The Chimes / A Goblin Story of Some Bells That Rang an Old Year out and a New Year In

, imperfect resurrection; the several parts and shapes of different things are joined and mixed by chance; and when, and how, and by what wonderful degrees, each separates from

breathing monotonously through his sleep or swoon, became a voice exclaiming in the waking ears of Trotty, 'Break his slumbers;' when and how he ceased to have a sluggish and confused idea that suc

huge stone that suddenly comes plashing in among them. He saw them, of all aspects and all shapes. He saw them ugly, handsome, crippled, exquisitely formed. He saw them young, he saw them old, he saw them kind, he saw them cruel, he saw them merry, he saw them grim; he saw them dance, and heard them sing; he saw them tear their hair, and heard them howl. He saw the air thick with them. He saw them come and go, incessantly. He saw them riding downward, soaring upward, sailing off afar, perching near at hand, all restless and

umerable wings to increase his speed; another loading himself with chains and weights, to retard his. He saw some putting the hands of clocks forward, some putting the hands of clocks backward, some en

r of the Bells, which all this while were ringing, Trotty clung to a wooden pillar fo

Bell, and alighted on his feet, but he was dead and gone before he could turn round. Some few of the late company who had gambolled in the tower, remained there, spinning over and over a little longer; but these became at every turn more faint, and few, and feeble, and soon went the way of the rest. The

lk and stature of the Bell-incomprehensibly, a figure and the Bell itself. G

and hooded heads merged in the dim roof; motionless and shadowy. Shadowy and dark, although he saw them

herwise he would have done so-aye, would have thrown himself, headforemost, from the steeple-top, rather than

people, who at such an hour were safe at home and sleeping in their beds; all this struck coldly through him, not as a reflection but a bodily sensation. Meantime his eyes and thoughts and fears, were fixed upon the watchful figures; which, rendered unlike any figures of this world by the deep gloom and shade enwrapping and enfolding them, as well as by their looks and forms and supernatura

ng through the tower. As it died away, the Gre

e was low and deep, and Trotty fancied th

in an attitude of supplication. 'I hardly know why I am here, or how I came

thanked them?'

times!' cr

ow

red Trotty, 'and could o

Goblin of the Bell. 'Have you

ed Trotty

, and wicked wrong, in words?'

wer, 'Never!' But he st

thin its knowledge and its view, and set there, in the period when Time and He began. Ages of darkness, wickedness, and violence, have come and gone-millions uncountable, have suffered, lived, and died-to p

aid Trotty. 'It was quite by accident if

d their failure, and have left deep traces of it which the blind may see-a cry that only serves the present time, by showing men how much it nee

owards the Bells, as you have seen; and when he heard himself arraigned as one wh

ny; how often you have cheered me up when I've been low; how you were quite the plaything of my little daughter Meg (almost t

he many-sorrowed throng; who hears us make response to any creed that gauges human passions and affections, as it gauges th

d Trotty. 'Oh

ures, formed to be raised up higher than such maggots of the time can crawl or can conceive

d Trotty. 'In my igno

e and track with pitying eyes the unfenced precipice by which they fell from good-grasping in their fall some tufts and shreds of that lost soil, and

ty, falling on his kne

' said t

ried the ot

ke voice, which Trotty thought he

ing more and more, it rose up, up; up, up; higher, higher, higher up; awakening agitated hearts within the burly piles of oak: the hollow

und so vast and mighty. It broke from that weak prison in

' said t

aid the oth

aid the chi

blended voices, r

in-a Dirge-and as he listened, Trot

old man. 'Meg is dead! Her Sp

ell, 'but she is living. Learn from her life, a living truth. Learn from the creature dearest to your heart, how bad the bad are born. Se

s stretched its right arm

himes is your compan

tands beh

Will Fern had carried in the street; the c

, to-night,' said Tro

himself,' said the dar

n, and beheld his own form, lying at the bo

ng man!' cried

the figures

aven! And th

said the

y way, and coming on the outside of this

ago!' replie

heir outstretched hands; and where their

toms sprung into existence; once again, were incoherently engaged, as they had been

ed his guide. 'If I am n

d. 'They take such shapes and occupations as the hopes and thoughts

Trotty wildly.

eturned the chi

his view. He made no effort to imprint his kisses on her face; he did not strive to clasp her to his loving heart; he knew that such endearments we

w faded from the cheek. Beautiful she was, as she had ever been, but Hope,

t a companion. Following her e

curls; around the lips, the child's expression lingering still. See! In the eyes, now turned in

was this,

ng, undefined and indistinct, which made it hardly more than a remembrance of that

ey were

'How often you raise your head

ered, that they frig

that, yourself! Why not smi

ot?' she answere

u, you look so anxious and so doubtful, that I hardly like to raise my eyes. There is

strange alarm, and rising to embrace her. 'Do I

s of hopeless, cheerless, never-ending work-not to heap up riches, not to live grandly or gaily, not to live upon enough, however coarse; but to earn bare bread; to scrape together just enough to toil upon, and want upon,

ting back her hair from her wet face. 'W

mploringly. 'The worst of all, the worst of all! Strike me old, Meg! Wither me, a

guide. But the Spirit of the ch

nour of the natal day of Lady Bowley. And as Lady Bowley had been born on New Year's Day (which the local newspapers considered an especial pointing

eeling with great people, and had considerably improved his acquaintance with Sir Joseph Bowley on the strength of his attentive letter: indeed had become qu

make his great speech. Certain plum-puddings were to be eaten by his Friends and Children in another Hall first; and, at a given signal, Friends

s. Sir Joseph Bowley, Baronet and Member of Parliament, was

te, 'of the days of old King Hal, stout Ki

women and murdering 'em. Considerably more

he Alderman, holding him by the shoulders, and looking as reflective as he could, 'before we know where we are. We shall hear of his successes at the poll; his speeches in the House; his ove

owards the child, for the love of those same shoeless and stockingless boys, predest

Richard?' Not likely to be there, if still alive! But Trotty's grief and solitude confused him; and he still w

countered Mr. Fish, the confident

Mr. Fish. 'Where's Alderman Cut

uch in mind the natural desires of folks to see him, that if he had a fault, it was the being constantly On View. An

y there; found him; and took him secretly into a window near at hand. Trotty join

have this moment received the intelligence. I think it will be best not to acquaint Sir Joseph with it till the

, what is the matter? Nothing revolutionary, I hope!

Deedles Brothers-who was to have been here to-

claimed the Alder

hims

od

is own counting house,' said Mr. Fish, 'and blew

n of noble fortune. One of the most respectabl

rning,' retur

ps a dinner, Mr. Fish. Perhaps the conduct of his son, who, I have heard, ran very wild, and was in the habit of drawing bills upon him without the least authority! A most respectable man. One of the most respectab

rate to claims for which her offspring has authority in holy mother Eve. Weigh me the two, you Daniel, going to judgment, when your day shall come! Weigh them, in the eyes of suffering thousands, audience (not unmindful) of the grim farce you play. Or supposi

would assist him in breaking the melancholy catastrophe to Sir Joseph when the day was over. Then, before they parted, wringing Mr. Fish's hand in

an Cute, 'that at times some motion of a capsizing nature was going on in thin

aster Bowley took an innings at a shorter distance also; and everybody said that now, when a Baronet an

will. The sight was gay in the extreme; the ladies were very handsome; the visitors delighted, cheerful, and good-tempered. When the lower doors were opened, and the people flocked in

us pieces of evidence that he was the born Friend and Father, and so forth; and had given as a Toast, his Friends and Children, and the Dignity of Labour; when a slight

y of light, he might have doubted the identity of that worn man, so old, and grey, and bent; but wit

gave this man admittance? This is a criminal from

ady, you was born on this day along with a

r him. Sir Joseph took his se

ressed-looked round upon the company, and

d. 'You've drunk the

rom jail,' s

neither for the first time, nor the sec

that four times was over the average;

kind actions could have done me good,'-he struck his hand upon his breast, and shook his head, 'is gone, with the scent of last year's beans or clover on

said the host, 'who would

rom the sunk fence over yonder. I've seen the ladies draw it in their books, a hundred times. It looks well in a picter, I've heerd say; but there an't weather in picters, and maybe 'tis fi

deeper and more husky, and had a trembling in it now and then; but he never raised it pa

such a place. That I growed up a man and not a brute, says something for me-as I wa

't disturb him. It appears to be Ordained. He is an example: a living example. I ho

ing but what I was. Now, gentlemen-you gentlemen that sits at Sessions-when you see a man with discontent writ on his face, you says to one another, "He's suspicious. I has my doubts," says you,

smiling, winked at a neighbouring chandelier. As much as to say, 'Of course! I told you so.

nd breaks-who don't?-a limber branch or two. To jail with him! One of your keepers sees me in the broad day, near my own patch of garden, with a gun. To jail with him! I has a nat'ral angry word with that man, when I'm free again. To jail with him! I cuts a stick. To jail with him! I eats a rotten

iously, as who should say

give us kinder laws to bring us back when we're a-going wrong; and don't set jail, jail, jail, afore us, everywhere we turn. There an't a condescension you can show the Labourer then, that he won't take, as ready and as grateful as a man can be; for, he has a patient, peaceful, willing heart. But you must put his rightful spirit in him first; for, whether he's a wreck and ruin such as me, or is like one o

change in its appearance. But, another moment showed him that the room and all the company had vanished from his sight, and that

chair in which she had sat, was turned against the wall. A history was written in

andle and worked on. Still her old father was invisible about her; looking down upon her; loving her-how dearly loving her!-and talk

A slouching, moody, drunken sloven, wasted by intemperance and vice, and with his matted hair and unshorn beard in wi

ing a pace or two from the open door, silently and sorrowf

ome in,

me in. C

doubt remaining on his mind, the harsh discordant voice would

ve him hers, and stood at some short distance

cle of such deep degradation, of such abject hopelessness, of such a miserable downfall, tha

trifling sound, he lifted his head, and began to s

k, Margaret?

neral

ear

ear

d. Not all the time you lived together. Not even when you fainted, b

to tell me nothing more; and you made me a so

'A solemn promise. To be sure. A solemn promise!' Awakening, as it were,

aret? What am I to do? S

r hands. 'O, does she think of

es when I'm at my work (ha, ha! that an't often), and before I can turn my head, her voice is in my ear, saying, "Richard, don't look round. For Heaven'

a little purse, and chin

sleep, but I bless her, and pray for her. That, in my solitary work, I never cease to have her in my thoughts. That she is

rushing the purse together, said w

this gift back and left it at her door, a dozen times since then. But w

'You saw her! O, Lilian, my

: trembling! "How does she look, Richard? Does she ever speak of me? Is she thinner? My old place at the table: what's in

ars streaming from her eyes, bent ove

as if what he said were written on the ground in some half legible char

ve her, even in my memory!" I suppose I did,' he said, interrupting himself for a moment. 'I did! That's neither here nor there-"O Richard, if you ever did; if you have any memory for what is gone and lost, take it to her once more. Once more! Tell her how I laid my head upon your shoulder, where her own head might hav

ating the last words, unti

take it,

nd motioned an entrea

ight, M

d ni

t was a quick and rapid action; and for the moment some flash of his old bearing kindled in his form. In the next he

or body, Meg's work must be done. She sat down to her

ang half-past twelve while she was thus engaged; and when they ceased she heard a gentle knockin

uth and Beauty, blest and blessing all within your reach, and

figure; screamed its

pon its knees before her

! Lilian! My

ere! Close to you, holding to you, fe

f my heart-no mother's love can be mor

ked into your face, you knelt before me. On my

We will live together, work toge

your bosom; look kindly on me; but don't raise me. Let it b

k at this! O Youth and Beauty, working out the

ear! Forgive me! I know you do,

's cheek. And with her arms twined r

e! He suffered her to sit beside His feet, and dry t

ning, innocent and radiant, touched the ol