The family went back to London. The father first lost his government
position, and then was sent to prison for debt, according to the law
at that time. The mother went to live with the father in prison, and
Charles had to earn his living by pasting labels on blacking-pots.
His wages were only six shillings a week, and with this sum he had to
support himself. The home was entirely broken up; even the precious
books were sold; and these were sad, lonely days for the ten-year-old
boy.
4. Things brightened a little when he took lodgings near the prison,
where he could see his father and mother every day. As it was a family
trait to look upon the bright side of things, even the prison life was
not intolerable. By and by better days came, and Charles had two years
of school life.
5. Then he became office boy in a lawyer's office. In his seventeenth
year he became a reporter, having learned shorthand in the reading-room
of the British Museum.
6. His career as a writer began a few years later, when he sent some
sketches of street life to a magazine. These sketches were signed
"Boz." They were so good that a year later he was employed to write
similar articles for a newspaper, and they appeared in book form under
the title, "Sketches by Boz."
7. This led to an offer by a publishing firm for a series of articles
to appear with a set of comic drawings. Dickens wrote for them in 1836
the famous "Pickwick Papers." This consisted of sketches relating the
adventures of an imaginary club of Londoners during their visits to the
country. It made Dickens famous at once. The next year he published his
first novel, "Oliver Twist." This struck a new note in fiction, and
gave pitch to the life work of the author; for from this time he never
wavered in his purpose, which was the portrayal of the life of the
lower classes and the righting of social wrongs.
[Illustration: Charles Dickens]
8. One of the most popular of Dickens's books is "David Copperfield,"
which is supposed to contain many reminiscences of the author's own
early days. In this book occur some of the most famous of Dickens's
characters.
9. Among his other works Dickens produced a series of tales called "The
Christmas Stories." The first of these, "A Christmas Carol," appeared
in 1843, and for a number of years he published a story of this kind
every year. The most celebrated of these stories are "A Christmas
Carol," "The Cricket on the Hearth," and "The Chimes." In these stories
Dickens did more than give to the world pleasant and interesting tales
of domestic life; he portrayed the true spirit of Christmastide, with
its lessons of peace and good will.
10. Dickens also wrote "A Tale of Two Cities," "Nicholas Nickleby," and
"A Child's History of England," which is a great favorite with young
people. He died suddenly in 1870 and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
This selection is from "Bleak House," one of the best of Dickens's
novels.
* * * * *
=Shĭll´ĭngs̝=: the shilling is a silver coin of Great Britain,
equal in value to about twenty-four cents of our money.
=Ĭn tŏl´ẽr ȧ bl_e_=: not to be borne. =Pōr trā_y´_al=:
description. =Rĕm ĭ nĭs´çĕnç ĕs̝=: recollections.
=Çĕl´ē̍ brā tĕd=: famous; well known.
Little Charley
BY CHARLES DICKENS
I
1. We found the house to which we had been directed by a friend of my
guardian, and we went up to the top room. I tapped at the door, and a
little shrill voice inside said: "We are locked in; Mrs. Blinder's got
the key."
[Illustration: The boy walked up and down.]
2. We had been prepared for this by Mrs. Blinder, the shopkeeper below,
who had given us the key of the room.
3. I applied the key on hearing this, and opened the door. In a poor
room, with a sloping ceiling, and containing very little furniture,
was a mite of a boy, some five or six years old, nursing and hushing a
heavy child of eighteen months. There was no fire, though the weather
was cold; both children were wrapped in some poor shawls and tippets as
a substitute. Their clothing was not so warm, however, but that their
noses looked red and pinched and their small figures shrunken, as the
boy walked up and down, nursing and hushing the child, with its head on
his shoulder.
4. "Who has locked you up here alone?" we naturally asked.
"Charley," said the boy, standing still to gaze at us.
"Is Charley your brother?"
"No. She's my sister Charlotte. Father called her Charley."
5. "Where is Charley now?"
"Out a-washing," said the boy, beginning to walk up and down again, and
taking the baby's nankeen bonnet much too near the bedstead by trying
to gaze at us at the same time.
6. We were looking at one another and at these two children, when
there came into the room a very little girl, childish in figure, but
shrewd and older looking in the face--pretty faced, too--wearing a
womanly sort of bonnet much too large for her and drying her bare arms
on a womanly sort of apron. Her fingers were white and wrinkled with
washing, and the soapsuds were yet smoking which she wiped off her
arms. But for this she might have been a child playing at washing and
imitating a poor workingwoman with a quick observation of the truth.
7. She had come running from some place in the neighborhood, and had
made all the haste she could. Consequently, though she was very light,
she was out of breath and could not speak at first, as she stood
panting, and wiping her arms, and looking quietly at us.
8. "Oh, here's Charley!" said the boy.
The child he was nursing stretched forth its arms and cried out to be
taken by Charley. The little girl took it in a womanly sort of manner
belonging to the apron and the bonnet, and stood looking at us over the
burden that clung to her most affectionately.
9. "Is it possible," whispered my guardian, as we put a chair for the
little creature and got her to sit down with her load--the boy keeping
close to her, holding to her apron--"that this child works for the
rest! Look at this! Look at this!"
10. It was a thing to look at. The three children close together, and
two of them relying solely on the third, and the third so young and yet
with an air of age and steadiness that sat so strangely on the childish
figure.
II
11. "Charley, Charley," said my guardian, "how old are you?"
"Over thirteen, sir," replied the child.
12. "Oh, what a great age!" said my guardian. "What a great age,
Charley!"
I cannot describe the tenderness with which he spoke to her, half
playfully, yet all the more compassionately and mournfully.
13. "And do you live alone here with these babies, Charley?" said my
guardian.
[Illustration: Little Charley came in.]
"Yes, sir," returned the child, looking up into his face with perfect
confidence, "since father died."
14. "And how do you live, Charley? O Charley," said my guardian,
turning his face away for a moment, "how do you live?"
"Since father died, sir, I've gone out to work. I'm out washing to-day."
15. "God help you, Charley!" said my guardian. "You're not tall enough
to reach the tub."
"In pattens, I am, sir," she said quickly. "I've got a high pair that
belonged to mother."
"And when did mother die? Poor mother!"
16. "Mother died just after Emma was born," said the child, glancing at
the face upon her bosom. "Then father said I was to be as good a mother
to her as I could. And so I tried. And so I worked at home, and did
cleaning and nursing and washing for a long time before I began to go
out. And that's how I know how; don't you see, sir?"
17. "And do you often go out?"
"As often as I can," said Charley, opening her eyes and smiling,
"because of earning sixpences and shillings."
18. "And do you always lock the babies up when you go out?"
"To keep 'em safe, sir, don't you see?" said Charley. "Mrs. Blinder
comes up now and then, and Mr. Gridley comes up sometimes, and perhaps
I can run in sometimes; and they can play, you know, and Tom isn't
afraid of being locked up. Are you, Tom?"
"No--o!" said Tom, stoutly.
19. "When it comes on dark, the lamps are lighted down in the court,
and they show up here quite bright--almost quite bright. Don't they,
Tom?"
"Yes, Charley," said Tom; "almost quite bright."
20. "Then, he's as good as gold," said the little creature--oh! in such
a motherly, womanly way. "And when Emma's tired, he puts her to bed.
And when he's tired, he goes to bed himself. And when I come home and
light the candle and have a bit of supper, he sits up again and has it
with me. Don't you, Tom?"
21. "Oh, yes, Charley," said Tom. "That I do!" And either in this
glimpse of the great pleasure of his life, or in gratitude and love for
Charley, who was all in all to him, he laid his face among the scanty
folds of her frock and passed from laughing into crying.
22. It was the first time since our entry that a tear had been shed
among these children. The little orphan girl had spoken of their father
and their mother as if all that sorrow were subdued by the necessity of
taking courage, and by her childish importance in being able to work,
and by her bustling, busy way. But now, when Tom cried--although she
sat quite tranquil, looking quietly at us, and did not by any movement
disturb a hair of the head of either of her little charges--I saw two
silent tears fall down her face.
[Illustration: Mrs. Blinder]
23. I stood at the window with Ada, pretending to look at the
housetops, and the blackened stack of chimneys, and the poor plants,
and the birds, in little cages, belonging to the neighbors, when I
found that Mrs. Blinder, from the shop below, had come in--perhaps it
had taken her all this time to get upstairs--and was talking to my
guardian.
"It's not much to forgive 'em the rent, sir," she said. "Who could take
it from them!"
24. "Well, well!" said my guardian to us two. "It is enough that the
time will come when this good woman will find that it was much, and
that forasmuch as she did it unto the least of these--This child," he
added, after a few moments, "could she possibly continue this?"
25. "Really, sir, I think she might," said Mrs. Blinder, getting her
heavy breath by painful degrees. "She's as handy as it's possible to
be. Bless you, sir, the way she tended the two children after the
mother died was the talk of the yard. And it was a wonder to see her
with him after he was ill, it really was. 'Mrs. Blinder,' he said to
me, the very last he spoke--he was lying there--'Mrs. Blinder, I saw an
angel sitting in this room last night along with my child, and I trust
her to our Father.'"
26. We kissed Charley, and took her down-stairs with us, and stopped
outside the house to see her run away to her work. I don't know where
she was going, but we saw her run--such a little, little creature, in
her womanly bonnet and apron--through a covered way at the bottom of
the court, and melt into the city's strife and sound like a dewdrop in
an ocean.
III
27. One night, after I had gone to my room, I heard a soft tap at my
door. So I said, "Come in," and there came in a pretty little girl,
neatly dressed in mourning, who dropped a courtesy.
28. "If you please, miss," said the little girl, in a soft voice, "I am
Charley."
"Why, so you are!" said I, stooping down in astonishment, and giving
her a kiss. "How glad I am to see you, Charley!"
29. "If you please, miss," pursued Charley, in the same soft voice,
"I'm your maid."
"Charley?"
[Illustration: "Don't cry, if you please, miss."]
"If you please, miss, I'm a present to you, with Mr. Jarndyce's love."
30. I sat down with my hand on Charley's neck, and looked at Charley.
"And oh, miss," says Charley, clapping her hands, with the tears
starting down her dimpled cheeks, "Tom's at school, if you please; and
little Emma, she's with Mrs. Blinder, miss. And Tom, he would have been
at school; and Emma, she would have been left with Mrs. Blinder; and
I should have been here, all a deal sooner, miss; only Mr. Jarndyce
thought that Tom and Emma and I had better get a little used to parting
first, we were so small. Don't cry, if you please, miss."
31. "I can't help it, Charley."
"No, miss, I can't help it," says Charley. "And, if you please, miss,
Mr. Jarndyce's love, and he thinks you'll like to teach me now and
then. And, if you please, Tom and Emma and I are to see each other once
a month. And I'm so happy and so thankful, miss," cried Charley, with a
heaving heart, "and I'll try to be such a good maid!"
32. Charley dried her eyes, and entered on her functions, going in her
matronly little way about and about the room, and folding up everything
she could lay her hands upon.
33. Presently, Charley came creeping back to my side, and said: "Oh,
don't cry, if you please, miss."
And I said again: "I can't help it, Charley."
And Charley said again: "No, miss; I can't help it." And so, after all,
I did cry for joy, indeed, and so did she.
* * * * *
I. =G_u_ärd´ĭ an=: one to whose care a person or thing is
committed. =Sŭb´stĭ tū̍t_e_=: a person or thing put in place
of another. =Năn kē_e_n´=: a kind of yellow cotton cloth.
=Cŏn´sē̍ quĕnt ly̆=: accordingly; as a result.
II. =Com pas´sion ate ly=: pityingly. =Păt´tĕns̝=: wooden soles
made to raise the feet above mud. =Grăt´ĭ tū̍d_e_=: thankfulness.
=Bŭs´_t_lĭng=: noisy; active. =Trăṉ´quĭl=: quiet; calm.
III. =Func´tions=: actions suitable to a business or profession.
=Mā´trȯn ly̆=: womanly; motherly.
Tray
BY ROBERT BROWNING
Robert Browning (1812-1889): An English poet. His poems are
frequently difficult and obscure, but they are full of courage,
manliness, and hopefulness, which appeal to young readers as well
as to older ones. "The Pied Piper of Hamelin," "Hervé Riel," and
"How They Carried the Good News from Ghent to Aix" are among the
poems best liked by young people.
1. A beggar-child ...
Sat on a quay's edge: like a bird
Sang to herself at careless play,
And fell into the stream. "Dismay!
Help, you standers-by!" None stirred.
2. Bystanders reason, think of wives
And children ere they risk their lives.
Over the balustrade has bounced
A mere instinctive dog, and pounced
Plumb on the prize. "How well he dives!
3. "Up he comes with the child, see, tight
In mouth, alive, too, clutched from quite
A depth of ten feet--twelve, I bet!
Good dog! What, off again? There's yet
Another child to save? All right!
4. "How strange we saw no other fall!
It's instinct in the animal.
Good dog! But he's a long while under:
If he got drowned I should not wonder--
Strong current, that against the wall!
5. "Here he comes, holds in mouth this time
--What may the thing be? Well, that's prime!
Now, did you ever? Reason reigns
In man alone, since all Tray's pains
Have fished--the child's doll from the slime!"
* * * * *
=Băl´ŭs trā̍d_e_=: a railing along the edge of a bridge or
staircase. =Ĭn stĭnc´tĭv_e_=: acting according to his nature.
The Golden Fleece
BY NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
I
1. When Jason, the son of the dethroned king of Iolchos, was a little
boy, he was sent away from his parents and placed under the queerest
schoolmaster that ever you heard of. This learned person was one of the
people or quadrupeds called Centaurs. He lived in a cavern, and had the
body and legs of a white horse, with the head and shoulders of a man.
His name was Chiron; and, in spite of his odd appearance, he was a very
excellent teacher.
2. The good Chiron taught his pupils how to play upon the harp, and how
to cure diseases, and how to use the sword and shield, together with
various other branches of education in which the lads of those days
used to be instructed, instead of writing and arithmetic.
3. So Jason dwelt in the cave, with his four-footed Chiron, from the
time that he was an infant only a few months old until he had grown to
the full height of a man.
4. At length, being now a tall and athletic youth, Jason resolved to
seek his fortune in the world. He had heard that he himself was a
prince royal, and that his father, King Æson, had been deprived of
the kingdom of Iolchos by a certain Pelias, who would also have killed
Jason had he not been hidden in the Centaur's cave. And being come to
the strength of a man, Jason determined to set all this business to
rights, and to punish the wicked Pelias for wronging his dear father,
and to cast him down from the throne and seat himself there instead.
5. With this intention he took a spear in each hand, and threw a
leopard's skin over his shoulders to keep off the rain, and set forth
on his travels, with his long, yellow ringlets waving in the wind. The
part of his dress on which he most prided himself was a pair of sandals
that had been his father's. They were handsomely embroidered, and were
tied upon his feet with strings of gold.
6. I know not how far Jason had traveled when he came to a turbulent
river, which rushed right across his pathway, with specks of white foam
among its black eddies, hurrying onward, and roaring angrily as it
went. He stepped boldly into the raging and foamy current and began to
stagger away from the shore.
7. Jason's two spears, one in each hand, kept him from stumbling and
enabled him to feel his way among the hidden rocks. When he was half
way across, his foot was caught in a crevice between two rocks, and
stuck there so fast that, in the effort to get free, he lost one of his
golden-stringed sandals.
8. After traveling a pretty long distance, he came to a town situated
at the foot of a mountain, and not a great way from the shore of the
sea. On the outside of the town there was an immense crowd of people.
Jason inquired of one of the multitude why so many persons were here
assembled.
9. "This is the kingdom of Iolchos," answered the man, "and we are the
subjects of King Pelias. Our monarch has summoned us together that we
may see him sacrifice a black bull to Neptune. Yonder is the king,
where you see the smoke going up from the altar."
10. While the man spoke, he eyed Jason with great curiosity, for his
garb was quite unlike that of the Iolchians, and it looked very odd
to see a youth with a leopard's skin over his shoulders and each
hand grasping a spear. Jason perceived, too, that the man stared
particularly at his feet, one of which, you remember, was bare, while
the other was decorated with his father's golden-stringed sandal.
11. "Look at him! only look at him!" said the man to his next neighbor.
"Do you see? He wears but one sandal."
Upon this, first one person and then another began to stare at Jason,
and everybody seemed to be greatly struck with something in his aspect;
though they turned their eyes much oftener towards his feet than to
any other part of his figure. Besides, he could hear them whispering to
one another.
12. Poor Jason was greatly abashed, and made up his mind that the
people of Iolchos were exceedingly ill bred to take such public notice
of an accidental deficiency in his dress. Meanwhile, whether it was
that they hustled him forward, or that Jason of his own accord thrust
a passage through the crowd, it so happened that he soon found himself
close to the smoking altar where King Pelias was sacrificing the black
bull.
II
13. The murmur and hum of the multitude, in their surprise at the
spectacle of Jason with his one bare foot, grew so loud that it
disturbed the ceremonies; and the king, holding the great knife with
which he was just going to cut the bull's throat, turned angrily about
and fixed his eyes on Jason.
"Ha!" muttered he, "here is the one-sandaled fellow, sure enough. What
can I do with him?"
14. And he clutched more closely the great knife in his hand, as if he
were half a mind to slay Jason instead of the black bull. The people
round about caught up the king's words, indistinctly as they were
uttered; and first there was a murmur among them, and then a loud
shout.
"The one-sandaled man has come! The prophecy must be fulfilled!"
15. For you are to know that, many years before, King Pelias had been
told that a man with one sandal should cast him down from his throne.
On this account he had given strict orders that nobody should ever come
into his presence unless both sandals were securely tied upon his feet.
16. In the whole course of the king's reign, he had never been thrown
into such a fright as by the spectacle of poor Jason's bare foot. But,
as he was naturally a bold and hard-hearted man, he soon took courage
and began to consider in what way he might rid himself of this terrible
one-sandaled stranger.
17. "My good young man," said King Pelias, taking the softest tone
imaginable in order to throw Jason off his guard, "you are very welcome
to my kingdom. Judging by your dress, you must have traveled a long
distance; for it is not the fashion to wear leopard skins in this
part of the world. Pray, what may I call your name? and where did you
receive your education?"
18. "My name is Jason," answered the young stranger. "Ever since my
infancy I have dwelt in the cave of Chiron the Centaur. He was my
instructor and taught me music and horsemanship, and how to cure
wounds, and likewise how to inflict wounds with my weapons."
[Illustration: "My name is Jason."]
19. "I have heard of Chiron the schoolmaster," replied King Pelias. "It
gives me great delight to see one of his scholars at my court. But, to
test how much you have profited under so excellent a teacher, will you
allow me to ask you a single question?"
"I do not pretend to be very wise," said Jason. "But ask me what you
please, and I will answer to the best of my ability."
20. Now King Pelias meant cunningly to entrap the young man and to make
him say something that should be the cause of mischief and destruction
to himself. So, with an evil smile upon his face, he spoke as follows:
"What would you do, brave Jason," asked he, "if there were a man in
the world by whom, as you had reason to believe, you were doomed to be
ruined and slain--what would you do, I say,, if that man stood before
you and in your power?"
21. When Jason saw the malice and wickedness which King Pelias could
not prevent from gleaming out of his eyes, he probably guessed that the
king had discovered what he came for, and that he intended to turn his
own words against himself.
22. Still he scorned to tell a falsehood. Like an upright and honorable
prince, as he was, he determined to speak out the real truth. Since the
king had chosen to ask him the question, and since Jason had promised
him an answer, there was no right way save to tell him precisely what
would be the most prudent thing to do if he had his worst enemy in his
power.
23. Therefore, after a moment's consideration, he spoke up with a firm
and manly voice.
"I would send such a man," said he, "in quest of the Golden Fleece."
24. This enterprise, you will understand, was of all others the most
difficult and dangerous in the world. In the first place, it would be
necessary to make a long voyage through unknown seas. There was hardly
a hope or a possibility that any young man who should undertake this
voyage would either succeed in obtaining the Golden Fleece or would
survive to return home and tell of the perils he had run. The eyes of
King Pelias sparkled with joy, therefore, when he heard Jason's reply.
25. "Well said, wise man with the one sandal!" cried he. "Go, then, and
at the peril of your life bring me back the Golden Fleece."
"I go," answered Jason. "If I fail, you need not fear that I will ever
come back to trouble you again. But if I return to Iolchos with the
prize, then, King Pelias, you must hasten down from your throne and
give me your crown and scepter."
"That I will," said the king, with a sneer. "Meantime, I will keep them
very safely for you."
III
26. The first thing that Jason thought of doing after he left the
king's presence was to go to Dodona and inquire of the Talking Oak what
course it was best to pursue. This wonderful tree stood in the center
of an ancient wood. Its stately trunk rose up a hundred feet into the
air and threw a broad and dense shadow over more than an acre of ground.
27. Standing beneath it, Jason looked up among the knotted branches
and green leaves and into the mysterious heart of the old tree, and
spoke aloud, as if he were addressing some person who was hidden in the
depths of the foliage.
"What shall I do," said he, "in order to win the Golden Fleece?"
28. At first there was a deep silence, not only within the shadow of
the Talking Oak, but all through the solitary wood. In a moment or two,
however, the leaves of the oak began to stir and rustle as if a gentle
breeze were wandering amongst them, although the other trees of the
wood were perfectly still. The sound grew louder and became like the
roar of a high wind.