Is this a good deal?

Sid Fleischman's The Whipping Boy is about, well, a whipping boy.  Let me explain.  It was forbidden to spank, thrash, or whack the heir to the throne.  So a boy off the streets was brought in to "punish" a misbehaving prince.  If the prince committed an offense worthy of whipping, the whipping boy was brought in and whipped in front of the prince.  The theory being that watching someone else suffer for your cries was just as much punishment as being whipped yourself.  I'll let you decide if that theory is valid.  

Prince Brat's (as he is nicknamed by the masses for his arrogant spiteful personality) whipping boy is the orphan Jemmy.  Jemmy was plucked off the streets where he was living (no family, no home-orphan remember) to serve as the whipping boy.  It sounds like a bad deal...but was it really.  Lets use the age old method of determining if something is a good deal...of course the pro-con list.

PROS
A place to sleep
Meals everyday (royal meals-he was fed the same as the prince)
Lessons (Jemmy observed the princes lessons so he learned to read, write, and do sums-something commoners could only dream of).
Nice clothes-that would be replaced when they grew too small or too tattered

CONS
You get whipped everyday
Your behavior does not affect the number of whippings
Nobody cares about you you are a servant

So there are some serious perks to being a whipping boy-but you're still a whipping boy.

I may have lied a little at the beginning. This tale is about the whipping boy, kind of.  It's really the story of what happens when Prince Brat and the whipping boy run away from the castle.  It's the story of escaping the loneliness of the castle and finding a friend.

Having adventures and finding friends...that's kids stuff.