human
It was a Christmas Eve. Everybody else had gone home for the holidays, and Bubbles was the only boy left in the school--Bubbles and a master whose name I won't mention.
gpt
He was the Detention Master, wasn't he?
human
Ah, yes. There's no harm in telling you that. Bubbles and the Detention Master were left all alone at Ferriby, Sparrow.
gpt
Ye--es,
human
They'd had no hampers sent them, and as they sat round the fire that evening they knew both of them there was no Christmas dinner in the house. They had neither of them tasted food for some days, and had no money to buy any, and if they had had, the snow was too deep to get anywhere. They had tried making soup out of copybook covers, but it wasn't nourishing, and the soles of their boots which they tried to eat didn't sit well on their stomachs.
gpt
All right; some one seems to think it a laughing matter, so I'll stop.
human
Oh no, cried one or two voices eagerly,
gpt
Was it you laughed, Jim Sparrow?
human
Oh no,
gpt
I don't like any one making fun of a serious thing like this, said Fergus.
human
I was saying the soles of their boots didn't sit well on their stomachs. They sat round the fire the whole evening, brooding and ravenous, and saying nothing. For a long time they both stared into the fire; then presently the master took his eyes off the fire and stared at Bubbles. Bubbles used to be fat, like you, Sparrow, but the last day or two he had got rather reduced. Still he was fairly plump; at least, so thought the master, as he looked first at him, then at the fire, and then thought of the empty larder downstairs.
gpt
The fire was a big one, a roaring one, and howled up the chimney as if it was hungry too. Bubbles where he sat was close to it, in fact, his feet almost touched the bars. The master sat a little behind Bubbles, and his arm rested on the back of Bubbles's chair. `To-morrow,' thought the master, `he will be thinner, and next day only skin and bone.' Then he thought of the saying in the copy-books, `Never put off till to- morrow what you can do to-day.' He sprang to his feet, seized Bubbles by the head and feet--there was a shriek and a yell--and next moment the master was alone in the room, and the chimney was on fire!