Evening star., 1928-12-10
WORLD FAMOUS STORIES
A TALE OF TRUE LOVE
BY CHARLES DICKENS.

Charles Dickens. lsl2-ls7o; was an English
.'Dayid avid co,PVperheId'" ,V "oliver Twist" Tale
Once upon a time in a very small
town at a considerable distance from
London there lived little man named
Nathaniel Pipkin, who was the parish
clerk Of the little town, and lived in a
little house in the little high street
within 10 minutes walk of the little
church; and who was to be found every
day from till teaching little learn
ing to the little boys.
Nathaniel Pipkin was a harmless, in
offensive, good-natured being, with a
turneS-up nose and rather turned-in
legs, cast in his eye and halt in
his gait and he divided his time be-
tween the church and his school, verify
believing that there existed not on the
face Of the earth so clever a man as
the curate, so imposing an apartment
as the vestry room or so well ordered
seminary as his own.
Then one day Nathaniel saw the
, bright eyes of Maria LobbS, daughter of
! fiery old LobbS, the saddler. Old Lobbs
was rumored to be very wealthy, and
Maria Lobbs was very pretty, which
/ made it very strange that one so shy
and so humble as Nathaniel Pipkin
should aspire to the hand of his daugh-
! ter. But love is blind, and Nathaniel
had cast in his eye, and perhaps those
two circumstances, taken together, pre-
vented him seeing the matter in its
| proper light.
What was more, Maria Lobbs led the
poor schoolmaSter on. She once, when
sitting in her window across from his
classroom, kissed her hand to him in
return for a similar salute sent by
Nathaniel in her direction. Maria had
a cousin, one Kate, who aided and
abetted her in this, and together they
one evening, meeting Nathaniel Pipkin
afield, lured him to propose, and.
through her cousin Kate's voice, Maria
Lobbs accepted Nathaniel as her lover.
Next day old Lobbs went away. His
apprentice brought Nathaniel a mes
sage, saying that the father would not
return that night, and Maria and her
cousin wished him to be their guest
that evening for tea.
There was very snug little party,
consisting of Maria LobbS and her
cousin, Kate, and three or four romping,
good-humored, rosy-cheeked girls. The
only eye-Sore was another cousin of
Maria Lobb's, and a brother of Kate,
whom Maria LobbS called Henry, and
who seemed to keep Maria Lobbs all to
himself up in one corner of the table.
It's q delightful thing to see affection
in families, but it may be carried rather
too far, and Nathaniel Pipkin could
not help thinking that Maria Lobbs
must be very particularly fond OF her
relatives If she paid as much attention
to all of them as to this individual
cousin.
Suddenly there came loud knocking
at the street door, and the person who
made this loud knocking was no other
than old Lobbs himself, who had unex-
pectedly returned and was hammering
away like cofflnmaker, for he wanted
his supper. The alarming intelligence
bony apprentice with the thin legs than
the girls tripped upstairs to Maria
Lobb'S bedroom, and the male cousin
and Nathaniel Pipkin were thrust into
a couple of closets in the sitting room
for want of any better places of con-
cealment. and when Maria LobbS and
the wicked little cousin had slowed
away and put the room to rights they
opened the street door to old LobbS
who had never left off knocking since
he first began.
Now it did unfortunately happen that
old LobbS, being very hungry, was mon
hear him growing away like an old
maStiff with q sore throat, and when
ever the unfortunate apprentice came
into the room, so surely did old Lobbs
commence swearing at him in a most
feroctous manner, though apparently
with no other object than that oi
easing his bosom by the discharge of a
:, few superfuous oaths.
At length some supper which hac
been warming up was placed on the
table, and then old Lobbs fell to ir
regular style, and having made cleal
work of 1t in no time, kissed his daugh-
ter and demanded his pipe.
Nature had placed Nathaniel Pip.
kin'S knees in very close juxtapoSition
but when he heard old LObbs demand
his pipe they knocked together as Il
they were going to reduce each Other
to powder; for depending from a couple
of hooks in the very closet in which ht
stood was large brown n-Stemmed, sill
ver-bowled pipe. which pipe he himself
had seen in the mouth of old Lobb
regularly every afternoon and evening
for the last five years.
The two girls went downstairs To-
the pipe andsupstairs for the pipe ans
everywhere but where they knew tn
pipe was, and old Lohhs stormed aYe.