Blade-O'-Grass. Golden Grain. and Bread and Cheese and Kisses.Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
Blade-O'-Grass. Golden Grain. and Bread and Cheese and Kisses.
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
Christmas stories; Fiction
The entrance of George Naldret and young Mr. Million gives a new turn
to the conversation, and to the aspect of affairs. George Naldret
needs but a very few words of introduction. He is like his father was
when his father was a young man. More comely-looking because of the
difference in their ages, but his little bit of English whisker is
after the same model as his father's, and his hair is also of a light
sandy colour. His head is well shaped, and he has contracted his
father's habit of rubbing one side of it with his two-foot rule when
he is in earnest. When he came into the world, his mother declared
that he was as like his father as two peas, which statement, regarded
from a purely grammatical point of view, involved a contradiction of
ideas. But grammar stands for nothing with some. Poor folk who have
received imperfect education are not given to hypercriticism. It is
not what is said, but what is meant. George's father and his father's
father had been carpenters before him, and as he has taken after them,
he may be said to have become a carpenter by hereditary law. Mrs.
Naldret was satisfied. To have a trade at one's finger-ends, as she
would have expressed it, is not a bad inheritance.
Young Mr. Million was named after his father, James, and was therefore
called young Mr. Million to prevent confusion. _His_ father and his
father's father had been brewers, or, more correctly speaking, in the
brewing interest before him, and he was supposed to take after them.
There was this difference, however, between him and George Naldret.
George Naldret was a thoroughly good carpenter, but it cannot be said
that young Mr. Million was a thoroughly good brewer. In point of fact,
he was not a brewer at all, for he knew no more of the trade than I
do. He knew a good glass of beer when he was drinking it, but he did
not know how to make it; as George knew a good piece of carpentering
work when it was before him; but then George could produce a similar
piece of work himself. George took pride in his trade; young Mr.
Million looked down upon his because it _was_ a trade--he thought it
ought to be a profession. Although he and his were the last who should
have thought unkindly of it, for from the profits of the family
brewery a vast fortune had been accumulated. Estates had been bought;
position in society had been bought; a seat in the House had been
bought; perhaps, by and by, a title would be bought: for eminence
deserves recognition. And a man can be eminent in so many different
ways. One maybe an eminent tea-dealer, or an eminent chiropodist, or
an eminent dentist, if one's profits are large enough. The seat in the
House was occupied at the present time by Mr. James Million senior,
whose chief business in the Senate appeared to be to look sharply
after his own interests and those of his class, and to vote as
he was bid upon those indifferent questions of public interest which
did not affect the profits of his brewery, and which were not likely
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account