"Great Expectations"
by Charles Dickens

  Previous Page   Next Page   Speaker On

     There was no indispensable necessity for my communicating with Joe by letter, inasmuch as he sat beside me and we were alone. But I delivered this written communication (slate and all) with my own hand, and Joe received it as a miracle of erudition.

     "I say, Pip, old chap!" cried Joe, opening his blue eyes wide, "what a scholar you are! An't you?"

     "I should like to be," said I, glancing at the slate as he held it; with a misgiving that the writing was rather hilly.

     "Why, here's a J," said Joe, "and a O equal to anythink! Here's a J and a O, Pip, and a J-O, Joe."

 

     I had never heard Joe read aloud to any greater extent than this monosyllable, and I had observed at church last Sunday, when I accidentally held our Prayer-Book upside down, that it seemed to suit his convenience quite as well as if it had been all right. Wishing to embrace the present occasion of finding out whether in teaching Joe, I should have to begin quite at the beginning, I said, "Ah! But read the rest, Jo."

     "The rest, eh, Pip?" said Joe, looking at it with a slow, searching eye, "One, two, three. Why, here's three Js, and three Os, and three J-O, Joes in it, Pip!"

 
Text provided by Project Gutenberg.
Audio by Librivox.org, performed by Mark F. Smith, no rights reserved.
Flash mp3 player by Jeroen Wijering. (cc) some rights reserved.
Web page presentation by LoudLit.org.