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Prince and the Pauper
In
the
ancient
city
of
London
,
on
a
certain
autumn
day
in
the
second
quarter
of
the
sixteenth
century
,
a
boy
was
born
to
a
poor
family
of
the
name
of
Canty
,
who
did
not
want
him
.
On
the
same
day
another
English
child
was
born
to
a
rich
family
of
the
name
of
Tudor
,
who
did
want
him
.
All
England
wanted
him
too
.
England
had
so
longed
for
him
,
and
hoped
for
him
,
and
prayed
God
for
him
,
that
,
now
that
he
was
really
come
,
the
people
went
nearly
mad
for
joy
.
Mere
acquaintances
hugged
and
kissed
each
other
and
cried
.
Everybody
took
a
holiday
,
and
high
and
low
,
rich
and
poor
,
feasted
and
danced
and
sang
,
and
got
very
mellow
;
and
they
kept
this
up
for
days
and
nights
together
.
By
day
,
London
was
a
sight
to
see
,
with
gay
banners
waving
from
every
balcony
and
housetop
,
and
splendid
pageants
marching
along
.
By
night
,
it
was
again
a
sight
to
see
,
with
its
great
bonfires
at
every
corner
,
and
its
troops
of
revellers
making
merry
around
them
.
There
was
no
talk
in
all
England
but
of
the
new
baby
,
Edward
Tudor
,
Prince
of
Wales
,
who
lay
lapped
in
silks
and
satins
,
unconscious
of
all
this
fuss
,
and
not
knowing
that
great
lords
and
ladies
were
tending
him
and
watching
over
him
--
and
not
caring
,
either
.
But
there
was
no
talk
about
the
other
baby
,
Tom
Canty
,
lapped
in
his
poor
rags
,
except
among
the
family
of
paupers
whom
he
had
just
come
to
trouble
with
his
presence
.
Let
us
skip
a
number
of
years
.
London
was
fifteen
hundred
years
old
,
and
was
a
great
town
--
for
that
day
.
It
had
a
hundred
thousand
inhabitants
--
some
think
double
as
many
.
The
streets
were
very
narrow
,
and
crooked
,
and
dirty
,
especially
in
the
part
where
Tom
Canty
lived
,
which
was
not
far
from
London
Bridge
.
The
houses
were
of
wood
,
with
the
second
story
projecting
over
the
first
,
and
the
third
sticking
its
elbows
out
beyond
the
second
.
The
higher
the
houses
grew
,
the
broader
they
grew
.
They
were
skeletons
of
strong
criss-cross
beams
,
with
solid
material
between
,
coated
with
plaster
.
The
beams
were
painted
red
or
blue
or
black
,
according
to
the
owner
's
taste
,
and
this
gave
the
houses
a
very
picturesque
look
.
The
windows
were
small
,
glazed
with
little
diamond-shaped
panes
,
and
they
opened
outward
,
on
hinges
,
like
doors
.
The
house
which
Tom
's
father
lived
in
was
up
a
foul
little
pocket
called
Offal
Court
,
out
of
Pudding
Lane
.
It
was
small
,
decayed
,
and
rickety
,
but
it
was
packed
full
of
wretchedly
poor
families
.
Canty
's
tribe
occupied
a
room
on
the
third
floor
.
The
mother
and
father
had
a
sort
of
bedstead
in
the
corner
;
but
Tom
,
his
grandmother
,
and
his
two
sisters
,
Bet
and
Nan
,
were
not
restricted
--
they
had
all
the
floor
to
themselves
,
and
might
sleep
where
they
chose
.
There
were
the
remains
of
a
blanket
or
two
,
and
some
bundles
of
ancient
and
dirty
straw
,
but
these
could
not
rightly
be
called
beds
,
for
they
were
not
organised
;
they
were
kicked
into
a
general
pile
,
mornings
,
and
selections
made
from
the
mass
at
night
,
for
service
.
Bet
and
Nan
were
fifteen
years
old
--
twins
.
They
were
good-hearted
girls
,
unclean
,
clothed
in
rags
,
and
profoundly
ignorant
.
Their
mother
was
like
them
.
But
the
father
and
the
grandmother
were
a
couple
of
fiends
.
They
got
drunk
whenever
they
could
;
then
they
fought
each
other
or
anybody
else
who
came
in
the
way
;
they
cursed
and
swore
always
,
drunk
or
sober
;
John
Canty
was
a
thief
,
and
his
mother
a
beggar
.
They
made
beggars
of
the
children
,
but
failed
to
make
thieves
of
them
.
Among
,
but
not
of
,
the
dreadful
rabble
that
inhabited
the
house
,
was
a
good
old
priest
whom
the
King
had
turned
out
of
house
and
home
with
a
pension
of
a
few
farthings
,
and
he
used
to
get
the
children
aside
and
teach
them
right
ways
secretly
.
Father
Andrew
also
taught
Tom
a
little
Latin
,
and
how
to
read
and
write
;
and
would
have
done
the
same
with
the
girls
,
but
they
were
afraid
of
the
jeers
of
their
friends
,
who
could
not
have
endured
such
a
queer
accomplishment
in
them
.
All
Offal
Court
was
just
such
another
hive
as
Canty
's
house
.
Drunkenness
,
riot
and
brawling
were
the
order
,
there
,
every
night
and
nearly
all
night
long
.
Broken
heads
were
as
common
as
hunger
in
that
place
.
Yet
little
Tom
was
not
unhappy
.
He
had
a
hard
time
of
it
,
but
did
not
know
it
.
It
was
the
sort
of
time
that
all
the
Offal
Court
boys
had
,
therefore
he
supposed
it
was
the
correct
and
comfortable
thing
.
When
he
came
home
empty-handed
at
night
,
he
knew
his
father
would
curse
him
and
thrash
him
first
,
and
that
when
he
was
done
the
awful
grandmother
would
do
it
all
over
again
and
improve
on
it
;
and
that
away
in
the
night
his
starving
mother
would
slip
to
him
stealthily
with
any
miserable
scrap
or
crust
she
had
been
able
to
save
for
him
by
going
hungry
herself
,
notwithstanding
she
was
often
caught
in
that
sort
of
treason
and
soundly
beaten
for
it
by
her
husband
.
No
,
Tom
's
life
went
along
well
enough
,
especially
in
summer
.
He
only
begged
just
enough
to
save
himself
,
for
the
laws
against
mendicancy
were
stringent
,
and
the
penalties
heavy
;
so
he
put
in
a
good
deal
of
his
time
listening
to
good
Father
Andrew
's
charming
old
tales
and
legends
about
giants
and
fairies
,
dwarfs
and
genii
,
and
enchanted
castles
,
and
gorgeous
kings
and
princes
.
His
head
grew
to
be
full
of
these
wonderful
things
,
and
many
a
night
as
he
lay
in
the
dark
on
his
scant
and
offensive
straw
,
tired
,
hungry
,
and
smarting
from
a
thrashing
,
he
unleashed
his
imagination
and
soon
forgot
his
aches
and
pains
in
delicious
picturings
to
himself
of
the
charmed
life
of
a
petted
prince
in
a
regal
palace
.
One
desire
came
in
time
to
haunt
him
day
and
night
:
it
was
to
see
a
real
prince
,
with
his
own
eyes
.
He
spoke
of
it
once
to
some
of
his
Offal
Court
comrades
;
but
they
jeered
him
and
scoffed
him
so
unmercifully
that
he
was
glad
to
keep
his
dream
to
himself
after
that
.
He
often
read
the
priest
's
old
books
and
got
him
to
explain
and
enlarge
upon
them
.
His
dreamings
and
readings
worked
certain
changes
in
him
,
by
-
and-by
.
His
dream-people
were
so
fine
that
he
grew
to
lament
his
shabby
clothing
and
his
dirt
,
and
to
wish
to
be
clean
and
better
clad
.
He
went
on
playing
in
the
mud
just
the
same
,
and
enjoying
it
,
too
;
but
,
instead
of
splashing
around
in
the
Thames
solely
for
the
fun
of
it
,
he
began
to
find
an
added
value
in
it
because
of
the
washings
and
cleansings
it
afforded
.
