
compound one would have chosen for a stomachic, the last thing at night and the
first thing in the morning, I drank it gratefully, and was very sensible of his
attention.
    We seem, to me, to have been months over Peregrine, and months more over the
other stories. The institution never flagged for want of a story, I am certain,
and the wine lasted out almost as well as the matter. Poor Traddles - I never
think of that boy but with a strange disposition to laugh, and with tears in my
eyes - was a sort of chorus, in general, and affected to be convulsed with mirth
at the comic parts, and to be overcome with fear when there was any passage of
an alarming character in the narrative. This rather put me out, very often. It
was a great jest of his, I recollect, to pretend that he couldn't keep his teeth
from chattering, whenever mention was made of an Alguazil in connexion with the
adventures of Gil Blas; and I remember that when Gil Blas met the captain of the
robbers in Madrid, this unlucky joker counterfeited such an ague of terror, that
he was overheard by Mr. Creakle, who was prowling about the passage, and
handsomely flogged for disorderly conduct in the bedroom.
    Whatever I had within me that was romantic and dreamy, was encouraged by so
much story-telling in the dark; and in that respect the pursuit may not have
been very profitable to me. But the being cherished as a kind of plaything in my
room, and the consciousness that this accomplishment of mine was bruited about
among the boys, and attracted a good deal of notice to me though I was the
youngest there, stimulated me to exertion. In a school carried on by sheer
cruelty, whether it is presided over by a dunce or not, there is not likely to
be much learnt. I believe our boys were, generally, as ignorant a set as any
schoolboys in existence; they were too much troubled and knocked about to learn;
they could no more do that to advantage, than any one can do anything to
advantage in a life of constant misfortune, torment, and worry. But my little
vanity, and Steerforth's help, urged me on somehow; and without saving me from
much, if anything, in the way of punishment, made me, for the time I was there,
an exception to the general body, insomuch that I did steadily pick up some
crumbs of knowledge.
    In this I was much assisted by Mr. Mell, who had a liking for me that
