`` You clear out of this or I 'll make you , '' she said warningly . Tommy had had his ears boxed by Miss Octavia more than once . He had no desire to have the performance repeated , so he stuck his tongue out at Miss Octavia and then marched up the street with his hands in his pockets , whistling jauntily . `` He 's the most impudent brat I ever saw in my life , '' muttered Miss Octavia wrathfully . There was a standing feud between her and all the Arundel small boys , but Tommy was her special object of dislike . Tommy 's heart was full of wrath and bitterness as he marched away . He hated Miss Octavia ; he wished something would happen to every one of her flowers ; he knew it was Ned Williams who had thrown that stone , and he hoped Ned would throw some more and smash all the flowers . So Tommy raged along the street until he came to Mr. Blacklock 's store , and in the window of it he saw something that put Miss Octavia and her disagreeable remarks quite out of his tow-coloured head . This was nothing more or less than a doll . Now , Tommy was not a judge of dolls and did not take much interest in them , but he felt quite sure that this was a very fine one . It was so big ; it was beautifully dressed in blue silk , with a ruffled blue silk hat ; it had lovely long golden hair and big brown eyes and pink cheeks ; and it stood right up in the showcase and held out its hands winningly . `` Gee , ai n't it a beauty ! '' said Tommy admiringly . `` It looks ` sif it was alive , and it 's as big as a baby . I must go an ' bring Bessie to see it . '' Tommy at once hurried away to the shabby little street where what he called `` home '' was . Tommy 's home was a very homeless-looking sort of place . It was the smallest , dingiest , most slatternly house on a street noted for its dingy and slatternly houses . It was occupied by a slatternly mother and a drunken father , as well as by Tommy ; and neither the father nor the mother took much notice of Tommy except to scold or nag him . So it is hardly to be wondered at if Tommy was the sort of boy who was frowned upon by respectable citizens .
But one little white blossom of pure affection bloomed in the arid desert of Tommy 's existence XXXXX all that .
along as between for in of on so that until