d it was all one, all
the same melody. Then those came marching up, in little bands, who are
only busy with their mouths. There were ringing bells that sang
alternately; and then came the little drummers that beat their tattoo
in the family circle; and acquaintance was made with those who write
without putting their names, which here means as much as using grease
instead of patent blacking; and then there was the beadle with his
boy, and the boy was the worst off, for in general he gets no notice
taken of him; then too there was the good street-sweeper with his
cart, who turns over the dust-bin, and calls it "good, very good,
remarkably good." And in the midst of the pleasure that was afforded
by the mere meeting of these folks, there shot up out of the great
dirt-heap at Amack a stem, a tree, an immense flower, a great
mushroom, a perfect roof, which formed a sort of warehouse for the
worthy company, for in it hung everything they had given to the world
during the Old Year. Out of the tree poured sparks like flames of
fire; these were the ideas and thoughts, borrowed from others, which
they had used, and which now got free and rushed away like so many
fireworks. They played at 'the stick burns,' and the young poets
played at 'heart-burns,' and the witlings played off their jests, and
the jests rolled away with a thundering sound, as if empty pots were
being shattered against doors. 'It was very amusing!' my niece said;
in fact, she said many things that were very malicious but very
amusing, but I won't mention them, for a man must be good-natured and
not a carping critic. But you will easily perceive that when a man
once knows the rights of the journey to Amack, as I know them, it's
quite natural that on the New Year's-night one should look out to see
the wild chase go by. If in the New Year I miss certain persons who
used to be there, I am sure to notice others who are new arrivals: but
this year I omitted taking my look at the guests. I bowled away on the
boulders, rolled back through millions of years, and saw the stones
break loose high up in the North, saw them drifting about on icebergs,
long before Noah's ark was constructed, saw them sink down to the
bottom of the sea, and reappear with a sand-bank, with that one that
peered forth from the flood and said, 'This shall be Zealand!' I saw
them become the dwelling-place of birds that are unknown to us, and
then become the seat of wild chiefs of whom we know nothing,