David Copperfield
there used to be a haystack. I imagined it would be a kind of
company to have the boys, and the bedroom where I used to
tell the stories, so near me: although the boys would know
nothing of my being there, and the bedroom would yield
me no shelter.
I had had a hard day’s work, and was pretty well jaded
when I came climbing out, at last, upon the level of Black-
heath. It cost me some trouble to find out Salem House; but
I found it, and I found a haystack in the corner, and I lay
down by it; having first walked round the wall, and looked
up at the windows, and seen that all was dark and silent
within. Never shall I forget the lonely sensation of first lying
down, without a roof above my head!
Sleep came upon me as it came on many other outcasts,
against whom house-doors were locked, and house-dogs
barked, that night - and I dreamed of lying on my old
school-bed, talking to the boys in my room; and found my-
self sitting upright, with Steerforth’s name upon my lips,
looking wildly at the stars that were glistening and glim-
mering above me. When I remembered where I was at that
untimely hour, a feeling stole upon me that made me get up,
afraid of I don’t know what, and walk about. But the fainter
glimmering of the stars, and the pale light in the sky where
the day was coming, reassured me: and my eyes being very
heavy, I lay down again and slept - though with a knowl-
edge in my sleep that it was cold - until the warm beams
of the sun, and the ringing of the getting-up bell at Salem
House, awoke me. If I could have hoped that Steerforth was
there, I would have lurked about until he came out alone;