| | |
|
| 1 | I HAD led this life about a month, when the man with the wooden leg
|
| 2 | began to stump about with a mop and a bucket of water, from which
|
| 3 | I inferred that preparations were making to receive Mr. Creakle and
|
| 4 | the boys. I was not mistaken; for the mop came into the schoolroom
|
| 5 | before long, and turned out Mr. Mell and me, who lived where we
|
| 6 | could, and got on how we could, for some days, during which we were
|
| 7 | always in the way of two or three young women, who had rarely shown
|
| 8 | themselves before, and were so continually in the midst of dust
|
| 9 | that I sneezed almost as much as if Salem House had been a great
|
| 10 | snuff-box.
|
| 11 | One day I was informed by Mr. Mell that Mr. Creakle would be home
|
| 12 | that evening. In the evening, after tea, I heard that he was come.
|
| 13 | Before bedtime, I was fetched by the man with the wooden leg to
|
| 14 | appear before him.
|
| 15 | Mr. Creakle's part of the house was a good deal more comfortable
|
| 16 | than ours, and he had a snug bit of garden that looked pleasant
|
| 17 | after the dusty playground, which was such a desert in miniature,
|
| 18 | that I thought no one but a camel, or a dromedary, could have felt
|
| 19 | at home in it. It seemed to me a bold thing even to take notice
|
| 20 | that the passage looked comfortable, as I went on my way,
|
| 21 | trembling, to Mr. Creakle's presence: which so abashed me, when I
|
| 22 | was ushered into it, that I hardly saw Mrs. Creakle or Miss Creakle
|
| 23 | (who were both there, in the parlour), or anything but Mr. Creakle,
|
| 24 | a stout gentleman with a bunch of watch-chain and seals, in an
|
| 25 | arm-chair, with a tumbler and bottle beside him.
|
| 26 | 'So!' said Mr. Creakle. 'This is the young gentleman whose teeth
|
| 27 | are to be filed! Turn him round.'
|
| 28 | The wooden-legged man turned me about so as to exhibit the placard;
|
| 29 | and having afforded time for a full survey of it, turned me about
|
| 30 | again, with my face to Mr. Creakle, and posted himself at Mr.
|
| 31 | Creakle's side. Mr. Creakle's face was fiery, and his eyes were
|
| 32 | small, and deep in his head; he had thick veins in his forehead, a
|
| 33 | little nose, and a large chin. He was bald on the top of his head;
|
| 34 | and had some thin wet-looking hair that was just turning grey,
|
| 35 | brushed across each temple, so that the two sides interlaced on his
|
| 36 | forehead. But the circumstance about him which impressed me most,
|
| 37 | was, that he had no voice, but spoke in a whisper. The exertion
|
| 38 | this cost him, or the consciousness of talking in that feeble way,
|
| 39 | made his angry face so much more angry, and his thick veins so much
|
| 40 | thicker, when he spoke, that I am not surprised, on looking back,
|
| 41 | at this peculiarity striking me as his chief one.
|
| 42 | 'Now,' said Mr. Creakle. 'What's the report of this boy?'
|
| 43 | 'There's nothing against him yet,' returned the man with the wooden
|
| 44 | leg. 'There has been no opportunity.'
|
| 45 | I thought Mr. Creakle was disappointed. I thought Mrs. and Miss
|
| 46 | Creakle (at whom I now glanced for the first time, and who were,
|
| 47 | both, thin and quiet) were not disappointed.
|
| 48 | 'Come here, sir!' said Mr. Creakle, beckoning to me.
|
| 49 | 'Come here!' said the man with the wooden leg, repeating the
|
| 50 | gesture.
|
| 51 | 'I have the happiness of knowing your father-in-law,' whispered Mr.
|
| 52 | Creakle, taking me by the ear; 'and a worthy man he is, and a man
|
| 53 | of a strong character. He knows me, and I know him. Do YOU know
|
| 54 | me? Hey?' said Mr. Creakle, pinching my ear with ferocious
|
| 55 | playfulness.
|
| 56 | 'Not yet, sir,' I said, flinching with the pain.
|
| 57 | 'Not yet? Hey?' repeated Mr. Creakle. 'But you will soon. Hey?'
|
| 58 | 'You will soon. Hey?' repeated the man with the wooden leg. I
|
| 59 | afterwards found that he generally acted, with his strong voice, as
|
| 60 | Mr. Creakle's interpreter to the boys.
|
| 61 | I was very much frightened, and said, I hoped so, if he pleased.
|
| 62 | I felt, all this while, as if my ear were blazing; he pinched it so
|
| 63 | hard.
|
| 64 | 'I'll tell you what I am,' whispered Mr. Creakle, letting it go at
|
| 65 | last, with a screw at parting that brought the water into my eyes.
|
| 66 | 'I'm a Tartar.'
|
| 67 | 'A Tartar,' said the man with the wooden leg.
|
| 68 | 'When I say I'll do a thing, I do it,' said Mr. Creakle; 'and when
|
| 69 | I say I will have a thing done, I will have it done.'
|
| 70 | '- Will have a thing done, I will have it done,' repeated the man
|
| 71 | with the wooden leg.
|
| 72 | 'I am a determined character,' said Mr. Creakle. 'That's what I
|
| 73 | am. I do my duty. That's what I do. My flesh and blood' - he
|
| 74 | looked at Mrs. Creakle as he said this - 'when it rises against me,
|
| 75 | is not my flesh and blood. I discard it. Has that fellow' - to
|
| 76 | the man with the wooden leg -'been here again?'
|
| 77 | 'No,' was the answer.
|
| 78 | 'No,' said Mr. Creakle. 'He knows better. He knows me. Let him
|
| 79 | keep away. I say let him keep away,' said Mr. Creakle, striking
|
| 80 | his hand upon the table, and looking at Mrs. Creakle, 'for he knows
|
| 81 | me. Now you have begun to know me too, my young friend, and you
|
| 82 | may go. Take him away.'
|
| 83 | I was very glad to be ordered away, for Mrs. and Miss Creakle were
|
| 84 | both wiping their eyes, and I felt as uncomfortable for them as I
|
| 85 | did for myself. But I had a petition on my mind which concerned me
|
| 86 | so nearly, that I couldn't help saying, though I wondered at my own
|
| 87 | courage:
|
| 88 | 'If you please, sir -'
|
| 89 | Mr. Creakle whispered, 'Hah! What's this?' and bent his eyes upon
|
| 90 | me, as if he would have burnt me up with them.
|
| 91 | 'If you please, sir,' I faltered, 'if I might be allowed (I am very
|
| 92 | sorry indeed, sir, for what I did) to take this writing off, before
|
| 93 | the boys come back -'
|
| 94 | Whether Mr. Creakle was in earnest, or whether he only did it to
|
| 95 | frighten me, I don't know, but he made a burst out of his chair,
|
| 96 | before which I precipitately retreated, without waiting for the
|
| 97 | escort Of the man with the wooden leg, and never once stopped until
|
| 98 | I reached my own bedroom, where, finding I was not pursued, I went
|
| 99 | to bed, as it was time, and lay quaking, for a couple of hours.
|
| 100 | Next morning Mr. Sharp came back. Mr. Sharp was the first master,
|
| 101 | and superior to Mr. Mell. Mr. Mell took his meals with the boys,
|
| 102 | but Mr. Sharp dined and supped at Mr. Creakle's table. He was a
|
| 103 | limp, delicate-looking gentleman, I thought, with a good deal of
|
| 104 | nose, and a way of carrying his head on one side, as if it were a
|
| 105 | little too heavy for him. His hair was very smooth and wavy; but
|
| 106 | I was informed by the very first boy who came back that it was a
|
| 107 | wig (a second-hand one HE said), and that Mr. Sharp went out every
|
| 108 | Saturday afternoon to get it curled.
|
| 109 | It was no other than Tommy Traddles who gave me this piece of
|
| 110 | intelligence. He was the first boy who returned. He introduced
|
| 111 | himself by informing me that I should find his name on the right-
|
| 112 | hand corner of the gate, over the top-bolt; upon that I said,
|
| 113 | 'Traddles?' to which he replied, 'The same,' and then he asked me
|
| 114 | for a full account of myself and family.
|
| 115 | It was a happy circumstance for me that Traddles came back first.
|
| 116 | He enjoyed my placard so much, that he saved me from the
|
| 117 | embarrassment of either disclosure or concealment, by presenting me
|
| 118 | to every other boy who came back, great or small, immediately on
|
| 119 | his arrival, in this form of introduction, 'Look here! Here's a
|
| 120 | game!' Happily, too, the greater part of the boys came back
|
| 121 | low-spirited, and were not so boisterous at my expense as I had
|
| 122 | expected. Some of them certainly did dance about me like wild
|
| 123 | Indians, and the greater part could not resist the temptation of
|
| 124 | pretending that I was a dog, and patting and soothing me, lest I
|
| 125 | should bite, and saying, 'Lie down, sir!' and calling me Towzer.
|
| 126 | This was naturally confusing, among so many strangers, and cost me
|
| 127 | some tears, but on the whole it was much better than I had
|
| 128 | anticipated.
|
| 129 | I was not considered as being formally received into the school,
|
| 130 | however, until J. Steerforth arrived. Before this boy, who was
|
| 131 | reputed to be a great scholar, and was very good-looking, and at
|
| 132 | least half-a-dozen years my senior, I was carried as before a
|
| 133 | magistrate. He inquired, under a shed in the playground, into the
|
| 134 | particulars of my punishment, and was pleased to express his
|
| 135 | opinion that it was 'a jolly shame'; for which I became bound to
|
| 136 | him ever afterwards.
|
| 137 | 'What money have you got, Copperfield?' he said, walking aside with
|
| 138 | me when he had disposed of my affair in these terms. I told him
|
| 139 | seven shillings.
|
| 140 | 'You had better give it to me to take care of,' he said. 'At
|
| 141 | least, you can if you like. You needn't if you don't like.'
|
| 142 | I hastened to comply with his friendly suggestion, and opening
|
| 143 | Peggotty's purse, turned it upside down into his hand.
|
| 144 | 'Do you want to spend anything now?' he asked me.
|
| 145 | 'No thank you,' I replied.
|
| 146 | 'You can, if you like, you know,' said Steerforth. 'Say the word.'
|
| 147 | 'No, thank you, sir,' I repeated.
|
| 148 | 'Perhaps you'd like to spend a couple of shillings or so, in a
|
| 149 | bottle of currant wine by and by, up in the bedroom?' said
|
| 150 | Steerforth. 'You belong to my bedroom, I find.'
|
| 151 | It certainly had not occurred to me before, but I said, Yes, I
|
| 152 | should like that.
|
| 153 | 'Very good,' said Steerforth. 'You'll be glad to spend another
|
| 154 | shilling or so, in almond cakes, I dare say?'
|
| 155 | I said, Yes, I should like that, too.
|
| 156 | 'And another shilling or so in biscuits, and another in fruit, eh?'
|
| 157 | said Steerforth. 'I say, young Copperfield, you're going it!'
|
| 158 | I smiled because he smiled, but I was a little troubled in my mind,
|
| 159 | too.
|
| 160 | 'Well!' said Steerforth. 'We must make it stretch as far as we
|
| 161 | can; that's all. I'll do the best in my power for you. I can go
|
| 162 | out when I like, and I'll smuggle the prog in.' With these words
|
| 163 | he put the money in his pocket, and kindly told me not to make
|
| 164 | myself uneasy; he would take care it should be all right.
|
| 165 | He was as good as his word, if that were all right which I had a
|
| 166 | secret misgiving was nearly all wrong - for I feared it was a waste
|
| 167 | of my mother's two half-crowns - though I had preserved the piece
|
| 168 | of paper they were wrapped in: which was a precious saving. When
|
| 169 | we went upstairs to bed, he produced the whole seven
|
| 170 | shillings'worth, and laid it out on my bed in the moonlight,
|
| 171 | saying:
|
| 172 | 'There you are, young Copperfield, and a royal spread you've got.'
|
| 173 | I couldn't think of doing the honours of the feast, at my time of
|
| 174 | life, while he was by; my hand shook at the very thought of it. I
|
| 175 | begged him to do me the favour of presiding; and my request being
|
| 176 | seconded by the other boys who were in that room, he acceded to it,
|
| 177 | and sat upon my pillow, handing round the viands - with perfect
|
| 178 | fairness, I must say - and dispensing the currant wine in a little
|
| 179 | glass without a foot, which was his own property. As to me, I sat
|
| 180 | on his left hand, and the rest were grouped about us, on the
|
| 181 | nearest beds and on the floor.
|
| 182 | How well I recollect our sitting there, talking in whispers; or
|
| 183 | their talking, and my respectfully listening, I ought rather to
|
| 184 | say; the moonlight falling a little way into the room, through the
|
| 185 | window, painting a pale window on the floor, and the greater part
|
| 186 | of us in shadow, except when Steerforth dipped a match into a
|
| 187 | phosphorus-box, when he wanted to look for anything on the board,
|
| 188 | and shed a blue glare over us that was gone directly! A certain
|
| 189 | mysterious feeling, consequent on the darkness, the secrecy of the
|
| 190 | revel, and the whisper in which everything was said, steals over me
|
| 191 | again, and I listen to all they tell me with a vague feeling of
|
| 192 | solemnity and awe, which makes me glad that they are all so near,
|
| 193 | and frightens me (though I feign to laugh) when Traddles pretends
|
| 194 | to see a ghost in the corner.
|
| 195 | I heard all kinds of things about the school and all belonging to
|
| 196 | it. I heard that Mr. Creakle had not preferred his claim to being
|
| 197 | a Tartar without reason; that he was the sternest and most severe
|
| 198 | of masters; that he laid about him, right and left, every day of
|
| 199 | his life, charging in among the boys like a trooper, and slashing
|
| 200 | away, unmercifully. That he knew nothing himself, but the art of
|
| 201 | slashing, being more ignorant (J. Steerforth said) than the lowest
|
| 202 | boy in the school; that he had been, a good many years ago, a small
|
| 203 | hop-dealer in the Borough, and had taken to the schooling business
|
| 204 | after being bankrupt in hops, and making away with Mrs. Creakle's
|
| 205 | money. With a good deal more of that sort, which I wondered how
|
| 206 | they knew.
|
| 207 | I heard that the man with the wooden leg, whose name was Tungay,
|
| 208 | was an obstinate barbarian who had formerly assisted in the hop
|
| 209 | business, but had come into the scholastic line with Mr. Creakle,
|
| 210 | in consequence, as was supposed among the boys, of his having
|
| 211 | broken his leg in Mr. Creakle's service, and having done a deal of
|
| 212 | dishonest work for him, and knowing his secrets. I heard that with
|
| 213 | the single exception of Mr. Creakle, Tungay considered the whole
|
| 214 | establishment, masters and boys, as his natural enemies, and that
|
| 215 | the only delight of his life was to be sour and malicious. I heard
|
| 216 | that Mr. Creakle had a son, who had not been Tungay's friend, and
|
| 217 | who, assisting in the school, had once held some remonstrance with
|
| 218 | his father on an occasion when its discipline was very cruelly
|
| 219 | exercised, and was supposed, besides, to have protested against his
|
| 220 | father's usage of his mother. I heard that Mr. Creakle had turned
|
| 221 | him out of doors, in consequence; and that Mrs. and Miss Creakle
|
| 222 | had been in a sad way, ever since.
|
| 223 | But the greatest wonder that I heard of Mr. Creakle was, there
|
| 224 | being one boy in the school on whom he never ventured to lay a
|
| 225 | hand, and that boy being J. Steerforth. Steerforth himself
|
| 226 | confirmed this when it was stated, and said that he should like to
|
| 227 | begin to see him do it. On being asked by a mild boy (not me) how
|
| 228 | he would proceed if he did begin to see him do it, he dipped a
|
| 229 | match into his phosphorus-box on purpose to shed a glare over his
|
| 230 | reply, and said he would commence by knocking him down with a blow
|
| 231 | on the forehead from the seven-and-sixpenny ink-bottle that was
|
| 232 | always on the mantelpiece. We sat in the dark for some time,
|
| 233 | breathless.
|
| 234 | I heard that Mr. Sharp and Mr. Mell were both supposed to be
|
| 235 | wretchedly paid; and that when there was hot and cold meat for
|
| 236 | dinner at Mr. Creakle's table, Mr. Sharp was always expected to say
|
| 237 | he preferred cold; which was again corroborated by J. Steerforth,
|
| 238 | the only parlour-boarder. I heard that Mr. Sharp's wig didn't fit
|
| 239 | him; and that he needn't be so 'bounceable' - somebody else said
|
| 240 | 'bumptious' - about it, because his own red hair was very plainly
|
| 241 | to be seen behind.
|
| 242 | I heard that one boy, who was a coal-merchant's son, came as a
|
| 243 | set-off against the coal-bill, and was called, on that account,
|
| 244 | 'Exchange or Barter' - a name selected from the arithmetic book as
|
| 245 | expressing this arrangement. I heard that the table beer was a
|
| 246 | robbery of parents, and the pudding an imposition. I heard that
|
| 247 | Miss Creakle was regarded by the school in general as being in love
|
| 248 | with Steerforth; and I am sure, as I sat in the dark, thinking of
|
| 249 | his nice voice, and his fine face, and his easy manner, and his
|
| 250 | curling hair, I thought it very likely. I heard that Mr. Mell was
|
| 251 | not a bad sort of fellow, but hadn't a sixpence to bless himself
|
| 252 | with; and that there was no doubt that old Mrs. Mell, his mother,
|
| 253 | was as poor as job. I thought of my breakfast then, and what had
|
| 254 | sounded like 'My Charley!' but I was, I am glad to remember, as
|
| 255 | mute as a mouse about it.
|
| 256 | The hearing of all this, and a good deal more, outlasted the
|
| 257 | banquet some time. The greater part of the guests had gone to bed
|
| 258 | as soon as the eating and drinking were over; and we, who had
|
| 259 | remained whispering and listening half-undressed, at last betook
|
| 260 | ourselves to bed, too.
|
| 261 | 'Good night, young Copperfield,' said Steerforth. 'I'll take care
|
| 262 | of you.'
|
| 263 | 'You're very kind,' I gratefully returned. 'I am very much obliged
|
| 264 | to you.'
|
| 265 | 'You haven't got a sister, have you?' said Steerforth, yawning.
|
| 266 | 'No,' I answered.
|
| 267 | 'That's a pity,' said Steerforth. 'If you had had one, I should
|
| 268 | think she would have been a pretty, timid, little, bright-eyed sort
|
| 269 | of girl. I should have liked to know her. Good night, young
|
| 270 | Copperfield.'
|
| 271 | 'Good night, sir,' I replied.
|
| 272 | I thought of him very much after I went to bed, and raised myself,
|
| 273 | I recollect, to look at him where he lay in the moonlight, with his
|
| 274 | handsome face turned up, and his head reclining easily on his arm.
|
| 275 | He was a person of great power in my eyes; that was, of course, the
|
| 276 | reason of my mind running on him. No veiled future dimly glanced
|
| 277 | upon him in the moonbeams. There was no shadowy picture of his
|
| 278 | footsteps, in the garden that I dreamed of walking in all night.
|
