David Copperfield

Chapter 30 After the decision (1)
Chapter 13 After Resolution(1)
I stopped chasing the young man driving the donkey cart and set out for Greenwich. At that time, maybe I had the absurd idea of ​​running all the way to the Buddha.If that was the case, my confused consciousness remembered at this moment: for I stopped in front of a row of houses in Kent Street, and saw a pool in front of the house, and in the center of the pool was a large statue of a dried shell.I sat there exhausted, barely able to cry over the loss of my suitcase and half guinea.

It was dark at that time, and when I sat down to rest, I heard the clock strike ten o'clock.Fortunately it was a summer night and the weather was fine.When I regained my breath and the feeling of constriction in my throat subsided, I stood up and continued on my way.My sudden poverty at that time did not hold me back in the slightest.But I can't say now if I would have considered backing down had the Kent roads been blocked by snow like in Switzerland.

But now all I had was threepence (and now I wonder how I could have threepence in my pocket on a Saturday night!), and it bothered me, though I went on.Within a day or two, I thought, my dead body was seen under the hedge and made a newspaper story.I walked as far as I could until I passed a small shop.I saw on the shop it was written that men and women bought old clothes, bought rags, bones and kitchen utensils at high prices.The owner of the shop was wearing no coat, smoking a cigarette in front of the door.Many jackets and trousers hung from the low ceiling, and there were only two candles burning in the room, which cast a faint light on the clothes, like a vengeful man.

My recent experience with the Micawbers informed me that it might be possible to save me from hunger for a while.I came to a secluded alley, took off my vest, rolled it neatly under my arms, and went back to the shop. "Excuse me, sir, I want to sell this vest, please give me a fair price."

Mr. Durob - Durob is the name on the door of the shop - took it up, leaned his pipe upside down on the doorpost, and led me into the shop, and had a good look, and a second look at it by the light. After a while, he finally said:

"Then how much do you want for this little vest?"

"You can figure it out, sir," I said.

Mr. Durob said: "You give me a price!"

"Eighteen pence—" I said after a moment's pause.

Mr. Durob rolled it up and returned it to me. "If I'd give you ninepence," said he, "it'd be like robbing my house."

This is an unconscionable way to do business because it allows me to have a complete stranger robbed for my sake.But, being so hard on me, I said ninepence would be the deal if he liked it.Mr Dorobe reluctantly gave me ninepence.I said good-bye to him and walked out of the shop, with an extra money and a missing vest, though it wasn't so noticeable when I buttoned up my coat.

Admittedly, I had clearly expected that my jacket and vest would suffer the same betrayal, and that I could only go to the fight in a shirt and trousers, and even then, it was pretty lucky.Normally, I would concentrate on this.But I still remember very clearly the road ahead of me and the young donkey driver who abused me, but when I had ninepence in my pocket, I didn't immediately realize my situation.

I planned to sleep in the back of my old schoolhouse, where there was a corner with haystacks.I thought to myself, being so close to those students was like having companionship, even though they didn't know I was coming.

I am exhausted after a long day of trekking.By the time I climbed up to the flats of the Blasches, I was terribly tired.It took a lot of trouble to find the Salem School, but I found it at last, and lay down there; before I lay down to rest, I looked around the schoolhouse, and looked up at the windows, and it was very dark inside.It was the first time in my life that I slept on the street, and I will never forget the feeling of desolation and loneliness!

Sleep and weariness came over me that night, as it has taken over so many homeless people.And so I dreamed that I was lying in my old school bed, talking to my classmates in the bedroom, and waking up to see myself sitting upright, saying the name of Steerforth, my eyes staring blankly at the flickering overhead Non-stop stars.When I suddenly remembered where I was, a sense of dread came over me, and I stood up and looked around.But the fading starlight and the gray-white light of the sky where the sun came out made me feel relieved, because my eyelids were tight at that time, so I lay down and fell asleep again; Sleeping until the sun was warm on me, until the wake-up bell at Salem's school woke me up.If Steerforth had been there, I should have hidden till he came out; but I know he is long gone.Perhaps Traddles was still around, but not so much; and, though I had much confidence in his good qualities, I was not so much in his carefulness and good fortune, that I would not tell him my situation.So before Mr. Krigul's students got up, I hurried out of that corner and set foot on the dusty Duofu Road.When I was a student, I was very familiar with the road leading to Fighting Buddha, but I never thought that I would join the ranks of pedestrians.

What a difference this Sunday morning was from my Sunday morning in Yarmouth! As I pushed on, I sometimes heard church bells ringing and saw many people in service; Sitting on the porch or under a pine tree to enjoy the shade, covering my forehead with my hand, watching me walk by with a frown.The peace and serenity of Sunday permeates everything but me.I was covered in dust, my hair was in a mess, and I didn't feel right about myself.It is hard to believe that I should have the strength to go on, had I not had in my mind the picture of peace and tranquility--my young and beautiful mother weeping by the fireside, and my aunt feeling pity for her.But that picture always appeared in front of me, and I kept chasing it.

That day, I walked nearly 23 miles, which was time consuming because I didn't often suffer like that.When night fell, I stood on the Rochester Bridge with tired feet and aching feet, biting the bread I had just bought.A little house or two with a "Traveler's House" hanging over it is tempting; but I'm afraid I'll use up the few pennies I have left, and I'm afraid of tramps with malicious intentions.So, I just spent the night in the open air.I made my way into Chatham—a place that is unreal at night, with a patch of marble, drawbridges, and mastless ships like Noah's ark in murky water.With difficulty, I climbed onto a weedy fort and looked down at the soldiers patrolling the alley.I lay down by a cannon, and contented myself with the company of the footsteps of the guards, I slept soundly till the next morning.

When I awoke in the morning, I was sore, and the sound of drums and marching troops from the narrow streets nearly knocked me out.I figured I'd have very little to do if I was going to get to the finish line; so I made selling my jackets the order of the day.I took off my jacket first to experience the feeling of not wearing a jacket in advance. I tucked it under my arm and slowly looked at various old clothes shops.

It was an appropriate place to sell jackets, because there were many second-hand clothes shops, and the shopkeepers of the second-hand clothes shops were waiting for customers at the door.However, they usually have one or two full officer's uniforms with epaulets hanging in the house, so I guess, their business must be so prosperous that I, who was timid, lingered for a long time without daring to give my goods to Anyone look.My timidity led me to turn to less expensive establishments like Mr. Durob's.I finally found what looked like a similar shop to me at the corner of a dirty alley.The yard of the shop was overgrown with luxuriant nettles; and the fence of the wall was heaped with old clothes overflowing from the shop.

Uneasy, I walked up a few steps and entered the shop.There is only one small window in the shop, and the clothes are hung on it, making the light of the shop very dim.An ugly old man came rushing out of a dingy hut behind the shop and grabbed me by the hair. The lower half of the old man's face was completely covered by a stubble-like gray beard.He was a palpitating old man in a dirty flannel vest and reeked strongly of booze.His bunk, covered with a mottled patchwork quilt, was set in a hole through which he rushed.There was also a small window, through which stinging nettles and a lame donkey could be seen.

"Oh, what do you want? Oh, Gollum," said the old man, grinning, in a horrible monotonous nasal voice.

I was so frightened that I was too scared to answer.So the old man still grabbed my hair and repeated:

"Oh, what are you doing? He squeezed out the words with such force that his eyes popped out of their sockets.

"I'm trying to find out," I said, terrified, "whether you want to buy a jacket."

"Oh, let me see!" cried the old man, "Oh, my head is so big, show me now! Oh, get out your jacket!"

As he spoke, he removed his trembling hand like a large bird's claw from my hair, and put on a pair of glasses that did not enhance him at all.

"Oh, what's the price of the coat?" The old man asked after looking carefully, "What's the price of the coat?"

"Half a crown." I collected myself and said.

"No! Eighteenpence," cried the old man.

Whenever he howled like this, his eyes seemed to be in danger of popping out, and every word he uttered came out in a constant tone, that tone, like a gust of wind, fell first, then rose, then fell again. .

"Well," I said, hoping the deal would be done soon, "it'll be eighteenpence."

Throwing his coat on a shelf, the old man called out, "Go out of the shop! You don't need money, just trade!"

I've never panicked like that before, but I still humbly tell him that I need money badly and nothing else will do me any good.But I could wait for him outside, so I went out of the second-hand shop and sat in a corner.I stood there for a long time, stubbornly waiting for the money.

I don't think a manic alcoholic like him should ever be in that profession.He was well known in the neighborhood, and his reputation consisted of willingly selling himself to the devil, as I later learned from the attacks he received from the children.The kids kept fighting around his shop, telling the story, demanding his money. "Charlie, you pretend to be poor, you are not poor. You give yourself to the devil, and you take the money you get! Come on, Charlie, we see it in your bedding, tear it up and give it to us Some!" They yelled, lending him scissors to remove the bedding.He was irritated to such an extent that it was constant pursuit for him and constant dodging for the children.Sometimes he would be so angry that he would leap at me as one of the boys, and would tear me apart, and then, before he could, remembering it was me, would slip into the shop, and pass from his door. The voice informed that he was lying on the bed.He sings that "Death of Nelson" with his roaring voice, adding an "oh!"As if all this wasn't bad enough for me.Because I was disheveled, I sat quietly outside the door.Those children mistakenly thought that I had something to do with this shop, and they beat me with stones all day long and abused me.

He did everything possible to induce me to agree to exchange things.Once, a fishing rod was produced; once, a violin was produced; once, a cocked hat was produced; and once, a flute was produced.But I refused all offers, and sat there helpless; each time I begged him with tears in my eyes for money, or for my clothes back.He finally started giving me pennies at a time; it took a good two hours to build up to a shilling.

After a long pause, he said fiercely to the outside of the shop: "Oh, add two pence, you can go!"

"No," I said, "then I shall starve."

"Oh, and threepence more, will you?"

"I'd be gone if I could," I said, "but I need money most of all!"

He poked his sly head out from behind the door: "Fourpence, is that all right?"

I was exhausted at the time, and I took it.With trembling hands I drew the money from his claws.Towards sunset, I was hungry and thirsty.But after spending threepence, things were right again, and seven miles of hard work were soon on the road.

I washed my blistered feet first in a small river, wrapped them as best I could in cool leaves, and settled down to rest in another haystack.When I started the road again the next morning, I saw that the road ran through continuous hop fields and orchards.It's autumn, the orchard is full of fruits, and the hop workers in several places have already started working.I thought it was all very beautiful, so I decided to sleep in the hops that night and be with them.

(End of this chapter)