six o'clock
`` All right , sir . -- Red Lion , Jem , '' to the postboy ; and Tom rattles away towards home . At Farringdon , being known to the innkeeper , he gets that worthy to pay for the Oxford horses , and forward him in another chaise at once ; and so the gorgeous young gentleman arrives at the paternal mansion , and Squire Brown looks rather blue at having to pay two pound ten shillings for the posting expenses from Oxford . But the boy 's intense joy at getting home , and the wonderful health he is in , and the good character he brings , and the brave stories he tells of Rugby , its doings and delights , soon mollify the Squire , and three happier people did n't sit down to dinner that day in England -LRB- it is the boy 's first dinner at six o'clock at home -- great promotion already -RRB- than the Squire and his wife and Tom Brown , at the end of his first half-year at Rugby . `` They are slaves who will not choose Hatred , scoffing , and abuse , Rather than in silence shrink From the truth they needs must think ; They are slaves who dare not be In the right with two or three . '' -- LOWELL , Stanzas on Freedom . The lower-fourth form , in which Tom found himself at the beginning of the next half-year , was the largest form in the lower school , and numbered upwards of forty boys .