weakest.

Nicholas, in the full strength of his violence, felt the blows no more
than if they had been dealt with feathers; but, becoming tired of the
noise and uproar, and feeling that his arm grew weaker besides, he threw
all his remaining strength into half a dozen finishing cuts, and flung
Squeers from him, with all the force he could muster. The violence of
his fall precipitated Mrs. Squeers completely over an adjacent form;
Squeers, striking his head against it in his descent, lay at his full
length on the ground, stunned and motionless.

Having brought affairs to this happy termination, and ascertained, to
his thorough satisfaction, that Squeers was only stunned, and not dead
(upon which point he had some unpleasant doubts at first), Nicholas left
his family to restore him, and retired to consider what course he had
better adopt. He looked anxiously round for Smike, as he left the room,
but he was nowhere to be seen.

After a brief consideration, he packed up a few clothes in a small
valise, and, finding that nobody offered to oppose his progress, marched
boldly out by the front door, and, shortly afterward, struck into the
road which led to the Greta Bridge.

Dickens: "Nicholas Nickleby."

DICKENS IN THE CAMP

Above the pines the moon was slowly drifting,
The river sang below;
The dim Sierras, far beyond, uplifting
Their minarets of snow.

The roaring camp-fire, with rude humour, painted
The ruddy tints of health
On haggard face and form that drooped and fainted
In the fierce race for wealth;

Till one arose, and from his pack's scant treasure
A hoarded volume drew,
And cards were dropped from hands of listless leisure
To hear the tale anew.

And then, while round them shadows gathered faster,
And as the firelight fell,
He read aloud the book wherein the Master
Had writ of "Little Nell."

Perhaps 'twas boyish fancy,--for the reader
Was youngest of them all,--
But, as he read, from clustering pine and cedar
A silence seemed to fall;

The fir trees, gathering closer in the shadows,
Listened in every spray,
While the whole camp, with "Nell" on English meadows,
Wandered and lost their way.

And so in mountain solitudes--o'ertaken
As by some spell divine--
Their cares dropped from them like the needles shaken
From out t