the by had procured that settlement for him), hinting, in pretty
plain terms, that the old gentleman's soul was damned to all
eternity for his injustice in neglecting to pay for my learning.
This brutal behaviour, added to the sufferings I had formerly
undergone made me think it high time to be revenged on this insolent
pedagogue. Having consulted my adherents, I found them all staunch
in their promises to stand by me; and our scheme was this:--In the
afternoon preceding to the day of our departure for the University,
I resolved to take the advantage of the usher's going out to make
water (which he regularly did at four o'clock), and shut the great
door, that he might not come to the assistance of his superior.
This being done, the assault was to be begun by my advancing to my
master and spitting in his face. I was to be seconded by two of
the strongest boys in the school, who were devoted to me; their
business was to join me in dragging the tyrant to a bench, over
which he was to be laid, and his bare posteriors heartily flogged,
with his own birch, which we proposed to wrest from him in his
struggle; but if we should find him too many for us all three, we
were to demand the assistance of our competitors, who should be
ready to enforce us, or oppose anything that might be undertaken
for the master's relief. One of my principal assistants was called
Jeremy Gawky, son and heir of a wealthy gentleman in the neighbourhood;
and the name of the other, Hugh Strap, the cadet of a family which
had given shoemakers to the village time out of mind. I had once
saved Gawky's life, by plunging into a river and dragging him
on shore, when he was on the point of being drowned. I had often
rescued him from the clutches of those whom his insufferable
arrogance had provoked to a resentment he was not able to sustain;
and many times saved his reputation and posteriors, by performing
his exercises at school; so that it is not to be wondered at, if