"
But after a sound night's rest, the old boy-spirit comes back again.
East comes in, reporting that the whole house is with him; and he
forgets everything, except their old resolve never to be beaten by that
bully Flashman.
Not a word could the housekeeper extract from either of them, and though
the Doctor knew all that she knew that morning, he never knew any more.
I trust and believe that such scenes are not possible now at school,
and that lotteries and betting-books have gone out; but I am writing of
schools as they were in our time, and must give the evil with the good.
CHAPTER IX--A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS.
"Wherein I [speak] of most disastrous chances,
Of moving accidents by flood and field,
Of hair-breadth 'scapes."--SHAKESPEARE.
When Tom came back into school after a couple of days in the sick-room,
he found matters much changed for the better, as East had led him to
expect. Flashman's brutality had disgusted most even of his intimate
friends, and his cowardice had once more been made plain to the house;
for Diggs had encountered him on the morning after the lottery, and
after high words on both sides, had struck him, and the blow was not
returned. However, Flashey was not unused to this sort of thing, and had
lived through as awkward affairs before, and, as Diggs had said, fed and
toadied himself back into favour again.
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