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Nobody's Story by Charles Dickens. He
lived on the bank of a mighty river,

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broad and deep, which was always
silently rolling on to a vast undiscovered

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ocean. It had rolled on ever
since the world began. It had changed

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its course sometimes and turned into new
channels, leaving its old ways dry and

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barren. But it had ever been
upon the floe, and ever was to

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flow until time should be no more
against its strong, unfathomable stream. Nothing

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made head, no living creature,
no flower, no leaf, no particle

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of animate or inanimate existence, ever
strayed back from the undiscovered ocean. The

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tide of the river set resistlessly toward
it, and the tide never stopped any

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more than the Earth stops in its
circling round the sun. He lived in

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a busy place, and he worked
very hard to live. He had no

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hope of ever being rich enough to
live a month without hard work, but

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he was quite content. God knows
to labor with a cheerful will. He

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was one of an immense family,
all of whose sons and daughters gained their

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daily bread by daily work, prolonged
from their rising up bedtimes until their lying

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down at night. Beyond this destiny
he had no prospect, and he sought

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none. There was over much drumming, trumpeting and speech making in the neighborhood

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where he dwelt, but he had
nothing to do with that. Such clash

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and uproar came from the Big Whig
Family at the unaccountable proceedings of which race

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he marveled much. They set up
the strangest statues in iron, marble,

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bronze and brass before his door,
and darkened his house with the legs and

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tails of uncouth images of horses.
He wondered what it all meant, smiled

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in a rough, good humored way
he had and kept at his hard work.

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The Big Whig Family, composed of
all the stateliest people thereabouts and all

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the noisiest, had undertaken to save
him the trouble of thinking for himself and

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to manage him and his affairs.
Why, truly, said he, I

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have little time upon my hands,
and if you will be so good as

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to take care of me in return
for the money I pay over for the

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Big Whig Family were not above his
money, I shall be relieved and much

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obliged, considering that you know best. Hence the drumming, trumpeting and speech

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making, and the ugly images of
horses which he was expected to fall down

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and worship. I don't understand all
this, said he, rubbing his furrowed

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brow confusedly. But it has a
meaning, maybe if I could find it

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out. It means returned the big
Whig family suspecting something of what he said.

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Honor and glory in the highest to
the highest merit, oh, said

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he, And he was glad to
hear that. But when he looked among

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the images of iron, marble,
bronze and brass, he failed to find

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a rather meritorious countryman of his once
the son of a Warwickshire wool dealer,

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or any single countryman whomsoever of that
kind. He could find. None of

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the men whose knowledge had rescued him
and his children from terrific and disfiguring disease,

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whose boldness had raised his fathers from
the condition of serfs, whose wise

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fancy had opened a new and high
existence, to the humblest whose skill had

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filled the working man's world with accumulated
wonders. Whereas he did find others whom

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he knew no good of, and
even others whom he knew much ill of.

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Humph said he. I don't quite
understand it. So he went home

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and sat down by his fireside to
get it out of his mind. Now

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his fireside was a bare one,
all hemmed in by blackened streets, but

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it was a precious place to him. The hands of his wife were hardened

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with toil, and she was old
before her time, but she was dear

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to him. His children, stunted
in their growth, bore traces of unwholesome

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nurture, but they had beauty in
his sit above all other things. It

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was an earnest desire of this man's
soul that his children should be taught.

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If I am sometimes misled, said
he for want of knowledge, at least

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let them know better and avoid my
mistakes. If it is hard for me

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to reap the harvest of pleasure and
instruction that is stored in books, let

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it be easier to them. But
the Big Whig family broke out into violent

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family quarrels concerning what it was lawful
to teach to this man's children. Some

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of the family insisted on such a
thing being primary and indispensable above all other

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things, and others of the family
insisted on such another thing being primary and

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indispensable above all other things, and
the big Whig family rent into factions,

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wrote pamphlets, held convocations, delivered
charges or rations, and all varieties of

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discourses impounded one another in courts,
lay and courts ecclesiastical, through dirt,

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exchanged pummelings, and fell together by
the ears in unintelligible animosity. Meanwhile,

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this man, in his short evening
snatches at his fireside, saw the demon

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ignorance arise there and take his children
to itself. He saw his daughter perverted

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into a heavy, slatternly drudge.
He saw his son go moping down the

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ways of low sensuality to brutality and
crime. He saw the dawning light of

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intelligence in the eyes of his babies, so changing into cunning and suspicion that

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he could have rather wished them idiots. I don't understand this any better,

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said he, but I think it
cannot be right. Nay, by the

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clouded heaven above me, I protest
against this as my wrong, becoming peaceable

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again, For his passion was usually
short lived and his nature kind. He

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looked about him on his Sundays and
holidays, and he saw how much monotony

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and weariness there was, And thence
how drunkenness arose with all its train of

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ruin. Then he appealed to the
big Whig family and said, we are

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a laboring people. And I have
a glimmering suspicion in me that laboring people

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of whatever condition, were made by
a higher intelligence than yours, as I

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poorly understand it, to be in
need of mental refreshment and recreation. See

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what we fall into when we rest
without it. Come amuse me harmlessly,

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show me something, give me an
escape. But here the big wig Big

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family fell into a state of uproar, absolutely deafening, when some few voices

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were faintly heard, proposing to show
him the wonders of the world, the

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greatness of creation, the mighty changes
of time, the workings of nature,

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and the beauties of art, to
show him these things, that is to

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say, at any period of his
life when he could look upon them.

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There arose among the big Wigs,
such roaring and raving, such pulpiting and

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petitioning, such maundering and memorializing,
such name calling and dirt throwing, such

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a shrill wind of parliamentary questioning and
feeble replying. Where I dare not waited

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on. I would that the poor
fellow stood aghast, staring wildly around.

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Have I provoked all? This?
Said he, with his hands to his

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affrighted ears by. What was meant
to be an innocent request, plainly arising

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out of my familiar experience and the
common knowledge of all men who choose to

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open their eyes. I don't understand, and I am not understood. What

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is to come of such a state
of things? He was bending over his

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work, often asking himself the question. When the news began to spread that

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a pestilence had appeared among the laborers
and was slaying them by thousands. Going

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forth to look about him, he
soon found this to be true. The

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dying and the dead were mingled in
the close and tainted houses among which his

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life was past. New poison was
distilled into the always murky, always sickening

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air, The robust and the weak, old age and infancy, the father

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and the mother all were stricken down
alike. What means of flight? Had

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he? He remained there where he
was, and saw those who were dearest

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to him die. A kind preacher
came to him and would have said some

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prayers to soften his heart in his
gloom, But he replied, ah,

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what avails it missionary to come to
me, a man condemned to residence in

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this fetid place, where every sense
bestowed upon me for my delight becomes a

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torment, and where every minute of
my numbered days is new mire added to

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the heap under which I lie oppressed. But give me my first glimpse of

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heaven through a little of its light
and air. Give me pure water,

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Help me to be clean. Lighten
this heavy atmosphere and heavy life in which

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our spirits sink, and we become
the indifferent and callous creatures. You too

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often see us, gently and kindly, take the bodies of those who die

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among us out of the small room
where we grow to be so familiar with

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the awful change that even its sanctity
is lost to us. And Teacher,

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then I will hear none know better
than you, how willingly of him whose

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thoughts were so much with the poor, and who had compassion for all human

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sorrow. He was at work again, solitary and sad, when his master

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came and stood near to him,
dressed in black. He also had suffered

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heavily. His young wife, his
beautiful and good young wife, was dead,

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so too his only child. Master
tis hard to bear. I know

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it, but be comforted. I
would give you comfort if I could.

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The Master thanked him from his heart, but said, ah, you,

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laboring men, the calamity began among
you. If you had but lived more

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healthily and decently, I should not
be the widowed and bereft mourner that I

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am this day. Master returned the
other, shaking his head. I have

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begun to understand a little that most
calamities will come from us, as this

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one did, and that none will
stop at our poor doors until we are

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united with that great squabbling family yonder
to do the things that are right.

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We cannot live healthily and decently unless
they who undertook to manage us provide the

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means. We cannot be instructed unless
they will teach us. We cannot be

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rationally amused unless they will amuse us. We cannot but have some false gods

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of our own, while they set
up so many of theirs in all the

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public places. The evil consequences of
imperfect instruction, the evil consequences of pernicious

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neglect, the evil consequences of unnatural
restraint, and the denial of humanizing enjoyments

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will all come from us. Then
none of them will stop with us.

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They will spread far and wide.
They always do, they always have done,

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just like the pestilence. I understand
so much, I think at last,

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But the Master said again, oh, you laboring men, how seldom

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do we ever hear of you except
in connection with some trouble. Master,

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he replied, I am nobody and
little likely to be heard of, nor

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yet much wanted to be heard of, perhaps except when there is some trouble.

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But it never begins with me,
and it never can end with me,

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as sure as death it comes down
to me, and it goes up

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from me. There was so much
reason in what he said that the big

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Whig family, getting wind of it, and being horribly frightened by the late

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desolation, resolved to unite with him
to do the things that were right at

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all events, so far as the
said things were associated with the direct prevention

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humanly speaking of another pestilence. But
as their fear wore off, which it

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soon began to do, they resumed
their falling out among themselves and did nothing.

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Consequently, the scourge appeared again low
down as before, and spread avengingly

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upward as before, and carried off
vast numbers of the brawlers. But not

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a man among them ever admitted if
in the least a gre he ever perceived

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that he had anything to do with
it. So nobody lived and died in

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the old, old old way.
And this, in the main, is

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the whole of Nobody's story. Had
he no name, you ask, perhaps

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it was Legion. It matters little
what his name was. Let us call

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him Legion. If you were ever
in the Belgian villages near the field of

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Waterloo, you will have seen,
in some quiet little church a monument erected

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by faithful companions in arms to the
memory of Colonel A, Major B,

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Captains C, D and E,
Lieutenants F and G, and Signs H,

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I and J, seven non commissioned
officers, and one hundred and thirty

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rank and file, who fell in
the discharge of their duty on the memorable

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day. The story of Nobody is
the story of the rank and file of

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the earth. They bear their share
of the battle, they have their part

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in the victory. They fall,
They leave no name, But in the

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mass the march of the proudest of
us leads to the dusty way by which

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they go. Oh, let us
think of them this year at the Christmas

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fire, and not forget them when
it is burnt out end of Nobody's Story

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by Charles Dickens,