fith's basket:
but there's no real difference between chickens running about and
apples on a tree, and the same articles in a shop. I wish our morals
were sounder in such matters. There's nothing so mischievous as these
school distinctions, which jumble up right and wrong, and justify
things in us for which poor boys would be sent to prison." And good
old Holmes delivered his soul on the walk home of many wise sayings,
and, as the song says:--

"Gee'd 'em[23] a sight of good advice";

which same sermon sank into them all more or less, and very penitent
they were for several hours. But truth compels me to admit that East
at any rate forgot it all in a week, but remembered the insult which
had been put upon him by Farmer Thompson, and with the Tadpole and
other hare-brained youngsters, committed a raid on the barn soon
afterward, in which they were caught by the shepherds and severely
handled, besides having to pay eight shillings--all the money they had
in the world--to escape being brought up to the Doctor.

[23] #Gee'd 'em#: gave them.

ARTHUR SEALS HIS FRIENDSHIP.

Martin became a constant inmate in the joint study from this time, and
Arthur took to him so kindly that Tom couldn't resist slight fits of
jealousy, which, however, he managed to keep to himself. The kestrel's
eggs had not been broken, strange to say, and formed the nucleus of
Arthur's collection, at which Martin worked heart and soul; and
introduced Arthur to Hewlett the bird-fancier, and instructed him in
the rudiments of the art of stuffing. In token of his gratitude,
Arthur allowed Martin to tattoo a small anchor on one of his wrists,
which decoration, however, he carefully concealed from Tom. Before the
end of the half-year he had become a bold climber and good runner,
and, as Martin had foretold, knew twice as much about trees, birds,
flowers, and many other things, as our good-hearted and facetious
young friend Harry East.

CHAPTER V.

THE FIGHT.

"Surgebat Macnevisius
Et mox jactabat ultro,
Pugnabo tua gratia
Feroci hoc Mactwoltro."--_Etonian._

FIGHTING IN GENERAL.

There is a certain sort of fellow--we who are used to studying boys
all know him well enough--of whom you can predicate[1] with almost
positive certainty, after he has been a month at school, that he is
sure to have a fight, and with almost equal certainty that he will
have but one. Tom Brown was one of these; and as it is our
we