but, the cutler’s knives and axes were sharp and bright, the

smith’s hammers were heavy, and the gunmaker’s stock was

murderous. The crippling stones of the pavement, with their many

little reservoirs of mud and water, had no footways, but broke off

abruptly at the doors. The kennel, to make amends, ran down the

middle of the streetwhen it ran at all: which was only after heavy

Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics

rains, and then it ran, by many eccentric fits, into the houses.

Across the streets, at wide intervals, one clumsy lamp was slung

by a rope and pulley; at night, when the lamplighter had let these

down, and lighted, and hoisted them again, a feeble grove of dim

wicks swung in a sickly manner overhead, as if they were at sea.

Indeed they were at sea, and the ship and crew were in peril of

tempest.

For, the time was to come, when the gaunt scarecrows of that

region should have watched the lamplighter, in their idleness and

hunger, so long, as to conceive the idea of improving on his

method, and hauling up men by those ropes and pulleys, to flare

upon the darkness of their condition. But, the time was not come

yet; and every wind that blew over France shook the rags of the

scarecrows in vain, for the birds, fine of song and feather, took no

warning.

The wine-shop was a corner shop, better than most others in its