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diff --git a/old/drmrg10.txt b/old/drmrg10.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d30fa8e --- /dev/null +++ b/old/drmrg10.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1384 @@ +The Project Gutenberg Etext of Doctor Marigold by Charles Dickens +#42 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 posting these files!! + +Please take a look at the important information in this header. +We encourage you to keep this file on your own disk, keeping an +electronic path open for the next readers. Do not remove this. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**Etexts Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*These Etexts Prepared By Hundreds of Volunteers and Donations* + +Information on contacting Project Gutenberg to get Etexts, and +further information is included below. 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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 foot- +board 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 marketplace +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 +IMmortal 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 Etext of Doctor Marigold by Charles Dickens + diff --git a/old/drmrg10.zip b/old/drmrg10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7d585a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/drmrg10.zip |