The building stood by itself, apart from the master's house, on an angle
of ground where three roads met--an old gray stone building with a steep
roof and mullioned windows. On one of the opposite angles stood Squire
Brown's stables and kennel, with their backs to the road, over which
towered a great elm-tree; on the third stood the village carpenter and
wheelwright's large open shop, and his house and the schoolmaster's,
with long low eaves, under which the swallows built by scores.
The moment Tom's lessons were over, he would now get him down to this
corner by the stables, and watch till the boys came out of school. He
prevailed on the groom to cut notches for him in the bark of the elm
so that he could climb into the lower branches; and there he would sit
watching the school door, and speculating on the possibility of turning
the elm into a dwelling-place for himself and friends, after the manner
of the Swiss Family Robinson. But the school hours were long and Tom's
patience short, so that he soon began to descend into the street, and go
and peep in at the school door and the wheelwright's shop, and look out
for something to while away the time. Now the wheelwright was a choleric
man, and one fine afternoon, returning from a short absence, found Tom
occupied with one of his pet adzes, the edge of which was fast vanishing
under our hero's care.
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