69
That's all I know about the subject."
"Yru an't cross, I suppose, Peggotty, are you said I, after sitting
q..et for a minute.
I really thought she was, she had been so short with me; but I was
quite mistaken; for she laid aside her work (which was a stocking of
her own)and opening her arms wide, took my curly head within them,
and gave it a good squeeze, because, being very plump, whenever she made
any little exertion after she was dressed, some of the buttons on the
back of her gown flew off. And I recollect two bursting to the opposite
side of the parlour, while she was hugging me.
Later when David was sent off to school in disgrace, Peggotty was not
there when he drove away in the carrier's cart. But it had gone only a
short war when she suddenly came bursting through the hedge and
clambered up beside him:
"She took me in both her arms, and sqeezed me to her stays until the
pressure on my nose was extremely painful. Not a single word did she
speak. Releasing one of her arms, she put it down in her pocket to
the elbow, and brought out some paper bags of cakes which she crammed
into my pockets, and a purse which she put into my hand, but not one
word did she say. After another and final squeeze with both arms, she
got down from the cart and ran away; and my belief is, and always has
been, without a solitary button on her gown. I picked one up, of
several that were rolling about, and treasured it as a keepsake for
a long time
And to conclude someone may discover that in a letter to W.H. Wills,
dated 1st October 1864, Dickens wrote :I don't like Bees as a
subject: having had my honey turned into Gall by Bee Masters in The
Times.
I trust that the readers of this lighthearted paper will not follow
Dickens in this respect, but will have found these Bees amusing and
helpful in their appreciation of the works of The Inimitable Boz.
