The Blind Girl never knew that iron was rusting , wood rotting , paper peeling off ; the size , and shape , and true proportion of the dwelling , withering away . The Blind Girl never knew that ugly shapes of delf and earthenware were on the board ; that sorrow and faint-heartedness were in the house ; that Caleb 's scanty hairs were turning greyer and more grey before her sightless face . The Blind Girl never knew they had a master , cold , exacting , and uninterested -- never knew that Tackleton was Tackleton , in short ; but lived in the belief of an eccentric humorist , who loved to have his jest with them , and who , while he was the Guardian Angel of their lives , disdained to hear one word of thankfulness . And all was Caleb 's doing ; all the doing of her simple father ! But he , too , had a Cricket on his Hearth ; and listening sadly to its music when the motherless Blind Child was very young that Spirit had inspired him with the thought that even her great deprivation might be almost changed into a blessing , and the girl made happy by these little means . For all the Cricket tribe are potent Spirits , even though the people who hold converse with them do not know it -LRB- which is frequently the case -RRB- , and there are not in the unseen world voices more gentle and more true , that may be so implicitly relied on , or that are so certain to give none but tenderest counsel , as the Voices in which the Spirits of the Fireside and the Hearth address themselves to humankind . Caleb and his daughter were at work together in their usual working-room , which served them for their ordinary living-room as well ; and a strange place it was . There were houses in it , finished and unfinished , for Dolls of all stations in life . Suburban tenements for Dolls of moderate means ; kitchens and single apartments for Dolls of the lower classes ; capital town residences for Dolls of high estate . Some of these establishments were already furnished according to estimate , with a view to the convenience of Dolls of limited income ; others could be fitted on the most expensive scale , at a moment 's notice , from whole shelves of chairs and tables , sofas , bedsteads , and upholstery . The nobility and gentry and public in general , for whose accommodation these tenements were designed , lay here and there , in baskets , staring straight up at the ceiling ; but in denoting their degrees in society , and confining them to their respective stations -LRB- which experience shows to be lamentably difficult in real life -RRB- , the makers of these Dolls had far improved on Nature , who is often froward and perverse ; for they , not resting on such arbitrary marks as satin , cotton print , and bits of rag , had superadded striking personal differences which allowed of no mistake . Thus , the Doll-lady of distinction had wax limbs of perfect symmetry ; but only she and her compeers . The next grade in the social scale being made of leather , and the next of coarse linen stuff . As to the common people , they had just so many matches out of tinder-boxes for their arms and legs , and there they were -- established in their sphere at once , beyond the possibility of getting out of it . There were various other samples of his handicraft besides Dolls in Caleb Plummer 's room . There were Noah 's arks , in which the Birds and Beasts were an uncommonly tight fit , I assure you ; though they could be crammed in , anyhow , at the roof , and rattled and shaken into the smallest compass . By a bold poetical licence , most of these Noah 's arks had knockers on the doors ; inconsistent appendages , perhaps , as suggestive of morning callers and a Postman , yet a pleasant finish to the outside of the building . There were scores of melancholy little carts , which , when the wheels went round , performed most doleful music . Many small fiddles , drums , and other instruments of torture ; no end of cannon , shields , swords , spears , and guns . There were little tumblers in red breeches , incessantly swarming up high obstacles of red tape , and coming down , head first , on the other side ; and there were innumerable old gentlemen of respectable , not to say venerable appearance , insanely flying over horizontal pegs , inserted , for the purpose , in their own street-doors .
There were beasts of all sorts ; horses , XXXXX particular , of every breed , from the spotted barrel on four pegs with a small tippet for a mane , to the thorough-bred rocker on his highest mettle .
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