhappy
brother that you see here," ^Ir. William passed his coat-sleeve
across his eyes, " and being lodging up stairs for the night —
what I say, you see, is that strange companions come together
here sometimes — he looked in to attend upon him, and came
for us at his request. What a mournful spectacle, sir ! But
that 's where it is. It 's enough to kill my father ! "
Redlaw looked up, at these words, and, recalling where he
was and with whom, and the spell he carried with him —
which his surprise had obscured — retired a little, hurriedly,
debating with himself whether to shun the house that moment,
or remain.
Yielding to a certain sullen doggedness, which it seemed
to be part of his condition to struggle with, he argued for
remaining.
"Was it only yesterday," he said, "when I observed the
memory of this old man to be a tissue of sorrow and trouble,
and shall I be afraid, to-night, to shake it ? Are such
remembrances as I can drive away, so precious to this dying
man that I need fear for him ? No, I '11 stay here."
But he stayed, in fear and trembling none the less for these
words ; and, shrouded in his black cloak with his face turned
from them, stood away from the bedside, listening to what
they said, as if he felt himself a demon in the place.
*' Father ! " murmured the sick man, rallying a little from
his stupor.
" My boy ! My son George ! " said old Philip.
" You spoke, just now, of my bning mother's favourite, long
ago. It 's a dreadful thing to think now, of long ago ! "
" Xo, no, no;" returned the old man. "Think of it.
Don't say it 's dreadful. It 's not dreadful to me, my son."
" It cuts you to the heart, father." For the old man's tears
were falling on him.
" Yes, yes," said Philip, "so it does; but it does me good.
It 's a heavy sorrow to think of tliat time, but it does me
good, George. Oh, tliink of it too, tliink of it too, and your
heart will be softened more and more ! Wlif;re \s my son
WiUiara ? WiUiam, my boy, your mother loved him dearly
to the last, and witlx her latest breath said, ' Tell liim I for-
gave him, blessed him, and prayed for him.' Those were
her words to me. I have never forgotten them, and I 'm
eighty -seven! "
382 THE HAUNTED MAX.
" Father ! " said the man upon the bed, " I am dying, I
know. I am so far gone, that I can hardly speak, even cl
what my mind most runs on. Is there any hope for mo
beyond this bed ? "
" There is hope," returned the old man, " for all who arc
softened and penitent. There is hope for all such. Oh ! " he
exclaimed, clasping his hands and looking up, " I was thank-
ful, only yesterday, that I could remember this unhappy son
when he was an innocent child. But what a comfort is it, now,
to think that even God himself has that remembrance of him ! "
Redlaw spread his hands upon his face, and shrunk like a
murderer.
" Ah ! " feebly moaned the man upon the bed. " The waste
since then, the waste of life, since then ! "
" But he was a child once," said the old man. " He played
with children. Before he lay down on his bed at night, and
fell into his guiltless rest, he said his prayers at his poor
mother's knee. I have seen him do it, many a time ; and
aeen her lay his head upon her breast, and kiss him. Sorrow-
ful as it was to her, and to me, to think of this, when he
went so wrong, and when our hopes and plans for him were
all broken, this gave him still a hold upon us, that nothing
else could have given. Oh, Father, so much better than the
fathers upon earth ! Oh, Father, so much more afflicted by
the errors of thy children ! take this wanderer back ! Not as
he is, but as he was then, let him cry to thee, as he has so
often seemed to cry to us ! "
As the old man lifted up his trembling hands, the son, for
whom he made the supplication, laid his sinking head against
him for support and comfort, as if he were indeed the child
of whom he spoke.
When did man ever tremble, as Redlaw trembled, in the
silence that ensued ! He knew it must come upon them, knew
that it was coming fast.
" My time is very short, my breath is shorter," said the sick
man, supporting himself on one arm, and with the othei
groping in the air, " and I remember there is something on
my mind concerning the man who was here just now
Father and William — wait ! — is there really anything in
black, out there ? "
" Yes, yes. it is real," said lils aged father,
"Is it a m-m i "
THE HAUNTED MAN. 383
*' What I say myself, Geoi-ge," interposed his brother,
beuding kindly over him. " It's Mr. Redlaw."
" I thought I had dreamed of him. Ask him to come here."
The Chemist, whiter than the dying man, appeared before
him. Obedient to the motion of his hand, he sat upon the
bod.
" It has been so ripped up to-night, sir," said the sick man,
laying his hand upon his heart, with a look in which the
mute, imploring agony of his condition was concentrated, " by
the sight of my poor old father, and the thought of all the
trouble I have been the cause of, and all the wrong and sorrow
lying at my door, that "
Was it the extremity to which he had come, or was it the
dawning of another change, that made him stop ?
" — that what I cmi do right, with my mind running on so
much, so fast, I '11 try to do. There was another man here.
Did you see him ? "
Redlaw could not reply by any word ; for when he saw that
fatal sign he knew so well now, of the wandering hand upon
the forehead, his voice died at his lips. But he made some
indication of assent.
" He is penniless, hungry, and destitute. He is completely
beaten down, and has no resource at all. Look after him I
Lose no time ! I know he has it in his mind to kill himself."
It was working. It was on his face. His face was
changing, hardening, deepening in all its shades, and losing
all its sorrow.
" Don't you remember ! Don't you know him ?" he pursued
He shut liis face out for a moment, with the hand that
again wandered over his forehead, and then it lowered on
Redlaw, reckless, ruffianly and callous.
" Why, d — n you ! " he said, scowling round, " what have
you been doing to me here ! I have lived bold, and I mean
to die bold. To the Devil with you ! "
And so lay down upon his bed, and put his arms up, over
his head and ears, as resolute from that time to keep out all
access, and to die in his indifference.
If Redlaw had been struck by lightning, it could not have
struck him from the bedside with a more tremendous shock.
But the old man, who had left the bed while his son was
speaking to him, now returning, avoided it quickly likewise,
and with abhoiTence,
384 • THE HAUNTED !\IAN.
" Wliere 's my boy William ? " said the old man, hurriedly.
" "William, come away from here. We '11 go home."
" Home, father ! " returned William. " Are you going to
leave your own son ? "
" Wliere 's my own son ? " replied the old man.
"Where? why, there!"
"That's no son of mine," said Philip, trembling with
resentment. " No such wretch as that, has any claim on me.
My children are pleasant to look at, and they wait upon me,
and get my meat and drink ready, and are useful to mo.
I 've a right to it ! I 'm eighty-seven ! "
"You're old enough to be no older," muttered William,
looking at him grudgingly, with his hands in his pockets.
" I don't know what good you are, myself. AVe could have a
deal more pleasure without you."
"My son, Mr. Redlaw ! " said the old man. "My son,
too ! The boy talking to me of my son ! Why, what has ho
ever done to give me any pleasure, I should like to know? "
" I don't know what you have ever done to give me any
pleasure," said William, sulkily,
" Let me think," said the old man. " For how many
Christmas times running, have I sat in my warm place, and
never had to come out in the cold night air ; and have made
good cheer, without being disturbed by any such uncomfort-
able, wretched sight as him there ? Is it twenty, William ? "
" Nigher forty, it seems," he muttered. " Why, when I
look at mj' father, sir, and come to think of it," addressing
Redlaw, with an impatience and irritation that were quite
new, " I 'm whipped if I can see anything in him, but a
calendar of ever so many years of eating, and drinking, and
making himself comfortable, over and over again."
" I — I 'm eighty-seven," said the old man, rambling on,
childishly, and weakly, " and I don't know as I ever was
much put out by anything. I 'm not a going to begin now,
because of what he calls my son. He 's not my son. I 've
had a power of pleasant times. I recollect once — no I don't
— no, it's broken off. It was something about a game of
cricket and a friend of mine, but it 's somehow broken off. I
wonder who he was — I suppose I liked him ? And I wonder
what became of him — I suppose he died ? But I don't know.
And I don't care, neither ; I don't care a bit,"
In his drowsy chuckling, and the shaking of his head, he
THE HAUNTED MAN. 306
put his hands into his waistcoat pockets. In oiip of tfimn ho
found a hit of holly (left there, probably last nig-ht), whit^li he
now took out, and looked at.
" Berries, eh ? " said the old man. " Ah ! It 's a pity
they 're not good to eat. I recollect when I was a little
chap about as high as that, and out' a walking with — let
me see — who was I out a walking with ? — no. I don't re-
member how that was. I don't remember as I ever walked
with any one particular, or cared for any one, or any one
■ for me. Berries, eh ? There 's good cheer -when there 's
berries. Well; I ought to have my share of it, and to be
waited on, and kept warm and comfortable ; for I 'm eighty-
seven, and a poor old man. I 'm eigh-ty-seven. Eigh-ty-
seven ! "
The drivelling, pitiable manner in which, as he repeated
this, he nibbled at the leaves, and spat the morsels out ; the
cold, uninterested eye with which his youngest son (so
changed) regarded him ; the determined apathy with which
his eldest son lay hardened in his sin ; — impressed themselves
no more on Redlaw's observation ; for he broke his way from
the spot to which his feet seemed to have been fixed, and ran
out of the house.
His guide came crawling forth from his place of refuge,
and was ready for him before he reached the arches.
" Back to the woman's? " he inquired.
" Back, quickly ! " answered Redlaw. " Stop nowhere on
the way! "
For a short distance the boy went on before ; but their
return was more like a ilight than a walk, and it was as much
as his }>are feet could do, to keep pace with the Chemist's
rapid strides. Shrinking from all who passed, shrouded in
his cloak, and keeping it drawn closely about him, as though
there were mortal contagion in any fluttering touch of his
garments, he made no pause until they reached the door by
which they had come out. He unlocked it with his key, went
in, accompanied by the boy, and hastened thi-ough the dark
passages to his own chamber.
The boy watched him as he made the door fast, and witli-
drew beliind tlie table when he looked round.
" Come ! " he said. "Don't you touch me! You've not
hrouglit me here to take my money away."
Kodlaw threw some more upon the ground. He flung his
380 THE HAUNTED MAS'.
body on it immediately, as if to hide it from him, lest tho
eight of it should tempt him to reclaim it; and not until he
saw him seated by his lamp, with his face hidden in his
hands, began furtively to pick it up. \Vhen he had done so,
lie crept near the fire, and sitting down in a great chair before
it, took from his breast some broken scraps of food, and fell
to munching, and to staring at the blaze, and now and. then
to glancing at his shillings, which he kept clenched up in a
bunch, in one hand.
"And this," said Redlaw, gazing on him with increasing
repugnance and fear, " is the only one companion I have left
on earth ! "
How long it was before he was aroused from his contempla-
tion of this creature whom he dreaded so — whether half an
hour, or half the night — he knew not. Biit the stillness of
the room was broken by the boy (whom he had seen listening)
starting up, and running towards the door.
" Here 's the woman coming ! " he exclaimed.
The Chemist stopped him on his way, at the moment when
she knocked.
" Let me go to her, -ndll you ? " said the boy.
" Not now," retiu'ned the Chemist. " Stay here. Nobody
must pass in or out of the room, now. Who 's that ? "
" It 's I, sir," cried Milly. " Pray, sir, let me in."
" No ! not for the world ! " he said.
" Mr. Redlaw, Mr. Redlaw, jDray, sir, let me in."
" What is the matter ? " he said, holding the boy.
" The miserable man you saw, is worse, and nothing I can
say wiU wake him from his terrible infatuation. William's
father has tm-ned childish in a moment. William himself is
changed. The shock has been too sudden for him ; I can-
not understand him : he is not like himself. Oh, Mr. Redlaw",
pray advise me, help me ! "
" No ! No ! No ! " he answered.
" Mr. Redlaw ! Dear sir ! George has been muttering in
his doze, about the man you saw there, wlio, he fears, will
kill himself."
" Better he should do it, than come near me ! "
" He says, in his wandering, that you know him ; that ho
was your friend once, long ago ; that he is the ruined fixther
of a student here — my mind misgives me, of the young
g-entleman who has been ill. What is to be done ? How i,i
THE HAUNT 150 MAN. 387
he to be followed ? How is he to be saved ? Mr, Redlaw,
pray, oh, pray advise me ! Help me ! "
All this time he held the boy, who was half-mad to pass
him, and let her in.
" Phantoms ! Punishers of impious thoughts ! " cried
Redlaw, gazing round in anguish, " Look upon me ! From
the darkness of my mind, let the glimmering of contrition
that I know is there, shine up, and show my misery ! In
the material world, as I have long taught, nothing can be
spared ; no step or atom in the wondrous structure could be
lost, without a blank being made in the great universe. I
know, now, that it is the same with good and evil, happiness
tmd sorrow, in the memories of men. Pity me ! Relieve me ! "
There was no response, but her " Help me, help me, let
me in ! " and the boy's struggling to get to her.
" Shadow of myself! Spirit of my darker hours ! " cried
Redlaw, in distraction, " Come back, and haunt me day and
night, but take this gift away ! Or, if it must still rest with
me, deprive me of the di-eadful power of giving it to others.
Undo what I have done. Leave me benighted, but restore
the day to those whom I have cursed. As I have spared
this woman from the first, and as I never wiU go forth again,
but will die here, with no hand to tend nae, save this
creature's who is proof against me, — hear me ! "
The only reply still was, the boy struggling to get to her,
while he held him back ; and the cry increasing in its energy,
" Help ! let me in. He was your friend once, how shall he
be followed, how shall he be saved ? They are all changed,
there is no one else to help me, pray, pray, let mc in ! "
888 THE UAUNTED MAN.
cnAPTEH in.
THE GIFT KEVEKSED.
Night was still heavy in the sky. On open plains, from
hill-tops and from the decks of solitary ships at sea, a distant
low-lying line, that promised by-and-by to change to light,
was visible in the dim horizon ; bvit its promise was remote
and doubtful, and the moon was striving with the night-clouds
busily.
The shadows upon Redlaw's mind succeeded thick and fast
to one another, and obscured its light as the night-clouds
hovered between the moon and earth, and kept the latter
veiled in darkness. Fitful and uncertain as the shadows
which the night-clouds cast, were their concealments from
him, and imperfect revelations to him ; and, like the night-
clouds still, if the clear light broke forth for a moment, it
was only that they might sweep over it, and make the dark-
ness deeper than before.
Without, there was a profound and solemn hush upon the
ancient pile of building, and its buttresses and angles made
dark shapes of mystery upon the ground, which now seemed
to retire into the smooth white snow and now seemed to
come out of it, as the moon's path was more or less beset.
Within, the Chemist's room was indistinct and murky, by the
light of the expiring lamp ; a ghostly silence had succeeded
to the knocking and the voice outside ; nothing was audible
but, now and then, a low sound among the whitened ashes
of the fire, as of its yielding up its last breath. Before it on
tlie ground the boy lay fast asleep. In his chair, the Chemist
sat, as he had sat there since the calling at his door had
ceased — like a man turned to stone.
At such a time, the Christmas music he had heard before,
began to play. He listened to it at first, as he had listened
in the churchyard ; but presently — it pla^dng still, and being
borne towards him on the night -air, in a low, sweet, melan-
THE HAUNTED MAN. 389
choly strain — he rose, and stood stretching his hands about
him, as if there were some friend approaching within his
reach, on whom his desolate touch might rest, yet do no
harm. As he did this, his face became less fixed and wonder-
ing ; a gentle trembling came upon him ; and at last his eyes
filled with tears, and he put his hands before them, and
bowed down his head.
His memory of sorrow, wrong, and trouble, had not come
back to him ; he loiew that it was not restored ; he had no
passing belief or hop_g that it was. But some dixmb stir within
him made him capable, again, of being moved by what was
hidden, afar off, in the music. If it were only that it told
him sorrowfully the value of what he had lost, he thanked
Heaven for it with a fervent gratitude.
As the last chord died upon his ear, he raised his head to
listen to its lingering vibration. Beyond the boy, so that his
sleeping figure lay at its feet, the Phantom stood, immove-
able and silent, with its eyes upon him.
Ghastly it was, as it had ever been, but not so cruel and
relentless in its aspect — or he thought or hoped so, as he
looked upon it, trembling. It was not alone, but in its
shadowy hand it held another hand.
And whose was that ? Was the form that stood beside it
indeed Milly's, or but her shade and picture ? The quiet
head was bent a little, as her manner was, and her eyes were
looking down, as if in pity, on the sleeping child. A
radiant light fell on her face, but did not touch the Phantom ;
for, though close beside her, it was dark and colourless as
ever.
" Spectre ! " said the Chemist, newly troubled as he looked,
" I have not been stubborn or presumptuous in respect of her.
Oh, do not bring her here. Spare me that ! "
"This is but a shadow," said the Phantom; "when the
morning shines, seek out the reality whose image I present
before you."
•• Is it my inexorable doom to do so ? " cried the Chemist.
" It is," replied the Phantom.
" To destroy her peace, her goodness; to make her what I
am myself, and what I have made of others ! "
" I have said ' seek her out,' " returned the Phantom. " I
have said no more."
" Oh^ teU me," exclaimed Redlaw, catching at the hopo
390 THE HAUNTED MAN.
which he fancied might lie hidden in the words. " Can I
undo what I have done ? "
"No," returned the Phantom.
"I do not ask for restoration to myself," said Redlaw.
" What I abandoned, I abandoned of my own wiU, and have
justly lost. But for those to whom I have transferred the fatal
gift ; who never sought it ; who unknowingly received a
curse of which they had no warning, and which they had
no power to shun ; can I do nothing ? "
" Nothing," said the Phantom. ^
" If I cannot, can any one ? "
The Phantom, standing like a statue, kept its gaze upon
him for a while ; then turned its head suddenly, and looked
upon the shadow at its side.
" Ah ! Can she?" cried Redlaw, still looking upon the shade.
The Phantom released the hand it had retained till now,
and softly raised its own with a gesture of dismissal. Upon
that, her shadow, still preserving the same attitude, began
to move or melt away.
" Stay," cried Redlaw, with an earnestness to which he
could not give enough expression. " For a moment ! As
an act of mercy ! I know that some change fell upon me,
when those sounds were in the air just now. Tell me have I
lost the power of harming lier ? May I go near her without
dread ? Oh, let her give me any sign of hope ! "
The Phantom looked upon the shade as he did — not at him
— and gave no answer.
" At least, say tliis — has she, henceforth, the conscious-
ness of any power to set right what I have done ? "
" She has not," the Phantom answered.
"Has she the power bestowed on her without the con-
sciousness? "
The Phantom answered : " Seek her out." And her shadow
slowly vanished.
They were face to face again, and looking on each other as
intently and awfully as at the time of the bestowal of the gift,
across the boy who still lay on the ground between them, at
the Phantom's feet.
" Terrible instructor," said the Chemist, sinking on his
knee before it, in an attitude of supplication, " by whom I was
renounced, but by whom I am revisited (in which, and in
whose milder aspect, I would fain believe I have a gleam of
THE HAUNTED MAN. S91
hope), I will obey without inquiry, praying that the cry I
have sent up in the anguish of my soul has been, or will be
heard, in behalf of those whom I have injui-ed beyond human
reparation. But there is one thing — "
"You speak to me of what is lying here," the Phantom
interposed, and pointed with its finger to the boy.
" I do," returned the Chemist. " You know what I would
ask. Why has this child alone been proof against my influence,
and why, why, have I detected in its thoughts a terrible com-
panionship with mine ? "
"This," said the Phantom, pointing to the boy, "is the
last, completest illustration of a human creature, utterly bereft
of such remembrances as you have yielded up. No softening
memory of sorrow, wrong, or trouble enters here, because
this wretched mortal from his birth has been abandoned to a
worse condition than the beasts, and has, within his know-
ledge, no one contrast, no humanising touch, to make a
grain of such a memory spring up in his hardened breast.
All within this desolate creature is barren wilderness. All
within the man bereft of what you have resigned, is the same
barren wilderness. Woe to such a man ! Woe, tenfold, to
the nation that shall count its monsters such as this, lying
here by hundreds and by thousands ! "
Redlaw shrunk, appalled, from what he heard.
" There is not," said the Phantom, "one of these — not one
— but sows a harvest that mankind must reap. From every
seed of evil in this boy, a field of ruin is grown that shall
be gathered in, and gai^nered up, and sown again in many
places in the world, until regions are overspread with
wickedness enough to raise the waters of another Deluge.
Open and unpunished murder in a city's streets would be less
guilty in its daily toleration, than one such spectacle as this."
It seemed to look down upon the boy in his sleep. Redlaw,
too, looked down upon him with a now emotion.
" There is not a father " said the Phantom, " by whose side
in his daily or his nightly walk, these creatures pass ; there is
not a mother among all the ranks of loving mothers in this
land; there is no one risen from the state of childhood, but shall
be responsible in his or her degree for this enormity. There
is not a country tliroughout tlie earth on which it would not
bring a curse. There is no religion upon earth that it would not
deny ; tliere is no people upon earth it would not put to shamo."
092 THE HAUNT ID MAN.
ITie Chemist clasped his hands, and looked, with trembling
fear and pity, from the sleeping boy to the Phantom, standing
above him with its finger pointing down.
" Behold, I say," pursued the Spectre, "the perfect type of
what it was your choice to be. Your influence is powerless
here, because from this child's bosom you can banish nothing.
His thoughts have been in ' terrible companionship ' with
yours, because you have gone down to his unnatural level.
He is the growth of man's indifference ; you are the growth
of man's presumption The beneficent design of Heaven is,
iu each case, overthrown, and from the two poles of the
immaterial world you come together."
The Chemist stooped upon the ground beside the boy, and
with the same kind of compassion for him that he now felt
for himself, covered him as he slept, and no longer shrunk
from him with abhorrence or indifference.
Soon, now, the distant line on the horizon brightened, the
darkness faded, the sun rose red and glorious, and the chimney
stacks and gables of the ancient building gleamed in the clear
air, which turned the smoke and vapour of the city into a
cloud of gold. The very sundial in his shady corner, where
the wind was used to spin with such un- windy constancy,
shook off the finer particles of snow that had accumulated on
his dull old face in the night, and looked out at tlie little
white wreaths eddying round and round him. Doubtless some
blind groping of the morning made its way down into the
forgotten ciypt so cold and earthy, where the Norman arches
were half buried in the ground, and stirred the didl sap in
the lazy vegetation hanging to the walls, and quickened the
slow principle of life within the little world of wonderful and
delicate creation which existed there, with some faint know-
ledge that the sun was up.
The Tetterbys were up, and doing. Mr. Tetterby took
down the shutters of the shop, and, strip by strip, revealed
the treasures of the window to the eyes, so proof against their
seductions, of Jerusalem Buildings. Adolphus had been out
.so long already, that he was halfway on to Morning Pepper.
Five small Tetterbys, whose ten round eyes were much inflamed
by soap and friction, were in the tortures of a cool wash in tho
back kitchen ; Mrs. Tetterby presiding. Johnny, who was
pu.slied and hustled through his toilet with great rapidity
when Moloch chanced to be iu an exacting- fi-ume of mind
THE HADNTID MAN. 393
(■which was always the case), staggered up and down with his
charge before the shop door, under greater difficulties than
usual ; the weight of Moloch being much increased by a com-
plication of defences against the cold, composed of knitted
worsted-work, and forming a complete suit of chain-armour,
with a head-piece and blue gaiters.
It was a peculiarity of this baby to be always cutting teeth.
Whether they never came, or whether they came and went
away again, is not in evidence ; but it had certainly cut
enough, on the showing of ]Mrs. Tetterby, to make a hand-
some dental provision for the sign of the Bull and Mouth.
All sorts of objects were impressed for the rubbing of its
gums, notwithstanding that it always carried, dangling at its
waist (which was immediately under its chin), a bone ring,
large enough to have represented the rosary of a young nun.
Knife-handles, umbrella-tops, the heads of walking-sticks
selected from the stock, the fingers of the family in general,
but especially of Johnny, nutmeg-graters, crusts, the handles
of doors, and the cool knobs on the tops of pokers, were among
the commonest instruments indiscriminately apphed for this
baby's reHef. The amount of electricity that must have been
rubbed out of it in a week, is not to be calculated. Still
Mrs. Tetterby always said " it was coming through, and then
the child would be herself ; " and still it never did come
througli, and the child continued to be somebody else.
The tempers of the little Tetterbys had sadly changed with
a few hours. Mr. and Mrs. Tetterby themselves were not
more altered than their oll'spring. Usually they were an
unselfish, good-natured, yielding little race, sharing short-
commons when it happened (which was pretty often) con-
tentedly and even generously, and taking a great deal of
enjoyment out of a very little meat. But they were fighting
now, not only for the soap and water, but even for the break-
fast which was yet in perspective. The hand of every little
Tetterby was against the other little Tetterbys ; and even
Johnny's hand — the patient, much-enduring, and devoted
Johnny — rose against tlie babj' ! Yes. Mrs. Tetterby, going
to the door by a mere accident, saw him viciously pick out a
weak place in the suit of aruiour, where a slap would tell, and
slap tliat blessed child.
Mrs. Tetterby had him into the parlor, by the collar, in that
Game flash of time, and repaid him the assault with usui-y thereto.
394 THE HAUNTED MAN.
" You Lrute, you murdering little boy," said Mrs. TetterLy.
" Had you the heart to do it ? "
" Why don't her teeth come through, then," retorted
Johnny, in a loud rebellious voice, " instead of bothering me?
How would you like it yourself? "
"Like it, sir!" said Mrs. Tetterby, relieving him of his
dishonoiu'ed load.
"Yes, like it," said Johnny. "How would you? Not at
all. If you was me, you 'd go for a soldier. I will, too.
There an't no babies in the army."
Mr. Tetterby, who had arrived upon the scene of action,
rubbed his chin thoughtfully, instead of correcting the rebel,
and seemed rather struck by this view of a military life.
"I wish I was in the army myself, if the child's in tho
right," said Mrs. Tetterby, looking at her husband, " for I
have no peace of my life here. I 'ra a slave — a Virginia
slave ; " some indistinct association with their weak descent
on the tobacco trade perhaps suggested this aggravated ex-
pression to Mrs. Tetterby. " I never have a holiday, or any
pleasure at all, from year's end to year's end ! Why, Lord
bless and save the child," said Mrs. Tetterby, shaking the
baby with an irritability hardly suited to so pious an aspiration,
" what 's the matter with her now ? "
Not being able to discover, and not rendering the subject
much clearer by shaking it, Mrs. Tetterby put the baby away
in a cradle, and, folding her arms, sat rocking it angrily with
her foot.
" How you stand there, 'Dolphus," said Mrs. Tetterby to
her husband. " Why don't you do something? "
"Because I don't care about doing anything," Mr. Tetterby
replied.
" I 'm sure I don't," said Mrs. Tetterby.
" I 'U take my oath I don't," said Mr. Tetterby.
A diversion arose here among Johnny and his five younger
brothers, who, in preparing the family breakfast table, had
fallen to skirmishing for the temporary possession of the loaf,
and were buifeting one another with great heartiness ; the
smallest boy of all, with precocious discretion, hovering outside
the knot of combatants, and harassing their legs. Into the
midst of this fray, Mr. and Sirs. Tetterby both precipitated
themselves with great ardour, as if such ground were the only
gfrouud on which they cfiuld now agree ; and liaving, with no
THE HAUNTED MAN. 896
visible remains of their late soft-lieartedness, laid about them
without any lenity, and done much execution, resumed their
former relative positions.
" You had better read your paper than do nothing at all/'
said Mrs. Tetterby.
"What 's there to read in a paper ? " returned Mr. Tetterby,
with excessive discontent.
" What ? " said Mrs. Tetterby. " Police."
"It's nothing to me," said Tetterby. "What do I cara
what people do, or are done to."
" Suicides," suggested Mrs. Tetterby.
" No business of mine," replied her husband.
"Births, deaths, and marriages, are those nothing to you?"
said Mrs. Tetterby,
" If the births were all over for good, and all to-day; and
the deaths were aU to begin to come off to-morrow ; I don't
see why it should interest me, till I thought it was a-coming
to my turn," grumbled Tetterby. "As to marriages, I 've
done it mj'self. I know quite enough about them."
To judge from the dissatisfied expression of her face and
manner, Mrs. Tetterby appeared to entertain the same opinions
as her husband; but she opposed him, nevertheless, for the
gi'atification of quarrelling with him.
" Oh, you're a consistent man," said Mrs. Tetterby, " an't
you ? You, with the screen of your own making there, made
of nothing else but bits of newspapers, which you sit and read
to the children by the half-hour together ! "
" Say used to, if jou. please," returned her husband. " You
won't find me doing so any more. I 'm wiser now."
" Bah ! wiser, indeed ! " said Mrs. Tetterby. " Are you
better?"
The question sounded some discordant note in Mr. Tetterby'a
breast. He ruminated dejectedly, and passed his hand across
and across his forehead.
" Better ! " murmured Mr. Tetterby " I don't know as
any of us are better, or happier either Better, is it ? "
He turned to the screen, and traced about it with his finger,
until he found a certain paragraph of which he was in quest.
"This used to be one of tlie family favourites, I recoLlact,"
said Tetterby, in a forlorn and stupid way, " and used to
draw tears from the children, and make 'em good, if there
was any little bickering or discontent among 'em, next to
306 TOE HAUNTED MAN.
the story of the robin redbreasts in the wood. ' Melancholy
case of destitution. Yesterday a small man, with a baby in
his arms, and surrounded by half-a-dozen ragged little ones,
of various ages between ten and two, the whole of whom were
evidently in a famishing condition, appeared before the worthy
magistrate, and made the following recital : ' — Ha ! I don't
understand it, I 'm sure," said Tetterby; "I don't see what
it has got to do with us."
" How old and shabby he looks," said Mrs. Tetterby,
watching him. " I never saw such a change in a man. Ah !
dear me, dear me, dear me, it was a sacrifice ! "
" What was a sacrifice ? " her husband sourly inquired.
Mrs. Tetterby shook her head ; and without replying in
words, raised a complete sea-storm about the baby, by her
violent agitation of the cradle.
" If you mean your marriage was a sacrifice, my. good
woman — " said her husband.
"I do mean it," said his wife.
" Why, then I mean to say," pursued Mr. Tetterby, as
sulkily and surlily as she, " that there are two sides to that
affair ; and that I was the sacrifice ; and that I wish the
sacrifice hadn't been accepted."
" I wish it hadn't, Tetterby, with all my heart and soul,
I do assure you," said his wife. " You can't wish it more
than I do, Tetterby."
" I don't know what I saw in her," muttered the news-
man, " I 'm sure ; — certainly, if I saw anj^thing, it 's not
there now. I was thinking so, last night, after supper, by
the fire. She 's fat, she 's ageing, she won't bear comparison
with most other women."
" He 's common-looking, he has no air with him, he 's
small, he 's beginning to stoop, and he 's getting bald,"
muttered Mrs. Tetterby.
" I must have been half out of my mind when I did it,"
muttered Mr. Tetterby.
'• My senses must have forsook me. That 's the only way
in which I can explain it to myself," said Mrs. Tetterby,
with elaboration.
In this mood they sat down to breakfast. The little
Tetterbys were not habituated to regard that meal in the light
of a sedentary occupation, but discussed it as a dance or trot ;
rather resembling a savage ceremony, in the occasional shrill
THE HAUNTED MAN. 397
whoops, and brandisliing-s of bread and butter, with, which
it was accompanied, as well as in the intricate filings off
into the street and back again, and the hoppings up and
down the doorsteps, which were incidental to the perform-
ance. In the present instance, the contentions between these
Tetterby children for the milk-and-water jug, common to all,
which stood upon the table, presented so lamentable an instance
of angry passions risen very high indeed, that it was an out-
rag'e on the memory of Dr. Watts. It was not. until Mr.
Tetterby had driven the whole herd out of the front door, that
a moment's peace was secured; and even that was broken by
the discovery that Johnny had surreptitiously come back, and
was at that instant choking' in the jug like a ventriloquist, in
his indecent and rapacious haste.
"These children will be the death of me at last!" said
Mrs. Tetterby, after banishing the culprit. " And the sooner
the better, I think."
"Poor people," said Mr. Tetterby, "ought not to have
children at all. They give us no pleasure."
He was at that moment taking up the cup which Mrs.
Tatterby had rudely pushed towards him, and Mrs. Tetterby
was lifting her own cup to her lips, when they both stopped,
as if they were transfixed.
" Here ! Mother ! Father ! " cried Johnny, running into
the room. " Here's Mrs. William coming down the street ! "
And if ever, since the world began, a young boy took a
baby from a cradle with the care of an old nurse, and hushed
and soothed it tenderly, and tottered away with it cheerfully,
Johnny was that boy, and Moloch was that baby, as they went
out together.
Mr. Tetterby put down his cup ; Mrs. Tetterby put down
her cup. Mr. Tetterby rubbed his forehead ; Mrs. Tetterby
rubbed hers. Mr. Tetterby's face began to smooth and
brighten; Mrs. Tetterby's began to smooth and brighten.
"Wliy, Lord forgive me," said Mr. Tetterby to himself,
"what evil tempers have I been giving way to ? What has
been the matter here ! "
" How could I ever treat him ill again, after all I said and felt
last night!" sobbed Mrs. Tetterby, with her apron to her eyes.
"Am I a brute," said Mr. Tetterby, or is there any good
in me at all ? Sophia ! My little woman ! "
" 'Dolphus dear," returned his wife.
308 THE HAUNTED MAN.
"I — I've been in a state of mind," said Mr, Tetter by.
" that I can't abear to think of, Sophy."
" Oh ! It 's nothing to what I 've been in, Dolf," cried
his wife in a great burst of grief.
"My Sophia," said Mr. Tetterby, "don't take on. I never
shall forgive myself. I must have nearly broke your heart
I know."
" No, DoLf, no. It was me ! Me ! " cried Mrs. Tetterby.
" My little woman," said her husband, " don't. You
make me reproach myself dreadful, when you show such a
noble spirit. Sojjhia, my dear, you don't know what I
thought. I showed it bad enough, no doubt; but what I
thought, my little woman ! " —
" Oh, dear Dolf, don't ! Don't ! " cried his wife.
" Sophia," said Mr. Tetterby, " I must reveal it. I
couldn't rest in my conscience unless I mentioned it. • My
Kttle woman"
" Mrs. William's very nearly here I " screamed Johnny at the
door.
" My little woman, I wondered how," gasped Mr. Tetterby,
supporting himself by his chair, " I wondered how I had
ever admired you — I forgot the precious children you have
brought about me, and thought you didn't look as slim as
I could wish. I — I never gave a recollection," said Mr.
Tetterby, with severe self-accusation, "to the cares you've
had as my wife, and along of me and mine, when you might
have had hardly any with another man, who got on better
and was luckier than me (anybody might have found such a
man easily, I am sure) ; and I quarrelled with you for having
aged a little in the rough years you 've lightened for me. Can
you believe it, my little woman ? I hardly can myself."
Mrs. Tetterby, in a whirlwind of laughing and crying,
caught his face within her hands, and held it there.
"Oh, DoLf I" she cried. "I am so happy that you
thought so ; I am so grateful that you tliought so ! For I
thought that you were common-looking, DoK; and so you are,
my dear, and may you be the commonest of all sights in my
ryes till you close them with your own good hands. I thought
that you were smaU ; and so you are, and I '11 make much of
you because you are, and more of you because I love my hus-
band. I thought that you began to stoop ; and so you do,
and you shall lean on me, and I 'U do all I can to keep you
MOLOCH AND IIIS VICTIMS.
THE HAUNTED AIAN. 399
up. I thought there was no air about you ; but there is and
it 's the air of home, and that 's the purest and the best there
is, and god bless home once more, and all belonging to it,
Dolf!"
" Hurrah ! Here's Mrs. "William ! " cried Johnny.
So she was, and all the children with her ; and as she came
in, they kissed her, and kissed one another, and kissed the
baby, and kissed their father and mother, and then ran back
and flocked and danced about her, trooping on with her in
triumph.
Mr. and Mrs. Tetterby were not a bit behind-hand in the
warmth of their reception. They were as much attracted to
her as the children were ; they ran towards her, kissed her
hands, pressed round her, could not receive her ardently or
enthusiastically enough. She came among them like the
spirit of all goodness, affection, gentle consideration, love, and
domesticity.
" What ! are you all so glad to see me, too, this bright
Christmas morning ? " said Milly, clapping her hands in a
pleasant wonder. " Oh dear, how delightful this is ! "
More shouting from the children, more kissing, more troop-
ing round her, more happiness, more love, more joy, more
honor, on all sides, than she could bear.
" Oh dear ! " said MiUy, " what delicious tears you make
me shed. How can I ever have deserved this ! What have I
done to be so loved ! "
" Who can help it! " cried Mr. Tetterby.
" Wlio can help it ! " cried Mrs. Tetterby.
" Who can help it ! " echoed the children, in a joyful
chorus. And they danced and trooped about her again, and
clung to her, and laid their rosy faces against her dress, and
kissed and fondled it, and coidd not fondle it, or her, enough.
"I never was so moved," said Milly, drying her eyes,
" as I have been this morning. I must tell you, as soon
as I can speak. — Mr. Redlaw came to me at sunrise, and
with a tenderness in his manner, more as if I had been
liis darling daughter than myself, implored me to go with
him to where William's brother George is lying ill. We
went together, and all the way along he was so kind, and so
subdued, and seemed to put such trust and hope in me,
that I could not help cr}'ing with pleasure. When we got
to the house we met a woman at the door (somebody had
400 THE HAUNTED MAN^.
bruised and liurc her, I am afraid) who caught me by the
hand, and blessed me as I passed."
" She was right," said Mr. Tetterby. INIrs. Tetterby said
she was right. All the children cried out she was right,
'*Ah, but there 's more than that," said Milly. " Wh.6n
^e got up-stairs, into the room, the sick man who had
lain for hours in a state from which no effort could rouse
him, rose up in his bed, and, biu'sting into tears, stretched
out his arms to me, and said, that he had led a mis-
spent life, but that he was truly repentant now, in his
sorrow for the past, which was all as plain to him as a great
prospect from which a dense black cloud had cleared away,
and that he entreated me to ask his poor old father for
his pardon and liis blessing, and to say a prayer beside
his bed. And Avhen I did so, Mr. Redlaw joined in it so
fervently, and then so thanked and thanked me, and thanked
Heaven, that my heart quite overflowed, and I coiild have
done nothing but sob and cry, if the sick man had not
begged me to sit down by him, — which made me quiet of
course. As I sat there, he held my hand in his until he
sunk in a doze ; and even then, when I -withdrew my hand
to leave him to come here (which ]\lr. Redlaw was very
earnest indeed in wishing me to do), his hand felt for
mine, so that some one else was obliged to take my place and
make believe to give him my hand back. Oh dear, oh
dear," said INIilly, sobbing. " How thankful and how happy
I should feel, and do feel, for all this ! "
While she was speaking, Redlaw had come in, and, after
pausing for a moment to observe the group of which she ■was
the centre, had silently ascended the stairs. Upon those stairs
he now appeared again ; remaining there, while the young
student passed him, and came running down.
"Kind nurse, gentlest, best of creatures," he said, falling
on his knee to her, and catching at her hand, " forgive my
cruel ingratitude ! "
"Oh dear, oh dear!" cried Milly innocently, "here's
another of them ! Oh dear, here 's somebody else who likes
me. "What shall I ever do ! "
The guileless, siniple way in which she said it, and in whicli
she put her hands before her eyes and wept for very happiness,
was as touching as it was delightful.
"I was not mj'self" he said. "I don't know what it
THE HAUNTED MAN. 401
was — it was some consequence of my disorder perhaps- — I
was mad. But I am so, no longer. Almost as I speak,
I am restored. I heard the children crying out your name,
and the shade passed from me at the very sound of it.
Oh don't weep ! Dear Milly, if you could read my heart,
and only know with what affection and what grateful homage
it is glowing, you would not let me see you weep. It is
such deep reproach."
" No, no," said Milly, " it 's not that. It 's not indeed.
It 's joy. It 's wonder that you should think ' it necessary
to ask me to forgive so little, and yet it's pleasure that
you do."
" And will you come again ? and will you finish the little
curtain ? "
" No," said Milly, drying her eyes, and shaking her head.
" You won't care for my needlework now."
"Is it forgiving me, to say that ? "
She beckoned him aside, and whispered in his ear.
" There is news from your home, Mr. Edmimd."
"News? How?"
" Either your not writing when you were very ill, or the
change in your handwriting when you began to be better,
created some suspicion of the truth ; however, that is but
you 're sure you '11 not be the worse for any news, if it 's not
bad news ? "
" Sure."
" Then there 'b some one come ! " said Milly.
" My mother ? " asked the student, glancing round
involuntarily towards Redlaw, who had come down from the
stairs.
" Hush ! No," said Milly.
" It can be no one else."
" Indeed ? " said Milly, " are you sure ? "
" It is not " . Before he could say more, she put hei
hand upon his mouth.
" Yes it is! " said MUly. "The young lady (she is very
like the miniature, Mr. Edmund, but she is prettier) was too
unhappy to rest without satisfying her doubts, and came up,
last night, wdth a little servant-maid. As you always dated
your letters from the coUege, she came there ; and before I
saw Mr. Rndluw this morning, I saw her. — She likes me
too ! " said Milly. " Oh dear, that 's another ! "
DD
402 THE HAUNTED MAN.
" This morixing ! Wliere is she now ? "
" Why, she is now," said Milly, advancing her lips to
his ear, " in my little parlor in the Lodge, and waiting to
see you."
He pressed her hand, and was darting off, but she detained
him.
" Mr. Redlaw is ranch altered, and has told me this morn-
ing that his memory is impaired. Be very considerate to him,
Mr. Edmund ; he needs that from us all."
The young man assured her, by a look, that her caution
was not ill-bestowed ; and as he passed the Chemist on his way
out, bent respectfully and with an obvious interest before him.
Redlaw returned the salutation courteously and even humbly,
and looked after him as he passed on. He drooped his head
upon his hand too, as trying to re-awaken something he had
lost. But it was gone.
The abiding change that had come upon him since the
influence of the music, and the Phantom's reappearance,
was, that now he truly felt how much he had lost, and
could compassionate his own condition, and contrast it,
clearly, with the natural state of those who were around
him. In this, an interest in those who were around him
was revived, and a meek, submissive sense of his calamity
was bred, resembling that which sometimes obtains in age,
when its mental powers are weakened, without insensibility
or sulienness being added to the list of its infirmities.
He was conscious, that, as he redeemed, through Milly,
more and more of the evil he had done, and as he was
more and more with her, this change ripened itself within
him. Therefore, and because of the attachment she in-
spired him with (but without other hope), he felt that he
was quite dependent on her, and that she was his staff in
i»Is afiliction.
So, when she asked him whether they should go home
now, to where the old man and her husband were, and he
readily replied "3'es" — being anxious in that regard — he
put his arm through hers, and walked beside her; not as
if he were the wise and learned man to whom the wonders
of nature were an open book, and hers were the unin-
structed mind, but as if their two positions were reversed,
and he knew nothing, and she aU.
He saw the childrei' throng about her, and caress hox, i^^
THE HAUNTED MAN. 403
he and shf» went away together thus, out of the house ;
he heard the ringing of their laughter, and their merry
voices ; he saw their bright faces, clustering round hiui
like flowers ; he witnessed the renewed contentment and
affection of their parents; he breathed the simple air of
their poor home, restored to its tranquillity ; he thought of
the unwholesome blight he had shed upon it, and might,
but for her, have been diffusing then ; and perhaps it is no
wonder that he walked submissively beside her, and drew her
gentle bosom nearer to his own.
When they arrived at the Lodge, the old man was sitting
in his chair in the chimney-corner, with his eyes fixed on
the ground, and his son was leaning against the opposite
side of the fii-e-place, looking at him. As she came in at
the door, both started and turned roimd towards her, and
a radiant change came upon their faces.
" Oh dear, dear, dear, they are pleased to see me like the
rest ! " cried Milly, clapping her hands in an ecstacy, and
stopping short. " Here are two more ! "
Pleased to see her ! Pleasure was no word for it. She ran
into her husband's ai-ms, thrown wide open to receive her, and
he would have been glad to have her there, with her head
Ijing on his shoulder, through the short winter's day. But
the old man coiddn't spare her. He had arms for her too,
and he locked her in them.
"Why, where has my quiet Mouse been all this time?"
said the old man. " She has been a long while away. I
find that it 's impossible for me to get on without Mouse. I
— where 's my son William ? — I fancy I have been dreaming,
William."
" That's what I say myself, father," returned his son. " I
have been in an ugly sort of dream, I think. — Hew are
you, father ? Are you pretty weU ? "
" Strong and brave, my boy," returned the old man.
It was quite a sight to see Mr. William shaking hands
with his father, and patting him on the back, and rubbing
him gently down with his hand, as if he could not possibly
do enough to show an interest in him.
" What a wonderful man you are, father ! — How are you,
father ? Are you really pretty hearty, though ? " said William,
shaking hands with him again, and patting him affain, anil
nibbing him genlly down again.
1-04 TTTE HAUNTl-D MAN.
" I never was fresher or stouter in my life, my boy."
" What a wonderful man you are, father ! But that 's
exactly where it is," said Mr. William, with enthusiasm.
" When I think of all that my father 's gone through, and
all the chances and changes, and sorrows and troubles,
that have happened to him in the course of his long life,
and under which his head has grown grey, and years upon
years have gathered on it, I feel as if w^e coxildn't do enough
to honor the old gentleman, and make his old age easy. —
How are you, father ? Are you really pretty well, though ? "
Mr. William might never have left off repeating this inquiry
and shaking hands with him again, and patting him again,
and rubbing him down again, if the old man had not espied
the Chemist, whom until now he had not seen.
" I ask your pardon, Mr. Eedlaw," said Philip, "but didn't
know you were here, sir, or should have made less free. It
reminds me, Mr. Redlaw, seeing you here on a Christmas
morning, of the time when you was a student yourself, and
worked so hard that you was backwards and forwards in our
library even at Christmas time. Ha ! ha ! I 'm old enough
to remember that ; and I remember it right well, I do, though
I am eighty-seven. It was after you left here that my poor
wife died. You remember my poor wife, Mr. Redlaw? "
The Chemist answered yes.
" Yes," said the old man. " She was a dear creetur. — I
recollect you come here one Christmas morning with a young
lady — I ask your pardon, Mr. Redlaw, but I think it was a
sister you was very much attached to ? "
The Chemist looked at him, and shook his head. " I had
a sister," he said vacantly. He knew no more.
"One Christmas morning," pursued the old man, "that
you come her with her — and it began to snow, and my wife
invited the young lady to walk in, and sit by the fire that is
always a burning on Christmas day in what used to be, before
our ten poor gentlemen commuted, oxxr great Dinner Hall.
I was there ; and I recollect, as I was stirring up the blaze
for the young lady to warm her pretty feet by, she read the
scroll out loud, that is underneath that picter. ' Lord keep
my memory green ! ' She and my poor wife fell a talking
about it ; and it 's a strange thing to think of, now, that they
both said (both being so unlike to die) that it was a good
prayer, and that it was one they would put up very earnestly^
THE HAUNTED MAN. 406
if they ■were called away young, with reference to those
who were dearest to them. ' My brother,' says the young
lady — * My husband,' says my poor wife. — ' Lord, keep hi^
memory of me, green, and do not let me be forgotten ! ' "
Tears more painful, and more bitter than he had ever shed
in all his life, coursed do-wn Redlaw's face. Philip, fully
occupied in recalling his story, had not observed him until
now, nor Milly's anxiety that he should not proceed.
" Philip ! " said Redlaw," laying his hand upon his arm,
" I am a stricken man, on whom the hand of Providence has
fallen heavily, although deservedly. You speak to me, my
friend, of what I cannot follow ; my memory is gone."
" Merciful Power ! " cried the old man.
" I have lost my memory of sorrow, wrong, and trouble,"
said the Chemist; " and with that I have lost all man would
remember ! "
To see old Philip's pity for him, to see him wheel his own
great chair for him to rest in, and look down upon him with
a solemn sense of his bereavement, was to know in somo
degree, how precious to old age such recollections are.
The boy came running in, and ran to Milly.
" Here 's the man," he said, " in the other room. I don't
want him."
" What man does he mean ? " asked Mr. William.
" Hush ! " said Milly.
Obedient to a sign from her, he and his old father 8oftl_y
withdrew. As they went out, unnoticed, Redlaw beckoned to
the boy to come to him.
" I like the woman best," he answered, holding to her skirts.
''You are right," said Redlaw, with a faint smile. "But
you needn't fear to come to me. I am gentler than I was.
Of aU the world, to you poor child ! "
The boy still held back at first ; but yielding little by little
to her urging, he consented to approach, and even to sit down
at his feet. As Redlaw laid his hand upon the shoidder of
the child, looking on him with compassion and a fellow-feeling,
he put out his other hand to Milly. She stooped down on that
side of him, so that she could look into his face ; and after
silence, said :
" Mr. Redlaw, may I speak to you ? "
*' Yes," he answered, fixing his eyes upon her. " Yoiu
voice and music are the same to me."
400 THE PTAUNTED MAN.
" May I ask you something?"
" What you wiU."
" Do you remember what I said, when I knocked at your
door last night ? About one who was your friend once, and
who stood on the verge of destruction ? "
" Yes. I remember," he said with some hesitation.
" Do you understand it ? *'
He smoothed the boy's hair — looking at her fixedly the
while, and shook his head.
" This person," said Milly, in her clear, soft voice, which
her mild ejes, looking at him, made clearer and softer, " I
found soon afterwards. I went back to the house, and, with
Heaven's help, traced hiui. I was not too soon. A very
little, and I should have been too late."
He took his hand from tlie boy, and laying it on the back
of that hand of hers, whose timid and yet earnest touch
addressed him no less appealingly than her voice and eyes,
looked more intently on her.
" He is the father of Mr. Edmund, the yoimg gentleman
we saw just now. His real name is Longford. — You recoUect
the name ? "
" I recollect the name."
" And the man?"
" No, not the man. Did he ever wrong me ? "
" Yes ! "
" Ah ! Then it 's hopeless — hopeless."
He shook his head, and softly beat upon the hand he held,
as though mutely asking her commiseration.
" I did not go to Mr. Edmund last night," said Milly, —
" You will listen to me just tlie same as if you did remember
all ? "
" To every syllable ycm say."
" Both, because I did not know, then, that this really was
his father, and because I was fearful of the effect of such
intelligence upon him, after his illness, if it should be. Since
I have known who this person is, I have not gone either ; but
that is for another reasoa. He has long been separated from
his wife and son — has been a stranger to his home almost
from his sod's infancy, 1 learn from him — and has abandoned
and deserted what he should have held most dear. In all
that time, he has been falling from the state of a gentleman;
more and more, until — " she rose up, hastily, and going out
THE HAUNTED MAN. 407
for a moment, returned, accompanied by the wreck that
Redlaw had beheld last night.
" Do you know me ? " asked the Chemist.
" I should be glad," returned the other, " and that is
an unwonted word for me to use, if I could answer no."
The Chemist looked at the man, standing in self-abasement
and degradation before him, and woidd have looked longer,
in an effectual struggle for enlightenment, but that Milly
resumed her late position by his side, and attracted his attentive
gaze to her own face.
" See how low he is sunk, how lost he is ! " she whispered,
stretching out her arm towards him, without looking from
the Chemist's face. " If you could remember all that is con-
nected with him, do you not think it would move your pity to
reflect that one you ever loved (do not let us mind how long
ago, or in what belief that he has forfeited), should come
to this ? "
" I hope it would," he answered. " I beHeve it would."
His eyes wandered to the figure standing near the door,
but came back speedily to her, on whom he gazed intently,
as if he strove to learn some lesson fi-om every tone of her
voice, and every beam of her eyes.
" I have no learning, and you have much," said Milly; " I
am not used to think, and you are always thinking. May I
tell you why it seems to me a good thing for us, to remember
wrong that has been done us ? "
"Yes."
" That we may forgive it."
" Pardon me, great Heaven ! " said Redlaw, lifting up his
eyes, " for having thrown away thine own high attribute ! "
" And if," said Milly, "if your memory should one day be
restored, as we will hope and pray it may be, would it not be a
blessing to you to recall at once a wrong and its forgiveness ?"
He looked at the figure by the door, and fixstened his
attentive eyes on her again ; a ray of clearer light appeared to
him to shine into his mind, from her bright face.
" He cannot go to his abandoned home. He does not seek
to go there. He knows that he could only carry shame and
trouble to those lie has so cruelly neglected ; and that the best
reparation he can make them now, is to avoid them. A very
littlo money carefully bestowed, would remove him to somo
distant place, where he miglit live and do no wrong, and maJce
408 THE HAUNTED MAN.
such atonement as is left within his power for the wrong he
has done. To the unfortunate lady who is his wife, and to
his son, this would be the best and kindest boon that their
best friend could give them — one too that they need never
know of; and to him, shattered in reputation, mind, and body,
it might be salvation."
He took her head between his hands, and kissed it, and
said : "It shall be done. I trust to you to do it for me, now
and secretly ; and to tell him that I would forgive him, if I
were so happy as to know for what."
As she rose, and turned her beaming face towards the
fallen man,, implying that her mediation had been successful,
he advanced a step, and without raising his eyes, addressed
himself to Redlaw.
"You are so generous," he said" — ^you ever were — that
you will try to banish your rising sense of retribution in- the
spectacle that is before you. I do not try to banish it from
myself, Redlaw. If you can, believe me."
The Chemist entreated Milly, by a gesture, to come nearer
to him ; and, as he listened, looked in her face, as if to find in
it the clue to what he heard.
" I am too decayed a wretch to make professions; I recol-
lect my own career too well, to array any such before you.
But from the day on which I made my first step downward, in
dealing falsely by you, I have gone down with a certain, steady,
doomed progression. That, I say."
Redlaw, keeping her close at his side, turned his face
towards the speaker, and there was sorrow in it. Something
like mournful recognition too.
" I might have been another man, my life might have been
another life, if I had avoided that first fatal step. I don't
know that it would have been. I claim nothing for the
possibility. Your sister is at rest, and better than she could
have been with me, if I had continued even what you thought
me : even what I once supposed myself to be."
Redlaw made a hasty motion with his hand, as if he would
have put that subject on one side.
" I speak," the other went on, " like a man taken from the
grave. I should have made my own grave, last night, had it
not been for this blessed hand."
" Oh, dear, he likes me too ! " sobbed Milly, under her
breath. " That 's another ' "
THE HAUNTED MAN. •40!)
" I could not have put myself in your way, last night even
for bread. But, to-day, my recollection of what has been
between us is so strongly stirred, and is presented to me, 1
don't know how, so vividly, that I have dared to come at her
foiggestion, and to take your bounty, and to thank you for it,
and to beg you, Redlaw, in your dying hour, to be as merci-
ful to me in your thoughts, as you are in your deeds."
He turned towards the door, and stopped a moment on his
way forth.
" I hope my son may interest you, for his mother's sake.
I hope he may deserve to do so. Unless my life should be
preserved a long time, and I should know that I have not
misused your aid, I shall never look upon him more."
Going out, he raised his eyes to Redlaw for the first time.
Redlaw, whose steadfast gaze was fixed upon him, dreamily held
out his hand. He retm-ned and touched it — little more — with
both his own — and bending down his head, went slowly out.
In the few moments that elapsed, while MiUy silently took
him to the gate, the Chemist dropped into his chair, and
covered his face with his hands. Seeing him thus, when she
came back, accompanied by her husband and his father (who
were both greatly concerned for him), she avoided disturbing
him, or permitting him to be disturbed ; and kneeled down
near the chair, to put some warm clothing on the boy.
"That's exactly where it is. That's what I always say,
father ! " exclaimed her admiring husband. " There 's a
motherly feeling in Mrs. William's breast that must and wiU
have went ! "
"Ay, ay," said the old man; "you're right. My son
William's right ! "
" It happens all for the best, Milly dear, no doubt," said
Mr. William, tenderly, " that we have no children of our own ;
and yet I sometimes wish you had one to love and cherish.
Our little dead child that you built such hopes upon, and tliat
never breathed the breath of life — it has made you quiet- like,
Milly."
" I am very happy in the recollection of it, William dear,"
she answered. " I think of it every day."
" I was afraid you thought of it a good deal."
" Don't say afraid ; it is a comfort to me ; it speaks to me
in so many ways. The innocent thing that never lived on
earth, is like an angel to me, William."
410 THE HAUNTED MAN.
" You are like an angel to father and me," said Mr. William.,
softly. " I know that."
" When I think of all those liopes I built upon it, and the
many times I sat and pictured to myself the little smiling
face upon my bosom that never lay there, and the sweet eyes
turned up to mine that never opened to the light," said Milly,
" I can feel a greater tenderness, I think, for aR the dis-
appointed hopes in which there is no harm. When I see a
beautiful child in its foud mother's arms, I love it all the better,
thinking that my child might have been like that, and might
have made my heart as proud and happy."
Redlaw raised his head, and looked towards her.
"All through life, it seems by me," she contiaued, "to tell
me something. For poor neglected children, my little child
pleads as if it were alive, and had a voice I knew, with which
to speak to me. When I hear of youth in suffering or shame,
I think that my child might have come to that, perhaps, and
that God took it from me in his mercy. Even in age and grey
hair, such as father's, it is present : saying that it too might
have lived to be old, long and long after you and I were gone,
and to have needed the respect and love of younger people."
Her quiet voice was quieter than ever, as she took her
husband's arm, and laid her head against it.
" Children love me so, that sometimes I half fancy — it 's a
siUy fancy, William — they have some way I don't know of, of
feeling for my little child, and me, and understanding why their
love is precious to me. If I have been quiet since, I have been
more happy, William, in a hundred ways. Not least happy,
dear, in this — that even when my little child was born and
dead but a few days, and I was weak and sorrowful, and
could not help grieving a little, the thought arose, that if I
tried to lead a good life, I should meet in Heaven a bright
creature, who would call me. Mother I "
Redlaw fell upon his knees, with a loud crj'.
" O Thou," he said, " who, through the teaching of pure
love, has graciously restored me to the memory which wiis
the memory of Christ upon the cross, and of all the good who
perished in His cause, receive my thanks, and bless her ! "
Then he folded her to his heart ; and Milly, sobbing more
than ever, cried, as she laughed, " He is come back to himself I
He likes me very much indeed, too ? Oh, dear, dear, deiu'
me, here 's another ! "
THE HAUNTED MAN. 411
Then, the student entered, leading by the hand a lovely
girl, who was afraid to come. And Redlaw so changed
towards him, seeing in him and in his youthful choice, the
softened shadow of that chastening passage in his own life,
to which, as to a shady tree, the dove so long imprisoned in
his solitary ark might fly for rest and company, fell upon his
neck, entreating them to be his children.
Then, as Christmas is a time in which, of all times in the
year, the memory of every remediable sorrow, wrong, and
trouble in the world around us, should be active with us, not
less than our own experiences, for all good, he laid his hand
upon the boy, and, silently calling Him to witness who laid
His hand on children in old time, rebuking, in the majesty
of his prophetic knowledge, those who kept them from him,
vowed to protect him, teach him, and reclaim him.
Then, he gave his right hand cheerily to Philip, and said
that they would that day hold a Christmas dinner in what
used to be, before the ten poor gentlemen commuted, their
great Dinner HaU ; and that they would bid to it as miiny
of that Swidger family, who, his son had told him, were so
numerous that they might join hands and make a ring round
England, as could be brought together on so short a notice.
And it was that day done. There were so many Swidgers
there, grown up and children, that an attempt to state them
in round numbers might engender doubts, in the distrustful,
of the veracity of this history. Therefore the attempt shall
not be made. But there they were, by dozens and scores —
and there was good news and good hope there, ready for them,
of George, who had been visited again by his father and
brother, and by MiUy, and again left in a quiet sleep. There,
present at the dinner, too, were the Tetterbys, including young
Adolphus, who arrived in his prismatic comforter, in good
time for the beef. Johnny and the baby were too late, of
oourse, and came in all on one side, the one exhaxisted, the
other in a supposed state of double-tooth ; but that wjis
customary, and not alarming.
It was sad to see the child who had no name or lineage,
watching the other children as they played, not knowing how
to talk with them, or sport with them, and more strange to
the ways of childhood than a rough dog. It was sad, though
in a different way, to see what an instinctive loiowledge the
youngest children there hud of his being different from ail
412 TUE IIAUNTED MAN.
the rest, aud how they made timid approaches to him with
soft words and touches, and with little presents, that he might
not be unhappy. But he kept by Milly, and began to iovG
her — that was another, as she said ! — and, as they all liked her
dearly, they were glad of that, and when they saw him
peeping at them from behind her chair, they were pleased
that he was so close to it.
AU this, the Chemist, sitting with the student and his bride
that was to be, and Philip, and the rest, saw.
Some people have said since, that he only thought what has
been herein set down ; others, that he read it in the fire, one
winter night about the twihght time ; others, that the Ghost
was but the representation of his gloomy thoughts, and Milly
the embodiment of his better wisdom. / say nothing.
— Except this. That as they were assembled in the old HaU,
by no other light than that of a great fire (having dined early),
the shadows once more stole out of their hiding-places, and
danced about the room, showing the children marvellous shapes
and faces on the walls, and gradually changing what was real
and famiKar there, to what was wild and magical. But that
there was one thing in the Hall, to which the eyes of Redlaw,
and of Milly and her husband, and of the old man, and of the
student, and his bride that was to be, were often turned,
which the shadows did not obscure or change. Deepened in
its gravity by the firelight, and gazing from the darkness of
tlie panelled wall like life, the sedate face in the portrait, with
tlie beard and ruff, looked down at them from imder its
verdant wreath of holly, as they looked up at it ; and, clear
tind plain below, as if a voice had uttered them, wero tb.o
words,
" ^orb, keep mg Pemorg ^rMir."
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