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(11) CHARLES DICKENS: DAVID COPPERFIELD: CHAPTER 11: I DON'T LIKE THE LIFE I BEGIN ON MY OWN ACCOUNT

I knew enough of the world now. I was not surprised much by anything.  But it was a surprise to me that I had been thrown away so easily at such an age.  A child of abilities and observations.  Nobody had made any sign in my behalf.  At ten years old I became a labouring hind of Murdstone and Grinby. Murdstone and Grinby's warehouse was at waterside.  It was down in Blackfriars.  Modern improvements have altered the place; but it was the last house at the bottom of a narrow street, curving down to the river, with some stairs at the end, where people took boat.  It was a crazy old house, with a wharf of its own, abutting on the water when the tide was in, and on the mud when tide was out, and overrun with myraid of rats.  Its panelled rooms, discoloured with dirt and smoke of years, its decaying floors and stairs, the squeaking and scuffing of old grey rats, down in the cellars, and the dirt and rottenness of the place, even after decades, still li...

(10) CHARLES DICKENS: DAVID COPPERFIELD: CHAPTER 10 NEGLECTED AND LATER PROVIDED FOR

The first act Mr Murdstone performed after the day of solemnity was over, and light was freely admitted into the house, was to give Peggotty a month's notice.  Much as Peggotty would have disliked such a service, she would have retained it, for my sake, in preference to the best upon  earth.  She told me we must part, and she told me why, and we condoled with one another, in all sincerity. As to me or my future, not a word was said, or step taken.  Happy they would have been, if they could dismiss at a month's notice too.  I mustered courage once, to ask Miss Murdstone when I was going back to school, and she answered dryly, she believed I was not going back at all.  I was told nothing more.  I was very anxious to know what was going to be done with me, and so was Peggotty; but neither she nor I could pick up any information on it. There was one change in my condition, which, while it relieved me of a great deal of present uneasiness, might have made m...

(9) CHARLES DICKENS: DAVID COPPERFIELD: CHAPTER 9: I HAVE A MEMORABLE BIRTHDAY

I pass over all that happened at school, until the anniversary of my birthday came round in March.  Except that Steerforth was more to be admired than ever, I remember nothing.  He was going away at the end of the half year, if not sooner, and was more spirited and independent than before, more engaging than before, but beyond this I remember nothing.  The great remembrance by which that time is marked in my mind seems to have erased all lesser recollections, and exist alone. There was a gap of two months between my return to Salem House and the arrival of my birthday.  I can only understand that the fact was so, because I know it must have been so; otherwise I should feel convinced that there was no interval, and the one occasion trod upon the other's heel. How well I recollect the kind of day it was!  I smell the fog that hung about the place.  I see the hoar frost, ghostly through it.  I feel my rimy hair fall clammy on my cheek.  I look along ...