Page:Adventures of Roderick Random.pdf/7

 arithmetic; so that before I was twelve years old, I was confessedly the best scholar in the school; this qualification, together with a boldness of temper and strength of make, which had subjected almost all my contemporaries, gave me such influence over them that I began to form cabals against my persecutor: and was in hopes of being able to bid him defiance in a short time. To this end I had gained most of the boys over to me, and determined to put a scheme of revenge in execution against him, in which they all promised to assist me. In the mean time, I took every opportunity to present myself before my grandfather, to whom I seldom found access, by reason of my cousins; his heir, especially, never set eyes on me but he uncoupled his beagles and hunted me into some cottages or other, whither I generally fled for shelter. In this Christian amusement he was encouraged by the parish clerk, his perceptor, which incensed me so much, that one day, when I was attacked by him and his dogs, in a farmer's house, I took aim at him with a large peeble, and struck out four of his fore teeth, which effectually incapacitated him for doing the office of clerk ever after.

About this time, my mother's only brother, who had been long abroad, lieutenant in a ship of war, arrived in his own country; where being informed of my condition, he came to see