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diff --git a/678-h/678-h.htm b/678-h/678-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..85b99e1 --- /dev/null +++ b/678-h/678-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,4041 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" lang="en"> +<head> +<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=US-ASCII" /> +<title>The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles Dickens</title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + P { margin-top: .75em; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + P.gutsumm { margin-left: 5%;} + P.poetry {margin-left: 3%; } + .GutSmall { font-size: 0.7em; } + H1, H2 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + } + H3, H4, H5 { + text-align: center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em; + } + BODY{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + table { border-collapse: collapse; } +table {margin-left:auto; margin-right:auto;} + td { vertical-align: top; border: 1px solid black;} + td p { margin: 0.2em; } + .blkquot {margin-left: 4em; margin-right: 4em;} /* block indent */ + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .pagenum {position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + color: gray; + } + img { border: none; } + img.dc { float: left; width: 50px; height: 50px; } + p.gutindent { margin-left: 2em; } + div.gapspace { height: 0.8em; } + div.gapline { height: 0.8em; width: 100%; border-top: 1px solid;} + div.gapmediumline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + div.gapmediumdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 40%; margin-left:30%; + border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; + margin-left: 40%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid; } + div.gapdoubleline { height: 0.3em; width: 50%; + margin-left: 25%; border-top: 1px solid; + border-bottom: 1px solid;} + div.gapshortline { height: 0.3em; width: 20%; margin-left:40%; + border-top: 1px solid; } + .citation {vertical-align: super; + font-size: .8em; + text-decoration: none;} + img.floatleft { float: left; + margin-right: 1em; + margin-top: 0.5em; margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.floatright { float: right; + margin-left: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em; } + img.clearcenter {display: block; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; margin-top: 0.5em; + margin-bottom: 0.5em} + --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> +</head> +<body> +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles Dickens + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: The Cricket on the Hearth + A Fairy Tale of Home + + +Author: Charles Dickens + + + +Release Date: November 9, 2012 [eBook #678] +[This file was first posted on September 25, 1996] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH*** +</pre> +<p>Transcribed from the Charles Scribner’s Sons +“Works of Charles Dickens” edition by David Price, +email ccx074@pglaf.org</p> +<p style="text-align: center"> +<a href="images/p0b.jpg"> +<img alt= +"Frontispiece to The Cricket on the Hearth" +title= +"Frontispiece to The Cricket on the Hearth" +src="images/p0s.jpg" /> +</a></p> + +<h4>There are several editions of this ebook in the Project Gutenberg collection. Various characteristics of each ebook are listed to aid in selecting the preferred file.<br />Click on any of the filenumbers below to quickly view each ebook. +</h4> + + +<table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto" cellpadding="4" border="3"> + +<tr><td> + <b><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/20795/20795-h/20795-h.htm"> +20795</a> </b> </td><td>(Some black and white illustrations) +</td></tr> + +<tr><td> + <b><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37581/37581-h/37581-h.htm"> +37581</a></b></td><td>(Many fine black and white illustrations) +</td></tr> + +<tr><td> + <b><a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/files/678/678-h/678-h.htm"> +678</a></b> </td><td>(Not illustrated) +</td></tr> + +</table> + + +<h1>THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH<br /> +A Fairy Tale of Home</h1> +<p style="text-align: center"><span class="GutSmall">TO</span><br +/> +LORD JEFFREY<br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THIS LITTLE STORY IS INSCRIBED</span><br +/> +<span class="GutSmall">WITH</span><br /> +<span class="GutSmall">THE AFFECTION AND ATTACHMENT OF HIS +FRIEND</span></p> +<p style="text-align: right">THE AUTHOR</p> +<p><i>December</i>, 1845</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<h2>CHAPTER I—Chirp the First</h2> +<p>The kettle began it! Don’t tell me what Mrs. +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.</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>Why, I am not naturally positive. Every one knows +that. I wouldn’t set my own opinion against the +opinion of Mrs. Peerybingle, unless I were quite sure, on any +account whatever. Nothing 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’ll say +ten.</p> +<p>Let me narrate exactly how it happened. I should have +proceeded to do so in my very first word, but for this 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?</p> +<p>It appeared as if there were a sort of match, or trial of +skill, you must understand, between the kettle and the +Cricket. And this is what led to it, and how it came +about.</p> +<p>Mrs. Peerybingle, going out into the raw twilight, and +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 of 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>would</i> lean forward with a drunken air, and +dribble, a very Idiot of a kettle, on the hearth. It was +quarrelsome, and hissed and spluttered morosely at the +fire. 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.</p> +<p>It looked sullen and pig-headed enough, even then; carrying +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!’</p> +<p>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 was in motion but +the flame.</p> +<p>He was on the move, however; and had his spasms, two to the +second, all right and regular. But, his sufferings when the +clock was going to strike, were frightful to behold; and, when a +Cuckoo looked out of a trap-door in the Palace, and gave note six +times, it shook him, each time, like a spectral voice—or +like a something wiry, plucking at his legs.</p> +<p>It was not until a violent commotion and a whirring noise +among the weights and ropes below him had quite subsided, that +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 selves; and they might know better than to leave their +clocks so very lank and unprotected, surely.</p> +<p>Now it was, you observe, that the kettle began to spend the +evening. Now it was, that the kettle, growing mellow 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, all reserve, and burst into a stream of song so cosy +and hilarious, as never maudlin nightingale yet formed the least +idea of.</p> +<p>So plain too! Bless you, you might have understood it +like a book—better than some books you and I could name, +perhaps. With its warm 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 trolled +its song with that strong energy of cheerfulness, that its iron +body hummed and stirred upon the fire; and the lid itself, the +recently rebellious lid—such is the influence of a bright +example—performed a sort of jig, and clattered like a deaf +and dumb young cymbal that had never known the use of its twin +brother.</p> +<p>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’s only one relief in all the sad +and murky air; and I don’t know that it is one, for +it’s nothing 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 anything is what it ought to be; but he’s coming, +coming, coming!—</p> +<p>And here, if you like, the Cricket <span +class="GutSmall">DID</span> 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 overcharged 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.</p> +<p>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 resounded through 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.</p> +<p>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 would yours +have been), that she might have looked a long way, and seen +nothing half so agreeable. When she came back, and sat down +in her former seat, the Cricket and the kettle were still keeping +it up, with a perfect fury of competition. The +kettle’s weak side clearly being, that he didn’t know +when he was beat.</p> +<p>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, hum, 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 themselves, 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 fellow! Welcome home, my +boy!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Where the baby came from, or how Mrs. Peerybingle got hold of +it in that flash of time, <i>I</i> don’t know. But a +live baby there was, in Mrs. Peerybingle’s arms; and a +pretty tolerable amount of pride she seemed to have in it, when +she was drawn 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.</p> +<p>‘Oh goodness, John!’ said Mrs. P. +‘What a state you are in with the weather!’</p> +<p>He was something the worse for it, undeniably. The thick +mist hung in clots upon his eyelashes like candied thaw; and +between the fog and fire together, there were rainbows in his +very whiskers.</p> +<p>‘Why, you see, Dot,’ John made answer, slowly, as +he unrolled a shawl from about his throat; and warmed his hands; +‘it—it an’t exactly summer weather. So, +no wonder.’</p> +<p>‘I wish you wouldn’t call me Dot, John. I +don’t like it,’ said Mrs. Peerybingle: pouting in a +way that clearly showed she <i>did</i> like it, very much.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>It was pleasant to see Dot, with her little figure, and her +baby in her arms: a very doll of a baby: glancing with a +coquettish thoughtfulness at the fire, 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, endeavouring 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 Slowboy, +waiting in the background for the baby, took special cognizance +(though in her earliest teens) of this grouping; and stood with +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, +surveyed it from a safe distance, with a kind of puzzled pride, +such as an amiable mastiff might be supposed to show, if he found +himself, one day, the father of a young canary.</p> +<p>‘An’t he beautiful, John? Don’t he +look precious in his sleep?’</p> +<p>‘Very precious,’ said John. ‘Very much +so. He generally <i>is</i> asleep, an’t +he?’</p> +<p>‘Lor, John! Good gracious no!’</p> +<p>‘Oh,’ said John, pondering. ‘I thought +his eyes was generally shut. Halloa!’</p> +<p>‘Goodness, John, how you startle one!’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘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 turned the baby over on her +left arm, and had slapped its back as a restorative, she pinched +her husband’s ear, laughing.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Poor old man, so it has!’ cried Mrs. Peerybingle, +instantly becoming very active. ‘Here! Take the +precious darling, Tilly, while I make myself of some use. +Bless it, I could smother it with kissing it, I could! Hie +then, good dog! Hie, Boxer, boy! Only let me make the +tea first, John; and then I’ll help you 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?’</p> +<p>‘Not to quite know it,’ John returned. +‘I was very near it once. But I should only have +spoilt it, I dare say.’</p> +<p>‘Ha ha,’ laughed Dot. She had the blithest +little laugh you ever heard. ‘What a dear old darling +of a dunce you are, John, to be sure!’</p> +<p>Not at all disputing this position, John went out to see 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 bewildering +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 countenance; now, +exhibiting an obtrusive interest in the baby; now, going round +and round upon the hearth, and lying down as if he had +established 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.</p> +<p>‘There! There’s the teapot, ready on the +hob!’ said Dot; as briskly busy as a child at play at +keeping house. ‘And there’s the old knuckle of +ham; and there’s the butter; and there’s the crusty +loaf, and all! Here’s the clothes-basket for the +small parcels, John, if you’ve got any there—where +are you, John?’</p> +<p>‘Don’t let the dear child fall under the grate, +Tilly, whatever you do!’</p> +<p>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 which +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 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, which +they were the occasional means of bringing into contact with deal +doors, dressers, stair-rails, bed-posts, 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 differing from fondling by one +vowel’s length, is very different in meaning, and expresses +quite another thing.</p> +<p>To have seen little 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.</p> +<p>‘Heyday!’ said John, in his slow way. +‘It’s merrier than ever, to-night, I +think.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>O yes. John remembered. I should think so!</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>John thoughtfully patted one of the shoulders, and then the +head, as though he would 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 very +comely.</p> +<p>‘It spoke the 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 +happy home, John; and I love the Cricket for its sake!’</p> +<p>‘Why so do I then,’ said the Carrier. +‘So do I, Dot.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘And so do I,’ repeated John. ‘But, +Dot? <i>I</i> 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!’</p> +<p>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. Next moment she was down upon her knees before +the basket, speaking in a sprightly voice, and busy with the +parcels.</p> +<p>‘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 delivering, I dare +say, as you came along?’</p> +<p>‘Oh yes,’ John said. ‘A good +many.’</p> +<p>‘Why what’s this round box? Heart alive, +John, it’s a wedding-cake!’</p> +<p>‘Leave a woman alone to find out that,’ said John, +admiringly. ‘Now a man would never have thought 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.’</p> +<p>‘And it weighs I don’t know what—whole +hundredweights!’ cried Dot, making a great demonstration of +trying to lift it.</p> +<p>‘Whose is it, John? Where is it going?’</p> +<p>‘Read the writing on the other side,’ said +John.</p> +<p>‘Why, John! My Goodness, John!’</p> +<p>‘Ah! who’d have thought it!’ John +returned.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>John nodded.</p> +<p>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, in 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 +nouns changed into the plural number, inquired aloud of that +young creature, Was it Gruffs and Tackletons the toymakers then, +and Would it call at Pastry-cooks for wedding-cakes, and Did its +mothers know the boxes when its fathers brought them homes; and +so on.</p> +<p>‘And that is really to come about!’ said +Dot. ‘Why, she and I were girls at school together, +John.’</p> +<p>He might have been thinking of her, or nearly thinking of her, +perhaps, as she was in that same school time. He looked +upon her with a thoughtful pleasure, but he made no answer.</p> +<p>‘And he’s as old! As unlike her!—Why, +how many years older than you, is Gruff and Tackleton, +John?’</p> +<p>‘How many more cups of tea shall I drink to-night at one +sitting, 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. ‘As to +eating, I eat but little; but that little I enjoy, +Dot.’</p> +<p>Even this, his usual sentiment at meal times, one of his +innocent delusions (for his appetite was always obstinate, and +flatly contradicted him), awoke no smile in the face of his +little wife, who stood among the parcels, pushing the cake-box +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 teaboard, laughing at +her negligence. But, not as she had laughed before. +The manner and the music were quite changed.</p> +<p>The Cricket, too, had stopped. Somehow the room was not +so cheerful as it had been. Nothing like it.</p> +<p>‘So, these are all the parcels, are they, John?’ +she said, breaking a long silence, which the honest Carrier had +devoted to the practical illustration of one part of his +favourite 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?’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘The old gentleman?’</p> +<p>‘In the cart,’ said John. ‘He was +asleep, among the straw, the last time I saw him. +I’ve very nearly remembered him, twice, since I came in; +but he went out of my head again. Halloa! Yahip +there! Rouse up! That’s my hearty!’</p> +<p>John said these latter words outside the door, whither he had +hurried with the candle in his hand.</p> +<p>Miss Slowboy, conscious of some mysterious reference to The +Old Gentleman, and connecting in her mystified imagination +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 skirts 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 +offensive instrument within her reach. This instrument +happening to be the baby, great commotion and alarm ensued, which +the sagacity of Boxer rather tended to increase; for, that good +dog, more thoughtful than its master, had, it seemed, been +watching the old gentleman in his sleep, lest he should 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.</p> +<p>‘You’re such an undeniable 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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘There!’ said the Carrier, turning to his +wife. ‘That’s the way I found him, sitting by +the roadside! Upright as a milestone. And almost as +deaf.’</p> +<p>‘Sitting in the open air, John!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘He’s going, John, I think!’</p> +<p>Not at all. He was only going to speak.</p> +<p>‘If you please, I was to be left till called for,’ +said the Stranger, mildly. ‘Don’t mind +me.’</p> +<p>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!</p> +<p>The Carrier and his wife exchanged a look of perplexity. +The Stranger raised his head; and glancing from the latter to the +former, said,</p> +<p>‘Your daughter, my good friend?’</p> +<p>‘Wife,’ returned John.</p> +<p>‘Niece?’ said the Stranger.</p> +<p>‘Wife,’ roared John.</p> +<p>‘Indeed?’ observed the Stranger. +‘Surely? Very young!’</p> +<p>He quietly turned over, and resumed his reading. But, +before he could have read two lines, he again interrupted himself +to say:</p> +<p>‘Baby, yours?’</p> +<p>John gave him a gigantic nod; equivalent to an answer in the +affirmative, delivered through a speaking trumpet.</p> +<p>‘Girl?’</p> +<p>‘Bo-o-oy!’ roared John.</p> +<p>‘Also very young, eh?’</p> +<p>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-old! Takes notice, in a way quite +won-der-ful! May seem impossible to you, but feels his legs +al-ready!’</p> +<p>Here the breathless little 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 unknown words, adapted to a popular +Sneeze—performed some cow-like gambols round that all +unconscious Innocent.</p> +<p>‘Hark! He’s called for, sure enough,’ +said John. ‘There’s somebody at the door. +Open it, Tilly.’</p> +<p>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 +himself 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.</p> +<p>‘Good evening, John!’ said the little man. +‘Good evening, Mum. Good evening, Tilly. Good +evening, Unbeknown! How’s Baby, Mum? +Boxer’s pretty well I hope?’</p> +<p>‘All thriving, Caleb,’ replied Dot. ‘I +am sure you need only look at the dear child, for one, to know +that.’</p> +<p>‘And I’m sure I need only look at you for +another,’ said Caleb.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Or at John for another,’ said Caleb. +‘Or at Tilly, as far as that goes. Or certainly at +Boxer.’</p> +<p>‘Busy just now, Caleb?’ asked the Carrier.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>The Carrier put his hand into a pocket of the coat he had +taken off; and brought out, carefully preserved in moss and +paper, a tiny flower-pot.</p> +<p>‘There it is!’ he said, adjusting it with great +care. ‘Not so much as a leaf damaged. Full of +buds!’</p> +<p>Caleb’s dull eye brightened, as he took it, and thanked +him.</p> +<p>‘Dear, Caleb,’ said the Carrier. ‘Very +dear at this season.’</p> +<p>‘Never mind that. It would be cheap to me, +whatever it cost,’ returned the little man. +‘Anything else, John?’</p> +<p>‘A small box,’ replied the Carrier. +‘Here you are!’</p> +<p>‘“For Caleb Plummer,”’ said the little +man, spelling out the direction. ‘“With +Cash.” With Cash, John? I don’t think +it’s for me.’</p> +<p>‘With Care,’ returned the Carrier, looking over +his shoulder. ‘Where do you make out cash?’</p> +<p>‘Oh! To be sure!’ said Caleb. +‘It’s all right. With 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>I</i> know, of course. +“Caleb Plummer. 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.’</p> +<p>‘I wish it was, or could be!’ cried the +Carrier.</p> +<p>‘Thank’ee,’ 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. What’s +the damage, John?’</p> +<p>‘I’ll damage you,’ said John, ‘if you +inquire. Dot! Very near?’</p> +<p>‘Well! it’s like you to say so,’ observed +the little man. ‘It’s your kind way. Let +me see. I think that’s all.’</p> +<p>‘I think not,’ said the Carrier. ‘Try +again.’</p> +<p>‘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 Arks and things! He hasn’t been here, has +he?’</p> +<p>‘Not he,’ returned the Carrier. +‘He’s too busy, courting.’</p> +<p>‘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, Mum, for half a moment, could +you?’</p> +<p>‘Why, Caleb! what a question!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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, postponing +his study from the life to a more convenient season, shouldered +the round box, and took a hurried leave. He might have +spared himself the trouble, for he met the visitor upon the +threshold.</p> +<p>‘Oh! You are here, are you? Wait a +bit. I’ll take you home. John Peerybingle, my +service to you. More of my service to your pretty +wife. Handsomer every day! Better too, if +possible! And younger,’ mused the speaker, in a low +voice; ‘that’s the Devil of it!’</p> +<p>‘I should be astonished at your paying compliments, Mr. +Tackleton,’ said Dot, not with the best grace in the world; +‘but for your condition.’</p> +<p>‘You know all about it then?’</p> +<p>‘I have got myself to believe it, somehow,’ said +Dot.</p> +<p>‘After a hard struggle, I suppose?’</p> +<p>‘Very.’</p> +<p>Tackleton the Toy-merchant, pretty generally known as 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 +freshness 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, movable 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. +Anything 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 +shell-fish, with 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 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.</p> +<p>What he was in toys, he was (as most men are) in other +things. You may easily suppose, therefore, that within the +great 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘In three days’ time. Next Thursday. +The last day of the first month in the year. That’s +my wedding-day,’ said Tackleton.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘That’s my wedding-day!’ said Tackleton, +rattling his money.</p> +<p>‘Why, it’s our wedding-day too,’ exclaimed +the Carrier.</p> +<p>‘Ha ha!’ laughed Tackleton. +‘Odd! You’re just such another couple. +Just!’</p> +<p>The indignation of Dot at this presumptuous assertion is not +to be described. What next? His imagination would +compass the possibility of just such another Baby, perhaps. +The man was mad.</p> +<p>‘I say! A word with you,’ murmured +Tackleton, nudging the Carrier with his elbow, and taking him a +little apart. ‘You’ll come to the +wedding? We’re in the same boat, you know.’</p> +<p>‘How in the same boat?’ inquired the Carrier.</p> +<p>‘A little disparity, you know,’ said Tackleton, +with another nudge. ‘Come and spend an evening with +us, beforehand.’</p> +<p>‘Why?’ demanded John, astonished at this pressing +hospitality.</p> +<p>‘Why?’ returned the other. +‘That’s a new way of receiving an invitation. +Why, for pleasure—sociability, you know, and all +that!’</p> +<p>‘I thought you were never sociable,’ said John, in +his plain way.</p> +<p>‘Tchah! It’s of no use to be anything but +free with you, I see,’ said Tackleton. ‘Why, +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—’</p> +<p>‘No, we don’t know better,’ interposed +John. ‘What are you talking about?’</p> +<p>‘Well! We <i>don’t</i> know better, +then,’ said Tackleton. ‘We’ll 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, still she +can’t help herself from falling into my views, for +there’s a compactness and cosiness of appearance about her +that always tells, even in an indifferent case. +You’ll say you’ll come?’</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘Bah! what’s home?’ cried Tackleton. +‘Four walls and a ceiling! (why don’t you kill that +Cricket? <i>I</i> would! I always do. I hate +their noise.) There are four walls and a ceiling at my +house. Come to me!’</p> +<p>‘You kill your Crickets, eh?’ said John.</p> +<p>‘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 the 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 wife says to my wife, “I’m the happiest woman +in the world, 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.’</p> +<p>‘Do you mean to say she don’t, then?’ asked +the Carrier.</p> +<p>‘Don’t!’ cried Tackleton, with a short, +sharp laugh. ‘Don’t what?’</p> +<p>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?’</p> +<p>‘Ah you dog! You’re joking,’ said +Tackleton.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘She honours and obeys, no doubt, you know,’ said +Tackleton; ‘and that, as I am not a man of sentiment, is +quite enough for <i>me</i>. But do you think there’s +anything more in it?’</p> +<p>‘I think,’ observed the Carrier, ‘that I +should chuck any man out of window, who said there +wasn’t.’</p> +<p>‘Exactly so,’ returned the other with an unusual +alacrity of assent. ‘To be sure! Doubtless you +would. Of course. I’m certain of it. Good +night. Pleasant dreams!’</p> +<p>The Carrier was puzzled, and made uncomfortable and uncertain, +in spite of himself. He couldn’t help showing it, in +his manner.</p> +<p>‘Good night, my dear friend!’ said Tackleton, +compassionately. ‘I’m off. We’re +exactly alike, in reality, I see. You won’t give us +to-morrow evening? Well! Next day you go out +visiting, I know. I’ll meet you there, and bring my +wife that is to be. It’ll do her good. +You’re agreeable? Thank’ee. What’s +that!’</p> +<p>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 by 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.</p> +<p>‘Dot!’ cried the Carrier. ‘Mary! +Darling! What’s the matter?’</p> +<p>They were all about her in a moment. Caleb, who had been +dozing on the cake-box, in the first imperfect recovery of his +suspended presence of mind, seized Miss Slowboy by the hair of +her head, but immediately apologised.</p> +<p>‘Mary!’ exclaimed the Carrier, supporting her in +his arms. ‘Are you ill! What is it? Tell +me, dear!’</p> +<p>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 it was, and suffered him to +lead her to the fire, where she sat down as before. The old +man standing, as before, quite still.</p> +<p>‘I’m better, John,’ she said. +‘I’m quite well now—I—’</p> +<p>‘John!’ But John was on the other side of +her. Why turn her face towards the strange old gentleman, +as if addressing him! Was her brain wandering?</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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! Who’s that with the +grey hair?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Not ugly enough,’ said Tackleton.</p> +<p>‘Or for a firebox, either,’ observed Caleb, in +deep contemplation, ‘what a model! Unscrew his head +to put the matches in; turn him heels up’ards for the +light; and what a firebox for a gentleman’s mantel-shelf, +just as he stands!’</p> +<p>‘Not half ugly enough,’ said Tackleton. +‘Nothing in him at all! Come! Bring that +box! All right now, I hope?’</p> +<p>‘Oh quite gone! Quite gone!!’ said the little woman, waving him +hurriedly away. ‘Good night!’</p> +<p>‘Good night,’ said Tackleton. ‘Good +night, John Peerybingle! Take care how you carry that box, +Caleb. Let it fall, and I’ll murder you! Dark +as pitch, and weather worse than ever, eh? Good +night!’</p> +<p>So, with another sharp look round the room, he went out at the +door; followed by Caleb with the wedding-cake on his head.</p> +<p>The Carrier had been so much astounded by his little 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.</p> +<p>‘He don’t belong to them, you see,’ said +John. ‘I must give him a hint to go.’</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Yes, yes,’ cried Dot. ‘Yes! +Certainly!’</p> +<p>‘Oh!’ said the Carrier, surprised by the rapidity +of this consent.</p> +<p>‘Well! I don’t object; but, still I’m +not quite sure that—’</p> +<p>‘Hush!’ she interrupted. ‘Dear +John!’</p> +<p>‘Why, he’s stone deaf,’ urged John.</p> +<p>‘I know he is, but—Yes, sir, certainly. Yes! +certainly! I’ll make him up a bed, directly, +John.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Did its mothers make it up a Beds then!’ cried +Miss 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 fires!’</p> +<p>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 administering 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.</p> +<p>‘And frighten it, a precious Pets, a-sitting by the +fires. What frightened Dot, I wonder!’ mused the +Carrier, pacing to and fro.</p> +<p>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 Tackleton 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.</p> +<p>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, quite 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.</p> +<p>She always <i>would</i> sit on that little stool. I +think she must have had a kind of notion that it was a coaxing, +wheedling little stool.</p> +<p>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, affect 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 thing. As to the tobacco, she was perfect +mistress of the subject; and her lighting of the 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.</p> +<p>And the Cricket and the kettle, turning up again, acknowledged +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.</p> +<p>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 yielding 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 Slowboys, 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 grandchildren; 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 fire—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.</p> +<div class="gapspace"> </div> +<p>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 upon the chimney-piece, ever repeating ‘Married! and +not to me!’</p> +<p>O Dot! O failing Dot! There is no place for it in +all your husband’s visions; why has its shadow fallen on +his hearth!</p> +<h2>CHAPTER II—Chirp the Second</h2> +<p>Caleb Plummer and his Blind Daughter lived all alone by +themselves, as the Story-books say—and my blessing, with +yours to back it I hope, on the Story-books, for saying anything +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. The 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.</p> +<p>If any one had done the dwelling-house of Caleb Plummer the +honour to miss it after such an inroad, it would have been, no +doubt, to commend its demolition as a vast improvement. 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>The 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 mouldering 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 Blind Girl +never knew that ugly shapes of delf and earthenware were on the +board; that sorrow and faintheartedness 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.</p> +<p>And all was Caleb’s doing; all the doing of her simple +father! But he too had a Cricket on his Hearth; and +listening 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 Hearth address themselves to human kind.</p> +<p>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 all 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 already 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, sofas, +bedsteads, and upholstery. The nobility and gentry, and +public in general, for whose accommodation these tenements 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 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 no 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.</p> +<p>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 there 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 would have been no easy task to mention any human +folly, 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.</p> +<p>In the midst of all these objects, Caleb and his daughter 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.</p> +<p>The care imprinted in the lines of Caleb’s face, and his +absorbed and dreamy manner, which would have sat well on 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 consideration, 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.</p> +<p>‘So you were out in the rain last night, father, in your +beautiful new great-coat,’ said Caleb’s daughter.</p> +<p>‘In my beautiful new great-coat,’ answered Caleb, +glancing towards a clothes-line in the room, on which the +sack-cloth garment previously described, was carefully hung up to +dry.</p> +<p>‘How glad I am you bought it, father!’</p> +<p>‘And of such a tailor, too,’ said Caleb. +‘Quite a fashionable tailor. It’s too good for +me.’</p> +<p>The Blind Girl rested from her work, and laughed with +delight.</p> +<p>‘Too good, father! What can be too good for +you?’</p> +<p>‘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 Honour! +Bless your Honour, don’t say that!” I was quite +ashamed. I really felt as if I hadn’t a right to wear +it.’</p> +<p>Happy Blind Girl! How merry she was, in her +exultation!</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘Bright blue,’ said Caleb.</p> +<p>‘Yes, yes! Bright blue!’ exclaimed the girl, +turning up her radiant face; ‘the colour I can just +remember in the blessed sky! You told me it was blue +before! A bright blue coat—’</p> +<p>‘Made loose to the figure,’ suggested Caleb.</p> +<p>‘Made loose to the figure!’ cried the Blind Girl, +laughing heartily; ‘and in it, you, dear father, with your +merry eye, your smiling face, your free step, and your dark +hair—looking so young and handsome!’</p> +<p>‘Halloa! Halloa!’ said Caleb. ‘I +shall be vain, presently!’</p> +<p>‘I 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!’</p> +<p>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 threshold at his own slow pace, but with a footfall +counterfeited for her ear; and never had he, when his heart was +heaviest, forgotten the light tread that was to render hers so +cheerful and courageous!</p> +<p>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 Blind Daughter. How could the little man be +otherwise than bewildered, after labouring for so many years to +destroy his own identity, and that of all the objects that had +any bearing on it!</p> +<p>‘There we are,’ said Caleb, falling back a pace or +two to form 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.’</p> +<p>‘You are speaking quite softly. You are not tired, +father?’</p> +<p>‘Tired!’ echoed Caleb, with a great burst of +animation, ‘what should tire me, Bertha? <i>I</i> was +never tired. What does it mean?’</p> +<p>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; and hummed +a fragment of a song. It was a Bacchanalian song, something +about a Sparkling Bowl. He sang it with an assumption of a +Devil-may-care voice, that made his face a thousand times more +meagre and more thoughtful than ever.</p> +<p>‘What! You’re singing, are you?’ said +Tackleton, putting his head in at the door. ‘Go +it! <i>I</i> can’t sing.’</p> +<p>Nobody would have suspected him of it. He hadn’t +what is generally termed a singing face, by any means.</p> +<p>‘I can’t afford to sing,’ said +Tackleton. ‘I’m glad <i>you can</i>. I +hope you can afford to work too. Hardly time for both, I +should think?’</p> +<p>‘If you could only see him, Bertha, how he’s +winking at me!’ whispered Caleb. ‘Such a man to +joke! you’d think, if you didn’t know him, he was in +earnest—wouldn’t you now?’</p> +<p>The Blind Girl smiled and nodded.</p> +<p>‘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 will sing; is there anything that +<i>he</i> should be made to do?’</p> +<p>‘The extent to which he’s winking at this +moment!’ whispered Caleb to his daughter. ‘O, +my gracious!’</p> +<p>‘Always merry and light-hearted with us!’ cried +the smiling Bertha.</p> +<p>‘O, you’re there, are you?’ answered +Tackleton. ‘Poor Idiot!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Well! and being there,—how are you?’ said +Tackleton, in his grudging way.</p> +<p>‘Oh! well; quite well. And as happy as even you +can wish me to be. As happy as you would make the whole +world, if you could!’</p> +<p>‘Poor Idiot!’ muttered Tackleton. ‘No +gleam of reason. Not a gleam!’</p> +<p>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:</p> +<p>‘What’s the matter now?’</p> +<p>‘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 <i>red</i> sun, +father?’</p> +<p>‘Red in the mornings and the evenings, Bertha,’ +said poor Caleb, with a woeful glance at his employer.</p> +<p>‘When it rose, and the bright light I almost fear to +strike myself against in walking, 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!’</p> +<p>‘Bedlam broke loose!’ said Tackleton under his +breath. ‘We shall arrive at the strait-waistcoat and +mufflers soon. We’re getting on!’</p> +<p>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 +anything 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 should help to keep her from suspecting how much, +how very much, he every day, denied himself, that she might be +the happier.</p> +<p>‘Bertha!’ said Tackleton, assuming, for the nonce, +a little cordiality. ‘Come here.’</p> +<p>‘Oh! I can come straight to you! You +needn’t guide me!’ she rejoined.</p> +<p>‘Shall I tell you a secret, Bertha?’</p> +<p>‘If you will!’ she answered, eagerly.</p> +<p>How bright the darkened face! How adorned with light, +the listening head!</p> +<p>‘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; an’t +it?’ said Tackleton, with a strong expression of distaste +for the whole concern.</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ replied Bertha. ‘This is the +day.’</p> +<p>‘I thought so,’ said Tackleton. ‘I +should like to join the party.’</p> +<p>‘Do you hear that, father!’ cried the Blind Girl +in an ecstasy.</p> +<p>‘Yes, yes, I hear it,’ murmured Caleb, with the +fixed look of a sleep-walker; ‘but I don’t believe +it. It’s one of my lies, I’ve no +doubt.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Married!’ cried the Blind Girl, starting from +him.</p> +<p>‘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, +marrow-bones, cleavers, and all the rest of the tom-foolery. +A wedding, you know; a wedding. Don’t you know what a +wedding is?’</p> +<p>‘I know,’ replied the Blind Girl, in a gentle +tone. ‘I understand!’</p> +<p>‘Do you?’ muttered Tackleton. +‘It’s more than I expected. Well! On that +account I want to join the party, and to bring May and her +mother. I’ll send in a little something or other, +before the afternoon. A cold leg of mutton, or some +comfortable trifle of that sort. You’ll expect +me?’</p> +<p>‘Yes,’ she answered.</p> +<p>She had drooped her head, and turned away; and so stood, with +her hands crossed, musing.</p> +<p>‘I don’t think you will,’ muttered +Tackleton, looking at her; ‘for you seem to have forgotten +all about it, already. Caleb!’</p> +<p>‘I may venture to say I’m here, I suppose,’ +thought Caleb. ‘Sir!’</p> +<p>‘Take care she don’t forget what I’ve been +saying to her.’</p> +<p>‘<i>She</i> never forgets,’ returned Caleb. +‘It’s one of the few things she an’t clever +in.’</p> +<p>‘Every man thinks his own geese swans,’ observed +the Toy-merchant, with a shrug. ‘Poor +devil!’</p> +<p>Having delivered himself of which remark, with infinite +contempt, old Gruff and Tackleton withdrew.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It was not until Caleb had been occupied, some time, in yoking +a team of horses to a waggon 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:</p> +<p>‘Father, I am lonely in the dark. I want my eyes, +my patient, willing eyes.’</p> +<p>‘Here they are,’ said Caleb. ‘Always +ready. They are more yours than mine, Bertha, any hour in +the four-and-twenty. What shall your eyes do for you, +dear?’</p> +<p>‘Look round the room, father.’</p> +<p>‘All right,’ said Caleb. ‘No sooner +said than done, Bertha.’</p> +<p>‘Tell me about it.’</p> +<p>‘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 there are beams or panels; the general +cheerfulness and neatness of the building; make it very +pretty.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘You have your working dress on, and are not so gallant +as when you wear the handsome coat?’ said Bertha, touching +him.</p> +<p>‘Not quite so gallant,’ answered Caleb. +‘Pretty brisk though.’</p> +<p>‘Father,’ said the Blind Girl, drawing close to +his side, and stealing one arm round his neck, ‘tell me +something about May. She is very fair?’</p> +<p>‘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.</p> +<p>‘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—’</p> +<p>‘There’s not a Doll’s in all the room to +equal it,’ said Caleb. ‘And her +eyes!—’</p> +<p>He stopped; for Bertha had drawn closer round his neck, and +from the arm that clung about him, came a warning pressure which +he understood too well.</p> +<p>He coughed a moment, hammered for a moment, and then fell back +upon the song about the sparkling bowl; his infallible resource +in all such difficulties.</p> +<p>‘Our friend, father, our benefactor. I am never +tired, you know, of hearing about him.—Now, was I +ever?’ she said, hastily.</p> +<p>‘Of course not,’ answered Caleb, ‘and with +reason.’</p> +<p>‘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 his +eyes, as if she could have read in them his innocent deceit.</p> +<p>‘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 favours with a +show of roughness and unwillingness, beats in its every look and +glance.’</p> +<p>‘And makes it noble!’ added Caleb, in his quiet +desperation.</p> +<p>‘And makes it noble!’ cried the Blind Girl. +‘He is older than May, father.’</p> +<p>‘Ye-es,’ said Caleb, reluctantly. +‘He’s a little older than May. But that +don’t signify.’</p> +<p>‘Oh father, yes! To be his patient companion in +infirmity and age; to be his gentle nurse in sickness, and his +constant friend in suffering and sorrow; to know no weariness in +working 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! What opportunities for proving all her +truth and devotion to him! Would she do all this, dear +father?</p> +<p>‘No doubt of it,’ said Caleb.</p> +<p>‘I love her, father; I can love her from my soul!’ +exclaimed 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.</p> +<p>In the mean time, there had been a pretty sharp commotion at +John Peerybingle’s, for little Mrs. Peerybingle 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 instance, 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 two +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’ll 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 you saw anybody in all 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 herself, or anything else in the universe, +but was a shrunken, dog’s-eared, independent fact, pursuing +its lonely course without 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 the 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.</p> +<p>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 <i>that</i> was necessary. Before you could have seen +him lift her from the ground, there she was in her place, fresh +and rosy, saying, ‘John! How <i>can</i> you! +Think of Tilly!’</p> +<p>If I might be allowed to mention a young lady’s legs, on +any terms, I would observe of Miss Slowboy’s that there was +a fatality about them which rendered them singularly liable to be +grazed; and that she never effected the smallest ascent or +descent, without recording the circumstance upon them with a +notch, as Robinson Crusoe marked the days upon his wooden +calendar. But as this might be considered ungenteel, +I’ll think of it.</p> +<p>‘John? You’ve got the Basket with the Veal +and Ham-Pie and things, and the bottles of Beer?’ said +Dot. ‘If you haven’t, you must turn round +again, this very minute.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>This monosyllable was addressed to the horse, who didn’t +mind it at all.</p> +<p>‘Oh <i>do</i> way, John!’ said Mrs. +Peerybingle. ‘Please!’</p> +<p>‘It’ll be time enough to do that,’ returned +John, ‘when I begin to leave things behind me. The +basket’s here, safe enough.’</p> +<p>‘What a hard-hearted monster you must be, John, not to +have said so, at once, and save me such a turn! I declared +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 lucky +again.’</p> +<p>‘It was a kind thought in the first instance,’ +said the Carrier: ‘and I honour you for it, little +woman.’</p> +<p>‘My dear John,’ replied Dot, turning very red, +‘don’t talk about honouring <i>me</i>. Good +Gracious!’</p> +<p>‘By the bye—’ observed the Carrier. +‘That old gentleman—’</p> +<p>Again so visibly, and instantly embarrassed!</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘None at all. I’m—I’m sure +there’s none at all.’</p> +<p>‘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 should have +taken it into his head to ask leave to go on lodging with us; +an’t it? Things come about so strangely.’</p> +<p>‘So very strangely,’ she rejoined in a low voice, +scarcely audible.</p> +<p>‘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 already, he says, as he gets more +used to my voice. He told me a great deal about himself, +and I told him a great 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 +from our house 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’ll engage not to fall so sound asleep +again.” He <i>was</i> sound asleep, +sure-ly!—Dot! what are you thinking of?’</p> +<p>‘Thinking of, John? I—I was listening to +you.’</p> +<p>‘O! That’s all right!’ 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’ll be +bound.’</p> +<p>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 that 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.</p> +<p>Then, Boxer gave occasion to more good-natured recognitions +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 him +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 withdrew into remote back +settlements, without waiting for the honour of a nearer +acquaintance. He had business everywhere; going down all +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, ‘Halloa! Here’s +Boxer!’ and out came that somebody forthwith, accompanied +by at least two or three other somebodies, to give John +Peerybingle and his pretty wife, Good Day.</p> +<p>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 all the parcels, +that it was as good as a play. Likewise, 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 holden by the Carrier and the 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 open-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.</p> +<p>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 earthly +hopes. Not the Baby, I’ll 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.</p> +<p>You couldn’t see very far in the fog, of course; but you +could 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 +still lingering 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.</p> +<p>In one place, there was a great mound of weeds or stubble +burning; and they watched the fire, so white in the daytime, +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 anything 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 +Blind Girl were on the pavement waiting to receive them.</p> +<p>Boxer, by the way, made certain delicate distinctions of his +own, 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 her invariably. What experience he +could ever have had of blind people or blind dogs, I don’t +know. He had never lived with a blind master; nor had Mr. +Boxer the elder, nor Mrs. Boxer, nor any of his respectable +family on either side, ever been visited with blindness, that I +am aware of. He may have found it out for himself, perhaps, +but he had got hold of it somehow; and therefore he had hold of +Bertha too, by the skirt, and kept hold, until Mrs. Peerybingle +and the Baby, and Miss Slowboy, and the basket, were all got +safely within doors.</p> +<p>May Fielding was already come; and so was her mother—a +little querulous chip of an old lady with a peevish face, who, in +right of having preserved a waist like a bedpost, was supposed to +be a most transcendent figure; and who, in 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.</p> +<p>‘May! My dear old friend!’ cried Dot, +running up to meet her. ‘What a happiness to see +you.’</p> +<p>Her old friend was, to the full, as hearty and as glad as she; +and it really was, if you’ll believe me, quite a pleasant +sight to see them embrace. Tackleton was a man of taste +beyond all question. May was very pretty.</p> +<p>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 was very near saying when he came into the room, they +ought to have been born sisters—which was the only +improvement you could have suggested.</p> +<p>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 them; 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 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!</p> +<p>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 furniture but the chair she sat on, that she +might have nothing else to knock the Baby’s head +against.</p> +<p>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 +interest in the party, pausing occasionally before leaping, as if +they were listening 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 +proceedings.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Ah, May!’ said Dot. ‘Dear dear, what +changes! To talk of those merry school-days makes one young +again.’</p> +<p>‘Why, you an’t particularly old, at any time; are +you?’ said Tackleton.</p> +<p>‘Look at my sober plodding husband there,’ +returned Dot. ‘He adds twenty years to my age at +least. Don’t you, John?’</p> +<p>‘Forty,’ John replied.</p> +<p>‘How many <i>you</i>’ll 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.’</p> +<p>‘Ha ha!’ laughed Tackleton. Hollow as a +drum, that laugh though. And he looked as if he could have +twisted Dot’s neck, comfortably.</p> +<p>‘Dear dear!’ said Dot. ‘Only to +remember how we used to talk, at school, about the husbands we +would choose. I 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.’</p> +<p>May seemed to know which to do; for the colour flushed into +her face, and tears stood in her eyes.</p> +<p>‘Even the very persons themselves—real live young +men—were 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?’</p> +<p>Though May didn’t say yes, she certainly didn’t +say no, or express no, by any means.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘You couldn’t help yourselves, for all that. +You couldn’t resist us, you see,’ said +Tackleton. ‘Here we are! Here we +are!’</p> +<p>‘Where are your gay young bridegrooms now!’</p> +<p>‘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 +<i>could</i> forget them so. No! they would not believe one +word of it!’</p> +<p>‘Why, Dot!’ exclaimed the Carrier. +‘Little woman!’</p> +<p>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 effectual, +for she stopped, and said no more. There was an uncommon +agitation, even in her silence, which the wary Tackleton, who had +brought his half-shut eye to bear upon her, noted closely, and +remembered to some purpose too.</p> +<p>May uttered no word, good or bad, but sat quite still, with +her eyes 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 +byegones, and that so long as young people were young and +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 which she took no 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 +solicitation, to be admitted, she believed Mr. Tackleton knew +that, although reduced in purse, it had some pretensions to +gentility; and if certain 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 length. +Finally, she delivered it as the general result of her +observation 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—from 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.</p> +<p>As these remarks were quite unanswerable—which is the +happy property of all remarks that are sufficiently wide 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.</p> +<p>For you ought to know that he only rested there, and gave the +old horse a bait. He had to go some four or five miles +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, had been, ever +since their institution.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Good bye!’ said stout John Peerybingle, pulling +on his dreadnought coat. ‘I shall be back at the old +time. Good bye all!’</p> +<p>‘Good bye, John,’ returned Caleb.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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 <i>you’ll</i> 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?’</p> +<p>‘I’m here, John!’ she said, starting.</p> +<p>‘Come, come!’ returned the Carrier, clapping his +sounding hands. ‘Where’s the pipe?’</p> +<p>‘I quite forgot the pipe, John.’</p> +<p>Forgot the pipe! Was such a wonder ever heard of! +She! Forgot the pipe!</p> +<p>‘I’ll—I’ll fill it directly. +It’s soon done.’</p> +<p>But it was not so soon done, either. It lay in the usual +place—the Carrier’s dreadnought pocket—with the +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 +terribly. 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 the whole process, +Tackleton stood looking on maliciously with the half-closed eye; +which, 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.</p> +<p>‘Why, what a clumsy Dot you are, this afternoon!’ +said John. ‘I could have done it better myself, I +verily believe!’</p> +<p>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 blind daughter, with the +same expression on his face.</p> +<p>‘Bertha!’ said Caleb, softly. ‘What +has happened? How changed you are, my darling, in a few +hours—since this morning. <i>You</i> silent and dull +all day! What is it? Tell me!’</p> +<p>‘Oh father, father!’ cried the Blind Girl, +bursting into tears. ‘Oh my hard, hard +fate!’</p> +<p>Caleb drew his hand across his eyes before he answered +her.</p> +<p>‘But think how cheerful and how happy you have been, +Bertha! How good, and how much loved, by many +people.’</p> +<p>‘That strikes me to the heart, dear father! Always +so mindful of me! Always so kind to me!’</p> +<p>Caleb was very much perplexed to understand her.</p> +<p>‘To be—to be blind, Bertha, my poor dear,’ +he faltered, ‘is a great affliction; but—’</p> +<p>‘I have never felt it!’ cried the Blind +Girl. ‘I have never felt it, in its fulness. +Never! I have 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,’ +she laid her hands upon her breast, ‘and hold here! +That I might be sure and have it right! And sometimes (but +then I was a child) I have wept in my prayers at night, to think +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.’</p> +<p>‘And they will again,’ said Caleb.</p> +<p>‘But, father! Oh my good, gentle father, bear with +me, if I am wicked!’ said the Blind Girl. ‘This +is not the sorrow that so weighs me down!’</p> +<p>Her father could not choose but let his moist eyes overflow; +she was so earnest and pathetic, but he did not understand her, +yet.</p> +<p>‘Bring her to me,’ said Bertha. ‘I +cannot hold it closed and shut within myself. Bring her to +me, father!’</p> +<p>She knew he hesitated, and said, ‘May. Bring +May!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Look into my face, Dear heart, Sweet heart!’ said +Bertha. ‘Read it with your beautiful eyes, and tell +me if the truth is written on it.’</p> +<p>‘Dear Bertha, Yes!’</p> +<p>The Blind Girl still, upturning the blank sightless face, down +which the tears were coursing fast, addressed her in these +words:</p> +<p>‘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 +sight 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 +breaking! Father, May, 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 +call Heaven to witness that I could not wish him married to a +wife more worthy of his goodness!’</p> +<p>While speaking, she had released May Fielding’s hands, +and clasped her garments in an attitude of mingled supplication +and love. Sinking lower and lower down, as she proceeded in +her strange confession, she dropped at last at the feet of her +friend, and hid her blind face in the folds of her dress.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>It was well for all of them that Dot, that beaming, useful, +busy little Dot—for such she was, whatever faults she had, +and however you may learn to hate her, in good time—it was +well for all of them, I say, that she was there: or where this +would have ended, it were hard to tell. But Dot, recovering +her self-possession, interposed, before May could reply, or Caleb +say another word.</p> +<p>‘Come, come, dear Bertha! come away with me! 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 +cheery 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!’</p> +<p>Well, well! she was a noble little Dot in such things, and it +must have been an obdurate nature that could have withstood 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.</p> +<p>‘So bring me the precious Baby, Tilly,’ said she, +drawing a chair to the fire; ‘and while I have it in my +lap, here’s 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?’</p> +<p>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 +did into this artful pitfall. The fact of Tackleton having +walked 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 convulsion in the +Indigo trade, for four-and-twenty hours. But this becoming +deference to her experience, on the part of the young mother, was +so irresistible, that after a short affectation of humility, she +began to enlighten her with the best grace in the world; and +sitting bolt upright before the wicked Dot, she did, in half an +hour, deliver more infallible domestic recipes and precepts, than +would (if acted on) have utterly destroyed and done up that Young +Peerybingle, though he had been an Infant Samson.</p> +<p>To change the theme, Dot did a little needlework—she +carried the contents of a whole workbox in her pocket; however +she contrived it, I don’t know—then did a little +nursing; then a little more needlework; then 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 had made her +delicate little ear as choice a one for music as it would have +been for jewels, if she had had any to wear. By this time +it was the established hour for having tea; and Tackleton came +back again, to share the meal, and spend the evening.</p> +<p>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 wistfully, +and always saying in his face, ‘Have I deceived her from +her cradle, but to break her heart!’</p> +<p>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 putting 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 she was very restless. Not as +good wives are, when listening for their husbands. No, no, +no. It was another sort of restlessness from that.</p> +<p>Wheels heard. A horse’s feet. The barking of +a dog. The gradual approach of all the sounds. The +scratching paw of Boxer at the door!</p> +<p>‘Whose step is that!’ cried Bertha, starting +up.</p> +<p>‘Whose step?’ returned the Carrier, standing in +the portal, with his brown face ruddy as a winter berry from the +keen night air. ‘Why, mine.’</p> +<p>‘The other step,’ said Bertha. ‘The +man’s tread behind you!’</p> +<p>‘She is not to be deceived,’ observed the Carrier, +laughing. ‘Come along, sir. You’ll be +welcome, never fear!’</p> +<p>He spoke in a loud tone; and as he spoke, the deaf old +gentleman entered.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘Oh surely, John, and take it as an honour.’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>When he had imparted this assurance, in a voice that amply +corroborated what he had said about his 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.’</p> +<p>Bertha had been listening intently. She 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.</p> +<p>The Carrier was in high spirits, good fellow that he was, and +fonder of his little wife than ever.</p> +<p>‘A clumsy Dot she was, this afternoon!’ he said, +encircling her with his rough arm, as she stood, removed from the +rest; ‘and yet I like her somehow. See yonder, +Dot!’</p> +<p>He pointed to the old man. She looked down. I +think she trembled.</p> +<p>‘He’s—ha ha ha!—he’s full of +admiration for you!’ said the Carrier. ‘Talked +of nothing else, the whole way here. Why, he’s a +brave old boy. I like him for it!’</p> +<p>‘I wish he had had a better subject, John,’ she +said, with an uneasy glance about the room. At Tackleton +especially.</p> +<p>‘A better subject!’ cried the jovial John. +‘There’s no such thing. Come, off with the +great-coat, off with the thick shawl, off with the heavy +wrappers! 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!’</p> +<p>His challenge was addressed to the old lady, who accepting it +with gracious readiness, they were soon engaged upon the +game. At first, 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 attention +gradually became absorbed upon the cards; and he thought of +nothing else, until a hand upon his shoulder restored him to a +consciousness of Tackleton.</p> +<p>‘I am sorry to disturb you—but a word, +directly.’</p> +<p>‘I’m going to deal,’ returned the +Carrier. ‘It’s a crisis.’</p> +<p>‘It is,’ said Tackleton. ‘Come here, +man!’</p> +<p>There was that in his pale face which made the other rise +immediately, and ask him, in a hurry, what the matter was.</p> +<p>‘Hush! John Peerybingle,’ said +Tackleton. ‘I am sorry for this. I am +indeed. I have been afraid of it. I have suspected it +from the first.’</p> +<p>‘What is it?’ asked the Carrier, with a frightened +aspect.</p> +<p>‘Hush! I’ll show you, if you’ll come +with me.’</p> +<p>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’s own 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.</p> +<p>‘A moment!’ said Tackleton. ‘Can you +bear to look through that window, do you think?’</p> +<p>‘Why not?’ returned the Carrier.</p> +<p>‘A moment more,’ said Tackleton. +‘Don’t commit any violence. It’s of no +use. It’s dangerous too. You’re a +strong-made man; and you might do murder before you know +it.’</p> +<p>The Carrier looked him in the face, and recoiled a step as if +he had been struck. In one stride he was at the window, and +he saw—</p> +<p>Oh Shadow on the Hearth! Oh truthful Cricket! Oh +perfidious Wife!</p> +<p>He saw her, with the old man—old no longer, but erect +and gallant—bearing in his hand the false white hair that +had won his way into their desolate and miserable home. He +saw 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 +turn—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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>He was wrapped up to the chin, and busy with his horse and +parcels, when she came into the room, prepared for going +home.</p> +<p>‘Now, John, dear! Good night, May! Good +night, Bertha!’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Tilly was hushing the Baby, and she crossed and re-crossed +Tackleton, a dozen times, repeating drowsily:</p> +<p>‘Did the knowledge that it was to be its wifes, then, +wring its hearts almost to breaking; and did its fathers deceive +it from its cradles but to break its hearts at last!’</p> +<p>‘Now, Tilly, give me the Baby! Good night, Mr. +Tackleton. Where’s John, for goodness’ +sake?’</p> +<p>‘He’s going to walk beside the horse’s +head,’ said Tackleton; who helped her to her seat.</p> +<p>‘My dear John. Walk? To-night?’</p> +<p>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 off. Boxer, the +unconscious Boxer, running on before, running back, running round +and round the cart, and barking as triumphantly and merrily as +ever.</p> +<p>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!’</p> +<p>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 dolls, the agitated +rocking-horses with distended eyes and nostrils, the old +gentlemen at the street-doors, standing half doubled up upon +their failing knees and ankles, the wry-faced nut-crackers, the +very Beasts upon their way into the Ark, in twos, like a Boarding +School out walking, might have been imagined to be stricken +motionless with fantastic wonder, at Dot being false, or +Tackleton beloved, under any combination of circumstances.</p> +<h2>CHAPTER III—Chirp the Third</h2> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>It was a heart so full of love for her; so bound up and held +together by innumerable threads of winning remembrance, spun from +the daily working of her many qualities of endearment; it was a +heart in which she had enshrined herself 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 cheerful house into a haunted place +which lonely travellers would dread to pass by night; and where +the timid would see shadows struggling in the ruined windows when +the moon was dim, and hear wild noises in the stormy weather.</p> +<p>He was the younger man! Yes, yes; some lover who had won +the heart that <i>he</i> 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!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 have 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.</p> +<p>The more he felt this, and the more he knew he could have +better borne to see her lying prematurely dead before him with +their little child upon her breast, the higher and the stronger +rose his wrath against his enemy. He looked about him for a +weapon.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>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 blind 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!’</p> +<p>He reversed the gun to beat the stock upon the door; he already +held it lifted in the air; some indistinct design was in his +thoughts of calling out to him to fly, for God’s sake, by +the window—</p> +<p>When, suddenly, the struggling fire illumined the whole +chimney with a glow of light; and the Cricket on the Hearth began +to Chirp!</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>He recoiled from the door, like a man walking 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.</p> +<p>The Cricket on the Hearth came out into the room, and stood in +Fairy shape before him.</p> +<p>‘“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.”’</p> +<p>‘She said so!’ cried the Carrier. +‘True!’</p> +<p>‘“This has been a happy home, John; and I love the +Cricket for its sake!”’</p> +<p>‘It has been, Heaven knows,’ returned the +Carrier. ‘She made it happy, always,—until +now.’</p> +<p>‘So gracefully sweet-tempered; so domestic, joyful, +busy, and light-hearted!’ said the Voice.</p> +<p>‘Otherwise I never could have loved her as I did,’ +returned the Carrier.</p> +<p>The Voice, correcting him, said ‘do.’</p> +<p>The Carrier repeated ‘as I did.’ But not +firmly. His faltering tongue resisted his control, and +would speak in its own way, for itself and him.</p> +<p>The Figure, in an attitude of invocation, raised its hand and +said:</p> +<p>‘Upon your own hearth—’</p> +<p>‘The hearth she has blighted,’ interposed the +Carrier.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘And pleads for her?’ inquired the Carrier.</p> +<p>‘All things that speak the language of your hearth and +home, must plead for her!’ returned the Cricket. +‘For they speak the truth.’</p> +<p>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, from the chimney, from the +clock, the pipe, the kettle, and the cradle; from the floor, the +walls, the ceiling, and the stairs; from the cart without, and +the cupboard within, and the household implements; from every +thing and every place with which she had ever been familiar, and +with which she had ever entwined 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 strew +flowers for it to tread on. To try to crown its fair head +with their tiny hands. To show that they were fond of it +and loved it; and that there was not one ugly, wicked or +accusatory creature to claim knowledge of it—none but their +playful and approving selves.</p> +<p>His thoughts were constant to her image. It was always +there.</p> +<p>She sat plying her needle, before the fire, and singing to +herself. Such a blithe, thriving, steady little 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!’</p> +<p>There were sounds of gaiety outside, musical instruments, and +noisy tongues, and laughter. A crowd of young merry-makers +came pouring 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 join their +party. It was a dance. If ever little foot were made +for dancing, hers was, surely. But she laughed, 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, but 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!</p> +<p>Again the staring figures turned upon him all at once, and +seemed to say, ‘Is this the wife who has forsaken +you!’</p> +<p>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 Fairies worked like bees to +clear it off again. And Dot again was there. Still +bright and beautiful.</p> +<p>Rocking her little Baby in its cradle, singing to it softly, +and resting her head upon a shoulder which had its counterpart in +the musing figure by which the Fairy Cricket stood.</p> +<p>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, and shone brightly +in the sky. Perhaps some calm and quiet light had risen +also, in his mind; and he could think more soberly of what had +happened.</p> +<p>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. Whenever +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 beautiful, +they cheered in the most inspiring manner.</p> +<p>They never showed her, otherwise than beautiful and bright, +for they were Household Spirits to whom falsehood is +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!</p> +<p>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 herself, 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-collar to make him smart, and mincing +merrily about that very room to teach him how to dance!</p> +<p>They turned, and stared immensely at him when they showed her +with the Blind Girl; for, though she carried cheerfulness and +animation with her wheresoever she went, she bore those +influences into Caleb Plummer’s home, heaped up and running +over. The Blind Girl’s love for her, and trust in +her, 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 +holiday; 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 wonderful +expression in her whole self, from her neat foot to the crown of +her head, of being a part of the establishment—a something +necessary to it, which it couldn’t be without; all this the +Fairies 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 your +confidence!’</p> +<p>More than once, or twice, 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.</p> +<p>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 +faithful Cricket had been Chirp, Chirp, Chirping on the +Hearth. All night he had listened to its voice. All +night the household 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.</p> +<p>He rose up when it was broad day, and washed and dressed +himself. He couldn’t go about his customary cheerful +avocations—he wanted spirit for them—but it mattered +the less, that it was Tackleton’s wedding-day, and he had +arranged to make his rounds by proxy. He 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!</p> +<p>The Carrier had expected that Tackleton would 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 the 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 favours.</p> +<p>The horse looked much more like a bridegroom than Tackleton, +whose half-closed eye was more disagreeably expressive than +ever. But the Carrier took little heed of this. His +thoughts had other occupation.</p> +<p>‘John Peerybingle!’ said Tackleton, with an air of +condolence. ‘My good fellow, how do you find yourself +this morning?’</p> +<p>‘I have had but a poor night, 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?’</p> +<p>‘I came on purpose,’ returned Tackleton, +alighting. ‘Never mind the horse. He’ll +stand quiet enough, with the reins over this post, if +you’ll give him a mouthful of hay.’</p> +<p>The Carrier having brought it from his stable, and set it +before him, they turned into the house.</p> +<p>‘You are not married before noon,’ he said, +‘I think?’</p> +<p>‘No,’ answered Tackleton. ‘Plenty of +time. Plenty of time.’</p> +<p>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 +crying all night long, because her mistress cried) was at the +keyhole; and she was knocking very loud; and seemed +frightened.</p> +<p>‘If you please I can’t make nobody hear,’ +said Tilly, looking round. ‘I hope nobody an’t +gone and been and died if you please!’</p> +<p>This philanthropic wish, Miss Slowboy emphasised with various +new raps and kicks at the door; which led to no result +whatever.</p> +<p>‘Shall I go?’ said Tackleton. +‘It’s curious.’</p> +<p>The Carrier, who had turned his face from the door, signed to +him to go if he would.</p> +<p>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 +came running out again.</p> +<p>‘John Peerybingle,’ said Tackleton, in his +ear. ‘I hope there has been nothing—nothing +rash in the night?’</p> +<p>The Carrier turned upon him quickly.</p> +<p>‘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 been some—some +scuffle. Eh?’</p> +<p>He nearly shut up the expressive eye altogether; he looked at +him so hard. And he gave his eye, and his face, and his +whole person, a sharp twist. As if he would have screwed +the truth out of him.</p> +<p>‘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 my 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!’</p> +<p>‘Oh!—Well, I think he has got off pretty +easy,’ said Tackleton, taking a chair.</p> +<p>The sneer was lost upon the Carrier, who sat down too, and +shaded his face with his hand, for some little time, before +proceeding.</p> +<p>‘You showed me last night,’ he said at length, +‘my wife; my wife that I love; secretly—’</p> +<p>‘And tenderly,’ insinuated Tackleton.</p> +<p>‘Conniving at that man’s disguise, and giving him +opportunities of meeting her alone. I think there’s +no sight I wouldn’t have rather seen than that. I +think there’s no man in the world I wouldn’t have +rather had to show it me.’</p> +<p>‘I confess to having had my suspicions always,’ +said Tackleton. ‘And that has made me objectionable +here, I know.’</p> +<p>‘But as you did show it me,’ pursued 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 of +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.’</p> +<p>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 and noble in +it, which nothing but the soul of generous honour dwelling in the +man could have imparted.</p> +<p>‘I am a plain, rough man,’ pursued the Carrier, +‘with 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 grow 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!’</p> +<p>He paused, and softly beat the ground a short time with his +foot, before resuming.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘Hah!’ said Tackleton, with a significant shake of +the head.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘To be sure,’ said Tackleton. +‘Giddiness, frivolity, fickleness, love of +admiration! Not considered! All left out of +sight! Hah!’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>The Toy-merchant gazed at him in astonishment. He went +on in a softer tone:</p> +<p>‘Did I consider,’ said the Carrier, ‘that I +took her—at her age, and with her beauty—from her +young companions, and the many scenes of which she was the +ornament; in which she was the brightest little star that ever +shone, to shut her up from day to day in my dull 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 disposition; and I married +her. I wish I never had! For her sake; not for +mine!’</p> +<p>The Toy-merchant gazed at him, without winking. Even the +half-shut eye was open now.</p> +<p>‘Heaven bless her!’ said the Carrier, ‘for +the cheerful constancy with which she 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! <i>I</i> 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!’</p> +<p>‘She made a show of it,’ said Tackleton. +‘She made such a show of it, that to tell you the truth it +was the origin of my misgivings.’</p> +<p>And here he asserted the superiority of May Fielding, who +certainly made no sort of show of being fond of <i>him</i>.</p> +<p>‘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; +how brave and strong a heart she has; let the happiness I have +known under this roof bear witness! It will be some help +and comfort to me, when I am here alone.’</p> +<p>‘Here alone?’ said Tackleton. +‘Oh! Then you do mean to take some notice of +this?’</p> +<p>‘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 unequal +marriage, and the struggle to conceal it. She shall be as +free as I can render her.’</p> +<p>‘Make <i>her</i> reparation!’ exclaimed Tackleton, +twisting and turning his great ears with his hands. +‘There must be something wrong here. You didn’t +say that, of course.’</p> +<p>The Carrier set his grip upon the collar of the Toy-merchant, +and shook him like a reed.</p> +<p>‘Listen to me!’ he said. ‘And take +care that you hear me right. Listen to me. Do I speak +plainly?’</p> +<p>‘Very plainly indeed,’ answered Tackleton.</p> +<p>‘As if I meant it?’</p> +<p>‘Very much as if you meant it.’</p> +<p>‘I sat upon that hearth, last night, all night,’ +exclaimed the Carrier. ‘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!’</p> +<p>Staunch Cricket on the Hearth! Loyal household +Fairies!</p> +<p>‘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. In 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!’</p> +<p>‘If that is your opinion’—Tackleton +began.</p> +<p>‘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 her go, and have the peace of mind I wish +her! She’ll never hate me. She’ll learn +to like me better, when I’m not a drag upon her, and she +wears the chain I 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 return 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 +she will live so I am sure. If I should die—I may +perhaps while she is still young; I have lost some courage in a +few hours—she’ll find that I remembered her, and +loved her to the last! This is the end of what you showed +me. Now, it’s over!’</p> +<p>‘O 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. Do not say +it’s over, ‘till the clock has struck +again!’</p> +<p>She had entered shortly after Tackleton, and had remained +there. She never looked at Tackleton, but fixed her eyes +upon her husband. But she kept away from him, setting as +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!</p> +<p>‘No hand can make the clock which will strike again for +me the hours that are gone,’ replied the Carrier, with a +faint smile. ‘But let it be so, if you will, 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.’</p> +<p>‘Well!’ muttered Tackleton. ‘I must be +off, for when the clock strikes again, it’ll 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 your company. Sorry for the loss, and the occasion of it +too!’</p> +<p>‘I have spoken plainly?’ said the Carrier, +accompanying him to the door.</p> +<p>‘Oh quite!’</p> +<p>‘And you’ll remember what I have said?’</p> +<p>‘Why, if you compel me to make the observation,’ +said Tackleton, previously taking the precaution of getting into +his chaise; ‘I must say that it was so very unexpected, +that I’m far from being likely to forget it.’</p> +<p>‘The better for us both,’ returned the +Carrier. ‘Good bye. I give you joy!’</p> +<p>‘I wish I could give it to <i>you</i>,’ said +Tackleton. ‘As I can’t; thank’ee. +Between ourselves, (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 officious about me, and too +demonstrative. Good bye! Take care of +yourself.’</p> +<p>The Carrier stood looking after him until he was smaller in +the distance than his horse’s flowers and favours near at +hand; and then, with a deep sigh, went strolling like a restless, +broken man, among some neighbouring elms; unwilling to return +until the clock was on the eve of striking.</p> +<p>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 crying all the time), that +Tilly was quite horrified.</p> +<p>‘Ow if you please don’t!’ said Tilly. +‘It’s enough to dead and bury the Baby, so it is if +you please.’</p> +<p>‘Will you bring him sometimes, to see his father, +Tilly,’ inquired her mistress, drying her eyes; ‘when +I can’t live here, and have gone to my old home?’</p> +<p>‘Ow if you please don’t!’ cried Tilly, +throwing back her head, and bursting 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 everybody, making everybody else so +wretched! Ow-w-w-w!’</p> +<p>The soft-hearted Slowboy trailed 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 convulsions), if +her eyes had not encountered Caleb Plummer, leading 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 on 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.</p> +<p>‘Mary!’ said Bertha. ‘Not at the +marriage!’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>He put his arms about her and hugged her, as a child might +have hugged one of his own dolls.</p> +<p>‘Bertha couldn’t stay at home this morning,’ +said Caleb. ‘She was afraid, I know, to hear the +bells ring, and couldn’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’ll stay with me, +mum, the while, tell her the truth. You’ll 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’ll think of me; I +don’t know that she’ll ever care for her poor father +afterwards. But it’s best for her that she should be +undeceived, and I must bear the consequences as I +deserve!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>The Carrier’s Wife was silent. Caleb answered for +her.</p> +<p>‘They were wrong,’ he said.</p> +<p>‘I knew it!’ cried Bertha, proudly. ‘I +told them so. I scorned to hear a word! Blame +<i>her</i> with justice!’ she pressed the hand between her +own, and the soft cheek against her face. ‘No! +I am not so blind as that.’</p> +<p>Her father went on one side of her, while Dot remained upon +the other: holding her hand.</p> +<p>‘I know you all,’ said Bertha, ‘better than +you think. But none so well 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!’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘A confession, father?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>She turned her wonder-stricken face towards him, and repeated +‘Cruel!’</p> +<p>‘He accuses himself too strongly, Bertha,’ said +Dot. ‘You’ll say so, presently. +You’ll be the first to tell him so.’</p> +<p>‘He cruel to me!’ cried Bertha, with a smile of +incredulity.</p> +<p>‘Not meaning it, my child,’ said Caleb. +‘But I have been; though I never suspected it, till +yesterday. My dear blind daughter, hear me and forgive +me! The world you live in, heart of mine, doesn’t +exist as I have represented it. The eyes you have trusted +in, have been false to you.’</p> +<p>She turned her wonder-stricken face towards him still; but +drew back, and clung closer to her friend.</p> +<p>‘Your road in 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 concealments from you, put deceptions on you, God forgive me! +and surrounded you with fancies.’</p> +<p>‘But living people are not fancies!’ she said +hurriedly, and turning very pale, and still retiring from +him. ‘You can’t change them.’</p> +<p>‘I have done so, Bertha,’ pleaded Caleb. +‘There is one person that you know, my +dove—’</p> +<p>‘Oh father! why do you say, I know?’ she answered, +in a term of keen reproach. ‘What and whom do +<i>I</i> know! I who have no leader! I so miserably +blind.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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 everything.’</p> +<p>‘Oh why,’ cried the Blind Girl, tortured, as it +seemed, almost beyond endurance, ‘why did you ever do +this! Why 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!’</p> +<p>Her afflicted father hung his head, and offered no reply but +in his penitence and sorrow.</p> +<p>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 which had been beside the Carrier all night, +appeared behind her, pointing to her father, they fell down like +rain.</p> +<p>She heard the Cricket-voice more plainly soon, and was +conscious, through her blindness, of the Presence hovering about +her father.</p> +<p>‘Mary,’ said the Blind Girl, ‘tell me what +my home is. What it truly is.’</p> +<p>‘It is a poor place, Bertha; very poor and bare +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 sack-cloth coat.’</p> +<p>The Blind Girl, greatly agitated, rose, and led the +Carrier’s little wife aside.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘No.’</p> +<p>‘Who then?’</p> +<p>Dot saw she knew, already, and was silent. The Blind +Girl spread her hands before her face again. But in quite +another manner now.</p> +<p>‘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?’</p> +<p>‘No, Bertha, indeed!’</p> +<p>‘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 tell me what you +see.’</p> +<p>‘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 him, Bertha.’</p> +<p>‘Yes, yes. She will. Go on.’</p> +<p>‘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, I have seen him many times before, +and striving hard in many ways for one great sacred object. +And I honour his grey head, and bless him!’</p> +<p>The Blind Girl broke away from her; and throwing herself upon +her knees before him, took the grey head to her breast.</p> +<p>‘It is my sight restored. It is my sight!’ +she cried. ‘I have been blind, and now my eyes are +open. I never knew him! To think I might have died, +and never truly seen the father who has been so loving to +me!’</p> +<p>There were no words for Caleb’s emotion.</p> +<p>‘There is not a gallant figure 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!’</p> +<p>Caleb managed to articulate ‘My Bertha!’</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>‘The fresh smart father in the blue coat, Bertha,’ +said poor Caleb. ‘He’s gone!’</p> +<p>‘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 <span +class="GutSmall">NOT</span> blind, father, any longer!’</p> +<p>Dot’s whole attention had been concentrated, during this +discourse, upon the father and daughter; but looking, now, +towards the little 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.</p> +<p>‘Father,’ said Bertha, hesitating. +‘Mary.’</p> +<p>‘Yes, my dear,’ returned Caleb. ‘Here +she is.’</p> +<p>‘There is no change in <i>her</i>. You never told +me anything of <i>her</i> that was not true?’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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 any such should +ever happen, and affect you? Are those wheels upon the +road? You’ve a quick ear, Bertha. Are they +wheels?’</p> +<p>‘Yes. Coming very fast.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>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 +falling.</p> +<p>‘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!’—</p> +<p>She uttered a wild cry of uncontrollable delight; and running +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.</p> +<p>‘Is it over?’ cried Dot.</p> +<p>‘Yes!’</p> +<p>‘Happily over?’</p> +<p>‘Yes!’</p> +<p>‘Do you recollect the voice, dear Caleb? Did you +ever hear the like of it before?’ cried Dot.</p> +<p>‘If my boy in the Golden South Americas was +alive’—said Caleb, trembling.</p> +<p>‘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! Your own dear son! Your own dear living, +loving brother, Bertha!’</p> +<p>All honour to the little creature for her transports! +All honour to her tears and laughter, when the three were locked +in one another’s arms! All honour to the heartiness +with which she met the sunburnt sailor-fellow, with his dark +streaming hair, half-way, and never turned her rosy little mouth +aside, but suffered him to kiss it, freely, and to press her to +his bounding heart!</p> +<p>And honour to the Cuckoo too—why not!—for bursting +out of the trap-door in the Moorish Palace like a house-breaker, +and hiccoughing twelve times on the assembled company, as if he +had got drunk for joy!</p> +<p>The Carrier, entering, started back. And well he might, +to find himself in such good company.</p> +<p>‘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!’</p> +<p>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:</p> +<p>‘Edward! Was it you?’</p> +<p>‘Now tell 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.’</p> +<p>‘I was the man,’ said Edward.</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>The Carrier, with a troubled glance at Dot, who still kept far +away from him, replied, ‘Well! that’s but fair. +I will.’</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>‘You had!’ exclaimed the Carrier. +‘You!’</p> +<p>‘Indeed I had,’ returned the other. +‘And she returned it. I have ever since believed she +did, and now I am sure she did.’</p> +<p>‘Heaven help me!’ said the Carrier. +‘This is worse than all.’</p> +<p>‘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 unlike 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.’</p> +<p>‘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 a clumsy +man in general,’ said Dot, half laughing and half +crying—‘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 would 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, John! 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!’</p> +<p>She was an irresistible little woman, if that be anything to +the purpose; 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.</p> +<p>Amid the tumult 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.</p> +<p>‘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 gallery 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!’</p> +<p>Little woman, how she sobbed again! John Peerybingle +would have caught her in his arms. But no; she +wouldn’t let him.</p> +<p>‘Don’t love me yet, please, John! Not for a +long time yet! When 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?’</p> +<p>John was going to make another rush at this appeal; but she +stopped him again.</p> +<p>‘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 ways, and +wouldn’t see you altered in the least respect to have you +made a King to-morrow.’</p> +<p>‘Hooroar!’ said Caleb with unusual vigour. +‘My opinion!’</p> +<p>‘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 silly little thing, John, that I like, sometimes, to act a kind +of Play with Baby, and all that: and make believe.’</p> +<p>She saw that he was coming; and stopped him again. But +she was very nearly too late.</p> +<p>‘No, don’t love me for another minute or two, if +you please, John! What I want most to tell you, I have kept +to the last. My dear, good, generous John, when we were +talking 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; that when I first came home here, I was half afraid I +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!’</p> +<p>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 all your days.</p> +<p>You may be sure the Carrier was in a state of perfect rapture; +and you may be sure Dot was likewise; and you may be sure they +all were, inclusive of Miss Slowboy, who wept copiously for joy, +and wishing to include her young charge in the general +interchange of congratulations, handed round the Baby to +everybody in succession, as if it were something to drink.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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’ll swear I passed her on the road, on her way +here. Oh! here she is! I beg your pardon, sir; I +haven’t the pleasure of knowing you; but if you can do me +the favour to spare this young lady, she has rather a particular +engagement this morning.’</p> +<p>‘But I can’t spare her,’ returned +Edward. ‘I couldn’t think of it.’</p> +<p>‘What do you mean, you vagabond?’ said +Tackleton.</p> +<p>‘I mean, that as I can make allowance for your being +vexed,’ returned the other, with a smile, ‘I am as +deaf to harsh discourse this morning, as I was to all discourse +last night.’</p> +<p>The look that Tackleton bestowed upon him, and the start he +gave!</p> +<p>‘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.’</p> +<p>Tackleton looked hard at the third finger, and took a little +piece of silver-paper, apparently containing a ring, from his +waistcoat-pocket.</p> +<p>‘Miss Slowboy,’ said Tackleton. ‘Will +you have the kindness to throw that in the fire? +Thank’ee.’</p> +<p>‘It was a previous engagement, quite an old engagement, +that prevented my wife from keeping her appointment with you, I +assure you,’ said Edward.</p> +<p>‘Mr. Tackleton will do me the justice to acknowledge +that I revealed it to him faithfully; and that I told him, many +times, I never could forget it,’ said May, blushing.</p> +<p>‘Oh certainly!’ said Tackleton. ‘Oh to +be sure. Oh it’s all right. It’s quite +correct. Mrs. Edward Plummer, I infer?’</p> +<p>‘That’s the name,’ returned the +bridegroom.</p> +<p>‘Ah, I shouldn’t have known you, sir,’ said +Tackleton, scrutinising his face narrowly, and making a low +bow. ‘I give you joy, sir!’</p> +<p>‘Thank’ee.’</p> +<p>‘Mrs. Peerybingle,’ said Tackleton, turning +suddenly to where she stood with her husband; ‘I am +sorry. You haven’t done me a very great kindness, +but, upon my life I am sorry. You are better than I thought +you. John Peerybingle, I am sorry. You understand me; +that’s enough. It’s quite correct, ladies and +gentlemen all, and perfectly satisfactory. Good +morning!’</p> +<p>With these words he carried it off, and carried himself off +too: merely stopping at the door, to take the flowers and favours +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.</p> +<p>Of course it became a serious duty now, to make such a day of +it, as should mark these events for a high Feast and Festival in +the Peerybingle Calendar for evermore. Accordingly, Dot +went to work to produce such an entertainment, as should reflect +undying honour 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 iron pots full of cold water on the fire, and +made himself useful in all sorts of ways: 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 pitfall in the garret at +five-and-twenty minutes to three. The Baby’s head +was, as it were, a test and touchstone for every 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.</p> +<p>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 Expedition first +discovered her, she would listen to no terms at all, but said, an +unspeakable 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 +absurd, on account of her not being dead, or anything at 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 foreseen +that she would be exposed, during her whole life, to every +species of insult and contumely; and that she was glad to find it +was the case; and begged they wouldn’t trouble themselves +about her,—for what was she? oh, dear! a nobody!—but +would forget that such a being lived, and would take their course +in life without her. From this bitterly sarcastic mood, she +passed into an angry one, in which she 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>Then, Dot’s mother had to renew her acquaintance with +May’s mother; and May’s mother always stood on her +gentility; 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 himself 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.</p> +<p>I wouldn’t have missed Dot, doing the honours 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.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>And, by-the-by, a most unlooked-for incident occurred, just as +he finished the last verse.</p> +<p>There was a tap at the door; and a man came staggering in, +without saying with your leave, or by your leave, with something +heavy on his head. Setting this down in the middle of the +table, symmetrically in the centre of the nuts and apples, he +said:</p> +<p>‘Mr. Tackleton’s compliments, and as he +hasn’t got no use for the cake himself, p’raps +you’ll eat it.’</p> +<p>And with those words, he walked off.</p> +<p>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 +seminary for young ladies, blue. But she was overruled by +acclamation; and the cake was cut by May, with much ceremony and +rejoicing.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘Mr. Tackleton’s compliments, and he’s sent +a few toys for the Babby. They ain’t ugly.’</p> +<p>After the delivery of which expressions, he retired again.</p> +<p>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.</p> +<p>‘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’m sour by disposition; +but I can’t help being sweetened, more or less, 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 the thread. I blush to think how easily +I might have bound you and your daughter to me, and what a +miserable idiot I was, when I took her for one! Friends, +one and all, my house is very lonely to-night. I 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!’</p> +<p>He was at home in five minutes. You never saw such a +fellow. What <i>had</i> he been doing with himself all his +life, never to have known, before, his great capacity of being +jovial! Or what had the Fairies been doing with him, to +have effected such a change!</p> +<p>‘John! you won’t send me home this evening; will +you?’ whispered Dot.</p> +<p>He had been very near it though!</p> +<p>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 the fire. But +suddenly yielding to the conviction that the Deputy was a humbug, +and must be abandoned, he had got up again, turned tail, and come +home.</p> +<p>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 uncommon figure. It was formed in an odd +way; in this way.</p> +<p>Edward, that sailor-fellow—a good free dashing sort of a +fellow he was—had been telling them various marvels +concerning parrots, and mines, and Mexicans, and gold dust, when +all at once he 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>I</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 <i>her</i> dancing days were over, +after that; and everybody said the same, except May; May was +ready.</p> +<p>So, May and Edward got up, amid great applause, to dance +alone; and Bertha plays her liveliest tune.</p> +<p>Well! if you’ll 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 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 in 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 belief that +diving hotly in among the other couples, and effecting any number +of concussions with them, is your only principle of footing +it.</p> +<p>Hark! how the Cricket joins the music with its Chirp, Chirp, +Chirp; and how the kettle hums!</p> +<p style="text-align: center">* * * * *</p> +<p>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 lies upon the ground; and nothing else +remains.</p> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH***</p> +<pre> + + +***** This file should be named 678-h.htm or 678-h.zip****** + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/6/7/678 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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