On my return to the boarding-house I had my supper, which, as a matter of course, was worse than the dinner, and I could not make out why the right of complaint should be denied me.  I was then put to bed, but there three well-known species of vermin kept me awake all night, besides the rats, which, running all over the garret, jumped on my bed and fairly made my blood run cold with fright.  This is the way in which I began to feel misery, and to learn how to suffer it patiently.  The vermin, which feasted upon me, lessened my fear of the rats, and by a very lucky system of compensation, the dread of the rats made me less sensitive to the bites of the vermin.  My mind was reaping benefit from the very struggle fought between the evils which surrounded me.  The servant was perfectly deaf to my screaming.

As soon as it was daylight I ran out of the wretched garret, and, after complaining to the girl of all I had endured during the night, I asked her to give me a Clean shirt, the one I had on being disgusting to look at, but she answered that I could only change my linen on a Sunday, and laughed at me when I threatened to complain to the mistress.  For the first time in my life I shed tears of sorrow and of anger, when I heard my companions scoffing at me.  The poor wretches shared my unhappy condition, but they were used to it, and that makes all the difference.

Sorely depressed, I went to school, but only to sleep soundly through the morning.  One of my comrades, in the hope of turning the affair into ridicule at my expense, told the doctor the reason of my being so sleepy.  The good priest, however, to whom without doubt Providence had guided me, called me into his private room, listened to all I had to say, saw with his own eyes the proofs of my misery, and moved by the sight of the blisters which disfigured my innocent skin, he took up his cloak, went with me to my boarding-house, and shewed the woman the state I was in.  She put on a look of great astonishment, and threw all the blame upon the servant.  The doctor being curious to see my bed, I was, as much as he was, surprised at the filthy state of the sheets in which I had passed the night.  The accursed woman went on blaming the servant, and said that she would discharge her; but the girl, happening to be close by, and not relishing the accusation, told her boldly that the fault was her own, and she then threw open the beds of my companions to shew us that they did not experience any better treatment.  The mistress, raving, slapped her on the face, and the servant, to be even with her, returned the compliment and ran away.  The doctor left me there, saying that I could not enter his school unless I was sent to him as clean as the other boys.  The result for me was a very sharp rebuke, with the threat, as a finishing stroke, that if I ever caused such a broil again, I would be ignominiously turned out of the house.