w do you like it?"

"Like what, sir?" I asked humbly.

"All of it, to be sure:--the birch, the cane, the thong, the ferula, the
rope's-end,--all Gnawbit's little toys?"

I told him, weeping, that I was very, very unhappy, and that I would
like to drown myself.

"That's wrong, that's wicked," observed the Old Gentleman with a
chuckle; "you mustn't drown yourself, because then you'd lose your
chance of being hanged. Gregory has as much right to live as other
folks."[H]

I did not in the least understand what he meant, but went on sobbing.

"I tell you what it is," pursued the Old Gentleman; "you mustn't stop
here, because Gnawbit will skin you alive if you do. He's bound to do
it; he's sworn to do it. He half-skinned Tibb; and was going to take off
the other half, when Tibb drowned himself like a fool in this hole here.
He was a fool, and should have followed my advice and run away. 'Tibb,'
I said, 'you'll be skinned. Bear it, but run away. Here's a guinea.
Run!' He was afraid that Gnawbit would catch him; and where is he now?
Skinned, and drowned into the bargain. Don't you be a Fool. You Run
while there's some skin left. Gnawbit's sworn to have it all, if you
don't. Here's a guinea, and run away as fast as ever your legs can carry
you."

He gave me a bright piece of gold and waved me off, as though I were to
run away that very moment. I submissively said that I would run away
after school was over, but asked him where I should run to.

"I'm sure I don't know," the Old Gentleman said somewhat peevishly.
"That's not my business. A boy that has got legs with skin on 'em, and
doesn't know where to run to, is a jackass.--Stop!" he continued, as if
a bright idea had just struck him; "did you ever hear of the Blacks?"

"No sir," I answered.

"Stupid oaf! Do you know where Charlwood Chase is?"

"Yes, sir; my schoolfellows have been nutting there, and I have heard
them speak of it."

"Then you make the best of your way to Charlwood Chase, and go a-nutting
there till you find the Blacks; you can't miss them; they're everywhere.
Run, you little Imp. See! the time's up, and here comes the boy who
stole the juicy pear." And the boy coming up, munching the remains of
one of Gnawbit's juiciest pears, my patron was wheeled away, and I have
never seen him from that day to this.

That very night I ran away from Gnawbit's, and made my way towards
Charlwood Chase to join the "Blacks," although who those "Blacks" were,
and