I HAD led this life about a month, when the man with the wooden legbegan to stump about with a mop and a bucket of water, from which Iinferred that preparations were making to receive Mr. Creakle and theboys. I was not mistaken; for the mop came into the schoolroom beforelong, and turned out Mr. Mell and me, who lived where we could, and goton how we could, for some days, during which we were always in the wayof two or three young women, who had rarely shown themselves before, andwere so continually in the midst of dust that I sneezed almost as muchas if Salem House had been a great snuff-box.

One day I was informed by Mr. Mell that Mr. Creakle would be home thatevening. In the evening, after tea, I heard that he was come. Beforebedtime, I was fetched by the man with the wooden leg to appear beforehim.

Mr. Creakle's part of the house was a good deal more comfortable thanours, and he had a snug bit of garden that looked pleasant after thedusty playground, which was such a desert in miniature, that I thoughtno one but a camel, or a dromedary, could have felt at home in it. Itseemed to me a bold thing even to take notice that the passage lookedcomfortable, as I went on my way, trembling, to Mr. Creakle's presence:which so abashed me, when I was ushered into it, that I hardly sawMrs. Creakle or Miss Creakle (who were both there, in the parlour), oranything but Mr. Creakle, a stout gentleman with a bunch of watch-chainand seals, in an arm-chair, with a tumbler and bottle beside him.

'So!' said Mr. Creakle. 'This is the young gentleman whose teeth are tobe filed! Turn him round.'

The wooden-legged man turned me about so as to exhibit the placard; andhaving afforded time for a full survey of it, turned me about again,with my face to Mr. Creakle, and posted himself at Mr. Creakle's side.Mr. Creakle's face was fiery, and his eyes were small, and deep in hishead; he had thick veins in his forehead, a little nose, and a largechin. He was bald on the top of his head; and had some thin wet-lookinghair that was just turning grey, brushed across each temple, so thatthe two sides interlaced on his forehead. But the circumstance abouthim which impressed me most, was, that he had no voice, but spoke in awhisper. The exertion this cost him, or the consciousness of talking inthat feeble way, made his angry face so much more angry, and his thickveins so much thicker, when he spoke, that I am not surprised, onlooking back, at this peculiarity striking me as his chief one. 'Now,'said Mr. Creakle. 'What's the report of this boy?'

'There's nothing against him yet,' returned the man with the wooden leg.'There has been no opportunity.'

I thought Mr. Creakle was disappointed. I thought Mrs. and Miss Creakle(at whom I now glanced for the first time, and who were, both, thin andquiet) were not disappointed.

'Come here, sir!' said Mr. Creakle, beckoning to me.

'Come here!' said the man with the wooden leg, repeating the gesture.

'I have the happiness of knowing your father-in-law,' whispered Mr.Creakle, taking me by the ear; 'and a worthy man he is, and a man ofa strong character. He knows me, and I know him. Do YOU know me? Hey?'said Mr. Creakle, pinching my ear with ferocious playfulness.

'Not yet, sir,' I said, flinching with the pain.

'Not yet? Hey?' repeated Mr. Creakle. 'But you will soon. Hey?'

'You will soon. Hey?' repeated the man with the wooden leg. I afterwardsfound that he generally acted, with his strong voice, as Mr. Creakle'sinterpreter to the boys.

I was very much frightened, and said, I hoped so, if he pleased. I felt,all this while, as if my ear were blazing; he pinched it so hard.

'I'll tell you what I am,' whispered Mr. Creakle, letting it go at last,with a screw at parting that brought the water into my eyes. 'I'm aTartar.'

'A Tartar,' said the man with the wooden leg.

'When I say I'll do a thing, I do it,' said Mr. Creakle; 'and when I sayI will have a thing done, I will have it done.'

'--Will have a thing done, I will have it done,' repeated the man withthe wooden leg.

'I am a determined character,' said Mr. Creakle. 'That's what I am. Ido my duty. That's what I do. My flesh and blood'--he looked at Mrs.Creakle as he said this--'when it rises against me, is not my fleshand blood. I discard it. Has that fellow'--to the man with the woodenleg--'been here again?'

'No,' was the answer.

'No,' said Mr. Creakle. 'He knows better. He knows me. Let him keepaway. I say let him keep away,' said Mr. Creakle, striking his hand uponthe table, and looking at Mrs. Creakle, 'for he knows me. Now you havebegun to know me too, my young friend, and you may go. Take him away.'

I was very glad to be ordered away, for Mrs. and Miss Creakle were bothwiping their eyes, and I felt as uncomfortable for them as I did formyself. But I had a petition on my mind which concerned me so nearly,that I couldn't help saying, though I wondered at my own courage:

'If you please, sir--'

Mr. Creakle whispered, 'Hah! What's this?' and bent his eyes upon me, asif he would have burnt me up with them.

'If you please, sir,' I faltered, 'if I might be allowed (I am verysorry indeed, sir, for what I did) to take this writing off, before theboys come back--'

Whether Mr. Creakle was in earnest, or whether he only did it tofrighten me, I don't know, but he made a burst out of his chair, beforewhich I precipitately retreated, without waiting for the escort Of theman with the wooden leg, and never once stopped until I reached my ownbedroom, where, finding I was not pursued, I went to bed, as it wastime, and lay quaking, for a couple of hours.

Next morning Mr. Sharp came back. Mr. Sharp was the first master, andsuperior to Mr. Mell. Mr. Mell took his meals with the boys, butMr. Sharp dined and supped at Mr. Creakle's table. He was a limp,delicate-looking gentleman, I thought, with a good deal of nose, and away of carrying his head on one side, as if it were a little too heavyfor him. His hair was very smooth and wavy; but I was informed by thevery first boy who came back that it was a wig (a second-hand one HEsaid), and that Mr. Sharp went out every Saturday afternoon to get itcurled.

It was no other than Tommy Traddles who gave me this piece ofintelligence. He was the first boy who returned. He introduced himselfby informing me that I should find his name on the right-hand corner ofthe gate, over the top-bolt; upon that I said, 'Traddles?' to which hereplied, 'The same,' and then he asked me for a full account of myselfand family.

It was a happy circumstance for me that Traddles came back first. Heenjoyed my placard so much, that he saved me from the embarrassment ofeither disclosure or concealment, by presenting me to every other boywho came back, great or small, immediately on his arrival, in this formof introduction, 'Look here! Here's a game!' Happily, too, the greaterpart of the boys came back low-spirited, and were not so boisterous atmy expense as I had expected. Some of them certainly did dance about melike wild Indians, and the greater part could not resist the temptationof pretending that I was a dog, and patting and soothing me, lest Ishould bite, and saying, 'Lie down, sir!' and calling me Towzer. Thiswas naturally confusing, among so many strangers, and cost me sometears, but on the whole it was much better than I had anticipated.

I was not considered as being formally received into the school,however, until J. Steerforth arrived. Before this boy, who wasreputed to be a great scholar, and was very good-looking, and at leasthalf-a-dozen years my senior, I was carried as before a magistrate. Heinquired, under a shed in the playground, into the particulars of mypunishment, and was pleased to express his opinion that it was 'a jollyshame'; for which I became bound to him ever afterwards.

'What money have you got, Copperfield?' he said, walking aside withme when he had disposed of my affair in these terms. I told him sevenshillings.

'You had better give it to me to take care of,' he said. 'At least, youcan if you like. You needn't if you don't like.'

I hastened to comply with his friendly suggestion, and openingPeggotty's purse, turned it upside down into his hand.

'Do you want to spend anything now?' he asked me.

'No thank you,' I replied.

'You can, if you like, you know,' said Steerforth. 'Say the word.'

'No, thank you, sir,' I repeated.

'Perhaps you'd like to spend a couple of shillings or so, in a bottle ofcurrant wine by and by, up in the bedroom?' said Steerforth. 'You belongto my bedroom, I find.'

It certainly had not occurred to me before, but I said, Yes, I shouldlike that.

'Very good,' said Steerforth. 'You'll be glad to spend another shillingor so, in almond cakes, I dare say?'

I said, Yes, I should like that, too.

'And another shilling or so in biscuits, and another in fruit, eh?' saidSteerforth. 'I say, young Copperfield, you're going it!'

I smiled because he smiled, but I was a little troubled in my mind, too.

'Well!' said Steerforth. 'We must make it stretch as far as we can;that's all. I'll do the best in my power for you. I can go out when Ilike, and I'll smuggle the prog in.' With these words he put the moneyin his pocket, and kindly told me not to make myself uneasy; he wouldtake care it should be all right. He was as good as his word, if thatwere all right which I had a secret misgiving was nearly all wrong--forI feared it was a waste of my mother's two half-crowns--though I hadpreserved the piece of paper they were wrapped in: which was a precioussaving. When we went upstairs to bed, he produced the whole sevenshillings' worth, and laid it out on my bed in the moonlight, saying:

'There you are, young Copperfield, and a royal spread you've got.'

I couldn't think of doing the honours of the feast, at my time of life,while he was by; my hand shook at the very thought of it. I begged himto do me the favour of presiding; and my request being seconded by theother boys who were in that room, he acceded to it, and sat upon mypillow, handing round the viands--with perfect fairness, I must say--anddispensing the currant wine in a little glass without a foot, which washis own property. As to me, I sat on his left hand, and the rest weregrouped about us, on the nearest beds and on the floor.

How well I recollect our sitting there, talking in whispers; or theirtalking, and my respectfully listening, I ought rather to say; themoonlight falling a little way into the room, through the window,painting a pale window on the floor, and the greater part of us inshadow, except when Steerforth dipped a match into a phosphorus-box,when he wanted to look for anything on the board, and shed a blue glareover us that was gone directly! A certain mysterious feeling, consequenton the darkness, the secrecy of the revel, and the whisper in whicheverything was said, steals over me again, and I listen to all they tellme with a vague feeling of solemnity and awe, which makes me glad thatthey are all so near, and frightens me (though I feign to laugh) whenTraddles pretends to see a ghost in the corner.

I heard all kinds of things about the school and all belonging to it.I heard that Mr. Creakle had not preferred his claim to being a Tartarwithout reason; that he was the sternest and most severe of masters;that he laid about him, right and left, every day of his life, chargingin among the boys like a trooper, and slashing away, unmercifully. Thathe knew nothing himself, but the art of slashing, being more ignorant(J. Steerforth said) than the lowest boy in the school; that he hadbeen, a good many years ago, a small hop-dealer in the Borough, and hadtaken to the schooling business after being bankrupt in hops, and makingaway with Mrs. Creakle's money. With a good deal more of that sort,which I wondered how they knew.

I heard that the man with the wooden leg, whose name was Tungay, was anobstinate barbarian who had formerly assisted in the hop business, buthad come into the scholastic line with Mr. Creakle, in consequence,as was supposed among the boys, of his having broken his leg in Mr.Creakle's service, and having done a deal of dishonest work for him,and knowing his secrets. I heard that with the single exception of Mr.Creakle, Tungay considered the whole establishment, masters and boys,as his natural enemies, and that the only delight of his life was to besour and malicious. I heard that Mr. Creakle had a son, who had not beenTungay's friend, and who, assisting in the school, had once held someremonstrance with his father on an occasion when its discipline was verycruelly exercised, and was supposed, besides, to have protested againsthis father's usage of his mother. I heard that Mr. Creakle had turnedhim out of doors, in consequence; and that Mrs. and Miss Creakle hadbeen in a sad way, ever since.

But the greatest wonder that I heard of Mr. Creakle was, there being oneboy in the school on whom he never ventured to lay a hand, and thatboy being J. Steerforth. Steerforth himself confirmed this when it wasstated, and said that he should like to begin to see him do it. On beingasked by a mild boy (not me) how he would proceed if he did begin to seehim do it, he dipped a match into his phosphorus-box on purpose to sheda glare over his reply, and said he would commence by knocking him downwith a blow on the forehead from the seven-and-sixpenny ink-bottlethat was always on the mantelpiece. We sat in the dark for some time,breathless.

I heard that Mr. Sharp and Mr. Mell were both supposed to be wretchedlypaid; and that when there was hot and cold meat for dinner at Mr.Creakle's table, Mr. Sharp was always expected to say he preferred cold;which was again corroborated by J. Steerforth, the only parlour-boarder.I heard that Mr. Sharp's wig didn't fit him; and that he needn't be so'bounceable'--somebody else said 'bumptious'--about it, because his ownred hair was very plainly to be seen behind.

I heard that one boy, who was a coal-merchant's son, came as a set-offagainst the coal-bill, and was called, on that account, 'Exchange orBarter'--a name selected from the arithmetic book as expressing thisarrangement. I heard that the table beer was a robbery of parents, andthe pudding an imposition. I heard that Miss Creakle was regarded by theschool in general as being in love with Steerforth; and I am sure, as Isat in the dark, thinking of his nice voice, and his fine face, and hiseasy manner, and his curling hair, I thought it very likely. I heardthat Mr. Mell was not a bad sort of fellow, but hadn't a sixpence tobless himself with; and that there was no doubt that old Mrs. Mell, hismother, was as poor as job. I thought of my breakfast then, and what hadsounded like 'My Charley!' but I was, I am glad to remember, as mute asa mouse about it.

The hearing of all this, and a good deal more, outlasted the banquetsome time. The greater part of the guests had gone to bed as soon as theeating and drinking were over; and we, who had remained whispering andlistening half-undressed, at last betook ourselves to bed, too.

'Good night, young Copperfield,' said Steerforth. 'I'll take care ofyou.' 'You're very kind,' I gratefully returned. 'I am very much obligedto you.'

'You haven't got a sister, have you?' said Steerforth, yawning.

'No,' I answered.

'That's a pity,' said Steerforth. 'If you had had one, I should thinkshe would have been a pretty, timid, little, bright-eyed sort of girl. Ishould have liked to know her. Good night, young Copperfield.'

'Good night, sir,' I replied.

I thought of him very much after I went to bed, and raised myself,I recollect, to look at him where he lay in the moonlight, with hishandsome face turned up, and his head reclining easily on his arm. Hewas a person of great power in my eyes; that was, of course, the reasonof my mind running on him. No veiled future dimly glanced upon him inthe moonbeams. There was no shadowy picture of his footsteps, in thegarden that I dreamed of walking in all night.