Plummer (Caleb), a little old toy-maker, in the employ of Gruff and Tackleton, toy merchants. He was spare, gray-haired, and very poor. It was his pride “to go as close to Natur’ in his toys as he could for the money.” Caleb Plummer had a blind daughter, who assisted him in his toy-making, and whom he brought up under the belief that he himself was young, handsome, and well off, and that the house they lived in was sumptuously furnished and quite magnificent. Every calamity he smoothed over, every unkind remark of their snarling employer he called a merry jest; so that the poor blind girl lived in a castle of the air, “a bright little world of her own.” When merry or puzzled, Caleb used to sing something about “a sparkling bowl.”
Bertha Plummer, the blind daughter of the toy-maker, who fancied her poor old father was a young fop, that the sack he threw across his shoulders was a handsome blue great-coat, and that their wooden house was a palace. She was in love with Tackleton, the toy merchant, whom she thought to be a handsome young prince; and when she heard that he was about to marry May Fielding, she drooped and was like to die. She was then disillusioned, heard the real facts, and said, “Why, oh, why did you deceive me thus? Why did you fill my heart so full, and then come like death, and tear away the objects of my love?” However, her love for her father was not lessened, and she declared that the knowledge of the truth was “sight restored.” “It is my sight,” she cried. “Hitherto I have been blind, but now my eyes are open. I never knew my father before, and might have died without ever having known him truly.”
Edward Plummer, son of the toy-maker, and brother of the blind girl. He was engaged from boyhood to May Fielding, went to South America, and returned to marry her; but, hearing of her engagement to Tackleton, the toy merchant, he assumed the disguise of a deaf old man, to ascertain whether she loved Tackleton or not. Being satisfied that her heart was still his own, he married her, and Tackleton made them a present of the wedding-cake which he had ordered for himself.—C. Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth (1845).
Plush (John), any gorgeous footman, conspicuous for his plush breeches and rainbow colors.
Plutarch (The Modern), Vayer, born at Paris. His name in full was Francis Vayer de la Mothe (1586-1672).
Pluto, the god of Hadês.
Brothers, be of good cheer, for this night we shall sup with Pluto.—Leonidas, To the Three Hundred at Thermopylæ.
Plutus, the god of wealth.—Classic Mythology.
Within a heart, dearer than Plutus’ mine.
Shakespeare, Julius Cæsar, act iv. sc. 3 (1607).
Po (Tom), a ghost. (Welsh, bo, “a hobgoblin.”)