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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 whereabouts in the Chase they lived, and what they did when they were there, I had no more definite idea than who the Emperor Prester John or the Man in the Moon might be.
It was the crutch of the Old Gentleman, who had been wheeled hither, as was his custom, by one of the boys. "You go into the orchard and steal a juicy pear," said the Old Gentleman to his attendant. "Gnawbit's out, and I won't tell him. Leave me with Boy Jack for five minutes, and then come back. Boy Jack," he continued, when we were alone, "how do you like it?" "Like what, sir?" I asked humbly.
All these were mixed up with the old Gentleman at Gnawbit's, and my Lord Lovat with his head off, and my Grandmother in Hanover Square; so that I doubt whether those who tended me knew what to make of me.
"You Imp of mischief," said the man as he seized me by the collar and shook me roughly, "what are you doing here, spying on honest folks? Speak, or I'll brain you with this Flail." I thought it best to tell this terrible man the Truth. "If you please, sir," I answered, trembling, "I've run away." "Run away from where, you egg?" "From Gnawbit's, sir."
"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.
"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.
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.
The Sun had begun to welk in the west by the time I had mustered up enough courage to come into the High Road, which I had an uncertain idea stretched away from Gnawbit's house, and towards Reading.
Such a Map, I remember, hung in the Schoolroom at Gnawbit's; and I have often been cruelly beaten for gazing at it and pondering over it, instead of endeavouring to commit to memory a quantity of Words, the meaning of which I could not for the life of me understand. He spoke seldom, and then generally with a Hiccup; but what he said was always to the Purpose.
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