Master Humphreys Clock | Page 4

of time they found I did no harm, but, on the
contrary, inclined towards them despite their unjust usage, they began
to relent. I found my footsteps no longer dogged, as they had often
been before, and observed that the women and children no longer
retreated, but would stand and gaze at me as I passed their doors. I took
this for a good omen, and waited patiently for better times. By degrees
I began to make friends among these humble folks; and though they
were yet shy of speaking, would give them 'good day,' and so pass on.
In a little time, those whom I had thus accosted would make a point of
coming to their doors and windows at the usual hour, and nod or
courtesy to me; children, too, came timidly within my reach, and ran
away quite scared when I patted their heads and bade them be good at
school. These little people soon grew more familiar. From exchanging
mere words of course with my older neighbours, I gradually became
their friend and adviser, the depositary of their cares and sorrows, and
sometimes, it may be, the reliever, in my small way, of their distresses.
And now I never walk abroad but pleasant recognitions and smiling
faces wait on Master Humphrey.
It was a whim of mine, perhaps as a whet to the curiosity of my

neighbours, and a kind of retaliation upon them for their suspicions - it
was, I say, a whim of mine, when I first took up my abode in this place,
to acknowledge no other name than Humphrey. With my detractors, I
was Ugly Humphrey. When I began to convert them into friends, I was
Mr. Humphrey and Old Mr. Humphrey. At length I settled down into
plain Master Humphrey, which was understood to be the title most
pleasant to my ear; and so completely a matter of course has it become,
that sometimes when I am taking my morning walk in my little
courtyard, I overhear my barber - who has a profound respect for me,
and would not, I am sure, abridge my honours for the world - holding
forth on the other side of the wall, touching the state of 'Master
Humphrey's' health, and communicating to some friend the substance
of the conversation that he and Master Humphrey have had together in
the course of the shaving which he has just concluded.
That I may not make acquaintance with my readers under false
pretences, or give them cause to complain hereafter that I have
withheld any matter which it was essential for them to have learnt at
first, I wish them to know - and I smile sorrowfully to think that the
time has been when the confession would have given me pain - that I
am a misshapen, deformed old man.
I have never been made a misanthrope by this cause. I have never been
stung by any insult, nor wounded by any jest upon my crooked figure.
As a child I was melancholy and timid, but that was because the gentle
consideration paid to my misfortune sunk deep into my spirit and made
me sad, even in those early days. I was but a very young creature when
my poor mother died, and yet I remember that often when I hung
around her neck, and oftener still when I played about the room before
her, she would catch me to her bosom, and bursting into tears, would
soothe me with every term of fondness and affection. God knows I was
a happy child at those times, - happy to nestle in her breast, - happy to
weep when she did, - happy in not knowing why.
These occasions are so strongly impressed upon my memory, that they
seem to have occupied whole years. I had numbered very, very few
when they ceased for ever, but before then their meaning had been
revealed to me.
I do not know whether all children are imbued with a quick perception
of childish grace and beauty, and a strong love for it, but I was. I had no

thought that I remember, either that I possessed it myself or that I
lacked it, but I admired it with an intensity that I cannot describe. A
little knot of playmates - they must have been beautiful, for I see them
now - were clustered one day round my mother's knee in eager
admiration of some picture representing a group of infant angels, which
she held in her hand. Whose the picture was, whether it was familiar to
me or otherwise, or how all the children came to be there, I forget; I
have some dim thought it was my birthday, but the beginning of my
recollection is that we were all together in