Barbox Brothers,

AND

BARBOX BROTHERS AND CO.

THIS story-for "Barbox Brothers and Co." is merely a pendant or sequel to "Barbox Brothers "-is one of a number of tales included in "Mugby Junction," the extra Christmas number of "All the Year Round" for 1866. The hero of the story, who is also the narrator of it, is at first a clerk in the firm of Barbox Brothers, then a partner, and finally the firm itself. From being a moody, selfcontained, and unhappy person, made so by the lumbering cares and the accumulated disappointments of long monotonous years, he is changed, under circumstances that awaken and develop his better nature, into a thoroughly cheerful man, with eyes and thoughts for others, and a hand ever ready to help those who need and deserve help; and thus, taking, as it were, thousands of partners into the solitary firm, he becomes "Barbox Brothers and Co."

CHARACTERS INTRODUCED.

Barbox Brothers.

See JACKSON, MR.

Beatrice. A careworn woman, with her hair turned gray, whom "Barbox Brothers " had once loved and lost. She is the wife of Tresham. See JACKSON (Mr.); TRESHAM.

Jackson, Mr. A former clerk in the public notary and bill-broking firm of Barbox Brothers, who, after imperceptibly becoming the sole representative of the house, at length retires, and obliterates it from the face of the earth, leaving nothing of it but its name on two portmanteaus, which he has with him one rainy night when he leaves a train at Mugby Junction.

A man within five years of fifty, either way, who had turned gray too soon, like a neglected fire; a man of pondering habit, brooding carriage of the head,

and suppressed internal voice; a man with many indications on him of having been much alone.

With a bitter recollection of his lonely childhood, of the enforced business, at once distasteful and oppressive, in which the best years of his life have been spent, of the double faithlessness of the only woman he ever loved and the only friend he ever trusted, his birthday, as it annually recurs, serves but to intensify his everpresent sense of desolation; and he resolves to abandon all thought of a fixed home, and to pass the rest of his days in travelling, hoping to find relief in a constant change of scene. It is after three o'clock of a tempestuous morning, when, acting on a sudden impulse, he leaves the train at Mugby Junction. At that black hour,

he cannot obtain any conveyance to the inn, and willingly accepts the invitation of "Lamps,” an employé of the railway company, to try the warmth of his little room for a while. He afterwards makes the acquaintance of " Lamps's" daughter Phœbe, a poor bedridden girl; and their happy disposition, strong mutual affection, peaceful lives, modest self-respect, and unaffected interest in those around them, teach him a lesson of cheerfulness, contentment, and moral responsibility, which the experience of years had failed to impart.

On a visit, one day, to a distant town, he is suddenly accosted by a very little girl, who tells him she is lost. He takes her to his hotel, and failing to discover who she is, or where she lives, he makes arrangements for her staying over night, and amuses himself with her childish prattle, and her enjoyment of her novel situation. The little one's mother at last appears, and proves to be the woman he had loved, and who had so heartlessly eloped with his most trusted friend years before. She tells him that she has had five other children, who are all in their graves; that her husband is very ill of a lingering disorder, and that he believes the curse of his old friend rests on the whole household. Will Mr. Jackson forgive them? The injured man now so changed from what he once was responds by taking the child to her father, placing her in his arms, and invoking a blessing on her innocent head. "Live and thrive, my pretty baby!" he says, "live and prosper, and become, in time, the mother of other little children, like the angels who behold the Father's face."

"Lamps." A railway servant employed at Mugby Junction; father of Phoebe. He is a very hard-working man, being on duty

fourteen, fifteen, or eighteen hours a day, and sometimes even twenty-four hours at a time. But he is always on the bright side and the good side. He has a daughter who is bed-ridden, and to whom he is entirely devoted. Besides supplying her with books and newspapers, he takes to composing comic songs for her amusement, and — what is still harder, and at first goes much against his grain to singing them also.

Phoebe. His daughter; crippled and helpless in consequence of a fall in infancy. She supports herself by making lace, and by teaching a few little children. Notwithstanding her great misfortune, she is always contented, always lively, always interested in others, of all sorts. She makes the acquaintance of Mr. Jackson ("Barbox Brothers"); and her pure and gentle life becomes the guiding star of his.

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Polly. Daughter of Beatrice and Tresham; a little child found by Barbox Brothers" in the streets of a large town. See JACKSON, MR. Tresham. A former friend of " Barbox Brothers," who advances him in business, and takes him into his private confidence. In return, Tresham comes between him and Beatrice (whom "Barbox Brothers" loves), and takes her from him. This treachery after a time receives its fitting punishment in poverty, and loss of health and chil- . dren; but "Barbox Brothers," whose awakened wrath had long seemed inappeasable, is made better at last by the discipline and experience of life, and generously forgives those who had forced him to undergo so sharp a trial.

42*

The Boy at Mugby.

THIS tale, as originally published, formed the third portion of “ Mugby Junction," the extra Christmas number of "All the Year Round" for 1866. It is a satirical description, by a young waiter, of the ordinary English railway refresh. ment-room, with its sawdust sandwiches, its stale cake and pastry, its wretched tea and coffee, and its abominable butter-scotch, as compared with the excellent provision made in France for the entertainment and comfort of travellers. The proprietress of the Refreshment-Room at Mugby Junction crosses the Channel for the express purpose of looking into the French method of conducting such establishments.

"Putting every thing together," said our missis, "French refreshmenting comes to this; and, oh, it comes to a nice total! First, eatable things to eat, and drinkable things to drink."

A groan from the young ladies, kep' up by me.

"Second, convenience, and even elegance."

Another groan from the young ladies, kep' up by me.

"Third, moderate charges."

This time a groan from me, kep' up by the young ladies.

"Fourth, and here," says our missis, “I claim your angriest sympathy, — attention, common civility, nay, even politeness!"

Me and the young ladies regularly raging mad all together.

"And I cannot, in conclusion," says our missis, with her spitefullest sneer, “give you a completer pictur of that despicable nation (after what I have related), than assuring you that they would n't bear our constitutional ways and noble independence at Mugby Junction for a single month; and that they would turn us to the right-about, and put another system in our places as soon as look at us, - perhaps sooner, for I do not believe they have the good taste to care to look at us twice."

Ezekiel.

CHARACTERS INTRODUCED.

"The boy at Mugby;" an attendant in the RefreshmentRoom at Mugby Junction, whose proudest boast is, that "it never yet refreshed a mortal being."