David Copperfield

Chapter 44: A Review (1)
Chapter 18 A Review(1)
My school life! My life, from childhood to youth, has slipped away without a sound--passed away without a sound! When I look back at the flowing water of life, it is now a canal overgrown with summer grass.To think, if there is any trace left along the way where the water still flows, can remind me how it flowed.

In an instant, I was back in my chapel pew.Every Sunday morning, we meet at school first and then go to church together.The smell of the earth, the gloomy weather, the feeling of isolation, the sound of the organ through the black and white arches and side chapels, like some wings, carried me back, in a half-sleep dream, making I floated up and down those days.

I'm not the worst student in school anymore! I've overtaken several students in a few months.But I think student No.1 is a great figure, more than any other student, and his dizzying degree is unimaginable.Agnes said "no," and I said "yes," and told her that the eminent man had acquired a considerable amount of learning, and she thought that even I, with little hope, would reach his place in time. realm.I would very much like to know what he will be like when he leaves Dr. Strong's school, and how people can come to his place.

Who was it that came suddenly? It was my beloved Miss Thurford.

Miss Thurford was a boarder at Mrs. Nightingale's school.I admire Miss Thurford.She was a small girl in a short coat, with a round face and curly fair hair.Girls from their school came to chapel too.I can't read because I want to see Miss Thurford.When the choir sang, all I heard was her voice.In my heart I have inserted Miss Thurford's name into the liturgy - I have included her in the royal family.At home, in my own room, I sometimes, with a burst of passion, exclaimed, "Oh, Miss Thurford!"

For a time I was not clear about Miss Thurford's feelings, but then fate took pity on me and we met at the dancing school.I had the honor of being Miss Thurford's partner.

I touched Miss Thurford's glove and felt a current go up and through my hair.I did not say a sweet word to Miss Thurford, but we got to know each other.Miss Thurford and I are perfectly suited.

I don't understand why I secretly gave Miss Thurford twelve Brazilian walnuts as a gift, which does not represent love, and cannot be wrapped in a certain pattern.Even if these walnuts are placed in the crack of the door, they are difficult to break open, and they are always greasy when opened.I think, however, that such a gift to Miss Thurford is very fitting.I also gave Miss Thurford soft and crispy biscuits, and lots of oranges.I kissed Miss Thurford once in the cloakroom, and alas, I was so ecstatic! The next day I heard a rumor that Miss Thurford had been given a Nidinger for walking inward on her toes. My wife's punishment, how uncomfortable and angry I am!

Miss Thurford is the theme of my life, the person I have dreamed of all my life. How can I cut off from her? I can't imagine.But something grew cold between me and Miss Thurford.I have heard slurs, and it is said that Miss Thurford said that she did not like the way I looked at her, and admitted that she preferred Raines! Rains, a big fool! The gulf between me and Miss Thurford Wider and wider.Then, one day, I met Mrs. Nightingale after school.Miss Thurford made a face at me as she passed, and laughed at her companions.All gone.A whole life of loyalty—it seemed a whole life, no different—was over.Miss Thurford withdrew from the morning service and disassociated herself from the royal family.

My status at school was elevated, and no one bothered me.I was not at all polite to girls at Mrs. Nightingale's school in those days, and I wouldn't have loved anyone if they were twenty times prettier.Dancing school is the place to be in my mind, wonder why the girls can't dance on their own, and let us go.My achievements in Latin poetry have grown so much that I don't care about shoelaces.Dr. Strong referred to me publicly as a promising young man.Mr. Dick was so delighted that my aunt included a guinea with her next post.

The shadow of a young butcher appears like the helmeted monster in Macbeth.Who was he? He was a terrorist from the Canterbury Youth Gang.It was vaguely heard that the tallow with which he rubbed his hair gave him strange powers, and that he was, therefore, a formidable enemy of a grown man.He has a broad face, a thick neck, rough red cheeks, a stomach full of bad ideas, and a tongue that is good at swearing.The chief function of his tongue was to slander the students of Dr. Strong's school.He openly stated that he would agree to all the duel requests of these students.Some of the students (including me) were also named by name.He can beat them all with just one hand.He hit young kids on the road, beat them on the head, and challenged us by following us in the street.Because of these circumstances, I decided to challenge him.

It was a summer night, in a grassy depression in a corner.I met the butcher as promised.I took a couple of contestants chosen from among our students, and the butcher took two other butchers, a young tavernkeeper, and a chimney sweep.After the preliminary arrangements were made, the butcher and I stood face to face.Not long after, the butcher lit ten thousand candles on my left eyebrow.After a while, I couldn't tell which was me, which was the butcher, and which was anyone else.I had no way of knowing who was who, we were constantly entangled, rolling around in the trampled grass.Sometimes I see the bloody but calm butcher, sometimes I see nothing, panting and sitting on my assistant's lap; sometimes I attack the butcher frantically, hitting him in the face with my fists continuously, Even broke my knuckles.I finally woke up, very dizzy, and saw the butcher go out, while the other two butchers, the chimney sweep and the tavernkeeper, congratulated the butcher.He put on his coat as he went, from which I supposed (and I guessed right) that the victory was his.

I was sent home by them in a horrible state, with sliced ​​beef put over my eyes and rubbed with vinegar and brandy, and my lip swollen in a big lump.For three or four days I stayed at home, looking very ugly, with a green mask over my eyes.I'd be bored if it wasn't for Agnes to wait on me like a sister, to comfort me, to read me articles, so that the time passed easily and happily.I trusted Agnes so much that I told her about the Butcher and what he had done to me. She thought a duel with the Butcher was the only way, but she cringed and trembled at the thought of the scene.

Time slipped by unknowingly, because the squad leader here is no longer Adams, and he has not been the squad leader for a long time.He left school a long time ago, and when he came back to see Dr. Strong, not many people knew him except me.Adams joined the bar almost immediately, working as an advocate and wearing a wig.I think he's more humble than I thought he was, and less imposing in appearance, which I never expected.He doesn't shock the world yet, because the world still goes on without him (as far as I know).

Time flew by, so what happened? I was the class president! I looked down on the line of students below me, condescendingly, and condescended to some of them who reminded me of when I first came here. Warm regards.That little guy didn’t seem to be me at the beginning, the him in my memory seemed to be something I forgot and left behind on the journey of life—as if I remembered something passing by me instead of me in the past—I thought of him The hand seems to think of someone else.

And where was the girl I saw when I first came to Mr. Wakefield's? Missed too.In her place was the perfect incarnation of the picture that went about the house, not the incarnation of a child.Agnes--my dear sister (so I call her from the bottom of my heart), my mentor and friend, and blessing to all who have been influenced by her calm, kindly self-abnegation--has been quite a grown-up grown up girl.

(End of this chapter)