But all under the window spread a tree , with great leaves and sweet white flowers , almost as big as his head . It was magnolia , I suppose ; but Tom knew nothing about that , and cared less ; for down the tree he went , like a cat , and across the garden lawn , and over the iron railings and up the park towards the wood , leaving the old nurse to scream murder and fire at the window . The under gardener , mowing , saw Tom , and threw down his scythe ; caught his leg in it , and cut his shin open , whereby he kept his bed for a week ; but in his hurry he never knew it , and gave chase to poor Tom . The dairymaid heard the noise , got the churn between her knees , and tumbled over it , spilling all the cream ; and yet she jumped up , and gave chase to Tom . A groom cleaning Sir John 's hack at the stables let him go loose , whereby he kicked himself lame in five minutes ; but he ran out and gave chase to Tom . Grimes upset the soot-sack in the new-gravelled yard , and spoilt it all utterly ; but he ran out and gave chase to Tom . The old steward opened the park-gate in such a hurry , that he hung up his pony 's chin upon the spikes , and , for aught I know , it hangs there still ; but he jumped off , and gave chase to Tom . The ploughman left his horses at the headland , and one jumped over the fence , and pulled the other into the ditch , plough and all ; but he ran on , and gave chase to Tom . The keeper , who was taking a stoat out of a trap , let the stoat go , and caught his own finger ; but he jumped up , and ran after Tom ; and considering what he said , and how he looked , I should have been sorry for Tom if he had caught him . Sir John looked out of his study window -LRB- for he was an early old gentleman -RRB- and up at the nurse , and a marten dropped mud in his eye , so that he had at last to send for the doctor ; and yet he ran out , and gave chase to Tom . The Irishwoman , too , was walking up to the house to beg , -- she must have got round by some byway -- but she threw away her bundle , and gave chase to Tom likewise . Only my Lady did not give chase ; for when she had put her head out of the window , her night-wig fell into the garden , and she had to ring up her lady 's - maid , and send her down for it privately , which quite put her out of the running , so that she came in nowhere , and is consequently not placed . In a word , never was there heard at Hall Place -- not even when the fox was killed in the conservatory , among acres of broken glass , and tons of smashed flower-pots -- such a noise , row , hubbub , babel , shindy , hullabaloo , stramash , charivari , and total contempt of dignity , repose , and order , as that day , when Grimes , gardener , the groom , the dairymaid , Sir John , the steward , the ploughman , the keeper , and the Irishwoman , all ran up the park , shouting , `` Stop thief , '' in the belief that Tom had at least a thousand pounds ' worth of jewels in his empty pockets ; and the very magpies and jays followed Tom up , screaking and screaming , as if he were a hunted fox , beginning to droop his brush . And all the while poor Tom paddled up the park with his little bare feet , like a small black gorilla fleeing to the forest . Alas for him ! there was no big father gorilla therein to take his part -- to scratch out the gardener 's inside with one paw , toss the dairymaid into a tree with another , and wrench off Sir John 's head with a third , while he cracked the keeper 's skull with his teeth as easily as if it had been a cocoa-nut or a paving-stone . However , Tom did not remember ever having had a father ; so he did not look for one , and expected to have to take care of himself ; while as for running , he could keep up for a couple of miles with any stage-coach , if there was the chance of a copper or a cigar - end , and turn coach-wheels on his hands and feet ten times following , which is more than you can do . Wherefore his pursuers found it very difficult to catch him ; and we will hope that they did not catch him at all . Tom , of course , made for the woods . He had never been in a wood in his life ; but he was sharp enough to know that he might hide in a bush , or swarm up a tree , and , altogether , had more chance there than in the open .
If he had not known XXXXX , he would have been foolisher than a mouse or a minnow .
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