However,
the chief offenders for the time were flogged and kept in bounds; but
the victorious party had brought a nice hornet's nest about their ears.
The landlord was hissed at the School-gates as he rode past, and when he
charged his horse at the mob of boys, and tried to thrash them with
his whip, was driven back by cricket-bats and wickets, and pursued with
pebbles and fives balls; while the wretched keepers' lives were a burden
to them, from having to watch the waters so closely.
The School-house boys of Tom's standing, one and all, as a protest
against this tyranny and cutting short of their lawful amusements, took
to fishing in all ways, and especially by means of night-lines. The
little tacklemaker at the bottom of the town would soon have made his
fortune had the rage lasted, and several of the barbers began to lay in
fishing-tackle. The boys had this great advantage over their enemies,
that they spent a large portion of the day in nature's garb by the
river-side, and so, when tired of swimming, would get out on the other
side and fish, or set night-lines, till the keepers hove in sight, and
then plunge in and swim back and mix with the other bathers, and the
keepers were too wise to follow across the stream.
While things were in this state, one day Tom and three or four others
were bathing at Wratislaw's, and had, as a matter of course, been taking
up and re-setting night-lines.
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