David Copperfield: Chapter 51

Summary

Podcast Summary: Storytime for Grownups Host: Faith Moore
Episode: David Copperfield: Chapter 51
Date: July 2, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode of Storytime for Grownups continues the immersive reading of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens, with chapter notes and commentary by Faith Moore. Due to Faith’s temporary absence, this is one of two pre-recorded episodes without the usual Q&A segment. Faith focuses on recapping the dramatic reunion with Emily in chapter 50, explores the themes of shame, societal judgment, and forgiveness, and then provides a dramatic and annotated reading of Chapter 51 (“The Beginning of a Longer Journey”). The readings are infused with Faith’s warm and thoughtful literary insights.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Recap of Chapter 50: The Search for Emily (02:47–05:45)

• Emily’s Plight: Emily is found after months of searching, thanks to Martha’s efforts. She is hiding in a rundown boarding house in London.
• Miss Dartle’s Confrontation: Miss Dartle berates Emily, accusing her of prostitution and of having no virtue left. Emily, upset and remorseful, attempts to justify her actions, admitting she was in love with Steerforth but feels completely degraded in Miss Dartle’s eyes.
  • Memorable Moment: Miss Dartle viciously threatens, “If I ever see you again, I will either ruin you or kill you.” (04:03)
• Mr. Peggotty’s Unwavering Love: In stark contrast, Mr. Peggotty is steadfast in his love and forgiveness for Emily, seeing her as “his own dear niece” and unchanged in his eyes. He thanks God for guiding him to her.
  • Quote: “I thank my heavenly Father as my dreams come true. I thank him Hardy, for having guided of me in his own ways to my darling.” (08:09)

Commentary and Thematic Exploration (05:45–17:21)

• Societal Judgment vs. Personal Redemption: Faith discusses how the chapter contrasts the world’s harsh view of Emily—embodied by Miss Dartle—with Mr. Peggotty’s extraordinary compassion. The world sees Emily as irredeemable, but Mr. Peggotty’s love suggests the possibility of forgiveness and redemption.
  • Quote: “She isn't what Miss Dartle thinks she is. And she isn't really what Mr. Peggotty thinks she is, either.” (15:19)
• Emily’s Inner Struggle: Emily feels immense shame; she both recognizes her faults and believes she is beyond forgiveness, even viewing Mr. Peggotty’s love as a source of pain:
  • Quote (Emily): “Oh, dear, dear uncle, if you ever could have known the agony your love would cause me when I fell away from good... you never would have shown it to me so constant.” (15:03)
• The State of the Boarding House: The description of Martha’s boarding house mirrors Emily’s own state—once grand, now faded but not entirely ruined.
• Faith’s Call for Listener Thoughts: Faith invites listeners to share questions, especially about Miss Dartle’s complex character:
  • Quote: “Please do, if you want to write in, tell me what your thoughts are about Miss Dartle. And we will come back to her at some point.” (16:27)

Reading and Annotation of Chapter 51: "The Beginning of a Longer Journey" (17:21–59:28)

Mr. Peggotty’s Account of Emily’s Ordeal (19:37–32:51)

• Emily’s Escape: Emily’s harrowing journey across Europe is recounted by Mr. Peggotty: fleeing imprisonment by Littimer, wandering in despair, being taken in by a compassionate woman, and suffering fever and mental anguish.
  • Quote: “She took flight in the night. It was a dark night with a many stars a shinin’… she was wild. She ran along the sea beach… there was fire afore her eyes, and roarins in her ears.” (21:02)
• Support from Others: The kindness of strangers, especially the young woman who shelters Emily, is highlighted as a restorative force.
• Emily’s Return and Recovery: Her inability to speak the foreign language, her longing for forgiveness, and the symbolic regaining of her sense of self when a child calls her “fisherman’s daughter” are narrated with emotional depth.
  • Quote: “She told her, and she took her home… It was a little cottage… Emily was took bad with fever…” (23:49–24:40)
• The Threat of Littimer: Littimer’s reappearance in France reignites Emily’s fears, prompting her to return to England, where she is nearly lured into prostitution but is saved by Martha.
  • Quote: “Martha… saved her. This seemingly kind woman was going to in fact make Emily become a prostitute. So Martha came in and stopped that.” (30:23)
  • Faith’s cry of relief: “I could not repress a cry of joy.” (30:23)

Plans for Emigration and Care for All (33:39–36:46)

• A New Life in Australia: Mr. Peggotty plans to take Emily to Australia “where no one can reproach my darling” and begin afresh.
  • Quote: “No one can reproach my darling in Australia. We will begin a new life over there.” (34:05)
• Care for Others Left Behind: Mr. Peggotty arranges for Mrs. Gummidge to be financially supported, recognizing the challenges and needs of everyone involved.

Encounters with the Community (40:07–46:02)

• Mr. Omer and Community Kindness: David visits Mr. Omer, who expresses delight at the good news and offers support for Martha, noting the importance of kindness in old age.
  • Quote: “Let us always do a kindness and be over rejoiced, to be sure.” (45:38)
• References to Ham: The pain and restraint of Ham following Emily’s ordeal are described with sympathy.

Ham’s Forgiveness and Farewell (50:41–54:32)

• Ham’s Forgiveness: In a poignant exchange, Ham asks David to relay messages to Emily—expressing not only forgiveness but regret at having unconsciously pressured her.
  • Quote (Ham): “I beg of her to forgive me for having pressed my affections upon her odd times… I might have saved her.” (51:43)
• Ham’s Last Message: He asks David to assure Emily that he is not angry or embittered—he continues to love her but will seek peace without her.

Final Farewells and Mrs. Gummidge’s Loyalty (54:43–59:28)

• Packing Up the Old Life: The family’s humble possessions are sold or given away, except the meaningful keepsakes.
• Mrs. Gummidge’s Plea: In a deeply moving moment, Mrs. Gummidge pleads to join Mr. Peggotty and Emily on their journey, offering her loyal service and love.
  • Quote (Mrs. Gummidge): “Take me along with you and Emily. I’ll be your servant constant and true… let me go along with you.” (57:50–59:21)
• Episode Closing: The boat house—full of memories—is left behind as the party moves forward into a new chapter.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• Mr. Peggotty’s Faith:
  • "I thank my heavenly Father as my dreams come true. I thank him Hardy, for having guided of me in his own ways to my darling." (08:09)
• Emily’s Shame and Grief:
  • "Oh, dear, dear uncle, if you ever could have known the agony your love would cause me when I fell away from good... you never would have shown it to me so constant." (15:03)
• Miss Dartle’s Fury:
  • "You were a part of the trade of your home and were bought and sold like any other vendable thing your people dealt in." (12:56)
• Ham’s Self-Reproach and Forgiveness:
  • "I beg of her to forgive me for having pressed my affections upon her odd times... I might have saved her." (51:43)
  • "I loved her. And I love the memory of her too deep to be able to lead her to believe of my own self as I'm a happy man... but if you... could think of anything to say as might bring her to believe I wasn't greatly hurt still loving of her... where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest." (52:28–53:29)
• Mrs. Gummidge’s Loyalty:
  • "Take me along with you and Em’ly. I’ll be your servant constant and true... let me go along with you." (57:50–59:21)
• Mr. Omer’s Philosophy:
  • "Let us always do a kindness and be over rejoiced, to be sure." (45:38)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |---------------------------------------------|-------------| | Faith’s Recap of Chapter 50 | 02:47–05:45 | | Literary Discussion: Emily’s Reputation | 05:45–17:21 | | Start of Chapter 51 Reading | 17:21 | | Mr. Peggotty recounts Emily’s ordeal | 19:37–32:51 | | Emigration plans and provisions | 33:39–36:46 | | Visit with Mr. Omer and community | 40:07–46:02 | | Ham’s message and farewell | 50:41–54:32 | | Mrs. Gummidge’s plea to join the journey | 57:21–59:28 |

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Listener Invitation

Faith repeatedly encourages audience participation, especially invitations to share interpretations of characters (notably Miss Dartle). She looks forward to featuring listener emails in future episodes upon her return.

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This episode offers a deeply empathetic exploration of judgment, shame, and forgiveness in David Copperfield, illuminating the psychology and social dynamics of Dickens’s characters. Faith Moore’s engaging narration and commentary make classic literature accessible and compelling for contemporary listeners.

Transcript

[Faith Moore]

Hello and welcome to Storytime for Grown Ups. I'm Faith Moore and this season we're reading David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. Each episode I'll read a few chapters from the book, pausing from time to time to give brief explanations so it's easier to follow along. It's like an audiobook with built in notes.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

So brew a pot of tea, find

[Faith Moore]

a cozy chair and settle in. It's story time.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

Hello. Welcome back. So this is the first of two pre recorded episodes. This is an episode that I recorded a little while ago so that it would be available for you today. Because I am actually away. I am away today and I will be away for the next episode, but then I will be back with you again. So I just wanted to make sure that you did get the episodes on time. So I did it this way and it just means that there won't be any questions for me to answer, which is, which makes me very sad. I love your questions and they make everything better and they make the discussion much, much better. But I'm going to do the best that I can without them. So otherwise the episode is going to be completely the same. We're going to do the recap, we're going to talk a little bit about Chapter 50, which is what we read last time, and then I will read you chap. Chapter 51 and the next episode will be very similar and then I'll be back to discuss all of the things that we missed while I was away. So I will come back around to chapters 51 and 52. If there's anything that you guys write in about that I didn't touch on. So please do continue to write in while I'm away. First of all, I will love getting your messages while I'm gone. That will make me very happy. But also I will pick and choose some that I can read to you when I'm back. If there were things that you guys brought up that I didn't, and I'm sure that there will be because you guys have such amazing, wonderful questions and comments. So please do keep writing in and please do keep spreading the word. Scroll into the show notes and maybe pick up some merch. That's a great way to spread the word. If you haven't tapped the five stars yet in your podcast player, please do that. If you haven't left a positive review in your podcast player, please do that. Let's just keep gathering more and more people in this place to talk about these great books together because it's just wonderful. It's Wonderful to get to talk about these books together. And I can't wait to be back with you to chat with you in real time. But this is the next best thing, so let's get into it. Let's begin by reminding ourselves what happened in chapter 50. So here is the recap.

[Faith Moore]

Okay, so where we left off.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

It has been several months since David and Mr. Peggy enlisted Martha's help in finding little Emily. But so far she hasn't seen anything to report. Mr. Peggy has continued searching everywhere and

[Faith Moore]

often stops by to see David and dora. One day Mr. Peggotty tells David that Martha came to see him and told

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

him not to leave London before she'd

[Faith Moore]

come back to talk to him again. But she wouldn't say why.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

But one evening David is walking in

[Faith Moore]

his garden when Martha shows up and says that she went to see Mr. Peggotty, but he wasn't there.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

She left a note telling him where

[Faith Moore]

to meet her, but she asks David if he'll come with her. Now David does and they take a carriage to London. Martha leads David to a run down

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

crowded apartment building and takes him up

[Faith Moore]

to the top floor. But before they can go into Martha's room, the Miss Dardle appears on the stairs and goes in ahead of them. Not seeing them, Martha leads David to

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

an adjoining room and they listen from there. And David discovers that Emily is in fact in there.

[Faith Moore]

But he doesn't go into her because David wants Mr. Peggotty to be the one to come in and get her. So While they're waiting, Ms. Dardle berates Emily, saying that she wants to see

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

the person who ran off with Steerforth

[Faith Moore]

and calling her a prostitute essentially, and the lowest of the low.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

Emily's very upset and very contrite and

[Faith Moore]

explains that she was a good girl, but she fell in love with Steerforth.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

Ms. Dardle seems very angry.

[Faith Moore]

This she doesn't believe her.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

And she tells Emily that if she

[Faith Moore]

ever sees her again, she will either

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

ruin her or kill her.

[Faith Moore]

Then she leaves just as Mr. Peggotty finally shows up.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

He rushes into the room and upon seeing him, Emily faints. Mr. Peggotty says his prayers are answered

[Faith Moore]

and he carries her out of the house.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

Okay, so no questions. I'm just gonna do the best that I can here and we'll circle back if anything comes up that I didn't cover. So Emily has been found. Right? Martha has done what she promised to do and has found Emily. And she's kept her safe until Mr. Peg could come and get her. But before he does, we get this sort of showdown with Ms. Dardle, which is pretty unexpected, I think, and not really what I at least would have imagined was going to happen in the chapter where Emily is found. And it means that while Emily is found, and she does end up at the very end of the chapter, safely with Mr. Peggy, we still don't really know very much, if anything, about what happened to her after she left Littimer and ran away. But what we do get in this chapter, I think, is these various references to Emily's status now. Essentially who she is in the eyes of the world, in her own eyes, in Ms. Dardle's eyes, in our eyes. That's kind of what this chapter is all about, it seems to me. And Ms. Dardle's diatribe, or whatever you want to call it, it's really sort of calling that out. And I think it all kind of begs the question. And the question certainly still remains. What is Emily's life going to be. Be like now that she is found? Where can she live where people will accept her? How can she earn money and live an honest life now that she is tarnished in this way that makes her a pariah to society?

[Faith Moore]

And it's lovely, I think, that the chapter begins and ends with Mr. Peggotty,

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

the one person who feels that Emily is unchanged to him, that she's as good and as true as she ever was. That she is his own dear niece. And that nothing will ever make him love her any less. I mean, even David, who feels that she has been truly wronged and wants her to be found and doesn't look down on her. Even David has begun to lose hope and to think that she's dead. And only Mr. Paggetty, this figure of myth, right, this saint, only he has held out hope all of this time and has kept this image in his mind of Emily unchanged by everything that she's done and everything that she's been through. Here's what David says. And although I trembled for the agony it might one day be to him to have his strong assurance shivered at a blow, there was something so religious in it, so affectingly expressive of its anchor, being in the purest depths of his fine nature, that the respect and honor in which I held him were exalted every day. And this sense of him again as a kind of protector of the weak and the innocent is here at the beginning of this chapter, too. David tells us that Mr. Peggotty often visits them and comes to Dora's bedside. He says Dora had often seen him since our marriage and was quite fond of him. I fancy his figure before me now, standing near her sofa with his rough cap in his hand and the blue eyes of my child wife raised with a timid wonder to his face. Again, it's like a kind of saint or a Christ figure or something has come to stand at her bedside and offer her the sort of comfort that you can't really get from human hands. So the chapter opens with this reminder of the saintliness of Mr. Peggotty and the almost sort of superhuman way that he has of believing in Emily and believing in her inner goodness and inner virtue, even as she has done this thing that is like the least socially acceptable thing that a woman could do at this time. And it ends with that as well. It ends with Mr. Peggoty saying, I thank my heavenly Father as my dreams come true. I thank him Hardy, for having guided of me in his own ways to my darling. So this man who is like a

[Faith Moore]

saint or a figure of legend, he

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

feels that his quest has been guided

[Mr. Peggotty]

by God and that he owes the

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

fact of this reunion to God. So the chapter begins and ends with these very exalted images and ideas. And really ever since Mr. Peggy has begun searching for Emily, that is the tone that his quest has taken. And even though we have sometimes felt

[Faith Moore]

angry with Emily or like she got

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

herself into this situation, Mr. Peggotty has always been surrounded by this kind of halo of love and forgiveness. And it has colored this plot thread for many, many chapters now. But when we actually see Emily for the first time, when David and Martha arrive at Martha's boarding house or whatever it is, and they listen in, the things that are being said about Emily are the exact opposite of all of this high kind of exalted stuff. Instead of the person who loves her most of all and has literally walked the world over to find her, the first person we see interacting with her is the person who probably in all the world hates her most of all and has come specifically to find and berate her.

[Faith Moore]

And in Ms. Dardle's impression of Emily, we see what the world will see

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

when they see Emily. Because Ms. Dardle is convinced that Emily is not a virtuous young girl who was charmed by an uncaring man and then used as a plaything and set aside. And she thinks this most likely because she herself has feelings for Searforth. We've talked about this before, right? She can't believe that someone, Steerforth, would run off with someone like Emily when he totally disregarded her. Ms. Dardle and so she is convinced that Emily is actually a prostitute, that she set out to seduce Steerforth, that she kept him company for money, that she took the money that he gave her, and that now that he is tired of her, she will go home and wait around for the next kind of unsuspecting rich guy and do the same thing. She thinks this is what Emily does, that it's her job. Essentially, she calls her the bold fool, flaunting, practiced companion of persons like James Steerforth, meaning a kind of professional girlfriend or an escort or something. Someone who does this sort of thing over and over again for money. Not only that, Ms. Dardle believes that Emily's family is in on it, too. That they essentially sell Emily out to these various rich men who come through the town, and that they take any money that is sent back to them. Remember, Mr. Peggoty received money from Steerforth at various times, but in reality, he's been holding on to it extremely expressly to return it because he doesn't want it. It offends him to think of taking it. But Ms. Dardle assumes that he has taken it and that he expected it all along because he hired his niece out to Steerforth and will hire her out again to someone else now that she is home. Ms. Dardle says you were a part of the trade of your home and were bought and sold like any other vendable thing your people dealt in. Okay, so we go from this exalted image of Emily that Mr. Peggotty carries with him to this truly degraded and base image family that Ms. Dardle carries with her. And of course, the thing that Emily really is is somewhere in the middle, right? She isn't a saint or a virtuous innocent. She did run off with Steerforth. She left her loving fiance in the lurch. She slept with Steerforth out of wedlock instead of demanding that he marry her first. She did make some very questionable choices here, but she also is certainly not a prostitute or a hired escort or something. She is a girl who did wrong, but was also very much wronged herself. Steerforth is very much at fault. Littimer is very much at fault. Emily should have held firm, but Steerforth shouldn't have taken advantage of her, and he certainly shouldn't have dropped her the way that he did. And so now she is essentially this middle thing. Not a common prostitute, but not the innocent young girl that she used to be. And, you know, this is basically just kind of an aside. But one thing I just love that happens in this chapter is the way that the description of the house that Martha has brought her to this boarding house where Martha has been staying. The way that the description of the house is kind of a description of Emily too. Here's what it says. It was a broad paneled staircase with massive balustrades of some dark wood cornices above the doors, ornamented with carved fruit and flowers, and broad seats in the windows. But all these tokens of past grandeur were miserably decayed and dirty. Rot, damp and age had weakened the flooring, which in many places was unsound and even unsafe. Some attempts had been made, I noticed, to infuse new blood into this dwindling frame by repairing the costly old woodwork here and there with common deal. But it was like the marriage of a reduced old noble to a plebeian pauper.

[Faith Moore]

And each party to the ill assorted

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

unions shrunk away from the other. So the house itself is this thing that used once to be a grand mansion but has become a sort of pale facsimile of itself. It's not a brothel or a boarding house for like criminals or something. It's a boarding house for law abiding citizens, but down and out poor citizens when it used to be a grand house for a single family. So like Emily, it used to be a grand, upstanding thing. And it has fallen far, far below that. But it still maintains some semblance of its former self. It has a completely fallen into like infamy or ruin. And Emily herself seems to be sort of vacillating between these two ideas of herself. She tells Ms. Dardle, I have deserved this right? Meaning she feels in some ways like a prostitute or a hired escort. These things that Ms. Dardle is accusing her of being. But she also says, think what I have suffered. And she sees that she fell prey to Steerforth rather than that Steerforth fell prey to her. Which is what Ms. Dardle thinks. Emily says if you live in his home and him, you know perhaps what his power with a weak, vain girl might be. I don't defend myself, but I know well and he knows well, or he will know when he comes to die and his mind is troubled with it, that he used all his power to deceive me and that I believed him, trusted him and loved him. Okay, so she sees that she fell for a charming man who was never going to marry her, but promised that he would. That she was wrong to go with him, but also that she did it because she loved him and because he promised her her heart's desire. But she also believes herself to be completely fallen and completely beyond redemption. And she even. And this is really interesting, I think she even sees that unwavering love of Mr. Peggy, the care and the attention and the love that he always showed her. She sees it as a curse. Because now that she has done this thing that she sees as unforgivable, she can't bear that she's done it to the man who always believed her to be pure and virtuous.

[Faith Moore]

Right?

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

She says, oh, dear, dear uncle, if you ever could have known the agony your love would cause me when I fell away from good, you never would have shown it to me so constant much as you felt it, but would have been angry to me at least once in my life that I might have had some comfort. Okay?

[Faith Moore]

So Emily isn't what Ms. Dardle thinks she is.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

And she isn't really what Mr. Peggotty thinks she is, either. She has done a bad thing, but she's also been wrong. She was virtuous. She still has those values. But she did go against her own values. She is desperately sorry. She clearly won't do it again.

[Faith Moore]

But she did do it.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

And so where does that leave her, Right? Where can she exist in a society where people often can't see past what she's done? Will Mr. Peggy's love somehow transform her in her own eyes and in the eyes of society? Or will her own low opinion of herself and the opinion of people like Ms. Dardle, will that make it impossible

[Faith Moore]

for her to live in the world anymore?

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

So I think I'm gonna stop there. There's a lot more to say, particularly, I think, about Ms. Dardle, because I think she is a really fascinating character. And there's a lot going on with her. And she's so awful here. I mean, telling Emily that she should just die, it's horrific, right? But at the same time, I do actually feel for her in a way, and I do think that she is suffering. So I think that we will come

[Faith Moore]

back to Ms. Dardle.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

And I definitely think that you're probably going to write in about her. So please do, if you want to write in, tell me what your thoughts are about Ms. Dardle. And we will come back to her at some point. But we should get to the chapter now because there's a lot that we still need to learn, right, About Emily and what happened to her and what's going to happen her to her. So there's only one way that we can do that, right? Which is to keep reading. So we're going to do that now. Please do keep writing even though I'm away. It's faithkmoore.com and then you click on Contact or you can scroll into the show notes and click the link that's that's there. It always goes right to my email and I will reply. It takes me a little while because I get so many wonderful letters from you guys and I want to reply to all of them. So I will do it. It just might take a little while, but hopefully that's okay. So please do write in. And again, I'll be away for the next episode. That one will be pre recorded as well and then I will be back with you in real time and I can't wait.

[Faith Moore]

All right, let's get started with chapter 51 of David Copperfield by Charles Dickens. It's story time. Chapter 51 the beginning of a Longer Journey it was yet early in the morning of the following day, when, as I was walking in my garden with my aunt, who took little exercise now being so much in attendance on my dear Dora, I was told that Mr. Peggotty desired to speak with me me. He came into the garden to meet me half way on my going towards the gate, and bared his head, as it was his custom to do when he saw my aunt, for whom he had a high respect. I had been telling her all that had happened overnight. Without saying a word. She walked up with a cordial face, shook hands with him, and patted him on the arm. It was so expressively done that she had no need to say a word. Mr. Peggotty understood her quite as well as if she had said a thousand. I'll go in now trot, said my aunt, and look after little blossom, who will be getting up presently.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Not along o me being here, ma',

[Faith Moore]

am, I hope, said Mr. Peggotty, unless

[Mr. Peggotty]

my wits is gone abad sneezing.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

By which Mr. Peggotty meant to say,

[Mr. Peggotty]

birds nesting this morning. Tis along o me as you're going to quit us.

[Faith Moore]

He's saying he hopes it isn't because he's here that she feels she has to leave. You have something to say, my good friend? Returned my aunt and will do better without me.

[Mr. Peggotty]

By your leave, ma', am, returned Mr. Peggotty. I should take it kind provisin you don't mind my clicketin. If you'd bide here.

[Faith Moore]

Meaning he's actually hoping that she'll stay and hear what he has to say.

[Mrs. Gummidge]

Would you?

[Faith Moore]

Said my aunt, with short good nature, then I am sure I will. So she drew her arm through Mr. Peggotty's and walked with him to a leafy little summer house. There was at the bottom of the garden where she sat down on a bench and I beside her her there was a seat for Mr. Paggotty too, but he preferred to stand, leaning his hand on the small rustic table as he stood looking at his cap for a little while before beginning to speak, I could not help observing what power and force of character his sinewy hand expressed and what a good and trusty companion it was to his honest brow and iron grey hair.

[Mr. Peggotty]

I took my dear child away last

[Faith Moore]

night, Mr. Peggotty began as he raised

[Mr. Peggotty]

his eyes to ours, to my Lodgin, where I have a long time been expectin of her and preparing for her. It was hours afore she knowed me right, and when she did she kneeled down at my feet and kinder said to me, as if it was her prayers, how it all come to be. You may believe me when I heerd her voice as I had heard at home so playful, and see her humbled as it might be in the dust or sea of your rotin. With his blessed hand I felt a wound go to my eart in the midst of all its thankfulness.

[Faith Moore]

He drew his sleeve across his face without any pretence of concealing why, and then cleared his voice.

[Mr. Peggotty]

It warn't for long as I felt that for she was found I had only to think as she was found and it was gone. I don't know why I do so much as mention of it now. I'm sure I didn't have it in my mind a minute ago to say a word about myself, but it come up so natural that I yielded to

[Faith Moore]

it, for I was aware. You are a self denying soul, said my aunt, and will have your reward. Mr. Peggotty, with the shadows of the leaves playing athwart, his face made a surprised inclination of the head towards my aunt as an acknowledgment of her good opinion, then took up the thread he had relinquished.

[Mr. Peggotty]

When my amalie took flight, he said in stern wrath for the moment from

[Mr. Omer]

the house where she was made a

[Mr. Peggotty]

prisoner by that there spotted snake as

[Faith Moore]

Master DVC meaning when she ran away from the house where Lidimer was keeping

[Mr. Peggotty]

her prisoner, and his story's true and may God confound him, she took flight in the night. It was a dark night with a many stars a shinin'.

[Faith Moore]

She was wild.

[Mr. Peggotty]

She ran along the sea beach believin the old boat was there and Calling out to us to turn away our faces, for she was a coming by she heerd herself a crying out, like as if it was another person, and cut herself on those sharp pinted stones and rocks, and felt it no more than if she had been rock herself ever so fur she run, and there was fire afore her eyes, and roarins in her ears. Of a sudden, or so she thought she understand the day broke wet and windy, and she was lyin blow a heap O stone upon the shore. And a woman was a speaking to her, saying in the language O that country. What was it? As had gone so much amiss?

[Faith Moore]

He saw everything he related it passed before him as he spoke so vividly, that in the intensity of his earnestness he presented what he described to me with greater distinctness than I can express. I can hardly believe writing now long afterwards, but that I was actually present in these scenes. They are impressed upon me with such an astonishing air of fidelity. Meaning Mr. Peggotty described all this so vividly that now David remembers it as

[Mr. Peggotty]

if he were actually there, as Em' Ly's eyes, which was heavy, see this

[Faith Moore]

woman better, Mr. Peggotty went on.

[Mr. Peggotty]

She knowed as she was one of them, as she had often talked to on the beach for though she had run, as I have said, ever so fur in the night, she had oftentimes wandered long ways, partly afoot, partly in boats and carriages, and nor'd that country along the coast miles and miles. She had no children of her own, this woman, being a young wife, but she was a looking to have one afore long and me my prayers go up to heaven, that twill be a happiness to her, and a comfort and a honour all her life. May it love her and be dootiful to her in her old age, helpful of her at the last a angel to her here and hereafter. Amen, said my aunt. She had been somewhat timorous and down,

[Faith Moore]

said Mr. Peggotty, and had sat at

[Mr. Peggotty]

first a little way off at her spinning, or such work as it was when Emily talked to the children. But Em' Ly had took notice of her, and had gone and spoke to her and as the young woman was partial to the children herself, they had soon made friends so mucher meaning, so much so, that when Em' ly went that way, she always give Em' Ly flowers. This was her as now asked what it was that had gone so much amiss.

[Faith Moore]

Emily told her, and she took her home.

[Mr. Peggotty]

She did indeed she took her home,

[Faith Moore]

said Mr. Peggotty, covering his face. He was more affected by this act of kindness than I had ever seen him affected by anything since the night she went away. My aunt and I did not attempt to disturb him.

[Mr. Peggotty]

It was a little cottage, you may

[Faith Moore]

suppose, he said presently.

[Mr. Peggotty]

But she found space for Emily in it. Her husband was away at sea, and she kept it secret, and prevailed upon such neighbours as she had. There was not many near to keep it secret too. Emily was took bad with fever. And what is very strange to me is maybe tis not so strange to scholars. The language of that country went out of her head, and she could only speak her own. That no one understood. She recollects, as if she had dreamed it, that she lay there always a tuck in her own tongue, always believin as the old boat was round the next point in the bay, and beggin

[Faith Moore]

and imploring of em to send there

[Mr. Peggotty]

and tell how she was dyin and bring back a message of forgiveness if it was only a word. Almost the whole time she thought now that him, as I made mention on just now, was lurkin for her underneath the winder, now that him as has brought her to this was in the room, and cried to the good young woman not to give her up, and knowed at the same time that she couldn't understand, and dreaded that she must be took away. Likewise the fire was afore her eyes and the roarins in her ears, and there was no today nor yesterday, nor yet to morrow, but everything in her life as ever had been, or as ever could be. And everything as never had been, and as never could be, was a crowding on her all at once, and nothing clear nor welcome. And yet she sang and laughed about it. How long this lasted I don't know. But then there come a sleep, and in that sleep, from being a many times stronger than her own self, she fell into the weakness of the littlest child.

[Faith Moore]

Here he stopped, as if for relief from the terrors of his own description. After being silent for a few moments, he pursued his story.

[Mr. Peggotty]

It was a pleasant afternoon when she awoke, and so quiet that there warn't a sound but the rippling of that blue sea without a tide upon the shore.

[Faith Moore]

It was her belief at first that

[Mr. Peggotty]

she was at home upon a Sunday morning. But the vine leaves as she see at the winder and the hills beyond, warn't home and contradicted of her then come in her friend to watch alongside of her bed. And then she knowed as the old boat warn't round the next pint in the bay no more but was fur off, and knowed where she was and why, and broke out a cryin on that good young woman's bosom, where I hope her baby is a lyin now a cheerin of her with its pretty eyes.

[Faith Moore]

He could not speak of this good friend of Emily's without a flow of tears. It was in vain to try. He broke down again, endeavouring to bless her.

[Mr. Peggotty]

That done my Em' ly good, he

[Faith Moore]

resumed, after such emotion as I could not behold without sharing in. And as to my aunt, she wept with all her heart.

[Mr. Peggotty]

That done em' ly could and she begun to mend. But the language of that country was quite gone from her and she was forced to make signs. So she went on getting better from day to day, slow but sure, and trying to learn the names O common things, Names. Names as she seemed never to have heard in all her life. Till one evening come when she was a setting at her window looking at

[Faith Moore]

a little girl at play upon the

[Mr. Peggotty]

beach, and of a sudden this child held out her hand and said what

[Faith Moore]

would be in English? Fisherman's daughter, Here's a shell, for you

[Mr. Peggotty]

are to understand that they used at first to call her pretty lady, as the general way in that country is, and that she had taught him to

[Faith Moore]

call her fisherman's daughter instead. The child says of a fisherman's daughter, here's a shell.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Then Em' ly understands her, and she answers bursting out a crying. And it all comes back when Em'

[Faith Moore]

ly got strong again, said Mr. Peggotty. After another short interval of silence she

[Mr. Peggotty]

cast about to leave that good young creature and get to her own country. The husband was come home then, and the two together put her aboard a small trader bound to Leghorn and from that to France. She had a little money, but it was less than little as they would take for all they done. I'm almost glad on it, though they was so poor. What they done is laid up where neither moth or rust doth corrupt and where thieves do not break through nor steal. Master Davie, it'll outlast all the treasure in the world. Emily got to France and took service to wait on travelling ladies at an

[Faith Moore]

inn in the port.

[Mr. Peggotty]

There, there, come one day that snake meaning Littimer. Let him never come nigh me. I don't know what hurt I might do him soon as she see him. Without him seeing her, all her fear and wildness returned upon her and she fled for the very breath he drawed. She come to England and was set ashore at Dover. I don't know, said Mr. Peggotty, for sure when her art begun to feel her but all the way to England she had thought to come to her dear home. Soon as she got to England she turned her face towards it but fear of not being forgive fear o beIN pinted at fear o some of us being dead along of her fear of many things turned her from it kind o by force upon the road. Uncle, uncle, she says to me, the

[Faith Moore]

fear of not being worthy to do

[Mr. Peggotty]

what my torn and bleeding breast so longed to do, was the most frightening fear of all. I turned back when my heart was full of prayers, that I might crawl

[Faith Moore]

to the old doorstep in the night,

[Mrs. Gummidge]

kiss it, lay my wicked face upon

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

it, and there be found dead in the morning.

[Faith Moore]

She come, said Mr. Peggotty, dropping his voice to an awe stricken whisper, to

[Mr. Peggotty]

London she as had never seen it in her life, alone without a penny young, so pretty come to London almost

[Faith Moore]

the moment as she lighted here, all

[Mr. Peggotty]

so desolate she found, as she believed, a friend, a decent woman, as spoke to her about the needlework, as she had been brought up to do, about finding plenty of it for her, about a lodging for the night, and making secret inquiration concerning of me and all at home to morrow. When my child, he said aloud, and

[Faith Moore]

with an energy of gratitude that shook

[Mr. Peggotty]

him from head to foot, stood upon the brink of more than I can say or think on. Martha, true to her promise, saved her meaning.

[Faith Moore]

This seemingly kind woman was going to in fact make Emily become a prostitute. So Martha came in and stopped that I could not repress a cry of joy. Master Davy, said he, gripping my hand in that strong hand of his, it

[Mr. Peggotty]

was you has first made mention of her to me.

[Mr. Omer]

I thank ye, sir, she was earnest.

[Mr. Peggotty]

She had knowed of her bitter knowledge where to watch and what to do. She had done it, and the Lord was above all. She come white and hurried upon Em' ly in her sleep. She says to her, rise up from worse than death and come with me. Them belongin to the house would a stopped her but they might as soon have stopped the sea.

[Faith Moore]

Stand away from me, she says, I am a ghost that calls her from

[Mr. Peggotty]

beside her open grave. She told em' ly she had seen me, and know'd I loved her and forgive her. She wrapped her hasty in her clothes. She took her faint and trembling on her arm. She heeded no more what they said than if she hadn't had no ears. She walked among em with my child, mindin only her, and brought her safe out in the dead of the night, from that black pit of ruin she attended on em', ly, said Mr. Peggotty,

[Faith Moore]

who had released my hand and put his own hand on his heaving chest.

[Mr. Peggotty]

She attended to my em' ly lyin wearied out and wandering betwixt whiles till late next day. Then she went in search o me, then in search of you, Master Davie. She didn't tell em' ly what she come out fur lest her art should fail, and she should think of hiding of herself how the cruel lady knowed of her beIN there. I can't say, the cruel lady being Miss Dartle, whether him, as I have spoke so much of chanced to see em goin there, or whether, which is most like to my thinkin, she had heard it from the woman. I don't greatly ask myself. My niece is found all night long,

[Faith Moore]

said Mr. Peggotty, we have been together,

[Mr. Peggotty]

Em' Ly and me. Tis little, considering the time, as she has said in words through them broken hearted tears. Tis less as I have seen of her dear face as growed into a woman's at my hearth. But all night long her arms has been about my neck and her head has laid here, and we knows full well as we can put our trust in one another evermore.

[Faith Moore]

He ceased to speak, and his hand upon the table rested there in perfect repose, with a resolution in it that might have conquered lions. It was a gleam of light upon me. Trot, said my aunt, drying her eyes, when I formed the resolution of being godmother to your sister Betsy Trotwood, who disappointed me. But next to that hardly anything would have given me greater pleasure than to be godmother to that, that good young creature's baby. Mr. Peggotty nodded his understanding of my aunt's feelings, but could not trust himself with any verbal reference to the subject of her commendation. We all remained silent and occupied with our own reflections, my aunt drying her eyes and now sobbing convulsively, and now laughing and calling herself a fool until I spoke.

[Mr. Peggotty]

You have quite made up your mind,

[Faith Moore]

said I to Mr. Peggotty. As to the future good friend, I need scarcely ask you.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Quite, Master Davy. He returned and told Emily. There's mighty countries fur from here. Our future life lays over the sea.

[Faith Moore]

They will emigrate together, Aunt, said I. Yes, said Mr. Peggotty with a hopeful smile.

[Mr. Peggotty]

No one can reproach my darling in Australia. We will begin a new life over there.

[Faith Moore]

I asked him if he yet proposed to himself any time for going away.

[Mr. Peggotty]

I was down at the docks early this morning, sir. He returned to get information concerning of them ships. In about six weeks or two months from now there'll be one sailing I see her this mornin went aboard, and we shall take our passage in her quite alone. I asked I, Master Davie. He returned my sister, you see, she's that fond of you and yourn, and that accustomed to think only of her own country, that it wouldn't be hardly fair to let her go.

[Mr. Omer]

Besides which, there's one she has in

[Mr. Peggotty]

charge, Master Davie, as don't ought to be forgot.

[Faith Moore]

Poor Ham, said I.

[Mr. Peggotty]

My good sister takes care of his house, you see, ma', am, and he

[Faith Moore]

takes kindly to her, Mr. Peggotty explained, for my aunt's better information he'll set

[Mr. Peggotty]

and talk to her with a calm spirit when it's like he couldn't bring himself to open his lips to another. Poor fellow, said Mr. Peggotty, shaking his head, there's not so much left him that he could spare the little as he has. And Mrs. Gummidge, said I, well, I've had em more to consideration, I do

[Faith Moore]

tell ye, returned Mr. Peggotty with a perplexed look, which gradually cleared as he

[Mr. Peggotty]

went on concerning of Mrs. Gummidge. You see, when Mrs. Gummidge falls a thinking of the old un, she an't what you may call good company betwixt you and me, Master Davy. And you, ma', am, when Mrs. Gummidge

[Faith Moore]

takes to wimickingour old country word for

[Mr. Peggotty]

crying, she's liable to be considered to be by them as don't know the old un peevish like now. I did know the old un, said Mr. Peggotty, and I knowed his merits, so I understand her, but tan't entirely so. You see, with others naturally it can't be.

[Faith Moore]

My aunt and I both acquiesced.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Whereby, said Mr. Peggotty, my sister might I don't say she would, but might find Mrs. Gummidge give her a little trouble now and again. Therefore, tant my intentions to Moor Mrs. Gummidge Long with em but to find a bin for her where she can fisherate for herself.

[Faith Moore]

A bean signifies in that dialect a home, and to fisherate is to provide. For which purpose, said Mr. Peggotty, I

[Mr. Peggotty]

means to make her allowance afore I go as'll leave her pretty comfortable. She is the faithfullest of creatures tanned to be expected, of course, at her time of life and being lorn and lorn, as the good old mawther is to be knocked about aboard ship and in the woods and wilds of a new and far away country. So that's what I'm a going to do with her.

[Faith Moore]

Okay, so he's going to leave money for Mrs. Gummidge so she'll be able to live comfortably on her own. He forgot nobody. He thought of everybody's claims and strivings but his own.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Emily, he continued, will keep along with me. Poor child. She's sore in need of peace and rest until such time as we goes upon our voyage.

[Faith Moore]

She'll work at them clothes as must

[Mr. Peggotty]

be made, and I hope her troubles will begin to seem longer ago than they was when she finds herself one once more by her rough but lovin uncle.

[Faith Moore]

My aunt nodded confirmation of this hope and imparted great satisfaction to Mr. Peggotty.

[Mr. Peggotty]

There's one thing Furder, Master Davy said

[Faith Moore]

he, putting his hand in his breast pocket and gravely taking out the little paper bundle I had seen before, which he unrolled on the table.

[Mr. Peggotty]

There's these here bank notes, 50 pound and 10 to them. I wish to add the money as she come away with. I've asked her about that, but not seen why and have added of it up. I ain't a scholar. Would you be so kind as to see how it is?

[Faith Moore]

He handed me apologetically for his scholarship a piece of paper, and observed me

[Mr. Peggotty]

while I looked it over.

[Faith Moore]

It was quite right.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Thank ye, sir, he said, taking it back this money. If you don't see objections, Master Davy, I shall put up just afore I go in a cover directed to him him and put that up in another directed to his mother. I shall tell her in no more words than I speak to you what it's the price on and that I'm gone and past receiving of it back.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

Okay.

[Faith Moore]

So Steerforth had sent Mr. Peggotty money to try to pay him off for what Steerforth did to Emily. But Mr. Peggotty is sending it back

[Mr. Peggotty]

because he doesn't want it.

[Faith Moore]

I told him that I thought it would be right to do so, that I was thoroughly convinced it would be. Since he felt it to be right.

[Mr. Peggotty]

I said that there was only one thing Furder.

[Faith Moore]

He proceeded with a grave smile when he had made up his little bundle again and put it in his pocket.

[Mr. Peggotty]

But there was two I wa'n't sure in my mind when I come out this mornin as I could go and break t ham of my own self what had so thankfully happened. So I writ a letter while I was out and put it in the post office telling of how all was as it is, and that I should come down to morrow to unload of my mind of what little needs a doing of down there, and most like take my farewell leave of Yarmouth. And do you wish me to go with you?

[Faith Moore]

Said I, seeing that he left something unsaid.

[Mr. Peggotty]

If you could do me that kind favor, Master Davie, he replied, I know the sight on you would cheer him up a bit.

[Faith Moore]

My little Dora, being in good spirits and very desirous that I should go, as I found on talking it over with her, I readily pledged myself to accompany him in accordance with his wish. Next morning consequently we were on the Yarmouth coach and again travelling over the old ground. As we passed along the familiar street at night, Mr. Peggotty in despite of all my remonstrances. Carrying my bag, I glanced into Omer and Joram's shop and saw my old friend Mr. Omer there smoking his pipe. I felt reluctant to be present when Mr. Peggotty first met his sister and Ham and made Mr. Omer my excuse for lingering behind. Mind, how is Mr. Omer after this long time? Said I, going in. He fanned away the smoke of his pipe that he might get a better view of me, and soon recognized me with great delight.

[Mr. Omer]

I should get up, sir, to acknowledge

[Mr. Peggotty]

such an honour as this visit, said he, only my limbs are rather out

[Mr. Omer]

of sorts, and I am wheeled about with the exception of my limbs and my breath. Howsoever I am as hearty as a man can be.

[Faith Moore]

I'm thankful to say I congratulated him on his contented looks and his good spirits, and saw now that his easy chair went on wheels.

[Mr. Omer]

It's an ingenious thing, ain't it?

[Faith Moore]

He inquired, following the direction of my glance and polishing the elbow with his arm.

[Mr. Omer]

It runs as light as a feather and tracks as true as a mail coach. Bless you, my little Minnie, my granddaughter. You know, Minnie's child puts her little strength against the back, gives it a shove and away we go, as clever and merry as ever you see anything. And I tell you what, it's a most uncommon chair to smoke a pipe in.

[Faith Moore]

I never saw such a good old fellow to make the best of a thing and find out the enjoyment of it. As Mr. Omer he was as radiant as if his chair, his asthma and the failure of his limbs were the various branches of a great invention for enhancing the luxury of a pipe.

[Mr. Omer]

I see more of the world, I can assure you, said Mr. Omer, in this chair than ever I see out of it.

[Mr. Peggotty]

You'd be surprised at the number of

[Mr. Omer]

people that looks in of a day

[Mr. Peggotty]

to have a chat.

[Mr. Omer]

You really would. There's twice as much in the newspaper since I've taken to this chair as there used to be as to general reading. Dear me, what a lot of it I do get through. That's what I feel so strong, you know.

[Mr. Peggotty]

If it had been my eyes, what

[Mr. Omer]

should I have done? If it had been my ears, what should I have done?

[Mr. Peggotty]

Being my limbs, what does it signify?

[Mr. Omer]

Why, my limbs only made my breath shorter when I used em.

[Mr. Peggotty]

And now if I want to go

[Mr. Omer]

out into the street or down to the sands, I've only got to call

[Mr. Peggotty]

Dick, Joram's youngest prentice and away I

[Mr. Omer]

go in my own carriage like the

[Mr. Peggotty]

Lord Mayor of London.

[Faith Moore]

He half suffocated himself with laughing here.

[Mr. Omer]

Lord bless you, said Mr. Omer, resuming his pipe. A man must take the fat with the lean, that's what he must make up his mind to in this life. Joram does a fine business, excellent business.

[Faith Moore]

I am very glad to hear it, said I. I knew you would be, said Mr. Omer.

[Mr. Omer]

And Joram and Minnie are like valentines.

[Mr. Peggotty]

What more can a man expect?

[Mr. Omer]

What's his limbs to that?

[Faith Moore]

His supreme contempt for his own limbs as he sat smoking was one of the pleasantest oddities I have ever encountered.

[Mr. Omer]

And since I've took to general reading. You've took to general writing, eh, sir,

[Faith Moore]

said Mr. Omer, surveying me admiringly.

[Mr. Omer]

What a lovely work that was of yours. What expressions in it. I read it every word, every word. And as to feeling sleepy, not at all.

[Faith Moore]

I laughingly expressed my satisfaction. But I must confess that I thought

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

this association of ideas significant.

[Mr. Peggotty]

I give you my word and Honour,

[Faith Moore]

sir, said Mr. Omer, that when I

[Mr. Omer]

lay that book upon the table and look at it outside compact in three separate and individual volumesone.

[Mrs. Gummidge]

Two, three.

[Mr. Omer]

I am as proud as punch to think that I once had the honour of being connected with your friends, family and dear me, it's a long time

[Mr. Peggotty]

ago now, isn't it?

[Mr. Omer]

Over at Blunderstone with a pretty little party laid along with the other party and you quite a smaller party than yourself. Dear, dear.

[Faith Moore]

I changed the subject by referring to Emily after assuring him that I did not forget how interested he had always been in her and how kindly he had always treated her. I gave him a general account of her restoration to her uncle by the aid of Martha, which I knew would please the old man. He listened with the utmost attention and said feelingly, when I had Done.

[Mr. Omer]

I am rejoiced at it, sir. It's the best news I've heard for many a day. Dear, dear, dear. And what's going to be undertook for

[Mr. Peggotty]

that unfortunate young woman Martha?

[Faith Moore]

Now you touch a point that my thoughts have been dwelling on since yesterday,

[Mr. Peggotty]

said I, but on which I can give you no information yet, Mr. Omer.

[Faith Moore]

Mr. Peggotty has not alluded to it and I have a delicacy in doing so.

[Mr. Peggotty]

I am sure he has not forgotten it.

[Faith Moore]

He forgets nothing that is disinterested and good. Because you know, said Mr. Omer, taking himself up where he had left off,

[Mr. Omer]

whatever is done, I should wish to

[Mr. Peggotty]

be a member of.

[Mr. Omer]

Put me down for anything you might consider right and let me know. I never could think the girl all bad and I am glad to find she's not so will my daughter Minnie be. Young women are contradictory creatures. In some things her mother was just the same as her, but their hearts

[Mr. Peggotty]

are soft and kind.

[Mr. Omer]

It's all show with Minnie about Martha. Why she should consider it necessary to make any show I don't undertake to tell you, but it's all show. Bless you. She'd do her any kindness in private. So put me down for whatever you may consider right. Will you be so good and drop me a line where to forward it?

[Faith Moore]

Dear me, said Mr. Omer, when a

[Mr. Omer]

man is drawing on to a time of life where the two ends of life meet, where he finds himself, however hardy he is being wheeled about for the second time in a species of go cart, he should be over rejoiced

[Mr. Peggotty]

to do a kindness if he can.

[Mr. Omer]

He wants plenty. And I don't speak of myself particular,

[Faith Moore]

said Mr. Omer, because, sir, the way

[Mr. Omer]

I look at it is, though we

[Mr. Peggotty]

are all drawing on the bottom of

[Mr. Omer]

the hill, whatever age we are, on account of time never standing still for a single moment. So let us always do a kindness and be over rejoiced to be sure.

[Faith Moore]

He knocked the ashes out of his pipe and put it on a ledge in the back of his chair expressly made for its reception.

[Mr. Omer]

There's Humley's cousin, him that she was

[Faith Moore]

to have been married to, said Mr. Omer, rubbing his hands feebly, as fine

[Mr. Omer]

a fellow as there is in Yarmouth. He'll come and talk or read to me in the evening for an hour together sometimes. That's a kindness, I should call it. All his life's a kindness.

[Faith Moore]

I am going to see him now, said I.

[Mr. Omer]

Are you?

[Faith Moore]

Said Mr. Omer.

[Mr. Omer]

Tell em I was hearty and sent My respects.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Minnie and Joram's at a ball.

[Mr. Omer]

They would be as proud to see you as I am if they was at home.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Minnie won't hardly go out at all,

[Mr. Omer]

you see, on account of father, as she says. So I swore to night that if she didn't go, I'd go to bed at six.

[Faith Moore]

In consequence of which Mr. Omer shook himself and his chair with laughter at the success of his device.

[Mr. Peggotty]

She and Jorums at a ball.

[Faith Moore]

I shook hands with him and wished him good night. Half a minute, sir, said Mr. Omer.

[Mr. Omer]

If you was to go without seein my little elephant, you'd lose the best o sights. You never see such a sight, Minnie,

[Faith Moore]

a musical little voice answered from somewhere upstairs.

[Mrs. Gummidge]

I am coming, Grandfather.

[Faith Moore]

And a pretty little girl with long flaxen curling hair soon came running into the shop.

[Mr. Omer]

This is my little elephant, sir, said

[Faith Moore]

Mr. Omer, fondling the child.

[Mr. Omer]

Siamese breed, sir. Now, little elephant.

[Faith Moore]

The little elephant set the door of the parlour open, enabling me to see that in these latter days it was converted into a bedroom for Mr. Omer, who could not be easily conveyed upstairs, and then hid her pretty forehead and tumbled her long hair against the back of Mr. Omer's chair.

[Mr. Omer]

The elephant butts, you know, sir, said Mr. Omer, winking, when he goes at a object.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Once elephant, twice, three times.

[Faith Moore]

At this signal the little elephant, with a dexterity that was next to marvellous in so small an animal, whisked the chair round with Mr. Omer in it and rattled it off Pall Mall into the parlour without touching the door post. Mr. Omer, indescribably enjoying the performance and

[Mr. Peggotty]

looking back at me on the road

[Faith Moore]

as if it were the triumphant life's exertions. After a stroll about the town, I went to Ham's house. Peggotty had now removed here for good and had let her own house to the successor of Mr. Barkis in the carrying business, who had paid her very well for the good will. Cart and horse. I believe the very same slow horse that Mr. Barkis drove was still at work. I found them in the neat kitchen, accompanied by Mrs. Gummidge, who had been fetched from the old boat by Mr. Paggotty himself. I doubt if she could have been induced to desert her post by any one else. He had evidently told them all, meaning he told them everything that had happened with Emily. Both Peggotty and Mrs. Gummidge had their aprons to their eyes, and Ham had just stepped out to take a turn on the beach. He presently came home very glad to see me, and I hope they were all the better for my being there. We spoke with some approach to cheerfulness of Mr. Peggotty's growing rich in a new country and of the wonders he would describe in his letters.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Letters.

[Faith Moore]

We said nothing of Emily by name, but distantly referred to her more than once. Ham was the serenest of the party, but Peggotty told me, when she lighted me to a little chamber where the crocodile book was lying ready for me on the table, that he always was the same, she believed, she told me, crying, that he was broken hearted, though he was as full of courage as of sweetness, and worked harder and better than any boat builder in any yard in all that part. There were times, she said, of an evening when he talked of their old life in the boat house, and then he mentioned Emily as a child, but he never mentioned her as a woman. I thought I had read in his face that he would like to speak to me alone. I therefore resolved to put myself in his way. Next evening, as he came home from his work. Having settled this with myself, I fell asleep that night for the first time in all those many nights. The candle was taken out of the window.

[Mrs. Gummidge]

Window.

[Faith Moore]

Mr. Peggotty swung in his old hammock in the old boat, and the wind murmured with the old sound round his head. All next day he was occupied in disposing of his fishing boat and tackle, in packing up and sending to London by wagon such of his little domestic possessions as he thought would be useful to him, and in parting with the rest or bestowing them on Mrs. Gummidge. She was with him all day. As I had a sorrowful wish to see the old place once more before it was locked up. I engaged to meet them there in the evening, but I so arranged it as that I should meet Ham first. It was easy to come in his way, as I knew where he worked. I met him at a retired part of the sands which I knew he would cross, and turned back with him that he might have leisure to speak to me if he really wished. I had not mistaken the expression of his face. We had walked but a little way together when he said, without looking at

[Mr. Peggotty]

me, master Davie, have you seen her?

[Faith Moore]

Only for a moment, when she was in a swoon, I softly answered. We walked a little farther, and he said, master Davie, shall you see her?

[Mr. Peggotty]

Do you think it would be too painful to her?

[Faith Moore]

Perhaps, said I, I have thought of that, he replied.

[Mr. Peggotty]

So it would, sir, so it would.

[Faith Moore]

But Ham, said I gently, if there is anything that I could write to her for you in case I could not tell it. If there is anything you would wish to make known to her through me, I should consider it a sacred trust,

[Mr. Peggotty]

I am sure on't. I thank you, sir, most kind. I think there is something I could wish said or wrote.

[Faith Moore]

What is it? We walked a little farther in silence.

[Mr. Peggotty]

And then he spoke. Tan't that I forgive her? Tan't that so much?

[Mrs. Gummidge]

Tis more as I beg of her

[Mr. Peggotty]

to forgive me for having pressed my affections upon her odd times. I think that if I hadn't had her promise for to marry me, sir, she was that trustful of me in a friendly way that she'd have told me what was struggling in her mind and would have counselled with me and I might have saved her.

[Faith Moore]

I pressed his hand. Is that all?

[Mr. Peggotty]

There's yet a something else. He returned. If I can say it, Master Davie,

[Faith Moore]

we walked on farther than we had walked yet before. He spoke again. He was not crying when he made the pauses I shall express by lines. He was merely collecting himself to speak very plainly.

[Mr. Peggotty]

I loved her. And I love the memory of her too deep to be able to lead her to believe of my own self as I'm a happy man. I could only be happy by forgettin of her. And I'm afeard I couldn't hardly bear she could be told I'd done that. But if you, being so full o learnin, Master Davie could think of anything to say as might bring her to believe I wasn't greatly hurt still lovin of her and mournin for her anythin as might bring her to believe. As I was not tired of my life and yet was hopin for to see her without blame. Where the wicked cease from troublin and the weary are at rest, meaning when

[Faith Moore]

they meet in heaven. He won't blame her for what happened

[Mr. Peggotty]

anythin as would ease her sorrowful mind and yet not make her think as I could ever marry or as twas possible that any one could ever be

[Faith Moore]

to me what she was.

[Mr. Peggotty]

I should ask of you to say that with my prayers for her that was so dear.

[Faith Moore]

I pressed his manly hand again and told him I would charge myself to do this as well as I could.

[Mr. Peggotty]

I thank you, sir, he answered. Twas kind o you to meet me. Twas kind of you to bear him company down, Master Davie. I understand very well. Though my aunt will come to London afore they sail and they'll unite once more that I am not like to see him again. I fare to feel sure on it. We don't say so, but so it will be, and better so. The last you see on him, the

[Mrs. Gummidge]

very last, will you give him the

[Mr. Peggotty]

lovinest duty and thanks of the orphan as he was ever more than a father to this I also promised faithfully.

[Faith Moore]

I thank ye again, sir, he said heartily, shaking hands.

[Mr. Peggotty]

I know where you're a goin. Good bye.

[Faith Moore]

With a slight wave of his hand, as though to explain to me that he could not enter the old place, he turned away. As I looked after his figure crossing the waste in the moonlight I saw

[Mr. Peggotty]

him turn his face towards a strip

[Faith Moore]

of silvery light upon the sea and pass on on looking at it until he was a shadow in the distance. The door of the boat house stood open when I approached it and on entering I found it emptied of all its furniture, saving one of the old lockers on which Mrs. Gummidge, with a basket on her knee, was seated. Looking at Mr. Peggotty. He leaned his elbow on the rough chimney piece and gazed upon a few expiring embers in the grate. But he raised his head hopefully on my coming in and and spoke in a cheery manner.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Come accordin to promise to bid farewell to it, eh, Master Davie?

[Faith Moore]

He said, taking up the candle.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Bare enough now, ain't it? Indeed, you have made good use of

[Faith Moore]

the time, said I.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Why we have not been idle, sir. Mrs. Gummidge has worked like a. I dunno what Mrs. Gummidge an't worked like,

[Faith Moore]

said Mr. Peggotty, looking at her at a loss for a sufficiently approving simile. Mrs. Gummidge, leaning on her basket, made no observation.

[Mr. Peggotty]

There's the very locker that you used to sit on long with em', ly,

[Faith Moore]

said Mr. Peggotty in a whisper.

[Mr. Peggotty]

I'm a going to carry it away with me last of all. And here's your old little bedroom, see Master Davy. Almost as bleak to night as art could wish.

[Faith Moore]

In truth. The wind, though it was low, had a solemn sound and crept around the deserted house with a whispered wailing that was very mournful. Everything was gone down to the little mirror with the oyster shell frame. I thought of myself lying here when that first great change was being wrought at home. I thought of the blue eyed child who had enchanted me. I thought of Steerforth and a foolish fearful fancy came upon me of his being near at hand and liable to be met at any turn.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Tis like to be long, said Mr.

[Faith Moore]

Peggotty in a low voice.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Afore the boat finds new tenants, they look upon it down here as being unfortunate. Now does it belong to anybody in the neighbourhood? I asked. To a mast maker uptown, said Mr. Peggotty. I'm a going to give the key to him to Night we looked into

[Faith Moore]

the other little room and came back to Mrs. Gummidge, sitting on the locker, whom Mr. Peggotty, putting the light on the chimney piece, requested to rise that he might carry it outside the door before extinguishing the candle. Dan', L. Said Mrs. Gummidge, suddenly deserting her basket and clinging to his arm.

[Mrs. Gummidge]

My dear Dan', l, the parting words I speak in this house is I mustn't be left behind. Don't ye think of leaving me behind, Dan'. L. Oh don't ye ever do it.

[Faith Moore]

Mr. Peggotty, taken aback, looked from Mrs. Gummidge to me and from me to Mrs. Gummidge as if he had been awakened from a sleep.

[Mrs. Gummidge]

Don't ye dearest Dan', l, don't ye.

[Faith Moore]

Cried Mrs. Gummidge fervently.

[Mrs. Gummidge]

Take me long with yo, Dan', l. Take me long with you and Em', ly. I'll be your servant constant and true. If there's slaves in them parts where you're a goin', I'll be bound to

[Mr. Peggotty]

you for one and happy.

[Mrs. Gummidge]

But don't you leave me behind Dan'.

[Mr. Peggotty]

L. That's a deary dear my good

[Faith Moore]

soul, said Mr. Peggotty, shaking his head.

[Mr. Peggotty]

You don't know what a long voyage and what a hard life it is.

[Mrs. Gummidge]

Yes I do, Dan', l. I can

[Faith Moore]

guess, cried Mrs. Gummidge.

[Mrs. Gummidge]

But my part in words under this roof is I shall go into the house and die if I am not took. I can dig, Dan', l, I can work, I can live hard, I can be lovin and patient now more than ye think Dan', l, if you'll only try me. I wouldn't touch the lowance, not if I was dyin of want, Dan' l Peggotty, but I'll go with you and Em' ly if you'll only let me me to the world's end. I know how it is. I know you think that I am lone and lorn, but deary love tan't so no more. I ain't sat here so long a watchin and a thinkin of your trials without some good beIN done me. Master Davie, speak to him for me. I knows his ways and em', ly's, and I knows their sorrows and can be a comfort to em some odd times and labour for em always. Dan', l, deary Dan', l, let me go along with you.

[Faith Moore]

And Mrs. Gummidge took his hand and kissed it with a homely pathos and

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

affection, in a homely rapture of devotion

[Faith Moore]

and gratitude that he well deserved. We brought the locker out, extinguished the candle, fastened the door on the outside, and left the old boat close shut up a dark speck in the cloudy night. Next day, when we were returning to London, outside the coach, Mrs. Gummidge and her basket were on the seat behind, and Mrs. Gummage was happy. Thank you so much for listening. I'd love to know what you thought of the chapters. Is there anything you'd like me to clarify? Did something particularly interest you? Please go to my website, faithkmore.com click on contact and send me your questions and thoughts.

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

Or you can click on the link

[Faith Moore]

in the Show Notes to contact me. I'll feature one or two of your entries at the start of the next episode. Speaking of links, don't forget to take a look at the other links in the Show Notes. You can learn more about me, check out our merch store, or become a member of the Storytime for Grown Ups online community. Before I go, I'd like to ask a quick favor.

[Mr. Peggotty]

This is an independent podcast.

[Faith Moore]

It's produced, recorded and marketed by me, so I need your help. Spread the word about the show by posting about it on social media or texting a link to your friends. Subscribe, tap those five stars and leave a positive review wherever you're listening. If you are able to support the show financially, there's a link in the

[Faith Moore (pre-recorded episode narration)]

Show Notes to make a donation.

[Faith Moore]

I would really, really appreciate it.

[Mr. Peggotty]

Alright everyone, story time is over.

[Faith Moore]

To be continued.