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THE BATTLE OF LIFE. |
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times. If the world is a joke (I am not prepared to say it isn't), it ought to be made a very difficult joke to crack. It ought to be as hard a struggle, Sir, as possible. That's the intention. But it's being made far too easy. We are oiling the gates of life. They ought to be rusty. We shall have them beginning to turn, soon, with a smooth sound. Whereas they ought to grate upon their hinges, Sir."
Mr. Craggs seemed positively to grate upon his own hinges, as he delivered this opinion ; to which he communicated immense effect—being a cold, hard, dry man, dressed in grey and white, like a flint; with small twinkles in his eyes, as if something struck sparks out of them. The three natural kingdoms, indeed, had each a fanciful representative among this brotherhood of disputants : for Snitchey was like a magpie or a raven (only not so sleek), and the Doctor had a streaked face like a winter-pippin, with here and there a dimple to express the packings of the birds, and a very little bit of pigtail behind, that stood for the stalk.
As the active figure of a handsome young man, dressed for a journey, and followed by a porter, bearing several packages and baskets, entered the orchard at a brisk pace, and with an air of gaiety and hope that accorded well with the morning,—these three drew together, like the brothers of the sister Fates, or like the Graces most effectually disguised, or like the three weird prophets on the heath, and greeted him.
" Happy returns, Alf," said the Doctor, lightly.
"A hundred happy returns of this auspicious day, Mr. Heathfield," said Snitchey, bowing low.
" Returns !" Craggs murmured in a deep voice, all alone.
" Why, what a battery!" exclaimed Alfred, stopping short, " and one—two—three—all foreboders of no good, in the great sea before me. I am glad you are not the first I have met this morning : I should have taken it for a bad omen. But Grace was the first—sweet, pleasant Grace—so I defy you all!"
"If you please, Mister, I was the first you know," said Clemency Newcome. " She was a walking out here, before sunrise, you remember. I was in the house."
" That's true ! Clemency was the first," said Alfred. " So I defy you with Clemency."
"Ha, ha, ha!—for Self and Craggs," said Snitchey. "What a defiance!"
" Not so bad a one as it appears, maybe," said Alfred, shaking hands heartily with the Doctor, and also with Snitchey and Craggs, and then looking round. " Where are the—Good Heavens !"
With a start, productive for the moment of a closer partnership |
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