Doctor Marigold

by
Charles Dickens
A PPenn
enn SSttat
atee Electr onic Classics Ser
Electronic ies
Series
Publication
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Doct or Mar igold mother by my own father, when it took place on a com-
mon; and in consequence of his being a very kind gentle-
man, and accepting no fee but a tea-tray, I was named
by Doctor, out of gratitude and compliment to him. There
you have me. Doctor Marigold.
Char les Dic
Charles Dickkens I am at present a middle-aged man of a broadish build,
in cords, leggings, and a sleeved waistcoat the strings of

I
which is always gone behind. Repair them how you
am a Cheap Jack, and my own father’s name was
will, they go like fiddle-strings. You have been to the
Willum Marigold. It was in his lifetime supposed by
theatre, and you have seen one of the wiolin-players
some that his name was William, but my own father
screw up his wiolin, after listening to it as if it had been
always consistently said, No, it was Willum. On which
whispering the secret to him that it feared it was out of
point I content myself with looking at the argument
order, and then you have heard it snap. That’s as ex-
this way: If a man is not allowed to know his own name
actly similar to my waistcoat as a waistcoat and a wiolin
in a free country, how much is he allowed to know in a
can be like one another.
land of slavery? As to looking at the argument through
I am partial to a white hat, and I like a shawl round
the medium of the Register, Willum Marigold come into
my neck wore loose and easy. Sitting down is my
the world before Registers come up much,—and went
favourite posture. If I have a taste in point of personal
out of it too. They wouldn’t have been greatly in his
jewelry, it is mother-of-pearl buttons. There you have
line neither, if they had chanced to come up before him.
me again, as large as life.
I was born on the Queen’s highway, but it was the
The doctor having accepted a tea-tray, you’ll guess
King’s at that time. A doctor was fetched to my own

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 Doctor Marigold
that my father was a Cheap Jack before me. You are You can’t go on for ever, you’ll find, nor yet could my
right. He was. It was a pretty tray. It represented a father nor yet my mother. If you don’t go off as a whole
large lady going along a serpentining up-hill gravel-walk, when you are about due, you’re liable to go off in part,
to attend a little church. Two swans had likewise come and two to one your head’s the part. Gradually my
astray with the same intentions. When I call her a large father went off his, and my mother went off hers. It
lady, I don’t mean in point of breadth, for there she fell was in a harmless way, but it put out the family where
below my views, but she more than made it up in heighth; I boarded them. The old couple, though retired, got to
her heighth and slimness was—in short the heighth of be wholly and solely devoted to the Cheap Jack busi-
both. ness, and were always selling the family off. Whenever
I often saw that tray, after I was the innocently smil- the cloth was laid for dinner, my father began rattling
ing cause (or more likely screeching one) of the doctor’s the plates and dishes, as we do in our line when we put
standing it up on a table against the wall in his consult- up crockery for a bid, only he had lost the trick of it,
ing-room. Whenever my own father and mother were and mostly let ‘em drop and broke ‘em. As the old lady
in that part of the country, I used to put my head (I had been used to sit in the cart, and hand the articles
have heard my own mother say it was flaxen curls at out one by one to the old gentleman on the footboard
that time, though you wouldn’t know an old hearth- to sell, just in the same way she handed him every item
broom from it now till you come to the handle, and of the family’s property, and they disposed of it in their
found it wasn’t me) in at the doctor’s door, and the own imaginations from morning to night. At last the
doctor was always glad to see me, and said, “Aha, my old gentleman, lying bedridden in the same room with
brother practitioner! Come in, little M.D. How are your the old lady, cries out in the old patter, fluent, after
inclinations as to sixpence?” having been silent for two days and nights: “Now here,

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 Charles Dickens
my jolly companions every one,—which the Nightingale want of public spirit. Now I’ll tell you what I’ll do with
club in a village was held, At the sign of the Cabbage you. Come! I’ll throw you in a working model of a old
and Shears, Where the singers no doubt would have woman that was married to the old Cheap Jack so long
greatly excelled, But for want of taste, voices and ears,— ago that upon my word and honour it took place in
now, here, my jolly companions, every one, is a working Noah’s Ark, before the Unicorn could get in to forbid
model of a used-up old Cheap Jack, without a tooth in the banns by blowing a tune upon his horn. There
his head, and with a pain in every bone: so like life that now! Come! What do you say for both? I’ll tell you
it would be just as good if it wasn’t better, just as bad if what I’ll do with you. I don’t bear you malice for being
it wasn’t worse, and just as new if it wasn’t worn out. so backward. Here! If you make me a bid that’ll only
Bid for the working model of the old Cheap Jack, who reflect a little credit on your town, I’ll throw you in a
has drunk more gunpowder-tea with the ladies in his warming-pan for nothing, and lend you a toasting-fork
time than would blow the lid off a washerwoman’s cop- for life. Now come; what do you say after that splendid
per, and carry it as many thousands of miles higher offer? Say two pound, say thirty shillings, say a pound,
than the moon as naught nix naught, divided by the say ten shillings, say five, say two and six. You don’t
national debt, carry nothing to the poor-rates, three say even two and six? You say two and three? No. You
under, and two over. Now, my hearts of oak and men of shan’t have the lot for two and three. I’d sooner give it
straw, what do you say for the lot? Two shillings, a to you, if you was good-looking enough. Here! Missis!
shilling, tenpence, eightpence, sixpence, fourpence. Chuck the old man and woman into the cart, put the
Twopence? Who said twopence? The gentleman in the horse to, and drive ‘em away and bury ‘em!” Such were
scarecrow’s hat? I am ashamed of the gentleman in the the last words of Willum Marigold, my own father, and
scarecrow’s hat. I really am ashamed of him for his they were carried out, by him and by his wife, my own

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 Doctor Marigold
mother, on one and the same day, as I ought to know, For look here! Say it’s election time. I am on the
having followed as mourner. footboard of my cart in the market-place, on a Saturday
My father had been a lovely one in his time at the night. I put up a general miscellaneous lot. I say:
Cheap Jack work, as his dying observations went to prove. “Now here, my free and independent woters, I’m a going
But I top him. I don’t say it because it’s myself, but to give you such a chance as you never had in all your
because it has been universally acknowledged by all that born days, nor yet the days preceding. Now I’ll show
has had the means of comparison. I have worked at it. you what I am a going to do with you. Here’s a pair of
I have measured myself against other public speakers,— razors that’ll shave you closer than the Board of Guard-
Members of Parliament, Platforms, Pulpits, Counsel ians; here’s a flat-iron worth its weight in gold; here’s a
learned in the law,—and where I have found ‘em good, frying-pan artificially flavoured with essence of beef-
I have took a bit of imagination from ‘em, and where I steaks to that degree that you’ve only got for the rest
have found ‘em bad, I have let ‘em alone. Now I’ll tell of your lives to fry bread and dripping in it and there
you what. I mean to go down into my grave declaring you are replete with animal food; here’s a genuine chro-
that of all the callings ill used in Great Britain, the Cheap nometer watch in such a solid silver case that you may
Jack calling is the worst used. Why ain’t we a profes- knock at the door with it when you come home late
sion? Why ain’t we endowed with privileges? Why are from a social meeting, and rouse your wife and family,
we forced to take out a hawker’s license, when no such and save up your knocker for the postman; and here’s
thing is expected of the political hawkers? Where’s the half-a-dozen dinner plates that you may play the cym-
difference betwixt us? Except that we are Cheap Jacks bals with to charm baby when it’s fractious. Stop! I’ll
and they are Dear Jacks, I don’t see any difference but throw in another article, and I’ll give you that, and it’s
what’s in our favour. a rolling-pin; and if the baby can only get it well into its

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 Charles Dickens
mouth when its teeth is coming and rub the gums once Myself to Parliament. Now I’ll tell you what I am a going
with it, they’ll come through double, in a fit of laughter to do for you. Here’s the interests of this magnificent
equal to being tickled. Stop again! I’ll throw you in town promoted above all the rest of the civilised and
another article, because I don’t like the looks of you, for uncivilised earth. Here’s your railways carried, and your
you haven’t the appearance of buyers unless I lose by neighbours’ railways jockeyed. Here’s all your sons in
you, and because I’d rather lose than not take money the Post-office. Here’s Britannia smiling on you. Here’s
to-night, and that’s a looking-glass in which you may the eyes of Europe on you. Here’s uniwersal prosperity
see how ugly you look when you don’t bid. What do for you, repletion of animal food, golden cornfields, glad-
you say now? Come! Do you say a pound? Not you, for some homesteads, and rounds of applause from your
you haven’t got it. Do you say ten shillings? Not you, own hearts, all in one lot, and that’s myself. Will you
for you owe more to the tallyman. Well then, I’ll tell take me as I stand? You won’t? Well, then, I’ll tell you
you what I’ll do with you. I’ll heap ‘em all on the what I’ll do with you. Come now! I’ll throw you in
footboard of the cart,—there they are! razors, flat watch, anything you ask for. There! Church-rates, abolition of
dinner plates, rolling-pin, and away for four shillings, more malt tax, no malt tax, universal education to the
and I’ll give you sixpence for your trouble!” This is me, highest mark, or uniwersal ignorance to the lowest, to-
the Cheap Jack. But on the Monday morning, in the tal abolition of flogging in the army or a dozen for every
same market-place, comes the Dear Jack on the hust- private once a month all round, Wrongs of Men or Rights
ings—his cart—and, what does HE say? “Now my free of Women—only say which it shall be, take ‘em or leave
and independent woters, I am a going to give you such ‘em, and I’m of your opinion altogether, and the lot’s
a chance” (he begins just like me) “as you never had in your own on your own terms. There! You won’t take it
all your born days, and that’s the chance of sending yet! Well, then, I’ll tell you what I’ll do with you. Come!

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 Doctor Marigold
You ARE such free and independent woters, and I am so on the foot-board of the cart, to be dropped in the
proud of you,—you are such a noble and enlightened streets of your magnificent town for them to pick up
constituency, and I am so ambitious of the honour and that can. What do you say? Come now! You won’t do
dignity of being your member, which is by far the high- better, and you may do worse. You take it? Hooray!
est level to which the wings of the human mind can Sold again, and got the seat!”
soar,—that I’ll tell you what I’ll do with you. I’ll throw These Dear Jacks soap the people shameful, but we
you in all the public-houses in your magnificent town Cheap Jacks don’t. We tell ‘em the truth about them-
for nothing. Will that content you? It won’t? You selves to their faces, and scorn to court ‘em. As to
won’t take the lot yet? Well, then, before I put the wenturesomeness in the way of puffing up the lots, the
horse in and drive away, and make the offer to the next Dear Jacks beat us hollow. It is considered in the Cheap
most magnificent town that can be discovered, I’ll tell Jack calling, that better patter can be made out of a
you what I’ll do. Take the lot, and I’ll drop two thou- gun than any article we put up from the cart, except a
sand pound in the streets of your magnificent town for pair of spectacles. I often hold forth about a gun for a
them to pick up that can. Not enough? Now look here. quarter of an hour, and feel as if I need never leave off.
This is the very furthest that I’m a going to. I’ll make it But when I tell ‘em what the gun can do, and what the
two thousand five hundred. And still you won’t? Here, gun has brought down, I never go half so far as the
missis! Put the horse—no, stop half a moment, I Dear Jacks do when they make speeches in praise of
shouldn’t like to turn my back upon you neither for a their guns—their great guns that set ‘em on to do it.
trifle, I’ll make it two thousand seven hundred and fifty Besides, I’m in business for myself: I ain’t sent down
pound. There! Take the lot on your own terms, and I’ll into the market-place to order, as they are. Besides,
count out two thousand seven hundred and fifty pound again, my guns don’t know what I say in their lauda-

8
 Charles Dickens
tion, and their guns do, and the whole concern of ‘em over with beauty, and I won’t take a bid of a thousand
have reason to be sick and ashamed all round. These are pounds for from any man alive. Now what is it? Why,
some of my arguments for declaring that the Cheap Jack I’ll tell you what it is. It’s made of fine gold, and it’s not
calling is treated ill in Great Britain, and for turning broke, though there’s a hole in the middle of it, and it’s
warm when I think of the other Jacks in question set- stronger than any fetter that ever was forged, though
ting themselves up to pretend to look down upon it. it’s smaller than any finger in my set of ten. Why ten?
I courted my wife from the footboard of the cart. I Because, when my parents made over my property to
did indeed. She was a Suffolk young woman, and it was me, I tell you true, there was twelve sheets, twelve tow-
in Ipswich marketplace right opposite the corn-chandler’s els, twelve table-cloths, twelve knives, twelve forks,
shop. I had noticed her up at a window last Saturday twelve tablespoons, and twelve teaspoons, but my set of
that was, appreciating highly. I had took to her, and I fingers was two short of a dozen, and could never since
had said to myself, “If not already disposed of, I’ll have be matched. Now what else is it? Come, I’ll tell you.
that lot.” Next Saturday that come, I pitched the cart It’s a hoop of solid gold, wrapped in a silver curl-paper,
on the same pitch, and I was in very high feather in- that I myself took off the shining locks of the ever beau-
deed, keeping ‘em laughing the whole of the time, and tiful old lady in Threadneedle Street, London city; I
getting off the goods briskly. At last I took out of my wouldn’t tell you so if I hadn’t the paper to show, or
waistcoat-pocket a small lot wrapped in soft paper, and you mightn’t believe it even of me. Now what else is it?
I put it this way (looking up at the window where she It’s a man-trap and a handcuff, the parish stocks and a
was). “Now here, my blooming English maidens, is an leg-lock, all in gold and all in one. Now what else is it?
article, the last article of the present evening’s sale, which It’s a wedding-ring. Now I’ll tell you what I’m a going to
I offer to only you, the lovely Suffolk Dumplings biling do with it. I’m not a going to offer this lot for money;

9
 Doctor Marigold
but I mean to give it to the next of you beauties that it in a cart, you see. There’s thousands of couples among
laughs, and I’ll pay her a visit to-morrow morning at you getting on like sweet ile upon a whetstone in houses
exactly half after nine o’clock as the chimes go, and I’ll five and six pairs of stairs high, that would go to the
take her out for a walk to put up the banns.” She Divorce Court in a cart. Whether the jolting makes it
laughed, and got the ring handed up to her. When I worse, I don’t undertake to decide; but in a cart it does
called in the morning, she says, “O dear! It’s never you, come home to you, and stick to you. Wiolence in a cart
and you never mean it?” “It’s ever me,” says I, “and I is so wiolent, and aggrawation in a cart is so aggrawating.
am ever yours, and I ever mean it.” So we got married, We might have had such a pleasant life! A roomy cart,
after being put up three times—which, by the bye, is with the large goods hung outside, and the bed slung
quite in the Cheap Jack way again, and shows once more underneath it when on the road, an iron pot and a
how the Cheap Jack customs pervade society. kettle, a fireplace for the cold weather, a chimney for
She wasn’t a bad wife, but she had a temper. If she the smoke, a hanging-shelf and a cupboard, a dog and a
could have parted with that one article at a sacrifice, I horse. What more do you want? You draw off upon a
wouldn’t have swopped her away in exchange for any bit of turf in a green lane or by the roadside, you hobble
other woman in England. Not that I ever did swop her your old horse and turn him grazing, you light your fire
away, for we lived together till she died, and that was upon the ashes of the last visitors, you cook your stew,
thirteen year. Now, my lords and ladies and gentlefolks and you wouldn’t call the Emperor of France your fa-
all, I’ll let you into a secret, though you won’t believe ther. But have a temper in the cart, flinging language
it. Thirteen year of temper in a Palace would try the and the hardest goods in stock at you, and where are
worst of you, but thirteen year of temper in a Cart you then? Put a name to your feelings.
would try the best of you. You are kept so very close to My dog knew as well when she was on the turn as I

10
 Charles Dickens
did. Before she broke out, he would give a howl, and quite devoted to her poor father, though he could do so
bolt. How he knew it, was a mystery to me; but the little to help her. She had a wonderful quantity of shin-
sure and certain knowledge of it would wake him up out ing dark hair, all curling natural about her. It is quite
of his soundest sleep, and he would give a howl, and astonishing to me now, that I didn’t go tearing mad
bolt. At such times I wished I was him. when I used to see her run from her mother before the
The worst of it was, we had a daughter born to us, cart, and her mother catch her by this hair, and pull her
and I love children with all my heart. When she was in down by it, and beat her.
her furies she beat the child. This got to be so shock- Such a brave child I said she was! Ah! with reason.
ing, as the child got to be four or five year old, that I “Don’t you mind next time, father dear,” she would
have many a time gone on with my whip over my shoul- whisper to me, with her little face still flushed, and her
der, at the old horse’s head, sobbing and crying worse bright eyes still wet; “if I don’t cry out, you may know
than ever little Sophy did. For how could I prevent it? I am not much hurt. And even if I do cry out, it will
Such a thing is not to be tried with such a temper—in only be to get mother to let go and leave off.” What I
a cart—without coming to a fight. It’s in the natural have seen the little spirit bear—for me—without cry-
size and formation of a cart to bring it to a fight. And ing out!
then the poor child got worse terrified than before, as Yet in other respects her mother took great care of
well as worse hurt generally, and her mother made com- her. Her clothes were always clean and neat, and her
plaints to the next people we lighted on, and the word mother was never tired of working at ‘em. Such is the
went round, “Here’s a wretch of a Cheap Jack been a inconsistency in things. Our being down in the marsh
beating his wife.” country in unhealthy weather, I consider the cause of
Little Sophy was such a brave child! She grew to be Sophy’s taking bad low fever; but however she took it,

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 Doctor Marigold
once she got it she turned away from her mother for “I give you notice that I am a going to charm the money
evermore, and nothing would persuade her to be touched out of your pockets, and to give you so much more
by her mother’s hand. She would shiver and say, “No, than your money’s worth that you’ll only persuade your-
no, no,” when it was offered at, and would hide her face selves to draw your Saturday night’s wages ever again
on my shoulder, and hold me tighter round the neck. arterwards by the hopes of meeting me to lay ‘em out
The Cheap Jack business had been worse than ever I with, which you never will, and why not? Because I’ve
had known it, what with one thing and what with an- made my fortunes by selling my goods on a large scale
other (and not least with railroads, which will cut it all for seventy-five per cent. less than I give for ‘em, and I
to pieces, I expect, at last), and I was run dry of money. am consequently to be elevated to the House of Peers
For which reason, one night at that period of little next week, by the title of the Duke of Cheap and Markis
Sophy’s being so bad, either we must have come to a Jackaloorul. Now let’s know what you want to-night,
dead-lock for victuals and drink, or I must have pitched and you shall have it. But first of all, shall I tell you
the cart as I did. why I have got this little girl round my neck? You don’t
I couldn’t get the dear child to lie down or leave go of want to know? Then you shall. She belongs to the
me, and indeed I hadn’t the heart to try, so I stepped Fairies. She’s a fortune-teller. She can tell me all about
out on the footboard with her holding round my neck. you in a whisper, and can put me up to whether you’re
They all set up a laugh when they see us, and one going to buy a lot or leave it. Now do you want a saw?
chuckle-headed Joskin (that I hated for it) made the No, she says you don’t, because you’re too clumsy to
bidding, “Tuppence for her!” use one. Else here’s a saw which would be a lifelong
“Now, you country boobies,” says I, feeling as if my blessing to a handy man, at four shillings, at three and
heart was a heavy weight at the end of a broken sashline, six, at three, at two and six, at two, at eighteen-pence.

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 Charles Dickens
But none of you shall have it at any price, on account my fortune-teller knows already.” (Then making be-
of your well-known awkwardness, which would make it lieve to whisper, I kissed her,—and she kissed me.) “Why,
manslaughter. The same objection applies to this set of she says you are thinking of as little as three and
three planes which I won’t let you have neither, so don’t threepence! I couldn’t have believed it, even of you,
bid for ‘em. Now I am a going to ask her what you do unless she told me. Three and threepence! And a set of
want.” (Then I whispered, “Your head burns so, that I printed tables in the lot that’ll calculate your income up
am afraid it hurts you bad, my pet,” and she answered, to forty thousand a year! With an income of forty thou-
without opening her heavy eyes, “Just a little, father.”) sand a year, you grudge three and sixpence. Well then,
“O! This little fortune-teller says it’s a memorandum- I’ll tell you my opinion. I so despise the threepence,
book you want. Then why didn’t you mention it? Here that I’d sooner take three shillings. There. For three
it is. Look at it. Two hundred superfine hot-pressed shillings, three shillings, three shillings! Gone. Hand
wire-wove pages—if you don’t believe me, count ‘em— ‘em over to the lucky man.”
ready ruled for your expenses, an everlastingly pointed As there had been no bid at all, everybody looked
pencil to put ‘em down with, a double-bladed penknife about and grinned at everybody, while I touched little
to scratch ‘em out with, a book of printed tables to Sophy’s face and asked her if she felt faint, or giddy.
calculate your income with, and a camp-stool to sit down “Not very, father. It will soon be over.” Then turning
upon while you give your mind to it! Stop! And an from the pretty patient eyes, which were opened now,
umbrella to keep the moon off when you give your mind and seeing nothing but grins across my lighted grease-
to it on a pitch-dark night. Now I won’t ask you how pot, I went on again in my Cheap Jack style. “Where’s
much for the lot, but how little? How little are you the butcher?” (My sorrowful eye had just caught sight
thinking of? Don’t be ashamed to mention it, because of a fat young butcher on the outside of the crowd.)

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 Doctor Marigold
“She says the good luck is the butcher’s. Where is he?” my shoulder, to look across the dark street. “What
Everybody handed on the blushing butcher to the front, troubles you, darling?” “Nothing troubles me, father. I
and there was a roar, and the butcher felt himself obliged am not at all troubled. But don’t I see a pretty church-
to put his hand in his pocket, and take the lot. The yard over there?” “Yes, my dear.” “Kiss me twice, dear
party so picked out, in general, does feel obliged to take father, and lay me down to rest upon that churchyard
the lot—good four times out of six. Then we had an- grass so soft and green.” I staggered back into the cart
other lot, the counterpart of that one, and sold it six- with her head dropped on my shoulder, and I says to her
pence cheaper, which is always wery much enjoyed. Then mother, “Quick. Shut the door! Don’t let those laugh-
we had the spectacles. It ain’t a special profitable lot, ing people see!” “What’s the matter?” she cries. “O
but I put ‘em on, and I see what the Chancellor of the woman, woman,” I tells her, “you’ll never catch my little
Exchequer is going to take off the taxes, and I see what Sophy by her hair again, for she has flown away from
the sweetheart of the young woman in the shawl is you!”
doing at home, and I see what the Bishops has got for Maybe those were harder words than I meant ‘em; but
dinner, and a deal more that seldom fails to fetch em ‘up from that time forth my wife took to brooding, and
in their spirits; and the better their spirits, the better would sit in the cart or walk beside it, hours at a stretch,
their bids. Then we had the ladies’ lot—the teapot, tea- with her arms crossed, and her eyes looking on the
caddy, glass sugar-basin, half-a-dozen spoons, and ground. When her furies took her (which was rather
caudle-cup—and all the time I was making similar ex- seldomer than before) they took her in a new way, and
cuses to give a look or two and say a word or two to my she banged herself about to that extent that I was forced
poor child. It was while the second ladies’ lot was hold- to hold her. She got none the better for a little drink
ing ‘em enchained that I felt her lift herself a little on now and then, and through some years I used to won-

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 Charles Dickens
der, as I plodded along at the old horse’s head, whether very footboard by me, and it finished him.
there was many carts upon the road that held so much Being naturally of a tender turn, I had dreadful lonely
dreariness as mine, for all my being looked up to as the feelings on me arter this. I conquered ‘em at selling
King of the Cheap Jacks. So sad our lives went on till times, having a reputation to keep (not to mention keep-
one summer evening, when, as we were coming into ing myself), but they got me down in private, and rolled
Exeter, out of the farther West of England, we saw a upon me. That’s often the way with us public charac-
woman beating a child in a cruel manner, who screamed, ters. See us on the footboard, and you’d give pretty
“Don’t beat me! O mother, mother, mother!” Then my well anything you possess to be us. See us off the
wife stopped her ears, and ran away like a wild thing, footboard, and you’d add a trifle to be off your bargain.
and next day she was found in the river. It was under those circumstances that I come acquainted
Me and my dog were all the company left in the cart with a giant. I might have been too high to fall into
now; and the dog learned to give a short bark when conversation with him, had it not been for my lonely
they wouldn’t bid, and to give another and a nod of his feelings. For the general rule is, going round the coun-
head when I asked him, “Who said half a crown? Are try, to draw the line at dressing up. When a man can’t
you the gentleman, sir, that offered half a crown?” He trust his getting a living to his undisguised abilities,
attained to an immense height of popularity, and I shall you consider him below your sort. And this giant when
always believe taught himself entirely out of his own on view figured as a Roman.
head to growl at any person in the crowd that bid as low He was a languid young man, which I attribute to the
as sixpence. But he got to be well on in years, and one distance betwixt his extremities. He had a little head
night when I was conwulsing York with the spectacles, and less in it, he had weak eyes and weak knees, and
he took a conwulsion on his own account upon the altogether you couldn’t look at him without feeling that

15
 Doctor Marigold
there was greatly too much of him both for his joints long dark hair, and was often pulled down by it and
and his mind. But he was an amiable though timid beaten, I couldn’t see the giant through what stood in
young man (his mother let him out, and spent the my eyes. Having wiped ‘em, I give him sixpence (for he
money), and we come acquainted when he was walking was kept as short as he was long), and he laid it out in
to ease the horse betwixt two fairs. He was called Rinaldo two three-penn’orths of gin-and-water, which so brisked
di Velasco, his name being Pickleson. him up, that he sang the Favourite Comic of Shivery
This giant, otherwise Pickleson, mentioned to me un- Shakey, ain’t it cold?—a popular effect which his mas-
der the seal of confidence that, beyond his being a bur- ter had tried every other means to get out of him as a
den to himself, his life was made a burden to him by the Roman wholly in vain.
cruelty of his master towards a step-daughter who was His master’s name was Mim, a wery hoarse man, and I
deaf and dumb. Her mother was dead, and she had no knew him to speak to. I went to that Fair as a mere
living soul to take her part, and was used most hard. She civilian, leaving the cart outside the town, and I looked
travelled with his master’s caravan only because there about the back of the Vans while the performing was
was nowhere to leave her, and this giant, otherwise going on, and at last, sitting dozing against a muddy
Pickleson, did go so far as to believe that his master often cart-wheel, I come upon the poor girl who was deaf and
tried to lose her. He was such a very languid young man, dumb. At the first look I might almost have judged that
that I don’t know how long it didn’t take him to get this she had escaped from the Wild Beast Show; but at the
story out, but it passed through his defective circulation second I thought better of her, and thought that if she
to his top extremity in course of time. was more cared for and more kindly used she would be
When I heard this account from the giant, otherwise like my child. She was just the same age that my own
Pickleson, and likewise that the poor girl had beautiful daughter would have been, if her pretty head had not

16
 Charles Dickens
fell down upon my shoulder that unfortunate night. my own daughter. We soon made out to begin to un-
To cut it short, I spoke confidential to Mim while he derstand one another, through the goodness of the Heav-
was beating the gong outside betwixt two lots of ens, when she knowed that I meant true and kind by
Pickleson’s publics, and I put it to him, “She lies heavy her. In a very little time she was wonderful fond of me.
on your own hands; what’ll you take for her?” Mim was You have no idea what it is to have anybody wonderful
a most ferocious swearer. Suppressing that part of his fond of you, unless you have been got down and rolled
reply which was much the longest part, his reply was, upon by the lonely feelings that I have mentioned as
“A pair of braces.” “Now I’ll tell you,” says I, “what I’m having once got the better of me.
a going to do with you. I’m a going to fetch you half- You’d have laughed—or the rewerse—it’s according
a-dozen pair of the primest braces in the cart, and then to your disposition—if you could have seen me trying
to take her away with me.” Says Mim (again ferocious), to teach Sophy. At first I was helped—you’d never guess
“I’ll believe it when I’ve got the goods, and no sooner.” by what—milestones. I got some large alphabets in a
I made all the haste I could, lest he should think twice box, all the letters separate on bits of bone, and saying
of it, and the bargain was completed, which Pickleson we was going to Windsor, I give her those letters in that
he was thereby so relieved in his mind that he come out order, and then at every milestone I showed her those
at his little back door, longways like a serpent, and give same letters in that same order again, and pointed to-
us Shivery Shakey in a whisper among the wheels at wards the abode of royalty. Another time I give her
parting. cart, and then chalked the same upon the cart. An-
It was happy days for both of us when Sophy and me other time I give her Doctor Marigold, and hung a cor-
began to travel in the cart. I at once give her the name responding inscription outside my waistcoat. People that
of Sophy, to put her ever towards me in the attitude of met us might stare a bit and laugh, but what did I care,

17
 Doctor Marigold
if she caught the idea? She caught it after long pa- was truly surprising. When I sold of a night, she would
tience and trouble, and then we did begin to get on sit in the cart unseen by them outside, and would give
swimmingly, I believe you! At first she was a little given a eager look into my eyes when I looked in, and would
to consider me the cart, and the cart the abode of roy- hand me straight the precise article or articles I wanted.
alty, but that soon wore off. And then she would clap her hands, and laugh for joy.
We had our signs, too, and they was hundreds in num- And as for me, seeing her so bright, and remembering
ber. Sometimes she would sit looking at me and consid- what she was when I first lighted on her, starved and
ering hard how to communicate with me about some- beaten and ragged, leaning asleep against the muddy
thing fresh,—how to ask me what she wanted ex- cart-wheel, it give me such heart that I gained a greater
plained,—and then she was (or I thought she was; what heighth of reputation than ever, and I put Pickleson
does it signify?) so like my child with those years added down (by the name of Mim’s Travelling Giant otherwise
to her, that I half-believed it was herself, trying to tell Pickleson) for a fypunnote in my will.
me where she had been to up in the skies, and what she This happiness went on in the cart till she was sixteen
had seen since that unhappy night when she flied away. year old. By which time I began to feel not satisfied that I
She had a pretty face, and now that there was no one to had done my whole duty by her, and to consider that she
drag at her bright dark hair, and it was all in order, ought to have better teaching than I could give her. It drew
there was a something touching in her looks that made a many tears on both sides when I commenced explaining
the cart most peaceful and most quiet, though not at my views to her; but what’s right is right, and you can’t
all melancholy. [N.B. In the Cheap Jack patter, we neither by tears nor laughter do away with its character.
generally sound it lemonjolly, and it gets a laugh.] So I took her hand in mine, and I went with her one
The way she learnt to understand any look of mine day to the Deaf and Dumb Establishment in London,

18
 Charles Dickens
and when the gentleman come to speak to us, I says to man, and more acceptable words was never spoke to me,
him: “Now I’ll tell you what I’ll do with you, sir. I am “you’re a clever fellow, and a good fellow.” This he
nothing but a Cheap Jack, but of late years I have laid makes known to Sophy, who kisses his hands, claps her
by for a rainy day notwithstanding. This is my only own, and laughs and cries upon it.
daughter (adopted), and you can’t produce a deafer nor We saw the gentleman four times in all, and when he
a dumber. Teach her the most that can be taught her in took down my name and asked how in the world it ever
the shortest separation that can be named,—state the chanced to be Doctor, it come out that he was own
figure for it,—and I am game to put the money down. I nephew by the sister’s side, if you’ll believe me, to the
won’t bate you a single farthing, sir, but I’ll put down very Doctor that I was called after. This made our foot-
the money here and now, and I’ll thankfully throw you ing still easier, and he says to me:
in a pound to take it. There!” The gentleman smiled, “Now, Marigold, tell me what more do you want your
and then, “Well, well,” says he, “I must first know what adopted daughter to know?”
she has learned already. How do you communicate with “I want her, sir, to be cut off from the world as little
her?” Then I showed him, and she wrote in printed as can be, considering her deprivations, and therefore
writing many names of things and so forth; and we held to be able to read whatever is wrote with perfect ease
some sprightly conversation, Sophy and me, about a and pleasure.”
little story in a book which the gentleman showed her, “My good fellow,” urges the gentleman, opening his
and which she was able to read. “This is most extraordi- eyes wide, “why I can’t do that myself!”
nary,” says the gentleman; “is it possible that you have I took his joke, and gave him a laugh (knowing by
been her only teacher?” “I have been her only teacher, experience how flat you fall without it), and I mended
sir,” I says, “besides herself.” “Then,” says the gentle- my words accordingly.

19
 Doctor Marigold
“What do you mean to do with her afterwards?” asks sight of it with my usual spirit,—no, not even the gun,
the gentleman, with a sort of a doubtful eye. “To take nor the pair of spectacles,—for five hundred pound re-
her about the country?” ward from the Secretary of State for the Home Depart-
“In the cart, sir, but only in the cart. She will live a ment, and throw in the honour of putting my legs un-
private life, you understand, in the cart. I should never der his mahogany arterwards.
think of bringing her infirmities before the public. I Still, the loneliness that followed in the cart was not
wouldn’t make a show of her for any money.” the old loneliness, because there was a term put to it,
The gentleman nodded, and seemed to approve. however long to look forward to; and because I could
“Well,” says he, “can you part with her for two years?” think, when I was anyways down, that she belonged to
“To do her that good,—yes, sir.” me and I belonged to her. Always planning for her com-
“There’s another question,” says the gentleman, look- ing back, I bought in a few months’ time another cart,
ing towards her,—”can she part with you for two years?” and what do you think I planned to do with it? I’ll tell
I don’t know that it was a harder matter of itself (for you. I planned to fit it up with shelves and books for
the other was hard enough to me), but it was harder to her reading, and to have a seat in it where I could sit
get over. However, she was pacified to it at last, and the and see her read, and think that I had been her first
separation betwixt us was settled. How it cut up both teacher. Not hurrying over the job, I had the fittings
of us when it took place, and when I left her at the door knocked together in contriving ways under my own in-
in the dark of an evening, I don’t tell. But I know this; spection, and here was her bed in a berth with curtains,
remembering that night, I shall never pass that same and there was her reading-table, and here was her writ-
establishment without a heartache and a swelling in the ing-desk, and elsewhere was her books in rows upon
throat; and I couldn’t put you up the best of lots in rows, picters and no picters, bindings and no bindings,

20
 Charles Dickens
gilt-edged and plain, just as I could pick ‘em up for her It pleased me, that thought did; and as I never was a
in lots up and down the country, North and South and man to let a thought sleep (you must wake up all the
West and East, Winds liked best and winds liked least, whole family of thoughts you’ve got and burn their
Here and there and gone astray, Over the hills and far nightcaps, or you won’t do in the Cheap Jack line), I set
away. And when I had got together pretty well as many to work at it. Considering that I was in the habit of
books as the cart would neatly hold, a new scheme come changing so much about the country, and that I should
into my head, which, as it turned out, kept my time and have to find out a literary character here to make a deal
attention a good deal employed, and helped me over the with, and another literary character there to make a
two years’ stile. deal with, as opportunities presented, I hit on the plan
Without being of an awaricious temper, I like to be that this same book should be a general miscellaneous
the owner of things. I shouldn’t wish, for instance, to lot,—like the razors, flat-iron, chronometer watch, din-
go partners with yourself in the Cheap Jack cart. It’s ner plates, rolling-pin, and looking-glass,—and shouldn’t
not that I mistrust you, but that I’d rather know it was be offered as a single indiwidual article, like the spec-
mine. Similarly, very likely you’d rather know it was tacles or the gun. When I had come to that conclusion,
yours. Well! A kind of a jealousy began to creep into I come to another, which shall likewise be yours.
my mind when I reflected that all those books would Often had I regretted that she never had heard me on
have been read by other people long before they was the footboard, and that she never could hear me. It
read by her. It seemed to take away from her being the ain’t that I am vain, but that you don’t like to put your
owner of ‘em like. In this way, the question got into my own light under a bushel. What’s the worth of your
head: Couldn’t I have a book new-made express for her, reputation, if you can’t convey the reason for it to the
which she should be the first to read? person you most wish to value it? Now I’ll put it to

21
 Doctor Marigold
you. Is it worth sixpence, fippence, fourpence, standing it when she should come to read it as put down
threepence, twopence, a penny, a halfpenny, a farthing? by my own hand. Then I thought I would try a joke
No, it ain’t. Not worth a farthing. Very well, then. My with her and watch how it took, by which of itself I
conclusion was that I would begin her book with some might fully judge of her understanding it. We had first
account of myself. So that, through reading a specimen discovered the mistake we had dropped into, through
or two of me on the footboard, she might form an idea her having asked me to prescribe for her when she had
of my merits there. I was aware that I couldn’t do my- supposed me to be a Doctor in a medical point of view;
self justice. A man can’t write his eye (at least I don’t so thinks I, “Now, if I give this book the name of my
know how to), nor yet can a man write his voice, nor Prescriptions, and if she catches the idea that my only
the rate of his talk, nor the quickness of his action, nor Prescriptions are for her amusement and interest,—to
his general spicy way. But he can write his turns of make her laugh in a pleasant way, or to make her cry in
speech, when he is a public speaker,—and indeed I have a pleasant way,—it will be a delightful proof to both of
heard that he very often does, before he speaks ‘em. us that we have got over our difficulty.” It fell out to
Well! Having formed that resolution, then come the absolute perfection. For when she saw the book, as I
question of a name. How did I hammer that hot iron had it got up,—the printed and pressed book,—lying
into shape? This way. The most difficult explanation I on her desk in her cart, and saw the title, Doctor
had ever had with her was, how I come to be called Marigold’s Prescriptions, she looked at me for a moment
Doctor, and yet was no Doctor. After all, I felt that I with astonishment, then fluttered the leaves, then broke
had failed of getting it correctly into her mind, with my out a laughing in the charmingest way, then felt her
utmost pains. But trusting to her improvement in the pulse and shook her head, then turned the pages pre-
two years, I thought that I might trust to her under- tending to read them most attentive, then kissed the

22
 Charles Dickens
book to me, and put it to her bosom with both her chimneys smoking, carts pitched private on a piece of
hands. I never was better pleased in all my life! waste ground over at Wandsworth, where you may see
But let me not anticipate. (I take that expression out ‘em from the Sou’western Railway when not upon the
of a lot of romances I bought for her. I never opened a road. (Look out of the right-hand window going down.)
single one of ‘em—and I have opened many—but I found “Marigold,” says the gentleman, giving his hand hearty,
the romancer saying “let me not anticipate.” Which “I am very glad to see you.”
being so, I wonder why he did anticipate, or who asked “Yet I have my doubts, sir,” says I, “if you can be half
him to it.) Let me not, I say, anticipate. This same as glad to see me as I am to see you.”
book took up all my spare time. It was no play to get “The time has appeared so long,—has it, Marigold?”
the other articles together in the general miscellaneous “I won’t say that, sir, considering its real length; but—”
lot, but when it come to my own article! There! I “What a start, my good fellow!”
couldn’t have believed the blotting, nor yet the buck- Ah! I should think it was! Grown such a woman, so
ling to at it, nor the patience over it. Which again is pretty, so intelligent, so expressive! I knew then that
like the footboard. The public have no idea. she must be really like my child, or I could never have
At last it was done, and the two years’ time was gone known her, standing quiet by the door.
after all the other time before it, and where it’s all gone “You are affected,” says the gentleman in a kindly
to, who knows? The new cart was finished,—yellow manner.
outside, relieved with wermilion and brass fittings,— “I feel, sir,” says I, “that I am but a rough chap in a
the old horse was put in it, a new ‘un and a boy being sleeved waistcoat.”
laid on for the Cheap Jack cart,—and I cleaned myself “ I feel,” says the gentleman, “that it was you who
up to go and fetch her. Bright cold weather it was, cart- raised her from misery and degradation, and brought

23
 Doctor Marigold
her into communication with her kind. But why do we “Now I’ll tell you what I am a-going to do with you. I
converse alone together, when we can converse so well am a-going to offer you the general miscellaneous lot,
with her? Address her in your own way.” her own book, never read by anybody else but me, added
“I am such a rough chap in a sleeved waistcoat, sir,” to and completed by me after her first reading of it,
says I, “and she is such a graceful woman, and she stands eight-and-forty printed pages, six-and-ninety columns,
so quiet at the door!” Whiting’s own work, Beaufort House to wit, thrown off
“Try if she moves at the old sign,” says the gentleman. by the steam-ingine, best of paper, beautiful green wrap-
They had got it up together o’ purpose to please me! per, folded like clean linen come home from the clear-
For when I give her the old sign, she rushed to my feet, starcher’s, and so exquisitely stitched that, regarded as
and dropped upon her knees, holding up her hands to a piece of needlework alone, it’s better than the sampler
me with pouring tears of love and joy; and when I took of a seamstress undergoing a Competitive examination
her hands and lifted her, she clasped me round the neck, for Starvation before the Civil Service Commissioners—
and lay there; and I don’t know what a fool I didn’t and I offer the lot for what? For eight pound? Not so
make of myself, until we all three settled down into much. For six pound? Less. For four pound. Why, I
talking without sound, as if there was a something soft hardly expect you to believe me, but that’s the sum.
and pleasant spread over the whole world for us. Four pound! The stitching alone cost half as much again.
Here’s forty-eight original pages, ninety-six original col-
[A portion is here omitted from the text, having refer- umns, for four pound. You want more for the money?
ence to the sketches contributed by other writers; but Take it. Three whole pages of advertisements of thrill-
the reader will be pleased to have what follows retained ing interest thrown in for nothing. Read ‘em and be-
in a note: lieve ‘em. More? My best of wishes for your merry Christ-

24
 Charles Dickens
mases and your happy New Years, your long lives and I’ll tell you what I’ll do with you. I’ll say it’s another
your true prosperities. Worth twenty pound good if sort of figure altogether. There. Why then, says you,
they are delivered as I send them. Remember! Here’s a it’s a mortal figure. No, nor yet a mortal figure. By
final prescription added, “To be taken for life,” which such means you got yourself penned into a corner, and
will tell you how the cart broke down, and where the you can’t help guessing a IMmortal figure. That’s about
journey ended. You think Four Pound too much? And it. Why didn’t you say so sooner?
still you think so? Come! I’ll tell you what then. Say Yes. It was a immortal figure that I had altogether left
Four Pence, and keep the secret.”] out of my Calculations. Neither man’s, nor woman’s,
but a child’s. Girl’s or boy’s? Boy’s. “I, says the sparrow
So every item of my plan was crowned with success. with my bow and arrow.” Now you have got it.
Our reunited life was more than all that we had looked We were down at Lancaster, and I had done two nights
forward to. Content and joy went with us as the wheels more than fair average business (though I cannot in
of the two carts went round, and the same stopped with honour recommend them as a quick audience) in the
us when the two carts stopped. I was as pleased and as open square there, near the end of the street where Mr.
proud as a Pug-Dog with his muzzle black-leaded for a Sly’s King’s Arms and Royal Hotel stands. Mim’s travel-
evening party, and his tail extra curled by machinery. ling giant, otherwise Pickleson, happened at the self-
But I had left something out of my calculations. Now, same time to be trying it on in the town. The genteel
what had I left out? To help you to guess I’ll say, a lay was adopted with him. No hint of a van. Green
figure. Come. Make a guess and guess right. Nought? baize alcove leading up to Pickleson in a Auction Room.
No. Nine? No. Eight? No. Seven? No. Six? No. Five? Printed poster, “Free list suspended, with the exception
No. Four? No. Three? No. Two? No. One? No. Now of that proud boast of an enlightened country, a free

25
 Doctor Marigold
press. Schools admitted by private arrangement. Noth- ceased to draw as a Roman, Mim had made proposals for
ing to raise a blush in the cheek of youth or shock the his going in as a conwerted Indian Giant worked upon
most fastidious.” Mim swearing most horrible and ter- by The Dairyman’s Daughter. This, Pickleson, having no
rific, in a pink calico pay-place, at the slackness of the acquaintance with the tract named after that young
public. Serious handbill in the shops, importing that it woman, and not being willing to couple gag with his
was all but impossible to come to a right understanding serious views, had declined to do, thereby leading to
of the history of David without seeing Pickleson. words and the total stoppage of the unfortunate young
I went to the Auction Room in question, and I found man’s beer. All of which, during the whole of the inter-
it entirely empty of everything but echoes and view, was confirmed by the ferocious growling of Mim
mouldiness, with the single exception of Pickleson on a down below in the pay-place, which shook the giant
piece of red drugget. This suited my purpose, as I wanted like a leaf.
a private and confidential word with him, which was: But what was to the present point in the remarks of
“Pickleson. Owing much happiness to you, I put you in the travelling giant, otherwise Pickleson, was this: “Doc-
my will for a fypunnote; but, to save trouble, here’s tor Marigold,”—I give his words without a hope of
fourpunten down, which may equally suit your views, conweying their feebleness,—”who is the strange young
and let us so conclude the transaction.” Pickleson, who man that hangs about your carts?”—”The strange young
up to that remark had had the dejected appearance of a man?” I gives him back, thinking that he meant her,
long Roman rushlight that couldn’t anyhow get lighted, and his languid circulation had dropped a syllable. “Doc-
brightened up at his top extremity, and made his ac- tor,” he returns, with a pathos calculated to draw a tear
knowledgments in a way which (for him) was parlia- from even a manly eye, “I am weak, but not so weak yet
mentary eloquence. He likewise did add, that, having as that I don’t know my words. I repeat them, Doctor.

26
 Charles Dickens
The strange young man.” It then appeared that towards Carlisle. Next morning, at daybreak, I looked
Pickleson, being forced to stretch his legs (not that they out again for the strange young man. I did not see him.
wanted it) only at times when he couldn’t be seen for But next morning I looked out again, and there he was
nothing, to wit in the dead of the night and towards once more. I sent another hail after him, but as before
daybreak, had twice seen hanging about my carts, in he gave not the slightest sign of being anyways dis-
that same town of Lancaster where I had been only two turbed. This put a thought into my head. Acting on it
nights, this same unknown young man. I watched him in different manners and at different times
It put me rather out of sorts. What it meant as to not necessary to enter into, till I found that this strange
particulars I no more foreboded then than you forebode young man was deaf and dumb.
now, but it put me rather out of sorts. Howsoever, I The discovery turned me over, because I knew that a
made light of it to Pickleson, and I took leave of Pickleson, part of that establishment where she had been was al-
advising him to spend his legacy in getting up his lotted to young men (some of them well off), and I
stamina, and to continue to stand by his religion. To- thought to myself, “If she favours him, where am I? and
wards morning I kept a look out for the strange young where is all that I have worked and planned for?” Hop-
man, and—what was more—I saw the strange young ing—I must confess to the selfishness—that she might
man. He was well dressed and well looking. He loitered NOT favour him, I set myself to find out. At last I was
very nigh my carts, watching them like as if he was by accident present at a meeting between them in the
taking care of them, and soon after daybreak turned open air, looking on leaning behind a fir-tree without
and went away. I sent a hail after him, but he never their knowing of it. It was a moving meeting for all the
started or looked round, or took the smallest notice. three parties concerned. I knew every syllable that passed
We left Lancaster within an hour or two, on our way between them as well as they did. I listened with my

27
 Doctor Marigold
eyes, which had come to be as quick and true with deaf ent thing. I made it right in my mind with Pickleson on
and dumb conversation as my ears with the talk of people the spot, and I shook myself together to do what was
that can speak. He was a-going out to China as clerk in right by all.
a merchant’s house, which his father had been before She had left the young man by that time (for it took
him. He was in circumstances to keep a wife, and he a few minutes to get me thoroughly well shook together),
wanted her to marry him and go along with him. She and the young man was leaning against another of the
persisted, no. He asked if she didn’t love him. Yes, she fir-trees,—of which there was a cluster, -with his face
loved him dearly, dearly; but she could never disappoint upon his arm. I touched him on the back. Looking up
her beloved, good, noble, generous, and I-don’t-know- and seeing me, he says, in our deaf-and-dumb talk, “Do
what-all father (meaning me, the Cheap Jack in the not be angry.”
sleeved waistcoat) and she would stay with him, Heaven “I am not angry, good boy. I am your friend. Come
bless him! though it was to break her heart. Then she with me.”
cried most bitterly, and that made up my mind. I left him at the foot of the steps of the Library Cart,
While my mind had been in an unsettled state about and I went up alone. She was drying her eyes.
her favouring this young man, I had felt that unreason- “You have been crying, my dear.”
able towards Pickleson, that it was well for him he had “Yes, father.”
got his legacy down. For I often thought, “If it hadn’t “Why?”
been for this same weak-minded giant, I might never “A headache.”
have come to trouble my head and wex my soul about “Not a heartache?”
the young man.” But, once that I knew she loved him,— “I said a headache, father.”
once that I had seen her weep for him,—it was a differ- “Doctor Marigold must prescribe for that headache.”

28
 Charles Dickens
She took up the book of my Prescriptions, and held it entertainment I explained to Sophy that I should keep
up with a forced smile; but seeing me keep still and look the Library Cart as my living-cart when not upon the
earnest, she softly laid it down again, and her eyes were road, and that I should keep all her books for her just as
very attentive. they stood, till she come back to claim them. So she
“The Prescription is not there, Sophy.” went to China with her young husband, and it was a
“Where is it?” parting sorrowful and heavy, and I got the boy I had
“Here, my dear.” another service; and so as of old, when my child and
I brought her young husband in, and I put her hand wife were gone, I went plodding along alone, with my
in his, and my only farther words to both of them were whip over my shoulder, at the old horse’s head.
these: “Doctor Marigold’s last Prescription. To be taken Sophy wrote me many letters, and I wrote her many
for life.” After which I bolted. letters. About the end of the first year she sent me one
When the wedding come off, I mounted a coat (blue, in an unsteady hand: “Dearest father, not a week ago I
and bright buttons), for the first and last time in all my had a darling little daughter, but I am so well that they
days, and I give Sophy away with my own hand. There let me write these words to you. Dearest and best fa-
were only us three and the gentleman who had had ther, I hope my child may not be deaf and dumb, but I
charge of her for those two years. I give the wedding do not yet know.” When I wrote back, I hinted the
dinner of four in the Library Cart. Pigeon-pie, a leg of question; but as Sophy never answered that question, I
pickled pork, a pair of fowls, and suitable garden stuff. felt it to be a sad one, and I never repeated it. For a
The best of drinks. I give them a speech, and the gentle- long time our letters were regular, but then they got
man give us a speech, and all our jokes told, and the irregular, through Sophy’s husband being moved to an-
whole went off like a sky-rocket. In the course of the other station, and through my being always on the move.

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 Doctor Marigold
But we were in one another’s thoughts, I was equally the light of the fire, watching it as it shone upon the
sure, letters or no letters. backs of Sophy’s books.
Five years, odd months, had gone since Sophy went Sophy’s books so brought Sophy’s self, that I saw her
away. I was still the King of the Cheap Jacks, and at a touching face quite plainly, before I dropped off dozing
greater height of popularity than ever. I had had a by the fire. This may be a reason why Sophy, with her
first-rate autumn of it, and on the twenty-third of De- deaf-and-dumb child in her arms, seemed to stand silent
cember, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, I by me all through my nap. I was on the road, off the
found myself at Uxbridge, Middlesex, clean sold out. So road, in all sorts of places, North and South and West
I jogged up to London with the old horse, light and and East, Winds liked best and winds liked least, Here
easy, to have my Christmas-eve and Christmas-day alone and there and gone astray, Over the hills and far away,
by the fire in the Library Cart, and then to buy a regu- and still she stood silent by me, with her silent child in
lar new stock of goods all round, to sell ‘em again and her arms. Even when I woke with a start, she seemed to
get the money. vanish, as if she had stood by me in that very place only
I am a neat hand at cookery, and I’ll tell you what I a single instant before.
knocked up for my Christmas-eve dinner in the Library I had started at a real sound, and the sound was on
Cart. I knocked up a beefsteak-pudding for one, with the steps of the cart. It was the light hurried tread of a
two kidneys, a dozen oysters, and a couple of mush- child, coming clambering up. That tread of a child had
rooms thrown in. It’s a pudding to put a man in good once been so familiar to me, that for half a moment I
humour with everything, except the two bottom but- believed I was a-going to see a little ghost.
tons of his waistcoat. Having relished that pudding and But the touch of a real child was laid upon the outer
cleared away, I turned the lamp low, and sat down by handle of the door, and the handle turned, and the door

30
 Charles Dickens
opened a little way, and a real child peeped in. A bright
little comely girl with large dark eyes.
Looking full at me, the tiny creature took off her mite
of a straw hat, and a quantity of dark curls fell about
her face. Then she opened her lips, and said in a pretty
If you would like to receive more
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“Ah, my God!” I cries out. “She can speak!” go to
“Yes, dear grandfather. And I am to ask you whether
there was ever any one that I remind you of?” http://www2.hn.psu.edu/faculty/
In a moment Sophy was round my neck, as well as the jmanis/dickens.htm.
child, and her husband was a-wringing my hand with
his face hid, and we all had to shake ourselves together If you would like to receive more
before we could get over it. And when we did begin to classical works of literature in PDF,
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and quick and eager and busy, to her mother, in the
signs that I had first taught her mother, the happy and
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jmanis/jimspdf.htm.
yet pitying tears fell rolling down my face.

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