George Silvermans Explanation | Page 4

both went away seeking work; and then I would be locked up in the
cellar for a day or two at a time. I was at my worldliest then. Left alone, I yielded myself
up to a worldly yearning for enough of anything (except misery), and for the death of
mother's father, who was a machine-maker at Birmingham, and on whose decease, I had
heard mother say, she would come into a whole courtful of houses 'if she had her rights.'
Worldly little devil, I would stand about, musingly fitting my cold bare feet into cracked
bricks and crevices of the damp cellar-floor, - walking over my grandfather's body, so to
speak, into the courtful of houses, and selling them for meat and drink, and clothes to
wear.
At last a change came down into our cellar. The universal change came down even as low
as that, - so will it mount to any height on which a human creature can perch, - and
brought other changes with it.
We had a heap of I don't know what foul litter in the darkest corner, which we called 'the
bed.' For three days mother lay upon it without getting up, and then began at times to
laugh. If I had ever heard her laugh before, it had been so seldom that the strange sound
frightened me. It frightened father too; and we took it by turns to give her water. Then
she began to move her head from side to side, and sing. After that, she getting no better,
father fell a-laughing and a-singing; and then there was only I to give them both water,
and they both died.

FOURTH CHAPTER

WHEN I was lifted out of the cellar by two men, of whom one came peeping down alone
first, and ran away and brought the other, I could hardly bear the light of the street. I was
sitting in the road-way, blinking at it, and at a ring of people collected around me, but not
close to me, when, true to my character of worldly little devil, I broke silence by saying,
'I am hungry and thirsty!'
'Does he know they are dead?' asked one of another.

'Do you know your father and mother are both dead of fever?' asked a third of me
severely.
'I don't know what it is to be dead. I supposed it meant that, when the cup rattled against
their teeth, and the water spilt over them. I am hungry and thirsty.' That was all I had to
say about it.
The ring of people widened outward from the inner side as I looked around me; and I
smelt vinegar, and what I know to be camphor, thrown in towards where I sat. Presently
some one put a great vessel of smoking vinegar on the ground near me; and then they all
looked at me in silent horror as I ate and drank of what was brought for me. I knew at the
time they had a horror of me, but I couldn't help it.
I was still eating and drinking, and a murmur of discussion had begun to arise respecting
what was to be done with me next, when I heard a cracked voice somewhere in the ring
say, 'My name is Hawkyard, Mr. Verity Hawkyard, of West Bromwich.' Then the ring
split in one place; and a yellow-faced, peak-nosed gentleman, clad all in iron-gray to his
gaiters, pressed forward with a policeman and another official of some sort. He came
forward close to the vessel of smoking vinegar; from which he sprinkled himself
carefully, and me copiously.
'He had a grandfather at Birmingham, this young boy, who is just dead too,' said Mr.
Hawkyard.
I turned my eyes upon the speaker, and said in a ravening manner, 'Where's his houses?'
'Hah! Horrible worldliness on the edge of the grave,' said Mr. Hawkyard, casting more of
the vinegar over me, as if to get my devil out of me. 'I have undertaken a slight - a very
slight - trust in behalf of this boy; quite a voluntary trust: a matter of mere honour, if not
of mere sentiment: still I have taken it upon myself, and it shall be (O, yes, it shall be!)
discharged.'
The bystanders seemed to form an opinion of this gentleman much more favourable than
their opinion of me.
'He shall be taught,' said Mr. Hawkyard, '(O, yes, he shall be taught!) but what is to be
done with him for the present? He may be infected. He may disseminate infection.' The
ring widened considerably. 'What is to be done with him?'
He held some talk with the two officials. I could distinguish no word save 'Farm-house.'
There was another sound several times repeated, which was wholly meaningless