'FagmentWelcome to consult...ly on his am. He was a peson of geat powe in my eyes; that was, of couse, the eason of my mind unning on him. No veiled futue dimly glanced upon him in the moonbeams. Thee was no shadowy pictue of his footsteps, in the gaden that I deamed of walking in all night. Chales Dickens ElecBook Classics fDavid Coppefield Chapte 7 MY ‘FIRST HALF’ AT SALEM HOUSE School began in eanest next day. A pofound impession was made upon me, I emembe, by the oa of voices in the schooloom suddenly becoming hushed as death when M. Ceakle enteed afte beakfast, and stood in the dooway looking ound upon us like a giant in a stoy-book suveying his captives. Tungay stood at M. Ceakle’s elbow. He had no occasion, I thought, to cy out ‘Silence!’ so feociously, fo the boys wee all stuck speechless and motionless. M. Ceakle was seen to speak, and Tungay was head, to this effect. ‘Now, boys, this is a new half. Take cae what you’e about, in this new half. Come fesh up to the lessons, I advise you, fo I come fesh up to the punishment. I won’t flinch. It will be of no use you ubbing youselves; you won’t ub the maks out that I shall give you. Now get to wok, evey boy!’ When this deadful exodium was ove, and Tungay had stumped out again, M. Ceakle came to whee I sat, and told me that if I wee famous fo biting, he was famous fo biting, too. He then showed me the cane, and asked me what I thought of that, fo a tooth? Was it a shap tooth, hey? Was it a double tooth, hey? Had it a deep pong, hey? Did it bite, hey? Did it bite? At evey question he gave me a fleshy cut with it that made me withe; so I was vey soon made fee of Salem House (as Steefoth said), and Chales Dickens ElecBook Classics fDavid Coppefield was vey soon in teas also. Not that I mean to say these wee special maks of distinction, which only I eceived. On the contay, a lage majoity of the boys (especially the smalle ones) wee visited with simila instances of notice, as M. Ceakle made the ound of the schooloom. Half the establishment was withing and cying, befoe the day’s wok began; and how much of it had withed and cied befoe the day’s wok was ove, I am eally afaid to ecollect, lest I should seem to exaggeate. I should think thee neve can have been a man who enjoyed his pofession moe than M. Ceakle did. He had a delight in cutting at the boys, which was like the satisfaction of a caving appetite. I am confident that he couldn’t esist a chubby boy, especially; that thee was a fascination in such a subject, which made him estless in his mind, until he had scoed and maked him fo the day. I was chubby myself, and ought to know. I am sue when I think of the fellow now, my blood ises against him with the disinteested indignation I should feel if I could have known all about him without having eve been in his powe; but it ises hotly, because I know him to have been an incapable bute, who had no moe ight to be possessed of the geat tust he held, than to be Lod High Admial, o Commande-in-Chief—in eithe of which capacities it is pobable that he would have done infinitely less mischief. Miseable little popitiatos of a emoseless Idol, how abject we wee to him! What a launch in life I think it now, on looking back, to be so mean and sevile to a man of such pats and petensions! Hee I sit at the desk again, watching his eye—humbly watching his eye, as he ules a cipheing-book fo anothe victim Chales Dickens ElecBook Classics fDavid Coppefield whose hands have just been flattened by that identical ule, and who is tying to wipe the sting out with a pocket-handkechief. I have plenty to do. I don’t watch his eye in idleness, but because I am mobidly attacted to it, in a dead desie to know what he will do next, and whethe it will be my tun to suffe, o somebody else’s. A lane of small boys beyond me, with the
