CHAPTER 2. DAVID IS SENT AWAY TO SCHOOL
Mr Murdstone insisted on David's studying and so his mother gave him lessons. In the past, they enjoyed his studies together but now both Mr and Miss Murdstone were present during his lessons, and somehow David couldn't concentrate or remember what he had learnt.
One morning when David arrived in the sitting-room as usual for his lessons, he saw that Mr Murdstone had a thin stick in his hand. The child was very afraid of it, and all of he had learnt disappeared immediately from his mind, so he couldn't answer any of his mother's questions. Then his stepfather took him and went with him upstairs while Clara was crying and David was shouting him not to beat him! When they arrived to David's bedroom, Mr Murdstone held his arms and started hitting him with his stick. Above the noise of his screams, he could hear his mother and Peggotty crying outside the door. Next, Mr Murdstone was gone and locked the door. David was kept locked in that room five days and five nights and saw nobody except Mrs Murdstone, who brought him food but never spoke to him. But during the fifth night he heard a strange noise at the keyhole. It was Peggotty, trying to give him a message. She told him that the next day they were going to send him away to boarding school…
The next morning Miss Murdstone told David that why his wickedness he was going away to school. His mother was only allowed to say a very quick goodbye to me, when the horse and driver arrived. Then, Mr Barkis drove slowly out of Blunderstone. Peggotty gave him a purse with some money and cakes.
David stayed in his new school for three months until Christmas. There, he met some friends, like Tommy Traddles and James Steerforth. He also discovered that the headmaster of the school was a bad man, who had a stick which he hit the boys, as Mr Murstone did.
When he returned to his house at Christmas, he saw that he had a new brother and his mother was very thin and she looked ill. That was the last time he saw her…