I made my way to the poor child, who was one of the dirtiest little unfortunates I ever saw, and found him very hot and frightened and crying loudly, fixed by the neck between two iron railings, while a milkman and a beadle, with the kindest intentions possible, were endeavouring to drag him back by the legs, under a general impression that his skull was compressible by those means.
As I found (after pacifying him) that he was a little boy with a naturally large head, I thought that perhaps where his head could go, his body could follow, and mentioned that the best mode of extrication might be to push him forward.
This was so favourably received by the milkman and beadle that he would immediately have been pushed into the area if I had not held his pinafore while Richard and Mr. Guppy ran down through the kitchen to catch him when he should be released.
At last he was happily got down without any accident, and then he began to beat Mr. Guppy with a hoop-stick in quite a frantic manner.
Nadie había aparecido perteneciente a la casa, salvo una persona con zuecos, que había estado pinchando al niño desde abajo con una escoba; no sé con qué fin, y no creo que ella tampoco lo supiera.
Por lo tanto, supuse que la señora Jellyby no estaba en casa, y me sorprendí bastante cuando la persona apareció en el pasillo sin los zuecos y, yéndose delante de Ada y de mí hacia la habitación del fondo en el primer piso, nos anunció diciendo: «¡Aquellas dos señoritas, señora Jellyby!».
Pasamos por varios niños más en el camino hacia arriba, a los que era difícil no pisar en la oscuridad; y, al presentarnos ante la señora Jellyby, una de las pobrecitas criaturas se cayó por la escalera —todo un tramo entero (según me pareció)—, con un gran estrépito.