childish he turned and struck at the offending statue there a crash o lord what have i done next and he his way to find a candle yes he reflected as he stood with the light in his hand and looked upon the leg from which about a pound of muscle was detached tes i have destroyed a genuine antique i may be in for thousands i and then there sprung up in his bosom a sort of angry hope let me see he s got rid of there s nothing to connect me with that beast the men were all drunk and what s better they ve been all discharged oh come i think this is another case for moral courage i deny all knowledge of the thing a moment more and he stood again before the his lips sternly compressed the coal axe and the meat under his arm the next he had fallen upon the packing case this had been already seriously by the operations of a few blows and it already and yet a few more and it fell about in a shower of boards followed by an of straw and now the leather merchant could behold the nature of his task and at the first sight his spirit it was indeed no more ambitious a task for de with all his men and horses to attack the hills of than for a single slim young gentleman with no previous experience of labor in a to measure himself against the box that monster on his and yet the pair were well encountered on the one side bulk � on the other genuine heroic fire down you shall come you great big ugly brute i cried aloud with something of that passion which swept the mob against the walls of the down you shall come this night i ll have none of you in my the face from its expression had particularly animated the zeal of our and it was against the face that he began his operations the great height of the � for he stood a and half in his feet � offered a preliminary obstacle to this attack but here in the first of the battle intellect already began to triumph over matter by means of a pair of library steps the injured gained a posture of advantage and with great of the coal axe proceeded to the brute two hours later what had been the erect image of a gigantic coal porter turned white was now no more than a of members the prone against the the countenance down the kitchen stair the legs the arms the hands and even the fingers scattered on the half an hour more and all the had been laboriously to the kitchen and with a gentle sentiment of triumph looked round upon the scene of his achievements yes he could the of m part the deny all knowledge of it now the beyond the fact that it was partly betrayed no trace of the passage of but it was a weary that crept up to bed his arms and shoulders ached the palms of his hands burned from the rough kisses of the coal axe and there was one finger that stole continually to his mouth sleep long delayed to visit the hero and with the first peep of day it had again deserted him the morning as though to accord with his disastrous fortunes dawned an gale was shouting in the streets of rain angrily assailed the windows and as dressed the draught from the fireplace vividly played about his legs i think he could not help observing bitterly that with all i have to bear they might have given me decent weather there was no bread in the house for miss like all women left to themselves had entirely upon cake but some of this was foimd and along with what the poets a glass of fair cold water made up a semblance of a morning meal and then down he sat to his delicate task nothing can be more interesting than the study of written as they are before meals and after during and written when the is trembling for the life of his child or has come from winning the in his lawyer s office or under the box the bright eyes of his sweetheart to the vulgar these seem never the same but to the expert the bank clerk or the they are constant quantities and as as the north star to the night watch on deck to all this was alive in the theory of that graceful art in which he was now our spirited leather merchant was beyond all reproach but happily for the is an affair of practice and as sat surrounded by examples of his s signature and his own depression stole upon his spirits from time to time the wind in the chimney at his back from time to time there swept over a so dark that he must rise and light the gas about him was the chill the mean disorder of a house out of commission � the floor bare the sofa heaped with books and accounts enveloped in a dirty table cloth the pens the paper glazed with a thick of dust and yet these were but of misery and the true root of his depression lay round him on the table in the shape of it s one of the strangest things i ever heard of he complained it almost seems as if it was a talent that i didn t possess he went once more through his proofs a clerk would simply at them said he well there s nothing else but tracing possible he waited till a had passed and there came a the of the first of then he went to the window and in the face of all john street traced his uncle s signature it was a poor 