Mr. Polly went into the National School at six and he left the private school at fourteen, and by that time his mind was in much the same state that you would be in, dear reader, if you were operated upon for appendicitis by a well-meaning, boldly enterprising, but rather overworked and under-paid butcher boy, who was superseded towards the climax of the operation by a left-handed clerk of high principles but intemperate habits, -- that is to say, it was in a thorough mess. The nice little curiosities and willingnesses of a child were in a jumbled and thwarted condition, hacked and cut about -- the operators had left, so to speak, all their sponges and ligatures in the mangled confusion -- and Mr. Polly had lost much of his natural confidence, so far as figures and sciences and languages and the possibilities of learning things were concerned. He thought of the present world no longer as a wonderland of experiences, but as geography and history, as the repeating of names that were hard to pronounce, and lists of products and populations and heights and lengths, and as lists and dates -- oh! and boredom indescribable. He thought of religion as the recital of more or less incomprehensible words that were hard to remember, and of the Divinity as of a limitless Being having the nature of a schoolmaster and making infinite rules, known and unknown rules, that were always ruthlessly enforced, and with an infinite capacity for punishment and, most horrible of all to think of! limitless powers of espial. . . .
- The History of Mr. Polly
- H. G. Wells
- Chapter the First
- Beginnings, and the Bazaar
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- Beginnings, and the Bazaar
- Chapter the Second
- The Dismissal of Parsons
- I
- II
- III
- The Dismissal of Parsons
- Chapter the Third
- Cribs
- I
- II
- III
- Cribs
- Chapter the Fourth
- Mr. Polly an Orphan
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- Mr. Polly an Orphan
- Chapter the Fifth
- Mr. Polly Takes a Vacation
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- Mr. Polly Takes a Vacation
- Chapter the Sixth
- Miriam
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- VIII
- Miriam
- Chapter the Seventh
- The Little Shop at Fishbourne
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- The Little Shop at Fishbourne
- Chapter the Eighth
- Making an End to Things
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- Making an End to Things
- Chapter the Ninth
- The Potwell Inn
- I
- II
- III
- IV
- V
- VI
- VII
- VIII
- IX
- X
- XI
- XII
- The Potwell Inn
- Chapter the Tenth
- Miriam Revisited
- I
- II
- III
- Miriam Revisited
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