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an idea in the nature of an fancy into her head much watching of and much consequent observation of her impenetrable which keenly and sharpened s edge must have given her as it were a in the way of inspiration she created in her mind a mighty staircase with a dark pit of shame and ruin at the bottom and down i j ss day to day and hour to die w m hard times it became the of mrs s life to look up at tiie and to watch coming down sometimes slowly quickly sometimes several steps at one bout sometimes never turning back if the had once turned back it might have the death of mrs in and grief she had been descending steadily to the day and on the day when mr issued the weekly invitation recorded above mis was in good and inclined to be and sir said she if i may to ask a question a to any subject on which you show is indeed in me for i well know you have a reason for every thing you do have you received respecting the why ma am no not yet under the circumstances i didn t it yet wasn t built in a day ma am true sir said mrs shaking her head nor yet in a we ma am no indeed returned mrs with an air of melancholy in a similar manner said i can wait you know if and could wait can wait they w e off in their youth than i was however they had a she wolf for a nurse i had only a she wolf for a grandmother didn t give any milk ma am she gave she was a regular at that ah mrs sighed and shuddered no ma am continued i have not heard anything more about it it s in hand thou and young tom who rather sticks to business at present something new for him he hadn t the had is helping my is keep it quiet and let it seem to blow over do what you like under the rose but don t give a sign of what you re about or half a hundred of em will combine together and get this fellow who has bolted out of reach for good keep it quiet and the thieves will ice by little and little and we shall have em very sagacious indeed sir said mrs very the old woman you mentioned sir the old woman i mentioned ma am said cutting the short as it was nothing to boast about is not laid hold of but she may take her oath she will be if that is any aa to old mind la i ie am times of opinion if you ask me my opinion that the less she is talked about the better that same evening mis in her chamber window resting from her packing operations looked toward her great and saw still descending she sat by mr in an in the garden talking very low he stood leaning over her as they whispered together and his face almost touched her hair if not quite said mrs straining her hawk s eyes to the utmost mrs was too distant to hear a word of discourse or even to know that they were speaking softly otherwise than from the expression of their figures but what they said was this you recollect the man mr oh perfectly his face and his manner and what he said perfectly and an infinitely dreary person he appeared to me to be and in the extreme it was very knowing to hold forth in the humble virtue school of eloquence but i assure you i thought at the time my good fellow you are it has been very difficult to me to think ill of that man my dear as tom says which he never did say you know no good of the fellow no certainly nor of any other such person how can i she returned with more of her first manner on her than he had lately when i know nothing of them mm or women my dear mrs then consent to receive the representation of your devoted friend who knows something cf varieties of his excellent fellow creatures for excellent t are i have no doubt in spite of such little as always themselves to what they can get hold of this fellow talks well every fellow talks his only a moment s consideration as being a very suspicious all sorts of profess from the house of to the house of except our people it really is that exception which makes our people quite x a w and heard the case here was a y s hard times ly short by my esteemed friend mr who as we know is not possessed of that delicacy which would soften so tight a hand the common man was injured exasperated left the house grumbling met somebody who proposed to him to go in for some share in this bank business went in put something in his pocket which had nothing in it before and relieved his mind extremely really he would have been an uncommon instead of a man if he had not availed of such an opportunity or he may have made it altogether if he had the cleverness equally probable i almost feel as though it must be bad in me returned after sitting thoughtful awhile to be so ready to agree with you and to be so lightened in my heart by what you say i only say what is reasonable nothing worse i have talked it over with my friend tom more than of course i remain on terms of perfect confidence with tom and he is quite of my opinion and i am quite of his will you walk v
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they strolled away among the lanes beginning to be indistinct in the twilight she leaning on his arm and she uttle thought how she was going down down down mrs s staircase night and day mrs kept it standing when had arrived at the bottom and disappeared in the gulf it might in upon her if it would but until then there it was to be a building before mrs s eyes and there always was upon it always gliding down down down mrs saw james come and go she heard of him here and there she saw the changes of the face he had studied she too remarked to a how and when it clouded how and when it cleared she kept her black eyes wide open with no touch of pity with no touch of all absorbed in interest but in the interest of seeing her ever drawing with no hand to stay her nearer and nearer to the bottom of this new giant s staircase with all her deference for mr as from hi portrait mrs had not the smallest intention of interrupting the descent eager to see it accomplished and yet patient she waited for the last fall as for the and of the harvest of her hopes hushed in she kept her wary upon the stairs and seldom so much as darkly shook h with her fist in it ax b down chapter the figure descended the great stairs steadily steadily always like a weight in deep water to the black gulf at the bottom of his wife s made an expedition from london and buried her in a business like manner he then returned with to the national heap and resumed his for the odds and ends he wanted and his throwing of the dust about into the eyes of other people who wanted other odds and ends in fact his duties in the mean time mrs kept watch and ward separated from her staircase all the week by the length of iron road dividing from the house she yet maintained her cat like observation of through her husband through her brother through james through the of letters and through every thing and that at any time went the stairs your foot on the last step my lady said m the descending figure with t aid of her threatening and all your art shall never blind me art or nature though the original stock of s character or tha t of circumstances upon it her curious reserve did while it stimulated one as sagacious as mrs there were times when mr james was not sure of her there were times when he could not read the face he had studied so long and when this lonely girl was a greater mystery to him than any woman of the world with a ring of to help her so the time went on until it happened that mr was called away from home by business which required his presence elsewhere for three or fi ur days it was on a friday that he intimated this to mrs at the bank adding but you ll go down to morrow ma am all the same you ll dow i a vi if i was there it will make no v xx hard times pray sir returned mrs reproachfully let beg you not to say that your absence will make a vast to me sir as i think you very well know well ma am then you must get on in my absence as well as you can said not displeased mr retorted mrs your will is to me a law sir otherwise it might be my inclination to dispute your kind commands not feeling sure that it will be quite o agreeable to miss to receive me as it ever is to your own hospitality but you shall say no more sir i will go upon your invitation why when i invite you to my house ma am said opening his eyes i should hope you want no other invitation no indeed sir returned mrs should hope not say no more i would sir i could see you gay again what do you mean ma am sir rejoined mrs there was wont to be an in you which i sadly miss be sir mr under the influence of this difficult backed up by her compassionate eye could only scratch his head in a feeble and ridiculous manner and afterward assert himself at a distance by being heard to bully the small of business all the morning said mrs that afternoon when h patron was gone on his journey and the bank was closing present my compliments to young mr thomas and ask him if he would step up and partake of a lamb chop and with a glass of india ale young mr thomas being usually ready for any thing in that way returned a gracious answer and followed on its heels mr thomas said mrs these plain being on table i thought you might be tempted mrs said the and gloomily fell to how is mr mr tom asked mrs oh he is all right said tom where may he be at ot mrs asked in a light manner after mentally the to the for being so he is shooting in said tom sent a basket half as big aa a hard the kind of gentleman now said sweetly whom one might to be a good shot crack said tom he had long been a down looking fellow but this characteristic had increased of late that he never raised his eyes to any ce for three seconds together mrs consequently had ample means of watching his looks if she w re so inclined mr is a great favorite of mine said mrs as indeed he is of most people may we expect to see him again shortly mr tom why i
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she urged him to go away she commanded him to go away but she neither turned her face to him nor raised it yet it was remarkable that she sat as till as ever the amiable woman in had seen her sit at any period in her life her hands rested in one another like the hands of a statue and even her manner of speaking was not mo hard my dear child with delight that his aim embraced her will you not hear my society for a little while not here where not here but we have so little time to make so much of and i have come so fi and am altogether so devoted and distracted there never was a slave at once so devoted and ill used by his mistress to look for your sunny ne that me into life and to be received in your j manner is heart am i to say again that i must be left to myself here but we must meet my dear where me meet they both started the listener started too for i e thought there was another listener among the it was only rain beginning to fall fast in heavy drops shall i ride up to the house a few minutes hence innocently supposing that its master is at home and will be charmed to receive me no your cruel commands are to be obeyed though i am the most unfortunate fellow in the world i believe to have been insensible to all other women and to have fallen prostrate at last under the foot of the most beautiful and the most engaging and the most imperious my dearest i can not go myself or let you go in this hard abuse of your power mrs saw him detain her with his arm and heard him then and there within her mrs s greedy hearing tell her how he loved her and how she was the stake for which he desired to play away all that he had in life the objects he had lately pursued turned worthless beside her such success as was almost in his grasp he flung away from him like the dirt it was compared with her its pursuit nevertheless if it kept him near her or its if it took him from her or flight if she shared it or secrecy if she it or any fate or every fate au was to him so that she was true to him the man who had seen how cast away she was whom she had inspired at their first meeting with an admiration and inter g t of which he had thought i in a she had re times into her confidence was devoted to her and adored her all this and more in his hurry and in hers in the of her own gratified in the dread of h ng in the rapidly increasing noise of heavy rain among the leaves and a thunder storm rolling up mrs received into her mind set ofi with such an of and that when at length he the fence and led his horse away she was not sure where they were to meet or when except that they had said it was to he that night but one of them yet remained in the darkness before her and while she that one she must be right oh my dearest love thought mrs you uttle think how well attended you are mrs saw her out of the wood and saw her enter the house what to do next it rained now in a of water mrs s white stockings were of many colors green things were in her themselves in of their own making from various parts of her dress ran fi om her bonnet and her roman nose in such condition mrs stood hidden in the of the considering what next lo coming out of the house hastily and muffled and away she she falls firom the stair and is swallowed up in the gulf to the rain and moving with a quick determined step she struck into a side path parallel with the ride mrs sit followed in the shadow of the trees at but a short distance lot it was not easy to keep a figure in view going quickly though the darkness when she stopped to close the side gate without noise mrs sit stopped when she went on mrs on she went by the way mrs had come emerged from the green lane crossed the stony road and ascended the wooden steps to the railroad a train for would come through presently mrs knew so she understood to be her first place of destination in mrs s limp and streaming state no extensive precautions were necessary to change her usual appearance but she stopped under the lee of the station i it s hard times new shape and put it on over her so she had no fear of recognized when she followed up the railroad steps and paid her money in the small office sat waiting in a comer mrs sat waiting in another comer both listened to the thunder which was loud and te the rain as it washed off the roof and on the of the arches two or three lamps were rained and blown out so both saw the lightning to advantage as it quivered and on the iron tracks the of the station with a fit of trembling gradually deepening to a complaint of the heart announced the train fire and steam and smoke and red light a hiss a crash a bell and a shriek put into one carriage mrs put into another f the little station a desert speck in the thunder though her teeth in her head from wet and cold mrs the figure had plunged down the precipice and she felt herself as it were
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than i am with the eyes i have now hear what i have come to say he moved to support her with his arm she rising as he did so they stood close together she with a hand upon his shoulder looking in his face with a hunger and thirst upon me father which have never been for a moment appeased with an ardent impulse toward some region where rules and figures and were not quite ab i have grown up every inch of my way v i never knew you were unhappy my child father i always knew it in this strife i have almost and crushed my better into a demon what i have learned has me doubting what i have not learned and my dismal resource has been to think that hfe would soon go by and that nothing in it could be worth the pain and trouble of a contest v and you so young he said with pity and i so young in this condition father for i show you now without fear or favor the ordinary state of my mind as i know it you proposed my husband to me i took him i never made a to him or you that i loved him i knew and father you knew and he knew that i never did i was not wholly for i had a hope of being pleasant and to tom i made that wild escape into something visionary and have found out how wild it was but tom had been the subject of all the little imaginative tenderness of my life perhaps he became so because i knew so well to pity him it matters little now except as it may dispose you to think more of his errors as her father held her in his arm she put her other hand upon his other shoulder and still looking in his face went on when i was married there rose up into rebellion i ii hard s against the tie the strife made hy all those causes of which arise out of our two individual natures and which no general laws shall ever rule or state for me father until they shall be able to direct the where to strike his knife into the secrets of my soul he said and said for he well remembered what had passed between them in their former interview i do not reproach you father i make no complaint i am here with another object what can i do child ask me what you will i am coming to it father chance then threw into my way a new acquaintance a man such as i had had no experience of used to the world light polished easy making no the low estimate of every thing that i was half afraid to form in secret conveying to me almost immediately though i t know how or by what degrees that he understood me and read my thoughts i could not find that he was worse than i there seemed to be a near between us i only wondered it should be worth his while who cared for nothing else to care so much for me for you her father might instinctively have loosened his hold but that he felt her strength departing from her and saw a wild fire in the eyes regarding him i say nothing of his plea for claiming my confidence it matters very little how he gained it father he did gain it what you know of the story of my marriage he soon knew just as well her father s face was white and he held her in both his arms i have done no worse i have not disgraced you but if you ask me whether i have loved him or do love him i tell you plainly father that it may be so i don t know she took her hands suddenly from his shoulders and pressed them both upon her side while in her face not like itself and in her figure drawn up resolute to finish by a last what she had to say the long suppressed broke loose i his night my husband being away he has been with me declaring himself my lover this minute he expects me for i could release myself of his presence by no other means i do not know k hard times that i am i do not know that i am ashamed i do not that i am degraded in my own esteem all that i know y and will not now father m me lo say me by some other means he his hold in time to prevent her sinking on the but she cried out in a terrible voice i shall die if you hold me let me fall upon the ground and he laid her down there an saw the pride of his heart and the triumph of his system lying u insensible heap at his feet chapter awoke from a and her eyes opened on her old bed at home and her old room it seemed at first as if all that had happened since the days when these objects were to her were the shadows of a dream but gradually as the objects became more real to her sight the events became more real to her she could scarcely move her head for pain and her eyes were strained and sore and she was very weak a curious passive had such possession of her that the presence of her little sister in the room did not attract her notice for some time even when their eyes had met and her sister had approached the bed lay for minutes looking at her in silence and her timidly to hold her passive hand before she asked when was i brought to this room last night who brought me here i believe
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why do you believe so because i found her here this morning she didn t to my bedside to wake me as she always does and i went to look for her she was not in her own room either and i went looking for her all over the house until i found her here taking care of you and your head will you see father said i was to tell him when you woke what a beaming face you have jane said as her young sister timidly still bent down to kiss her have i i am very glad you think so i am sure it must be s doing the arm had begun to about her neck itself you can tell father if you will then staying her a moment she said it was you who made my room so cheerful and gave it this look of welcome oh no it was done before i came it was hard times turned upon her pillow and heard no more when her had withdrawn she turned her head hack again and lay with her face toward the door until it opened and her father entered he had a anxious look upon him and his hand usually steady trembled in hers he sat down at the side of the bed tenderly asking how she was and dwelling on the necessity of her keeping very quiet after her agitation and exposure to the weather last night he spoke in a subdued and troubled voice very from his usual manner and was often at a loss for words my dear my poor daughter he was so much at a loss at that place that he stopped altogether he tried again my unfortunate child the place was so difficult to get over that he tried again it would be hopeless for me to endeavor to tell you how overwhelmed i have been and still am by what broke upon me last night the ground on which i stand has ceased to be solid under my feet the only support on which i leaned and the strength of which it seemed and still does seem impossible to question has given way in an instant i am stunned by these discoveries i have no selfish meaning in what i say but i nd the shock of what broke upon me last night to be very heavy indeed she could give him no comfort she had the wreck of her whole life upon the rock i will not say that if you had by any happy chance me some time ago it would have been better for us both better for your peace and better for mine for i am sensible that it may not have been a part of my system to invite any confidence of that kind i have proved my my system to myself and i have rigidly administered it and i must bear the responsibility of its failures i only entreat you to believe my favorite child that i have meant to do right he said it earnestly and to do him justice he had in with his little mean rod and in staggering over the universe with his rusty legged he had meant to do great things within the limits of his short he had tumbled about the flowers of existence with greater of purpose than many of the personages whose company he kept hard times hi i am assured of what say father i know i have been your favorite child i know you have intended to make me happy i have never blamed you and i never shall he took her outstretched hand and retained it in his my dear i have remained all night at my table again and again on what has so painfully passed between xx when i consider your character when i consider that what has been known to me for hours has been concealed by you for years when i consider under what immediate pressure it has been forced from you at last i come to the conclusion that i can not but myself he might have added more than all when he saw the face now looking at him he did add it in perhaps as he moved her scattered hair from her forehead with his hand such little actions slight in another man were very noticeable in him and his daughter received them as if they had been words of but said mr slowly and with hesitation as well as with a wretched sense of helplessness if i see reason to myself for the past i should also myself for the present and the future to speak to you i do i am far from feeling convinced now however i might have felt only this time yesterday that i am fit for the trust you repose in me that i know how to respond to the appeal you have come home to make to me that i have the right instinct supposing it for the moment to be some quality of that how to help you and to set you right my child she had turned upon her pillow and lay with her face upon her aim so that he could not see it all her and passion had subsided but though softened she was not in tears her father was changed in nothing so much as in the respect that he would have been glad to see her in tears some persons hold he pursued still hesitating that there is a wisdom of the head and that there is a wisdom of the heart i have not supposed so but as i have said i myself now i have supposed the head to be all sufficient it may not be all how can i venture this morning to say that it is if that other kind of wisdom should be what i have sa be the
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that is wanted n hard times he suggested it very doubtfully as if he were half to admit it even now she made him no answer lying him on her bed still half dressed much as he had seen her lying on the floor of his room last night and his hand rested on her hair again i have been absent om here my dear a good deal of late and though your sister s training has been pursued according to the system he appeared to come to that word with great reluctance always necessarily been modified by daily associations begun in her case at an early age i ask you and humbly my daughter for the better do you think father she without stirring if any harmony has been awakened in her young breast that was mute in mine until it n turned to discord let her thank heaven for it and go upon her happier way taking it as her greatest blessing that she has my way my child my child he said in a forlorn manner i am an man to see you thus what it to me that you do not reproach me if i so bitterly reproach myself he bent his head and spoke low to her i have a that some change may have been slowly working about me in this house by mere love and gratitude that what the head had and could not do the heart may have been doing silently can it be so she made him no reply i am not too proud to believe it how could i be and you before me can it be so is it so my dear he looked upon her once more lying cast away there and without another word went out of the room he had not been long gone when she heard a tread near the door and knew that some one stood beside her she did not raise her head a dull anger that she should be seen in her distress and that the involuntary look she had so resented should come to this within her hke an fire all closely imprisoned forces and destroy the air that would be to the earth the water that would it the heat that would it tear it when up so in her bosom even now the strongest she possessed long turned upon themselves became a heap of that rose a friend hard it was well that touch came upon her neck and that she understood herself to be supposed to have fallen asleep the sympathetic hand did not claim her resentment let it lie there let it lie so it lay there warming into life a crowd of thoughts and she lay still as she softened with the quiet and the consciousness of being so watched some tears made their way into her eyes the face touched hers and she knew that there were tears upon it too and she the cause of them as feigned to rouse herself and sat up retired so that she stood placidly near the bedside i hope i have not disturbed you i have come to ask if you will let me stay with you why should you stay with me my sister will miss you you are every thing to her am i returned shaking her head i would be something to you if i might what said almost sternly whatever you want most if i could be that at all events i would like to try to be as near it as i can and however far off that may be i will never tire of trying will you let me my father sent you to ask me c no indeed he told me that i might come in now but he sent me away from the room this or at least she hesitated and stopped at least what said with h r searching eyes upon her i thought it best myself that i should be sent away for i felt very uncertain whether you would like to find me here have i always hated you so much i hope not for i have always loved you and have always wished that you should know it but you changed to me a little shortly before you left home not that i wondered at it you knew so much and i knew so little and it was so natural in many ways going as you were among other that i had nothing to complain of and was not at all hurt her color rose as she said it modestly and hurriedly understood the loving and her heart smote her may i try said to raise her hand to the neck that was drooping toward her sm hard times taking the hand that would have her in another moment held it in one i hers and ed first do you know what i i am so proud and so i hardened so confused and troubled so and unjust to every one and to myself that every thing is stormy dark and wicked to i me does not that you no i am so unhappy and all that should have made me otherwise is so laid waste that if i had been of sense to this and instead of being as learned as you think me had to begin to acquire the simplest truths i could not want a guide to honor all the good of which i am quite devoid more than i do does not that you no i in the innocence of her brave and the up of her old spirit the once deserted girl shone like a light upon the darkness of the other raised the hand that it might clasp her and its fellow there she fell upon h knees and clinging to thk s child looked up at her almost with forgive me pity me help
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me have compassion on my great need and let me lay this head of mine upon a loving heart lay it here i cried lay it here my chapter xxx mr hi a whole night and a day in a of much hurry that the with its glass in its eye would scarcely have recognized him during that insane interval as the brother of the honorable and member he was positively agitated he several times spoke with an emphasis similar to the vulgar manner he went in and went out in an unaccountable way like a man with an object he rode like a in a word he was so horribly bored by existing circumstances that he forgot to go in for in the manner prescribed by the after putting his at through the storm as if it were a leap he waited up all night from time to time ringing his bell with the greatest charging the porter who kept watch with in letters or messages that could not fail to have been to him and demanding on the spot the dawn coming the coming and the day coming and neither message nor letter coming with either he went down to the country house there the report was mr away and mrs in town left for town suddenly last evening not even known to be gone until receipt of message that her return was not to be for the present in these circumstances he had nothing r it but to fellow her to town he went to the house in town mrs not there he looked in at the bank mr away and mrs away mrs away who could have been reduced to sudden extremity for the company of that n well i don t know said tom who had his own reasons for being uneasy about it she was off somewhere at daybreak this morning she s always full of mystery i hate her so i do that white chap he s always got his eyes upon a where were you last night tom s t hard times i last t tom come i like that i was waiting for you mr till it came down as i never saw it come down where was i too where were you yon mean i was prevented from detained detained murmured tom two of us were detained i was detained looking you till i lost every train bat the mail it would have been a pleasant job to go down by that m a night and have to walk home through a pond i was obliged to sleep in town after all where where why in my own bed at s did you see your sister how the deuce returned tom staring could i see my sister when she was fifteen miles off cursing these quick of the young gentleman to whom he was so true a friend mr himself of that interview with the smallest conceivable amount of ceremony and for the time what all this could mean he made only one thing clear it was that whether she was in town or out of town whether he had been premature with her who was so hard to comprehend or she had lost courage or they were or some or mistake at present incomprehensible had occurred he must remain to his fortune whatever it was the hotel where he was known to live when condemned to that region of blackness was the stake to which he was tied as to all the rest what will be will be so whether i am waiting for a hostile message or an or a penitent remonstrance or an with my friend in the manner which would seem as likely as any thing else in the present state of affairs i ll dine said mr james has the advantage in point of weight and if any thing of a british nature is to come off between us it may be as well to be in training therefore he rang the bell and tossing himself on a sofa ordered some dinner at six with a in it and got through the intervening time as well as he could that was not well for he remained in the greatest perplexity hard times and as the hours went on and no kind of explanation itself his perplexity at compound interest however he took affairs as coolly as it was in human nature to do and entertained himself with the idea of the training more than once it wouldn t he had he yawned at one time to give the waiter five shillings and throw him at another time it occurred to him or a fellow of thirteen or fourteen stone might be hired by the hour but these did not tell materially on the afternoon or his suspense and to say they both fearfully it was impossible even before dinner to avoid often walking about in the pattern of the carpet looking out of the listening at the door for footsteps and occasionally becoming rather hot when any steps approached that room but after dinner when the day turned to and the twilight turned to ni still no was made to him it began to be as he expressed it like the holy office and slow torture however still true to his conviction that was the genuine high breeding the only conviction he had he seized this crisis as the opportunity for ordering candles and a newspaper he had been trying in vain for half an hour to read this newspaper when the waiter appeared and said at once mysteriously and beg your pardon sir you re wanted sir if you please a general recollection that this was the kind of thing the police said to the swell mob caused mr to ask the waiter in return with indignation what the devil he meant by wanted beg your pardon sir young lady
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outside sir wishes to see you outside where outside this door sir giving the waiter to the personage before mentioned as a duly qualified for that mr hurried into the gallery a young woman whom he had never seen stood there plainly dressed very quiet very pretty as he conducted her into the room and placed a chair for her he observed by the light of the candles that she was even prettier than he had at first believed her face was wa hard times pleasant she was a of or in any way disconcerted she seemed to have her mind entirely with the occasion of her visit and to have that consideration for herself i speak to mr she said when they were alone to mr he added in his mind and you speak to him with the most confiding eyes i ever saw and the most earnest voice though so quiet i ever heard if i do not understand and i do not sir said what your honor as a gentleman you to in other matters the blood really rose in his face as she began in these words i am sure i may rely upon it to keep my visit secret and to keep secret what i am going to say i will rely upon it if you will tell me i may so far trust you you may i assure you i am young as you see i am alone as you see in coming to you sir i have no advice or encouragement beyond my own hope he thought but that is very strong as he followed the momentary upward glance of her eyes he thought besides this is a very odd beginning i don t see where we are going i think said you have already guessed whom i left just now i have been in the greatest concern and uneasiness during the last four and twenty hours which have appeared as many years he returned on a lady s account the hopes i have been encouraged to form that you come from that lady do not deceive me i trust i left her within an hour at her father s mr s face lengthened in spite of his coolness and his perplexity increased then i certainly he thought do not see where we are going she hurried there last night she arrived there in great agitation and was insensible all through the night i at her father s and was with her you may be sure sir you will never bee her again as long as you live mr drew a long i sa man found hard times himself in the position cf not what to ay made the discovery beyond all question that he was so the child like with which his visitor spoke her modest her which put all aside her entire forgetfulness of herself in her earnest quiet holding to the object with which she had come all this together with her reliance on his easily given promise which in itself him presented something in which he was so inexperienced and against which he knew any of his usual weapons would so that not a word could he rally to his relief at last he said so startling an announcement so confidently made and by such lips is really in the last degree may i be per to inquire if you are chained to convey that information to me in those hopeless words by the lady of whom we speak i have no charge her the drowning man catches at the straw with no fi r your judgment and with no doubt of your sincerity excuse my saying that i cling to the belief that there is yet hope that i am not condemned to perpetual exile firom that lady s presence there is not the least hope the object of my coming here sir is to assure you that you must believe that there is no more hope of your ever speaking with her again than there would be if she had died when she came home last night must believe but if i can t or if i should by infirmity of nature be obstinate and won t it is still true there is no hope james looked at her with an incredulous smile upon his lips but her mind looked over and beyond him and the smile was quite thrown away he bit his up and took a uttle time for consideration well if it should unhappily appear he said after due pains and duty on my part that i am brought to a position so desolate as this i shall not become the lady s but you said you had no commission her have only the commission of my love for her and her love for me i have no other trust than that i have been with her since she fled home and that she has given me her confidence i ha no further trust than that i ie s hard times and her mr i think you had that trust too he was touched in the where his heart should have heen in that nest of eggs were the birds of heaven would have lived if they had not be i whistled away by the of this reproach i am not a moral sort of fellow he said and i never make any to the character of a moral sort of fellow i am as as be at the same time in bringing any distress upon the lady who is the subject of the present conversation or in unfortunately her in any way or in committing myself by any expression of sentiments toward her not perfectly with in fact with the domestic hearth or in taking any advantage of her father s being a machine or of her brother s being a
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or of her husband s being a bear i beg to be allowed to assure you that i have had no particularly evil intentions but have glided on from one step to another with a so perfectly irresistible that i had not the slightest idea the catalogue was half so long until i began to turn it over whereas i find said mr james in conclusion that it is really in several volumes though he said all this in his frivolous way the way seemed for that once a conscious of but an ugly surface he was silent for a moment and then proceeded with a more self possessed air though with traces of vexation and disappointment that would not be polished out after what has been just now represented to me in a manner i find it impossible to doubt i know of hardly any other source which i could have accepted it so readily i feel bound to say to you in whom the confidence you have mentioned has been that i can not refuse to contemplate the possibility however unexpected of my seeing the lady no more i am solely to blame for the thing having come to this and and i can not say he added rather hard up for a general that i have any sanguine expectation of ever becoming a moral sort of fellow or that i have any belief in any moral sort of fellow whatever s face showed that her appeal to him was not finished you spoke he resumed aa t x es hard times of your first object i may assume that there is a second to be mentioned yes will you oblige me by confiding it mr returned with a of gentleness and that quite defeated him and with a simple confidence in his being bound to do what she required that held him at a singular disadvantage the only that remains with you is to leave here immediately and i am quite sure that you can in no other way the wrong and harm you have done i am quite sure that it i the only compensation you have left it in your power to make i do not say that it is much or that it is enough but it is something and it is necessary therefore though without any other authority than i have given you and even without the knowledge of any other person than yourself and myself i ask you to depart from this place to night under an obligation never to return to it if she had asserted any influence over him beyond her plain faith in the truth and right of what she said if she had concealed the least doubt or or had for the best purpose any reserve or if she had shown or felt the trace of any to his ridicule or his astonishment or any remonstrance he might he would have carried it against her at this point but he could as easily have changed a clear sky by looking at it in surprise as her but do you know he asked quite at a loss the extent of what you ask you probably are not aware that i am here on a kind of business preposterous enough in itself but which i have gone in for and sworn by and am supposed to be devoted to in quite a desperate manner you probably are not aware of that but i assure you it s the fact it had no effect on fact or no fact besides which said mr taking a turn or two across the room it s so absurd it would make a man so ridiculous going in for these fellows to back out in such an incomprehensible way i am quite sure repeated that it is the only in your power sir i am quite sure or i would not h ve here s hard times he glanced at her face and walked again upon my soul i don t know what to say so immensely it fell to his lot now to for secrecy if i were to do such a very ridiculous thing he said stopping again and leaning against the chimney piece it could he in the most confidence i will trust to you sir returned and you will trust to me his leaning against the chimney piece reminded him of the night with the it was the self same chimney and somehow he felt as if were the to night he could no way at all i suppose a man never was placed in a more ridiculous position he said after looking down and looking up and laughing and frowning and walking off and walking hack again but i see no way out of it what will he will be this will be i suppose i must take off myself i imagine in short i engage to do it rose she was not surprised by the result but she was happy in it and her face beamed brightly you will permit me to say continued mr james that i doubt if any other or could have addressed me with the same success i must not only regard myself as being in a very ridiculous position but as being at all points will you allow me the privilege of remembering my enemy s name my name said the the only name i could possibly care to know to night pardon my curiosity at parting related to the family i am only a poor girl returned i was separated my father he was only a and taken pity on by mr i have lived in the house ever since she was gone i wanted this to complete the defeat said mr james sinking with a resigned air on the standing a httle while the defeat may now be considered perfectly accomplished only a poor girl
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only a only made oi os s i of failure hard times the great put it into his head to go up the he took a pen upon the instant and wrote the following note in appropriate to his dear jack all up at bored out of the place and going in for he rang the hell send my fellow here to sir tell him to get up and pack up he wrote two more notes one to mr announcing his retirement from that part of the country and showing where he would he found for the next fortnight the other similar in to mr almost as soon as the ink was dry upon their he had left the tall chimneys of and was in a railway carriage tearing and glaring over the dark landscape the moral sort of fellows might suppose that mr james some comfortable reflections afterward from this prompt retreat as one of his few actions that made any amends for any thing and as a token to himself that he had escaped the climax of a very bad business but it was not so at all a secret sense of having failed and been ridiculous a dread of what other fellows who went in for similar sorts of things would say at his expense if they knew it so oppressed him that what was about the very best passage in his life was the one of all others he would not have owned to on any account and the only one that made him ashamed of himself chapter the mrs with a violent cold upon her her voice reduced to a whisper and her stately frame so by continual that it seemed in danger of gave chase to her patron she found him in the metropolis and there sweeping in upon him at his hotel in st james s street exploded the with which she was charged and blew up having executed her mission with infinite relish this woman then fainted away on mr s coat mr s first was to shake mrs off and leave her to progress as she might through various stages d on the floor he next had recourse to the administration of potent such as the patient s her hands abundantly watering her face and salt in her mouth when these attentions had recovered her which they speedily did he her into a fast train without any other refreshment and carried her back to more dead than alive regarded as a classical ruin mrs was an interesting spectacle on her arrival at her journey s end but considered in any other light the amount of damage she had by that time sustained was excessive and her claims to admiration utterly heedless of the wear and tear of her clothes and constitution and to her pathetic mr immediately crammed her into a coach and bore her off to stone lodge now tom said bursting into his father in law s room late at night here s a lady here mrs you know mrs who has something to make known to you that will strike you dumb you have missed my letter i exclaimed mr surprised by the apparition missed your letter sir v ba iv t a hard times tim no time for letters no man shall talk to of about letters with his mind in the state it s in now said mr in a temperate remonstrance i speak of a very special letter i have written to you in reference to tom replied knocking the flat of his hand several times with great vehemence on the table i speak of a very special messenger that has come to me in reference to mrs ma am stand forward that unfortunate lady to testimony without any voice and with painful gestures expressive of an throat became so and so many that mr unable to bear it seized her by the arm and shook her if you can t get it out ma am said leave me to get it out this is not a time for a lady however highly connected to be totally and seemingly tom mrs found herself by accident in a situation to a conversation out of doors between your daughter and your precious gentleman friend mr james indeed said mr ah indeed cried and in that conversation it is not necessary to repeat its tenor i know what passed you do perhaps said staring with all his might at his so quiet and father in law you know where your daughter is at the present time undoubtedly she is here here my dear let me beg you to restrain these loud on all accounts is here the moment she could herself firom that interview with the person of whom you speak and whom i deeply regret to have been the means of introducing to you hurried here for protection i myself had not been at home many hours when i received her here in this room he hurried by the train to town she ran from town to a raging aa i w i ia i t hard me in a state of distraction of she has remained here ever since let me entreat you for your own sake and or hen too to be more quiet mr silently gazed about him for some moments in every direction except mrs s direction and then abruptly turning upon the niece of lady sc said to that woman now ma am we shall be happy to hear any little apology you may think proper to for going about the country at express pace with no other luggage than a cock and a bull ma am sir whispered mrs my nerves are at present too much shaken and my health is at present too much in your service to admit of my doing m re than
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taking in tears which she did well ma am said without making any ob e to you that may not be made with propriety to a woman of good family what have got to add to that is that there s something else in which it appears to me you may take refuge namely a coach and the coach in which we came here being at the door you ll allow me to hand you down to it and pack you home to the bank where the best course for you to pursue will be to put your feet into the water you can bear and take a glass of rum and butter you get into bed with these words mr extended his right hand to the weeping lady and escorted her to the conveyance in question shedding many plaintive by the way he soon returned alone now as you showed me in your face tom that you wanted to speak to me he resumed here i am but i am not in a very agreeable state i tell you plainly not this business even as it is and not considering that i am at any time as and treated by your daughter as of ought to be treated by his wife you have your opinion i dare say and i have mine i know if you mean to say any thing to me to night that goes against this candid remark you had better leave it alone j s took to at all was his amiable my dear mr began in reply now you ll excuse me said but i don t want to be too dear that to start with when i begin to be dear to a man i generally find that his intention is to come over me i am not speaking to you politely but as you axe ai are i am not polite if you like politeness you know where to get it you have your gentleman friends you know and they ll serve you with as much of the as you want i don t keep it myself urged mr we are all liable to i thought you couldn t make em interrupted perhaps i thought so but i say we are all liable to mistakes and i should feel sensible of your delicacy and really grateful for it if you would spare me these to i not associate him in our conversation with your intimacy and encouragement pray do not persist in connecting him with mine i never mentioned his name said well well i returned mr with a patient even a air and he sat for a little while pondering i see reason to doubt whether we have ever quite understood what do you mean by we me say i then he returned in answer to the question i doubt whether i have understood i doubt whether i have been quite right in the manner of her education there you hit it returned there i agree with you you have found it out at last have you education tell you what education is to be tumbled out of doors neck and crop and put upon the shortest allowance of every thing except blows that s what call education i think your good sense will perceive mr remonstrated in all humility that whatever the merits of such a system may be it would be difficult of general to girls i don t see it at all sir returned the obstinate well sighed mr we will not enter into the question i assure you i have no a ft x sh s hard times to repair what is if i and i hope me in a good spirit for i have been very much distressed i don t yon yet said with obstinacy and therefore i won t make any promises in the course of a few my dear mr proceeded in the same depressed and manner i appear to myself to have become better as to s character than in all previous years the has been painfully forced upon me and the discovery is not mine i think there you will be surprised to hear me say this i think there are imaginative in which have been hardly dealt with and and a little and and i would suggest to you that that if you would kindly meet me in a endeavor to leave her td her better for a and to encourage it to develop itself by and consideration it it would be better for the happiness of all of us said mr r i i ing bis with hit hand has always been my favorite child the and swelled to such an extent on hearing these words that he seemed to be and probably was on the brink of a fit with his very ears a bright purple shot with crimson he put up his indignation however and said you d like to keep her here for a time i had intended to recommend my dear that you should allow to remain here oh a visit and be attended by i mean of course who understands her and in whom she i gather from all this tom said standing up with his hands in his pockets that you are of opinion there s what people call some between loo and myself i fear there is at present a general between and and and almost all the relations in which i have placed her was her father s sorrowful reply now look you here tom said the flushed him with his legs wide apart his hands deeper m his pockets his hair like a hay field wherein his windy waa boisterous to hard times say mine i am a vm man i am of i know the bricks of this town and i know the works of this town and
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daughter of tom and she had her bringing up and the two horses wouldn t pull together i am pretty well known to be rather an uncommon man i believe and most people will understand fast enough that it must be a woman rather out of the also who in the long run would come up to my mark let me seriously entreat you to re consider this urged mr before you commit yourself to a decision i always come to a decision said tossing his hat on and whatever i do i do at once i should be surprised at tom s addressing such a remark to of knowing what he knows of him if i could be surprised by any thing tom did after his making himself a party to sentimental i have given you my decision and i have got no more to say good night i so mr went home to his town house to bed at five minutes past twelve o clock next day he directed mrs s property to be carefully packed up and sent to tom s advertised s retreat for sale by private and a bachelor s life chapter the robbery at the bank had not before and did not cease to occupy a front place in the attention of the principal of that establishment now in proof of his activity as a remarkable man and a self made man and a commercial wonder more admirable than who had risen out of the mud instead of the sea he liked to show how httle his domestic affairs his business consequently in the first few weeks of his resumed he even advanced upon his usual display of lustre and every day made such a in his into the robbery that the professional persons who had it in hand almost wished it had never been committed they were at fault too and ofi the scent although they had been so quiet since the first outbreak of the matter that most people really did suppose it to have been abandoned as hopeless nothing new occurred no man or woman took courage or made a self betraying step more remarkable yet was not found and the mysterious old woman remained a mystery things having come to this pass and showing no latent signs of stirring beyond it the of mr s was that he resolved to hazard a bold burst he drew up a offering twenty pounds reward for the apprehension of suspected of in the robbery of the bank on such a night he described the said by dress complexion estimated height and manner as as he could he how he had left the town and in what direction he had been last seen going he had the whole printed in great black letters on a staring and caused the walls to be posted with it in the dead of the night so that it upon the sight oi l yo at one blow the bells had need to tm i x q xi s x x s i hard times the groups of workers who stood in the daybreak collected round the devouring them with eager eyes not the least eager of the eyes assembled were the eyes of those who could not read these people as they listened to the friendly voice that read aloud there was always some such ready to help them started at the characters which meant so much with a vague i we and respect that would have been half ludicrous if such a picture of a country as a idiot with its sword ot state at its own heart could ever be otherwise than wholly shocking many ears and eyes were busy with a vision of the matter of these among turning rattling and wheels for hours afterward and when the hands cleared out again into the streets there were as many readers as before the had to address his audience too that night and had obtained a clean bill from the and had brought it in his pocket oh my friends and the down trodden of oh my and fellow workmen and fellow citizens and fellow men what a stir was there when unfolded what he called that document and held it up to the gaze and for the of the working man community oh my behold of what a traitor in the camp of those great spirits who are upon the holy of justice and of union is capable oh my prostrate friends with the yoke of on your necks and the iron foot of treading down your fallen forms into the dust of the earth upon which right glad would your be to see you creeping on your all the days of your like the serpent in the garden oh my brothers and shall i as a man not add my sisters too what do you say now of with a slight stoop in his shoulders and about five foot seven in height as set forth in this degrading and disgusting document this bill this this abominable advertisement and with what majesty of will you crush the who would bring this stain and shame upon the race that happily has cast him out forever yes my happily cast him out and sent him forth for you remember how he stood here before you on this platform x to and hot to foot ui x i ii s ra m hard times yon remember how he and and and until with not an inch of ground to which to cling i hurled him out from among ns an object for the finger of scorn to point at and for the re of every and thinking mind to and and now my my laboring friends for i rejoice and triumph in that my friends whose hard but honest beds are made in toil and whose scanty but independent pots are boiled
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in hardship and now i say my friends what has that taken to himself when with the mask torn from his features he stands before us in all his native a what a thief a a fugitive with a price upon his head a and a wound upon the noble character of the therefore my band of brothers in a sacred bond to which your children and your children s children yet have set their infant hands and i propose to you on the part of the united ever watchful for your welfare ever zealous for your benefit that this meeting does resolve that referred to in this having been already solemnly by the of hands the same are free from the shame of his and can not as a class be reproached with his actions thus and a prodigious sort a few stem voices called out no and a score or two hailed with cries of hear hear the caution from one man y or over better y or a too fast but these were against an army the general assemblage to the gospel according to and gave three cheers for him as he sat panting at them these men and women were yet in the streets passing quietly to their homes when who had been called away from some minutes before returned who is it v asked it is mr said timid of the name and your brother mr tom and a young woman who says her name is and that you know her what do they want dear they want to see you be cl t in and seems hard fm father said for he was present i can not refuse to see them a reason you i ill soon understand shall they come as he answered in the went away to them she reappeared with them directly tom was last and remained standing in the part of the room near the door mrs said her entering with a cool nod i don t you i hope this is an hour but here is a young woman who ha been making statements which render my visit necessary tom as your son young tom for some obstinate reason or other to say any thing at all about those statements good or bad i am obliged to her with your daughter you have seen me once before young lady said standing in front of tom you have seen me young lady repeated as she did not answer once before tom again i have cast her eyes toward mr and said will you make it known where and who was there i went to the e where lodged the night of his discharge from his work and i saw you there he was there too and an old woman who did not speak and whom i could scarcely see stood in a dark comer my brother went with me why couldn t you say so young tom demanded i promised my sister i wouldn t which hastily confirmed and besides said the bitterly she tells her own story so precious well and so full that what business had i to take it out of her mouth say young lady if you please pursued why in an evil hour you ever come to s that night i felt compassion for him said her color deepening and i wished to know what he was going to do and wished to him assistance thank you ma am said much flattered and hard times did you liim asked a bank note yes but he refused it and would only take two pounds in gold cast her eyes toward mr again oh certainly i said if you put the question whether your ridiculous and improbable account was true or not i am bound to say it is confirmed young lady said is now named as a robber in public print all over this town and every where else i there have been a meeting to night where he have been spoken of in the same shameful way i the lad the truest lad the best her indignation failed her and she broke off sobbing i am very very sorry said young lady young lady returned i hope you may be but i don t know i can t say what you may ha done t he hke of you don t feel for us don t care for u d t in us i am not sure why you may ha come that night can t ten but what you may ha come wi some aim of your own not to what trouble you brought such as the poor lad i said then bless you for coming and i said it of my heart you seemed to take so to him but i don t know now i don t know could not reproach her for her unjust suspicions she was so faithful to her idea of the man and so unhappy and when i think said through her sobs that the poor lad was so grateful you so good to him when i mind that he put his hand over his hard face to hide the tears that you brought up there i hope you may be sorry and ha no bad cause to be it but i don t know i don t know you re a pretty article growled the moving in his dark corner to come here with these precious you ought to be out for not knowing how to behave yourself and you would be by rights she said nothing in reply and her low weeping was the only sound that was heard mr spoke come said he you know what you have engaged to do you had better give your mind to that not this deed i am returned drying her eyes that see me greet x i j x hard times
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u lady when i had read what s put in print of and what has just as much truth in it as if it had been put in print of you and no more i went straight to the bank to say i knew where was and to give a sure and certain promise that he should be in two days i couldn t meet wi mr then and your brother sent me away and i tried to find you but you was not to be found and i went back to work soon as i come out of the mill to night i hastened to hear what was said of for i know wi pride he will come back to shame it and then i went again to seek mr and i found him and i told him every word i knew and he believed no word i said and brought me here so far that s true enough assented mr with his hands in his pockets and his hat on but i have known you people before to day you ll observe and i know you never die for want of talking now i recommend you not so much to mind talking just now as doing you have undertaken to do something all i remark upon that at present is do it i have written to by the post that went out this afternoon as i have written to him once before sin he went away said and he will be here at in two days then i ll tell you something you are not aware perhaps retorted mr that you yourself have been looked after now and then not being considered quite free from suspicion iu this business on account of most people being judged according to the company they keep the post office hasn t been forgotten either i ll tell you is that no letter to has ever got into it therefore what has become of yours i leave you to guess perhaps you re mistaken and never wrote any he hadn t been gone firom here young lady said turning to as much as a week when he sent me the only letter i have had saying that he was forced to seek work in another name oh by george i cried with a whistle he changes his name does he that s rather too for such an lad it s considered a httle suspicious in courts of justice i when an innocent happens to have many names what said with the c hard times lady the name of mercy wa left the poor fo do e ra against on one ha nd men again gi ihe r he to work peace and do what he felt right a man have no soul of his own ji o mind c f his own must he go wrong all through wi this or must he go wrong all through wi that or else he hunted like a hare indeed indeed i pity him from my heart returned and i hope that he will clear himself you need have no fear of it young lady he is all the i suppose said mr r your refusing to teu where he is eh he shall not through any act of mine come hack wi the reproach of hack he shall come hack of his own accord to clear himself and put all those that have injured his good character and he not here fer its to shame i have told him what done against him said throwing off all distrust as a rock throws off the sea and he he here at in two days notwithstanding which added mr if he can he laid hold of sooner he shall have an opportunity of clearing himself as to you i have nothing against you what you came and told me turns out to he true and i have given you the means of proving it to he true and there s an end of it i wish you all i must he off to look a little further into this tom came out of his comer when mr moved moved with him kept close to him and went away with him the only parting salutation of which he himself was a sulky father with that speech and a at his sister he left the house since his sheet anchor had come home mr had heen of speech he still sat silent when mildly said you will not me one day when you know me better t g li answered in a gentle manner to mi any one hut when i am so when we all are can not keep such things quite out of my mind i ask your pardon for having done you an injury i don t think what i said now yet i might come to think it again wi the poor lad bo did you tell him in your letter hard times seemed to have fallen him because he had been seen about the bank at night he would then know what he have to explain on coming back and would be ready yes dear she returned but i can t guess what can have ever taken him there he never used to go there it was never in his way his way was the same as mine and not near it had been at her side asking her where she lived and whether she might come to morrow night to inquire if there were news i doubt said if he can be here till next day then i will come next night too said when to this was gone mr lifted up his head and said to his daughter my dear i have never that i know of seen this man do you him to be i i have it father though with
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great difficulty i do not believe it now that is to say you once persuaded yourself to believe it from knowing him to be suspected his appearance and manner they so honest very honest and her confidence not to be shaken i ask myself then said mr musing does the real know of these ac where is he who is he his hair had begun to change its color as he leaned upon his hand again looking gray and old with a face of fear and pity hurriedly went over to him and sat close at his side her eyes by accident met s at this moment flushed and started and put her finger on her next night when home and told that was not come she told it in a whisper next night again when she came home with the same account and added that he had not been heard of she spoke in the same low frightened tone from the moment of that of looks they never uttered his name or any reference to him aloud nor ever pursued the subject of the robbery when mr spoke of it the two appointed days ran out three days and nights ran out and was not come and remained unheard of on the fourth day with l ib hard times her to have went up to the bank and showed her letter from him with his address at a working colony one of many not upon the main road some sixty miles away messengers were sent to that place and the whole town looked for to be brought in next day all this time the moved about with mr like his shadow assisting in all the proceedings he was greatly excited horribly bit his nails down to the quick spoke m a hard rattling voice and with that were black and burnt up at the time when the suspected man was looked i r the was at the station to that he had made ofi the arrival of those who were sent in quest of him and that he would not appear the was right the messengers returned alone s letter had gone letter had been had in that same hour and no soul knew more of him the only doubt in was whether had written in good faith believing that he really would come back or warning him to fly on this point opinion was divided six days seven far on into another week the wretched plucked up a ghastly courage and began to grow defiant was the suspected fellow the thief a pretty question if not where was the man and why did he not come back where was the man and why did he not come back in the dead of night the echoes of his own words which had rolled heaven knows how far away in the came back instead and by him until morning chapter pay and night again day and night again no where was the man and why did he not come back every night went to s lodging and sat with her in her small neat room all day toiled as such people must toil whatever their anxieties the were in j who was lost or found who was had or good the melancholy mad like the hard fact men nothing of their set routine whatever happened day and night day and night again the y was even s disappearance was falling into the general way and becoming as monotonous a wonder as any piece of machinery in i said if there is as many as twenty left in all this place who have any trust in the poor dear lad now she said it to as they sat in her lodging lighted only by the lamp at the street comer had come there when it was already dark to wait for her return from work and they had since sat at the window where had found her wanting no brighter to shine on their sorrowful talk if it hadn t been brought about that i was to have you to speak to pursued times are when i think my mind would not have kept right but i get hope and strength through you and you believe that though appearances may rise against him he will be proved clear living or dead i do believe so returned with my whole heart i feel so certain that the confidence you hold in yours against all is not like to be wrong that i have no more doubt of him than if i had known him through as many years of trial as you have and i my dear said with a tremble in her voice have known him through them all to be according to his quiet ways so faithful to ever thing honest and good that if he wa s hard times never to be heard of more and i was to live to be a hundred old i would say with my breath god knows my heart i have never once left trusting we all believe up at the lodge that he will be freed rom suspicion sooner or later the better i know it to be so believed there my dear said and the kinder i feel it that you come away from there purposely to rt me and keep me company and be seen wi me when i am not yet firom all suspicion myself the more grieved i am that i should ever have spoken those words to the young lady and yet you don t her now t now that you have brought us more together no not her but i can t at au times keep out of my mind her voice so sunk into a low and slow with herself that sitting by her side was obliged to listen with attention i can t at all times keep out of my
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say most unwillingly on her part it has not been sir without some trouble that i have this but trouble in your service is to me a pleasure and hunger thirst and cold a real gratification here mrs ceased for mr s exhibited an extraordinary combination of all possible colors and expressions of discomfiture as old mrs was disclosed to his view why what do you mean by this i was his highly unexpected demand in great wrath ask you what do you mean by this mrs ma am sir i exclaimed mrs faintly why don t you mind your own business ma am roared how dare you go and your nose into my family this allusion to her favorite feature overpowered mrs she sat down stiffly in a chair as if she were and with a fixed stare at mr slowly her against one another as if they were frozen my dear said mrs trembling my darling boy i am not to blame it s not my fault i told this lady over and over again that i knew she was doing what would not be agreeable but she would do it what did you let her bring you for couldn t you knock her cap off or her tooth out or scratch her or do something to her asked my own boy she threatened me that if i resisted her i should be brought by and it was better to come quietly than make that stir in such a mrs glanced timidly but proudly round the such a fine house as this indeed indeed it is not my fault my dear noble stately boy i have always lived quiet and secret my dear i have never broken the condition once i have never said i was your mother i have admired you at a distance and if i have come to town sometimes with long times between to take a proud peep at you i have done it my love and gone away again mr with his hands in his pockets walked in impatient mortification up and down at the side of the long dining table the took in e v q s s hard times appeal and at each became more and eyed mr still walking up and down when mn had done mr addressed that old lady i am surprised madam he observed with severity that in your old age you have the face to claim mr for your son your and treatment of him me unnatural i cried poor old mrs me to my dear boy dear repeated mr yes dear in his self made prosperity madam i dare say not very dear however when you deserted him in his infancy and left him to the of a drunken grandmother i deserted my cried mrs clasping her hands lord forgive you sir for your wicked and for your scandal against the memory of my poor mother who died in my arms afore was bom may you repent of it sir and live to know better she was so very earnest and injured that mr shocked by the which damned upon him said in a tone do you deny then madam that you left your son to be brought up in the in the i exclaimed mrs no such a thing sir never for shame on you i my dear boy knows and will give you to know that though he come of humble parents he come of parents that loved him as dear as the best could and never thought it hardship on themselves to pinch a bit that he might write and beautiful and i ve his at home to show it ay have i said mrs with indignant pride and my dear boy knows and will give you to know sir that after his beloved father died when he was eight year old his mother too could pinch a bit as it was her duty and her pleasure and her pride to do it to help him out in life and put him and a steady lad he was and a kind master he had to l id him a hand and well he worked his own way forward to be rich and and j u give you to know sir for this my dear boy won t that though his mother kept but a httle village shop he never forgot her but me on thirty pound a year more than i i put by out of it only making the condition that was to keep down in my own i times s s and i never except with looking at him si year when he has never it and it s right said poor old mrs in that i should keep down in my own part and i have no doubts that if i was here i should a things and i am well contented and i can keep my pride in my to myself and i can love for love s own sake and i am ashamed of you sir said mrs lastly for you and suspicions and i never stood here afore or wanted to stand here when my dear son said no and i shouldn t be here now if it hadn t been for being brought and for shame upon you r shame to accuse me of being a bad mother to my son with my son standing here to tell you so the on and off the dining room raised a murmur of sympathy with mrs and mr felt himself innocently placed in a very distressing when mr who had never ceased walking up and down and had every moment swelled larger and larger and grown stopped short i don t exactly know said mr how i come to be favored with the attendance of the present company but i don t inquire when they re
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quite satisfied perhaps they ll be so good as whether they re satisfied or not perhaps they ll be so good as i m not bound to deliver a lecture on my family i have not undertaken to do it and i m not going to do it therefore those who expect any explanation whatever upon that branch of the subject will be disappointed particularly tom and he can t know it too soon in to the bank robbery there has been a mistake made concerning my mo ther k there had nt been it would nt have been i made and i hate over at all times whether or bo good evening although mr carried it off in these terms holding the door open the company to depart there was a upon him at once extremely crest fallen and absurd detected as the bully of humanity who had built his windy reputation upon lies and in his had put the honest truth as far away firom him as if he had preferred the mean there is no to tack i oa ft gk hard times a most figure v th the people off at the door lie held who he knew would what had passed to the whole town to he given to the four winds he could not have looked a bully more and forlorn if he had had his ears even that unlucky female mrs fallen firom her of into the of was not in so had a plight as that man and self made of and leaving mrs f to occupy a bed at her son s for that night walked together to the gate of stone lodge and there parted mr joined them before they had gone very and with much interest of fi r he thought this signal failure of the against mis was likely to work well as to the throughout this scene as on all other late occasions he had stuck close to he seemed to feel that as long as could make no without his knowledge he was so safe he never visited his sister and had only seen her once since she went home that is to say on the night when he still stuck close to as already related there was one dim fear lingering about his sister s mind to which she never gave utterance which surrounded the and ungrateful boy with a dreadful mystery the same dark possibility had presented itself in the same guise this very day to when spoke of some one who would be by s return having put him out of the way had never spoken of her any suspicion of her brother in with the robbery she and had held no confidence on the subject saving in that one of looks when the unconscious father rested his gray head on his hand but it was understood between them and they both knew it this other fear was so awful that it hovered about each of them like a ghostly shadow neither daring to tl k of its being near herself far less of its being near the other and still the forced spirit which the had plucked up with him if was not the thief let him show himself why didn t he i another night another day and night no where was the man and w d j il chapter the sunday was a bright sunday in autumn clear and cool when early in the morning and met to walk in the country as cast ashes not only on its own head but on the neighborhood s the manner of those pious persons who do penance for their own sins by putting other people into it was customary for those who now and then for a draught of pure air which is not absolutely the most wicked among the of life to get a few miles away by the railroad and then begin their walk or their in the fields and helped themselves out of the smoke by the usual means and were put down at a station about between the town and mr s retreat though the green landscape was blotted here and there with heaps of coal it was green and there were trees to see and there were singing though it was sunday and there were pleasant in the air and all was by a bright blue sky in the distance one way showed as a black mist in another distance hills began to rise in a third there was a faint change in the light of the horizon where it shone upon the far off sea under their feet the grass was fresh beautiful shadows of branches upon it and it were luxuriant every thing was at peace engines at mouths and lean old horses that had worn the circle of their daily labor into the ground were alike quiet wheels had ceased for a short space to turn and the great earth seemed to without the and noises of time l hey walked on across the fields and down the shady lanes sometimes getting over a fragment of a fence so rotten that it dropped at a touch of the foot sometimes passing near a wreck of bricks and beams with grass marking the site of some deserted works they followed pat ib l s ns hard times where the grass was rank and high and where dock weeds and such like vegetation were heaped together they always avoided for dismal stories were told in that country of the old hidden beneath such indications the sun was high when they sat down to rest they had seen no one near or distant for a long time and the solitude remained unbroken it is so still here and the way is so that i think we must be the first who have been here all the summer as said it her eyes
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were attracted by another of those rotten fragments of fence upon the ground she got up to look at it and yet i don t know this has not been broken very long the wood is quite fresh where it gave way here are footsteps too she ran back and caught her round the neck had already started up what is the matter v i don t know there is a hat lying in the grass they went forward together took it up shaking from head to foot she broke into a passion of tears and was written in his own hand on the inside the poor lad the poor lad he has been made away with he is lying murdered here is there has the hat any blood upon it ed they were afraid to look but they did examine it and found no mark of violence inside or out it had been lying there some days for rain and dew had stained it and it left the mark of its shape on the grass where it had fallen they looked fearfully about them without moving but could see nothing more whispered i will go on a little by myself she had her hand and was in the act of stepping forward when caught her in both arms with a scream that over the wide landscape before them at their very feet was the brink of a black ragged chasm hidden by the thick grass they sprang back and fell upon their knees each hiding her face upon the other s neck my good god he s down there down there i at this and her terrific screams l ot from by any tears by any j e tf s man j s any it to l r aad it deadly necessary to hold her or she would have flung herself down the dear good for the love of i not these dreadful cries think of think of think of by an earnest repetition of this entreaty poured out in all the agony of such a time at last brought her to be silent and to look at her with a face of stone may be living you wouldn t leave him lying at the bottom of this dreadful place a moment if you could bring help to him no no no i don t stir from here for his sake let me go and listen she shuddered to approach the pit but she crept toward it on her hands and knees and called to him as loud as she could call she listened but no sound replied she called again and listened still no sound she did this twenty thirty times she took a of earth from the broken ground where he had stumbled and threw it in she could not hear it fall the wide prospect so beautiful in its stillness but a few minutes ago almost carried despair to her brave heart as she rose and looked all round her seeing no help we must lose not a moment we must go in directions seeking aid you shall go by the way we have come and i will go forward by the path tell any one you see and every one what has happened think of think of she knew by face that she might trust her now standing for a moment to see her running wringing her hands as she went she turned and went upon her search she stopped at the he e to tie her shawl there as a guide to the place then threw her bonnet aside and ran as she had never run before run run in heaven s name don t for breath run run herself by carrying such entreaties in her she ran from field to field and lane to lane and place to place as she had never run before until she came to a shed by an engine house where two men lay in the e q tt to wake them and next to x hard times as she was what bad brought ber there were but they no sooner understood her than their spirits were on fire like hers one of the men was in a drunken slumber but on his comrade s shouting to him that a man had fallen down the old hell shaft he started out to a pool of dirty water put his bead in it and came back sober with these two men she ran to another half a mile further and with that one to another while they ran elsewhere then a horse was found and she got another man to ride for life or death to the railroad and send a message to which she wrote and gave him by this time a whole village was up and ropes poles candles all things necessary were fast collecting and being brought into one place to be carried to the old hell shaft it seemed now hours and hours since she had left the lost man lying in the grave where he had been buried alive she could not bear to remain away from it any longer it was like him and she hurried swiftly back accompanied by half including the drunken man whom the news had and who was the best man of all when they came to the old hell shaft they found it as lonely as she had left it the men called and listened as she had done and examined the edge of the chasm and settled how it had happened and then sat down to wait until the implements they wanted should come up every sound of insects in the air every stirring of the leaves every whisper among these men made tremble for she thought it was a cry at the bottom of the pit but the wind blew idly over it and no
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sound arose to the surface and they sat upon the grass waiting and waiting after they had waited some time straggling people who had heard of the accident began to come up then the real help of implements began to arrive in the midst of this returned and with her party there was a surgeon who brought some wine and but the expectation among the working that the man would be found alive was very slight indeed there being now people enough present to the work the man put himself at the head of the rest or was put there by the general consent and made a large ring round the old hell shaft and appointed men to keep it besides such hard times were accepted to work only and were at first permitted within this ring but later in the day when the message brought an express from mr and and mr and the were also there the sun was four hours lower than when and had first sat down upon the grass before a means of two men to descend securely was with poles and ropes difficulties had arisen in the construction of this machine simple as it was had been found wanting and messages had had to go and return it was five o clock in the afternoon of a bright sunday before a candle was sent down to try the air while three or rough faces stood crowded close together all watching it the men at the lowering as they were told the candle was brought up again feebly burning and then some water was cast in then the bucket was on and the man and another got in with lights giving the word lower away i as the rope went out tight and strained and the there was not a breath among the one or two hundred men and women looking on that came as it was wont to come the signal was given and the stopped with abundant rope to spare apparently so long an interval ensued with the men at the standing idle that some women shrieked another accident had happened but the surgeon who held the watch declared five minutes not to have elapsed yet and sternly them to keep silence he had not well done speaking when the was reversed and worked again ed eyes knew that it did not go as heavily as it would if workmen had been coming up and that only one was returning the rope came in tight and strained and ring after ring was upon the barrel of the and all eyes were fastened on the pit the man was brought up and leaped out briskly on the grass there was a cry of alive or dead and then a deep profound hush when he said alive a great shout arose and many eyes had tears in them but he s hurt very bad ho added as soon as he could make s himself heard b he s vary bad sir that we how to get him up they all together and looked anxiously at the as he asked some questions and shook his head on receiving the the sun was setting now and the red light in the evening sky touched ev face there and caused it to be distinctly se in all its suspense the consultation ended in the men returning to the and the going down again carrying the wine and some small matters with him then the other man came up in the mean time imder the s directions some men brought a bundle on which others made a thick bed of spare clothes covered with straw while he himself contrived some and from and handkerchiefs as these were made they were hung upon the arm of the who had last up with instructions how to use them and as he stood shown in the light he carried leaning his powerful loose hand upon one of the poles and sometimes glancing down the pit and sometimes glancing round upon the people he was not the least conspicuous figure in the scene it was dark now and were kindled it appeared from the little this man said to those about him which was quickly repeated all over the circle that the lost man had fallen upon a mass of rubbish with which the pit was half choked up and that his fall had further been broken by some jagged earth at the side he lay upon his back with one arm doubled under him and according to his had hardly stirred since he except that he had moved his free hand to a side pocket in which he remembered to have some bread and meat of which he had swallowed and had likewise up a little water in it now and then he had come straight away from his work on being written to and had walked the whole journey and was on his way to mr s country house after dark when he fell he was crossing that dangerous country at such a dangerous time because he was wholly innocent of what was laid to his charge and couldn t rest from coming the nearest way to himself up the old hell shaft the said with a curse upon it was worthy of its bad name to the last for though could speak now he believed it would soon be found to have the life out of him hard times when all was ready this man still taking his last hurried charges from his comrades and the surgeon after the had begun to lower him disappeared into the pit the rope went out as before the signal was made as before and the stopped no man removed his hand from it now every one waited with his grasp set and his body bent down to the work ready to reverse and wind in at length the signal was given and all
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the ring leaned forward for now the rope came in and strained to its utmost as it appeared and the men turned heavily and the complained it was scarcely to look at the rope and think of its giving way but ring after ring was upon the barrel of the safely and the connecting chains appeared and finally the bucket with the two men holding on at the sides a sight to make the head swim and the heart and tenderly supporting between them and tied within the figure of a poor crushed creature a low murmur of pity went the throng and the women wept aloud as this form almost without form was moved very slowly from its iron and laid upon the bed of straw at first none but the surgeon went close to it he did what he could in its on the couch but the best that he could do was to cover it that gently done he called to him and and at that time the pale worn patient face was seen looking up at the sky with the broken right hand lying bare on the outside of the covering garments as if waiting to be taken by another hand they gave him drink his face with water and administered some drops of cordial and wine though he lay quite motionless looking up at the sky he smiled and said she stooped down on the grass at his side and bent over him until her eyes were between his and the sky for he could not so much as turn them to look at her my dear she took his hand he smiled again and said don t let it go thou rt in great pain my own dear i ha been but not now i ha been dreadful and and long my dear but tis now ah aw a fro first to last a m m hard times the of his old look seemed to pass as he said the i ha fell into th pit my dear as have cost wi ii the knowledge o old folk now and o men s li es fathers sons brothers dear to thousands an and em fro want and hunger i ha fell into a pit that ha been wi th fire damp than battle i ha read on t in the public petition as one may read fro the men that works in in which they ha pray n an pray n the law makers foi christ s sake not to let their work be murder to em but to spare em for th wives and children that they loves as well as loves theirs when it were in work it killed wi out need when tis let alone it wi out need see how we die an no i need one way an another in a every day he faintly said it without any anger against any one merely as the truth thy httle sister thou hast not forgot her thou rt not like to forget her now and me so nigh her thou know st poor patient dear how she died young and o sickly air as had n no need to be an o working people s miserable homes a i aw a approached him but he could not see her lying with his face turned up to the night sky if aw th things that touches us my dear was not so i should n ha had n need to beer if we was not in a among i should n ha been by my own fellow and brothers so if mr had ever know d me right rather if he d ever know d me at aw he would n ha took n wi me he would n ha suspect n me but look up yonder i look following his eyes she saw that he was gazing at a star it ha upon me he said reverently in pain and trouble down below it ha into my mind i ha an o thee till the in my mind have cleared away above a bit i hope if ha been in me better i too ha been in them better when i got thy letter i easily that what the lady sen an done to me an what her brother s i an done to me were one an that there were a wicked plot un when i fell i were in anger wi her an on t be as hard times t hm as others was t me but in our judgment like as in our doing we bear and forbear you in my pain an trouble up yonder wi it on me i ha seen more clear and ha made it my dying prayer that aw th world may on y more an get a better o one another than when i were in t my own weak hearing what he said bent over him on the opposite side to so that he could see her you ha heard he said after a few moment s silence i ha not forgot yo yes i have heard you and your prayer is mine you ha a father will yo a message to him he is here said with dread shall i bring him to you please returned with her father standing hand in hand they both looked down upon his solemn countenance sir yo will clear me an my name good wi aw men this i leave to yo mr was troubled and asked how sir was the reply your son will tell yo how ask him i no charges i leave none me not a single word i ha seen an n wi son one night i ask no more o yo than that to clear me an i trust to yo to do t the being
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now ready to carry him away and the surgeon being anxious for his oval those who had or prepared to go in front of the litter before it was raised and while they were arranging how to go he said to looking upward at the star often as i to and found it on me down there in my trouble i it were the star as guided to our s home i think it be the very star they lifted him up and he was to find that they were about to take him in the direction whither the star seemed to him to lead beloved don t let go my hand we may walk together t night dear i will hold thy hand keep beside thee all the way m hard times will be pleased to my face they carried him very gently along the fields and down the lanes and over the wide landscape always holding the hand in hers very few whispers broke the mournful silence it was soon a funeral procession the star had shown him where to find the d of the and through humility and sorrow and forgiveness he had to his s rest chapter before the ring formed round the old hell shaft was broken one figure had disappeared from it mr and his shadow had not stood near who held her father s arm but in a retired by themselves when mr was summoned to the couch attentive to all that happened behind that wicked shadow a sight in the horror of his face if there had been eyes there for any sight but one and whispered in his ear without turning his head for she had begun by telling him not even to look round he conferred with her a few moments and vanished thus the had gone out of the circle before the people moved when the father reached home he sent a message to mr s desiring his son to come to him directly the reply was that mr having missed him in the crowd and seen nothing of him since had supposed him to be at stone lodge i believe father said he will not come back to town to night mr turned away and said no more li the morning he went down to the bank himself as soon as it was opened and seeing his son s place empty he had not the courage to look in at first went back along the street to meet mr on his way there to whom he said that for reasons he would soon explain but entreated not then to be asked for he had found it necessary to employ his son at a distance for a little while also that he was charged with the duty of ting s memory and declaring the thief mr quite confounded stood stock still in the street after his father in law had left him swelling like an without its beauty mr went home locked himself in his room and kept it all that day when and tapped at his door he said without opening it not now my in the evening on their return in the evening he i sa ft hard times morrow he ate nothing all day and had no candle after dark and they heard him walking to and fro late at night but in the morning he appeared at at the usual and took his usual place at the aged and he looked and quite ho v ed down and yet he looked a wiser man and a man than in the days when in this life he wanted nothing hut facts before he left the room he appointed a time fi r them to come to him and so with his gray head drooping w it away dear father said when they kept their appointment you have three young children left they will be will be different yet with heaven s help she gave her hand to as if she meant with the help of her loving heart your wretched brother said mr do you think he had planned this robbery when he went with you to the i fear so father i know he had wanted money very much and had spent a great deal the poor man being about to leave the town it came into his evil brain to cast suspicion on him i think it must have flashed upon him while he sat there father for i asked him to go there with me the visit did not with him he had some conversation with the poor man did he take him aside he took him out of the room i asked him af why he had done so and he made a plausible excuse but since last night father and when i remember the circumstances by its light i afraid i can imagine too truly what passed between them let me know said her father if your thoughts present your guilty brother in the same dark view as mine do i am afraid father that he must have made some representation to perhaps in my name perhaps in his own which induced him to do in good faith and honesty what he had never done before and to wait about the bank those two or three nights before he left the town too plain returned the father too plain he shaded his face and remained for some himself he said hard times and now is he to be found how is he to be saved from justice the few hours that i can possibly allow to a the truth how is he to be found by us and only by us t i thousand pounds could not effect it has effected it father he raised his eyes to where she stood like a good fairy in his house and said in a tone of soft
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long to and in their suspense particularly when it stopped ta the an opportunity telling mr who said indeed sir to all his in the way and his eye on the house two legs sitting on three legs looking at one leg when in came four legs and laid hold of one leg and up got two legs caught hold of three legs and threw em at four legs who ran away with one leg for although an ingenious relating to a a three legged stool a dog and a leg of mutton this narrative consumed time and they were painfully anxious at last however httle fair haired made her courtesy amidst great applause and the left alone in the ring had just warmed himself and said now ll have a turn when was touched on the shoulder and out took with her and they were by mr hard in a very little private apartment with canvas hides a grass floor and a wooden ceiling all on which the box stamped their approbation as if they were coming through said mr who had brandy and water at hand it doth me good to thee you you a favorite with and you ve done the old vm you thee our people my dear afore we of or they ll break their the women here th hath been and got married to e w b and thee hath got a boy and though he th only three old he on to any pony you can bring him he th named the little wonder of and if you don t hear of that boy at th you ll hear of him at and you recollect that thought to be rather upon well married too married a old enough to be mother thee thee and now thee th on account of fat they ve got two children tho we re in the fairy and the k you to thee our children in the wood with their father and mother both a on a their uncle a of em on a then the both a goin a black on a and the a coming in to cover em with upon a you d that the thing ever you your on and you remember my dear a a mother to you of you do i needn t well thee loth her he throw d a heavy off an elephant in a of thing the of the and he never got the better of it and thee married a time married a fell in love with her from the front and he th a and a these various changes mr very short of breath now related with great and with a wonderful kind of innocence considering what a and brandy and watery old he was afterward he brought in and e w b rather deeply lined in the jaws by daylight and the little wonder of and in a word all the company am a creatures they were in s eyes so white and pink times of complexion of dress and so of leg but it was very pleasant for all that to see them crowding v very natural in to be unable to refrain from tears there now hath all the children and all the women and all round with all the men clear every one of you and ring in the band for the part said as soon as they were gone he continued in a low tone now i don t to know any but i i may to be this is his sister yes and t other one th daughter that h what i mean hope i thee you well and i hope the th well my father will be here soon said anxious to bring him to the point is my brother safe and he i want you to take a peep at the ring through here you know the find a hole for they each looked through a in the boards that th jack the giant a of comic infant said there th a property you thee for jack to hide in there th my with a lid and a for jack th there th little jack himself in a of there th two comic black big the to by it and to bring it in and clear it and the giant a very one he an t on yet now do you thee em all yes they both said look at em again said look at em well you thee em all very good now he put a form for them to sit on i have my and the your father hath i don t want to know what your brother th been up to ith better for me not to know all i ith the hath by and i ll by the your brother ith one o them black uttered an exclamation partly of distress partly of ith a fact said and even that you t hard put your finger on him let the i shall keep i your here after the i him nor yet paint ofi let the come after th i or come here after the and yon shall nd your brother and have the whole to talk to him in never mind the of him long he th well hid i with many thanks and with a lightened load detained mr no longer then she left her love for her brother with her eyes full of tears and she and went away until later in j the afternoon j mr arrived within an hour afterward he too had j encountered no one whom he knew and was now sanguine with i s assistance of getting his disgraced son to liverpool in the night as neither of the three could be his companion without i almost him under any disguise he prepared a letter to a correspondent whom he
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could trust him to ship the bearer off at any cost to north or south america or any distant part of the world to which he could be the most speedily and privately this done they walked about waiting for the to be quite not only by the audience but by the company and by the horses after watching it a long time they saw mr bring out a chair and sit down by the smoking as if that were his signal that they might approach your was his cautious salutation as they passed in if you want me you ll find me here you t mind your then having a comic livery on they all three went in and mr sat down on the s performing chair in the middle of the ring on one of the back benches remote in the subdued light and the strangeness of the place sat the sulky to the last whom he had the misery to call his son in a preposterous coat like a s with and exaggerated to an unspeakable extent in an immense waistcoat knee breeches shoes and a mad cocked hat with nothing fitting him and every thing of coarse material eaten and full of holes with in his black face where fear and heat had started through the greasy composition all over it any thing so g y shameful as the in his comic livery mr never could bv other have hard times believed in w and though it was and one of his model children had come to this at first the would not draw any nearer but persisted in remaining up there by himself yielding at length if any concession so sullenly made can be called yielding to the entreaties of for he altogether he came down bench by bench until he stood in the on the verge of tne circle as far as possible within its limits from where his father sat how was this done asked the father how was what done answered the son this robbery said the father raising his voice upon the word i forced the safe myself over night and shut it up before i went away i had had the key that was found made long before i dropped it that morning that it might be supposed to have been used i didn t take the money all at once i pretended to put my balance away every night but i didn t now you know all about it if a had fallen on me said the father it would have shocked me less than this i don t see why returned the son so many people employed in situations of trust so many people out of so many will be i have heard you talk a hundred times of its v being a law how can help laws you have comforted others with such things father comfort yourself the father buried his face in his hands and the son stood in his disgraceful biting straw his hands with the black partly worn away inside looking like the hands of a monkey the evening was fast closing in and from time to time he turned the of his eyes and impatiently toward his ther they were the only parts of his face that showed any life or expression the upon it was so thick you must be got to liverpool and sent on board i suppose i must i can t be miserable any where this than i have been here ever since i can remember that s one thing mr went to the door and returned with to whom he submitted the question how to get this deplorable object away why i ve been thinking of it th not much hard times time to tho you or no ith over twenty to the rail there th a in half an hour that to the rail to the mail train that train him right to liverpool but look at him groaned mr will any coach i don t mean that he go in the comic livery said the word and i ll make a of him out of the wardrobe in five minutes i don t understand said mr a a make up your mind quick there ll be beer to i ve never met with nothing but beer ll ever clean a comic mr rapidly assented mr rapidly turned out from a box a frock a felt hat and other the rapidly changed clothes behind a screen of mr rapidly brought beer and washed him white again now said come along to the and jump up behind i ll go with you there and they ll you one of my people farewell to your family and th the word with which he delicately retired here is your letter said mr all necessary means will be provided for you by repentance and better conduct for this shocking act of and the dreadful consequences to which it has led give me your hand my poor boy and may god forgive you as i do i the was moved to a few abject tears by these words and their pathetic tone put when opened her arms he her afresh not you no i don t want to have any thing to say to you i tom tom do we end so after all my love after all your love he returned pretty love leaving old to himself and packing my best friend mr ofi and going home just when i was in the greatest danger pretty love that coming out with every word about our having gone to that place when you saw the net was gathering round me pretty love that you have regularly given me up you never cared for me th the word said at the door they all went out crying to him that she times forgave him his ingratitude
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and loved him still and that he would one day be sorry to have left her so and glad to think of those her last words far away when some one ran against them mr and who were both before him while his sister yet clung to his shoulder stopped and for there was out of breath his thin parted his thin nostrils his white quivering his face more than ever as if he ran himself into a white heat when other people ran themselves into a glow there he stood panting and heaving as if he had never stopped since the night long ago when he had run them down before i m sorry to interfere with your plans said shaking his head but i can t allow myself to be done by i must have young mr tom he nt be got away by here he is in a frock and i must have him by the collar too it seemed for so he took possession of him chapter they went back into the shutting the door to keep out and still holding the by the collar stood in the ring at his old patron through the darkness of the twilight said mr broken down and e to him have you a heart the circulation sir returned smiling at the of the question couldn t be carried on without one no man sir acquainted with the facts established by relating to the circulation of the blood can doubt that i must have a heart is it accessible cried mr to any compassionate influence it is accessible to reason sir returned the excellent young man and to nothing else they stood looking at each other mr s face as white as the s what even what motive in can you have for preventing the escape of this wretched youth said mr and crushing his miserable father see his sister here pity us sir returned in a very business like and logical manner since you ask me what motive i have in reason for taking young mr tom back to it is only reasonable to let you know i have suspected young mr tom of this bank robbery from the first i had had my eye upon him before that time and i knew his ways i have kept my observations to myself but i have made them and i have got ample proofs against him now besides his running away and besides his own confession which i was just in time to i had the pleasure of watching your house yesterday morning and following you here i am going to take young mr tom back to in order to deliver bim to mi ei ia i ta doubt what hard times ever that mr will then promote me to mr tom s situation and i wish to have his situation sir for it will be a rise to me and will do me good if this is solely a question of self interest with you mr began i beg your pardon for interrupting you sir returned but i am sure you know that the whole social system is a question of self interest what you must always appeal to is a person s self interest it s your only hold we are so constituted i was brought up in that when i was young sir as you are aware what of money said mr will you set against your expected promotion thank you sir returned for at the proposal but i will not set any sum against it knowing that your clear head would propose that alternative i have gone over the calculations in my mind and i find that to a even on very high terms indeed would not be as safe and good for me as my improved prospects in the bank said mr stretching out his hands as though he would have said see how miserable i am i have hit one chance left to soften you you were many years at my school if in remembrance of the pains bestowed upon you you can persuade yourself in any degree to disregard your present interest and release my son i entreat and pray you to give him the benefit of that remembrance i really wonder sir rejoined the old pupil in an manner to find you taking a position so my was paid for it was a bargain and when i came away the bargain ended it was a principle of the philosophy r that every thing was to be paid for nobody was ever on any l account to give any body any thing or render any body help without return gratitude was to be and the virtues springing from it were not to be the whole existence of mankind from birth to death was to be a bargain across a counter and if we i didn t get to that way it was not a economical place and we had no business there i i t deny added m n j i hard times but that comes right i was made in the and have to dispose of myself in the dearest he was a little troubled here by and crying pray don t do that he it s of no use doing that it only you seem to think that i have some against young mr tom whereas i have none at all i am only going on the reasonable grounds i have mentioned to take him back to k he was to resist i should set up the cry of stop thief but he won t resist you may depend upon it mr who with his mouth open and his rolling eye as in his head as his fixed one had listened to these doctrines with profound attention here stepped forward you know perfectly well and your daughter perfectly well better than you i it to her that i
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didn t know what your had done and that i didn t want to know that i it better not though i only thought it however yoimg man having made it known to be a robbery of a bank why that th a thing too a thing for me to compound yoimg man hath very properly called it you t quarrel with me if i take young man th and he th right and there th no help for it but i tell you what i ll do i ll drive your and young man over to the rail and prevent here i can t to do more but i ll do that fresh from and deeper affliction on mr s part followed this desertion of them by their last friend but glanced at him with great attention nor did she in her own breast him for as they were all going out again he favored her with one slight roll of his eye desiring her to linger t as he locked the door he said excitedly the by you and i ll by the more than that ith a and to that that my people nearly out o it ll be a dark night i ve got a that ll do any thing but i ve got a pony that ll go fifteen mile an hour with driving of him i ve got a dog that ll keep a man ur and n ib s tell him when he our begin to not to be of being but to look out for a pony coming up tell him when he that clothe by to down and it ll take him off at a rattling if my dog young man a or foot i give him leave to go and if my ever from that where he a till the morning i don t know him th the word i the word was so sharp that in ten minutes mr about the market place in a pair of slippers had his cue and mr s was ready it was a fine sight to behold the learned dog barking round it and mr him with his one practicable eye that was the object of his particular attentions boon after dark they all three got in and started the learned dog a formidable creature already with his eye and sticking close to the wheel on hid side that he might be ready for him in the event of his showing the slightest disposition to alight the three sat up at the inn all night in great suspense at eight o clock in the morning mr and the dog reappeared both in high spirits au right said mr your may be aboard a by time took him ofi an hour and a half we left night the the till he dead beat he would have if he hadn t been in and then i gave him the word and he went to comfortable he d go for ard and the dog hung on to neck with all four in the air and pulled him down and rolled him over tho he come back into the drag and there he that till i got the better of the and turned the th head at half morning mr overwhelmed him with thanks of course and hinted as delicately as he could at a handsome in money well i i don t want money myself but ith a family man and if you to like to him a five pound note it t be if you to a collar for the dog or a of for the i be very glad to take em brandy and water i take he had already called a aad t b i i ei hard times you wouldn t think it going too far to make a little for the company at three and a head not reckoning it would make em happy all these little tokens of his gratitude mr very willingly undertook to render though he thought them far too slight he said for such a service very well then if you ll only give a riding a whenever you can you ll more than the account now if your daughter will me i like one parting word with you and withdrew into an adjoining room and mr stirring and drinking his and water as he stood went on you don t need to be told that ith wonderful their instinct said mr is surprising whatever you call it and i m if i know what to call it said it ith no doubt the way in a dog u find you the he ll come his scent said mr being so fine i m if i know what to call it repeated shaking his head but i have had find me in a way that made me think whether that dog hadn t gone to another dog and you don t happen to know a of the name of do you of the name of in the riding way man game eye and whether that dog might nt have said well i can t i know him but i know a dog that i think would be likely to be acquainted with him and whether that dog t have thought it over and to be a friend of mine lived with him at one time i can get you directly in of my being afore the public and going about tho you thee there be a number of acquainted with me that i don t know mr seemed to be quite confounded by this speculation any way said after putting his lips to his brandy and water ith fourteen month ago we at and very good i we w i om hard times ting up our children in the wood one morning when there into our ring by the
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door a dog ho had a long way he in very bad condition he lame and pretty well blind he went round to our children one after another as if he looking for a child he know d and then he come to me and up behind and on two fore weak he and then he tail and died that dog merry s father s dog th father th old dog now i can take my oath from my knowledge of that dog that that man dead and buried afore that dog came back to me and and me talked it over a long time whether i should write or not but we agreed no there th nothing comfortable to tell why her mind and make her unhappy v tho whether her father her or whether he broke own heart alone rather than pull her down along with him never will be known now till not till we know how the out she keeps the bottle that he sent her for to this hour and she will in his to the last moment of her hfe said mr it to two to a don t it said mr musing as he looked down into the depths of his brandy and water one that there ith a love in the world not all after all but very t other that it hath a way of ith own of calculating or not calculating or another ith at hard to give a name to the of the ith i mr looked out of window and made no reply mr emptied his glass and recalled the ladies my dear me and good by to thee you treating of her hke a and a that you and honor all your heart and more ith a very pretty to me i hope your brother may to be better of you and a greater comfort to you and don t be with poor people t be amused they can t be a learning nor yet they i can t be a working they a n x m hard times have do the thing and the kind thing too and make the of not the and i never thought before said mr putting his head in at the door again to say it that i tho of a chapter it is a dangerous thing to see any thing in the sphere of a vain before the vain sees it himself mr felt that mrs had anticipated him and presumed to be wiser than he indignant with her for her triumphant discovery of mrs he turned this presumption on the part of a woman in her dependent position over and over in his mind until it with turning like a great at last he made the discovery that to discharge this highly connected female to have it in his power to say she was a woman of family and wanted to stick to me but i wouldn t have it and got rid of her would be to get the utmost possible amount of crowning glory out of the connection and at the same time to punish mrs according to her deserts filled fuller than ever with this great idea mr came into lunch and sat himself down in the dining room of former days where his portrait was mrs sat by the fire with her foot in her cotton little thinking whither she was since the this had covered her pity for mr with a of quiet melancholy and in virtue thereof it had become her habit to assume a look which look she now bestowed upon her patron what s the matter with you ma am said mr in a very short rough way pray sir returned mrs do not bite my nose off bite your nose off ma am repeated mr your nose meaning as mrs conceived that it was too developed a nose for the purpose after which offensive he cut himself a crust of bread and threw the knife down with a noise mrs took her foot out of her and said mr sir hard times well ma am mr what are yon at may i ask sir said mrs have you been ruffled this morning yes ma am may i inquire sir pursued the injured woman whether am the unfortunate cause of your having lost your temper now i ll tell you what ma am said i am not come here to be a female may be highly connected but she can t be permitted to bother and a man in my position and i am not going to put up with it mr felt it necessary to get on that if he allowed of details he would be beaten mrs first elevated then her eyebrows gathered up her work into its proper basket and rose sir said she it is apparent to me that i am in your way at present i will retire to my own apartment allow me to open the door ma am thank you sir i can do it for myself you had better allow me ma am said passing her and getting his hand upon the lock because i can take the opportunity of saying a word to you before you go mrs ma am i rather think you are cramped here do you know it appears to me that under my roof there s hardly opening enough for a lady of your genius in other people s mrs gave him a look of the darkest scorn and said with great sir i have been thinking it over you see since the late have happened ma am said and it appears to my poor judgment oh i pray sir mrs interposed with fulness don t your judgment every body knows how mr s judgment is every body has had proofs of it it must be the theme of general conversation
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is in the and my hands shall not disturb it or the country s done for you will therefore permit me to repeat emphatically that was as dead as a door nail knew he was dead of course he did how could it e otherwise and he were partners for i don t know how many years was his sole his sole his sole his sole his sole friend and sole and even was not so dreadfully cut up by the sad event but that he was an excellent man of business on a christmas the very day of the funeral and it with an bargain the mention of s funeral brings me back to the point i started from there is no doubt that was dead this must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come of the story i am going to relate if we were not perfectly convinced that i s father died before play began there would be nothing more remarkable in his taking a stroll at night in an wind upon his own than there would be in any other middle aged gentleman turning out dark in a say saint paul s churchyard for instance literally to astonish his son s weak mind never painted out old s name there it stood years afterwards above the door and the firm was known as and sometimes people new to the business called and sometimes but he answered to both names it was all the same to him oh but he was a tight hand at the grasping clutching sinner hard and sharp as flint from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire secret and self contained and solitary as an the cold within him his old features his pointed nose his cheek his gait his eyes red his thin lips blue and spoke out in his grating voice a frosty was on his head and on his eyebrows and his chin he carried his own low temperature always about with him he his office in the dog days and didn t it one degree at christmas external heat and cold had little influence on no warmth could warm nor wintry weather chill him no wind that blew was than he no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose no rain less open to entreaty foul weather didn t know where to have him the heaviest rain and ghost snow and hail and could boast of the advantage over him in only one respect they often came down handsomely and never did nobody ever stopped him in the street to say with looks my dear how are you when will you come to see me no beggars implored him to bestow a trifle no children asked him what it was o clock no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place of even the s dogs appeared to know him and when they saw him coming on would their owners into and up courts and then would wag their tails as though they said no eye at all is better than an evil eye dark master but what did care it was the very thing he liked to edge his way along the crowded paths of life warning all human sympathy to keep its distance was what the knowing ones call nuts to once upon a of all the good days in the year on christmas old sat busy in his counting house it was cold bleak biting weather withal and he could hear the people in the court outside go up and down beating their hands upon their breasts and stamping their feet upon the pavement stones to warm them the city had only just gone three but it was quite dark already it had not been light all day and candles were in the windows of the neighboring offices like ruddy upon the palpable brown air the fog came pouring in at every and and was dense without that although the court was of the the houses opposite were mere to see the dingy cloud come drooping down everything one might have thought that nature lived hard by and was on a large scale the door of s counting house was open that he might keep his eye upon his clerk who in a dismal little cell beyond a christmas a sort of was letters had a very fire but the clerk s fire was so very much smaller that it looked like one coal but he couldn t it for kept the box in his own room and so surely as the clerk came in with the the master predicted that it would be necessary ll r them to part wherefore the clerk put hi hb white com and tried to warm himself at the candle in which not being a man of a strong imagination he a merry christmas uncle save you cried a ful voice the voice of s nephew who came upon him so quickly that this was the first intimation he had of his said he had so heated himself with the rapid walking in the fog and frost this nephew of s that he was all in a glow his face was ruddy and handsome his eyes sparkled and his breath smoked again christmas a uncle said s nephew you don t mean that i m sure i do said merry christmas what right have you to be merry what reason have you to be merry you re poor enough come then returned the nephew gaily what right have you to be dismal what reason have you to be you re rich enough having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment said again and followed it up with don t be cross uncle said the nephew what else can i be returned the uncle when i live in such a world of
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fools as this merry christmas out upon merry christmas what s christmas time to you but a time for paying bills without money a time for finding yourself a year and not an hour richer a time sat s ghost your books and having every item in em through round dozen of months presented dead against you if i could work my will said indignantly every idiot who goes about with merry christmas on his lips should be boiled with his own and buried with a stake of through his heart he should uncle repeated the nephew nephew returned the uncle sternly keep christmas in your own way and let me keep it in mine keep it repeated s nephew but you don t keep it let me leave it alone then said much good may it do you much good it has ever done you there are many things from which i might have derived good by which i have not i dare say returned the nephew christmas among the rest but i am sure i have always thought of christmas time when it has come round apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin if anything belonging to it can be apart from that as a good time a kind charitable pleasant time the only time i know of in the long of the year when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut up hearts freely and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow passengers to the grave and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys and therefore uncle though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket i believe that it has done me good and will do me good and i say god bless it the clerk in the involuntarily applauded becoming immediately of the he the fire and extinguished the last frail spark for ever let me hear another sound from j ou said and you ll keep your christmas by losing your situation you re quite a powerful speaker sir he added turning to his nephew i wonder you don t go into parliament a christmas don t be angry uncle come dine with us to morrow j said that he would see him yes indeed he did he went the whole length of the expression and said that he would see him in that extremity first but why cried s nephew why v why did you get married v said because i fell in love because you fell in love growled e as if that were the only one thing in the world more ridiculous than a merry christmas good afternoon nay uncle but you never came to see me before that happened why give it as a reason for not coming now v good afternoon said e i want nothing from you i ask nothing of you why cannot we be friends afternoon said i am sorry with all my heart to find you so resolute we have never had a quarrel to which i have been a party but i have made the trial in homage to christmas and i ll keep my christmas humor to the last so a merry christmas uncle afternoon said and a happy new year i afternoon said his nephew left the room without an angry word notwithstanding he stopped at the outer door to bestow the greetings of the season on the clerk who cold as he was was warmer than for he returned them cordially there s another fellow muttered who him my clerk with fifteen shillings a week and a wife and family talking about a merry christmas til retire to be this lunatic in letting s nephew out had let two other people in they were pleasant to be i i s ghost hold and now stood with their hats off in s office they had hooks and papers in their hands and to him and s i believe said one of the gentlemen referring to his list have i the pleasure of addressing mr or mr v mr has been dead these seven years plied he died seven years ago this very night we have no doubt his liberality is well represented by his partner said the gentleman presenting his it certainly was for they had been two kindred spirits at the ominous word liberality frowned and shook his head and handed the back at this season of the year mr said the gentleman taking up a pen it is more than usually desirable that we should make some slight provision for the poor and destitute who suffer greatly at the present time many thousands are in want of common necessaries hundreds o are in want of common comforts sir are there no asked plenty of said the gentleman laying down the pen again and the union demanded are they still in operation they are still returned the gentleman i wish i could say they were not the and the poor law are in full vigor then said both very busy sir oh i was afraid from what you said at first that something occurred to stop them in their useful course said i m very glad to hear it under the impression that they scarcely furnish christian a christmas it cheer of mind or body to the the gentleman a few of us are to raise a fund to buy the poor some meat and drink and means of warmth we choose this time because it is a time of all others when want is keenly felt and abundance what shall i put you down fi r v nothing replied you wish to be i i wish to be left alone said since you ask me what i wish gentlemen that is my answer i don t make merry myself at christmas and i can t
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a to make idle people merry i help to support the i have mentioned they cost and those who are badly off must go there many can t go there and many would rather die if they would rather die said they had better do it and the population excuse i don t know that but you might know it observed the gentleman it s not ny business returned it s enough for a man to understand his own business and not to interfere with other people s mine me constantly good afternoon gentlemen seeing clearly that it would be useless to pursue their point the gentlemen withdrew resumed his labors with an improved opinion of and in a more temper than was usual with him meanwhile the fog and darkness that people ran about with links their services to go before horses in carriages and conduct them on their way the ancient tower of a church whose old bell was always peep ing down at out of a window in the wall became invisible and struck the hours and quarters in the clouds with tremulous afterwards as if its teeth were chat in its frozen head up there the cold became s ghost in the main street at the comer of the court some were the gas pipes and had lighted a great fire in a round which a party of ragged men and boys were gathered warming their hands and their eyes before the blaze in rapture the water being left in solitude its sullenly and turned to ice the brightness of the shops where and in the lamp heat of the windows made pale faces ruddy as they passed and trades became a splendid joke a glorious with it was next to impossible to believe that such dull principles as bargain and sale had anything to do the lord mayor in the of the mighty mansion house gave orders to his fifty and to keep christmas as a lord mayor s household should and even the little tailor whom he had five shillings on the previous monday for being drunk and blood thirsty in the streets stirred up to morrow s in his garret while his lean wife and the baby out to buy the beef yet and colder piercing searching biting cold if the good saint had but the evil spirit s nose with a touch of such weather as that instead of using his familiar weapons then indeed he would have roared to purpose the owner of one scant young nose and by the hungry cold as bones are by stooped down at s to him with a christmas but at the first sound of god you merry gentleman may nothing you dismay seized the ruler with such energy of action that the singer fled in terror leaving the to the fog and even congenial frost at length the of i up the counting house arrived a christmas with an ill will dismounted from his stool and admitted the fact to the expectant clerk in the who instantly his candle out and put on his hat you ll want all day to morrow i suppose said if quite convenient i sir it s not convenient said and it s not fair if i was to stop half crown for it you d think yourself ill used i ll be bound the clerk smiled faintly and yet said you don t think tne ill used when i pay a day s wages for no work the clerk observed that it was only once a year a poor excuse for picking a man s pocket every twenty of december said his great coat to the chin but i suppose you must have the whole day be here all the earlier next morning the clerk promised that he would and walked out with a growl the office was closed in a twinkling and the clerk with the long ends of his white dangling below his waist for he boasted no great coat went down a slide on at the end of a lane of boys twenty times in honor of its being christmas eve and then ran home to town as hard as he could to play at s took his melancholy dinner in his usual melancholy tavern and having read all the newspapers and the rest of the evening with his banker s book went home to bed he lived in chambers which had once belonged to his deceased partner they were a gloomy of rooms in a lowering pile of building up a yard where it had so little business to be that one could scarcely help it must have run there when it was a young house playing at hide and seek with other houses and have forgotten the way out again it was old enough now and dreary enough for nobody lived in it but the other rooms t s ghost being all out as offices the yard was so dark that who knew its every stone was fain to with his hands the fog and frost so hung about the black old of the house that it seemed as if the of the weather sat io mournful meditation on the threshold now it is a fact that there was nothing at all particular about the on the door except that it was very large it is also a fact that had seen it night and morning during his whole residence in that place also that had as little of what is called fancy about him as any man in the city of even including which is a bold word the and livery let it also be borne in mind that had not bestowed one thought on since his last mention of his seven years dead partner that afternoon and then let any man to me if he can how it happened that having his key in the
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lock of the door saw in the without its any process of change not a but s face s face it was not in impenetrable shadow as the other objects in the yard were but had a dismal light about it like a bad in a dark cellar it was not angry or ferocious but at as used to look with ghostly spectacles turned up upon its ghostly forehead the hair was stirred as if by breath or hot air and though the eyes were wide open they were perfectly motionless that and its livid color made it horrible but its horror seemed to be in spite of the face and beyond its rather than a part of its own expression as looked at this phenomenon it was a again to say that he was not startled or that his blood was not con of a terrible sensation to which it had been a stranger from would but be pot his hand upon the key b a christmas had turned it walked in and lighted his candle he did pause with a moment s before he shut the door and he did look cautiously behind at first as if he half ex to be terrified with the sight of s sticking out into the hall but there was nothing on the back of the door except the and nuts that held the on so he said and closed it with a bang the sound through the house like thunder every room above and every in the wine merchant s below appeared to have a peal of echoes of its own was not a man to be frightened by echoes he fastened the door and walked across the hall and up the stairs slowly too his candle as he went you may talk vaguely about driving a coach and six up a good old flight of stairs or through a bad young act of parliament but i mean to say you might have got a up that staircase and taken it with the bar towards the wall and the door towards the and done it easy there was plenty of width for that and room to spare which is perhaps the reason why thought he saw a going on before him in the gloom half a dozen out of the street wouldn t have lighted the entry too well so you may suppose that it was pretty dark with s dip up went not caring a button for that darkness is cheap and liked it but re he shut his heavy door he through his rooms to that all was right he had just enough recollection of the face to desire to do that sitting room bed room lumber room all as they should be nobody under the table nobody under the sofa a small fire in the grate spoon and basin ready and the little of had a cold in his head upon the nobody under the bed nobody in the closet nobody in his dressing gown s ghost ii which was hanging up in a suspicious attitude against the wall room as usual old fir old shoes two fish baskets washing stand on three legs and a quite satisfied he closed his door and locked himself in himself in which was not his custom thus secured against surprise he took off his put on his dressing gown and slippers and his cap and sat down before the fire to take his it was a very low fire indeed nothing on such a bitter night he was obliged to sit close to it and brood over it before he could extract the least sensation of warmth from such a handful of fuel the fire place was an old one built by some dutch merchant long ago and paved all round with dutch designed to illustrate the there were and s daughters queens of messengers descend ing through the air on clouds like feather beds putting off to sea in butter boats hundreds of figures to attract his thoughts and yet that face of seven years dead came like the ancient prophet s rod and swallowed up the whole if each smooth tile had been a blank at first with power to shape some picture on its surface from the fragments of his thoughts there would have been a copy of old s head on every one said and walked across the room after several turns he sat down again as he threw his head back in the chair his glance happened to rest upon a bell a bell that hung in the room and communicated for some purpose now forgotten with a chamber in the highest story of the building it was with great astonishment and with a strange inexplicable dread that as he looked he saw this bell begin to swing it swung so softly in the outset that it scarcely made a but soon it rang out loudly and so did every bell in the house thb might have lasted a minute or a minute but it seemed u a christmas an hour the bells ceased as they had begun together they were succeeded by a noise deep down below as if some person were dragging a heavy chain over the in the s cellar then remembered to have heard that ghosts in haunted were described as dragging chains cellar door flew open with a sound and then he heard the noise much louder on the floors below then coming up the stairs then coming straight towards his door it s still p said i won t believe it his color changed though when without a pause it came on through the heavy door and passed into the room before his eyes upon its coming in the dying flame leaped up as though it cried i know him s ghost and fell again the same ce the very same in his pig tail usual waistcoat and
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boots the on the latter like his and his coat skirts and the hair upon his head the chain he drew was clasped about his middle it was long and wound about him like a tail and it was made for observed it closely of cash boxes keys deeds and heavy wrought in steel his body was transparent so that observing him and looking through his waistcoat could see the two buttons on his coat behind had often heard it said that had no but he had never believed it until now no nor did he believe it even now though he looked the phantom through and through and saw it standing before him though he felt the influence of its death cold eyes and marked the very texture of the folded bound about its head and chin which he had not observed before he was still incredulous and fought against his senses how now said and cold as ever what do you want with me much s voice no doubt about it s ghost who are you ask me who i was who were you then said e raising his you re particular for a shade he was going to say to a shade but this as more appropriate in life i was your partner jacob can you can you sit down asked looking doubtfully at him i can do it then asked the question because he didn t know whether a ghost so transparent might find himself in a condition to take a chair and felt that in the event of its being impossible it might involve the necessity of an embarrassing explanation but the ghost sat down on the opposite side of the fireplace as if he were quite used to it you don t believe in me observed the ghost i don t said what evidence would you have of my reality beyond that of your senses i don t know said why do you doubt your senses because said a little thing affects them a slight disorder of the stomach makes them you may be an bit of beef a blot of a of cheese a fragment of an there s more of than of grave about you whatever you are was not much in the habit of jokes nor did he feel in his heart by any means then the truth is that he tried to be smart as a means of his own attention and keeping down his terror for the s voice disturbed ihe very in his bones to sit staring at those fixed glazed eyes in silence for a a christmas ment would play felt ihe very deuce with him there was something very awful too in the s being provided with an infernal atmosphere of its own could not it himself but this was clearly the case for though the ghost sat perfectly motionless its hair and skirts and were still agitated as by the from an oven you see this said returning quickly to the charge for the reason just assigned and wishing though it were only for a second to divert the vision s stony gaze from himself i do replied the ghost you are not looking at it said but i see it said the ghost well returned i have but to swallow this and be for the rest of my days persecuted by a of all of my own creation i tell you at this the spirit raised a fi cry and shook its chain with such a dismal and appalling noise that held on tight to his chair to save himself from falling in a but how much greater was his horror when the phantom taking off the round its head as if it were too warm to wear in doors its lower jaw dropped down upon its breast fell upon his knees and clasped his hands before his face mercy he said dreadful apparition why do you trouble me r man of the worldly mind i replied the ghost do you believe in me or not i do said i must but why do spirits walk the earth and why do they come to me it is required of every man the ghost returned that the spirit within him should walk abroad among his fellow men and and wide and if that spirit goes not forth in it is s ghost condemned to do so after death it is doomed to wander through the world oh woe is me and witness what it cannot share but might have shared on earth and turned to happiness again the raised a cry and shook its chain and wrung its hands you are said trembling tell me why i wear the i in life replied the ghost i made it link by link and yard by yard i it on of my own free will and of my own free will i wore it is its pattern strange to trembled more and more or would you know pursued the ghost the weight and length of the strong you bear yourself it was full as heavy and as long as this seven christmas ago you have labored on it since it s a ponderous chain t glanced about him on the r in the expectation of finding himself surrounded by some or sixty of iron cable but he could see nothing jacob he said old jacob tell me more speak comfort to me jacob i have none to give the ghost replied it comes from other regions and is conveyed by other to other kinds of men nor can i tell you what i would a very little more is all permitted to me i cannot rest i cannot stay i cannot linger anywhere my spirit never walked beyond our counting house mark me in life my spirit never be the narrow limits of our money changing hole and
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weary journeys lie before me v it was a habit with whenever he became thoughtful to put his hands in his breeches pockets pondering on what the ghost had said he did so now but without up his eyes of getting off his knees a christmas you must have been very slow about it jacob observed in a business like manner though with humility and deference slow the ghost repeated seven years dead mused and travelling all the time the whole time said the ghost no rest no peace in torture of remorse you travel fast said on the wings of the wind replied the ghost you might have got over a great quantity of ground in seven years said the ghost on hearing this set up another cry and its chain so in the dead silence of the night that the ward would have been justified in it for a nuisance oh captive bound and double cried the phantom not to know that ages f incessant labor by immortal creatures for this earth must pass into eternity before the good of which it is susceptible is all developed not to know that any christian spirit working kindly in its little sphere whatever it may be will find its mortal life too short for its vast means of usefulness not to know that no space of regret can make amends for one life s opportunities yet such was i oh such was i but you were always a good man of business jacob faltered who now began to apply this to himself business cried the ghost wringing its hands again mankind was my business the common welfare was my business charity mercy forbearance and benevolence were all my business the dealings of my trade were but a drop of water in the comprehensive ocean of my business it held up its chain ac arm s length as if that were the cause of all its grief and flung it heavily upon the ground again s ghost at this time of the rolling year the said i most why did i walk through crowds of fellow beings with my eyes turned down and never raise them to that blessed star which led the wise men to a poor abode were there do poor homes to which its light would have conducted me was very much dismayed to hear the going on at this rate and b an to exceedingly hear me cried the ghost my time is nearly gone i will said put don t be hard upon me don t be jacob pray how it is that i appear before you in a shape that you can see i may not tell i have sat invisible beside you many and many a day it was not an agreeable idea shivered and wiped the perspiration from his brow that is no light part of my penance pursued the ghost i am here to warn you that you may have yet a chance and hope of escaping my fate a chance and hope of my you were always a good friend to me said thank ee you will be haunted resumed the ghost by three spirits s countenance fell almost as low as the ghost s had done is that the chance and hope you mentioned jacob he demanded in a faltering voice it is i i think i d rather not said without their visits said the ghost you cannot hope to the path i tread expect the first to morrow when the bell me a christmas couldn t i take em all at once and have it over jacob hinted expect the second on the next night at the same hour the third upon the next night when the last stroke of twelve has ceased to look to see me no more and look that for your own sake you remember what has passed between us t when it had said these words the took its from the table and bound it round its head as before knew this by the smart sound its teeth made when the jaws were brought together by the he ventured to raise his eyes again and found his supernatural visitor him in an erect attitude with its chain wound over and about its arm the apparition walked backward from him and at every step it took the window raised itself a little so that when the reached it it was wide open it beckoned to approach which he did when they were within two paces of each other s ghost held up its hand warning him to come no nearer stopped not so much in obedience as in surprise and fear for on the raising of the hand he became sensible of confused noises in the air sounds of and regret sorrowful and self the after listening for a moment joined in the mournful and floated out upon the bleak dark night followed to the window desperate in his curiosity he looked out the air was filled with wandering hither and thither in restless haste and moaning as they went every one of them wore chains like s ghost some few they might be guilty were linked together none were free many had been personally known to in their lives he had been quite familiar with one old ghost in a white waistcoat with a monstrous iron safe attached to its ankle who cried at s ghost being unable to assist a wretched woman with an infant whom it saw below upon a door step the misery with them all was clearly that they sought to interfere for good in human matters and had lost the power for ever whether these creatures faded into mist or mist them he could not tell but they and their spirit voices faded tc ther and the night became as it had been when he walked home closed the win ow and
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examined the door by which the ghost had entered it was double locked as he had locked it with his own hands and the were undisturbed he tried to say but stopped at the first syllable and being from the emotion he had undergone or the of the day or glimpse of the invisible world or the dull conversation of the ghost or the of the hour much in need of repose went straight to bed without and fell asleep upon the instant a christmas two the first of the three spirits awoke it was so dark that looking out of bed he scarcely distinguish the transparent window from the walls of his chamber he was to pierce the darkness with his eyes when the of a neighboring church struck the four quarters so he listened for the hour to his great astonishment the heavy bell went on from six to even and from seven to and regularly up to twelve then stopped twelve it waa past two when he went to bed the clock was wrong an must have got into the works twelve he touched the spring of his to correct this most preposterous clock its rapid little pulse beat twelve and stopped why il isn t possible said that i can have slept through a whole day and far into another night it isn t possible that anything has happened to the sun and this is twelve at noon the idea being an alarming one he scrambled out of bed and his way to the window he was obliged to rub the frost off with the sleeve of his dressing gown before he could see anything and could see very little then all he could make out was that it was still very and extremely cold and that there was no noise of people running to and fro and making a t stir as there unquestionably would have if night had beaten off day and taken of the world thia the first of the three spirits st was a great relief because three days sight of this first of exchange pay to mr or his order and so forth would have become a mere united states security if there were no days to count by went to bed again and thought and thought and thought it over and over and could make nothing of it the more he thought the more perplexed he was and the more he endeavored not to think the more he thought s ghost him exceedingly every time he resolved within himself after mature inquiry that it was all a dream his mind flew back again like a strong spring released to its first position and presented the same problem to be worked all through was it a dream or not lay in this state until the had gone three quarters more when he remembered on a sudden that the ghost had warned him of a when the bell one he resolved to lie awake until the hour was past and considering that he could no more go to sleep than go to heaven this was perhaps the wisest resolution in his power the quarter was so long that he was more than once convinced he must have sunk into a unconsciously and missed the clock at length it broke upon his listening ear a quarter past said counting half past said a quarter to it said the hour itself said triumphantly and nothing else he spoke before the hour bell sounded which it now did with a deep dull hollow melancholy light flashed up in the loom the instant and the curtains of his bed were drawn a a christmas the curtains of his bed were drawn de i tell you by a ham not the curtains at his feet nor the curtains at his back but to which his face was addressed the curtains of his bed were drawn aside and starting up into a half attitude found himself face to face with the visitor who drew them as close to it as i am now to you and i am standing in the spirit at your elbow it was a strange figure like a child yet not so like a child as like an old man viewed through some supernatural medium which gave him the appearance of having from the view and being diminished to a child s proportions its hair which hung about its neck and down its back was white as if with age and yet the face had not a in it and the tenderest bloom was on the skin the arms were very long and muscular the hands the same as if its hold were of uncommon strength its legs and feet most delicately formed were like those upper members bare it wore a of the purest white and round its waist was bound a belt the of which was beautiful it held a branch of fresh green in its hand and in singular contradiction of that wintry emblem had its dress trimmed with summer flowers but the strangest thing about it was that from the crown of its head there sprung a bright clear jet of light by which all this was visible and which was doubtless the occasion of its using in its moments a great for a cap which it now held under its arm even this though when looked at it with increasing was not its strangest quality for as its belt sparkled and glittered now in one part and now in another and what was light one instant at another time was dark so the figure itself in its distinctness being now a thing with one arm now with one leg now with twenty legs now a pair of legs without a head now a head without a body of which parts no outline could be visible in the dense gloom wherein they melted away and
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the first of the three spirits in the very of this it would be itself again and dear as ever are you the spirit sir whose coming was foretold to me v asked e v the voice was soft and gentle singularly low as if instead of being so close beside him it were at a distance who and what are you demanded i the ghost of christmas past long past inquired observant of its no your past perhaps could not have told anybody why if anybody could have asked him but he had a special desire to see the spirit in his cap and begged him to be covered what exclaimed the ghost would you so soon put out with worldly hands the light i give is it not enough that you are one of those whose passions made this cap and force me through whole trains of years to wear it low upon my brow reverently all intention to offend or any of having the spirit at any period of his life he then made bold to inquire what business brought him there your re said the ghost expressed himself much obliged but could not help thinking that a night of unbroken rest would have been more con to that end the spirit must have heard him lor it said immediately your then take heed i it put out its strong hand as it spoke and clasped him gently by the arm rise and walk with me it would have been in vain fer to plead that the a christmas and the hour were not adapted to purposes that bed was warm and the a long way below that he was clad but lightly in his slippers dressing gown and night cap and that he had a cold him at that time the though gentle as a woman s hand was not to be resisted he rose but finding that the spirit made towards the window clasped its robe in i am a mortal remonstrated and liable to fall i par but a touch of my hand there said the spirit it upon his heart and you shall be in more than as the words were spoken they passed through the wall and stood upon an open country road with fields on either hand the city had entirely vanished not a of it was to be seen the darkness and the mist had vanished with it for it was a dear cold winter day with snow upon the ground good heaven said clasping his hands together as he looked about him i was bred in this place i was a boy here the spirit gazed upon him mildly its gentle touch though it had been light and appeared still present to the old man s sense of feeling he was conscious of a thousand floating in the air each one connected with a thousand thoughts and hopes and joys and cares long long forgotten your lip is trembling said the ghost and what is that upon your cheek muttered with an unusual catching in his voice that it was a and begged the ghost to lead him where he would you recollect the way inquired the spirit remember it cried with i could walk it strange to have forgotten it for so many years tha ghost let us go on the first of the three they walked along the road eveiy gate and post and tree until a little market town appeared in the distance with its bridge its church and winding river some shaggy now were seen trotting towards them with boys upon their backs who called to other boys in country and carts driven by farmers all these boys were in great spirits and shouted to each other until the broad fields were so merry music that the crisp air laughed to hear it are but shadows of the things that have been said the ghost they have no consciousness of us the travellers came on and as they came knew and named every one why was he rejoiced beyond all bounds to see them why did his cold eye and his heart leap up as they went past why was he filled with gladness when he heard them give each other merry christmas as they parted at cross roads and bye ways for their several homes what was merry christmas to e out upon merry christmas what good had it ever done to him the school is not quite deserted said the ghost a solitary child neglected by his friends is left there still said he knew it and he sobbed they left the high road by a well remembered lane and soon approached a mansion of dull red brick with a little surmounted on the roof and a bell hanging in it it was a large house but one of broken fortunes for the spacious were little used their walls were damp and their windows broken and their gates decayed fowls and in the stables and the coach houses and sheds were with grass nor was it more of its ancient state within for entering the dreary hall and glancing through the open doors of many rooms they found them poorly cold and vast was an earthly in the air a chilly in the a christmas which itself somehow with too much getting up by candle light and not too much to eat they went the ghost and across the hall to a door at the back of the house it opened before them and disclosed a long bare melancholy room made still by lines of plain deal and at one of these a lonely boy was reading near a feeble fire and sat down upon a form and wept to see his poor forgotten self as he had used to be not a latent echo in the house not a and from the behind the not a from the
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half water in the dull yard behind not a sigh among the leaf less boughs of one not the swinging of an empty store door no not a in the fire but fell upon the heart of with softening influence and gave a passage to his tears the spirit touched him on the arm and pointed to his younger self intent upon his reading suddenly a man in foreign garments wonderfully real and distinct to look at stood outside the window with an axe stuck in his belt and leading an laden with wood by the bridle why it s exclaimed in ecstasy it s dear old honest yes yes i know one christmas time when yonder solitary child was left here all alone he did come for the first time just like that poor boy and said and his wild brother there they go and what s his name who was put down in his drawers asleep at the gate of don t you see him and the s groom turned down by the there he is upon his head serve him right i m glad of it what s had he to be married to the princess to hear all the earnestness of his nature on such subjects in a most extraordinary voice between laughing and crying and to see his heightened and excited face the first of the three spirits would have been a surprise to bis business friends in tbe city indeed there s the cried green body and yellow tail with a thing like a growing out of the top of his head there he is poor robin he called him when he came home again after sailing round the island poor robin where have you been robin v the man thought he was dreaming but he wasn t it was the you know there goes friday running for his life to the little creek then with a rapidity of transition very foreign to his usual character he said in pity for his former self poor boy and cried again i wish e muttered putting his hand in his pocket and looking about him after drying his eyes with his but it s too late now what is the matter asked the spirit nothing said e nothing there was a boy singing a christmas at my door last night i should like to have given him something that s all the ghost smiled thoughtfully and waved its hand sa ring aa it did so let us see another christmas s former self grew larger at the words and the room became a little darker and more dirty the shrunk the windows cracked fragments of plaster fell out of the ceiling and the naked were shown instead but how all this was brought about knew no more than you do he only knew that it was quite correct that everything had happened o that there he was alone again when all the other boys had gone home for the jolly holidays he was not reading now but walking up and down despair locked at the ghost and with a mournful shaking of his head glanced anxiously towards the door a christmas it opened and a little girl much younger than the boy came darting in and putting her arms about his neck and often addressed him as her dear dear brother i have come to bring you home dear brother said the clapping her tiny hands and bending down to laugh to bring you home home home home little fan returned the boy yes said the child of glee home for good and all home ever and ever father is so much kinder than he used to be that home s like heaven he spoke so gently to me one dear night when i was going to bed that i was not afraid to ask him once more if you might come home and he said yes you should and sent me in a coach to bring you and you re to be a man said the child opening her eyes and are never to come back here but first we re to be together all the christmas long and have the time in all the world you are quite a woman little fan exclaimed the boy she clapped her hands and laughed and tried to touch his head but being too little laughed again and stood on to embrace him then she began to drag him in her childish eagerness towards the door and he nothing loth to go accompanied her a terrible voice in the hall cried master e s box there i and in the hall appeared the himself who glared on master with a ferocious condescension and threw him into a dreadful state of mind by shaking hands with him he then conveyed him and his sister into the old well of a best parlor that ever was seen where the u x n tiie wall and the celestial and in the wore with cold here he produced a of curiously light wine and a block of curiously heavy cake and administered of those to the young at the same time sending out a meagre servant to a the first of the three spirits glass of something to the who answered that he thanked the gentleman but if it was the same tap as he had tasted before he had rather not master s trunk being by this time tied on to the top of the chaise the children bade the good bye right willingly and getting into it drove gaily down the garden sweep the quick wheels dashing the and snow from off the dark leaves of the like spray always a delicate creature whom a breath might have withered said the ghost but she had a large heart so she had cried you re right i will not it spirit forbid she died a woman said
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the ghost and had as i think one child returned true said the ghost your nephew seemed uneasy in his mind and answered briefly yes although they had but that moment left the school behind them they were now in the busy of the city where shadowy passengers passed and where shadowy carts and for the way and all the strife and tumult of a real city were it was made plain enough by the dressing of the shops that here too it was christmas time again but it was evening and the streets were lighted up the ghost stopped at a certain door and asked if he knew it know it vi said was i here they went in at sight of an old gentleman in a wig sitting behind such a high desk that if i e had been two inches taller he must have knocked his head against the ceiling cried in great excitement a christmas why it old bless his heart it s alive again old laid down his pen and looked up at the dock which pointed to the hour of seven he rubbed his hands adjusted his waistcoat laughed all over himself from his shoes to his organ of benevolence called out in a rich fat jovial voice yo ho there dick s former self now grown a young man came briskly in accompanied by his fellow dick to be sure said to the bless me yes there he is he was very much attached to me was dick poor dick dear dear yo ho my boys said no more work tonight christmas eve dick christmas let s have the sh up cried old with a sharp clap of his hands before a man can say jack robinson i you wouldn t believe how those two fellows went at it they charged into he street with the one two had em up in their places four five six barred em and pinned em seven eight nine and came back before you could have got to twelve panting like race horses ho cried old down from the high desk with wonderful clear away my lads and let s have lots of room here ho dick clear away there was nothing they wouldn t have cleared away or couldn t have cleared away with old looking on it was done in a minute every was packed off as if it were dismissed from public life for the floor was swept and watered the lamps were trimmed fuel was heaped upon the fire and the was as snug and warm and bright a ball room as you would desire to see upon a winter night the first op the spirits in came a with a music book and went up to the lofty desk and made an of it and like fifty in came mrs one vast substantial smile came the three miss beaming and in the six young followers whose hearts they broke jn came all the young men and women employed in the business in came the with her cousin the baker in came the cook with her brother s particular friend the in came the boy from over the way who was suspected of not having board enough from his master trying to hide himself behind the girl firom next door but one who was proved to have had her ears pulled by her mistress in they all came one after another some some boldly some gracefully some awkwardly some pushing some pulling in all came anyhow and away they all went twenty couple at once hands half round and back again the other way down the middle and up again round and round in various stages of affectionate old tap couple always turning up in the wrong place new top couple starting off again as soon as they got there all top couples at last and not a bottom one to help them when this result was brought about old clapping his hands to stop the dance cried out well done and the plunged his hot face into a pot of porter especially provided for that purpose but rest upon his he instantly began again though there were no dancers yet as if the other had been carried home exhausted on a and he were a man resolved to beat him out of sight or perish there were more dances and there were and more dances and there was cake and there was and there was a great piece of cold roast and there was a great piece of cold boiled and there were and plenty of beer but the great effect of the evening came after the roast and boiled when the an artful dog mind i the sort of man who knew his a christmas business better you or i could have told it him struck up sir de then old stood out to dance with mrs top couple too with a good stiff piece of work cut out for them three or four and twenty pair partners people who were not to be with people who would dance and had no notion of walking but if they had been twice as many ah ur times old would have been a match for them and so would mrs as to she was worthy to be his partner in every of the term if that s not high praise tell me higher and use it a positive light appeared to issue from s they shone in every part of the dance like you couldn t have predicted at any given time what would become of em next and when old and mrs had gone all through the dance advance and hold hands with your partner bow and courtesy thread and back again to your place cut cut so that he appeared to wink with his legs and came upon his feet again without
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once were he was about to speak but with her head turned from him she resumed you may the memory of what is past half makes me you will have pain in this a very very brief time and you will dismiss the recollection of it gladly as an dream from which it happened well that you awoke may you be happy in the life you have chosen she left him and they parted j a christmas spirit said show me no more me home why do you delight to torture me one shadow more exclaimed the ghost no more cried no more i don t wish to see it show me no more but the ghost him in both his arms and forced him to observe what happened next they were in another scene and place a room not very or handsome but full of comfort near to the winter fire sat a beautiful young girl so like the last that believed it was the same until he saw her now a comely matron sitting opposite her daughter the noise in this room was perfectly tumultuous for there were more children there than in his agitated state of mind could count and unlike the celebrated herd in the poem they were not forty children conducting themselves like one but every child was conducting itself like forty the consequences were beyond belief ne seemed to care on the contrary the mother and daughter laughed heartily and enjoyed it very much and the latter soon beginning to mingle in the sports got by the young most what would i not have given to be one of them though i never could have been so rude no no i wouldn t for the wealth of all the world have crushed that hair and torn it down and for the precious little shoe i wouldn t have plucked it off bless my soul to save my life as to measuring her waist in sport as they did bold young brood i couldn t have done it i should have expected my arm to have grown round it for a punishment and never come straight again and yet i should have dearly liked i own to have touched her lips to have questioned her that she might have opened them to have looked upon the lashes of her downcast eyes and never raised a blush i to have let loose waves of hair an inch of which would be a beyond price in i the first of the three spirits s li i c p co tn have had the li of a child and yet been man enough to know value but now a knocking at the door was heard and such a rush immediately ensued that she with laughing face and dress was borne towards it the centre of a flushed and boisterous group just in time to greet the father j who came home attended by a man laden with christmas toys and presents then the shouting and the struggling and the that was made on the porter the him with chairs for to into his pockets him of brown paper hold on tight by his him round the neck bis back and kick his legs in irrepressible affection the shouts of wonder and delight with which the development of every was received the terrible announcement that the baby had been taken in the act of putting a doll s pan into his and was more than suspected of having swallowed a turkey on a wooden the immense relief of finding this a false alarm the joy and gratitude and ecstasy they are all indescribable alike it is enough that by degrees the children and their emotions got out of the parlor and by one stair at a time up to the top of the house where they went to bed and so subsided and now looked on more attentively than ever when the master of the house having his daughter leaning fondly on him sat down with her and her mother at his own fireside and when he thought that such another creature quite as graceful and as full of promise might have called him father and been ar spring time in the haggard winter of his life his sight grew very dim indeed said the husband turning to his wife with a smile i saw an old friend of yours this afternoon who was it guess a christmas how can i tut don t i she added in the same breath laughing as he laughed mr mr it was i passed his office window and as if was not shut up and he had a candle inside i could scarcely help seeing him his partner lies upon the point of death i hear and there he sat alone quite alone in the world i do believe spirit said in a broken voice remove me from this place i told you these were shadows of the things that have been said the ghost that they are what they are do not blame me remove me exclaimed i cannot bear it he turned upon the ghost and seeing that it looked upon him with a face in which in some strange way there were fragments of all the faces it had shown him with it leave me take me back haunt me no longer in the struggle if that can be called a struggle in which the ghost with no visible resistance on its own part was undisturbed by any effort of its adversary observed that its light was burning high and bright and dimly connecting that with its influence over him he seized the cap and by a sudden action pressed it down upon its head the spirit dropped beneath it so that the covered its whole form but though pressed it down with all his force he could not hide the light which streamed from
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under it in an unbroken flood upon the ground he was conscious of being exhausted and overcome by an irresistible and farther of being in his own bedroom he gave the cap a parting squeeze in which his hand relaxed and had barely time to to bed before he sank into a heavy sleep the second of the three spirits three the second of the three spirits in the middle of a tough and sitting up in bed to get his thoughts together had no occasion to be told that the bell was again upon the stroke of one he felt that he was restored to consciousness in the right nick of time for the especial purpose of holding a conference with the second messenger despatched to him through jacob s but finding that he turned cold when he began to wonder which of his curtains this new would draw back he put them every one aside with his own hands and lying down again established a sharp look out all round the bed for he wished to challenge the spirit on the moment of its appearance and did not wish to be taken by surprise and made nervous of the free and easy sort who themselves on being acquainted with a move or two and being usually equal to the time of day express the wide range of their capacity for adventure by observing that they are good for anything from t s to between which opposite extremes no doubt there lies a tolerably wide and comprehensive range of subjects without venturing for quite as as this i don t mind calling on you to believe that he was ready for a good broad field of strange appearances and that nothing between a baby and a would have astonished him very much now being prepared for almost anything he was not by any means prepared for nothing and consequently when the bell a christmas struck one and no shape appeared he was taken with a violent fit of trembling five minutes ten minutes a quarter of an hour went by yet nothing came all this time lay upon his bed the very core and centre of a blaze of ruddy light which streamed upon it when the clock proclaimed the hour and which being only light was more alarming than a dozen ghosts as he was powerless to make out what it meant or would be at and was sometimes apprehensive that he might be at that very moment an interesting case of spontaneous without having the consolation of knowing it at last however he began to you or i would have thought at first for it is always the person not in the who knows what to have been done in it and would unquestionably have done it too at last i say he began to think that the source and secret of this ghostly light might be in the adjoining room from whence on further tracing it it seemed to shine this idea taking full of his mind he got up and in his slippers to the door the moment s hand was on the lock a strange voice called him by his name and bade him enter he obeyed it was his own room there was no doubt about that but it had undergone a surprising the walls and ceiling were so hung with living green that it looked a perfect grove from every part of which bright gleaming the crisp leaves of and ivy reflected back the tight as if so many little had been scattered there and such a mighty blaze went roaring up the chimney as that dull of a chimney had not known in s time or s or for many and many a winter season gone heaped up upon the floor to form a kind of throne were game poultry great joints of meat pigs long wreaths of barrels of red hot cherry apples immense cakes and of punch that made the second of the three spirits the chamber dim with their delicious steam in easy state upon this couch there sat a jolly giant glorious to see who bore a glowing torch in shape not unlike plenty s horn and held it up high up to shed its light on as he came peeping round the door come in exclaimed the ghost come in and know m better man entered timidly and hung his head before this spirit he was not the dogged he had been and though its eyes were clear and kind he did not like to meet them i am the ghost of christmas present said the spirit look upon me reverently did so it was clothed in one simple deep green robe or mantle bordered with white fur this garment hung so loosely on the figure that its breast was bare as if to be or concealed by any its feet beneath the ample folds of the garment were also bare and on its head it wore no other covering than a wreath set here and there with shining its dark brown curls were long and free free as its genial face its sparkling eye its open its cheery voice its and its joyful air round its middle was an antique but no sword was in it and the ancient was eaten up with you have never seen the like of me before exclaimed the spirit never made answer to it have never walked forth with the younger members of my family meaning for i am very young my elder brothers born in these later years pursued the phantom i don t think i have said i am afraid i have not have you had many brothers spirit more than eighteen hundred said the a a tremendous family to provide for muttered the ghost of christmas present rose spirit said conduct me where you will i forth last night on and i learnt a
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which is working now to night if you have aught to teach me let me profit by it touch my robe did as he was told and held it fast red ivy game poultry meat pigs fruit and punch all vanished instantly so did the room the fire the ruddy glow the hour of night and they stood in the city streets on christmas morning where for the weather was severe the people made a rough but brisk and not unpleasant kind of music in the snow from the pavement in front of their dwellings and from the of their houses whence it was mad delight to the boys to see it come down into the road below and into artificial little snow storms the house fronts looked black enough and the windows with the smooth white sheet of snow upon the ground which last deposit had been up in deep by the heavy wheels of carts and that crossed and each other hundreds of times where the great streets ofi and made intricate channels hard to trace in the thick yellow mud and icy water the sky was gloomy and the shortest streets were choked up with a dingy mist half whose heavier descended in a shower of as if all the chimneys in great britain had by one consent caught fire and were blazing away to their dear heart s content there was nothing very cheerful in the climate or the town and yet was there an air of cheerfulness abroad that the summer air and brightest summer sun might have endeavored to in vain the second of the three spirits fi for the people who were away on the house tops wore jovial and full of glee calling out to one another from the and now and then exchanging a better natured far than many a jest laughing heartily if it went right and not less heartily if it went wrong the were still half open and the were radiant in their glory there were great round pot of shaped like the of jolly old gentlemen at the doors and tumbling out into the street in their there were ruddy brown faced spanish shining in the of their growth like spanish and from their shelves in wanton at the girls as they went by and glanced at the hung up there were and apples clustered high in blooming of s made in the benevolence to from conspicuous hooks that people s mouths might water as they passed there were piles of and brown recalling in their fragrance ancient walks among the woods and pleasant ankle deep through withered leaves there and setting off the yellow of the and and in the great of their persons and to be carried home in paper bags and eaten after dinner the very gold and silver fish set forth among these choice fruits in a bowl though members of a dull and race appeared to know that there was something going on and to a fish went gasping round and round their little world in slow and excitement the oh the nearly closed with perhaps two shutters down or one through those such glimpses it was not alone that the scales descending on the counter made a merry sound or that the and parted company so briskly or that the were rattled up and down like m a christmas tricks or that the of tea and were grateful to the nose or ev n that the were so plentiful and rare the so extremely white the sticks of long and straight the other so delicious the fruits so and spotted with sugar as to make the on feel faint and subsequently nor was it that the were moist and or that the french blushed in modest from their highly decorated boxes or that everything was good to eat and in its christmas dress but the customers were all so hurried and so eager in the hopeful promise of the day that they tumbled up against each other at the door their baskets wildly and their purchases the counter and came running back to fetch them and committed hundreds of the like mistakes in the best humor possible while the and his people were so frank and that the polished hearts with which they fastened their behind might have been their own worn outside for general inspection and for christmas to at if they chose but soon the called good people all to church and chapel and away they came through the streets in their best clothes and with their faces and at the same time there emerged from scores of bye streets lanes and nameless innumerable people carrying their dinners to the shops the sight of these poor appeared to interest the spirit very much for he stood with beside him in a baker s doorway and taking off the covers as their passed sprinkled incense on their dinners from his torch and it was a very uncommon kind of torch for once or twice when there were angry words between some dinner who had with each other he shed a few drops of water on them from it and their good humor was restored directly for they said it was a shame to quarrel upon christmas day and so it was i love it so it was the second of the three spirits t in time the bells ceased and the were shut up and yet there was a genial forth of all these dinners and the of their cooking in the of wet above each baker s oven where the pavement smoked as if its stones were cooking too is there a peculiar flavor in what you from your torch v asked there is my own would it apply to any kind of dinner on this day asked to any kindly given to a poor one most why to a poor one most asked
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because it needs it most spirit said a moment s thought i wonder of all the beings in the many worlds about us should re to these people s opportunities of innocent enjoyment i cried the spirit you would deprive them of their means of dining every seventh day often the only day on which they can be said to dine at all said wouldn t you i cried the spirit you seek to close these places on the seventh day said and it comes to the same thing i seek exclaimed the spirit forgive me if i am wrong it has been done in name or at least in that of your family said there are some upon this earth of yours returned the who lay claim to know us and who do their deeds of passion pride ill will hatred envy and selfishness in our name who are as strange to us and all our nd kin as if they had never lived remember that and charge their doings on them not us promised that he would and they went on a christmas as tbey had been before into the of the town it was a remarkable quality of the ghost which e had observed at the baker s that notwithstanding his gigantic size he could himself to any place with ease and that he stood beneath a low roof quite as gracefully and like a supernatural creature as it was possible he could have done in any lofty hall and perhaps it was the pleasure the good spirit had in showing off this power of his or else it was his own kind generous hearty nature and his sympathy with all poor men that led him straight to s clerk s for there he went and took with him holding to his robe and on the threshold of the door the spirit smiled and stopped to bless bob s dwelling with the of his torch think of that bob had but fifteen bob a week himself on but fifteen copies of his christian name and yet the ghost of christmas present blessed his four house then up rose mrs s wife dressed out but poorly in a twice gown but brave in which are cheap and make a goodly show for sixpence and she laid the cloth assisted by second of her daughters also brave in while master peter plunged a fork into the of potatoes and getting the corners of his monstrous shirt collar bob s private property conferred upon his son and heir in honor of the day into his mouth rejoiced to find himself so gallantly attired and to show his linen in the fashionable and now two smaller boy and girl came tearing in screaming that outside the baker s they had smelt the goose and known it fi r their own and in luxurious thoughts of sage and these young danced about the table and exalted master peter to the skies while he not proud although his nearly choked him blew the fire until the slow potatoes up knocked loudly at the lid to be let out and the second of the three spirits what has ever got your precious father then said mrs and your brother tiny tim and t as late last christmas day by half an hour here s mother said a girl appearing as she spoke here s mother cried the two young there s such a goose why bless your heart alive my dear how late you are said mrs kissing her a dozen times and taking off her shawl and bonnet for her with zeal we d a deal of work to finish up last night replied the girl and had to clear away this morning mother well never mind so long as you are come said mrs sit ye down before the fire my dear and have a warm lord bless ye no no there s father coming cried the two young who were everywhere at once hide hide so hid herself and in came little bob the father with at least three feet of exclusive of the fringe hanging down before him and his thread bare clothes up and brushed to look and tiny tim upon his shoulder alas for tiny tim he bore a little and had his limbs supported by an iron frame why where s our cried bob looking not coming said mrs not coming said bob with a sudden in his high spirits for he had been tim s blood horse all the way from church and had come home not coming upon christmas day didn t like to see him disappointed if it were only in a joke she came out from behind the closet door and ran into his arms while the two young a christmas tiny tim and bore him off into the wash house that he might hear the singing in the copper and how did little tim behave asked mrs when she had rallied bob on his and bob had his daughter to his heart s content as good as gold said bob and better somehow he gets thoughtful sitting by himself so much and thinks the strangest things you ever heard he told me coming home that he hoped the people saw him in the church because he was a and it might be pleasant to them to remember upon christmas day who made lame beggars walk and blind men see bob s voice was tremulous when he told them this and trembled more when he said that tiny tim was growing strong and hearty his active little was heard upon the floor and back came tiny tim before another word was spoken escorted by hia brother and sister to his stool beside the fire and while bob turning up his as if poor fellow they were capable of being made more shabby some hot mixture in a with gin
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and and stirred it round and round and put it on the to master peter and the two young went to fetch the goose with which they soon returned in high procession such a bustle ensued that you might have thought a goose the of all birds a phenomenon to which a black swan was a matter of course and in truth it was something very like it in that house mrs made the ready t hand in a little hissing hot master peter the potatoes with incredible vigor miss up the apple the hot plates bob took tiny tim beside him in a tiny corner at the table the o young set chairs for everybody not forgetting them es and mounting guard upon their posts crammed the second of the three spirits into their mouths lest they should shriek for goose before their um came to be helped at last the dishes were set on and race was said it was succeeded by a breathless pause as looking slowly all along the carving knife prepared to plunge it in the breast but when she did and when the long expected of issued forth one murmur of delight arose all round the board and even tiny tim excited by the two young beat on the table with the handle of his knife and feebly cried there never was such a goose bob said he didn t believe there ever was such a goose cooked its tenderness and flavor size and were the of universal admiration out by the apple and potatoes it was a sufficient dinner for the whole family indeed as mrs said with great delight surveying one small of a bone on the dish they hadn t ate it all at last yet every one had had enough and the youngest in particular were in sage and to the eyebrows but now the plates being changed by miss mrs left the room alone too nervous to bear witnesses to take the up and bring it in suppose it should not be done enough suppose it should break in turning out suppose somebody should have got over the wall of the back yard and stolen it while they were merry with the goose a supposition at which the two young became livid all sorts of horrors were supposed a great deal of steam the was out of the copper a smell like a washing day that was the cloth a smell like an eating house and a cook s next door to each other with a s next door to that that was the in half a minute mrs entered flushed but ing proudly with the like a cannon ball so hard and firm blazing in half of half a of and with christmas stuck into the top i s a christmas oh a wonderful bob said and calmly that he regarded it as the greatest success achieved by mrs since their marriage mrs said that now the weight was off her mind she would confess she had had her about the quantity of flour everybody had something to say about it but nobody said or thought it was at all a small for so large a family it would have been flat to do so any would have blushed to hint at such a thing at last the dinner was all done the cloth was cleared the hearth swept and the are made up the compound in the being tasted and considered perfect apples and were put upon the table and a full of on the are then all the family drew round the hearth in what bob called a circle meaning half a one and at bob s elbow stood the family display of glass two and a cup without a handle these held the hot stuff from the however as well as golden would have done and bob served it out with beaming looks while the on the are and cracked then bob proposed a merry christmas to us all my bless us which all the family re echoed god bless us every one said tiny tim the last of all he sat very close to his father s side upon his little stool bob held his withered little hand in his as if he loved the child and wished to keep him by his side and dreaded that he might be taken from him spirit said with an interest he had never felt before tell me if tiny tim will live i see a vacant seat replied the ghost in the poor chimney corner and a without an owner carefully preserved if these shadows remain by the future the child will die the second of the three spirits no no said oh no kind spirit say he will spared if these shadows remain by the future none other of my race returned the ghost will find him here what hen if he he like to die he had better do it and the population e hung his head to hear his own words quoted by the spirit and was overcome with and grief man said the ghost if man you be in heart not forbear that wicked cant until you have discovered what the is and where it is will you decide what men shall live what men shall die it may be that in the sight of heaven you are more worthless and less fit to live than millions like this poor man s child oh god to hear the insect on the leaf on the too much life among hid hungry brothers in the dust bent before the ghost s rebuke and trembling cast his eyes upon the ground but he raised them speedily on hearing his own name mr said bob i ll give you mr the founder of the feast the founder of the feast indeed cried mrs i wish i had him here i d give him
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a piece of my mind to feast upon and i hope he d have a good appetite for it my dear said bob the children christmas day it should be christmas day i am sure said she on which one drinks the health of such an odious hard mai as mr you know he is robert nobody knows it better than you do poor fellow my dear was bob s mild answer christmas day i ll drink his health for your sake and the day s said mrs not for his long life to him a merry christmas a christmas and a happy new year he ll be very merry and very happy i have no doubt the children drank the toast after her it was the first of their proceedings which had no in it tiny tim drank it last of all but he didn t care for it was the of the family the mention of his name cast a dark shadow on the party which was not for full five minutes after it had passed away they were ten times than before from the mere relief of the being done with bob told them how he had a situation in his eye for master peter which would bring in if obtained full five weekly the two young laughed at the idea of peter s being a man of business and peter himself looked thoughtfully at the fire from between his as if he were what particular he should favor when he came into the receipt of that bewildering income who was a poor at a s then told them what kind of work she had to do and how many hours she worked at a stretch and how she meant to lie to morrow morning for a good long rest to morrow being a holiday she passed at home also how she had seen a and a lord some days before and how the lord was much about as tall as peter at which peter pulled up his so high that you couldn t have seen his head if vou had been there all this time the and the went round and round and bye and bye they had a song about a lost child travelling in the snow from tiny tim who had a plaintive little voice and sang it very well indeed there was nothing of high mark in this they were not a handsome family they were not well dressed their shoes were far from being their clothes were scanty peter might have known and very likely did the inside of a the second of the three spirits s but they were happy grateful pleased with one another and contented with the time and when they faded and looked happier yet in the bright of the spirit s torch at parting had his eye upon them and especially on tin y tim until the last by this time it was getting dark and pretty heavily and as and the spirit went along the streets the brightness of the roaring fires in and all sorts of rooms was wonderful here the flickering of the e showed preparations for a dinner with hot plates through and through before the fire and deep red curtains ready to be drawn to shut out cold and darkness there all the children of the house were running out into the snow to meet their married sisters brothers cousins and be the first to greet them here again were shadows on the window blind of guests and there a group of handsome girls all and fur and all chattering at once tripped lightly off to some near neighbor s house where woe upon the single man who saw them enter artful well they knew it in a glow but if you had judged from the numbers of people on their way to friendly you might have thought that no one was at home to give them welcome when they got there instead of every house expecting company and up its fires half chimney high blessings on it how the ghost how it its breadth of breast and opened its palm and floated on with a generous hand its bright and harmless mirth on everything within its reach the very who ran on before the dusky street with of light and who was dressed to spend the evening somewhere laughed out loudly as the spirit passed though little the that he had any company but christmas now without a word of warning from the ghost the upon a bleak and desert where monstrous masses a christmas rude stone were cast about as though it were the burial place of giants and water spread itself it o would have done so but for the frost that held it prisoner and nothing grew but moss and and coarse rank grass down in the west the setting sun had a streak of fiery red which glared upon the desolation for an instant like a sullen eye and frowning lower lower lower yet was lost in the thick gloom of darkest night what place is this asked a place where live who labor in the of the earth returned the spirit but they know me see a light shone from the window of a hut and swiftly they advanced towards it passing through the wall of mud and stone they found a cheerful company assembled round a glowing fire an old old man and woman with their children and their children s children and another generation beyond that all out gaily in their holiday attire the old man in a voice that seldom rose above the howling of the wind upon the barren waste was singing them a christmas song it had been a very old song when he was a boy and from time to time they all joined in the chorus so surely as they raised their voices the
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old man got quite and loud and so surely as they stopped his vigor sank again the spirit did not here but bade hold his robe and passing on above the sped whither not to sea to sea to s horror looking back he saw the last of the land a frightful range of rocks behind them and his ears were by the thundering of water as it rolled and roared and raged among the dreadful it had worn and fiercely tried to the earth built upon a dismal of sunken rocks some league or so from shore on which the waters and dashed the wild year through there stood a solitary great heaps of the second of the three spirits a weed clung to its base and storm birds bom of the wind i ne might suppose as i a weed of the water rose and fell about t like waves they but even here two men who watched the light had a re that through the in the thick stone wall shed out a of brightness on the awful sea joining their hands ver the rough table at which they sat they wished each other a merry christmas in their can of and one of them the elder too with his face all and with hard weather as the figure head of an old ship might be struck up a sturdy song that was like a gale in itself again the ghost sped on above the black and heaving sea on on until being far away as he told from any shore they lighted on a ship they stood beside the at the wheel the look out in the bow the officers who had the watch dark ghostly figures in their several stations but every man among them a christmas tune or had a christmas thought or spoke below his breath to his companion of some christmas day with homeward hopes belonging to it and every man on board waking or sleeping good or bad had had a kinder word for another on that day than on any day in the year and had shared to some extent in its and had remembered those he cared for at a distance and had known that they delighted to remember him it was a great surprise to while listening to the of the wind and thinking what a solemn thing it was to move on through the lonely darkness over an unknown abyss whose depths were secrets as profound as death it was a great surprise to while thus engaged to hear a hearty laugh it was a much greater surprise to to it as his own nephew s and to find himself in a bright dry gleaming room with the spirit standing smiling by his side and looking at that flame nephew with a christmas ha ha laughed screen s nephew ha ha ha if you should happen by any unlikely chance to know a man more in a laugh than s nephew all i can say is i should like to know him too introduce him to me and i ll cultivate his acquaintance it is a fair even handed noble of things that while there is in disease and sorrow there is nothing in the world so irresistibly as laughter and good humor when s nephew laughed in this way holding his sides rolling his head and twisting his face into the most extravagant s niece by marriage laughed as heartily as he and their assembled friends being not a bit roared out ha ha ha ha ha ha he said that christmas was a as i live cried s nephew he believed it too more shame for him said s niece indignantly bless those women they never do anything by they are always in earnest she was very pretty exceedingly pretty with a surprised looking capital face a ripe little mouth that seemed made to be kissed as no doubt it was all kinds of good little about her chin that melted into one another when she laughed and the pair of eyes you ever saw in any little creature s head altogether she was what you would have called provoking you know but satisfactory too oh perfectly satisfactory he s a old fellow said s nephew that s the truth and not so pleasant as he might be however his carry their own punishment and i have nothing to say against him i m sure he is very rich hinted s at least you always te l me so the second of the three spirits what of that my dear said s nephew his wealth is of no use to him he do any good with it he don t made himself comfortable with it he hasn t the satisfaction of thinking ha ha ha that he is ever going to benefit us with it i have no patience with him observed s niece e s niece s sisters and all the other ladies expressed the same opinion oh i have said s nephew i am sorry for him i couldn t be angry with him if i tried who suffers by his ill himself always here he takes it into his head to dislike us and he won t come and dine with us what s the consequence he don t lose much of a dinner indeed i think he loses a very good dinner interrupted s niece everybody said the same and they must be allowed to have been competent judges because they had just had dinner and with the upon the table were clustered round the fire by well i am very glad to hear it said s nephew because i haven t any great faith in these young what do you say had clearly got his eye upon one of s niece s sisters for he answered that a bachelor was a wretched
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outcast who had no right to express an opinion on the subject s niece s sister the plump one with the lace not the one with the roses blushed do go on said s niece clapping her hands he never what he begins to say he is such a ridiculous fellow s nephew in another laugh and as it was impossible to keep the off though the plump sister tried hard to do it with his example was followed i a christmas i was only going to say said s nephew that the consequence of his taking a dislike to us and not making merry with us is as i think that he loses some pleasant moments which could do him no harm i am sure he loses pleasanter companions than he can find in his own thoughts either in his old office or his dusty chambers i mean to give him the same chance every year whether he likes it or not for i pity him he may rail at christmas till he dies but he can t help thinking better of it i defy him if he finds me going there in good temper year year and saying uncle how are you if it only puts him in the vein to leave his poor clerk fifty pounds thai s something and i think i shook him yesterday it was their turn to laugh now at the notion of his shaking but being thoroughly good natured and not much caring what they laughed at so that they laughed at any rate he encouraged them in their merriment and passed the bottle after tea they had some music for they were a musical family and knew what they were about when they sung a glee or catch i can assure you especially who could growl away in the bass like a good one and never swell the large veins in his forehead or get red in the face over it s niece played well upon the harp and played among other tunes a simple little air a mere nothing you might learn to whistle it in two minutes which had been familiar to the child who fetched from the boarding school as he had been reminded by the ghost of christmas past when this strain of music sounded all the things that ghost had shown him came upon his mind he softened more and more and thought that if he could have listened to it often years ago he might have cultivated the kindness of life for his own happiness with his own hands without to the s that buried jacob the second of the three spirits but they didn t devote the whole evening to music after a while they played at for it is good to be children some times and never better than at christmas when its mighty founder was a child himself stop i there was first a game at s of course there was and i no more believe was really blind than i believe he had eyes in his boots my opinion is that it was a done thing between him and s nephew and that the ghost of christmas present knew it the way he went after that plump sister in the lace was an outrage on the of human nature down the fire irons tumbling over the chairs up against the piano himself among the curtains wherever she went there went he he always knew where the plump sister was he wouldn t catch anybody else if you had fallen up against him as some of them did and stood there he would have made a of to seize you would have been an to your understanding and would instantly have off in the direction of the plump sister she often cried out that it wasn t fair and it really was not but when at last he caught her when in spite of all her silken and her rapid past him he got her into a comer whence there was no escape then his conduct was the most for his pretending not to know her his pretending that it was necessary to touch her head dress and further to assure himself of her identity by pressing a certain ring upon her finger and a certain chain about her neck was vile monstrous no doubt she told him her opinion of it when another being in they were so very confidential together behind the curtains s niece was not one of the s party but was made comfortable with a large chair and a in a snug corner where the ghost and were close behind her but she joined in the and loved her love to a christmas with all the letters of the likewise at the game of how when and where she was very great and to the secret joy of s nephew beat her sisters hollow though they were sharp girls too as could have told you there might have been twenty people there young and old but they all played and so did for wholly forgetting in the interest he had in what was going on that his voice made no sound in their ears he sometimes came out with his guess quite loud and very often guessed right too for the needle best not to cut in the eye was not than blunt as he took it in his head to be the ghost was greatly pleased to find him in this mood and looked upon him with such favor that he begged like a boy to be allowed to stay until the guests departed but this the spirit said could not be done here s a new game said one half hour spirit only one it was a game called yes and no where s nephew had to think of something the rest must find out what he only answering to their
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questions yes or no as the case was the brisk fire of questioning to which he was exposed from him that he was thinking of an animal a live animal rather a disagreeable animal a savage animal an animal that growled and sometimes and talked sometimes and lived in london and walked about the streets and wasn t made a show of and wasn t led by anybody and didn t live in a and was never killed in a market and was not a horse or an ass or a cow or a bull or a tiger or a dog or a pig or a cat or a bear at every fresh question that was put to him this nephew burst into a fresh roar of laughter and was so that he was obliged to get up off the sofa and stamp at last the plump sister falling into a similar state cried out the second of the three spirits i have found it out i know what it is i know what it is what is it cried it s your uncle o o o which it certainly was admiration was the universal sentiment though some objected that the reply to is it a bear ought to have been yes inasmuch as an answer in the negative was sufficient to have diverted their thoughts from mr supposing they had ever had any tendency that way he has given us plenty of merriment i am sure said and it would be ungrateful not to drink his health here is a glass of wine ready to our hand at the moment and i say uncle well uncle they cried a merry christmas and a happy new year to the old man whatever he is said s nephew he wouldn t take it from me but may he have it nevertheless uncle uncle had become so gay and light of heart that he would have pledged the unconscious company in return and thanked them in an speech if the ghost had given him time but the whole scene passed off in the breath of the last word spoken by his nephew and he and the spirit were again upon their travels much they saw and far they went and many homes they visited but always with a happy end the spirit stood beside sick beds and they were cheerful on foreign lands and they were close at home by struggling men and they were patient in their greater hope by poverty and it was rich in hospital and jail in misery s every refuge where vain man in his little brief authority had not made fast the door and barred the spirit out he left his blessing and taught his it was a long night if it were only a night but had a christmas his doubts of because the christmas holidays appeared to be into the space of time they passed together it was strange too that while remained in his outward form the ghost grew older clearly older had this change but never spoke of it until they left a children s night party when looking at the spirit as they stood together in an open place he noticed that its hair was grey are spirits lives short asked my life upon this globe is very brief replied the ghost it ends to night to night cried to night at midnight hark the time is drawing near the were ringing the three quarters past eleven at that moment forgive me if i am not justified in what ask said looking intently at the spirit s robe but i see something strange and not belonging to yourself from your skirts is it a foot or a it might be a for the flesh there is upon it was the spirit s sorrowful reply look here from the of its robe it brought two children wretched abject frightful hideous miserable they knelt down at its feet and clung upon the outside of its garment oh man look here look look down here exclaimed the ghost they were a boy and a girl yellow meagre ragged ing but prostrate too in their humility where graceful youth should have filled their features out and touched them with its tints a stale and hand like that of age had pinched and twisted them and pulled them into where angels might have sat devils and glared out menacing no change no degradation no of the second of the three spirits humanity in any grade through all the mysteries of wonderful creation has monsters half so horrible and dread started back appalled having them shown to him in this way he tried to say they were fine children but the words choked themselves rather than be parties to a lie of such magnitude spirit are they yours no more they are man s said the spirit looking down upon them and they cling to me appealing from their fathers this boy is ignorance this girl is want beware them both and all of their degree but most of all beware this boy for on his brow i see that written which is doom unless the writing be deny it cried the spirit stretching out its hand towards the city those who tell it ye admit it for your purposes and make it worse and bide the end have they no refuge or resources cried are there no v said the spirit turning on him for the last time with his own words are there no the bell struck twelve looked about him for the ghost and saw it not as the last stroke ceased to he remembered the of old jacob and lifting up his eyes beheld a solemn phantom draped and coming like a mist along the ground towards him m a christmas four the last of the spirits thb m slowly gravely silently approached when it came near him bent down upon his
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knee for in the very air through which this spirit moved it seemed o scatter gloom and mystery it was in a deep black garment which concealed its head its face its form and nothing of it visible save one outstretched hand but for this it would have been difficult to its figure from the night and separate it from the darkness by which it was surrounded he felt that it was tall and stately when it came beside him and that its mysterious presence filled him with a solemn dread he knew no more for the spirit neither spoke nor moved i am in the presence of the ghost of christmas yet to come said the spirit answered not but pointed downward with its hand you are about to show me shadows of the things that not happened but will happen in the time before us pursued is that so spirit the upper portion of the garment was contracted for an instant m its folds as if the spirit had inclined its head that was the only answer he received although well used to ghostly company by this time feared the silent shape so much that his legs trembled beneath him and he found that he could hardly stand when he the last of the spirits prepared to follow it the spirit paused a moment as observe ing his condition and giving him time to recover but was all the worse for this it thrilled him with a vague uncertain horror to know that behind the dusky there were ghostly eyes intently fixed upon him while he though he stretched his own to the utmost could see nothing but a hand and one great heap of black ghost of the future he exclaimed i fear you more than any i have seen but as i know your purpose is to do me good and as i hope to live to be another man from what i was i am prepared to bear you company and do it with a thankful heart will you not speak to me it gave him no reply the hand was pointed straight before them lead on said lead on the night is fast and it is precious time to me i know lead on spirit the phantom moved away as it had come towards him followed in the shadow of its dress which bore him up he thought and carried him along they scarcely seemed to enter the city for the city rather seemed to spring up about them and them of its own act but there they were in the heart of it on change among the merchants who hurried up and down and the money in their pockets and conversed in groups and looked at their watches and thoughtfully with their great gold and forth as had seen them the spirit stopped beside one little knot of business men observing that the hand was pointed to them advanced to listen to their talk no said a great fat man with a monstrous chin i don t know much about it either way i only know he s dead when did he die inquired another a last night i believe why what was the matter with him v asked a third taking a vast quantity of snuff out of a very large snuff box i thought he d never die god knows said the first with a what has he done with his money asked a red gen with a on the end of his nose that shook like the of a turkey cock i haven t heard said the man with the lai e chin yawning again left it to his company perhaps he hasn t left it to me that s all i know this was received with a general laugh it s likely to be a very cheap funeral said the same speaker for upon my life i don t know of anybody to go to it suppose we make up a party and i don t mind going if a lunch is provided observed the gentleman with the on his nose but i must be fed if i make one another laugh well i am the most disinterested among you after all said the first speaker for i never wear black gloves and i never eat lunch but ni offer to go if anybody else will when i come to think of it i m not at all sure that i wasn t his most particular friend for we used to stop and speak whenever we met bye bye and listeners strolled away and mixed with other groups knew the men and looked towards the spirit for an explanation phantom glided on into a street its finger pointed to two persons meeting listened again thinking that the explanation might lie here ho knew these men also perfectly they were men of business very wealthy a d of great importance he had made i the last of the spirits a point always of standing well in their esteem in a business point of view that is strictly in a business point of view how are you v said one how are you returned the other well said the first old scratch has got his own at last hey so i am told returned the second cold isn t it for christmas time you re not a i suppose no no something else to think of morning not another word that was their meeting their conversation and their parting was at first inclined to be surprised that the spirit should attach importance to conversations apparently so trivial but feeling assured that they must have some hidden purpose he set himself to consider what it was likely to be they could scarcely be supposed to have any bearing on the death of jacob his old partner for that was past and this ghost s province was the future nor
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could he think of any one immediately connected with himself to whom he could apply them but nothing doubting that to they applied they had some latent moral for his own improvement he resolved to treasure up every word he beard and everything he saw and especially to observe the shadow of himself when it appeared for he had an expectation that the conduct of his future self would give him the clue he missed and would render the solution of these easy he looked about in that very place for his own image but another man stood in his accustomed corner and though ihe clock pointed to his usual time of day for being there he saw no likeness of himself among the multitudes that poured in through the porch it gave him little surprise however for he had been revolving in his mind a change of life and thought and hoped he saw his dew born resolutions carried out in this a christmas quiet and dark beside him stood the phantom with its outstretched hand when he roused himself from his thoughtful quest he fancied from the turn of the hand and its situation in reference to himself that the unseen eyes were looking at him keenly it made him shudder and feel very cold they left the busy scene and went into an obscure part of the town where had never penetrated before although he recognized its situation and its bad the ways were foul and narrow the shops and houses wretched the people drunken ugly and like so many their of smell and dirt and life upon the straggling streets and the whole quarter with crime with and misery far in this den of infamous resort there was a low shop below a pent house roof where iron old rags bottles and bones and greasy were bought upon the floor within were piled up heaps of rusty keys nails chains hinges scales and refuse iron of all kinds secrets that few would like to were bred and hidden in mountains of rags masses of fat and of bones sitting in among the wares he dealt in by a made of old bricks was a grey haired rascal nearly seventy years of age who had himself from the cold air without by a of miscellaneous hung upon a and smoked his pipe in all the luxury of calm retirement and the phantom came into the presence of this man just as a woman with a heavy bundle into the shop but she had scarcely entered when another woman laden came in too and she was closely followed by a man in faded black who was no less startled by the sight of them than they had been upon the recognition of each other after a short period of blank astonishment in which the old man with the pipe had joined them they all three burst into a laugh the last of the spirits let the alone to be first cried she who had entered first let the to be the second and let the s man alone to be the third look here old joe here s a chance if we haven t all three met here without meaning it you couldn t have met in a better place said old joe removing his pipe from his mouth come into the parlor you were made free of it long ago you know and the other two an t strangers stop till i shut the door of the shop ah how it there an t such a rusty bit of metal in the place as its own hinges i believe and i m sure there s no such old bones here as mine ha ha we re all suitable to our calling we re well matched come into the parlor come into the parlor the parlor was the space behind the screen of rags the old man the fire together with an old stair rod and having trimmed his smoky lamp for it was night with the stem of his pipe put it in his mouth again he did this the woman who had already spoken threw her bundle on the floor and sat down in a manner on a stool crossing her elbows on her knees and looking with a bold defiance at the other two what odds then what odds mrs said the woman every person has a right to take care of themselves he always did that s true indeed said the no man more why then don t stand staring as if you was afraid woman who s the wiser we re not going to pick holes in each other s coals suppose no indeed said mrs and the man together we hope not very well then cried the woman that s enough to a christmas who s the worse for the loss of a few things like these not a dead man i suppose no indeed said laughing if he wanted to keep em after he was dead a wicked old screw pursued the woman why wasn t he natural in his lifetime if he had been he d have had somebody to look after him when he was struck with death instead of lying gasping out his last there alone by himself it the truest word that ever was spoke said mrs it s a judgment on him i wish it was a little heavier judgment replied the woman and it should have been you may depend upon it if i could have laid my hands on anything else open that bundle old joe and let me know the value of it speak out plain i m not afraid to be the first nor afraid for them to see it we knew pretty well that we were helping ourselves before we met here i believe it s no sin open the bundle joe but the gallantry of her friends would
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not allow of this and the man in faded black mounting the breach first produced his plunder it was not extensive a seal or two a pencil case a pair of sleeve and a of no great value were all they were and by old joe who the sums he was disposed to give for each upon the wall up in a total when he found that there was nothing more to come that s your account said joe and i wouldn t give another sixpence if i was to be boiled for not doing it who s next mrs was next sheets and a little wearing apparel two old fashioned silver a pair of sugar and a few boots her account was stated on the wall in the same manner i always give too much to ladies it s a weakness of and that s the way i ruin myself said old joe that s the last of the spirits account if you asked me for another penny and made it ao open question i d repent of being so liberal and knock off a crown and now undo my bundle joe the first woman joe went down on his knees for the greater convenience of it and having a great many knots dragged out a large and heavy roll of some dark stuff what do you call this said joe ah returned the woman laughing and leaning forward on her crossed arms you don t mean to say you took em down rings and all with him lying there said joe yes i do replied the woman why not you were bom to make your fortune said joe and you ll certainly do it i certainly shan t hold my hand when i can get anything in it by reaching it out for the sake of such a man as he was i promise you joe returned the woman coolly don t drop that oil upon the blankets now his blankets asked joe whose else s do you think replied the woman he isn t likely to take cold without em i dare say i hope he didn t die of anything catching eh said old joe stopping in his work and looking up don t you be afraid of that returned the woman i an t fond of his company that i d about him for such things if he did ah you may look through that shirt till your eyes ache but you won t find a hole in it nor a place it s the best he had and a fine one too they d have wasted it if it hadn t been for me what do you call wasting of it asked old joe putting it on him to be buried in to be sure replied the with a laugh somebody was fool enough to do it but a christmas i took it off again if an t good enough for such a it isn t good enough for anything it s quite as becoming to the body he can t look than he did in that one listened to this dialogue in horror as they sat about their spoil in the scanty light by the old man s lamp he viewed them with a and disgust which could hardly have been greater though they had been the corpse itself ha ha laughed the same woman when old joe producing a flannel bag with money in it told out their several gains upon the ground this is the end of it you see he frightened every one away from him when he was alive to profit us when he was dead ha ha ha spirit said shuddering from head to foot i see i see the case of this unhappy man might be my own my life that way now merciful heaven what is this he in terror for the scene had changed and now he almost touched a bed a bare bed on which beneath a ragged sheet there lay a something covered up which though it was dumb announced itself in awful language the room was very dark too dark to be observed with any accuracy though glanced round it in obedience to a secret impulse anxious to know what kind of room it was a pale light rising in the outer air fell straight upon the bed and on it and for was the body of this man glanced towards the phantom its steady hand was pointed to the head the cover was so carelessly adjusted that the slightest raising of it the motion of a finger upon s part would have disclosed the face he thought of it felt how easy it would be to do and longed to do it but had no more power to withdraw the veil than to dismiss the at his side oh cold rigid dreadful death set up thine altar the last of the spirits and dress it with such terrors as thou hast at thy command for this is thy dominion but of the and honored head thou not turn one hair to thy dread purposes or make me feature odious it is not that the hand is heavy and will fall down when released it is not that the heart and pulse are still hut that the hand was open generous and true the heart brave warm and tender and the pulse a man s strike shadow strike and see his good deeds springing from the wound to sow the world with life immortal no voice pronounced these words in s ears and yet he heard them when he looked upon the bed he thought if this man could be raised up now what would be his foremost thoughts hard dealing cares they have brought him into a rich end truly he lay in the dark empty house with not a man a woman or a child to
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say he was kind to me in this or that and for the memory of one kind word i will be kind to him a cat was tearing at the door and there was a sound of rats beneath the hearth stone what they wanted in the room of death and why they were so restless and disturbed did not dare to think spirit he said this is a fearful place in leaving it i shall not leave its lesson trust me let us go still the ghost pointed with an unmoved finger to the head i understand you returned and i would do it if i could but i have not the power spirit i have not the power again it seemed to look upon him if there is any person in the tow who feels emotion caused by this man s death said quite show that person to me spirit i you the phantom spread its dark robe before him for a moment hke a wing and withdrawing it revealed a room by daylight a mother and her children were a christmas she was expecting some one and with anxious eagerness fin she walked up and k wn the room started at every sound looked out from the window glanced at the clock tried but in vain to work with her needle and could hardly bear the of the children in their play at length the long expected knock was heard she hurried to the door and met her husband a man whose face was care worn and depressed though he was young there was a re expression in it now a kind of serious delight of which he felt ashamed and which he struggled to repress he sat down to the dinner that had been for him by the fire and when she asked him faintly what news which was not until after a long silence he appeared embarrassed how to answer is it good she said or bad to help him bad he answered we are quite ruined no there is hope yet if he she said amazed there is nothing is past hope if such a miracle has happened he is past said her husband he is dead she w is a mild and patient creature if her face spoke truth out she was thankful in her soul to hear it and she said so with clasped hands she prayed forgiveness the next moment and was sorry but the first was the emotion of her heart what the half drunken woman whom i told you of last night said to me when i tried to see him and obtain a week s delay and what i thought was excuse to avoid me turns out to be quite true he was not only very ill but dying then to whom wi our debt be transferred i don t know but before that time we shall be ready with money and even though we were not it would be bad the last of the spirits tune indeed to find so merciless a in his successor we may sleep to night with light hearts yes soften it as they would their hearts were lighter the children s faces hushed and clustered round to hear what they little understood were brighter and it was a happier house for this man s death the only emotion that the ghost could show him caused by the event was one of pleasure let me see some tenderness connected with a death said or that dark chamber spirit which we left just now will be for ever present to me the ghost conducted him through several streets familiar to his feet and as they went looked here and there to find himself but nowhere was he to be seen poor bob s house the dwelling he had visited before and found the mother and the children seated round the fire quiet very quiet the noisy little were as still as statues in one corner and sat looking up at peter who had a book before him the mother and her daughters were engaged in sewing but surely they were very quiet and he took a child and set him in the midst of them where had heard those words he had not dreamed them the boy have read them out as he and the spirit the threshold why did he not go on the mother laid her work upon the table and put her hand up to her face the color hurts my eyes she said the color ah poor tiny tim i they re better now again said s wife it makes them weak by candle light and i wouldn t show weak eyes to your father when he comes home lor the world it must be near his time past it rather peter answered shutting up his book but ts a christmas i think he s walked a little slower than he used these few evenings mother they were very quiet again at last she said and in a steady cheerful voice that only faltered once i have known him walk with i have known him walk with tiny tim upon his shoulder very fast indeed and so have i cried peter often and so have i exclaimed another so had all but he was very light to carry she resumed intent her work and his father loved him so that it was no no trouble and there is your father at the door she hurried out to meet him and little bob in his he had need of it poor came in his tea was ready him on the and they all tried who should help him to it then the two young got upon his knees and laid each child a little cheek against his face as if they said don t mind it father don t be grieved bob was very cheerful with them
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and spoke pleasantly to au the family he looked at the work upon the table and praised the industry and speed of mrs and the girls they would be done long before sunday he said sunday you went to day then robert said his wife yes my dear returned bob i wish you could have gone it would have done you good to see how green a place it is but you ll see it often i promised him that i would walk there on a sunday my little little child cried bob my little child he broke down all at once he couldn t help it if he could have helped it he and his child would have been farther apart perhaps than they were he left the room and went upstairs into the room above which was lighted cheerfully and hung with there was a chair set dose beside the child and there were signs of some me been there lately poor bob sat down in it and when he the last of the spirits s d thought a little and composed himself he kissed the little ce he was reconciled to what had happened and went down gain quite happy they drew about the fire and talked the girls and mother still bob told then of the extraordinary kindness of r e s nephew whom he had scarcely seen but once and meeting in the street that day and seeing that he looked a little just a little down you know said bob what had happened to distress him on which said bob for he is the spoken gentleman you ever heard i told him i am heartily sorry for it mr he said and heartily sorry for your good wife by the bye how he ever knew i t know knew what my dear why that you were a good wife replied bob everybody knows that said peter very well observed my boy cried bob i hope they do heartily sorry he said for your good wife if t can be of service any way he said giving me his card that s where i live pray come to me now it wasn t cried bob for the sake of anything he might be able to do for us so much as his kind way that this was quite delightful it really seemed as if he had known our tiny tim and felt with us i m sure he s a good soul said mrs you would be of it my dear returned bob if you saw and spoke to him i shouldn t be at all surprised mark what i say if he got peter a better situation only hear that peter said mrs and then cried one of the girls peter will be keeping company with some one and setting up for himself get along with you retorted peter grinning it s just as likely as not said bob one of these days there s plenty of time for that my dear but however a christmas and whenever we part from one another i am sure we shall of us forget poor tiny tim shall we or this first parting that was among us never father cried they all and i know said bob i know my that when we recollect how patient and how mild he was although he was a little little child we shall not quarrel easily among and forget poor tiny tim in doing it no never father they all cried again i am very happy said little bob i am very happy mrs kissed him his daughters kissed him the two young kissed him and peter and himself shook hands spirit of tiny tim thy childish essence was from god said something me thai our parting moment is at hand i know it but i know not how tell me what man that was whom we saw lying dead the ghost of christmas yet to come conveyed him as before though at a different time he thought indeed there seemed no order in these latter visions save that they were in the future into the of business men but showed him not himself indeed the spirit did not stay for anything but went straight on as to the end just now desired until by to for a moment this court said through which we hurry now is where my place of occupation is and has been for a length of time i see the house let me behold what i shall be in days to come the spirit stopped the hand was pointed elsewhere the house is yonder exclaimed why do you point away the inexorable finger no change hastened to the window of his office and looked in ft was an office still but not bis the furniture was not the the last op the spirits il flame and the figure in the chair was not himself the phantom pointed as before he joined it once again and wondering why and whither he had gone accompanied it until they reached an iron gate he paused to look round before entering a churchyard here then the wretched man whose name he had now to learn lay underneath the ground it was a worthy place walled in by houses by grass and weeds the growth of vegetation s death not life choked up with too much burying fat with appetite a worthy place the spirit stood among the graves and pointed down to one he advanced towards it trembling the phantom was exactly as it had been but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape before i draw nearer to that stone to which you point said answer me one question are these the shadows of the things that will be or are they shadows of the things that may be only v still the ghost pointed downward
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to the grave by which it men s courses will certain ends to which if in they must lead said but if the courses be departed from the ends will change say it is thus with what you show me the spirit was immovable as ever crept towards it trembling as he went and following the finger read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own name am that man who lay upon the bed he cried upon his knees the finger pointed from the grave to him and back again no spirit oh no no the finger still was there a christmas he cried tight clutching at its robe hear me i i am not the man i was i will not be the man i must have been but for this intercourse why show me this if i am past all hope for the first time the hand appeared to shake good spirit he pursued as down upon the ground he fell before it your nature for me and me assure me i yet may change these shadows you have shown me by x an altered life the kind hand trembled l will honor in my heart and try to keep it all the year i will live in the past the present and the future the spirits of all three shall strive within me i will not shut out the lessons that they teach oh tell me i may away the writing on this stone v in his agony he caught the hand it sought to free itself but he was strong in his entreaty and detained it the spirit stronger yet him holding up his hands in one last prayer to have his fate reversed he saw an alteration in the phantom s hood and dress it shrunk and down into a the end op it five the end of it tes and the was his own the bed was his own the room was his own best and happiest of all the time before him was his own to make amends in i will live in the past the present and the future repeated as he scrambled out of bed the spirits of all three shall strive within me oh jacob heaven and the christmas time be praised for this i say it on my knees old jacob on my knees he was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions that his broken voice scarcely answer to his call he had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the spirit and his face was wet with tears they are not torn down cried folding one of hia bed in his arms they are not torn down rings and all they are here i am here the shadows of the things that would have been may be they will be i know they will his hands were busy with his garments all this time turning them inside out putting them on down tearing them them making them parties to every kind of extravagance i don t know what to do cried laughing and crying in the same breath and making a perfect on of himself with his i am as light as a feather i am as happy as an angel i am as merry as of i am as giddy as a christmas a drunken man a merry christmas to everybody a happy new year to all the world here i he had into the sitting room and was now standing there perfectly there s the that the was in cried starting off again and going round the fire place there s the door by which the ghost of jacob entered there s the comer where the ghost of christmas present sat i there s the window where i saw the wandering spirits it s all right it s all true it all happened ha ha ha really for a man who had been out of practice for so many years it was a splendid laugh a most illustrious laugh the father of a long long line of brilliant laughs i don t know what day of the month it is i don t know how long i ve been among the spirits i don t know anything i m quite a baby never mind i don t care i d rather be a baby here he was checked in his by the churches ringing out the he had ever heard clash hammer bell bell hammer oh glorious glorious running to the window he opened it and put out his head no fog no mist clear bright jovial stirring cold cold cold for the blood to dance to golden sunlight heavenly sky sweet fresh air merry bells oh glorious glorious what s to day cried calling down to a boy in sunday clothes who perhaps had in to look about him eh returned the boy with all his might of wonder what s to day my fine fellow said to day replied the boy why christmas day it s christmas day said to himself i haven t it the spirits have done it all in one night they can the end op it they like of course they can of course they wn my fine fellow returned the boy t o you know the s in the next street but one at comer inquired i should hope i did replied the lad an intelligent boy said a remarkable boy do you know whether they ve sold the prize turkey that was longing up there not the little prize turkey the big one v what the one as big as me returned the boy what a delightful boy said it s a pleasure to talk to him yes my buck it s hanging there now replied the boy is it said go and buy it walk er exclaimed the boy no no said i am in earnest go
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the table and praised the industry and speed of mrs and the girls they would be done long before sunday he said sunday you went to day then robert said his wife yes my dear returned bob i wish you could have gone it would have done you good to see how green a place it is but you ll see it often i promised him that i would walk there on a sunday my little little child cried bob my little child he broke down all at once he couldn t help it if he could have helped it he and his child would have been farther apart perhaps than they were he left the room and went upstairs into the room above which was lighted cheerfully and hung with christmas there was a chair set close beside the child and there were signs of some me having been there lately poor bob sat down in it and when he the last of the spirits had thought a little and composed himself he kissed the little face he was reconciled to what had happened and went down again quite happy they drew about the fire and talked the girls and mother working still bob told then of the extraordinary kindness of mr s nephew whom he had scarcely seen but once and who meeting him in the street that day and seeing that he looked a little just a little down you know said bob inquired what had happened to distress him on which said bob for he is the spoken gentleman you ever heard i told him i am heartily sorry for it mr he said and heartily sorry for your good wife by the bye how he ever knew that i t know knew what my dear v why that you were a good wife replied bob everybody knows that said peter very well observed my boy cried bob i hope they do heartily sorry he said for your good wife if t can be of service any way he said giving me his card that s where i live pray come to me now it wasn t cried bob for the sake of anything he might be able to do for us so much as fer his kind way that this was quite delightful it really seemed as if he had known our tiny tim and felt with us i m sure he s a good soul said mrs you would be of it my dear returned bob if you saw and spoke to him i shouldn t be at all surprised mark what i say if he got peter a better situation only hear that peter said mrs and then cried one of the girls peter will be keeping with some one and setting up for himself get along with you retorted peter grinning it s just as likely as not said bob one of these days there s plenty of time for that my dear but however a christmas and whenever we part from one another i am sure we shall none of us forget poor tiny tim shall we or this first parting that was among us never father cried they all and i know said bob i know my that when we recollect how patient and how mild he was although he was a little little child we shall not quarrel easily among and forget poor tiny tim in doing it no never father they all cried again i am very happy said little bob i am very happy mrs kissed him his daughters kissed him the two young kissed him and peter and himself shook hands spirit of tiny tim thy childish essence was from god said something me that our parting moment is at hand i know it but i know not how tell me what man that was whom we saw lying dead the ghost of christmas yet to come conveyed him as before though at a different time he thought indeed there seemed no order in these latter visions save that they were in the future into the of business men but showed him not himself indeed the spirit did not stay for anything but went straight on as to the end just now desired until by to for a moment this court said through which we hurry now is where my place of occupation is and has been for a length of time i see the house let me behold what i shall be in days to come the spirit stopped the hand was pointed elsewhere the house is yonder exclaimed why do you point away the inexorable finger no change hastened to the window of his office and looked in ft was an office still but not bis the furniture was not the the last op the spirits same and the figure in the chair was not himself the phantom pointed as before he joined it once again and wondering why and whither he had gone accompanied it until they reached an iron gate he paused to look round before entering a churchyard here then the wretched man whose name be had now to learn lay underneath the ground it was a worthy place walled in by houses by grass and weeds the growth of vegetation s death not life choked up with too much burying fat with appetite a worthy place the spirit stood among the graves and pointed down to one he advanced towards it trembling the phantom was exactly it had been but he dreaded that he saw new meaning in its solemn shape before i draw nearer to that stone to which you point said answer me one question are these the shadows of the things that will be or are they shadows of the things that may be only v still the ghost pointed downward to the grave by which it hood men s
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courses will certain ends to which if in they must lead said but if the courses be departed from the ends will change say it is thus with what you show me the spirit was immovable as ever crept towards it trembling as he went and following the finger read upon the stone of the neglected grave his own am that man who lay upon the bed he cried upon his the finger pointed from the grave to him and back again no spirit oh no no the finger still was there a christmas spirit he cried tight clutching at its robe hear me i am not the man i was i will not be the man i must have been but for this intercourse why show me this if i am past all hope for the first time the hand appeared to shake good spirit he pursued as down upon the ground he fell before it your nature for me and me assure me that i yet may change these shadows you have shown me by x an altered life the kind hand trembled i will honor christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year i will live in the past the present and the future the spirits of all three shall strive within me i will not shut out the lessons that they teach oh tell me i may away the writing on this stone in his iy he caught the hand it sought to free itself but he was strong in his entreaty and detained it the spirit stronger yet him holding up his hands in one last prayer to have his fate reversed he saw an alteration in the phantom s hood and dress it and down into a the end of it five the end of it tes and the was his own the bed was his own the room was his own best and happiest of all the time before him was his own to make amends in i will live in the past the present and the future repeated as he scrambled out of bed the spirits of all three shall strive within me oh jacob heaven and the christmas time be praised for this i say it on my knees old jacob on my knees v he was so fluttered and so glowing with his good intentions that his broken voice would scarcely answer to his call he had been sobbing violently in his conflict with the spirit and his face was wet with tears they are not torn down cried folding one of his bed curtains in his arms they are not torn down rings and all they are here i am here the shadows of the things that would have been may be they will be i know they will his hand were busy with his garments all this time turning them inside out putting them on down tearing them mis laying them making them parties to every kind of extravagance i don t know what to do cried laughing and cry log in the same breath and making a perfect of himself with his i am as light as a feather i am as happy m an angel i am as merry as a i am s giddy as u a christmas a drunken man a merry christmas to everybody a happy new year to all the world here he had into the sitting room and was now standing there perfectly there s the that the was in cried starting off again and going round the fire place there s the door by which the ghost of jacob entered there s the corner where the ghost of christmas present sat there s the window where i saw the wandering spirits it s all right it s all true it all happened ha ha ha really for a man who had been out of practice for so many years it was a splendid laugh a most illustrious laugh the father of a long long line of brilliant laughs i don t know what day of the month it is said i don t know how long i ve been among the spirits i don t know anything i m quite a baby never mind i don t care i d rather be a baby here he was checked in his by the churches ringing out the he had ever heard clash hammer bell bell hammer oh glorious glorious running to the window ha opened it and put out his head no fog no mist clear bright jovial stirring cold cold cold for the blood to dance to golden sunlight heavenly sky sweet fresh air merry bells oh glorious glorious what s to day v cried calling down to a boy in sunday clothes who perhaps had in to look about him v returned the boy with all his might of wonder what s to day my fine fellow v said to day replied the boy why christmas day it s christmas day said to himself i haven t missed it the spirits have done it all in one night they can the end of it do anything they like of course they can of course they can my fine fellow returned the do you know the s in the next street hut one at the comer inquired i should hope i did replied the lad an intelligent boy said a boy do you know whether they ve sold the prize turkey that was up there not the little prize turkey the big one what the one as big as me returned the boy what a delightful boy said it s a pleasure to talk to him yes my buck it s hanging there now replied the boy is it said go and buy it walk exclaimed the boy no no said i am in earnest go and buy it and tell em to
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bring it here that i may give them the direction where to take it come back with the man and i ll give you a come back with him in less than five minutes and i ll give you half a crown the boy was off like a shot he must have had a steady hand at a who could have got a shot so fast i ll send it to bob s whispered rubbing his hands and with a laugh he shan t know who sends it it s twice the size of tiny tim joe miller never made such a joke as sending it to bob s will be the hand in which he wrote the address was not a steady but write it he did somehow and went down stairs to open the street door ready for the coming of the s man as he stood there waiting his arrival the caught his eye i shaft love it as long as i live cried patting it with bis hand i scarcely ever looked at it before what an honest expression it has in its face it s a wonderful the was just outside the church door in fact he was a ticket porter and waited there for and a goose blue red eyed tooth chattering place it was to wait in in the winter time as well knew the wind came tearing round the corner especially the east as if it had forth express firom the of the earth to have a blow at and it seemed to come upon him sooner than it had expected for round the corner and passing it would suddenly wheel round again as if it cried why here he is his little white apron would be caught up over his head like a naughty boy s garments and his feeble little cane would be seen to and struggle in his and his legs would undergo tremendous agitation and himself all and facing now in this direction now in that would be so and and and worried and and lifted off his feet as to render it a state of things but one degree removed from a positive miracle that he wasn t carried up bodily into the air as a colony of or or other creatures sometimes are and rained down again to the great astonishment of the natives on some strange comer of the world where ticket are unknown but windy weather in spite of its using him so roughly was after all a sort of holiday for that s the fact he didn t seem to wait so long for a sixpence in the wind as at other times for the having to fight with that boisterous element took off his attention and quite him up when he was getting hungry and low spirited a hard frost too or a fall of snow was an event and it seemed to do him good somehow or other it would have been hard to say in what respect though so wind and frost and snow and perhaps a good stiff storm of hail were s red letter days wet weather was the worst the cold damp wet thai the first quarter wrapped mm up like a moist great coat the kind of owned or could added to his comfort by with wet days when the rain came slowly thickly down when the street s throat like his choked with mist when passed and and round like so as they knocked against each other on the crowded foot way throwing off a little of when and water were full and noisy when the wet from the projecting tones and of the church fell on making the of straw on which be stood mere mud in no those w ce the days that tried him then indeed you might see looking anxiously out from his shelter in an angle of the church wall r such a meagre shelter that in summer time it never a thicker thai a good si ed walking stick upon the sunny with a and lengthened face but coming out a minute afterwards to w himself by exercise and trotting up and down some dozen times he would even then and go back more brightly to his they called him from his pace which meant speed if it didn t make il he could have walked faster perhaps most likely but rob him of his trot and would have taken to his bed and died it him with mud in dirty weather it cost him a world of trouble he could have walked with infinitely greater ease but that was one reason for his clinging to it so a weak spare old man he was a very this in his good intentions he loved to earn his money he delighted to believe was very poor and couldn t well afford to part with a delight that he was worth his salt with a shilling or an message or small parcel in hand his courage always high rose higher as he trotted on he would call out to fast ahead of him to get out of the way devoutly believing the that in the natural course of things he must inevitably and run them down and he had perfect faith not often tested ii h being able to carry anything that man could lift thus even when he came out of his nook to warm himself or a wet day trotted making with his shoes a crooked line of in the mire and blowing cm his chilly hands and rubbing them against each other poorly defended from the searching cold by of grey with a private apartment only for the thumb and a common room or tap for the rest of the fingers with his bent and his cane beneath his arm still trotted falling out into the road to
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look up at the when the trotted still he made this last excursion several times a day for they were company to him and when he heard their voices he had an interest in glancing at their lodging and thinking how they were moved and what beat upon them perhaps he was the more curious about these bells because there were points of resemblance between themselves and him they hung there in all with the wind and rain driving in upon them facing only the of all those houses never getting any nearer to the blazing fires that gleamed and shone upon the windows or came puffing out of the chimney tops and incapable of in any of the good things that were constantly being handed through the street doors and the area to prodigious faces came and went at many windows sometimes pretty faces youthful faces pleasant faces sometimes the reverse but knew no more though he often on these trifles standing idle in the streets whence they came or where they went or whether when the lips moved one kind word was said of him in the year than did the themselves was not a that he knew of at least and i don t mean to say that when he began to take to the bells and to knit the first quarter up his first rough acquaintance with them into something of a closer and more delicate he passed through these one hy one or held any formal review or great field day in his thoughts but what i mean to say and do say is that as the functions of s body his organs for example did of their own cunning and by a great many operations of which he was ignorant and the knowledge of would have astonished him very much arrive at a certain end so his mental faculties without his or set all these wheels and springs in motion with a thousand others when they worked to bring about liking for the bells and though i had said his love i would not have recalled the word though it would scarcely have expressed his complicated feeling for being but a simple man he invested them with a strange and solemn character they were so mysterious often heard land never seen so high up so far off so of such a deep strong melody that he regarded them with a species of awe and sometimes when he looked up at the dark arched windows in the tower h half expected to be beckoned to by something which was not a bell and yet was what he heard so often sounding in the for all this with indignation a certain flying that the were haunted as the possibility of their being connected with any evil thing in short they were very often in his ears and very often in his thoughts but in his good opinion and he very often got such a in his neck by staring with his mouth wide open al the where they hung that he was to take an extra trot or two afterwards to cure it the very thing he was in the act of doing one cold day when the last drowsy sound of twelve o clock just struck was humming like a melodious monster of a bee and not by any means a busy bee all through the the dinner time eh said trotting up and down before the church ah s nose was very red and his eyelids were very red and he winked very much and his shoulders were very near ears and his legs were very stiff and altogether he was evidently a long way upon the frosty side of dinner time eh repeated using his right hand like an glove and his for being cold ah h h h he took a silent trot after that for a minute or two there s nothing said breaking forth afresh but here he stopped short in his trot and with a face of great interest and some alarm felt his nose carefully all the way up it but a little way not being much of a nose and he had soon finished i thought it was gone said trotting off again it s all right however i am sure i could n t blame it if it was lo go it has a precious hard service of it in the bitter weather and precious little to look forward to for i do n t take snuff myself it s a good deal tired poor at the of times for when it does get hold of a pleasant or so which an t too often it s generally from somebody else s dinner a coming home from the baker s the reflection reminded him of that other reflection which he had left unfinished there s nothing said more regular in its coming round than dinner time and nothing less regular in its coming round than dinner that s the great difference between em it s took me a long time to find it out i wonder whether it would be worth any gentleman s while now to buy that for the papers or the parliament was only joking for he gravely shook his head in the quarter why lord v said the papers is full of as it is and so s the parliament here s last week s paper now taking a very dirty one fix m his pocket and holding it him at arm s length full of full of i like to know the news as well as any man aid folding it a little smaller and putting it in his pocket again but it almost goes against the grain with me to read a paper now it me almost i do n t know what we poor people are coming to send we may be
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to m thing better in the new year nigh upon us why father father f said a pleasant voice hard by but not hearing it continued to trot backwards and forwards as he went and talking to himself it seems as if we can t go right or do right be said had n t much myself when i was young and j can t make out whether we have any business on the face of the earth or not sometimes i think we must have a little and sometimes i think we must be i get so puzzled sometimes that i am not even able to make up my mind whether there is any good at all in us or whether we are bom bad we seem to do dreadful things we seem to give a deal of trouble we are always being complained of and guarded against one way or another we fill the papers talk of a i new year said mournfully i can bear up as well as another man at most times better than a good many fi r i am as strong as a lion all men an t but supposing it should really be that we have no right to a new year we really are why father father said the pleasant voice again heard it this time started stopped and his sight which had been directed a long way off as seeking for in the very heart of the approaching year found the himself to face with his own child looking close into her eyes bright eyes they were eyes that would hear a world of looking in before their depth was dark eyes that reflected back the eyes which searched them not or at the owner s will but with a clear calm honest patient claiming kindred with that light which heaven called into being eyes that were beautiful and true and beaming with hope with hope so young and fresh with hope so vigorous and bright despite the twenty years of work and poverty on which they had looked that they became a voice to and said i think we have some business here a little v kissed the lips belonging to the eyes and squeezed the blooming face between his why pet said what s to do i didn t expect you to day neither did i expect to come father cried the nodding her head and smiling as she spoke but here i am and not alone not alone why you don t mean to say observed looking at a covered basket which she carried in her hand that you smell it father dear said only smell it was going to lift up the cover at once in a great hurry when she gaily interposed her hand no no no said with the glee of a child it out a little let me just lift up the corner just the lit ti ny ner you know said the action to the word with the utmost gentleness and speaking very softly as if she were afraid of being overheard by something inside the basket there now what s that took the shortest possible at the edge of tha basket and cried out in a rapture first quarter why it s hot it s hot cried ha ha ha it s hot ha ha ha roared with a sort of kick its hot but what is it said come you haven t guessed what it is and you must guess what it is i can t think of taking it out till you guess what it is don t be in such a hurry wait a minute a little bit more of the cover now guess was in a perfect fright lest he should guess right too soon shrinking away as she held the basket towards him curling up her pretty shoulders stopping her ear with her hand as if by so doing she could keep the right word out of s lips and laughing softly the whole time meanwhile putting a hand on each knee bent down his nose to the basket and took a long inspiration at the lid the grin upon his withered face in the process as if he were laughing gas ah it s very nice said it an t i suppose it an t no no no cried delighted nothing like no said after taking another it s it s than jt s very nice it every moment it s too decided for an t it was in an ecstasy he could not have gone wider of the mark than except liver said with himself no there s a about it that don t answer to liver no it ap t faint enough for it wants the of s heads and i know it an t i ll toll you what it is it s the no it an t cried in a burst of delight no it an t why what am i a thinking of said suddenly recovering a position as near the perpendicular as it was possible for him to assume i shall forget my own name next t s it was and in high joy protested he should say in half a minute more it was the best ever and so said herself with the basket i ll lay the cloth at once father for i have brought the in a basin and tied the basin up in a pocket handkerchief and if i like to be proud for once and spread that for a cloth and call it a cloth there is no law to prevent me is there father not that i know of my dear said but they re always a bringing up some new law or other and according to what i was reading you in the paper the other day father what the judge said you know
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we people are supposed to know them all ha ha what a mistake my goodness me how clever they think us yes my dear cried and they d be very fond of any one of us that did know em all he d grow fat upon the work he d get that man and be popular with the in his neighborhood very much so hem eat his dinner with an appetite whoever he was if it smelt like this said cheerfully make haste for there s a hot besides and half a pint f fresh drawn beer in a bottle where will you dine father on the post or on the steps dear dear how grand we are two places to choose from the steps to day my pet said steps in post in wet there s greater in the steps at all times because of the sitting down but they re in the damp then here said clapping her hands after a moment s the first quarter here it is all y and beautiful it looks come father come since his discovery of the contents of the basket had been standing looking at her and had been speaking in an abstracted manner which showed that though she was the object of bis thoughts and eyes to the even of he neither saw nor thought about her as she was at that moment but had before him some imaginary rough sketch or drama of her future life roused now by her cheerful summons he off a shake of the head which was just coming upon him and to her side as he was stooping to sit down the rang amen said pulling off his hat and looking up towards them amen to the bells father v cried they broke in like a grace my dear said taking his seat they d say a good one i am sure if they could many s the kind thing they say to me the bells do father laughed as she set the basin and a knife and fork before him well seem to ray pet said falling to with great vigor and where s the difference if i hear em what does it matter whether they speak it or not why bless you my dear said pointing at the tower with his fork and becoming more animated under the influence of dinner how often have i heard them bells say keep a good heart keep a good heart a million times more well i never i cried she had though over and over again for it was s constant topic when things is very bad said very bad indeed i mean almost at the worst then it is h the job coming soon job coming soon that way and it comes at last father said with a touch of sadness in her pleasant voice always answered the unconscious never fails while this discourse was holding made no pause in his attack upon the meat before him but cut and ate and out and and cut and and about from to hot and from hot back again to with an and relish but happening now to look all round the street in case anybody should be from any door or window for a porter his eyes in coming back again encountered sitting opposite to him with her arms folded and only busy in watching his progress with a smile of happiness why lord forgive n e said dropping hia knife and fork my dove why didn t you tell me what a beast i was father sitting here said in penitent explanation and and myself and you before me there never so much as breaking your precious fast nor wanting to when but i have broken it father interposed his daughter laughing all to bits i have had my dinner nonsense said two dinners in one day it an t possible you might as well tell me that two new year s days will come together or that i have had a gold head all my life and never changed it i have had dinner father for all that said coming nearer to him and if you will go on with yours i ll tell you how and where and how your dinner came to be brought and and something else besides still appeared incredulous but she looked into his face the first quarter with her clear eyes and laying her hand upon his shoulder him to go on while the meat was hot so took up his knife and fork again and went to work but much more slowly than and shaking his head as if he were not at all pleased with himself i had my dinner father said after a little hesitation with with his dinner time was early and as he brought his dinner with him when ie came to see me we we had it together father a little beer and his lips then he said oh because she waited and richard says father resumed then stopped what does ard say asked richard says another richard s a long time saying it said he says then father continued lifting up her at last and speaking in a tremble but quite plainly another year is nearly gone and wh re is the use of waiting on from year to year when it is so unlikely we shall ever be better off than we are now he says we are poor now father and we shall be poor then but we are young now and years will make lis old before we know it ite says that if we wait people in our condition until we see our way quite clearly the way will be a narrow one indeed the common the grave father a bolder man than must needs have drawn upon his boldness largely to
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deny it held his peace a nd how hard father to grow old and die and think we have cheered and helped each other how hard in all our lives to love each other and to grieve apart to see each other working changing growing old and grey even if i got the better of it and forgot him which i never could oh father dear how hard to have a heart so full as mine is now and live to have is slowly drained out every drop without the recollection the s of one happy moment of a woman s life to stay behind and me and make me better sat quite still dried her eyes and said more gaily that is to say with here a laugh and there a sob and hero a laugh and sob together so richard says father as his work w as yesterday made certain for some time to come and as i love him and have loved him full three years ah than that if he knew it will i m him on new year s day the best and happiest day he says in the whole year and one that is almost sure te bring good fortune with it it s a short notice isn t it but i haven t my fortune to be settled or my wedding dresses to be made like the great ladies father have l and he said so much and said it in his way so strong and earnest and all the time so kind and gentle that i said i d come and talk to you and as they paid the money for that work of mine this morning unexpectedly i am sure and as you have very poorly for a whole week and as i couldn t help wishing there should be something to make this day a sort of holiday to you as well as a dear and happy day to me father i made a little treat and brought it to surprise you and see how he leaves it on the step said another voice it was the voice of this same richard who had come upon them unobserved and stood before the father and daughter looking down upon them with a face as glowing as the iron on which his stout hammer daily rang a handsome well made powerful he was with eyes that sparkled like the red hot from a furnace fire black hair that curled about his temples rarely and a smile a smile that bore out s on his style of conversation see how he leaves it on the step said richard don t know what he likes not she the first quarter all action and enthusiasm immediately reached up his to richard and was going to address liim in a great hurry if when the house opened without any and a footman very nearly put his foot in the out of be here will you you must always go and he a on our step must you you can t go and give a turn to none of the never can t you will you clear ihe road or won t you strictly speaking the last question was as they had already done it what s the matter what s the matter said the gentleman for whom the door was opened coming out of the house at that of heavy pace that peculiar compromise between a walk and a trot with which a gentleman upon the smooth down hill of life wearing creaking boots a watch chain and clean linen may come out of his house not only any of his dignity but with an expression of having and wealthy engagements elsewhere what s the matter what the matter you re always a being begged and prayed upon your knees you are footman with great emphasis to to let our door steps be why don t you let em be can t you let em be there that ll do that ll do said the gentleman there porter with his head to here what s that your dinner yes sir said leaving him in a comer don t leave it there exclaimed the gentleman bring it here bring it here so this is your dinner is it yes sir repeated looking with a fixed eye and a watery mouth at the piece of he had reserved for a last delicious bit which the gentleman was now turning over and on the end of the fork two other gentlemen had come out with him on was a the low spirited gentleman of middle age of a meagre habit and a face who kept his hands continually in the of his scanty and salt trousers very large and dog s from that custom and was not particularly well brushed or washed the other a full sized sleek well man in a blue coat with bright buttons and a white this gentleman had a very red face as if an undue of the blood in his body was squeezed up into his head which perhaps accounted for his having also the appearance of being rather cold about the heart he who had s meat upon the fork called to the one by the name of and they both drew near together mr being exceedingly short sighted was obliged to go so close to the remnant of s dinner before he could make out what it was that s heart leaped up into his mouth but mr didn t eat it this is a description of animal food said making little in it with a pencil case commonly known to the laboring population of this country by the name of the laughed and winked for he was a merry fellow oh and a sly fellow too a knowing fellow up to everything not to be imposed upon deep in the
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people s hearts he knew them did i believe you but who eats said mr looking round is without an exception the least economical and the article of tion that the of this country can by possibility produce the loss upon a pound of has been found to be in the boiling seven of a fifth more than the loss upon a pound of any other animal substance whatever is more expensive properly understood than the hot house pine apple taking into account the number of animals yearly within the bills of alone and forming a the first low estimate of the quantity of which the of those animals reasonably well would yield i find that the waste on that amount of if boiled would a garrison of five hundred men for five months of thirty one days each and a february over the waste the waste stood aghast and his legs shook under him he seemed to have starved a garrison of five hundred men with his own hand who said mr warmly who eats made a miserable bow you do do you said mr then til tell you something you snatch your my friend out of the mouths of and i hope not sir said faintly sooner die of want divide the amount of before mentioned said mr by the estimated number of existing and and the result will be one of to each not a grain is left for that man consequently he s a robber was so shocked that it gave him no concern to see the finish the himself it was a relief to get rid of it anyhow and what do you say asked the of the red faced gentleman in the blue coat you have heard friend what do say what s it possible to say returned the gentleman what w to be said who can take any interest in a fellow like this meaning in such times as these look at him what an object the good old times the grand old times the great old times were the times for a bold and all that sort of thing those were the for the sort of thing in fact there s nothing now a days ah sighed the red faced gentleman the good old times the good old times the gentleman didn t what particular times he alluded to nor did he say whether he objected to the present times from a disinterested consciousness that they had done nothing very remarkable in producing himself the good old times the good old times repeated the gentleman what times they were they were the only times it s of no use talking about any other times or discussing what the people are in these times you don t call these times do you i don t look into s and see what a porter used to be in any of the good old english he hadn t in his very best circumstances a shirt to his back or a to his foot and there was scarcely a vegetable in all england for him to put into his mouth said mr i can prove it by tables but still the red faced gentleman the good old times the grand old times the great old times no matter what anybody else said he still went turning round and round in one set form of words concerning them as a poor turns and turns in its revolving cage touching the and trick of which it has probably quite as distinct as ever this red faced gentleman had of his deceased it is possible that poor old s faith in these very vague old times was not entirely destroyed for he felt vague enough at that moment one thing however was plain to him in the midst of his distress to wit that however these gentlemen might differ in details his of that morning and of many other mornings were well founded no no we can t go right or do right bought in despair there is no good in us we are born bad but had a father s heart within him which had some the first quarter how got into his breast in spite of this decree and he could not bear that in the blush of her brief joy should have her fortune read by these wise gentlemen god help her thought poor she will know it soon enough he anxiously signed therefore to the young smith to take her away but he was so busy talking to her at a little distance that he only became conscious of this desire simultaneously now the had not yet had bis say but he was a philosopher practical though oh very practical and as he had no idea of losing any portion of his audience he cried stop v now you know said the addressing his two friends with a self complacent smile upon his face which was habitual to him i am a plain man and a practical man and i go to work in a plain practical way that s my way there is not the least mystery or difficulty in dealing with this sort of people if you only understand em and can talk to em in their own manner now vou porter don t you ever tell me or anybody else my friend tl at you haven t always enough to eat and of the best because i know better i have tasted your you know and you can t me you understand what means eh that s the right word isn t it ha ha ha lord bless you said the turning to his friends again it s the easiest thing on earth to deal with this sort of people if you only understand em famous man for the common people out of temper with them easy joking knowing gentleman you see my friend pursued the there s
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deal of nonsense talked about want hard up you know that s the phrase isn t it ha ha ha and i intend to put it down there s a certain amount of cant in about and i mean to put it down that s all lord the you said the turning to his friends again you may put down anything among this sort of people if you only know the way to set about it v took s hand and drew it through his arm he didn t seem to know what he was doing though your daughter eh said the her familiarly under the chin always with the working knew what pleased them not a bit of pride where s her mother asked that worthy gentleman dead said her mother got up linen and wai called to heaven when she was bom not to get up linen i suppose remarked the pleasantly might or might not have been able to separate his in heaven from her old pursuits but if mrs had gone to heaven would mr pictured her as holding any state or station there and you re making love to her are you said to the young smith yes returned richard quickly for he was by the question and we are going to be married on new year s day what do you mean cried sharply married why we re thinking of it master said richard we re rather in a hurry you see in case it should be put down first ah cried with a groan put down indeed and you ll do something married married the ignorance of the first principles of political economy on the part of these people their their wickedness is by heavens enough to now look at that couple will you well they were worth looking at and marriage as reasonable and fair a deed as they need have in the first quarter a man may live to be as old as said mr and may labor all his life for tbe benefit of such people as those and may heap up facts on figures facts on figures facts on figures mountains high and dry he can no more hope to persuade em that they have no right or business to be married than he can hope to persuade em that they have no earthly right or business to be born and that we know they haven t w reduced it to a certainty long ago was already diverted and laid his right forefinger on the side of his nose as much as to say to both his friends observe me will you keep your eye on the practical man and called to him come here my girl said the young blood of her lover had been mounting within the last few minutes and he was to let her but setting a upon himself he came forward with a stride as approached and stood beside her kept her hand within his arm still but looked from face to face as wildly as a in a dream now i m going to give you a word or two of good advice my girl said the in his nice easy way it s my place to give advice you know because i m a justice you know i m a justice don t you timidly said yes but everybody knew was a justice oh dear so active a justice always who such a of brightness in the public eye as you are going to be married you say pursued the very and in one of your sex but never mind that after you are married you ll quarrel with your husband and come to be a distressed wife you may think not but you will because i tell you so now i give you fair warning that i have made up my mind to put distressed wives down so don t be brought before me you ll have children the boys those boys will grow up bad of course and run wild in the streets without shoes and stockings mind my young friend i ll em every one for i am determined to put boys without shoes and stockings down perhaps your husband will die young most likely and leave you with a baby then you be turned out of doors and wander up and down the streets now don t wander near me my dear for i am resolved to put all wandering mothers down all young mothers of ail sorts and kinds it s my determination to put down don t think to plead illness as an excuse with me or babies as an excuse with me for all sick persons and young children i hope know the church service but i m afraid not i am determined to put down and if you attempt desperately and and and attempt to drown or hang yourself i ll have no pity on you for i have made up to put all suicide down if there is one thing said the with his self satisfied smile on which i can be said to have made up my mind more than on another it is to put suicide down so don t try it on that s the i isn t it ha ha now we understand each other knew not whether to be or glad to see that had turned a deadly white and dropped her lover s hand as for you you dull dog said the turning with even increased cheerfulness and to the young smith what are you thinking of being married for what do you want to be married for you silly fellow if i was a fine young chap like you i should be ashamed of being enough to pin myself to a woman s apron strings why she ii be an old woman before you re a middle aged man and a
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pretty figure you cut then with a wife and a crowd of children crying after you wherever you go oh he knew how to the common people the first quarter there along with you said the and repent don t make such a fool of yourself as to get married on new year s day you think very differently of it long before next new year s day a trim young fellow like you with all the girls looking after you there go with you they went along not arm in arm or hand in hand or bright glances but she in tears he gloomy and were these the hearts that had so lately made old s leap up from its no no the a blessing on bis head i had put them down as you happen to be here said the to you carry a letter for me can you be quick you re an old man who had been looking after quite made shift to murmur out that he was very quick and very strong how old are you inquired the i m over sixty sir said oh this man s a great deal past the average age you know cried mr breaking in as if his patience bear some trying but this really was carrying matters a little too far i feel i m sir said i i it this morning oh dear me the cut him short by giving him the letter from his pocket would have got a shilling too but mr clearly showing that in that case he would rob a certain given number of persons of a piece he only got and thought himself very well off to get that then the gave an arm to each of his friends and walked off in high feather but immediately came hurrying back alone as if he had forgotten something porter said the sir said the take care of that daughter of yours she s much too handsome even her good looks are stolen from somebody or other i thought looking at the sixpence in his hand and thinking of the she s been and robbed five hundred ladies of a bloom apiece i it s very dreadful she s much too handsome my man repeated the the chances are that she come to no good i clearly tee observe what i say take care of her with which he off again wrong every way wrong every way said his hands born bad no business here the came in upon him as he said the words full loud and sounding but with no encouragement no not a drop the tune s changed cried the old man as he listened there s not a word of all that fancy in it why should there be i have no business with the new year nor with the old one neither let me die still the bells forth their changes made the very air spin put em down put em down old times good old times facts and figures facts and figures put em down put em down if they said anything they said this till the brain of he pressed his bewildered head between his hands as if to keep it from asunder a well timed action as it happened for finding the letter in one of them and being by that means reminded of his charge he fell mechanically into his usual trot and trotted off the second quarter the second w w w l letter had received from was to a great man in the great district of the town the district of the town it must have been the greatest of the town because it was commonly called the world i its inhabitants the letter positively seemed heavier in s hand than letter not because the had sealed it with a large coat of arms and no end of wax but because of the name on the and the ponderous amount of gold and silver with which it was associated how from us thought in all simplicity od earnestness he looked at the direction divide the in the bills of by the number of gentle able to buy em and whose share does he take but his as to from anybody s mouth he d scorn with the involuntary homage due to such an exalted character interposed a comer of his apron between the letter and fingers his children said and a mist rose before his eyes his daughters gentlemen may win heir hearts and marry they may be happy wives and mothers they may be like my darling m e he t finish her name the final letter swelled in his the size of the whole the never mind thought i know what mean that s more than enough for me and with this trotted on it was a hard frost that day the air was crisp and clear the wintry sun though powerless for warmth looked brightly down upon the ice it was too weak to melt and set a radiant glory there at other times might have learned a poor man s lesson from the wintry sun but he was past that now the year was old that day the patient year had lived through the reproaches and of its and performed its work spring summer autumn winter it had labored through the destined round and now laid down its weary head to die shut out from hope high impulse active happiness itself but messenger of many joys to others it made appeal in its decline to have its toiling days and patient hours remembered and to die in peace might have read a poor man s in the fading year but he was past that now and only he or has the like appeal been ever made by seventy years at once upon an english s head and made in
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vain the streets were full of motion and the shops were out gaily the new year like an infant heir to the whole world was waited for with and there were books and toys for the new year glittering for the new year dresses for the new year schemes of fortune for the new year new inventions to it its life was out in and pocket books the coming of its and stars and tides was known beforehand to the moment all the workings of its seasons in their days and nights were calculated with as much precision as mr could work sums in men and women the new year the new year everywhere the new year the second quarter the old year was already looked upon as dead and its were selling cheap like some drowned s aboard ship its patterns were last year and going at a sacrifice before its breath was gone its treasures were mere dirt beside the riches of its successor had no portion to his thinking in the new year or the old put em down put em down facts and figures facts and figures good old times good old times put em down put em down his trot went to that measure and would fit itself to nothing else but even that one melancholy as it was brought him in due time to the of his journey to the mansion of sir joseph member of parliament i he door was opened by a porter such a porter not of s order quite another thing his place was the ticket though not s this porter some hard panting before he could speak having breathed himself by coming out of his chair without first taking time to think about it and compose his mind when he had found his voice which it took him some time to do for it was a long way and hidden under a load of meat he said in a fat whisper who s it from told you re to take it in yourself said the porter pointing to a at the end of a long passage opening from the hall everything goes straight in on this day of the year you re not a bit too soon for the carriage is at the door now and they have only come to town for a couple of hours a purpose wiped his feet which were quite dry already with great care and took the way pointed out to him observing as he went that it was an awfully grand house but hushed and covered up the as if the family were in the country knocking at the room door he was told to enter from within and doing so found himself in a spacious library where at a table strewn with and papers were a stately lady in a bonnet and not a very stately gentleman in black who wrote from her while another and an older and a much gentleman whose hat and cane were on the table walked up and down with one hand in his breast and looked complacently from time to time at his own picture a full length a very full length hanging over the place what is this v said the last named mr fish will you have the goodness to attend mr fish begged pardon and taking the letter from handed it with great respect from sir joseph is this all have you nothing else porter inquired sir joseph replied in the negative you have no bill or demand upon me my name is sir joseph of any kind from anybody have you said sir joseph if you have present it there is a by the side of mr fish i allow nothing to be carried into the new year every description of account is settled in this house at the close of the old one so that if death was to to to cut suggested mr fish to sir retorted sir joseph with great ths cord of existence my affairs would be found i hope in a of preparation my dear sir joseph said the lady who was greatly younger than the gentleman how shocking my lady returned sir joseph now and then as in the great depth of his observations at this season of the year we should think of ourselves we should look the second quarter x into our our accounts we should feel that every return of so a period in human transactions matters of deep moment between a man and his and his banker sir joseph delivered these words as if he felt the full morality of what he was saying and desired that even should have an opportunity of being improved by such discourse he had this end before him in still to break the of the letter and in telling to wait where he was a minute you were desiring fish to say my lady observed sir joseph mr fish has said that i believe returned his lady glancing at the letter but upon my word sir joseph i don t think i can let it go after all it is so very dear what is dear inquired sir that charity my love they only allow two for a of five pounds really monstrous my lady returned sir joseph you surprise me is the luxury of feeling in proportion to the number of or is it to a rightly constituted mind in proportion to the number ot and the wholesome state of mind to which their them is there no excitement of the purest kind in having two to dispose of among fifty people not to me i acknowledge returned the lady it me besides one can t oblige one s acquaintance but you are the poor man s friend you know sir joseph you think otherwise i am the man s friend observed
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sir joseph glancing at the poor man present as such i may be as such i have been but i ask no other title bless him for a noble gentleman thought i don t agree with here for instance said sir joseph holding out the letter i don t agree with the party i the don t agree with any party my friend the poor man has no business with anything of that sort and nothing of that sort has any business with him my friend the poor man in my district is my business no man or body of men has any right to interfere between my friend and me that is the ground i take i assume a a paternal character towards my friend i say my good fellow will treat you listened with great gravity and began to feel more comfortable your only business my good fellow pursued sir joseph looking at your only business in life is with me you needn t trouble yourself to think about anything i will think for you i know what is good for you i am your perpetual parent such is the of an all wise providence now the design of your creation is not that you should and and associate your with food thought of the but that you should feel the dignity of labor go forth erect into the cheerful morning air and and stop there live hard and be respectful exercise your self denial bring up your family on next to nothing pay your rent as regularly as the clock strikes be punctual in your dealings i set you a good example you will find mr fish my confidential secretary with a before him at all times and you may trust me to be your friend and father nice children indeed sir joseph said the lady with a shudder and and crooked legs and and all kinds of horrors my lady returned sir joseph with solemnity not the less am i the poor man s friend and father not the less shall he receive encouragement at my hands every quarter day he will be put in communication with mr fish every new year s day myself and friends will drink his health once every year the second quarter myself and friends will address him with the deepest feeling once in his life he may even perhaps receive in public in the presence of the gentry a trifle from a friend and when no more by these and the dignity of labor he sinks into his comfortable grave then my lady here sir joseph blew his nose i will be a friend and father on the same terms to his children was greatly moved oh you have a thankful family sir joseph cried his wife my lady said sir joseph quite ingratitude is known to be the sin of that class i expect no other return ah bom bad thought nothing us what man can do i do pursued sir joseph i do my duty as the poor man s friend and father i and i endeavor to his mind by on all occasions the one great moral lesson which that class requires that is entire dependence on myself they have no business whatever with with themselves if wicked and persons tell them otherwise and they become impatient and discontented and are guilty of conduct and black hearted ingratitude which is undoubtedly the case i am their friend and father still it is so ordained it is in tiie nature of things with that great sentiment he opened the s letter and read it very polite and attentive i am sure exclaimed sir joseph my lady the is so obliging as to remind me that he has had the distinguished honor he is very of meeting me at the house of our mutual friend the banker and he does me the favor to inquire whether it will be agreeable to me to have will put down mo t agreeable replied my lady the worst man among them he has been committing a robbery i hope s the why no said sir joseph referring to the letter not quite very near not quite he came up to london if seems to look for employment ng himself that s his and being found at night asleep in a shed was taken into and carried next morning before the the very properly th t he is determined to put this sort of thing down and that if it will be agreeable to me to have will put down he will be happy to begin with let him be made an example of by all means returned the lady last winter when i introduced and among the men and boys in the village as a nice evening and had the lines oh let us love our occupations bless the squire and his relations live upon our daily and always know our proper stations set to music on the new system for them to sing the while this very i see him now touched that hat of his and said i humbly ask your pardon my lady but i something different from a great girl i expected it of course who can expect anything but insolence and ingratitude from that class of people that is not to the purpose however sir joseph make an example of him hem sir joseph mr fish if you ll have the goodness to attend mr fish immediately seized his pen and wrote from sir joseph s private my dear sir i am very much indebted to you for your courtesy in the matter of the man william of whom i regret to add i can say nothing able i have uniformly myself in the light of his fr end and father but hare the second quarter been repaid
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a common case i grieve to say with ingratitude and constant opposition to my plans he is a turbulent and rebellious spirit his character will not bear investigation nothing will persuade him to be happy when he might under these circumstances it appears to me i own that when he comes be re you again as you inform me he promised to do to morrow your inquiries and i think he may be so far relied upon his for some short time as a vagabond would be a service to society and would be a example in a country where for the sake of those who are through good and evil report the friends and fathers of the poor as well as with a view to that generally speaking class themselves examples are greatly needed and i am and so forth it appears remarked sir joseph when he had signed this letter and mr fish was it as if this were ordained really at the close of the year i wind up my account and strike my balance even with william who had long ago and was very low spirited stepped forward with a face to take the i with my compliments and thanks said sir joseph stop stop echoed mr fish you have heard perhaps said sir joseph certain remarks into which i have be en led respecting the solemn period of time at which we have arrived and the duty imposed upon us of settling our affairs and being prepared you have observed that i don t shelter myself behind my superior standing in society but that mr fish that gentleman has a book at his elbow and is in fact here to enable me to turn over a perfectly new leaf an i enter on the epoch before us with a clean account now my friend can you lay your hand upon your heart and say that you also have made preparation for a new year the am afraid sir stammered looking meekly at him that am a a little behind hand with the world behind hand with the world repeated sir joseph in a tone of terrible distinctness i am afraid sir faltered that there s a matter of ten or twelve shillings owing to mrs to mrs repeated sir joseph in the same tone as before a shop sir exclaimed in the general line also a a little money on account of rent a very little sir it t to be owing i know but we have been hard put to it indeed sir joseph looked at his lady and at mr fish and at one after another twice all round he then made a gesture with both hands at once as if he gave the thing up altogether how a man even among this and race an old man a man grown grey can look a new year in the face with his affairs in this condition how he can lie down on his bed at night and get up again in the morning and there he said turning his back on take the letter take the letter i heartily wish it was otherwise sir said anxious to excuse himself we have been tried very hard sir joseph still repeating take the letter take the letter and mr fish not only saying the same thing but giving additional force to the request by the bearer to the door he had nothing for it but to make his bow and leave the house and in the street poor pulled his worn old hat down on his head to hide the grief he felt at getting no hold on the new year anywhere he didn t even lift his hat to look up at the bell tower when ne came to the old church on his return he hailed there a the second quarter moment from habit and knew that it was growing dark and that the rose above him indistinct and faint in the air he knew too that the would ring immediately and that they sounded to his fancy at such a time like voices in the clouds but he only made the more haste to deliver the s letter and get out of the way before they began r he dreaded to hear them friends and fathers friends and fathers to the burden they had rung out last discharged himself of his commission therefore with all possible speed and set off trotting homeward but what with his pace which was at best an awkward one in the street and what his hat which didn t improve it he trotted against somebody in less than no time and was sent staggering out into the load i beg your pardon i am sure i said pulling up his hat in great confusion and between the hat and the torn fixing his head into a kind of bee hive i hope i haven t hurt you as to anybody was not such an absolute but that he was much more likely to be hurt himself and indeed he had flown out into the road like a he had such an opinion of his own strength however that he was in real concern for the other party and said again hope i haven t hurt you the man against whom he had run a sun looking man with hair and a rough chin stared at him for a moment j as if he suspected him to be in jest but satisfied of his good faith he answered no friend you have not hurt me nor the child i hope said nor the child returned the man f i thank you kindly as he said so he glanced at a little girl he carried in his arms the asleep and her face with the long end of die poor handkerchief he wore about his throat went
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thought so t other night when we were taken like two thieves but they they shouldn t try the little face too often should they that s hardly fair upon a man the second quarter he sunk his voice so low and gazed upon her with an air so stem and strange that to divert the current of his thoughts inquired if his wife were living i never had one he returned shaking his head she s my brother s child an orphan nine year old though you d hardly think it but she s tired and worn out now they d have taken care on her the union eight and twenty mile away from where we live between four walls as they took care of my old father when t work no more though he didn t trouble em long but i took her instead and she s lived with me ever since her mother had a friend once in london here we are trying to find her and to find work too but it s a large place never mind more room for us to walk about in meeting the child s eyes with a smile which melted more than tears he shook him by the hand i don t so much as know your name he said but i ve opened my heart free to you for i am thankful to you with good reason i ll take your advice and keep clear of this justice suggested ah he said if that s the name they give him this justice and to morrow we ll try whether there s better to be met with near london night a happy new year stay cried catching at his hand as he relaxed his grip stay the new year never can be happy to me if we part like this the new year never can be happy to me if i see the child and you go wandering away you don t know where without a shelter for your heads come home with me i m a poor man living in a poor place but i can give you lodging for one night and never miss it come home with me here i ll take her cried lifting up the child a pretty one i d carry twenty times her weight and never know i d got it tm me if i go too quick for you i m very i always the i said this taking about six of his trotting paces to one stride of his fatigued companion and his thin legs quivering again beneath the load he bore she s as light said trotting in his speech as well as in his gait for he couldn t bear to be thanked and dreaded a pause as light as a feather lighter than a s feather a great deal lighter here we are and here we go round this first turning to the right uncle will and past the pump and sharp off up the passage to the left right opposite the public house here we are and here we go cross oyer uncle will and mind the at the corner here we are and here we go down the here uncle and stop at the black door with t ticket porter wrote upon a board and here we are and here we go and here we are indeed my precious surprising you with which words in a breathless state set the child down before his daughter in the middle of the floor the little visitor looked once at and doubting nothing in that face but trusting everything she saw there ran into her arms here we are and here we go cried running round the room and choking audibly here uncle will here s a fire you know why don t you come to the fire oh here we are and here we go my precious darling where s the kettle here it is and here it goes and i ll it in no time really had picked up the kettle somewhere or other in the course of his wild career and now put it on the fire while the child in a warm corner knelt down on the ground before her and pulled off her shoes and dried her wet feet on a cloth aye and she laughed at so pleasantly so cheerfully that could have blessed her where she for he had seen that when they entered she was sitting by the fire in tears why father said you re crazy to night i think the nd quarter know what the bells would say to poor little feet how cold they are oh they re warmer exclaimed the child they re quite warm now no no no said we haven t rubbed em half enough we re so busy so busy and when they re done we ll brush out the damp hair and when that s done we ll bring some color to the poor pale face with fresh water and when that s done we ll be so gay and brisk and happy the child in a burst of sobbing clasped her round the neck her fair cheek with its hand and said oh oh dear i s blessing could have done no more who could do more why father cried after a pause here i am and here i go my dear said good gracious me cried he s crazy he s put the dear child s bonnet on the kettle and hung the lid behind the door i didn t go to do it my love said hastily mistake my dear looked towards him and saw that he had stationed himself behind the chair of their male visitor where with many mysterious gestures he was holding up the sixpence he had earned i see my dear said as i was coming in half an of tea lying
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true all ive heard to day too just too full of proof we re bad the took up the words so suddenly burst out so loud and clear and that the bells seemed to strike him in his chair and what was that they said the second quarter waiting for you waiting for you come and see us come and ee drag him to us drag him to us haunt and hunt him and hunt him break his break his door open wide door open wide then fiercely back to their impetuous strain again and ringing in the very bricks and plaster on the walls listened fancy fancy his remorse for having run away from them that i no no nothing of the kind again again and yet a again haunt and hunt haunt and hunt him drag him to us drag him to us the whole town said softly tapping at the door do you bear anything i hear the bells father surely they re very loud to night is she asleep said making an excuse for peeping in so peacefully and happily i can t leave her yet though look how she holds my i whispered listen to the bells she listened with her face towards him all the time but it no change she didn t understand them withdrew resumed his seat by the fire and once more listened by himself he remained here a little time it was impossible to bear it their energy was dreadful if the tower door is really open said hastily laying side his apron but never thinking of his hat what s to hinder from going up into the and satisfying myself if it s ut i don t want any other satisfaction that s enough he was pretty certain as he slipped out quietly into the street t he should find it shut and locked he knew the door well had so rarely seen it open that he couldn t reckon above three in all it was a low arched outside the church in lark behind a column and had such great iron hinges the and such a monstrous lock that there was more and lock than door but what was his astonishment when coming to the church and putting his hand into this dark nook with a certain that it might be unexpectedly seized and a shivering to draw it back again he that the door which opened actually stood he thought on the first surprise of going back or of getting a light or a companion but his courage aided him immediately and he determined to ascend alone what have i to fear said it s a church the may be there and have forgotten to shut the door so he went in feeling his way as he went like a blind man for it was very dark and very quiet for the were silent the dust from the street had blown into the recess and lying there heaped up made it so soil and velvet like to the foot that there was something startling even in that the narrow was so close to the door too that he stumbled at the very first and shutting the door upon himself by striking it with his foot and causing it to back heavily he couldn t open it again this was another reason however for going on his way and went on up up up and round and round and up up up higher higher higher up it was a disagreeable staircase for that groping work so low and narrow that his groping hand was always touching some thing and it felt so like a man or ghostly figure standing up erect and making room for him to pass without discovery that he would rub the smooth wall upward searching for its face and downward searching for its feet while a chill crept all over him twice or thrice a door or broke the monotonous surface and then it seemed a gap as wide as the whole church the second quarter and be felt on the brink of an abyss and going to tumble headlong down until he found the wall again still up up up and round and round and up up up higher higher higher up at length the dull and stifling atmosphere began to presently jo feel quite windy presently it blew so strong that he hardly keep his legs but he got to an arched window in the tower breast high and holding tight looked down upon the on the smoking chimneys on the and of lights towards the place where was wondering where he was and calling to him perhaps all up together in a of mist and darkness this was the where the came he had caught ho d of one of the ropes which hung down through in the roof at first lie started thinking it was hair then trembled at the very thought of waking the deep bell the bells themselves were higher higher in his fascination or in working out the spell upon him his way by now and for it was steep and not too certain holding for the feet up up up and climb and up up up higher ii her higher up until ascending through the floor and pausing with his head j bt raised above its beams he came among the bells it was i ly possible to make out their great shapes in the gloom but re they were shadowy and dark and dumb a heavy sense of dread and loneliness fell instantly upon him he climbed into this airy nest of stone and metal his head ht round and round he listened and then raised a wild t was mournfully protracted by the echoes confused and out of breath and frightened looked t him and sunk down in a ao the third quarter t t black
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are the brooding clouds and troubled the deep waters when the sea of thought first heaving from a calm gives up its dead monsters uncouth and wild arise in premature imperfect the several parts and shapes of different things are joined and mixed by chance and when and how and by what wonderful degrees each from each and every sense and object of the mind its usual form and lives again no though every man is every day the of this type of the great can tell so when and how the darkness of the night black changed to shining light when and how the tower was peopled with a figures when and how the haunt and hunt him breathing through his sleep or became a voice exclaiming in the waking ears of break his when and how he ceased to have a and confused idea that such things were a host of others that were not there are no dates or means to tell but awake and standing on his feet upon the boards where he had lately lain he saw this sight he saw the tower whither his charmed footsteps had brought him with dwarf spirits creatures of the bells he saw them leaping flying dropping pouring from the bells without a pause he saw them round him on the above him in the air from him by the the third quarter below looking down upon him from the massive iron beams peeping in upon him through the and in the walls spreading away and away from him in circles as the water give place to a huge stone that suddenly comes in among them he saw them of all aspects and all shapes he saw them ugly handsome crippled formed he saw them young he saw them old he saw them kind he saw them cruel he saw them merry he saw them grim he saw them dance and heard them sing he saw them tear their hair and heard them howl he saw the air thick with them he saw them come and go incessantly he saw them riding downward soaring upward sailing off afar near at hand all restless and all violently active stone and brick and date and tile became transparent to him as to them he saw them in the houses busy at the beds he saw them soothing people in their dreams he saw them beating them with knotted he saw them yelling in their ears he saw them playing music on their pillows he saw them cheering with the songs of birds and the perfume of flowers he saw them flashing awful faces on the troubled rest of others from enchanted which they carried in their hands he saw these creatures not only among sleeping men but waking also active in pursuits with one another and possessing or assuming natures the most opposite he saw one on innumerable wings to increase his speed another himself with chains and to his he saw me putting the hands of forward some putting the hands of backward some to stop the entirely saw them representing here a marriage ceremony there a in this chamber an election and in that a ball every restless and motion bewildered by the host of and figures well as by the uproar of the bells which all this while were the ringing clung to a wooden pillar for support and turned his white face here and there in mute and stunned astonishment as he gazed the stopped change the whole swarm fainted their forms their speed deserted them they sought to fly hut in the act of falling died and melted into air no fresh supply succeeded them one leaped down pretty from the surface of the great bell and alighted on his feet but he was dead and gone before he could turn round some few of the late company who had in the tower remained there spinning over and over a little longer but these became at every turn more faint and few and feeble and soon went the way of the rest the last of all was one small who had got into an echoing comer where he and and floated by himself a long time showing such perseverance that at last he to a leg and even to a foot before he retired but he vanished in the end and then the tower was silent then and not before did see in every bell a bearded figure of the bulk and stature of the bell a figure and the bell itself gigantic grave and darkly watchful of bim as he stood rooted to the ground mysterious and awful figures resting on nothing poised in the night air of the tower with their draped and heads in the dim roof motionless and shadowy shadowy and dark although he saw them by some light belonging to themselves none was there each with his muffled hand upon its mouth he could not plunge down wildly through the opening in the floor for all power of motion had deserted him otherwise he would have done aye would have thrown himself head foremost from the top rather than have seen them watching the third quarter ss him with eyes that would have and watched although the pupils had taken out again again the dread and terror of the lonely place and of the wild and fearful night that reigned there touched him like a hand his distance from all help the long dark winding ghost way that lay between him and th earth ob which men lived his being high high high up there where it had made him dizzy to see the birds fly in the day cut off au good people who at such an hour were safe at home and in their be all this struck coldly through him not as a reflection but a bodily sensation meantime his eyes and thoughts
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and fears were fixed upon the watchful figures which unlike any figures of this world by the deep gloom and and them as well by their looks and and supernatural hovering above the floor were less as plainly to be seen as were the frames pieces bars and beams set up there to support the bells these hemmed them in a very forest of timber from the and depths of which as from among the boughs of a dead wood r their phantom use they kept their and watch a blast of air how cold and shrill came moaning through the tower as it died away the great bell or the of the great bell spoke what visitor is this it said the voice was low and de and fancied that it sounded in the other figures as well i thought my name was called by the said raising his hands in an attitude of i hardly know why i am here or how i came i have listened to the these many years they have cheered me often and you have thanked them said the bell a thousand times the r how n i am a poor man faltered and could only them in words and always so inquired the of the bell have you never done ua wrong in words v no cried eagerly never done us foul and false and wicked wrong in words f pursued tlie of the bell was to answer never but he stepped and was confused the voice of time said the phantom cries to man advance time is for his advancement and improvement for his greater worth his greater happiness his better life his progress onward to that goal within its knowledge and its view and set there in the period when time and he began ages of darkness wickedness and violence have come and gone millions have su red lived and died to point the way before him who seeks to turn him back or stay him on his course a mighty engine which will strike the dead and be the and the ever for its momentary check i never did so to my knowledge sir said it was quite by accident if i did wouldn t go to do it i m sure who puts into the mouth of time or of its servants said the of the bell a cry of for days which have had their trial and their failure and have left deep traces of it which the blind may see a cry that only serves the present time by showing men how much it needs their help when any ears can listen to regrets for such a past who does this does a wrong and you have done that wrong to us the s first excess of fear was gone but he had felt tenderly and gratefully towards the bells as you have seen and when the third quarter fi heard as one who had offended them so his heart was touched with and grief if you knew said clasping his hands earnestly or perhaps you do know if you knew how you have kept md company how often you have cheered me up when been low how you were quite the of my little daughter almost the only one she ever had when her mother died and she and were left alone you won t bear for a hasty word who hears in us the one note disregard r stem regard of any hope or joy or or sorrow of the many throng who hears us make response to any creed that human passions and affections as it the of miserable food on which humanity may pine and does us wrong that wrong you have done us v said the bell i have said oh forgive me v who hears us echo the dull of the earth the down of crushed and broken natures formed to be raised up higher than such of the time can crawl or can conceive pursued the of the bell who does so does us wrong and you have done us wrong i not meaning it said in my ignorance not meaning it v lastly and most of all pursued the bell who turns his back upon the fallen and of his kind them as vile and does not trace and track with pitying eyes the un precipice by which they fell from grasping in their fall some and of that lost soil and clinging to them still when bruised and dying in the gulf below does wrong to heaven and man to time and to eternity and you have done that wrong the spare me cried falling on his knees for s sake said the shadow listen v cried the other shadows listen said a dear and like voice which thought he recognized as having heard the si n sounded faintly in the church below swelling by degrees the melody ascended to the roof and filled the choir and more and more it rose lip up up up higher higher higher up awakening agitated within the piles of oak the hollow bells the iron bound doors the stairs of solid st ie until the tower walls were insufficient to contain it and it into the sky no wonder that an old man s breast could not contain a sound so vast and mighty it broke from that weak prison in a rush of tears and put his hands before his face listen said the shadow listen said the other shadows listen said the child s voice a solemn strain of blended voices rose into the tower it was a very low and mournful strain a and as he listened heard his child among the singers she is dead exclaimed the old man is dead her spirit calls to me i hear it
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was full of visitors the red faced gentleman was there mr was there the great was there had a sympathetic feeling with great people and had considerably improved his acquaintance with joseph on the strength of his attentive letter indeed had become quite a friend of the family since then and many guests were there s ghost was there wandering about poor phantom and looking for its guide there was to be a great dinner in the great hall at which sir joseph in his celebrated character of friend and father of the poor was to make his great speech certain were to be eaten by his friends and children in another hall first and at a given signal friends and children in among their friends and fathers were to form a family assemblage with not one manly eye therein by emotion but there was more than this to happen even more than this sir joseph and member of parliament was to play a match at real with his tenants which quite reminds one said of the days of old king stout king bluff king ah i fine character very said mr for marrying women and em considerably more than the average number of wives by the bye you marry the beautiful ladies and not murder em eh v to the heir of aged twelve sweet the third we shall have this little gentleman in parliament n said the holding him by the shoulders and ng as as he could before we know where we are we shall hear of his at the his speeches in the house his from his brilliant achievements of all kinds ah we shall make our little about him in the common council i ll be bound before we time to look about us oh the difference of shoes and stockings thought but bis heart towards the child for the love of those same and boys by the to turn out bad who might have been the children of poor m richard moaned among the company to and fro where is he i can find richard where is richard not likely to be there if still alive but s grief and solitude confused him and he still went wandering among the gallant company looking for his guide and saying where is richard show me richard he was wandering thus when he encountered mr fish the confidential secretary in great agitation bless my heart and soul cried mr fish where s c ite has anybody seen the v seen the oh dear who could ever help seeing the he was so considerate so he bore sc much in mind the natural desire of folks to see him that if h had a fault it was the being constantly on view and the great people were there to be sure attracted by the sympathy between great souls was several voices that he was in the circle round sir mr fish made way there him and took seen the into a window near at hand joined them not oi his own he felt that his were led in that dear said mr fish a little more this way the most dreadful has i have this moment received the intelligence i think it will be best not to sir joseph with it till the day is over tou understand sir joseph and will give me your the most frightful and deplorable event fish returned the my good fellow what is the matter nothing i i attempted interference with the v the banker gasped the secretary x brothers who was to have been here to day high in c ice in the company not stopped exclaimed the can t be p shot himself good god put a double pistol to his mouth in his own counting house said mr fish and blew his brains out no motive circumstances circumstances the a man of noble fortune one of the most respectable of men mr fish by his own hand this very morning returned mr fish oh the brain the brain exclaimed the pious up his hands oh the nerves the nerves the mysteries of this machine called man oh the little that it poor creatures that we are perhaps a dinner mr f perhaps the conduct of his son who i have heard ran very wild and was in the habit of drawing bills upon him without the least authority a most respectable man one of the most respectable men i ever knew a lamentable instance mr fish a public calamity i shall make a point of wearing the deepest the third os a most respectable man but there is one above we most submit mr fish we must submit what no word of putting down remember justice your high moral boast and pride come balance those scales throw me into this the empty one no and nature s in some poor woman dried by misery and rendered to claims for which her has authority in holy mother eve weigh me the two you daniel going to judgment when your day shall come weigh them in the eyes of suffering thousands audience not of the grim farce you play or supposing that you strayed from your five it s not so far to go but that it might hand laid hands upon that t of yours warning your fellows if you have a fellow how they their comfortable wickedness to heads and stricken hearts what then the words rose up in s breast as if they had been spoken by some other voice within him pledged himself to mr fish that he would assist him in ing the melancholy catastrophe to sir joseph when the day was over then before they parted wringing mr fish s hand in bitterness of soul he said the most ble of men and added that he hardly knew not even he why such were allowed on earth
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it s almost enough to make one think if one didn t know better said that at times some motion of a nature was going on in things which affected the general economy of the social fabric brothers the playing came off with immense success sir joseph knocked the pins about quite master took an at a shorter distance also and everybody said that dow when a and the son of a played at the country was coming round again as fast as it could come at its proper the banquet was served up the repaired to the hall with the rest for he felt conducted thither hy some stronger impulse than his own free will the sight was gay in the extreme the ladies were handsome the visitors delighted and good tempered when the lower doors were opened and the people in in their rustic dresses the of the spectacle was at its height but only murmured more and more where is richard he should help and comfort her i can t see richard there had been some speeches made and lady s health had been proposed and sir joseph had returned thanks and had made his great speech showing by pieces of evidence that he was the bom friend and father and so forth and had given as a toast his friends and children and the dignity of labor when a slight disturbance at the bottom of the hall attracted s notice after some confusion noise and opposition one man broke through the rest and stood forward by himself not richard no but one whom he had thought of and had looked for many times in a supply of light he might have doubted the identity of that worn man so old and grey and bent but with blaze of lam upon his and knotted head he knew will as soon as he stepped forth what is this exclaimed sir joseph rising who gave this man this is a criminal from prison mr fish sir will you have the goodness a minute said will a minute my lady you was born on this day along with a new year get me a minute s leave to speak she made some for him a id sir joseph took his seat again with native dignity the ragged visitor for he was miserably dressed looked round upon the company and made hb homage to them with an humble bow the third quarter eh you ve drunk the look at me just from jail said mr fish just come from jail said will and neither for the first time nor the second nor the third nor yet the fourth mr was heard to remark that four was over the average and he ought to be ashamed of himself repeated will look at me you i m at the worst beyond all hurt or harm beyond help for the time when your kind words or kind actions could have done me good he struck his hand upon his breast and shook his head is gone with the scent of last year s beans or on the air let me say a word for these pointing to the laboring people in the hall and when you re met tc hear the real truth spoke out for once there not a man here said the host who would have him for a like enough sir joseph i believe it not the less true perhaps is what i say perhaps that s a proof on it i ve lived many a year in this place you may see the cottage from the fence over i ve seen the ladies draw it in their books a hundred times it looks well in a i ve say but there an t weather and maybe tis for that than for a place to live in well i lived there how hard how bitter hard i lived i won t say any day in the year and every day you can judge for your own selves he spoke as he had spoken on the night when had found him in the street his voice was deeper and more and had a trembling in it now and then but he never raised it and seldom lifted it above the firm stem level of the homely facts he stated tis harder than you think for to de j in a that up a and a says something for me as i was then as i am there s can be said me or done me i m past it i am glad this man has entered observed sir joseph look don t disturb him it appears to be ae is an example a example i hope and trust and confidently expect that it will not be lost upon my friends m i dragged on after a moment s silence how neither me nor any other man knows how but so heavy that i couldn t put a cheerful face upon it or make believe that i was anything but what i was now gentlemen you that sits at when you see a man with writ on his you say to one another he s suspicious i has my doubts says you about will watch that fellow i don t say it ain t quite but i say tis so and from that hour whatever will does or lets alone all one it goes against him stuck his in his waistcoat pockets and leaning back io his chair smiling winked at a neighboring as much as to say of course i told you so the common cry lord bless you we are up to all this sort of thing myself and human nature now gentlemen said will holding out his hands and flushing for an instant in his haggard face see how your laws are made to trap and hunt
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us when we re brought to this i tries to live elsewhere and i m a vagabond to jail with him i comes back here i goes a in your woods and breaks who don t a branch or two to jail with him one of your sees me in the broad day near my own patch of garden with a gun to jail with him i has a angry word with that man when i m free again to jail the third quarter i iii i i i m i m i b m with him i cuts a stick to jail with him i eats a rotten apple or a to jail with him it s twenty mile away and hack i a trifle on the road to jail with him at last the the finds anywhere doing anything to jail with him he s a and a jail bird known and jail s the only home be s got the nodded as who should say a very good home too do i say this to serve my cause cried who can give me back my liberty who can give me back my good name who can give me back my innocent niece not all the lords and ladies in wide england but gentlemen gentlemen dealing with other men like me begin at the right end give us in mercy better homes we re a lying in our give us better food when we re working our lives give us kinder to bring us back when we re a going wrong and don t set jail jail jail afore us everywhere we turn there an t a you can show the then that he won t take as ready and as grateful as a man can be for he has a patient peaceful willing heart but you must put his in him first for whether he s a wreck d ruin such as me or is like one of them that stand here now his spirit is divided from you at this time bring it back bring it back bring it back afore the day comes when even his bible changes in his altered mind and the words seem to him to read as they have sometimes read in my own eyes in jail whither thou i can not go where thou i do not lodge thy people are not my people nor thy god my a sudden stir and agitation took place in the hall thought at first that several had risen to the man and hence this change in its appearance but another moment showed him that the room and all the company had vanished from his sight and that hia daughter was again him seated t her work s the but in a poorer garret than before and with no by her side the frame at which she had worked was put away a shelf and covered up the chair in which she had sat was turned against the wall a history was written in these things and in s grief worn face oh who could to read it strained her eyes upon her work until it was too dark to see the threads and when the night closed in she lighted her feeble candle and worked on still her old father was about her looking down upon her loving her how dearly loving her t and talking to her in a tender voice about the old times and the bells though he knew poor though he knew she could not hear him a great part of the evening had worn away when a came at her door she opened it a man was on the threshold a moody drunken wasted by and vice and with his hair and beard in wild disorder but with some traces on him too of having been a man of good proportion and good features in his youth he stopped until he had her leave to enter and she retiring a pace or two from the open door silently and sorrowfully looked upon him had his wish he saw richard may i come in margaret yes come in come in it was well that knew him before he spoke for with any doubt remaining on his mind the harsh voice would have persuaded him that it was not richard but some other man there were but two chairs in the room she gave him hers and stood at some short distance from him waiting to hear what he had to say he sat however staring at the floor with a lustre he third quarter and smile a spectacle of such deep degradation of such abject of such a miserable that she her hands before her lace and turned away lest he should see how much it moved her roused by the rustling of her dress or some such trifling he lifted his head and began to speak as if there had been no pause he entered till at work mai yoa work late i generally do and early i and early so she said she said you never tired or never owned that you tired not all the time you lived together not even when fainted between work and but i told you that the time i came you did she answered and i implored you to me nothing more and you made me a solemn richard you never would a solemn promise he repeated with a laugh and stare a solemn promise to be sure a solemn promise as it were after a time in the same manner as before he said with sudden animation how can i help it margaret what am i to do
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i she has been to me again again cried clasping her hands oh does she think of me so often has she been again twenty times again said richard margaret she haunts me she comes behind me in the street and it in my i hear her foot upon the ashes when i m at my work ha ha that an t often and before i can turn my head her voice is in my ear saying richard t look round for heaven s love give her this she brings it where i live she sends it in the s he at the window and lays it on the what am i dot look at it he held out in his hand a little purse and the it enclosed hide it said hide it when she comes again td her richard that i love her in my soul that i never lie to sleep but i bless her and pray for her that in my work i never cease to have her in my thoughts that she ii with me night and day that if i died to morrow i would remember her with my last breath but that i cannot look upon it he slowly recalled his hand and crushing the purse together said with a kind of drowsy i told her so i told her so as plain as wc ds could speak i ve taken this back and left it at her door a dozen since then but when she came at last and stood before me face to face what could i do you saw her exclaimed you saw her oh my sweet girl oh i saw her he went on to say not answering but engaged in the same slow pursuit of his own thoughts there she stood trembling how does she look richard does she ever speak of me is she thinner my old place at the table what s in my old place and the frame she taught me our old work on has she burnt it richard there she was i heard her say it checked her sobs and with the tears streaming from her eyes bent over him to listen not to lose a breath with his arms resting on his knees and stooping forward in his chair as if what he said were written on the ground in some half character which it was his occupation to connect he went on richard i have fallen very low and you may guess the third quarter i have suffered in this sent bade when i can bear to bring it in my hand to you but you her once even in my memory dearly others stepped in between you fears and and doubts and you from her but did love her even in my memory i suppose i did he said himself fer a moment that s neither here nor there oh richard if you ever did if you have any memory for is gone and lost take it to her once more once more tell her how i begged and prayed tell her how i laid my head upon where her own head might have lain and was so humble to you richard tell her that you looked into my face and saw the beauty which she used to praise all gone all gone and in its place a poor wan hollow cheek that she would weep to see tell her everything and take it back and she will not again she will not have the heart v so he sat musing and repeating the last words until he woke again and rose you won t take it she shook her head and an entreaty to him to leave her good night margaret good night he turned to look upon her struck by her sorrow and perhaps by the pity for himself which trembled in her voice it was a quick and rapid action and for the moment some flash of his old bearing kindled in his form in the next he went as he had come nor did this glimmer of a fire seem to light him to a quicker sense of his in any mood in any grief in any torture of the mind or body s work must be done she sat down to her task and plied h night midnight still she worked i she had a meagre fire the night being very cold and a to mend it the h twelve the she was thus engaged and when they ceased heard a gentle knocking at the door before she could so much as wonder was there at that unusual hour it opened oh and beauty happy as ye should be look at i oh youth and beauty and blessing all within your and working out the ends of your beneficent creator look this she saw the entering figure screamed its name it was swift and fell upon its knees before her her dress up up my own dearest never more never more here here close to you holding to you feeling your dear breath upon my face sweet darling child of my heart no mother s love can be more tender lay your head upon my breast never more never more when i first looked into your face you knelt before me on my knees before you let me die let it be here you have come back my treasure we will live together work together hope together die together ah kiss my lips fold your arms about me press me to your bosom look kindly on me but don t raise me let it be here let me see the last of your dear face upon my knees oh youth and beauty happy as ye should be look at this oh youth and beauty working out the ends of your beneficent creator look at this forgive me so dear
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good actions after which he rubbed his fat legs as before and them at the to get the fire upon the yet parts laughed as if had him you re in spirits my dear observed his wife the firm was late no said no not particular i m a little the came so pat with that he chuckled until he was black in the and hid ao much to become any other color that his fat legs took the strangest excursions into the air nor were they reduced to like decorum until mrs had him on the back and shaken him as if he were a great good goodness lord a mercy bless and save the sum i cried mrs in great terror what s he doing mr wiped his eyes and repeated that he found a then don t be so again that s a dear good soul said mrs if you don t want to frighten me to death with struggling and fighting mr said he wouldn t but his whole existence was a fight in which if any judgment might be founded on the constantly increasing of his breath and the deepening purple of his face he was always getting the worst of it so it s blowing and and threatening snow and is dark and very cold is it my dear said mr looking mt the fire and to the cream and of his the hard weather indeed returned his shaking b aye aye years said mr are like in that respect some of em die hard some of em die this one hasn t many days to run and is making a fight for h i like him ah the better there s a customer my lore attentive to the rattling door mrs had already now then said that lady passing out into the little what s wanted oh i beg your pardon sir i m sure didn t think it was vou she made this apology to a gentleman in black who with tucked up and his hat cocked on one side and his hands in his pockets sat down on the beer barrel and nodded in return this is a bad business up stairs mrs said the gentleman the man can t live not the back can t cried coming out into the shop to join the conference the back mr said the gentleman is coming down stairs fast and will be below the very soon looking by turns at and his wife he sounded the barrel with his for the depth of beer and having found it played a tune upon the empty part the back mr said the gentleman having stood in silent consternation for some time is going then said turning to his wife he must go you know before he s gone i don t think you can move him said the gentleman shaking his head i wouldn t take the responsibility of saying it could be done myself you had better leave him where he is he can t live long it s the only subject said bringing the butter the fourth quarter to wn npon the counter with a crash by weighing his fist on it that we ve ever had a word upon she and me and lock what it comes to he s going to die here after all to die upon the premises going to die in our house and where should he have died cried his wife la the he returned what are made for not for that said mrs with great energy not neither did i marry you for that don t think it i won t have it i won t allow it i d be separated first and see your face again when my widow s name stood over that door as it did for many years this house being known as s far and wide and never known but to its credit and its good report when my widow s name stood that door i knew him as a handsome steady manly independent youth i knew her as the sweetest looking girl eyes ever saw i knew her father poor old he fell down from the walking in his sleep and killed himself for the simplest hardest working hearted man that ever drew the breath of life and when i turn them out of house end home may angels turn me out of heaven as they would and serve me right her old which had been a plump and one before the changes which had come to pass seemed to shine out of her ee she said these words and when she dried her eyes and shook her head and her handkerchief at with an expression of firmness which it was quite clear was not to be easily resisted said bless her bless her then he listened with a panting heart for what should follow knowing nothing yet but that they spoke of if had been a little elevated in the parlor he more than that account by being not a little depressed in the where he now stood staring at his wife without attempting the a reply secretly however either in a fit of tion or as a measure all the money from the till into his own pockets as he looked at her the gentleman upon the table beer who appeared to be some medical attendant upon the poor was too well accustomed evidently to little of opinion between man and wife to any remark in this instance he softly whistling and turning little drops of beer out of this tap upon the ground until was a perfect calm when he his head and said to mrs late there s something interesting about the woman even how did she come to marry him why that said mrs taking a seat near him s not the least cruel
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part of her story sir you see they kept company she and richard many years ago when they were a young and beautiful couple ever was settled and they were to have been married on a new year s day but somehow richard got it into his head through what the gentlemen told him that he might do better and that he d soon repent it and that she wasn t good enough for him and that a young man of spirit had no business to be married and the gentlemen frightened her and made her melancholy and timid of his her and of her children coming to the gallows and of its being wicked to be man and wife and a good deal more of it and in short they lingered and lingered and their trust in one another was broken and so at last was the match but the fault was his she would have married him sir joyfully i ve seen her heart swell many times afterwards when he passed her in a proud and careless way and never did a woman grieve truly for a man than she for richard when he first went wrong oh he went wrong did he said the gentleman pulling out the vent of the table beer and trying to peep down into the barrel through the hole the fourth quarter u w well sir i know that he rightly understood himself you i think his mind was troubled by their having broke with another and that but for being ashamed before the gentlemen ind perhaps for being uncertain too how she might take it he d gone through any suffering or trial to have had s and s hand again that s my belief he never said ao mere s the pity he took to bad all the fine resources that were to be so much better for him than the home he might have had he lost his looks his his health his strength his friends his work every thing hi didn t lose everything mrs returned the because he gained a wife and i want to know how he gained her i m coming to it sir in a moment this went on for years and years he sinking lower and lower she poor miseries enough to wear her life away at last he was ao cast down and cast out that no one would employ or notice him and doors were shut upon him go where he would applying from place to place and door to door and coming for the time to one gentleman who had and tried him he was a good workman to the very end that gentleman knew his history said i believe you are there is only one person in the world who has a chance of you ask me to trust you no more until she tries to do it something like that in his anger and vexation ah said the gentleman well well sir he went to her and to her said it was ao said it ever been and made a prayer to her to save and she don t distress yourself mrs she came to me that night to ask me about living what he was once to me she said is buried with the grave the side by side what i was to him but i have thought of this and i will make the trial in the hope of saving him for the love of the light hearted girl you remember her who was to have been married on a new year s day and the love of her richard and she said he had to her from and had trusted to him and she never forget that so they were and when they came home here and i saw them i hoped that such as parted them when they were young may not fulfil themselves at they did in this case or i wouldn t be the of them a mine of gold the gentleman got off the and stretched himself observing i suppose he used her ill as soon as they were married i don t think he ever did that said mrs shaking her head and wiping her eyes he went on better for a short time but his habits were too old and strong to be got rid of he soon fell back a little and was falling fast back when his illness came so strong upon him i think he has always felt fi r her i am sure he has i ve seen him in his crying fits and try to kiss her hand and i ve heard him call her and say it was her nineteenth birthday there he has been lying now these weeks and months between him and her baby she has not been able to do her old work and by not being able to be regular she has lost it even if she could have done it how they have lived i hardly know i know muttered mr looking at the till and round the shop and at his wife and rolling his head with immense intelligence like fighting he was interrupted by a cry a sound of the upper story of the house the gentleman moved hurriedly to the door my friend he said looking back you needn t the fourth quarter whether he shall be removed or not he has spared you that trouble i believe saying so he ran up stairs followed by mrs while mr panted and grumbled after them at leisure being more than commonly short by the weight of the in which there had been an inconvenient quantity of copper with the child beside him floated up the staircase like mere air follow her follow her follow her he heard th ghostly voices in the bells repeat their words as he ascended learn
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it from the creature dearest to your heart it was over it was over and this was she her father s pride and joy this haggard wretched woman weeping by the bed if it deserved that name and pressing to her breast and down her head upon an infant who can tell how spare how sickly and how poor an infant who can tell how dear thank cried holding up his folded hands oh god be thanked she loves her child the gentleman not otherwise hard hearted or indifferent to scenes than that he saw them every day and knew that they were figures of no moment in the sums mere in the working of those calculations laid his hand upon the heart that beat no more and listened for the breath and said his pain is over it s better as it is mrs tried to comfort her with kindness mr tried philosophy come come he said with his hands in his pockets you t give way you know that won t do you must fight up what would have become of me if i had given way i was a porter and we had as many as six carriage at our door in one night but i fell back upon m of mind and didn t open it again heard the saying follow her hi the turned towards his guide and saw it rising from him passing through the air follow her it said and vanished he hovered round her sat down at her feet looked up into her face for one trace of her old self listened for one note of her old pleasant voice he flitted round the child so wan so old so dreadful in its gravity so plaintive in its feeble mournful miserable wail he almost worshipped it he clung to it her only as the last unbroken link that bound her to endurance he set his father s hope and trust on the frail baby watched her every look upon it as she held it in her arms and cried a thousand times she loves it god be thanked she loves it he saw the woman tend her in the night return to her when her husband was asleep and all was still encourage her shed tears with her set nourishment before her he saw the day come and the night again the day the night the time go by the house of death relieved of death the i to herself and to the child he heard it moan and cry be saw it lt her and tire her out and when she in exhaustion drag her back to consciousness and hold her with its little hands upon the rack but she was constant to it gentle with ic patient with it patient was its loving mother in her inmost heart and soul and had its being up with hers ai she carried it all this time she was in want away in di am want with the baby in her arms she wandered and there in quest of occupation and with its thin face ii her lap and looking up in hers did any work for any sum a day and night of labor for as many as then were figures on the dial if she had quarrelled with it if sh had neglected it if she had looked upon it with a moment s h te if in the frenzy of an instant she had struck it no lu comfort was she loved it always the quarter told no one of her and wandered abroad in the day lest she should be questioned by her only friend for any help she received from her hands occasioned fresh between the good and her husband and it was ne be the daily cause of strife and discord where she owed much she loved it still she loved it more and but a change ml on aspect of her love one night she was singing faintly to it in its sleep and walking to and to hush it when her door was softly opened and a man looked in for the last time he said william for the last time he listened like a man pursued and spoke in whispers margaret my race is nearly run i couldn t finish it without a parting word with you without one grateful word what have you done she asked regarding him with he looked at her but gave no answer after a short silence he made a gesture with his hand as if he set her question by as if he brushed it aside and said it s long ago margaret now but that night is as fresh in my memory as ever twas we little thought then he added looking round that we should ever meet like this your child margaret let me have it in my arms let me hold child he put his hat upon the floor and took it and he trembled as he took it from head to foot is it a yes he put his hand its little face see how weak vm margaret want the the age to look at it t her be a moment i t hurt her it a long ago but what s her name margaret she quickly i m glad of that he said i m glad of that he seemed to breathe more freely and after pausing fi r an instant took away his hand and looked upon the in nt s but covered it again immediately margaret he said and gave her back the child it s s s i held the same face in my arms when s died and left her when s mother died and left her she repeated wildly how shrill you speak why do you fix your eyes oa me so margaret she sunk down in a chair and
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pressed the infant to her and wept over it sometimes she released it from her embrace to look anxiously in its face then strained it to her bosom again at those times when she gazed upon it then it was that thing fierce and terrible began to mingle with her love then i fc it was that her old father follow her was sounded through the house learn it u from the creature nearest to your heart margaret said bending over her and kissing he upon the brow i thank you for the last time good night bye put your hand in mine and tell me you ll forget m c ie from this hour and try to think the end of me was here what have you done she asked again there ll be a fire to night he said from he there ll be fires this winter time to light the dark nights north and south when you see the distant sky re they ll be blazing when vou see the distant sky red think c the f x quarter s me no more or if you do remember what a hell was lighted up inside of me and think you see its flames reflected in the clouds good night good bye she called to him but he was gone she sat down until her infant roused her to a sense of hunger cold and she pf the room with it the night it and soothing it she said at intervals like when her mother died and left her why was her step so quick her eye wild her love so fierce and terrible whenever she repeated those words but it is love said it is love she ll never cease to love it my poor she dressed the child next morning with unusual care ah vain expenditure of care upon such robes and once more tried to find some means of life it was the last day of the old year she till night and never broke her fast she tried in vain she mingled with an abject crowd who in the snow until it pleased some officer appointed to dispense the public charity the lawful charity not that once preached upon a mount to call them in and question them and say to this one go to such a place to that one come next week to make of another wretch and pass him here and there from band to hand from house to house until he wearied and lay down to die or started up and robbed and so became a higher sort of criminal whose claims allowed of o delay here too he failed she loved her child and wished to have it lying on her breast and that was quite enough it was night a bleak dark cutting night when pressing the child close to her for warmth she arrived outside ae house she called her home she was so faint and giddy that she saw no one standing in the doorway until she was dose upon it and about to enter then she recognized the master of the house who had the so disposed with his person it was not as id fill up the whole entry oh he said softly you have come back she looked at the child and shook head don t you think you have lived here long enough without paying any rent don t you think that without any money you ve been a pretty constant customer at this shop said mr she repeated the same mute appeal suppose you try and deal somewhere else he said and suppose you provide yourself with another lodging don t you think you could manage it she said in a low voice that it was very late to morrow now i see what you want said and what mean you know there are two parties in this house about you and you delight in setting em by the ears i don t want any quarrels i m speaking softly to avoid a quarrel but if you don t go away i ll speak out loud and you shall cause words high enough to please you but you shan t come in that i am determined she put her hair back with her band and looked in a sudden manner at the sky and the dark lowering distance this is the last night of an old year and i won t carry ill blood and and into a new one to please you nor anybody else said who was quite a friend and father i wonder you an t ashamed of yourself to carry such into a new year if you haven t any business in the world but to be always giving way and always making between man and wife you d better be out of it go along with you follow her to desperation again the old man heard the voices looking up he saw the the figures hovering in the air and pointing where she went down the dark street she loves it he exclaimed in entreaty for her she loves it still follow her the shadows swept upon tl e track had taken like a cloud he joined in the pursuit he kept dose to her he looked into her he saw the same fierce and terrible expression mingling with her love and in her eyes he heard her say like to be changed like and her speed oh for something to awaken her for any sight or sound or scent to call up tender recollections in a brain on fire for any gentle image of the past to rise before her i was her father i was her father cried the old man stretching out his hands to the dark shadows on above have mercy on her and on me where does she go turn her
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back i was her father bat they only pointed to her as she hurried on and said to desperation learn it from the creature dearest to your heart a hundred voices echoed it the air was made of breath expended in those words he seemed to take them in at every gasp he drew they were everywhere and not to be escaped and still she hurried on the same light in her eyes the same words in her mouth like to be changed like all at once she stopped now turn her back exclaimed the old man tearing his white hair my child turn her back great father turn her back in her own scanty shawl she wrapped the baby warm with her hands she smoothed its limbs composed its face its mean attire in her wasted arms she folded it as od the she never would resign it more and with her dry lip kissed it in a final pang and last long agony of love putting its tiny hand up to her and holding it there within her dress next to her distracted heart she set its sleeping face against her closely steadily against her and sped on ward to the river to the rolling river and dim where winter night sat brooding like the last dark thoughts of many who had sought a refuge there before her where scattered lights upon the banks gleamed sullen red and dull as that were burning there to show the way to death where no abode of living people cast its shadow on the deep impenetrable melancholy shade to the river to that of eternity her desperate fix tended with the swiftness of its rapid waters running to the sea he tried to touch her as she passed him going down to its dark level but the wild form the fierce and si ble love the desperation that had left all human check or bold e behind swept by him like the wind he followed her she paused a moment on the brink the dreadful plunge he fell down on his knees and in a addressed the figures in the bells now hovering above them i have learnt it cried the old man from the creature k dearest to my heart oh save her save her he could wind his finger in her dress could hold it as th r he words escaped his lips he felt his sense of touch return and that he detained her the figures looked down upon him i have learnt it cried the old man oh have mercy om in this hour if in my love for her so young and good nature in the breasts of mothers rendered desperate pity my presumption wickedness and ignorance and save her he felt his hold they were silent still have mercy on her he exclaimed as one in w f the fourth quarter crime has sprung from love from the deepest love we fallen creatures know think what her misery must have been when such seed bears such fruit heaven meant her to be good there is no loving mother on the earth who might not come to this if such a life had gone before oh have mercy on my child who even a t this pass means mercy to h r own and dies herself and perils her soul she was in his arms he held her now his strength was like a giant s i see the spirit of the among you cried the old man out the child and speaking in some inspiration which their looks conveyed to him i know that our inheritance is in store for us by time i know there is a sea of time to one day before which all who wrong us or us will be away like leaves i see it on the low i know that we trust and hope and neither doubt ourselves nor doubt the good in one another i have learnt it from the creature dearest id my heart i clasp her in my arms again oh spirits merciful and good i take your lesson to my breast along with her oh spirits merciful and good i am grateful p he might have said more but the bells the old familiar bells hm own dear constant steady friends the began to ring the joy for a new year so so m so happily so gaily that he upon his feet and broke the spell that bound him and whatever you do father said don t eat without some doctor whether it s likely to agree with you br how you have been going on good gracious she was working with her needle at the little table by the fire her e gown with ribbons her wedding so h so and full of promise that he uttered a great cry as if it were an angel in his then flew to clasp her in his arms but he caught his feet in the newspaper which had on the hearth and somebody came rushing in between them no v cried the voice of this same somebody a generous and jolly voice it was not even you not even you the first kiss of in the new year is mine mine i have been waiting outside the house this hour to hear the bells and claim it my precious prize a happy year a life of happy years my darling wife and richard smothered her with kisses you never in all your life saw anything like after this i don t care where you have lived or what you have seen you never in your life saw anything at all approaching him he sat down in his chair and beat his knees and cried he sat down in his chair and beat his knees and laughed he sat down in his chair and beat his knees and laughed and cried
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and the actors in them but a dream a dream the of this tale a waking but now if it be so oh listener dear to him in all his visions try to bear in mind the stem realities from which these shadows come and in your none is too wide and none too limited for such an endeavor to correct improve and soften them so may the new year be a happy one to you happy to many more whose happiness depends on you so may each year be happier than the last and not the meanest of our brethren or their share in what our great creator formed them to enjoy the on the hearth ix s rs of the on the hearth the first kettle began it don t tell me what said i know better mrs may leave it on to the of time that she couldn say of them began it but i say the kettle did i ought to know i hope i the kettle began it fall five minutes by the little dutch clock in the before the uttered a as if the clock hadn t finished striking and the little at the top of it away right and left a in front of a hadn t down half an acre of imaginary grass before the joined in at all why i am not naturally positive every one knows that i wouldn t set my own mrs unless i were quite sure on any account whatever nothing should induce me but this is a question of ct and the is that the kettle began it at least five minutes before the gave any sign of being in existence contradict me and i ll say ten let me exactly how it happened i should have proceeded to do so in my very first word but fi r this plain consideration if i am to tell a story i must begin at the and how is it possible to begin at the without at the kettle f the it appeared as if there were a sort of match or trial of skill you must understand between the kettle and the and this is what led to it and how it came about mrs going out into the raw twilight and over the wet stones in a pair of that worked innumerable rough of the first proposition in all the yard mrs filled the kettle at the water butt presently returning less the and a good deal less for they were tall and mrs was but short she set the on the fire in doing which he lost her temper or it for an instant for the water being cold and in that sort of state wherein it seems to through every kind of substance had laid hold of mrs s toes and even her le and when we rather ourselves with reason too upon our legs and keep ourselves particularly neat in point of we find this for the moment hard to bear besides the kettle was and obstinate it wouldn t allow itself to be adjusted on the top bar it wouldn t hear of itself kindly to the of coal it would lean forward with a drunken air and a very idiot of a kettle on the hearth it was and and at the fire to sum up all the lid resisting mrs s fingers first of all turned and then with an ingenious deserving of a better cause side way in down to the very bottom of the kettle and the of the royal george has never made half of the monstrous resistance to coming out of the water which the lid of the kettle employed against mrs before she got it up again it looked sullen and pig headed enough even then carrying its handle with an air of defiance and its and at mrs as if it i won t boil nothing shall induce me on the hearth but mrs with restored good humor her little hands against each other and sat down before the kettle laughing meantime the jolly blaze and fell flashing and gleaming on the little at the top of the dutch clock until one might have thought he stood stock still before the palace and nothing was in motion but the flame he was on the move however and had his two to the second all right and regular but his when the was going to strike were frightful to behold and when a out of a trap door in the palace and gave note six timed it shook him each time like a voice or like a at his legs it was not until a violent commotion and a whirling noise among the and ropes below him had quite subsided that this became himself again nor was he startled without reason for these rattling bony of are very in their operation and i wonder very much how any set of men but most of all how can have had a liking to invent them for there is a belief that love broad cases and much clothing for their own lower selves and they might know better than to leave their so very and surely now it was you observe that the kettle began to spend the evening now it was that the kettle growing mellow and musical began to have irrepressible in the throat and to indulge in short which it checked in the bud as if it hadn t quite made up its mind yet to be good company now it was that after two or three such vain attempts to its sentiments it threw off all all reserve and burst into a stream of song so and as never yet formed the least idea of so plain too bless you you might have understood it like a better than some books you and i name
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perhaps the with its warm breath forth in a light which merrily and gracefully ascended a few feet then hung about the corner as its own domestic heaven it its song with that strong energy of cheerfulness that its iron body and stirred upon the fire and the lid itself the recently rebellious lid such is the influence of a bright performed a sort of and like a deaf and dumb young that had never known the use of its twin brother that this song of the kettle s was a song of invitation and welcome to somebody out of doors to somebody at that moment coming on towards the snug small home and the crisp fire there is no doubt whatever mrs knew it perfectly as she sat musing before the hearth it s a dark night sang the kettle and the rotten leaves are lying by the way and above all is mist and darkness and below all is mire and clay and there s only one relief in all he sand and air and i don t know that it is one for it s nothing but a glare of deep and angry crimson where the sun and wind together set a brand upon the clouds for being guilty of such weather and the open country is a long dull streak of black and there s frost on the finger post and upon the track and the ice it isn t water and the water isn t free and you couldn t say that anything is what it ought to be but he s coming coming coming and here if you like the did in with a of such magnitude by way of chorus with a voice so to its size as compared with the kettle size you couldn t see it that if it had then and there burst itself like an gun if it had fallen a victim on the spot and its little body into fifty pieces it would have seemed a natural and inevitable consequence for which it had expressly labored the kettle had had the last of its performances it with but the took first fiddle on the hearth kept it good heaven how it its shrill sharp piercing voice through the house and seemed to twinkle in the outer darkness like a star there was an little and tremble ia it at its which suggested its being carried off its legs and made to leap again by its own intense enthusiasm yet they went very well together the and the kettle the burden of the song was still the same and louder louder still they sang it in their the fair little listener for fair she was and though something of what is called the shape but i don t object to that a candle at the on the top of the clock who was getting in a pretty average crop of minutes and looked out of the window she saw nothing owing to the darkness but her own face in the glass and my opinion is and so would your s have been that she might have looked a long way and seen nothing half so agreeable when she came back and sat down in her former seat the and the kettle were still keeping it up with a perfect of competition the kettle s weak side clearly being that lie didn t know when he was beat there was all the excitement of a race about it f a mile ahead hum hum hum m m kettle making play in the distance like a great top round the comer hum hum hum m m kettle sticking to him in his own way no idea of giving in than ever hum hum hum m m kettle slow and steady going in to finish him hum hum hum m m kettle not to be finished until at last they got so together in the hurry of the match that whether the kettle and the or the and the kettle or they both and both the it would have taken a clearer head than your s or mine to decided with anything like certainty but of this there is that the kettle and the at one and the same moment and by some power of best known to them selves sent each his fireside song of comfort streaming into a ray of the oa that shone out through the window and a long way down the lane and this light bursting on a certain person who on the instant approached towards it through the gloom ex pressed the whole thing to him literally in a twinkling and welcome home old fellow welcome home my boy this end attained the kettle being dead beat boiled over and was taken off the fire mrs then went running to the door where what with the wheels of a cart the tramp of a horse the voice of d man the tearing in and out of an excited and the surprising and mysterious appearance of a baby there was soon the very what s his name to pay where the baby came from or how mrs got hold of it in that flash of time i don t know but a live baby there was in mrs s arms and a pretty tolerable amount of pride she seemed to have in it when she was drawn gently to the fire by a sturdy figure of a man much taller and much older than herself who had to stoop a long way down to kiss her but she was worth the trouble six foot six with the might have done it oh goodness john said mrs p what a state you re in with the weather he was something the worse for it the thick mist hung in upon his like and between the fog
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a child at play at keeping house and there s the cold of ham and there s the butter and there s the loaf and all here s the clothes basket for the small john if you ve got any there where are you john t the t let the dear child under the grate you do it may be noted of miss in spite of her the caution with some vivacity that she ad a rare and surprising talent for getting this baby into difficulties and had several times its short life in a quiet way peculiarly her own she was of a spare and straight shape this young lady in that her garments appeared to be in constant danger of sliding sharp her shoulders on which they were loosely hung her costume was remarkable for the partial development on all possible occasions of some flannel of a singular structure also for affording glimpses in the region of the back of a or pair of stays in color a dead green being always in a state of gaping admiration at everything and absorbed besides in the perpetual contemplation of her mistress s and the baby s miss in her little errors of judgment may be said to have done equal honor to her head and to her heart and though these did less honor to the baby s head which they were the occasional means of bringing into contact with deal doors bed posts and other foreign still they were the honest results of s constant astonishment at finding herself so kindly treated and in such a com home for the maternal and paternal were alike unknown to fame and had been bred by public charity a which word though only from by one s length is very different in meaning and expresses quite another thing to have seen little mrs come back with her husband at the clothes basket and making the most exertions to do nothing at all for he carried it it would have amused you almost as much as it amused him it may have entertained the too for anything i know but it now began to again vehemently on the hearth said john in his slow way it s than to night i think and it s sure to bring us good fortune john it always has done so to have a on the hearth is the thing in all the world j n looked at her as if he had very nearly got the thought into his head that she was his in chief and he quite agreed with her but it was probably one of his narrow escapes for he aid nothing the first time i heard its cheerful little note john was on night when you brought me home when you brought me to my new home here its little mistress nearly a year ago you recollect john oh yes john remembered i should think so its was such a welcome to me it seemed so full of promise and encouragement it seemed to say you would be kind and gentle with me and would not expect i had a fear of that john then to find an old head on the shoulders of your foolish little wife john thoughtfully patted one of the shoulders and then the head as though he would have said no no he had had no such expectation he had been quite content to take them as they were and really he had reason they were very comely it spoke the truth john when it seemed to say so for you have ever been i am sure the best the most considerate the most affectionate of husbands to me this has been a happy ome john and i love the for its sake why so do i then said the so do i dot i love it for the many times i have heard it and the many thoughts its harmless music has given me sometimes in the twilight when i have felt a little solitary and down hearted before baby was here to keep me company and make the gay when i have thought how lonely you would bo if i the should die how lonely i should be if i could know that you had lost me dear its upon the hearth seemed to tell me of another little voice so sweet so very dear to me before whose coming sound my trouble vanished like a dream and when i used to fear i did fear once john i was very young you know that ours might pro e to be aa marriage i being such a child and you more like guardian than my husband and that you might not however hard you tried be able to learn to love me as you hoped and prayed you might its has cheered me up again and filled me with new trust and confidence i was thinking of these things to night dear when i sat expecting yoa and i love the for their sake and so do i repeated john but dot i hope and that i might learn to love you how you talk i had learnt that long before i brought you here to be the s little mistress dot she laid her hand an instant on his arm and looked up at him with an agitated face as if she would have told him something next moment she was down upon her knees before the basket speaking in a voice and busy with the there are not many of them to night john but i saw some goods behind the cart just now and though they give me more trouble perhaps still they pay as well so we have no reason to have we besides you have been delivering i say as you came along v oh yes john said a good many why what
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s this round box heart alive john it s a wed cake leave a woman alone to find out that said john now a man would never have thought of it whereas it s my belief that if you was to pack a wedding cake up in a or a turn up or a salmon or any on on the hearth is likely thing a woman would be sure to find it out dire yes j i called for it at the cook s and it i don t know what whole hundred p cried dot making a great demonstration of trying to lift it whose is it john where is it going read the writing on the other side said john why john my goodness john ah d have thought it john returned you never mean to say pursued dot sitting on the floor and shaking her head at him that it s and the toy maker john nodded mrs nodded also fifty times at least not in assent in dumb and pitying amazement up her lips the while with all their little force they were never made for up i am clear of that and looking the good through and through in her abstraction miss in the meantime who had a mechanical power of scraps of current conversation for the of the baby with all the sense struck out of them and all the changed into the number inquired aloud of that young creature was it and the toy makers then and it call at for wedding cakes and did its mothers know the boxes when its fathers brought them home and so on and that is really to come about i said dot why she and i were girls at school together john he might have been thinking of her or nearly thinking of her perhaps as she was in that same school time he looked her with a thoughtful pleasure but he made no answer and he s as old as unlike her why how many years older than you is and john how many more cups of tea shall i drink to night at one sitting than and ever took in four i wonder the replied john good as he drew a chair to the round table and began at the cold ham as to i eat but little but that little i enjoy dot even this his usual sentiment at meal times one of his innocent for his appetite was always obstinate and contradicted him awoke no smile in the face of his little wife who stood among the pushing the cake box slowly ro her with her foot and never once looked though her eyes were cast down too upon the dainty shoe she generally was so of absorbed in thought she stood there heedless alike of the tea and john although he called to her and the table with his knife to her until he arose and touched her on the arm when she looked at him for a moment and hurried to her place behind the tea board laughing at her bat not as she had laughed before the manner and the music were quite changed the too had stopped somehow the room was not so cheerful as it had been nothing like it so these are all the are they john she said breaking a long silence which the honest had devoted to the practical illustration of one part of his favorite sentiment certainly enjoying what he ate if it couldn t be admitted that he ate but little so these are all the are they john that s all said john i laying down hie knife and fork and taking a long breath i declare i ve clean forgotten the old gentleman the old gentleman in the cart said john he was asleep among the straw the last time saw him i ve very nearly remembered him twice since i came in but he went out of my head again there rouse up that s my hearty john said these latter words outside the door whither he had hurried with the candle in his hand on the hearth miss conscious of some mysterious reference to the old gentleman and connecting in her imagination certain associations of a religious nature with the phrase was so disturbed that hastily rising from the low chair by the fire to seek protection near the skirts of her mistress and coming into contact as she crossed the doorway with an ancient stranger she instinctively made a charge or butt at him with the only offensive instrument within her reach this instrument happened to be the baby great commotion and alarm ensued which the of rather tended to increase for that good dog more than his master had it seemed been watching the old gentleman in his sleep lest he should walk off with a few young trees that were tied up behind the cart and he still attended on him very closely worrying his in ot and making dead sets at the buttons you re such an good sir said john tranquillity was restored in the meantime the old gentleman had stood bare headed and motionless in the centre of the loom that i have half a mind to ask you where the other six re only that would be a joke and i know i should spoil it near though murmured the with a chuckle very near the stranger who had long white hair good features singularly bold and well defined for an old and dark bright penetrating eyes looked round with a smile and saluted the s wife by gravely his head his garb was very quaint and a long long way behind the time its hue was brown all over in his hand he held a great brown club or walking stick and striking this upon the floor it fell asunder
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no we don t know better interposed john what are yoa talking about well we don t know better then said we agree that we don t as you like what does it matter i was going to say as you have that sort of appearance your company will produce a effect on mrs that on the hearth k will be and though i don t think your good lady s very friendly to me in this matter still she can t help herself from falling into my views for there s a and of appearance about her that always tells even in an indifferent case you ty you come we have arranged to keep our wedding day as far as that goes at home said john we have made the promise to our these six months we think you see that home what s home cried four walls and ceiling why don t you kill that i would i always i hate their noise there are four walls and a ceiling at y come to me you kill your eh said john em sir returned the other setting his heel heavily the floor you say you come it s as much y ur as mine you know that the women should persuade each er that they re quiet and contented and couldn t be better off their way whatever one woman says another woman determined to always there s that spirit of ng em sir that if your wife says to my wife i m the hap f eat woman in the world and mine s the best husband in the i ld and i on him my wife will say the same to your s and half believe it you mean to say she don t then asked the don t cried with a short sharp laugh don t hat he had some faint idea of adding upon you t happening to meet the half closed eye as it upon over the up collar of the cape which was within an of it out he felt it such an unlikely part and parcel of to be on that he that she don t be ah you dog you re joking said i i have the add his left and tapping the finger to ff to wit i hare the air n and a wi hem he hie not poorer i m able k and t t m v ii b pointed to t fire her upon her a ui at aiid lit and then at him again la a a mm of ia me bnt e i think observed the that i should out of window who said there wasn t exactly so returned the other with an unusual a ass it to be sure doubtless you would of course i certain of it night pleasant dreams the good was puzzled and made f uncertain in spite of himself he couldn t help showing il his manner good night my dear friend said com i m off we re exactly alike in reality i see to won t give us evening well next day you ff out visiting i know i ll meet you there and bring my wife is to be it ll do her good you re agreeable what s that it was a loud cry from the s wife a loud sharp end den cry that made the room ring like a glass she h on the hearth from her seat and stood like one by terror and surprise the stranger had advanced towards the fire to warm himself and stood within a short stride of her chair but quite stiu dot cried the mary darling what s the matter they were all about her in a moment who had been on the cake box in the first imperfect recovery of his suspended presence of mind seized miss by the hair of her but immediately mary exclaimed the supporting her in his arms are you ill what is it tell me dear v she only answered by beating her hands together and falling into a wild fit of laughter then sinking from his grasp upon the ground she covered her face with her apron and wept bitterly and then she laughed again and then she cried again and then she said how cold it was and suffered him to lead her to the fire where she sat down as before the old man standing as before quite still i m better john she said i m quite well now i john but john was on the other side of her why turn her bee towards the strange gentleman as if addressing him was her brain wandering only a fancy john dear a kind of shock a something suddenly before my eyes i don t know what it was it s quite gone quite gone i m glad it s gone muttered turning the expressive eye all round the room i wonder where it s gone and what it was come here who s that with the grey hair i don t know sir returned in a whisper never him before in all my life a beautiful figure for a nut the quite a new model with a screw jaw opening down into his waistcoat he d be lovely not ugly enough said or for a either observed in deep what a his head to put the matches in turn him heels up for the light and what a for a gentleman s mantel shelf just as he stands not half ugly enough said nothing in him at all come bring that box all right now i hope oh quite gone quite gone said the little woman waving aim hurriedly away good night night said night john take care how you carry that box let it and i
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ll murder you dark as pitch and weather worse than ever eh night so with another sharp look round the room he went out at the door followed by with the wedding cake on his head the had been so much astounded by his little wife and so busily engaged in soothing and tending her that he had scarcely been conscious of the stranger s presence until now when he again stood there their only guest he don t belong to them you see said john i must give him a hint to go i beg your pardon friend said the old gentleman advancing to him the more so as i fear your wife has not been well but the attendant whom my infirmity he touched his ears and shook his head renders almost indispensable not having arrived i fear there must be some mistake the bad night which made the shelter of your cart may i never have a worse so acceptable is still as bad as ever would you in your kindness suffer me to rent a bed here yes yes said dot yes certainly v on the hearth oh said the surprised by the rapidity of this con well i don t object but still tm not quite sure that hush she interrupted dear john why he s stone deaf urged john i know he is but yes sir certainly yes certainly i ll make him up a bed directly john as she hurried off to do it the flutter of her spirits and the agitation of her manner were so strange that the stood looking after her quite confounded did its mothers make it up a beds then cried miss to the baby and did its hair grow brown and curly when its caps was off and frighten it a precious a sitting by the fires i with that unaccountable attraction of the mind to trifles which often to a state of doubt and confusion the as he walked slowly to and fro found himself mentally repeating even these absurd words many times so many times that he got them by heart and was still them over and over like a lesson when after as much to the little bald head with her hand as she thought wholesome according to the practice of nurses had once more tied the baby s cap on and frighten it a precious a sitting by the fire what frightened dot i wonder mused the pacing to and fro he from his heart the of the toy merchant and yet they filled him with a vague indefinite uneasiness for was quick and sly and he had that painful sense himself of being a man of slow perception that a broken him was always worrying to him he certainly had no intention in his mind of anything that had said with the unusual conduct of his wife but the two subjects of reflection came into his mind together and he could not keep them asunder the bed was soon made ready and the visitor declining all tbe but a of te i retired then w d she add quite well again arranged ft the chimney comer fi r her husband filled his pipe and h him and took her usual stool beside him on the she always sit on that little stool i she had a kind of notion that it was a she was out and but the very best of a i say in the four quarters of the globe to see her little finger in the bowl and then blow down the v dear the and when she had done so to that there really was something in the and blow a and hold it to her eye uke a with a most twist in her capital little as she looked down it was a brilliant thing as to the tobacco she wai a of the subject and her of the p pe ith a of when the had it in his mouth so very nose and yet not it was art high art and the and the kettle up again acknowledged it the bright fire blazing up again acknowledged it the little on the clock in his work acknowledged it the in his forehead and face acknowledged it the of all and as he and thoughtfully puffed at his old pipe and as the dutch clock and as the red fire gleamed and as the that genius of his hearth and home for such the was came out in fairy shape into the room and summoned many forms of home about him of all ages and all sizes filled the chamber who were merry children running on before him gathering flowers in the fields half shrinking from half yielding to the pleading of his own rough image newly married at the door and taking wondering possession of the household keys little attended by bearing babies to be on the hearth still young and blooming watching of daughters as they danced at rustic balls fat encircled and beset by troops of rosy withered who leaned on sticks and as they crept along old too appeared with blind old lying at their feet and carts with younger drivers brothers on the and sick old tended by the hand s and graves of dead and gone old green in the churchyard and as the showed him all these things he saw them plainly though his eyes were fixed upon the fire the s heart grew light and happy and he thanked his household with all his might and cared no more for and than you do but what was that young figure of a man which the same fairy set so near her stool and which remained there singly and alone why did it linger still so near her with its arm upon the chimney piece ever repeating married and not to me oh dot
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oh failing dot there is no place for it in all your husband s visions why has its shadow fallen on his hearth the the second and his blind daughter lived all alone by themselves as the story books say and my ble sing with yours to back it hope on the story books for saying anything in this world and his blind daughter lived all alone by themselves in a little cracked of a wooden house which was in truth no better than a on the prominent red brick nose of and the premises of and were the great feature of the street but you might have knocked down s dwelling with a hammer or two and carried off the pieces in a cart if any one had done the dwelling house of the honor to miss it after such an it would have been no doubt to commend its as a vast improvement it stuck to the premises of and like a to a ship s or a to a door or a little bunch of to the stem of a tree but it was the from which the trunk of and had sprung and under its crazy roof the before last had in a small way made toys for a generation of old boys and girls who had played with them and found them out and broken them and gone to sleep i have said that and his poor blind daughter lived here but i should have said lived here and his poor blind daughter somewhere else in an enchanted home of s furnishing where and were not and trouble never entered was no but in the only art that still remains to us the magic of devoted love on the hearth had been the mistress of his study and from her teaching all the wonder came the blind girl never knew that were walls and bare of plaster here and there high and every day beams and tending downward the blind girl never knew that the iron was wood paper off the very size and shape and true proportion of the dwelling withering away the blind never knew that ugly shapes of and were on the board that sorrow and faint were in the that s scanty hairs were turning and more b before her face the blind girl never knew they bad a cold and never knew that was in short but lived in the belief of an who loved to have his jest with them and while he was the guardian angel of their lives to hear one word of and all was s doing all the doing of her simple father but he too had a on his hearth and listening sadly to its music when the blind child was very young that spirit had inspired him with the thought that even her great might be almost changed into a blessing and the girl made happy by these little means for all the tribe are potent spirits even though the people who hold converse with them do not know it which is frequently the case and there are not in the unseen world voices more gentle and more true that may be so relied on or that are so certain to give none but tenderest counsel as the voices in which the spirits of the fireside and the hearth address themselves to human kind and his daughter were at work together in their usual working room which served them for their ordinary living room as well and a strange place it was there were houses in it finished and unfinished for of all stations in life the for of moderate means and single apartments for of the lower classes capital town fer of high estate some of these were already furnished according to estimate with a view to the convenience of of limited income others could be fitted od the most expensive scale at a moment s notice from whole shelves of chairs and tables and the nobility and gentry and public in general for whose accommodation these were designed lay here and there in baskets staring straight up at the ceiling but in their degrees in society and them to their respective which experience shows to be difficult in real life the makers of these had far improved on nature who is and perverse for they not resting on such marks as satin cotton print and bits of rag had striking personal differences which allowed of no mistake thus the doll lady of distinction had wax limbs of perfect but only she and her the next grade in the social scale being made of leather and the next of coarse linen stuff as to the common people they had just so many matches out of boxes for their arms and legs and there they established in their sphere at once beyond the possibility of getting out of it there were various other of his besides in s room there were s in which the birds and beasts were an uncommonly tight fit i assure you though they could be crammed in any how at the roof and rattled and shaken into the smallest compass by a bold poetical license most of these s had on the doors inconsistent perhaps as suggestive of morning and a yet a pleasant finish to the outside of the building there were scores of melancholy little carts which when the wheels went round performed most music on the hearth many small drums and other instruments of torture no end of cannon swords and guns there were little in red breeches incessantly up high obstacles of red and coming down head first upon the other and there were innumerable old gentlemen of respectable not to say venerable appearance flying over inserted for the purpose in their own street doors there were beasts of all sorts horses in particular of every breed the spotted barrel on four
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with a small for a mane to the on his highest as it would have been hard to count the upon of grotesque figures that were ever ready to commit all sorts of on the turning of a handle so it would have been no easy task to mention any human folly vice or weakness that bad not its type immediate or remote in s room and not in an exaggerated form for very little handles will m ve men and women to as strange performances as any toy was ever made to undertake in the midst of all these objects and his daughter sat at work the blind girl busy as a doll s and painting and the four pair front of a desirable family mansion the care in the lines of s ce and his absorbed and dreamy manner which would have sat well on some or student were at first sight an odd contrast to his occupation and the about him but trivial things invented and pursued for bread very serious matters of fact and apart from this consideration i am not at all prepared to say myself that if had been a lord or a member of parliament or a lawyer or even a great he would have dealt in toys one whit less while have a very great doubt whether they would have been as harmless the so you were out in the rain last night father in your beautiful new great coat said s daughter in my beautiful new great coat answered glancing towards a clothes line in the room on which the garment previously described was carefully hung up to dry how glad i am you bought it father and of such a tailor too said quite a fashionable tailor it s too good for me the blind girl rested from her work and laughed with delight too good father what can be too good for you i m half ashamed to wear it though said watching the effect of what he said upon her brightening face upon my word when i hear the boys and people say behind me here s a swell i don t know which way to look and when the beggar wouldn t go away last night and when said i was a very common man said no your honor bless your honor don t say that i was quite ashamed i really felt as if i hadn t a right to wear it happy blind girl how merry she was in her exultation i see you father she said clasping her hands as plainly as if i had the eyes i never want when you are with me a blue coat bright blue said yes yes bright blue exclaimed the girl turning up her radiant face the color i can just remember in the blessed sky you told me it was blue before a bright blue coat made loose to the figure suggested yes loose to the figure cried the blind girl laughing heartily and in it you dear father with your merry eye your smiling face your free step and your dark hair looking so young and handsome said i shall be vain presently think you are already cried the blind girl pointing at on the hearth in her glee i know you father ha ha ha found you out you see flow different the picture in her mind from as he sat observing her she had spoken of his free step she was right ui that for years and years he never once had crossed that threshold at his own slow pace but with a her ear and never had he when his heart was heaviest forgotten the light tread that was to render hers so cheerful and courageous heaven knows but i think s vague bewilderment of manner may have half originated in his having confused himself about himself and everything around him for the love of his blind daughter how could the little man be otherwise than ed after laboring for so many years to destroy his own identity and that of all the objects that had any bearing on it there we are said falling back a pace or two to form the better judgment of his work as near the real thing as of is to sixpence what a pity that the whole front of the house opens at once f if there was only a staircase in it now and regular doors to the rooms to go in at but that s the worst of my calling i m always myself and myself you are speaking quite you are not tired father v tired echoed with a great burst of animation what tire me i was never tired what does it mean to give the greater force to his words he checked himself in an involuntary imitation of two half length stretching and yawning figures on the mantel shelf who were represented as in one eternal state of weariness from the waist upwards and a fragment of a song it was a song something about a sparkling bowl and he sang it with an assumption of a b that made m pi meagre and more thoughtful than t ia your ua head in t the door o n i j have him of it ha h a by any i to t vm glad if yon only him how he a r a man to joke yon d think it he wouldn yon the blind and nodded tiie bird that sing and won t be they grumbled about the and t to and will ia there that he should be made to do i i the extent to which he s at this moment t to his daughter oh my gracious always merry and light hearted with us cried the smiling oh you re there are you answered
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on and are not so gallant as when you wear the handsome coat said touching him not quite so gallant answered pretty brisk though father said the blind girl drawing close to his side and stealing one arm round his neck tell me something about may she is very fair she is indeed said and was indeed it was quite a rare thing to not to have to draw on his invention her hair is dark said darker than mine her voice is sweet and musical i know i have loved to hear it her shape there s not a doll s in all the room to equal it said and her eyes he stopped for had drawn closer round his neck and from the arm that clung about him came a warning pressure which he understood too well he a moment for a moment and then fell back upon the song about the sparkling bowl his resource in all such difficulties our friend father our benefactor i am never tired you know of hearing about him now was i ever she said hastily of course not answered and with reason on the hearth ah with how much reason cried the blind girl with such that though his motives were so pure could not endure to meet her face but dropped his eyes as if she could have read in them his innocent deceit then tell me again about him dear father said many times again his face is benevolent kind and tender honest and true i am sure it is the manly heart that tries to cloak all with a show of and beats in its every look and glance and makes it noble added in his quiet desperation and makes it noble cried the blind girl he is older than may father ye es said reluctantly he s a little older than may but that signify oh father yes to be his patient companion in infirmity and age to be his gentle nurse in sickness and his constant friend in suffering and sorrow to know no weariness in working his sake to watch him tend him sit beside his bed and talk to him awake and pray for him asleep what privileges these would be i what opportunities for proving all her truth and her devotion to him would she do all this dear father no doubt of it said i love her father i can love her from my soul exclaimed the blind girl and saying so she laid her poor blind face on s shoulder and so wept and wept that he was almost sorry to have brought that tearful happiness upon her in the meantime there had been a pretty sharp commotion at john s for little mrs naturally couldn t think of going anywhere without the baby and to get the baby under weigh took time not that there was much of the baby of it as a thing of weight and measure but there was a vast deal to be done about it and it all had to be done by easy stages for instance when the baby was g out by hook and by n ot hat d ml ii baby oe m a g tt ill fi t in a wi te io b p of u from this of be wm tory d f i would say tne to i after which he went a j ite tor ill li ui during the same short miss f ib ft of a oo that with herself or in dog independent ct tt to anybody by d i a i i by the mrs and miss boy with a oi m for its body and a sort of raised pie for its head sod so in course of time they all three got down to the door the old horse had already taken more than the full value of hb day s toll out of the trust by tearing up the road with his impatient and whence might be dimly seen in the remote perspective standing looking back and tempting to come on without orders as to a chair or anything of that kind for helping mrs into the cart you know very little of john i flatter myself if you think that was necessary before you could have seen him lift her from the ground there she was in her place fresh and saying john i how can you think of f if i might be allowed to mention a young lady s legs on terms i would observe of miss s that there was a them which rendered them singularly liable to be on the hearth that she never effected the smallest ascent or descent without the circumstance upon them with a as marked the days upon his wooden but as this might be considered i ll think of it john you ve got the basket with the and ham pie things and the bottles of beer v said dot if you haven t you must turn round again this very minute you re a nice little article returned the to be talking about turning round after keeping me a full quarter of an hour behind my time i am for it john said dot in a great bustle but really could not think of going to s i wouldn t do it john on any account without the and ham pie and things and the bottles of beer way this able was addressed to the horse who didn t mind it at all oh do john said mrs please it ll be time enough to do that returned john when i begin to leave things behind me the basket s here safe enough what a hard hearted monster you must be john not to have said so at once and saved me such a turn i
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point of human joys the crowning circumstance of earthly hopes not the baby i ll be sworn for it is not in baby nature to be warmer or more sound asleep though its capacity is great in both respects than that blessed young was all the way you couldn t see very far in the fog of course but you could see a great deal oh a great deal it s astonishing how much you may see in a thicker fog than that if you will only take the trouble to look for it why even to sit watching for the fairy rings in the fields and for the patches of frost still lingering in the shades near hedges and by trees was a pleasant occupation to make no mention of the unexpected shapes in which the trees came starting out of the mist and glided into it again the on the hearth were tangled and bare and waved a multitude of in the wind but there was no in this t was agreeable to contemplate for it made the fireside warmer in possession and the summer in the river looked chilly but it was in motion and moving at a good pace which was a great point the canal was rather slow and must be admitted never mind it would the sooner when the frost set fairly in and then there would be and and the heavy old frozen up somewhere near a wharf would smoke their rusty iron chimney pipes all day and a lazy time of it in one place there was a great mound of weeds or and they watched the fire so white in the day time ring through the fog with only here and there a dash of red in ity until in consequence as she observed of the smoke getting up her nose miss choked she could do anything of that sort on the smallest provocation and woke the baby who wouldn t go to sleep again but who was in advance quarter of a mile or so had already passed the of the town and gained the corner of the street where and his daughter lived and long before they reached the door he and the blind girl were on the pavement waiting to receive them by the way made certain delicate distinctions of his own in his communication with which persuaded me fully that he knew her to be blind he never sought to attract her attention by looking at her as he did with other people but touched her invariably what experience he could ever have had of blind people or blind dogs i don t know he had never lived with a blind master nor had mr the elder r mrs nor any of his respectable family on either side been visited with blindness that i am aware of he may hare found it out for himself perhaps but he had got hold of it and therefore he had hold of too by the skirt the and kept hold until mrs and the baby and and the basket were all got safely within doors may was already come and so was her mother a little of an old lady with a face who in right of having preserved a waist like a was supposed to be a most figure and who in consequence of having once been better or of laboring under an that she might have been if something had happened which never did happen and seemed to have never been particularly likely to come to pass but it s all the same was very genteel and patron indeed and was also there doing the e agreeable with the evident sensation of being as perfectly at r home and as unquestionably in his own element as a young salmon on the top of the great may my dear old friend cried dot up to j her what a happiness to see you her old friend was to the full as hearty and as glad as she s and it really was if you ll believe me quite a pleasant sight t lo see them embrace was a man of taste beyond a i ill question may was very pretty you know sometimes when you are used to a pretty face when it comes into contact and comparison with another i ty face it seems for the moment to be homely and faded and v to deserve the high opinion you have had of it now this w not at all the case either with dot or may for may s face s off dot s and dot s face set off may s so naturally and v that as john was very near saying when he into the room they ought to have been born sisters which we as the only improvement you could have suggested had brought his leg of mutton and wonderful relate a besides but we don t mind a little wh o our are in the case we don t get married every day and in addition to these there were the and h on the hearth ie and things as mrs called them which chiefly nuts and and cakes and such small deer hen the was set forth on the board by s which was a great wooden bowl of smoking potatoes be was by solemn compact from producing any other led his intended mother in law to the post of honor for the better of this place at the high festival the majestic old soul had adorned herself with a cap calculated to inspire the thoughtless with sentiments of awe she also wore her gloves but let us be genteel or die sat next his daughter dot and her old were by side the good took care of the bottom of the table miss was isolated for the time being from every
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by informing the company that to morrow was the day she had lived for expressly and that when it was over she would desire nothing better than to be packed up and disposed of in any genteel place of burial as these remarks were quite which is the happy property of all remarks that are sufficiently wide of the purpose they changed the current of the conversation and diverted the general attention to the and ham pie the cold mutton the potatoes and the in order that the beer might not be john proposed to morrow the wedding day and called upon them to drink a to it before he proceeded on his journey for you ought to know that he only rested there and gave the old horse a bait he had to go some four or five miles farther on and when he returned in the evening he called for dot and took another rest on his way home this was the order of the day on all the occasions and had been ever since their institution there were two persons present besides the bride and bridegroom elect who did but indifferent honor to the toast one of these was dot too flushed and to herself to on the hearth any small occurrence of the moment the other who rose up hurriedly before the rest and left the table bye said stout john pulling on his coat i shall be back at the old time good bye all bye john returned he seemed to say it by and to wave his hand in the same unconscious manner for he stood observing with an anxious wondering face that never altered its expression good bye young said the jolly bending down to kiss the child which now intent upon her knife and fork had deposited asleep and strange to say without damage in a little cot of s furnishing good bye time will come i suppose when you turn out into the cold my little friend and leave your old to enjoy his pipe and his in the chimney comer eh where s dot i m here john she said starting e come returned the clapping his sounding hands where s the pipe i quite forgot the pipe john forgot the pipe was such a wonder ever heard of she forgot the pipe i l fill it directly it s soon done but it was not so soon done either it lay in the usual place the s pocket with the little her own work from which she was used to fill it but her hand shook that she entangled it and yet her hand was small enough to have come out easily i am sure and terribly the filling of the pipe and lighting it those little offices in which i have commended her discretion if you recollect were done from first to last during the whole process stood looking on with the half closed eye the whenever it met her or caught it for it can hardly be said to liave ever met another eye rather being a kind of trap to snatch it up her confusion in a most remarkable degree why what a clumsy dot you are this afternoon said john i could have done it better myself i verily believe with these good natured words he strode away and presently was heard in company with and the old horse and the cart making lively music down the road what time the dreamy still stood watching his blind daughter with the same expression on his face said softly what has happened how changed you are my darling in a few hours since this mom ing you silent and dull all day what is it tell me oh father cried the blind girl bursting into tears oh my hard hard fate draw his hand across his eyes before he answered her but think how cheerful and how happy you have been how good and how much loved by many people that strikes to the heart dear father always so of me always so kind to me was very much perplexed to understand her to be lo be blind my poor dear he faltered is a great affliction but i have never felt it cried the blind girl i have never felt it in its never i have sometimes wished that i could see you or could see him only once dear father only for one little minute that i might know what it is i treasure up she laid her hand her breast and hold here that i might be sure i have it right and sometimes but then i was a child i have wept in my prayers at to think that when your images ascended from my heart to heaven they might not be the true of yourselves but i have never had on the hearth these feelings long they have passed away and left me tranquil and contented and they will again said but father oh my good gentle father bear with me if am wicked said the blind girl this i not the sorrow that me down her father could not choose but let his moist eyes she was so earnest and pathetic but he did not understand her yet bring her to me said i cannot hold it closed and shut within myself bring her to me father she knew he hesitated and said may bring may may heard the mention of her name and coming quietly towards her touched her on the arm the blind girl turned immediately and held her by both hands look into my face dear heart sweet heart said read it with your beautiful eyes and tell me if the truth is written on it dear yes the blind girl still the blank face down which the tears were fast addressed her in these words there is
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not in my soul a wish or thought that is not for your good bright may there is not in my soul a grateful recollection stronger than the deep remembrance which is stored there of the many many times when in the full pride of sight and beauty you have had consideration for blind even when we two were children or when was as much a child as ever blindness can be every blessing on your head light upon your happy course not the less my dear may and she drew towards her in a closer grasp not the less my bird because to day the knowledge that you are to be his wife has wrung my heart almost to breaking father may may oh me that it is so for the sake of all he has done to relieve the the weariness of my dark life and for the sake of the belief you have in me when i heaven to witness that i could not wish him married to a wife more worthy of his goodness while speaking she had released may s hands and clasped her garments in an attitude of and love sinking lower and lower down as she proceeded in strange confession she dropped at last at the of her friend and hid her blind face in the folds of her dress great power exclaimed her father smitten at blow with the truth have i deceived her from the cradle bat to break her heart at last it was well for all of them that dot that beaming useful busy little dot for such she was whatever faults she had however you may learn to hate her in good time it was well for all of them i say that she was there or where this would have ended it were hard to tell but dot recovering her self possession interposed before may could t or say another word come come dear come away with me give her our arm may so how composed she is you see already and how good it is of her to mind us said the cheery little woman kissing her upon the forehead come away dear come and here s her good father will come with her won t you to sure well well she was a noble little dot in such things and it must have been an nature that could have her influence when she had got poor and his away that they might comfort and console each other as she knew they only could she presently came back as the saying is as fresh as any i say to mount guard over that little piece of consequence in the cap and gloves and prevent the dear old creature from making discoveries so bring me the precious baby said she drawing a chair to the fire and while i have it in my lap here s mrs on the hearth will tell me all about the management of and put me right in twenty points where i m as wrong as can be won t you mrs not even the giant who according to the popular ex was so slow as to perform a fatal operation upon himself in of a achieved by his arch enemy at breakfast time not even he fell half readily into the prepared for him as the old lady into this artful the fact of having walked out and of two or three people having been talking together at a distance for two minutes leaving her to her own resources was quite enough to have put her on her dignity and the of that mysterious in the trade for four hours but this becoming deference to her experience on the part of the young mother was so irresistible that after a short affectation of humility she began to her with the best grace in the world and sitting bolt upright before the wicked dot she did in half an hour deliver more domestic and than would if acted on have utterly destroyed and done up that young though he had been an infant to change the theme dot did a little she carried the contents of a whole in her pocket how ever she contrived it don t know then did a little nursing then a little more then had a little whispering chat with may while the old lady and so in little bits of bustle which was quite her manner always it a very short afternoon then as it grew dark and as it a solemn part of this institution of the that she should perform all s household tasks she trimmed the fire and swept t ie hearth and set the tea board out and drew the curtain and lighted a candle then she played an air or two on a rude kind of harp which had contrived fer and played them very well for the nature had made her delicate little ear as choice a one for as it would have been for jewels if she had had any to wear by this time it was the established hour for having tea and came back again to share the meal and spend the evening and had returned some time before had sat down to his s work but he couldn t settle to it poor fellow being anxious and for his daughter it was touching to see him sitting idle on his working stool regarding her so wistfully and always saying in hb face have i deceived her her cradle but to break her heart p when it was night and tea was done and dot had more to do in washing up the cups and in a br i must come to it and there is no use in putting it ofi when the time drew nigh for expecting the s return in every sound of distant wheels her manner
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changed again her color came and went and she was very restless not as good wives are when listening for their husbands no no no it was another sort of restlessness from that wheels heard a horse s feet the barking of a dog the gradual approach of all the sounds the scratching of at the door whose step is that v cried starting up whose step v returned the standing in the with his brown face ruddy as a winter from the keen night air why mine the other step said the man s tread behind you she is not to be deceived observed the laughing come sir you ll be welcome never fear he spoke in a loud tone and as he spoke the deaf old gentleman entered he s not so much a stranger that you hav n t seen him once on the hearth t said the l give him room till ire go oh surely john and take it as an honor v he s the best company on earth to talk secrets in said john i have reasonable good lungs but he tries em i can tell you sit down sir all friends here and glad to see you when he imparted this assurance in a voice that amply what he had said about his lungs he added in his natural tone a chair in the chimney comer and leave to sit quite silent and look pleasantly about him is all he cares for he s easily pleased had been listening intently she called to her side when he had set the chair and asked him in a low voice to describe their visitor when he had done so truly now with scrupulous fidelity she moved for the first time since he had come in and sighed and seemed to have no further interest concerning him the was in high spirits good fellow that he was and of his little wife than ever a clumsy dot she was this afternoon he said her with his rough arm as she stood removed from the rest and yet i like her somehow see yonder dot he pointed to the old man she looked down i think she trembled he s ha ha ha he s full of admiration for you p said the talked of nothing else the whole way here why he s a brave old boy i like him for it i wish he had a better subject john she said with an uneasy glance about the room at particularly a better subject cried the jovial john there s no such thing come off with the great coat off with the thick shawl off with the heavy and a half hour by the fire my humble service mistress a game at you and i the that s hearty the cards and board dot and a glass of here if there s any left small wife his challenge was addressed to the old lady who accepting it x w th gracious readiness they were soon engaged upon the game at first the looked about him sometimes with a smile or r now and then called dot to peep over his shoulder at his hand m and advise him on point but his adversary being a a rigid and subject to an occasional weakness in respect of more than she was entitled to required such vigilance on his part as him neither eyes nor ears to spare thus his whole attention gradually became absorbed in the cards and he thought of nothing else until a hand upon shoulder restored him to a consciousness of i am sorry to disturb you but a word directly fm going to deal returned the it s a crisis it is said come here man there was something in his pale face which made him rise and ask him in a hurry what the matter was hush john said i am sorry for this i am indeed i have been afraid of it i have it from the first what is it asked the with a aspect hush i ll show you if you come with me the accompanied him without another word they went across a yard where the stars were shining and by a little side door into s own counting house where there was a glass window commanding the which was closed for the night there was no light in the counting house itself but there were lamps in the long narrow and consequently the window was bright a moment said can you bear to look through that window do you think why not returned the on the hearth a more said commit any violence it s of do use it s dangerous too you re a man and you might do murder before you know it the looked him in the face and a step as if he had been struck in one stride he was at the window and he saw oh shadow on the hearth oh truthful oh wife he saw her with the old man old no longer but erect and gallant bearing in his hand the false hair that had won his way into their desolate and miserable home he saw her listening to him as he bent his head to whisper in her ear and him to clasp her round the waist as they moved slowly down th dim wooden gallery towards the door by which they had entered it he saw them stop and saw her turn to have the face the face he loved so so presented to his view a nd he saw her with her own hands the lie upon his laughing as she did it at his nature he clenched his strong right hand at first as if it would have beaten down a lion but opening it immediately again he spread it out before the eyes of for
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he was tender of her even then and so as they passed out fell down upon a desk and was as weak as an infant he was wrapped up to the chin and busy with his horse and when she came into the room prepared for going home now john dear i good night may good night p could kiss them could she be and cheerful in parting could she venture to reveal her face to them ut a blush yes observed her closely and she did all this was the baby and she crossed and a dozen times repeating did the knowledge that it was to be its then ea the its hearts almost to breaking and did its fathers deceive it ni its but to break its hearts at last now give me the baby good night mr where s john for goodness sake he s going to walk beside the horse s head said who helped her to her seat my dear john walk to night the muffled figure of her husband made a hasty sign in the affirmative and the false stranger and the little nurse being their places the old horse moved off the unconscious running on before running back running round and the cart and barking as triumphantly and merrily as ever when had gone off likewise may and mother home poor sat down by the fire beside his daughter anxious and at the core and still saying in his ful contemplation of her have i deceived her from her but to break her heart at last the toys that had been set in motion for the baby had al m stopped and run down long ago in the faint light and silence the calm the agitated rocking horses with eyes and nostrils the old gentlemen at the street door standing half doubled up upon their failing knees and ankles the faced the ery beasts upon their way into the ark in like a boarding school out walking might have been imagined to be stricken motionless with fantastic wonder at dot being false or beloved under any combination of circumstances y on the hearth the third the dutch clock in the comer struck ten when the sat down by his fireside so troubled and grief worn that h seemed to scare the who having cut his ten melodious as short as possible plunged back into the palace again and clapped his little door behind him a if the unwonted spectacle were too much for his feelings if the little had been armed with the of and had cut at every stroke into the s heart he never could have and wounded it as dot had done it was a heart so full of love for her so bound up and held together by innumerable threads of winning remembrance spun from the daily working of her many qualities of it was a heart in which she had herself so gently and so closely a heart so single and so earnest in its truth so strong in right so weak in wrong that it could cherish neither nor revenge at first and had only room to hold the broken image of its idol but slowly slowly as the sat brooding on his hearth now cold and other and thought began to rise within him as an angry wind comes rising in the night the stranger was beneath his outraged roof three steps take him to his chamber door one blow would beat it in might do murder before you know it had said how could it be mu er if he gave the villain time to with him hand to hand he was the younger man it was an ill timed thought bad for the dark mood of his mind the it was an angry thought him to some act that should change the cheerful house into a haunted place which lonely travellers would dread to pass by night and where the timid would see shadows struggling in the ruined windows when the moon was dim and hear wild noises in the stormy weather he was the younger man yes yes some lover who had the heart that he had never touched some lover of her early choice of whom she had thought and dreamed for whom she had and when he had fancied her so happy by his side oh agony to think of it she had been above stairs with the baby getting it to bed as he sat brooding on the hearth she came close beside him without his knowledge in the turning of the rack of his great misery he lost all other sounds and put her little stool at his he only knew it when he felt her hand upon his own and saw her looking up into his face with wonder no it was his first impression and he was fain to look at her again to set it right no not with wonder with an eager and inquiring look but not with wonder at first it was alarmed and serious then it changed into a strange wild dreadful smile of recognition of his thoughts then there was nothing but her clasped hands on her brow and her bent head and falling hair though the power of had been his to at that moment he had too much of its property mercy in his breast to have turned one feather s weight of it against her but he could not bear to see her crouching down upon the little seat where he had often looked upon her with love and pride so innocent and gay and when she rose and left him sobbing as she went he felt it a relief to have the vacant place beside him rather than her so long cherished presence this in itself was anguish than all reminding him how desolate he was become and how the great bond of his
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life was rent asunder on the hearth the more be felt this and the more he knew he could have better borne to see her lying dead before him with their little child upon her breast the higher and the stronger rose his wrath against his enemy he looked about him for a weapon there was a gun hanging on the wall he took it down and a pace or two towards the door of the stranger s room he knew the gun was loaded some shadowy idea that it was just to shoot this like a wild beast seized him and dilated in his mind until it grew into a monstrous demon in complete possession of him casting out all thoughts and setting up its empire that phrase is wrong not casting out his thoughts but them changing them into es to drive him on turning water into blood love into hate into blind ferocity her image but still pleading to his tenderness and mercy with power never left his mind but staying there it urged him to the door raised the weapon to hb shoulder fitted and his finger to the and cried kill him in his bed he reversed the gun to beat the stock upon the door he already held it in the air some indistinct design was in his thoughts of calling out to him to fly for god s sake by the window when suddenly the struggling fire illuminated the whole chimney with a glow of light and the on the hearth began to no sound he could have heard no human voice not even her s could so have moved and softened him the words in which she had him her love for this same were once more spoken her trembling earnest manner at the moment was again before him her pleasant oh what a voice it was for making household music at the fireside the of an honest man thrilled through and through his better an awoke it into life and action he from the door like a man walking in his sleeps awakened from a frightful dream and put the gun aside clasping his hands before his face he then sat down again the fire and fi und relief in tears the on the hearth came out into the room and stood in fairy shape before him i love it said the fairy voice repeating what he well remembered for the many times i have heard it and the many thoughts its harmless music has given me she said so cried the true this has been a happy home john and i love the for its sake it has been heaven knows returned the she made it happy always until now so gracefully sweet tempered so domestic joyful busy sa light hearted said the voice otherwise i never could have loved her as i did returned the the voice him said do the repeated as i did but not firmly his faltering tongue resisted his control and would speak in its own way for itself and him the figure in an attitude of raised its hand and said upon your own hearth the hearth she has interposed the the hearth she has how often blessed and brightened said the the hearth which but for her were only a few stones and bricks and rusty bars but which has been through her the altar of your home on which you have nightly sacrificed some petty passion selfishness or care and offered up the on the hearth homage of a tranquil mind a trusting nature and an overflowing heart so that the smoke from this poor chimney has gone upward with a better fragrance than the richest incense that is burnt before the richest in all the gaudy temples of the world upon your own hearth in its quiet surrounded by its gentle influences and associations hear her hear me hear everything that speaks the language of your hearth and home and for her inquired the all things that speak the language of your hearth and home must plead for her returned the for they speak the truth and while the with his head upon his hands continued to sit meditating la his chair the presence stood beside him suggesting his reflections by its power and presenting them re him as in a glass or picture it was not a solitary presence from the from the chimney from the clock the pipe the kettle and the cradle from the floor the walls the ceiling and the stairs from the cart without and the cupboard within and the household implements from every thing and every place with which she had ever been familiar and with which she had ever one recollection of herself in her unhappy husband s mind came forth not to stand beside him as the did but to busy and themselves to do all honor to her to pull him by the skirts and point to it when it appeared to cluster round it and embrace it and flowers for it to tread on to try to crown its fair head with their tiny hands to show that they were fond of it and loved it and that there was not one ugly wicked or creature to claim knowledge of it none but their playful and selves his thoughts were constant to her image it was always there the that s hearty the cards and board dot and a glass of beer here if there s any left small wife his challenge was addressed to the old lady who accepting it it w th gracious readiness they were soon engaged upon the game at first the looked about him sometimes with a smile or now and then called dot to peep over his shoulder at his band and advise him on son e point but his adversary being a rigid and subject
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to an occasional weakness in respect of more than she was entitled to required such vigilance on his part as left him neither eyes nor ears to spare thus his whole attention gradually became absorbed in th cards and he thought of nothing else until a hand upon hu shoulder restored him to a consciousness of i am sorry to disturb you but a word directly i m going to deal returned the it s a crisis it is said come here man there was something in his pale face which made him rise immediately and ask him in a hurry what the matter was hush john said i am sorry for this i am indeed i have been afraid of it i have suspected it from the first what is it asked the with a frightened aspect hush i ll show you if you come with me the accompanied him without another word they went across a yard where the stars were shining and by a little side door into s own counting house where there was a glass window commanding the which was closed for the night there was no light in the counting house itself but there were lamps in the long narrow and consequently the window was bright a moment said can you bear to look through that window do you think why not returned the on the hearth x a moment more said commit any violence it s of do use it s dangerous too you re a man and you might do murder before you know it the looked him in the face and a step as if he bad been struck in one stride he was at the window and he oh shadow on the hearth oh truthful oh wife he saw her with the old man old no longer but erect and gallant bearing in his hand the false hair that had won his way into their desolate and miserable home he saw her listening to him as he bent bis head to whisper in her ear and him to clasp her round the waist as they moved slowly down th dim wooden gallery towards the door by which they had entered it he saw them stop and saw her turn to have the face the face he loved so so presented to his view and he saw her with her own hands the lie upon his head laughing as she did it at his nature he clenched his strong right hand at first as if it would have beaten down a lion but opening it immediately again he spread it out before the eyes of for he was tender of her even then and so as they passed out fell down upon a desk and was as weak as an infant he was wrapped up to the chin and busy with his horse and when she came into the room prepared for going home now john dear night may good night could she kiss them could she be and cheerful in parting could she venture to reveal her face to them a blush yes observed her closely and she did all this was the baby and she crossed and a dozen times repeating did the knowledge that it was to be its then e the its hearts almost to breaking and did its fathers deceive it from its but to break its hearts at last now give me the baby good night mr where s john for goodness sake he s going to walk beside the horse s head said who helped her to her seat my dear john walk to night the muffled figure of her husband made a hasty sign in the affirmative and the false stranger and the little nurse being in their places the old horse moved off the running on before running back running round and round the cart and barking as triumphantly and merrily as ever when had gone off may and her mother home poor sat down by the fire beside his daughter anxious and at the core and still saying in his wistful contemplation of her have i deceived her from her but to break her heart at last p the toys that had been set in motion for the baby had all stopped and run down long ago in the faint light and silence the calm the agitated rocking horses with eyes and nostrils the old gentlemen at the street doors standing half doubled up upon their failing knees and ankles the faced the very beasts upon their way into the ark in like a boarding school out walking might have been imagined to be stricken motionless with fantastic wonder at dot being false or beloved under any combination of circumstances on the the third thb dutch clock in the corner struck ten when the sat down hy his fireside so troubled and grief worn that h seemed to scare the who having cut his ten melodious as short as possible plunged back into tlie palace again and clapped his little door behind him ad if the unwonted spectacle were too much for his feelings if the little had been armed with the of and had cut at every stroke into the s heart he never could have and wounded it as dot had done it was a heart so full of love for her so bound up and held together by innumerable threads of winning remembrance spun from the daily working of her many qualities of it was a heart in which she had herself so gently and so closely a heart so single and so earnest in its truth so strong in right so weak in wrong that it could cherish neither nor revenge at first and had only room to hold the broken image of its idol but slowly slowly as the sat brooding on his hearth now cold and other and thought began to rise
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him as an angry wind comes rising in the night the stranger was beneath his outraged roof three steps take him to his chamber door one blow would beat it in might do murder before you know it had said how could it be mu er if he gave the villain time to with him hand to hand he was the younger man it was an ill timed thought bad for the dark mood of his mind it was an angry him lo some act should ihe cheerful house a haunted place which lonely travellers would to pass by night and where timid would see shadows struggling in the ruined windows when the moan was dim and hear wild noises in the stormy he was younger man yes yes some lover who hail won the heart tiiat he had never touched some lover of her early choice of whom she bad thought and dreamed for whom she had and when he had fancied her happy by side oh agony to think of it she had been above stairs with the baby getting it a he sat on the hearth she came close beside him his knowledge in the turning of the rack of his great i he lost ail other sounds and put her little stool at his feel r only knew it when he felt her hand upon lu j own and saw looking up into his face with wonder no it was his first impression and he w s fain to look at her lo set it right no not with wonder with an eager and inquiring look but not with at it was and serious then it changed li dreadful of of bis thoughts j then then w nothing but her clasped hands on her brow aod r h and hair though the power of had hi to at that moment he bad too much of its r in breast to have turned one feather s weight of it but he not bear to see her crouching down up w seat where he had often looked upon her with love a id i innocent and gay and when she rose and left him he felt it a relief to have the vacant place him rather than ber so cherished presence this in itself f anguish than all reminding him bow te h wm the hood of his w a not on the hearth the more he felt this and the more he knew he could have letter borne to see her lying dead before him with heir little child upon her breast the higher and the stronger rose lis wrath against his enemy he looked about him for a there was a gun hanging on the wall he took it down and a pace or two towards the door of the stranger s he knew the gun was loaded some shadowy idea that just to shoot this like a wild beast seized him and in his mind until it grew into a monstrous demon in possession of him casting out all thoughts and set up its empire phrase is wrong not casting out his thoughts t them changing them into to ive him on turning water into blood love into hate into blind ferocity her image t still pleading to his tenderness and mercy with never left his mind but staying there it urged him to door raised the weapon to his shoulder fitted and finger to the and cried kill him in his bed reversed the gun to beat the stock upon the door he already id it in the air some indistinct design was in his thoughts calling out to him to fly for god s sake by the window suddenly the struggling fire illuminated the whole with a glow of light and the on the hearth to no sound he could have heard no human voice not even s could so have moved and softened him the in which she had told him her love for this same ere once more spoken her trembling earnest manner t the moment was again before him her pleasant oh hat a voice it was for making household music at the fireside the of an honest man thrilled through and through his better an awoke it into life and action he from the door like a man walking in his awakened from a frightful dream and put the gun aside clasping his hands before his face he then sat down again the fire and found relief in tears the on the hearth came out into the room and stood in fairy shape before him i love it said the fairy voice repeating what he well remembered for the many times i have heard it and the many thoughts its harmless music has given me she said so cried the true this has been a happy home john and i love the for its sake it has been heaven knows returned the she made it happy always until now so gracefully sweet tempered so domestic joyful busy light hearted said the voice otherwise i never could have loved her as i did returned the the voice him said do the repeated as i did but not firmly his faltering tongue resisted his control and would speak in its own way for itself and him the figure in an attitude of raised its hand and said upon your own hearth the hearth she has interposed the the hearth she has how often blessed and brightened said the the hearth which but for her were only a few stones and bricks and rusty bars but which has been through her the altar of your home on which you have nightly sacrificed some petty passion selfishness or care and offered up the on the hearth of a tranquil mind a trusting nature and an overflowing heart so that the smoke from this poor
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home poor sat down by the fire beside his daughter anxious and at the core and still saying in his ful contemplation of her have i deceived her from her cradle but to break her heart at last tho bid m l ab i h al k e and ran long ago id the faint light the the agitated k ye gentlemen at the b standing half doubled up upon their and j faced the very beasts upon their the ark in like a out walking been imagined to be stricken with wonder being or under toy af j on the hearth the thb dutch clock in the corner struck ten when the sat down hy his fireside so troubled and grief worn that he seemed to scare the who having cut his ten melodious as short as possible plunged back into the palace again and clapped his little door behind him a if the unwonted were too much for his feelings if the little had been armed with the of and had cut at every stroke into the s heart he never could have and wounded it as dot had done it was a heart so full of love for her so bound up and held together by innumerable threads of winning remembrance spun from the daily working of her many qualities of it was a heart in which she had herself so gently and so closely a heart so single and so earnest in its truth so strong in right so weak in wrong that it could cherish neither a nor revenge at first and had only room to hold the broken image of its idol but slowly slowly as the sat brooding on his hearth now cold and other and thought began to rise him as an angry wind comes rising in the night the stranger was beneath his outraged roof three steps take him to his chamber door one blow would beat it in might do murder before you know it had said how could it be mu er if he gave the villain time to with him hand to hand he was the younger man it was an ill timed thought bad for the dark mood of his mind it was an angry him to same act thai should the cheerful house into a haunted place which lonely travellers would dread to pass by night and where timid would see shadows struggling in the ruined windows the moon was dim and hear wild noises in the stormy weather he was the younger man yes yes some lover who had won the heart that be had never touched some lover of her choice of whom she had thought and dreamed for whom sha had and when he had fancied her so happy by side oh agony to think of it she had been above stairs with the baby getting it to bed he sat brooding on the hearth she came close beside his knowledge in the turning of the rack of his great he lost all other sounds and put her little stool at his feet only knew it when he felt her hand upon his own and saw h looking up into his face with wonder no it was his first impression he w k fain to look at her again to set it right no not with with an eager aod inquiring look but with at it wa alarmed and serious then it changed a j dreadful smile of of hi thoughts re w nothing but her clasped hands on ber brow and r bent hm and hair though the power of had been his to that he had loo much of its his breast to have turned one feather s weight of it b f but he could not bear to see her crouching down eat where he bad often looked upon her with so innocent and gay and when she rose and left him m be went he felt it a relief to have the vacant him rather than her so long cherished presence this ia itself anguish than all reminding how tp and bow be bend of his w i not r on the hearth the more he felt this and the more he knew he could have borne to see her lying dead before him with their little child upon her breast the higher and the stronger rose ills wrath against his enemy he looked about him for a there was a gun hanging on the wall he took it down and moved a pace or two towards the door of the stranger s loom he knew the gun was loaded some shadowy idea that it was just to shoot this an like a wild beast seized him and dilated in his mind until it grew into a monstrous demon in complete possession of him casting out all thoughts and setting up its empire that phrase is wrong not casting out his thoughts but them changing them into to drive him on turning water into blood love into hate into blind ferocity her image but still pleading to his tenderness and mercy with power never left his mind but staying there it urged him to the door raised the weapon to his shoulder fitted and his finger to the and cried kill him in his bed v he reversed the gun to beat the stock upon the door he already held it in the air some indistinct design was in his thoughts of calling out to him to fly for s sake by the window when suddenly the struggling fire illuminated the whole chimney with a glow of light and the on the hearth began to no sound he could have heard no human voice not even her s could so have moved and him the words in which she had told him her love for this same were once more spoken her
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trembling earnest manner at the moment was again before him her pleasant oh what a voice it was for making household music at the fireside the of an honest man thrilled through and through his better an awoke it into life and action he from the door like a man walking in his awakened from a frightful dream and put the gun aside clasping his hands before his face he then sat down again the fire and found relief in tears the on the hearth came out into the room and stood in fairy shape before him i love it said the fairy voice repeating what he well remembered for the many times i have heard it and the many thoughts its harmless music has given me she said so i cried the true this has been a happy home john and i love the for its sake it has been heaven knows returned the she made it happy always until now so gracefully sweet tempered so domestic joyful busy va light hearted said the voice otherwise i never could have loved her as i did returned the the voice him said do the repeated as i did but not firmly his tongue resisted his control and would speak in its own way for itself and him the figure in an attitude of raised its hand and said upon your own hearth the hearth she has interposed the the hearth she has how often i blessed and brightened said the the hearth which but for her were only a few stones and bricks and rusty bars but which has been her the altar of your home on which you have nightly sacrificed some petty passion selfishness or care and offered up the on the hearth homage of a tranquil mind a trusting nature and an overflowing heart so that the smoke from this poor chimney has gone up ward with a better fragrance than the richest incense that is burnt before the richest in all the gaudy temples of the world upon your own hearth in its quiet surrounded by its gentle influences and associations hear her hear me hear everything that speaks the language of your hearth and home and for her inquired the all things that speak the language of your hearth and home must plead for her returned the for they speak the truth and while the with his head upon his hands to sit meditating in his chair the presence stood beside him suggesting his reflections by its power and presenting them before him as in a glass or picture it was not a solitary presence from the from the chimney from the clock the pipe the kettle and the cradle from the floor the walls the ceiling and the stairs from the cart without and the cupboard within and the household implements from every thing and every place with which she had ever been familiar and with which she had ever one recollection of herself in her unhappy husband s mind came forth not to stand beside him as the did but to busy and themselves to do all honor to her image to pull him by the skirts and point to it when it appeared to cluster round it and embrace it and flowers for it to tread on to try to crown its fair head with their tiny hands to show that they were fond of it and loved it and that there was not one ugly wicked or creature to claim knowledge of it none but their playful and selves his thoughts were constant to her image it was always here the she sat her needle before the fire and singing to herself such a steady little dot the figures turned upon him all at once by one consent with prodigious concentrated stare and seemed to say is this the light wife you are mourning for there were sounds of gaiety outside musical instruments ind noisy tongues and laughter a crowd of young merry came pouring in among whom were may and a score of pretty girls dot was the fairest of them all as young ai any of them too they came to summon her to join their party it was a dance if ever little foot were made for dancing hen was surely but she laughed and shook her head and pointed to her on the fire and her table ready spread with an defiance that rendered her more charming than she was before and so she merrily dismissed them nodding to her would be partners one by one as they passed out with a enough to make them go and drown immediately if they were her admirers and they must have been so more or less they couldn t help it and yet indifference vas not her character oh no for presently there came a ain to the door and bless her what a welcome she best ed upon him a the staring figures turned upon him all at once and ned to say is this the wife who has forsaken you a shadow fell upon the mirror or the picture call it what you will a great shadow of the stranger as he first stood their roof covering its surface and out all objects but the worked like bees to clear it off again and dot again was there still bright and beau rocking her little baby in its cradle singing to it softly and resting her head upon a shoulder which had its in the musing figure by which the fairy stood on the hearth the night i mean the real night not going by fairy was wearing now and in this stage of the s thoughts the burst out and shone brightly in the sky perhaps some calm and quiet light had risen also in his mind and he could more of what had happened although
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the shadow of the stranger fell at intervals upon the always distinct and big and thoroughly defined it never fell darkly as at first whenever it appeared the uttered a general cry of consternation and plied their little legs with inconceivable activity to rub it out and they got a dot again and showed her to him once more bright and beautiful they cheered in the most inspiring manner they never showed her otherwise than beautiful and bright they were household spirits to whom falsehood is and being so what dot was there for them but the one active beaming pleasant little creature who had been the light sun of the s home the were excited when they showed her with the baby among a knot of sage old and ing to be wondrous old and herself and leaning in a staid old way upon her husband s arm she such a bud of a little woman to convey the idea of having the of the world in general and of being the sort of person to whom it was no novelty at all to be a mother yet in the same breath they showed her laughing at the for being awkward and pulling up his shirt collar to make him smart and merrily about that very room to teach him how to dance they turned and stared immensely at him when they showed her with the blind girl for though she carried cheerfulness and animation with her she went she bore those influences into s home heaped up and running over the blind girl s love for her and trust in her and gratitude to her her if way of setting little arts for filling up each moment of the visit in doing sob ti to the house and really working bard while to make holiday her provision of those the and ham pie and the bottles of beer her radiant face arriving at the door and taking leave l ie wonderful expression in her whole self her neat foot to the crown of her head of a part of the establishment a necessary to it which it couldn t he without all in and loved her for and once again looked upon him all at once and seemed to say some among them in her dress and her the wife who has betrayed your confidence more once or twice r r thrice in the long thoughtful night they showed be sitting on ber favorite seat with her bent head hands clasped on her brow her falling hair as he bad seen her and when they bad found her they neither turned nor looked upon l im but gathered close round her and comforted and kissed her and pressed on another to show sympathy and to her and t him altogether thus the night passed the moon went down the pale the day broke j the rose the i musing in the chimney comer he bad sat with upon his hands night ah night the faithful had tm on the hearth night he bad to its voice all night the had been him all night she had been amiable and ip glass except when that one shadow fell upon it he rose up when it was broad day and washed and himself he could not go about his customary cheerful aw tions he wanted spirit for them but it mattered the m rt was s wedding day and he bad arranged to make ui by he had thought to have gone on the hearth church with dot but such plans were at an end it was their own wedding day too ah how little he had looked for such a close to such a year the expected that would pay him an early sit and he was right he had not walked to and fro before his own door many minutes when he saw the toy merchant coming in his chaise along the road as the chaise drew nearer he perceived that was dressed out for his and had decorated his horse s head with flowers and the horse looked much more like a bridegroom than whose half closed eye was more expressive than ever but the took little heed of this his thoughts had other occupation john said with an air of my good fellow how do you find yourself this r i have had but a poor night master returned the shaking his head for i have been a good deal disturbed in my mind but it s over now can you spare me half an hour or so for some private talk v i came on purpose returned never mind the horse he ll stand quiet enough with the reins over this post if you ll give him a of hay k the having brought it from his stable and set it before him they turned into the house you are not married before noon he said i think no answered plenty of time plenty of time when they entered the kitchen was at he stranger s door which was only removed from it by a few steps one of her very red eyes for had been crying all ht long because her mistress cried was at ihe and she was knocking very loud and seemed frightened if you please can t make nobody hear said round i hope nobody ain t gone and been and died please wish miss with ti new and at the door which led to no result shall i go said it s the who had turned his face from the si him to go if he would so went to a relief and be loo and knocked and he too failed to get the least reply ht of trying the handle of the door and as it opened he peeped in looked in went in and soon came n john said in his
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if you please don t cried throwing head and bursting out into a howl she looked at the like ow please don t ow win on the hearth has every body gone and been and done with everybody making everybody else so wretched ow w w w the soft hearted off at this juncture into such a deplorable howl the more tremendous from its long that she must have awakened the baby and frightened him into something serious probably if her eyes had not encountered leading in his daughter this spectacle restoring her to a sense of the she stood for some few moments silent with her mouth wide open and then off to the bed on which the baby lay asleep danced in a weird saint manner on the floor and at the same time with her face and head among tke much relief from those extraordinary operations mary said not at the marriage i told her you would not be there whispered i heard as much last night but bless you said the little man taking her tenderly by both hands i don t care for what they say i don t believe them there ain t much of me but that little should be torn to pieces sooner than i d a word against you he put his arms about her neck and her as a child might have one of his own couldn t stay at home this morning said she was afraid i know to hear the bells ring and couldn t trust herself to be so near them on their wedding day so we started in good time and came here i have been thinking of what i have done said a s pause i have been myself till i hardly knew what to do or where to turn for the distress of mind i have caused her and i ve come to the ion that i d better if you ll stay with me the while tell her the truth you ll stay with me the while he inquired trembling from head to foot i don t know what the effect it may have upon her i don t know what shell think of me i don t know that she ll ever care for her poor father afterwards but it s best for her that she should be and i must bear the consequences as i deserve mary said where is your hand ah here it ia here it is p pressing it to her lips with a smile and drawing it through her arm i heard them speaking softly themselves last night of some blame against you were wrong the s wife was silent answered for her they were wrong he said i knew it cried proudly i told them so i scorned to hear a word blame her with just ee she the hand between her own and the soil cheek against her no i am not so blind as that her father went on one side of her while dot remained upon the other holding hand i know you all said better than you think but none so well as her not even you father there is nothing half so real and so true about me as she is if i could be restored to sight this instant and not a word were spoken i could choose her from a crowd my sister my dear said i have something on my mind i want to tell you while we three are alone hear me kindly i have a confession to make to you my darling a confession father i have wandered from the truth and lost myself my child said with a pitiable expression in his bewildered face i have wandered from the truth intending to be kind to you and have been cruel she turned her wonder stricken face towards him and repeated cruel on the hearth he himself too strongly said dot you ll y presently be the first to tell him so he cruel to me cried with a smile of incredulity not meaning it my child said but i have been though i never suspected it ill yesterday my dear blind daughter hear me and forgive me the world you live in heart of mine doesn t exist as i have represented it the eyes you have trusted in have been false to you she turned her wonder stricken face towards him still but draw l and clung closer to her friend your road in life was rough my poor one said and i meant to it for you i have altered objects changed the characters of people invented many things that never have been to make you happier i have had from you put on you god forgive me and surrounded you with but living people are not fancies she said hurriedly and turning very pale and still retiring from him you can t change them i have done so pleaded there is one person that you know my dove oh father why do you say i know she answered in a tone of keen reproach what and whom do i know i who have no leader i so miserably blind in the anguish of her heart she stretched out her hands as if she were groping her way then spread them in a manner most forlorn and sad upon her face the marriage that lakes place to day said is with a stern sordid grinding man a hard master to you and me my dear for many years ugly in his looks and in his nature cold and always unlike what i have painted him to you in everything my child in everything oh why cried the blind tortured as it seemed almost beyond endurance why did you ever do this why did you ever ill my heart so full and then come in like death and
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tear away the objects of my lore oh heaven how wind i am how helpless and alone her afflicted father hung his head and offered do reply but is his and sorrow she had been but a short time in this passion of regret ihe on the hearth unheard by all but her began to not merrily but in a ion faint way it was so mournful that her tears began to flow and when the presence which had been beside the all night appeared her pointing to her father they fell down like rain she heard the voice more plainly soon and was through her blindness of the presence hovering about her father mary said the blind girl tell me what my home ft what it truly is it is a poor place very poor and bare indeed the house will scarcely keep out wind and rain another winter it is as roughly from the weather dot in a low clear voice as your poor father in his coat the blind girl greatly agitated rose and led the b little wife aside those presents that i took such care of that came almost at my wish and were so dearly welcome to she said trembling where did they come from did you them v no who then dot saw she knew already and was silent the blind girl spread her hands before her face again but in quite another r now dear mary a moment one moment more this way on the hearth m p softly to me you are true i know you d not deceive ine now would you no indeed no i am sure you would not you have too much pity for me mary look across the room to where we were now to here my father is my father so compassionate and loving to me and tell me what you see i see said dot who understood her well an old man sitting in a chair and leaning sorrowfully on the back with his resting on his hand as if his child should comfort him yes yes she will go on he is an old man worn with care and work he is a spare dejected thoughtful grey haired man i see him now ent and bowed down and striving against nothing but i have seen him many times before and striving hard in many ways for one great sacred object and i honor his grey head and bless him the blind girl broke away from her and throwing herself upon her knees before him took the grey head to her breast it is my sight restored it is my sight she cried i have been blind and how my eyes are open i never knew him to think i might have died and never truly seen the ther who has been so loving to me there were no words for s emotion there is not a gallant figure on this earth exclaimed the blind girl holding him in her embrace that i would love so dearly and would cherish so as this the and w the dearer father never let them say i am blind there s not a in his face there s not a hair upon his head that shall be forgotten in my prayer and thanks to heaven managed to articulate my and in my blindness i believed said the girl caressing him with tears of exquisite affection to be bo and having him beside me day by day so of always never dreamed of the blue coat said poor the fresh smart father he s gone nothing is gone she everything is here in you the father that i never whom i first began to such sympathy for me all to me the soul of all dearest father no le father that i loved bo well and never knew the love lie had you nothing is dead ar to me is here with the worn face a father any longer course upon he ihe little clock was within id the grey head and i am not blind had been during this daughter but looking now towards the meadow she saw that the and fell here she is ever told me anything of im afraid returned into a nervous and excited state father said hesitating yea my dear returned there is no change in her you i her that was not true i should have done it my dear f if i could have made her than she was but i must have changed her for the worse if i had changed her at all nothing could improve her confident as the blind girl had been when she asked the question her delight and pride in the reply and her renewed embrace of dot were charming to behold more changes than you think for may happen though my dear said dot changes for the better i mean changes for great joy to some of us you mustn t let them yoa too on the hearth much if any such should ever happen and affect are those wheels upon the road you ve a quick ear are they wheels yes very fast i i i know you have a quick ear said dot placing her hand upon her heart and evidently talking on as fast as she could to hide its state because i have noticed it often and because you were so quick to find out that strange step last night though why you should have said as i very well recollect you did say whose step is that and why you have taken any greater observation of it than of any other step i don t know though as i said just now there are great changes in the world great changes and we can t do better than prepare ourselves to be surprised at hardly anything wondered what this meant
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perceiving that she spoke to him no less than to his daughter he saw her with astonishment so fluttered and distressed that she could scarcely breathe and holding to a chair to save herself from falling they are wheels indeed she panted coming nearer f nearer very close and now you hear them stopping at the garden gate and now you hear the step outside the door the same step is it not and now she uttered a wild cry of delight and running up to put her hands upon his eyes as a young man rushed into the room and flinging away his hat into the air came sweeping down upon them is it over cried dot yes r happily over yes do you recollect the voice dear i did you ever hear like of it before cried dot if my boy ia ihe golden south was alive he is alive shrieked removing her hands from his them in ecstasy look at him see where e you healthy and strong your own dear son your own dear living loving brother all honor lo the little creature for her all lo her tears and laughter when the three were locked in one another s arms all honor to the with which she met the sailor fellow with his dark streaming hair halt way and never turned her mouth aside but suffered him kiss it freely and lo press her lo his bounding heart and honor to the too why not for bursting out of the trap door in the palace a and twelve times on the assembled company a if he had got drunk for joy the entering back and well he lo find himself in such good company look john said look here i my own boy from the golden south my own son him you fitted out and away yourself him that yon always such a friend to the advanced to seize him by the hand but as feature in his face awakened a remembrance of deaf man in he cart edward i was it you now tell him all cried dot tell him all edward and don t spare me for shall make me spare myself in his eyes ever again i was the man said edward and you steal disguised into the of your m rejoined the there was a frank boy y the bow years is it since we heard that he was dead and had it proved we thought r who would hare done that there was a generous friend of mine once a father than a friend said edward never would have me or any other man unheard were he so i am certain you will hear me now the with a troubled glance at dot who still kept away from him replied well that s but fair i will f you must know that when i left here a boy said edward i was in love and my k ve returned she was a very girl who perhaps you may tell me didn t know her own mind but i knew mine and i had a passion for her you had exclaimed the you indeed i had returned the other and she returned it i have ever since believed she did and now i am sure she did heaven help me said the this is than all constant to her said edward and returning full of hope many hardships and perils to redeem my part of our old contract i heard twenty miles away that she was false to me that she had forgotten me and had bestowed upon another and a richer man i had no mind to reproach her but i wished to see her and to prove dispute that this was true i hoped she might have been forced into it against her own desire and recollection it would be small comfort but it would be some i thought and on i came that i might have the truth the real truth observing freely for myself and judging for myself without on the one hand or presenting my own influence if i had any before her on the other i dressed self unlike myself you know how and waited on the you know where you had no un of me neither had the bad she to dot until i whispered in her ear at that fireside and she so nearly betrayed me but when she knew that edward was alive and had come back sobbed dot now speaking for herself as she had burned to do all through this narrative and when she knew his purpose she advised by all means to keep his secret close for his old friend john was much too open in his and too clumsy in all being a clumsy man in general said dot half laughing and half crying to keep it for him and when she that s me john sobbed the little woman told him all and how his sweetheart had believed him to be dead and how she had at last been over persuaded by her mother into a marriage which the silly dear old thing called advantageous and when she that s me again john him they were not yet married though close upon it and that it would be nothing but a sacrifice if it went on for there was no love on her side and when he went nearly mad with joy to hear it then she that s me again said she would go between them as she had often done before in old times john and would sound his sweetheart and be sure that what she me again john said and thought was right and it was right john and they were brought together john and they were married john an hour
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