_Nicholas_ (_St._). The legend is, that an angel told him a father was so poor he was about to raise money by the prostitution of his three daughters. On hearing this St. Nicholas threw in at the cottage window three bags of money, sufficient to portion each of the three damsels. The gift Of Nicholas, which on the maidens he Bounteous bestowed, to save their youthful prime Unblemished. Dantê, _Purgatory_, xx. (1308). =Nicholas of the Tower= (_The_), the duke of Exeter, constable of the Tower. =Nicholas’s Clerks=, highwaymen; so called by a pun on the phrase _Old Nick_ and _St. Nicholas_ who presided over scholars. _St. Nicholas’s Clerks_, scholars; so called because St. Nicholas was the patron of scholars. The statutes of Paul’s School require the scholars to attend divine service on St. Nicholas’s Day.--Knight, _Life of Dean Colet_, 362 (1726). =Nicholas Minturn=, hero of novel of that name, by Josiah Gilbert Holland (1876). =Nickleby= (_Nicholas_), the chief character and title of a novel by C. Dickens (1838). He is the son of a poor country gentleman, and has to make his own way in the world. He first goes as usher to Mr. Squeers, schoolmaster at Dotheboys Hall, in Yorkshire; but leaves in disgust with the tyranny of Squeers and his wife, especially to a poor boy named Smike. Smike runs away from the school to follow Nicholas, and remains his humble follower till death. At Portsmouth, Nicholas joins the theatrical company of Mr. Crummles, but leaves the profession for other adventures. He falls in with the brothers Cheeryble, who make him their clerk; and in this post he rises to become a merchant, and ultimately marries Madeline Bray. _Mrs. Nickleby_, mother of Nicholas, and a widow. She is an enormous talker, fond of telling long stories with no connection. Mrs. Nickleby is a weak, vain woman, who imagines an idiot neighbor is in love with her because he tosses cabbages and other articles over the garden wall. In conversation, Mrs. Nickleby rides off from the main point at every word suggestive of some new idea. As a specimen of her sequence of ideas, take the following example: “The name began with ‘B’ and ended with ‘g,’ I am sure. Perhaps it was Waters” (p. 198). ⁂ “The original of ‘Mrs. Nickleby,’” says John Foster, “was the mother of Charles Dickens.”--_Life of Dickens_, iii. 8. _Kate Nickleby_, sister of Nicholas; beautiful, pure-minded, and loving. Kate works hard to assist in the expenses of housekeeping, but shuns every attempt of Ralph and others to allure her from the path of virgin innocence. She ultimately marries Frank, the nephew of the Cheeryble brothers.