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Speaker 1: Nobody's Story by Charles Dickens. He lived on the bank

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of a mighty river, broad and deep, which was always

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silently rolling on to a vast undiscovered ocean. It had

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rolled on ever since the world began. It had changed

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its course sometimes and turned into new channels, leaving its

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old ways dry and barren. But it had ever been

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upon the floe, and ever was to flow until time

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

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

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particle of animate or inanimate existence, ever strayed back from

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the undiscovered ocean. The tide of the river set resistlessly

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toward it, and the tide never stopped any more than

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the Earth stops in its circling round the sun. He

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lived in a busy place, and he worked very hard

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to live. He had no hope of ever being rich

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enough to live a month without hard work, but he

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

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He was one of an immense family, all of whose

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sons and daughters gained their daily bread by daily work,

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prolonged from their rising up bedtimes until their lying down

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

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he sought none. There was over much drumming, trumpeting and

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speech making in the neighborhood where he dwelt, but he

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had nothing to do with that. Such clash and uproar

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came from the Big Whig Family at the unaccountable proceedings

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of which race he marveled much. They set up the

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strangest statues in iron, marble, bronze and brass before his door,

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and darkened his house with the legs and tails of

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

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smiled in a rough, good humored way he had and

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kept at his hard work. The Big Whig Family, composed

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of all the stateliest people thereabouts and all the noisiest,

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had undertaken to save him the trouble of thinking for

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himself and to manage him and his affairs. Why, truly,

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said he, I have little time upon my hands, and

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if you will be so good as to take care

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of me in return for the money I pay over

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for the Big Whig Family were not above his money,

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I shall be relieved and much obliged, considering that you

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know best. Hence the drumming, trumpeting and speech making, and

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the ugly images of horses which he was expected to

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fall down and worship. I don't understand all this, said he,

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rubbing his furrowed brow confusedly. But it has a meaning,

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maybe if I could find it out. It means returned

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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,

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said he, And he was glad to hear that. But

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when he looked among the images of iron, marble, bronze

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and brass, he failed to find a rather meritorious countryman

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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.

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None of the men whose knowledge had rescued him and

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his children from terrific and disfiguring disease, whose boldness had

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raised his fathers from the condition of serfs, whose wise

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fancy had opened a new and high existence, to the

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humblest whose skill had filled the working man's world with

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accumulated wonders. Whereas he did find others whom he knew

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no good of, and even others whom he knew much

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ill of. Humph said he. I don't quite understand it.

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So he went home and sat down by his fireside

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to get it out of his mind. Now his fireside

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was a bare one, all hemmed in by blackened streets,

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but it was a precious place to him. The hands

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of his wife were hardened with toil, and she was

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old before her time, but she was dear to him.

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His children, stunted in their growth, bore traces of unwholesome nurture,

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

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It was an earnest desire of this man's soul that

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his children should be taught. If I am sometimes misled,

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said he for want of knowledge, at least let them

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know better and avoid my mistakes. If it is hard

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for me to reap the harvest of pleasure and instruction

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that is stored in books, let it be easier to them.

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But the Big Whig family broke out into violent family

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quarrels concerning what it was lawful to teach to this

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man's children. Some of the family insisted on such a

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thing being primary and indispensable above all other things, and

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others of the family insisted on such another thing being

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primary and indispensable above all other things, and the big

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Whig family rent into factions, wrote pamphlets, held convocations, delivered

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charges or rations, and all varieties of discourses impounded one

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another in courts, lay and courts ecclesiastical, through dirt, exchanged pummelings,

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

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this man, in his short evening snatches at his fireside,

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saw the demon ignorance arise there and take his children

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to itself. He saw his daughter perverted into a heavy,

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slatternly drudge. He saw his son go moping down the

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ways of low sensuality to brutality and crime. He saw

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the dawning light of intelligence in the eyes of his babies,

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so changing into cunning and suspicion that he could have

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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,

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by the clouded heaven above me, I protest against this

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as my wrong, becoming peaceable again, For his passion was

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usually short lived and his nature kind. He looked about

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him on his Sundays and holidays, and he saw how

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much monotony and weariness there was, And thence how drunkenness

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arose with all its train of ruin. Then he appealed

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to the big Whig family and said, we are a

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laboring people. And I have a glimmering suspicion in me

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that laboring people of whatever condition, were made by a

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higher intelligence than yours, as I poorly understand it, to

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be in need of mental refreshment and recreation. See what

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we fall into when we rest without it. Come amuse

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me harmlessly, show me something, give me an escape. But

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here the big wig Big family fell into a state

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of uproar, absolutely deafening, when some few voices were faintly heard,

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proposing to show him the wonders of the world, the

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

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of nature, and the beauties of art, to show him

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these things, that is to say, at any period of

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his life when he could look upon them. There arose

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

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

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dirt throwing, such a shrill wind of parliamentary questioning and

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feeble replying. Where I dare not waited on. I would

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that the poor fellow stood aghast, staring wildly around. Have

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

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his affrighted ears by. What was meant to be an

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innocent request, plainly arising out of my familiar experience and

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the common knowledge of all men who choose to open

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

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What is to come of such a state of things?

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He was bending over his work, often asking himself the question.

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When the news began to spread that a pestilence had

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appeared among the laborers and was slaying them by thousands.

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Going forth to look about him, he soon found this

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to be true. The dying and the dead were mingled

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in the close and tainted houses among which his life

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

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always sickening air, The robust and the weak, old age

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and infancy, the father and the mother all were stricken

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down alike. What means of flight? Had he? He remained

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there where he was, and saw those who were dearest

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to him die. A kind preacher came to him and

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would have said some prayers to soften his heart in

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his gloom, But he replied, ah, what avails it missionary

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to come to me, a man condemned to residence in

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this fetid place, where every sense bestowed upon me for

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my delight becomes a torment, and where every minute of

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my numbered days is new mire added to the heap

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under which I lie oppressed. But give me my first

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glimpse of heaven through a little of its light and air.

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Give me pure water, Help me to be clean. Lighten

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this heavy atmosphere and heavy life in which our spirits sink,

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and we become the indifferent and callous creatures. You too

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often see us, gently and kindly, take the bodies of

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those who die among us out of the small room

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where we grow to be so familiar with the awful

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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

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willingly of him whose thoughts were so much with the poor,

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and who had compassion for all human sorrow. He was

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at work again, solitary and sad, when his master came

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

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had suffered heavily. His young wife, his beautiful and good

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young wife, was dead, so too his only child. Master

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tis hard to bear. I know it, but be comforted.

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I would give you comfort if I could. The Master

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thanked him from his heart, but said, ah, you, laboring men,

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the calamity began among you. If you had but lived

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more healthily and decently, I should not be the widowed

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and bereft mourner that I am this day. Master returned

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the other, shaking his head. I have begun to understand

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a little that most calamities will come from us, as

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this one did, and that none will stop at our

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poor doors until we are united with that great squabbling

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family yonder to do the things that are right. We

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cannot live healthily and decently unless they who undertook to

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manage us provide the means. We cannot be instructed unless

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they will teach us. We cannot be rationally amused unless

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they will amuse us. We cannot but have some false

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gods of our own, while they set up so many

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of theirs in all the public places. The evil consequences

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of imperfect instruction, the evil consequences of pernicious neglect, the

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evil consequences of unnatural restraint, and the denial of humanizing

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enjoyments will all come from us. Then none of them

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will stop with us. They will spread far and wide.

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They always do, they always have done, just like the pestilence.

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I understand so much, I think at last, But the

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Master said again, oh, you laboring men, how seldom do

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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

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heard of, nor yet much wanted to be heard of,

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perhaps except when there is some trouble. But it never

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

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as sure as death it comes down to me, and

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it goes up from me. There was so much reason

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in what he said that the big Whig family, getting

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wind of it, and being horribly frightened by the late desolation,

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resolved to unite with him to do the things that

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were right at all events, so far as the said

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things were associated with the direct prevention humanly speaking of

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

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soon began to do, they resumed their falling out among

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themselves and did nothing. Consequently, the scourge appeared again low

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down as before, and spread avengingly upward as before, and

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carried off vast numbers of the brawlers. But not a

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man among them ever admitted if in the least a

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gre he ever perceived that he had anything to do

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with it. So nobody lived and died in the old,

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

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

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perhaps it was Legion. It matters little what his name was.

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Let us call him Legion. If you were ever in

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the Belgian villages near the field of Waterloo, you will

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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,

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Major B, Captains C, D and E, Lieutenants F and G,

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and Signs H, I and J, seven non commissioned officers,

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and one hundred and thirty rank and file, who fell

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in the discharge of their duty on the memorable day.

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The story of Nobody is the story of the rank

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and file of the earth. They bear their share of

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the battle, they have their part in the victory. They fall,

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They leave no name, But in the mass the march

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of the proudest of us leads to the dusty way

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by which they go. Oh, let us think of them

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this year at the Christmas fire, and not forget them

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when it is burnt out end of Nobody's Story by

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Charles Dickens,