alert, and made such good use of his time, that in another moment
he was scouring away up by a by-street, after shedding his cloak,
hat, long hatband, white pocket-handkerchief, and other
symbolical tears.
These, the people tore to pieces and scattered far and wide with
great enjoyment, while the tradesmen hurriedly shut up their
shops; for a crowd in those times stopped at nothing, and was a
monster much dreaded. They had already got to the length of
opening the hearse to take the coffin out, when some brighter
genius proposed instead, its being escorted to its destination
amidst general rejoicing. Practical suggestions being much
needed, this suggestion, too, was received with acclamation, and
the coach was immediately filled with eight inside and a dozen
out, while as many people got on the roof of the hearse as could by
any exercise of ingenuity stick upon it. Among the first of these
volunteers was Jerry Cruncher himself, who modestly concealed
his spiky head from the observation of Tellson’s, in the further
corner of the mourning coach.
The officiating undertakers made some protest against these
changes in the ceremonies; but, the river being alarmingly near,
and several voices remarking on the efficacy of cold immersion in
bringing refractory members of the profession to reason, the
protest was faint and brief. The remodelled procession started,
with a chimney-sweep driving the hearseadvised by the regular
Charles Dickens ElecBook Classics
driver, who was perched beside him, under close inspection, for
the purposeand with a pie-man, also attended by his cabinet
minister, dr