Page 429 - bleak-house

CHAPTER XXI

The Smallweed Family

In a rather ill-favoured and ill-savoured neighbourhood,
though one of its rising grounds bears the name of Mount
Pleasant, the Elfin Smallweed, christened Bartholomew and
known on the domestic hearth as Bart, passes that limited
portion of his time on which the office and its contingencies
have no claim. He dwells in a little narrow street, always
solitary, shady, and sad, closely bricked in on all sides like
a tomb, but where there yet lingers the stump of an old for-
est tree whose flavour is about as fresh and natural as the
Smallweed smack of youth.
There has been only one child in the Smallweed fami-
ly for several generations. Little old men and women there
have been, but no child, until Mr. Smallweed’s grandmoth-
er, now living, became weak in her intellect and fell (for the
first time) into a childish state. With such infantine graces
as a total want of observation, memory, understanding, and
interest, and an eternal disposition to fall asleep over the
fire and into it, Mr. Smallweed’s grandmother has undoubt-
edly brightened the family.
Mr. Smallweed’s grandfather is likewise of the party. He

429