Page:The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.djvu/379

305 THE PICKWICK CLUB. 805

the clear bine sky, the water sparkled beneath his rays, and the trees looked greener, and the flowers more gay, beneath his cheering influence. The water rippled on, with a pleasant sound, the trees rustled in the light wind that murmured among their leaves, the birds sang upon the boughs, and the lark carolled on high, her welcome to the morning. Yes, it was morning, the bright, balmy morning of summer; the minutest leaf, the smallest blade of grass, was instinct with life. The ant crept forth to her daily toil, the butterfly fluttered and basked in the warm rayi of the sun ; myriads of insects spread their transparent wings, and re- velled in their brief but happy existence. INIan walked forth, elated with the scene ; and all was brightness and splendour.

" * You a miserable man ! ' said the king of the goblins, in a more contemptuous tone than before. And again the king of the goblins gave his leg A flourish ; again it descended on the shoulders of the sex- ton ; and again the attendant goblins imitated the example of their chief.

" Many a time the cloud went and came, and many a lesson it taught to Gabriel Grub, who although his shoulders smarted wit'h pain from the frequent applications of the goblin's feet thereunto, looked on with an interest which nothing could diminish. He saw that men who worked hard, and earned their scanty bread with lives of labour, were cheerful and happy ; and that to the most ignorant, the sweet face of nature was a never-failing source of cheerfulness and joy. He saw those who had been delicately nurtured, and tenderly brought up, cheerful under privations, and superior to sufl'ering, that would have crushed many of a rougher grain, because they bore within their own bosoms the materials of happiness, contentment, and peace. He saw that women, the tenderest and most fragile of all God's creatures, were the oftenest superior to sorrow, adversity, and distress ; and he saw that it was be- cause they bore in their own hearts an inexhaustible well-spring of afi'ection and devotedness. Above all, he saw that men like himself, Avho snarled at the mirth and cheerfulness of others, were the foulest weeds on the fair surface of the earth ; and setting all the good of the world against the evil, he came to the conclusion that it was a very decent and respectable sort of world after all. No sooner had he formed it, than the cloud which had closed over the last picture, seemed to settle on his senses, and lull him to repose. One by one, the goblins faded from his sight, and as the last one disappeared, he sunk to sleep.

" The day had broken when Gabriel Grub awoke, and found himself lying at full length on the flat grave stone in the church yard, with the wicker bottle lying empty by his side, and his coat, spade, and lantern, all well whitened by the last night's frost, scattered on the ground. The stone on which he had first seen the goblin seated, stood bolt up- right before him, and the grave at which he had worked, the night before, was not far off". At first he began to doubt the reality of his adventures, but the acute pain in his shoulders when he attempted to rise, assured him that the kicking of the goblins was certainly not ideal. He was staggered again, by observing no traces of footsteps in the snow