Boys -- Fiction; London (England) -- Fiction; Slums -- Fiction
Now his grief lost some of its edge. Ashamed as he was, he had a
shapeless, unapprehended notion that Canary was the sole creature alive
that could understand and feel with him. And Canary poked his nose under
the old jacket and sniffed in sympathy, as the broken lining tickled
him. Dicky's intellectuals began to arrange themselves. Plainly, Mr
Weech's philosophy was right after all. He was of the Jago, and he must
prey on the outer world, as all the Jago did; not stray foolishly off
the regular track in chase of visions, and fall headlong. Father Sturt
was a creature of another mould. Who was he, Dicky Perrott, that he
should break away from the Jago habit, and strain after another nature?
What could come of it but defeat and bitterness? As old Beveridge had
said, the Jago had got him. Why should he fight against the inevitable,
and bruise himself? The ways out of the Jago old Beveridge had told him,
years ago. Gaol, the gallows and the High Mob. There was his chance, his
aspiration, his goal: the High Mob. To dream of oil-shops or regular
wages was foolishness. His bed was made in the Jago, and he must lie on
it. His hope in life, if he might have a hope at all, was to be of the
High Mob. Spare nobody, stop at nothing, do his devilmost: old Beveridge
had said that years ago. The task was before him, and he must not balk
at it. As for gaol and the gallows, well! There they were, and he could
not help it; ill ways out of the Jago, both, but still--ways out.
He rubbed his face carefully with his sleeve, put away his foolish
ambitions, and went forth with a brave heart: to accomplish his destiny
for well or ill,--a Jago rat. To do his devilmost. But to avoid Father
Sturt.
Out he went into Shoreditch High Street, and there he prowled the
evening away; there and in Norton Folgate. But he touched for
nothing--nothing at all. He feared lest his week's honesty had damaged
his training. Even an apple on a stall he failed at, and had to run. And
then he turned into Bethnal Green Road.
But here a thought checked him suddenly. What of Mr Grinder? He had
threatened to have Dicky locked up if he came near the shop again. But a
child of the Jago knew too much to be frightened by such a threat as
that. He went on. He felt interested to see how his late employer was
getting along without him, and who was minding the goods outside the
shop. Probably there was nobody: and this gave Dicky an idea.
He had forgotten his smudgy apron, folded and tucked away in the lining
of his jacket. Now he pulled it out, and fastened it before him once
more. He knew Mr Grinder's habits in the shop, and if he could seize a
fitting opportunity he might be able, attired in his apron, to pick up
or reach down any article that struck his fancy, fearless of
interference from passers-by; for he would seem to be still shop-boy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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