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diff --git a/old/tcoth11.txt b/old/tcoth11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0501ba6 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/tcoth11.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4098 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Cricket on the Hearth, by Charles Dickens +(#10 in our series by Charles Dickens) + +Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the +copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing +this or any other Project Gutenberg eBook. + +This header should be the first thing seen when viewing this Project +Gutenberg file. Please do not remove it. Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Cricket on the Hearth + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Release Date: October, 1996 [EBook #678] +[This file was first posted on September 25, 1996] +[Most recently updated: September 8, 2002] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH *** + + + + +Transcribed from the Charles Scribner's Sons "Works of Charles +Dickens" edition by David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + +THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH + + + + +CHAPTER I--Chirp the First + + + +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. + +As if the clock hadn't finished striking, and the convulsive little +Haymaker at the top of it, jerking away right and left with a +scythe in front of a Moorish Palace, hadn't mowed down half an acre +of imaginary grass before the Cricket joined in at all! + +Why, I am not naturally positive. 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 act. 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. + +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? + +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. + +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. + +Besides, the kettle was aggravating and obstinate. It wouldn't +allow itself to be adjusted on the top bar; it wouldn't hear of +accommodating itself kindly to the knobs of coal; it WOULD lean +forward 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. + +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!' + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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! - + +And here, if you like, the Cricket DID chime in! with a Chirrup, +Chirrup, Chirrup of such magnitude, by way of chorus; with a voice +so astoundingly disproportionate to its size, as compared with the +kettle; (size! you couldn't see it!) that if it had then and there +burst itself like an 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. + +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. + +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. + +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!' + +This end attained, the kettle, being dead beat, boiled over, and +was taken off the fire. Mrs. Peerybingle then went running to the +door, where, what with the wheels of a cart, the tramp of a horse, +the voice of a man, the tearing in and out of an excited dog, and +the surprising and mysterious appearance of a baby, there was soon +the very What's-his-name to pay. + +Where the baby came from, or how Mrs. Peerybingle got hold of it in +that flash of time, _I_ don't know. But a live baby there was, in +Mrs. Peerybingle's arms; and a 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. + +'Oh goodness, John!' said Mrs. P. 'What a state you are in with +the weather!' + +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. + +'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.' + +'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 DID +like it, very much. + +'Why what else are you?' returned John, looking down upon her with +a smile, and giving her waist as light a squeeze as his huge hand +and arm could give. 'A dot and'--here he glanced at the baby--'a +dot and carry--I won't say it, for fear I should spoil it; but I +was very near a joke. I don't know as ever I was nearer.' + +He was often near to something or other very clever, by his own +account: this lumbering, slow, honest John; this John so heavy, +but so light of spirit; so rough upon the surface, but so gentle at +the core; so dull without, so quick within; so stolid, but so good! +Oh Mother Nature, give thy children the true poetry of heart that +hid itself in this poor Carrier's breast--he was but a Carrier by +the way--and we can bear to have them talking prose, and leading +lives of prose; and bear to bless thee for their company! + +It was pleasant to see Dot, with her little figure, and her baby in +her arms: a very 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. + +'An't he beautiful, John? Don't he look precious in his sleep?' + +'Very precious,' said John. 'Very much so. He generally IS +asleep, an't he?' + +'Lor, John! Good gracious no!' + +'Oh,' said John, pondering. 'I thought his eyes was generally +shut. Halloa!' + +'Goodness, John, how you startle one!' + +'It an't right for him to turn 'em up in that way!' said the +astonished Carrier, 'is it? See how he's winking with both of 'em +at once! And look at his mouth! Why he's gasping like a gold and +silver fish!' + +'You don't deserve to be a father, you don't,' said Dot, with all +the dignity of an experienced matron. 'But how should you know +what little complaints children are troubled with, John! You +wouldn't so much as know their names, you stupid fellow.' And when +she had turned the baby over on her left arm, and had slapped its +back as a restorative, she pinched her husband's ear, laughing. + +'No,' said John, pulling off his outer coat. 'It's very true, Dot. +I don't know much about it. I only know that I've been fighting +pretty stiffly with the wind to-night. It's been blowing north- +east, straight into the cart, the whole way home.' + +'Poor old man, so it has!' cried Mrs. Peerybingle, instantly +becoming very active. 'Here! Take the precious darling, Tilly, +while I make 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?' + +'Not to quite know it,' John returned. 'I was very near it once. +But I should only have spoilt it, I dare say.' + +'Ha ha,' laughed Dot. She had the blithest little laugh you ever +heard. 'What a dear old darling of a dunce you are, John, to be +sure!' + +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. + +'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?' + +'Don't let the dear child fall under the grate, Tilly, whatever you +do!' + +It may be noted of Miss Slowboy, in spite of her rejecting the +caution with some vivacity, that she had a rare and surprising +talent for getting this baby into difficulties and had several +times imperilled its short life, in a quiet way peculiarly her own. +She was of a spare and straight shape, this young lady, insomuch +that her garments appeared to be in constant danger of sliding off +those sharp pegs, her shoulders, on 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. + +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. + +'Heyday!' said John, in his slow way. 'It's merrier than ever, to- +night, I think.' + +'And it's sure to bring us good fortune, John! It always has done +so. To have a Cricket on the Hearth, is the luckiest thing in all +the world!' + +John looked at her as if he had very nearly got the thought into +his head, that she was his Cricket in chief, and he quite agreed +with her. But, it was probably one of his narrow escapes, for he +said nothing. + +'The first time I heard its cheerful little note, John, was on that +night when you brought me home--when you brought me to my new home +here; its little mistress. Nearly a year ago. You recollect, +John?' + +O yes. John remembered. I should think so! + +'Its chirp was such a welcome to me! It seemed so full of promise +and encouragement. It seemed to say, you would be kind and gentle +with me, and would not expect (I had a fear of that, John, then) to +find an old head on the shoulders of your foolish little wife.' + +John thoughtfully patted one of the shoulders, and then the head, +as though he 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. + +'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!' + +'Why so do I then,' said the Carrier. 'So do I, Dot.' + +'I love it for the many times I have heard it, and the many +thoughts its harmless music has given me. Sometimes, in the +twilight, when I have felt a little solitary and down-hearted, +John--before baby was here to keep me company and make the house +gay--when I have thought how lonely you would be if I should die; +how lonely I should be if I could know that you had lost me, dear; +its Chirp, Chirp, Chirp upon the hearth, has seemed to tell me of +another little voice, so sweet, so very dear to me, before whose +coming sound my trouble vanished like a dream. And when I used to +fear--I did fear once, John, I was very young you know--that ours +might prove to be an ill-assorted marriage, I being such a child, +and you more like my guardian than my husband; and that you might +not, however hard you tried, be able to learn to love me, as you +hoped and prayed you might; its Chirp, Chirp, Chirp has cheered me +up again, and filled me with new trust and confidence. I was +thinking of these things to-night, dear, when I sat expecting you; +and I love the Cricket for their sake!' + +'And so do I,' repeated John. 'But, Dot? _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!' + +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. + +'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?' + +'Oh yes,' John said. 'A good many.' + +'Why what's this round box? Heart alive, John, it's a wedding- +cake!' + +'Leave a woman alone to find out that,' said John, 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.' + +'And it weighs I don't know what--whole hundredweights!' cried Dot, +making a great demonstration of trying to lift it. + +'Whose is it, John? Where is it going?' + +'Read the writing on the other side,' said John. + +'Why, John! My Goodness, John!' + +'Ah! who'd have thought it!' John returned. + +'You never mean to say,' pursued Dot, sitting on the floor and +shaking her head at him, 'that it's Gruff and Tackleton the +toymaker!' + +John nodded. + +Mrs. Peerybingle nodded also, fifty times at least. Not in assent- +-in dumb and pitying amazement; screwing up her lips the while with +all their little force (they were never made for screwing up; I am +clear of that), and looking the good Carrier through and through, +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. + +'And that is really to come about!' said Dot. 'Why, she and I were +girls at school together, John.' + +He might have been thinking of her, or nearly thinking of her, +perhaps, as she was in that same school time. He looked upon her +with a thoughtful pleasure, but he made no answer. + +'And he's as old! As unlike her!--Why, how many years older than +you, is Gruff and Tackleton, John?' + +'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.' + +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. + +The Cricket, too, had stopped. Somehow the room was not so +cheerful as it had been. Nothing like it. + +'So, these are all the parcels, are they, 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?' + +'That's all,' said John. 'Why--no--I--' laying down his knife and +fork, and taking a long breath. 'I declare--I've clean forgotten +the old gentleman!' + +'The old gentleman?' + +'In the cart,' said John. 'He was asleep, among the straw, the +last time I saw him. I've very nearly remembered him, twice, since +I came in; but he went out of my head again. Holloa! Yahip there! +Rouse up! That's my hearty!' + +John said these latter words outside the door, whither he had +hurried with the candle in his hand. + +Miss Slowboy, conscious of some mysterious reference to The Old +Gentleman, and connecting in her mystified 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. + +'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!' + +The Stranger, who had long white hair, good features, singularly +bold and well defined for an old man, and dark, bright, penetrating +eyes, looked round with a smile, and saluted the Carrier's wife by +gravely inclining his head. + +His garb was very quaint and odd--a long, long way behind the time. +Its hue was brown, all over. In his hand he held a great brown +club or walking-stick; and striking this upon the floor, it fell +asunder, and became a chair. On which he sat down, quite +composedly. + +'There!' said the Carrier, turning to his wife. 'That's the way I +found him, sitting by the roadside! Upright as a milestone. And +almost as deaf.' + +'Sitting in the open air, John!' + +'In the open air,' replied the Carrier, 'just at dusk. "Carriage +Paid," he said; and gave me eighteenpence. Then he got in. And +there he is.' + +'He's going, John, I think!' + +Not at all. He was only going to speak. + +'If you please, I was to be left till called for,' said the +Stranger, mildly. 'Don't mind me.' + +With that, he took a pair of spectacles from one of his large +pockets, and a book from another, and leisurely began to read. +Making no more of Boxer than if he had been a house lamb! + +The Carrier and his wife exchanged a look of perplexity. The +Stranger raised his head; and glancing from the latter to the +former, said, + +'Your daughter, my good friend?' + +'Wife,' returned John. + +'Niece?' said the Stranger. + +'Wife,' roared John. + +'Indeed?' observed the Stranger. 'Surely? Very young!' + +He quietly turned over, and resumed his reading. But, before he +could have read two lines, he again interrupted himself to say: + +'Baby, yours?' + +John gave him a gigantic nod; equivalent to an answer in the +affirmative, delivered through a speaking trumpet. + +'Girl?' + +'Bo-o-oy!' roared John. + +'Also very young, eh?' + +Mrs. Peerybingle instantly struck in. 'Two months and three da- +ays! Vaccinated just six weeks ago-o! Took very fine-ly! +Considered, by the doctor, a remarkably beautiful chi-ild! Equal +to the general run of children at five months o-old! Takes notice, +in a way quite wonderful! May seem impossible to you, but feels +his legs al-ready!' + +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. + +'Hark! He's called for, sure enough,' said John. 'There's +somebody at the door. Open it, Tilly.' + +Before she could reach it, however, it was opened from without; +being a primitive sort of door, with a latch, that any one could +lift if he chose--and a good many people did choose, for all kinds +of neighbours liked to have a cheerful word or two with the +Carrier, though he was no great talker himself. Being opened, it +gave admission to a little, meagre, thoughtful, dingy-faced man, +who seemed to have made 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. + +'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?' + +'All thriving, Caleb,' replied Dot. 'I am sure you need only look +at the dear child, for one, to know that.' + +'And I'm sure I need only look at you for another,' said Caleb. + +He didn't look at her though; he had a wandering and thoughtful eye +which seemed to be always projecting itself into some other time +and place, no matter what he said; a description which will equally +apply to his voice. + +'Or at John for another,' said Caleb. 'Or at Tilly, as far as that +goes. Or certainly at Boxer.' + +'Busy just now, Caleb?' asked the Carrier. + +'Why, pretty well, John,' he returned, with the distraught air of a +man who was casting about for the Philosopher's stone, at least. +'Pretty much so. There's rather a run on Noah's Arks at present. +I could have wished to improve upon the Family, but I don't see how +it's to be done at the price. It would be a satisfaction to one's +mind, to make it clearer which was Shems and Hams, and which was +Wives. Flies an't on that scale neither, as compared with +elephants you know! Ah! well! Have you got anything in the parcel +line for me, John?' + +The Carrier put his hand into a pocket of the coat he had taken +off; and brought out, carefully preserved in moss and paper, a tiny +flower-pot. + +'There it is!' he said, adjusting it with great care. 'Not so much +as a leaf damaged. Full of buds!' + +Caleb's dull eye brightened, as he took it, and thanked him. + +'Dear, Caleb,' said the Carrier. 'Very dear at this season.' + +'Never mind that. It would be cheap to me, whatever it cost,' +returned the little man. 'Anything else, John?' + +'A small box,' replied the Carrier. 'Here you are!' + +'"For Caleb Plummer,"' said the little man, spelling out the +direction. '"With Cash." With Cash, John? I don't think it's for +me.' + +'With Care,' returned the Carrier, looking over his shoulder. +'Where do you make out cash?' + +'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_ 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.' + +'I wish it was, or could be!' cried the Carrier. + +'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?' + +'I'll damage you,' said John, 'if you inquire. Dot! Very near?' + +'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.' + +'I think not,' said the Carrier. 'Try again.' + +'Something for our Governor, eh?' said Caleb, after pondering a +little while. 'To be sure. That's what I came for; but my head's +so running on them Arks and things! He hasn't been here, has he?' + +'Not he,' returned the Carrier. 'He's too busy, courting.' + +'He's coming round though,' said Caleb; 'for he told me to keep on +the near side of the road going home, and it was ten to one he'd +take me up. I had better go, by the bye.--You couldn't have the +goodness to let me pinch Boxer's tail, Mum, for half a moment, +could you?' + +'Why, Caleb! what a question!' + +'Oh never mind, Mum,' said the little man. 'He mightn't like it +perhaps. There's a small order just come in, for barking dogs; and +I should wish to go as close to Natur' as I could, for sixpence. +That's all. Never mind, Mum.' + +It happened opportunely, that Boxer, without receiving the proposed +stimulus, began to bark with great zeal. But, as this implied the +approach of some new visitor, Caleb, 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. + +'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!' + +'I should be astonished at your paying compliments, Mr. Tackleton,' +said Dot, not with the best grace in the world; 'but for your +condition.' + +'You know all about it then?' + +'I have got myself to believe it, somehow,' said Dot. + +'After a hard struggle, I suppose?' + +'Very.' + +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. + +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. + +Still, Tackleton, the toy-merchant, was going to be married. In +spite of all this, he was going to be married. And to a young wife +too, a beautiful young wife. + +He didn't look much like a bridegroom, as he stood in the Carrier's +kitchen, with a twist in his dry face, and a screw in his body, and +his hat jerked over the bridge of his nose, and his hands tucked +down into the bottoms of his pockets, and his whole sarcastic ill- +conditioned self peering out of one little corner of one little +eye, like the concentrated essence of any number of ravens. But, a +Bridegroom he designed to be. + +'In three days' time. Next Thursday. The last day of the first +month in the year. That's my wedding-day,' said Tackleton. + +Did I mention that he had always one eye wide open, and one eye +nearly shut; and that the one eye nearly shut, was always the +expressive eye? I don't think I did. + +'That's my wedding-day!' said Tackleton, rattling his money. + +'Why, it's our wedding-day too,' exclaimed the Carrier. + +'Ha ha!' laughed Tackleton. 'Odd! You're just such another +couple. Just!' + +The indignation of Dot at this presumptuous assertion is not to be +described. What next? His imagination would compass the +possibility of just such another Baby, perhaps. The man was mad. + +'I say! A word with you,' murmured Tackleton, nudging the Carrier +with his elbow, and taking him a little apart. 'You'll come to the +wedding? We're in the same boat, you know.' + +'How in the same boat?' inquired the Carrier. + +'A little disparity, you know,' said Tackleton, with another nudge. +'Come and spend an evening with us, beforehand.' + +'Why?' demanded John, astonished at this pressing hospitality. + +'Why?' returned the other. 'That's a new way of receiving an +invitation. Why, for pleasure--sociability, you know, and all +that!' + +'I thought you were never sociable,' said John, in his plain way. + +'Tchah! It's of no use to be anything but free with you, 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--' + +'No, we don't know better,' interposed John. 'What are you talking +about?' + +'Well! We DON'T 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?' + +'We have arranged to keep our Wedding-Day (as far as that goes) at +home,' said John. 'We have made the promise to ourselves these six +months. We think, you see, that home--' + +'Bah! what's home?' cried Tackleton. 'Four walls and a ceiling! +(why don't you kill that Cricket? _I_ would! I always do. I hate +their noise.) There are four walls and a ceiling at my house. +Come to me!' + +'You kill your Crickets, eh?' said John. + +'Scrunch 'em, sir,' returned the other, setting his heel heavily on +the floor. 'You'll say you'll come? it's as much your interest as +mine, you know, that 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.' + +'Do you mean to say she don't, then?' asked the Carrier. + +'Don't!' cried Tackleton, with a short, sharp laugh. 'Don't what?' + +The Carrier had some faint idea of adding, 'dote upon you.' But, +happening to meet the half-closed eye, as it twinkled upon him over +the turned-up collar of the cape, which was within an ace of poking +it out, he felt it such an unlikely part and parcel of anything to +be doted on, that he substituted, 'that she don't believe it?' + +'Ah you dog! You're joking,' said Tackleton. + +But the Carrier, though slow to understand the full drift of his +meaning, eyed him in such a serious manner, that he was obliged to +be a little more explanatory. + +'I have the humour,' said Tackleton: holding up the fingers of his +left hand, and tapping the forefinger, to imply 'there I am, +Tackleton to wit:' 'I have the humour, sir, to marry a young wife, +and a pretty wife:' here he rapped his little finger, to express +the Bride; not sparingly, but sharply; with a sense of power. 'I'm +able to gratify that humour and I do. It's my whim. But--now look +there!' + +He pointed to where Dot was sitting, thoughtfully, before the fire; +leaning her dimpled chin upon her hand, and watching the bright +blaze. The Carrier looked at her, and then at him, and then at +her, and then at him again. + +'She honours and obeys, no doubt, you know,' said Tackleton; 'and +that, as I am not a man of sentiment, is quite enough for ME. But +do you think there's anything more in it?' + +'I think,' observed the Carrier, 'that I should chuck any man out +of window, who said there wasn't.' + +'Exactly so,' returned the other with an unusual alacrity of +assent. 'To be sure! Doubtless you would. Of course. I'm +certain of it. Good night. Pleasant dreams!' + +The Carrier was puzzled, and made uncomfortable and uncertain, in +spite of himself. He couldn't help showing it, in his manner. + +'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!' + +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. + +'Dot!' cried the Carrier. 'Mary! Darling! What's the matter?' + +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. + +'Mary!' exclaimed the Carrier, supporting her in his arms. 'Are +you ill! What is it? Tell me, dear!' + +She only answered by beating her hands together, and falling into a +wild fit of laughter. Then, sinking from his grasp upon the +ground, she covered her face with her apron, and wept bitterly. +And then she laughed again, and then she cried again, and then she +said how cold 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. + +'I'm better, John,' she said. 'I'm quite well now--I -' + +'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? + +'Only a fancy, John dear--a kind of shock--a something coming +suddenly before my eyes--I don't know what it was. It's quite +gone, quite gone.' + +'I'm glad it's gone,' muttered Tackleton, turning the expressive +eye all round the room. 'I wonder where it's gone, and what it +was. Humph! Caleb, come here! Who's that with the grey hair?' + +'I don't know, sir,' returned Caleb in a whisper. 'Never see him +before, in all my life. A beautiful figure for a nut-cracker; +quite a new model. With a screw-jaw opening down into his +waistcoat, he'd be lovely.' + +'Not ugly enough,' said Tackleton. + +'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!' + +'Not half ugly enough,' said Tackleton. 'Nothing in him at all! +Come! Bring that box! All right now, I hope?' + +'Quite gone!' said the little woman, waving him hurriedly away. +'Good night!' + +'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!' + +So, with another sharp look round the room, he went out at the +door; followed by Caleb with the wedding-cake on his head. + +The Carrier had been so much astounded by his 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. + +'He don't belong to them, you see,' said John. 'I must give him a +hint to go.' + +'I beg your pardon, friend,' said the old gentleman, advancing to +him; 'the more so, as I fear your wife has not been well; but the +Attendant whom my infirmity,' he touched his ears and shook his +head, 'renders almost indispensable, not having arrived, I fear +there must be some mistake. The bad night which made the shelter +of your comfortable cart (may I never have a worse!) so acceptable, +is still as bad as ever. Would you, in your kindness, suffer me to +rent a bed here?' + +'Yes, yes,' cried Dot. 'Yes! Certainly!' + +'Oh!' said the Carrier, surprised by the rapidity of this consent. + +'Well! I don't object; but, still I'm not quite sure that--' + +'Hush!' she interrupted. 'Dear John!' + +'Why, he's stone deaf,' urged John. + +'I know he is, but--Yes, sir, certainly. Yes! certainly! I'll +make him up a bed, directly, John.' + +As she hurried off to do it, the flutter of her spirits, and the +agitation of her manner, were so strange that the Carrier stood +looking after her, quite confounded. + +'Did its mothers make it up a Beds then!' 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!' + +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. + +'And frighten it, a precious Pets, a-sitting by the fires. What +frightened Dot, I wonder!' mused the Carrier, pacing to and fro. + +He scouted, from his heart, the insinuations of the Toy-merchant, +and yet they filled him with a vague, indefinite uneasiness. For, +Tackleton was quick and sly; and he had that painful sense, +himself, of being 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. + +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. + +She always WOULD sit on that little stool. I think she must have +had a kind of notion that it was a coaxing, wheedling little stool. + +She was, out and out, the very best filler of a pipe, I should say, +in the four quarters of the globe. To see her put that chubby +little finger in the bowl, and then blow down the pipe to clear the +tube, and, when she had done so, 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. + +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. + +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. + + +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!' + +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! + + + +CHAPTER II--Chirp The Second + + + +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. + +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. + +But, it was the germ from which the full-grown trunk of Gruff and +Tackleton had sprung; and, under its crazy roof, the Gruff before +last, had, in a small way, made toys for a generation of old boys +and girls, who had played with them, and found them out, and broken +them, and gone to sleep. + +I have said that Caleb and his poor Blind Daughter lived here. I +should have said that Caleb lived here, and his poor Blind Daughter +somewhere else--in an enchanted home of Caleb's furnishing, where +scarcity and shabbiness were not, and trouble never entered. Caleb +was no sorcerer, but in the only magic art that still remains to +us, the magic of devoted, deathless love, Nature had been the +mistress of his study; and from her teaching, all the wonder came. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +'So you were out in the rain last night, father, in your beautiful +new great-coat,' said Caleb's daughter. + +'In my beautiful new great-coat,' answered Caleb, glancing towards +a clothes-line in the room, on which the sack-cloth garment +previously described, was carefully hung up to dry. + +'How glad I am you bought it, father!' + +'And of such a tailor, too,' said Caleb. 'Quite a fashionable +tailor. It's too good for me.' + +The Blind Girl rested from her work, and laughed with delight. + +'Too good, father! What can be too good for you?' + +'I'm half-ashamed to wear it though,' said Caleb, watching the +effect of what he said, upon her brightening face; 'upon my word! +When I hear the boys and people say behind me, "Hal-loa! Here's a +swell!" I don't know which way to look. And when the beggar +wouldn't go away last night; and when I said I was a very common +man, said "No, your 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.' + +Happy Blind Girl! How merry she was, in her exultation! + +'I see you, father,' she said, clasping her hands, 'as plainly, as +if I had the eyes I never want when you are with me. A blue coat-- +' + +'Bright blue,' said Caleb. + +'Yes, yes! Bright blue!' exclaimed the girl, turning up her +radiant face; 'the colour I can just remember in the blessed sky! +You told me it was blue before! A bright blue coat--' + +'Made loose to the figure,' suggested Caleb. + +'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!' + +'Halloa! Halloa!' said Caleb. 'I shall be vain, presently!' + +'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!' + +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! + +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! + +'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.' + +'You are speaking quite softly. You are not tired, father?' + +'Tired!' echoed Caleb, with a great burst of animation, 'what +should tire me, Bertha? _I_ was never tired. What does it mean?' + +To give the greater force to his words, he checked himself in an +involuntary imitation of two half-length stretching and yawning +figures on the mantel-shelf, who were represented as in one eternal +state of weariness from the waist upwards; 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. + +'What! You're singing, are you?' said Tackleton, putting his head +in at the door. 'Go it! _I_ can't sing.' + +Nobody would have suspected him of it. He hadn't what is generally +termed a singing face, by any means. + +'I can't afford to sing,' said Tackleton. 'I'm glad YOU CAN. I +hope you can afford to work too. Hardly time for both, I should +think?' + +'If you could only see him, Bertha, how he's winking at me!' +whispered Caleb. 'Such a man to joke! you'd think, if you didn't +know him, he was in earnest--wouldn't you now?' + +The Blind Girl smiled and nodded. + +'The bird that can sing and won't sing, must be made to sing, they +say,' grumbled Tackleton. 'What about the owl that can't sing, and +oughtn't to sing, and will sing; is there anything that HE should +be made to do?' + +'The extent to which he's winking at this moment!' whispered Caleb +to his daughter. 'O, my gracious!' + +'Always merry and light-hearted with us!' cried the smiling Bertha. + +'O, you're there, are you?' answered Tackleton. 'Poor Idiot!' + +He really did believe she was an Idiot; and he founded the belief, +I can't say whether consciously or not, upon her being fond of him. + +'Well! and being there,--how are you?' said Tackleton, in his +grudging way. + +'Oh! well; quite well. And as happy as even you can wish me to be. +As happy as you would make the whole world, if you could!' + +'Poor Idiot!' muttered Tackleton. 'No gleam of reason. Not a +gleam!' + +The Blind Girl took his hand and kissed it; held it for a moment in +her own two hands; and laid her cheek against it tenderly, before +releasing it. There was such unspeakable affection and such +fervent gratitude in the act, that Tackleton himself was moved to +say, in a milder growl than usual: + +'What's the matter now?' + +'I stood it close beside my pillow when I went to sleep last night, +and remembered it in my dreams. And when the day broke, and the +glorious red sun--the RED sun, father?' + +'Red in the mornings and the evenings, Bertha,' said poor Caleb, +with a woeful glance at his employer. + +'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!' + +'Bedlam broke loose!' said Tackleton under his breath. 'We shall +arrive at the strait-waistcoat and mufflers soon. We're getting +on!' + +Caleb, with his hands hooked loosely in each other, stared vacantly +before him while his daughter spoke, as if he really were uncertain +(I believe he was) whether Tackleton had done 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. + +'Bertha!' said Tackleton, assuming, for the nonce, a little +cordiality. 'Come here.' + +'Oh! I can come straight to you! You needn't guide me!' she +rejoined. + +'Shall I tell you a secret, Bertha?' + +'If you will!' she answered, eagerly. + +How bright the darkened face! How adorned with light, the +listening head! + +'This is the day on which little what's-her-name, the spoilt child, +Peerybingle's wife, pays her regular visit to you--makes her +fantastic Pic-Nic here; an't it?' said Tackleton, with a strong +expression of distaste for the whole concern. + +'Yes,' replied Bertha. 'This is the day.' + +'I thought so,' said Tackleton. 'I should like to join the party.' + +'Do you hear that, father!' cried the Blind Girl in an ecstasy. + +'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.' + +'You see I--I want to bring the Peerybingles a little more into +company with May Fielding,' said Tackleton. 'I am going to be +married to May.' + +'Married!' cried the Blind Girl, starting from him. + +'She's such a con-founded Idiot,' muttered Tackleton, 'that I was +afraid she'd never comprehend me. Ah, Bertha! Married! Church, +parson, clerk, beadle, glass-coach, bells, breakfast, bride-cake, +favours, marrow-bones, cleavers, and all the rest of the +tomfoolery. A wedding, you know; a wedding. Don't you know what a +wedding is?' + +'I know,' replied the Blind Girl, in a gentle tone. 'I +understand!' + +'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?' + +'Yes,' she answered. + +She had drooped her head, and turned away; and so stood, with her +hands crossed, musing. + +'I don't think you will,' muttered Tackleton, looking at her; 'for +you seem to have forgotten all about it, already. Caleb!' + +'I may venture to say I'm here, I suppose,' thought Caleb. 'Sir!' + +'Take care she don't forget what I've been saying to her.' + +'SHE never forgets,' returned Caleb. 'It's one of the few things +she an't clever in.' + +'Every man thinks his own geese swans,' observed the Toy-merchant, +with a shrug. 'Poor devil!' + +Having delivered himself of which remark, with infinite contempt, +old Gruff and Tackleton withdrew. + +Bertha remained where he had left her, lost in meditation. The +gaiety had vanished from her downcast face, and it was very sad. +Three or four times she shook her head, as if bewailing some +remembrance or some loss; but her sorrowful reflections found no +vent in words. + +It was not until Caleb had been occupied, some time, in 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: + +'Father, I am lonely in the dark. I want my eyes, my patient, +willing eyes.' + +'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?' + +'Look round the room, father.' + +'All right,' said Caleb. 'No sooner said than done, Bertha.' + +'Tell me about it.' + +'It's much the same as usual,' said Caleb. 'Homely, but very snug. +The gay colours on the walls; the bright flowers on the plates and +dishes; the shining wood, where there are beams or panels; the +general cheerfulness and neatness of the building; make it very +pretty.' + +Cheerful and neat it was wherever Bertha's hands could busy +themselves. But nowhere else, were cheerfulness and neatness +possible, in the old crazy shed which Caleb's fancy so transformed. + +'You have your working dress on, and are not so gallant as when you +wear the handsome coat?' said Bertha, touching him. + +'Not quite so gallant,' answered Caleb. 'Pretty brisk though.' + +'Father,' said the Blind Girl, drawing close to his side, and +stealing one arm round his neck, 'tell me something about May. She +is very fair?' + +'She is indeed,' said Caleb. And she was indeed. It was quite a +rare thing to Caleb, not to have to draw on his invention. + +'Her hair is dark,' said Bertha, pensively, 'darker than mine. Her +voice is sweet and musical, I know. I have often loved to hear it. +Her shape--' + +'There's not a Doll's in all the room to equal it,' said Caleb. +'And her eyes!--' + +He stopped; for Bertha had drawn closer round his neck, and from +the arm that clung about him, came a warning pressure which he +understood too well. + +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. + +'Our friend, father, our benefactor. I am never tired, you know, +of hearing about him.--Now, was I ever?' she said, hastily. + +'Of course not,' answered Caleb, 'and with reason.' + +'Ah! With how much reason!' cried the Blind Girl. With such +fervency, that Caleb, though his motives were so pure, could not +endure to meet her face; but dropped his eyes, as if she could have +read in them his innocent deceit. + +'Then, tell me again about him, dear father,' said Bertha. 'Many +times again! His face is benevolent, kind, and tender. Honest and +true, I am sure it is. The manly heart that tries to cloak all +favours with a show of roughness and unwillingness, beats in its +every look and glance.' + +'And makes it noble!' added Caleb, in his quiet desperation. + +'And makes it noble!' cried the Blind Girl. 'He is older than May, +father.' + +'Ye-es,' said Caleb, reluctantly. 'He's a little older than May. +But that don't signify.' + +'Oh father, yes! To be his patient companion in infirmity and age; +to be his gentle 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? + +'No doubt of it,' said Caleb. + +'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. + +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. + +As to a chair, or anything of that kind for helping Mrs. +Peerybingle into the cart, you know very little of John, if you +think THAT was necessary. Before you could have seen him lift her +from the ground, there she was in her place, fresh and rosy, +saying, 'John! How CAN you! Think of Tilly!' + +If I might be allowed to mention a young lady's legs, on any terms, +I would observe of Miss Slowboy's that 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. + +'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.' + +'You're a nice little article,' returned the Carrier, 'to be +talking about turning round, after keeping me a full quarter of an +hour behind my time.' + +'I am sorry for it, John,' said Dot in a great bustle, 'but I +really could not think of going to Bertha's--I would not do it, +John, on any account--without the Veal and Ham-Pie and things, and +the bottles of Beer. Way!' + +This monosyllable was addressed to the horse, who didn't mind it at +all. + +'Oh DO way, John!' said Mrs. Peerybingle. 'Please!' + +'It'll be time enough to do that,' returned John, 'when I begin to +leave things behind me. The basket's here, safe enough.' + +'What a hard-hearted monster you must be, John, not to have said +so, at once, and save me such a turn! I 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.' + +'It was a kind thought in the first instance,' said the Carrier: +'and I honour you for it, little woman.' + +'My dear John,' replied Dot, turning very red, 'don't talk about +honouring ME. Good Gracious!' + +'By the bye--' observed the Carrier. 'That old gentleman--' + +Again so visibly, and instantly embarrassed! + +'He's an odd fish,' said the Carrier, looking straight along the +road before them. 'I can't make him out. I don't believe there's +any harm in him.' + +'None at all. I'm--I'm sure there's none at all.' + +'Yes,' said the Carrier, with his eyes attracted to her face by the +great earnestness of her manner. 'I am glad you feel so certain of +it, because it's a confirmation to me. It's curious that he should +have taken it into his head to ask leave to go on lodging with us; +an't it? Things come about so strangely.' + +'So very strangely,' she rejoined in a low voice, scarcely audible. + +'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 WAS sound asleep, sure-ly!--Dot! what are you thinking +of?' + +'Thinking of, John? I--I was listening to you.' + +'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.' + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +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. + +'May! My dear old friend!' cried Dot, running up to meet her. +'What a happiness to see you.' + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +Certainly, if these old gentlemen were inclined to have a fiendish +joy in the contemplation of Tackleton's discomfiture, they had good +reason to be satisfied. Tackleton couldn't get on at all; and the +more cheerful his intended bride became in Dot's society, the less +he liked it, though he had brought them together for that purpose. +For he was a regular dog in the manger, was Tackleton; and when +they laughed and he couldn't, he took it into his head, +immediately, that they must be laughing at him. + +'Ah, May!' said Dot. 'Dear dear, what changes! To talk of those +merry school-days makes one young again.' + +'Why, you an't particularly old, at any time; are you?' said +Tackleton. + +'Look at my sober plodding husband there,' returned Dot. 'He adds +twenty years to my age at least. Don't you, John?' + +'Forty,' John replied. + +'How many YOU'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.' + +'Ha ha!' laughed Tackleton. Hollow as a drum, that laugh though. +And he looked as if he could have twisted Dot's neck, comfortably. + +'Dear dear!' said Dot. 'Only to remember how we 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.' + +May seemed to know which to do; for the colour flushed into her +face, and tears stood in her eyes. + +'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?' + +Though May didn't say yes, she certainly didn't say no, or express +no, by any means. + +Tackleton laughed--quite shouted, he laughed so loud. John +Peerybingle laughed too, in his ordinary good-natured and contented +manner; but his was a mere whisper of a laugh, to Tackleton's. + +'You couldn't help yourselves, for all that. You couldn't resist +us, you see,' said Tackleton. 'Here we are! Here we are!' + +'Where are your gay young bridegrooms now!' + +'Some of them are dead,' said Dot; 'and some of them forgotten. +Some of them, if they could stand among us at this moment, would +not believe we were the same creatures; would not believe that what +they saw and heard was real, and we COULD forget them so. No! they +would not believe one word of it!' + +'Why, Dot!' exclaimed the Carrier. 'Little woman!' + +She had spoken with such earnestness and fire, that she stood in +need of some recalling to herself, without doubt. Her husband's +check was very gentle, for he merely interfered, as he supposed, to +shield old Tackleton; but it proved 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. + +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. + +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. + +For you ought to know that he only rested there, and gave the old +horse a bait. He had to go some four of 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. + +There were two persons present, besides the bride and bridegroom +elect, who did but indifferent honour to the toast. One of these +was Dot, too flushed and discomposed to adapt herself to any small +occurrence of the moment; the other, Bertha, who rose up hurriedly, +before the rest, and left the table. + +'Good bye!' said stout John Peerybingle, pulling on his dreadnought +coat. 'I shall be back at the old time. Good bye all!' + +'Good bye, John,' returned Caleb. + +He seemed to say it by rote, and to wave his hand in the same +unconscious manner; for he stood observing Bertha with an anxious +wondering face, that never altered its expression. + +'Good bye, young shaver!' said the jolly Carrier, bending down to +kiss the child; which Tilly Slowboy, now intent upon her knife and +fork, had deposited asleep (and strange to say, without damage) in +a little cot of Bertha's furnishing; 'good bye! Time will come, I +suppose, when YOU'LL turn out into the cold, my little friend, and +leave your old father to enjoy his pipe and his rheumatics in the +chimney-corner; eh? Where's Dot?' + +'I'm here, John!' she said, starting. + +'Come, come!' returned the Carrier, clapping his sounding hands. +'Where's the pipe?' + +'I quite forgot the pipe, John.' + +Forgot the pipe! Was such a wonder ever heard of! She! Forgot +the pipe! + +'I'll--I'll fill it directly. It's soon done.' + +But it was not so soon done, either. It lay in the usual place-- +the Carrier's dreadnought pocket--with 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. + +'Why, what a clumsy Dot you are, this afternoon!' said John. 'I +could have done it better myself, I verify believe!' + +With these good-natured words, he strode away, and presently was +heard, in company with Boxer, and the old horse, and the cart, +making lively music down the road. What time the dreamy Caleb +still stood, watching his blind daughter, with the same expression +on his face. + +'Bertha!' said Caleb, softly. 'What has happened? How changed you +are, my darling, in a few hours--since this morning. YOU silent +and dull all day! What is it? Tell me!' + +'Oh father, father!' cried the Blind Girl, bursting into tears. +'Oh my hard, hard fate!' + +Caleb drew his hand across his eyes before he answered her. + +'But think how cheerful and how happy you have been, Bertha! How +good, and how much loved, by many people.' + +'That strikes me to the heart, dear father! Always so mindful of +me! Always so kind to me!' + +Caleb was very much perplexed to understand her. + +'To be--to be blind, Bertha, my poor dear,' he faltered, 'is a +great affliction; but--' + +'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.' + +'And they will again,' said Caleb. + +'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!' + +Her father could not choose but let his moist eyes overflow; she +was so earnest and pathetic, but he did not understand her, yet. + +'Bring her to me,' said Bertha. 'I cannot hold it closed and shut +within myself. Bring her to me, father!' + +She knew he hesitated, and said, 'May. Bring May!' + +May heard the mention of her name, and coming quietly towards her, +touched her on the arm. The Blind Girl turned immediately, and +held her by both hands. + +'Look into my face, Dear heart, Sweet heart!' said Bertha. 'Read +it with your beautiful eyes, and tell me if the truth is written on +it.' + +'Dear Bertha, Yes!' + +The Blind Girl still, upturning the blank sightless face, down +which the tears were coursing fast, addressed her in these words: + +'There is not, in my soul, a wish or thought that is not for your +good, bright May! There is not, in my soul, a grateful +recollection stronger than the deep remembrance which is stored +there, of the many many times when, in the full pride of 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!' + +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. + +'Great Power!' exclaimed her father, smitten at one blow with the +truth, 'have I deceived her from the cradle, but to break her heart +at last!' + +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. + +'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!' + +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. + +'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?' + +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. + +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. + +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!' + +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. + +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! + +'Whose step is that!' cried Bertha, starting up. + +'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.' + +'The other step,' said Bertha. 'The man's tread behind you!' + +'She is not to be deceived,' observed the Carrier, laughing. 'Come +along, sir. You'll be welcome, never fear!' + +He spoke in a loud tone; and as he spoke, the deaf old gentleman +entered. + +'He's not so much a stranger, that you haven't seen him once, +Caleb,' said the Carrier. 'You'll give him house-room till we go?' + +'Oh surely, John, and take it as an honour.' + +'He's the best company on earth, to talk secrets in,' said John. +'I have reasonable good lungs, but he tries 'em, I can tell you. +Sit down, sir. All friends here, and glad to see you!' + +When he had imparted this assurance, in a voice that amply +corroborated what he had said about 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.' + +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. + +The Carrier was in high spirits, good fellow that he was, and +fonder of his little wife than ever. + +'A clumsy Dot she was, this afternoon!' he said, encircling her +with his rough arm, as she stood, removed from the rest; 'and yet I +like her somehow. See yonder, Dot!' + +He pointed to the old man. She looked down. I think she trembled. + +'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!' + +'I wish he had had a better subject, John,' she said, with an +uneasy glance about the room. At Tackleton especially. + +'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!' + +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. + +'I am sorry to disturb you--but a word, directly.' + +'I'm going to deal,' returned the Carrier. 'It's a crisis.' + +'It is,' said Tackleton. 'Come here, man!' + +There was that in his pale face which made the other rise +immediately, and ask him, in a hurry, what the matter was. + +'Hush! John Peerybingle,' said Tackleton. 'I am sorry for this. +I am indeed. I have been afraid of it. I have suspected it from +the first.' + +'What is it?' asked the Carrier, with a frightened aspect. + +'Hush! I'll show you, if you'll come with me.' + +The Carrier accompanied him, without another word. They went +across a yard, where the stars were shining, and by a little side- +door, into Tackleton'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. + +'A moment!' said Tackleton. 'Can you bear to look through that +window, do you think?' + +'Why not?' returned the Carrier. + +'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.' + +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 - + +Oh Shadow on the Hearth! Oh truthful Cricket! Oh perfidious Wife! + +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! + +He clenched his strong right hand at first, as if it would have +beaten down a lion. But opening it immediately again, he spread it +out before the eyes of Tackleton (for he was tender of her, even +then), and so, as they passed out, fell down upon a desk, and was +as weak as any infant. + +He was wrapped up to the chin, and busy with his horse and parcels, +when she came into the room, prepared for going home. + +'Now, John, dear! Good night, May! Good night, Bertha!' + +Could she kiss them? Could she be blithe and cheerful in her +parting? Could she venture to reveal her face to them without a +blush? Yes. Tackleton observed her closely, and she did all this. + +Tilly was hushing the Baby, and she crossed and re-crossed +Tackleton, a dozen times, repeating drowsily: + +'Did the knowledge that it was to be its wifes, then, wring its +hearts almost to breaking; and did its fathers deceive it from its +cradles but to break its hearts at last!' + +'Now, Tilly, give me the Baby! Good night, Mr. Tackleton. Where's +John, for goodness' sake?' + +'He's going to walk beside the horse's head,' said Tackleton; who +helped her to her seat. + +'My dear John. Walk? To-night?' + +The muffled figure of her husband made a hasty sign in the +affirmative; and the false stranger and the little nurse being in +their places, the old horse moved off. Boxer, the unconscious +Boxer, running on before, running back, running round and round the +cart, and barking as triumphantly and merrily as ever. + +When Tackleton had gone off likewise, escorting May and her mother +home, poor Caleb sat down by the fire beside his daughter; anxious +and remorseful at the core; and still saying in his wistful +contemplation of her, 'Have I deceived her from her cradle, but to +break her heart at last!' + +The toys that had been set in motion for the Baby, had all stopped, +and run down, long ago. In the faint light and silence, the +imperturbably calm 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. + + + +CHAPTER III--Chirp the Third + + + +The Dutch clock in the corner struck Ten, when the Carrier sat down +by his fireside. So troubled and grief-worn, that he seemed to +scare the Cuckoo, who, having cut his ten melodious announcements +as short as possible, plunged back into the Moorish Palace again, +and clapped his little door behind him, as if the unwonted +spectacle were too much for his feelings. + +If the little Haymaker had been armed with the sharpest of scythes, +and had cut at every stroke into the Carrier's heart, he never +could have gashed and wounded it, as Dot had done. + +It was a heart so full of love for her; so bound up and held +together by innumerable threads of winning 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. + +But, slowly, slowly, as the Carrier sat brooding on his hearth, now +cold and dark, other and fiercer thoughts began to rise within him, +as an angry wind comes rising in the night. The Stranger was +beneath his outraged roof. Three steps would take him to his +chamber-door. One blow would beat it in. 'You might do murder +before you know it,' Tackleton had said. How could it be murder, +if he gave the villain time to grapple with him hand to hand! He +was the younger man. + +It was an ill-timed thought, bad for the dark mood of his mind. It +was an angry thought, goading him to some avenging act, that should +change the 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. + +He was the younger man! Yes, yes; some lover who had won the heart +that HE had never touched. Some lover of her early choice, of whom +she had thought and dreamed, for whom she had pined and pined, when +he had fancied her so happy by his side. O agony to think of it! + +She had been above-stairs with the Baby, getting it to bed. As he +sat brooding on the hearth, she came close beside him, without his +knowledge--in the turning of the rack of his great misery, he lost +all other sounds--and put her little stool at his feet. He only +knew it, when he felt her hand upon his own, and saw her looking up +into his face. + +With wonder? No. It was his first impression, and he was fain to +look at her again, to set it right. No, not with wonder. With an +eager and inquiring look; but not with wonder. At first it was +alarmed and serious; then, it changed into a strange, wild, +dreadful smile of recognition of his thoughts; then, there was +nothing but her clasped hands on her brow, and her bent head, and +falling hair. + +Though the power of Omnipotence had been his to wield at that +moment, he had too much of its diviner property of Mercy in his +breast, to have turned one feather's weight of it against her. But +he could not bear to see her crouching down upon the little seat +where he had often looked on her, with love and pride, so innocent +and gay; and, when she rose and left him, sobbing as she went, he +felt it a relief to 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. + +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. + +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. + +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!' + +He reversed the gun to beat the stock up 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 - + +When, suddenly, the struggling fire illumined the whole chimney +with a glow of light; and the Cricket on the Hearth began to Chirp! + +No sound he could have heard, no human voice, not even hers, could +so have moved and softened him. The artless words in which she had +told him of her love for this same Cricket, were once more freshly +spoken; her trembling, earnest manner at the moment, was again +before him; her pleasant voice--O what a voice it was, for making +household music at the fireside of an honest man!--thrilled through +and through his better nature, and awoke it into life and action. + +He recoiled from the door, like a man 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. + +The Cricket on the Hearth came out into the room, and stood in +Fairy shape before him. + +'"I love it,"' said the Fairy Voice, repeating what he well +remembered, '"for the many times I have heard it, and the many +thoughts its harmless music has given me."' + +'She said so!' cried the Carrier. 'True!' + +'"This has been a happy home, John; and I love the Cricket for its +sake!"' + +'It has been, Heaven knows,' returned the Carrier. 'She made it +happy, always,--until now.' + +'So gracefully sweet-tempered; so domestic, joyful, busy, and +light-hearted!' said the Voice. + +'Otherwise I never could have loved her as I did,' returned the +Carrier. + +The Voice, correcting him, said 'do.' + +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. + +The Figure, in an attitude of invocation, raised its hand and said: + +'Upon your own hearth--' + +'The hearth she has blighted,' interposed the Carrier. + +'The hearth she has--how often!--blessed and brightened,' said the +Cricket; 'the hearth which, but for her, were only a few stones and +bricks and rusty bars, but which has been, through her, the Altar +of your Home; on which you have nightly sacrificed some petty +passion, selfishness, or care, and offered up the homage of a +tranquil mind, a trusting nature, and an overflowing heart; so that +the smoke from this poor chimney has gone upward with a better +fragrance than the richest incense that is burnt before the richest +shrines in all the gaudy temples of this world!--Upon your own +hearth; in its quiet sanctuary; surrounded by its gentle influences +and associations; hear her! Hear me! Hear everything that speaks +the language of your hearth and home!' + +'And pleads for her?' inquired the Carrier. + +'All things that speak the language of your hearth and home, must +plead for her!' returned the Cricket. 'For they speak the truth.' + +And while the Carrier, with his head upon his hands, continued to +sit meditating in his chair, the Presence stood beside him, +suggesting his reflections by its power, and presenting them before +him, as in a glass or picture. It was not a solitary Presence. +From the hearthstone, 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. + +His thoughts were constant to her image. It was always there. + +She sat plying her needle, before the fire, and singing to herself. +Such a blithe, thriving, steady 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!' + +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! + +Again the staring figures turned upon him all at once, and seemed +to say, 'Is this the wife who has forsaken you!' + +A shadow fell upon the mirror or the picture: call it what you +will. A great shadow of the Stranger, as he first stood underneath +their roof; covering its surface, and blotting out all other +objects. But the nimble Fairies worked like bees to clear it off +again. And Dot again was there. Still bright and beautiful. + +Rocking her little Baby in its cradle, singing to it softly, and +resting her head upon a shoulder which had its counterpart in the +musing figure by which the Fairy Cricket stood. + +The night--I mean the real night: not going by Fairy clocks--was +wearing now; and in this stage of the Carrier's thoughts, the moon +burst out, 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. + +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. + +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! + +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! + +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!' + +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. + +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. + +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! + +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. + +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. + +'John Peerybingle!' said Tackleton, with an air of condolence. 'My +good fellow, how do you find yourself this morning?' + +'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?' + +'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.' + +The Carrier having brought it from his stable, and set it before +him, they turned into the house. + +'You are not married before noon,' he said, 'I think?' + +'No,' answered Tackleton. 'Plenty of time. Plenty of time.' + +When they entered the kitchen, Tilly Slowboy was rapping at the +Stranger's door; which was only removed from it by a few steps. +One of her very red eyes (for Tilly had been crying all night long, +because her mistress cried) was at the keyhole; and she was +knocking very loud; and seemed frightened. + +'If you please I can't make nobody hear,' said Tilly, looking +round. 'I hope nobody an't gone and been and died if you please!' + +This philanthropic wish, Miss Slowboy emphasised with various new +raps and kicks at the door; which led to no result whatever. + +'Shall I go?' said Tackleton. 'It's curious.' + +The Carrier, who had turned his face from the door, signed to him +to go if he would. + +So Tackleton went to Tilly Slowboy's relief; and he too kicked and +knocked; and he too failed to get the least reply. But he thought +of trying the handle of the door; and as it opened easily, he +peeped in, looked in, went in, and soon came running out again. + +'John Peerybingle,' said Tackleton, in his ear. 'I hope there has +been nothing--nothing rash in the night?' + +The Carrier turned upon him quickly. + +'Because he's gone!' said Tackleton; 'and the window's open. I +don't see any marks--to be sure it's almost on a level with the +garden: but I was afraid there might have been some--some scuffle. +Eh?' + +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. + +'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!' + +'Oh!--Well, I think he has got off pretty easy,' said Tackleton, +taking a chair. + +The sneer was lost upon the Carrier, who sat down too, and shaded +his face with his hand, for some little time, before proceeding. + +'You showed me last night,' he said at length, 'my wife; my wife +that I love; secretly--' + +'And tenderly,' insinuated Tackleton. + +'Conniving at that man's disguise, and giving him 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.' + +'I confess to having had my suspicions always,' said Tackleton. +'And that has made me objectionable here, I know.' + +'But as you did show it me,' 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.' + +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. + +'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!' + +He paused, and softly beat the ground a short time with his foot, +before resuming. + +'I often thought that though I wasn't good enough for her, I should +make her a kind husband, and perhaps know her value better than +another; and in this way I reconciled it to myself, and came to +think it might be possible that we should be married. And in the +end it came about, and we were married.' + +'Hah!' said Tackleton, with a significant shake of the head. + +'I had studied myself; I had had experience of myself; I knew how +much I loved her, and how happy I should be,' pursued the Carrier. +'But I had not--I feel it now--sufficiently considered her.' + +'To be sure,' said Tackleton. 'Giddiness, frivolity, fickleness, +love of admiration! Not considered! All left out of sight! Hah!' + +'You had best not interrupt me,' said the Carrier, with some +sternness, 'till you understand me; and you're wide of doing so. +If, yesterday, I'd have struck that man down at a blow, who dared +to breathe a word against her, to-day I'd set my foot upon his +face, if he was my brother!' + +The Toy-merchant gazed at him in astonishment. He went on in a +softer tone: + +'Did I consider,' said the Carrier, 'that I took her--at her age, +and with her beauty--from her young companions, and the many 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!' + +The Toy-merchant gazed at him, without winking. Even the half-shut +eye was open now. + +'Heaven bless her!' said the Carrier, 'for the cheerful constancy +with which she 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_ not to find it out, who have +seen her eyes fill with tears, when such a marriage as our own was +spoken of! I, who have seen the secret trembling on her lips a +hundred times, and never suspected it till last night! Poor girl! +That I could ever hope she would be fond of me! That I could ever +believe she was!' + +'She made a show of it,' said Tackleton. 'She made such a show of +it, that to tell you the truth it was the origin of my misgivings.' + +And here he asserted the superiority of May Fielding, who certainly +made no sort of show of being fond of HIM. + +'She has tried,' said the poor Carrier, with greater emotion than +he had exhibited yet; 'I only now begin to know how hard she has +tried, to be my dutiful and zealous wife. How good she has been; +how much she has done; 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.' + +'Here alone?' said Tackleton. 'Oh! Then you do mean to take some +notice of this?' + +'I mean,' returned the Carrier, 'to do her the greatest kindness, +and make her the best reparation, in my power. I can release her +from the daily pain of an unequal marriage, and the struggle to +conceal it. She shall be as free as I can render her.' + +'Make HER reparation!' exclaimed Tackleton, twisting and turning +his great ears with his hands. 'There must be something wrong +here. You didn't say that, of course.' + +The Carrier set his grip upon the collar of the Toy-merchant, and +shook him like a reed. + +'Listen to me!' he said. 'And take care that you hear me right. +Listen to me. Do I speak plainly?' + +'Very plainly indeed,' answered Tackleton. + +'As if I meant it?' + +'Very much as if you meant it.' + +'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!' + +Staunch Cricket on the Hearth! Loyal household Fairies! + +'Passion and distrust have left me!' said the Carrier; 'and nothing +but my grief remains. In an unhappy moment some old lover, better +suited to her tastes and years than I; forsaken, perhaps, for me, +against her will; returned. 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!' + +'If that is your opinion'--Tackleton began. + +'So, let her go!' pursued the Carrier. 'Go, with my blessing for +the many happy hours she has given me, and my forgiveness for any +pang she has caused me. Let 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!' + +'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!' + +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! + +'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.' + +'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!' + +'I have spoken plainly?' said the Carrier, accompanying him to the +door. + +'Oh quite!' + +'And you'll remember what I have said?' + +'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.' + +'The better for us both,' returned the Carrier. 'Good bye. I give +you joy!' + +'I wish I could give it to YOU,' 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.' + +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. + +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. + +'Ow if you please don't!' said Tilly. 'It's enough to dead and +bury the Baby, so it is if you please.' + +'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?' + +'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!' + +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. + +'Mary!' said Bertha. 'Not at the marriage!' + +'I told her you would not be there, mum,' whispered Caleb. 'I +heard as much last night. But bless you,' said the little man, +taking her tenderly by both hands, 'I don't care for what they say. +I don't believe them. There an't much of me, but that little +should be torn to pieces sooner than I'd trust a word against you!' + +He put his arms about her and hugged her, as a child might have +hugged one of his own dolls. + +'Bertha couldn't stay at home this morning,' said Caleb. 'She was +afraid, I know, to hear the bells ring, and 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!' + +' Mary,' said Bertha, 'where is your hand! Ah! Here it is here it +is!' pressing it to her lips, with a smile, and drawing it through +her arm. 'I heard them speaking softly among themselves, last +night, of some blame against you. They were wrong.' + +The Carrier's Wife was silent. Caleb answered for her. + +'They were wrong,' he said. + +'I knew it!' cried Bertha, proudly. 'I told them so. I scorned to +hear a word! Blame HER with justice!' she pressed the hand between +her own, and the soft cheek against her face. 'No! I am not so +blind as that.' + +Her father went on one side of her, while Dot remained upon the +other: holding her hand. + +'I know you all,' said Bertha, 'better than you think. But none so +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!' + +'Bertha, my dear!' said Caleb, 'I have something on my mind I want +to tell you, while we three are alone. Hear me kindly! I have a +confession to make to you, my darling.' + +'A confession, father?' + +'I have wandered from the truth and lost myself, my child,' said +Caleb, with a pitiable expression in his bewildered face. 'I have +wandered from the truth, intending to be kind to you; and have been +cruel.' + +She turned her wonder-stricken face towards him, and repeated +'Cruel!' + +'He accuses himself too strongly, Bertha,' said Dot. 'You'll say +so, presently. You'll be the first to tell him so.' + +'He cruel to me!' cried Bertha, with a smile of incredulity. + +'Not meaning it, my child,' said Caleb. 'But I have been; though I +never suspected it, 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.' + +She turned her wonder-stricken face towards him still; but drew +back, and clung closer to her friend. + +'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.' + +'But living people are not fancies!' she said hurriedly, and +turning very pale, and still retiring from him. 'You can't change +them.' + +'I have done so, Bertha,' pleaded Caleb. 'There is one person that +you know, my dove--' + +'Oh father! why do you say, I know?' she answered, in a term of +keen reproach. 'What and whom do _I_ know! I who have no leader! +I so miserably blind.' + +In the anguish of her heart, she stretched out her hands, as if she +were groping her way; then spread them, in a manner most forlorn +and sad, upon her face. + +'The marriage that takes place to-day,' said Caleb, 'is with a +stern, sordid, grinding man. A hard master to you and me, my dear, +for many years. Ugly in his looks, and in his nature. Cold and +callous always. Unlike what I have painted him to you in +everything, my child. In everything.' + +'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!' + +Her afflicted father hung his head, and offered no reply but in his +penitence and sorrow. + +She had been but a short time in this passion of regret, when the +Cricket on the Hearth, unheard by all but her, began to chirp. Not +merrily, but in a low, faint, sorrowing way. It was so mournful +that her tears began to flow; and when the Presence which had been +beside the Carrier all night, appeared behind her, pointing to her +father, they fell down like rain. + +She heard the Cricket-voice more plainly soon, and was conscious, +through her blindness, of the Presence hovering about her father. + +'Mary,' said the Blind Girl, 'tell me what my home is. What it +truly is.' + +'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.' + +The Blind Girl, greatly agitated, rose, and led the Carrier's +little wife aside. + +'Those presents that I took such care of; that came almost at my +wish, and were so dearly welcome to me,' she said, trembling; +'where did they come from? Did you send them?' + +'No.' + +'Who then?' + +Dot saw she knew, already, and was silent. The Blind Girl spread +her hands before her face again. But in quite another manner now. + +'Dear Mary, a moment. One moment? More this way. Speak softly to +me. You are true, I know. You'd not deceive me now; would you?' + +'No, Bertha, indeed!' + +'No, I am sure you would not. You have too much pity for me. +Mary, look across the room to where we were just now--to where my +father is--my father, so compassionate and loving to me--and tell +me what you see.' + +'I see,' said Dot, who understood her well, 'an old man sitting in +a chair, and leaning sorrowfully on the back, with his face resting +on his hand. As if his child should comfort him, Bertha.' + +'Yes, yes. She will. Go on.' + +'He is an old man, worn with care and work. He is a spare, +dejected, thoughtful, grey-haired man. I see him now, despondent +and bowed down, and striving against nothing. But, Bertha, 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!' + +The Blind Girl broke away from her; and throwing herself upon her +knees before him, took the grey head to her breast. + +'It is my sight restored. It is my sight!' she cried. 'I have +been blind, and now my eyes are open. I never knew him! To think +I might have died, and never truly seen the father who has been so +loving to me!' + +There were no words for Caleb's emotion. + +'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!' + +Caleb managed to articulate 'My Bertha!' + +'And in my blindness, I believed him,' said the girl, caressing him +with tears of exquisite affection, 'to be so different! And having +him beside me, day by day, so mindful of me--always, never dreamed +of this!' + +'The fresh smart father in the blue coat, Bertha,' said poor Caleb. +'He's gone!' + +'Nothing is gone,' she answered. 'Dearest father, no! Everything +is here--in you. The father that I loved so well; the father that +I never loved enough, and never knew; the benefactor whom I first +began to reverence and love, because he had such sympathy for me; +All are here in you. Nothing is dead to me. The soul of all that +was most dear to me is here--here, with the worn face, and the grey +head. And I am NOT blind, father, any longer!' + +Dot's whole attention had been concentrated, during this discourse, +upon the father and daughter; but looking, now, towards the 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. + +'Father,' said Bertha, hesitating. 'Mary.' + +'Yes, my dear,' returned Caleb. 'Here she is.' + +'There is no change in HER. You never told me anything of HER that +was not true?' + +'I should have done it, my dear, I am afraid,' returned Caleb, 'if +I could have made her better than she was. But I must have changed +her for the worse, if I had changed her at all. Nothing could +improve her, Bertha.' + +Confident as the Blind Girl had been when she asked the question, +her delight and pride in the reply and her renewed embrace of Dot, +were charming to behold. + +'More changes than you think for, may happen though, my dear,' said +Dot. 'Changes for the better, I mean; changes for great joy to +some of us. You mustn't let them startle you too much, if any such +should ever happen, and affect you? Are those wheels upon the +road? You've a quick ear, Bertha. Are they wheels?' + +'Yes. Coming very fast.' + +'I--I--I know you have a quick ear,' said Dot, placing her hand +upon her heart, and evidently talking on, as fast as she could to +hide its palpitating state, 'because I have noticed it often, and +because you were so quick to find out that strange step last night. +Though why you should have said, as I very well recollect you did +say, Bertha, "Whose step is that!" and why you should have taken +any greater observation of it than of any other step, I don't know. +Though as I said just now, there are great changes in the world: +great changes: and we can't do better than prepare ourselves to be +surprised at hardly anything.' + +Caleb wondered what this meant; perceiving that she spoke to him, +no less than to his daughter. He saw her, with astonishment, so +fluttered and distressed that she could scarcely breathe; and +holding to a chair, to save herself from falling. + +'They are wheels indeed!' she panted. 'Coming nearer! Nearer! +Very close! And now you hear them stopping at the garden-gate! +And now you hear a step outside the door--the same step, Bertha, is +it not!--and now!' - + +She uttered a wild cry of uncontrollable delight; and 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. + +'Is it over?' cried Dot. + +'Yes!' + +'Happily over?' + +'Yes!' + +'Do you recollect the voice, dear Caleb? Did you ever hear the +like of it before?' cried Dot. + +'If my boy in the Golden South Americas was alive'--said Caleb, +trembling. + +'He is alive!' shrieked Dot, removing her hands from his eyes, and +clapping them in ecstasy; 'look at him! See where he stands before +you, healthy and strong! Your own dear son! Your own dear living, +loving brother, Bertha + +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! + +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! + +The Carrier, entering, started back. And well he might, to find +himself in such good company. + +'Look, John!' said Caleb, exultingly, 'look here! My own boy from +the Golden South Americas! My own son! Him that you fitted out, +and sent away yourself! Him that you were always such a friend +to!' + +The Carrier advanced to seize him by the hand; but, recoiling, as +some feature in his face awakened a remembrance of the Deaf Man in +the Cart, said: + +'Edward! Was it you?' + +'Now 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.' + +'I was the man,' said Edward. + +'And could you steal, disguised, into the house of your old +friend?' rejoined the Carrier. 'There was a frank boy once--how +many years is it, Caleb, since we heard that he was dead, and had +it proved, we thought?--who never would have done that.' + +'There was a generous friend of mine, once; more a father to me +than a friend;' said Edward, 'who never would have judged me, or +any other man, unheard. You were he. So I am certain you will +hear me now.' + +The Carrier, with a troubled glance at Dot, who still kept far away +from him, replied, 'Well! that's but fair. I will.' + +'You must know that when I left here, a boy,' said Edward, 'I was +in love, and my love was returned. She was a very young girl, who +perhaps (you may tell me) didn't know her own mind. But I knew +mine, and I had a passion for her.' + +'You had!' exclaimed the Carrier. 'You!' + +'Indeed I had,' returned the other. 'And she returned it. I have +ever since believed she did, and now I am sure she did.' + +'Heaven help me!' said the Carrier. 'This is worse than all.' + +'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.' + +'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!' + +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. + +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. + +'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!' + +Little woman, how she sobbed again! John Peerybingle would have +caught her in his arms. But no; she wouldn't let him. + +'Don't love me yet, please, John! Not for a long time yet! 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?' + +John was going to make another rush at this appeal; but she stopped +him again. + +'No; keep there, please, John! When I laugh at you, as I sometimes +do, John, and call you clumsy and a dear old goose, and names of +that sort, it's because I love you, John, so well, and take such +pleasure in your ways, and wouldn't see you altered in the least +respect to have you made a King to-morrow.' + +'Hooroar!' said Caleb with unusual vigour. 'My opinion!' + +'And when I speak of people being middle-aged, and steady, John, +and pretend that we are a humdrum couple, going on in a jog-trot +sort of way, it's only because I'm such a silly little thing, John, +that I like, sometimes, to act a kind of Play with Baby, and all +that: and make believe.' + +She saw that he was coming; and stopped him again. But she was +very nearly too late. + +'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!' + +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. + +You maybe 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. + +But, now, the sound of wheels was heard again outside the door; and +somebody exclaimed that Gruff and Tackleton was coming back. +Speedily that worthy gentleman appeared, looking warm and +flustered. + +'Why, what the Devil's this, John Peerybingle!' said Tackleton. +'There's some mistake. I appointed Mrs. Tackleton to meet me at +the church, and I'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.' + +'But I can't spare her,' returned Edward. 'I couldn't think of +it.' + +'What do you mean, you vagabond?' said Tackleton. + +'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.' + +The look that Tackleton bestowed upon him, and the start he gave! + +'I am sorry, sir,' said Edward, holding out May's left hand, and +especially the third finger; 'that the young lady can't accompany +you to church; but as she has been there once, this morning, +perhaps you'll excuse her.' + +Tackleton looked hard at the third finger, and took a little piece +of silver-paper, apparently containing a ring, from his waistcoat- +pocket. + +'Miss Slowboy,' said Tackleton. 'Will you have the kindness to +throw that in the fire? Thank'ee.' + +'It was a previous engagement, quite an old engagement, that +prevented my wife from keeping her appointment with you, I assure +you,' said Edward. + +'Mr. Tackleton will do me the justice to acknowledge that I +revealed it to him faithfully; and that I told him, many times, I +never could forget it,' said May, blushing. + +'Oh certainly!' said Tackleton. 'Oh to be sure. Oh it's all +right. It's quite correct. Mrs. Edward Plummer, I infer?' + +'That's the name,' returned the bridegroom. + +'Ah, I shouldn't have known you, sir,' said Tackleton, scrutinising +his face narrowly, and making a low bow. 'I give you joy, sir!' + +'Thank'ee.' + +'Mrs. Peerybingle,' said Tackleton, turning suddenly to where she +stood with her husband; 'I 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!' + +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. + +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. + +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. + +Then, there were Dot's father and mother to come, in another little +chaise; and they were behind their time; and fears were +entertained; and there was much looking out for them down the road; +and Mrs. Fielding always would look in the wrong and morally +impossible direction; and being apprised thereof, hoped she might +take the liberty of looking where she pleased. At last they came: +a chubby little couple, jogging along in a snug and comfortable +little way that quite belonged to the Dot family; and Dot and her +mother, side by side, were wonderful to see. They were so like +each other. + +Then, Dot's mother had to renew her acquaintance with May's mother; +and May's mother always stood on her 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. + +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. + +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. + +And, by-the-by, a most unlooked-for incident occurred, just as he +finished the last verse. + +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: + +'Mr. Tackleton's compliments, and as he hasn't got no use for the +cake himself, p'raps you'll eat it.' + +And with those words, he walked off. + +There was some surprise among the company, as you may imagine. +Mrs. Fielding, being a lady of infinite discernment, suggested that +the cake was poisoned, and related a narrative of a cake, which, +within her knowledge, had turned a seminary for young ladies, blue. +But she was overruled by acclamation; and the cake was cut by May, +with much ceremony and rejoicing. + +I don't think any one had tasted it, when there came another tap at +the door, and the same man appeared again, having under his arm a +vast brown-paper parcel. + +'Mr. Tackleton's compliments, and he's sent a few toys for the +Babby. They ain't ugly.' + +After the delivery of which expressions, he retired again. + +The whole party would have experienced great difficulty in finding +words for their astonishment, even if they had had ample time to +seek them. But they had none at all; for the messenger had +scarcely shut the door behind him, when there came another tap, and +Tackleton himself walked in. + +'Mrs. Peerybingle!' said the Toy-merchant, hat in hand. 'I'm +sorry. I'm more sorry than I was this morning. I have had time to +think of it. John Peerybingle! I'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!' + +He was at home in five minutes. You never saw such a fellow. What +HAD 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! + +'John! you won't send me home this evening; will you?' whispered +Dot. + +He had been very near it though! + +There wanted but one living creature to make the party complete; +and, in the twinkling of an eye, there he was, very thirsty with +hard running, and engaged in hopeless endeavours to squeeze his +head into a narrow pitcher. He had gone with the cart to its +journey's end, very much disgusted with the absence of his master, +and stupendously rebellious to the Deputy. After lingering about +the stable for some little time, vainly attempting to incite the +old horse to the mutinous act of returning on his own account, he +had walked into the tap-room and laid himself down before 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. + +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. + +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_ think because the Carrier was smoking +his pipe, and she liked sitting by him, best. Mrs. Fielding had no +choice, of course, but to say HER dancing days were over, after +that; and everybody said the same, except May; May was ready. + +So, May and Edward got up, amid great applause, to dance alone; and +Bertha plays her liveliest tune. + +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. + +Hark! how the Cricket joins the music with its Chirp, Chirp, Chirp; +and how the kettle hums! + +* * * * * + +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. + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH *** + +This file should be named tcoth11.txt or tcoth11.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, tcoth12.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, tcoth10a.txt + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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