and other
hair-brained youngsters committed a raid on the barn soon afterwards,
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 taken up to the Doctor.

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 Howlett 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 trained into 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.

There is a certain sort of fellow--we who are used to studying boys all
know him well enough--of whom you can predicate 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 well-weighed intention to give
a full, true, and correct account of Tom's only single combat with a
school-fellow in the manner of our old friend Bell's Life, let those
young persons whose stomachs are not strong, or who think a good set-to
with the weapons which God has given us all an uncivilized, unchristian,
or ungentlemanly affair, just skip this chapter at once, for it won't be
to their taste.

It was not at all usual in those days for two School-house boys to
have a fight. Of course there were exceptions, when some cross-grained,
hard-headed fellow came up who would never be happy unless he was
quarrelling with his nearest neighbours, or when there was some
class-dispute, between the fifth form and the fags, for instance, which
required blood-letting; and a champion was picked out on each side
tacitly, who settled the matter by a good hearty mill. But