CHAPTER 16
The Mattock
While The magistrate reinvigorated his selfishness with a greedy
breakfast, Curdie found doing nothing in the dark rather tiresome
work. it was useless attempting to think what he should do next,
seeing the circumstances in which he was presently to find himself
were altogether unknown to him. So he began to think about his
father and mother in their little cottage home, high in the clear
air of the open Mountainside, and the thought, instead of making
his dungeon gloomier by the contrast, made a light in his soul that
destroyed the power of darkness and captivity.
But he was at length startled from his waking dream by a swell in
the noise outside. All the time there had been a few of the more
idle of the inhabitants about the door, but they had been rather
quiet. Now, however, the sounds of feet and voices began to grow,
and grew so rapidly that it was plain a multitude was gathering.
For the people of Gwyntystorm always gave themselves an hour of
pleasure after their second breakfast, and what greater pleasure
could they have than to see a stranger abused by the officers of
justice?
The noise grew till it was like the roaring of the sea, and that
roaring went on a long time, for the magistrate, being a great man,
liked to know that he was waited for: it added to the enjoyment of
his breakfast, and, indeed, enabled him to eat a little more after
he had thought his powers exhausted.
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