Tom went to bed that night planning vengeance against
Alfred Temple; for with shame and repentance Becky
had told him all, not forgetting her own treachery;
but even the longing for vengeance had to give way,
soon, to pleasanter musings, and he fell asleep at
last with Becky’s latest words lingering dreamily
in his ear—
“Tom, how could you be so noble!”
Vacation was approaching. The schoolmaster,
always severe, grew severer and more exacting than
ever, for he wanted the school to make a good showing
on “Examination” day. His rod and
his ferule were seldom idle now—at least
among the smaller pupils. Only the biggest boys,
and young ladies of eighteen and twenty, escaped lashing.
Mr. Dobbins’ lashings were very vigorous ones,
too; for although he carried, under his wig, a perfectly
bald and shiny head, he had only reached middle age,
and there was no sign of feebleness in his muscle.
As the great day approached, all the tyranny that
was in him came to the surface; he seemed to take
a vindictive pleasure in punishing the least shortcomings.
The consequence was, that the smaller boys spent their
days in terror and suffering and their nights in plotting
revenge. They threw away no opportunity to do
the master a mischief. But he kept ahead all
the time. The retribution that followed every
vengeful success was so sweeping and majestic that
the boys always retired from the field badly worsted.
At last they conspired together and hit upon a plan
that promised a dazzling victory. They swore in
the sign-painter’s boy, told him the scheme,
and asked his help. He had his own reasons for
being delighted, for the master boarded in his father’s
family and had given the boy ample cause to hate him.
The master’s wife would go on a visit to the
country in a few days, and there would be nothing to
interfere with the plan; the master always prepared
himself for great occasions by getting pretty well
fuddled, and the sign-painter’s boy said that
when the dominie had reached the proper condition on
Examination Evening he would “manage the thing”
while he napped in his chair; then he would have him
awakened at the right time and hurried away to school.
In the fulness of time the interesting occasion arrived.
At eight in the evening the schoolhouse was brilliantly
lighted, and adorned with wreaths and festoons of
foliage and flowers. The master sat throned in
his great chair upon a raised platform, with his blackboard
behind him. He was looking tolerably mellow.
Three rows of benches on each side and six rows in
front of him were occupied by the dignitaries of the
town and by the parents of the pupils. To his
left, back of the rows of citizens, was a spacious
temporary platform upon which were seated the scholars
who were to take part in the exercises of the evening;
rows of small boys, washed and dressed to an intolerable
state of discomfort; rows of gawky big boys; snowbanks
of girls and young ladies clad in lawn and muslin
and conspicuously conscious of their bare arms, their
grandmothers’ ancient trinkets, their bits of
pink and blue ribbon and the flowers in their hair.
All the rest of the house was filled with non-participating
scholars.
