I.

The shutters of a little spur of warehouses which breaks out into

mountainous stores and open valleys of streets around the corner, but

which itself overlooks no fairer view than a narrow, muddy alley of a

thoroughfare scarcely broad enough to admit two drays abreast, and, by

actual measurement,--taken with persistent diligence by the adjacent

office boys,--just two running-jumps from gutter to gutter; the shutters

of this, in its own eyes, important little trade centre, were up, and a

great clattering they had made in getting up on a clear, tingling night

before Christmas, eighteen hundred and--no matter what.

The porters had come out in their faded greatcoats, bandaged right and

left in woolly mufflers, and more than usually clumsy in padded gloves,

and had been bitten and tossed about by the wind with such unbecoming

violence that even a porter felt it necessary to hurry and bustle.

Taking the shutters by assault from the foe's embraces, they had

thumped, and banged, and hammered, and scolded them into place, and, in

undignified haste, had betaken themselves, steaming warm breath through

their fingers, into their proper and respective places by the

counting-house fire.

The magic--so it seemed in its effects--tolling of a deep-toned bell in

the neighborhood would not allow them to doze long in their warm nooks,

but, like the jealous monster in the fairy-tale, kept its captives

always going, going, going, for its sixth stroke had not died away

before they began to appear again, this time with the addition of fur

hats and little dinner-baskets, and with no perceptible noses--unless

the existence of watery eyes above their mufflers argued the missing

features to be in their proper places below--and with an accelerated

gait--also an act of enchantment.

William, of No. 6, bawled as loud as his worsted gag would permit across

the street (so termed by a figure of rhetoric) to James, of No. 7:

"Hello, Jim! Cold as blazes, ain't it?"

James, of No. 7, assenting, Thomas, of No. 4, would like to know "How

blazes can be cold, now?"

William, of No. 6, would say "as thunder," if that would suit him any

better; and as it appeared to do so they, with half a dozen others,

breasted the wind and trudged out into the blustery streets beyond.

The merchants, too, had locked their doors, and tried their knobs, and

looked up at the faces of their stores as if to say, "Merry Christmas to

you, and I wish you a pleasant day to-morrow!" but in reality to see

that all was fast, and perchance to indulge in a comfortable survey of

their snug little properties--and the complacent tread with which they

followed the porters gives color to the suspicion--and draw from it

momentum for the enjoyment of the morrow's holiday.

The shutters, then, were up--stop, not all up! One, as you may see by

the shaft of gas-light that has just fallen across the pavement near the

top of the court, is still down.

The little square window through which the light eddies on the bricks is

supported on either side by a heavy door, and all three, the two doors

and the window, are in turn crowned and anointed on the head, as it

were, by a very bold sign containing very brazen--in every sense of the

word--letters which announced pompously, like some servants of similar

metallic qualities, the name of their master.

Emanuel Griffin--the tongue uncontrollably adds Esquire--was the name,

and there, if you had looked through the window, in a deep funnel of a

room, at a desk near the fire, head behind the open leaves of a ledger,

and feet beneath the warm recesses of the stove, sat its possessor.

Outside the railing which formed a barrier between Emanuel Griffin,

Esq., and the business world, and encompassed with a less elaborate

railing, sat, on a high stool in a cold corner, the little,

blackish-green (perhaps the color gas-light imparts to faded black)

clerk of Emanuel Griffin, Esq. Whether David Dubbs, such was he called,

derived the power of writing from his mouth; or whether the gentle

excitation of moving his lips over toothless gums assisted thought; or

whether, as some said, he chewed tobacco, a position which nobody ever

held long, as nobody ever proved him to have expectorated during his

whole life; his mouth--always closed--moved up and down, up and down,

with the motion of his pen. Hair he had none, that is, none to speak of;

there were some few isolated white locks behind his ears and at the back

of his head, but he made no pretensions to have any, and openly

acknowledged himself bald--and very candid of him it was to do so.

Chroniclers have told us how, after fierce battles that have raged from

dawn till nightfall, the moon has come calmly up from the horizon and

shone peacefully and serenely over the field of strife and death. So

arose a beneficent smile ever and anon over the wrinkled and careworn

face of the old clerk; but still he wrote on, Faithful Dave! and if

pleasant thoughts swept through him they avoided the business that

occupied his hands and did not interrupt it.

They had long sat in quietness, only broken by the noise of turning

leaves and crackling coals,--but, in truth, if David Dubbs's eye, in its

course to and from the clock, had not, like the world, worked silently

on its axis, there must have been continual creaking--when a noise like

the name of David emanated from the ledger, and following it--for it was

near-sighted--the head of Emanuel Griffin, Esq., lifted itself to an

erect posture and repeated in a less muffled tone, "David!"

"Yes, sir," answered the old clerk, in a weak little voice, and climbing

down to the floor from his perch.

"You may lock up, David. Ten thousand and odd. Ten thousand's a good

year, David; a very good year. Very--good--indeed! But go and lock up,"

and then Mr. Griffin took a glance at the clock. "Half-past six! Why

it's surprising how time does fly, and Christmas Eve, too. Well, well!

But hurry up with the shutters, David, and we shan't be long----"

Before Mr. Griffin had fully delivered himself of these remarks the

little person of David Dubbs was out in the cold, was in and out among

the screws on the door, had put up the shutters, and simultaneously with

the last word stood in the half-opened door and, all unseen by his

employer, waved his hand to some one at the corner of the court. He then

walked as quickly as his little, bent legs--parabolic were they in

outline, but, as this is not a geometric treatise, it is of no

particular consequence--would permit him up the long aisle in the centre

of the room, and sent off timid little echoes of his steps to ramble

away among the bales of crockery--for it was crockery that Emanuel

Griffin, Esq., dealt in--and rattle among the piles of plates.

Having reached again his little cage of an office, he took down from its

accustomed peg an old, threadbare coat, and, with much exertion and

outstretching of arms, finally got it on, turned up the collar, tied

about his ears a not very robust scarf, and laid thereon, as the

copestone of his apparel, a dingy high hat that had undergone, in point

of nap, as many reverses as its wearer in point of fortune. Thus

attired, he tipped his hat to his employer, all ready, like himself, to

depart, and started out.

Before he reached the door, a cry from Mr. Griffin arrested him, and he

came hastily back; for, although it would have required a thumbscrew to

have made him confess it, yet he had all day long looked forward to the

time of parting, when he half expected Emanuel Griffin, Esq., contrary

to his custom though it was, would offer him some little gift out of the

increased profits of a business he had done no little to advance. But no

such design had Mr. Griffin conceived, or if he had it was very soon

suppressed as entirely unworthy of a man of purely business habits, and

all he had to say was,--

"I know, David, there is something I was to have told you to do. Mrs.

Griffin impressed it on me this morning, but,"--here he stood thinking

for a moment,--"no matter," he resumed. "I guess it was nothing very

important, so good-by, David, and a--good-by!" He was going to say "and

a merry Christmas;" but for a man of purely business habits to unbend so

far and become cheerful--why, it's subversive of all business

discipline, and so he thought to himself.

David, doubly disappointed, turned and passed out, and his old eyes must

have been extremely sensitive to the wind, for they ran with something

very like tears that he wiped away with his glove as he muttered,--

"So, no Christmas, after all. Poor girls! Poor girls!" Mr. Griffin was

not long behind his faithful old clerk. He extinguished the lights with

great care, and then, with the key in his hand, felt his way to the

door, banged it after him, and locked it with the satisfaction of a

miser over a casket of treasures. His journey home led him to the

opposite end of the court from that which David had passed through, and

he therefore did not overtake him.

And if he had, would this hard, business-encrusted heart have been less

cold than the bitter winds that assailed it? Would the sight which made

David Dubbs forget the fierceness of night have penetrated the chilly

place where it rested and warmed it in pitying activity? Would the

tender impulses, which the unsifted morals of barter extinguish, as they

extinguish much of the nobility in man, have enkindled anew and

brightened this misery? Not if dollars would have done it; nay, not if

even a word would have done it, would Emanuel Griffin have relaxed from

the demeanor which purely business habits imposed upon him. He felt it

due to his position in business society to maintain rigidly its maxims,

the chief of which, "Do unto others as they would do unto you, if they

could," he practised to the letter.