The Old Curiosity Shop

by Dickens, Charles

  Kit, and wasn't Barbara herself quite fascinated with little Jacob,

  and did ever a child show off when he was wanted, as that child

  did, or make such friends as he made!

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  'And we are both widows too!' said Barbara's mother. 'We must have

  been made to know each other.'

  'I haven't a doubt about it,' returned Mrs Nubbles. 'And what a

  pity it is we didn't know each other sooner.'

  'But then, you know, it's such a pleasure,' said Barbara's mother,

  'to have it brought about by one's son and daughter, that it's

  fully made up for. Now, an't it?'

  To this, Kit's mother yielded her full assent, and tracing things

  back from effects to causes, they naturally reverted to their

  deceased husbands, respecting whose lives, deaths, and burials,

  they compared notes, and discovered sundry circumstances that

  tallied with wonderful exactness; such as Barbara's father having

  been exactly four years and ten months older than Kit's father, and

  one of them having died on a Wednesday and the other on a Thursday,

  and both of them having been of a very fine make and remarkably

  good-looking, with other extraordinary coincidences. These

  recollections being of a kind calculated to cast a shadow on the

  brightness of the holiday, Kit diverted the conversation to general

  topics, and they were soon in great force again, and as merry as

  before. Among other things, Kit told them about his old place, and

  the extraordinary beauty of Nell (of whom he had talked to Barbara

  a thousand times already); but the last-named circumstance failed

  to interest his hearers to anything like the extent he had

  supposed, and even his mother said (looking accidentally at Barbara

  at the same time) that there was no doubt Miss Nell was very

  pretty, but she was but a child after all, and there were many

  young women quite as pretty as she; and Barbara mildly observed

  that she should think so, and that she never could help believing

  Mr Christopher must be under a mistake--which Kit wondered at very

  much, not being able to conceive what reason she had for doubting

  him. Barbara's mother too, observed that it was very common for

  young folks to change at about fourteen or fifteen, and whereas

  they had been very pretty before, to grow up quite plain; which

  truth she illustrated by many forcible examples, especially one of

  a young man, who, being a builder with great prospects, had been

  particular in his attentions to Barbara, but whom Barbara would

  have nothing to say to; which (though everything happened for the

  best) she almost thought was a pity. Kit said he thought so too,

  and so he did honestly, and he wondered what made Barbara so silent

  all at once, and why his mother looked at him as if he shouldn't

  have said it.

  However, it was high time now to be thinking of the play; for which

  great preparation was required, in the way of shawls and bonnets,

  not to mention one handkerchief full of oranges and another of

  apples, which took some time tying up, in consequence of

  the fruit having a tendency to roll out at the corners. At length,

  everything was ready, and they went off very fast; Kit's mother

  carrying the baby, who was dreadfully wide awake, and Kit holding

  little Jacob in one hand, and escorting Barbara with the other--a

  state of things which occasioned the two mothers, who walked

  behind, to declare that they looked quite family folks, and caused

  Barbara to blush and say, 'Now don't, mother!' But Kit said she had

  no call to mind what they said; and indeed she need not have had,

  if she had known how very far from Kit's thoughts any love-making

  was. Poor Barbara!

  At last they got to the theatre, which was Astley's: and in some

  two minutes after they had reached the yet unopened door, little

  Jacob was squeezed flat, and the baby had received divers

  concussions, and Barbara's mother's umbrella had been carried

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  several yards off and passed back to her over the shoulders of the

  people, and Kit had hit a man on the head with the handkerchief of

  apples for 'scrowdging' his parent with unnecessary violence, and

  there was a great uproar. But, when they were once past the

  pay-place and tearing away for very life with their checks in their

  hands, and, above all, when they were fairly in the theatre, and

  seated in such places that they couldn't have had better if they

  had picked them out, and taken them beforehand, all this was looked

  upon as quite a capital joke, and an essential part of the

  entertainment.

  Dear, dear, what a place it looked, that Astley's; with all the

  paint, gilding, and looking-glass; the vague smell of horses

  suggestive of coming wonders; the curtain that hid such gorgeous

  mysteries; the clean white sawdust down in the circus; the company

  coming in and taking their places; the fiddlers looking carelessly

  up at them while they tuned their instruments, as if they didn't

  want the play to begin, and knew it all beforehand! What a glow

  was that, which burst upon them all, when that long, clear,

  brilliant row of lights came slowly up; and what the feverish

  excitement when the little bell rang and the music began in good

  earnest, with strong parts for the drums, and sweet effects for the

  triangles! Well might Barbara's mother say to Kit's mother that

  the gallery was the place to see from, and wonder it wasn't much

  dearer than the boxes; well might Barbara feel doubtful whether to

  laugh or cry, in her flutter of delight.

  Then the play itself! the horses which little Jacob believed from

  the first to be alive, and the ladies and gentlemen of whose

  reality he could be by no means persuaded, having never seen or

  heard anything at all like them--the firing, which made Barbara

  wink--the forlorn lady, who made her cry--the tyrant, who made

  her tremble--the man who sang the song with the lady's-maid and

  danced the chorus, who made her laugh--the pony who reared up on

  his hind legs when he saw the murderer, and wouldn't hear of

  walking on all fours again until he was taken into custody--the

  clown who ventured on such familiarities with the military man in

  boots--the lady who jumped over the nine-and-twenty ribbons and

  came down safe upon the horse's back--everything was delightful,

  splendid, and surprising! Little Jacob applauded till his hands

  were sore; Kit cried 'an-kor' at the end of everything, the

  three-act piece included; and Barbara's mother beat her umbrella on

  the floor, in her ecstasies, until it was nearly worn down to the

  gingham.

  In the midst of all these fascinations, Barbara's thoughts seemed

  to have been still running on what Kit had said at tea-time; for,

  when they were coming out of the play, she asked him, with an

  hysterical simper, if Miss Nell was as handsome as the lady who

  jumped over the ribbons.

  'As handsome as her?' said Kit. 'Double as handsome.' />
  'Oh Christopher! I'm sure she was the beautifullest creature ever

  was,' said Barbara.

  'Nonsense!' returned Kit. 'She was well enough, I don't deny that;

  but think how she was dressed and painted, and what a difference

  that made. Why YOU are a good deal better looking than her,

  Barbara.'

  'Oh Christopher!' said Barbara, looking down.

  'You are, any day,' said Kit, '--and so's your mother.'

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  Poor Barbara!

  What was all this though--even all this--to the extraordinary

  dissipation that ensued, when Kit, walking into an oyster-shop as

  bold as if he lived there, and not so much as looking at the

  counter or the man behind it, led his party into a box--a private

  box, fitted up with red curtains, white table-cloth, and cruetstand

  complete--and ordered a fierce gentleman with whiskers, who

  acted as waiter and called him, him Christopher Nubbles, 'sir,' to

  bring three dozen of his largest-sized oysters, and to look sharp

  about it! Yes, Kit told this gentleman to look sharp, and he not

  only said he would look sharp, but he actually did, and presently

  came running back with the newest loaves, and the freshest butter,

  and the largest oysters, ever seen. Then said Kit to this

  gentleman, 'a pot of beer'--just so--and the gentleman, instead

  of replying, 'Sir, did you address that language to me?' only said,

  'Pot o' beer, sir? Yes, sir,' and went off and fetched it, and put

  it on the table in a small decanter-stand, like those which

  blind-men's dogs carry about the streets in their mouths, to catch

  the half-pence in; and both Kit's mother and Barbara's mother

  declared as he turned away that he was one of the slimmest and

  gracefullest young men she had ever looked upon.

  Then they fell to work upon the supper in earnest; and there was

  Barbara, that foolish Barbara, declaring that she could not eat

  more than two, and wanting more pressing than you would believe

  before she would eat four: though her mother and Kit's mother made

  up for it pretty well, and ate and laughed and enjoyed themselves

  so thoroughly that it did Kit good to see them, and made him laugh

  and eat likewise from strong sympathy. But the greatest miracle of

  the night was little Jacob, who ate oysters as if he had been born

  and bred to the business--sprinkled the pepper and the vinegar

  with a discretion beyond his years--and afterwards built a grotto

  on the table with the shells. There was the baby too, who had

  never closed an eye all night, but had sat as good as gold, trying

  to force a large orange into his mouth, and gazing intently at the

  lights in the chandelier--there he was, sitting up in his mother's

  lap, staring at the gas without winking, and making indentations in

  his soft visage with an oyster-shell, to that degree that a heart

  of iron must have loved him! In short, there never was a more

  successful supper; and when Kit ordered in a glass of something hot

  to finish with, and proposed Mr and Mrs Garland before sending it

  round, there were not six happier people in all the world.

  But all happiness has an end--hence the chief pleasure of its next

  beginning--and as it was now growing late, they agreed it was time

  to turn their faces homewards. So, after going a little out of

  their way to see Barbara and Barbara's mother safe to a friend's

  house where they were to pass the night, Kit and his mother left

  them at the door, with an early appointment for returning to

  Finchley next morning, and a great many plans for next quarter's

  enjoyment. Then, Kit took little Jacob on his back, and giving his

  arm to his mother, and a kiss to the baby, they all trudged merrily

  home together.

  CHAPTER 40

  Full of that vague kind of penitence which holidays awaken next

  morning, Kit turned out at sunrise, and, with his faith in last

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  night's enjoyments a little shaken by cool daylight and the return

  to every-day duties and occupations, went to meet Barbara and her

  mother at the appointed place. And being careful not to awaken any

  of the little household, who were yet resting from their unusual

  fatigues, Kit left his money on the chimney-piece, with an

  inscription in chalk calling his mother's attention to the

  circumstance, and informing her that it came from her dutiful son;

  and went his way, with a heart something heavier than his pockets,

  but free from any very great oppression notwithstanding.

  Oh these holidays! why will they leave us some regret? why cannot

  we push them back, only a week or two in our memories, so as to put

  them at once at that convenient distance whence they may be

  regarded either with a calm indifference or a pleasant effort of

  recollection! why will they hang about us, like the flavour of

  yesterday's wine, suggestive of headaches and lassitude, and those

  good intentions for the future, which, under the earth, form the

  everlasting pavement of a large estate, and, upon it, usually

  endure until dinner-time or thereabouts!

  Who will wonder that Barbara had a headache, or that Barbara's

  mother was disposed to be cross, or that she slightly underrated

  Astley's, and thought the clown was older than they had taken him

  to be last night? Kit was not surprised to hear her say so--not

  he. He had already had a misgiving that the inconstant actors in

  that dazzling vision had been doing the same thing the night before

  last, and would do it again that night, and the next, and for weeks

  and months to come, though he would not be there. Such is the

  difference between yesterday and today. We are all going to the

  play, or coming home from it.

  However, the Sun himself is weak when he first rises, and gathers

  strength and courage as the day gets on. By degrees, they began to

  recall circumstances more and more pleasant in their nature, until,

  what between talking, walking, and laughing, they reached Finchley

  in such good heart, that Barbara's mother declared she never felt

  less tired or in better spirits. And so said Kit. Barbara had

  been silent all the way, but she said so too. Poor little Barbara!

  She was very quiet.

  They were at home in such good time that Kit had rubbed down the

  pony and made him as spruce as a race-horse, before Mr Garland came

  down to breakfast; which punctual and industrious conduct the old

  lady, and the old gentleman, and Mr Abel, highly extolled. At his

  usual hour (or rather at his usual minute and second, for he was

  the soul of punctuality) Mr Abel walked out, to be overtaken by the

  London coach, and Kit and the old gentleman went to work in the

  garden.

  This was not the least pleasant of Kit's employments. On a fine

  day they were quite a family party; the old lady sitting hard by

  with her work-basket on a little table; the old gentleman digging,

  or pruning, or clipping about with a large pair of shears, or

  helping Kit in some way or other
with great assiduity; and Whisker

  looking on from his paddock in placid contemplation of them all.

  To-day they were to trim the grape-vine, so Kit mounted half-way up

  a short ladder, and began to snip and hammer away, while the old

  gentleman, with a great interest in his proceedings, handed up the

  nails and shreds of cloth as he wanted them. The old lady and

  Whisker looked on as usual.

  'Well, Christopher,' said Mr Garland, 'and so you have made a new

  friend, eh?'

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  'I beg your pardon, Sir?' returned Kit, looking down from the

  ladder.

  'You have made a new friend, I hear from Mr Abel,' said the old

  gentleman, 'at the office!'

  'Oh! Yes Sir, yes. He behaved very handsome, Sir.'

  'I'm glad to hear it,' returned the old gentlemen with a smile.

  'He is disposed to behave more handsomely still, though,

  Christopher.'

  'Indeed, Sir! It's very kind in him, but I don't want him to, I'm

  sure,' said Kit, hammering stoutly at an obdurate nail.

  'He is rather anxious,' pursued the old gentleman, 'to have you in

  his own service--take care what you're doing, or you will fall

  down and hurt yourself.'

  'To have me in his service, Sir?' cried Kit, who had stopped short

  in his work and faced about on the ladder like some dexterous

  tumbler. 'Why, Sir, I don't think he can be in earnest when he

  says that.'

  'Oh! But he is indeed,' said Mr Garland. 'And he has told Mr Abel

  so.'

  'I never heard of such a thing!' muttered Kit, looking ruefully at

  his master and mistress. 'I wonder at him; that I do.'

  'You see, Christopher,' said Mr Garland, 'this is a point of much

  importance to you, and you should understand and consider it in

  that light. This gentleman is able to give you more money than I--

  not, I hope, to carry through the various relations of master and

  servant, more kindness and confidence, but certainly, Christopher,

  to give you more money.'

  'Well,' said Kit, 'after that, Sir--'

  'Wait a moment,' interposed Mr Garland. 'That is not all. You

  were a very faithful servant to your old employers, as I

  understand, and should this gentleman recover them, as it is his

  purpose to attempt doing by every means in his power, I have no

  doubt that you, being in his service, would meet with your reward.