There it is! Doctor's bills, gentleman-farming, twenty-one pints of
porter a week. In this way my unnatural parents were already robbing me
of my property.




FEBRUARY.--CUTTING WEATHER.

I have called this chapter "cutting weather," partly in compliment to
the month of February, and partly in respect of my own misfortunes,
which you are going to read about. For I have often thought that January
(which is mostly twelfth-cake and holiday time) is like the first four
or five years of a little boy's life; then comes dismal February, and
the working-days with it, when chaps begin to look out for themselves,
after the Christmas and the New Year's heyday and merrymaking are over,
which our infancy may well be said to be. Well can I recollect that
bitter first of February, when I first launched out into the world and
appeared at Doctor Swishtail's academy.

I began at school that life of prudence and economy which I have carried
on ever since. My mother gave me eighteenpence on setting out (poor
soul! I thought her heart would break as she kissed me, and bade God
bless me); and, besides, I had a small capital of my own which I had
amassed for a year previous. I'll tell you, what I used to do. Wherever
I saw six halfpence I took one. If it was asked for I said I had taken
it and gave it back;--if it was not missed, I said nothing about it, as
why should I?--those who don't miss their money, don't lose their money.