For was he not about to become the joint owner of a
similar home, the first place he could call his own? One's own! What a
charm there is in the words! How long it takes boy and man to find
out their worth! How fast most of us hold on to them--faster and more
jealously, the nearer we are to that general home into which we can
take nothing, but must go naked as we came into the world! When shall we
learn that he who multiplieth possessions multiplieth troubles, and that
the one single use of things which we call our own is that they may be
his who hath need of them?
"And shall I have a study like this too?" said Tom.
"Yes, of course; you'll be chummed with some fellow on Monday, and you
can sit here till then."
"What nice places!"
"They're well enough," answered East, patronizingly, "only uncommon cold
at nights sometimes. Gower--that's my chum--and I make a fire with paper
on the floor after supper generally, only that makes it so smoky."
"But there's a big fire out in the passage," said Tom.
"Precious little we get out of that, though," said East. "Jones the
prepostor has the study at the fire end, and he has rigged up an iron
rod and green baize curtain across the passage, which he draws at night,
and sits there with his door open; so he gets all the fire, and hears if
we come out of our studies after eight, or make a noise.
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