Second Branch--The Boots

The Holly-Tree

by Charles Dickens

Where had he been in his time? he repeated, when I asked him the
question. Lord, he had been everywhere! And what had he been? Bless
you, he had been everything you could mention a'most!

Seen a good deal? Why, of course he had. I should say so, he
could assure me, if I only knew about a twentieth part of what had
come in his way. Why, it would be easier for him, he expected, to
tell what he hadn't seen than what he had. Ah! A deal, it would.

What was the curiousest thing he had seen? Well! He didn't
know. He couldn't momently name what was the curiousest thing he had
seen- -unless it was a Unicorn, and he see him once at a Fair. But
supposing a young gentleman not eight year old was to run away with a
fine young woman of seven, might I think that a queer start?
Certainly. Then that was a start as he himself had had his blessed
eyes on, and he had cleaned the shoes they run away in--and they was
so little that he couldn't get his hand into 'em.

Master Harry Walmers' father, you see, he lived at the Elmses,
down away by Shooter's Hill there, six or seven miles from Lunnon.
He was a gentleman of spirit, and good-looking, and held his head up
when he walked, and had what you may call Fire about him. He wrote
poetry, and he rode, and he ran, and he cricketed, and he danced, and
he acted, and he done it all equally beautiful. He was uncommon
proud of Master Harry as was his only child; but he didn't spoil him
neither. He was a gentleman that had a will of his own and a eye of
his own, and that would be minded. Consequently, though he made
quite a companion of the fine bright boy, and was delighted to see
him so fond of reading his fairy books, and was never tired of
hearing him say my name is Norval, or hearing him sing his songs
about Young May Moons is beaming love, and When he as adores thee has
left but the name, and that; still he kept the command over the
child, and the child was a child, and it's to be wished more of 'em
was!

How did Boots happen to know all this? Why, through being
under- gardener. Of course he couldn't be under-gardener, and be
always about, in the summer-time, near the windows on the lawn, a
mowing, and sweeping, and weeding, and pruning, and this and that,
without getting acquainted with the ways of the family. Even
supposing Master Harry hadn't come to him one morning early, and
said, "Cobbs, how should you spell Norah, if you was asked?" and then
began cutting it in print all over the fence.

He couldn't say he had taken particular notice of children
before that; but really it was pretty to see them two mites a going
about the place together, deep in love. And the courage of the boy!
Bless your soul, he'd have throwed off his little hat, and tucked up
his little sleeves, and gone in at a Lion, he would, if they had
happened to meet one, and she had been frightened of him. One day he
stops, along with her, where Boots was hoeing weeds in the gravel,
and says, speaking up, "Cobbs," he says, "I like you." "Do you, sir?
I'm proud to hear it." "Yes, I do, Cobbs. Why do I like you, do
you think, Cobbs?" "Don't know, Master Harry, I am sure." "Because
Norah likes you, Cobbs." "Indeed, sir? That's very gratifying."
"Gratifying, Cobbs? It's better than millions of the brightest
diamonds to be liked by Norah." "Certainly, sir." "You're going
away, ain't you, Cobbs?" "Yes, sir." "Would you like another
situation, Cobbs?" "Well, sir, I shouldn't object, if it was a good
Inn." "Then, Cobbs," says he, "you shall be our Head Gardener when
we are married." And he tucks her, in her little sky- blue mantle,
under his arm, and walks away.

Boots could assure me that it was better than a picter, and
equal to a play, to see them babies, with their long, bright, curling
hair, their sparkling eyes, and their beautiful light tread, a
rambling about the garden, deep in love. Boots was of opinion that
the birds believed they was birds, and kept up with 'em, singing to
please 'em. Sometimes they would creep under the Tulip-tree, and
would sit there with their arms round one another's necks, and their
soft cheeks touching, a reading about the Prince and the Dragon, and
the good and bad enchanters, and the king's fair daughter. Sometimes
he would hear them planning about having a house in a forest, keeping
bees and a cow, and living entirely on milk and honey. Once he came
upon them by the pond, and heard Master Harry say, "Adorable Norah,
kiss me, and say you love me to distraction, or I'll jump in head-
foremost." And Boots made no question he would have done it if she
hadn't complied. On the whole, Boots said it had a tendency to make
him feel as if he was in love himself--only he didn't exactly know
who with.

"Cobbs," said Master Harry, one evening, when Cobbs was watering
the flowers, "I am going on a visit, this present Midsummer, to my
grandmamma's at York."

"Are you indeed, sir? I hope you'll have a pleasant time. I am
going into Yorkshire, myself, when I leave here."

"Are you going to your grandmamma's, Cobbs?"

"No, sir. I haven't got such a thing."

"Not as a grandmamma, Cobbs?"

"No, sir."

The boy looked on at the watering of the flowers for a little
while, and then said, "I shall be very glad indeed to go,
Cobbs,--Norah's going."

"You'll be all right then, sir," says Cobbs, "with your
beautiful sweetheart by your side."

"Cobbs," returned the boy, flushing, "I never let anybody joke
about it, when I can prevent them."

"It wasn't a joke, sir," says Cobbs, with humility,--"wasn't so
meant."

"I am glad of that, Cobbs, because I like you, you know, and
you're going to live with us.--Cobbs!"

"Sir."

"What do you think my grandmamma gives me when I go down
there?"

"I couldn't so much as make a guess, sir."

"A Bank of England five-pound note, Cobbs."

"Whew!" says Cobbs, "that's a spanking sum of money, Master
Harry."

"A person could do a good deal with such a sum of money as
that,-- couldn't a person, Cobbs?"

"I believe you, sir!"

"Cobbs," said the boy, "I'll tell you a secret. At Norah's
house, they have been joking her about me, and pretending to laugh at
our being engaged,--pretending to make game of it, Cobbs!"

"Such, sir," says Cobbs, "is the depravity of human natur."

The boy, looking exactly like his father, stood for a few
minutes with his glowing face towards the sunset, and then departed
with, "Good-night, Cobbs. I'm going in."

If I was to ask Boots how it happened that he was a-going to
leave that place just at that present time, well, he couldn't rightly
answer me. He did suppose he might have stayed there till now if he
had been anyways inclined. But, you see, he was younger then, and he
wanted change. That's what he wanted,--change. Mr. Walmers, he said
to him when he gave him notice of his intentions to leave, "Cobbs,"
he says, "have you anythink to complain of? I make the inquiry
because if I find that any of my people really has anythink to
complain of, I wish to make it right if I can." "No, sir." says
Cobbs; "thanking you, sir, I find myself as well sitiwated here as I
could hope to be anywheres. The truth is, sir, that I'm a-going to
seek my fortun'." "O, indeed, Cobbs!" he says; "I hope you may find
it." And Boots could assure me--which he did, touching his hair with
his bootjack, as a salute in the way of his present calling-- that he
hadn't found it yet.

Well, sir! Boots left the Elmses when his time was up, and
Master Harry, he went down to the old lady's at York, which old lady
would have given that child the teeth out of her head (if she had had
any), she was so wrapped up in him. What does that Infant do,--for
Infant you may call him and be within the mark,--but cut away from
that old lady's with his Norah, on a expedition to go to Gretna Green
and be married!

Sir, Boots was at this identical Holly-Tree Inn (having left it
several times since to better himself, but always come back through
one thing or another), when, one summer afternoon, the coach drives
up, and out of the coach gets them two children. The Guard says to
our Governor, "I don't quite make out these little passengers, but
the young gentleman's words was, that they was to be brought here."
The young gentleman gets out; hands his lady out; gives the Guard
something for himself; says to our Governor, "We're to stop here to-
night, please. Sitting-room and two bedrooms will be required. Chops
and cherry-pudding for two!" and tucks her, in her sky-blue mantle,
under his arm, and walks into the house much bolder than Brass.

Boots leaves me to judge what the amazement of that
establishment was, when these two tiny creatures all alone by
themselves was marched into the Angel,--much more so, when he, who
had seen them without their seeing him, give the Governor his views
of the expedition they was upon. "Cobbs," says the Governor, "if
this is so, I must set off myself to York, and quiet their friends'
minds. In which case you must keep your eye upon 'em, and humour 'em,
till I come back. But before I take these measures, Cobbs, I should
wish you to find from themselves whether your opinion is correct."
"Sir, to you," says Cobbs, "that shall be done directly."

So Boots goes up-stairs to the Angel, and there he finds Master
Harry on a e-normous sofa,--immense at any time, but looking like the
Great Bed of Ware, compared with him,--a drying the eyes of Miss
Norah with his pocket-hankecher. Their little legs was entirely off
the ground, of course, and it really is not possible for Boots to
express to me how small them children looked.

"It's Cobbs! It's Cobbs!" cries Master Harry, and comes running
to him, and catching hold of his hand. Miss Norah comes running to
him on t'other side and catching hold of his t'other hand, and they
both jump for joy.

"I see you a getting out, sir," says Cobbs. "I thought it was
you. I thought I couldn't be mistaken in your height and figure.
What's the object of your journey, sir?--Matrimonial?"

"We are going to be married, Cobbs, at Gretna Green," returned
the boy. "We have run away on purpose. Norah has been in rather low
spirits, Cobbs; but she'll be happy, now we have found you to be our
friend."

"Thank you, sir, and thank you, miss," says Cobbs, "for your
good opinion. Did you bring any luggage with you, sir?"

If I will believe Boots when he gives me his word and honour
upon it, the lady had got a parasol, a smelling-bottle, a round and a
half of cold buttered toast, eight peppermint drops, and a hair-
brush,--seemingly a doll's. The gentleman had got about half a dozen
yards of string, a knife, three or four sheets of writing- paper
folded up surprising small, a orange, and a Chaney mug with his name
upon it.

"What may be the exact natur of your plans, sir?" says Cobbs.

"To go on," replied the boy,--which the courage of that boy was
something wonderful!--"in the morning, and be married to-morrow."

"Just so, sir," says Cobbs. "Would it meet your views, sir, if
I was to accompany you?"

When Cobbs said this, they both jumped for joy again, and cried
out, "Oh, yes, yes, Cobbs! Yes!"

"Well, sir," says Cobbs. "If you will excuse my having the
freedom to give an opinion, what I should recommend would be this.
I'm acquainted with a pony, sir, which, put in a pheayton that I
could borrow, would take you and Mrs. Harry Walmers, Junior, (myself
driving, if you approved,) to the end of your journey in a very short
space of time. I am not altogether sure, sir, that this pony will be
at liberty to-morrow, but even if you had to wait over to- morrow for
him, it might be worth your while. As to the small account here,
sir, in case you was to find yourself running at all short, that
don't signify; because I'm a part proprietor of this inn, and it
could stand over."

Boots assures me that when they clapped their hands, and jumped
for joy again, and called him "Good Cobbs!" and "Dear Cobbs!" and
bent across him to kiss one another in the delight of their confiding
hearts, he felt himself the meanest rascal for deceiving 'em that
ever was born.

"Is there anything you want just at present, sir?" says Cobbs,
mortally ashamed of himself.

"We should like some cakes after dinner," answered Master Harry,
folding his arms, putting out one leg, and looking straight at him,
"and two apples,--and jam. With dinner we should like to have
toast-and-water. But Norah has always been accustomed to half a
glass of currant wine at dessert. And so have I."

"It shall be ordered at the bar, sir," says Cobbs; and away he
went.

Boots has the feeling as fresh upon him at this minute of
speaking as he had then, that he would far rather have had it out in
half-a- dozen rounds with the Governor than have combined with him;
and that he wished with all his heart there was any impossible place
where those two babies could make an impossible marriage, and live
impossibly happy ever afterwards. However, as it couldn't be, he
went into the Governor's plans, and the Governor set off for York in
half an hour.

The way in which the women of that house--without
exception--every one of 'em--married and single--took to that boy
when they heard the story, Boots considers surprising. It was as
much as he could do to keep 'em from dashing into the room and
kissing him. They climbed up all sorts of places, at the risk of
their lives, to look at him through a pane of glass. They was seven
deep at the keyhole. They was out of their minds about him and his
bold spirit.

In the evening, Boots went into the room to see how the runaway
couple was getting on. The gentleman was on the window-seat,
supporting the lady in his arms. She had tears upon her face, and
was lying, very tired and half asleep, with her head upon his
shoulder.

"Mrs. Harry Walmers, Junior, fatigued, sir?" says Cobbs.

"Yes, she is tired, Cobbs; but she is not used to be away from
home, and she has been in low spirits again. Cobbs, do you think you
could bring a biffin, please?"

"I ask your pardon, sir," says Cobbs. "What was it you--?"

"I think a Norfolk biffin would rouse her, Cobbs. She is very
fond of them."

Boots withdrew in search of the required restorative, and when
he brought it in, the gentleman handed it to the lady, and fed her
with a spoon, and took a little himself; the lady being heavy with
sleep, and rather cross. "What should you think, sir," says Cobbs,
"of a chamber candlestick?" The gentleman approved; the chambermaid
went first, up the great staircase; the lady, in her sky-blue mantle,
followed, gallantly escorted by the gentleman; the gentleman embraced
her at her door, and retired to his own apartment, where Boots softly
locked him up.

Boots couldn't but feel with increased acuteness what a base
deceiver he was, when they consulted him at breakfast (they had
ordered sweet milk-and-water, and toast and currant jelly, over-
night) about the pony. It really was as much as he could do, he
don't mind confessing to me, to look them two young things in the
face, and think what a wicked old father of lies he had grown up to
be. Howsomever, he went on a lying like a Trojan about the pony. He
told 'em that it did so unfortunately happen that the pony was half
clipped, you see, and that he couldn't be taken out in that state,
for fear it should strike to his inside. But that he'd be finished
clipping in the course of the day, and that to-morrow morning at
eight o'clock the pheayton would be ready. Boots's view of the whole
case, looking back on it in my room, is, that Mrs. Harry Walmers,
Junior, was beginning to give in. She hadn't had her hair curled
when she went to bed, and she didn't seem quite up to brushing it
herself, and its getting in her eyes put her out. But nothing put
out Master Harry. He sat behind his breakfast-cup, a tearing away at
the jelly, as if he had been his own father.

After breakfast, Boots is inclined to consider that they drawed
soldiers,--at least, he knows that many such was found in the fire-
place, all on horseback. In the course of the morning, Master Harry
rang the bell,--it was surprising how that there boy did carry on,--
and said, in a sprightly way, "Cobbs, is there any good walks in this
neighbourhood?"

"Yes, sir," says Cobbs. "There's Love Lane."

"Get out with you, Cobbs!"--that was that there boy's
expression,-- "you're joking."

"Begging your pardon, sir," says Cobbs, "there really is Love
Lane. And a pleasant walk it is, and proud shall I be to show it to
yourself and Mrs. Harry Walmers, Junior."

"Norah, dear," said Master Harry, "this is curious. We really
ought to see Love Lane. Put on your bonnet, my sweetest darling, and
we will go there with Cobbs."

Boots leaves me to judge what a Beast he felt himself to be,
when that young pair told him, as they all three jogged along
together, that they had made up their minds to give him two thousand
guineas a year as head-gardener, on accounts of his being so true a
friend to 'em. Boots could have wished at the moment that the earth
would have opened and swallowed him up, he felt so mean, with their
beaming eyes a looking at him, and believing him. Well, sir, he
turned the conversation as well as he could, and he took 'em down
Love Lane to the water-meadows, and there Master Harry would have
drowned himself in half a moment more, a getting out a water-lily for
her,--but nothing daunted that boy. Well, sir, they was tired out.
All being so new and strange to 'em, they was tired as tired could
be. And they laid down on a bank of daisies, like the children in
the wood, leastways meadows, and fell asleep.

Boots don't know--perhaps I do,--but never mind, it don't
signify either way--why it made a man fit to make a fool of himself
to see them two pretty babies a lying there in the clear still sunny
day, not dreaming half so hard when they was asleep as they done when
they was awake. But, Lord! when you come to think of yourself, you
know, and what a game you have been up to ever since you was in your
own cradle, and what a poor sort of a chap you are, and how it's
always either Yesterday with you, or else To-morrow, and never To-
day, that's where it is!

Well, sir, they woke up at last, and then one thing was getting
pretty clear to Boots, namely, that Mrs. Harry Walmerses, Junior's,
temper was on the move. When Master Harry took her round the waist,
she said he "teased her so;" and when he says, "Norah, my young May
Moon, your Harry tease you?" she tells him, "Yes; and I want to go
home!"

A biled fowl, and baked bread-and-butter pudding, brought Mrs.
Walmers up a little; but Boots could have wished, he must privately
own to me, to have seen her more sensible of the woice of love, and
less abandoning of herself to currants. However, Master Harry, he
kept up, and his noble heart was as fond as ever. Mrs. Walmers
turned very sleepy about dusk, and began to cry. Therefore, Mrs.
Walmers went off to bed as per yesterday; and Master Harry ditto
repeated.

About eleven or twelve at night comes back the Governor in a
chaise, along with Mr. Walmers and a elderly lady. Mr. Walmers looks
amused and very serious, both at once, and says to our missis, "We
are much indebted to you, ma'am, for your kind care of our little
children, which we can never sufficiently acknowledge. Pray, ma'am,
where is my boy?" Our missis says, "Cobbs has the dear child in
charge, sir. Cobbs, show Forty!" Then he says to Cobbs, "Ah, Cobbs,
I am glad to see you! I understood you was here!" And Cobbs says,
"Yes, sir. Your most obedient, sir."

I may be surprised to hear Boots say it, perhaps; but Boots
assures me that his heart beat like a hammer, going up-stairs. "I
beg your pardon, sir," says he, while unlocking the door; "I hope you
are not angry with Master Harry. For Master Harry is a fine boy,
sir, and will do you credit and honour." And Boots signifies to me,
that, if the fine boy's father had contradicted him in the daring
state of mind in which he then was, he thinks he should have "fetched
him a crack," and taken the consequences.

But Mr. Walmers only says, "No, Cobbs. No, my good fellow.
Thank you!" And, the door being opened, goes in.

Boots goes in too, holding the light, and he sees Mr. Walmers go
up to the bedside, bend gently down, and kiss the little sleeping
face. Then he stands looking at it for a minute, looking wonderfully
like it (they do say he ran away with Mrs. Walmers); and then he
gently shakes the little shoulder.

"Harry, my dear boy! Harry!"

Master Harry starts up and looks at him. Looks at Cobbs too.
Such is the honour of that mite, that he looks at Cobbs, to see
whether he has brought him into trouble.

"I am not angry, my child. I only want you to dress yourself
and come home."

"Yes, pa."

Master Harry dresses himself quickly. His breast begins to
swell when he has nearly finished, and it swells more and more as he
stands, at last, a looking at his father: his father standing a
looking at him, the quiet image of him.

"Please may I"--the spirit of that little creatur, and the way
he kept his rising tears down!--"please, dear pa--may I--kiss Norah
before I go?"

"You may, my child."

So he takes Master Harry in his hand, and Boots leads the way
with the candle, and they come to that other bedroom, where the
elderly lady is seated by the bed, and poor little Mrs. Harry
Walmers, Junior, is fast asleep. There the father lifts the child up
to the pillow, and he lays his little face down for an instant by the
little warm face of poor unconscious little Mrs. Harry Walmers,
Junior, and gently draws it to him,--a sight so touching to the
chambermaids who are peeping through the door, that one of them calls
out, "It's a shame to part 'em!" But this chambermaid was always, as
Boots informs me, a soft-hearted one. Not that there was any harm in
that girl. Far from it.

Finally, Boots says, that's all about it. Mr. Walmers drove
away in the chaise, having hold of Master Harry's hand. The elderly
lady and Mrs. Harry Walmers, Junior, that was never to be (she
married a Captain long afterwards, and died in India), went off next
day. In conclusion, Boots put it to me whether I hold with him in
two opinions: firstly, that there are not many couples on their way
to be married who are half as innocent of guile as those two
children; secondly, that it would be a jolly good thing for a great
many couples on their way to be married, if they could only be
stopped in time, and brought back separately.