Chapter 7
When I was old enough, I was to be apprenticed to Joe. Therefore, I was not only odd-boy about
the forge, but if any neighbor happened to want an extra boy to frighten birds, or pick up stones, or
do any such job, I was favoured with the employment.
“Didn’t you ever go to school, Joe, when you were as little as me?” asked I one day.
“No, Pip.”
“Why didn’t you ever go to school?”
“Well, Pip,” said Joe, taking up the poker, and settling himself to his usual occupation when he
was thoughtful; “I’ll tell you. My father, Pip, liked to drink much. You’re listening and understanding,
Pip?”
“Yes, Joe.”
“So my mother and me we ran away from my father several times. Sometimes my mother said,
‘Joe, you shall have some schooling, child,’ and she’d put me to school. But my father couldn’t live
without us. So, he’d come with a crowd and took us from the houses where we were. He took us
home and hammered us. You see, Pip, it was a drawback on my learning.
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”
“Certainly, poor Joe!”
“My father didn’t make objections to my going to work; so I went to work. In time I was able
to keep him, and I kept him till he went off.”
Joe’s blue eyes turned a little watery; he rubbed first one of them, and then the other, in a most
uncomfortable manner, with the round knob on the top of the poker.
“I got acquainted with your sister,” said Joe, “living here alone. Now, Pip,” – Joe looked firmly
at me as if he knew I was not going to agree with him; – “your sister is a fine figure of a woman.
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”
I could think of nothing better to say than “I am glad you think so, Joe.”
“So am I,” returned Joe. “That’s it. You’re right, old chap! When I got acquainted with your
sister, she was bringing you up by hand. Very kind of her too, all the folks said, and I said, along
with all the folks.”
I said, “Never mind me,
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Joe.”
“When I offered to your sister to keep company, and to be asked in church at such times as she
was willing and ready to come to the forge, I said to her, ‘And bring the poor little child. God bless
the poor little child,’ I said to your sister, ‘there’s room for him at the forge!’”
I broke out crying and begging pardon, and hugged Joe round the neck: who dropped the poker
to hug me, and to say, “We are the best friends; aren’t we, Pip? Don’t cry, old chap!”
Joe resumed,
“Well, you see; here we are! Your sister a master-mind.
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A master-mind.”
“However,” said Joe, rising to replenish the fire; “Here comes the mare!”
Mrs. Joe and Uncle Pumblechook was soon near, covering the mare with a cloth, and we were
soon all in the kitchen.
“Now,” said Mrs. Joe with haste and excitement, and throwing her bonnet back on her
shoulders, “if this boy isn’t grateful this night, he never will be! Miss Havisham
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wants this boy to
go and play in her house. And of course he’s going.”
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it was a drawback on my learning – моему ученью это здорово мешало
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a fine figure of a woman – видная женщина
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Never mind me. – Ну что говорить обо мне.
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Your sister a master-mind. – Твоя сестра – ума палата.
27
Havisham – Хэвишем
Д. Остин, Ч. Диккенс, С. А. Матвеев. «Гордость и предубеждение / Pride and Prejudice. Great Expectations / Боль-
шие надежды»
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I had heard of Miss Havisham – everybody for miles round had heard of her – as an immensely
rich and grim lady who lived in a large and dismal house barricaded against robbers, and who led
a life of seclusion.
“I wonder how she come to know Pip!” said Joe, astounded.
“Who said she knew him?” cried my sister. “Couldn’t she ask Uncle Pumblechook if he knew
of a boy to go and play there? Uncle Pumblechook thinks that that is the boy’s fortune. So he offered
to take him into town tonight in his own chaise-cart, and to take him with his own hands to Miss
Havisham’s tomorrow morning.”
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