go to, if he quarrels with
his vittles; and with what feelings he could turn up his nose at the
cow's-liver broth, after his good master had asked a blessing on it.
This was told her in the London newspapers--not by Mr Squeers, for he is
too kind and too good to set anybody against anybody--and it has vexed
her so much, Mobbs can't think. She is sorry to find he is discontented,
which is sinful and horrid, and hopes Mr Squeers will flog him into
a happier state of mind; with which view, she has also stopped his
halfpenny a week pocket-money, and given a double-bladed knife with a
corkscrew in it to the Missionaries, which she had bought on purpose for
him.'

'A sulky state of feeling,' said Squeers, after a terrible pause, during
which he had moistened the palm of his right hand again, 'won't do.
Cheerfulness and contentment must be kept up. Mobbs, come to me!'

Mobbs moved slowly towards the desk, rubbing his eyes in anticipation
of good cause for doing so; and he soon afterwards retired by the
side-door, with as good cause as a boy need have.

Mr Squeers then proceeded to open a miscellaneous collection of letters;
some enclosing money, which Mrs Squeers 'took care of;' and others
referring to small articles of apparel, as caps and so forth, all of
which the same lady stated to be too large, or too small, and calculated
for nobody but young Squeers, who would appear indeed to have had most
accommodating limbs, since everything that came into the school fitted
him to a nicety. His head, in particular, must have been singularly
elastic, for hats and caps of all dimensions were alike to him.

This business dispatched, a few slovenly lessons were performed, and
Squeers retired to his fireside, leaving Nicholas to take care of the
boys in the school-room, which was very cold, and where a meal of bread
and cheese was served out shortly after dark.

There was a small stove at that corner of the room which was nearest
to the master's desk, and by it Nicholas sat down, so depressed and
self-degraded by the consciousness of his position, that if death could
have come upon him at that time, he would have been almost happy to meet
it. The cruelty of which he had been an unwilling witness, the coarse
and ruffianly behaviour of Squeers even in his best moods, the filthy
place, the sights and sounds about him, all contributed to this state of
feeling; but when he recollected that, being there as an assistant,
he actually seemed