David Copperfield Charles Dickens (100 best novels of all time .TXT) đ
- Author: Charles Dickens
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He drew his hand across his face, and with a half-suppressed sigh looked up from the fire.
âIs Martha with you yet?â I asked.
âMartha,â he replied, âgot married, Masâr Davy, in the second year. A young man, a farm-labourer, as come by us on his way to market with his masârâs draysâ âa journey of over five hundred mile, theer and backâ âmade offers fur to take her fur his wife (wives is very scarce theer), and then to set up fur their two selves in the Bush. She spoke to me fur to tell him her trew story. I did. They was married, and they live fower hundred mile away from any voices but their own and the singing birds.â
âMrs. Gummidge?â I suggested.
It was a pleasant key to touch, for Mr. Peggotty suddenly burst into a roar of laughter, and rubbed his hands up and down his legs, as he had been accustomed to do when he enjoyed himself in the long-shipwrecked boat.
âWould you believe it!â he said. âWhy, someun even made offer fur to marry her! If a shipâs cook that was turning settler, Masâr Davy, didnât make offers fur to marry Missis Gummidge, Iâm gormedâ âand I canât say no fairer than that!â
I never saw Agnes laugh so. This sudden ecstasy on the part of Mr. Peggotty was so delightful to her, that she could not leave off laughing; and the more she laughed the more she made me laugh, and the greater Mr. Peggottyâs ecstasy became, and the more he rubbed his legs.
âAnd what did Mrs. Gummidge say?â I asked, when I was grave enough.
âIf youâll believe me,â returned Mr. Peggotty, âMissis Gummidge, âstead of saying âthank you, Iâm much obleeged to you, I ainât a-going fur to change my condition at my time of life,â upâd with a bucket as was standing by, and laid it over that theer shipâs cookâs head till he sung out fur help, and I went in and reskied of him.â
Mr. Peggotty burst into a great roar of laughter, and Agnes and I both kept him company.
âBut I must say this, for the good creetur,â he resumed, wiping his face, when we were quite exhausted; âshe has been all she said sheâd be to us, and more. Sheâs the willingest, the trewest, the honestest-helping woman, Masâr Davy, as ever drawâd the breath of life. I have never knowâd her to be lone and lorn, for a single minute, not even when the colony was all afore us, and we was new to it. And thinking of the old âun is a thing she never done, I do assure you, since she left England!â
âNow, last, not least, Mr. Micawber,â said I. âHe has paid off every obligation he incurred hereâ âeven to Traddlesâs bill, you remember my dear Agnesâ âand therefore we may take it for granted that he is doing well. But what is the latest news of him?â
Mr. Peggotty, with a smile, put his hand in his breast pocket, and produced a flat-folded, paper parcel, from which he took out, with much care, a little odd-looking newspaper.
âYou are to understanâ, Masâr Davy,â said he, âas we have left the Bush now, being so well to do; and have gone right away round to Port Middlebay Harbour, wheer theerâs what we call a town.â
âMr. Micawber was in the Bush near you?â said I.
âBless you, yes,â said Mr. Peggotty, âand turned to with a will. I never wish to meet a better genâlâman for turning to with a will. Iâve seen that theer bald head of his a perspiring in the sun, Masâr Davy, till I aâmost thowt it would have melted away. And now heâs a Magistrate.â
âA Magistrate, eh?â said I.
Mr. Peggotty pointed to a certain paragraph in the newspaper, where I read aloud as follows, from the Port Middlebay Times:
âThe public dinner to our distinguished fellow-colonist and townsman, Wilkins Micawber, Esquire, Port Middlebay District Magistrate, came off yesterday in the large room of the Hotel, which was crowded to suffocation. It is estimated that not fewer than forty-seven persons must have been accommodated with dinner at one time, exclusive of the company in the passage and on the stairs. The beauty, fashion, and exclusiveness of Port Middlebay, flocked to do honour to one so deservedly esteemed, so highly talented, and so widely popular. Doctor Mell (of Colonial Salem-House Grammar School, Port Middlebay) presided, and on his right sat the distinguished guest. After the removal of the cloth, and the singing of âNon Nobisâ (beautifully executed, and in which we were at no loss to distinguish the bell-like notes of that gifted amateur, Wilkins Micawber, Esquire, Junior), the usual loyal and patriotic toasts were severally given and rapturously received. Doctor Mell, in a speech replete with feeling, then proposed, âOur distinguished guest, the ornament of our town. May he never leave us but to better himself, and may his success among us be such as to render his bettering himself impossible!â The cheering with which the toast was received defies description. Again and again it rose and fell, like the waves of ocean. At length all was hushed, and Wilkins Micawber, Esquire, presented himself to return thanks. Far be it from us, in the present comparatively imperfect state of the resources of our establishment, to endeavour to follow our distinguished townsman through the smoothly-flowing periods of his polished and highly-ornate address! Suffice it to observe, that it was a masterpiece of eloquence; and that those passages in which he more particularly traced his own successful career to its source, and warned the younger portion of his auditory from the shoals
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