The prince finds many things strange about Tom Canty. After all, it's not every day that he gets to meet a real-life pauper. When the two boys meet for the first time, the prince is very curious to know all about Tom. First things first, the prince wants to know the pauper's name. When Tom tells him, the prince remarks how odd it sounds. So where does this Tom Canty live then? Offal Court. This is something else that the prince finds rather strange. But then, Pudding Lane's just round the corner. As for Tom's grandma, she's an evil old woman who regularly gets drunk and gives him a good hiding. At hearing this, the prince is incredulous. He cannot believe that someone so small and frail as Tom should be receiving such regular beatings. That's not something that would ever happen to the prince, not in a million years. In fact, if the prince should ever misbehave, there's a boy—a whipping boy, no less—who will be punished in his place. The prince finds Tom's naïveté quite charming as well as strange. For example, the young pauper doesn't quite understand why the prince's sisters need servants, nor has the faintest idea why someone would need more than one garment to wear. After all, one only has one body, not two.
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