HARD TIMES
AND
REPRINTED PIECES {0}
* * * * *
By CHARLES DICKENS
* * * * *
_With illustrations by Marcus Stone_, _Maurice_
_Greiffenhagen_, _and F. Walker_
* * * * *
LONDON: CHAPMAN & HALL, LD.
NEW YORK: CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS
1905
CONTENTS
_BOOK THE FIRST_. _SOWING_
PAGE
CHAPTER I
_The One Thing Needful_ 3
CHAPTER II
_Murdering the Innocents_ 4
CHAPTER III
_A Loophole_ 8
CHAPTER IV
_Mr. Bounderby_ 12
CHAPTER V
_The Keynote_ 18
CHAPTER VI
_Sleary’s Horsemanship_ 23
CHAPTER VII
_Mrs. Sparsit_ 33
CHAPTER VIII
_Never Wonder_ 38
CHAPTER IX
_Sissy’s Progress_ 43
CHAPTER X
_Stephen Blackpool_ 49
CHAPTER XI
_No Way Out_ 53
CHAPTER XII
_The Old Woman_ 59
CHAPTER XIII
_Rachael_ 63
CHAPTER XIV
_The Great Manufacturer_ 69
CHAPTER XV
_Father and Daughter_ 73
CHAPTER XVI
_Husband and Wife_ 79
_BOOK THE SECOND_. _REAPING_
CHAPTER I
_Effects in the Bank_ 84
CHAPTER II
_Mr. James Harthouse_ 94
CHAPTER III
_The Whelp_ 101
CHAPTER IV
_Men and Brothers_ 111
CHAPTER V
_Men and Masters_ 105
CHAPTER VI
_Fading Away_ 116
CHAPTER VII
_Gunpowder_ 126
CHAPTER VIII
_Explosion_ 136
CHAPTER IX
_Hearing the Last of it_ 146
CHAPTER X
_Mrs. Sparsit’s Staircase_ 152
CHAPTER XI
_Lower and Lower_ 156
CHAPTER XII
_Down_ 163
_BOOK THE THIRD_. _GARNERING_
CHAPTER I
_Another Thing Needful_ 167
CHAPTER II
_Very Ridiculous_ 172
CHAPTER III
_Very Decided_ 179
CHAPTER IV
_Lost_ 186
CHAPTER V
_Found_ 193
CHAPTER VI
_The Starlight_ 200
CHAPTER VII
_Whelp-Hunting_ 208
CHAPTER VIII
_Philosophical_ 216
CHAPTER IX
_Final_ 222
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
_Stephen and Rachael in the Sick-room_ 64
_Mr. Harthouse Dining at the Bounderbys’_ 100
_Mr. Harthouse and Tom Gradgrind in the Garden_ 132
_Stephen Blackpool recovered from the Old Hell Shaft_ 206
BOOK THE FIRST
_SOWING_
CHAPTER I
THE ONE THING NEEDFUL
‘NOW, what I want is, Facts. Teach these boys and girls nothing but
Facts. Facts alone are wanted in life. Plant nothing else, and root out
everything else. You can only form the minds of reasoning animals upon
Facts: nothing else will ever be of any service to them. This is the
principle on which I bring up my own children, and this is the principle
on which I bring up these children. Stick to Facts, sir!’
The scene was a plain, bare, monotonous vault of a school-room, and the
speaker’s square forefinger emphasized his observations by underscoring
every sentence with a line on the schoolmaster’s sleeve. The emphasis
was helped by the speaker’s square wall of a forehead, which had his
eyebrows for its base, while his eyes found commodious cellarage in two
dark caves, overshadowed by the wall. The emphasis was helped by the
speaker’s mouth, which was wide, thin, and hard set. The emphasis was
helped by the speaker’s voice, which was inflexible, dry, and
dictatorial. The emphasis was helped by the speaker’s hair, which
bristled on the skirts of his bald head, a plantation of firs to keep the
wind from its shining surface, all covered with knobs, like the crust of
a plum pie, as if the head had scarcely warehouse-room for the hard facts
stored inside. The speaker’s obstinate carriage, square coat, square
legs, square shoulders,—nay, his very neckcloth, trained to take him by
the throat with an unaccommodating grasp, like a stubborn fact, as it
was,—all helped the emphasis.
‘In this life, we want nothing but Facts, sir; nothing but Facts!’
The speaker, and the schoolmaster, and the third grown person present,
all backed a little, and swept with their eyes the inclined plane of
little vessels then and there arranged in order, ready to have imperial
gallons of facts poured into them until they were full to the brim.