Now , Mr. Grimes was Tom 's own master , and Tom was a good man of business , and always civil to customers , so he put the half-brick down quietly behind the wall , and proceeded to take orders . Mr. Grimes was to come up next morning to Sir John Harthover 's , at the Place , for his old chimney-sweep was gone to prison , and the chimneys wanted sweeping . And so he rode away , not giving Tom time to ask what the sweep had gone to prison for , which was a matter of interest to Tom , as he had been in prison once or twice himself . Moreover , the groom looked so very neat and clean , with his drab gaiters , drab breeches , drab jacket , snow-white tie with a smart pin in it , and clean round ruddy face , that Tom was offended and disgusted at his appearance , and considered him a stuck-up fellow , who gave himself airs because he wore smart clothes , and other people paid for them ; and went behind the wall to fetch the half - brick after all ; but did not , remembering that he had come in the way of business , and was , as it were , under a flag of truce . His master was so delighted at his new customer that he knocked Tom down out of hand , and drank more beer that night than he usually did in two , in order to be sure of getting up in time next morning ; for the more a man 's head aches when he wakes , the more glad he is to turn out , and have a breath of fresh air . And , when he did get up at four the next morning , he knocked Tom down again , in order to teach him -LRB- as young gentlemen used to be taught at public schools -RRB- that he must be an extra good boy that day , as they were going to a very great house , and might make a very good thing of it , if they could but give satisfaction . And Tom thought so likewise , and , indeed , would have done and behaved his best , even without being knocked down . For , of all places upon earth , Harthover Place -LRB- which he had never seen -RRB- was the most wonderful , and , of all men on earth , Sir John -LRB- whom he had seen , having been sent to gaol by him twice -RRB- was the most awful . Harthover Place was really a grand place , even for the rich North country ; with a house so large that in the frame-breaking riots , which Tom could just remember , the Duke of Wellington , and ten thousand soldiers to match , were easily housed therein ; at least , so Tom believed ; with a park full of deer , which Tom believed to be monsters who were in the habit of eating children ; with miles of game-preserves , in which Mr. Grimes and the collier lads poached at times , on which occasions Tom saw pheasants , and wondered what they tasted like ; with a noble salmon-river , in which Mr. Grimes and his friends would have liked to poach ; but then they must have got into cold water , and that they did not like at all . In short , Harthover was a grand place , and Sir John a grand old man , whom even Mr. Grimes respected ; for not only could he send Mr. Grimes to prison when he deserved it , as he did once or twice a week ; not only did he own all the land about for miles ; not only was he a jolly , honest , sensible squire , as ever kept a pack of hounds , who would do what he thought right by his neighbours , as well as get what he thought right for himself ; but , what was more , he weighed full fifteen stone , was nobody knew how many inches round the chest , and could have thrashed Mr. Grimes himself in fair fight , which very few folk round there could do , and which , my dear little boy , would not have been right for him to do , as a great many things are not which one both can do , and would like very much to do . So Mr. Grimes touched his hat to him when he rode through the town , and called him a `` buirdly awd chap , '' and his young ladies `` gradely lasses , '' which are two high compliments in the North country ; and thought that that made up for his poaching Sir John 's pheasants ; whereby you may perceive that Mr. Grimes had not been to a properly-inspected Government National School . Now , I dare say , you never got up at three o'clock on a midsummer morning . Some people get up then because they want to catch salmon ; and some because they want to climb Alps ; and a great many more because they must , like Tom . But , I assure you , that three o'clock on a midsummer morning is the pleasantest time of all the twenty-four hours , and all the three hundred and sixty-five days ; and why every one does not get up then , I never could tell , save that they are all determined to spoil their nerves and their complexions by doing all night what they might just as well do all day . But Tom , instead of going out to dinner at half-past eight at night , and to a ball at ten , and finishing off somewhere between twelve and four , went to bed at seven , when his master went to the public-house , and slept like a dead pig ; for which reason he was as piert as a game-cock -LRB- who always gets up early to wake the maids -RRB- , and just ready to get up when the fine gentlemen and ladies were just ready to go to bed . So he and his master set out ; Grimes rode the donkey in front , and Tom and the brushes walked behind ; out of the court , and up the street , past the closed window-shutters , and the winking weary policemen , and the roofs all shining gray in the gray dawn . They passed through the pitmen 's village , all shut up and silent now , and through the turnpike ; and then the were out in the real country , and plodding along the black dusty road , between black slag walls , with no sound but the groaning and thumping of the pit - engine in the next field . But soon the road grew white , and the walls likewise ; and at the wall 's foot grew long grass and gay flowers , all drenched with dew ; and instead of the groaning of the pit-engine , they heard the skylark saying his matins high up in the air , and the pit-bird warbling in the sedges , as he had warbled all night long . All else was silent . For old Mrs. Earth was still fast asleep ; and , like many pretty people , she looked still prettier asleep than awake .
The great elm-trees in the gold-green meadows were fast asleep above , and the cows fast asleep beneath them ; nay , the few clouds which were about were fast asleep likewise , and so tired that they had lain down on the earth to rest , in long white flakes and bars , among the stems of the elm-trees , and along the tops of the alders by the stream , waiting for the sun to bid them rise and go about their day 's business XXXXX the clear blue overhead .
So as at behind between in like on under with