Chapter 6
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The day enced as befetting up and dressing by rushlight; but this m we were obliged to dispeh the ceremony of washing; the water ichers was frozen. A ge had taken pla the weather the preg evening, and a keen north-east wind, whistling through the crevices of our bedroom windows all night long, had made us shiver in our beds, and turhe tents of the ewers to ice.Before the long hour and a half of prayers and Bible-reading was over, I felt ready to perish with cold. Breakfast-time came at last, and this m the po<bdi>藏书网</bdi>rridge was not burnt; the quality was eatable, the quantity small. How small my portion seemed! I wished it had been doubled.
In the course of the day I was enrolled a member of the fourth class, and regular tasks and occupations were assigned me: hitherto, I had only been a spectator of the proceedings at Lowood; I was now to bee an actor therein. At first, being little aced to learn by heart, the lessons appeared to me both long and difficult; the frequent ge from task to task, too, bewildered me; and I was glad when, about three o’clo the afternoon, Miss Smith put into my hands a border of muslin two yards long, together with needle, thimble, &c., a me to sit in a quiet er of the schoolroom, with dires to hem the same. At that hour most of the others were sewing likewise; but one class still stood round Miss Scatcherd’s chair reading, and as all was quiet, the subject of their lessons could be heard, together with the manner in which each girl acquitted herself, and the animadversions or endations of Miss Scatcherd on the performa was English history: among the readers I observed my acquaintance of the verandah: at the e of the lesson, her place had been at the top of the class, but for some error of pronunciation, or some iion to stops, she was suddenly sent to the very bottom. Even in that obscure position, Miss Scatcherd tio make her an object of stant notice: she was tinually addressing to her such phrases as the following:—
“Burns” (such it seems was her he girls here were all called by their surnames, as boys are elsewhere), “Burns, you are standing on the side of your shoe; turn your toes out immediately.” “Burns, you poke your most unpleasantly; draw it in.” “Burns, I insist on your holding your head up; I will not have you before me in that attitude,” &c. &c.
A chapter having beehrough twice, the books were closed and the girls examihe lesson had prised part of the reign of Charles I., and there were sundry questions about tonnage and poundage and ship-money, which most of them appeared uo answer; still, every little difficulty was solved instantly when it reached Burns: her memory seemed to have retaihe substance of the whole lesson, and she was ready with answers on every point. I kept expeg that Miss Scatcherd would praise her attention; but, instead of that, she suddenly cried out—
“You dirty, disagreeable girl! you have never ed your nails this m!”
Burns made no answer: I wo her silence. “Why,” thought I, “does she not explain that she could her her nails nor wash her face, as the water was frozen?”
My attention was now called off by Miss Smith desirio hold a skein of thread: while she was winding it, she talked to me from time to time, asking whether I had ever been at school before, whether I could mark, stitch, knit, &c.; till she dismissed me, I could not pursue my observations on Miss Scatcherd’s movements. When I returo my seat, that lady was just delivering an order of which I did not catch the import; but Burns immediately left the class, and going into the small inner room where the books were kept, returned in half a minute, carrying in her hand a bundle of twigs tied together at one end. This ominous tool she preseo Miss Scatcherd with a respectful curtesy; then she quietly, and without being told, unloosed her pinafore, and the teacher instantly and sharply inflicted on her neck a dozen strokes with the bunch of twigs. Not a tear rose to Burns’ eye; and, while I paused from my sewing, because my fingers quivered at this spectacle with a se of unavailing and impotent anger, not a feature of her pensive face altered its ordinary expression.
“Hardened girl!” exclaimed Miss Scatcherd; “nothing correct you of your slatternly habits: carry the rod away.”
Burns obeyed: I looked at her narrowly as she emerged from the book-closet; she was just putting back her handkerchief into her pocket, and the trace of a tear glistened ohin cheek.
The play-hour in the evening I thought the pleasa fra of the day at Lowood: the bit of bread, the draught of coffee swallowed at five o’clock had revived vitality, if it had not satisfied huhe loraint of the day was slaed; the schoolroom felt warmer than in the m—its fires being allowed to burn a little more brightly, to supply, in some measure, the place of dles, not yet introduced: the ruddy gloaming, the lised uproar, the fusion of many voices gave one a wele sense of liberty.
On the evening of the day on which I had seen Miss Scatcherd flog her pupil, Burns, I wandered as usual among the forms and tables and laughing groups without a panio not feeling lonely: when I passed the windows, I now and then lifted a blind, and looked out; it snowed fast, a drift was already f against the lower panes; putting my ear close to the window, I could distinguish from the gleeful tumult within, the dissolate moan of the wind outside.
Probably, if I had lately left a good home and kind parents, this would have been the hour when I should most keenly have regretted the separation; that wind would then have saddened my heart; this obscure chaos would have disturbed my peace! as it was, I derived from both a straement, and reckless and feverish, I wished the wind to howl more wildly, the gloom to deepen to darkness, and the fusion to rise to clamour.
Jumping over forms, and creeping uables, I made my way to one of the fire-places; there, kneeling by the high wire fender, I found Burns, absorbed, silent, abstracted from all round her by the panionship of a book, which she read by the dim glare of the embers.
“Is it still Rasselas?” I asked, ing behind her.
“Yes,” she said, “and I have just fi.”
And in five minutes more she shut it up. I was glad of this. “Now,” thought I, “I perhaps get her to talk.” I sat down by her on the floor.
“What is your name besides Burns?”
“Helen.”
“Do you e a long way from here?”
“I e from a place farther north, quite on the borders of Scotland.”
“Will you ever go back?”
“I hope so; but nobody be sure of the future.”
“You must wish to leave Lowood?”
“No! why should I? I was sent to Lowood to get an education; and it would be of no use going away until I have attaihat object.”
“But that teacher, Miss Scatcherd, is so cruel to you?”
“Cruel? Not at all! She is severe: she dislikes my faults.”
“And if I were in your place I should dislike her; I should resist her. If she struck me with that rod, I should get it from her hand; I should break it under her nose.”
“Probably you would do nothing of the sort: but if you did, Mr. Brocklehurst would expel you from the school; that would be a great grief to your relations. It is far better to eiently a smart whiobody feels but yourself, than to it a hasty a whose evil sequences will extend to all ected with you; and besides, the Bible bids us return good for evil.”
“But then it seems disgraceful to be flogged, and to be sent to stand in the middle of a room full of people; and you are such a great girl: I am far youhan you, and I could not bear it.”
“Yet it would be your duty to bear it, if you could not avoid it: it is weak and silly to say you ot bear what it is your fate to be required to bear.”
I heard her with wonder: I could not prehend this doe of endurance; and still less could I uand or sywithout delay.
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