The Squire was very angry at first, but the interview, by Tom's
pleading, ended in a compromise. Tom was not to go near the school till
three o'clock, and only then if he had done his own lessons well, in
which case he was to be the bearer of a note to the master from Squire
Brown; and the master agreed in such case to release ten or twelve of
the best boys an hour before the time of breaking up, to go off and play
in the close. The wheelwright's adzes and swallows were to be for ever
respected; and that hero and the master withdrew to the servants' hall
to drink the Squire's health, well satisfied with their day's work.
The second act of Tom's life may now be said to have begun. The war of
independence had been over for some time: none of the women now--not
even his mother's maid--dared offer to help him in dressing or
washing. Between ourselves, he had often at first to run to Benjy in an
unfinished state of toilet. Charity and the rest of them seemed to take
a delight in putting impossible buttons and ties in the middle of his
back; but he would have gone without nether integuments altogether,
sooner than have had recourse to female valeting. He had a room to
himself, and his father gave him sixpence a week pocket-money. All
this he had achieved by Benjy's advice and assistance. But now he had
conquered another step in life--the step which all real boys so long
to make: he had got amongst his equals in age and strength, and could
measure himself with other boys; he lived with those whose pursuits and
wishes and ways were the same in kind as his own.
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