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 notable instances include the three Galapagos Island tortoises brought back to England aboard by Charles Darwin in 1835, as documented in his book, "The Voyage of the Beagle". They were named Tom, Dick and Harry. It was later discovered that "Harry" was a female and she was renamed "Harriet", and lived in captivity in Australia until her death in 2006, aged 175 years. In "", Robert Louis Stevenson refers to a general muster as calling up Dick, Tom, and Harry. In the television series "3rd Rock from the Sun", the three lead male characters were called Tommy, Dick and Harry.