Great Expectations Day 9
Dinner being over, Pip is given chores to do around the kitchen, which is very difficult with bread stuffed down his pants! He starts to feel it slip out, but manages after a while to sneak off to his room to deposit it. It’s Christmas Eve, and Pip is made to stir the Christmas pudding from 7-8 by the Dutch clock. He is so afraid, he thinks he hears the voice of the man with the iron on his leg, coming to claim his vittles (and Pip’s organs) early! Gun shots are heard off in the distance. Joe and Mrs Joe explain that an escaped convict is being fired at. Pip is very curious about this!
I drew this little Pip in Illustrator. I wish I had more time to do something with the table and flooring, but here it is. The shirt texture is from a scanned piece of art I did for a previous project. I hope I have conveyed the fear that Pip is feeling at this point in the story. Scared stiff!
Great Expectations Day 3
Heart & Liver
Day 3: I’m still reading and the convict is HUNGRY! He tells Pip that a friend of his, much younger and meaner, will cut out and eat Pip’s heart AND liver if Pip does not bring a file (for cutting off the iron shackles on the convict’s leg) and some food (whittles or vittles). This got me to wondering where the word vittles came from. No one seems to use it any more and no one seems to know whence it came. (OK, now I’m starting to talk weird after reading this book!) I did find out two things: 1) that it is slang for victuals, which means the same thing: food useful to humans (What kind of food isn’t useful to humans?!) and 2) that the Beverly Hillbillies spoke it a lot! So funny… loved that show! Jethro and his giant bowl of vittles!
My name is Julie and I'm reading Great Expectations one page a day and also creating one little work of art (30 minutes or less) a day relating to what I read. Thanks for looking and reading. Leave a comment to let me know what you think!
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