The Haunted Man and the Ghosts Bargain | Page 6

the berries like these were not shining half so bright all round us,
as their bright faces. Many of 'em are gone; she's gone; and my son
George (our eldest, who was her pride more than all the rest!) is fallen
very low: but I can see them, when I look here, alive and healthy, as
they used to be in those days; and I can see him, thank God, in his
innocence. It's a blessed thing to me, at eighty-seven."
The keen look that had been fixed upon him with so much earnestness,
had gradually sought the ground.
"When my circumstances got to be not so good as formerly, through
not being honestly dealt by, and I first come here to be custodian," said
the old man, "--which was upwards of fifty years ago--where's my son
William? More than half a century ago, William!"
"That's what I say, father," replied the son, as promptly and dutifully as
before, "that's exactly where it is. Two times ought's an ought, and
twice five ten, and there's a hundred of 'em."
"It was quite a pleasure to know that one of our founders--or more
correctly speaking," said the old man, with a great glory in his subject
and his knowledge of it, "one of the learned gentlemen that helped
endow us in Queen Elizabeth's time, for we were founded afore her
day--left in his will, among the other bequests he made us, so much to
buy holly, for garnishing the walls and windows, come Christmas.
There was something homely and friendly in it. Being but strange here,
then, and coming at Christmas time, we took a liking for his very picter
that hangs in what used to be, anciently, afore our ten poor gentlemen
commuted for an annual stipend in money, our great Dinner Hall.--A
sedate gentleman in a peaked beard, with a ruff round his neck, and a
scroll below him, in old English letters, 'Lord! keep my memory green!'
You know all about him, Mr. Redlaw?"
"I know the portrait hangs there, Philip."
"Yes, sure, it's the second on the right, above the panelling. I was going
to say--he has helped to keep MY memory green, I thank him; for
going round the building every year, as I'm a doing now, and
freshening up the bare rooms with these branches and berries, freshens
up my bare old brain. One year brings back another, and that year
another, and those others numbers! At last, it seems to me as if the
birth-time of our Lord was the birth-time of all I have ever had

affection for, or mourned for, or delighted in,--and they're a pretty
many, for I'm eighty-seven!"
"Merry and happy," murmured Redlaw to himself.
The room began to darken strangely.
"So you see, sir," pursued old Philip, whose hale wintry cheek had
warmed into a ruddier glow, and whose blue eyes had brightened while
he spoke, "I have plenty to keep, when I keep this present season. Now,
where's my quiet Mouse? Chattering's the sin of my time of life, and
there's half the building to do yet, if the cold don't freeze us first, or the
wind don't blow us away, or the darkness don't swallow us up."
The quiet Mouse had brought her calm face to his side, and silently
taken his arm, before he finished speaking.
"Come away, my dear," said the old man. "Mr. Redlaw won't settle to
his dinner, otherwise, till it's cold as the winter. I hope you'll excuse me
rambling on, sir, and I wish you good night, and, once again, a merry--"
"Stay!" said Mr. Redlaw, resuming his place at the table, more, it
would have seemed from his manner, to reassure the old keeper, than in
any remembrance of his own appetite. "Spare me another moment,
Philip. William, you were going to tell me something to your excellent
wife's honour. It will not be disagreeable to her to hear you praise her.
What was it?"
"Why, that's where it is, you see, sir," returned Mr. William Swidger,
looking towards his wife in considerable embarrassment. "Mrs.
William's got her eye upon me."
"But you're not afraid of Mrs. William's eye?"
"Why, no, sir," returned Mr. Swidger, "that's what I say myself. It
wasn't made to be afraid of. It wouldn't have been made so mild, if that
was the intention. But I wouldn't like to--Milly!-- him, you know.
Down in the Buildings."
Mr. William, standing behind the table, and rummaging disconcertedly
among the objects upon it, directed persuasive glances at Mrs. William,
and secret jerks of his head and thumb at Mr. Redlaw, as alluring her
towards him.
"Him, you know, my love," said Mr. William. "Down in the Buildings.
Tell, my dear! You're the works of Shakespeare in comparison with
myself.