Doctor Marigold

Doctor Marigold is a novella by the famous Victorian novelist Charles Dickens that tells the story of a "Cheap-Jack" who sells inexpensive articles to the poor in popular fairs. Doctor Marigold, named for the man who delivered him, is a ""cheap-jack"" who hawks sundries from a traveling cart. His lonely fortunes reverse when he adopts a deaf and mute girl whose mother is dead and whose stepfather, owner of a traveling circus, beats her. After losing both his daughter and wife, he decides to adopt a deaf and mute girl and names her Sophy after his dead daughter. Throughout the two chapters of the book, Dickens portrays the activities of salesmen in the markets and gives samples of the captivating jingles and patters that they sing. Doctor Marigold, who seems to share with Dickens his linguistic passions, invents a system of sign language for his adopted daughter and teaches her to read and communicate.