the tinsmith's—the beaver bonnets—a flat iron for a farthing—i fail to secure a sister—rubens and the doll
oakford was not a large town. it only boasted of one street, "to be called a street," as mr. buckle phrased it, though two or three lanes, with more or less pretentious rows of houses, and so forth, ran at right angles to the high street. the high street was a steep hill. it was tolerably broad, very clean, pebbled and picturesque. the "crown inn" was an old house with an historical legend attached to it. several of the shops were also in very old houses, with overhanging upper stories and most comfortable window seats. mr. buckle's was one of these.
the air of the place was keen, but very healthy, and i seemed to gain strength with every hour of my stay. with strength, all my interest in the novelty of the situation woke afresh, and i was delighted with everything, but especially with the shop.
on the subject of the saddlery business, i must confess that a difference of opinion existed between myself and my excellent nurse. she jealously maintained my position as a "young gentleman" and lodger, against the familiarity into which the buckles and i fell by common consent. she[81] served my meals in separate state, and kept jemima as well as herself in attendance on my wants. she made my sitting-room as comfortable as she could, and here it was her wish that i should sit, when in the house, "like a young gentleman." my wish, on the contrary, was to be in the shop, and as much as possible like a grown-up saddler. it did seem so delightful to be always working at that nice-smelling leather, and to be able to make for oneself unlimited straps, whips, and other masculine appendages. i was perfectly happy with spare fragments, cutting out miniature saddles and straps, stamping lines, punching holes, and mislaying the good saddler's tools in these efforts; whilst my thoughts were occupied with many a childish plan for inducing my father to apprentice me to the worthy mr. buckle.
i was a good deal taken with mr. buckle's apprentice, a rosy-cheeked young man, whose dress and manners i endeavoured as much as possible to imitate. i strutted in imitation of his style of walking down the high street, and about this time nurse bundle was wont to say she "couldn't think what had come to" my hat, that it was "always stuck on one side." pondering the history of dick whittington and the fair alice, i said one day to jemima buckle,
"i suppose you and andrew will marry, and when mr. buckle dies you will have the shop?"
"me marry the 'prentice!" said miss jemima. and i discovered how little i knew of the shades of "caste" in oakford.
jemima used often to take me out when nurse bundle was otherwise engaged, and we were always very good friends. one day, i remember, she was going to a shop about half way up the[82] high street, and i obtained leave to go with her. mrs. bundle was busy superintending the cooking of some special delicacy for her "young gentleman's" dinner, and jemima and i set forth on our errand. it was to a tinsmith's shop, where a bath had been ordered for my accommodation.
ah! through how many years that steep street, with its clean, sunny stones, its irregular line of quaint old buildings, and the distant glimpse of big trees within palings into which it passed at the top, where the town touched the outskirts of some gentleman's place, has remained on my mind like a picture! getting a little vague after a few years, and then perhaps a little altered, as fancy almost involuntarily supplied the defects of memory; but still that steep street, that tinsmith's shop—the features of oakford!
i have since thought that jemima must have had some special attraction to the tinsmith's, her errands there were so many, and took so much time. this occasion may be divided into three distinct periods. during the first, i waited in that state of vacant patience whereby one endures other people's shopping. during the second, i walked round all the cans, pans, colanders, and graters, and took a fancy to a tin mug. it was neither so valuable nor so handsome as the silver mug with dragon handles given me by my indian godfather, but it was a novelty. when i looked closer, however, i found that it was marked, in plain figures, fourpence, which at that time was beyond my means; so i walked to the door, that i might solace the third period by looking out into the street. as i looked, there came down the hill a fine, large, sleek donkey, led by an old man-servant, and having on its back what is called a spanish saddle,[83] in which two little girls sat side by side, the whole party jogging quietly along at a foot's pace in the sunshine. i may say here that my experience of little girls had been almost entirely confined to my cousins, and that i was so overwhelmed and impressed by the loveliness of these two children, and by their quaint, queenly little ways, that time has not dimmed one line in the picture that they then made upon my mind. i can see them now as clearly as i saw them then, as i stood at the tinsmith's door in the high street of oakford—let me see, how many years ago? ("never mind," says my wife; "go on with the story, my dear," and i go on.)
the child who looked the older, but was, as i afterwards discovered, the younger of the two, was also the less pretty. and yet she had a sweet little face, hair like spun gold, and blue-grey eyes with dark lashes. she wore a grey frock of some warm material, below which peeped her indoors dress of blue. the outer coat had a quaint cape like a coachman's, which was relieved by a broad white crimped frill round her throat. her legs were cased in knitted gaiters of white wool, and her hands in the most comical miniatures of gloves. on her fairy head she wore a large bonnet of grey beaver, with a frill inside. (my wife explains that it was a "cap-front," adorned with little bunches of ribbon, and having a cap attached to it, the whole being put on separately before the bonnet. details which seem to amuse my little daughters, and to have less interest for my sons.) but it was her sister who shone on my young eyes like a fairy vision. she looked too delicate, too brilliant, too utterly lovely, for anywhere but fairy-land. she ought to have been kept in tissue-paper, like[84] the loveliest of wax dolls. her hair was the true flaxen, the very fairest of the fair. the purity and vividness of the tints of red and white in her face i have never seen equalled. her eyes were of speedwell blue, and looked as if they were meant to be always more or less brimming with tears. to say the truth, her face had not half the character which gave force to that of the other little damsel, but a certain helplessness about it gave it a peculiar charm. she was dressed exactly like the other, with one exception; her bonnet was of white beaver, and she became it like a queen.
at the tinsmith's door they stopped, and the old man-servant, after unbuckling a strap which seemed to support them in their saddle, lifted each little miss in turn to the ground. once on the pavement, the little lady of the grey beaver shook herself out, and proceeded to straighten the disarranged overcoat of her companion, and then, taking her by the hand, the two clambered up the step into the shop. the tinsmith's shop boasted of two seats, and on to one of these she of the grey beaver with some difficulty climbed. the eyes of the other were fast filling with tears, when from her lofty perch the sister caught sight of the man-servant, who stood in the doorway, and she beckoned him with a wave of her tiny finger.
"lift her up, if you please," she said, on his approach. and the other child was placed on the other chair.
the shopman appeared to know them, and though he smiled, he said very respectfully,
"what article can i show you this morning, ladies?"
the fairy-like creature in the white beaver, who had been fumbling in her miniature glove, now[85] timidly laid a farthing on the counter, and then turning her back for very shyness on the shopman, raised one small shoulder, and inclining her head towards it, gave an appealing glance at her sister out of the pale-blue eyes. that little lady, thus appealed to, firmly placed another farthing on the board, and said in the tiniest but most decided of voices,
"two flat irons, if you please."
she rolled abruptly over on her seat and scrambled off backwards.
she rolled abruptly over on her seat and scrambled off backwards.
hereupon the shopman produced a drawer from below the counter, and set it before them. what it contained i was not tall enough to see, but out of it he took several tiny flat irons of triangular shape, and apparently made of pewter, or some alloy of tin. these the grey beaver examined and tried upon a corner of her cape with inimitable gravity and importance. at last she selected two, and keeping one for herself, gave the other to her sister.
"is it a nice one?" the little white-beavered lady inquired.
"very nice."
"kite as nice as yours?" she persisted.
"just the same," said the other, firmly. and having glanced at the corner to see that the farthings were both duly deposited, she rolled abruptly over on her seat, and scrambled off backwards, a man?uvre which the other child accomplished with more difficulty. the coats and capes were then put tidy as before, and the two went out of the shop together hand in hand.
then the old man-servant lifted them into the spanish saddle, and buckled the strap, and away they went up the steep street, and over the brow of the hill, where trees and palings began to show, the beaver bonnets nodding together in consultation over the flat irons.
