Sample
from

Vanity Fair
by
William Thackeray

Oxford Progressive English Readers
Grade 5


retold by

Kieran McGovern

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A Fight at Dr Swishtail's


Dobbin's fight with Cuff will long be remembered by every man who was educated at Dr Swishtail's famous school. Dobbin was the quietest, the clumsiest, and --so everybody thought-- the dullest of Dr Swishtail's young gentlemen. His father owned a grocery shop, a fact that the other boys considered funny. They made many jokes about his poor clothes and asked if they could buy sugar and tea from him. Poor young Dobbin had no peace.

Then one day Dobbin came across a boy called Cuff hitting a younger boy named George Osborne. There was nothing unusual about this at Dr Swishtail's: older boys believed they had the right to do whatever they felt like to those younger than themselves. But when honest Dobbin saw a big boy beating a little one, he did not hesitate, even though George Osborne had been one of the worst boys in the school for making jokes about Dobbin.

'Stop hitting that boy, Cuff,' Dobbin screamed. 'Or I'll . . . '.

'Or you'll what?' Cuff asked in amazement.

'I'll give you the worst beating of your life!'

So the fight was arranged for after school. George Osborne looked up through his tears, feeling rather ashamed that it was the grocery-shop boy, Dobbin, who was defending him.

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More of this story in

Vanity Fair
by
William Thackeray

Oxford Progressive English Readers
Grade 5
ISBN 0 19 586 318 6

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This text is copyright Oxford University Press 1995.

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