The Prince and the Pauper
Let us move on nine years. London was fifteen hundred years old, and a great city for that time. A hundred thousand people or more lived th The streets Wete very narrow and dirty, and the houses were made of wood The Canty family lived in a small, old house in a very dirty street called offal Cour. other terribly poor families lived there, too, and the Cantys had only room. The mother and father had a bed in the corner but Tom and his two sisters, Bet and Nan slept on the floor. Bet and Nan were kind girls, and their mother was like them. But their father was a terrible man. He was a thief and a beggar. Tom had to go begging every day. and when he came home with nothing, his father always hit him. But little Tom was not unhappy. His life was not unusual: all the fathers in Offal Court were bad to their children and hit them. At night, Tom's kind mother often brought him a piece of bread. And then there was old Andrew, too. He was a good old man, who liked to teach the children good ways. He taught Tom how to read and write, and told him stories about palaces and princes. Soon, Tom's head was full of these wonderful things. At night, he lay on the floor in his rags, tired and hungry, but in his dreams, he was a prince in a beautiful palace. He wanted only one thing: