Had he been a dog, he would never have thought of doing anything for his own protection beyond turning up his four legs in silent appeal to the mercy of the heavens.
He was an absolute sepulchre in the swallowing of oppression and ill-usage.

It vanished in him.

There was no echo of complaint, no murmur of resentment from the hollows of that soul.

The blows that fell upon him resounded not, and no one but God remembered them.
His mother made her living as she herself best knew, with occasional well-begrudged assistance from the parish.

Her chief resource was no doubt begging from house to house for the handful of oatmeal which was the recognized, and, in the court of custom-taught conscience, the legalized dole upon which every beggar had a claim; and if she picked up at the same time a chicken, or a boy's rabbit, or any other stray luxury, she was only following the general rule of society, that your first duty is to take care of yourself.