A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
by
James Joyce
Chapter 1
Chapter 1Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
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[2] Chapter 1
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6] Once upon a time and a very good time it was there was a moocow coming
[7] down along the road and this moocow that was coming down along the road
[8] met a nicens little boy named baby tuckoo...
[9]
[10] His father told him that story: his father looked at him through a
[11] glass: he had a hairy face.
[12]
[13] He was baby tuckoo. The moocow came down the road where Betty Byrne
[14] lived: she sold lemon platt.
[15]
[16] O, the wild rose blossoms
[17] On the little green place.
[18]
[19] He sang that song. That was his song.
[20]
[21] O, the green wothe botheth.
[22]
[23] When you wet the bed first it is warm then it gets cold. His mother put
[24] on the oilsheet. That had the queer smell.
[25]
[26] His mother had a nicer smell than his father. She played on the piano
[27] the sailor's hornpipe for him to dance. He danced:
[28]
[29] Tralala lala,
[30] Tralala tralaladdy,
[31] Tralala lala,
[32] Tralala lala.
[33]
[34] Uncle Charles and Dante clapped. They were older than his father and
[35] mother but uncle Charles was older than Dante.
[36]
[37] Dante had two brushes in her press. The brush with the maroon velvet
[38] back was for Michael Davitt and the brush with the green velvet back
[39] was for Parnell. Dante gave him a cachou every time he brought her a
[40] piece of tissue paper.
[41]
[42] The Vances lived in number seven. They had a different father and
[43] mother. They were Eileen's father and mother. When they were grown up
[44] he was going to marry Eileen. He hid under the table. His mother said:
[45]
[46] --O, Stephen will apologize.
[47]
[48] Dante said:
[49]
[50] --O, if not, the eagles will come and pull out his eyes.--
[51]
[52]
[53] Pull out his eyes,
[54] Apologize,
[55] Apologize,
[56] Pull out his eyes.
[57] Apologize,
[58] Pull out his eyes,
[59] Pull out his eyes,
[60] Apologize.
[61]
[62]
[63]
[64] The wide playgrounds were swarming with boys. All were shouting and the
[65] prefects urged them on with strong cries. The evening air was pale and
[66] chilly and after every charge and thud of the footballers the greasy
[67] leather orb flew like a heavy bird through the grey light. He kept on
[68] the fringe of his line, out of sight of his prefect, out of the reach
[69] of the rude feet, feigning to run now and then. He felt his body small
[70] and weak amid the throng of the players and his eyes were weak and
[71] watery. Rody Kickham was not like that: he would be captain of the
[72] third line all the fellows said.
[73]
[74] Rody Kickham was a decent fellow but Nasty Roche was a stink. Rody
[75] Kickham had greaves in his number and a hamper in the refectory. Nasty
[76] Roche had big hands. He called the Friday pudding dog-in-the-blanket.
[77] And one day he had asked:
[78]
[79] --What is your name?
[80]
[81] Stephen had answered: Stephen Dedalus.
[82]
[83] Then Nasty Roche had said:
[84]
[85] --What kind of a name is that?
[86]
[87] And when Stephen had not been able to answer Nasty Roche had asked:
[88]
[89] --What is your father?
[90]
[91] Stephen had answered:
[92]
[93] --A gentleman.
[94]
[95] Then Nasty Roche had asked:
[96]
[97] --Is he a magistrate?
[98]
[99] He crept about from point to point on the fringe of his line, making
[100] little runs now and then. But his hands were bluish with cold. He kept
[101] his hands in the side pockets of his belted grey suit. That was a belt
[102] round his pocket. And belt was also to give a fellow a belt. One day a
[103] fellow said to Cantwell:
[104]
[105] --I'd give you such a belt in a second.
[106]
[107] Cantwell had answered:
[108]
[109] --Go and fight your match. Give Cecil Thunder a belt. I'd like to see
[110] you. He'd give you a toe in the rump for yourself.
[111]
[112] That was not a nice expression. His mother had told him not to speak
[113] with the rough boys in the college. Nice mother! The first day in the
[114] hall of the castle when she had said goodbye she had put up her veil
[115] double to her nose to kiss him: and her nose and eyes were red. But he
[116] had pretended not to see that she was going to cry. She was a nice
[117] mother but she was not so nice when she cried. And his father had given
[118] him two five-shilling pieces for pocket money. And his father had told
[119] him if he wanted anything to write home to him and, whatever he did,
[120] never to peach on a fellow. Then at the door of the castle the rector
[121] had shaken hands with his father and mother, his soutane fluttering in
[122] the breeze, and the car had driven off with his father and mother on
[123] it. They had cried to him from the car, waving their hands:
[124]
[125] --Goodbye, Stephen, goodbye!
[126]
[127] --Goodbye, Stephen, goodbye!
[128]
[129] He was caught in the whirl of a scrimmage and, fearful of the flashing
[130] eyes and muddy boots, bent down to look through the legs. The fellows
[131] were struggling and groaning and their legs were rubbing and kicking
[132] and stamping. Then Jack Lawton's yellow boots dodged out the ball and
[133] all the other boots and legs ran after. He ran after them a little way
[134] and then stopped. It was useless to run on. Soon they would be going
[135] home for the holidays. After supper in the study hall he would change
[136] the number pasted up inside his desk from seventy-seven to seventy-six.
[137]
[138] It would be better to be in the study hall than out there in the cold.
[139] The sky was pale and cold but there were lights in the castle. He
[140] wondered from which window Hamilton Rowan had thrown his hat on the
[141] ha-ha and had there been flowerbeds at that time under the windows. One
[142] day when he had been called to the castle the butler had shown him the
[143] marks of the soldiers' slugs in the wood of the door and had given him
[144] a piece of shortbread that the community ate. It was nice and warm to
[145] see the lights in the castle. It was like something in a book. Perhaps
[146] Leicester Abbey was like that. And there were nice sentences in Doctor
[147] Cornwell's Spelling Book. They were like poetry but they were only
[148] sentences to learn the spelling from.
[149]
[150]
[151] Wolsey died in Leicester Abbey
[152] Where the abbots buried him.
[153] Canker is a disease of plants,
[154] Cancer one of animals.
[155]
[156]
[157] It would be nice to lie on the hearthrug before the fire, leaning his
[158] head upon his hands, and think on those sentences. He shivered as if he
[159] had cold slimy water next his skin. That was mean of Wells to shoulder
[160] him into the square ditch because he would not swop his little snuff
[161] box for Wells's seasoned hacking chestnut, the conqueror of forty. How
[162] cold and slimy the water had been! A fellow had once seen a big rat
[163] jump into the scum. Mother was sitting at the fire with Dante waiting
[164] for Brigid to bring in the tea. She had her feet on the fender and her
[165] jewelly slippers were so hot and they had such a lovely warm smell!
[166] Dante knew a lot of things. She had taught him where the Mozambique
[167] Channel was and what was the longest river in America and what was the
[168] name of the highest mountain in the moon. Father Arnall knew more than
[169] Dante because he was a priest but both his father and uncle Charles
[170] said that Dante was a clever woman and a well-read woman. And when
[171] Dante made that noise after dinner and then put up her hand to her
[172] mouth: that was heartburn.
[173]
[174] A voice cried far out on the playground:
[175]
[176] --All in!
[177]
[178] Then other voices cried from the lower and third lines:
[179]
[180] --All in! All in!
[181]
[182] The players closed around, flushed and muddy, and he went among them,
[183] glad to go in. Rody Kickham held the ball by its greasy lace. A fellow
[184] asked him to give it one last: but he walked on without even answering
[185] the fellow. Simon Moonan told him not to because the prefect was
[186] looking. The fellow turned to Simon Moonan and said:
[187]
[188] --We all know why you speak. You are McGlade's suck.
[189]
[190] Suck was a queer word. The fellow called Simon Moonan that name because
[191] Simon Moonan used to tie the prefect's false sleeves behind his back
[192] and the prefect used to let on to be angry. But the sound was ugly.
[193] Once he had washed his hands in the lavatory of the Wicklow Hotel and
[194] his father pulled the stopper up by the chain after and the dirty water
[195] went down through the hole in the basin. And when it had all gone down
[196] slowly the hole in the basin had made a sound like that: suck. Only
[197] louder.
[198]
[199] To remember that and the white look of the lavatory made him feel cold
[200] and then hot. There were two cocks that you turned and water came out:
[201] cold and hot. He felt cold and then a little hot: and he could see the
[202] names printed on the cocks. That was a very queer thing.
[203]
[204] And the air in the corridor chilled him too. It was queer and wettish.
[205] But soon the gas would be lit and in burning it made a light noise like
[206] a little song. Always the same: and when the fellows stopped talking in
[207] the playroom you could hear it.
[208]
[209] It was the hour for sums. Father Arnall wrote a hard sum on the board
[210] and then said:
[211]
[212] --Now then, who will win? Go ahead, York! Go ahead, Lancaster!
[213]
[214] Stephen tried his best, but the sum was too hard and he felt confused.
[215] The little silk badge with the white rose on it that was pinned on the
[216] breast of his jacket began to flutter. He was no good at sums, but he
[217] tried his best so that York might not lose. Father Arnall's face looked
[218] very black, but he was not in a wax: he was laughing. Then Jack Lawton
[219] cracked his fingers and Father Arnall looked at his copybook and said:
[220]
[221] --Right. Bravo Lancaster! The red rose wins. Come on now, York! Forge
[222] ahead!
[223]
[224] Jack Lawton looked over from his side. The little silk badge with the
[225] red rose on it looked very rich because he had a blue sailor top on.
[226] Stephen felt his own face red too, thinking of all the bets about who
[227] would get first place in elements, Jack Lawton or he. Some weeks Jack
[228] Lawton got the card for first and some weeks he got the card for first.
[229] His white silk badge fluttered and fluttered as he worked at the next
[230] sum and heard Father Arnall's voice. Then all his eagerness passed away
[231] and he felt his face quite cool. He thought his face must be white
[232] because it felt so cool. He could not get out the answer for the sum
[233] but it did not matter. White roses and red roses: those were beautiful
[234] colours to think of. And the cards for first place and second place and
[235] third place were beautiful colours too: pink and cream and lavender.
[236] Lavender and cream and pink roses were beautiful to think of. Perhaps a
[237] wild rose might be like those colours and he remembered the song about
[238] the wild rose blossoms on the little green place. But you could not
[239] have a green rose. But perhaps somewhere in the world you could.
[240]
[241] The bell rang and then the classes began to file out of the rooms and
[242] along the corridors towards the refectory. He sat looking at the two
[243] prints of butter on his plate but could not eat the damp bread. The
[244] tablecloth was damp and limp. But he drank off the hot weak tea which
[245] the clumsy scullion, girt with a white apron, poured into his cup. He
[246] wondered whether the scullion's apron was damp too or whether all white
[247] things were cold and damp. Nasty Roche and Saurin drank cocoa that
[248] their people sent them in tins. They said they could not drink the tea;
[249] that it was hogwash. Their fathers were magistrates, the fellows said.
[250]
[251] All the boys seemed to him very strange. They had all fathers and
[252] mothers and different clothes and voices. He longed to be at home and
[253] lay his head on his mother's lap. But he could not: and so he longed
[254] for the play and study and prayers to be over and to be in bed.
[255]
[256] He drank another cup of hot tea and Fleming said:
[257]
[258] --What's up? Have you a pain or what's up with you?
[259]
[260] --I don't know, Stephen said.
[261]
[262] --Sick in your breadbasket, Fleming said, because your face looks
[263] white. It will go away.
[264]
[265] --O yes, Stephen said.
[266]
[267] But he was not sick there. He thought that he was sick in his heart if
[268] you could be sick in that place. Fleming was very decent to ask him. He
[269] wanted to cry. He leaned his elbows on the table and shut and opened
[270] the flaps of his ears. Then he heard the noise of the refectory every
[271] time he opened the flaps of his ears. It made a roar like a train at
[272] night. And when he closed the flaps the roar was shut off like a train
[273] going into a tunnel. That night at Dalkey the train had roared like
[274] that and then, when it went into the tunnel, the roar stopped. He
[275] closed his eyes and the train went on, roaring and then stopping;
[276] roaring again, stopping. It was nice to hear it roar and stop and then
[277] roar out of the tunnel again and then stop.
[278]
[279] Then the higher line fellows began to come down along the matting in
[280] the middle of the refectory, Paddy Rath and Jimmy Magee and the
[281] Spaniard who was allowed to smoke cigars and the little Portuguese who
[282] wore the woolly cap. And then the lower line tables and the tables of
[283] the third line. And every single fellow had a different way of walking.
[284]
[285] He sat in a corner of the playroom pretending to watch a game of
[286] dominoes and once or twice he was able to hear for an instant the
[287] little song of the gas. The prefect was at the door with some boys and
[288] Simon Moonan was knotting his false sleeves. He was telling them
[289] something about Tullabeg.
[290]
[291] Then he went away from the door and Wells came over to Stephen and
[292] said:
[293]
[294] --Tell us, Dedalus, do you kiss your mother before you go to bed?
[295]
[296] Stephen answered:
[297]
[298] --I do.
[299]
[300] Wells turned to the other fellows and said:
[301]
[302] --O, I say, here's a fellow says he kisses his mother every night
[303] before he goes to bed.
[304]
[305] The other fellows stopped their game and turned round, laughing.
[306] Stephen blushed under their eyes and said:
[307]
[308] --I do not.
[309]
[310] Wells said:
[311]
[312] --O, I say, here's a fellow says he doesn't kiss his mother before he
[313] goes to bed.
[314]
[315] They all laughed again. Stephen tried to laugh with them. He felt his
[316] whole body hot and confused in a moment. What was the right answer to
[317] the question? He had given two and still Wells laughed. But Wells must
[318] know the right answer for he was in third of grammar. He tried to think
[319] of Wells's mother but he did not dare to raise his eyes to Wells's
[320] face. He did not like Wells's face. It was Wells who had shouldered him
[321] into the square ditch the day before because he would not swop his
[322] little snuff box for Wells's seasoned hacking chestnut, the conqueror
[323] of forty. It was a mean thing to do; all the fellows said it was. And
[324] how cold and slimy the water had been! And a fellow had once seen a big
[325] rat jump plop into the scum.
[326]
[327] The cold slime of the ditch covered his whole body; and, when the bell
[328] rang for study and the lines filed out of the playrooms, he felt the
[329] cold air of the corridor and staircase inside his clothes. He still
[330] tried to think what was the right answer. Was it right to kiss his
[331] mother or wrong to kiss his mother? What did that mean, to kiss? You
[332] put your face up like that to say good night and then his mother put
[333] her face down. That was to kiss. His mother put her lips on his cheek;
[334] her lips were soft and they wetted his cheek; and they made a tiny
[335] little noise: kiss. Why did people do that with their two faces?
[336]
[337] Sitting in the study hall he opened the lid of his desk and changed the
[338] number pasted up inside from seventy-seven to seventy-six. But the
[339] Christmas vacation was very far away: but one time it would come
[340] because the earth moved round always.
[341]
[342] There was a picture of the earth on the first page of his geography: a
[343] big ball in the middle of clouds. Fleming had a box of crayons and one
[344] night during free study he had coloured the earth green and the clouds
[345] maroon. That was like the two brushes in Dante's press, the brush with
[346] the green velvet back for Parnell and the brush with the maroon velvet
[347] back for Michael Davitt. But he had not told Fleming to colour them
[348] those colours. Fleming had done it himself.
[349]
[350] He opened the geography to study the lesson; but he could not learn the
[351] names of places in America. Still they were all different places that
[352] had different names. They were all in different countries and the
[353] countries were in continents and the continents were in the world and
[354] the world was in the universe.
[355]
[356] He turned to the flyleaf of the geography and read what he had written
[357] there: himself, his name and where he was.
[358]
[359]
[360] Stephen Dedalus
[361] Class of Elements
[362] Clongowes Wood College
[363] Sallins
[364] County Kildare
[365] Ireland
[366] Europe
[367] The World
[368] The Universe
[369]
[370]
[371] That was in his writing: and Fleming one night for a cod had written on
[372] the opposite page:
[373]
[374]
[375] Stephen Dedalus is my name,
[376] Ireland is my nation.
[377] Clongowes is my dwellingplace
[378] And heaven my expectation.
[379]
[380]
[381] He read the verses backwards but then they were not poetry. Then he
[382] read the flyleaf from the bottom to the top till he came to his own
[383] name. That was he: and he read down the page again. What was after the
[384] universe?
[385]
[386] Nothing. But was there anything round the universe to show where it
[387] stopped before the nothing place began?
[388]
[389] It could not be a wall; but there could be a thin thin line there all
[390] round everything. It was very big to think about everything and
[391] everywhere. Only God could do that. He tried to think what a big
[392] thought that must be; but he could only think of God. God was God's
[393] name just as his name was Stephen. DIEU was the French for God and that
[394] was God's name too; and when anyone prayed to God and said DIEU then
[395] God knew at once that it was a French person that was praying. But,
[396] though there were different names for God in all the different
[397] languages in the world and God understood what all the people who
[398] prayed said in their different languages, still God remained always the
[399] same God and God's real name was God.
[400]
[401] It made him very tired to think that way. It made him feel his head
[402] very big. He turned over the flyleaf and looked wearily at the green
[403] round earth in the middle of the maroon clouds. He wondered which was
[404] right, to be for the green or for the maroon, because Dante had ripped
[405] the green velvet back off the brush that was for Parnell one day with
[406] her scissors and had told him that Parnell was a bad man. He wondered
[407] if they were arguing at home about that. That was called politics.
[408] There were two sides in it: Dante was on one side and his father and Mr
[409] Casey were on the other side but his mother and uncle Charles were on
[410] no side. Every day there was something in the paper about it.
[411]
[412] It pained him that he did not know well what politics meant and that he
[413] did not know where the universe ended. He felt small and weak. When
[414] would he be like the fellows in poetry and rhetoric? They had big
[415] voices and big boots and they studied trigonometry. That was very far
[416] away. First came the vacation and then the next term and then vacation
[417] again and then again another term and then again the vacation. It was
[418] like a train going in and out of tunnels and that was like the noise of
[419] the boys eating in the refectory when you opened and closed the flaps
[420] of the ears. Term, vacation; tunnel, out; noise, stop. How far away it
[421] was! It was better to go to bed to sleep. Only prayers in the chapel
[422] and then bed. He shivered and yawned. It would be lovely in bed after
[423] the sheets got a bit hot. First they were so cold to get into. He
[424] shivered to think how cold they were first. But then they got hot and
[425] then he could sleep. It was lovely to be tired. He yawned again. Night
[426] prayers and then bed: he shivered and wanted to yawn. It would be
[427] lovely in a few minutes. He felt a warm glow creeping up from the cold
[428] shivering sheets, warmer and warmer till he felt warm all over, ever so
[429] warm and yet he shivered a little and still wanted to yawn.
[430]
[431] The bell rang for night prayers and he filed out of the study hall
[432] after the others and down the staircase and along the corridors to the
[433] chapel. The corridors were darkly lit and the chapel was darkly lit.
[434] Soon all would be dark and sleeping. There was cold night air in the
[435] chapel and the marbles were the colour the sea was at night. The sea
[436] was cold day and night: but it was colder at night. It was cold and
[437] dark under the seawall beside his father's house. But the kettle would
[438] be on the hob to make punch.
[439]
[440] The prefect of the chapel prayed above his head and his memory knew the
[441] responses:
[442]
[443]
[444] O Lord open our lips
[445] And our mouths shall announce Thy praise.
[446] Incline unto our aid, O God!
[447] O Lord make haste to help us!
[448]
[449]
[450] There was a cold night smell in the chapel. But it was a holy smell. It
[451] was not like the smell of the old peasants who knelt at the back of the
[452] chapel at Sunday mass. That was a smell of air and rain and turf and
[453] corduroy. But they were very holy peasants. They breathed behind him on
[454] his neck and sighed as they prayed. They lived in Clane, a fellow said:
[455] there were little cottages there and he had seen a
[456] woman standing at the half-door of a cottage with a child in her arms
[457] as the cars had come past from Sallins. It would be lovely to sleep for
[458] one night in that cottage before the fire of smoking turf, in the dark
[459] lit by the fire, in the warm dark, breathing the smell of the peasants,
[460] air and rain and turf and corduroy. But O, the road there between the
[461] trees was dark! You would be lost in the dark. It made him afraid to
[462] think of how it was.
[463]
[464] He heard the voice of the prefect of the chapel saying the last
[465] prayers. He prayed it too against the dark outside under the trees.
[466]
[467]
[468] VISIT, WE BESEECH THEE, O LORD, THIS HABITATION AND DRIVE
[469] AWAY FROM IT ALL THE SNARES OF THE ENEMY. MAY THY HOLY
[470] ANGELS DWELL HEREIN TO PRESERVE US IN PEACE AND MAY THY
[471] BLESSINGS BE ALWAYS UPON US THROUGH CHRIST OUR LORD.
[472] AMEN.
[473]
[474]
[475] His fingers trembled as he undressed himself in the dormitory. He told
[476] his fingers to hurry up. He had to undress and then kneel and say his
[477] own prayers and be in bed before the gas was lowered so that he might
[478] not go to hell when he died. He rolled his stockings off and put on his
[479] nightshirt quickly and knelt trembling at his bedside and repeated his
[480] prayers quickly, fearing that the gas would go down. He felt his
[481] shoulders shaking as he murmured:
[482]
[483]
[484] God bless my father and my mother and spare them to me!
[485] God bless my little brothers and sisters and spare them to me!
[486] God bless Dante and Uncle Charles and spare them to me!
[487]
[488]
[489] He blessed himself and climbed quickly into bed and, tucking the end of
[490] the nightshirt under his feet, curled himself together under the cold
[491] white sheets, shaking and trembling. But he would not go to hell when
[492] he died; and the shaking would stop. A voice bade the boys in the
[493] dormitory good night. He peered out for an instant over the coverlet
[494] and saw the yellow curtains round and before his bed that shut him off
[495] on all sides. The light was lowered quietly.
[496]
[497] The prefect's shoes went away. Where? Down the staircase and along the
[498] corridors or to his room at the end? He saw the dark. Was it true about
[499] the black dog that walked there at night with eyes as big as
[500] carriage-lamps? They said it was the ghost of a murderer. A long shiver
[501] of fear flowed over his body. He saw the dark entrance hall of the
[502] castle. Old servants in old dress were in the ironing-room above the
[503] staircase. It was long ago. The old servants were quiet. There was a
[504] fire there, but the hall was still dark. A figure came up the staircase
[505] from the hall. He wore the white cloak of a marshal; his face was pale
[506] and strange; he held his hand pressed to his side. He looked out of
[507] strange eyes at the old servants. They looked at him and saw their
[508] master's face and cloak and knew that he had received his death-wound.
[509] But only the dark was where they looked: only dark silent air. Their
[510] master had received his death-wound on the battlefield of Prague far
[511] away over the sea. He was standing on the field; his hand was pressed
[512] to his side; his face was pale and strange and he wore the white cloak
[513] of a marshal.
[514]
[515] O how cold and strange it was to think of that! All the dark was cold
[516] and strange. There were pale strange faces there, great eyes like
[517] carriage-lamps. They were the ghosts of murderers, the figures of
[518] marshals who had received their death-wound on battlefields far away
[519] over the sea. What did they wish to say that their faces were so
[520] strange?
[521]
[522]
[523] VISIT, WE BESEECH THEE, O LORD, THIS HABITATION AND DRIVE AWAY FROM IT
[524] ALL...
[525]
[526]
[527] Going home for the holidays! That would be lovely: the fellows had told
[528] him. Getting up on the cars in the early wintry morning outside the
[529] door of the castle. The cars were rolling on the gravel. Cheers for the
[530] rector!
[531]
[532] Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!
[533]
[534] The cars drove past the chapel and all caps were raised. They drove
[535] merrily along the country roads. The drivers pointed with their whips
[536] to Bodenstown. The fellows cheered. They passed the farmhouse
[537] of the Jolly Farmer. Cheer after cheer after cheer. Through Clane they
[538] drove, cheering and cheered. The peasant women stood at the half-doors,
[539] the men stood here and there. The lovely smell there was in the wintry
[540] air: the smell of Clane: rain and wintry air and turf smouldering and
[541] corduroy.
[542]
[543] The train was full of fellows: a long long chocolate train with cream
[544] facings. The guards went to and fro opening, closing, locking,
[545] unlocking the doors. They were men in dark blue and silver; they had
[546] silvery whistles and their keys made a quick music: click, click:
[547] click, click.
[548]
[549] And the train raced on over the flat lands and past the Hill of Allen.
[550] The telegraph poles were passing, passing. The train went on and on. It
[551] knew. There were lanterns in the hall of his father's house and ropes
[552] of green branches. There were holly and ivy round the pierglass and
[553] holly and ivy, green and red, twined round the chandeliers. There were
[554] red holly and green ivy round the old portraits on the walls. Holly and
[555] ivy for him and for Christmas.
[556]
[557] Lovely...
[558]
[559] All the people. Welcome home, Stephen! Noises of welcome. His mother
[560] kissed him. Was that right? His father was a marshal now: higher than a
[561] magistrate. Welcome home, Stephen!
[562]
[563] Noises...
[564]
[565] There was a noise of curtain-rings running back along the rods, of
[566] water being splashed in the basins. There was a noise of rising and
[567] dressing and washing in the dormitory: a noise of clapping of hands as
[568] the prefect went up and down telling the fellows to look sharp. A pale
[569] sunlight showed the yellow curtains drawn back, the tossed beds. His
[570] bed was very hot and his face and body were very hot.
[571]
[572] He got up and sat on the side of his bed. He was weak. He tried to pull
[573] on his stocking. It had a horrid rough feel. The sunlight was queer and
[574] cold.
[575]
[576] Fleming said:
[577]
[578] --Are you not well?
[579]
[580] He did not know; and Fleming said:
[581]
[582] --Get back into bed. I'll tell McGlade you're not well.
[583]
[584] --He's sick.
[585]
[586] --Who is?
[587]
[588] --Tell McGlade.
[589]
[590] --Get back into bed.
[591]
[592] --Is he sick?
[593]
[594] A fellow held his arms while he loosened the stocking clinging to his
[595] foot and climbed back into the hot bed.
[596]
[597] He crouched down between the sheets, glad of their tepid glow. He heard
[598] the fellows talk among themselves about him as they dressed for mass.
[599] It was a mean thing to do, to shoulder him into the square ditch, they
[600] were saying.
[601]
[602] Then their voices ceased; they had gone. A voice at his bed said:
[603]
[604] --Dedalus, don't spy on us, sure you won't?
[605]
[606] Wells's face was there. He looked at it and saw that Wells was afraid.
[607]
[608] --I didn't mean to. Sure you won't?
[609]
[610] His father had told him, whatever he did, never to peach on a fellow.
[611] He shook his head and answered no and felt glad.
[612]
[613] Wells said:
[614]
[615] --I didn't mean to, honour bright. It was only for cod. I'm sorry.
[616]
[617] The face and the voice went away. Sorry because he was afraid. Afraid
[618] that it was some disease. Canker