Roundabout Papers - Penn State University

Roundabout Papersreminders? How was I to pay off such a debt out of sixpencea week? ludicrous! Why did not some one come tosee me, and tip me? Ah! my dear sir, if you have any littlefriends at school, go and see them, and do the naturalthing by them. You won’t miss the sovereign. You don’tknow what a blessing it will be to them. Don’t fancy theyare too old—try ‘em. And they will remember you, andbless you in future days; and their gratitude shall accompanyyour dreary after life; and they shall meet you kindlywhen thanks for kindness are scant. O mercy! shall I everforget that sovereign you gave me, Captain Bob? or theagonies of being in debt to Hawker? In that very term, arelation of mine was going to India. I actually was fetchedfrom school in order to take leave of him. I am afraid Itold Hawker of this circumstance. I own I speculated uponmy friend’s giving me a pound. A pound? Pooh! A relationgoing to India, and deeply affected at parting fromhis darling kinsman, might give five pounds to the dearfellow! … There was Hawker when I came back—of coursethere he was. As he looked in my scared face, his turnedlivid with rage. He muttered curses, terrible from the lipsof so young a boy. My relation, about to cross the oceanto fill a lucrative appointment, asked me with much interestabout my progress at school, heard me construe apassage of Eutropius, the pleasing Latin work on which Iwas then engaged; gave me a God bless you, and sent meback to school; upon my word of honor, without so muchas a half-crown! It is all very well, my dear sir, to say thatboys contract habits of expecting tips from their parents’friends, that they become avaricious, and so forth. Avaricious!fudge! Boys contract habits of tart and toffeeeating, which they do not carry into after life. On thecontrary, I wish I did like ‘em. What raptures of pleasureone could have now for five shillings, if one could butpick it off the pastry-cook’s tray! No. If you have anylittle friends at school, out with your half-crowns, myfriend, and impart to those little ones the little fleetingjoys of their age.Well, then. At the beginning of August, 1823, Bartlemytideholidays came, and I was to go to my parents, whowere at Tunbridge Wells. My place in the coach was takenby my tutor’s servants—”Bolt-in-Tun,” Fleet Street, seven58