Chapter II. Tom's early life.
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. Thestreets were very narrow, and crooked, and dirty, especially in the partwhere Tom Canty lived, which was not far from London Bridge. The houseswere of wood, with the second story projecting over the first, and thethird sticking its elbows out beyond the second. The higher the housesgrew, the broader they grew. They were skeletons of strong criss-crossbeams, with solid material between, coated with plaster. The beams werepainted red or blue or black, according to the owner's taste, and thisgave the houses a very picturesque look. The windows were small, glazedwith 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 calledOffal Court, out of Pudding Lane. It was small, decayed, and rickety,but it was packed full of wretchedly poor families. Canty's tribeoccupied a room on the third floor. The mother and father had a sort ofbedstead 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 ortwo, and some bundles of ancient and dirty straw, but these could notrightly be called beds, for they were not organised; they were kickedinto a general pile, mornings, and selections made from the mass atnight, 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 likethem. But the father and the grandmother were a couple of fiends. Theygot drunk whenever they could; then they fought each other or anybodyelse 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 ofthe children, but failed to make thieves of them. Among, but not of, thedreadful rabble that inhabited the house, was a good old priest whom theKing 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 thejeers of their friends, who could not have endured such a queeraccomplishment 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 nightlong. Broken heads were as common as hunger in that place. Yet littleTom was not unhappy. He had a hard time of it, but did not know it. Itwas the sort of time that all the Offal Court boys had, therefore hesupposed it was the correct and comfortable thing. When he came homeempty-handed at night, he knew his father would curse him and thrash himfirst, and that when he was done the awful grandmother would do it allover again and improve on it; and that away in the night his starvingmother would slip to him stealthily with any miserable scrap or crust shehad been able to save for him by going hungry herself, notwithstandingshe was often caught in that sort of treason and soundly beaten for it byher husband.
No, Tom's life went along well enough, especially in summer. He onlybegged just enough to save himself, for the laws against mendicancy werestringent, and the penalties heavy; so he put in a good deal of his timelistening to good Father Andrew's charming old tales and legends aboutgiants and fairies, dwarfs and genii, and enchanted castles, and gorgeouskings 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 hisimagination and soon forgot his aches and pains in delicious picturingsto himself of the charmed life of a petted prince in a regal palace. Onedesire came in time to haunt him day and night: it was to see a realprince, with his own eyes. He spoke of it once to some of his OffalCourt comrades; but they jeered him and scoffed him so unmercifully thathe was glad to keep his dream to himself after that.
He often read the priest's old books and got him to explain and enlargeupon 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 shabbyclothing and his dirt, and to wish to be clean and better clad. He wenton playing in the mud just the same, and enjoying it, too; but, insteadof splashing around in the Thames solely for the fun of it, he began tofind an added value in it because of the washings and cleansings itafforded.
Tom could always find something going on around the Maypole in Cheapside,and at the fairs; and now and then he and the rest of London had a chanceto see a military parade when some famous unfortunate was carriedprisoner to the Tower, by land or boat. One summer's day he saw poor AnneAskew and three men burned at the stake in Smithfield, and heard anex-Bishop preach a sermon to them which did not interest him. Yes, Tom'slife was varied and pleasant enough, on the whole.
By-and-by Tom's reading and dreaming about princely life wrought such astrong effect upon him that he began to ACT the prince, unconsciously.His speech and manners became curiously ceremonious and courtly, to thevast admiration and amusement of his intimates. But Tom's influenceamong these young people began to grow now, day by day; and in time hecame to be looked up to, by them, with a sort of wondering awe, as asuperior being. He seemed to know so much! and he could do and say suchmarvellous things! and withal, he was so deep and wise! Tom's remarks,and Tom's performances, were reported by the boys to their elders; andthese, also, presently began to discuss Tom Canty, and to regard him as amost gifted and extraordinary creature. Full-grown people brought theirperplexities to Tom for solution, and were often astonished at the witand wisdom of his decisions. In fact he was become a hero to all whoknew him except his own family--these, only, saw nothing in him.
Privately, after a while, Tom organised a royal court! He was theprince; his special comrades were guards, chamberlains, equerries, lordsand ladies in waiting, and the royal family. Daily the mock prince wasreceived with elaborate ceremonials borrowed by Tom from his romanticreadings; daily the great affairs of the mimic kingdom were discussed inthe royal council, and daily his mimic highness issued decrees to hisimaginary armies, navies, and viceroyalties.
After which, he would go forth in his rags and beg a few farthings, eathis poor crust, take his customary cuffs and abuse, and then stretchhimself upon his handful of foul straw, and resume his empty grandeurs inhis dreams.
And still his desire to look just once upon a real prince, in the flesh,grew upon him, day by day, and week by week, until at last it absorbedall other desires, and became the one passion of his life.
One January day, on his usual begging tour, he tramped despondently upand down the region round about Mincing Lane and Little East Cheap, hourafter hour, bare-footed and cold, looking in at cook-shop windows andlonging for the dreadful pork-pies and other deadly inventions displayedthere--for to him these were dainties fit for the angels; that is,judging by the smell, they were--for it had never been his good luck toown and eat one. There was a cold drizzle of rain; the atmosphere wasmurky; it was a melancholy day. At night Tom reached home so wet andtired and hungry that it was not possible for his father and grandmotherto observe his forlorn condition and not be moved--after their fashion;wherefore they gave him a brisk cuffing at once and sent him to bed. Fora long time his pain and hunger, and the swearing and fighting going onin the building, kept him awake; but at last his thoughts drifted away tofar, romantic lands, and he fell asleep in the company of jewelled andgilded princelings who live in vast palaces, and had servants salaamingbefore them or flying to execute their orders. And then, as usual, hedreamed that HE was a princeling himself.
All night long the glories of his royal estate shone upon him; he movedamong great lords and ladies, in a blaze of light, breathing perfumes,drinking in delicious music, and answering the reverent obeisances of theglittering throng as it parted to make way for him, with here a smile,and there a nod of his princely head.
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p; And when he awoke in the morning and looked upon the wretchedness abouthim, his dream had had its usual effect--it had intensified thesordidness of his surroundings a thousandfold. Then came bitterness, andheart-break, and tears.