The Old Curiosity Shop

As they reach the town’s outer limits, Nell and her grandfather take a shortcut through a churchyard, where the ground is softer on their feet. There they encounter two men, a Mr. Codlin and his unnamed friend; they are busy repairing puppets for a Punch and Judy show. Nell offers to help repair the Judy puppet, and the puppeteers suggest that she and her grandfather stay in the same lodgings they intend to that night.

The foursome walks down to a small house, where they share a meal with the husband and wife who own it. The puppeteers perform their show; the audience enjoys it, but none laugh louder than Nell’s grandfather. After the show, the puppeteers retire to one side of the loft, and Nell and her grandfather to the other. Her grandfather will not fall asleep unless Nell sits beside his bed like she used to at home. Once he sleeps, Nell spends some time looking out of the small upstairs window. She sews a gold coin into her dress for emergencies and then goes to bed herself.

In the morning, Nell wakes before her grandfather. She goes for a short walk and finds herself back in the churchyard. Nell reads the inscriptions on the tombstones, admiring how many good people were buried there. As she reads one tombstone, that of a 23-year-old man who died nearly 60 years ago, an older woman approaches the same grave. This woman was the man’s wife when she was younger, and she tells Nell about her grief and how she eventually came to live with her tremendous loss.

Nell returns to her grandfather; they have breakfast with Mr. Codlin and his friend, Short Trotters, and agree to go together to the races. As they pass through small towns, Codlin and Trotters perform their Punch and Judy shows. At a crossroads, they encounter three other performers, a Mr. Grinder and his two apprentices: a young boy and girl who walk on stilts. After some debate on which path to take, Codlin packs up their supplies and sets off for the shorter path by himself. Trotters, Nell, and her grandfather follow him, bidding farewell to Grinder’s lot and hurrying to shelter before the rain picks up.

The party arrives at the Jolly Sandboys, a small, old inn whose friendly landlord knows Codlin well. They warm up by the fire as they wait for the landlord’s soup to finish cooking; Nell and her grandfather fall asleep. Codlin, Trotters, and the landlord discuss the grandfather’s mental state and wonder who he and Nell truly are, as they are obviously not accustomed to being wanderers. Suddenly, a group of costumed dogs enter the kitchen, followed by their trainer, Jerry, a friend of Codlin and Trotters. As the group shares the soup, the dogs beg for scraps. Nell almost feeds one dog a piece of meat from her bowl, but Jerry asks her not to. He explains that one of his dogs made a mistake in an earlier show that day and cost him some money, so that dog cannot have supper tonight. Jerry feeds the dogs one by one and then sets the misbehaving dog behind the crank-organ, which the dog plays nonstop throughout the meal.

Two more traveling performers, Vuffin and Sweet William, arrive at the Jolly Sandboys and join the meal. The newcomers entertain the party with stories about what happens when the giants and dwarfs in their shows get old or feeble. Nell retires to bed, but before she can get any sleep, Codlin knocks on her door. He asks her to always stick close by him because he is her friend, and Trotters is not. Nell does not fully understand what he means, but she agrees. Codlin leaves; Nell chalks his statements up to Codlin’s being drunk. Soon after, Trotters knocks at her door and tells her their plan for the morning. Although she is perplexed, her fatigue outweighs her confusion, and she falls asleep.

As they travel the next day, Codlin prods Nell’s ankles when she walks too close to Trotters. Nell becomes increasingly aware of both men’s changed behavior towards her and her grandfather. Both Codlin and Trotters stay close and keep an eye on them, which makes Nell feel uneasy. When they arrive in the town where the races are held, Nell realizes her money has almost run out. She gathers flowers to make small nosegays to sell to spectators. While she works, Nell confides to her grandfather her suspicions about Codlin and Trotters. Nell believes the men mean to turn them over to an authority, who would find out that the grandfather is not in his “right mind” and separate them. That afternoon, while Codlin and Trotters are performing for a large crowd, Nell and her grandfather slip away unseen.