THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP

Published 1840

_Scene_: London and Neighboring Towns

_Time_: 1840

CHARACTERS

"Little Nell" An orphan girl

Mr. Trent Her aged grandfather
Proprietor of "The Old Curiosity Shop"

"The Stranger" Mr. Trent's brother

Christopher Nubbles Little Nell's friend and protector
Known as "Kit"

Quilp A dwarf

Mrs. Quilp His wife

Mrs. Jarley Proprietress of "Jarley's Waxwork"

Brass A dishonest lawyer

Sally Brass His sister

Dick Swiveller Brass's clerk

THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP

I

LITTLE NELL

In a narrow side street in London there once stood a shabby building
called The Old Curiosity Shop, because all sorts of curious things were
kept for sale there--such as rusty swords, china figures, quaint
carvings and old-fashioned furniture.

A little old man named Trent owned the shop, and he looked as old as
anything in it. He was thin and bent, with long gray hair and bright
blue eyes, and his face was wrinkled and full of care. He had an orphan
grandchild who lived with him--a pretty little golden-haired girl whom
every one called Little Nell, who kept the shop clean and neat and
cooked the meals just as a grown woman would have done. She slept in a
back room in a bed so small it might almost have been a fairy's. She
lived a very lonely life, but she kept a cheerful face and did not
complain.

She had only one protector besides her grandfather, and that was a big,
awkward boy named Christopher Nubbles, called Kit for short. He had a
very large mouth and a turned-up nose, and when he spoke he had a habit
of standing sidewise and twisting his head back over his shoulder.
Everything he did seemed funny, and little Nell laughed at him all the
while, though she loved him almost as much as she did her grandfather.
He ran errands for them, and in the long winter evenings she used to
teach him to read and write.

Kit liked to be taught and even liked to be laughed at, and always ended
by laughing himself, with his mouth wide open and his eyes shut. He was
the best-natured lad