appeal to, is a person's self-interest. It's
your only hold. We are so constituted. I was
brought up in that catechism when I was
very young, sir, as you are aware."

"What sum of money," said Mr. Gradgrind,
"will you set against your expected
promotion?"

"Thank you, sir," returned Bitzer, "for
hinting at the proposal; but I will not set any
sum against it. Knowing that your clear head
would propose that alternative, I have gone
over the calculations in my mind; and I find
that to compound a felony, even on very high
terms indeed, would not be as safe and
good for me as my improved prospects in the
Bank."

"Bitzer," said Mr. Gradgrind, stretching
out his hands as though he would have said,
See how miserable I am!" Bitzer, I have but
one chance left to soften you. You were many
years at my school. If, in remembrance of
the pains bestowed upon you there, you can
persuade yourself in any degree to disregard
your present interest and release my son, I
entreat and pray you to give him the benefit of
that remembrance."

"I really wonder, sir," rejoined the old
pupil in an argumentative manner, "to find
you taking a position so untenable. My
schooling was paid for; it was a
bargain; and when I came away, the bargain
ended."

It was a fundamental principle of the
Gradgrind philosophy, that everything was to be
paid for. Nobody was ever on any account
to give anybody anything, or render anybody
help without purchase. Gratitude was to be
abolished, and the virtues springing from it
were not to be. Every inch of the whole
existence of mankind, from birth to death, was
to be a bargain across a counter. And if we
didn't get to Heaven that way, it was not
a politico-economical place, and we had no
business there.

"I don't deny," added Bitzer, "that my
schooling was cheap. But that comes right, sir.
I was made in the cheapest market, and have
to dispose of myself in the dearest."

He was a little troubled here, by Louisa and
Sissy crying.

"Pray don't do that," said he, "it's of no use
doing that: it only worries. You seem to
think that I have some animosity against
young Mr. Tom; whereas I have none at all.
I am only going, on the reasonable grounds I
have mentioned, to take him back to Coketown.
If he was to resist, I should set up the
cry of Stop Thief! But, he won't resist, you
may depend upon it."

Mr. Sleary, who, with his mouth open and
his rolling eye as immovably jammed in his
head as his fixed one, had listened to these
doctrines with profound attention, here stepped
forward.

"Thquire, you know perfectly well, and
your daughter knowth perfectly well (better
than you, becauthe I thed it to her), that I
didn't know what your thon had done, and
that I didn't want to know—I thed it wath
better not, though I only thought, then, it
wath thome thkylarking. However, thith
young man having made it known to be a
robbery of a bank, why, that'h a theriouth
thing; muth too theriouth a thing for me to
compound, ath thith young man hath very
properly called it. Conthequently, Thquire,
you muthn't quarrel with me if I take thith
young man'th thide, and thay he'th right and
there'th no help for it. But I tell you what
I'll do, Thquire; I'll drive your thon and
thith young man over to the rail, and prevent
expothure here. I can't conthent to do more,
but I'll do that."

Fresh lamentations from Louisa, and
deeper affliction on Mr. Gradgrind's part,
followed this desertion of them by their last
friend. But, Sissy glanced at him with great
attention; nor did she in her own breast
misunderstand him. As they were all going
out again, he favoured her with one slight roll
of his movable eye, desiring her to linger
behind. As he locked the door, he said excitedly:

"The Thquire thtood by you, Thethilia, and
I'll thtand by the Thquire. More than that:
thith ith a prethiouth rathcal, and belongth
to that bluthtering Cove that my people
nearly pitht out o' winder. It'll be a dark
night; I've got a horthe that'll do anything
but thpeak; I've got a pony that'll go fifteen
mile an hour with Childerth driving of him;
I've got a dog that'll keep a man to one
plathe four-and-twenty hourth. Get a word
with the young Thquire. Tell him, when he
theeth our horthe begin to danthe, not to be
afraid of being thpilt, but to look out for a
pony-gig coming up. Tell him when he theeth
that gig clothe by, to jump down, and it'll take
him off at a rattling pathe. If my dog leth
thith young man thtir a peg on foot, I give
him leave to go. And if my horthe ever
thtirth from that thpot where he beginth a
danthing, till the morning—I don't know him!
—Tharp'th the word!"

The word was so sharp, that in ten minutes
Mr. Childers, sauntering about the market
place in a pair of slippers, had his cue, and
Mr. Sleary's equipage was ready. It was a
fine sight, to behold the learned dog barking
round it, and Mr. Sleary instructing him, with
his one practicable eye, that Bitzer was the
object of his particular attentions. Soon after
dark they all three got in and started; the
learned dog (a formidable creature) already
pinning Bitzer with his eye, and sticking close
to the wheel on his side, that he might be
ready for him in the event of his showing the
slightest disposition to alight.

The other three sat up at the inn all night in
great suspense. At eight o'clock in the morning
Mr. Sleary and the dog re-appeared: both
in high spirits.

"All right, Thquire!" said Mr. Sleary,
"your thon may be aboard-a-thip by thith