Page 156 - bleak-house

(nine), one and sixpence halfpenny; Felix, my fourth (sev-
en), eightpence to the Superannuated Widows; Alfred, my
youngest (five), has voluntarily enrolled himself in the In-
fant Bonds of Joy, and is pledged never, through life, to use
tobacco in any form.’
We had never seen such dissatisfied children. It was not
merely that they were weazened and shrivelled—though
they were certainly that to—but they looked absolutely fe-
rocious with discontent. At the mention of the Tockahoopo
Indians, I could really have supposed Eghert to be one of
the most baleful members of that tribe, he gave me such a
savage frown. The face of each child, as the amount of his
contribution was mentioned, darkened in a peculiarly vin-
dictive manner, but his was by far the worst. I must except,
however, the little recruit into the Infant Bonds of Joy, who
was stolidly and evenly miserable.
‘You have been visiting, I understand,’ said Mrs. Pardig-
gle, ‘at Mrs. Jellyby’s?’
We said yes, we had passed one night there.
‘Mrs. Jellyby,’ pursued the lady, always speaking in the
same demonstrative, loud, hard tone, so that her voice im-
pressed my fancy as if it had a sort of spectacles on too—and
I may take the opportunity of remarking that her spectacles
were made the less engaging by her eyes being what Ada
called ‘choking eyes,’ meaning very prominent—‘Mrs. Jel-
lyby is a benefactor to society and deserves a helping hand.
My boys have contributed to the African project—Egbert,
one and six, being the entire allowance of nine weeks; Os-
wald, one and a penny halfpenny, being the same; the rest,

156 Bleak House