Stranica 279 [279]
OCR
211 perfect happiness as can ever be known in this changing world. Soon after the marriage of the young people, the worthy doctor returned to Chertsey, where, bereft of the presence of his old friends, he would have been discontented, if his temperament had admitted of such a feeling, and would have img quite feverish if he had known Ow. For two or three months, he contented himself with hinting that he feared the air began to disagree with him; and then, finding that the place really was to him no longer what it had been before, settled his business on his assistant, took a bachelor’s cottage just outside the village of which his young friend was pastor, and instantaneously recovered. Here he took to gardening, planting, fishing, carpentering, and various other pursuits, of a similar kind, all undertaken with his characteristic impetuosity; and in each and all he has since become famous throughout the neighbourhood as a most profound authority. Before his removal, he had managed to contract a strong friendship for Mr. Grimwig, which that eccentric gentleman cordially reciprocated. He is accordingly visited by him a great many times in the course of the year; and on all such occasions, Mr. Grimwig plants, fishes, and carpenters with great ardour, doing every thing in a very singular and unprecedented manner, but always maintaining, with his favourite asseveration, that his mode is the right one. On Sundays, he never fails to criticise the sermon to the young clergyman’s face, always informing Mr. Losberne, in strict confidence, afterwards, that he considers it an excellent performance, but thinks it it as well not to say so. It is a standing and very favourite joke for Mr. Brownlow, to rally him on his old prophecy concerning Oliver, and to remind him of the night on which they sat with the watch between them, waiting his return; but Mr. Grimwig contends that he was right in the main, and in proof thereof remarks, that Oliver did not come back, after all, which always calls forth a laugh on his side, and increases his good humour. Mr. Noah Claypole receiving a free pardon from the crown, in consequence of being admitted approver against the Jew, and considering his profession not altogether so safe a one as he could wish, was for some little time at a loss for the means of a livelihood, not burthened with — tion, he went into business as an informer, in which calling he realizes a genteel subsistence. His plan is to walk out once a week during church-time, attended by Charlotte, in respectable attire. The lady faints away at the doors of charitable publicans, and the gentleman, being accommodated with three pennyworth of brandy to restore her, lays an information next day, and pockets half the penalty. Sometimes, Mr. Claypole faints himself, but the result is the same. Mr. and Mrs. Bumble, deprived of their situations, were gradually reduced to great indigence and misery, and finally became paupers in that very same workhouse in which they had once lorded it over others. Mr. Bumble has been heard to say, that in this reverse and degradation, he has not even spirits to be thankful for being separated from his wife. As to Mr. Giles and Brittles, they still remain in their old posts, although the former is bald, and the last-named boy quite grey. ‘They sleep at the parsonage, but divide their attention so equally between its inmates and Oliver, and Mr. Brownlow, and Mr. Losberne, that to this day the villagers have never been able to discover to what establishment they properly belong. Master Charles Bates, appalled by Sikes’s crime, fell into a train of reflection whether an honest life was not, after all, the best. Arriving at the conclusion that it certainly was, he turned his back upon the scenes of his past life, resolved to amend it in some new sphere of action. He struggled hard, and suffered much for some time; but, having a contented disposition and a good purpose, succeeded in the end, and from being a farmer’s drudge and a carrier’s Jad, is now the merriest young grazier in-all Northamptonshire. ys ae And now, the hand that traces these words, falters as it approaches the conclusion of its task, and would weave, for a little longer space, the thread of these adventures, I would fain linger yet with a few of those among whom I have so long moved, and share their happiness by endeavouring to depict it. I would show Rose Maylie in all the bloom and grace of early womanhood, shedding upon her secluded path in life such soft and gentle light as fell on all who trod it with her, and shone into their hearts. I would paint her the life and joy of the fireside circle, and the evening summer group; I would
