Thady, however, who was the ringleader of
the rebellion, persuaded them to be satisfied with what they had
accomplished, and consequently succeeded in preventing them from
destroying the fixtures.
Again they surrounded the poor scholar, who, feeling himself the cause
of the insurrection, appeared an object of much pity. Such was his grief
that he could scarcely reply to them. Their consolation on witnessing
his distress was overwhelming. They desired him to think nothing of it;
if the master, they told him, should wreak his resentment on him, "be
the holy farmer," they would _pay_ (* pay) the masther. Thady's claim
was now undisputed. With only the injury of a black eye, and a lip
swelled to the size of a sausage, he walked home in triumph, the poor
scholar accompanying him.
The master, who feared, that this open contempt of his authority,
running up, as it did, into a very unpleasant species of retaliation,
was something like a signal for him to leave the parish, felt rather
more of the penitent the next morning than did any of his pupils. He was
by no means displeased, therefore, to see them drop in about the usual
hour. They came, however, not one by one, but in compact groups, each
officered by two or three of the larger boys; for they feared that,
had they entered singly, he might have punished them singly, until his
vengeance should be satisfied. It was by bitter and obstinate struggles
that they succeeded in repressing their mirth, when he; appeared at his
desk with one of his eyes literally closed, and his nose considerably
improved in size and richness of color.
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