Christmas Stories. Blade-O'-Grass, Golden Grain, and Bread and Cheese and Kisses

Introduction

STONEY-ALLEY. N the heart ot a very maze of courts and lanes Stoney-alley proclaims itself. It is one of a multitude of deformed thoroughfares, which are huddled together — by whim, or caprice, or in mockery — in a populous part of the City, in utter defiance of all architectural rules. It is regarded as an incontrovertible law, that everything must have a beginning; and Stoney-alley could not have been an exception to this law. It is certain that the alley and its surrounding courts and lanes must once upon a time have been a space where houses E Introduction. 2 were not; where, perhaps, trees grew, and grass, and flowers. But it is difficult to imagine; more difficult still to imagine how they were com menced, and by what gradual means one wretched thoroughfare was added to another, until they presented themselves to the world in the shapes and forms they now bear ; resembling an ungainly body with numerous limbs, every one of which is twisted and deformed.

Easier to fancy that they and all the life they bear sprang up suddenly and secretly one dark night, when Nature was in a sullen mood ; and that being where they are, firmly rooted, they have remained, unchangeable and unchanging, from generation to generation. Records exist of fair islands rising from the sea, clothed with verdure and replete with animal life ; but this is the bright aspect of phenomena which are regarded as delusions by many sober persons. Butting imagination aside, therefore, as a thing of small account in these days (if only for the purpose of satis fying unbelievers), and coming to plain matter of fact, it is not to be doubted that Stoney-alley and its fellows grew upon earth's surface, and did not spring up, ready-made, from below — although, truth to tell, it was worthy of such a creation.

In the natural course of things, the neighbourhood must have had architects and builders ; but no record of them is extant, and none is necessary for tlie purposes osthis story. Suf ficient that Stoney-alley rears its ugly body — though lowly withal — in the very heart of London, and that it may be seen any day in the week in its worst aspect. It has no other: it is always at its worst Out of it crawl, from sunrise until midnight, men and women, who, when they emerge into the wide thoroughfare which may be regarded as its parent, not uncommonly pause for a few moments, or shade their eyes with their hands, or look about them strangely, as if they have received a surprise, or as if the different world in which they find them selves requires consideration. Into it crawl, from sunrise until midnight, the same men and women, who, it may be observed, draw their breath more freely when they are away from the wide thoroughfares, and who plunge into Stoney-alley as dusty, heat-worn travellers might plunge into a refreshing bath, where the cool waters bring relief to the parched skin.

What special comfort these men and women find there, would be matter for amazement to hundreds of thousands of other men and women whose ways of life, happily, lie in pleasanter places. But Stoney-alley, to these crawlers, is Home. Its houses could never have been bright ; its pavements and roads — for it has those, though rough specimens, like their treaders — could never have been fresh. Worn-out stones and bricks, having served their time elsewhere and been cashiered, were probably brought into requisi tion here to commence a new and unclean life. No cart had ever been seen in Stoney-alley : it was too narrow for one. A horse had once lived there— a spare sad blind horse belonging to a costermonger, who worked his patient servant sixteen hours a-day, and fed it upon Heaven knows what. It was a poor patient creature ; and as it trudged along, with its Introduction. 3 head down, it seemed by its demeanour to express an understanding of its meanness.

That it was blind may have been a merciful dispensation ; for, inasmuch as we do not know for certain whether such beasts can draw comparisons as well as carts, it may have been spared the pangs of envy and bitterness, which it might have experienced at the sight of the well-fed horses that passed it on the road. It was as thin as a live horse well could be — so thin, that a cat might have been forgiven for looking at it with contempt, as being likely to serve no useful purpose after its worldly trudgings were ended. Its mane was the raggedest mane that ever was seen ; and it had no tail. What of its hair had not been appropriated by its master the costermonger, had been plucked out ruthlessly, from time to time, by sundry boys and girls in Stoney-alley — being incited thereto by an ingenious youth, who plaited the horsehair into watchguards, and who paid his young thieves in weak liquorice-water, at the rate of a teaspoonful for every dozen hairs — long ones — from the unfortunate horse's tail.

For years had this poor beast been wont to stumble over the stones in Stoney-alley when its day's work was over, and wait like a human being before its master's house for the door to open — rubbing its nose gently up and down the panels when a longer delay than usual occurred. The door being opened, it used to enter the narrow passage, and fill the house with thunderous sound as it walked into a little dirty yard, where a few charred boards (filched from afire) had been tacked together in the form ofa shed, which offered large hospitality to wind and rain. In this shed the wretched beast took its ease and enjoyed its leisure, and died one night so quietly and unexpectedly, that the costermonger, when he learnt the fact in the morning, cursed it for an ungrateful ' warmint,' and declared that if his dumb servant had yesterday shown any stronger symptoms of dying than it had usually exhibited, he would have sold it for ' two-pun-ten to Jimmy the Tinman.' So deeply was he impressed by the ingratitude of the animal, that he swore he would have nothing more to do with the breed ; and he bought a donkey — a donkey with such a vicious temper, and such an obstinate disposition, that the costermonger, in his endeavours to render it submissive, became as fond of it as if it were one ofhis own kindred, and soon grew to treat it in exactly the same manner as he treated his wife.

It would have been difficult, indeed, to decide which was the more important creature of the two — the wife or the donkey ; for on two distinct occasions the costermonger was summoned before a magistrate — once for ill-treating his wife, and once for ill-treating his donkey — and the sentence pronounced on each occasion was precisely the same. It may be noted as a curious contrast (affording no useful lesson that I am aware of), that when the costermonger came out of prison sor ill-treating his wife, he went home and beat the poor creature unmercifully, who sat sobbing her heart out in a corner the while ; and that when he came out of prison for ill-treating his donkey, he went into the rickety shed in his back-yard and belaboured the obstinate brute Introduction. 4 with a heavy stick. But the donkey, cunning after its kind, watched its opportunity, and gave the costermonger such a spiteful kick, that he walked lame for three months afterwards.

It would be unfair to the costermonger not to state, that he was not the only husband in those thoroughfares who was in the habit of beating his wife. He was but one ofa very numerous Brute family, in whose breasts mercy finds no dwelling-place, and who marry and bring up children in their own form and likeness, morally as well as physically. It is to be lamented that, when the inhumanity of the members of this prolific family is brought before the majesty ofthe law for judgment — as is done every day of our lives — the punishment meted out is generally light and insignificant as compared to the offence. Yet it may be answered, that these wife-beaters and general Brutes were children once ; and the question may be asked, Whether, taking into consideration that no opportunity was offered to them of acquiring a knowledge of a better condition of things, they are fully responsible for their actions now that they are men ?

We wage war against savage beasts for our own protection. But how about savage men, who might have been taught better — who might have been humanised ? We press our thumb upon them, and make laws to punish the exercise of their lawless passions. But have they no case against us ? Is all the right on our side, and all the wrong on theirs ? That the problem is an old one, is the more to be lamented; every year, nay, every hour, its roots are striking deeper and deeper into the social stratum. The proverb, ' when things are quiet, let them be quiet,' is a bad proverb, like many others which are accepted as wisdom's essence. Not by a man's quiet face, but by his busy brain and heart, do we judge him. If there be benevolence in statesmanship, the problem should be considered in its entirety, without delay. By and by it may be too late.

Part I

A STRANGE EVENT OCCURS IN STONEY-ALLEY. Delicate feather-flakes of snow were floating gently down over all the City. In some parts the snow fell white and pure, and so remained for many hours. In other parts, no sooner did it reach the ground than it was converted into slush — losing its purity, and becoming in stantly defiled. This was its fate in Stoney-alley; yet even there, as it rested upon the roofs and eaves, it was fresh and beautiful for a time. In which contrasted aspects a possible suggestion might arise of the capability of certain things for grace and holiness, ifthey are not trodden into the mire. carriage made his blood boil with envy; notwithstanding which he took delight in walking in the bet ter thoroughfares of the City, and feeding his soul with the bitter sight of well-dressed people and smiling faces.

Then he would come back to his proper home, and snarl at society to pot-house audiences, and in his own humble room would make his unhappy wife unhappier by his reviling and discontent He called himself a working-man, but had as much right to the title as the vagabond beggar who, dressed in broadcloth, is wheeled about in an easy-chair, in the West-end of London, and who (keeping a sharp look-out for the police the while) exhibits a placard proclaiming himself to be a respectable commercial traveller, who has lost the use of his limbs. He traded upon the title, however, and made some little money out of it, hoping by and by to make more, when he had become sufficiently notorious as a public agitator. In the mean time, he (perhaps out of revenge upon society) deserted his wife when she was near her con finement, and left her to the mercy of strangers.

She could not very well have fared worse than she did in that tender charge. She bore two babes, and died without a sign. An event had just occurred in Stoney-alley which was the occasion of much excitement. This was nothing more or less than the birth of twin-girls in one of the meanest houses in the alley. The mother, a poor sickly woman, whose husband had deserted her, was so weakened and prostrated by her confinement, and by the want of nourishing food, that she lived but a dozen days after the birth of her babes. No one knew where the father was ; he and his wife had not lived long in the neighbourhood, and what was known of him was not to his cre dit, although with a certain class he was not unpopular. He was a lazy, surly fellow, who passed his waking hours in snarling at the better condition of things by which he was surrounded.

The sight ofa The mother was buried the day before Christmas, and the babes were left to chance charity. There were many women lodgers contribution being given by the bachelor vagrant above mentioned, who gave twopence with the air of a gentleman— better still, with the true spirit of one; for he gave more than he could afford, and took no glory to himself for the action. Attracted by the rattle of the coppers, a singular-looking little man, with a shrivelled face, came to the door of his shop, and was instantly accosted by the kind hearted soul. in the house in which the twin girls had been born ; but not one ofthem was rich enough to take upon herself the encumbrance of two such serious responsibilities. The station-house was spoken of, the Foundling, the workhouse ; but not a soul was daring enough to carry out one of the suggestions.

This arose from a fear of consequences — in the shape perhaps of an acknowledged personal responsibility, which might prove trouble some in the event of the station house, the workhouse, or the Found ling refusing to take charge of the infants. Moses in the bulrushes was not in a worse plight than these unfortunate babes in Stoney-alley. ' You'll give a copper or two, I know, Mr. Virtue,' said the woman. ' Then you know more than I do,' replied the man. ' I don't give. I lend.' ' What'll you lend on 'em, then ?' asked the woman good-humour edly. What on earth was to be done with them ? Every person in the house might get into trouble, ifthey were left to die. The house, small as it was, accommodated five or six distinct families — each occupying a room — in addition to twro bache lors — one a vagrant, the other a hawker in cheap glassware.

These last could not be expected to as sume the slightest shadow of re sponsibility. At length, a bright idea struck a charitable woman in the house. Armed only with a calico apron with a large bib and an immense pocket in front (like a stomacher), the charitable soul went about to solicit contributions in aid ofthe infants. As she walked round and about the narrow alleys and courts, soliciting from everybody, she made quite a stir in the neigh bourhood by the vigorous manner in which she rattled the coppers in her capacious pocket. Agreatmany gave, farthings and halfpence be ing in the ascendant — the largest ' Lend on what?' ' On the poor little twins that was born in our house a fortnight ago?' ' O, that's what you're up to,' exclaimed the man, whose eyes were the most extraordinary pan that ever were seen in human face — for one was as mild as London milk, and the other glared like a fury. ' That's what you're up to.

Collectin' for them brats afore they learn to tell lies for theirselves.' ' They "re as sweet a pair as ever you see,' said the woman. ' Just give it a thought, Mr. Virtue; you're a man o' sense ' ' Yah !' from the man, in the most contemptuous of tones, and with the fiercest of glares from his furious eye. ' There they are, without a mother, as 'elpless as 'elpless can be,' persisted the woman, with a wonderful display of cheerfulness. ' Come, now, you'll give a copper although you do look so grumpy.' ' They'll be handsome girls when they grow up. Look'ee here, Sam, this one's got a dimple, just like ■ — like ' Her voice trailed off softly, and her husband knew that she was thinking of their first-born, that had lived but a few weeks. The cynic turned into his dark shop at this last appeal, but as he turned a penny dropped from his pocket.

The woman picked it up with a pleasant laugh, and add ing it to her store proceeded on her charitable mission. But indus trious and assiduous as she was, the sum-total collected was very small; about sufficient to keep the infants for half a week. The kind hearted woman took the babes, and nursed them pro tern. She had a family of dirty children of her own, who were bringing them selves up in the gutters ; for she could not attend to them, so fully was her time occupied in other ways. She could not, therefore, be expected to take permanent charge of the motherless babes. And so her husband told her, grumblingly, when he came home from his work on Christmas-eve. All that she said was, ' Poor little things !' and fell to — rough as she was — detecting ima ginary beauties in the babies' faces — a common trick of mothers, which no man can afford to be cross with, especially in his own wife, and the woman who has borne him chil dren.

I am aware that it is the fashion with a large class to regard the por trayal of sentiment amongvery com mon people as fanciful and untrue to nature. I differ from this class, I am glad to say. True love for women, and true tenderness for children, are common to all of us, whether high or low. Cynics cannot alter what is natural — in others. The man felt kindly towards his wife and the babes, but he was not at all inclined to saddle himself with a couple of ready-made in fants. He saw, however, that his wife was in a foolishly tender mood, and he let the subject drop for the present. It may have been eight o'clock in the white night, and the bright snow was still falling like feathers from angels' wings, when at the door of the house in which the twins had been born and the mother had died, a lady and gentle man stopped, and, obtaining en trance, asked for the landlady.

Unmistakably lady and gentleman, though plainly dressed. Not highly born, but as truly lady and gen tleman as the best in the land. They were strangers to the landlady ofthe house; but she rose the instant they entered her apartment, and remained standing during the interview. ' Can't put 'em out in the cold, the pretty dears !' said the woman tenderly. ' We've got enough of our own,' responded her husband not un kindly, and yet with a certain firm ness ; 'and there's more coming — worse luck!' But these last two words he said beneath his breath, and his wife did not hear them. 'We have to apologise for this intrusion,' commenced the lady, in a gentle voice; 'but although we ' All the more reason for being kind to these,' said the woman. which will enable us to take a se venth child, and rear it in comfort and respectability.' are strangers to you, we are not here out of rudeness.' ' I'm sure of that, ma'am,' replied the landlady, dusting two chairs with her apron. ' Will you and the gentleman take a seat ?' ' And a lucky child that seventh 'ull be,' remarked the landlady. ' I'm a seventh child myself, and so was my mother before me, and we was both born on a 7th.' ' This is my husband,' said the lady, seating herself. ' Every year, on the anniversary of this evening, with the exception of last year, we have been in the habit of coming to some such place as this, where only poor people live ' The lady smiled, and continued, ' Every child we have is an or phan, without father or mother, which we believe to be necessary for the proper furtherance of our scheme.

We feed them and nou rish them properly — indeed, as if they were really our own — and when they are old enough, they will be put to some respectable occupation, which will render them independent of the world. Among the many poor children round about here, do you know of one who, having no natural protectors, would be bet tered by coming under our charge? These letters will satisfy you of our fitness for the task, and that we are in earnest.' ' Ah, you may say that, ma'am ! The poorest !' ■' It is so, unfortunately. God help them ! Every year until the last we have been in the habit of coming to some such place in fur therance ofa scheme — a whim, per haps, you'll call it — the develop ment of which gives us the chief pleasure of our lives. We have no family of our own, no children that can properly call me mother and my husband father ; so every year we adopt one and bring it up.

We have six now, as many as we have been able to keep ; for last year we lost part of our means through unwise speculation, for which I and my husband were equally to blame ' ' Lord bless me I' exclaimed the landlady, impelled to that excla mation by sudden thought of the twins upstairs, and not casting a glance at the papers which were placed in her hands. ' You don't mean what you say ?' ' I'm sorry to hear that, ma'am,' interposed the landlady sympathis ingly, standing in an attentive attitude, with the corner of her apron between her fingers. 'Indeed, we do. Youwillbekind enough to understand that we do not desire to take a child who has parents living, but one whom hard circumstance has placed in the world friendless and alone. These poor courts and alleys abound in children ' ' And having as many little responsibilities on us as our means would enable us to take proper care of, we were unable to add another to our family of little ones.

But this year a fortunate thing has oc curred to us. A kind friend has placed a small sum at our disposal, ' Ah, that they do ; and a nice pest they are, a many on 'em. They're as thick as fleas.' ■'And at this season it is good to think of them, and to try to do some little thing in their be half. It is but little that we can do — very, very little. Do you know of such a child as we seek for now?' ' I beg you a thousand pardons, Mrs. Manning,' she said, panting, '• and you too, Mr. Manning, and I wish you a merry Christmas, and many on 'em ! I'm that out ol breath and that astonished, that I don't know if I'm on my head or my heels. Stay a minute, my good souls; I'll be back in ajiffey.' 'A girl?' 'A girl or boy.' ' God Almighty bless you, ma'am !' cried the landlady. ' Stop here a minute, and I'll let you know.' With that, she ran out of the room and downstairs, to assure her self that her visitors had not flown, or that she had not been dreaming.

She ran in haste upstairs to where her kind-hearted lodger was nurs ing the twins. two blessed babes, with no mother, and no father to speak of; for I don't believe he'll ever turn up. What's to become of 'em ? Who's to take care of 'em ? I'm sure you can't' Having satisfied herself, she ran upstairs again, and sat down, in a more panting state than before. ' I thought I was dreaming, and that they was apparitions !' she gasped. ' No, that I can't ; and don't in tend to.' Mr. Manning, being one of those Englishmen who look upon their habitations as their castles, was in clined to resent these intrusions. Unconsciously throwing a large amount of aggressiveness in his tone and manner, he asked his landlady if he owed her any rent, and received for answer, No, that he didn't, and the expression of a wish that everybody was like him in this respect. 'And no one expects you, sir. You've got a big-enough family of your own.

Well, here's this lady and gentleman setting downstairs this blessed minute as wants a child, and as '11 do what's right and proper by it.' ' But there's a pair of 'em. Won't they take the two ?' ' One they said, and one they mean. They can't hardly afford that, they said. And I'm as cer tain as I am that I'm setting here, that if they knew there was two of 'em, they wouldn't part 'em for the world. No, they'd go some where else; and the chance'd be lost' ' Very well, then,' said Mr. Man ning, not at all mollified by the landlady's compliment, and speak ing so surlily that (as the landlady afterwards said, in relating the cir cumstance) if it had not been for her being out of breath and for thinking of those two precious babes, he would have ' put her back up' there and then ; ' if I don't owe you anything, what do you mean by coming bouncing in to my room in this manner ?' ' But they want a child that ain't got no father nor mother.

Now, these young uns have a father ; and that you know.' ' No, I don't ; I don't know no thing of the kind. 'Tain't the first story I've told by a many,' said the landlady, in answer to Mr. Man ning's look of astonishment ; ' and I don't mind telling this one to do a little baby good.' ' I asks your pardon,' said the landlady, with dignity ; but instant ly softening as she thought of her visitors down-stairs; 'but you've got a 'art in your bosom, and you've got the feelings of a father. The long and the short of it is' ' What's to become ofthe other?' and here she proceeded to explain the visit she had had, and the object osher visitors. 'Ah, Mr. Man ning,' she continued, following the direction of his eyes towards the two babes lying in his wife's lap, ' you've got the same idea as I had in coming up here.

Here's these ' We'll look after her between us. One '11 take her one day, and one another. Lord bless you, Mr. Man ning, we shall be able to manage.' ' And if the father comes back ?' ' I'll get the lady's address, and give it to him ; and then he can do as he likes.' ' It's the best thing that can be done,' said Mr. Manning ; ' though I've nothing to do with it, mind you; it's none of my business. I've got troubles enough of my own. But it ain't every young un that gets such a chance.' could have wished,' mused the lady, with a glance at her husband ; ' but it would seem like a cruel de sertion, now that we have heard its sad story.' Her husband nodded, and the landlady, keenly watchful, said eagerly : ' No, that it ain't ;' and the landlady pulled her chair close to that of Mrs. Manning. ' Which shall it be, my dear?' ' I'll bring it down to you, ma'am.

One of the lodgers is nursing it ; but her husband's grumbling at her, and making her miserable about it. He says he's got enough of his own ; and so he has.' This proved to be a very diffi cult question to answer. First they decided that it was to be this one, then that ; then soft-hearted Mrs. Manning began to cry, and said it was a sin to part them. And the babes lay sleeping un consciously the while this mo mentous point was being discussed, the decision of which might con demn one to want and dirt and misery — to crime perhaps — and the other to a career where good op portunity might produce a happy and virtuous life. At length it was decided, and one was chosen ; but when the landlady prepared to take the child, she found that the fingers ofthe babes were tightly in terlaced ; so she left them in Mrs. Manning's lap, with instructions to get the chosen one ready, and went down to her visitors.

By this time Mrs. Manning had the baby ready — she had dressed the child in some old baby-clothes of her own — and before she let it go out of her arms, she said, as if the little thing could understand : ' Kiss sister, baby. You'll never see her again, perhaps ; and if you do, you won't know her.' She placed their lips close to gether; and at that moment they opened their eyes, and smiled pret tily on one another. The man and the two women stood by, gazing earnestly at the babes. Tears were in Mrs. Manning's eyes, as she witnessed the strange parting ; the landlady was silent and pensive ; and the man, with his hands be hind him, seemed to be suddenly engrossed in the consideration of some social problem, which he found too perplexing for him. His wife raised the fortunate babe to his face. ' Poor child !' said the lady, at the conclusion of the landlady's re cital ; ' and the mother was only buried yesterday !' ' Only yesterday, ma'am,' responded the landlady; 'and the dear lit tle thing is left without a friend.