An excerpt from the Introductory... ...Let their surmise as to whether the young man were alive or dead be as it may, however - and the question may well rest for the present-one thing is certain, they were altogether in error, though of course quite unaware of it, when they imagined that the accident that had befallen Peter Walkingshaw was unavoidable, and such as might have happened to the most careful person; the fact being that he had brought the calamity on his own head, and that it was no more than a righteous ...
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An excerpt from the Introductory... ...Let their surmise as to whether the young man were alive or dead be as it may, however - and the question may well rest for the present-one thing is certain, they were altogether in error, though of course quite unaware of it, when they imagined that the accident that had befallen Peter Walkingshaw was unavoidable, and such as might have happened to the most careful person; the fact being that he had brought the calamity on his own head, and that it was no more than a righteous judgment on him. It came about in this way. It was at a job of sail-mending that Peter was employed, and he had with him his sail-needle and his shears. Just as he was about fastening off and finishing the patch he was engaged on, he looked up towards another rent a few feet above his head, and which was next on the list for mending, and there he spied an unlucky cockroach that had wandered from the depths of the ship (being in the rum and molasses trade, the hold of the Mangowallah swarmed with countless thousands of such creatures), and blundered its way up into the rigging. The mortal enemy of insects, large and small, Peter had a special and deeply-rooted aversion for cockroaches. "If you will only wait half a minute, my fine fellow," he exclaimed, addressing this one, "I shall be coming up your way, and shall have something to whisper to you that will save you a longer walk!" Still the innocent and unsuspecting cockroach kept on its way towards the mast-head. "Your legs will never save your head, my beauty," cried Peter, "although you have six of them. Show us what you can do on five." And so saying, he put up his shears and nipped off the wretched creature's hind left leg close by the knee. Maimed and cruelly crippled as it was, however, the poor cockroach still struggled upward, when the cruel Peter further embarrassed it by once more putting up his shears, this time amputating the whole of its remaining hind-leg and a great slice of its horny wingsheath. "That, I should think, will stop your gallop, my friend," said Peter, with a cruel grimace at the insect's writhing. But he was mistaken. Gallop it certainly did not; but, with its four remaining legs, aided by the stump of the fifth, it toiled slowly upwards-as though conscious in that direction, if in any, there was the only chance of escape. But Peter was not the fellow to be beaten by a cockroach. The obstinacy of the creature exasperated him; and so, hurriedly reaching over his head with his sail-needle in his hand, he made a stab with it to pin his victim to the mast. That is how he met his accident. He overreached himself and swung forward, and while endeavouring to secure better hold for his left hand, lost it completely and fell down, his head striking the deck in the manner described....
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Add this copy of The Purgatory of Peter the Cruel to cart. $16.27, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2022 by Legare Street Press.
Add this copy of The Purgatory of Peter the Cruel to cart. $27.44, new condition, Sold by Ingram Customer Returns Center rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from NV, USA, published 2022 by Legare Street Press.
Add this copy of The Purgatory of Peter the Cruel to cart. $35.80, new condition, Sold by Media Smart rated 3.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Hawthorne, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2018 by Franklin Classics.
Add this copy of The Purgatory of Peter the Cruel to cart. $45.01, new condition, Sold by Booksplease rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Southport, MERSEYSIDE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2010 by Kessinger Publishing.
Add this copy of The Purgatory of Peter the Cruel to cart. $45.01, new condition, Sold by Booksplease rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Southport, MERSEYSIDE, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2007 by Kessinger Publishing.
Add this copy of The Purgatory of Peter the Cruel to cart. $46.96, good condition, Sold by Bonita rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Newport Coast, CA, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by Kessinger Publishing.