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Take it away at once!" "But we can't," explained Trot. "We've got to take the umbrella with us to the Pink Country. We'll put it down if you like, an' cross the bank in this drizzle which may be clingin' an' soulful, but is too wet to be comfort'ble. But the umbrella's got to go with us."
"Now in contiguous drops the floods come down, Threatening with deluge the devoted town: To shops in crowds the draggled females fly, Pretend to cheapen goods, but nothing buy: The Templar spruce, while every spout's abroach, Stays till 'tis fair, yet seems to call a coach: The tucked-up sempstress walks with hasty strides, While streams run down her oiled umbrella's sides."
After making one or two sallies to her relief, which were rendered futile by the umbrella's hopping on again, like an immense bird, before I could reach it, I came in, went to bed, and slept till morning. In the morning I was joined by Mr. Peggotty and by my old nurse, and we went at an early hour to the coach office, where Mrs. Gummidge and Ham were waiting to take leave of us.
"And I should like to know where the cotton umbrella's gone to and I should like to know who broke the bell-pull and perhaps you don't know there's a leg off a chair, and perhaps " "I was resolved," said Caudle, "to know nothing, and so went to sleep in my ignorance." "There, Caudle! If there's anything in the world I hate and you know it, Caudle it is asking you for money.
These passages lead us to the belief that the Umbrella was not used by gentlemen for a long time after its merits had been recognised by the fair sex. The following lines from the same author have often been quoted: "Good housewives all the winter's rage despise Defended by the riding-hood's disguise: Or underneath the umbrella's oily shed Safe through the wet on clinking pattens tread.
The nurse, sitting on a hillock of bents in dutiful nearness to the perambulator, has taken out her paper-covered volume, and is deep in a story of blood and woe. And Baby, a sleepy, pink rosebud, dozes among her white embroidered pillows, undisturbed by Red Umbrella's shrill exclamation: "Sorry for her! Why on earth should you be?" The shriek startles Lynette.
Any one acquainted with the growth of Society, and knowing out of what small seeds of cause are produced great revolutions, and wholly new conditions of intercourse, sees from this simple thought how the carriage of an umbrella came to indicate frugality, judicious regard for bodily welfare, and scorn for mere outward adornment, and, in one word, all those homely and solid virtues implied in the term RESPECTABILITY. Not that the umbrella's costliness has nothing to do with its great influence.
Any one acquainted with the growth of Society, and knowing out of what small seeds of cause are produced great revolutions, and wholly new conditions of intercourse, sees from this simple thought how the carriage of an umbrella came to indicate frugality, judicious regard for bodily welfare, and scorn for mere outward adornment, and, in one word, all those homely and solid virtues implied in the term RESPECTABILITY. Not that the umbrella's costliness has nothing to do with its great influence.
For some time Umbrellas were objects of derision, especially from the hackney coachmen, who saw in their use an invasion on the vested rights of the fraternity; just as hackney coaches had once been looked upon by the watermen, who thought people should travel by river, not by road. Records of the Umbrella's first appearance in other English works have also been preserved.
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