CHAPTER V.

Otago Witness, Issue 549, 7 June 1862, Page 7

CHAPTER V.

I RECEIVE BAD TIDINGS

Of ray after experience at school I have but little to record. I think it was about three weeks after my arrival, when I was informed one evening by him of the rolling optics, that Doctor Damm would beijappy to receive me at tea in hU private apartments. This remarkable youth had grown more remarkable than ever. His appeal ance was daily growing more light and graceful. In his garments he was continually exhibiting some new phenomenon of a g wsamcr texture. Now, it was a pair of trowders, so thin and wide, that they flapped round and round his legs like a toga —now, it was an airy necktie, the cuds of which stretched far into space, and, 'vheri he walked against the wind, made friends with each other in the middle of his back — and now it was a coat of such alarming dimensions that his hands and arms were completely buried in oblivion. I remember, too, at this period of my existence his being the cause of great anxiety to me. Since my introduction to Mr. Sharpies, he appeared to entertain the idea that he held a number of shares in my life, and that it was his duty constantly to protect me with his presence, so that my uncle should not take forcible possession of, and run away with me. lie used to haunt me— he flitted about me at all hours of the day, and I often felt the effect of his rolling eye without seeing him near me. Sometimes when I caught sight of him in the distance,. and walked up to him much distressed in my mind that he should be for ever hovering round me, he would roll his hands through his hair, blush in the most violent manner, and, after a ghastly smile, vanish vound-a corner. He was always coming or going round corners. And it may be ima° gined how embarrassed and positively guilty I felt at seeing him appear and disappear in this mysterious and ghostly manner. As I followed him on this evening to Doctor Damm's apartments, with my eyes steadfastly fixed upon his form, I expected, at every angle of the rooms and passages, to see him sink through the floor, or be swallowed by a pillar. When we came very near the door he turned round and said, in a sepulchral voice, v Mrs. Doctor Damm's havin tea."

I acquiesced silently, perceiving nothing remarkable in the fact of Mrs. Doctor Damm's partaking of such a repast.

" He's in there too," said Sam, emphasising the "he" vindictively. ° "Who, Samuel?" "Him! you know who. Master Christopher," said Sam, in an injured tone. " No, indeed I don't. Who is in there too Samuel ?"

" Oh, you know well enough, Master Chris, if you like. It's him— Mr. Sharpies " I looked very disconsolate at this piece of intelligence, whereupon Samuel advised,— "Oh, you never mind him, Master C!irk Don't you let him come over you;" so. plucking up my spirits, I assured him I would not. "Do you know Mrs. Doctor Damm?'' asked he.

"No," I replied. " She's a whopper !" he hissed in mv ear, as he opened the door, and ushered me into the room,

And she vjas a whopper ! I had never soen her until this evening, and she certainly impressed me with the idea that she could have been decently cut up and transformed into four moderately-sized women. How the little Doctor could ever have had the temerity to be familiar with such a creature, fills me now with wonder. As for myself, when I gazed at her, a feeling of oppressive awe crept ail over me. It was not her size alone, it was her voice so round and full. It was her manner, so large and grand. When she spoke, a word of one syllable s ounded like a word of five, and the long words assumed Brobdingnai>ian proportions. When she stooped downVor^the kettle, she 6hut out the fire and made the room cold. She poured out a cup of tea, and I thought she would deluge the table! She handed me the plate of bread, and as I took a. thin piece, I felt as if I were placing her in a ridiculous position, and that she ought to have handed round loaves instead of slices. My attention at the tea tal le was divided between her and Mr. Sharpies who, upon my entrance, had placed a chair for me at the table. My uncle was as jolly as ever, although he gave vent to it in a quieter vein than I had yet witnessed, and both he and the Doctor treated me in so gentle and soothing a manner a* somewhat excited my wonder. But the bust of Mrs. Doctor Damm spread gently before me, soon claimed my attention, and in a few moments I was extremely busy counting how many squares in the pattern of her dress it took to cover her capacious bosom, scraps of the conversation taking place between them reaching my ear at intervals. As far as I could make out, it related to the treatment of domestic servants in general, and of one in particular.

"And I was so kind to her, Mr. Sharpies," said the lady, «' the dresses and shawls i gave her, although I should not speak of them"— # " I agree with you on that point, my dear ' interposed the Doctor.

"I was addressing Mr. Sharpies," said <=he. loftily. " I was about to say, when I was interrupted,so sharply by Doctor Damm"— "Not eharply, my dear." interposed the Doctor, meekly. " Well, at all events, rudely" — "I must beg your pardon," persisted he, softly. " Nothing can be really rude without a rude intention, and" —

"Very well, Theophilus," (this being the Doctor's Christian name), "I aDpeal to Mr. Sharpies."

I do not know on what particular point she appealed to him, as I was too busy counting the squares on her bosom ; but I do know that, my uncle bowing when I had got to the thirty-eighth, entirely upset my calculations, and I had to commence all over'again. " Well," resumed she, " after the dresses I had given her, and the many excellent moral lessons she had learned in this hou<.e, I do contend she owed some gratitude to her henefactors."

"I coincide with you entirely, madam," assented my uncle. "Of course you do. / Every man of proper feeling would do the same" (this was hurled Doctor.) "Well, sir, yesterday I happened to meet her in fhe street, and would you believe it, my dear Theophilus," and she turned connubially towards her husband, "as I passed her she turned up her nose in the most scornful manner. If she had only stood still. I am sure I should have boxed her ears." "A proper reward for her ingratitude," said my uncle. " Actionable !" ejaculated the Doctor, who did not appear at all alarmed at the idea that was passing through my mind and rather imeeUing my calculations, that a box on the ear from such a hand would have completely annihilated any human being of moderate proportions.

"Actionahlc! Eeally now, I don't know. A person whom one has employed and paid wages to, has no business to turn her nose up in the manner she did. Most abominable and aggravating, I declare. It was enough to pinke a chicken sneeze, upon my word. Don't you agree with fre, Waster Congleton?" I nodded my head, with somewhat of a scared expression en my countenance, for the, bewildering idea pf a chicken in the act of jneezing, po astounded me, that all the squares on "Mm. Doctor Damm's bosom had vanished, and tvere occupied by a host of chickens' faces undergoing that interesting process. "And just at that moment," continued the

lady, " Samuel passed, and I could not help smiling, although I was so angry. He is a most amusing lad, is Samuel. Makes the most extraordinary grhnices. A lobster would have laughed to have seen the face lie made."

In a moment her bosom was taken possession of by a thousand claws, attached to the bodies of a bevy of laughing lobsters. She had certainly given me food for reflection. The pictures ol a lobster laughing and a chicken sneezing, had never presented themselves to my imagination before. " In the entire range of literature, myd^ar," said the Doctor, " [ have no recollection of reading that lobsters arc in the habit of laughing to any violent degree, But, doubtless , you are the better judge. Draw up your chair, Master Congleton, I have something to tell you ;" and, placing his hand kindly upon my head, he turned my eyes to his, and said, " You are going home to-morrow morning, Christopher."

" Going home, sir!" I echoed, almost clapping my hands at the idea. ''• And, I shall see mother and old Katty, and father ! Is'it a long holiday, sir ?"

"It is not a holiday, my dear child. But there are other occasions beside holidays when one's presence is required in the social nest. Holidays are times of gladness ; but there arc also times of sorrow in our life that call us away from our duties." He spoke so quietly and impressively, that I became serious in a moment, and the figure of Mrs. Doctor Damm did not look anything like the size it did a few moments previously. " Even the ancients, Christopher," he continued, " had a strong appreciation of the close affinity of joy and sorrow ; and at their feasts had a skeleton placed upon their tables, to remind them that in the midst of life there is death. You remember too, Christopher, the pass-ige in Scripture, where it relates how the heart of Jacob grow very sad when he lost his beloved son Benjamin."

The figure of Mrs. Doctor Damm was growing less aud less, and I was almost choked as I asked,

" Is my mother ill, sir?"

" No, my dear boy, it is your father who is sick, and whom you are summoned home to see."

The figure of Mrs. Doctor Damm was fading quite away into lilliputian dimensions.

" Is he very ill, hir?"

"He is very ill, Christopher. But he has a great and good Being watching over him, who holds his and all our lives in the palm of His hand."'

Mrs. Doctor Daram was quite gone. I could not see a morsel of her. But I felt a motherly kiss upon my forehead, and the next moment I was kneeling before the fire, my head in her lap. My fit of grief somewhat abated. I looked up and saw the face of Mr. Sharpies, who was observing me closely. Instinctively I shrank from his gaze, for I could not help fancying that I saw upon his lips the words, "Is your father ill, Christopher? I hope he is ill ;" and at once I set it down in my mind that he was the cause of my childish sorrow. Presently, I begged to go to bed, and shaking hands all round, I was soon lying down, revolving in my brain all that had passed in the last hour. I sobbed with a kind of leaden grief as I thought that my lather would die, and wondered what would become of me if my mother died too. I derived some gratification through all my emotion by throwing the blame on my uncle. His laugh rang in my ears as he again asked me, "Is your father ill, Christopher j"' and I answered him half aloud through my sobs, " Yes, sirj-kc is verj' ill, and }-ou have made him so." I had never been in the presence of Death, but I remembered a talc I had heard my mother relate of a sister of hers who appeared to her one night, and told her she was dying, and would my mother go at, once to close her eyes. How my mother lived a mile away from her sister, and had not seen her for three or four days, and how, when she saw the apparition, my mother started up white and trembling, and putting on her bonnet, followed the figure to the door of the house where her sister lived. How the figure then vanished, and my mother entering learnt that her sister had gone to bed early in the evening, complaining of being unwell, and how, going to the bedroom with a beating heart, she found her sister lying in her night-dress, dead upon' the ground. It was not the story itself, so much as the solemn, awful, interest with which I had heard my mother relate it that caused me to think Death was a dreadful and fearful thing. I saw the body of my dead aunt lying down, beside me in her white vestments, and again the laugh of Mr. Sharpies sounded in my ear and his voice asked, " Is your aunt dead, Christopher?" and I answered, " Yes, sir, and you have killed her." Strive as 1 would I could not banish these feverish phantasies until late in the night, when completely tired out, 1 fell into a sleep dotted with dreams, in which Mr. Sharpies played the character of First Murderer in a most effective style.