Page:Adventures of Roderick Random.pdf/6

 he should endeavour to prevent his future improvement. And indeed he punctually performed what he had undertaken; for he caused a board to be made, with five holes in it, through which he thrust the fingers and thumb of my right hand and fastened it by whip cord to my wrist that I was effectually debarred the use of my pen. But this restraint I was freed from in a few days, by an accident which happened in a quarrel between me and another boy, who insulted me that with one stroke of my machine I cut him to the scull. I was severely punished for this trespass by the merciless tyrant the school-master and was often inhumanly scourged for crimes I did not commmit. I have been found guilty of robbing orchards I never entered, of killing cats I never hurted, of stealing gingerbread I never touched, and of abusing old women I never saw. I was once flogged for having narrowly escaped drowning by the sinking of a ferry-boat, on which I was a passenger; time for recovering from a bruise, occasioned by a horse and cart running over me; a third time for being bit by a baker's dog; in short, whether I was guilty or unfortunate, the vengeance and sympathy of this pedagogue were the same.

By the direction of our usher, who had my father in his travels, I made a surprising progress in the classics, writing, and arith-