My rescue from this kind of existence I considered quite hopeless, and
abandoned as such, altogether; though I am solemnly convinced that I
never, for one hour, was reconciled to it, or was otherwise than
miserably unhappy. I felt keenly, however, the being so cut off from
my parents, my brothers, and sisters; and, when my day's work was done,
going home to such a miserable blank. And _that_, I thought, might be
corrected. One Sunday night I remonstrated with my father on this head
so pathetically and with so many tears that his kind nature gave way.
He began to think that it was not quite right. I do believe he had
never thought so before, or thought about it. It was the first
remonstrance I had ever made about my lot, and perhaps it opened up a
little more than I intended. A back-attic was found for me at the
house of an insolvent court agent, who lived in Lant Street in the
Borough, where Bob Sawyer lodged many years afterward. A bed and
bedding were sent over for me, and made up on the floor. The little
window had a pleasant prospect of a timber-yard; and when I took
possession of my new abode, I thought it was a paradise.


A FRIEND IN NEED

Bob Fagin was very good to me on the occasion of a bad attack of my old
disorder, cramps. I suffered such excruciating pain that time that
they made a temporary bed of straw in my old recess in the
counting-house, and I rolled about on the floor, and Bob filled empty
blacking-bottles with hot water, and applied relays of them to my side,
half the day. I got better, and quite easy toward evening; but Bob
(who was much bigger and older than I) did not like the idea of my
going home alone, and took me under his protection. I was too proud to
let him know about the prison; and after making several efforts to get