CHAPTER 1: The Broken Window.
"You are the most troublesome boy in the village, Reuben Whitney, and you will come to a bad end." The words followed a shower of cuts with the cane.

The speaker was an elderly man, the master of the village school of Tipping, near Lewes, in Sussex; and the words were elicited, in no small degree, by the vexation of the speaker at his inability to wring a cry from the boy whom he was striking.

He was a lad of some thirteen years of age, with a face naturally bright and intelligent; but at present quivering with anger.
"I don't care if I do," he said defiantly.

"It won't be my fault, but yours, and the rest of them." "You ought to be ashamed of yourself," the master said, "instead of speaking in that way.

You, who learn easier than anyone here, and could always be at the top of your class, if you chose.