broad impression of the identity of things, seems to me to have
been gained on a memorable raw afternoon towards evening. At
such a time I found out for certain, that this bleak place over-
grown with nettles was the churchyard; and that Philip Pirrip,
late of this parish, and also Georgiana wife of the above, were
dead and buried; and that Alexander, Bartholomew, Abraham,
Tobias, and Roger, infant children of the aforesaid, were also
dead and buried; and that the dark flat wilderness beyond the
churchyard, intersected with dykes and mounds and gates, with
scattered cattle feeding on it, was the marshes; and that the low
leaden line beyond was the river; and that the distant savage lair
from which the wind was rushing, was the sea; and that the
small bundle of shivers growing afraid of all and beginning to
cry, was Pip.

'Hold your noise!' cried a terrible voice, as a man started up
from among the graves at the side of the church porch. 'Keep still,
you little devil, or I'll cut your throat!'

A fearful man, all in coarse grey, with a great iron on his leg.
A man with no hat, and with broken shoes, and with an old rag
tied round his head. A man who had been soaked in water, and
smothered in mud, and lamed by stones, and cut by flints, and
stung by nettles, and torn by briars; who limped, and shivered, and
glared and growled; and whose teeth chattered in his head as he
seized me by the chin.

'O! Don't cut my throat, sir,' I pleaded in terror. 'Pray don't
do it, sir.'

'Tell us your name!' said the man. 'Quick!'

' Pip, sir.'

'Once more,' said the man, staring at me. 'Give it mouth!'

' Pip. Pip, sir.'

'Show us where you live,' said the man. 'Pint out the place!'

I pointed to where our village lay, on the flat inshore among
the alder-trees and pollards, a mile or more from the church.

The man, after looking at me for a moment, turned me upside
down, and emptied my pockets. There was nothing in them but a
piece of bread. When the church came to itself--for he was so
sudden and strong that he made it go head over heels before me,
and I saw the steeple under my feet--when the church came to

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