"Anoother!" said John. "Dinnot be afeared on it Let's have a good un!"
"Hurrah!"
"Noo then," said John, "let's have yan more to end wi', and then coot off
as quick as you loike. Tak' a good breath noo--Squeers be in jail--the
school's brokken oop--it's all ower--past and gane--think o' thot, and let
it be a hearty 'un! Hurrah!"
Such a cheer arose as the walls of Dotheboys Hall had never echoed before,
and were destined never to respond to again. When the sound had died away,
the school was empty; and of the busy noisy crowd which had peopled it but
five minutes before, not one remained.
For some days afterwards, the neighbouring country was overrun with boys,
who, the report went, had been secretly furnished by Mr. and Mrs. Browdie,
not only with a hearty meal of bread and meat, but with sundry shillings
and sixpences to help them on their way.
There were a few timid young children, who, miserable as they had been,
and many as were the tears they had shed in the wretched school, still
knew no other home, and had formed for it a sort of attachment which made
them weep when the bolder spirits fled, and cling to it as a refuge. Of
these, some were found crying under hedges and in such places, frightened
at the solitude. One had a dead bird in a little cage; he had wandered
nearly twenty miles, and when his poor favourite died, lost courage, and
lay down beside him. Another was discovered in a yard hard by the school,
sleeping with a dog, who bit at those who came to remove him, and licked
the sleeping child's pale face.
They were taken back, and some other stragglers were recovered, but by
degrees they were all claimed, and, in course of time, Dotheboys Hall and
its last breaking up began to be forgotten by the neighbours, or to be
only spoken of as among things that had been.
DAVID COPPERFIELD
[Illustration: LITTLE EM'LY AND DAVID COPPERFIELD.]
The first things that assume shape and form in the recollections of my
childhood are my mother, with her pretty hair and youthful shape, and
Peggotty, our faithful serving maid, with no shape at all, and eyes so
dark that they seemed to darken their whole neighbourhood in her face, and
cheeks and arms so hard and red that I wonder the birds didn't peck her in
preference to apples.
What else do I remember?--let me see. There comes to me a vision of our
home, Blunderstone Rookery, with its ground-floor kitchen, and long
passage leading from it to the front door. A dark store-room opens out of
the kitchen, and in it there is the smell of soap, pickles, pepper,
candles, and coffee, all at one whiff. Then there are the two
parlours;--the one in which we sit of an evening, my mother and I and
Peggotty,--for Peggotty is quite our companion,--and the best parlour
where we sit on a Sunday; grandly, but not so comfortably, while my mother
reads the old familiar Bible stories to us.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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