The Prince and the Pauper | Page 6

"Ah, good your worship, what would they do with more? Truly they
have not two bodies each."
"It is a quaint and marvellous thought! Thy pardon, I had not meant to
laugh. But thy good Nan and thy Bet shall have raiment and lackeys
enow, and that soon, too: my cofferer shall look to it. No, thank me not;
'tis nothing. Thou speakest well; thou hast an easy grace in it. Art
learned?"
"I know not if I am or not, sir. The good priest that is called Father

Andrew taught me, of his kindness, from his books."
"Know'st thou the Latin?"
"But scantly, sir, I doubt."
"Learn it, lad: 'tis hard only at first. The Greek is harder; but neither
these nor any tongues else, I think, are hard to the Lady Elizabeth and
my cousin. Thou should'st hear those damsels at it! But tell me of thy
Offal Court. Hast thou a pleasant life there?"
"In truth, yes, so please you, sir, save when one is hungry. There be
Punch-and-Judy shows, and monkeys--oh such antic creatures! and so
bravely dressed!--and there be plays wherein they that play do shout
and fight till all are slain, and 'tis so fine to see, and costeth but a
farthing--albeit 'tis main hard to get the farthing, please your worship."
"Tell me more."
"We lads of Offal Court do strive against each other with the cudgel,
like to the fashion of the 'prentices, sometimes."
The prince's eyes flashed. Said he--
"Marry, that would not I mislike. Tell me more."
"We strive in races, sir, to see who of us shall be fleetest."
"That would I like also. Speak on."
"In summer, sir, we wade and swim in the canals and in the river, and
each doth duck his neighbour, and splatter him with water, and dive
and shout and tumble and--"
"'Twould be worth my father's kingdom but to enjoy it once! Prithee go
on."
"We dance and sing about the Maypole in Cheapside; we play in the
sand, each covering his neighbour up; and times we make mud

pastry--oh the lovely mud, it hath not its like for delightfulness in all
the world!--we do fairly wallow in the mud, sir, saving your worship's
presence."
"Oh, prithee, say no more, 'tis glorious! If that I could but clothe me in
raiment like to thine, and strip my feet, and revel in the mud once, just
once, with none to rebuke me or forbid, meseemeth I could forego the
crown!"
"And if that I could clothe me once, sweet sir, as thou art clad--just
once--"
"Oho, would'st like it? Then so shall it be. Doff thy rags, and don these
splendours, lad! It is a brief happiness, but will be not less keen for that.
We will have it while we may, and change again before any come to
molest."
A few minutes later the little Prince of Wales was garlanded with
Tom's fluttering odds and ends, and the little Prince of Pauperdom was
tricked out in the gaudy plumage of royalty. The two went and stood
side by side before a great mirror, and lo, a miracle: there did not seem
to have been any change made! They stared at each other, then at the
glass, then at each other again. At last the puzzled princeling said--
"What dost thou make of this?"
"Ah, good your worship, require me not to answer. It is not meet that
one of my degree should utter the thing."
"Then will I utter it. Thou hast the same hair, the same eyes, the same
voice and manner, the same form and stature, the same face and
countenance that I bear. Fared we forth naked, there is none could say
which was you, and which the Prince of Wales. And, now that I am
clothed as thou wert clothed, it seemeth I should be able the more
nearly to feel as thou didst when the brute soldier--Hark ye, is not this a
bruise upon your hand?"
"Yes; but it is a slight thing, and your worship knoweth that the poor

man-at-arms--"
"Peace! It was a shameful thing and a cruel!" cried the little prince,
stamping his bare foot. "If the King--Stir not a step till I come again! It
is a command!"
In a moment he had snatched up and put away an article of national
importance that lay upon a table, and was out at the door and flying
through the palace grounds in his bannered rags, with a hot face and
glowing eyes. As soon as he reached the great gate, he seized the bars,
and tried to shake them, shouting--
"Open! Unbar the gates!"
The soldier that had maltreated Tom obeyed promptly; and as the
prince burst through the portal, half-smothered with royal wrath, the
soldier fetched