Tom Brown's School Days for the favourite in a horse race, Tom is deliberately burned in front of a fire. Tom and East defeat Flashman with the help of Diggs, a kind, comical, older boy. In their triumph they become unruly. In the second half of the book, Dr Thomas Arnold (1795–1842), the historical headmaster of the school at the time, gives Tom the care of George Arthur, a frail, pious, academically brilliant, gauche, and sensitive new boy. A fight that Tom gets into to protect Arthur, and Arthur's nearly dying of fever, are described in loving detail. Tom and Arthur help each other
Tom, Dick and Harry Tom, Dick and Harry The phrase "Tom, Dick and Harry" is a placeholder for multiple unspecified people; "Tom, Dick or Harry" plays the same role for "one" unspecified person. The phrase most commonly occurs as "every Tom, Dick and Harry", meaning "everyone", and "any Tom, Dick or Harry", meaning "anyone", although "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable" defines the term to specify "a set of nobodies; persons of no note". Similar expressions exist in other languages of the world, using commonly used first or last names. The phrase is used in numerous works of fiction. The origin of the phrase