PUNCH AND JUDY
When Mary Hope and her aunt came again to the portrait painter’s
house, he presented me to her with a smiling look. ‘There, Miss Mary,’
said he, ‘you see I have been at work upon this child of yours, and I
think with good effect. And now that the countenance can be seen, we
should observe that this doll has really very good features. I mean
that they are more marked than is common with dolls. She has a good
nose; very bright eyes; and what is very uncommon to see in a doll--she
has something like a chin. She has, also, a very pretty mouth, and a
sensible forehead. But another remarkable discovery I have made is that
of her name! This bracelet which I have cleaned and brightened, I find
to be gold, and upon it is engraved ‘Maria Poppet!’
Mary Hope received me with great pleasure, and gave Mr. Johnson many,
many thanks for his kindness in taking so much pains about me. ‘But
what dress,’ said she, ‘is this you have given her? Is it not too
warm?’ ‘I fear it is,’ said Mr. Johnson, laughing. ‘It is only a bit of
green-baize for a wrapper, and an old silver cord for a girdle, which I
happened to have at hand, and thought this was better than nothing. You
can make her a nice new summer dress when you get home.’ Mary declared
she would do so that very day.
The sitting for Aunt Brown’s portrait being concluded, she went
downstairs with Mary, who carried me, tossing me up in the air for joy,
and catching me as I was falling. This frightened me very much, and I
was so glad when we got downstairs. Upon the mat we found the great dog
Nep asleep. He jumped up in a moment, and went bouncing out before us
into the street. A hackney coach was waiting at the door, and directly
the steps were let down, Nep jumped in first. We arrived at their
lodgings, which were very comfortable and very quiet, after all the
alarms, and dangers, and narrow escapes, and troubles I had recently
gone through. The weather was very rainy, nearly the whole week, so
that I was never taken out during that time; but the days passed very
pleasantly, as I often heard Mary read pretty books aloud to her aunt.
She also busied herself in making me new clothes, for indeed I wanted
everything, as at this time my only dress was the green-baize robe,
with the bit of old silver cord round the waist, which Mr. Johnson had
given me.
One fine day, after the bad weather was over, a hackney coach was at
the door waiting to take us out somewhere. Down we went, Neptune,
as usual, running downstairs before us with his red tongue out, and
leaping in first. ‘Now, Mary,’ said her aunt, as we drove along, ‘shall
we go to the exhibition of pictures at the Royal Academy in Trafalgar
Square? (Neptune, do not poke your great nose so upon my knees--) or
shall we go to the Diorama in Regent’s Park? (Neptune, your paws are
not clean--you will soil my silk gown--) or shall we go to the Panorama
in Leicester Square? (Neptune, your nose is so cold--) or shall we go
to the British Museum?’
‘Oh, dear aunt,’ said Mary, ‘I do not know which is best. I should like
to go to them all! (Nep, you must not lick the doll’s face--the fresh
paint may come off!)’
‘But you cannot see all in the same day,’ said her aunt.
‘No, aunt,’ replied Mary, ‘I know that--only I could not help saying
what I should like. Let us go first, then, to the British Museum. But
will they let me take Maria Poppet in with me?’
‘I should think they would hardly object,’ said her aunt, ‘for I never
yet saw a doll left among the walking sticks and umbrellas at the door,
however plain the doll might be. They could never object to a pretty
doll like Maria--though, to be sure, she might be better dressed.
Really, you must make haste with her clothes. I cannot let you take her
out any more in that strange dress Mr. Johnson tied round her.’
Mary promised to finish my clothes in a day or two. At this moment the
coach stopped, in consequence of a crowd that was assembled in the
street round a performance of Punch and Judy.
Mary’s aunt put down the glass at one side in order to see what
occasioned the stoppage; and as it was quite impossible for the coach
to go on immediately, both Mary and her aunt sat looking out of the
window at the acting of Mr. Punch. He was behaving in his usual naughty
and impudent way, and was now pretending to nurse his child. This
child was a wooden doll, dressed in an old green sort of a night-gown,
not unlike the color of my own green wrapper. Presently the child was
heard to cry very loudly; so Mr. Punch declared he would have nothing
to do with such a cross child, and would throw it out of the window.
The child cried again; and Punch actually did what he had threatened,
and tossed the wooden doll out upon the heads of the crowd who were
gathered around, and it fell somewhere among them. This produced such
scrambling and confusion, and laughing and noise, that it made Neptune
jump up in our coach and thrust his head out of the coach window to
see what was the matter. When the people saw this they laughed louder
than before, and made more noise, so that Nep, thinking they meant to
be rude to us, began to bark and throw himself about from one side to
the other; in doing which he accidentally ran his head against Mary’s
shoulder, with such a jerk that he knocked me out of her arms, and I
fell down among the crowd!
‘Oh, Nep, Nep,’ cried Mary, ‘what have you done?’
In a moment out of the window jumped Neptune, and began to scramble
through the crowd in search of me, barking away as loudly as he could.
The disturbance and confusion increased; but who shall describe my
dismay when I saw Nep, in his haste, seize upon the child of Mr. Punch
and carry it back in his mouth to the coach instead of me; while at the
same moment a tall man, picking me up, handed me into Punch’s show,
saying, ‘Here, take your child, Mr. Punch!’
[Illustration]