Far from dreading the rod, now that Heriot and Temple had tasted it, I thought of punishment as a mad pleasure, not a bit more awful than the burning furze-bush plunged into by our fellows in a follow-my-leader scamper on the common; so I caught Temple's hand as he went by me, and said, eagerly, 'Shall I sing out hurrah ?' 'Bother it!' was Temple's answer, for he had taken a stinging dozen, and had a tender skin.
Mr.Rippenger called me up to him, to inform me, that whoever I was, and whatever I was, and I might be a little impostor foisted on his benevolence, yet he would bring me to a knowledge of myself: he gave me warning of it; and if my father objected to his method, my father must write word to that effect, and attend punctually to business duties, for Surrey House was not an almshouse, either for the sons of gentlemen of high connection, or for the sons of vagabonds.

Mr.Rippenger added a spurning shove on my shoulder to his recommendation to me to resume my seat.

I did not understand him at all.

I was, in fact, indebted to a boy named Drew, a known sneak, for the explanation, in itself difficult to comprehend.

It was, that Mr.Rippenger was losing patience because he had received no money on account of my boarding and schooling.
The intelligence filled my head like the buzz of a fly, occupying my meditations without leading them anywhere.