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(00:02):
Chapter one of Great Expectations. Thisis the LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings
are in the public domain. Formore information or to volunteer, please visit
LibriVox dot org. This recording isby Mark Smith of Simpsonville, South Carolina.

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Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. Chapterone. My father's family name being
Pirrip and my Christian name Philip.My infant tongue could make of both names
nothing longer or more explicit than Pip, so I called myself Pip and came

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to be called Pip. I gavePirrip as my father's family name on the
authority of his tombstone, and mysister, missus Joe Gargery, who married
the blacksmith as I never saw myfather or my mother, and never saw
any likeness of either of them,for their days were long before the days
of photographs. My first fancies regardingwhat they were like were unreasonably derived from

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their tombstones. The shape of theletters on my father's gave me an odd
idea that he was a square,stout, dark man with curly black hair.
From the character in turn of theinscription, also Georgiana, wife of
the above, I drew a childishconclusion that my mother was freckled and sickly

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to five little stone lozenges, eachabout a foot and a half long,
which were arranged in a neat rowbeside their grave, and were sacred to
the memory of five little brothers ofmine who gave up trying to get a
living exceedingly early in that universal struggle. I am indebted for a belief I
religiously entertained that they had all beenborn on their backs, with their hands

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in their trouser pockets, had nevertaken them out. In this state of
existence, ours was the marsh countrydown by the river, within as the
river wound twenty miles of the sea. My first most vivid and broad impression
of the identity of things seems tome to have been gained on a memorable
raw afternoon towards evening. At sucha time I found out for certain that

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this bleak place overgrown with nettles wasthe churchyard, and that Philip Pirrip late
of this parish, and also Georgiana, wife of the above, were dead
and buried, and that Alexander,Bartholomew, Abraham, Tobias and Roger,
infant children of the aforesaid, werealso dead and buried, And that the

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dark, flat wilderness beyond the churchyard, intersected with dikes and mounds and gates
with scattered cattle feeding on it,was the Marshes, and that the low
leaden line beyond was the river,and that the distant savage lair from which
the wind was rushing was the sea. And that the small bundle of shivers,

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growing afraid of it all and beginningto cry, was Pip. How
Gie noise cried a terrible voice asa man started up from among the graves
at the side of the church porch. Cape stelly, little devil, or
I'll cut your throat. A fearfulman, all in coarse gray, with

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a great iron on his leg,A man with no hat, and with
broken shoes, and with an oldrag tied round his head. A man
who had been soaked in water andsmothered in mud, and lamed by stones,
and cut by flints, and stungby nettles and torn by briars,
who limped and shivered and glared andgrowled, and whose teeth chattered in his

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head as he seized me by thechin. Oh, don't cut my throat,
sir, I pleaded in terror.Pray, don't do it, sir,
tell us your name, said theman. Quick pips, sir,
once more, said the man,staring at me. Give it mouth,

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pip pips, sir, show allswear you live, said the man.
Point out the place I pointed to, where our village lay on the flat
inshore, among the alder trees andpollards, a mile or more from the
church. The man, after lookingat me for a moment, turned me

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upside down and emptied my pockets.There was nothing in them but a piece
of bread when the church came toitself. For he was so sudden and
strong that he made it go headover heels before me, and I saw
the steeple under my feet. Whenthe church came to itself, I say,
I was seated on a high tombstone, trembling while he ate the bread

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ravenously. You young dog, saidthe man, licking his lips. What
fat cheeks you ha got? Ibelieve they were fat, although I was
at that time undersized for my yearsand not strong. Darn me if I
couldn't eat em, said the man, with a threatening shake of his head.

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And if I haven't half a mindto it, I earnestly expressed my
hope that he wouldn't, and heldtighter to the tombstone on which he had
put me, partly to keep myselfupon it, partly to keep myself from
crying. Now, look here,said the man. Where's your mother there,

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Sir said I. He started,made a short run, and stopped
and looked over his shoulder. There, Sir, I timidly explained, Also,
Georgiana, that's my mother, oh, said he coming back? And
is that your father a longer yourmother? Yes, sir, said I

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him too late of this parish ha. He muttered then, considering who do
you live with? Supposin you're kindlylet to live what I hadn't made up
my mind about my sister, Sir, missus Joe Gargery, wife of Joe
Gargery, the blacksmith, Sir blacksmith, eh said he. And he looked

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down at his leg. After darklylooking at his leg and me several times,
he came closer to my tombstone,took me by both arms, and
tilted me back as far as hecould hold me, so that his eyes
looked most powerfully down into mine,and mine looked most helplessly up into his
Now looky here, he said,the question being whether you're to be let

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to live. You know what afile is, yes, sir, And
y know what wittles is, yes, sir. After each question he tilted
me over a little more so asto give me a greater sense of helplessness
and danger. You get me afile, he tilted me again, And

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you get me wittles, he tiltedme again. Yeah, bring em both
to me, he tilted me again, or I'll have your art and liver
out. He tilted me again.I was dreadfully frightened and so giddy that
I clung to him with both handsand said, if you would kindly please

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to let me keep up right,sir, perhaps I shouldn't be sick,
and perhaps I could attend more.He gave me a most tremendous dip and
roll, so that the church jumpedover its own weathercock. Then he held
me by the arms in an uprightposition on the top of the stone,
and went on in these fearful terms. You bring me tomorrow morn morning early

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that file, and then Whittles,you bring the lot to me at that
old battery over yonder. You doit, and you never dare to say
a word, or dare to makea sign concerning you're having seen such a
person as me, or any personsoever, and you shall be let to
live. You fail, or yougo from my words in any particular,

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no matter how small it is,and your heart and your liver shall be
tore out, roasted and ate.Now I ain't alone, as you may
think I am. There's a youngman hid with me. In comparison with
which young man I am an angel. That young man hears the words I

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speak. That young man has asecret way, peculiar to himself, of
getting at a boy and at hisheart and at his liver. It is
in wane for a boy to attemptto hide himself from that young man.
A boy may lock his door,may be warm in bed, may tuck

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hisself up, may draw the clothesover his head, may think himself comfortable
and siphe But that young man willsoftly creep and creep his way to him
and tear him open. I ama keeping that young man from harmon of
you at the present moment, withgreat difficulty. I find it very hard

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to hold that young man off ofyour inside. Now, what do you
say, I said? I wouldget him the file, and I would
get him what broken bits of foodI could, and would come to him
at the battery early in the morning. Say lord, strike, you're dead
if you don't, said the man. I said so, and he took

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me down. Now, he pursued, R remember what you have undertook,
and you remember that, young man, and you get home A good good
night, sir. I faltered,much of that, said he, glancing
about him over the cold, wetflat. I wish I was a frog

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or a eel. At the sametime, he hugged his shuddering body in
both his arms, clasping himself asif to hold himself together, and limped
towards the low Church wall. AsI saw him go, picking his way
among the nettles and among the bramblesthat bound the green mounds, he looked
in my young eyes as if hewere eluding the hands of the dead people

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stretching up cautiously out of their gravesto get a twist upon his ankle and
pull him in. When he cameto the low Church wall, he got
over it like a man whose legswere numbed and stiff, and then turned
round to look for me. WhenI saw him turning. I set my
face towards home and made the bestuse of my legs. But presently I

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looked over my shoulder and saw himgoing on again towards the river, still
hugging himself in both arms and pickinghis way with his sore feet. Among
the great stones dropped into the marsheshere and there for stepping places when the
rains were heavy or the tide wasin. The marshes were just a long

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black horizontal line. Then, asI stopped to look after him, and
the river was just another horizontal line, not nearly so broad nor yet so
black. And the sky was justa row of long, angry red lines
and dense black lines intermixed. Onthe edge of the river, I could
faintly make out the only two blackthings in all the prospect that seemed to

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be standing upright. One of thesewas the beacon by which the sailors steered
like an unhooped cask upon a pole, an ugly thing when you were near
it. The other a gibbet withsome chains hanging to it, which had
once held a pirate. The manwas limping on towards this ladder as if

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he were the pirate, come tolife and come down and going back to
hook himself up again. It gaveme a terrible turn when I thought so,
And as I saw the cattle liftingtheir heads to gaze after him,
I wondered whether they thought so too. I looked all round for the horrible
young man, and could see nosigns of him. But now I was

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frightened again, and ran home withoutstopping. End of chapter Chapter two.
My sister, missus Joe Gargery,was more than twenty years older than I,

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and had established a great reputation withherself and the neighbors, because she
had brought me up hand, havingat that time to find out for myself
what the expression meant, and knowingher to have a hard and heavy hand,
and to be much in the habitof laying it upon her husband as
well as upon me, I supposethat Joe Gargery and I were both brought

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up by hand. She was nota good looking woman, my sister and
I had a general impression that shemust have made Joe Gargery marry her by
hand. Joe was a fair man, with curls of flaxen hair on each
side of his smooth face, andwith eyes of such a very undecided blue
that they seemed to have somehow gotmixed with their own whites. He was

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a mild, good natured, sweettempered, easygoing, foolish dear fellow,
a sort of hercules and strength,and also in weakness. My sister,
missus Joe, with black hair andeyes, had such a prevailing redness of
skin that I sometimes used to wonderwhether it was possible she washed herself with

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a nutmeg grater instead of soap.She was tall and bony, and almost
always wore a coarse apron fastened overher figure behind with two loops, and
having a square, impregnable bib infront that was stuck full of pins and
needles. She made it a powerfulmerit in herself and a strong reproach against

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Joe, that she wore this apronso much, though I really see no
reason why she should have worn itat all, or why, if she
did wear it at all, sheshould not have taken it off every day
of her life. Joe's forge adjoinedour house, which was a wooden house,
as many of the dwellings in ourcountry were most of them at that

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time. When I ran home fromthe churchyard, the forge was shut up,
and Joe was sitting alone in thekitchen. Joe and I being fellow
sufferers and having confidences as such,Joe imparted a confidence to me the moment,
but I raised the latch of thedoor and peeped in at him opposite
to it, sitting in the chimneycorner, Missus, Joe has been out

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a dozen times looking for you,Pip, and she's out now making it
a baker's dozen? Is she?Yes, Pip, said Joe. And
what's worse, she's got tickler withher. At this dismal intelligence, I
twisted the only button on my waistcoatround and round and looked in great depression

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at the fire. Tickler was awax ended piece of cane, worn smooth
by collision with my tickled frame.She sat down, said Joe. And
she got up and she made agrab at tickler, and she rampaged out.
That's what she did, said Joe, slowly clearing the fire between the

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lower bars with the poker and lookingat it. She rampaged out. Pip.
Has she been gone long? Joe? I always treated him as a
larger species of child, and asno more than my equal, well,
said Joe, glancing up at theDutch clock. She's been on the rampage

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this last bell about five minutes.Pep, she's a comin. Get behind
the door, old chap An,have the jack towel betwixt you. I
took the advice my sister Missus Joe, throwing the door wide open and finding
an obstruction behind it, immediately divinedthe cause and applied tickler to its further

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investigation. She concluded by throwing meI often served as a connubial missile at
Joe, who glad to get holdof me on any terms, passed me
on into the chimney and quietly fencedme up there with his great leg.
Where have you been, you,young monkey, said Missus Joe, stamping

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her foot. Tell me directly whatyou've been doing to wear me away with
fret and fright and worry, orI'll have you out of that corner.
If you was fifty pips and hewas five hundred gargerys, I have only
been to the churchyard, said Ifrom my stool, crying and rubbing myself
churchyard, repeated my sister. Ifit weren't for me, you'd have been

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to the churchyard long ago. Andstayed there. Who brought you up by
hand? You did, said I, Then why did I do it?
I should like to know, exclaimedmy sister. I whimpered. I don't
know. I don't said my sister. I'd never do it again. I

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know that, I may truly saythat I've never had this apron of mine
off since born you were. It'sbad enough to be a blacksmith's wife and
him a gargery without being your mother. My thoughts strayed from that question uestion.
As I looked disconsolately at the firefor the fugitive out on the marshes,
with the ironed leg, the mysteriousyoung man, the file, the

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food, and the dreadful pledge,I was under to commit a larceny on
those sheltering premises rose before me inthe avenging coals, ha said missus Joe,
restoring Tickler to his station churchyard.Indeed, you may well say churchyard.
You two, one of us,by the bye had not set it

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at all. You'll drive me tothe churchyard betwixt you one of these days.
And oh a precious pair you'd bewithout me. As she applied herself
to set the tea, things Joepeeped down at me over his leg,
as if he were mentally casting meand himself up and calculating what kind of
pair we practically should make under thegrievous circumstances foreshadowed. After that, he

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sat feeling his right side flaxen curlsand whiskers, and following Missus Joe about
with his blue eyes, as hismanner always was at squally times. My
sister had a trenchant way of cuttingour bread and butter for us that never
varied. First, with her lefthand, she jammed the loaf hard and

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fast against her bib, where itsometimes got a pin into it, and
sometimes a needle, which we afterwardsgot into our mouths. Then she took
some butter, not too much,on a knife and spread it on the
loaf in an apothecary kind of way, as if she were making a plaster,
using both sides of the knife witha slapping dexterity, and trimming and

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molding the butter off round the crust. Then she gave the knife a final
smart wipe on the edge of theplaster, and then saw it a very
thick round off the loaf, whichshe finally before separating from the loaf,
hewed into two halves, of whichJoe got one and I the other.
On the present occasion, though Iwas hungry, I dared not eat my

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slice. I felt that I musthave something in reserve for my dreadful acquaintance
and his ally, the still moredreadful young man. I knew missus Jo's
housekeeping to be of the strictest kind, and that my larcenous researches might find
nothing available in the safe. Therefore, I resolved to put my hunk of

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bread and butter down the leg ofmy trousers. The effort of resolution necessary
to the achievement of this purpose Ifound to be quite awful. It was
as if I had to make upmy mind to leap from the top of
a high house or plunge into agreat depth of water. And it was
made the more difficult by the unconsciousJoe in our already mentioned freemasonry. As

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fellow sufferers, and in his goodnatured companionship with me, it was our
evening habit to compare the way webit through our slices by silently holding them
up to each other's admiration now andthen, which stimulated us to new exertions
tonight. Joe several times invited me, by the display of his fast diminishing

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slice, to enter upon our usualfriendly competition. But he found me each
time with my yellow mug of teaon one knee and my untouched bread and
butter on the other. At last, I desperately considered that the thing I
contemplated must be done, and thatit had best be done in the least

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improbable manner, consistent with the circumstances. I took advantage of a moment when
Joe had just looked at me andgot my bread and butter down my leg.
Joe was evidently made uncomfortable by whathe supposed to be my loss of
appetite, and took a thoughtful biteout of his slice, which he didn't
seem to enjoy. He turned itabout in his mouth much longer than usual,

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pondering over it a good deal,and after all gulped it down like
a pill. He was about totake another bite, and had just got
his head on one side for agood purchase on it, when his eye
fell on me and he saw thatmy bread and butter was gone. The
wonder and consternation with which Joe stoppedon the threshold of his bite and stared

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at me. Were too evident toescape my sister's observation. What's the matter
now, said she smartly, asshe put down her cup. I say,
you know, muttered Joe, shakinghis head at me in very serious
remonstrance. Pip, old chap,you'll do yourself a mischief. It'll stick

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somewhere. You can't have chewed it, Pip. What's the matter now,
repeated my sister, more sharply thanbefore. If you can cough finny trifle
of it up, Pip, I'drecommend you to do it, said Joe,
all aghast his manners. But stillyour else, ya elf. By

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this time my sister was quite desperate, so she pounced on Joe, and,
taking him by the two whiskers,knocked his head for a little while
against the wall behind him, whileI sat in the corner, looking guiltily
on. Now, perhaps you'll mentionwhat's the matter, said my sister,
out of breath, you staring greatstuck pig. Joe looked at her in

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a helpless way, then took ahelpless bite and looked at me again.
You know, Pip, said Joe, solemnly, with his last bite in
his cheek, and speaking in aconfidential voice, as if we two were
quite alone. You and me asalways friends, and I'd be the last

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to tell upon you any time.But such a He moved his chair and
looked about the floor between us,and then again at me. Such a
most uncommon bolts that been bolting hisfood has? He cried my sister.
You know, old Chap, saidJoe, looking at me and not at

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Missus Joe, with his bite stillin his cheek. I bolted myself when
I was your age, frequent,and as a boy, I've been among
a many bolters. But I neverseen your bolting equal yet, Bip.
And it's a mercy you ain't bolteddead. My sister made a dive at
me and fished me up by thehair, saying nothing more than the awful

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words you come along and be dosed. Some medical beast had revived tar water
in those days as a fine medicine, and Missus Joe always kept a supply
of it in the cupboard, havinga belief in its virtues corresponded to its
nastiness at the best of times.So much of this elixir was administered to

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me as a choice restorative that Iwas kind going about smelling like a new
fence on this particular evening. Theurgency of my case demanded a pint of
this mixture, which was poured downmy throat for my greater comfort while Missus
Joe held my head under her armas a boot would be held in a
boot. Jack Joe got off withhalf a pint, but was made to

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swallow that, much to his disturbanceas he sat slowly munching and meditating before
the fire, because he had hada turn. Judging from myself, I
should say he certainly had a turnafterwards if he had had none before.
Conscience is a dreadful thing when itoccurses man or boy. But when in

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the case of a boy, thatsecret burden cooperates with another secret burden down
the leg of his trousers, itis as I can testify a great punishment
the guilty knowledge that I was goingto rob Missus Joe. I never thought
I was going to rob Joe,for I never thought of any of the
housekeeping property as his. United tothe necessity of always keeping one hand on

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my bread and butter as I sat, or when I was ordered about the
kitchen on any small errand almost droveme out of my mind. Then,
as the marsh winds made the fireglow and flare, I thought I heard
the voice outside of the man withthe iron on his leg, who had
swarm me to secrecy, declaring thathe couldn't and wouldn't starve until tomorrow,

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but must be fed now. Atother times I thought, what if the
young man, who was with somuch difficulty restrained from imbrewing his hands in
me should yield to a constitutional impatience, or should mistake the time and should
think himself accredited to my heart andliver tonight instead of tomorrow. If ever

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anybody's hair stood on end with terror, mine must have done so then,
But perhaps nobody's ever did. Itwas Christmas Eve, and I had to
stir the pudding for next day witha copper stick from seven to eight by
the Dutch clock. I tried itwith a load upon my leg, and

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that made me think afresh of theman with a load on his leg,
and found the tendency of exercise tobring the bread and butter out at my
ankle quite unmanageable. Happily I slippedaway and deposited that part of my conscience
in my garret bedroom, hark saidI, when I had done my stirring
and was taking a final warm inthe chimney corner before being sent up to

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bed. Was that great? Guns? Joe? Ah said Joe, there's
another convict off? What does thatmean? Joe said I. Missus Joe,
who always took explanations upon herself,said snappishly, escape escaped, administering

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the definition like tar water. WhileMissus Jo sat with her head bending over
her needlework. I put my mouthinto the forms of saying to Joe,
what's a convict? Joe put hismouth into the forms of returning such a
highly elaborate answer that I could makeout nothing of it but the single word
pip. There was a convict offlast night, said Joe aloud, after

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sunset gun and they fired warning ofhim. And now it appears their firing
warning of another. Who's firing?Said I? Trap that boy, interposed
My sister, frowning at me overher work. What a questioner he is?
Ask no questions and you'll be toldno lies. It was not very

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polite to herself. I thought toimply that I should be told lies by
her, even if I did askquestions, but she never was polite unless
there was company. At this point, Joe greatly augmented my curiosity by taking
the utmost pains to open his mouthvery wide and to put it into the
form of a word that looked tome like sulks. Therefore, I naturally

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pointed to missus Joe and put mymouth into the form of saying her.
But Joe wouldn't hear of that atall, and again opened his mouth very
wide and shook the form of amost emphatic word out of it. But
I could make nothing of the wordmissus Joe, said I as a last

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resort, I should like to knowif you wouldn't much mind where the firing
comes from. Lord bless the boy, exclaimed my sister, as if she
didn't quite mean that, but ratherthe contrary from the hulks, oh,
said I, looking at Joe hulks. Joe gave a reproachful cough, as

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much as to say, well,I told you so, and please what's
hulks? Said I that's the waywith this boy, exclaimed my sister,
pointing me out with her needle andthread and shaking her head at me.
Answer him one question, and he'llask you a dozen directly. Hulks are

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prison ships right across the meshes.We always use that name for marshes in
our country. I wonder who's putinto prison ships and why they're put there,
said I in a general way,and with quiet desperation. It was
too much for Missus jo who immediatelyrose. I tell you what young fellow

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said she. I didn't bring youup by hand to badge your people's lives
out. It would be blamed tome and not praise if I had.
People are put into hulks because theymurder, and because they rob and forge
and do all sorts of bad andthey always begin by asking questions. Now
you get along to bed. Iwas never allowed a candle to light me

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to bed. And as I wentupstairs in the dark, with my head
tingling from Missus Joe's thimble being playedthe tambourine upon it to accompany her last
words, I felt fearfully sensible ofthe great convenience that the hulks were handy
for me. I was clearly onmy way there. I had begun by

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asking questions, and I was goingto rob Missus Joe Since that time,
which is far enough away now,I have often thought that few people know
what secrecy there is in the youngunder terror, no matter how unreasonable the
terror, so that it be terror. I was in mortal terror of the

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young man who wanted my heart andliver. I was in mortal terror of
my interlocutor with the iron leg,this immortal terror of myself from whom an
awful promise had been extracted. Ihad no hope of deliverance through my all
powerful sister, who repulsed me atevery turn. I am afraid to think

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of what I might have done onrequirement in the secrecy of my terror.
If I slept it all that night, it was only to imagine myself drifting
down the river on a strong springtide to the hulks, a ghostly pirate
calling out to me through a speakingtrumpet as I passed the Gibbet station that
I had better come ashore and behanged there at once, and not put

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it off. I was afraid tosleep, even if I had been inclined,
for I knew that at the firstfaint dawn of morning, I must
rob the pantry. There was nodoing it in the night, for there
was no getting a light by easyfriction. Then to have got one,
I must have struck it out offlint and steel, and have made a
noise like the very pirate himself,rattling his chains. As soon as the

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great black velvet pall outside my littlewindow was shot with gray, I got
up and went downstairs, every boardupon the way, and every crack at
every board, calling after me,stop thief, and get up missus Joe.
In the pantry, which was farmore abundantly supplied than usual owing to

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the season, I was very muchalarmed by a hare hanging up by the
heels, whom I rather thought Icaught when my back was half turned winking.
I had no time for verification,no time for selection, no time
for anything, For I had notime to spare. I stole some bread,

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some rind of cheese, about halfa jar of mince meat, which
I tied up in my pocket handkerchiefwith my last night's slice. Some brandy
from a stone bottle, which Idecanted into a glass bottle I had secretly
used for making that intoxicating fluid Spanishlicorice water up in my room, diluting
the stone bottle from a jug inthe kitchen cupboard, a meat bone with

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very little on it, and abeautiful round, compact pork pie. I
was nearly going away without the pie, but I was tempted to mount upon
a shelf to look what it wasthat was put away so carefully in a
covered earthenware dish in a corner.And I found it was the pie,
and I took it in the hopethat it was not intended for early use

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and would not be missed for sometime. There was a door in the
kitchen. Communicating with the forge,I unlocked and unbolted that door, and
got a file from among Joe's tools. Then I put the fastenings as I
had found them, opened the doorat which I had entered when I ran
home last night, shut it andran for the misty marshes. End of

(34:53):
chapter chapter three. It was arainy morning and very damp. I had
seen the damp lying on the outsideof my little window, as if some
goblin had been crying there all nightand using the window for a pocket handkerchief.

(35:19):
Now I saw the damp lying onthe bare hedges and spare grass,
like a coarser sort of spider's webs, hanging itself from twig to twig,
and blade to blade on every railand gate, wet lake clammy, and
the marsh mist was so thick thatthe wooden finger on the post directing people
to our village, a direction whichthey never accepted, for they never came

(35:42):
there was invisible to me until Iwas quite close under it. Then,
as I looked up at it whileit dripped, it seemed to my oppressed
conscience like a phantom, devoting meto the hulks. The mist was heavier
yet when I got out upon themarshes, so that instead of my running
at everything, everything seemed to runat me. This was very disagreeable to

(36:05):
a guilty mind. The gates anddikes and banks came bursting at me through
the mist, as if they cried, as plainly as could be a boy
with somebody else's pork pie stop him. The cattle came upon me with like
suddenness, staring out of their eyesand steaming out of their nostrils. Hallo,
young thief, one black ox witha white cravat on, who even

(36:31):
had to my awakened conscience something ofa clerical air, fixed me so obstinately
with his eyes and moved his blunthead round in such an accusatory manner as
I moved round that I blubbered outto him, I couldn't help it,
sir, it wasn't for myself.I took it, upon which he put
down his head, blew a cloudof smoke out of his nose, and

(36:54):
vanished with a kickup of his hindlegs and a flourish of his tail.
All this time I was getting ontowards the river, but however fast I
went, I couldn't warm my feet, to which the damp cold seemed riveted
as the iron was riveted to theleg of the man I was running to
meet. I knew my way tothe battery pretty straight, for I had

(37:16):
been down there on a Sunday withJoe, and Joe, sitting on an
old gun, had told me thatwhen I was prenticed to him regularly bound,
we would have such larks there.However, in the confusion of the
mist, I found myself at lasttoo far to the right, and consequently
had to try back along the riverside on the bank of loose stones,

(37:39):
above the mud and the stakes thatstaked the tide out. Making my way
along here with all dispatch. Ihad just crossed a ditch which I knew
to be very near the battery,and had just scrambled up the mound beyond
the ditch when I saw the mansitting before me. His back was towards
me, and he had his armsfolded and was nodding forward, heavy with

(38:02):
sleep. I thought he would bemore glad if I came upon him with
his breakfast in that unexpected manner,so I went forward softly and touched him
on the shoulder. He instantly jumpedup, and it was not the same
man, but another man. Andyet this man was dressed in coarse gray
too, and had a great ironon his leg, and was lame and

(38:24):
hoarse and cold, and was everythingthat the other man was, except that
he had not the same face,and had a flat, broad brimmed,
low crowned, felt hat. OnAll this I saw in a moment,
for I had only a moment tosee it end. He swore an oath
at me, made a hit atme. It was a round, weak

(38:45):
blow that missed me, and almostknocked himself down, for it made him
stumble. And then he ran intothe mist, stumbling twice as he went,
and I lost him. It's theyoung man, I thought, feeling
my heart shoot as I identified him. I dare say I should have felt
a pain in my liver too,if I had known where it was.

(39:07):
I was soon at the battery afterthat, and there was the right man,
hugging himself and limping to and fro, as if he had never all
night left off, hugging and limpingwaiting for me. He was awfully cold,
to be sure, I half expectedto see him drop down before my
face and die of deadly cold.His eyes looked so awfully hungry, too,

(39:31):
that when I handed him the fileand he laid it down on the
grass, it occurred to me hewould have tried to eat it if he
had not seen my bundle. Hedid not turn me upside down this time
to get at what I had,but left me right side upwards while I
opened the bundle and emptied my pockets. What's in the bottle, boy,

(39:52):
said he? Brandy, said I. He was already handing mincemeat down his
throat in a most curious manner,more like a man who was putting it
away somewhere in a violent hurry thana man who was eating it. But
he left off to take some ofthe liquor. He shivered all the while
so violently that it was quite asmuch as he could do to keep the

(40:15):
neck of the bottle between his teethwithout biting it off. I think you
have got the agu said I.I'm much of your opinion, boy,
said he. It's bad about here. I told him you've been lying out
on the meshes and there dreadful aguishrheumatic too. I'll eat my breakfast afore

(40:39):
there the death of me, saidhe. Oh, I'd do that if
I was going to be strung upto that there gallows, as there is
over there directly afterwards. I'll beatthe shivers so far, I'll bet you.
He was gobbling mincemeat, meat,bone, bread, cheese and pork
pie all at once, staring distrustfullywhile he did so at the mist all

(41:02):
around us, and often stopping,even stopping his jaws to listen. Some
real or fancied sound, some clinkupon the river, or breathing a beast
upon the marsh now gave him astart, and he said, suddenly,
you're not a deceive an imp.You've brought no one with ya, no
sir, no, nor give noone the office to follow you. No,

(41:29):
well, said he, I believeya, you'd be but a fierce
young hound. Indeed, if atyour time of life you could help to
haunt a wretched varmit, haunted asnear death, and dunghill as this poor
wretched varmit is. Something clicked inhis throat, as if he had works
in him like a clock and wasgoing to strike. And he smeared his

(41:52):
ragged rough sleeve over his eyes,pitying his desolation, and watching him as
he gradually settled down upon the pie, I made bold to say, I'm
glad you enjoy it. Dead youspike, I said, I was glad
you enjoyed it, thankee, myboy, I do. I had often

(42:15):
watched a large dog of ours eatinghis food, and I now noticed a
decided similarity between the dog's way ofeating and the man's. The man took
strong, sharp, sudden bites justlike the dog. He swallowed, or
rather snapped up every mouthful too soonand too fast. And he looked sideways

(42:37):
here and there while he ate,as if he thought there was danger in
every direction of somebody's coming to takethe pie away. He was altogether too
unsettled in his mind over it,to appreciate it comfortably, I thought,
or to have anybody to dine withhim without making a chop with his jaws
at the visitor. In all ofwhich particulars he was very like the dog.

(43:00):
I am afraid you won't leave anyof it for him, said I
timidly, after a silence during whichI had hesitated as to the politeness of
making the remark. There's no moreto be got where that came from.
It was the certainty of this factthat impelled me to offer the hint lay

(43:20):
any for him. He's him,said my friend, stopping in his crunching
of pie crust. The young manthat you spoke of, that was h
with you? Oh ah, hereturned, with something like a gruff laugh
him. Ha, yes, yes, he don't want no whittles. I

(43:44):
thought. He looked as if hedid, said I. The man stopped
eating and regarded me with the keenestscrutiny, And the greatest surprise looked when
just now where yonder, said I, pointing over there where I found him
nodding asleep, and thought it wasyou. He held me by the collar

(44:08):
and stared at me so that Ibegan to think his first idea about cutting
my throat had revived, dressed likeyou, you know, only with a
hat, I explained, trembling,and and I was very anxious to put
this delicately, and with the samereason for wanting to borrow a file.

(44:30):
Didn't you hear the cannon last night? Then there was firing? He said
to himself. I wonder you shouldn'thave been sure of that. I returned,
for we heard it up at home, and that's farther away, and
we were shut in. Besides,why see now, said he? What

(44:51):
a man's alone on these flats witha light ad and a light stomach,
perish in a cold in want.He hears nothing all night but guns firing
and voices calling. Here's he seesthe soldiers with their red coats, loitered
up by the torches, carried afoe closing it round him. Here's his

(45:12):
number called, here's himself challenged.Here's the rattle of the muskets. Here's
the orders, make ready present,cover him steady man and his laid hands
on. And there's nothing. Whyif I see one pursuing party last night
comin up in order damn him withtheir tramp tramp I see a hundred.

(45:36):
And as to firing, why Isee the mist shake with the cannon,
arter it with broad day. Butthis man, he had set all the
rest as if he had forgotten mybeing there. Did y'all notice anything in
him? He had a badly bruisedface, said I, recalling what I
hardly knew. I knew not here, exclaim claimed the man, striking his

(46:00):
left cheek mercilessly with the flat ofhis hand. Yes, there where is
he? He crammed what little foodwas left into the breast of his gray
jacket. Show me the why hewent. I'll pull him down like a
bloodhound. Curse this iron on mysore leg. Give us hold of the
file, boy, I indicated inwhat direction the mist had shrouded the other

(46:24):
man, and he looked up atit for an instant, But he was
down on the rank wet grass,filing at his iron like a madman,
and not minding me, or mindinghis own leg, which had an old
chafe upon it and was bloody,but which he handled as roughly as if
it had no more feeling in itthan the file. I was very much

(46:44):
afraid of him again, now thathe had worked himself into this fierce hurry,
and I was likewise very much afraidof keeping away from home any longer.
I told him I must go,but he took no notice, so
I thought the best thing I coulddo was to slip off. The last
I saw of him, his headwas bent over his knee, and he

(47:04):
was working hard at his fetter,muttering impatient imprecations at it and at his
leg. The last I heard ofhim, I stopped in the mist to
listen, and the file was stillgoing. End of chapter Chapter four.

(47:28):
I fully expected to find a constablein the kitchen waiting to take me up.
But not only was there no constablethere, but no discovery had yet
been made of the robbery. MissusJoe was prodigiously busy in getting the house
ready for the festivities of the day, and Joe had been put upon the
kitchen doorstep to keep him out ofthe dust pan, an article into which

(47:50):
his destiny always led him. Sooneror later, when my sister was vigorously
reaping the floors of her establishment.And where the deuce have you been?
Was Missus Joe's Christmas salutation. WhenI and my conscience showed ourselves, I
said I had been down to hearthe carrols. Ah well, observed Missus

(48:12):
Jo, you might have done worse, not a doubt of that. I
thought, perhaps if I warrant ablacksmith's wife, and what's the same thing,
a slave with her apron never off, I should have been to hear
the carrolls, said Missus Jo.I'm rather partial to carrolls myself, and
that's the best of reasons for mynever hearing any. Joe, who had

(48:36):
ventured into the kitchen after me,as the dust pen had retired before us,
drew the back of his hand acrosshis nose with a conciliatory air,
when Missus Jo darted to look athim, and when her eyes were withdrawn,
secretly crossed his two forefingers and exhibitedthem to me as our token that
Missus Joe was in a cross temper. This was so much your normal state

(49:00):
that Joe and I would often,for weeks together be as to our fingers
like monumental crusaders as to their legs. We were to have a superb dinner
consisting of a leg of pickled porkand greens, and a pair of roast
stuffed fowls, a handsome mince piehad been made yesterday morning, which accounted

(49:21):
for the mincemeat not being missed,and the pudding was already on the boil.
These extensive arrangements occasioned us to becut off unceremoniously in respect of breakfast,
for I ain't, said Missus Joe, I ain't a going to have
no formal cramming and busting and washingup now with what I've got before me,
I promise you. So we hadour slices served out as if we

(49:45):
were two thousand troops on a forcedmarch instead of a man and boy at
home, and we took gulps ofmilk and water with apologetic countenances from a
jug on the dresser. In themeantime, Missus Joe put clean white curtains
up and tacked a new flowered flounceacross the wide chimney to replace the old

(50:06):
one, and uncovered the little stateparlor across the passage, which was never
uncovered at any other time, butpassed the rest of the year in a
cool haze of silver paper, whicheven extended to the four little white crockery
poodles on the mantel shelf, eachwith a black nose and a basket of
flowers in his mouth, and eachthe counterpart of the other. Missus Joe

(50:30):
was a very clean housekeeper, buthad an exquisite art of making her cleanliness
more uncomfortable and unacceptable than dirt itself. Cleanliness is next to godliness, and
some people do the same by theirreligion. My sister, having so much
to do, was going to churchvicariously, that is to say, Joe

(50:51):
and I were going in his workingclothes. Joe was a well knit,
characteristic looking blacksmith. In his holidayclothes, he was more like a scarecrow
in good circumstances than anything else.Nothing that he wore then fitted him or
seemed to belong to him, andeverything that he wore then grazed him.

(51:12):
On the present festive occasion, heemerged from his room when the blithe bells
were going, the picture of misery, in a full suit of Sunday penitentials.
As to me, I think mysister must have had some general idea
that I was a young offender whoman Akushur policeman had taken up on my
birthday and delivered over to her tobe dealt with. According to the outraged

(51:37):
Majesty of the law. I wasalways treated as if I had insisted on
being born in opposition to the dictatesof reason, religion, and morality,
and against the dissuading arguments of mybest friends. Even when I was taken
to have a new suit of clothes, the tailor had orders to make them
like a kind of reformatory, andon no account to let me have the

(52:00):
free use of my limbs. Joeand I going to church, therefore must
have been a moving spectacle for compassionateminds. Yet what I suffered outside was
nothing to what I underwent within.The terrors that had assailed me whenever missus
Joe had gone near the pantry orout of the room were only to be

(52:22):
equalled by the remorse with which mymind dwelt on what my hands had done
under the weight of my wicked secret. I pondered whether the church would be
powerful enough to shield me from thevengeance of the terrible young man if I
divulged to that establishment. I conceivedthe idea that the time when the bands
were read, and when the clergymansaid, you are now to declare,

(52:45):
it would be the time for meto rise and propose a private conference in
the vestry. I am far frombeing sure that I might not have astonished
our small congregation by resorting to thisextreme measure, But for its being chrisp
Day and no Sunday, mister Wopsle, the clerk at church, was to

(53:05):
dine with us and mister Hubble,the wheelwright, and Missus Hubble and Uncle
Pumblechook, Joe's uncle, But MissusJoe appropriated him, who was a well
to do corn chandler in the nearesttown, and drove his own chez cart.
The dinner hour was half past one. When Joe and I got home.
We found the table laid, andMissus Joe dressed, and the dinner

(53:29):
dressing, and the front door unlocked. It never was at any other time
for the company to enter by,and everything most splendid, and still not
a word of the robbery. Thetime came without bringing with it any relief
to my feelings, and the companycame. Mister Wopsle, united to a

(53:50):
Roman nose and a large, shiningbald forehead, had a deep voice,
which he was uncommonly proud of.Indeed, it was understood among his acquaintance
that if you could only give himhis head, he would read the clergyman
into fits. He himself confessed thatif the church was thrown open, meaning
to competition, he would not despairof making his mark in it. The

(54:14):
church not being thrown open, hewas, as I have said, our
clerk. But he punished the amendstremendously, and when he gave out the
psalm, always giving the whole verse, he looked all round the congregation.
First, as much as to say, you have heard my friend overhead,
oblige me with your opinion of thestyle. I opened the door to the

(54:38):
company, making believe that it wasa habit of ours to open that door.
And I opened it first to misterWopsle, next to mister and missus
Hubble, and last of all toUncle Pumblechook n B. I was not
allowed to call him uncle under theseverest penalties. And mere's is Joe,

(55:00):
said Uncle Pumblechook, a large,hard breathing, middle aged slow man with
a mouth like a fish, dullstaring eyes, and sandy hair standing upright
on his head, so that helooked as if he had just been all
but choked, and had that momentcome too. I have brought you as
the compliments of the season. Ihave brought you mum a bottle of sherry

(55:23):
wine, and I have brought youMum a bottle of port wine. Every
Christmas Day, he presented himself asa profound novelty with exactly the same words,
and carrying the two bottles like dumbbells. Every Christmas Day, Missus jo
replied, as she now replied,Oh, uncle pumble Chuk, this is

(55:46):
kind Every Christmas day, he retorted, as he now retorted, it's no
more than your merits. And noware you all bubbish? And how's penworth
of hatpunts? Meaning me? Wedined on these occasions in the kitchen and

(56:07):
adjourned for the nuts and oranges andapples to the parlor, which was a
change very like Joe's change from hisworking clothes to his Sunday dress. My
sister was uncommonly lively on the presentoccasion, and indeed was generally more gracious
in the society of Missus Hubble thanin other company. I remember Missus Hubble

(56:27):
as a little curly, sharp edgedperson in sky Blue who held a conventionally
juvenile position because she had married misterHubble. I don't know at what remote
period when she was much younger thanhe. I remember mister Hubbell as a
tough, high shouldered, stooping oldman of a sawdusty fragrance, with his

(56:50):
legs extraordinarily wide apart, so thatin my short days I always saw some
miles of open country between them.When I met him coming up the lane
among this good company, I shouldhave felt myself even if I hadn't robbed
the pantry in a false position.Not because I was squeezed in at an

(57:10):
acute angle of the tablecloth, witha table in my chest and the Pumblechookian
elbow in my eye, nor becauseI was not allowed to speak I didn't
want to speak, Nor because Iwas regaled with the scaly tips of the
drumsticks of the fowls, and withthose obscure corners of pork, of which

(57:31):
the pig, when living, hadhad the least reason to be vain.
No, I should not have mindedthat if they would only have left me
alone. But they wouldn't leave mealone. They seemed to think the opportunity
lost. If they failed to pointthe conversation at me every now and then
and stick the point into me,I might have been an unfortunate little bull

(57:54):
in a Spanish arena. I gotso smartingly touched up by these morals goads.
It began the moment we sat downto dinner, Mister Wopsle said grace
with theatrical declamation as it now appearsto me something like a religious cross of
the Ghost and Hamlet with Richard theThird, and ended with the very proper

(58:17):
aspiration that we might be truly grateful, upon which my sister fixed me with
her eye and said, in alow, reproachful voice, do you hear
that? Be grateful? Especially,said mister Pumblechook, be grateful boy to
them which brought you up by hand. Missus Hubble shook her head, and,

(58:40):
contemplating me with a mournful presentiment thatI should come to no good,
asked why is it that the youngare never grateful? This moral mystery seemed
too much for the company, untilmister Hubble tersely solved it by saying naturally
vicious. Everybody then murmured true andlooked at me in a particularly unpleasant and

(59:06):
personal manner. Joe's station and influencewere something feebler, if possible, when
there was company than when there wasnone, but he always aided and comforted
me when he could in some wayof his own, and he always did
so at dinner time by giving megravy if there were any, there being
plenty of gravy today, Joe spoonedinto my plate at this point about half

(59:30):
a pint. A little later onin the dinner mister Wopsle reviewed the sermon
with some severity and intimated, inthe usual hypothetical case of the church being
thrown open, what kind of sermonhe would have given them. After favoring
them with some heads of that discourse, he remarked that he considered the subject

(59:52):
of the day's homily ill chosen,which was the less excusable. He added,
when there were so many subjects goingabout, true, again, said
Uncle Pumblechook. You've hit it,sir. Plenty of subjects going about for
them that know how to put saltupon their tails. That's what's wanted.

(01:00:15):
A man needn't go far to finda subject if he's ready with his salt
box. Mister Pumblechook added, aftera short interval of reflection, look at
pork alone. There's a subject.If you want a subject, look at
pork, true, sir, anyimmoral for the young returned mister Wopsle,

(01:00:39):
and I knew he was going tolug me, and before he said it
might be deduced from that text.You listen to this, said my sister
to me, in a severe parenthesis. Jode gave me some more gravy.
Swine, pursued mister Wopsle, inhis deep voice, and pointing his fork

(01:01:01):
at my blushes as if he werementioning my Christian name. Swine were the
comparisons of the prodigal The gluttony ofswine is put before us as an example
to the young. I thought thispretty well in him, who had been
praising up the port for being soplump and juicy. What is detestable,

(01:01:22):
and a pig is more detestable ina boy or girl, suggested mister Hubble.
Of course our girl, mister Hubbleassented mister Wopsle rather irritably. But
there is no girl present besides,said mister Pumblechook, turning sharp on me.

(01:01:45):
Think what you've got to be gratefulfor? If you'd been born a
squeaker he was, if ever achild was, said my sister most emphatically.
Joe gave me some more gravy.Well, I mean a four footed
squeaker, said, mister Pumblechook,if you had been born such, would

(01:02:08):
you have been here now? Notyou unless in that form, said mister
Wopsle, nodding towards the dish.But I don't mean in that form,
sir, returned mister pumblechuk who hadan objection to being interrupted. I mean

(01:02:28):
enjoying himself with his elders and bettersand improving himself with their conversation and rolling
in the lap of luxury. Wouldhe have been doing that? No,
he wouldn't. And what would havebeen your destination turning on me again?

(01:02:49):
You would have been disposed of forso many shillings according to the market price
of the article and dunstable. Thebutcher would have come up to you as
you lay your straw, and hewould have whipped you under his left arm,
and with his right he would havetucked up his frock to get a
pen knife from out of his waistcoatpocket, and he would have shed your

(01:03:12):
blood and had your life. Nobringing up by hand, then, not
a bit of it. Joe offeredme more gravy, which I was afraid
to take. He was a worldof trouble to you, ma'am, said
missus Hubble, commiserating my sister Trouble, echoed my Sister Trouble, and then

(01:03:35):
entered on a fearful catalog of allthe illnesses I had been guilty of,
and all the acts of sleeplessness Ihad committed, and all the high places
I had tumbled from, and allthe low places I had tumbled into,
and all the injuries I had donemyself, and all the time she had
wished me in my grave, andI had contumaciously refused to go there.

(01:03:59):
I think the Romans must have aggravatedone another very much with their noses.
Perhaps they became the restless people theywere in consequence. Anyhow, mister Wopsle's
Roman nose so aggravated me during therecital of my misdemeanors that I should have
liked to pull it until he howled. But all I had endured up to

(01:04:20):
this time was nothing in comparison withthe awful feelings that took possession of me
when the pause was broken, whichensued upon my sister's recital, and in
which pause everybody had looked at meas I felt painfully conscious with indignation and
abhorrence. Yet said mister pumblechook,leading the company gently back to the theme

(01:04:45):
from which they had strayed. Porkregarded as bild is rich too. Ain't
it have a little brandy? Uncle, said my sister, Oh, heavens
it come at last he would findit was weak. He would say it
was weak, and I was lost. I held tight to the leg of

(01:05:06):
the table under the cloth with bothhands, and awaited my fate. My
sister went for the stone bottle,came back with a stone bottle and poured
his brandy out, no one elsetaking any. The wretched man trifled with
his glass, took it up,looked at it through the light, put

(01:05:26):
it down. Prolonged my misery.All this time, Missus Joe and Joe
were briskly clearing the table for thepie and pudding. I couldn't keep my
eyes off him, always holding tightby the leg of the table with my
hands and feet. I saw themiserable creature finger his glass playfully, take
it up, smile, throw hishead back, and drink the brandy off

(01:05:51):
instantly. Afterwards, the company wereseized with unspeakable consternation owing to his springing
to his feet, turning round severaltimes in an appalling spasmodic whooping, cough
dance, and rushing out at thedoor. He then became visible through the
window, violently plunging and expectorating,making the most hideous faces, and apparently

(01:06:15):
out of his mind. I heldon tight while missus Jo and Joe ran
to him. I didn't know howI had done it, but I had
no doubt I had murdered him somehowin my dreadful situation. It was a
relief when he was brought back,and surveying the company all round as if
they had disagreed with him, sankdown into his chair with one significant gasp.

(01:06:40):
Tar I had filled up the bottlefrom the tar water jug. I
knew he would be worse by andby I moved the table like a medium
of the present day, by thevigor of my unseen hold upon it.
Tar cried my sister in amazement.Why how could ever Tar come there?

(01:07:01):
But Uncle Pumblechuk, who was omnipotentin that kitchen, wouldn't hear the word,
wouldn't hear of the subject, imperiouslywaved it all away with his hand
and asked for hot gin and water. My sister, who had begun to
be alarmingly meditative had to employ herselfactively in getting the gin, the hot

(01:07:21):
water, the sugar, and thelemon peel, and mixing them. For
the time being, at least Iwas saved. I still held on to
the leg of the table, butclutched it now with the fervor of gratitude.
By degrees, I became calm enoughto release my grasp and partake of
pudding. Mister Pumblechuk partook of pudding. All partook of pudding. The course

(01:07:46):
terminated, and mister Pemblechuk had begunto beam under the genial influence of gin
and water. I began to thinkI should get over the day. When
my sister said to Joe, cleanplates cold, I clutched the leg of
the table again immediately and pressed itto my bosom, as if it had

(01:08:08):
been the companion of my youth andfriend of my soul. I foresaw what
was coming, and I felt thatthis time I really was gone. You
must taste, said my sister,addressing the guests with her best grace.
You must taste to finish with sucha delightful and delicious present of Uncle Pumblechook's.

(01:08:30):
Must they let them not hope totaste it, you must know,
said my sister, rising, It'sa pie, a savory pork pie.
The company murmured their compliments. UnclePumblechook, sensible of having deserved well of
his fellow creatures, said quite vivaciously, all things considered well, missus Joe,

(01:08:56):
we'll do our best endeavors. Letus have a cut at this pie.
My sister went out to get it. I heard her steps proceed to
the pantry. I saw mister Pumblechookbalance his knife. I saw reawakening appetite
in the Roman nostrils of mister Wopsle. I heard mister Hubble remark that a

(01:09:16):
bit of savory pork pie would laya top of anything you could mention and
do no harm. And I heardJoe say, you shall have some pip.
I have never been absolutely certain whetherI uttered a shrill yell of terror
merely in spirit or in the bodilyhearing of the company. I felt that

(01:09:39):
I could bear no more, andthat I must run away. I released
the leg of the table and ranfor my life. But I ran no
farther than the house door, forthere I ran head foremost into a party
of soldiers with their muskets, oneof whom held out a pair of handcuffs
to me, saying, here youare, look sharp. Come on end

(01:10:00):
of chapter chapter five. The apparitionof a file of soldiers wringing down the
butt ends of their loaded muskets onour doorstep caused the dinner party to rise

(01:10:21):
from table in confusion, and causedMissus Joe, re entering the kitchen empty
handed, to stop short and starein her wondering lament of gracious goodness,
gracious me, what's gone with thepie? The sergeant and I were in
the kitchen when Missus jo stood staringat which crisis I partially recovered the use

(01:10:42):
of my senses. It was thesergeant who had spoken to me, and
he was now looking round at thecompany, with his handcuffs invitingly extended towards
them in his right hand, andhis left on my shoulder. Excules,
may, ladies and gentlemen, saidthe sergeant. But as I have mentioned
the door to this smart young shaver, which he hadn't, I am on

(01:11:03):
a chase and the name of theking, and I want the blacksmith,
and pray, what might you wantwith him? Retorted my sister quick to
resent his being wanted at all.Miss us, returned the gallant sergeant.
Speaking for myself, I should replythe honor and pleasure of his fine wife's

(01:11:24):
acquaintance. Speaking for the King,I answer, a little job done.
This was received as rather neat inthe sergeant, insomuch that mister Pumblechuk cried
audibly. Good again, you'll see, Blacksmith, said the sergeant, who
had by this time picked out Joewith his eye. We have had an

(01:11:45):
accident with these, and I findthe lock of one of em goes wrong,
and the coupling don't act pretty.As they are wanted for immediate service?
Will you throw your eye over them? Joe threw his eye over them,
and pounced that the job would necessitatethe lighting of his forge fire and
would take nearer two hours than one. Will it then? Will you set

(01:12:09):
about it at once, Blacksmith,said the offhand sergeant, as it's on
his Majesty's service, and if mymen can bear a hand anywhere, they'll
make themselves useful. With that,he called to his men, who came
trooping into the kitchen one after another, and piled their arms in a corner.
And then they stood about as soldiersdo now with their hands loosely clasped

(01:12:32):
before them, now resting a kneeor a shoulder, now easing a belt
or a pouch, now opening thedoor, to spit stiffly over their high
stocks out into the yard. Allthese things I saw without then knowing that
I saw them, for I wasin an agony of apprehension, but beginning
to perceive that the handcuffs were notfor me, and that the military had

(01:12:56):
so far got the better of thepie as to put it in the background.
I collected a little more of myscattered wits. Will you give me
the time, said the sergeant,addressing himself to mister Pumblechook, as to
a man whose appreciative powers justified theinference that he was equal to the time.
It's just gone half past two.That's not so bad, said the

(01:13:21):
sergeant, reflecting, even if Iwas forced to halt here nigh two hours,
that'll do. How far might youcall yourselves from the marshes? Hereabout?
Not above a mile? I reckonjust a mile, said missus JO.
That'll do. We begin to closein upon him about dusk. A

(01:13:43):
little before dusk. My orders arethat'll do. Convicts sergeant asked, mister
Wopsle in a matter of coarse way, I returned the sergeant. Two,
they're pretty well known to be outon the marshes still, and they won't
try to get clear of em beforedusk. Anybody here seen anything of any

(01:14:03):
such game. Everybody, myself accepted, said no with confidence. Nobody thought
of me, well, said thesergeant. They'll find themselves trapped in a
circle. I expect sooner than theycount on. Now, Blacksmith, if
you're ready, his majesty, theking is. Joe had got his coat

(01:14:27):
and waistcoat and cravatov and his leatherapron on, and passed into the forge.
One of the soldiers opened its woodenwindows, another lighted the fire,
another turned to at the bellows.The rest stood round the blaze, which
was soon roaring. Then Joe beganto hammer and clink, hammer and clink,
and we all looked on the interestof the impending pursuit. Not only

(01:14:50):
absorbed the general attention, but evenmade my sister liberal. She drew a
picture of beer from the cask forthe soldiers. I invited the sergeant to
take a glass of brandy, butmister Pumblechuk said sharply give him wine.
Mum, I'll engage. There's notar in that. So the sergeant thanked

(01:15:12):
him and said that as he preferredhis drink without tar, he would take
wine if it was equally convenient.When it was given him, he drank
his Majesty's Health and Compliments of theseason and took it all at a mouthful
and smacked his lips. Good stuff, hey, sergeant, said mister Pumblechuk.
I'll tell you something, returned thesergeant. I suspect that's stuff some

(01:15:38):
of your providing. Mister Pumblechuk,with a fat sort of laugh, said,
II iy, why because, returnedthe sergeant, clapping him on the
shoulder. You're a man that knowswhat's what do you think, so,
said mister Pumblechuk with his former laugh. Ha, have another glass with you,

(01:16:01):
hob and nob returned the sergeant.The top of mine to the foot
of yours, the foot of yoursto the top of mine, ring once,
ring twice, the best tune onthe musical glasses your health. May
you live a thousand years and neverbe a worse judge of the right sort
than you are at the present momentof your life. The sergeant tossed off

(01:16:26):
his glass again, and seemed quiteready for another glass. I noticed that
mister Pumblechook, in his hospitality,appeared to forget that he had made a
present of the wine, but tookthe bottle from missus Jo, and had
all the credit of haddening it aboutin a gush of joviality. Even I
got some, And he was sovery free of the wine that he even
called for the other bottle and headedthat about with the same liberality when the

(01:16:50):
first was gone. As I watchedthem, while they all stood clustering about
the forge, enjoying themselves so much, I thought, what terrible good sauce
for a dinner, my fugitive friendon the marshes was. They had not
enjoyed themselves a quarter so much beforethe entertainment was brightened with the excitement he

(01:17:11):
furnished. And now when they wereall in lively anticipation of the two villains
being taken, and when the bellowsseemed to roar for the fugitives, the
fire to flare for them, thesmoke to hurry away in pursuit of them,
Joe to hammer and clink for them, and all the murky shadows on
the wall to shake at them inmenace. As the blaze rose and sank,

(01:17:33):
and the red hot sparks dropped anddied. The pale afternoon outside almost
seemed, in my pitying young fancyto have turned pale on their account,
poor wretches. At last, Joe'sjob was done, and the ringing and
roaring stopped. As Joe got onhis coat, he mustered courage to propose

(01:17:53):
that some of us should go downwith the soldiers and see what came of
the hunt. Mister Pumblechook and misterhu Ubble declined on the plea of a
pipe and lady's society, but misterWopsle said he would go if Joe would.
Joe said he was agreeable and wouldtake me if Missus Joe approved.
We never should have got leave togo, i am sure, but for

(01:18:15):
Missus Jo's curiosity to know all aboutit and how it ended as it was,
she merely stipulated, if you bringthe boy back with his head blown
to bits by a musket, don'tlook to me to put it together again.
The sergeant took a polite leave ofthe ladies and parted from mister Pumblechook
as from a comrade, though Idoubt if he were quite as fully sensible

(01:18:39):
of that gentleman's merits under arid conditionsas when something moist was going his men
resumed their muskets and fell in.Mister Wopsle, Joe and I received strict
charge to keep in the rear andto speak no word. After we reached
the marshes. When we were allout in the raw air and were steadily

(01:19:00):
moving towards our business, I treasonablywhispered to Joe, I hope, Joe
we shan't find them, and Joewhispered to me, I'd give a shilling
if they'd cut and run Pip.We were joined by no stragglers from the
village, for the weather was coldand threatening, the way dreary, the
footing bad darkness coming on, andthe people had good fires indoors and were

(01:19:25):
keeping the day. A few faceshurried to glowing windows and looked after us,
but none came out. We passedthe finger post and held straight on
to the churchyard. There we werestopped a few minutes by a signal from
the sergeant's hand. While two orthree of his men dispersed themselves among the
graves, and also examined the porch. They came in again without finding anything,

(01:19:48):
and then we struck out on theopen marshes through the gate at the
side of the churchyard. A bittersleet came rattling against us here on the
east wind, and Joe took meon his back. Now that we were
out upon the dismal wilderness, wherethey little thought. I had been within
eight or nine hours, and hadseen both men hiding. I considered for

(01:20:10):
the first time with great dread,if we should come upon them. Would
my particular convict suppose that it wasI who had brought the soldiers here.
He had asked me if I wasa deceiving imp, and he had said
I should be a fierce young houndif I joined the hunt against him?
Would he believe that I was bothimp and hound in treacherous earnest and had

(01:20:31):
betrayed him. It was of nouse asking myself this question. Now there
I was on Joe's back, andthere was Joe beneath me, charging at
the ditches like a hunter, andstimulating mister Wopsle not to tumble on his
Roman nose and to keep up withus. The soldiers were in front of
us, extending in a pretty wideline with an interval between man and man.

(01:20:57):
We were taking the course I havebegun with and from which I had
diverged in the mist. Either themist was not out again yet, or
the wind had dispelled it. Underthe low red glare of sunset, the
beacon and the gibbet, and themound of the battery, and the opposite
shore of the river were plain,though all of a watery lead color.

(01:21:19):
With my heart thumping like a blacksmithat Joe's broad shoulder, I looked all
about for any sign of the convicts. I could see none, I could
hear none. Mister Wopsle had greatlyalarmed me more than once by his blowing
and hard breathing, but I knewthe sounds by this time and could dissociate
them from the object of pursuit.I got a dreadful start when I thought

(01:21:43):
I heard the file still going,but it was only a sheep bell.
The sheep stopped in their eating andlooked timidly at us and the cattle.
Their heads turned from the wind insleet, stared angrily as if they held
us responsible for both annoyances. Butexcept these things, and the shudder of
the dying day, and every bladeof grass. There was no break in

(01:22:04):
the bleak stillness of the marshes.The soldiers were moving on in the direction
of the old battery, and wewere moving on a little way behind them,
when all of a sudden we allstopped, for there had reached us
on the wings of the wind andrain, a long shout. It was
repeated. It was at a distancetowards the east, but it was long

(01:22:27):
and loud. Nay, there seemedto be two or more shouts raised together,
if one might judge from a confusionin the sound. To this effect,
The sergeant and the nearest men werespeaking under their breath when Joe and
I came up after another moment's listening. Joe, who was a good judge,
agreed, and mister Wopsle, whowas a bad judge, agreed.

(01:22:50):
The sergeant, a decisive man,ordered that the sound should not be answered,
but that the course should be changed, and that his men should make
towards it at them. So weslanted to the right where the east was,
and Joe pounded away so wonderfully thatI had to hold on tight to
keep my seat. It was arun indeed now and what Joe called in

(01:23:14):
the only two words he spoke allthe time, a winder down banks and
up banks, and over gates,and splashing into dikes and breaking among coarse
rushes. No man cared where hewent. As we came nearer to the
shouting, it became more and moreapparent that it was made by more than
one voice. Sometimes it seemed tostop altogether, and then the soldiers stopped.

(01:23:38):
When it broke out again, thesoldiers made for it at a greater
rate than ever, and we afterthem. After a while we had so
run it down that we could hearone voice calling murder, and another voice
convicts runaways. Guard this way forthe runaway convicts. Then both voices would
seem to be stifled in a struggle, and then would break out again.

(01:24:00):
And when it had come to this, the soldiers ran like deer, and
Joe too. The sergeant ran infirst when we had run the noise quite
down, and two of his menran in close upon them. Their pieces
were cocked and leveled. When weall ran in. Here are both men,
panted the sergeant, struggling at thebottom of a ditch, surrender you

(01:24:23):
too, And confound you for twowild beasts come asunder water was splashing and
mud was flying, and oaths werebeing sworn and blows were being struck.
When some more men went down intothe ditch to help the sergeant and dragged
out separately. My convict and theother one. Both were bleeding and panting

(01:24:44):
and execrating and struggling. But ofcourse I knew them both directly, mind,
said my convict, wiping blood fromhis face with his ragged sleeves and
shaking torn hair from his fingers.I took him. I'd give him up
to you. Mind that. It'snot much to be particular about, said

(01:25:04):
the sergeant. It'll do you smallgood, my man, being in the
same plight yourself handcuffs there. Idon't expect it to do me any good.
I don't want it to do memore good than it does now,
said my convict, with a greedylaugh. I took him. He knows

(01:25:24):
it. That's enough from me.The other convict was livid to look at,
and, in addition to the oldbruised left side of his face seemed
to be bruised and torn all over. He could not so much as get
his breath to speak until they wereboth separately handcuffed, but leaned upon a
soldier to keep himself from falling.Eh, take take notice, guard.

(01:25:48):
He tried to murder me, werehis first words. Try to murder him,
said my convict, disdainfully, Tryand not do it. I took
him and give him up. That'swhat i'd done. I not only prevented
him getting off the marshes, butI dragged him here, dragged him this

(01:26:10):
far on his way back. He'sa gentleman. If you please this villain
now, the Hulk says, gotits gentleman again through me. Murder him.
Ah worth my while too to murderhim when I could do worse and
drag him back. The other onestill gasped. He tried, He tried
to murder me. Bear bear witness. Lookye here, said my convict to

(01:26:38):
the sergeant. Single handed, Igot clear of the prison ship. I
made a dash, and i'd doneit. I could have got clear of
these death cold flats. Likewise,look at my leg. You won't find
much iron on it. If Ihadn't made the discovery that he was here,
Let him go free, let himprofit by the means as I found

(01:26:59):
out. Let him make a toolof me. Afresh, and again once
more. No, no, no. If I had died at the bottom
there, and he made an emphaticswing at the ditch with his manacled hands,
I'd have held to him with thatgrip that you should have been safe
to find him in my hold.The other fugitive, who was evidently in

(01:27:21):
extreme horror of his companion, repeated, he tried to murder me. I
should have been a dead man ifyou had not come up. He lies,
said my convict, with fierce energy. He's a liar, morn and
he'll die a liar. Look atus face, ain't it written there?
Let him turn those eyes of hison me. I'd defy him to do

(01:27:45):
it. The other, with aneffort at a scornful smile, which could
not, however, collect the nervousworking of his mouth into any set expression,
looked at the soldiers, and lookedabout at the marshes and at the
sky. But certain did not lookat the speaker, did you say him,
pursued my convict. Do you seewhat a villain he is? Do

(01:28:08):
you see those groveling and wandering eyes. That's how we looked when we were
tried together. He never looked atme. The other, always working and
working his dry lips, and turninghis eyes restlessly about him far and near,
did at last turn them for amoment on the speaker with the words
you are not much to look at, and with a half taunting glance at

(01:28:30):
the bound hands. At that pointmy convict became so frantically exasperated that he
would have rushed upon him but forthe interposition of the soldiers, didn't I
tell you? Said the other convict, then, that he would murder me
if he could, and anyone couldsee that he shook with fear, and
that there broke out upon his lipscurious white flakes like thin snow. Enough

(01:28:57):
of this, Parsley said, thatso light those torches. As one of
the soldiers who carried a basket inlieu of a gun, went down on
his knee to open it, myconvict looked round him for the first time
and saw me. I had alightedfrom Joe's back on the brink of the
ditch when we came up, andhad not moved since I looked at him

(01:29:19):
eagerly when he looked at me,and slightly moved my hands and shook my
head. I had been waiting forhim to see me that I might try
to assure him of my innocence.It was not at all expressed to me
that he even comprehended my intention,for he gave me a look that I
did not understand. And it allpassed in a moment. But if he

(01:29:40):
had looked at me for an houror for a day, I could not
have remembered his face ever afterwards.As having been more attentive, the soldier
with a basket soon got a lightand lighted three or four torches, and
took one himself and distributed the others. It had been almost dark before,
but now it seemed quite dark,and soon afterwards very dark. Before we

(01:30:04):
departed from that spot, four soldiersstanding in a ring fired twice into the
air. Presently we saw other torcheskindled at some distance behind us, and
others on the marshes on the oppositebank of the river. All right,
said the sergeant march. We hadnot gone far when three cannon were fired

(01:30:26):
ahead of us, with a soundthat seemed to burst something inside my ear.
You are expected on board, saidthe sergeant to my convict. They
know you were coming. Don't straggle, my man, close up here.
The two were kept apart, andeach walked surrounded by a separate guard.
I had hold of Joe's hand now, and Joe carried one of the torches.

(01:30:50):
Mister Wopsle had been for going back, but Joe was resolved to see
it out, so we went onwith the party. There was a reasonably
good path now, mostly on theedge of the river, with a divergence
here and there, where a dikecame with a miniature windmill on it and
a muddy sluice gate. When Ilooked round, I could see the other

(01:31:11):
lights coming in after us. Thetorches we carried dropped great blotches of fire
upon the track, and I couldsee those too, lying, smoking and
flaring. I could see nothing elsebut black darkness. Our lights warmed the
air about us with their pitchy blaze, and the two prisoners seemed rather to
like that. As they limped alongin the midst of the Muskets. We

(01:31:33):
could not go fast because of theirlameness, and they were so spent that
two or three times we had tohalt while they rested. After an hour
or so of this traveling, wecame to a rough wooden hut and a
landing place. There was a guardin the hut, and they challenged,
and the sergeant answered. Then wewent into the hut, where there was

(01:31:55):
a smell of tobacco and whitewash,and a bright fire, and a lamp,
and a stand of muskets, anda drum, and a low wooden
bedstead like an overgrown mangle without themachinery, capable of holding about a dozen
soldiers all at once. Three orfour soldiers who lay upon it in their
greatcoats, were not much interested inus, but just lifted their heads and

(01:32:16):
took a sleepy stare, and thenlay down again. The sergeant made some
kind of report and some entry ina book, and then the convict,
whom I called the other convict,was drafted off with his guard to go
on board first. My convict neverlooked at me, except that once,
while we stood in the hut,he stood before the fire, looking thoughtfully

(01:32:40):
at it, or putting up hisfeet by turns upon the hob and looking
thoughtfully at them, as if hepitied them for their recent adventures. Suddenly
he turned to the sergeant and remarked, I wish to say something respecting this
escape. It may prevent some personslying under a suspicion a longer me.

(01:33:00):
You can say what you like,returned the sergeant, standing coolly looking at
him with his arms folded. Butyou have no call to say it here.
You'll have opportunity enough to say aboutit and hear about it before it's
done with. You know, Iknow what this is another point, a
separate matter. A man can't starve, at least I can't. I took

(01:33:25):
some vittles up at the village overyonder where the church stands, almost out
on the marshes. You mean stole, said the sergeant, And I'll tell
you where from from the blacksmiths.Hallo, said the sergeant, staring at
Joe. Hallo, Pip, saidJoe, staring at me. It was

(01:33:48):
some broken viddles, that's what itwas, and a dram of liquor and
a pie. Have you happened tomiss such an article as a pie?
Blacksmith, asked the sergeant confidentially.My wife did at the very moment when
you came in, don't you know, Pip soul said my convict, turning

(01:34:11):
his eyes on Joe in a moodymanner, and without the least glance at
me. So you're the blacksmith,are you then, I'm sorry to say
I've eat your pie. God knowsyou're welcome to it, so far as
it was ever mine, returned Joewith a saving remembrance of missus Joe.

(01:34:31):
We don't know what you have done, but we wouldn't have you starved to
death for it, poor miserable fellowcreature. Would us pip? The something
that I'd noticed before clicked in theman's throat again, and he turned his
back. The boat had returned andhis guard was ready, So we followed
him to the landing place made ofrough stakes and stones, and saw him

(01:34:55):
put into the boat, which wasrowed by a crew of convicts like himself.
No one seemed surprised to see him, or interested in seeing him,
or glad to see him, orsorry to see him, or spoke a
word, except that somebody in theboat growled, as if to dogs,
yivoi yo, which was the signalfor the dip of the oars. By

(01:35:17):
the light of the torches, wesaw the black hulk lying out a little
way from the mud of the shore, like a wicked Noah's ark, cribbed
and barred and moored by massive,rusty chains, the prison ship seemed to
my young eyes to be ironed likethe prisoners. We saw the boat go
alongside, and we saw him takenup the side and disappear. Then the

(01:35:41):
ends of the torches were flung hissinginto the water, and went out as
if it were all over with him. End of chapter Chapter My state of

(01:36:01):
mind regarding the pilfering from which Ihave been so unexpectedly exonerated did not impel
me to frank disclosure, but Ihope it had some dregs of good at
the bottom of it. I didnot recall that I felt any tenderness of
conscience in reference to Missus Joe whenthe fear of being found out was lifted
off me. But I loved Joe, perhaps for no better reason in those

(01:36:25):
early days than because the dear fellowlet me love him. And as to
him, my inner self was notso easily composed. It was much upon
my mind, particularly when I firstsaw him looking about for his file,
that I ought to tell Joe thewhole truth. Yet I did not,
and for the reason that I mistrustedthat if I did, he would think

(01:36:47):
me worse than I was. Thefear of losing Joe's confidence, and of
thenceforth, sitting in the chimney cornerat night, staring drearily at my forever
lost companion and friend, tied upmy I morbidly represented to myself that if
Joe knew it, I never afterwardscould see him at the fireside feeling his

(01:37:08):
fair whisker without thinking that he wasmeditating on it. That if Joe knew
it, I never afterwards could seehim glance, however, casually, at
yesterday's meat or pudding when it cameon today's table, without thinking that he
was debating whether I had been inthe pantry. That if Joe knew it,

(01:37:28):
and at any subsequent period of ourjoint domestic life, remarked that his
beer was flat or thick, theconviction that he suspected tar in it would
bring a rush of blood to myface. In a word, I was
too cowardly to do what I knewto be right, as I had been
too cowardly to avoid doing what Iknew to be wrong. I had had

(01:37:49):
no intercourse with the world at thattime, and I imitated none of its
many inhabitants who act in this manner. Quite an untaught genius I made the
discovery of the line of action formyself, as I was sleepy. Before
we were far away from the prisonship, Joe took me on his back

(01:38:09):
again and carried me home. Hemust have had a tiresome journey of it.
For mister Wopsle, being knocked up, was in such a very bad
temper that if the church had beenthrown open, it would probably have excommunicated
the whole expedition, beginning with Joeand myself. In his lay capacity,
he persisted in sitting down in thedamp to such an insane extent that when

(01:38:32):
his coat was taken off to bedried at the kitchen fire, this circumstantial
evidence on his trousers would have hangedhim if it had been a capital offense.
By that time, I was staggeringon the kitchen floor like a little
drunkard, having been newly set uponmy feet, and through having been fast
asleep, and through waking in theheat and lights and noise of tongues.

(01:38:56):
As I came to myself with theaid of a heavy thump between the shoulders
and the restorative exclamation Yah, wasthere ever such a boy as this?
From my sister, I found Joetelling them about the convict's confession, and
all the visitors suggesting different ways bywhich he had got into the pantry.
Mister Pumblechook made out, after carefullysurveying the premises, that he had first

(01:39:21):
got upon the roof of the forge, and had then got upon the roof
of the house, and had thenlet himself down the kitchen chimney by a
rope made of his bedding cut intostrips. And as mister Pumblechook was very
positive and drove his own chaise cartover everybody, it was agreed that it
must be so. Mister Wopsle indeedwildly cried out no, with a feeble

(01:39:46):
malice of a tired man, Butas he had no theory and no coat
on, he was unanimously set atnaught not to mention his smoking hard behind
as he stood with his back tothe kitchen fo to draw the damp out,
which was not calculated to inspire confidence. This was all I heard that

(01:40:06):
night before my sister clutched me asa slumbrous offense to the company's eyesight,
and assisted me up to bed withsuch a strong hand that I seemed to
have fifty boots on and to bedangling them all against the edges of the
stairs. My state of mind,as I have described it, began before

(01:40:26):
I was up in the morning,and lasted long after the subject had died
out and had ceased to be mentioned, saving on exceptional occasions end of chapter
chapter seven. At the time whenI stood in the churchyard reading the family

(01:40:51):
tombstones, I had just enough learningto be able to spell them out.
My construction, even of their simplemeaning, was not very correct. For
I read wife of the above asa complimentary reference to my father's exaltation to
a better world. And if anywant of my deceased relatives had been referred

(01:41:11):
to as below, I have nodoubt I should have formed the worst opinions
of that member of the family.Neither were my notions of the theological positions
to which my catechism bound me atall accrid, For I have a lively
remembrance that I supposed. My declarationthat I was to walk in the same
all the days of my life laidme under an obligation always to go through

(01:41:34):
the village from our house in oneparticular direction, and never to vary it
by turning down by the wheelwrights orup by the mill. When I was
old enough, I was to beapprenticed to Joe, and until I could
assume that dignity, I was notto be what missus Jo called pompied,

(01:41:54):
or as I render it, hampered. Therefore, I was not only odd
boy about the forge, but ifany neighbor happened to want an extra boy
to frighten birds, or pick upstones, or do any such job,
I was favored with the employment.In order, however, that our superior
position might not be compromised. Thereby, a money box was kept on the

(01:42:16):
kitchen mantel shelf, into which itwas publicly made known that all my earnings
were dropped. I have an impressionthat they were to be contributed eventually towards
the liquidation of the national debt.But I know I had no hope of
any personal participation in the treasure.Mister Wopsle's great aunt kept an evening school

(01:42:36):
in the village. That is tosay, she was a ridiculous old woman
of limited means and unlimited infirmity,who used to go to sleep from six
to seven every evening in the societyof youth, who paid two pence per
week each for the improving opportunity ofseeing her do it. She rented a

(01:42:57):
small cottage, and mister wa Opsallhad the room upstairs, where we students
used to overhear him reading aloud ina most dignified and terrific manner, and
occasionally bumping on the ceiling. Therewas a fiction that mister Wopsle examined the
scholars once a quarter. What hedid on those occasions was to turn up

(01:43:18):
his cuffs, stick up his hair, and give us mark Antony's oration over
the body of Caesar. This wasalways followed by Collins owed on the Passions,
wherein I particularly venerated mister Wopsle asrevenge, throwing his bloodstained sword in
thunder down and taking the war denouncingtrumpet with a withering look. It was

(01:43:40):
not with me then, as itwas in later life when I fell into
the society of the Passions and comparedthem with Collins and Wopsill, rather to
the disadvantage of both gentlemen. MisterWopsle's great aunt, besides keeping this educational
institution, kept in the same rooma little general shop. She had no

(01:44:03):
idea what stock she had or whatthe price of anything in it was,
but there was a little greasy memorandumbook kept in a drawer, which served
as a catalog of prices, andby this oracle Biddy arranged all the shop
transaction. Biddy was mister Wopsle's greataunt's granddaughter. I confess myself quiet unequal

(01:44:26):
to the working out of the problem. What relation she was to mister Wopsle.
She was an orphan like myself,Like me too, had been brought
up by hand. She was mostnoticeable, I thought, in respect of
her extremities, for her hair alwayswanted brushing, her hands always wanted washing,
and her shoes always wanted mending andpulling up at heel. This description

(01:44:50):
must be received with a week daylimitation. On Sundays she went to church
elaborated much of my unassas itself,and more by the help of Biddy than
of mister Wopsle's great aunt. Istruggled through the alphabet as if it had
been a bramble bush, getting considerablyworried and scratched by every letter. After

(01:45:13):
that, I fell among those thieves, the nine figures, who seemed every
evening to do something new to disguisethemselves and baffle recognition. But at last
I began in a purblind, gropingway to read, write, and cipher
on the very smallest scale. Onenight I was sitting in the chimney corner

(01:45:33):
with my slate, expending great effortson the production of a letter to Jael.
I think it must have been afull year after our hunt upon the
marshes, for it was a longtime after, and it was winter and
a hard frost. With an alphabeton the hearth at my feet for reference,
I contrived in an hour or twoto print and smear this epistle,

(01:45:56):
which is spelled very badly. Mydear Joe. I hope you are care
quite well. I hope I shallson be hable for to teach you,
Joe, And then we sure'll beso glad. And when I'm prenticed to
you, Joe, what larks andbelieve me inficcs and pip. There was

(01:46:24):
no indispensable necessity for my communicating withJoe by letter, inasmuch as he sat
beside me and we were alone.But I delivered this written communication slate and
all with my own hand, andJoe received it as a miracle of erudition.
I say, pipple chap cried Joe, opening his blue eyes wide.

(01:46:46):
What a scholar you are, ain'tyou I should like to be, said
I, glancing at the slate ashe held it, with a misgiving that
the writing was rather hilly. Here'sa jay, said Joe, And oh,
equal to anything. Here's a jayand an O, Pip and a

(01:47:11):
j O Joe. I had neverheard Joe read aloud to any greater extent
than this monosyllable. And I hadobserved at church last Sunday, when I
accidentally held our prayer book upside down, that it seemed to suit his convenience
quite as well as if it hadbeen all right. Wishing to embrace the
present occasion of finding out whether inteaching Joe I should have to begin quite

(01:47:36):
at the beginning, I said,Ah, But read the rest, Joe,
The rest a pip, said Joe, looking at it with a slow
searching eye. One, two,three, Why, here's three js and

(01:47:56):
three os and three j O Joein it, Pip. I leaned over
Joe and with the aid of myforefinger, read him the whole letter,
astonishing, said Joe when I hadfinished. You are a scholar. How
do you spell gargery? Joe?I asked him, with the modest patronage.

(01:48:19):
I don't spell it at all,said Joe. But supposing you did,
it can't be supposed, said Joe. Though I'm uncoming fond of reading,
too, are you? Joe?Uncommon? Give me, said Joe,

(01:48:41):
a good book or a good newspaper, and sent me down afore a
good fire. And I asked nobetter, Lord, he continued, after
rubbing his knees a little, Whenyou do come to a j and an
oh, and says you, Hereat last is a j O Joe,
how interesting reading is? I derivedfrom this that Joe's education, like steam,

(01:49:06):
was yet in its infancy. Pursuingthe subject, I inquired, didn't
you ever go to school, Joewhen you were as little as me?
No, Pip, Why didn't youever go to school, Joe when you
were as little as me? Well, Pip, said Joe, taking up
the poker and settling himself to hisusual occupation. When he was thoughtful of

(01:49:30):
slowly raking the fire between the lowerbars, I'll tell you my father,
Pip. He was given to drink, and when he was overtook with drink,
he hammered away at my mother mostunmerciful. It was almost the only
hammer, and he did indeed acceptit at myself, and he hammered at

(01:49:53):
me with a vigor, only tobe equal by the vigor with what she
didn't hammer at his anwill you're ali and understanding, Pip, yes,
Joe. Consequence, my mother andme, we ran away from my father
several times. And then my mothershe'd go out to work and she'd say,

(01:50:14):
Joe, she'd say, now,please God, you shall have some
schooling child, and she'd put meto school. But my father were that
good in his heart that he couldn'ta bear to be without us. So
he'd come with a most tremendous crowdand make such a row at the doors
of the houses where we was thatthey used to be obligated to have no

(01:50:35):
more to do with us, andto give us up to him. And
then he took us home and hammeredus, which you see, Pip,
said Joe, pausing in his meditativeraking of the fire and looking at me
were a drawback on my learning,certainly, poor Joe, though, mind

(01:50:58):
you, Pip, said Joe,with a judicial touch or two of the
poker on the top bar, renderingunder all their due and maintaining equal justice
TwixT man and man. My fatherwere that good in his heart, don't
you see? I didn't see,but I didn't say so. Well,

(01:51:20):
Joe pursued, somebody must keep thepot of boiling Pip, or the pot
won't boil, don't you know?I saw that, and I said so.
Consequence, my father didn't make objectionsto my going to work. So
I went to work, to workat my present calling, which were his

(01:51:41):
too, if he would have followedit, and I worked tolerable hard,
I assure you, Pip, intime, I were able to keep him,
and I kept him till he wentoff in a purpleptic fit. And
in it were my intention to havehad put upon his tombstone that whatsomever the
failings on his part? Remember,reader, he were that good in his

(01:52:03):
heart. Joe recited this couplet withsuch manifest pride and careful perspecuity that I
asked him if he had made ithimself. I made it, said Joe,
my own self. I made itin a moment. It was like
striking out a horseshoe complete in asingle ball. I never was so much

(01:52:28):
surprised in all my life. Couldn'tcredit my own ed to tell you the
truth. Hardly believed it were myown ed. As I was saying,
Pip, it were my intention tohave had it cut over him. But
poetry costs money. Cut it howyou will, small or large, And
it were not done not to mentionbearers. All the money that could be

(01:52:50):
spared were wanted for my mother.She were in poor elf and quite broke.
She warn't long a following poor souland her share of peace come round
At last. Joe's blue eyes turneda little watery. He rubbed first one
of them and then the other ina most uncongenial and uncomfortable manner, with

(01:53:12):
a round knob on the top ofthe poker. It were but lonesome,
then said Joe, living here alone, I got acquainted with your sister now,
Pip. Joe looked firmly at me, as if he knew I was
not going to agree with him.Your sister is a fine figure of a

(01:53:32):
woman. I could not help lookingat the fire in an obvious state of
doubt. Whatever family opinions, orwhatever the world's opinions on that subject may
be, Pip, your sister is. Joe tapped the top bar with a
poker after every word following a finefigure of a woman. Think of nothing

(01:54:00):
better to say than I'm glad youthink so, Joe. So am,
I returned, Joe, catching meup, I am glad I think so,
Pip. A little redness or alittle matter of bone here or there,
What does it signify to me?I sagaciously observed. If it didn't
signify to him, to whom didit signify? Certainly, assented Joe,

(01:54:28):
that's it. You're right, oldchap. When I got acquainted with your
sister, it'd were the talk howshe was bringing you up by hand.
Very kind of her, too,all the folks said, And I said,
along with all the folks as toyou, Joe pursued with a countenance
expressive of seeing something very nasty.Indeed, if you could have been aware

(01:54:53):
how small and flabby and mean youwas, dear me, you'd have formed
the most con temptible opinion of yourself. Not exactly relishing this, I said,
never mind me, Joe, butI did mind you, Pip.
He returned with tender simplicity. WhenI offered to your sister to keep company

(01:55:17):
and to be asked in church atsuch times as she was willing and ready
to come to the forge, Isaid to her, and bring the poor
little child. God bless the poorlittle child. I said to your sister,
there's room for him at the forge. I broke out, crying and

(01:55:38):
making pardon, and hugged Joe roundthe neck, who dropped the poker to
hug me, and to say,ever the best of friends, ain't us,
Pip, don't cry, old chap. When this little interruption was over,
Joe resumed, Well, yes see, Pip, and here we are.

(01:55:58):
That's about where it lies. Herewe are now when you take me
in hand in my learning, Pip. And I tell you beforehand I am
offful doll, most awful doll.Missus. Jo mustn't see too much of
what we're up to. It mustbe done as I may say on the
sly. And why on the sly, I'll tell you why, Pip.

(01:56:25):
He had taken up the poker again, without which I doubt if he could
have proceeded in his demonstration. Yoursister is given to government, given to
government. Joe. I was startled, for I had some shadowy idea,
and I'm afraid I must add hopethat Joe had divorced her in a favor

(01:56:46):
of the lords. Of the admiraltyor treasury given to government, said Joe.
What I means to say the governmentof you and myself. Oh and
she ain't over partial to having scholarson the premises, Joe continued, and

(01:57:06):
in particular would not be over partialto my being a scholar, for fear
as I might rise like a sortof rebel. Don't you see? I
was going to retort with an inquiryand had got as far as why when
Joe stopped me. Stay a bit. I know what you are going to

(01:57:28):
say, Pip, Stay a pit. I don't deny that your sister comes
the mogul over us now and again. I don't deny that she do throw
us back falls, and that shedo drop down upon us heavy at such
times as when your sister is onthe rampage, Pip. Joe sank his
voice to a whisper and glanced atthe door. Candor compels for to admit

(01:57:55):
that she is a buster. Joepronounced this word as if it began with
at least twelve capital bees. Whydon't I rise? That were your observation
when I broke it off, Pip, Yes, Joe, well, said
Joe, passing the poker into hisleft hand that he might feel his whisker,

(01:58:18):
and I had no hope of himwhenever he took to that placid occupation.
Your sister's a mastermind. A mastermind, what's that? I asked,
in some hope of bringing him toa stand. But Joe was readier with
his definition than I had expected,and completely stopped me by arguing circularly and

(01:58:42):
answering with a fixed look. Herand I ate a mastermind. Joe resumed
when he had unfixed his look andgot back to his whisker. And the
last of all, Pip, Andthis I want to say, very serious
to you, old Chap. Isee so much in my poor mother of

(01:59:03):
a woman drudging and slaving and breakingher honest heart and never getting no peace
in her mortal days, that I'mdead afeared of going wrong in the way
of not doing what's right by awoman. And I infer rather of the
two go wrong that the other way, and be a little ill convenienced myself.

(01:59:25):
I wish it was only me thatgot put out, Bip. I
wish there weren't no tickler for you, old Chap. I wish I could
take it all on myself. Butthis is the up and down and straight
on it, Pip, and Ihope you'll overlook shortcomings young as I was,
I believe that I dated a newadmiration of Joe from that night.

(01:59:47):
We were equals afterwards, as wehad been before. But afterwards, at
quiet times, when I sat lookingat Joe and thinking about him, I
had a new sensation of feeling kindthat I was looking up to Joe in
my heart. However, said Joe, rising to replenish the fire. Here's

(02:00:09):
the Dutch clock working himself up tobeing equal to strike eight of them,
and she's not come home yet.I hope Uncle Pumblechook's mayor mayn't have had
set a four foot on a pieceof ice and gone down. Missus Joe
made occasional trips with Uncle Pumblechook onmarket days to assist him in buying such

(02:00:30):
household stuffs and goods as required awoman's judgment. Uncle Pumblechuk being a bachelor
and reposing no confidence in his domesticservant, this was market day and Missus
Joe was out on one of theseexpeditions. Joe made the fire and swept
the hearth, and then we wentto the door to listen for the chaise
cart. It was a dry,cold night, and the wind blew keenly,

(02:00:56):
and the frost was white and hard. A man would die tonight of
lying out on the marshes, Ithought. And then I looked at the
stars and considered how awful it wouldbe for a man to turn his face
up to them as he froze todeath, and see no help or pity
in all the glittering multitude. Herecomes the Mare, said Joe, ringing

(02:01:17):
like a peal of bells. Thesound of her iron shoes upon the hard
road was quite musical, as shecame along in a much brisker trot than
usual. We got a chair outready for Missus Jo's alighting, and stirred
up the fire that they might seea bright window, and took a final
survey of the kitchen that nothing mightbe out of its place. When we

(02:01:41):
had completed these preparations, they droveup, rapped to the eyes. Missus
Jo was soon landed, and UnclePumblechook was soon down too, covering the
Mare with a cloth, and wewere soon all in the kitchen, carrying
so much cold air in with usthat it seemed to drive all the heat
out of the fire, now,said missus Jo, unwrapping herself with haste

(02:02:03):
and excitement, and throwing her bonnetback on her shoulders where it hung by
the strings. If this boy ain'tgrateful this night, he never will be.
I looked as grateful as any boypossibly could, who was wholly uninformed
why he ought to assume that expression. It's only to be hoped, said

(02:02:24):
my sister, that he won't bepoppied. But I have my fears.
She ain't in that line, Mum, said mister Pumblechook. She knows better.
She I looked at Joe, makingthe motion with my lips and eyebrows.
She Joe looked at me and makingthe motion with his lips and eyebrows.

(02:02:45):
She my sister, catching him inthe act. He drew the back
of his hand across his nose withhis usual conciliatory air on such occasions,
and looked at her. Well,said my sister, in her snappish way,
what are you staring at? Isthe house? The fire which some

(02:03:06):
individual Joe politely hinted mentioned she Andshe is a she, I suppose,
said my sister, unless you callmiss Havisham a he. And I doubt
if even you'll go so far asthat Miss Havisham Uptown, said Joe.

(02:03:28):
Is there any Miss Havisham downtown,returned my sister. She wants this boy
to go and play there, Andof course he's going, and he had
better play there, said my sister, shaking her head at me, as
an encouragement to be extremely light andsportive, or I'll work him. I
had heard of Miss Havisham Uptown.Everybody for miles round had heard of Miss

(02:03:54):
Havisham Uptown as an immensely rich andgrim lady who lived in a large and
dismal house, barricaded against robbers,and who led a life of seclusion.
Well, to be sure, saidJoe, astounded. I wonder how she
came to know pip Noodle, criedmy sister, who said she knew him,

(02:04:18):
which some individual. Joe again politelyhinted, mentioned that she wanted him
to go and play there, andcouldn't she ask Uncle Pumblechook if he knew
of a boy to go and playthere? Isn't it just barely possible that
Uncle pumblechuk may be attendant of hers, and that he may sometimes we won't

(02:04:41):
say quarterly or half yearly, forthat would be requiring too much of you,
But sometimes go there to pay hisrent, and couldn't She then ask
Uncle Pumblechook if he knew of aboy to go and play there, And
couldn't Uncle Pumblechook, being always considerateand thoughtful for us, us, though
you may not think it, Joseph, in a tone of the deepest reproach,

(02:05:04):
as if he were the most callousof nephews, then mention this boy
standing prancing here, which I solemnlydeclare I was not doing that. I
have forever been a willing slave togood. Again, cried Uncle Pumblechook,
well put privily pointed good. Indeed, now, Joseph, you know the

(02:05:29):
case, No, Joseph, saidmy sister, still in a reproachful manner,
while Joe apologetically drew the back ofhis hand across and across his nose.
You do not, yet, thoughyou may not think it, know
the case. You may consider thatyou do, But you do not,
Joseph, for you do not knowthat Uncle Pumblechook, being sensible, that

(02:05:51):
for anything we can tell this boy'sfortune may be made by his going to
Miss Havisham's has offered to take himinto town to night in his own chaise
cart, and to keep him tonight, and to take him with his
own hands to Miss Havisham's tomorrow morning. And Laura mussy me cried, my

(02:06:11):
sister casting off her bonnet in suddendesperation. Here I stand talking to mere
moon Calfs, with Uncle Pumblechook waiting, and the mare catching cold at the
door, and the boy grimed withcrock and dirt from the hair of his
head to the sole of his foot. With that she pounced upon me like
an eagle on a lamb, Andmy face was squeezed into wooden bowls and

(02:06:35):
sinks, and my head was putunder taps of water butts, and I
was soaped and kneaded and toweled,and thumped and harrowed and rasped, until
I really was quite beside myself.I may here remark that I suppose myself
to be better acquainted than any livingauthority with the ridgy effect of a wedding

(02:06:56):
ring passing unsympathetically over the human countenance. When my ablutions were completed, I
was put into clean linen of thestiffest character, like a young penitent into
sackcloth, and was trussed up inmy tightest and fearfulest suit. I was
then delivered over to mister pumblechuk whoformerly received me as if he were the

(02:07:16):
sheriff, and who let off uponme the speech that I knew he had
been dying to make all along.Boy, be forever grateful to all friends,
but especially unto them which brought youup by hand. Goodbye, Joe,
God bless you, pip old Chap. I had never parted from him

(02:07:41):
before, and what with my feelings, and what with soap SuDS, I
could at first see no stars fromthe chaise cart, but they twinkled out
one by one, without throwing anylight on the questions why on earth I
was going to play at Miss Havisham'sand what on earth I was expected to
play? At end of chapter chaptereight, mister Pumblechook's premises in the high

(02:08:20):
street of the market town were ofa peppercorny and farinaceous character, as the
premises of a corn chandler and seedsmenshould be. It appeared to me that
he must be a very happy man, indeed, to have so many little
drawers in his shop, And Iwondered when I peeped into one or two
on the lower tiers and saw thetied up brown paper packets inside. Whether

(02:08:43):
the flower, seeds and bulbs everwanted of a fine day to break out
of those jails and bloom. Itwas in the early morning after my arrival
that I entertained this speculation. Onthe previous night, I had been sent
straight to bed in an attic witha sloping roof, which was so low
in the corner where the bedstead wasthat I calculated the tiles as being within

(02:09:05):
a foot of my eyebrows. Inthe same early morning, I discovered a
singular affinity between seeds and corduroys.Mister Pumblechuk wore corduroys, and so did
his shopman, And somehow there wasa general air and flavor about the corduroys,
so much in the nature of seeds, and a general air and flavor

(02:09:26):
about the seeds so much in thenature of corduroys, that I hardly knew
which was which. The same opportunitiesserved me for noticing that mister Pumblechuk appeared
to conduct his business by looking acrossthe street at the saddler who appeared to
transact his business by keeping an eyeon the coachmaker, who appeared to get
on in life by putting his handsin his pockets and contemplating the baker,

(02:09:50):
who in his turn folded his armsand stared at the grocer who stood at
his door, and yawned at thechemist. The watchmaker, always pouring over
a little desk with a magnifying glassat his eye, and always inspected by
a group of smock frocks pouring overhim through the glass of his shop window,
seemed to be about the only personin the high Street whose trade engaged

(02:10:13):
his attention. Mister pumblechuk and Ibreakfasted at eight o'clock in the parlor behind
the shop, while the shopman tookhis mug of tea and hunk of bread
and butter on a sack of peasin the front premises. I considered mister
Pumblechook wretched company, besides being possessedby my sister's idea that a mortifying and
penitential character ought to be imparted tomy diet. Besides giving me as much

(02:10:39):
crumb as possible in combination with hislittle butter, and putting such a quantity
of warm water into my milk thatit would have been more candid to have
left the milk out Altogether. Hisconversation consisted of nothing but arithmetic. On
my politely bidding him good morning,he said, pompously, shaven times,

(02:11:00):
there was nine more? And howshould I be able to answer? Dodged
in that way in a strange place, on an empty stomach, I was
hungry, but before I had swalloweda morsel, he began a running sum
that lasted all through the breakfast,seven and four and eight and six and

(02:11:20):
two and ten and so on,And after each figure was disposed of,
it was as much as I coulddo to get a bite or a sup
before the next came, while hesat at his ease, guessing nothing and
eating bacon and hot roll in,if I may be allowed the expression a

(02:11:41):
gorging and gormandizing manner for such reasons, I was very glad when ten o'clock
came and we started for Miss Havishams, though I was not at all at
my ease regarding the manner in whichI should acquit myself under that lady's roof.
Within a quarter of an hour wecame to Miss Abisham's house, which

(02:12:01):
was of old brick and dismal,and had a great many iron bars to
it. Some of the windows hadbeen walled up. Of those that remained,
all the lower were rustily barred.There was a courtyard in front,
and that was barred, so wehad to wait, after ringing the bell
until some one should come to openit. While we waited at the gate,

(02:12:22):
I peeped in even then mister Pommelchuksaid I'm fourteen, but I pretended
not to hear him, and sawthat at the side of the house there
was a large brewery. No brewingwas going on in it, and none
seemed to have gone on for along long time. A window was raised,

(02:12:43):
and a clear voice demanded what name, to which my conductor replied Pombolchuk.
The voice returned quite right, andthe window was shut again, and
a young lady came across the courtyardwith keys in her hand. This said,
mister Pumblechuk, is Pip. Thisis Pip is? It returned the

(02:13:07):
young lady, who was very prettyand seemed very proud, Come in,
Pip. Mister Pumblechuk was coming inalso when she stopped him with the gait
Oh, she said, did youwish to see miss Havisham, if Miss
Havisham wished to see me returned misterPumblechuk discomfited, ah, said the girl.

(02:13:31):
But you see she don't. Shesaid it so finally, and in
such an undiscussable way, that misterPumblechuk, though in a condition of ruffled
dignity, could not protest. Buthe eyed me severely, as if I
had done anything to him, anddeparted with the words reproachfully delivered. Boy,

(02:13:52):
let your behavior here be a creditunto them which brought you up by
hand. I was not free fromapprehension that he would come back to propound
through the gate. I'm sixteen.But he didn't. My young conductress locked
the gate and we went across thecourtyard. It was paved and clean,
but grass was growing in every crevice. The brewery buildings had a little lane

(02:14:16):
of communication with it, and thewooden gates of that lane stood open,
and all the brewery beyond stood openaway to the high enclosing wall, and
all was empty and disused. Thecold wind seemed to blow colder there than
outside the gate, and it madea shrill noise in howling in and out
at the open sides of the brewerylike the noise of wind and the rigging

(02:14:39):
of a ship at sea. Shesaw me looking at it, and she
said, you could drink without hurtall the strong beer that's brewed there now.
Boy, I should think I could, miss, said I in a
shy way. Better not try tobrew beer there now, or it would
turn out sour. Don't you thinkso? It looks like it, miss,

(02:15:05):
Not that anybody means to try,she added, For that's all done
with, and the place will standas idle as it is till it falls.
As to strong beer, there's enoughof it in the cellars already to
drown the manor house. Is thatthe name of this house? Miss one
of its names? Boy, ithas more than one than miss one more.

(02:15:31):
Its other name was Sattus, whichis Greek or Latin or Hebrew or
all three or all one? Tome, far enough enough, house,
said I. That's a curious name. Miss yes, she replied, but
it meant more than it said.It meant when it was given that whoever

(02:15:56):
had this house could want nothing else. They must have been easily satisfied in
those days, I should think,but don't loiter, boy, Though she
called me boy so often, andwith a carelessness that was far from complimentary.
She was of about my own age. She seemed much older than I,
of course, being a girl andbeautiful and self possessed, and she

(02:16:20):
was as scornful of me as ifshe had been one and twenty and a
queen. We went into the houseby a side door. The great front
entrance had two chains across it outside, and the first thing I noticed was
that the passages were all dark,and that she had left a candle burning
there. She took it up,and we went through more passages an up

(02:16:43):
a staircase, and still it wasall dark, and only the candle lighted
us. At last we came tothe door of a room, and she
said go in. I answered,more in shyness than politeness. After you
miss to this, she returned,don't be ridiculous, boy, I am

(02:17:05):
not going in, and scornfully walkedaway, and what was worse, took
the candle with her. This wasvery uncomfortable, and I was half afraid.
However, the only thing to bedone being to knock at the door.
I knocked and was told from withinto enter. I entered therefore,
and found myself in a pretty largeroom well lighted with wax candles. No

(02:17:31):
glimpse of daylight was to be seenin it. It was a dressing room,
as I supposed from the furniture,though much of it was of forms
and uses then quite unknown to me. But prominent in it was a draped
table with a gilded looking glass,and that I made out at first sight
to be a fine lady's dressing table. Whether I should have made out this

(02:17:52):
object so soon if there had beenno fine lady sitting at it, I
cannot say. In an arm chairwith an elbow resting on the table,
and her head leaning on that hand, sat the strangest lady I have ever
seen, or shall ever see.She was dressed in rich materials, satins
and lace and silks, all ofwhite. Her shoes were white, and

(02:18:18):
she had a long white veil dependedfrom her hair, and she had bridal
flowers in her hair, but herhair was white. Some bright jewels sparkled
on her neck and on her hands, and some other jewels lay sparkling on
the table. Dresses less splendid thanthe dress she wore, and half packed
trunks were scattered about. She hadnot quite finished dressing, for she had

(02:18:41):
but one shoe on the other wason the table near her hand. Her
veil was but half arranged, herwatch and chain were not put on,
and some lace for her bosom laywith those trinkets, and with her handkerchief
and gloves, and some flowers,and a prayer book, all confus usedly
heaped about the looking glass. Itwas not in the first few moments that

(02:19:05):
I saw all these things, thoughI saw more of them in the first
moments than might be supposed. ButI saw that everything within my view which
ought to be white, had beenwhite long ago, and had lost its
luster, and was faded and yellow. I saw that the bride within the
bridle dress had withered, like thedress, and like the flowers, and

(02:19:26):
had no brightness left but the brightnessof her sunken eyes. I saw that
the dress had been put upon therounded figure of a young woman, and
that the figure upon which it nowhung loose, had shrunk to skin and
bone. Once I had been takento see some ghastly waxwork at the fair,
representing I know not what impossible personagelying in state. Once I had

(02:19:50):
been taken to one of our oldmarsh churches to see a skeleton in the
ashes of a rich dress that hadbeen dug out of a vault under the
church pavement. Now waxwork and skeletonseemed to have dark eyes that moved and
looked at me. I should havecried out if I could. What is
it? Said the lady at thetable, Pip, ma'am, Pip,

(02:20:16):
mister Pumblechook's boy, ma'am, cometo play. Come nearer, Let me
look at you. Come close.It was when I stood before her,
avoiding her eyes, that I tooknote of the surrounding objects in detail,
and saw that her watch had stoppedat twenty minutes to nine, and that

(02:20:37):
a clock in the room had stoppedat twenty minutes to nine. Look at
me, said miss abisham. Youare not afraid of a woman who has
never seen the sun since you wereborn. I regret to state that I
was not afraid of telling the enormouslie comprehended in the answer. No,

(02:21:00):
do you know what I touch here? She said, laying her hands one
upon the other on her left side. Yes, ma'am, it made me
think of the young man. Whatdo I touch? Your heart broken?

(02:21:20):
She uttered the word with an eagerlook and with strong emphasis, and with
a weird smile that had a kindof boast in it. Afterwards, she
kept her hands there for a littlewhile and slowly took them away, as
if they were heavy. I amtired, said Miss Havisham. I want
diversion, and I have done withmen and women play. I think it

(02:21:45):
will be conceded by my most disputatiousreader that she could hardly have directed an
unfortunate boy to do anything in thewide world more difficult to be done under
the circumstances. I sometimes I havesick fancies, she went on, and
I have a sick fancy that Iwant to see some play there there,

(02:22:09):
with an impatient movements of the fingersof her right hand, play play play
for a moment, with the fearof my sister's working me before my eyes.
I had a desperate idea of startinground the room in the assumed character
of mister Pumbleshook's chaise cart. ButI felt myself so unequal to the performance

(02:22:31):
that I gave it up and stoodlooking at Miss Havisham in what I suppose
she took for a dogged manner,inasmuch as she said, when we had
taken a good look at each other. Are you sullen and obstinate? No,
ma'am, I'm very sorry for you, very sorry. I can't play
just now. If you complain ofme, I shall get into trouble with

(02:22:54):
my sister. So I would doit if I could. But it's so
new here and so strange and sofine and melancholy. I stopped, fearing
I might say too much or hadalready said it, and we took another
look at each other Before she spokeagain. She turned her eyes from me

(02:23:15):
and looked at the dress she wore, and at the dressing table, and
finally at herself in the looking glass. So new to him, she muttered,
so old to me, so strangeto him, so familiar to me,
so melancholy to both of us.Call Estella. As she was still

(02:23:39):
looking at the reflection of herself,I thought she was still talking to herself,
and kept quiet. Call Estella,she repeated, flashing a look at
me. You can do that.Call Estella at the door to stand in
the dark in a mysterious passage ofan unknown house, bawling Estella to a

(02:24:03):
scornful young lady, neither visible norresponsive, and feeling it a dreadful liberty
so to roar out her name wasalmost as bad as playing to order.
But she answered at last, andher light came along the dark passage like
a star. Miss Havisham beckoned herto come close, and took a jewel

(02:24:24):
from the table and tried its effectupon her fair, young bosom, and
against her pretty brown hair. Yourown one day, my dear, and
you will use it. Well,let me see you play cards with this
boy. With this boy, whyhe is a common laboring boy, I

(02:24:46):
thought, I overheard Miss Havisham answer, only it seems so unlikely. Well,
you can break his heart. Whatdo you play, boy, asked
Estella of myself, with the greatestdisdain. Nothing but beggar, my neighbor,
Miss Beggar him, said Miss Havishamto Estella. So we sat down

(02:25:13):
to cards. It was then Ibegan to understand that everything in the room
had stopped, like the watch andthe clock a long time ago. I
noticed that Miss Havisham put down thejewel exactly on the spot from which she
had taken it up. As Estelladealt the cards, I glanced at the
dressing table again and saw that theshoe upon it, once white, now

(02:25:37):
yellow had never been worn. Iglanced down at the foot from which the
shoe was absent, and saw thatthe silk stocking on it, once white,
now yellow, had been trodden ragged. Without this arrest of everything,
this standing still, of all thepale, decayed objects, not even the
withered bridle dress on the collapse formcould have looked so like grave clothes,

(02:26:01):
or the long veil so like ashroud. So she sat corpselike as we
played at cards, the frillings andtrimmings on her bridle dress looking like earthy
paper. I knew nothing then ofthe discoveries that are occasionally made of bodies
buried in ancient times, which fallto powder in the moment of being distinctly

(02:26:24):
seen. But I have often thoughtsince that she must have looked as if
the admission of the natural light ofday would have struck her to dust.
He calls the knaves jacks, thisboy, said Estella with disdain, before
our first game was out. Andwhat coarse hands he has, and what

(02:26:45):
thick boots. I had never thoughtof being ashamed of my hands before,
but I began to consider them avery indifferent pair. Her contempt for me
was so strong that it became infectiousand I caught it. She won the
game, and I dealt. Imisdealt as was only natural when I knew

(02:27:05):
she was lying in wait for meto do wrong, and she denounced me
for a stupid, clumsy, laboringboy. You say nothing of her,
remarked Miss Havisham to me, asshe looked on. She says many hard
things of you, but you saynothing of her. What do you think

(02:27:28):
of her? I don't like tosay, I stammered, Tell me in
my ear, said Miss Havisham,bending down. I think she is very
proud, I replied in a whisper. Anything else, I think she is

(02:27:50):
very pretty. Anything else, Ithink she is very insulting. She was
looking at me then with a lookof supreme aversion. Anything else, I
think I should like to go homeand never see her again. Though she

(02:28:13):
is so pretty. I'm not surethat I shouldn't like to see her again,
but I should like to go home. Now you shall go soon,
said Miss Havisham aloud. Play thegame out, saving for the one weird
smile. At first, I shouldhave felt almost sure that Miss Havisham's face

(02:28:35):
could not smile. It had droppedinto a watchful and brooding expression, most
likely when all the things about herhad become transfixed, and it looked as
if nothing could ever lift it upagain. Her chest had dropped so that
she stooped, and her voice haddropped so that she spoke low and with
a dead lull upon her. Altogethershe had the appearance of having dropped body

(02:28:58):
and sold all within and without underthe weight of a crushing blow. I
played the game to an end withEstella, and she beggared me. She
threw the cards down on the tablewhen she had won them all, as
if she despised them for having beenone of me. When shall I have
you here again? Said miss Havisham. Let me think. I was beginning

(02:29:24):
to remind her that today was Wednesdaywhen she checked me with her former impatient
movements of the fingers of her righthand. There there. I know nothing
of days of the week. Iknow nothing of weeks of the year.
Come again after six days, youhear, yes, ma'am Estella, Take

(02:29:46):
him down, let him have somethingto eat, and let him roam and
look about him while he eats.Go Pip. I followed the candle down
as I had followed the candle up, and she stood it in the place
where we had found it until sheopened the side entrance. I had fancied,

(02:30:07):
without thinking about it, that itmust necessarily be night time. The
rush of the daylight quite confounded me, and made me feel as if I
had been in the candlelight of thestrange room many hours. You ought to
wait here, you boy, saidEstella, and disappeared and closed the door.

(02:30:28):
I took the opportunity of being alonein the courtyard to look at my
coarse hands in my common boots.My opinion of those accessories was not favorable.
They had never troubled me before,but they troubled me now as vulgar
appendages. I determined to ask Joewhy he had ever taught me to call
those picture cards jacks, which oughtto be called knaves. I wished Joe

(02:30:52):
had been rather more Genteelly brought upand than I should have been so too.
She came back with some bread andmeat and a little mug of beer.
She put the mug down on thestones of the yard and gave me
the bread and meat without looking atme, as insolently as if I were
a dog in disgrace. I wasso humiliated, hurt, spurned, offended,

(02:31:16):
angry. Sorry, I cannot hitupon the right name for the smart,
God knows what its name was.The tears started to my eyes the
moment they sprang there. The girllooked at me with a quick delight in
having been the cause of them.This gave me power to keep them back,
and to look at her. Soshe gave me a contemptuous toss,

(02:31:39):
but with a sense I thought ofhaving made too sure that I was so
wounded, and left me. Butwhen she was gone, I looked about
me for a place to hide myface in, and got behind one of
the gates in the brewery lane,and leaned my sleeve against the wall there,
and leaned my forehead on it,and cried. As I cried,

(02:32:01):
I kicked the wall and took ahard twist at my hair. So bitter
with my feelings and so sharp wasthe smart without a name that needed counteraction.
My sisters bringing up had made mesensitive. In the little world in
which children have their existence, whosoeverbrings them up, there is nothing so
finely perceived and so finely felt asinjustice. It may be only small injustice

(02:32:26):
that the child can be exposed to. But the child is small, and
its world is small, and itsrocking horse stands as many hands high according
to scale. As a big bonedIrish hunter within myself, I had sustained
from my babyhood a perpetual conflict withinjustice. I had known from the time

(02:32:48):
when I could speak, that mysister, in her capricious and violent coercion,
was unjust to me. I hadcherished a profound conviction that her bringing
me up by hand gave her noright to bring me up by jerks.
Through all my punishments, disgraces,fasts and vigils, and other penitential performances,

(02:33:09):
I had nursed this assurance, andto my communing so much with it
in a solitary and unprotected way,I in great part referred the fact that
I was morally timid and very sensitive. I got rid of my injured feelings
for the time by kicking them intothe brewery wall and twisting them out of
my hair. And then I smoothedmy face with my sleeve and came from

(02:33:33):
behind the gate. The bread andmeat were acceptable, and the beer was
warming and tingling, and I wassoon in spirits to look about me to
be sure, it was a desertedplace down to the pigeon house in the
brewery yard, which been blown crookedon its pole by some high wind,
and would have made the pigeons thinkthemselves at sea, if there had been

(02:33:56):
any pigeons there to be rocked byit. But there were no pigeons in
the dove cot, no horses inthe stable, no pigs in the sty,
no malt in the storehouse, nosmells of grains and beer in the
copper or the vat all the usesand scents of the brewery might have evaporated

(02:34:16):
with its last reek of smoke.In a bay yard, there was a
wilderness of empty casks which had acertain sour remembrance of better days lingering about
them. But it was too sourto be accepted as a sample of the
beer that was gone. And inthis respect I remember those recluses as being
like most others. Behind the farthestend of the brewery was a rank garden

(02:34:41):
with an old wall, not sohigh but that I could struggle up and
hold on long enough to look overit and see that the rank garden was
the garden of the house, andthat it was overgrown with tangled weeds,
but that there was a track uponthe green and yellow paths, as if
some one sometimes walk there, andthat Estella was walking away from me even

(02:35:03):
then. But she seemed to beeverywhere, For when I yielded to the
temptation presented by the casks and beganto walk on them, I saw her
walking on them. At the endof the yard of casks. She had
her back towards me, and heldher pretty brown hair spread out in her
two hands, and never looked round, and passed out of my view directly

(02:35:26):
so in the brewery itself, bywhich I mean the large, paved,
lofty space in which they used tomake the beer, and where the brewing
utensils still were when I first wentinto it, and, rather oppressed by
its gloom, stood near the door, looking about me. I saw her
pass among the extinguished fires, andascend some light iron stairs and go out

(02:35:48):
by a gallery high overhead, asif she were going out into the sky.
It was in this place, andat this moment that a strange thing
happened to me. I fancy.I thought it a strange thing then,
and I thought it a stranger thinglong afterwards. I turned my eyes a

(02:36:09):
little dimmed by looking up at thefrosty light towards a great wooden beam in
a low nook of the building nearme on my right hand, and I
saw a figure hanging there by theneck, a figure all in yellow white,
with but one shoe to the feet, and it hung so that I
could see that the faded trimmings ofthe dress were like earthy paper, and

(02:36:31):
that the face was Miss Havisham's,with a movement going over the whole countenance,
as if she were trying to callto me. In the terror of
seeing the figure, and in theterror of being certain that it had not
been there a moment before, Iat first ran from it, and then
ran towards it. And my terrorwas greatest of all when I found no

(02:36:52):
figure there. Nothing less than thefrosty light of the cheerful sky, the
sight of people passing beyond the barsof the courtyard gate, and the reviving
influence of the rest of the breadand meat and beer would have brought me
round. Even with those aides,I might not have come to myself as
soon as I did. But thatI saw Estella approaching with the keys to

(02:37:15):
let me out, she would havesome fair reason for looking down upon me.
I thought if she saw me frightened, and she would have no fair
reason. She gave me a triumphantglance in passing me, as if she
rejoiced that my hands were so coarseand my boots were so thick, and
she opened the gate and stood holdingit. I was passing out without looking

(02:37:37):
at her when she touched me witha taunching hand. Why don't you cry
because I don't want to, youdo, said she. You have been
crying till you are half blind,and you are near crying again. Now
she laughed, contemptuously, pushed meout and locked the gate upon me.

(02:37:58):
I I went straight to mister Pumblechooksand was immensely relieved to find him not
at home, so leaving word withthe shopmen on what day I was wanted
at Miss Havishams again, I setoff on the four mile walk to our
forge, pondering as I went alongon all I had seen, and deeply
revolving that I was a common laboringboy, that my hands were coarse,

(02:38:22):
that my boots were thick, thatI had fallen into a despicable habit of
calling knaves jacks, that I wasmuch more ignorant than I had considered myself
last night, and generally that Iwas in a low lived bad way.
End of chapter chapter nine. WhenI reached home, my sister was very

(02:38:56):
curious to know all about Miss Havishams, and asked a number of questions,
and I soon found myself getting heavilybumped from behind in the nape of the
neck, in the small of theback, and having my face ignominiously shoved
against the kitchen wall because I didnot answer those questions at sufficient length.
If a dread of not being understoodbe hidden in the breasts of other young

(02:39:18):
people to anything like the extent towhich it used to be hidden in mine,
which I consider probable, as Ihave no particular reason to suspect myself
of having been a monstrosity, itis the key to many reservations. I
felt convinced that if I described MissHavisham's as my eyes had seen it,
I should not be understood. Notonly that, but I felt convinced that

(02:39:41):
Miss Havisham too would not be understood. And although she was perfectly incomprehensible to
me, I entertained an impression thatthere would be something coarse and treacherous in
my dragging her as she really was, to say nothing of Missus Stella before
the contemplation of Missus Joe. Consequently, I said as little as I could,

(02:40:03):
and had my face shoved against thekitchen wall. The worst of it
was that the bullying old Pumblechook,preyed upon by a devouring curiosity to be
informed of all I had seen andheard, came gaping over in his chaise
cart at tea time to have thedetails divulged to him. And the mere
sight of the torment, with hisfishy eyes and mouth open, his sandy

(02:40:28):
hair inquisitively on end, and hiswaistcoat heaving with windy arithmetic, made me
vicious in my reticence. Well,boy, uncle Pumblechook began as soon as
he was seated in the chair ofhonor by the fire, How did you
get on up town, I answered, pretty well, sir, And my

(02:40:48):
sister shook her fist at me.Pretty well, mister pumblechuk repeated, pretty
well, is no answer. Tellus what you mean by pretty well?
Boy. Whitewash on the forehead hardensthe brain into a state of obstinacy.
Perhaps anyhow, with whitewash from thewall on my forehead. My obstinacy was

(02:41:11):
adamantine. I reflected for some time, and then answered, as if I
had discovered a new idea. Imean pretty well. My sister, with
an exclamation of impatience, was goingto fly at me. I had no
shadow of defense, for Joe wasbusy in the forge when mister Pumblechuk interposed

(02:41:31):
with, no, don't lose yourtemper. Leave this lad to me,
ma'am, leave this lad to me. Mister Pumblechok then turned me towards him
as if he were going to cutmy hair, and said, first to
get our thoughts in order forty threepence. I calculated the consequence of replying four

(02:41:54):
hundred pound, and finding them againstme, went as near the answer as
I could, which was somewhere abouteightpence off. Mister Pumblechook then put me
through my pence table from twelvepence,make one shilling up to forty pence,
make three and fourpence, and thentriumphantly demanded, as if he had done

(02:42:16):
for me, now, how muchis forty threepence, to which I replied,
after a long interval of reflection,I don't know, And I was
so aggravated that I almost doubt ifI did know. Mister Pumblechook worked his
head like a screw to screw itout of me, and said, is

(02:42:37):
forty threepence seven and sixpence three farthensfor instance? Yes, said I,
And although my sister instantly boxed myears, it was highly gratifying to me
to see that the answer spoilt hisjoke and brought him to a dead stop.
Boy, what like is miss Havisham? Mister Pumblechuck began again, when

(02:43:01):
he had recovered, folding his armstight on his chest and applying the screw
very tall and dark, I toldhim, is she? Uncle? Asked
my sister. Mister Pumblechuk winked assent, from which I at once inferred that
he had never seen miss Havisham,for she was nothing of the kind good,

(02:43:24):
said mister Pumblechuk, conceitedly. Thisis the way to have him.
We are beginning to hold our own, I think, Mum. I am
sure, Uncle returned missus Joe.I wish you had him always. You
know so well how to deal withhim. No, boy, what was
she a doing of when you wentin today? Asked mister Pumblechuk, she

(02:43:48):
was sitting, I answered in ablack velvet coach. Mister Pumblechuk and missus
Joe stared at one another as theywell might, and both repeated in a
black velvet coach, Yes, saidI, and miss a Stella, that's
her niece, I think handed herin cake and wine at the coach window

(02:44:11):
on a gold plate. And weall had cake and wine on gold plates.
And I got up behind the coachto eat mine because she told me
to. Was anybody else there,asked mister Pumblechuk. Four dogs, said
I, large or small? Immense, said I, and they fought for

(02:44:35):
veal cutlets out of a silver basket. Mister Pumblechook and missus Joe stared at
one another again in utter amazement.I was perfectly frantic, a reckless witness
under the torture, and would havetold them anything. Where was this coach
in the name of Cracius, askedmy sister in Miss Havisham's room. They

(02:44:58):
stared again, but there weren't anyhorses to it. I added this saving
clause, and the moment of rejectingfour richly caparisoned coursers, which I had
had wild thoughts of harnessing. Canthis be? Uncle asked missus Jo.
What can the bois mean? I'lltell you, mum, said mister Pumblechuk.

(02:45:20):
My opinion is it's a sedan chair. She's flighty, you know,
very flighty, quite flighty enough topass her days in a sedan chair.
Did you ever see her in it? Uncle asked missus Jo. How could
I he returned, forced to theadmission, when I never see her in

(02:45:43):
my life, never clapt eyes uponher. Goodness, Uncle, and yet
you have spoken to her. Whydon't you know, said mister Pumblechuk testily
that when I have been there,I have been took up to the outside
of her door. On the doorhas stood ajar, and she has spoke

(02:46:03):
to me that way. Don't sayyou don't know that, mum. Howsoever,
the boy went there to play.What did you play at? Boy?
We played with flags, I said, I begged to observe that.
I think of myself with amazement whenI recalled the lies I told on this
occasion, flags echoed my sister,Yes, said I. Estella waved a

(02:46:30):
blue flag, and I waved ared one, and Miss Havisham waved one
sprinkled all over with little gold starsout at the coach window, and then
we all waved our swords and hurrodswords, repeated my sister, Where did
you get swords from? Out ofa cupboard? Said I? And I
saw pistols in it, and jamand pills, and there was no daylight

(02:46:56):
in the room, but it wasall lighted up with candles. That's true,
ma'am, said mister Pumblechook, witha grave nod. That's the state
of the case. For that muchI've seen myself. And then they both
stared at me, and I,with an obtrusive show of artlessness on my
countenance, stared at them and plaitedthe right leg of my trousers with my

(02:47:18):
right hand. If they had askedme any more questions, I should undoubtedly
have betrayed myself, for I waseven then on the point of mentioning that
there was a balloon in the yard, and should have hazarded the statement,
but for my invention being divided betweenthat phenomenon and a bear in the brewery.
They were so much occupied, however, in discussing the marvels I had

(02:47:41):
already presented for their consideration that Iescaped the subject still held them when Joe
came in from his work to havea cup of tea, to whom my
sister more for the relief of herown mind than for the gratification of his,
related my pretended experiences. Now,when I saw Joe open his blue

(02:48:03):
eyes and rolled them all round thekitchen in helpless amazement, I was overtaken
with penitents, and only as regardedhim, not in the least as regarded
the other two. Towards Joe andJoe, only I considered myself a young
monster. While they sat debating whatresults would come to me from Miss Havisham's
acquaintance and favor, they had nodoubt that Miss Havisham would do something for

(02:48:28):
me. Their doubts related to theform that something would take. My sister
stood out for property. Mister Pomblechukwas in favor of a handsome premium for
binding me apprentice to some genteel trade, say the corn and seed trade,
for instance. Joe fell into thedeepest disgrace with both for offering the bright

(02:48:50):
suggestion that I might only be presentedwith one of the dogs who had fought
for the veal cutlets. If afool's head can't express better opinions than that,
said my sister. And you havegot any work to do, you
had better go and do it.So he went after mister Pumblechook had driven
off, and when my sister waswashing up, I stole into the forge

(02:49:13):
to Joe and remained by him untilhe had done for the night. Then
I said, before the fires goout, Joe, I should like to
tell you something, should you,pep said Joe, drawing his shoeing stool
near the forge. Then tell uswhat is it, Pip, Joe said,
I, taking hold of his rolledup shirt sleeve and twisting it between

(02:49:37):
my finger and thumb. You rememberall that about miss Havisham's, remember,
said Joe. I believe you wonderful. It's a terrible thing, Joe.
It ain't true. What are youtelling off? Pip, cried Joe,
falling back in the greatest amazement.You don't mean it's yes, I do.

(02:50:01):
It's lies, Joe, but notall of it. Why sure you
don't mean to say, Pip thatthere was no black velvet coach, for
I stood shaking my head. Butat least there were dogs, Pip.
Come, Pip, said Joe persuasively. If there weren't novial cutlets. At

(02:50:24):
least there was dogs, no Joe, a dog, said Joe, A
puppy, Come, no, Joe, there was nothing at all of the
kind. As I fixed my eyeshopelessly on Joe, Joe contemplated me in
dismay. Pip old chap, thiswon't do, old fellow. I say,

(02:50:48):
where do you expect to go to? It's terrible, Joe, Ain't
it terrible? Cried Joe. Awfulwhat possessed you? I don't know what
possessed me, Joe, I replied, letting his shirt sleeve go, and
sitting down in the ashes at hisfeet, hanging my head. But I

(02:51:09):
wish you hadn't taught me to callknaves at cards jacks. And I wish
my boots weren't so thick, normy hands so coarse. And then I
told Joe that I felt very miserable, and that I hadn't been able to
explain myself to missus Joe and Pumblechook, who were so rude to me,
and that there had been a beautifulyoung lady at Miss Havisham's who was dreadfully

(02:51:31):
proud, and that she had saidI was common, and that I knew
I was common, and that Iwished I was not common, and that
the lies had come out of itsomehow, though I didn't know how.
This was a case of metaphysics atleast as difficult for Joe to deal with
as for me. But Joe tookthe case altogether out of the region of

(02:51:52):
metaphysics, and by that means vanquishedit. There's one thing you may be
sure of, Pip, said Joe, after some rumination, namely that lies
is lies. Howsoever they come,they didn't ought to come, and they
come from the Father of lies,and work round to the same. Don't

(02:52:13):
you tell no more of them,Pip. That ain't the way to get
out of being common, old chap. And as to being common, I
don't make it out at all clear. You are uncommon in some things.
You're uncommon small likewise, you're anuncommon scholar. No, I am ignorant,

(02:52:35):
backward Joe. Why see what aletter you wrote last night wrote in
print? Even I've seen letters,ah, and from gentlefolks that I'll swear
weren't wrote in print, said Joe. I have learnt next to nothing.
Joe, you think much of me? It's only that well, oh,

(02:53:00):
Pip said, Joe, be itso or be it son? You must
be a common scholar, afore youcan be an uncommon one. I should
hope the king, upon his throne, with his ground upon his head,
can't sit and write his acts ofparliament in print without having begun when he
was an unpromoted prince with the alphabetah, added Joe, with a shake

(02:53:24):
of the head that was full ofmeaning, and begun at a two and
worked his way to Z. AndI know what that is to do,
though I can't say I've exactly doneit. There was some hope in this
piece of wisdom, and it ratherencouraged me. Whether common ones says to
callings and earnings pursued Joe reflectively,mightn't be the better of continuing for to

(02:53:50):
keep company with common ones instead ofgoing out to play with uncommon ones,
which reminds me to hope that therewas a flag. Perhaps no, Joe,
I'm sorry there weren't a flag,Pip. Whether that might be or
mightn't be is a thing as can'tbe looked into now without putting your sister

(02:54:13):
on the rampage. And that's athing not to be thought of as being
done intentional. Look you here,Pip, at what is said to you
by a true friend, which thisto you. The true friends say,
if you can't get to be uncommonthrough going straight, you'll never get to
do it through going crooked. Sodon't tell no more on him, Pip,

(02:54:35):
and live well and die happy.You are not angry with me,
Joe, no, old chap.But bearing in mind that them were which
I mean to say, of astunning and outdacious sort, alluding to them
which bordered on real cutlets and dogfighting, a sincere will wisher would advise,

(02:54:58):
Pip, they're being dropped into yourmeditations when you go upstairs to bed.
That's all, old Chap, Anddon't never do it no more.
When I got up to my littleroom and said my prayers, I did
not forget Joe's recommendation. And yetmy young mind was in that disturbed and
unthankful state that I thought, longafter I laid me down, how common

(02:55:22):
Estella would consider Joe a mere blacksmith, how thick his boots and how coarse
his hands. I thought, howJoe and my sister were then sitting in
the kitchen, and how I hadcome up to bed from the kitchen,
and how Miss Havisham and Estella neversat in a kitchen, but were far
above the level of such common doings. I fell asleep recalling what I used

(02:55:46):
to do when I was at MissHavisham's, as though I had been there
weeks or months instead of hours,and as though it were quite an old
subject of remembrance instead of one thatit had risen only that day. That
was a memorable day to me,for it made great changes in me.
But it is the same with anylife. Imagine one selected day struck out

(02:56:11):
of it, and think how differentits course would have been. Pause you
who read this, and think fora moment of the long chain of iron
or gold, of thorns or flowersthat would never have bound you but for
the formation of the first link onone memorable day. End of chapter Chapter

(02:56:43):
ten. The felicitous idea occurred tome a morning or two later, when
I woke that the best step Icould take towards making myself uncommon was to
get out of Biddy everything she knew. In pursuance of this luminous conception,
I mentioned to Biddy when I wentto mister Wopsle's Great Aunts at night,

(02:57:03):
that I had a particular reason forwishing to get on in life, and
that I should feel very much obligedto her if she would impart all her
learning to me. Biddy, whowas the most obliging of girls, immediately
said she would, and indeed beganto carry out her promise within five minutes.
The educational scheme or course established bymister Wopsle's great aunt may be resolved

(02:57:28):
into the following synopsis. The pupilsate apples and put straws down one another's
backs, until mister Wopsle's great auntcollected her energies and made an indiscriminate totter
at them with a birch rod.After receiving the charge with every mark of
derision, the pupils formed in lineand buzzingly passed a ragged book from hand
to hand. The book had analphabet in it, some figures in tables,

(02:57:52):
and a little spelling. That isto say, it had had once.
As soon as this volume began tocirculate, mister Wopsle's great aunt fell
into a state of coma, arisingeither from sleep or a rheumatic paroxysm.
The pupils then entered among themselves upona competitive examination on the subject of boots,

(02:58:13):
with the view of ascertaining who couldtread the hardest upon whose toes.
This mental exercise lasted until Biddy madea rush at them and distributed three defaced
bibles, shaped as if they hadbeen unskillfully cut off the chump end of
something more illegibly printed at the bestthan any curiosities of literature I have since

(02:58:35):
met, with speckled all over withiron mold, and having various specimens of
the insect world smashed between their leaves. This part of the course was usually
lightened by several single combats between Biddyand refractory students. When the fights were
over, Biddy gave out the numberof a page, and then we all
read aloud what we could or whatwe couldn't, in a frightful chorus,

(02:59:01):
Biddy leading with a high, shrill, monotonous voice, and none of us
having the least notion of or reverencefor what we were reading about. When
this horrible din had lasted a certaintime, it mechanically awoke mister Wopsle's great
aunt, who staggered at a boyfratuitously and pulled his ears. This was
understood to terminate the course for theevening, and we emerged into the air

(02:59:24):
with shrieks of intellectual victory. Itis fair to remark that there was no
prohibition against any pupils entertaining himself witha slate or even with the ink when
there was any, but that itwas not easy to pursue that branch of
study in the winter season, onaccount of the little general shop in which
the classes were holding, and whichwas also mister Wopsle's great aunt's sitting room

(02:59:48):
in bedchamber, being but faintly illuminatedthrough the agency of one low spirited clip
candle and no snuffers. It appearedto me that it would take time to
become uncommon under these circumstances. Nevertheless, I resolved to try it, and
that very evening Biddy entered on ourspecial agreement by imparting some information from her

(03:00:09):
little catalog of prices under the headof Moist Sugar, and leading me to
copy at home a large old Englishd which she had imitated from the heading
of some newspaper, and which Isupposed until she told me what it was
to be a design for a buckle. Of course, there was a public

(03:00:30):
house in the village, and ofcourse Joe liked sometimes to smoke his pipe
there. I had received strict ordersfrom my sister to call for him at
the Three Jolly Bargemen that evening onmy way from school and bring him home
at my peril to the Three JollyBargemen. Therefore I directed my steps.
There was a bar at the JollyBargemen with some alarmingly long chalk scores in

(03:00:54):
it on the wall at the sideof the door, which seemed to me
to be never paid off. Theyhad been there ever since I could remember,
and had grown more than I had. But there was a quantity of
chalk about our country, and perhapsthe people neglected no opportunity of turning it
to account. It being Saturday night, I found the landlord looking rather grimly

(03:01:16):
at these records, but as mybusiness was with Joe and not with him,
I merely wished him good evening andpassed into the common room at the
end of the passage, where therewas a bright, large kitchen fire,
and where Joe was smoking his pipein company with mister Wopsle and a stranger.
Joe greeted me as usual with Hallopip Old chap and the moment he

(03:01:39):
said that, the stranger turned hishead and looked at me. He was
a secret looking man whom I havenever seen before. His head was all
on one side, and one ofhis eyes was half shut up, as
if he were taking aim at somethingwith an invisible gun. He had a
pipe in his mouth, and hetook it out, and, after slowly

(03:02:00):
blowing all his smoke away and lookinghard at me all the time, nodded.
So I nodded, and then henodded again and made room on the
settle beside him that I might sitdown there. But as I was used
to sit beside Joe whenever I enteredthat place of resort, I said no,
thank you, sir, and fellinto the space Joe made for me

(03:02:24):
on the opposite settle. The strangeman, after glancing at Joe and seeing
that his attention was otherwise engaged,nodded to me again when I had taken
my seat, and then rubbed hisleg in a very odd way. As
it struck me, you was saying, said the strange man, turning to

(03:02:45):
Joe, that you was a blacksmith. Yes, I said it, you
know, said Joe. What'll youdrink? Mister, you didn't mention your
name by the bye. Joe mentionedit now, and the strange man called
him by it. What'll you drink, mister Gagery, at my expense to

(03:03:05):
top up with? Well, saidJoe. To tell you the truth,
I ain't much in the habit ofdrinking at anybody's expense, but my own
habit, no, returned the stranger. But once in a way, and
on a Saturday night too, comeput a name to it, mister Gagery.

(03:03:26):
I wouldn't wish to be stiff company, said Joe. Rum Rum,
repeated the stranger. And will theother gentleman originate a sentiment? Rum said,
mister Wopsle. Three RUMs, criedthe stranger, calling to the landlord.
Glasses round this other gentleman, observedJoe by way of introducing, mister

(03:03:52):
Wopsle is a gentleman that you wouldlike to hear. Give it out our
clerk at church. A ha,said the stranger quickly, and cocking his
eye at me, the lonely churchright out on the marshes with graves round
it. That's it, said Joe. The stranger, with a comfortable kind

(03:04:13):
of grunt over his pipe, puthis legs up on the settle that he
had to himself. He wore aflapping, broad brimmed traveler's hat and under
a handkerchief tied over his head inthe manner of a cap, so that
he showed no hair. As helooked at the fire, I thought I
saw a cunning expression followed by ahalf laugh come into his face. I

(03:04:37):
am not acquainted with this country,gentleman, but it seems a solitary country.
Towards the river most marshes is solitary, said Joe. No doubt,
no doubt. Do you find anygypsies now? Are tramps or vagrants of
any sort out there? No,said Joe. None but a runaway a

(03:05:00):
convict now and then, and wedon't find them easy. Hey, mister
Wopsle, Mister Wopsle, with amajestic remembrance of old discomfiture, assented,
but not warmly. Seems you havebeen out after such, asked the stranger,
once returned Joe. Not that wewanted to take them, you understand,

(03:05:22):
we went out as lookers on meand mister Wopsle and Pip didn't uspip.
Yes, Joe, the stranger lookedat me again, still cocking his
eye, as if he were expresslytaking aim at me with his invisible gun,
and said, he's a likely youngparcel of bones. That what is

(03:05:43):
it you call him, Pip,said Joe. Christened Pip no, not
christened Pip surname Pip No, saidJoe. It's a kind of family name
that he gave himself when an infant, and is called by son of yours.

(03:06:05):
Well, said Joe meditatively, notof course that it could be in
anywise necessary to consider about it,but because it was the way at the
Jolly Bargemen to seem to consider deeplyabout everything that was discussed over pipes.
Well, no, no, heain't nev, said the strange man.

(03:06:26):
Well, said Joe, with thesame appearance of profound cogitation. He is
not, no, not to deceiveyou. He is not mine, nevi.
What the blue blazes is he askedthe stranger, which appeared to me
to be an inquiry of unnecessary strength. Mister Wopsle struck in upon that,

(03:06:48):
as one who knew all about relationships, having professional occasion to bear in mind
what female relations a man might notmarry, and expounded the ties between me
and Joe, having his hand inmister Wopsle finished off with a most terrifically
snarling passage from Richard the third,and seemed to think he had done quite

(03:07:09):
enough to account for it when headded, as the poet says, and
here I may remark that when misterWopsle referred to me, he considered it
a necessary part of such reference torumple my hair and poke it into my
eyes. I cannot conceive why everybodyof his standing who visited at our house
should always have put me through thesame inflammatory process under similar circumstances. Yet

(03:07:35):
I do not call to mind thatI was ever, in my earlier youth
the subject of remark in our socialfamily circle. But some large handed person
took some such ophthalmic steps to patronizeme. All this while the strange man
looked at nobody but me, andlooked at me as if he were determined
to have a shot at me atlast and bring me down. But he

(03:07:56):
said nothing after offering his blue blazeobservation, until the glasses of rum and
water were brought, and then hemade his shot, and a most extraordinary
shot it was. It was nota verbal remark, but a proceeding and
dumbshell and was pointedly addressed to me. He stirred his rum and water pointedly

(03:08:18):
at me, and he tasted hisrum and water pointedly at me, and
he stirred it, and he tastedit, not with a spoon that was
brought to him, but with afile. He did this so that nobody
but I saw the file. Andwhen he had done it, he wiped
the file and put it in abreast pocket. I knew it to be

(03:08:39):
Joe's file, and I knew thathe knew my convict. The moment I
saw the instrument, I sat gazingat him spellbound. But he now reclined
on his saddle, taking very littlenotice of me, and talking principally about
turnips. There was a delicious scentof cleaning up and making a quiet pause

(03:09:01):
before going on in life afresh inour village on Saturday nights, which stimulated
Joe to dare to stay out halfan hour longer on Saturdays than at other
times. The half hour and therum and water running out together, Joe
got up to go and took meby the hand stop half a moment,

(03:09:22):
mister Gargery said, the strange man, I think I've got a bright new
shilling somewhere in my pocket, andif I have the boy shall have it.
He looked it out from a handfulof small change, folded it in
some crumpled paper, and gave itto me yours, said, he mind
your own. I thanked him,staring at him far beyond the bounds of

(03:09:46):
good manners, and holding tight toJoe. He gave Joe good night,
and he gave mister Wopsle good night, who went out with us, And
he gave me only a look withhis aiming eye. No, not a
lo look, for he shut itup. But wonders may be done with
an eye by hiding it on theway home. If I had been in

(03:10:07):
a humor for talking, the talkmust have been all on my side,
for mister Wopsle parted from us atthe door of the Jolly Bargeman, and
Joe went all the way home withhis mouth wide open to rinse the rum
out with as much air as possible. But I was in a manner stupefied
by this turning up of my oldmisdeed and old acquaintance, and could think

(03:10:28):
of nothing else. My sister wasnot in a very bad temper when we
presented ourselves in the kitchen, andJoe was encouraged by that unusual circumstance to
tell her about the bright shilling abat un. I'll be bound, said
missus Jo triumphantly, or he wouldn'thave given it to the boy. Let's
look at it. I took itout of the paper, and it proved

(03:10:52):
to be a good one. Butwhat's this, said missus Jo, throwing
down the shilling and catching up thepaper. Two one pound notes, nothing
less than two fat, sweltering onepound notes that seemed to have been on
terms of the warmest intimacy with allthe cattle markets in the county. Joe
caught up his hat again and ranwith them to the Jolly Bargemen to restore

(03:11:16):
them to their owner. While hewas gone, I sat down on my
usual stool and looked vacantly at mysister, feeling pretty sure that the man
would not be there. Presently,Joe came back, saying that the man
was gone, but that he Joehad left word at the three Jolly Bargemen
concerning the notes. Then my sistersealed them up in a piece of paper

(03:11:39):
and put them under some dried roseleaves in an ornamental teapot. On the
top of a press and state parlor. There they remained a nightmare to me
many and many a night and dayI had sadly broken sleep when I got
to bed through thinking of the strangemen taking aim at me with his visible

(03:12:00):
gun, and of the guiltily coarseand common thing it was to be on
secret terms of conspiracy with convicts,a feature in my low career that I
had previously forgotten. I was hauntedby the file too. A dread possessed
me that when I least expected it, the file would reappear. I coaxed
myself to sleep by thinking of MissHavishams next Wednesday, and in my sleep

(03:12:24):
I saw the file coming at meout of a door without seeing who held
it, and I screamed myself awake. End of chapter Chapter eleven. At

(03:12:48):
the appointed time, I returned toMiss Havishams, and my hesitating ring at
the gate brought out Estella. Shelocked it after admitting me as she had
done before, and again preceded meinto the dark past page where her candle
stood. She took no notice ofme until she had the candle in her
hand. When she looked over hershoulder superciliously saying you were to come this

(03:13:09):
way to day, and took meto quite another part of the house.
The passage was a long one andseemed to pervade the whole square basement of
the manor house. We traversed butone side of the square, however,
and at the end of it,she stopped and put her candle down and
opened a door. Here the daylightreappeared, and I found myself in a

(03:13:31):
small paved courtyard, the opposite sideof which was formed by a detached dwelling
house that looked as if it hadonce belonged to the manager or head clerk
of the extinct brewery. There wasa clock in the outer wall of this
house, like the clock in MissHavisham's room, and like Miss Havisham's watch,

(03:13:52):
it had stopped at twenty minutes tonine. We went in the door,
which stood open, and into agloomy room with the low ceiling on
the ground floor. At the back. There was some company in the room,
and Estella said to me, asshe joined it, you are to
go and stand there, boy,till you are wanted. There being the

(03:14:13):
window, I crossed to it andstood there in a very uncomfortable state of
mind. Looking out it opened tothe ground, and looked into a most
miserable corner of the neglected garden,upon a rank ruin of cabbage stalks,
and one box tree that had beenclipped round long ago like a pudding,

(03:14:33):
and had a new growth at thetop of it, out of shape and
of a different color, as ifthat part of the pudding had stuck to
the saucepan and got burnt. Thiswas my homely thought as I contemplated the
box tree. There had been somewhite snow overnight, and it lay nowhere
else to my knowledge, But ithad not quite melted from the cold shadow

(03:14:54):
of this bit of garden, andthe wind caught it up in little eddies
and threw it at the window,as if it pelted me for coming there.
I divined that my coming had stoppedconversation in the room, and that
its other occupants were looking at me. I could see nothing of the room
except the shining of the fire inthe window glass, but I stiffened in

(03:15:16):
all my joints with the consciousness thatI was under close inspection. There were
three ladies in the room and onegentleman. Before I had been standing at
the window five minutes, they somehowconveyed to me that they were all toadies
and humbugs, but that each ofthem pretended not to know that the others
were toadies and humbugs, because theadmission that he or she did know it

(03:15:41):
would have made him or her outto be a toady and humbug. They
all had a listless and dreary airof waiting somebody's pleasure, and the most
talkative of the ladies had to speakquite rigidly to repress a yawn. This
lady, whose name was Camilla,very much reminded me of my sister,

(03:16:01):
with the difference that she was older, and, as I found out when
I caught sight of her, ofa blunter cast of features. Indeed,
when I knew her better, Ibegan to think it was a mercy she
had any features at all, sovery blank and high was the dead wall
of her face. Poor dear soul, said this lady, with an abruptness

(03:16:22):
of manner. Quite my sister's nobody'senemy, but his own. It would
be much more commendable to be somebodyelse's enemy, said the gentleman, far
more natural cousin. Raymond observed anotherlady, we are to love our neighbor,

(03:16:43):
Sarah, Pocket, returned Cousin Raymond. If a man is not his
own neighbor, who is missus?Pocket laughed, and Camilla laughed and said,
checking a yawn the idea. ButI thought they seemed to think it
rather a good idea too. Theother lady, who had not spoken yet,

(03:17:03):
said, gravely and emphatically, verytrue, poor soul. Camilla presently
went on, I knew they hadall been looking at me in the meantime.
He is so very strange. Wouldanyone believe that when Tom's wife died
he actually could not be induced tosee the importance of the children's having the

(03:17:24):
deepest of trimmings in their mourning?Good Lord, says he, Camilla,
What can it signify so long asthe poor, bereaved little things are in
black? So like Matthew, theidea good points in him, good points
in him, said cousin Raymond.Heaven forbid I should deny good points in

(03:17:45):
him. But he never had andhe never will have any sense of the
proprieties. You know, I wasobliged, said Camilla. I was obliged
to be firm. I said.It will not do for the credit of
the family. I told him thatwithout deep trimmings, the family was disgraced.

(03:18:05):
I cried about it from breakfast tilldinner. I injured my digestion,
and at last he flung out inhis violent way and said with a d
then do as you like. ThankGoodness, it will always be a consolation
to me to know that I instantlywent out in a pouring rain and bought
the things. He paid for them? Did he not, asked Estella,

(03:18:30):
it's not the question, my dearchild, who paid for them? Returned
Camilla, I bought them, andI shall often think of that with peace
when I wake up in the night. The ringing of a distant bell,
combined with the echoing of some cryor call along the passage by which I
had come, interrupted the conversation andcaused Estella to say to me, now,

(03:18:52):
boy. On my turning round,they all looked at me with the
utmost contempt, And as I wentout, I heard Sarah Pocket say,
well, I am sure what next? And Camilla added with indignation, was
there ever such a fancy the idea? As we were going with our candle

(03:19:13):
along the dark passage, Estella stoppedall of a sudden and facing round,
said, in her taunting manner,with her face quite close to mine.
Well, well, miss, Ianswered, almost falling over her and checking
myself. She stood looking at me, and of course I stood looking at
her. Am I pretty? Yes? I think you are very pretty?

(03:19:41):
Am I insulting? Not so muchso as you were last time? Said
I? Not so much so?No, she fired when she asked the
last question, and she slapped myface with such force as she had when
I answered it now, said she, you little coarse monster? What do

(03:20:03):
you think of me? Now?I shall not tell you, because you
are going to tell upstairs. Isthat it? No? Said I,
That's not it. Why don't youcry again, you little wretch, because
I'll never cry for you again,said I, Which was I suppose,

(03:20:26):
as false a declaration as ever wasmade. For I was inwardly crying for
her then, and I know whatI know of the pain she cost me.
Afterwards, we went on our wayupstairs after this episode, and as
we were going up, we meta gentleman groping his way down home.
Have we here, asked the gentleman, stopping and looking at me, A

(03:20:50):
boy, said estella. He wasa burly man of an exceedingly dark complexion,
with an exceedingly large head and acorresponding large hand. He took my
chin in his large hand and turnedup my face to have a look at
me by the light of the candle. He was prematurely bald on the top
of his head and had bushy blackeyebrows that wouldn't lie down but stood up

(03:21:13):
bristling. His eyes were set verydeep in his head and were disagreeably sharp
and suspicious. He had a largewatch chain and strong black DUTs where his
beard and whiskers would have been ifhe had let them. He was nothing
to me, and I could havehad no foresight then that he ever would
be anything to me, But ithappened that I had this opportunity of observing

(03:21:37):
him. Well, boy of theneighborhood, Eh said he yes, Sir
said I how do you come here? Miss Havisham sent for me. Sir,
I explained, well, behave yourself. I have a pretty large experience

(03:21:58):
of boys on your had set othellowsnow mind, said he, biting the
side of his great forefinger as hefrowned at me. You behave yourself.
With these words, he released me, which I was glad of for his
hands smelt of scented soap, andwent his way downstairs. I wondered whether

(03:22:18):
he could be a doctor, butno, I thought he couldn't be a
doctor, or he would have aquieter and more persuasive manner. There was
not much time to consider the subject, for we were soon in Miss Havisham's
room, where she and everything elsewere just as I had left them.
Estella left me standing near the door, and I stood there until Miss Havisham

(03:22:41):
cast her eyes upon me from thedressing table. Saul, She said,
without being startled or surprised. Thedays have worn away, have they?
Yes, ma'am, to day isthere? There there? With the impatient
movement of I don't want to know. Are you ready to play? I

(03:23:05):
was obliged to answer in some confusion. I don't think I am, ma'am
not at cards again? She demandedwith a searching look. Yes, ma'am,
I could do that if I waswanted. Since this house strikes you
old and grave, boy, saidMiss Havisham impatiently, and you are unwilling

(03:23:30):
to play? Are you willing towork? I could answer this inquiry with
a better heart than I had beenable to find for the other question.
And I said, I was quitewilling, then go into that opposite room,
said she, pointing at the doorbehind me with her withered hand,
and wait there till I come.I crossed the staircase landing and entered the

(03:23:54):
room. She indicated from that roomtoo, the daylight was completely and it
had an airless smell that was oppressive. A fire had been lately kindled in
the damp, old fashioned grate,and it was more disposed to go out
than to burn up. And thereluctant smoke which hung in the room seemed
colder than the clearer air, likeher own marsh mist. Certain wintry branches

(03:24:20):
of candles on the high chimney piecefaintly lighted the chamber, or it would
be more expressive to say faintly troubledits darkness. It was spacious, and
I dare say had once been handsome, but every discernible thing in it was
covered with dust and mold and droppingto pieces. The most prominent object was
a long table with a tablecloth spreadon it, as if a feast had

(03:24:43):
been in preparation. When the houseand the clocks all stopped together and in
purn or centerpiece of some kind,was in the middle of this cloth.
It was so heavily overhung with cobwebsthat its form was quite indistinguishable. And
as I looked along the yellow expanse, out of which I remember it seeming
to grow like a black fungus,I saw speckle legged spiders with blotchy bodies

(03:25:09):
running home to it and running outfrom it, as if some circumstances of
the greatest public importance had just transpiredin the spider community. I heard the
mice, too, rattling behind thepanels, as if the same occurrence were
important to their interests. But theblack beetles took no notice of the agitation,

(03:25:30):
and groped about the hearth in aponderous, elderly way, as if
they were short sighted and hard ofhearing, and not on terms with one
another. These crawling things had fascinatedmy attention, and I was watching them
from a distance when Miss Havisham laida hand upon my shoulder. In her
other hand she had a crutch headedstick on which she leaned, and she

(03:25:52):
looked like the witch of the place. This said, she pointing to the
long table with her stick. Iswhere I will be laid when I am
dead. They shall come and lookat me here, with some vague misgiving
that she might get upon the tablethen and there and die at once,
the complete realization of the ghastly waxworkat the fair, I shrank under her

(03:26:18):
touch. What do you think thatis, she asked me, again,
pointing with her stick that where thosecobwebs are. I can't guess what it
is, ma'am. It's a greatcake, a bride cake mine. She
looked all round the room in aglaring manner, and then said, leaning

(03:26:41):
on me, while her hand twitchedmy shoulder. Come, come, come,
walk me, walk me. Imade out from this that the work
I had to do was to walkMiss Havisham round and round the room.
Accordingly. I started at once,and she leaned upon my shoulder, and

(03:27:01):
we went away at a pace thatmight have been an imitation founded on my
first impulse under that roof of misterPumblechuk's chaise cart. She was not physically
strong, and after a little timesaid slower still. We went at an
impatient, fitful speed, And aswe went she twitched the hand upon my

(03:27:22):
shoulder and worked her mouth and ledme to believe that we were going fast,
because her thoughts went fast. Aftera while, she said call Estella.
So I went out on the landingand roared that name, as I
had done on the previous occasion.When her light appeared, I returned to
Miss Havisham, and we started awayagain, round and round the room.

(03:27:46):
If only Estella had come to bea spectator of our proceedings, I should
have felt sufficiently discontented. But asshe brought with her the three ladies and
the gentleman whom I had seen below, I didn't know what to do.
It might politeness. I would havestopped, but Miss Havisham twitched my shoulder
and we posted on, with ashame faced consciousness on my part that they

(03:28:09):
would think it was all my doing. Dear Miss Havisham, said, Miss
Sarah Pocket, how will you look? I do not, returned Miss Havisham.
I am yellow skin and bone.Camilla brightened when Miss Pocket met with
this rebuff, and she murmured asshe plaintively contemplated Miss Havisham, poor dear

(03:28:31):
soul, certainly not to be expectedto look well, poor thing? The
idea? And how are you?Said Miss Havisham to Camilla. As we
were close to Camilla, then Iwould have stopped as a matter of course,
Only Miss Havisham wouldn't stop. Weswept on, and I felt that
I was highly obnoxious to Camilla.Thank you, Miss Havisham, she returned.

(03:28:58):
I am as well as can beexpected. Why what's the matter with
you? Asked Miss Havisham with exceedingsharpness. Nothing worth mentioning, replied Camilla.
I don't wish to make a displayof my feelings, but I have
habitually thought of you more in thenight than I am quite equal to.

(03:29:18):
Then don't think of me, retortedMiss Havisham, very easily set remarked Camilla,
amiably repressing a sob while a hitchcame into her upper lip and her
tears overflowed. Raymond is a witnesswhat ginger and sal volatile I am obliged
to take in the night. Raymondis a witness what nervous jerkings I have

(03:29:41):
in my legs. Chokings and nervousjerkings, however, are nothing new to
me. When I think with anxietyof those I love, if I could
be less affectionate and sensitive. Ishould have a better digestion and an iron
set of nerves. I am sure, I wish it could be so.
But as to not thinking of youin the night, the idea here a

(03:30:05):
burst of tears. The raymon referredto I understood to be the gentleman present,
and him I understood to be misterCamilla. He came to the rescue
at this point and said, ina consolatory and complimentary voice, Camilla,
my dear, it is well knownthat your family feelings are gradually undermining you,
to the extent of making one ofyour legs shorter than the other.

(03:30:31):
I am not aware, observed thegrave lady, whose voice I had heard,
but once that to think of anyperson is to make a great claim
upon that person. My dear,Miss Sarah Pocket, whom I now saw
to be a little, dry,brown, corrugated old woman with a small
face that might have been made ofwalnut shells, and a large mouth like

(03:30:54):
a cat's without the whiskers, supportedthis position by saying, No, indeed,
my dear, hen thinking is easyenough, said the grave lady.
What is easier, you know,assented Miss Sarah Pocket. Oh yes,

(03:31:15):
yes, cried Camilla, whose fermentingfeelings appeared to rise from her legs to
her bosom. It's all very true. It's a weakness to be so affectionate,
but I can't help it. Nodoubt my health would be much better
if it were otherwise. Still,I wouldn't change my disposition if I could.
It's the cause of much suffering,but it's a consolation to know I

(03:31:37):
possess it when I wake up inthe night. Here another burst of feeling,
Miss Havisham, and I had neverstopped all this time, and kept
going round and round the room,now brushing against the skirts of the visitors,
now giving them the whole length ofthe dismal chamber. There's Matthew,
said Camilla, never mixing with anyneck ties, never coming here to see

(03:32:01):
how Miss Havisham is. I havetaken to the sofa with my staylace cut,
and have lain their hours insensible,with my head over the side and
my hair all down, and myfeet I don't know where much higher than
your head, my love, saidmister Camella. I have gone off into

(03:32:22):
that state hours and hours on accountof Matthew's strange and inexplicable conduct, and
nobody has thanked me. Really,I must say, I should think not
interposed the grave lady. You see, my dear, added Miss Sarah Pocket,
a blandly vicious personage. The questionto put to yourself is who do

(03:32:48):
you expect to thank you? Mylove? Without expecting any thanks or anything
of the sort, resumed Camilla,I have remained in that state ours at
hours, and Raymond is a witnessof the extent to which I have choked,
and what they total inefficacy of gingerhas been. And I have been

(03:33:09):
heard at the Pianoforte tuners across thestreet, where the poor mistaken children have
even supposed it to be pigeons cooingat a distance. And now to be
told here Camilla put her hand toher throat and began to be quite chemical
as to the formation of new combinations. There, when this same Matthew was

(03:33:30):
mentioned, Miss Havisham stopped me andherself and stood looking at the speaker.
This change had a great influence inbringing Camilla's chemistry to a sudden end.
Matthew will come and see me atlast, said Miss Havisham sternly, when
I am laid on that table thatwill be his place there striking the table

(03:33:54):
with her stick at my head,and yours will be there, and your
husband's there, and Sarah Pocket's there, and Georgiana's there. Now you all
know where to take your stations whenyou come to feast upon me. And
now go at the mention of eachname. She had struck the table with

(03:34:16):
her stick in a new place.She now said, walk me, walk
me, and we went on again. I suppose there's nothing to be done,
exclaimed Camilla, but comply and depart. It's something to have seen the
object of one's love and duty forevens a short a time. I shall

(03:34:37):
think of it with a melancholy satisfactionwhen I wake up in the night.
I wish Matthew could have that comfort, but he sets it at defiance.
I am determined not to make adisplay of my feelings. But it's very
hard to be told one wants tofeast on one's relations as if one was
a giant, and to be toldto go the bare idea. Mister Camilla,

(03:35:01):
interposing as Missus Camilla, laid herhands upon her heaving bosom. That
lady assumed an unnatural fortitude of manner, which I supposed to be expressive of
an intention to drop and choke whenout of you, and kissing her hand
to Miss Havisham was escorted forth.Sarah Pocket and Georgiana contended who shall remain

(03:35:22):
last, But Sarah was too knowingto be outdone, and ambled round Georgiana
with that artful slipperiness that the latterwas obliged to take presentence. Sarah Pocket
then made her separate effect of departingwith bless you, Miss Havisham, dear,
and with a smile of forgiving pityon her walnut shell countenance for the

(03:35:43):
weaknesses of the rest. While Estellawas away lighting them down, Miss Havisham
still walked with her hand on myshoulder, but more and more slowly.
At last she stopped before the fireand said, after muttering and looking at
it so seconds, this is mybirthday, peep. I was going to

(03:36:05):
wish her many happy returns when shelifted her stick, I don't suffer it
to be spoken of. I don'tsuffer those who were here just now or
anyone to speak of it. Theycome here on the day, but they
dare not refer to it. Ofcourse, I made no further effort to

(03:36:26):
refer to it on this day ofthe year, long before you were born,
This heap of decay, stabbing withher crutched stick at the pile of
cobwebs on the table, but nottouching it, was brought here. It
and I have worn away together.The mice have gnawed at it, and

(03:36:48):
sharper teeth than teeth of mice havegnawed at me. She held the head
of her stick against her heart asshe stood looking at the table, She
and her once white dress all yellowand withered, the once white cloth,
all yellow and withered, everything aroundin a state to crumble under a touch.

(03:37:09):
When the ruin is complete, saidshe, with a ghastly look,
And when they lay me dead inmy bride's dress on the bride's table,
which shall be done, and whichwill be the finished curse upon him?
So much the better if it isdone on this day. She stood,

(03:37:30):
looking at the table as if shestood looking at her own figure lying there.
I remained quiet Estella returned, andshe too remained quiet. It seemed
to me that we continued thus fora long time, in the heavy air
of the room and the heavy darknessthat brooded in its remoter corners. I

(03:37:50):
even had an alarming fancy that Estellaand I might presently begin to decay at
length, not coming out of herdistraught state degrees. But in an instant
Miss Avisham said, let me seeyou two play cards. Why have you
not begun? With that? Wereturned to her room and sat down as

(03:38:11):
before. I was beggared as before, And again as before, Miss Havisham
watched us all the time, directingmy attention to Estella's beauty, and made
me notice it the more by tryingher jewels on Estella's breast and hair.
Estella, for her part, likewisetreated me as before, except that she

(03:38:31):
did not condescend to speak. Whenwe had played some half dozen games,
a day was appointed for my return, and I was taken down into the
yard to be fed in the formerdog like manner. There too, I
was again left to wander about asI liked. It is not much to
the purpose whether a gate in thatgarden wall, which I had scrambled up

(03:38:54):
to peep over on the last occasion, was on that last occasion open or
shut enough that I saw no gatethen, and that I saw one now
as it stood open, and asI knew that Estella had let the visitors
out, for she had returned withthe keys in her hand. I strolled
into the garden and strolled all overit. It was quite a wilderness,

(03:39:18):
and there were old melon frames andcucumber frames in it, which seemed,
in their decline, to have produceda spontaneous growth of weak attempts at pieces
of old hats and boots with nowand then a weedy offshoot into the likeness
of a battered saucepan. When Ihad exhausted the garden and a greenhouse with
nothing in it but a fallen downgrapevine and some bottles, I found myself

(03:39:43):
in the dismal corner upon which Ihad looked out of the window, never
questioning for a moment that the housewas now empty, I looked in at
another window and found myself, tomy great surprise, exchanging a broad stare
with a pale young gentleman with redeyelids. And like this pale young gentleman
quickly disappeared and reappeared beside me.He had been in his books when I

(03:40:07):
had found myself staring at him,and I now saw that he was inky
Hallo, said he, young fellowHallo, being a general observation which I
had usually observed to be best answeredby itself. I said, hallo,
politely, omitting young fellow who letyou in? Said he, MISSI Stella,

(03:40:33):
who gave you leave to prowl about? Miss A Stella? Come and
fight, said the pale young gentleman. What could I do but follow him?
I have often asked myself the questionsince, but what else could I
do? His manner was so final, and I was so astonished that I

(03:40:54):
followed where he led, as ifI had been under a spell. Stop
a minute, though, he said, wheeling round before we had gone many
paces. I ought to give youa reason for fighting too. There it
is in a most irritating manner.He instantly slapped his hands against one another,
daintily flung one of his legs upbehind him, pulled my hair,

(03:41:16):
slapped his hands again, dipped hishead, and butted it into my stomach.
The bull like proceedings last mentioned,besides that it was unquestionably to be
regarded in the light of a liberty, was particularly disagreeable. Just after bread
and meat. I therefore hit outat him, and was going to hit
out again when he said, aha, would you and began dancing backwards and

(03:41:41):
forwards in a manner quite unparalleled withinmy limited experience. Laws of the game,
said he. Here he skipped fromhis left leg on to his right.
Regular rules. Here he skipped fromhis right leg on to his left.
Come to the ground, and gothe preliminaries. Here he dodged backwards

(03:42:03):
and forwards, and did all sortsof things while I looked helplessly at him.
I was secretly afraid of him whenI saw him so dexterous. But
I felt morally and physically convinced thathis light head of hair could have had
no business in the pit of mystomach, and that I had a right
to consider it irrelevant when so obtrudedon my attention. Therefore, I followed

(03:42:24):
him without a word, to aretired nook of the garden, formed by
the junction of two walls and screenedby some rubbish. On his asking me
if I was satisfied with the ground, and all my replying yes, he
begged my leave to absent himself fora moment, and quickly returned with a
bottle of water and a sponge dippedin vinegar, available for both, he

(03:42:48):
said, placing these against the wall, and then fell to pulling off not
only his jacket and waistcoat, buthis shirt too, in a manner at
once light hearted, business like,and bloodthirsty. Although he did not look
very healthy, having pimples on hisface and a breaking out at his mouth.
These dreadful preparations quite appalled me.I judged him to be about my

(03:43:13):
own age, but he was muchtaller, and he had a way of
spinning himself about that was full ofappearance. For the rest, he was
a young gentleman in a gray suit, when not denuded for battle, with
his elbows, knees, wrists,and heels considerably in advance of the rest
of him as to development. Myheart failed me when I saw him squaring

(03:43:35):
at me with every demonstration of mechanicalnicety, in eyeing my anatomy as if
he were minutely choosing his bone.I never had been so surprised in my
life as I was when I letout the first blow and saw him lying
on his back, looking up atme, with a bloody nose and his
face exceedingly foreshortened. But he wason his feet directly, and after sponging

(03:43:58):
himself with a great show of dexterity, began squaring again. The second greatest
surprise I have ever had in mylife was seeing him on his back again,
looking up at me out of ablack eye. His spirit inspired me
with great respect. He seemed tohave no strength, and he never once
hit me hard, and he wasalways knocked down, but he would be

(03:44:20):
up again in a moment, sponginghimself or drinking out of the water bottle,
with the greatest satisfaction in seconding himselfaccording to form, and then came
at me with an air and ashow that made me believe he really was
going to do for me. Atlast, he got heavily bruised, for
I am sorry to record that themore I hit him, the harder I

(03:44:41):
hit him. But he came upagain and again and again, until at
last he got a bad fall withthe back of his head against the wall.
Even after that crisis in our affairs, he got up and turned round
and round confusedly a few times,not knowing where I was, but finally
went on his knees to his spongeand threw it up at the same time

(03:45:03):
panting out that means you have won. He seemed so brave and innocent that
although I had not proposed the contest. I felt but a gloomy satisfaction in
my victory. Indeed, I goso far as to hope that I regarded
myself while dressing as a species ofsavage young wolf or other wild beast.

(03:45:24):
However, I got dressed darkly,wiping my sanguinary face at intervals, and
I said, can I help you? And he said no, thank'ee.
And I said good afternoon, andhe said same to you. When I
got into the courtyard, I foundEstella waiting with the keys, but she

(03:45:48):
neither asked me where I had been, nor why I kept her waiting,
And there was a bright flush uponher face, as though something had happened
to delight her. Instead of goingstraight to the gate too, she stepped
back into the passage and beckoned me, come here. You may kiss me
if you like. I kissed hercheek as she turned it to me.

(03:46:13):
I think I would have gone througha great deal to kiss her cheek,
But I felt that the kiss wasgiven to the coarse common boy as a
piece of money might have been,and that it was worth nothing. What
with the birthday visitors, and whatwith the cards, and what with the
fight. My stay had lasted solong that when I neared home, the

(03:46:33):
light on the spit of sand offthe point on the marshes was gleaming against
a black night sky, and Joe'sfurnace was flinging a path of fire across
the road. End of Chapterchapter twelve. My mind grew very uneasy on the

(03:47:05):
subject of the pale young gentleman.The more I thought of the fight and
recalled the pale young gentleman on hisback in various stages of puffy and incrimsoned
countenance, the more certain it appearedthat something would be done to me.
I felt that the pale young gentleman'sblood was on my head, and that
the law would avenge it well.Without having any definite idea of the penalties

(03:47:28):
I had incurred, it was clearto me that village boys could not go
stalking about the country, ravaging thehouses of gentlefolks, and pitching into the
studious youth of England without laying themselvesopen to severe punishment. For some days
I even kept close at home andlooked out at the kitchen door with the
greatest caution intrepidation before going on anerrand lest the officers of the County jail

(03:47:54):
should pounce upon me. The paleyoung gentleman's nose had stained my trousers,
and I tried to wash out thatevidence of my guilt. In the dead
of night. I had cut myknuckles against the pale young gentleman's teeth,
and I twisted my imagination into athousand tangles as I devised incredible ways of

(03:48:15):
accounting for that damnatory circumstance, whenI should be hailed before the judges.
When the day came round from myreturn to the scene of the deed of
violence, my terrors reached their height. Whether mermidons of justice, specially sent
down from London, would be lyingin ambush behind the gate, Whether Miss

(03:48:35):
Havisham, preferring to take personal vengeancefor an outrage done to her house,
might rise in those grave clothes ofhers, draw a pistol and shoot me
dead, Whether suborned boys a numerousband of mercenaries might be engaged to fall
upon me in the brewery and cuffme until I was no more. It

(03:48:56):
was high testimony to my confidence inthe spirit of the pale young gentleman that
I never imagined him accessory to theseretaliations they always came into my mind as
the acts of injudicious relatives of his, goaded on by the state of his
visage, and an indignant sympathy withthe family features. However, going to

(03:49:18):
Miss Havisham's I must, and goI did, and behold nothing came of
the late struggle. It was notalluded to in any way, and no
pale young gentleman was to be discoveredon the premises. I found the same
gate open, and I explored thegarden, and even looked in at the
windows of the detached house. Butmy view was suddenly stopped by the closed

(03:49:43):
shutters within, and all was lifeless. Only in the corner where the combat
had taken place could I detect anyevidence of the young gentleman's existence. There
were traces of his gore in thatspot, and I covered them with garden
mold from the eye of man.On the broad landing between Miss Havisham's own

(03:50:03):
room and that other room in whichthe long table was laid out, I
saw a garden chair, a lightchair on wheels that you push from behind.
It had been placed there since mylast visit, and I entered that
same day on a regular occupation ofpushing Miss Havisham in this chair when she
was tired of walking with her handupon my shoulder round her own room and

(03:50:26):
across the landing, and round theother room, over and over and over
again. We would make these journeys, and sometimes they would last as long
as three hours at a stretch.I insensibly fall into a general mention of
these journeys as numerous, because itwas at once settled that I should return

(03:50:46):
every alternate day at noon for thesepurposes, and because I am now going
to sum up a period of atleast eight or ten months. As we
began to be more used to oneanother, Miss havsh Sham talked more to
me and asked me such questions aswhat I had learnt and what was I
going to be. I told herI was going to be apprenticed to Joe,

(03:51:09):
I believed, and I enlarged uponmy knowing nothing and wanting to know
everything in the hope that she mightoffer some help towards that desirable end.
But she did not. On thecontrary, she seemed to prefer my being
ignorant. Neither did she ever giveme any money or anything but my daily
dinner, nor ever stipulate that Ishould be paid for my services. Estella

(03:51:35):
was always about and always let mein and out, but never told me
I might kiss her again. Sometimesshe would coldly tolerate me. Sometimes she
would condescend to me. Sometimes shewould be quite familiar with me. Sometimes
she would tell me energetically that shehated me. Miss Havisham would often ask

(03:51:56):
me in a whisper or when wewere alone, does she grow prettier and
prettier, Pip? And when Isaid yes, for indeed she did,
would seem to enjoy it greedily.Also, when we played at cards,
Miss Havisham would look on with amiserly relish of Estella's moods, whatever they

(03:52:18):
were. And sometimes when her moodswere so many and so contradictory of one
another, that I was puzzled whatto say or do, Miss Havisham would
embrace her with lavish fondness, murmuringsomething in her ear that sounded like break
their hearts, my pride and hope, break their hearts and have no mercy.

(03:52:39):
There was a song Joe used tohum fragments of at the forge
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