Old Carriers too, appeared, with
blind old Boxers lying at their feet; and newer carts
with younger drivers ('Peerybingle Brothers' on the
tilt'); and sick old Carriers, tended by the gentlest
hands; and graves of dead and gone old Carriers,
green in the churchyard. And as the Cricket showed
him all these things -- he saw them plainly, though his
eyes were fixed upon the fire -- the Carrier's heart grew
light and happy, and he thanked his Household Gods
with all his might, and cared no more for Gruff and
Tackleton than you do.
But, what was that young figure of a man, which
the same Fairy Cricket set so near Her stool, and
which remained there, singly and alone? Why did it
linger still, so near her, with its arm upon the chim-
ney-piece, ever repeating 'Married! and not to me!'
O Dot! O failing Dot! There is no place for it
in all your husband's visions; why has its shadow
fallen on his hearth!
CHIRP THE SECOND
Caleb Plummer and his Blind Daughter lived all
alone by themselves, as the Story-books say -- and my
blessing, with yours to back it I hope, on the Story-
books, for saying anything in this workaday world!
-- Caleb Plummer and his Blind Daughter lived all
alone by themselves, in a little cracked nutshell of a
wooden house, which was, in truth, no better than a
pimple on the prominent red-brick nose of Gruff and
Tackleton.
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