divided her porridge with singing birds; denied herself a new nankeen bonnet, on the ground that the turnips did not wear nankeen bonnets, neither did the sheep who ate them; who plaited straw and delivered the dreariest orations to all comers, at all sorts of unseasonable times. So, unwieldy young dredgers and hulking mudlarks were referred to the experiences of Thomas Twopence, who, having resolved not to rob (under circumstances of uncommon atrocity) his particular friend and benefactor, of eighteenpence, presently came into supernatural possession of three and sixpence, and lived a shining light ever afterwards. (Note, that the benefactor came to no good.) Several swaggering sinners had written their own biographies in the same strain; it always appearing from the lessons of those very boastful persous, that you were to do good, not because it was good, but because you were to make a good thing of it. Contrariwise, the adult pupils were taught to read (if they could learn) out of the New Testament; and by dint of stumbling over the syllables and keeping their bewildered eyes on the particular syllables coming round to their turn, were as absolutely ignorant of the sublime history as if they had never seen or heard of it. An exceedingly and confoundingly perplexing jumble of a school, in fact, where black spirits and gray, red spirits and white, jumbled, jumbled, jumbled, jumbled, jumbled every night. And particularly every Sunday night. For then, an inclined plane of unfortunate infants would be handed over to the prosiest and worst of all the teachers with good intentions, whom nobody older would endure. Who, taking his stand on the floor before them as chief executioner, would be attended by a conventional volunteer boy as executioner's assistant. When and where it first became the conventional system that a weary or inattentive infant in a class must have its face smoothed downwards with a hot hand, or when and where the conventional volunteer boy first beheld such system in operation, and became inflamed with a sacred zeal to administer it, matters not. It was the function of the chief executioner to hold forth, and it was the function of the acolyte to dart at sleeping infants, yawning infants, restless infants, whimpering infants, and smooth their wretched faces; sometimes with one hand, as if he were anointing them for a whisker; sometimes with both hands, applied after the fashion of blinkers. And so the jumble would be in action in this department for a mortal hour; the exponent drawling on to My Dearerr Childerrenerr, let us say, for example, about the beautiful coming to the Sepulchre; and repeating the word Sepulchre (commonly used among infants) five hundred times, and never once hinting what it meant; the conventional boy smoothing away right and left, as an infallible commentary; the whole hot-bed of flushed and exhausted infants exchanging measles, rashes, whooping-cough, fever, and stomach disorders, as if they were assembled in High Market for the purpose. Our Mutual Friend, Book II., Chap. 1. SCHOOL-David Copperfield at. I gazed upon the school-room into which he took me, as the most forlorn and desolate place I had ever seen. I see it now A long room, SCHOOL with three long rows of desks, and six of forms, and bristling all round with pegs for hats and slates. Scraps of old copy-books and exercises litter the dirty floor. Some silkworms' houses, made of the same materials, are scattered over the desks. Two miserable little white mice, left behind by their owner, are running up and down in a fusty castle made of pasteboard and wire, looking in all the corners with their red eyes for anything to eat. A bird, in a cage very little bigger than himself, makes a mournful rattle now and then in hopping on his perch, two inches high, or dropping from it; but neither sings nor chirps. There is a strange, unwholesome smell upon the room, like mildewed corduroys, sweet apples wanting air, and rotten books. There could not well be more ink splashed about it, if it had been roofless from its first construction, and the skies had rained, snowed, hailed, and blown ink through the varying seasons of the year. Mr. Mell having left me while he took his irreparable boots up-stairs, I went softly to the upper end of the room, observing all this as I crept along. Suddenly I came upon a pasteboard placard, beautifully written, which was lying on the desk, and bore these words: " Take care of him, He bites." I got upon the desk immediately, apprehensive of at least a great dog underneath. But, though I looked all round with anxious eyes, I could see nothing of him. I was still engaged in peering about when Mr. Mell came back, and asked me what I did up there? "I beg your pardon, sir," says I, "if you please, I'm looking for the dog." "Dog?" says he. "What dog?" "Isn't it a dog, sir?" "Isn't what a dog?" "That's to be taken care of, sir; that bites!" "No, Copperfield," says he, gravely, "that's not a dog. That's a boy. My instructions are, Copperfield, to put this placard on your back. I am sorry to make such a beginning with you, but I must do it." With that he took me down, and tied the placard, which was neatly constructed for the purpose, on my shoulders like a knapsack; and wherever I went, afterwards, I had the consolation of carrying it.-David Copperfield, Chap. 5. SCHOOL-Of Dr. Blimber. The Doctor's was a mighty fine house, fronting the sea. Not a joyful style of house within, but quite the contrary. Sad-colored curtains, whose proportions were spare and lean, hid themselves despondently behind the windows. The tables and chairs were put away in rows, like figures in a sum; fires were so rarely lighted in the rooms of ceremony, that they felt like wells, and a visitor represented the bucket; the dining-room seemed the last place in the world where any eating or drinking was likely to occur; there was no sound through all the house but the ticking of the great clock in the hall, which made itself audible in the very garrets; and sometimes a dull crying of young gentlemen at their lessons, like the murmurings of an assemblage of melancholy pigeons. Dombey & Son, Chap. 11. SCHOOL-First hours in. The Doctor, with his half-shut eyes, and his SCHOOL 418 SCHOOL-ROOM usual smile, seemed to survey Paul with the sort sick scholar, and at the head of the row of pegs of interest that might attach to some choice lit-on which those who came in hats or caps were tle animal he was going to stuff. * I wont to hang them up, one was left empty. No boy attempted to violate the sanctity of seat or peg, but many a one looked from the empty spaces to the schoolmaster, and whispered his idle neighbor behind his hand. Then began the hum of conning over lessons and getting them by heart, the whispered jes and stealthy game, and all the noise and drawi of school; and in the midst of the din sat the poor schoolmaster, the very image of meekness and simplicity, vainly attempting to fix his mind upon the duties of the day, and to forget his little friend. But the tedium of his office reminded him more strongly of the willing scholar, and his thoughts were rambling from his pupils Cornelia took him first to the school-room, which was situated at the back of the hall, and was approached through two baize doors, which deadened and muffled the young gentlemen's voices. Here, there were eight young gentlemen in various stages of mental prostration, all very hard at work, and very grave indeed. Toots, as an old hand, had a desk to himself in one corner; and a magnificent man, of immense age, he looked, in Paul's young eyes, behind it. Mr. Feeder, B.A., who sat at another little-it was plain. desk, had his Virgil stop on, and was slowly grinding that tune to four young gentlemen. Of the remaining four, two, who grasped their foreheads convulsively, were engaged in solving mathematical problems; one, with his face like a dirty window, from much crying, was endeavoring to flounder through a hopeless number of lines before dinner; and one sat looking at his task in stony stupefaction and despairwhich it seemed had been his condition ever since breakfast-time. None knew this better than the idlest boys, who, growing bolder with impunity, waxed louder and more daring; playing odd-or-even under the master's eye, eating apples openly and without rebuke, pinching each other in sport of malice without the least reserve, and cutting their autographs in the very legs of his desk. The puzzled dunce, who stood beside it to say his lesson out of book, looked no longer at the ceiling for forgotten words, but drew closer to the master's elbow and boldly cast his eye upon the page; the wag of the little troop squinted and made grimaces (at the smallest boy, of approving audience knew no constraint in their delight. If the master did chance to rouse himself and seem alive to what was going on, the noise subsided for a moment and no eyes met his but wore a studious and a deeply humble look; but the instant he relapsed again, it broke out afresh, and ten times louder than before. The appearance of a new boy did not create the sensation that might have been expected. Mr. Feeder, B.A. (who was in the habit of shav-course), holding no book before his face, and his ing his head for coolness, and had nothing but little bristles on it), gave him a bony hand, and told him he was glad to see him-which Paul would have been very glad to have told him, if he could have done so with the least sincerity. Then Paul, instructed by Cornelia, shook hands with the four young gentlemen at Mr. Feeder's desk; then with the two young gentlemen at work on the problems, who were very feverish: then with the young gentleman at work against time, who was very inky; and lastly with the young gentleman in a state of stupefaction, who was flabby and quite cold. Dombey & Son, Chap. 12. SCHOOL-The village. Oh! how some of those idle fellows longed to be outside, and how they looked at the open door and window, as if they half meditated rushing violently out, plunging into the woods, and being wild boys and savages from that time forth. What rebellious thoughts of the cool river, and some shady bathing-place beneath willow trees with branches dipping in the water, kept tempting and urging that sturdy boy, who, A small, white-headed boy with a sunburnt with his shirt-collar unbuttoned and flung back face appeared at the door, while he was speak- as far as it could go, sat fanning his flushed face ing, and stopping there to make a rustic bow, with a spelling-book, wishing himself a whale, came in and took his seat upon one of the forms. or a tittlebat, or a fly, or anything but a boy at The white-headed boy then put an open book school on that hot, broiling day! Heat! ask astonishingly dog's-eared, upon his knees, and that other boy, whose seat being nearest to the thrusting his hands into his pockets began count-door gave him opportunities of gliding out into ing the marbles with which they were filled; displaying in the expression of his face a remarkable capacity of totally abstracting his mind from the spelling on which his eyes were fixed. Soon afterwards another white-headed little boy came straggling in, and after him a red-headed lad, and after him two more with white heads, and then one with a flaxen poll, and so on until the forms were occupied by a dozen boys or thereabouts, with heads of every color but gray, and ranging in their ages from four years old to fourteen years or more; for the legs of the youngest were a long way from the floor when he sat upon the form, and the eldest was a heavy, good-tempered, foolish fellow, about half a head taller than the schoolmaster. At the top of the first form-the post of honor in the school-was the vacant place of the little the garden and driving his companions to madness by dipping his face into the bucket of the well and then rolling on the grass, ask him if there were ever such a day as that, when even the bees were diving deep down into the cups of flowers and stopping there, as if they had made up their minds to retire from business and be manufacturers of honey no more. The day was made for laziness, and lying on one's back in green places, and staring at the sky till its brightness forced one to shut one's eyes and go to sleep; and was this a time to be poring over musty books in a dark room, slighted by the very sun itself? Monstrous!-Old Curiosity Shop, Chap. 25. SCHOOL-ROOM-The old master and schol ar. The child looked round the room as she took their core in silence, what an incipient Hell was breeding here! And yet this scene, painful as it was, had its grotesque features, which, in a less interested observer than Nicholas, might have provoked a smile. Mrs. Squeers stood at one of the desks, presiding over an immense basin of brimstone and treacle, of which delicious compound she administered a large instalment to each boy in succession: using for the purpose a common wooden spoon, which might have been originally manufactured for some gigantic top, and which widened every young gentleman's mouth considerably: they being all obliged, under heavy corporal penalties, to take in the whole of the bowl at a gasp. In another corner, huddled together for companionship, were the little boys who had arrived on the preceding night, three of them in very large leather breeches, and two in old trousers, a somewhat tighter fit than drawers are usually worn; at no great dis her seat. There were a couple of forms, notched and cut and inked all over; a small deal desk, perched on four legs, at which no doubt the master sat; a few dog's-eared books upon a high shelf; and beside them a motley collection of peg-tops, balls, kites, fishing-lines, marbles, half-eaten apples, and other confiscated property of idle urchins. Displayed on hooks upon the wall in all their terrors, were the cane and ruler; and near them, on a small shelf of its own, the dunce's cap, made of old newspapers, and decorated with glaring wafers of the largest size. But the great ornaments of the walls were certain moral sentences fairly copied in good round text, and well-worked sums in simple addition and multiplication, evidently achieved by the same hand, which were plentifully pasted all round the room; for the double purpose, as it seemed, of bearing testimony to the excellence of the school, and kindling a worthy emulation in the bosoms of the scholars. "Yes," said the old schoolmaster, observ-tance from these was seated the juvenile son ing that her attention was caught by these latter specimens. That's beautiful writing, my dear." " Very, sir," replied the child modestly; "is it yours?" Mine!" he returned, taking out his spectacles and putting them on, to have a better view of the triumphs so dear to his heart. "I couldn't write like that now-a-days. No. They're all done by one hand; a little hand it is, not so old as yours, but a very clever one." As the schoolmaster said this, he saw that a small blot of ink had been thrown on one of the copies, so he took a penknife from his pocket, and going up to the wall, carefully scraped it out. When he had finished, he walked slowly backward from the writing, admiring it as one might contemplate a beautiful picture, but with something of sadness in his voice and manner which quite touched the child, though she was unacquainted with its cause. Old Curiosity Shop, Chap. 24. and heir of Mr. Squeers-a striking likeness of his father-kicking, with great vigor, under the hands of Smike, who was fitting upon him a pair of new boots that bore a most suspicious resemblance to those which the least of the little boys had worn on the journey down-as the little boy himself seemed to think, for he was regarding the appropriation with a look of most rueful amazement. Besides these, there was a long row of boys waiting, with countenances of no pleasant anticipation, to be treacled; and another file, who had just escaped from the infliction, making a variety of wry mouths indicative of anything but satisfaction. The whole were attired in such motley, ill-sorted, extraordinary garments, as would have been irresistibly ridiculous, but for the foul appearance of dirt, disorder, and disease, with which they were associated. "Now," said Squeers, giving the desk a great rap with his cane, which made half the little boys nearly jump out of their boots, "is that physicking over?" 44 'Just over," said Mrs. Squeers, choking the last boy in her hurry, and tapping the crown of his head with the wooden spoon to restore him. Here, you Smike; take away now. Look sharp!" SCHOOL-Of Squeers (Dotheboys Hall). Pale and haggard faces, lank and bony figures, children with the countenances of old men, deformities with irons upon their limbs, boys of stunted growth, and others whose long, meagre legs would hardly bear their stooping bodies, Smike shuffled out with the basin, and Mrs. all crowded on the view together; there were Squeers having called up a little boy with a the bleared eye, the hare-lip, the crooked foot, curly head, and wiped her hands upon it, hurand every ugliness or distortion that told of un-ried out after him into a species of wash-house, natural aversion conceived by parents for their where there was a small fire and a large kettle, offspring, or of young lives which, from the ear-together with a number of little wooden bowls liest dawn of infancy, had been one horrible en- which were arranged upon a board. durance of cruelty and neglect. There were Into these bowls, Mrs. Squeers, assisted by little faces which should have been handsome, the hungry servant, poured a brown composition darkened with the scowl of sullen, dogged suf- which looked like diluted pincushions without fering; there was childhood, with the light of the covers, and was called porridge. A minute its eye quenched, its beauty gone, and its help-wedge of brown bread was inserted in each lessness alone remaining; there were vicious-bowl, and when they had eaten their porridge faced boys, brooding, with leaden eyes, like by means of the bread, the boys ate the bread malefactors in a jail; and there were young itself, and had finished their breakfast; wherecreatures on whom the sins of their frail parents upon Mr. Squeers said, in a solemn voice, " For had descended, weeping even for the mercenary what we have received, may the Lord make nurses they had known, and lonesome even in us truly thankful!"—and went away to his their loneliness. With every kindly sympathy own. and affection blasted in its birth, with every young and healthy feeling flogged and starved down, with every revengeful passion that can fester in swollen hearts, eating its evil way to Nicholas distended his stomach with a bowl of porridge, for much the same reason which induces some savages to swallow earth-lest they should be inconveniently hungry when there is nothing to eat. Having further disposed of a slice of bread and butter, allotted to him in virtue of his office, he sat himself down to wait for school time. Nicholas Nickleby, Chap. 8. SCHOOL-DAYS-A retrospect. My school-days! The silent gliding on of my existence the unseen, unfelt progress of my life-from childhood up to youth! Let me think, as I look back upon that flowing water, now a dry channel overgrown with leaves, whether there are any marks along its course, by which I can remember how it ran. A moment, and I occupy my place in the Cathedral, where we all went together, every Sunday morning, assembling first at school for that purpose. The earthy smell, the sunless air, the sensation of the world being shut out, the resounding of the organ through the black and white arched galleries and aisles, are wings that take me back, and hold me hovering above those days, in a half-sleeping and half-waking dream. I am not the last boy in the school. I have risen, in a few months, over several heads. But the first boy seems to, me a mighty creature, dwelling afar off, whose giddy height is unattainable. Agnes says, "No," but I say, "Yes," and tell her that she little thinks what stores of knowledge have been mastered by the wonderful Being, at whose place she thinks I, even I, weak aspirant, may arrive in time. He is not my private friend and public patron, as Steerforth was; but I hold him in a reverential respect. I chiefly wonder what he'll be, when he leaves Dr. Strong's, and what mankind will do to maintain any place against him. But who is this that breaks upon me? This is Miss Shepherd, whom I love. SCHOOL-BOY a flying rumor that the Misses Nettingall have stood Miss Shepherd in the stocks for turning in her toes! Miss Shepherd being the one pervading theme and vision of my life, how do I ever come to break with her? I can't conceive. And yet a coolness grows between Miss Shepherd and myself. Whispers reach me of Miss Shepherd having said she wished I wouldn't stare so, and having avowed a preference for Master Jonefor Jones! a boy of no merit whatever! The gulf between me and Miss Shepherd widens. At last, one day, I meet the Misses Nettingall's establishment out walking. Miss Shepherd makes a face as she goes by, and laughs to her companion. All is over. The devotion of a life--it seems a life, it is all the same-is at an end: Miss Shepherd comes out of the morning service, and the Royal Family know her no more.-David Copperfield, Chap. 18. SCHOOL-Influence of cruelty in. In a school carried on by sheer cruelty, whether it is presided over by a dunce or not, there is not likely to be much learned. I believe our boys were, generally, as ignorant a set as any schoolboys in existence; they were too much troubled and knocked about to learn: they could no more do that to advantage, than any one can do anything to advantage, in a life of constant misfortune, torment, and worry. David Copperfield, Chap. 7. SCHOOL-BOY-Death of the. He was a very young boy; quite a little child. His hair still hung in curls about his face, and his eyes were very bright; but their light was of Heaven, not earth. The schoolmaster took a seat beside him, and stooping over the pillow, whispered his name. The boy sprung up, Miss Shepherd is a boarder at the Misses Net-stroked his face with his hand, and threw his tingall's establishment. I adore Miss Shepherd. wasted arms round his neck, crying out that he She is a little girl, in a spencer, with a round was his dear kind friend. face and curly flaxen hair. The Misses Nettingall's young ladies come to the Cathedral too. I cannot look upon my book, for I must look upon Miss Shepherd. When the choristers chaunt, I hear Miss Shepherd. In the service I mentally insert Miss Shepherd's name: I put her in among the Royal Family. At home, in my own room, I am sometimes moved to cry out, "Oh, Miss Shepherd!" in a transport of love. "I hope I always was. I meant to be, God knows," said the poor schoolmaster. "Who is that?" said the boy, seeing Nell. "I am afraid to kiss her, lest I should make her ill. Ask her to shake hands with me." The sobbing child came closer up, and took the little languid hand in hers. Releasing his again after a time, the sick boy laid him gently down. "You remember the garden, Harry," whisFor some time, I am doubtful of Miss Shep-pered the schoolmaster, anxious to rouse him, herd's feelings, but, at length, Fate being propitious, we meet at the dancing-school. I have Miss Shepherd for my partner. I touch Miss Shepherd's glove, and feel a thrill go up the right arm of my jacket, and come out at my hair. I say nothing tender to Miss Shepherd, but we understand each other. Miss Shepherd and myself live but to be united. for a dullness seemed gathering upon the child, "and how pleasant it used to be in the evening time? You must make haste to visit it again, for I think the very flowers have missed you. and are less gay than they used to be. You will come soon, my dear, very soon now,-won't you?" The boy smiled faintly-so very, very faintly Why do I secretly give Miss Shepherd twelve-and put his hand upon his friend's gray head. Brazil nuts for a present, I wonder? They are He moved his lips too, but no voice came from not expressive of affection, they are difficult to them; no, not a sound. pack into a parcel of any regular shape, they are hard to crack, even in room doors, and they are oily when cracked; yet I feel that they are appropriate to Miss Shepherd. Soft, seedy biscuits, also, I bestow upon Miss Shepherd; and oranges innumerable. Once, I kiss Miss Shepherd in the cloak room. Ecstasy! What are my agony and indignation next day, when I hear In the silence that ensued, the hum of distant voices borne upon the evening air came floating through the open window. "What's that?" said the sick child, opening his eyes. "The boys at play upon the green." He took a handkerchief from his pillow, and tried to wave it above his head. But the feeble arm dropped powerless down. |