Chapter 6

When we arrived in Yarmouth and down from the cart, we said goodbye to Mr Barkis.  Daniel and Ham Peggotty were waiting for us.  Daniel and Ham were exactly the same as I remembered them, cheerful and generous as ever, but little and prettier, but she did not want to play with me, or spend her time with me, I was rather disappointed, because I still considered she was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, and I thought I was in love with her.  Daniel and Ham were very proud of her intelligence and beauty, and just smiled when she laughingly refused to sit next to me.  But they all listened with interest to my stories of school life at Salem House. I told them about the other boys, especially the handsome, clever Steerforth.  I admired him so much that I could not stop myself telling them all about him.  Suddenly I noticed that Emily was listening eagerly, her blue eyes shining and a smile on her lips.  She blushed when she saw that we were all looking at her, and hid her face behind her hands.

I now realized that when the Micawbers left London, as they were planning to do, I would be very lonely in the city.  I still hated my work in the warehouse, and wanted to make a better life for myself.  I thought about it for a long time, and decided there was only one thing I could do.  I would try to find my one surviving relation, my father’s aunt,  Miss Betsey Trotwood, and ask her to help me.  I knew she lived somewhere near Dover, in Kent.  I could go there by coach, because Peggotty had once sent me ten shillings to keep, in case I ever needed it.  The time had come to use that money.