The Prince and the Pauper Page 3

  CHAPTER II. Tom's early life.

  Let us skip a number of years.

  London was fifteen hundred years old, and was a great town--for thatday. It had a hundred thousand inhabitants--some think double as many.?The streets were very narrow, and crooked, and dirty, especially in thepart where Tom Canty lived, which was not far from London Bridge. ?Thehouses were of wood, with the second story projecting over the first,and the third sticking its elbows out beyond the second. ?The higherthe houses grew, the broader they grew. ?They were skeletons of strongcriss-cross beams, with solid material between, coated with plaster.?The beams were painted red or blue or black, according to the owner'staste, and this gave the houses a very picturesque look. ?The windowswere small, glazed with little diamond-shaped panes, and they openedoutward, on hinges, like doors.

  The house which Tom's father lived in was up a foul little pocket calledOffal Court, out of Pudding Lane. ?It was small, decayed, and rickety,but it was packed full of wretchedly poor families. Canty's tribeoccupied a room on the third floor. ?The mother and father had a sort ofbedstead in the corner; but Tom, his grandmother, and his two sisters,Bet and Nan, were not restricted--they had all the floor to themselves,and might sleep where they chose. ?There were the remains of a blanketor two, and some bundles of ancient and dirty straw, but these could notrightly be called beds, for they were not organised; they were kickedinto a general pile, mornings, and selections made from the mass atnight, for service.

  Bet and Nan were fifteen years old--twins. ?They were good-heartedgirls, unclean, clothed in rags, and profoundly ignorant. ?Their motherwas like them. ?But the father and the grandmother were a couple offiends. ?They got drunk whenever they could; then they fought each otheror anybody else who came in the way; they cursed and swore always, drunkor sober; John Canty was a thief, and his mother a beggar. ?They madebeggars of the children, but failed to make thieves of them. ?Among,but not of, the dreadful rabble that inhabited the house, was a good oldpriest whom the King had turned out of house and home with a pension ofa few farthings, and he used to get the children aside and teach themright ways secretly. Father Andrew also taught Tom a little Latin, andhow to read and write; and would have done the same with the girls,but they were afraid of the jeers of their friends, who could not haveendured such a queer accomplishment in them.

  All Offal Court was just such another hive as Canty's house.Drunkenness, riot and brawling were the order, there, every night andnearly all night long. ?Broken heads were as common as hunger in thatplace. ?Yet little Tom was not unhappy. ?He had a hard time of it, butdid not know it. ?It was the sort of time that all the Offal Court boyshad, therefore he supposed it was the correct and comfortable thing.?When he came home empty-handed at night, he knew his father wouldcurse him and thrash him first, and that when he was done the awfulgrandmother would do it all over again and improve on it; and that awayin the night his starving mother would slip to him stealthily with anymiserable scrap or crust she had been able to save for him by goinghungry herself, notwithstanding she was often caught in that sort oftreason and soundly beaten for it by her husband.

  No, Tom's life went along well enough, especially in summer. ?He onlybegged just enough to save himself, for the laws against mendicancy werestringent, and the penalties heavy; so he put in a good deal of his timelistening to good Father Andrew's charming old tales and legendsabout giants and fairies, dwarfs and genii, and enchanted castles, andgorgeous kings and princes. ?His head grew to be full of these wonderfulthings, and many a night as he lay in the dark on his scant andoffensive straw, tired, hungry, and smarting from a thrashing, heunleashed his imagination and soon forgot his aches and pains indelicious picturings to himself of the charmed life of a petted princein a regal palace. ?One desire came in time to haunt him day and night:?it was to see a real prince, with his own eyes. ?He spoke of it once tosome of his Offal Court comrades; but they jeered him and scoffed him sounmercifully that he was glad to keep his dream to himself after that.

  He often read the priest's old books and got him to explain and enlargeupon them. ?His dreamings and readings worked certain changes in him,by-and-by. ?His dream-people were so fine that he grew to lament hisshabby clothing and his dirt, and to wish to be clean and better clad.?He went on playing in the mud just the same, and enjoying it, too; but,instead of splashing around in the Thames solely for the fun of it,he began to find an added value in it because of the washings andcleansings it afforded.

  Tom could always find something going on around the Maypole inCheapside, and at the fairs; and now and then he and the rest of Londonhad a chance to see a military parade when some famous unfortunate wascarried prisoner to the Tower, by land or boat. One summer's day he sawpoor Anne Askew and three men burned at the stake in Smithfield, andheard an ex-Bishop preach a sermon to them which did not interest him.Yes, Tom's life was varied and pleasant enough, on the whole.

  By-and-by Tom's reading and dreaming about princely life wrought such astrong effect upon him that he began to _act_ the prince, unconsciously.His speech and manners became curiously ceremonious and courtly, to thevast admiration and amusement of his intimates. ?But Tom's influenceamong these young people began to grow now, day by day; and in time hecame to be looked up to, by them, with a sort of wondering awe, as asuperior being. ?He seemed to know so much! and he could do and say suchmarvellous things! and withal, he was so deep and wise! ?Tom's remarks,and Tom's performances, were reported by the boys to their elders; andthese, also, presently began to discuss Tom Canty, and to regard himas a most gifted and extraordinary creature. ?Full-grown people broughttheir perplexities to Tom for solution, and were often astonished at thewit and wisdom of his decisions. ?In fact he was become a hero to allwho knew him except his own family--these, only, saw nothing in him.

  Privately, after a while, Tom organised a royal court! ?He was theprince; his special comrades were guards, chamberlains, equerries, lordsand ladies in waiting, and the royal family. ?Daily the mock prince wasreceived with elaborate ceremonials borrowed by Tom from his romanticreadings; daily the great affairs of the mimic kingdom were discussedin the royal council, and daily his mimic highness issued decrees to hisimaginary armies, navies, and viceroyalties.

  After which, he would go forth in his rags and beg a few farthings, eathis poor crust, take his customary cuffs and abuse, and then stretchhimself upon his handful of foul straw, and resume his empty grandeursin his dreams.

  And still his desire to look just once upon a real prince, in the flesh,grew upon him, day by day, and week by week, until at last it absorbedall other desires, and became the one passion of his life.

  One January day, on his usual begging tour, he tramped despondently upand down the region round about Mincing Lane and Little East Cheap, hourafter hour, bare-footed and cold, looking in at cook-shop windows andlonging for the dreadful pork-pies and other deadly inventions displayedthere--for to him these were dainties fit for the angels; that is,judging by the smell, they were--for it had never been his good luck toown and eat one. There was a cold drizzle of rain; the atmosphere wasmurky; it was a melancholy day. ?At night Tom reached home so wet andtired and hungry that it was not possible for his father and grandmotherto observe his forlorn condition and not be moved--after their fashion;wherefore they gave him a brisk cuffing at once and sent him to bed.?For a long time his pain and hunger, and the swearing and fightinggoing on in the building, kept him awake; but at last his thoughtsdrifted away to far, romantic lands, and he fell asleep in the companyof jewelled and gilded princelings who live in vast palaces, and hadservants salaaming before them or flying to execute their orders. ?Andthen, as usual, he dreamed that _he_ was a princeling himself.

  All night long the glories of his royal estate shone upon him; he movedamong great lords and ladies, in a blaze of light, breathing perfumes,drinking in delicious music, and answering the reverent obeisances ofthe glittering throng as it parted to make way for him, with here asmile, and there a nod of his princely head.

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nbsp; And when he awoke in the morning and looked upon the wretchednessabout him, his dream had had its usual effect--it had intensified thesordidness of his surroundings a thousandfold. ?Then came bitterness,and heart-break, and tears.