four o'clock
Upon which , this generous tar determined -LRB- though he could ill afford it -RRB- to give me university education ; and accordingly settled my board and other expenses , at a town not many miles distant , famous for its colleges , whither we repaired in a short time . But , before the day of our departure , the schoolmaster , who no longer had the fear of my grandfather before his eyes , laid aside all decency and restraint , and not only abused me in the grossest language his rancour could suggest , as a wicked , proffigate , dull , beggarly miscreant , whom he had taught out of charity ; but also inveighed in the most bitter manner against the memory of the judge -LRB- who by the by had procured that settlement for him -RRB- , hinting , in pretty plain terms , that the old gentleman 's soul was damned to all eternity for his injustice in neglecting to pay for my learning . This brutal behaviour , added to the sufferings I had formerly undergone made me think it high time to be revenged on this insolent pedagogue . Having consulted my adherents , I found them all staunch in their promises to stand by me ; and our scheme was this : -- In the afternoon preceding to the day of our departure for the University , I resolved to take the advantage of the usher 's going out to make water -LRB- which he regularly did at four o'clock -RRB- , and shut the great door , that he might not come to the assistance of his superior . This being done , the assault was to be begun by my advancing to my master and spitting in his face . I was to be seconded by two of the strongest boys in the school , who were devoted to me ; their business was to join me in dragging the tyrant to a bench , over which he was to be laid , and his bare posteriors heartily flogged , with his own birch , which we proposed to wrest from him in his struggle ; but if we should find him too many for us all three , we were to demand the assistance of our competitors , who should be ready to enforce us , or oppose anything that might be undertaken for the master 's relief . One of my principal assistants was called Jeremy Gawky , son and heir of a wealthy gentleman in the neighbourhood ; and the name of the other , Hugh Strap , the cadet of a family which had given shoemakers to the village time out of mind .