These Wednesdays were the happiest days of Mr.Dick’s life; they were far from being the least happy of mine.He soon became known to every boy in the school;and though he never took an active part in any game but kite-flying,was as deeply interested in all our sports as anyone among us.How often have I seen him,intent upon a match at marbles or pegtop,looking on with a face of unutterable interest,and hardly breathing at the critical times!How often, at hare and hounds,have I seen him mounted on a little knoll,cheering the whole field on to action,and waving his hat above his grey head,oblivious of King Charles the Martyr’s head,and all belonging to it!How many a summer hour have I known to be but blissful minutes to him in the cricket-field!How many winter days have I seen him,standing blue-nosed, in the snow and east wind,looking at the boys going down the long slide,and clapping his worsted gloves in rapture!
He was an universal favourite,and his ingenuity in little things was transcendent.He could cut oranges into such devices as none of us had an idea of.He could make a boat out of anything,from a skewer upwards.He could turn cramp-bones into chessmen;fashion Roman chariots from old court cards;make spoked wheels out of cotton reels,and bird-cages of old wire. But he was greatest of all,perhaps, in the articles of string and straw;with which we were all persuaded he could do anything that could be done by hands.
Mr. Dick’s renown was not long confined to us.After a few Wednesdays,Doctor Strong himself made some inquiries of me about him,and I told him all my aunt had told me;which interested the Doctor so much that he requested,on the occasion of his next visit,to be presented to him. This ceremony I performed;and the Doctor begging Mr. Dick,whensoever he should not find me at the coach office,to come on there, and rest himself until our morning’s work was over,it soon passed into a custom for Mr.Dick to come on as a matter of course, and,if we were a little late,as often happened on a Wednesday,to walk about the courtyard, waiting for me.Here he made the acquaintance of the Doctor’s beautiful young wife (paler than formerly, all this time; more rarely seen by me or anyone, I think; and not so gay, but not less beautiful), and so became more and more familiar by degrees, until, at last, he would come into the school and wait. He always sat in a particular corner, on a particular stool, which was called ‘Dick’, after him; here he would sit, with his grey head bent forward, attentively listening to whatever might be going on, with a profound veneration for the learning he had never been able to acquire.
This veneration Mr. Dick extended to the Doctor,whom he thought the most subtle and accomplished philosopher of any age.It was long before Mr.Dick ever spoke to him otherwise than bareheaded;and even when he and the Doctor had struck up quite a friendship,and would walk together by the hour,on that side of the courtyard which was known among us as The Doctor’s Walk,Mr. Dick would pull off his hat at intervals to show his respect for wisdom and knowledge. How it ever came about that the Doctor began to read out scraps of the famous Dictionary, in these walks, I never knew; perhaps he felt it all the same, at first, as reading to himself. However, it passed into a custom too; and Mr. Dick, listening with a face shining with pride and pleasure, in his heart of hearts believed the Dictionary to be the most delightful book in the world.
As I think of them going up and down before those schoolroom windows--the Doctor reading with his complacent smile, an occasional flourish of the manuscript, or grave motion of his head; and Mr. Dick listening, enchained by interest, with his poor wits calmly wandering God knows where, upon the wings of hard words--I think of it as one of the pleasantest things, in a quiet way, that I have ever seen. I feel as if they might go walking to and fro for ever, and the world might somehow be the better for it--as if a thousand things it makes a noise about, were not one half so good for it, or me.
Agnes was one of Mr. Dick’s friends, very soon;and in often coming to the house,he made acquaintance with Uriah.The friendship between himself and me increased continually,and it was maintained on this odd footing: that,while Mr. Dick came professedly to look after me as my guardian,he always consulted me in any little matter of doubt that arose,and invariably guided himself by my advice;not only having a high respect for my native sagacity,but considering that I inherited a good deal from my aunt.
One Thursday morning, when I was about to walk with Mr.Dick from the hotel to the coach office before going back to school (for we had an hour’s school before breakfast), I met Uriah in the street, who reminded me of the promise I had made to take tea with himself and his mother: adding, with a writhe, ‘But I didn’t expect you to keep it, Master Copperfield, we’re so very umble.’
I really had not yet been able to make up my mind whether I liked Uriah or detested him; and I was very doubtful about it still, as I stood looking him in the face in the street. But I felt it quite an affront to be supposed proud, and said I only wanted to be asked.
‘Oh, if that’s all, Master Copperfield,’ said Uriah,‘and it really isn’t our umbleness that prevents you,will you come this evening?But if it is our umbleness,I hope you won’t mind owning to it, Master Copperfield;for we are well aware of our condition.’
I said I would mention it to Mr. Wickfield,and if he approved, as I had no doubt he would,I would come with pleasure. So,at six o’clock that evening,which was one of the early office evenings,I announced myself as ready, to Uriah.
‘Mother will be proud, indeed,’ he said,as we walked away together. ‘Or she would be proud,if it wasn’t sinful, Master Copperfield.’
‘Yet you didn’t mind supposing I was proud this morning, ’ I returned.
‘Oh dear, no, Master Copperfield!’ returned Uriah. ‘Oh, believe me, no!Such a thought never came into my head!I shouldn’t have deemed it at all proud if you had thought US too umble for you.Because we are so very umble.’
‘Have you been studying much law lately?’ I asked, to change the subject.
‘Oh, Master Copperfield,’ he said,with an air of self-denial,‘my reading is hardly to be called study.I have passed an hour or two in the evening, sometimes, with Mr. Tidd.’
‘Rather hard, I suppose?’ said I. ‘He is hard to me sometimes,’ returned Uriah.‘But I don’t know what he might be to a gifted person.’
After beating a little tune on his chin as he walked on,with the two forefingers of his skeleton right hand, he added:
‘There are expressions, you see,Master Copperfield--Latin words and terms--in Mr. Tidd,that are trying to a reader of my umble attainments.’
‘Would you like to be taught Latin?’ I said briskly. ‘I will teach it you with pleasure, as I learn it.’
‘Oh, thank you, Master Copperfield,’ he answered,shaking his head. ‘I am sure it’s very kind of you to make the offer,but I am much too umble to accept it.’
‘What nonsense, Uriah!’
‘Oh, indeed you must excuse me, Master Copperfield!I am greatly obliged,and I should like it of all things, I assure you;but I am far too umble.There are people enough to tread upon me in my lowly state,without my doing outrage to their feelings by possessing learning.Learning ain’t for me.A person like myself had better not aspire.If he is to get on in life, he must get on umbly, Master Copperfield!’
I never saw his mouth so wide,or the creases in his cheeks so deep,as when he delivered himself of these sentiments:shaking his head all the time, and writhing modestly.