Doctor Marigold | Page 8

crying out!
Yet in other respects her mother took great care of her. Her clothes
were always clean and neat, and her mother was never tired of working
at 'em. Such is the inconsistency in things. Our being down in the
marsh country in unhealthy weather, I consider the cause of Sophy's
taking bad low fever; but however she took it, once she got it she
turned away from her mother for evermore, and nothing would
persuade her to be touched by her mother's hand. She would shiver and
say, "No, no, no," when it was offered at, and would hide her face on
my shoulder, and hold me tighter round the neck.
The Cheap Jack business had been worse than ever I had known it,

what with one thing and what with another (and not least with railroads,
which will cut it all to pieces, I expect, at last), and I was run dry of
money. For which reason, one night at that period of little Sophy's
being so bad, either we must have come to a dead- lock for victuals and
drink, or I must have pitched the cart as I did.
I couldn't get the dear child to lie down or leave go of me, and indeed I
hadn't the heart to try, so I stepped out on the footboard with her
holding round my neck. They all set up a laugh when they see us, and
one chuckle-headed Joskin (that I hated for it) made the bidding,
"Tuppence for her!"
"Now, you country boobies," says I, feeling as if my heart was a heavy
weight at the end of a broken sashline, "I give you notice that I am a
going to charm the money out of your pockets, and to give you so
much more than your money's worth that you'll only persuade
yourselves to draw your Saturday night's wages ever again arterwards
by the hopes of meeting me to lay 'em out with, which you never will,
and why not? Because I've made my fortunes by selling my goods on a
large scale for seventy-five per cent. less than I give for 'em, and I am
consequently to be elevated to the House of Peers next week, by the
title of the Duke of Cheap and Markis Jackaloorul. Now let's know
what you want to-night, and you shall have it. But first of all, shall I tell
you why I have got this little girl round my neck? You don't want to
know? Then you shall. She belongs to the Fairies. She's a fortune-teller.
She can tell me all about you in a whisper, and can put me up to
whether you're going to buy a lot or leave it. Now do you want a saw?
No, she says you don't, because you're too clumsy to use one. Else
here's a saw which would be a lifelong blessing to a handy man, at four
shillings, at three and six, at three, at two and six, at two, at
eighteen-pence. But none of you shall have it at any price, on account
of your well-known awkwardness, which would make it manslaughter.
The same objection applies to this set of three planes which I won't let
you have neither, so don't bid for 'em. Now I am a going to ask her
what you do want." (Then I whispered, "Your head burns so, that I am
afraid it hurts you bad, my pet," and she answered, without opening her
heavy eyes, "Just a little, father.") "O! This little fortune-teller says it's
a memorandum- book you want. Then why didn't you mention it? Here
it is. Look at it. Two hundred superfine hot-pressed wire-wove

pages--if you don't believe me, count 'em--ready ruled for your
expenses, an everlastingly pointed pencil to put 'em down with, a
double-bladed penknife to scratch 'em out with, a book of printed tables
to calculate your income with, and a camp-stool to sit down upon while
you give your mind to it! Stop! And an umbrella to keep the moon off
when you give your mind to it on a pitch-dark night. Now I won't ask
you how much for the lot, but how little? How little are you thinking of?
Don't be ashamed to mention it, because my fortune-teller knows
already." (Then making believe to whisper, I kissed her,--and she
kissed me.) "Why, she says you are thinking of as little as three and
threepence! I couldn't have believed it, even of you, unless she told me.
Three and threepence! And a set of printed tables in the lot that'll
calculate your income up to forty thousand a year! With an income of
forty thousand a year, you grudge three and sixpence. Well then, I'll tell
you my opinion. I so despise the threepence,