lonely and frightened, he began to cry.

"Hold your noise!" cried a terrible voice; and a man started up from
among the graves close to him. "Keep still, you little imp, or I'll cut
your throat!"

He was a dreadful looking man, dressed in coarse gray cloth, with a
great iron on his leg. Wet, muddy, and miserable, he limped and
shivered, and glared and growled; his teeth chattered in his head, as he
seized Pip, by the chin.

"Oh! don't cut my throat, sir," cried Pip, in terror. "Pray don't do it,
sir."

"Tell us your name!" said the man. "Quick!"

"Pip, sir."

"Once more," said the man, staring at him, "Give it mouth."

"Pip. Pip, sir."

"Show us where you live," said the man. "Point out the place."

Pip showed him the village, about a mile or more from the church.

The man looked at him for a moment, and then turned him upside down and
emptied his pockets. He found nothing in them but a piece of bread,
which he ate ravenously.

"You young dog," said the man, licking his lips, "what fat cheeks you
ha' got.... Darn me if I couldn't eat 'em, and if I han't half a mind
to!"

Pip said earnestly that he hoped he would not.

"Now lookee here," said the man. "Where's your mother?"

"There sir," said Pip.

At this the man started and seemed about to run away, but stopped and
looked over his shoulder.

"There, sir," explained Pip, showing him the tombstone.

"Oh, and is that your father along of your mother?"

"Yes, sir," said Pip.

"Ha!" muttered the man, "then who d'ye live with--supposin' you're
kindly let to live, which I han't made up my mind about?"

"My sister, sir, Mrs. Joe Gargery, wife of Joe Gargery, the blacksmith,
sir."

"Blacksmith, eh?" said the man, and looked down at his leg. Then he
seized the trembling little boy by both arms, and glaring down at him,
he said--

"Now lookee here, the question being whether you're to be let to live.
You know what a file is?"

"Yes, sir."

"And you know what wittles is. Something to eat?"

"Yes, sir."

"You get me a file, and you get me wittles--you bring 'em both to me."
All this time he was tilting poor Pip backwards till he was so
dreadfully frightened and giddy that he clung to the man with both
hands.

"You bring me, to-morrow morning early, that file and them wittles. You
do it, and you never dare to say a word or dare to make a sign
concerning your having seen such a person as me, or any person sumever,
and you shall be let to live."