Transcribed from the [1890] W. & R. Chambers edition, by David Price,
DICKORY DOCK
by
L. T. MEADE
author of
‘scamp and i,’ ‘daddy’s boy,’ ‘a world of girls,’
‘poor miss carolina,’ &c.
W. & R. CHAMBERS, Limited
LONDON AND EDINBURGH
p. 4Edinburgh:
Printed by W. & R. Chambers, Limited.
p. 5CHAPTER I.
Of course there was a baby in the case—a baby and mongrel dog, and a little boy and girl. They baby was small, and not particularly fair, but it had round limbs and a dimple or two, and a soft, half-pathetic, half-doggy look in its blue eyes, and the usual knack, which most helpless little babieshave, of twining itself round the hearts of those who took care of it.
The caretakers of this baby were the two children and the dog. Of course p. 6a woman, who went by the name of nurse, did duty somewhere in the background; she washed the baby and dressed it in the morning, and she undressed it at night, andshe prepared food for it; but the caretakers who called up smilesto the little white face, who caused the baby to show that enticing little dimple which it had in one of its cheeks, who made that strange, sweet, half-pathetic, half-humorous look come into its eyes, were the children and the dog. The baby had a sad history; it had entered the world with sorrow. Its mother had died at its birth, and the little wee orphan creature had been brought away almost directly to an uncle’s house.
‘We must do it, wife,’ said Mr Franklin; ‘there’s poor John died two months back, and now there’s his widow following him, poor creature, and no one to look p. 7after that wee mite of a babe. We must have it here, it’s our plain duty, and I don’t suppose one extra mouth to feed can make much difference.’
‘That’s all you men know,’ replied Mrs Franklin, who was a very tall, thin, fretful-looking woman. ‘No difference indeed! A baby make no difference! And who’s to tend on the lodgers, and bring in the grist to the mill, if all my time, day and night, istaken up minding the baby!’
‘Well, well,’ said Mr Franklin. He was as peaceable as his wife was the reverse. He did not want the baby, but neither did he wish to send poor John’s child to the workhouse.
‘You must make the best of it, wife,’ he said. ‘Martha’ll help you, and I daresay Peter and Flossy will take a turn in looking after the young ’un.’
Mrs Franklin said no more; she went up-stairs, and got a certain disused attic p. 8into some sort of order. The attic was far away from the rest of the house; it was the top story of a wing, which had been added on to the tall, ramshackle old house. In some of the rooms underneath, the Franklin family themselves slept; in others they lived, and in others theycooked. The rest of the house, therefore, was free for the accommodation of lodgers.
Mrs Franklin earned the family bread by taking in lodgers. She was