diff options
Diffstat (limited to '1415.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 1415.txt | 1438 |
1 files changed, 1438 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/1415.txt b/1415.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d64d5b2 --- /dev/null +++ b/1415.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1438 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Doctor Marigold, by Charles Dickens + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Doctor Marigold + + +Author: Charles Dickens + +Release Date: April 3, 2005 [eBook #1415] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOCTOR MARIGOLD*** + + + + + +Transcribed from the 1894 Chapman and Hall "Christmas Stories" edition by +David Price, email ccx074@coventry.ac.uk + + + + + +DOCTOR MARIGOLD + + +I am a Cheap Jack, and my own father's name was Willum Marigold. It was +in his lifetime supposed by some that his name was William, but my own +father always consistently said, No, it was Willum. On which point I +content myself with looking at the argument this way: If a man is not +allowed to know his own name in a free country, how much is he allowed to +know in a land of slavery? As to looking at the argument through the +medium of the Register, Willum Marigold come into the world before +Registers come up much,--and went out of it too. They wouldn't have been +greatly in his line neither, if they had chanced to come up before him. + +I was born on the Queen's highway, but it was the King's at that time. A +doctor was fetched to my own mother by my own father, when it took place +on a common; and in consequence of his being a very kind gentleman, and +accepting no fee but a tea-tray, I was named Doctor, out of gratitude and +compliment to him. There you have me. Doctor Marigold. + +I am at present a middle-aged man of a broadish build, in cords, +leggings, and a sleeved waistcoat the strings of which is always gone +behind. Repair them how you will, they go like fiddle-strings. You have +been to the theatre, and you have seen one of the wiolin-players screw up +his wiolin, after listening to it as if it had been whispering the secret +to him that it feared it was out of order, and then you have heard it +snap. That's as exactly similar to my waistcoat as a waistcoat and a +wiolin can be like one another. + +I am partial to a white hat, and I like a shawl round my neck wore loose +and easy. Sitting down is my favourite posture. If I have a taste in +point of personal jewelry, it is mother-of-pearl buttons. There you have +me again, as large as life. + +The doctor having accepted a tea-tray, you'll guess that my father was a +Cheap Jack before me. You are right. He was. It was a pretty tray. It +represented a large lady going along a serpentining up-hill gravel-walk, +to attend a little church. Two swans had likewise come astray with the +same intentions. When I call her a large lady, I don't mean in point of +breadth, for there she fell below my views, but she more than made it up +in heighth; her heighth and slimness was--in short THE heighth of both. + +I often saw that tray, after I was the innocently smiling cause (or more +likely screeching one) of the doctor's standing it up on a table against +the wall in his consulting-room. Whenever my own father and mother were +in that part of the country, I used to put my head (I have heard my own +mother say it was flaxen curls at that time, though you wouldn't know an +old hearth-broom from it now till you come to the handle, and found it +wasn't me) in at the doctor's door, and the doctor was always glad to see +me, and said, "Aha, my brother practitioner! Come in, little M.D. How +are your inclinations as to sixpence?" + +You can't go on for ever, you'll find, nor yet could my father nor yet my +mother. If you don't go off as a whole when you are about due, you're +liable to go off in part, and two to one your head's the part. Gradually +my father went off his, and my mother went off hers. It was in a +harmless way, but it put out the family where I boarded them. The old +couple, though retired, got to be wholly and solely devoted to the Cheap +Jack business, and were always selling the family off. Whenever the +cloth was laid for dinner, my father began rattling the plates and +dishes, as we do in our line when we put up crockery for a bid, only he +had lost the trick of it, and mostly let 'em drop and broke 'em. As the +old lady had been used to sit in the cart, and hand the articles out one +by one to the old gentleman on the footboard to sell, just in the same +way she handed him every item of the family's property, and they disposed +of it in their own imaginations from morning to night. At last the old +gentleman, lying bedridden in the same room with the old lady, cries out +in the old patter, fluent, after having been silent for two days and +nights: "Now here, my jolly companions every one,--which the Nightingale +club in a village was held, At the sign of the Cabbage and Shears, Where +the singers no doubt would have greatly excelled, But for want of taste, +voices and ears,--now, here, my jolly companions, every one, is a working +model of a used-up old Cheap Jack, without a tooth in his head, and with +a pain in every bone: so like life that it would be just as good if it +wasn't better, just as bad if it wasn't worse, and just as new if it +wasn't worn out. Bid for the working model of the old Cheap Jack, who +has drunk more gunpowder-tea with the ladies in his time than would blow +the lid off a washerwoman's copper, and carry it as many thousands of +miles higher than the moon as naught nix naught, divided by the national +debt, carry nothing to the poor-rates, three under, and two over. Now, +my hearts of oak and men of straw, what do you say for the lot? Two +shillings, a shilling, tenpence, eightpence, sixpence, fourpence. +Twopence? Who said twopence? The gentleman in the scarecrow's hat? I +am ashamed of the gentleman in the scarecrow's hat. I really am ashamed +of him for his want of public spirit. Now I'll tell you what I'll do +with you. Come! I'll throw you in a working model of a old woman that +was married to the old Cheap Jack so long ago that upon my word and +honour it took place in Noah's Ark, before the Unicorn could get in to +forbid the banns by blowing a tune upon his horn. There now! Come! What +do you say for both? I'll tell you what I'll do with you. I don't bear +you malice for being so backward. Here! If you make me a bid that'll +only reflect a little credit on your town, I'll throw you in a warming- +pan for nothing, and lend you a toasting-fork for life. Now come; what +do you say after that splendid offer? Say two pound, say thirty +shillings, say a pound, say ten shillings, say five, say two and six. You +don't say even two and six? You say two and three? No. You shan't have +the lot for two and three. I'd sooner give it to you, if you was good- +looking enough. Here! Missis! Chuck the old man and woman into the +cart, put the horse to, and drive 'em away and bury 'em!" Such were the +last words of Willum Marigold, my own father, and they were carried out, +by him and by his wife, my own mother, on one and the same day, as I +ought to know, having followed as mourner. + +My father had been a lovely one in his time at the Cheap Jack work, as +his dying observations went to prove. But I top him. I don't say it +because it's myself, but because it has been universally acknowledged by +all that has had the means of comparison. I have worked at it. I have +measured myself against other public speakers,--Members of Parliament, +Platforms, Pulpits, Counsel learned in the law,--and where I have found +'em good, I have took a bit of imagination from 'em, and where I have +found 'em bad, I have let 'em alone. Now I'll tell you what. I mean to +go down into my grave declaring that of all the callings ill used in +Great Britain, the Cheap Jack calling is the worst used. Why ain't we a +profession? Why ain't we endowed with privileges? Why are we forced to +take out a hawker's license, when no such thing is expected of the +political hawkers? Where's the difference betwixt us? Except that we +are Cheap Jacks and they are Dear Jacks, _I_ don't see any difference but +what's in our favour. + +For look here! Say it's election time. I am on the footboard of my cart +in the market-place, on a Saturday night. I put up a general +miscellaneous lot. I say: "Now here, my free and independent woters, I'm +a going to give you such a chance as you never had in all your born days, +nor yet the days preceding. Now I'll show you what I am a going to do +with you. Here's a pair of razors that'll shave you closer than the +Board of Guardians; here's a flat-iron worth its weight in gold; here's a +frying-pan artificially flavoured with essence of beefsteaks to that +degree that you've only got for the rest of your lives to fry bread and +dripping in it and there you are replete with animal food; here's a +genuine chronometer watch in such a solid silver case that you may knock +at the door with it when you come home late from a social meeting, and +rouse your wife and family, and save up your knocker for the postman; and +here's half-a-dozen dinner plates that you may play the cymbals with to +charm baby when it's fractious. Stop! I'll throw in another article, +and I'll give you that, and it's a rolling-pin; and if the baby can only +get it well into its mouth when its teeth is coming and rub the gums once +with it, they'll come through double, in a fit of laughter equal to being +tickled. Stop again! I'll throw you in another article, because I don't +like the looks of you, for you haven't the appearance of buyers unless I +lose by you, and because I'd rather lose than not take money to-night, +and that's a looking-glass in which you may see how ugly you look when +you don't bid. What do you say now? Come! Do you say a pound? Not +you, for you haven't got it. Do you say ten shillings? Not you, for you +owe more to the tallyman. Well then, I'll tell you what I'll do with +you. I'll heap 'em all on the footboard of the cart,--there they are! +razors, flat watch, dinner plates, rolling-pin, and away for four +shillings, and I'll give you sixpence for your trouble!" This is me, the +Cheap Jack. But on the Monday morning, in the same market-place, comes +the Dear Jack on the hustings--_his_ cart--and, what does _he_ say? "Now +my free and independent woters, I am a going to give you such a chance" +(he begins just like me) "as you never had in all your born days, and +that's the chance of sending Myself to Parliament. Now I'll tell you +what I am a going to do for you. Here's the interests of this +magnificent town promoted above all the rest of the civilised and +uncivilised earth. Here's your railways carried, and your neighbours' +railways jockeyed. Here's all your sons in the Post-office. Here's +Britannia smiling on you. Here's the eyes of Europe on you. Here's +uniwersal prosperity for you, repletion of animal food, golden +cornfields, gladsome homesteads, and rounds of applause from your own +hearts, all in one lot, and that's myself. Will you take me as I stand? +You won't? Well, then, I'll tell you what I'll do with you. Come now! +I'll throw you in anything you ask for. There! Church-rates, abolition +of more malt tax, no malt tax, universal education to the highest mark, +or uniwersal ignorance to the lowest, total abolition of flogging in the +army or a dozen for every private once a month all round, Wrongs of Men +or Rights of Women--only say which it shall be, take 'em or leave 'em, +and I'm of your opinion altogether, and the lot's your own on your own +terms. There! You won't take it yet! Well, then, I'll tell you what +I'll do with you. Come! You _are_ such free and independent woters, and +I am so proud of you,--you _are_ such a noble and enlightened +constituency, and I _am_ so ambitious of the honour and dignity of being +your member, which is by far the highest level to which the wings of the +human mind can soar,--that I'll tell you what I'll do with you. I'll +throw you in all the public-houses in your magnificent town for nothing. +Will that content you? It won't? You won't take the lot yet? Well, +then, before I put the horse in and drive away, and make the offer to the +next most magnificent town that can be discovered, I'll tell you what +I'll do. Take the lot, and I'll drop two thousand pound in the streets +of your magnificent town for them to pick up that can. Not enough? Now +look here. This is the very furthest that I'm a going to. I'll make it +two thousand five hundred. And still you won't? Here, missis! Put the +horse--no, stop half a moment, I shouldn't like to turn my back upon you +neither for a trifle, I'll make it two thousand seven hundred and fifty +pound. There! Take the lot on your own terms, and I'll count out two +thousand seven hundred and fifty pound on the footboard of the cart, to +be dropped in the streets of your magnificent town for them to pick up +that can. What do you say? Come now! You won't do better, and you may +do worse. You take it? Hooray! Sold again, and got the seat!" + +These Dear Jacks soap the people shameful, but we Cheap Jacks don't. We +tell 'em the truth about themselves to their faces, and scorn to court +'em. As to wenturesomeness in the way of puffing up the lots, the Dear +Jacks beat us hollow. It is considered in the Cheap Jack calling, that +better patter can be made out of a gun than any article we put up from +the cart, except a pair of spectacles. I often hold forth about a gun +for a quarter of an hour, and feel as if I need never leave off. But +when I tell 'em what the gun can do, and what the gun has brought down, I +never go half so far as the Dear Jacks do when they make speeches in +praise of _their_ guns--their great guns that set 'em on to do it. +Besides, I'm in business for myself: I ain't sent down into the market- +place to order, as they are. Besides, again, my guns don't know what I +say in their laudation, and their guns do, and the whole concern of 'em +have reason to be sick and ashamed all round. These are some of my +arguments for declaring that the Cheap Jack calling is treated ill in +Great Britain, and for turning warm when I think of the other Jacks in +question setting themselves up to pretend to look down upon it. + +I courted my wife from the footboard of the cart. I did indeed. She was +a Suffolk young woman, and it was in Ipswich market-place right opposite +the corn-chandler's shop. I had noticed her up at a window last Saturday +that was, appreciating highly. I had took to her, and I had said to +myself, "If not already disposed of, I'll have that lot." Next Saturday +that come, I pitched the cart on the same pitch, and I was in very high +feather indeed, keeping 'em laughing the whole of the time, and getting +off the goods briskly. At last I took out of my waistcoat-pocket a small +lot wrapped in soft paper, and I put it this way (looking up at the +window where she was). "Now here, my blooming English maidens, is an +article, the last article of the present evening's sale, which I offer to +only you, the lovely Suffolk Dumplings biling over with beauty, and I +won't take a bid of a thousand pounds for from any man alive. Now what +is it? Why, I'll tell you what it is. It's made of fine gold, and it's +not broke, though there's a hole in the middle of it, and it's stronger +than any fetter that ever was forged, though it's smaller than any finger +in my set of ten. Why ten? Because, when my parents made over my +property to me, I tell you true, there was twelve sheets, twelve towels, +twelve table-cloths, twelve knives, twelve forks, twelve tablespoons, and +twelve teaspoons, but my set of fingers was two short of a dozen, and +could never since be matched. Now what else is it? Come, I'll tell you. +It's a hoop of solid gold, wrapped in a silver curl-paper, that I myself +took off the shining locks of the ever beautiful old lady in Threadneedle +Street, London city; I wouldn't tell you so if I hadn't the paper to +show, or you mightn't believe it even of me. Now what else is it? It's +a man-trap and a handcuff, the parish stocks and a leg-lock, all in gold +and all in one. Now what else is it? It's a wedding-ring. Now I'll +tell you what I'm a going to do with it. I'm not a going to offer this +lot for money; but I mean to give it to the next of you beauties that +laughs, and I'll pay her a visit to-morrow morning at exactly half after +nine o'clock as the chimes go, and I'll take her out for a walk to put up +the banns." She laughed, and got the ring handed up to her. When I +called in the morning, she says, "O dear! It's never you, and you never +mean it?" "It's ever me," says I, "and I am ever yours, and I ever mean +it." So we got married, after being put up three times--which, by the +bye, is quite in the Cheap Jack way again, and shows once more how the +Cheap Jack customs pervade society. + +She wasn't a bad wife, but she had a temper. If she could have parted +with that one article at a sacrifice, I wouldn't have swopped her away in +exchange for any other woman in England. Not that I ever did swop her +away, for we lived together till she died, and that was thirteen year. +Now, my lords and ladies and gentlefolks all, I'll let you into a secret, +though you won't believe it. Thirteen year of temper in a Palace would +try the worst of you, but thirteen year of temper in a Cart would try the +best of you. You are kept so very close to it in a cart, you see. +There's thousands of couples among you getting on like sweet ile upon a +whetstone in houses five and six pairs of stairs high, that would go to +the Divorce Court in a cart. Whether the jolting makes it worse, I don't +undertake to decide; but in a cart it does come home to you, and stick to +you. Wiolence in a cart is _so_ wiolent, and aggrawation in a cart is +_so_ aggrawating. + +We might have had such a pleasant life! A roomy cart, with the large +goods hung outside, and the bed slung underneath it when on the road, an +iron pot and a kettle, a fireplace for the cold weather, a chimney for +the smoke, a hanging-shelf and a cupboard, a dog and a horse. What more +do you want? You draw off upon a bit of turf in a green lane or by the +roadside, you hobble your old horse and turn him grazing, you light your +fire upon the ashes of the last visitors, you cook your stew, and you +wouldn't call the Emperor of France your father. But have a temper in +the cart, flinging language and the hardest goods in stock at you, and +where are you then? Put a name to your feelings. + +My dog knew as well when she was on the turn as I did. Before she broke +out, he would give a howl, and bolt. How he knew it, was a mystery to +me; but the sure and certain knowledge of it would wake him up out of his +soundest sleep, and he would give a howl, and bolt. At such times I +wished I was him. + +The worst of it was, we had a daughter born to us, and I love children +with all my heart. When she was in her furies she beat the child. This +got to be so shocking, as the child got to be four or five year old, that +I have many a time gone on with my whip over my shoulder, at the old +horse's head, sobbing and crying worse than ever little Sophy did. For +how could I prevent it? Such a thing is not to be tried with such a +temper--in a cart--without coming to a fight. It's in the natural size +and formation of a cart to bring it to a fight. And then the poor child +got worse terrified than before, as well as worse hurt generally, and her +mother made complaints to the next people we lighted on, and the word +went round, "Here's a wretch of a Cheap Jack been a beating his wife." + +Little Sophy was such a brave child! She grew to be quite devoted to her +poor father, though he could do so little to help her. She had a +wonderful quantity of shining dark hair, all curling natural about her. +It is quite astonishing to me now, that I didn't go tearing mad when I +used to see her run from her mother before the cart, and her mother catch +her by this hair, and pull her down by it, and beat her. + +Such a brave child I said she was! Ah! with reason. + +"Don't you mind next time, father dear," she would whisper to me, with +her little face still flushed, and her bright eyes still wet; "if I don't +cry out, you may know I am not much hurt. And even if I do cry out, it +will only be to get mother to let go and leave off." What I have seen +the little spirit bear--for me--without crying out! + +Yet in other respects her mother took great care of her. Her clothes +were always clean and neat, and her mother was never tired of working at +'em. Such is the inconsistency in things. Our being down in the marsh +country in unhealthy weather, I consider the cause of Sophy's taking bad +low fever; but however she took it, once she got it she turned away from +her mother for evermore, and nothing would persuade her to be touched by +her mother's hand. She would shiver and say, "No, no, no," when it was +offered at, and would hide her face on my shoulder, and hold me tighter +round the neck. + +The Cheap Jack business had been worse than ever I had known it, what +with one thing and what with another (and not least with railroads, which +will cut it all to pieces, I expect, at last), and I was run dry of +money. For which reason, one night at that period of little Sophy's +being so bad, either we must have come to a dead-lock for victuals and +drink, or I must have pitched the cart as I did. + +I couldn't get the dear child to lie down or leave go of me, and indeed I +hadn't the heart to try, so I stepped out on the footboard with her +holding round my neck. They all set up a laugh when they see us, and one +chuckle-headed Joskin (that I hated for it) made the bidding, "Tuppence +for her!" + +"Now, you country boobies," says I, feeling as if my heart was a heavy +weight at the end of a broken sashline, "I give you notice that I am a +going to charm the money out of your pockets, and to give you so much +more than your money's worth that you'll only persuade yourselves to draw +your Saturday night's wages ever again arterwards by the hopes of meeting +me to lay 'em out with, which you never will, and why not? Because I've +made my fortunes by selling my goods on a large scale for seventy-five +per cent. less than I give for 'em, and I am consequently to be elevated +to the House of Peers next week, by the title of the Duke of Cheap and +Markis Jackaloorul. Now let's know what you want to-night, and you shall +have it. But first of all, shall I tell you why I have got this little +girl round my neck? You don't want to know? Then you shall. She +belongs to the Fairies. She's a fortune-teller. She can tell me all +about you in a whisper, and can put me up to whether you're going to buy +a lot or leave it. Now do you want a saw? No, she says you don't, +because you're too clumsy to use one. Else here's a saw which would be a +lifelong blessing to a handy man, at four shillings, at three and six, at +three, at two and six, at two, at eighteen-pence. But none of you shall +have it at any price, on account of your well-known awkwardness, which +would make it manslaughter. The same objection applies to this set of +three planes which I won't let you have neither, so don't bid for 'em. +Now I am a going to ask her what you do want." (Then I whispered, "Your +head burns so, that I am afraid it hurts you bad, my pet," and she +answered, without opening her heavy eyes, "Just a little, father.") "O! +This little fortune-teller says it's a memorandum-book you want. Then +why didn't you mention it? Here it is. Look at it. Two hundred +superfine hot-pressed wire-wove pages--if you don't believe me, count +'em--ready ruled for your expenses, an everlastingly pointed pencil to +put 'em down with, a double-bladed penknife to scratch 'em out with, a +book of printed tables to calculate your income with, and a camp-stool to +sit down upon while you give your mind to it! Stop! And an umbrella to +keep the moon off when you give your mind to it on a pitch-dark night. +Now I won't ask you how much for the lot, but how little? How little are +you thinking of? Don't be ashamed to mention it, because my +fortune-teller knows already." (Then making believe to whisper, I kissed +her,--and she kissed me.) "Why, she says you are thinking of as little +as three and threepence! I couldn't have believed it, even of you, +unless she told me. Three and threepence! And a set of printed tables +in the lot that'll calculate your income up to forty thousand a year! +With an income of forty thousand a year, you grudge three and sixpence. +Well then, I'll tell you my opinion. I so despise the threepence, that +I'd sooner take three shillings. There. For three shillings, three +shillings, three shillings! Gone. Hand 'em over to the lucky man." + +As there had been no bid at all, everybody looked about and grinned at +everybody, while I touched little Sophy's face and asked her if she felt +faint, or giddy. "Not very, father. It will soon be over." Then +turning from the pretty patient eyes, which were opened now, and seeing +nothing but grins across my lighted grease-pot, I went on again in my +Cheap Jack style. "Where's the butcher?" (My sorrowful eye had just +caught sight of a fat young butcher on the outside of the crowd.) "She +says the good luck is the butcher's. Where is he?" Everybody handed on +the blushing butcher to the front, and there was a roar, and the butcher +felt himself obliged to put his hand in his pocket, and take the lot. The +party so picked out, in general, does feel obliged to take the lot--good +four times out of six. Then we had another lot, the counterpart of that +one, and sold it sixpence cheaper, which is always wery much enjoyed. +Then we had the spectacles. It ain't a special profitable lot, but I put +'em on, and I see what the Chancellor of the Exchequer is going to take +off the taxes, and I see what the sweetheart of the young woman in the +shawl is doing at home, and I see what the Bishops has got for dinner, +and a deal more that seldom fails to fetch 'em 'up in their spirits; and +the better their spirits, the better their bids. Then we had the ladies' +lot--the teapot, tea-caddy, glass sugar-basin, half-a-dozen spoons, and +caudle-cup--and all the time I was making similar excuses to give a look +or two and say a word or two to my poor child. It was while the second +ladies' lot was holding 'em enchained that I felt her lift herself a +little on my shoulder, to look across the dark street. "What troubles +you, darling?" "Nothing troubles me, father. I am not at all troubled. +But don't I see a pretty churchyard over there?" "Yes, my dear." "Kiss +me twice, dear father, and lay me down to rest upon that churchyard grass +so soft and green." I staggered back into the cart with her head dropped +on my shoulder, and I says to her mother, "Quick. Shut the door! Don't +let those laughing people see!" "What's the matter?" she cries. "O +woman, woman," I tells her, "you'll never catch my little Sophy by her +hair again, for she has flown away from you!" + +Maybe those were harder words than I meant 'em; but from that time forth +my wife took to brooding, and would sit in the cart or walk beside it, +hours at a stretch, with her arms crossed, and her eyes looking on the +ground. When her furies took her (which was rather seldomer than before) +they took her in a new way, and she banged herself about to that extent +that I was forced to hold her. She got none the better for a little +drink now and then, and through some years I used to wonder, as I plodded +along at the old horse's head, whether there was many carts upon the road +that held so much dreariness as mine, for all my being looked up to as +the King of the Cheap Jacks. So sad our lives went on till one summer +evening, when, as we were coming into Exeter, out of the farther West of +England, we saw a woman beating a child in a cruel manner, who screamed, +"Don't beat me! O mother, mother, mother!" Then my wife stopped her +ears, and ran away like a wild thing, and next day she was found in the +river. + +Me and my dog were all the company left in the cart now; and the dog +learned to give a short bark when they wouldn't bid, and to give another +and a nod of his head when I asked him, "Who said half a crown? Are you +the gentleman, sir, that offered half a crown?" He attained to an +immense height of popularity, and I shall always believe taught himself +entirely out of his own head to growl at any person in the crowd that bid +as low as sixpence. But he got to be well on in years, and one night +when I was conwulsing York with the spectacles, he took a conwulsion on +his own account upon the very footboard by me, and it finished him. + +Being naturally of a tender turn, I had dreadful lonely feelings on me +arter this. I conquered 'em at selling times, having a reputation to +keep (not to mention keeping myself), but they got me down in private, +and rolled upon me. That's often the way with us public characters. See +us on the footboard, and you'd give pretty well anything you possess to +be us. See us off the footboard, and you'd add a trifle to be off your +bargain. It was under those circumstances that I come acquainted with a +giant. I might have been too high to fall into conversation with him, +had it not been for my lonely feelings. For the general rule is, going +round the country, to draw the line at dressing up. When a man can't +trust his getting a living to his undisguised abilities, you consider him +below your sort. And this giant when on view figured as a Roman. + +He was a languid young man, which I attribute to the distance betwixt his +extremities. He had a little head and less in it, he had weak eyes and +weak knees, and altogether you couldn't look at him without feeling that +there was greatly too much of him both for his joints and his mind. But +he was an amiable though timid young man (his mother let him out, and +spent the money), and we come acquainted when he was walking to ease the +horse betwixt two fairs. He was called Rinaldo di Velasco, his name +being Pickleson. + +This giant, otherwise Pickleson, mentioned to me under the seal of +confidence that, beyond his being a burden to himself, his life was made +a burden to him by the cruelty of his master towards a step-daughter who +was deaf and dumb. Her mother was dead, and she had no living soul to +take her part, and was used most hard. She travelled with his master's +caravan only because there was nowhere to leave her, and this giant, +otherwise Pickleson, did go so far as to believe that his master often +tried to lose her. He was such a very languid young man, that I don't +know how long it didn't take him to get this story out, but it passed +through his defective circulation to his top extremity in course of time. + +When I heard this account from the giant, otherwise Pickleson, and +likewise that the poor girl had beautiful long dark hair, and was often +pulled down by it and beaten, I couldn't see the giant through what stood +in my eyes. Having wiped 'em, I give him sixpence (for he was kept as +short as he was long), and he laid it out in two three-penn'orths of gin- +and-water, which so brisked him up, that he sang the Favourite Comic of +Shivery Shakey, ain't it cold?--a popular effect which his master had +tried every other means to get out of him as a Roman wholly in vain. + +His master's name was Mim, a wery hoarse man, and I knew him to speak to. +I went to that Fair as a mere civilian, leaving the cart outside the +town, and I looked about the back of the Vans while the performing was +going on, and at last, sitting dozing against a muddy cart-wheel, I come +upon the poor girl who was deaf and dumb. At the first look I might +almost have judged that she had escaped from the Wild Beast Show; but at +the second I thought better of her, and thought that if she was more +cared for and more kindly used she would be like my child. She was just +the same age that my own daughter would have been, if her pretty head had +not fell down upon my shoulder that unfortunate night. + +To cut it short, I spoke confidential to Mim while he was beating the +gong outside betwixt two lots of Pickleson's publics, and I put it to +him, "She lies heavy on your own hands; what'll you take for her?" Mim +was a most ferocious swearer. Suppressing that part of his reply which +was much the longest part, his reply was, "A pair of braces." "Now I'll +tell you," says I, "what I'm a going to do with you. I'm a going to +fetch you half-a-dozen pair of the primest braces in the cart, and then +to take her away with me." Says Mim (again ferocious), "I'll believe it +when I've got the goods, and no sooner." I made all the haste I could, +lest he should think twice of it, and the bargain was completed, which +Pickleson he was thereby so relieved in his mind that he come out at his +little back door, longways like a serpent, and give us Shivery Shakey in +a whisper among the wheels at parting. + +It was happy days for both of us when Sophy and me began to travel in the +cart. I at once give her the name of Sophy, to put her ever towards me +in the attitude of my own daughter. We soon made out to begin to +understand one another, through the goodness of the Heavens, when she +knowed that I meant true and kind by her. In a very little time she was +wonderful fond of me. You have no idea what it is to have anybody +wonderful fond of you, unless you have been got down and rolled upon by +the lonely feelings that I have mentioned as having once got the better +of me. + +You'd have laughed--or the rewerse--it's according to your disposition--if +you could have seen me trying to teach Sophy. At first I was +helped--you'd never guess by what--milestones. I got some large +alphabets in a box, all the letters separate on bits of bone, and saying +we was going to WINDSOR, I give her those letters in that order, and then +at every milestone I showed her those same letters in that same order +again, and pointed towards the abode of royalty. Another time I give her +CART, and then chalked the same upon the cart. Another time I give her +DOCTOR MARIGOLD, and hung a corresponding inscription outside my +waistcoat. People that met us might stare a bit and laugh, but what did +_I_ care, if she caught the idea? She caught it after long patience and +trouble, and then we did begin to get on swimmingly, I believe you! At +first she was a little given to consider me the cart, and the cart the +abode of royalty, but that soon wore off. + +We had our signs, too, and they was hundreds in number. Sometimes she +would sit looking at me and considering hard how to communicate with me +about something fresh,--how to ask me what she wanted explained,--and +then she was (or I thought she was; what does it signify?) so like my +child with those years added to her, that I half-believed it was herself, +trying to tell me where she had been to up in the skies, and what she had +seen since that unhappy night when she flied away. She had a pretty +face, and now that there was no one to drag at her bright dark hair, and +it was all in order, there was a something touching in her looks that +made the cart most peaceful and most quiet, though not at all melancholy. +[N.B. In the Cheap Jack patter, we generally sound it lemonjolly, and it +gets a laugh.] + +The way she learnt to understand any look of mine was truly surprising. +When I sold of a night, she would sit in the cart unseen by them outside, +and would give a eager look into my eyes when I looked in, and would hand +me straight the precise article or articles I wanted. And then she would +clap her hands, and laugh for joy. And as for me, seeing her so bright, +and remembering what she was when I first lighted on her, starved and +beaten and ragged, leaning asleep against the muddy cart-wheel, it give +me such heart that I gained a greater heighth of reputation than ever, +and I put Pickleson down (by the name of Mim's Travelling Giant otherwise +Pickleson) for a fypunnote in my will. + +This happiness went on in the cart till she was sixteen year old. By +which time I began to feel not satisfied that I had done my whole duty by +her, and to consider that she ought to have better teaching than I could +give her. It drew a many tears on both sides when I commenced explaining +my views to her; but what's right is right, and you can't neither by +tears nor laughter do away with its character. + +So I took her hand in mine, and I went with her one day to the Deaf and +Dumb Establishment in London, and when the gentleman come to speak to us, +I says to him: "Now I'll tell you what I'll do with you, sir. I am +nothing but a Cheap Jack, but of late years I have laid by for a rainy +day notwithstanding. This is my only daughter (adopted), and you can't +produce a deafer nor a dumber. Teach her the most that can be taught her +in the shortest separation that can be named,--state the figure for +it,--and I am game to put the money down. I won't bate you a single +farthing, sir, but I'll put down the money here and now, and I'll +thankfully throw you in a pound to take it. There!" The gentleman +smiled, and then, "Well, well," says he, "I must first know what she has +learned already. How do you communicate with her?" Then I showed him, +and she wrote in printed writing many names of things and so forth; and +we held some sprightly conversation, Sophy and me, about a little story +in a book which the gentleman showed her, and which she was able to read. +"This is most extraordinary," says the gentleman; "is it possible that +you have been her only teacher?" "I have been her only teacher, sir," I +says, "besides herself." "Then," says the gentleman, and more acceptable +words was never spoke to me, "you're a clever fellow, and a good fellow." +This he makes known to Sophy, who kisses his hands, claps her own, and +laughs and cries upon it. + +We saw the gentleman four times in all, and when he took down my name and +asked how in the world it ever chanced to be Doctor, it come out that he +was own nephew by the sister's side, if you'll believe me, to the very +Doctor that I was called after. This made our footing still easier, and +he says to me: + +"Now, Marigold, tell me what more do you want your adopted daughter to +know?" + +"I want her, sir, to be cut off from the world as little as can be, +considering her deprivations, and therefore to be able to read whatever +is wrote with perfect ease and pleasure." + +"My good fellow," urges the gentleman, opening his eyes wide, "why _I_ +can't do that myself!" + +I took his joke, and gave him a laugh (knowing by experience how flat you +fall without it), and I mended my words accordingly. + +"What do you mean to do with her afterwards?" asks the gentleman, with a +sort of a doubtful eye. "To take her about the country?" + +"In the cart, sir, but only in the cart. She will live a private life, +you understand, in the cart. I should never think of bringing her +infirmities before the public. I wouldn't make a show of her for any +money." + +The gentleman nodded, and seemed to approve. + +"Well," says he, "can you part with her for two years?" + +"To do her that good,--yes, sir." + +"There's another question," says the gentleman, looking towards her,--"can +she part with you for two years?" + +I don't know that it was a harder matter of itself (for the other was +hard enough to me), but it was harder to get over. However, she was +pacified to it at last, and the separation betwixt us was settled. How +it cut up both of us when it took place, and when I left her at the door +in the dark of an evening, I don't tell. But I know this; remembering +that night, I shall never pass that same establishment without a +heartache and a swelling in the throat; and I couldn't put you up the +best of lots in sight of it with my usual spirit,--no, not even the gun, +nor the pair of spectacles,--for five hundred pound reward from the +Secretary of State for the Home Department, and throw in the honour of +putting my legs under his mahogany arterwards. + +Still, the loneliness that followed in the cart was not the old +loneliness, because there was a term put to it, however long to look +forward to; and because I could think, when I was anyways down, that she +belonged to me and I belonged to her. Always planning for her coming +back, I bought in a few months' time another cart, and what do you think +I planned to do with it? I'll tell you. I planned to fit it up with +shelves and books for her reading, and to have a seat in it where I could +sit and see her read, and think that I had been her first teacher. Not +hurrying over the job, I had the fittings knocked together in contriving +ways under my own inspection, and here was her bed in a berth with +curtains, and there was her reading-table, and here was her writing-desk, +and elsewhere was her books in rows upon rows, picters and no picters, +bindings and no bindings, gilt-edged and plain, just as I could pick 'em +up for her in lots up and down the country, North and South and West and +East, Winds liked best and winds liked least, Here and there and gone +astray, Over the hills and far away. And when I had got together pretty +well as many books as the cart would neatly hold, a new scheme come into +my head, which, as it turned out, kept my time and attention a good deal +employed, and helped me over the two years' stile. + +Without being of an awaricious temper, I like to be the owner of things. +I shouldn't wish, for instance, to go partners with yourself in the Cheap +Jack cart. It's not that I mistrust you, but that I'd rather know it was +mine. Similarly, very likely you'd rather know it was yours. Well! A +kind of a jealousy began to creep into my mind when I reflected that all +those books would have been read by other people long before they was +read by her. It seemed to take away from her being the owner of 'em +like. In this way, the question got into my head: Couldn't I have a book +new-made express for her, which she should be the first to read? + +It pleased me, that thought did; and as I never was a man to let a +thought sleep (you must wake up all the whole family of thoughts you've +got and burn their nightcaps, or you won't do in the Cheap Jack line), I +set to work at it. Considering that I was in the habit of changing so +much about the country, and that I should have to find out a literary +character here to make a deal with, and another literary character there +to make a deal with, as opportunities presented, I hit on the plan that +this same book should be a general miscellaneous lot,--like the razors, +flat-iron, chronometer watch, dinner plates, rolling-pin, and looking- +glass,--and shouldn't be offered as a single indiwidual article, like the +spectacles or the gun. When I had come to that conclusion, I come to +another, which shall likewise be yours. + +Often had I regretted that she never had heard me on the footboard, and +that she never could hear me. It ain't that _I_ am vain, but that _you_ +don't like to put your own light under a bushel. What's the worth of +your reputation, if you can't convey the reason for it to the person you +most wish to value it? Now I'll put it to you. Is it worth sixpence, +fippence, fourpence, threepence, twopence, a penny, a halfpenny, a +farthing? No, it ain't. Not worth a farthing. Very well, then. My +conclusion was that I would begin her book with some account of myself. +So that, through reading a specimen or two of me on the footboard, she +might form an idea of my merits there. I was aware that I couldn't do +myself justice. A man can't write his eye (at least _I_ don't know how +to), nor yet can a man write his voice, nor the rate of his talk, nor the +quickness of his action, nor his general spicy way. But he can write his +turns of speech, when he is a public speaker,--and indeed I have heard +that he very often does, before he speaks 'em. + +Well! Having formed that resolution, then come the question of a name. +How did I hammer that hot iron into shape? This way. The most difficult +explanation I had ever had with her was, how I come to be called Doctor, +and yet was no Doctor. After all, I felt that I had failed of getting it +correctly into her mind, with my utmost pains. But trusting to her +improvement in the two years, I thought that I might trust to her +understanding it when she should come to read it as put down by my own +hand. Then I thought I would try a joke with her and watch how it took, +by which of itself I might fully judge of her understanding it. We had +first discovered the mistake we had dropped into, through her having +asked me to prescribe for her when she had supposed me to be a Doctor in +a medical point of view; so thinks I, "Now, if I give this book the name +of my Prescriptions, and if she catches the idea that my only +Prescriptions are for her amusement and interest,--to make her laugh in a +pleasant way, or to make her cry in a pleasant way,--it will be a +delightful proof to both of us that we have got over our difficulty." It +fell out to absolute perfection. For when she saw the book, as I had it +got up,--the printed and pressed book,--lying on her desk in her cart, +and saw the title, DOCTOR MARIGOLD'S PRESCRIPTIONS, she looked at me for +a moment with astonishment, then fluttered the leaves, then broke out a +laughing in the charmingest way, then felt her pulse and shook her head, +then turned the pages pretending to read them most attentive, then kissed +the book to me, and put it to her bosom with both her hands. I never was +better pleased in all my life! + +But let me not anticipate. (I take that expression out of a lot of +romances I bought for her. I never opened a single one of 'em--and I +have opened many--but I found the romancer saying "let me not +anticipate." Which being so, I wonder why he did anticipate, or who +asked him to it.) Let me not, I say, anticipate. This same book took up +all my spare time. It was no play to get the other articles together in +the general miscellaneous lot, but when it come to my own article! There! +I couldn't have believed the blotting, nor yet the buckling to at it, nor +the patience over it. Which again is like the footboard. The public +have no idea. + +At last it was done, and the two years' time was gone after all the other +time before it, and where it's all gone to, who knows? The new cart was +finished,--yellow outside, relieved with wermilion and brass +fittings,--the old horse was put in it, a new 'un and a boy being laid on +for the Cheap Jack cart,--and I cleaned myself up to go and fetch her. +Bright cold weather it was, cart-chimneys smoking, carts pitched private +on a piece of waste ground over at Wandsworth, where you may see 'em from +the Sou'western Railway when not upon the road. (Look out of the right- +hand window going down.) + +"Marigold," says the gentleman, giving his hand hearty, "I am very glad +to see you." + +"Yet I have my doubts, sir," says I, "if you can be half as glad to see +me as I am to see you." + +"The time has appeared so long,--has it, Marigold?" + +"I won't say that, sir, considering its real length; but--" + +"What a start, my good fellow!" + +Ah! I should think it was! Grown such a woman, so pretty, so +intelligent, so expressive! I knew then that she must be really like my +child, or I could never have known her, standing quiet by the door. + +"You are affected," says the gentleman in a kindly manner. + +"I feel, sir," says I, "that I am but a rough chap in a sleeved +waistcoat." + +"I feel," says the gentleman, "that it was you who raised her from misery +and degradation, and brought her into communication with her kind. But +why do we converse alone together, when we can converse so well with her? +Address her in your own way." + +"I am such a rough chap in a sleeved waistcoat, sir," says I, "and she is +such a graceful woman, and she stands so quiet at the door!" + +"_Try_ if she moves at the old sign," says the gentleman. + +They had got it up together o' purpose to please me! For when I give her +the old sign, she rushed to my feet, and dropped upon her knees, holding +up her hands to me with pouring tears of love and joy; and when I took +her hands and lifted her, she clasped me round the neck, and lay there; +and I don't know what a fool I didn't make of myself, until we all three +settled down into talking without sound, as if there was a something soft +and pleasant spread over the whole world for us. + +* * * * * + +[A portion is here omitted from the text, having reference to the +sketches contributed by other writers; but the reader will be pleased to +have what follows retained in a note: + +"Now I'll tell you what I am a-going to do with you. I am a-going to +offer you the general miscellaneous lot, her own book, never read by +anybody else but me, added to and completed by me after her first reading +of it, eight-and-forty printed pages, six-and-ninety columns, Whiting's +own work, Beaufort House to wit, thrown off by the steam-ingine, best of +paper, beautiful green wrapper, folded like clean linen come home from +the clear-starcher's, and so exquisitely stitched that, regarded as a +piece of needlework alone, it's better than the sampler of a seamstress +undergoing a Competitive examination for Starvation before the Civil +Service Commissioners--and I offer the lot for what? For eight pound? +Not so much. For six pound? Less. For four pound. Why, I hardly +expect you to believe me, but that's the sum. Four pound! The stitching +alone cost half as much again. Here's forty-eight original pages, ninety- +six original columns, for four pound. You want more for the money? Take +it. Three whole pages of advertisements of thrilling interest thrown in +for nothing. Read 'em and believe 'em. More? My best of wishes for +your merry Christmases and your happy New Years, your long lives and your +true prosperities. Worth twenty pound good if they are delivered as I +send them. Remember! Here's a final prescription added, "To be taken +for life," which will tell you how the cart broke down, and where the +journey ended. You think Four Pound too much? And still you think so? +Come! I'll tell you what then. Say Four Pence, and keep the secret."] + +* * * * * + +So every item of my plan was crowned with success. Our reunited life was +more than all that we had looked forward to. Content and joy went with +us as the wheels of the two carts went round, and the same stopped with +us when the two carts stopped. I was as pleased and as proud as a Pug- +Dog with his muzzle black-leaded for a evening party, and his tail extra +curled by machinery. + +But I had left something out of my calculations. Now, what had I left +out? To help you to guess I'll say, a figure. Come. Make a guess and +guess right. Nought? No. Nine? No. Eight? No. Seven? No. Six? +No. Five? No. Four? No. Three? No. Two? No. One? No. Now I'll +tell you what I'll do with you. I'll say it's another sort of figure +altogether. There. Why then, says you, it's a mortal figure. No, nor +yet a mortal figure. By such means you got yourself penned into a +corner, and you can't help guessing a _im_mortal figure. That's about +it. Why didn't you say so sooner? + +Yes. It was a immortal figure that I had altogether left out of my +Calculations. Neither man's, nor woman's, but a child's. Girl's or +boy's? Boy's. "I, says the sparrow with my bow and arrow." Now you +have got it. + +We were down at Lancaster, and I had done two nights more than fair +average business (though I cannot in honour recommend them as a quick +audience) in the open square there, near the end of the street where Mr. +Sly's King's Arms and Royal Hotel stands. Mim's travelling giant, +otherwise Pickleson, happened at the self-same time to be trying it on in +the town. The genteel lay was adopted with him. No hint of a van. Green +baize alcove leading up to Pickleson in a Auction Room. Printed poster, +"Free list suspended, with the exception of that proud boast of an +enlightened country, a free press. Schools admitted by private +arrangement. Nothing to raise a blush in the cheek of youth or shock the +most fastidious." Mim swearing most horrible and terrific, in a pink +calico pay-place, at the slackness of the public. Serious handbill in +the shops, importing that it was all but impossible to come to a right +understanding of the history of David without seeing Pickleson. + +I went to the Auction Room in question, and I found it entirely empty of +everything but echoes and mouldiness, with the single exception of +Pickleson on a piece of red drugget. This suited my purpose, as I wanted +a private and confidential word with him, which was: "Pickleson. Owing +much happiness to you, I put you in my will for a fypunnote; but, to save +trouble, here's fourpunten down, which may equally suit your views, and +let us so conclude the transaction." Pickleson, who up to that remark +had had the dejected appearance of a long Roman rushlight that couldn't +anyhow get lighted, brightened up at his top extremity, and made his +acknowledgments in a way which (for him) was parliamentary eloquence. He +likewise did add, that, having ceased to draw as a Roman, Mim had made +proposals for his going in as a conwerted Indian Giant worked upon by The +Dairyman's Daughter. This, Pickleson, having no acquaintance with the +tract named after that young woman, and not being willing to couple gag +with his serious views, had declined to do, thereby leading to words and +the total stoppage of the unfortunate young man's beer. All of which, +during the whole of the interview, was confirmed by the ferocious +growling of Mim down below in the pay-place, which shook the giant like a +leaf. + +But what was to the present point in the remarks of the travelling giant, +otherwise Pickleson, was this: "Doctor Marigold,"--I give his words +without a hope of conweying their feebleness,--"who is the strange young +man that hangs about your carts?"--"The strange young _man_?" I gives +him back, thinking that he meant her, and his languid circulation had +dropped a syllable. "Doctor," he returns, with a pathos calculated to +draw a tear from even a manly eye, "I am weak, but not so weak yet as +that I don't know my words. I repeat them, Doctor. The strange young +man." It then appeared that Pickleson, being forced to stretch his legs +(not that they wanted it) only at times when he couldn't be seen for +nothing, to wit in the dead of the night and towards daybreak, had twice +seen hanging about my carts, in that same town of Lancaster where I had +been only two nights, this same unknown young man. + +It put me rather out of sorts. What it meant as to particulars I no more +foreboded then than you forebode now, but it put me rather out of sorts. +Howsoever, I made light of it to Pickleson, and I took leave of +Pickleson, advising him to spend his legacy in getting up his stamina, +and to continue to stand by his religion. Towards morning I kept a look +out for the strange young man, and--what was more--I saw the strange +young man. He was well dressed and well looking. He loitered very nigh +my carts, watching them like as if he was taking care of them, and soon +after daybreak turned and went away. I sent a hail after him, but he +never started or looked round, or took the smallest notice. + +We left Lancaster within an hour or two, on our way towards Carlisle. +Next morning, at daybreak, I looked out again for the strange young man. +I did not see him. But next morning I looked out again, and there he was +once more. I sent another hail after him, but as before he gave not the +slightest sign of being anyways disturbed. This put a thought into my +head. Acting on it I watched him in different manners and at different +times not necessary to enter into, till I found that this strange young +man was deaf and dumb. + +The discovery turned me over, because I knew that a part of that +establishment where she had been was allotted to young men (some of them +well off), and I thought to myself, "If she favours him, where am I? and +where is all that I have worked and planned for?" Hoping--I must confess +to the selfishness--that she might _not_ favour him, I set myself to find +out. At last I was by accident present at a meeting between them in the +open air, looking on leaning behind a fir-tree without their knowing of +it. It was a moving meeting for all the three parties concerned. I knew +every syllable that passed between them as well as they did. I listened +with my eyes, which had come to be as quick and true with deaf and dumb +conversation as my ears with the talk of people that can speak. He was a- +going out to China as clerk in a merchant's house, which his father had +been before him. He was in circumstances to keep a wife, and he wanted +her to marry him and go along with him. She persisted, no. He asked if +she didn't love him. Yes, she loved him dearly, dearly; but she could +never disappoint her beloved, good, noble, generous, and I-don't-know- +what-all father (meaning me, the Cheap Jack in the sleeved waistcoat) and +she would stay with him, Heaven bless him! though it was to break her +heart. Then she cried most bitterly, and that made up my mind. + +While my mind had been in an unsettled state about her favouring this +young man, I had felt that unreasonable towards Pickleson, that it was +well for him he had got his legacy down. For I often thought, "If it +hadn't been for this same weak-minded giant, I might never have come to +trouble my head and wex my soul about the young man." But, once that I +knew she loved him,--once that I had seen her weep for him,--it was a +different thing. I made it right in my mind with Pickleson on the spot, +and I shook myself together to do what was right by all. + +She had left the young man by that time (for it took a few minutes to get +me thoroughly well shook together), and the young man was leaning against +another of the fir-trees,--of which there was a cluster,--with his face +upon his arm. I touched him on the back. Looking up and seeing me, he +says, in our deaf-and-dumb talk, "Do not be angry." + +"I am not angry, good boy. I am your friend. Come with me." + +I left him at the foot of the steps of the Library Cart, and I went up +alone. She was drying her eyes. + +"You have been crying, my dear." + +"Yes, father." + +"Why?" + +"A headache." + +"Not a heartache?" + +"I said a headache, father." + +"Doctor Marigold must prescribe for that headache." + +She took up the book of my Prescriptions, and held it up with a forced +smile; but seeing me keep still and look earnest, she softly laid it down +again, and her eyes were very attentive. + +"The Prescription is not there, Sophy." + +"Where is it?" + +"Here, my dear." + +I brought her young husband in, and I put her hand in his, and my only +farther words to both of them were these: "Doctor Marigold's last +Prescription. To be taken for life." After which I bolted. + +When the wedding come off, I mounted a coat (blue, and bright buttons), +for the first and last time in all my days, and I give Sophy away with my +own hand. There were only us three and the gentleman who had had charge +of her for those two years. I give the wedding dinner of four in the +Library Cart. Pigeon-pie, a leg of pickled pork, a pair of fowls, and +suitable garden stuff. The best of drinks. I give them a speech, and +the gentleman give us a speech, and all our jokes told, and the whole +went off like a sky-rocket. In the course of the entertainment I +explained to Sophy that I should keep the Library Cart as my living-cart +when not upon the road, and that I should keep all her books for her just +as they stood, till she come back to claim them. So she went to China +with her young husband, and it was a parting sorrowful and heavy, and I +got the boy I had another service; and so as of old, when my child and +wife were gone, I went plodding along alone, with my whip over my +shoulder, at the old horse's head. + +Sophy wrote me many letters, and I wrote her many letters. About the end +of the first year she sent me one in an unsteady hand: "Dearest father, +not a week ago I had a darling little daughter, but I am so well that +they let me write these words to you. Dearest and best father, I hope my +child may not be deaf and dumb, but I do not yet know." When I wrote +back, I hinted the question; but as Sophy never answered that question, I +felt it to be a sad one, and I never repeated it. For a long time our +letters were regular, but then they got irregular, through Sophy's +husband being moved to another station, and through my being always on +the move. But we were in one another's thoughts, I was equally sure, +letters or no letters. + +Five years, odd months, had gone since Sophy went away. I was still the +King of the Cheap Jacks, and at a greater height of popularity than ever. +I had had a first-rate autumn of it, and on the twenty-third of December, +one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, I found myself at Uxbridge, +Middlesex, clean sold out. So I jogged up to London with the old horse, +light and easy, to have my Christmas-eve and Christmas-day alone by the +fire in the Library Cart, and then to buy a regular new stock of goods +all round, to sell 'em again and get the money. + +I am a neat hand at cookery, and I'll tell you what I knocked up for my +Christmas-eve dinner in the Library Cart. I knocked up a +beefsteak-pudding for one, with two kidneys, a dozen oysters, and a +couple of mushrooms thrown in. It's a pudding to put a man in good +humour with everything, except the two bottom buttons of his waistcoat. +Having relished that pudding and cleared away, I turned the lamp low, and +sat down by the light of the fire, watching it as it shone upon the backs +of Sophy's books. + +Sophy's books so brought Sophy's self, that I saw her touching face quite +plainly, before I dropped off dozing by the fire. This may be a reason +why Sophy, with her deaf-and-dumb child in her arms, seemed to stand +silent by me all through my nap. I was on the road, off the road, in all +sorts of places, North and South and West and East, Winds liked best and +winds liked least, Here and there and gone astray, Over the hills and far +away, and still she stood silent by me, with her silent child in her +arms. Even when I woke with a start, she seemed to vanish, as if she had +stood by me in that very place only a single instant before. + +I had started at a real sound, and the sound was on the steps of the +cart. It was the light hurried tread of a child, coming clambering up. +That tread of a child had once been so familiar to me, that for half a +moment I believed I was a-going to see a little ghost. + +But the touch of a real child was laid upon the outer handle of the door, +and the handle turned, and the door opened a little way, and a real child +peeped in. A bright little comely girl with large dark eyes. + +Looking full at me, the tiny creature took off her mite of a straw hat, +and a quantity of dark curls fell about her face. Then she opened her +lips, and said in a pretty voice, + +"Grandfather!" + +"Ah, my God!" I cries out. "She can speak!" + +"Yes, dear grandfather. And I am to ask you whether there was ever any +one that I remind you of?" + +In a moment Sophy was round my neck, as well as the child, and her +husband was a-wringing my hand with his face hid, and we all had to shake +ourselves together before we could get over it. And when we did begin to +get over it, and I saw the pretty child a-talking, pleased and quick and +eager and busy, to her mother, in the signs that I had first taught her +mother, the happy and yet pitying tears fell rolling down my face. + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK DOCTOR MARIGOLD*** + + +******* This file should be named 1415.txt or 1415.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/4/1/1415 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |