The assistant parish
Charles Dickens was a time in a tiny provincial town far removed from London, a man named Nathaniel Pipkin, who worked in the parish of the small town and lived in a small house on High Street, just ten minutes walk from the little church, and who could be found every day, from nine to four, giving some lessons to local children. Nathaniel Pipkin was a naive, harmless and character kind, snub nose, a little baboon, cross-eyed and somewhat lame, he divided his time between the church and school, convinced that on the face of the earth, there was no man as clever as the pastor, any stay so great as the sacristy, no school as organized as yours. Once, only once in his life he had seen a bishop ... a real bishop, with sleeves of lawn and wig. He had been walking and heard him speak at a confirmation and, in that memorable occasion, Nathaniel Pipkin had been so overwhelmed by the devotion and the fear that when the bishop mentioned above put his hand on his head He fell fainting and was removed from the church in the arms of the beadle.
It had been a great event, a pivotal moment in the life of Nathaniel Pipkin, and the only one who had disturbed the smooth flow of his quiet life until a beautiful evening that was completely devoted to his thoughts, up by chance the eyes of the board, where a terrible problem devised full sum for a naughty urchin, and rested them, unexpectedly, in the radiant face of Mary Lobbs, the only daughter of old Lobbs, the powerful saddler who lived opposite. The truth is that the eyes of Mr. Pipkin had rested before, and quite often, in the beautiful face of Mary Lobbs, church and other places, but Lobbs Mary's eyes had never looked so bright, and Mary's cheeks as rosy as Lobbs on that occasion. No wonder, then, that Nathaniel Pipkin was unable to avert his gaze from the face of Miss Lobbs, it is not surprising that Miss Lobbs, seeing the young man's eyes fixed on her, pulled her head from the window where I was overlooking the closed and the blinds come down, not surprisingly, immediately after, Nathaniel Pipkin was pounce on the little rascal that had bothered him before and gave him a bump on the head and a slap to vent. All this was very natural, and there is nothing it worthy of wonder.
From what I do have to wonder, however, is that someone so shy and nervous as Mr. Nathaniel Pipkin, and income as insignificant as he had the audacity to hope, from that day at hand and the heart of the only daughter of irascible old Lobbs ... the old Lobbs, the powerful saddler, who could have bought the whole city in one fell swoop without resented his fortune ... the old Lobbs, who had a lot of money invested in the bank of the nearest market town ... who, they said, had countless and inexhaustible treasures hidden in the small safe with keyhole huge on the mantelpiece, in the back room ... and, as everyone knew, the holidays adorned his table with a real silver teapot, a cream jug and sugar bowl, which boasted as his heart swelled with pride, would be owned by his daughter when he found a man worthy of her. And all this comment because it is really amazing and strange that Nathaniel Pipkin had had the temerity to look in that direction. But love is blind, and Nathaniel was squinting, and it is likely that the sum of these two circumstances prevent him from seeing things as they are.
However, if the old Lobbs have had the most remote or vague idea of \u200b\u200bthe emotional state of Nathaniel Pipkin, would have swept the school, his teacher or deleted from the face of the earth, or committed some other outrage or atrocity of features equally ferocious and violent as the old type was a terrible Lobbs when his pride hurt or angry. And, could swear!, Sometimes let go of so many insults from the mouth, when denouncing the laziness of the apprentice thin skeletal legs, that Nathaniel Pipkin was shaking with fear and their students are bristling hair from fright.
Day after day, when classes ended and students were gone, Nathaniel Pipkin sit in the window overlooking the front and, while pretending to read a book, looked askance at the other side the streets in search of the bright eyes of Mary Lobbs, and not many days passed before these bright eyes appeared at a window upstairs, apparently also engaged in reading. It was something wonderful joy filled the heart of Nathaniel Pipkin. It was a joy to sit there for hours, the two together, and look at that beautiful face as he lowered his eyes, but when Mary Lobbs beginning to look up the book and cast its rays in the direction of Nathaniel Pipkin, his delight and admiration not known limit. Finally one day when he knew that the old Lobbs was absent, Nathaniel Pipkin had the audacity to send a kiss Mary Lobbs hand, and Mary Lobbs, instead of closing the window, returned it and smiled! Because of this, Nathaniel Pipkin decided that, no matter what happened, without delay communicate their feelings to the young.
never more beautiful foot or a heart happier, or more charming dimples, or a beautiful figure, gracefully stepped Lobbs as Mary, the daughter of old saddle, the land that beautified with his presence. There was a malicious twinkle in his bright eyes that have captured hearts much less amorous than that of Nathaniel Pipkin, and his smile was so glad that even the worst misanthrope would smiled to hear it. Even the old Lobbs, in a paroxysm of rage, could resist the teasing of his beautiful daughter when she and her cousin Kate, a little person mischievous, cheeky and engaging, they wanted to get some of the old, which, for sincere, often happened, there was nothing that he was able to deny, even when I asked some of the countless and inexhaustible treasures hidden in the safe.
Nathaniel Pipkin's heart seemed to jump into the chest when a summer afternoon, he noticed that attractive couple a few hundred yards ahead of him in the same field where he had so often walked to dusk recalling the beauty of Mary Lobbs. But despite that, on those occasions, he had often thought how quickly the closer to Mary Lobbs to declare his passion if he found her, now that unexpectedly before him, all the blood in his body rushed to his face, clear detriment of their legs, deprived of their usual dose, they began to tremble under his torso. When the girls stopped to pick a flower from the hedge, or hear a bird, Nathaniel Pipkin was also high, and pretended to be engrossed in thought, which no doubt was true, he thought what the hell was going to do when they found the back, as it would inevitably, and found face to face. But even though he feared to approach them, could not bear to lose sight, so that, when the two girls walked faster he walked faster and, when stopped, he stopped, and would have continued so until night to prevent it, if Kate had not looked back and had maliciously encouraged to move to Nathaniel. There was something irresistible in the manner of Kate, so Nathaniel Pipkin granted his wish, and after much embarrassment, while the small cross with laughter cousin, Nathaniel Pipkin knelt on the wet grass and declared his determination to stay there forever, Unless you are allowed to stand as a serious boyfriend of Mary Lobbs. Upon hearing this, the merry laughter of Miss Lobbs echoed through the serene air of the night ... but did not seem disturbed, his sound was so charming ... And the naughty little cousin laughed louder than before, and Nathaniel Pipkin blushed as he had never done. Finally, Mary Lobbs, at the insistence of his admirer, he turned and whispered to his cousin to say-or, in any case, was it who said he was honored with the words of Mr. Pipkin, that his hand and heart were available to his father, and that nobody could be insensible to the merits Mr. Pipkin. As Kate said all this with great seriousness, and Nathaniel Pipkin went with Mary Lobbs house, and even tried to leave her with a kiss, the young man went to bed happy, and spent the evening dreaming Lobbs soften the old, open safe and married Mary.
next day, Nathaniel Pipkin saw old Lobbs receded in his old gray pony, and after that mischievous little cousin made him many signs from the window, whose purpose and meaning was incapable of understanding, the learner thin skeletal legs went to tell his master would not return all night and the ladies were waiting for tea exactly at six o'clock.
classes I spent that day is something that neither Nathaniel Pipkin nor his pupils know more than you, but the fact is that, one way or another, they came to an end and when the children left, Nathaniel Pipkin took till six o'clock to dress as they like. Not that it took a long time to choose the outfit that would take, as there was to choose, but ensure that it shone full and put the finishing touch was a task not without difficulty and importance.
I expected a small group, consisting of Lobbs Mary, her cousin Kate, and three or four girls, playful and gentle, Cheek rosy. Nathaniel Pipkin personally confirmed the rumors about Lobbs old treasures were not exaggerated. On the table a real silver teapot, a cream jug and sugar bowl, and real silver spoons to stir the tea, and real china cups to drink, and game dishes to pastries and toast. The only thing I disliked was the presence of another cousin of Mary Lobbs, brother of Kate, whom Mary called Henry, which seemed to grab the company of Mary Lobbs at one end of the table. It is delightful that families want, provided they do not carry that feeling too far, and Nathaniel Pipkin could not Lobbs but think that Mary must have been especially fond of your relatives, if lent to others the same attention as that cousin. After tea, when the small, mischievous cousin suggested to play blind man's buff, for one reason or another, Nathaniel Pipkin was nearly all the time blindfolded, and whenever he caught the cousin knew for certain that Mary walked Lobbs nearby. And, despite the small, mischievous cousin and the other girls pinched him, threw the hair, pushed the chairs to stumble, and all sorts of things, Mary Lobbs never went to him, and on one occasion .. . on one occasion ... Nathaniel Pipkin could have sworn hearing the sound of a kiss followed by a feeble protest Lobbs Mary, and her friends giggled. All this was strange ... very strange ... and it is difficult to know what Nathaniel Pipkin would have done if his thoughts had suddenly taken a different direction.
And the circumstances that changed the course of his thoughts was a loud knocking at the door, and who thus was the old name Lobbs, who had returned unexpectedly and struck the door with the same insistence that a coffin-maker, as demanded his dinner. As the thin legs skeletal apprentice told them the alarming news, the girls ran up to the bedroom of Mary Lobbs, and cousin and Nathaniel Pipkin were thrust into two closets in the room, for want of a better hiding place, and when Mary Lobbs and his little cousin had hidden mischievous young and tidy the room, opened the old Lobbs , who had stopped banging on the door since their arrival.
What unfortunately happened then is that the old Lobbs, I was starving, came with a terrible mood. Nathaniel Pipkin could hear him grunting like an old mastiff with a sore throat, and whenever the unfortunate apprentice skeletal legs entered the room, I was certain that the old Lobbs begin to curse in the most saracenic and fierce, but apparently no other purpose or objective with those venting their anger outbursts superfluous. Finally dinner was served, which had to be heated, and the old Lobbs pounced on the food, then eating it all quickly, kissed his daughter and asked for his pipe.
Nature had placed Nathaniel Pipkin's knees in a position very close, but when he heard the old Lobbs asked his pipe, they joined the force as if they wanted each other to reduce dust, then hanging a pair of hooks in the same closet where he was hiding, there was a huge pipe, nozzle cup brown and silver, which he had laid down in the mouth of the old Lobbs regularly every afternoon and every night during the last five years. The two girls looked pipe in the ground floor, floor above, and everywhere except where they knew he was, and the old Lobbs, meanwhile, raved in the most incredible. Finally, he recalled the closet and went to him. It did not help that a small man like Nathaniel Pipkin pulled the door inward while a big, strong as the old Lobbs pulled out. The old Lobbs suddenly opened the closet, revealing that Nathaniel Pipkin, very upright in the closet, afraid of shaking head to toe. God! What to look so terrible Lobbs threw the old, while pulled by the neck and held him at a distance.
"But what on earth has been lost here? Exclaimed the old Lobbs, stentorian voice.
Nathaniel Pipkin was unable to answer, so that the old Lobbs forward and shook him back for two or three minutes, to help you clarify your ideas.
- That what has been lost here? Lobbs bellowed, "I guess I have come after my daughter, is not it? Old Lobbs
said only to make fun of him because he did not believe the audacity of Nathaniel Pipkin could get that far. How great was his indignation when the poor man replied
"Yes, sir Lobbs, I have been behind his daughter. I'm in love with her, sir Lobbs.
- Do you? A bully timid, sickly and bad-looking! "She gasped Lobbs old, paralyzed by the terrible confession. What do your words? Tell me in the face! Damn, strangle him!
is very likely that the old Lobbs had executed his threat, driven by anger, not to have prevented an unexpected appearance: namely, the cousin of Mary, abandoned her cabinet and ran to the old Lobbs, said:
"I can not allow this harmless person, who has been invited here to the delight of little girls, assume, such a generous way, the responsibility of a fault (if you can call it that) of which I am the only culprit , and I am willing to admit. I love your daughter, sir, and I came up with the purpose of viewing. Old Lobbs
eyes widened at his words, not more that Nathaniel Pipkin.
- Have you been? Lobbs said, finally regaining speech.
"Yes, I have come.
"Long ago, forbade him to enter this house.
"It is true, otherwise it would not have been sneaking tonight.
regret that the old Lobbs have, but I think it would have hit the cousin if his beautiful daughter, with bright eyes full of tears, she had not grabbed his arm.
"Do not stop, Mary," cried the young man, if you hit me, let it. I would not touch a hair of gray for all the gold in the world.
The old man looked down upon this accusation, and his eyes met those of his daughter. I have already hinted at one or two occasions that he was very bright, and, though now filled with tears, his influence was no less. When the old Lobbs turned his head to keep those eyes convinced, he encountered the face of small and cross-cousin, half frightened by his brother and half laughing at Nathaniel Pipkin, showed the most charming expression, and not without malice, that a man can look old or young. He grabbed the arm of the old fawning and whispered something in his ear, and, despite their efforts, the old Lobbs had to smile while a tear rolled down her cheeks. Five minutes later, her friends came down from the bedroom between affectation and stifled giggles, and amused as the young, the old Lobbs picked up his pipe and began to smoke, and was given the extraordinary circumstances that that was the snuff pipe most delicious and relaxing had never smoked.
Nathaniel Pipkin
believed preferable to remain silent and, in doing so, managed to slowly gain the esteem of the old Lobbs, which eventually taught him to smoke, and for many years, the two sat in the garden at dusk, when the weather was good, and smoked and drank very animated. He soon recovered from the disappointment, since his name appears on the register of the parish to witness the wedding of Mary Lobbs and his cousin, and, as noted elsewhere, it seems that the night of the ceremony was spent behind bars for having done all sorts of excesses in the streets in a state of absolute drunkenness, aided and abetted by the thin legs skeletal apprentice.
End
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