"The Chimes" (Excerpt): Read by Carlyss Peer

The wonderful actress Carlyss Peer returns to the series to read an excerpt from Dickens' second Christmas Book The Chimes

You'll be transported to Trotty's humble abode, feeling the chill of the London streets and the welcoming embrace of his heart as he opens his home to strangers, reminding us of the transformative power of kindness and community.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hi everyone. Our next Christmas extract is taken from Dickens' second Christmas book, the Chimes, and is read by the brilliant Carly Spear. Carly's recent screen credits include Dow Gleesh, the Crown and Matilda the Movie. Her theatre credits include the Royal National Theatre's production of the Ocean at the End of the Lane and the old Vicks production of Groundhog Day. And here's a little background to Carly's reading. It's New Year's Eve and old Toby Vec, or Trotty, is feeling very low, walking the streets at dust with his hat pulled down low. He collides with a stranger carrying a young child in the gloom, will Fern and his nine-year-old niece, lillian. Springing into action, trotty offers to let them stay at his lodgings and, with a youthful spirit again, he takes them back to where his daughter Meg immediately welcomes them in for the night. All the while, unknown to Trotty, there are eyes looking down upon him from an ancient church tower.

Speaker 2: 1:17

Stay, cried Trotty, catching at his hand as he relaxed his grip. Stay, the New Year can never be happy to me if we part like this. The New Year can never be happy to me if I see the child and you go wandering away, you don't know where, without a shelter for your heads. Come home with me. I'm a poor man living in a poor place, but I can give you lodging for one night and never miss it. Come home with me here, I'll take her, cried Trotty, lifting up the child, a pretty one. I'd carry twenty times her weight and never know I'd got it. Tell me if I go too quick for you. I'm very fast, I always was. Trotty said this, taking about six of his trotting paces to one stride of his fatigued companion and with his thin legs quivering again beneath the loady bore. Why, she's as light, said Trotty trotting, in his speech as well as in his gate, for he couldn't bear to be thanked and dreaded a moment's pause, as light as a feather, lighter than a peacock's feather, a great deal lighter. Here we are and here we go Round this, first turning to the right, uncle Will, and pass the pump and sharp off up the passage to the left, right opposite the public house. Here we are and here we go, cross over Uncle Will, and mind the kidney pieman at the corner. Here we are and here we go Down the muse. Here, uncle Will, and stop at the black door with T Vec ticket porter wrote upon the board. And here we are and here we go, and here we are. Indeed, my precious Meg, surprising you With which words Trotty, in a breathless state, set the child down before his daughter in the middle of the floor.

Speaker 2: 2:59

The little visitor looked once at Meg and, doubting nothing in that face, but trusting everything she saw there, ran into her arms. Here we are and here we go, cried Trotty, running around the room and choking audibly. Here, uncle Will, here's a fire. You know why don't you come to the fire? Oh, here we are and here we go. Meg, my precious darling, where's the kettle? Oh, here it is and here it goes, and it will boil in no time. Trotty really had picked up the kettle somewhere or other in the course of his wild career and now put it on the fire, while Meg, seating the child in a warm corner, knelt down on the ground before her and pulled off her shoes and dried her wet feet on a cloth, aye. And she laughed at Trotty too, so pleasantly, so cheerfully, that Trotty could have blessed her where she kneeled, for he had seen that when they entered she was sitting by the fire in tears.

Speaker 2: 3:58

Why, father, said Meg, you're crazy tonight. I think I don't know what the bells would say to that Poor little feet, how cold they are. Oh, they're warmer now, exclaimed the child. They're quite warm now. No, no, no, said Meg, we haven't rubbed them half enough. We're so busy, so busy, and when they're done we'll brush out the damp hair, and when that's done we'll bring some colour to the poor pale face with fresh water, and when that's done we'll be so gay and brisk and happy.

Speaker 2: 4:37

The child, in a burst of sobbing, clasped her round the neck, caressed her fair cheek with its hand and said oh, meg, oh dear Meg, toby's blessing could have done no more. Who could do more? Why, Father", cried Meg after a pause. Here I am and here I go, my dear", said Trotty, good gracious me, cried Meg. He's crazy. He's put the dear child's bonnet on the kettle and hung the lid behind the door. I didn't go for to do it, my love, said Trotty, hastily repairing his mistake. Meg, my dear Meg looked towards him and saw that he had elaborately stationed himself behind the chair of their male visitor where, with many mysterious gestures, he was holding up the sixpence he had earned. I see, my dear, said Trotty, as I was coming in, half an ounce of tea lying somewhere on the stairs, and I'm pretty sure there was a bit of bacon too. As I don't remember where it was exactly, I'll go myself and try to find them.

Speaker 2: 5:46

With this inscrutable artifice, toby withdrew to purchase the viands he had spoken of for ready money at Mrs Chicken Stalkers and presently came back pretending he had not been able to find them, at first in the dark. But here they are at last, said Trotty, setting out the tea. Things All correct. I was pretty sure it was tea and a rasher. So it is, meg, my pet. If you'll just make the tea while your unworthy father toasts the bacon, we shall be ready immediate.

Speaker 2: 6:18

It's a curious circumstance, said Trotty, proceeding in his cookery with the assistance of the toasting fork. Curious, but well known to my friends that I never care myself for rashes, nor for tea. I like to see other people enjoy them, said Trotty, speaking very loud to impress the fact upon his guest. But to me as food, they're disagreeable. Yet Trotty sniffed the savor of the hissing bacon as if he liked it and when he poured the boiling water in the teapot, looked lovingly down into the depths of that snug cauldron and suffered the fragrant stream to curl about his nose and wreath his head and face in a thick cloud. However, for all this, he neither ate nor drank, except at the very beginning, a mere morsel for form's sake, which he appeared to eat with infinite relish but declared was perfectly uninteresting to him. No, trotty's occupation was to see Will Fern and Lillian eat and drink, and so was Meg's. And never did spectators at a city dinner or court banquet find such high delight in seeing others feast, although it were a monarch or a pope, as those two did. In looking on that night, meg smiled at Trotty. Trotty laughed at Meg. Meg shook her head and made belief to clap her hands, applauding Trotty.

Speaker 2: 7:44

Trotty conveyed in dumb show, unintelligible narratives of how and when and where he had found their visitors to Meg. And they were happy, very happy Although, thought Trotty sorrowfully as he watched Meg's face. That match is broken off. I see. Now I'll tell you what" said Trotty after tea. The little one she sleeps with Meg. I know With good Meg, cried the child caressing her. With Meg, that's right, said Trotty, and I shouldn't wonder if she kiss Meg's father, won't she? I'm Meg's father.

Speaker 2: 8:24

Mightily delighted Trotty was when the child went timidly towards him and, having kissed him, fell back upon Meg again. He's as sensible as Solomon, said Trotty. Here we come and here we—oh no, we don't. I don't mean that I—what was I saying, meg, my precious Meg, looked towards their guest who leaned upon her chair and, with his face turned from her fondle, the child's head half hidden in her lap. To be sure, said Toby. To be sure, I don't know what I'm rambling on about tonight. My wits are all gathering, I think. Will Fern, you come along with me. You're tired to death and broken down for want of rest. You come along with me.

Speaker 2: 9:07

The man still played with the child's curls, still leaned upon Meg's chair, still turned away his face. He didn't speak, but in his rough, coarse fingers, clenching and expanding in the fair hair of the child, there was an eloquence that said enough. Yes, yes, said Trotty, answering unconsciously what he saw expressed in his daughter's face. Take her with you, meg, get her to bed there Now, will, I will show you where you lie.

Speaker 2: 9:38

It's not much of a place, only a loft. But having a loft, I always say, is one of the great conveniences of living in a muse. Until this coachhouse and stable gets a better, let we live here cheap. There's plenty of sweet hay up there belonging to a neighbour and it's as clean as hands and Meg can make it Cheer up. Don't give way A new heart for a new year.

Speaker 2: 10:03

Always the hand released from the child's hair had fallen trembling into Trotty's hand. So Trotty, talking without intermission, led him out as tenderly and easily as if he'd been a child himself. Returning before Meg, he listened for an instant. At the door of her little chamber and a joining room, the child was murmuring a simple prayer before lying down to sleep, and when she had remembered Meg's name Dearly, dearly so, her words ran, trotty heard her stop and ask for his. It was some short time before the foolish little old fellow could compose himself to mend the fire and draw his chair to the warm hearth. But when he had done so and had trimmed the light, he took his newspaper from his pocket and began to read.