Colin Clink, Volume 1 (of 3)

fools not unusually take precedence of better men, so this chapter, though pla

ilgrim's Progress, that "He that is down, needs fear no fall." And who, in good truth, will undertake to dispute the good pilgrim's remark? Since nothing can be more clear to an eye as philosophic as was that of M

stimation of his own father and mother, and down in that which our modern political ragamuffins are pleased to term the "accid

f rising above his first condition. To be sure, like Bruce's spider, he afterwards fell sometimes; but then he refle

woman, and while the accoucheur of the parish was inly congratulating himself on having introduced his round five-thousandth child to the troublesome pleasures of this world, young Colin turned from the arms of the nurse who held him,

ether or not he had anything to be thankful for will be seen, much a

of a vast town, where a single ray of sunlight never falls, nor a glimpse of the sky itself is ever caught, beyond what may be afforded by that small dusky section of it which seems to lie like a dirty ceiling on the chimney-tops, and even then cannot be seen, unless (to speak like a

ut twenty miles west of that city of law and divinity, of

argumentative, to reside in a small cottage, (as rural landowners are in the habit of terming such residences, though they are known to everybody else as hovels,) altogether by herself; if I

ter portion of their time in "preserving" themselves, like red herrings or hung beef, over the idle smoke of their own scanty fires, and who, as they are always waiting chances, may be had by asking for at any moment

fect, upon the most modern philosophical principles. Thus:-Great states require great taxes to support them; great taxes produce political extravagance; political extravagance enforces domestic economy; and domestic economy in the lowest class, where misery would seem almost rudel

ress Clink's diminutive h

this mere sketch of incipient woman,-she presented, I repeat, the miniature picture, not of what childhood is, a bright and joyful outburst of fresh life into a new world of strange attractive things-not of that restless inquiring existence, curious after every created object, and happy amidst them all; but of a little, pale, solemn thing, looking as though it had suddenly fa

es, which showed nothing but black between the lids, looked openly but fearfully from beneath the arched browless bones of the forehead, and, with an irrepressible questioning in the face of the spectator, seemed ever to

ound near the door, and noiselessly amusing herself by weighing in a halfpenny pair of tin scales the sand which had been strown upon the floor by way of carpet, when the abrupt entrance of some one at the outer door, though unheard by the sick woman amidst her half-dreaming reveries, so startled the little offender on the ground, that, in her haste to scramble on to her feet, and recover all the solemn proprieties and demure looks which, in a returning moment of infantile nature, had been cast aside, she upset the last imaginary pound of san

her countenance, pale and ghastly with sickness, rendered still more pale and horrible with anger, and gasping for words, whic

servant of the squire of the

while her face for a moment blushed scarle

ase, ma'am," said the woman. "Poor thi

!" sighed Mi

ll run and fetch the doctor; but, if you please, ma'am

ick woman, slightly rallyi

servant, at the same time o

d of him!" wh

serving woman; "he's alway

; she almost raised her

sed her hand across her forehead, as though mentally striving to recall her

inal

olin Clink appeared before the world, some half a day or so earlier than, to the best of my belief, nature originally intended he s

dian to "persons of unsound mind," with, of course, the kindest and best mode of treatment that could possibly be adopted. In plain words, he kept a "retreat," or private madhouse, for the especial and peculiar accommodation of those eager young gentlemen who may, perchance, find it more agreeable

conclude

m from hearing his question, though it was twice repeated. He then asked how it came about that the Squire had sent such a pretty basket of baby-linen to Mistress Clink? But their ears were equally impervious to the sound of that inquiry as to the other; thus proving to a demonstration, that while there are some matters which certain ingenious p

out it. Finding that nobody else answered the great gentleman, little Fanny screwed her courage up to the speaking point, and looking the doctor ear

y present could imagine, as all the old women, and t