In part scattered upon the ground at the feet of the two men, and in part jumbled together in a long flat box, were the other persons of the Drama. The hero’s wife and one child, the hobbyhorse, the doctor, the foreign gentleman who not being familiar with the language is unable in the representation to express his ideas otherwise than by the utterance of the word “Shallabalah” three distinct times, the radical neighbour who will by no means admit that a tin bell is an organ, the executioner, and the devil, were all here. Their owners had evidently come to that spot to make some needful repairs in the stage arrangements, for one of them was engaged in binding together a small gallows with thread, while the other was intent upon fixing a new black wig, with the aid of a small hammer and some tacks, upon the head of the radical neighbour, who had been beaten bald.
They raised their eyes when the old man and his young companion were close upon them, and pausing in their work, returned their looks of curiosity. One of them, the actual exhibitor no doubt, was a little merry faced man with a twinkling eye and a red nose, who seemed to have unconsciously imbibed something of his hero’s character. The other—that was he who took the money—had rather a careful and cautious look, which was perhaps inseparable from his occupation also.
The merry man was the first to greet the strangers with a nod; and following the old man’s eyes, he observed that perhaps that was the first time he had ever seen a Punch off the stage. (Punch, it may be remarked, seemed to be pointing with the tip of his cap to a most flourishing epitaph, and to be chuckling over it with all his heart).
“Why do you come here to do this?” said the old man, sitting down beside them, and looking at the figures with extreme delight.
“Why you see” rejoined the little man, “we’re putting up for tonight at the public-house yonder, and it wouldn’t do to let ’em see the present company undergoing repair.”
“No!” cried the old man, making signs to Nell to listen, “why not, eh? why not?”
“Because it would destroy all the delusion, and take away all the interest wouldn’t it?” replied the little man. “Would you care a ha’penny for the Lord Chancellor if you know’d him in private and without his wig? certainly not.”
“Good!” said the old man, venturing to touch one of the puppets, and drawing away his hand with a shrill laugh. “Are you going to show ’em tonight? are you?”
“That is the intention, governor,” replied the other, “and unless I’m much mistaken Tommy Codlin is a calculating at this minute what we’ve lost through your coming upon us. Cheer up Tommy, it can’t be much.”
The little man accompanied these latter words with a wink, expressive of the estimate he had formed of the travellers’ finances.
To this Mr. Codlin, who had a surly, grumbling manner, replied, as he twitched Punch off the tombstone and flung him into the box,
“I don’t care if we haven’t lost a farden, but you’re too free. If you stood in front of the curtain and see the public’s faces as I do, you’d know human natur’ better.”
“Ah! it’s been the spoiling of you, Tommy, your taking to that branch,” rejoined his companion. “When you played the ghost in the reg’lar drama in the fairs, you believed in everything—except ghosts. But now you’re a universal mistruster. I never see a man so changed.”
“Never mind,” said Mr. Codlin with the air of a discontented philosopher. “I know better now, and p’raps I’m sorry for it.”
Turning over the figures in the box like one who knew and despised them, Mr. Codlin drew one forth and held it up for the inspection of his friend:
“Look here; here’s all this Judy’s clothes falling to pieces again. You haven’t got a needle and thread I suppose?”
The little man shook his head, and scratched it ruefully as he contemplated this severe indisposition of a principal performer. Seeing that they were at a loss, the child said timidly:
“I have a needle, sir, in my basket, and thread too. Will you let me try to mend it for you? I think I can do it neater than you could.”
Even Mr. Codlin had nothing to urge against a proposal so seasonable. Nelly, kneeling down beside the box, was soon busily engaged in her task, and accomplishing it to a miracle.
While she was thus engaged, the merry little man looked at her with an interest which did not appear to be diminished when he glanced at her helpless companion. When she had finished her work he thanked her, and enquired whither they were travelling.
“N—no further to night, I think,” said the child, looking towards her grandfather.
“If you’re wanting a place to stop at,” the man remarked, “I should advise you to take up at the same house with us. That’s it—the long, low, white house there. It’s very cheap.”
The old man, notwithstanding his fatigue, would have remained in the churchyard all night if his new acquaintance had stayed there too. As he yielded to this suggestion a ready and rapturous assent, they all rose and walked away together; he keeping close to the box of puppets in which he was quite absorbed, the merry little man carrying it slung over his arm by a strap attached to it for the purpose, Nelly having hold of her grandfather’s hand, and Mr. Codlin sauntering slowly behind, casting up at the church tower and neighbouring trees such
