Great Britain -- Social conditions -- 19th century -- Fiction
Whether it was because he had desecrated the temple with noise, or from
the accident of having attracted the governor's attention, the weight of
the system fell on this small object now.
Gillies was ordered to make a fabulous number of crank
revolutions--fabulous, at least, in connection with his tender age; he
was put on the lightest crank, but the lightest was heavy to thirteen
years. Not being the infant Hercules, he could not perform this labor;
so Hawes put him in jacket and collar almost the whole day. His young
and supple frame was in his favor, but once or twice he could hardly
help shamming, and then they threw half a bucket over him.
The next day he was put on the crank, and not being able to complete
the task that was set him before dinner, he was strapped up until the
evening. The next day the governor tried another tack. He took away his
meat soup and gruel, and gave him nothing but bread and water. Strange
to say, this change of diet did not supply the deficiency; he could
not do the infant Hercules his work even on bread and water. Then the
governor deprived the obstinate little dog of his chapel. “If you won't
work, I'm [participle] if you shall pray.” The boy missed the recreation
of hearing Mr. Jones hum the Liturgy; missed it in a way you cannot
conceive. Your soporific was his excitement; think of that.
Little Gillies became sadly dispirited, and weaker at the crank than
before; ergo, the governor sentenced him to be fourteen days without bed
or gas.
But when they took away his bed and did not light his gas little Gillies
began to lose his temper; he made a great row about this last stroke of
discipline. “I won't live such a life as this,” said little Gillies, in
a pet. “Why don't the governor hang me at once?”
“What is that noise?” roared the governor, who was in the corridor and
had long ears.
“It is No. 50 kicking up a row at having his bed and gas taken,” replied
a turnkey, with a note of admiration in his voice.
The governor bounced into the cell. “Are you grumbling at that, you
rebellious young rascal? you forget there are a dozen lashes owing you
yet.” Now the boy had not forgotten, but he hoped the governor had.
“Well, you shall have the rest to-morrow.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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