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THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH. |
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name, but never mind: took liberties, and shook hands at first sight, and seemed to think a cap but so much starch and muslin, and didn't defer himself at all to the Indigo Trade, but said there was no help for it now; and, in Mrs. Fielding's summing up, was a good-natured kind of man—but coarse, my dear.
I wouldn't have missed Dot, doing the honours in her wedding-gown : my benison on her bright face ! for any money. No ! nor the good Carrier, so jovial and so ruddy, at the bottom of the table. Nor the brown, fresh sailor-fellow, and his handsome wife. Nor any one among them. To have missed the dinner would have been to miss as jolly and as stout a meal as man need eat; and to have missed the overflowing cups in which they drank The Wedding-Day, would have been the greatest miss of all.
After dinner, Caleb sang the song about the Sparkling Bowl! As I'm a living man : hoping to keep so, for a year or two: he sang it through.
And, by the bye, a most unlooked-for incident occurred, just as he finished the last verse.
There was a tap at the door; and a man came staggering- in, without saying with your leave, or by your leave, with something heavy on his head. Setting this down in the middle of the table, symmetrically in the centre of the nuts and apples, he said :
" Mr. Tackleton's compliments, and as he hasn't got no use for the cake himself, p'raps you'll eat it."
And with those words, he walked off.
There was some surprise among the company, as you may imagine. Mrs. Fielding, being a lady of infinite discernment, suggested that the cake was poisoned, and related a narrative of a cake, which, within her knowledge, had turned a seminary for young ladies, blue. But she was overruled by acclamation ; and the cake was cut by May, with much ceremony and rejoicing.
I don't think any one had tasted it, when there came another tap at the door, and the same man appeared again, having under his arm a vast brown-paper parcel.
"Mr. Tackleton's compliments, and he's sent a few toys for the Babby. They ain't ugly."
After the delivery of which expressions, he retired again.
The whole party would have experienced great difficulty in finding words for their astonishment, even if they had had ample time to seek them. But they had none at all; for the messenger had scarcely shut the door behind him, when there came another tap, and Tackleton himself walked in.
"Mrs. Peerybingle!" said the Toy-merchant, hat in hand. " I'm sorry. I'm more sorry than I was this morning. I have |
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