I have the honour of presenting myself by the name of Jackman. I esteem
it a proud privilege to go down to posterity through the instrumentality
of the most remarkable boy that ever lived,--by the name of JEMMY JACKMAN
LIRRIPER,--and of my most worthy and most highly respected friend, Mrs.
Emma Lirriper, of Eighty-one, Norfolk Street, Strand, in the County of
Middlesex, in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.
It is not for me to express the rapture with which we received that dear
and eminently remarkable boy, on the occurrence of his first Christmas
holidays. Suffice it to observe that when he came flying into the house
with two splendid prizes (Arithmetic, and Exemplary Conduct), Mrs.
Lirriper and myself embraced with emotion, and instantly took him to the
Play, where we were all three admirably entertained.
Nor is it to render homage to the virtues of the best of her good and
honoured sex--whom, in deference to her unassuming worth, I will only
here designate by the initials E. L.--that I add this record to the
bundle of papers with which our, in a most distinguished degree,
remarkable boy has expressed himself delighted, before re-consigning the
same to the left-hand glass closet of Mrs. Lirriper's little bookcase.
Neither is it to obtrude the name of the old original superannuated
obscure Jemmy Jackman, once (to his degradation) of Wozenham's, long (to
his elevation) of Lirriper's. If I could be consciously guilty of that
piece of bad taste, it would indeed be a work of supererogation, now that
the name is borne by JEMMY JACKMAN LIRRIPER.
No, I take up my humble pen to register a little record of our strikingly
remarkable boy, which my poor capacity regards as presenting a pleasant
little picture of the dear boy's mind. The picture may be interesting to
himself when he is a man.
Our first reunited Christmas-day was the most delightful one we have ever
passed together. Jemmy was never silent for five minutes, except in
church-time. He talked as we sat by the fire, he talked when we were out
walking, he talked as we sat by the fire again, he talked incessantly at
dinner, though he made a dinner almost as remarkable as himself. It was
the spring of happiness in his fresh young heart flowing and flowing, and
it fertilised (if I may be allowed so bold a figure) my much-esteemed
friend, and J. J. the present writer.
There were only we three. We dined in my esteemed friend's little room,
and our entertainment was perfect. But everything in the establishment
is, in neatness, order, and comfort, always perfect. After dinner our
boy slipped away to his old stool at my esteemed friend's knee, and
there, with his hot chestnuts and his glass of brown sherry (really, a
most excellent wine!) on a chair for a table, his face outshone the
apples in the dish.
We talked of these jottings of mine, which Jemmy had read through and
through by that time; and so it came about that my esteemed friend
remarked, as she sat smoothing Jemmy's curls:
"And as you belong to the house too, Jemmy,--and so much more than the
Lodgers, having been born in it,--why, your story ought to be added to
the rest, I think, one of these days."