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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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65 with you in the next box?’ ‘By all means,’ rejoined Squeers with a grin. ‘My dears, will you speak to your new playfellow a minute or two? That is one of my boys, sir. Belling his name is,--a Taunton boy that, sir.’ ‘Is he, indeed?’ rejoined Mr Snawley, looking at the poor little urchin as if he were some extraordinary natural curiosity. ‘He goes down with me tomorrow, sir,’ said Squeers. ‘That’s his luggage that he is a sitting upon now. Each boy is required to bring, sir, two suits of clothes, six shirts, six pair of stockings, two nightcaps, two pocket-handkerchiefs, two pair of shoes, two hats, and a razor.’ ‘A razor!’ exclaimed Mr Snawley, as they walked into the next box. ‘What for?’ ‘To shave with,’ replied Squeers, in a slow and measured tone. There was not much in these three words, but there must have been something in the manner in which they were said, to attract attention; for the schoolmaster and his companion looked steadily at each other for a few seconds, and then exchanged a very meaning smile. Snawley was a sleek, flat-nosed man, clad in sombre garments, and long black gaiters, and bearing in his countenance an expression of much mortification and sanctity; so, his smiling without any obvious reason was the more remarkable. ‘Up to what age do you keep boys at your school then?’ he asked at length. ‘Just as long as their friends make the quarterly payments to my agent in town, or until such time as they run away,’ replied Squeers. ‘Let us understand each other; I see we may safely do so. What are these boys;--natural children?’ ‘No,’ rejoined Snawley, meeting the gaze of the schoolmaster’s |
