Page 282 - david-copperfield

rested comfortably, after having washed my blistered feet
in a stream, and dressed them as well as I was able, with
some cool leaves. When I took the road again next morn-
ing, I found that it lay through a succession of hop-grounds
and orchards. It was sufficiently late in the year for the or-
chards to be ruddy with ripe apples; and in a few places the
hop-pickers were already at work. I thought it all extremely
beautiful, and made up my mind to sleep among the hops
that night: imagining some cheerful companionship in the
long perspectives of poles, with the graceful leaves twining
round them.
The trampers were worse than ever that day, and inspired
me with a dread that is yet quite fresh in my mind. Some of
them were most ferocious-looking ruffians, who stared at
me as I went by; and stopped, perhaps, and called after me
to come back and speak to them, and when I took to my
heels, stoned me. I recollect one young fellow - a tinker, I
suppose, from his wallet and brazier - who had a woman
with him, and who faced about and stared at me thus; and
then roared to me in such a tremendous voice to come back,
that I halted and looked round.
‘Come here, when you’re called,’ said the tinker, ‘or I’ll
rip your young body open.’
I thought it best to go back. As I drew nearer to them,
trying to propitiate the tinker by my looks, I observed that
the woman had a black eye.
‘Where are you going?’ said the tinker, gripping the bo-
som of my shirt with his blackened hand.
‘I am going to Dover,’ I said.

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