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+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crofton Boys, by Harriet Martineau
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Crofton Boys
+
+Author: Harriet Martineau
+
+Release Date: August 26, 2007 [EBook #22410]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CROFTON BOYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Mary Meehan and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was made using scans of public domain works in
+the International Children's Digital Library.)
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+
+
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+</pre>
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a href="images/cover.jpg"><img src="images/cover.jpg" alt=""/></a>
+</div>
+<hr style="width: 45%;" />
+
+
+<h1>THE CROFTON BOYS</h1>
+
+<h2>BY HARRIET MARTINEAU</h2>
+
+<h3>AUTHOR OF "THE PEASANT AND THE PRINCE," "FEATS ON THE FIORD," ETC., ETC.</h3>
+
+<h3>LONDON<br />
+GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS</h3>
+
+<h3>BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL<br />
+NEW YORK: 9, LAFAYETTE PLACE</h3>
+
+<h3>Ballantyne Press<br />
+BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO., EDINBURGH<br />
+CHANDOS STREET, LONDON</h3>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+
+
+
+<div class="figcenter">
+<a name="illus_002" id="illus_002"></a>
+<img src="images/illus_002.jpg" alt=""/>
+</div>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">The Crofton Boys.</span></h3>
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>CONTENTS.</h2>
+
+<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. -->
+<p>
+<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. ALL THE PROCTORS BUT PHIL</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. WHY MR. TOOKE CAME</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. MICHAELMAS-DAY COME</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. MICHAELMAS-DAY OVER</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. CROFTON PLAY</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. FIRST RAMBLE</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. WHAT IS ONLY TO BE HAD AT HOME</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. A LONG DAY</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. CROFTON QUIET</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. LITTLE VICTORIES</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. DOMESTIC MANNERS</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. HOLT AND HIS DIGNITY</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. TRIPPING</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. HOLT AND HIS HELP</a><br />
+<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. CONCLUSION</a><br />
+</p>
+<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. -->
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2>THE CROFTON BOYS.</h2>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<h3>ALL THE PROCTORS BUT PHIL.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Mr. Proctor, the chemist and druggist, kept his shop, and lived in the
+Strand, London. His children thought that there was never anything
+pleasanter than the way they lived. Their house was warm in winter, and
+such a little distance from the church, that they had no difficulty in
+getting to church and back again, in the worst weather, before their
+shoes were wet. They were also conveniently near to Covent Garden
+market; so that, if any friend dropped in to dinner unexpectedly, Jane
+and Agnes could be off to the market, and buy a fowl, or some vegetables
+or fruit, and be back again before they were missed. It was not even too
+far for little Harry to trot with one of his sisters, early on a
+summer's morning, to spend his penny (when he happened to have one) on a
+bunch of flowers, to lay on papa's plate, to surprise him when he came
+in to breakfast. Not much farther off was the Temple Garden, where Mrs.
+Proctor took her children every fine summer evening to walk and breathe
+the air from the river; and when Mr. Proctor could find time to come to
+them for a turn or two before the younger ones must go home to bed, it
+seemed to the whole party the happiest and most beautiful place in the
+whole world,&mdash;except one. They had once been to Broadstairs, when the
+children were in poor health after the measles: and for ever after, when
+they thought of the waves beating on the shore, and of the pleasures of
+growing strong and well among the sea-breezes, they felt that there
+might be places more delightful than the Temple Garden: but they were
+still very proud and fond of the grass and trees, and the gravel walks,
+and the view over the Thames, and were pleased to show off the garden to
+all friends from the country who came to visit them.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest privilege of all, however, was that they could see the
+river without going out of their own house. There were three back
+windows to the house, one above another; and from the two uppermost of
+these windows there was what the children called a view of the Thames.
+There was a gap of a few yards wide between two high brick houses: and
+through this gap might be seen the broad river, with vessels of every
+kind passing up or down. Outside the second window were some leads,
+affording space for three or four chairs: and here it was that Jane and
+Agnes liked to sit at work, on certain hours of fine days. There were
+times when these leads were too hot, the heat of the sun being reflected
+from the surrounding brick walls; but at an earlier hour before the
+shadows were gone, and when the air blew in from the river, the place
+was cool, and the little girls delighted to carry their stools to the
+leads, and do their sewing there. There Philip would condescend to spend
+a part of his mornings, in his Midsummer holidays, frightening his
+sisters with climbing about in dangerous places, or amusing them with
+stories of school-pranks, or raising his younger brother Hugh's envy of
+the boys who were so happy as to be old enough to go to school at Mr.
+Tooke's, at Crofton.</p>
+
+<p>The girls had no peace from their brothers climbing about in dangerous
+places. Hugh was, if possible, worse than Philip for this. He imitated
+all Philip's feats, and had some of his own besides. In answer to Jane's
+lectures and the entreaties of Agnes, Hugh always declared that he had a
+right to do such things, as he meant to be a soldier or a sailor; and
+how should he be able to climb the mast of a ship, or the walls of a
+city, if he did not begin to practise now? Agnes was almost sorry they
+had been to Broadstairs, and could see ships in the Thames, when she
+considered that, if Hugh had not seen so much of the world, he might
+have been satisfied to be apprenticed to his father, when old enough,
+and to have lived at home happily with his family. Jane advised Agnes
+not to argue with Hugh, and then perhaps his wish to rove about the
+world might go off. She had heard her father say that, when he was a
+boy, and used to bring home news of victories, and help to put up
+candles at the windows on illumination nights, he had a great fancy for
+being a soldier; but that it was his fortune to see some soldiers from
+Spain, and hear from them what war really was, just when peace came, and
+when there was no more glory to be got; so that he had happily settled
+down to be a London shop-keeper&mdash;a lot which he would not exchange with
+that of any man living. Hugh was very like papa, Jane added; and the
+same change might take place in his mind, if he was not made perverse by
+argument. So Agnes only sighed, and bent her head closer over her work,
+as she heard Hugh talk of the adventures he meant to have when he
+should be old enough to get away from Old England.</p>
+
+<p>There was one person that laughed at Hugh for this fancy of his;&mdash;Miss
+Harold, the daily governess, who came to keep school for three hours
+every morning. When Hugh forgot his lesson, and sat staring at the upper
+panes of the window, in a reverie about his future travels; or when he
+was found to have been drawing a soldier on his slate instead of doing
+his sum, Miss Harold reminded him what a pretty figure a soldier would
+cut who knew no geography, or a sailor who could not make his
+reckonings, for want of attending early to his arithmetic. Hugh could
+not deny this; but he was always wishing that school-hours were over,
+that he might get under the great dining-table to read Robinson Crusoe,
+or might play at shipwreck, under pretence of amusing little Harry. It
+did make him ashamed to see how his sisters got on, from the mere
+pleasure of learning, and without any idea of ever living anywhere but
+in London; while he, who seemed to have so much more reason for wanting
+the very knowledge that they were obtaining, could not settle his mind
+to his lessons. Jane was beginning to read French books for her
+amusement in leisure hours; and Agnes was often found to have covered
+two slates with sums in Practice, just for pleasure, while he could not
+master the very moderate lessons Miss Harold set him. It is true, he was
+two years younger than Agnes: but she had known more of everything that
+he had learned, at seven years old, than he now did at eight. Hugh began
+to feel very unhappy. He saw that Miss Harold was dissatisfied, and was
+pretty sure that she had spoken to his mother about him. He felt that
+his mother became more strict in making him sit down beside her, in the
+afternoon, to learn his lessons for the next day; and he was pretty sure
+that Agnes went out of the room because she could not help crying when
+his sum was found to be all wrong, or when he mistook his tenses, or
+when he said (as he did every day, though regularly warned to mind what
+he was about) that four times seven is fifty-six. Every day these things
+weighed more on Hugh's spirits; every day he felt more and more like a
+dunce; and when Philip came home for the Midsummer holidays, and told
+all manner of stories about all sorts of boys at school, without
+describing anything like Hugh's troubles with Miss Harold, Hugh was
+seized with a longing to go to Crofton at once, as he was certainly too
+young to go at present into the way of a shipwreck or a battle. The
+worst of it was, there was no prospect of his going yet to Crofton. In
+Mr. Tooke's large school there was not one boy younger than ten; and
+Philip believed that Mr. Tooke did not like to take little boys. Hugh
+was aware that his father and mother meant to send him to school with
+Philip by-and-by; but the idea of having to wait&mdash;to do his lessons with
+Miss Harold every day till he should be ten years old, made him roll
+himself on the parlour carpet in despair.</p>
+
+<p>Philip was between eleven and twelve. He was happy at school: and he
+liked to talk all about it at home. These holidays, Hugh made a better
+listener than even his sisters; and he was a more amusing one&mdash;he knew
+so little about the country. He asked every question that could be
+imagined about the playground at the Crofton school, and the boys'
+doings out of school; and then, when Philip fancied he must know all
+about what was done, out came some odd remark which showed what wrong
+notions he had formed of a country life. Hugh had not learned half that
+he wanted to know, and his little head was full of wonder and mysterious
+notions, when the holidays came to an end, and Philip had to go away.
+From that day Hugh was heard to talk less of Spain, and the sea, and
+desert islands, and more of the Crofton boys; and his play with little
+Harry was all of being at school. At his lessons, meantime, he did not
+improve at all.</p>
+
+<p>One very warm day, at the end of August, five weeks after Philip had
+returned to school, Miss Harold had stayed full ten minutes after twelve
+o'clock to hear Hugh say one line of the multiplication-table over and
+over again, to cure him of saying that four times seven is fifty-six;
+but all in vain: and Mrs. Proctor had begged her not to spend any more
+time to-day upon it.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Harold went away, the girls took their sewing, and sat down at
+their mother's work-table, while Hugh was placed before her, with his
+hands behind his back, and desired to look his mother full in the face,
+to begin again with "four times one is four," and go through the line,
+taking care what he was about. He did so; but before he came to four
+times seven, he sighed, fidgetted, looked up at the corners of the room,
+off into the work-basket, out into the street, and always, as if by a
+spell, finished with "four times seven is fifty-six." Jane looked up
+amazed&mdash;Agnes looked down ashamed; his mother looked with severity in
+his face. He began the line a fourth time, when, at the third figure, he
+started as if he had been shot. It was only a knock at the door that he
+had heard; a treble knock, which startled nobody else, though, from the
+parlour door being open, it sounded pretty loud.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Proctor spread a handkerchief over the stockings in her
+work-basket; Jane put back a stray curl which had fallen over her face;
+Agnes lifted up her head with a sigh, as if relieved that the
+multiplication-table must stop for this time; and Hugh gazed into the
+passage, through the open door, when he heard a man's step there. The
+maid announced Mr. Tooke, of Crofton; and Mr. Tooke walked in.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Proctor had actually to push Hugh to one side,&mdash;so directly did he
+stand in the way between her and her visitor. He stood, with his hands
+still behind his back, gazing up at Mr. Tooke, with his face hotter than
+the multiplication-table had ever made it, and his eyes staring quite as
+earnestly as they had ever done to find Robinson Crusoe's island in the
+map.</p>
+
+<p>"Go, child," said Mrs. Proctor: but this was not enough. Mr. Tooke
+himself had to pass him under his left arm before he could shake hands
+with Mrs. Proctor. Hugh was now covered with shame at this hint that he
+was in the way; but yet he did not leave the room. He stole to the
+window, and flung himself down on two chairs, as if looking into the
+street from behind the blind; but he saw nothing that passed out of
+doors, so eager was his hope of hearing something of the Crofton
+boys,&mdash;their trap-ball, and their Saturday walk with the usher. Not a
+word of this kind did he hear. As soon as Mr. Tooke had agreed to stay
+to dinner, his sisters were desired to carry their work elsewhere,&mdash;to
+the leads, if they liked; and he was told that he might go to play. He
+had hoped he might be overlooked in the window; and unwillingly did he
+put down first one leg and then the other from the chairs, and saunter
+out of the room. He did not choose to go near his sisters, to be told
+how stupidly he had stood in the gentleman's way; so, when he saw that
+they were placing their stools on the leads, he went up into the attic,
+and then down into the kitchen, to see where little Harry was, to play
+at school-boys in the back yard.</p>
+
+<p>The maid Susan was not sorry that Harry was taken off her hands; for she
+wished to rub up her spoons, and fill her castors afresh, for the sake
+of the visitor who had come in. The thoughtful Jane soon came down with
+the keys to get out a clean table-cloth, and order a dish of cutlets, in
+addition to the dinner, and consult with Susan about some dessert; so
+that, as the little boys looked up from their play, they saw Agnes
+sitting alone at work upon the leads.</p>
+
+<p>They had played some time, Hugh acting a naughty boy who could not say
+his Latin lesson to the usher, and little Harry punishing him with far
+more words than a real usher uses on such an occasion, when they heard
+Agnes calling them from above their heads. She was leaning over from the
+leads, begging Hugh to come up to her,&mdash;that very moment. Harry must be
+left below, as the leads were a forbidden place for him. So Harry went
+to Jane, to see her dish up greengage plums which he must not touch: and
+Hugh ran up the stairs. As he passed through the passage, his mother
+called him. Full of some kind of hope (he did not himself know what), he
+entered the parlour, and saw Mr. Tooke's eyes fixed on him. But his
+mother only wanted him to shut the door as he passed; that was all. It
+had stood open, as it usually did on warm days. Could his mother wish
+it shut on account of anything she was saying? It was possible.</p>
+
+<p>"O Hugh!" exclaimed Agnes, as soon as he set foot on the leads. "What do
+you think?&mdash;But is the parlour door shut? Who shut it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mother bade me shut it, as I passed."</p>
+
+<p>"O dear!" said Agnes, in a tone of disappointment; "then she did not
+mean us to hear what they were talking about."</p>
+
+<p>"What was it? Anything about the Crofton boys? Anything about Phil?"</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell you a word about it. Mamma did not know I heard them. How
+plain one can hear what they say in that parlour, Hugh, when the door is
+open! What do you think I heard mamma tell Mrs. Bicknor, last week, when
+I was jumping Harry off the third stair?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind that. Tell me what they are talking about now. Do, Agnes."</p>
+
+<p>Agnes shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>"Now do, dear."</p>
+
+<p>It was hard for Agnes to refuse Hugh anything, at any time; more still
+when he called her "dear," which he seldom did; and most of all when he
+put his arm round her neck, as he did now. But she answered,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I should like to tell you every word; but I cannot now. Mamma has made
+you shut the door. She does not wish you to hear it."</p>
+
+<p>"Me! Then will you tell Jane?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I shall tell Jane, when we are with mamma at work."</p>
+
+<p>"That is too bad!" exclaimed Hugh, flinging himself down on the leads so
+vehemently that his sister was afraid he would roll over into the yard.
+"What does Jane care about Crofton and the boys to what I do?"</p>
+
+<p>"There is one boy there that Jane cares about more than you do, or I, or
+anybody, except papa and mamma. Jane loves Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"O, then, what they are saying in the parlour is about Phil."</p>
+
+<p>"I did not say that."</p>
+
+<p>"You pretend you love me as Jane loves Phil! and now you are going to
+tell her what you wont tell me! Agnes, I will tell you everything I know
+all my whole life, if you will just whisper this now. Only just
+whisper&mdash;Or, I will tell you what. I will guess and guess; and you can
+nod or shake your head. That wont be telling."</p>
+
+<p>"For shame, Hugh! Phil would laugh at you for being a girl, if you are
+so curious. What mamma told Mrs. Bicknor was that Jane was her right
+hand. What do you think that meant exactly?"</p>
+
+<p>"That Jane might give you a good slap when you are so provoking," said
+Hugh, rolling over and over, till his clothes were covered with dust,
+and Agnes really thought once that he was fairly going over the edge
+into the yard.</p>
+
+<p>"There is something that I can tell you, Hugh; something that I want to
+tell you, and nobody else," said Agnes, glad to see him stop rolling
+about, and raise himself on his dusty elbow to look at her.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, come, what is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"You must promise beforehand not to be angry."</p>
+
+<p>"Angry! when am I angry, pray? Come, tell me."</p>
+
+<p>"You must&mdash;you really must&mdash;I have a particular reason for saying
+so&mdash;you must learn how much four times seven is. Now, remember, you
+promised not to be angry."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh carried off his anger by balancing himself on his head, as if he
+meant to send his heels over, but that there was no room. From upside
+down, his voice was heard saying that he knew that as well as Agnes.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, how much is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Twenty-eight, to be sure. Who does not know that?"</p>
+
+<p>"Then pray do not call it fifty-six any more. Miss Harold&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There's the thing," said Hugh. "When Miss Harold is here, I can think
+of nothing but fifty-six. It seems to sound in my ears, as if somebody
+spoke it, 'four times seven is fifty-six.'"</p>
+
+<p>"You will make me get it by heart, too, if you say it so often," said
+Agnes. "You had better say 'twenty-eight' over to yourself all day long.
+You may say it to me as often as you like. I shall not get tired. Come,
+begin now&mdash;'four times seven&mdash;&mdash;'"</p>
+
+<p>"I have had enough of that for to-day&mdash;tiresome stuff! Now, I shall go
+and play with Harry again."</p>
+
+<p>"But wait&mdash;just say that line once over, Hugh. I have a reason for
+wishing it. I have, indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"Mother has been telling Mr. Tooke that I cannot say my
+multiplication-table! Now, that is too bad!" exclaimed Hugh. "And they
+will make me say it after dinner! What a shame!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Hugh! you know mamma does not like&mdash;you know mamma would not&mdash;you
+know mamma never does anything unkind. You should not say such things,
+Hugh."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay, there! you cannot say that she has not told Mr. Tooke that I say my
+tables wrong."</p>
+
+<p>"Well&mdash;you know you always do say it wrong to her."</p>
+
+<p>"I will go somewhere. I will hide myself. I will run to the market while
+the cloth is laying. I will get away, and not come back till Mr. Tooke
+is gone. I will never say my multiplication-table to him!"</p>
+
+<p>"Never?" said Agnes, with an odd smile and a sigh. "However, do not talk
+of running away, or hiding yourself. You will not have to say anything
+to Mr. Tooke to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"How do you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"I feel sure you will not. I do not believe Mr. Tooke will talk to you,
+or to any of us. There you go! You will be in the water-butt in a
+minute, if you tumble so."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care if I am. Mr. Tooke will not come there to hear me say my
+tables. Let me go!" he cried, struggling, for now Agnes had caught him
+by the ankle. "If I do tumble in, the water is not up to my chin, and it
+will be a cool hiding-place this hot day."</p>
+
+<p>"But there is Susan gone to lay the cloth; and you must be brushed; for
+you are all over dust. Come up, and I will brush you."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh was determined to have a little more dust first. He rolled once
+more the whole length of the leads, turned over Jane's stool, and upset
+her work-basket, so that her thimble bounded off to a far corner, and
+the shirt-collar she was stitching fell over into the water-butt.</p>
+
+<p>"There! what will Jane say?" cried Agnes, picking up the basket, and
+peeping over into the small part of the top of the water-butt which was
+not covered.</p>
+
+<p>"There never was anything like boys for mischief," said the maid Susan,
+who now appeared to pull Hugh in, and make him neat. Susan always found
+time, between laying the cloth and bringing up dinner, to smooth Hugh's
+hair, and give a particular lock a particular turn on his forehead with
+a wet comb.</p>
+
+<p>"Let that alone," said Hugh, as Agnes peeped into the butt after the
+drowning collar. "I will have the top off this afternoon, and it will
+make good fishing for Harry and me."</p>
+
+<p>Agnes had to let the matter alone; for Hugh was so dusty that she had to
+brush one side of him while Susan did the other. Susan gave him some
+hard knocks while she assured him that he was not going to have Harry up
+on the leads to learn his tricks, or to be drowned. She hardly knew
+which of the two would be the worst for Harry. It was lucky for Hugh
+that Susan was wanted below directly, for she scolded him the whole time
+she was parting and smoothing his hair. When it was done, however, and
+the wet lock on his forehead took the right turn at once, she gave him a
+kiss in the very middle of it, and said she knew he would be a good boy
+before the gentleman from the country.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh would not go in with Agnes, because he knew Mr. Tooke would shake
+hands with her, and take notice of any one who was with her. He waited
+in the passage till Susan carried in the fish, when he entered behind
+her, and slipped to the window till the party took their seats, when he
+hoped Mr. Tooke would not observe who sat between Agnes and his father.
+But the very first thing his father did was to pull his head back by the
+hair behind, and ask him whether he had persuaded Mr. Tooke to tell him
+all about the Crofton boys.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh did not wish to make any answer; but his father said "Eh?" and he
+thought he must speak; so he said that Phil had told him all he wanted
+to know about the Crofton boys.</p>
+
+<p>"Then you can get Mr. Tooke to tell you about Phil, if you want nothing
+else," said Mr. Proctor.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tooke nodded and smiled; but Hugh began to hand plates with all his
+might, he was so afraid that the next thing would be a question how much
+four times seven was.</p>
+
+<p>The dinner went on, however; and the fish was eaten, and the meat, and
+the pudding; and the dessert was on the table, without any one having
+even alluded to the multiplication-table. Before this time, Hugh had
+become quite at his ease, and had looked at Mr. Tooke till he knew his
+face quite well.</p>
+
+<p>Soon after dinner Mr. Proctor was called away upon business; and Hugh
+slipped into his father's arm chair, and crossed one leg over the other
+knee, as he leaned back at his leisure, listening to Mr. Tooke's
+conversation with his mother about the sort of education that he
+considered most fit for some boys from India, who had only a certain
+time to devote to school-learning. In the course of this conversation
+some curious things dropped about the curiosity of children from India
+about some things very common here;&mdash;their wonder at snow and ice, their
+delight at being able to slide in the winter, and their curiosity about
+the harvest and gleaning, now approaching. Mr. Proctor came back just as
+Mr. Tooke was telling of the annual holiday of the boys at harvest-time,
+when they gleaned for the poor of the village. As Hugh had never seen a
+corn-field, he had no very clear idea of harvest and gleaning; and he
+wanted to hear all he could. When obliged to turn out of the arm-chair,
+he drew a stool between his mother and Mr. Tooke: and presently he was
+leaning on his arms on the table, with his face close to Mr. Tooke's, as
+if swallowing the gentleman's words as they fell. This was inconvenient;
+and his mother made him draw back his stool a good way. Though he could
+hear very well, Hugh did not like this, and he slipped off his stool,
+and came closer and closer.</p>
+
+<p>"And did you say," asked Mr. Proctor, "that your youngest pupil is
+nine?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just nine;&mdash;the age of my own boy. I could have wished to have none
+under ten, for the reason you know of. But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I wish," cried Hugh, thrusting himself in so that Mr. Tooke saw the boy
+had a mind to sit on his knee,&mdash;"I wish you would take boys at eight and
+a quarter."</p>
+
+<p>"That is your age," said Mr. Tooke, smiling and making room between his
+knees.</p>
+
+<p>"How did you know? Mother told you."</p>
+
+<p>"No; indeed she did not,&mdash;not exactly. My boy was eight and a quarter
+not very long ago; and he&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Did he like being in your school?"</p>
+
+<p>"He always seemed very happy there, though he was so much the youngest.
+And they teased him sometimes for being the youngest. Now you know, if
+you came, you would be the youngest, and they might tease you for it."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't think I should mind that. What sort of teasing, though?"</p>
+
+<p>"Trying whether he was afraid of things."</p>
+
+<p>"What sort of things?"</p>
+
+<p>"Being on the top of a wall, or up in a tree. And then they sent him
+errands when he was tired, or when he wanted to be doing something
+else. They tried too whether he could bear some rough things without
+telling."</p>
+
+<p>"And did he?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, generally. On the whole, very well. I see they think him a brave
+boy now."</p>
+
+<p>"I think I could. But do not you really take boys as young as I am?"</p>
+
+<p>"Such is really my rule."</p>
+
+<p>It was very provoking, but Hugh was here called away to fish up Jane's
+work out of the water-butt. As he had put it in, he was the proper
+person to get it out. He thought he should have liked the fun of it; but
+now he was in a great hurry back, to hear Mr. Tooke talk. It really
+seemed as if the shirt-collar was alive, it always slipped away so when
+he thought he had it. Jane kept him to the job till he brought up her
+work, dripping and soiled. By that time tea was ready,&mdash;an early tea,
+because Mr. Tooke had to go away. Whatever was said at tea was about
+politics, and about a new black dye which some chemist had discovered;
+and Mr. Tooke went away directly after.</p>
+
+<p>He turned round full upon Hugh, just as he was going. Hugh stepped back,
+for it flashed upon him that he was now to be asked how much four times
+seven was. But Mr. Tooke only shook hands with him, and bade him grow
+older as fast as he could.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHY MR. TOOKE CAME.</h3>
+
+
+<p>After tea the young people had to learn their lessons for the next day.
+They always tried to get these done, and the books put away, before Mr.
+Proctor came in on his shop being shut, and the business of the day
+being finished. He liked to find his children at liberty for a little
+play, or half an hour of pleasant reading; or, in the winter evenings,
+for a dance to the music of his violin. Little Harry had been known to
+be kept up far too late, that he might hear the violin, and that his
+papa might enjoy the fun of seeing him run about among the rest, putting
+them all out, and fancying he was dancing. All believed there would be
+time for play with papa to-night, tea had been so much earlier than
+usual. But Agnes soon feared there would be no play for Hugh. Though
+Jane pored over her German, twisting her forefinger in the particular
+curl which she always twisted when she was deep in her lessons; though
+Agnes rocked herself on her chair, as she always did when she was
+learning by heart; and though Mrs. Proctor kept Harry quiet at the other
+end of the room with telling him long stories, in a very low voice,
+about the elephant and Brighton pier, in the picture-book, Hugh could
+not learn his capital cities. He even spoke out twice, and stopped
+himself when he saw all the heads in the room raised in surprise. Then
+he set himself to work again, and he said "Copenhagen" so often over
+that he was not likely to forget the word; but what country it belonged
+to he could not fix in his mind, though Agnes wrote it down large on the
+slate, in hopes that the sight of the letters would help him to
+remember. Before he had got on to "Constantinople," the well-known sound
+was heard of the shop-boy taking the shop-shutters out of their
+day-place, and Mr. Proctor would certainly be coming presently. Jane
+closed her dictionary, and shook back her curls from over her eyes; Mrs.
+Proctor put down Harry from her lap, and let him call for papa as loud
+as he would; and papa came bustling in, and gave Harry a long toss, and
+several topplings over his shoulder, and yet Hugh was not ready.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, children," said Mr. Proctor to Agnes and Hugh, "we have all done
+enough for to-day. Away with books and slates!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, papa," said Agnes, "Hugh has not quite done. If he might have just
+five minutes more, Miss Harold&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind what Miss Harold says! That is, you girls must; but between
+this and Michaelmas&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped short, and the girls saw that it was a sign from their mother
+that made him do so. He immediately proceeded to make so much noise with
+Harry, that Hugh discovered nothing more than that he might put away his
+books, and not mind Miss Harold this time. If she asked him to-morrow
+why he had not got down to "Constantinople," he could tell her exactly
+what his father had said. So, merry was Hugh's play this evening. He
+stood so perfectly upright on his father's shoulders, that he could
+reach the top of his grandmamma's picture, and show by his finger-ends
+how thick the dust lay upon the frame: and neither he nor his father
+minded being told that he was far too old for such play.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of the fun, Hugh had a misgiving, more than once, of his
+mother having something severe to say to him when she should come up to
+his room, to hear him say his prayer, and to look back a little with him
+upon the events of the day. Besides his consciousness that he had done
+nothing well this day, there were grave looks from his mother which made
+him think that she was not pleased with him. When he was undressing,
+therefore, he listened with some anxiety for her footsteps, and, when
+she appeared, he was ready with his confession of idleness. She stopped
+him in the beginning, saying that she had rather not hear any more such
+confessions. She had listened to too many, and had allowed him to spend
+in confessions some of the strength which should have been applied to
+mending his faults. For the present, while she was preparing a way to
+help him to conquer his inattention, she advised him to say nothing to
+her, or to any one else, on the subject; but this need not prevent him
+from praying to God to give him strength to overcome his great fault.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, mother! mother!" cried Hugh, in an agony, "you give me up! What
+shall I do if you will not help me any more?"</p>
+
+<p>His mother smiled, and told him he need not fear any such thing. It
+would be very cruel to leave off providing him with food and clothes,
+because it gave trouble to do so; and it would be far more cruel to
+abandon him to his faults, for such a reason. She would never cease to
+help him till they were cured: but, as all means yet tried had failed,
+she must plan some others; and meantime she did not wish him to become
+hardened to his faults, by talking about them every night, when there
+was no amendment during the day.</p>
+
+<p>Though she spoke very kindly, and kissed him before she went away, Hugh
+felt that he was punished. He felt more unhappy than if his mother had
+told him all she thought of his idleness. Though his mother had told him
+to go to sleep, and blessed him, he could not help crying a little, and
+wishing that he was a Crofton boy. He supposed the Crofton boys all got
+their lessons done somehow, as a matter of course; and then they could
+go to sleep without any uncomfortable feelings or any tears.</p>
+
+<p>In the morning all these thoughts were gone. He had something else to
+think about; for he had to play with Harry, and take care of him, while
+Susan swept and dusted the parlour: and Harry was bent upon going into
+the shop&mdash;a place where, according to the rule of the house, no child of
+the family was ever to set foot, till it was old enough to be trusted:
+nor to taste anything there, asked or unasked. There were some poisonous
+things in the shop, and some few nice syrups and gums; and no child
+could be safe and well there who could not let alone whatever might be
+left on the counter, or refuse any nice taste that a good-natured
+shopman might offer. Harry was, as yet, far too young; but, as often as
+the cook washed the floor-cloth in the passage, so that the inner shop
+door had to be opened, Master Harry was seized with an unconquerable
+desire to go and see the blue and red glass bowls which he was permitted
+to admire from the street, as he went out and came in from his walks.
+Mr. Proctor came down this morning as Hugh was catching Harry in the
+passage. He snatched up his boys, packed one under each arm, and ran
+with them into the yard, where he rolled Harry up in a new mat, which
+the cook was going to lay at the house-door.</p>
+
+<p>"There!" said he. "Keep him fast, Hugh, till the passage-door is shut.
+What shall we do with the rogue when you are at Crofton, I wonder?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, papa! he will be big enough to take care of himself by that time."</p>
+
+<p>"Bless me! I forgot again," exclaimed Mr. Proctor, as he made haste away
+into the shop.</p>
+
+<p>Before long, Harry was safe under the attraction of his basin of bread
+and milk; and Hugh fell into a reverie at the breakfast-table, keeping
+his spoon suspended in his hand as he looked up at the windows, without
+seeing anything. Jane asked him twice to hand the butter before he
+heard.</p>
+
+<p>"He is thinking how much four times seven is," observed Mr. Proctor: and
+Hugh started at the words.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you what, Hugh," continued his father; "if the Crofton people do
+not teach you how much four times seven is when you come within four
+weeks of next Christmas day, I shall give you up, and them too, for
+dunces all."</p>
+
+<p>All the eyes round the table were fixed on Mr. Proctor in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>"There now!" said he, "I have let the cat out of the bag. Look at
+Agnes!" and he pinched her crimson cheek.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody then looked at Agnes, except Harry, who was busy looking for
+the cat which papa said had come out of mamma's work-bag. Agnes could
+not bear the gaze, and burst into tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Agnes has taken more pains to keep the secret than her papa," said Mrs.
+Proctor. "The secret is, that Hugh is going to Crofton next month."</p>
+
+<p>"Am I ten, then?" asked Hugh, in his hurry and surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"Scarcely; since you were only eight and a quarter yesterday afternoon,"
+replied his father.</p>
+
+<p>"I will tell you all about it by-and-by, my dear," said his mother. Her
+glance towards Agnes made all the rest understand that they had better
+speak of something else now. So Mr. Proctor beckoned Harry to come and
+see whether the cat had not got into the bag again, as she was not to be
+seen anywhere else. It is true, the bag was not much bigger than a cat's
+head; but that did not matter to Harry, who never cared for that sort of
+consideration, and had been busy for half an hour, the day before, in
+trying to put the key of the house-door into the key-hole of the
+tea-caddy.</p>
+
+<p>By the time Agnes had recovered herself, and the table was cleared, Miss
+Harold had arrived. Hugh brought his books with the rest, but, instead
+of opening them, rested his elbow on the uppermost, and stared full at
+Miss Harold.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Hugh!" said she, smiling.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not learned quite down to 'Constantinople,'" said he. "Papa told
+me I need not, and not to mind you."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Hugh! hush!" cried Jane.</p>
+
+<p>"He did,&mdash;he said exactly that. But he meant, Miss Harold, that I am to
+be a Crofton boy,&mdash;directly, next month."</p>
+
+<p>"Then have we done with one another, Hugh?" asked Miss Harold, gently.
+"Will you not learn any more from me?"</p>
+
+<p>"That is for your choice, Miss Harold," observed Mr. Proctor. "Hugh has
+not deserved the pains you have taken with him: and if you decline more
+trouble with him now he is going into other hands, no one can wonder."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Harold feared that he was but poorly prepared for school, and was
+quite ready to help him, if he would give his mind to the effort. She
+thought that play, or reading books that he liked, was less waste of
+time than his common way of doing his lessons; but if he was disposed
+really to work, with the expectation of Crofton before him, she was
+ready to do her best to prepare him for the real hard work he would have
+to do there.</p>
+
+<p>His mother proposed that he should have time to consider whether he
+would have a month's holiday, or a month's work, before leaving home.
+She had to go out this morning. He might go with her, if he liked; and,
+as they returned, they would sit down in the Temple Garden, and she
+would tell him all about the plan.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh liked this beginning of his new prospects. He ran to be made neat
+for his walk with his mother. He knew he must have the wet curl on his
+forehead twice over to-day; but he comforted himself with hoping that
+there would be no time at Crofton for him to be kept standing, to have
+his hair done so particularly, and to be scolded all the while, and then
+kissed, like a baby, at the end.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<h3>MICHAELMAS-DAY COME.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Hugh was about to ask his mother, again and again during their walk, why
+Mr. Tooke let him go to Crofton before he was ten; but Mrs. Proctor was
+grave and silent; and though she spoke kindly to him now and then, she
+did not seem disposed to talk. At last, they were in the Temple Garden;
+and they sat down where there was no one to overhear them; and then Hugh
+looked up at his mother. She saw, and told him, what it was that he
+wanted to ask.</p>
+
+<p>"It is on account of the little boys themselves," said she, "that Mr.
+Tooke does not wish to have them very young, now that there is no kind
+lady in the house who could be like a mother to them."</p>
+
+<p>"But there is Mrs. Watson. Phil has told me a hundred things about Mrs.
+Watson."</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Watson is the housekeeper. She is careful, I know, about the boys'
+health and comfort; but she has no time to attend to the younger ones,
+as Mrs. Tooke did,&mdash;hearing their little troubles, and being a friend to
+them like their mothers at home."</p>
+
+<p>"There is Phil&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. You will have Phil to look to. But neither Phil, nor any one else,
+can save you from some troubles you are likely to have from being the
+youngest."</p>
+
+<p>"Such as Mr. Tooke told me his boy had;&mdash;being put on the top of a high
+wall, and plagued when he was tired: and all that. I don't think I
+should much mind those things."</p>
+
+<p>"So we hope, and so we believe. Your fault is not cowardice&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Proctor so seldom praised anybody that her words of esteem went a
+great way. Hugh first looked up at her and then down on the grass,&mdash;his
+cheeks glowed so. She went on&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You have faults,&mdash;faults which give your father and me great pain; and
+though, you are not cowardly about being hurt in your body, you sadly
+want courage of a better kind,&mdash;courage to mend the weakness of your
+mind. You are so young that we are sorry for you, and mean to send you
+where the example of other boys may give you the resolution you want so
+much."</p>
+
+<p>"All the boys learn their lessons at Crofton," observed Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but not by magic. They have to give their minds to their work. You
+will find it painful and difficult to learn this, after your idle habits
+at home. I give you warning that you will find it much more difficult
+than you suppose; and I should not wonder if you wish yourself at home
+with Miss Harold many times before Christmas."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Proctor was not unkind in saying this. She saw that Hugh was so
+delighted about going that nothing would depress his spirits, and that
+the chief fear was his being disappointed and unhappy when she should be
+far away. It might then be some consolation to him to remember that she
+was aware of what he would have to go through. He now smiled, and said
+he did not think he should ever wish to say his lessons to Miss Harold,
+as long as he lived. Then it quickly passed through his mind that,
+instead of the leads and the little yard, there would be the playground;
+and instead of the church bells, the rooks; and instead of Susan with
+her washing and combing, and scolding and kissing, there would be plenty
+of boys to play with. As he thought of these things, he started up, and
+toppled head over heels on the grass, and then was up by his mother's
+side again, saying that he did not care about anything that was to
+happen at Crofton;&mdash;he was not afraid,&mdash;not even of the usher, though
+Phil could not bear him.</p>
+
+<p>"If you can bring yourself to learn your lessons well," said his mother,
+"you need not fear the usher. But remember, it depends upon that. You
+will do well enough in the playground, I have no doubt."</p>
+
+<p>After this, there was only to settle the time that was to pass&mdash;the
+weeks, days, and hours before Michaelmas-day; and whether these weeks
+and days should be employed in preparing for Crofton under Miss Harold,
+or whether he should take his chance there unprepared as he was. Mrs.
+Proctor saw that his habits of inattention were so fixed, and his
+disgust at lessons in the parlour so strong, that she encouraged his
+doing no lessons in the interval. Hugh would have said beforehand that
+three weeks' liberty to read voyages and travels, and play with Harry,
+would have made him perfectly happy; but he felt that there was some
+disgrace mixed up with his holiday, and that everybody would look upon
+him with a sort of pity, instead of wishing him joy; and this spoiled
+his pleasure a good deal. When he came home from his walk, Agnes thought
+he looked less happy than when he went out; and she feared his spirits
+were down about Crofton.</p>
+
+<p>His spirits were up and down many times during the next three weeks. He
+thought these weeks would never be over. Every day dragged on more
+slowly than the last; at every meal he was less inclined to eat; and his
+happiest time was when going to bed, because he was a day nearer
+Crofton. His mother, foreseeing just what happened, wished to have kept
+the news from him till within a week of his departure, and had agreed
+with Mr. Proctor that it should be so. But Mr. Proctor hated secrets,
+and, as we see, let it out immediately.</p>
+
+<p>At last, the day came;&mdash;a warm, sunny, autumn day, on which any one
+might have enjoyed the prospect of a drive into the country. The coach
+was to set off from an inn in Fleet-street at noon, and would set Hugh
+down at his uncle's door in time for dinner, the distance being
+twenty-eight miles. His uncle's house was just two miles from the
+school. Phil would probably be there to meet his brother, and take him
+to Crofton in the afternoon.</p>
+
+<p>How to get rid of the hours till noon was the question. Hugh had had
+everything packed up, over which he had any control, for some days. He
+had not left himself a plaything of those which he might carry: and it
+frightened him that his mother did not seem to think of packing his
+clothes till after breakfast this very morning. When she entered his
+room for the purpose, he was fidgeting about, saying to himself that he
+should never be ready. Agnes came with her mother, to help: but before
+the second shirt was laid in the box, she was in tears, and had to go
+away; for every one in the house was in the habit of hiding tears from
+Mrs. Proctor, who rarely shed them herself, and was known to think that
+they might, generally be suppressed, and should be so.</p>
+
+<p>As Hugh stood beside her, handing stockings and handkerchiefs, to fill
+up the corners of the box, she spoke as she might not have done if they
+had not been alone. She said but a few words; but Hugh never forgot
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"You know, my dear," said she, "that I do not approve of dwelling upon
+troubles. You know I never encourage my children to fret about what
+cannot be helped."</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing in the world that Hugh was more certain of than this.</p>
+
+<p>"And yet I tell you," she continued, "that you will not be nearly so
+happy at Crofton as you expect&mdash;at least, at first. It grieves me to see
+you so full of expectation&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Does it indeed, mother?"</p>
+
+<p>"It does indeed. But my comfort is&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"You think I can bear it," cried Hugh, holding up his head. "You think I
+can bear anything."</p>
+
+<p>"I think you are a brave boy, on the whole. But that is not the comfort
+I was speaking of; for there is a world of troubles too heavy for the
+bravery of a thoughtless child, like you. My comfort is, my dear, that
+you know where to go for strength when your heart fails you. You will be
+away from your father and me; but a far wiser and kinder parent will be
+always with you. If I were not sure that you would continually open your
+heart to Him, I could not let you go from me."</p>
+
+<p>"I will&mdash;I always do," said Hugh, in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Then remember this, my boy. If you have that help, <i>you must not fail</i>.
+Knowing that you have that help, I expect of you that you do your own
+duty, and bear your own troubles, like a man. If you were to be all
+alone in the new world you are going to, you would be but a helpless
+child: but remember, when a child makes God his friend, God puts into
+the youngest and weakest the spirit of a man."</p>
+
+<p>"You will ask Him too, mother;&mdash;you will pray Him to make me brave,
+and&mdash;and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And what else?" she inquired, fixing her eyes upon him.</p>
+
+<p>"And steady," replied Hugh, casting down, his eyes; "for that is what I
+want most of all."</p>
+
+<p>"It is," replied his mother. "I do, and always will, pray for you."</p>
+
+<p>Not another word was said till they went down into the parlour. Though
+it was only eleven o'clock, Miss Harold was putting on her bonnet to go
+away: and there was a plate of bread and cheese on the table.</p>
+
+<p>"Lunch!" said Hugh, turning away with disgust.</p>
+
+<p>"Do eat it," said Agnes, who had brought it. "You had no breakfast, you
+know."</p>
+
+<p>"Because I did not want it; and I can't eat anything now."</p>
+
+<p>Jane made a sign to Agnes to take the plate out of sight: and she put
+some biscuits into a paper bag, that he might eat on the road, if he
+should become hungry.</p>
+
+<p>Neither Miss Harold nor Hugh could possibly feel any grief at parting;
+for they had had little satisfaction together; but she said very kindly
+that she should hope to hear often of him, and wished he might be happy
+as a Crofton boy. Hugh could hardly answer her;&mdash;so amazed was he to
+find that his sisters were giving up an hour of their lessons on his
+account,&mdash;that they might go with him to the coach!&mdash;And then Susan came
+in, about the cord for his box, and her eyes were red:&mdash;and, at the
+sight of her, Agnes began to cry again; and Jane bent down her head over
+the glove she was mending for him, and her needle stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Jane," said her mother, gravely, "if you are not mending that glove,
+give it to me. It is getting late."</p>
+
+<p>Jane brushed her hand across her eyes, and stitched away again. Then,
+she threw the gloves to Hugh without looking at him, and ran to get
+ready to go to the coach.</p>
+
+<p>The bustle of the inn-yard would not do for little Harry. He could not
+go. Hugh was extremely surprised to find that all the rest were
+going;&mdash;that even his father was smoothing his hat in the passage for
+the walk,&mdash;really leaving the shop at noon on his account! The porter
+was at his service too,&mdash;waiting for his box! It was very odd to feel of
+such consequence.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh ran down to bid the maids good-bye. The cook had cut a sandwich,
+which she thrust into his pocket, though he told her he had some
+biscuits. Susan cried so that little Harry stood grave and wondering.
+Susan sobbed out that she knew he did not care a bit about leaving home
+and everybody. Hugh wished she would not say so, though he felt it was
+true, and wondered at it himself. Mr. Proctor heard Susan's
+lamentations, and called to her from the passage above not to make
+herself unhappy about that; for the time would soon come when Hugh would
+be homesick enough.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Blake, the shopman, came to the shop-door as they passed, and bowed
+and smiled; and the boy put himself in the way, with a broad grin: and
+then the party walked on quickly.</p>
+
+<p>The sun seemed to Hugh to glare very much; and he thought he had never
+known the streets so noisy, or the people so pushing. The truth was, his
+heart was beating so he could scarcely see: and yet he was so busy
+looking about him for a sight of the river, and everything he wished to
+bid good-bye to, that his father, who held him fast by the hand, shook
+him more than once, and told him he would run everybody down if he
+could,&mdash;to judge by his way of walking. He must learn to march better,
+if he was to be a soldier; and to steer, if he was to be a sailor.</p>
+
+<p>There were just two minutes to spare when they reached the inn-yard. The
+horses were pawing and fidgeting, and some of the passengers had
+mounted: so Mr. Proctor said he would seat the boy at once. He spoke to
+two men who were on the roof, just behind the coachman; and they agreed
+to let Hugh sit between them, on the assurance that the driver would
+look to his concerns, and see that he was set down at the right place.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, my boy, up with you!" said his father, as he turned from speaking
+to these men. Hugh was so eager, that he put up his foot to mount,
+without remembering to bid his mother and sisters good-bye. Mr. Proctor
+laughed at this; and nobody wondered; but Agnes cried bitterly; and she
+could not forget it, from that time till she saw her brother again. When
+they had all kissed him, and his mother's earnest look had bidden him
+remember what had passed between them that morning, he was lifted up by
+his father, and received by the two men, between whom he found a safe
+seat.</p>
+
+<p>Then he wished they were off. It was uncomfortable to see his sisters
+crying there, and not to be able to cry too, or to speak to them. When
+the coachman was drawing on his second glove, and the ostlers held each
+a hand to pull off the horse-cloths, and the last moment was come, Mr.
+Proctor swung himself up by the step, to say one thing more. It was&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I say, Hugh,&mdash;can you tell me,&mdash;how much is four times seven?"</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Proctor pulled her husband's coat-tail, and he leaped down, the
+horses' feet scrambled, their heads issued from the gate-way of the
+inn-yard, and Hugh's family were left behind. In the midst of the noise,
+the man on Hugh's right hand said to the one on his left,</p>
+
+<p>"There is some joke in that last remark, I imagine."</p>
+
+<p>The other man nodded; and then there was no more speaking till they were
+off the stones. When the clatter was over, and the coach began to roll
+along the smooth road, Hugh's neighbour repeated,</p>
+
+<p>"There was some joke, I fancy, in that last remark of your father's."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you in the habit of saying the multiplication-table when you
+travel?" said the other. "If so, we shall be happy to hear it."</p>
+
+<p>"Exceedingly happy," observed the first.</p>
+
+<p>"I never say it when I can help it," said Hugh; "and I see no occasion
+now."</p>
+
+<p>The men laughed, and then asked him if he was going far.</p>
+
+<p>"To Crofton. I am going to be a Crofton boy," said Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"A what? Where is he going?" his companions asked one another over his
+head. They were no wiser when Hugh repeated what he had said; nor could
+the coachman enlighten them. He only knew that he was to put the boy
+down at Shaw's, the great miller's, near thirty miles along the road.</p>
+
+<p>"Eight-and-twenty," said Hugh, in correction; "and Crofton is two miles
+from my uncle's."</p>
+
+<p>"Eight-and-twenty. The father's joke lies there," observed the
+right-hand man.</p>
+
+<p>"No, it does not," said Hugh. He thought he was among a set of very odd
+people,&mdash;none of them knowing what a Crofton boy was. A passenger who
+sat beside the coachman only smiled when he was appealed to; so it might
+be concluded that he was ignorant too; and the right and left-hand men
+seemed so anxious for information, that Hugh told them all he
+knew;&mdash;about the orchard and the avenue, and the pond on the heath, and
+the playground; and Mrs. Watson, and the usher, and Phil, and Joe Cape,
+and Tony Nelson, and several others of the boys.</p>
+
+<p>One of the men asked him if he was sure he was going for the first
+time,&mdash;he seemed so thoroughly informed of everything about Crofton.
+Hugh replied that it was a good thing to have an elder brother like
+Phil. Phil had told him just what to take to Crofton, and how to take
+care of his money, and everything.</p>
+
+<p>"Ay! and how do the Crofton boys take care of their money?"</p>
+
+<p>Hugh showed a curious little inner pocket in his jacket, which nobody
+would dream of that did not know. His mother had let him have such a
+pocket in both his jackets; and he had wanted to have all his money in
+this one now, to show how safely he could carry it. But his mother had
+chosen to pack up all his five shillings in his box,&mdash;that square box,
+with the new brass lock, on the top of all the luggage. In this pocket
+there was only sixpence now,&mdash;the sixpence he was to give the coachman
+when he was set down.</p>
+
+<p>Then he went on to explain that this sixpence was not out of his own
+money, but given him by his father, expressly for the coachman. Then
+his right-hand companion congratulated him upon his spirits, and began
+to punch and tickle him; and when Hugh writhed himself about, because he
+could not bear tickling, the coachman said he would have no such doings,
+and bade them be quiet. Then the passengers seemed to forget Hugh, and
+talked to one another of the harvest in the north, and the hopping in
+Kent. Hugh listened about the hopping, supposing it might be some new
+game, as good as leap-frog; though it seemed strange that one farmer
+should begin hopping on Monday, and that another should fix Thursday;
+and that both should be so extremely anxious about the weather. But when
+he found it was some sort of harvest-work, he left off listening, and
+gave all his attention to the country sights that were about him. He did
+not grow tired of the gardens, gay with dahlias and hollyhocks, and
+asters: nor of the orchards, where the ladder against the tree, and the
+basket under, showed that apple-gathering was going on; nor of the nooks
+in the fields, where blackberries were ripening; nor of the chequered
+sunlight and shadow which lay upon the road; nor of the breezy heath
+where the blue ponds were ruffled; nor of the pleasant grove where the
+leaves were beginning to show a tinge of yellow and red, here and there
+among the green. Silently he enjoyed all these things, only awakening
+from them when there was a stop to change horses.</p>
+
+<p>He was not thinking of time or distance when he saw the coachman glance
+round at him, and felt that the speed of the horses was slackening.
+Still he had no idea that this was any concern of his, till he saw
+something that made him start,</p>
+
+<p>"Why, there's Phil!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"This is Shaw's mill, and there is Shaw; which is all I have to do
+with," said the coachman, as he pulled up.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh was soon down, with his uncle and Phil, and one of the men from the
+mill to help. His aunt was at the window too; so that altogether Hugh
+forgot to thank his companions for his safe seat. He would have
+forgotten his box, but for the coachman. One thing more he also forgot.</p>
+
+<p>"I say, young master," said the driver; "remember the coachman. Where's
+your sixpence?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my sixpence!" cried Hugh, throwing down what he held, to feel in
+his curious inner pocket, which was empty.</p>
+
+<p>"Lest you find a hole in your pocket, here is a sixpence for you," cried
+the right-hand passenger, tossing him his own sixpence. "Thank you for
+teaching us the secret of such a curious pocket."</p>
+
+<p>The coachman was impatient, got his money, and drove off, leaving Hugh
+to make out why he had been tickled, and how his money had changed
+hands. With a very red face, he declared it was too bad of the man: but
+the man was out of his hearing, and could never know how angry he was.</p>
+
+<p>"A pretty story this is for our usher to have against you, to begin
+with," was Phil's consolation. "Every boy will know it before you show
+yourself; and you will never hear the last of it, I can tell you."</p>
+
+<p>"Your usher!" exclaimed Hugh, bewildered.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, our usher. That was he on the box, beside coachee. Did not you
+find out that much in all these eight-and-twenty miles?"</p>
+
+<p>"How should I? He never told me."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh could hardly speak to his uncle and aunt, he was so taken up with
+trying to remember what he had said, in the usher's hearing, of the
+usher himself, and everybody at Crofton.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<h3>MICHAELMAS-DAY OVER.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Mrs. Shaw ordered dinner presently; and while it was being served, she
+desired Phil to brush his brother's clothes, as they were dusty from his
+ride. All the while he was brushing (which he did very roughly), and all
+the first part of dinner-time, Phil continued to tease Hugh about what
+he had said on the top of the coach. Mrs. Shaw spoke of the imprudence
+of talking freely before strangers; and Hugh could have told her that he
+did not need such a lecture at the very time that he found the same
+thing by his experience. He did wish Phil would stop. If anybody should
+ask him a question, he could not answer without crying. Then he
+remembered how his mother expected him to bear things; and he almost
+wished he was at home with her now, after all his longing to be away.
+This thought nearly made him cry again; so he tried to dwell on how his
+mother would expect him to bear things: but neither of them had thought
+that morning, beside his box, that the first trial would come from Phil.
+This again made him so nearly cry that his uncle observed his twitching
+face, and, without noticing him, said that he, for his part, did not
+want to see little boys wise before they had time to learn; and that the
+most silent companion he had ever been shut up with in a coach was
+certainly the least agreeable: and he went on to relate an adventure
+which has happened to more persons than one. He had found the gentleman
+in the corner, with the shaggy coat, to be a bear&mdash;a tame bear, which
+had to take the quickest mode of conveyance, in order to be at a distant
+fair in good time. Mr. Shaw spun out his story, so that Hugh quite
+recovered himself, and laughed as much as anybody at his uncle having
+formed a bad opinion of Bruin in the early twilight, for his incivility
+in not bowing to the passenger who left the coach.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner, Phil thought it time to be off to Crofton. He had missed
+something by coming away at all to-day; and he was not going to run the
+chance of losing the top of the class by not having time to do his
+Sallust properly. Mrs. Shaw said they must have some of her plums before
+they went, and a glass of wine; and Mr. Shaw ordered the gig, saying he
+would drive them, and thus no time would be lost, though he hoped Phil
+would not mind being at the bottom of every class for once to help his
+brother, seeing how soon a diligent boy might work his way up again.
+Phil replied that that was not so easy as people might think, when there
+was one like Joe Cape determined to keep him down, if he could once get
+him down.</p>
+
+<p>"I hope you will find time to help Hugh up from the bottom, in a class
+or two," said Mr. Shaw. "You will not be too busy about your own affairs
+to look to his I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the use of my meddling?" said Phil. "He can't rise for years
+to come. Besides&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't I rise?" exclaimed Hugh, with glowing cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"That is right, Hugh," said his uncle. "Let nobody prophesy for you till
+you show what you can do."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, uncle, he is nearly two years younger than any boy in the school;
+and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And there is little Page above you in algebra. He is about two years
+younger than you, Phil, if I remember right."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh could not help clapping his hands at the prospect this held out to
+him. Phil took the act for triumphing over him, and went on to say, very
+insultingly, that a little fellow who had been brought up among the
+girls all his life, and had learned of nobody but Miss Harold, could not
+be expected to cut any figure among boys. Hugh looked so grieved for a
+moment, and then suddenly so relieved, that his kind uncle wondered what
+was in his mind. He took the boy between his knees and asked him.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh loved his uncle already, as if he had always known him. He put his
+arms round his neck, and whispered in his ear what he was thinking
+of;&mdash;his mother's saying that God could and would, if He was sought, put
+the spirit of a man into the feeblest child.</p>
+
+<p>"True!&mdash;quite true! I am very glad you know that, my boy. That will help
+you to learn at Crofton, though it is better than anything they can
+teach you in their school-room."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Shaw and Phil looked curious; but Mr. Shaw did not repeat a word of
+what Hugh had said. He put the boy away from his knees, because he
+heard the gig coming round.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Shaw told Hugh that she hoped he would spend some of his Sundays
+with his uncle and her; and his uncle added that he must come on
+holidays as well as Sundays,&mdash;there was so much to see about the mill.</p>
+
+<p>Phil was amused, and somewhat pleased, to find how exactly Hugh
+remembered his description of the place and neighbourhood. He recognised
+the duck-pond under the hedge by the road-side, with the very finest
+blackberries growing above it, just out of reach. The church he knew, of
+course, and the row of chestnuts, whose leaves were just beginning to
+fall; and the high wall dividing the orchard from the playground. That
+must have been the wall on which Mr. Tooke's little boy used to be
+placed to frighten him. It did not look so very high as Hugh had fancied
+it. One thing which he had never seen or heard of was the bell, under
+its little roof on the ridge of Mr. Tooke's great house. Was it to call
+in the boys to school, or for an alarm? His uncle told him it might
+serve the one purpose in the day, and the other by night; and that
+almost every large farm thereabouts had such a bell on the top of the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>The sun was near its setting when they came in sight of the Crofton
+house. A long range of windows glittered in the yellow light, and Phil
+said that the lower row all belonged to the school-room;&mdash;that whole
+row.</p>
+
+<p>In the midst of his explanations Phil stopped, and his manner grew more
+rough than ever&mdash;with a sort of shyness in it too. It was because some
+of the boys were within hearing, leaning over the pales which separated
+the playground from the road.</p>
+
+<p>"I say; hello there!" cried one. "Is that Prater you have got with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Prater the second," cried another. "He could not have had his name if
+there had not been Prater the first."</p>
+
+<p>"There! there's a scrape you have got me into already!" muttered Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"Be a man, Phil, and bear your own share," said Mr. Shaw; "and no spite,
+because your words come back to you!"</p>
+
+<p>The talk at the palings still went on, as the gig rolled quietly in the
+sandy by-road.</p>
+
+<p>"Prater!" poor Hugh exclaimed. "What a name!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; that is you," said his uncle. "You know now what your nickname
+will be. Every boy has one or another: and yours might have been worse,
+because you might have done many a worse thing to earn it."</p>
+
+<p>"But the usher, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"What of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"He should not have told about me."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't call him 'Prater the third,' however. Bear your own share, as I
+said to Phil, and don't meddle with another's."</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Mr. Shaw hoped that through one of the boys the usher would get
+a new nickname for his ill-nature in telling tales of a little boy,
+before he was so much as seen by his companions. He certainly put it
+into their heads, whether they would make use of it or not.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tooke was out, taking his evening ride; but Mr. Shaw would not drive
+off till he had seen Mrs. Watson, and introduced his younger nephew to
+her, observing to her that he was but a little fellow to come among
+such a number of rough boys. Mrs. Watson smiled kindly at Hugh, and
+said she was glad he had a brother in the school, to prevent his feeling
+lonely at first. It would not take many days, she hoped, to make him
+feel quite at home. Mr. Shaw slipped half-a-crown into Hugh's hand, and
+whispered to him to try to keep it safe in his inner pocket. Hugh ran
+after him to the door, to tell him that he had five shillings
+already&mdash;safe in his box: but his uncle would not take back the
+half-crown. He thought that, in course of time, Hugh would want all the
+money he had.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Watson desired Phil to show his brother where he was to sleep, and
+to help him to put by his clothes. Phil was in a hurry to get to his
+Sallust; so that he was not sorry when Mrs. Watson herself came up to
+see that the boy's clothes were laid properly in the deep drawer in
+which Hugh was to keep his things. Phil then slipped away.</p>
+
+<p>"Dear me!" said Mrs. Watson, turning over one of Hugh's new collars, "we
+must have something different from this. These collars tied with a black
+ribbon are never tidy. They are always over one shoulder or the other."</p>
+
+<p>"My sisters made them; and they worked so hard to get them done!" said
+Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Very well&mdash;very right: only it is a pity they are not of a better make.
+Every Sunday at church, I shall see your collar awry&mdash;and every time you
+go to your aunt's, she will think we do not make you neat. I must see
+about that. Here are good stockings, however&mdash;properly stout. My dear,
+are these all the shoes you have got?"</p>
+
+<p>"I have a pair on."</p>
+
+<p>"Of course; I don't doubt that. We must have you measured to-morrow for
+some boots fitter for the country than these. We have no London pavement
+here."</p>
+
+<p>And so Mrs. Watson went on, sometimes approving and sometimes
+criticising, till Hugh did not know whether to cry or to be angry. After
+all the pains his mother and sisters had taken about his things, they
+were to be found fault with in this way!</p>
+
+<p>When his box was emptied, and his drawer filled, Mrs. Watson took him
+into the school-room, where the boys were at supper. Outside the door
+the buzz seemed prodigious, and Hugh hoped that, in such a bustle,
+nobody would notice him. Here he was quite mistaken. The moment he
+entered there was a hush, and all eyes were turned upon him, except his
+brother's. Phil hardly looked up from his book; but he made room for
+Hugh between himself and another boy, and drew the great plate of bread
+within reach. Mrs. Watson saw that Hugh had his basin of milk; and he
+found it a good thing to have something to do while so many eyes were
+upon him. He felt that he might have cried if he had not had his supper
+to eat.</p>
+
+<p>The usher sat at the top of the table, reading. Mrs. Watson called his
+attention, to Hugh; and Hugh stood up and made his bow. His face was
+red, as much with anger as timidity, when he recognised in him the
+passenger who had sat beside the coachman.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps, Mr. Carnaby," said Mrs. Watson, "you will find something for
+this young gentleman to do, when he has had his supper, while the rest
+are learning their lessons. To-morrow he will have his own lessons; but
+to-night&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"There is always the multiplication-table," replied Mr. Carnaby. "The
+young gentleman is partial to that, I fancy."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh reddened, and applied himself to his bread and milk.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind a joke," whispered Mrs. Watson. "We wont plague you with the
+multiplication-table the first evening. I will find you a book or
+something. Meantime, there is a companion for you&mdash;I forgot that."</p>
+
+<p>The good lady went down the room, and brought back a boy who seemed to
+be doing all he could to stop crying. He dashed his hand over his eyes
+every minute, and could not look anybody in the face. He had finished
+his supper, and was at a loss what to do next, as he had only arrived
+that morning, and did not know anybody at Crofton. His name was Tom
+Holt, and he was ten years old.</p>
+
+<p>When they had told their names and ages, and where they came from, the
+boys did not know what to say next; and Hugh wished Phil would stop
+murmuring over his Sallust and looking in the dictionary every minute;
+but Mrs. Watson did not forget the strangers. She brought them Cook's
+Voyages out of the library, to amuse themselves with, on condition of
+their delivering the book to Mr. Carnaby at bedtime.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the evening passed away very pleasantly. Hugh told Holt a
+great deal about Broadstairs and the South Sea Islands, and confided to
+him his own hopes of being a sailor, and going round the world; and, if
+possible, making his way straight through China,&mdash;the most difficult
+country left to travel in, he believed, except some parts of Africa. He
+did not want to cross the Great Desert, on account of the heat. He knew
+something of what that was by the leads at home, when the sun was on
+them. What was the greatest heat Holt had ever felt? Then came the
+surprise. Holt had last come from his uncle's farm; but he was born in
+India, and had lived there till eighteen months ago. So, while Hugh had
+chattered away about the sea at Broadstairs, and the heat on the leads
+at home, his companion had come fourteen thousand miles over the ocean,
+and had felt a heat nearly as extreme as that of the Great Desert! Holt
+was very unassuming too. He talked of the heat of gleaning in his
+uncle's harvest-fields, and of the kitchen when the harvest-supper was
+cooking; owning that he remembered he had felt hotter in India. Hugh
+heaped questions upon him about his native country and the voyage; and
+Holt liked to be asked: so that the boys were not at all like strangers
+just met for the first time. They raised their voices in the eagerness
+of their talk, from a whisper so as to be heard quite across the table,
+above the hum and buzz of above thirty others, who were learning their
+lessons half-aloud. At last Hugh was startled by hearing the words
+"Prater," "Prater the second." He was silent instantly, to Holt's great
+wonder.</p>
+
+<p>Without raising his eyes from his book, Phil said, so as to be heard as
+far as the usher,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Who prated of Prater the second? Who is Prater the third?"</p>
+
+<p>There was a laugh which provoked the usher to come and see whereabouts
+in Sallust such a passage as this was to be found. Not finding any such,
+he knuckled Phil's head, and pulled his hair, till Hugh cried out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"O, don't, sir! Don't hurt him so!"</p>
+
+<p>"Do you call that hurting? You will soon find what hurting is, when you
+become acquainted with our birch. You shall have four times seven with
+our birch&mdash;&mdash;Let us see,&mdash;that is your favourite number, I think."</p>
+
+<p>The usher looked round, and almost everybody laughed.</p>
+
+<p>"You see I have your secret;&mdash;four times seven," continued Mr. Carnaby.
+"What do you shake your head for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because you have not my secret about four times seven."</p>
+
+<p>"Did not I hear your father? Eh?"</p>
+
+<p>"What did you hear my father say? Nobody here knows what he meant? and
+nobody need know, unless I choose to tell&mdash;which I don't.&mdash;Please don't
+teaze Phil about it, sir: for he knows no more about it than you do."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Carnaby said something about the impertinence of little boys, as if
+they could have secrets, and then declared it high time that the
+youngsters should go to bed. Hugh delivered Cook's Voyages into his
+hands, and then bade Phil good night. He was just going to put his face
+up to be kissed, but recollected in time that he was to leave off
+kissing when he went to school. He held out his hand, but Phil seemed
+not to see it, and only told him to be sure to lie enough on one side,
+so as to leave him room; and that he was to take the side of the bed
+next the window. Hugh nodded and went off, with Holt and two more, who
+slept in the same room.</p>
+
+<p>The two who were not new boys were in bed in a minute; and when they saw
+Hugh wash his face and hands, they sat up in bed to stare. One of them
+told him that he had better not do that, as the maid would be coming
+for the light, and would leave him in the dark, and report of him if he
+was not in bed. So Hugh made a great splutter, and did not half dry his
+face, and left the water in the basin;&mdash;a thing which they told him was
+not allowed. He saw that the others had not kneeled down to say their
+prayers,&mdash;a practice which he had never omitted since he could say a
+prayer, except when he had the measles. He knew the boys were watching
+him; but he thought of his mother, and how she had taught him to pray at
+her knee. He hid himself as well as he could with the scanty
+bed-curtains, and kneeled. He could not attend to the words he said,
+while feeling that eyes were upon him; and before he had done, the maid
+came in for the candle. She waited; but when he got into bed, she told
+him that he must be quicker to-morrow night, as she had no time to spare
+waiting for the candle.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh was more tired than he had ever been in his life. This had been the
+longest day he had ever known. It seemed more like a week than a day.
+Yet he could not go to sleep. He had forgotten to ask Phil to be sure
+and wake him in time in the morning: and now he must keep awake till
+Phil came, to say this. Then, he could not but ask himself whether he
+liked, and should like, being at school as much as he expected; and when
+he felt how very unlike home it was, and how rough everybody seemed, and
+how Phil appeared almost as if he was ashamed of him, instead of helping
+him, he was so miserable he did not know what to do. He cried
+bitterly,&mdash;cried till his pillow was quite wet, and he was almost choked
+with his grief; for he tried hard not to let his sobs be heard. After
+awhile, he felt what he might do. Though he had kneeled he had not
+really prayed: and if he had, God is never weary of prayers. It was a
+happy thought to Hugh that his very best friend was with him still, and
+that he might speak to Him at any time. He spoke now in his heart; and a
+great comfort it was. He said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"O God, I am all alone here, where nobody knows me; and everything is
+very strange and uncomfortable. Please, make people kind to me till I am
+used to them; and keep up a brave heart in me, if they are not. Help me
+not to mind little things; but to do my lessons well, that I may get to
+like being a Crofton boy, as I thought I should. I love them all at home
+very much,&mdash;better than I ever did before. Make them love me, and think
+of me every day,&mdash;particularly Agnes,&mdash;that they may be as glad as I
+shall be when I go home at Christmas."</p>
+
+<p>This was the most of what he had to say; and he dropped asleep with the
+feeling that God was listening to him.</p>
+
+<p>After a long while, as it seemed to him, though it was only an hour,
+there was a light and some bustle in the room. It was Phil and two
+others coming to bed.</p>
+
+<p>"O Phil!" cried Hugh, starting bolt upright and winking with sleep,&mdash;"I
+meant to keep awake, to ask you to be sure and call me in the morning,
+time enough,&mdash;quite time enough, please."</p>
+
+<p>The others laughed; and Phil asked whether he had not seen the bell, as
+he came; and what it should be for but to ring everybody up in the
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>"But I might not hear it," pleaded Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Not hear it? You'll soon see that."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, but you will see that I really do wake, wont you?"</p>
+
+<p>"The bell will take care of that, I tell you," was all he could get from
+Phil.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<h3>CROFTON PLAY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Hugh found, in the morning, that there was no danger of his not hearing
+the bell. Its clang clang startled him out of a sound sleep; and he was
+on his feet on the floor almost before his eyes were open. The boys who
+were more used to the bell did not make quite so much haste. They yawned
+a few times, and turned out more slowly; so that Hugh had the great tin
+wash basin to himself longer than the rest. There was a basin to every
+three boys; and, early as Hugh began, his companions were impatient long
+before he had done. At first, they waited, in curiosity to see what he
+was going to do after washing his face; when he went further, they began
+to quiz; but when they found that he actually thought of washing his
+feet, they hooted and groaned at him for a dirty brat.</p>
+
+<p>"Dirty!" cried Hugh, facing them, amazed, "Dirty for washing my feet!
+Mother says it is a dirty trick not to wash all over every day."</p>
+
+<p>Phil told him that was stuff and nonsense here. There was no room and no
+time for such home-doings. The boys all washed their heads and feet on
+Saturdays. He would soon find that he might be glad to get his face and
+hands done in the mornings.</p>
+
+<p>The other boys in the room were, or pretended to be, so disgusted with
+the very idea of washing feet in a basin, that they made Hugh rinse and
+rub out the tin basin several times before they would use it, and then
+there was a great bustle to get down stairs at the second bell. Hugh
+pulled his brother's arm, as Phil was brushing out of the room, and
+asked, in a whisper, whether there would be time to say his prayers.</p>
+
+<p>"There will be prayers in the school-room. You must be in time for
+them," said Phil. "You had better come with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Do wait one moment, while I just comb my hair."</p>
+
+<p>Phil fidgeted, and others giggled, while Hugh tried to part his hair, as
+Susan had taught him. He gave it up, and left it rough, thinking he
+would come up and do it when there was nobody there to laugh at him.</p>
+
+<p>The school-room looked chilly and dull, as there was no sunshine in it
+till the afternoon; and still Mr. Tooke was not there, as Hugh had hoped
+he would be. Mrs. Watson and the servants came in for prayers, which
+were well read by the usher; and then everybody went to
+business:&mdash;everybody but Hugh and Holt, who had nothing to do. Class
+after class came up for repetition; and this repetition seemed to the
+new boys an accomplishment they should never acquire. They did not think
+that any practice would enable them to gabble, as everybody seemed able
+to gabble here. Hugh had witnessed something of it before,&mdash;Phil having
+been wont to run off at home, "Sal, Sol, Ren et Splen," to the end of
+the passage, for the admiration of his sisters, and so much to little
+Harry's amusement, that Susan, however busy she might be, came to
+listen, and then asked him to say it again, that cook might hear what he
+learned at school. Hugh now thought that none of them gabbled quite so
+fast as Phil: but he soon found out, by a glance or two of Phil's to
+one side, that he was trying to astonish the new boys. It is surprising
+how it lightened Hugh's heart to find that his brother did not quite
+despise, or feel ashamed of him, as he had begun to think: but that he
+even took pains to show off. He was sorry too when the usher spoke
+sharply to Phil, and even rapped his head with the cane, asking him what
+he spluttered out his nonsense at that rate for. Thus ended Phil's
+display; and Hugh felt as hot, and as ready to cry, as if it had
+happened to himself.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the usher saw this; for when he called Hugh up, he was very
+kind. He looked at the Latin grammar he had used with Miss Harold, and
+saw by the dogs'-ears exactly how far Hugh had gone in it, and asked him
+only what he could answer very well. Hugh said three declensions, with
+only one mistake. Then he was shown the part that he was to say
+to-morrow morning; and Hugh walked away, all the happier for having
+something to do, like everybody else. He was so little afraid of the
+usher, that he went back to him to ask where he had better sit.</p>
+
+<p>"Sit! O! I suppose you must have a desk, though you have nothing to put
+in it. If there is a spare desk, you shall have it: if not, we will find
+a corner for you somewhere."</p>
+
+<p>Some of the boys whispered that Mrs. Watson's foot-stool, under her
+apron, would do: but the usher overheard this, and observed that it took
+some people a good while to know a new boy; and that they might find
+that a little fellow might be as much of a man as a big one. And the
+usher called the oldest boy in the school, and asked him to see if there
+was a desk for little Proctor. There was: and Hugh put into it his two
+or three school-books, and his slate; and felt that he was now indeed a
+Crofton boy. Then, the usher was kinder than he had expected; and he had
+still to see Mr. Tooke, of whom he was not afraid at all. So Hugh's
+spirits rose, and he liked the prospect of breakfast as well as any boy
+in the school.</p>
+
+<p>There was one more rebuff for him, first, however. He ran up to his
+room, to finish combing his hair, while the other boys were thronging
+into the long room to breakfast. He found the housemaids there, making
+the beds; and they both cried "Out! Out!" and clapped their hands at
+him, and threatened to tell Mrs. Watson of his having broken rules, if
+he did not go this moment. Hugh asked what Mrs. Watson would say to his
+hair, if he went to breakfast with it as it was. One of the maids was
+good-natured enough to comb it for him, for once: but she said he must
+carry a comb in his pocket; as the boys were not allowed to go to their
+rooms, except at stated hours.</p>
+
+<p>At last, Hugh saw Mr. Tooke. When the boys entered school at nine
+o'clock, the master was at his desk. Hugh went up to his end of the
+room, with a smiling face, while Tom Holt hung back; and he kept
+beckoning Tom Holt on, having told him there was nothing to be afraid
+of. But when, at last, Mr. Tooke saw them, he made no difference between
+the two, and seemed to forget having ever seen Hugh. He told them he
+hoped they would be good boys, and would do credit to Crofton; and then
+he asked Mr. Carnaby to set them something to learn. And this was all
+they had to do with Mr. Tooke for a long while.</p>
+
+<p>This morning in school, from nine till twelve, seemed the longest
+morning these little boys had ever known. When they remembered that the
+afternoon would be as long, and every morning and afternoon for three
+months, their hearts sank. Perhaps, if any one had told them that the
+time would grow shorter and shorter by use, and at last, when they had
+plenty to do, almost too short, they would not have believed it, because
+they could not yet feel it. But what they now found was only what every
+boy and girl finds, on beginning school, or entering upon any new way of
+life.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Carnaby, who was busy with others, found it rather difficult to fill
+up their time. When Hugh had said some Latin, and helped his companion
+to learn his first Latin lesson, and both had written a copy, and done a
+sum, Mr. Carnaby could not spare them any more time or thought, and told
+them they might do what they liked, if they only kept quiet, till school
+was up. So they made out the ridiculous figures which somebody had
+carved upon their desks, and the verses, half-rubbed out, which were
+scribbled inside: and then they reckoned, on their slates, how many days
+there were before the Christmas holidays;&mdash;how many school-days, and how
+many Sundays. And then Hugh began to draw a steamboat in the Thames, as
+seen from the leads of his father's house; while Holt drew on his slate
+the ship in which he came over from India. But before they had done, the
+clock struck twelve, school was up, and there was a general rush into
+the playground.</p>
+
+<p>Now Hugh was really to see the country. Except that the sun had shone
+pleasantly into his room in the morning, through waving trees, nothing
+had yet occurred to make him feel that he was in the country. Now,
+however, he was in the open air, with trees sprinkled all over the
+landscape, and green fields stretching away, and the old church tower
+half-covered with ivy. Hugh screamed with pleasure; and nobody thought
+it odd, for almost every boy was shouting. Hugh longed to pick up some
+of the shining brown chesnuts which he had seen yesterday in the road,
+under the trees; and he was now cantering away to the spot, when Phil
+ran after him, and roughly stopped him, saying he would get into a fine
+scrape for the first day, if he went out of bounds.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh had forgotten there were such things as bounds, and was not at all
+glad to be reminded of them now. He sighed as he begged Phil to show him
+exactly where he might go and where he might not. Phil did so in an
+impatient way, and then was off to trap-ball, because his party were
+waiting for him.</p>
+
+<p>The chesnut-trees overhung one corner of the playground, within the
+paling: and in that corner Hugh found several chesnuts which had burst
+their sheaths, and lay among the first fallen leaves. He pocketed them
+with great delight, wondering that nobody had been before him to secure
+such a treasure. Agnes should have some; and little Harry would find
+them nice playthings. They looked good to eat too; and he thought he
+could spare one to taste: so he took out his knife, cut off the point of
+a fine swelling chesnut, and tasted a bit of the inside. Just as he was
+making a face over it, and wondering that it was so nasty, when those
+which his father roasted in the fire-shovel on Christmas-day were so
+good, he heard laughter behind him, and found that he was again doing
+something ridiculous, though he knew not what: and in a moment poor Hugh
+was as unhappy as ever.</p>
+
+<p>He ran away from the laughing boys, and went quite to the opposite
+corner of the playground, where a good number of his school-fellows were
+playing ball under the orchard wall. Hugh ran hither and thither, like
+the rest, trying to catch the ball; but he never could do it; and he was
+jostled, and thrown down, and another boy fell over him; and he was told
+that he knew nothing about play, and had better move off.</p>
+
+<p>He did so, with a heavy heart, wondering how he was ever to be like the
+other boys, if nobody would take him in hand, and teach him to play, or
+even let him learn. Remembering what his mother expected of him, he
+tried to sing, to prevent crying, and began to count the pales round the
+playground, for something to do. This presently brought him to a tree
+which stood on the very boundary, its trunk serving instead of two or
+three pales. It was only a twisted old apple-tree; but the more twisted
+and gnarled it was, the more it looked like a tree that Hugh could
+climb; and he had always longed to climb a tree. Glancing up, he saw a
+boy already there, sitting on the fork of two branches, reading.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you a mind to come up?" asked the boy.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, I should like to try to climb a tree. I never did."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, this is a good one to begin with. I'll lend you a hand; shall I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't call me, 'sir.' I'm only a school-boy, like you. I am Dan Firth.
+Call me Firth, as I am the only one of the name here. You are little
+Proctor, I think&mdash;Proctor's brother."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: but, Firth, I shall pull you down, if I slip."</p>
+
+<p>"Not you: but I'll come down, and so send you up to my seat, which is
+the safest to begin with. Stand off."</p>
+
+<p>Firth swung himself down, and then, showing Hugh where to plant his
+feet, and propping him when he wanted it, he soon seated him on the
+fork, and laughed good-naturedly when Hugh waved his cap over his head,
+on occasion of being up in a tree. He let him get down and up again
+several times, till he could do it quite alone, and felt that he might
+have a seat here whenever it was not occupied by any one else.</p>
+
+<p>While Hugh sat in the branches, venturing to leave hold with one hand,
+that he might fan his hot face with his cap, Firth stood on the rail of
+the palings, holding by the tree, and talking to him. Firth told him
+that this was the only tree the boys were allowed to climb, since Ned
+Reeve had fallen from the great ash, and hurt his spine. He showed what
+trees he had himself climbed before that accident; and it made Hugh
+giddy to think of being within eight feet of the top of the lofty elm in
+the church-yard, which Firth had thought nothing of mounting.</p>
+
+<p>"Did anybody teach you?" asked Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; my father taught me to climb, when I was younger than you."</p>
+
+<p>"And had you anybody to teach you games and things, when you came here?"</p>
+
+<p>"No: but I had learned a good deal of that before I came; and so I soon
+fell into the ways here. Have you anybody to teach you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;&mdash;yes&mdash;&mdash;why, no. I thought Phil would have showed me things; but
+he does not seem to mind me at all." And Hugh bit his lip, and fanned
+himself faster.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! he attends to you more than you think."</p>
+
+<p>"Does he? Then why&mdash;&mdash;but what good does it do me?"</p>
+
+<p>"What good? His holding off makes you push your own way. It lets you
+make friends for yourself."</p>
+
+<p>"I have no friends here," said Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you have. Here am I. You would not have had me, if you had been at
+Proctor's heels at this moment."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you be my friend, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"That I will."</p>
+
+<p>"What, a great boy like you, that sits reading in a tree! But I may read
+here beside you. You said there was room for two."</p>
+
+<p>"Ay; but you must not use it yet,&mdash;at least, not often, if you wish to
+do well here. Everybody knows I can play at anything. From the time I
+became captain of the wall at fives, I have had liberty to do what I
+like, without question. But you must show that you are up to play,
+before they will let you read in peace and quiet."</p>
+
+<p>"But how can I, if&mdash;&mdash;if&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Once show your spirit,&mdash;prove that you can shift for yourself, and you
+will find Phil open out wonderfully. He and you will forget all his
+shyness then. Once show him that he need not be ashamed of you&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ashamed of me!" cried Hugh, firing up.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Little boys are looked upon as girls in a school till they show
+that they are little men. And then again, you have been brought up with
+girls,&mdash;have not you?"</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure; and so was he."</p>
+
+<p>"And half the boys here, I dare say. Well, they are called Bettys
+till&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not a Betty," cried Hugh, flashing again.</p>
+
+<p>"They suppose you are, because you part your hair, and do as you have
+been used to do at home."</p>
+
+<p>"What business have they with my hair? I might as well call them Bruins
+for wearing theirs shaggy."</p>
+
+<p>"Very true. They will let you and your hair alone when they see what you
+are made of; and then Phil will&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"He will own me when I don't want it; and now, when he might help me,
+there he is, far off, never caring about what becomes of me!"</p>
+
+<p>"O yes, he does. He is watching you all the time. You and he will have
+it all out some day before Christmas, and then you will see how he
+really cares about you. Really your hair is very long,&mdash;too like a
+girl's. Shall I cut it for you?"</p>
+
+<p>"I should like it," said Hugh, "but I don't want the boys to think I am
+afraid of them; or to begin giving up to them."</p>
+
+<p>"You are right there. We will let it alone now, and cut it when it suits
+our convenience."</p>
+
+<p>"What a nice place this is, to be sure!" cried Hugh, as the feeling of
+loneliness went off. "But the rooks do not make so much noise as I
+expected."</p>
+
+<p>"You will find what they can do in that way when spring comes,&mdash;when
+they are building."</p>
+
+<p>"And when may we go out upon the heath, and into the fields where the
+lambs are?"</p>
+
+<p>"We go long walks on Saturday afternoons; but you do not expect to see
+young lambs in October, do you?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, I forgot. I never can remember the seasons for things."</p>
+
+<p>"That shows you are a Londoner. You will learn all those things here. If
+you look for hares in our walks, you may chance to see one; or you may
+start a pheasant; but take care you don't mention lambs, or goslings, or
+cowslips, or any spring things; or you will never hear the last of it."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you: but what will poor Holt do? He is from India, and he knows
+very little about our ways."</p>
+
+<p>"They may laugh at him; but they will not despise him, as they might a
+Londoner. Being an Indian, and being a Londoner, are very different
+things."</p>
+
+<p>"And yet how proud the Londoners are over the country! It is very odd."</p>
+
+<p>"People are proud of their own ways all the world over. You will be
+proud of being a Crofton boy, by-and-by."</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps I am now, a little," said Hugh, blushing.</p>
+
+<p>"What, already? Ah! you will do, I see. I have known old people proud of
+their age, and young people of their youth. I have seen poor people
+proud of their poverty; and everybody has seen rich people proud of
+their wealth. I have seen happy people proud of their prosperity, and
+the afflicted proud of their afflictions. Yes; people can always manage
+to be proud: so you have boasted of being a Londoner up to this time;
+and from this time you will hold your head high as a Crofton boy."</p>
+
+<p>"How long? Till when?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! till when? What next! What do you mean to be afterwards?"</p>
+
+<p>"A soldier, or a sailor, or a great traveller, or something of that
+kind. I mean to go quite round the world, like Captain Cook."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you will come home, proud of having been round the world; and you
+will meet with some old neighbour who boasts of having spent all his
+life in the house he was born in."</p>
+
+<p>"Old Mr. Dixon told mother that of himself, very lately. Oh dear, how
+often does the postman come?"</p>
+
+<p>"You want a letter from home, do you? But you left them only yesterday
+morning."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how to believe that,&mdash;it seems such an immense time! But
+when does the postman come?"</p>
+
+<p>"Any day when he has letters to bring,&mdash;at about four in the afternoon.
+We see him come, from the school-room; but we do not know who the
+letters are for till school breaks up at five."</p>
+
+<p>"O dear!" cried Hugh, thinking what the suspense must be, and the
+disappointment at last to twenty boys, perhaps, for one that was
+gratified. Firth advised him to write a letter home before he began to
+expect one. If he did not like to ask the usher, he himself would rule
+the paper for him, and he could write a bit at a time, after his lessons
+were done in the evening, till the sheet was full.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh then told his grievance about the usher, and Firth thought that
+though it was not wise in Hugh to prate about Crofton on the top of the
+coach, it was worse to sit by and listen without warning, unless the
+listener meant to hold his own tongue. But he fancied the usher had
+since heard something which made him sorry; and the best way now was for
+Hugh to bear no malice, and remember nothing more of the affair than to
+be discreet in his future journeys.</p>
+
+<p>"What is the matter there?" cried Hugh. "O dear! something very
+terrible must have happened. How that boy is screaming!"</p>
+
+<p>"It is only Lamb again," replied Firth. "You will soon get used to his
+screaming. He is a very passionate boy&mdash;I never saw such a passionate
+fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"But what are they doing to him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Somebody is putting him into a passion, I suppose. There is always
+somebody to do that."</p>
+
+<p>"What a shame!" cried Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: I see no wit in it," replied Firth. "Anybody may do it. You have
+only to hold your little finger up to put him in a rage."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh thought Firth was rather cool about the matter. But Firth was not
+so cool when the throng opened for a moment, and showed what was really
+done to the angry boy. Only his head appeared above ground. His
+school-fellows had put him into a hole they had dug, and had filled it
+up to his chin, stamping down the earth, so that the boy was perfectly
+helpless, while wild with rage.</p>
+
+<p>"That is too bad!" cried Firth. "That would madden a saint."</p>
+
+<p>And he jumped down from the paling, and ran towards the crowd. Hugh,
+forgetting his height from the ground, stood up in the tree, almost as
+angry as Lamb himself, and staring with all his might to see what he
+could. He saw Firth making his way through the crowd, evidently
+remonstrating, if not threatening. He saw him snatch a spade from a boy
+who was flourishing it in Lamb's face. He saw that Firth was digging,
+though half-a-dozen boys had thrown themselves on his back, and hung on
+his arms. He saw that Firth persevered till Lamb had got his right arm
+out of the ground, and was striking everywhere within reach. Then he
+saw Firth dragged down and away, while the boys made a circle round
+Lamb, putting a foot or hand within his reach, and then snatching it
+away again, till the boy yelled with rage at the mockery.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh could look on no longer. He scrambled down from the tree, scampered
+to the spot, burst through the throng, and seized Lamb's hand. Lamb
+struck him a heavy blow, taking him for an enemy; but Hugh cried "I am
+your friend," seized his hand again, and tugged till he was first red
+and then black in the face, and till Lamb had worked his shoulders out
+of the hole, and seemed likely to have the use of his other arm in a
+trice.</p>
+
+<p>Lamb's tormentors at first let Hugh alone in amazement; but they were
+not long in growing angry with him too. They hustled him&mdash;they pulled
+him all ways&mdash;they tripped him up; but Hugh's spirit was roused, and
+that brought his body up to the struggle again and again. He wrenched
+himself free, he scrambled to his feet again, as often as he was thrown
+down; and in a few minutes he had plenty of support. Phil was taking his
+part, and shielding him from many blows. Firth had got Lamb out of the
+hole; and the party against the tormentors was now so strong that they
+began to part off till the struggle ceased. Firth kept his grasp of the
+spade; for Lamb's passion still ran so high that there was no saying
+what might be the consequences of leaving any dangerous weapon within
+his reach. He was still fuming and stamping, Hugh gazing at him the
+while in wonder and fear.</p>
+
+<p>"There stands your defender, Lamb," said Firth, "thinking he never saw a
+boy in a passion before. Come, have done with it for his sake: be a
+man, as he is. Here, help me to fill up this hole&mdash;both of you. Stamp
+down the earth, Lamb. Tread it well&mdash;tread your anger well down into it.
+Think of this little friend of yours here&mdash;a Crofton boy only
+yesterday!"</p>
+
+<p>Lamb did help to fill the hole, but he did not say a word&mdash;not one word
+to anybody, till the dinner-bell rang. Then, at the pump, where the
+party were washing their hot and dirty and bruised hands, he held out
+his hand to Hugh, muttering, with no very good grace&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what made you help me, but I will never be in a passion
+with you:&mdash;unless you put me out, that is."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh replied that he had come to help because he never could bear to see
+anybody <i>made worse</i>. He always tried at home to keep the little boys
+and girls off "drunk old Tom," as he was called in the neighbourhood. It
+was such a shame to make anybody worse! Lamb looked as if he was going
+to fly at Hugh now: but Firth put his arm round Hugh's neck, and drew
+him into the house, saying in his ear&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Don't say any more that you have no friends here. You have me for one;
+and you might have had another&mdash;two in one morning&mdash;but for your plain
+speaking about drunk old Tom."</p>
+
+<p>"Did I say any harm?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;no harm," replied Firth; laughing. "You will do, my boy&mdash;when you
+have got through a few scrapes. I'm your friend, at any rate."</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<h3>FIRST RAMBLE.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Hugh's afternoon lessons were harder than those of the morning; and in
+the evening he found he had so much to do that there was very little
+time left for writing his letter home. Some time there was, however; and
+Firth did not forget to rule his paper, and to let Hugh use his ink.
+Hugh had been accustomed to copy the prints he found in the Voyages and
+Travels he read; and he could never see a picture of a savage but he
+wanted to copy it. He was thus accustomed to a pretty free use of his
+slate-pencil. He now thought that it would save a great deal of
+description if he sent a picture or two in his letter: so he flourished
+off, on the first page, a sketch of Mr. Tooke sitting at his desk at the
+top of the school, and of Mr. Carnaby standing at his desk at the bottom
+of the school.</p>
+
+<p>The next evening he made haste to fill up the sheet, for he found his
+business increasing upon his hands so fast that he did not know when he
+should get his letter off, if he did not despatch it at once. He was
+just folding it up when Tom Holt observed that it was a pity not to put
+some words into the mouths of the figures, to make them more animated;
+and he showed Hugh, by the curious carvings of their desks, how to put
+words into the mouths of figures. Hugh then remembered having seen this
+done in the caricatures in the print-shops in London; and he seized on
+the idea. He put into Mr. Tooke's mouth the words which were oftenest
+heard from him, "Proceed, gentlemen;" and into Mr. Carnaby's, "Hold
+your din."</p>
+
+<p>Firth was too busy with his sense-verses to mind the little boys, as
+they giggled, with their heads close together, over Hugh's sheet of
+paper; but the usher was never too busy to be aware of any fun which
+might possibly concern his dignity. He had his eye on the new boys the
+whole while. He let Hugh direct his letter, and paint up a stroke or two
+which did not look so well as the rest; and it was not till Hugh was
+rolling the wafer about on his tongue that he interfered. Mr. Carnaby
+then came up, tapped Hugh's head, told him not to get on so fast, for
+that every letter must be looked over before it went to the post. While
+saying this, he took the letter, and put it into his waistcoat pocket.
+In vain Hugh begged to have it again, saying he would write another. The
+more he begged, and the more dismayed Tom Holt looked, the less Mr.
+Carnaby would attend to either. Firth let himself be interrupted to hear
+the case: but he could do nothing in it. It was a general rule, which he
+thought every boy had known; and it was too late now to prevent the
+letter being looked over.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Carnaby was so angry at the liberty Hugh had taken with his face and
+figure, that, in spite of all prayers, and a good many tears, he walked
+up the school with the letter, followed by poor Hugh, as soon as Mr.
+Tooke had taken his seat next morning. Hugh thought that Holt, who had
+put him up to the most offensive part of the pictures, might have borne
+him company; but Holt was a timid boy, and he really had not courage to
+leave his seat. So Hugh stood alone, awaiting Mr. Tooke's awful words,
+while the whole of the first class looked up from their books, in
+expectation of what was to happen. They waited some time for the
+master's words; for he was trying to help laughing. He and Mr. Carnaby
+were so much alike in the pictures, and both so like South Sea
+islanders, that it was impossible to help laughing at the thought of
+this sketch going abroad as a representation of the Crofton masters. At
+last, all parties laughed aloud, and Mr. Tooke handed Hugh his
+wafer-glass, and bade him wafer up his letter, and by all means send it.
+Mr. Carnaby could not remain offended, if his principal was not angry:
+so here the matter ended, except that Hugh made some strong resolutions
+about his future letters; and that the corners of the master's mouth
+were seen to be out of their usual order several times in the course of
+the morning.</p>
+
+<p>This incident, and everything which haunted Hugh's mind, and engrossed
+his attention, was a serious evil to him; for his business soon grew to
+be more than his habit of mind was equal to. In a few days, he learned
+to envy the boys (and they were almost the whole school) who could fix
+their attention completely and immediately on the work before them, and
+relax as completely, when it was accomplished. When his eyes were
+wandering, they observed boy after boy frowning over his dictionary, or
+repeating to himself, earnestly and without pause; and presently the
+business was done, and the learner at ease, feeling confident that he
+was ready to meet his master. After double the time had passed, Hugh was
+still trying to get the meaning of his lesson into his head&mdash;going over
+the same words a dozen times, without gaining any notion of their
+meaning&mdash;suffering, in short, from his long habit of inattention at
+home. He did now try hard; but he seemed to get only headaches for his
+pains. His brother saw enough to make him very sorry for Hugh before ten
+days was over. He might not, perhaps, have been struck with his anxious
+countenance, his frequent starts, and his laying his head down on his
+desk because it ached so, if it had not been for what happened at night.
+Sometimes Hugh started out of bed, and began to dress, when the elder
+boys went up with their light, only an hour after the younger ones.
+Sometimes he would begin saying his syntax in the middle of the night,
+fancying he was standing before Mr. Carnaby; and once, he walked in his
+sleep as far as the head of the stairs, and then suddenly woke, and
+could not make out where he was. Phil should have told Mr. Tooke of
+these things; but Hugh was so very anxious that nobody should know of
+his "tricks" (as the boys in his room called his troubles), that Phil
+only mentioned the matter to Mrs. Watson, who had known so many bad
+sleepers among little boys, and had so little idea that the habit was
+anything new, that she took scarcely any notice of it. She had his hair
+cut very short and close, and saw that he took a moderate supper, and
+was satisfied that all would be well. Hugh did not part with his hair
+till he had joked himself about its length, as much as any one could
+quiz him for it. When he had pulled it down over the end of his nose,
+and peeped through it, like an owl out of an ivy-bush, he might be
+supposed to part with it voluntarily, and not because he was laughed at.</p>
+
+<p>Phil's observation of his brother's toil and trouble led him to give him
+some help. Almost every day he would hear Hugh say his lesson&mdash;or try to
+say it; for the poor boy seldom succeeded. Phil sometimes called him
+stupid, and sometimes refrained from saying so, whatever he might
+think; but there really was very little difference in the result,
+whether Phil heard the lessons beforehand or not; and it gave Joe Cape a
+great advantage over Phil that he had no little brother to attend to.
+Considering how selfish rivalship is apt to make boys (and even men), it
+was perhaps no wonder that Phil sometimes kept out of Hugh's way at the
+right hour, saying to himself that his proper business was to do his
+lessons, and get or keep ahead of Joe Cape; and that Hugh must take his
+chance, and work his own way, as other boys had to do. This conduct
+might not be wondered at in Phil; but it hurt Hugh, and made him do his
+lessons all the worse. He did not like to expose his brother's
+unkindness to any one, or he would oftener have asked Firth to help him.
+Firth, too, had plenty of work of his own to do. More than once,
+however, Firth met the little lad, wandering about, with his grammar in
+his hand, in search of the hidden Phil; and then Firth would stop him,
+and sit down with him, and have patience, and give him such clear
+explanations, such good examples of the rules he was to learn, that it
+all became easy, and Hugh found his lessons were to him only what those
+of other boys seemed to them. Still, however, and at the best, Hugh was,
+as a learner, far too much at the mercy of circumstances&mdash;the victim of
+what passed before his eyes, or was said within his hearing.</p>
+
+<p>Boys who find difficulty in attending to their lessons are sure to be
+more teased with interruptions than any others. Holt had not the habit
+of learning; and he and Hugh were continually annoyed by the boys who
+sat near them watching how they got on, and making remarks upon them.
+One day, Mr. Tooke was called out of the school-room to a visitor, and
+Mr. Carnaby went up to take the master's place, and hear his class. This
+was too good an opportunity for the boys below to let slip; and they
+began to play tricks,&mdash;most of them directed against Hugh and Tom Holt.
+One boy, Warner, began to make the face that always made Holt laugh,
+however he tried to be grave. Page drew a caricature of Mrs. Watson on
+his slate, and held it up; and Davison took a mask out of his desk, and
+even ventured to tie it on, as if it had not been school-time.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare I can't learn my lesson&mdash;'tis too bad!" cried Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"'Tis a shame!" said Tom Holt, sighing for breath after his struggle not
+to laugh. "We shall never be ready."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh made gestures of indignation at the boys, which only caused worse
+faces to be made, and the mask to nod.</p>
+
+<p>"We wont look at them," proposed Holt. "Let us cover our eyes, and not
+look up at all."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh put his hands before his eyes; but still his mind's eye saw the
+grinning mask, and his lesson did not get on. Besides, a piece of wet
+sponge lighted on the very page he was learning from. He looked up
+fiercely, to see who had thrown it. It was no other than Tooke, who
+belonged to that class:&mdash;it was Tooke, to judge by his giggle, and his
+pretending to hide his face, as if ashamed. Hugh tossed back the sponge,
+so as to hit Tooke on the nose. Then Tooke was angry, and threw it
+again, and the sponge passed backwards and forwards several times: for
+Hugh was by this time very angry,&mdash;boiling with indignation at the
+hardship of not being able to learn his lesson, when he really would if
+he could. While the sponge was still passing to and fro, Mr. Carnaby's
+voice was heard from the far end of the room, desiring Warner, Page,
+Davison, and Tooke to be quiet, and let the boys alone till Mr. Tooke
+came in, when Mr. Tooke would take his own measures.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh, wondering how Mr. Carnaby knew, at that distance, what was going
+on, found that Holt was no longer by his side. In a moment, Holt
+returned to his seat, flushed and out of breath. A very slight hiss was
+heard from every form near, as he came down the room.</p>
+
+<p>"O! Holt! you have been telling tales!" cried Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Telling tales!" exclaimed Holt, in consternation, for Holt knew nothing
+of school ways. "I never thought of that. They asked me to tell Mr.
+Carnaby that we could not learn our lessons."</p>
+
+<p>"They! Who? I am sure I never asked you."</p>
+
+<p>"No; you did not: but Harvey and Prince did,&mdash;and Gillingham. They said
+Mr. Carnaby would soon make those fellows quiet; and they told me to
+go."</p>
+
+<p>"You hear! They are calling you 'tell-tale.' That will be your name now.
+Oh, Holt! you should not have told tales. However, I will stand by you,"
+Hugh continued, seeing the terror that Holt was in.</p>
+
+<p>"I meant no harm," said Holt, trembling. "Was not it a shame that they
+would not let us learn our lessons?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, it was&mdash;but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>At this moment Mr. Tooke entered the room. As he passed the forms, the
+boys were all bent over their books, as if they could think of nothing
+else. Mr. Tooke walked up the room to his desk, and Mr. Carnaby walked
+down the room to <i>his</i> desk; and then Mr. Carnaby said, quite aloud,</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Tooke, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Well."</p>
+
+<p>Here Holt sprang from his desk, and ran to the usher and besought him
+not to say a word about what Warner's class had been doing. He even hung
+on Mr. Carnaby's arm in entreaty; but Mr. Carnaby shook him off, and
+commanded him back to his seat. Then the whole school heard Mr. Tooke
+told about the wry faces and the mask, and the trouble of the little
+boys. Mr. Tooke was not often angry; but when he was, his face grew
+white, and his lips trembled. His face was white now. He stood up, and
+called before him the little boy who had informed. Hugh chose to go with
+Holt, though Holt had not gone up with him about the letter, the other
+day; and Holt felt how kind this was. Mr. Tooke desired to know who the
+offenders were; and as they were named, he called to them to stand up in
+their places. Then came the sentence. Mr. Tooke would never forgive
+advantage being taken of his absence. If there were boys who could not
+be trusted while his back was turned, they must be made to remember him
+when he was out of sight, by punishment. Page must remain in school
+after hours, to learn twenty lines of Virgil; Davison twenty; Tooke
+forty&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Here everybody looked round to see how Tooke bore his father being so
+angry with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Please, sir," cried one boy, "I saw little Proctor throw a sponge at
+Tooke. He did it twice."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind!" answered Tooke. "I threw it at him first. It is my
+sponge."</p>
+
+<p>"And Warner," continued the master, as if he had not heard the
+interruption, "considering that Warner has got off too easily for many
+pranks of late,&mdash;Warner seventy."</p>
+
+<p>Seventy! The idea of having anybody condemned, through him, to learn
+seventy lines of Latin by heart, made Holt so miserable, that the word
+seventy seemed really to prick his very ears. Though Mr. Tooke's face
+was still white, Holt ventured up to him&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Pray, sir&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a word of intercession for those boys?" said the master. "I will
+not hear a word in their favour."</p>
+
+<p>"Then, sir&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well."</p>
+
+<p>"I only want to say, then, that Proctor told no tales, sir. I did not
+mean any harm, sir, but I told, because&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind that," cried Hugh, afraid that he would now be telling of
+Harvey, Prince, and Gillingham, who had persuaded him to go up.</p>
+
+<p>"I have nothing to do with that. That is your affair," said the master,
+sending the boys back to their seats.</p>
+
+<p>Poor Holt had cause to rue this morning, for long after. He was weary of
+the sound of hissing, and of the name "tell-tale;" and the very boys who
+had prompted him to go up were at first silent, and then joined against
+him. He complained to Hugh of the difficulty of knowing what it was
+right to do. He had been angry on Hugh's account chiefly; and he still
+thought it <i>was</i> very unjust to hinder their lessons, when they wished
+not to be idle: and yet they were all treating him as if he had done
+something worse than the boys with the mask. Hugh thought all this was
+true; but he believed it was settled among school-boys (though Holt had
+never had the opportunity of knowing it) that it was a braver thing for
+boys to bear any teasing from one another than to call in the power of
+the master to help. A boy who did that was supposed not to be able to
+take care of himself; and for this he was despised, besides being
+disliked, for having brought punishment upon his companions.</p>
+
+<p>Holt wished Hugh had not been throwing sponges at the time:&mdash;he wished
+Hugh had prevented his going up. He would take good care how he told
+tales again.</p>
+
+<p>"You had better say so," advised Hugh; "and then they will see that you
+had never been at school, and did not know how to manage."</p>
+
+<p>The first Saturday had been partly dreaded, and partly longed for, by
+Hugh. He had longed for the afternoon's ramble; but Saturday morning was
+the time for saying tables, among other things. Nothing happened as he
+had expected. The afternoon was so rainy that there was no going out;
+and, as for the tables, he was in a class of five; and "four times
+seven" did not come to him in regular course. Eight times seven did, and
+he said "fifty-six" with great satisfaction. Mr. Carnaby asked him
+afterwards the dreaded question, but he was on his guard; and as he
+answered it right, and the usher had not found out the joke, he hoped he
+should hear no more of the matter.</p>
+
+<p>The next Saturday was fine, and at last he was to have the walk he
+longed for. The weekly repetitions were over, dinner was done, Mr.
+Carnaby appeared with his hat on, the whole throng burst into the open
+air, and out of bounds, and the new boys were wild with expectation and
+delight. When they had passed the church-yard and the green, and were
+wading through the sandy road which led up to the heath, Firth saw Hugh
+running and leaping hither and thither, not knowing what to do with his
+spirits. Firth called him, and putting his arm round Hugh's neck, so as
+to keep him prisoner, said he did not know how he might want his
+strength before he got home, and he had better not spend it on a bit of
+sandy road. So Hugh was made to walk quietly, and gained his breath
+before the breezy heath was reached.</p>
+
+<p>On the way, he saw that a boy of the name of Dale, whom he had never
+particularly observed before, was a good deal teased by some boys who
+kept crossing their hands before them, and curtseying like girls,
+talking in a mincing way, and calling one another Amelia, with great
+affectation. Dale tried to get away, but he was followed, whichever way
+he turned.</p>
+
+<p>"What do they mean by that?" inquired Hugh of Firth.</p>
+
+<p>"Dale has a sister at a school not far off, and her name is Amelia; and
+she came to see him to-day. Ah! you have not found out yet that boys are
+laughed at about their sisters, particularly if the girls have fine
+names."</p>
+
+<p>"What a shame!" cried Hugh; words which he had used very often already
+since he came to Crofton.</p>
+
+<p>He broke from Firth, ran up to Dale, and said to him, in a low voice, "I
+have two sisters, and one of them is called Agnes."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let them come to see you, then, or these fellows will quiz you as
+they do me. As if I could help having a sister Amelia!"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you are not sorry for that? You would not wish your sister dead,
+or not born, would you?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but I wish she was not hereabouts: that is, I wish she had not
+come up to the pales, with the maid-servant behind her, for everybody to
+see. And then, when Mr. Tooke sent us into the orchard together, some
+spies were peeping over the wall at us all the time."</p>
+
+<p>"I only wish Agnes would come," cried Hugh, "and I would&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! you think so now; but depend upon it, you would like much better to
+see her at home. Why, her name is finer than my sister's! I wonder what
+girls ever have such names for!"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't see that these names are finer than some boys' names. There's
+Frazer, is not his name Colin? And then there's Hercules Fisticuff&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you know&mdash;to be sure you know that is a nickname?" said Dale.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it? I never thought of that," replied Hugh. "What is his real name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Samuel Jones. However, there is Colin Frazer&mdash;and Fry, his name is
+Augustus Adolphus; I will play them off the next time they quiz Amelia.
+How old is your sister Agnes?"</p>
+
+<p>Then the two boys wandered off among the furze bushes, talking about
+their homes; and in a little while, they had so opened their hearts to
+each other, that they felt as if they had always been friends. Nobody
+thought any more about them when once the whole school was dispersed
+over the heath. Some boys made for a hazel copse, some way beyond the
+heath, in hopes of finding a few nuts already ripe. Others had boats to
+float on the pond. A large number played leap-frog, and some ran races.
+Mr. Carnaby threw himself down on a soft couch of wild thyme, on a
+rising ground, and took out his book. So Dale and Hugh felt themselves
+unobserved, and they chatted away at a great rate. Not but that an
+interruption or two did occur. They fell in with a flock of geese, and
+Hugh did not much like their appearance, never having heard a goose make
+a noise before. He had eaten roast goose, and he had seen geese in the
+feathers at the poulterers'; but he had never seen them alive, and
+stretching their necks at passengers. He flinched at the first moment.
+Dale, who never imagined that a boy who was not afraid of his
+school-fellows could be afraid of geese, luckily mistook the movement,
+and said, "Ay, get a switch,&mdash;a bunch of furze will do, and we will be
+rid of the noisy things."</p>
+
+<p>He drove them away, and Hugh had now learned, for ever, how much noise
+geese can make, and how little they are to be feared.</p>
+
+<p>They soon came upon some creatures which were larger and stronger, and
+with which Hugh was no better acquainted. Some cows were grazing, or had
+been grazing, till a party of boys came up. They were now restless,
+moving uneasily about, so that Dale himself hesitated for a moment which
+way to go. Lamb was near,&mdash;the passionate boy, who was nobody's friend,
+and who was therefore seldom at play with others. He was also something
+of a coward, as any one might know from his frequent bullying. He and
+Holt happened to be together at this time; and it was their appearance
+of fright at the restless cows which frightened Hugh. One cow at last
+began to trot towards them at a pretty good rate. Lamb ran off to the
+right, and the two little boys after him, though Dale pulled at Hugh's
+hand to make him stand still; as Dale chose to do himself. He pulled in
+vain&mdash;Hugh burst away, and off went the three boys, over the hillocks
+and through the furze, the cow trotting at some distance behind. They
+did not pause till Lamb had led them off the heath into a deep lane,
+different from the one by which they had come. The cow stopped at a
+patch of green grass, just at the entrance of the hollow way; and the
+runners therefore could take breath.</p>
+
+<p>"Now we are here," said Lamb, "I will show you a nice place,&mdash;a place
+where we can get something nice. How thirsty I am!"</p>
+
+<p>"And so am I," declared Holt, smacking his dry tongue. Hugh's mouth was
+very dry too, between the run and the fright.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, come along with me, and I will show you," said Lamb.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh thought they ought not to go farther from the heath: but Lamb said
+they would get back by another way,&mdash;through a gate belonging to a
+friend of his. They could not get back the way they came, because the
+cow was there still. He walked briskly on till they came to a cottage,
+over whose door swung a sign; and on the sign was a painting of a bottle
+and a glass, and a heap of things which were probably meant for cakes,
+as there were cakes in the window. Here Lamb turned in, and the woman
+seemed to know him well. She smiled, and closed the door behind the
+three boys, and asked them to sit down: but Lamb said there was no time
+for that to-day,&mdash;she must be quick. He then told the boys that they
+would have some ginger-beer.</p>
+
+<p>"But may we?" asked the little boys.</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure: who is to prevent us? You shall see how you like
+ginger-beer when you are thirsty."</p>
+
+<p>The woman declared that it was the most wholesome thing in the world;
+and if the young gentleman did not find it so, she would never ask him
+to taste her ginger-beer again. Hugh thanked them both; but he did not
+feel quite comfortable. He looked at Holt, to find out what he thought:
+but Holt was quite engrossed with watching the woman untwisting the wire
+of the first bottle. The cork did not fly; indeed there was some
+difficulty in getting it out: so Lamb waived his right, as the eldest,
+to drink first; and the little boys were so long in settling which
+should have it, that the little spirit there was had all gone off before
+Hugh began to drink; and he did not find ginger-beer such particularly
+good stuff as Lamb had said. He would have liked a drink of water
+better. The next bottle was very brisk: so Lamb seized upon it; and the
+froth hung round his mouth when he had done: but Holt was no better off
+with his than Hugh had been. They were both urged to try their luck
+again. Hugh would not; but Holt did once; and Lamb, two or three times.
+Then the woman offered them some cakes upon a plate: and the little boys
+thanked her, and took each one. Lamb put some in his pocket, and advised
+the others to do the same, as they had no time to spare. He kept some
+room in his pocket, however, for some plums; and told the boys that they
+might carry theirs in their handkerchiefs, or in their caps, if they
+would take care to have finished before they came within sight of the
+usher. He then asked the woman to let them out upon the heath through
+her garden gate; and she said she certainly would when they had paid.
+She then stood drumming with her fingers upon the table, and looking
+through the window, as if waiting.</p>
+
+<p>"Come, Proctor, you have half-a-crown," said Lamb. "Out with it!"</p>
+
+<p>"My half-crown!" exclaimed Proctor. "You did not say I had anything to
+pay."</p>
+
+<p>"As if you did not know that, without my telling you! You don't think
+people give away their good things, I suppose! Come,&mdash;where's your
+half-crown? My money is all at home."</p>
+
+<p>Holt had nothing with him either. Lamb asked the woman what there was to
+pay. She seemed to count and consider; and Holt told Hugh afterwards
+that he saw Lamb wink at her. She then said that the younger gentlemen
+had had the most plums and cakes. The charge was a shilling a-piece for
+them, and sixpence for Master Lamb:&mdash;half-a-crown exactly. Hugh
+protested he never meant anything like this, and that he wanted part of
+his half-crown to buy a comb with; and he would have emptied out the
+cakes and fruit he had left; but the woman stopped him, saying that she
+never took back what she had sold. Lamb hurried him, too, declaring that
+their time was up; and he even thrust his finger and thumb into Hugh's
+inner pocket, and took out the half-crown, which he gave to the woman.
+He was sure that Hugh could wait for his comb till Holt paid him, and
+the woman said she did not see that any more combing was wanted: the
+young gentleman's hair looked so pretty as it was. She then showed them
+through the garden, and gave them each a marigold full-blown. She
+unlocked her gate, pushed them through, locked it behind them, and left
+them to hide their purchases as well as they could. Though the little
+boys stuffed their pockets till the ripest plums burst, and wetted the
+linings, they could not dispose of them all; and they were obliged to
+give away a good many.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh went in search of his new friend, and drew him aside from the rest
+to relate his trouble. Dale wondered he had not found out Lamb before
+this, enough to refuse to follow his lead. Lamb would never pay a penny.
+He always spent the little money he had upon good things, the first day
+or two; and then he got what he could out of any one who was silly
+enough to trust him.</p>
+
+<p>"But," said Hugh, "the only thing we had to do with each other before
+was by my being kind to him."</p>
+
+<p>"That makes no difference," said Dale.</p>
+
+<p>"But what a bad boy he must be! To be sure, he will pay me, when he
+knows how much I want a comb."</p>
+
+<p>"He will tell you to buy it out of your five shillings. You let him know
+you had five shillings in Mrs. Watson's hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but he knows how I mean to spend that,&mdash;for presents to carry home
+at Christmas. But I'll never tell him anything again. Oh! Dale! do you
+really think he will never pay me?"</p>
+
+<p>"He never pays anybody; that is all I know. Come,&mdash;forget it all, as
+fast as you can. Let us go and see if we can get any nuts."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh did not at all succeed in his endeavours to forget his adventure.
+The more he thought about it, the worse it seemed; and the next time he
+spoke to Holt, and told him to remember that he owed him a shilling,
+Holt said he did not know that,&mdash;he did not mean to spend a shilling;
+and it was clear that it was only his fear of Hugh's speaking to Mrs.
+Watson or the usher, that prevented his saying outright that he should
+not pay it. Hugh felt very hot, and bit his lip to make his voice
+steady when he told Dale, on the way home, that he did not believe he
+should ever see any part of his half-crown again. Dale thought so too;
+but he advised him to do nothing more than keep the two debtors up to
+the remembrance of their debt. If he told so powerful a person as Firth,
+it would be almost as much tale-telling as if he went to the master at
+once; and Hugh himself had no inclination to expose his folly to Phil,
+who was already quite sufficiently ashamed of his inexperience. So poor
+Hugh threw the last of his plums to some cottager's children on the
+green, in his way home; and, when he set foot within bounds again, he
+heartily wished that this Saturday afternoon had been rainy too; for any
+disappointment would have been better than this scrape.</p>
+
+<p>While learning his lessons for Monday, he forgot the whole matter; and
+then he grew merry over the great Saturday night's washing; but after he
+was in bed, it flashed upon him that he should meet uncle and aunt Shaw
+in church to-morrow, and they would speak to Phil and him after church;
+and his uncle might ask after the half-crown. He determined not to
+expose his companions, at any rate: but his uncle would be displeased;
+and this thought was so sad that Hugh cried himself to sleep. His uncle
+and aunt were at church the next morning; and Hugh could not forget the
+ginger-beer, or help watching his uncle: so that, though he tried
+several times to attend to the sermon, he knew nothing about it when it
+was done. His uncle observed in the church-yard that they must have had
+a fine ramble the day before; but did not say anything about
+pocket-money. Neither did he name a day for his nephews to visit him,
+though he said they must come before the days grew much shorter. So Hugh
+thought he had got off very well thus far. In the afternoon, however,
+Mrs. Watson, who invited him and Holt into her parlour, to look over the
+pictures in her great Bible, was rather surprised to find how little
+Hugh could tell her of the sermon, considering how much he had
+remembered the Sunday before. She had certainly thought that to-day's
+sermon had been the simpler, and the more interesting to young people,
+of the two. Her conversation with Hugh did him good, however. It
+reminded him of his mother's words, and of her expectations from him;
+and it made him resolve to bear, not only his loss, but any blame which
+might come upon him silently, and without betraying anybody. He had
+already determined, fifty times within the twenty-four hours, never to
+be so weakly led again, when his own mind was doubtful, as he had felt
+it all the time from leaving the heath to getting back to it again. He
+began to reckon on the Christmas holidays, when he should have five
+weeks at home, free from the evils of both places,&mdash;from lessons with
+Miss Harold, and from Crofton scrapes.</p>
+
+<p>It is probable that the whole affair would have passed over quietly, and
+the woman in the lane might have made large profits by other
+inexperienced boys, and Mr. Carnaby might have gone on being careless as
+to where the boys went out of his sight on Saturdays, but that Tom Holt
+ate too many plums on the present occasion. On Sunday morning he was not
+well; and was so ill by the evening, and all Monday, that he had to be
+regularly nursed; and when he left his bed, he was taken to Mrs.
+Watson's parlour,&mdash;the comfortable, quiet place where invalid boys
+enjoyed themselves. Poor Holt was in very low spirits; and Mrs. Watson
+was so kind that he could not help telling her that he owed a shilling,
+and he did not know how he should ever pay it; and that Hugh Proctor,
+who had been his friend till now, seemed on a sudden much more fond of
+Dale; and this made it harder to be in debt to him.</p>
+
+<p>The wet, smeared lining of the pockets had told Mrs. Watson already that
+there had been some improper indulgence in good things; and when she
+heard what part Lamb had played towards the little boys, she thought it
+right to tell Mr. Tooke. Mr. Tooke said nothing till Holt was in the
+school again, which was on Thursday; and not then till the little boys
+had said their lessons, at past eleven o'clock. They were drawing on
+their slates, and Lamb was still mumbling over his book, without getting
+on, when the master's awful voice was heard, calling up before him Lamb,
+little Proctor, and Holt. All three started, and turned red; so that the
+school concluded them guilty before it was known what they were charged
+with. Dale knew,&mdash;and he alone; and very sorry he was, for the intimacy
+between Hugh and him had grown very close indeed since Saturday.</p>
+
+<p>The master was considerate towards the younger boys. He made Lamb tell
+the whole. Even when the cowardly lad "bellowed" (as his school-fellows
+called his usual mode of crying) so that nothing else could be heard,
+Mr. Tooke waited, rather than question the other two. When the whole
+story was extracted, in all its shamefulness, from Lamb's own lips, the
+master expressed his disgust. He said nothing about the money part of
+it&mdash;about how Hugh was to be paid. He probably thought it best for the
+boys to take the consequences of their folly in losing their money. He
+handed the little boys over to Mr. Carnaby to be caned&mdash;"To make them
+remember," as he said; though they themselves were pretty sure they
+should never forget. Lamb was kept to be punished by the master himself.
+Though Lamb knew he should be severely flogged, and though he was the
+most cowardly boy in the school, he did not suffer so much as Hugh did
+in the prospect of being caned&mdash;being punished at all. Phil, who knew
+his brother's face well, saw, as he passed down the room, how miserable
+he was&mdash;too miserable to cry; and Phil pulled him by the sleeve, and
+whispered that being caned was nothing to mind&mdash;only a stroke or two
+across the shoulders. Hugh shook his head, as much as to say, "It is not
+that."</p>
+
+<p>No&mdash;it was not the pain. It was the being punished in open school, and
+when he did not feel that he deserved it. How should he know where Lamb
+was taking him? How should he know that the ginger-beer was to be paid
+for, and that he was to pay? He felt himself injured enough already; and
+now to be punished in addition! He would have died on the spot for
+liberty to tell Mr. Tooke and everybody what he thought of the way he
+was treated. He had felt his mother hard sometimes; but what had she
+ever done to him compared with this? It was well he thought of his
+mother. At the first moment, the picture of home in his mind nearly made
+him cry&mdash;the thing of all others he most wished to avoid while so many
+eyes were on him; but the remembrance of what his mother expected of
+him&mdash;her look when she told him <i>he must not fail</i>, gave him courage.
+Hard as it was to be, as he believed, unjustly punished, it was better
+than having done anything very wrong&mdash;anything that he really could not
+have told his mother.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Carnaby foresaw that a rebuke was in store for him for his
+negligence during the walk on Saturday; and this anticipation did not
+sweeten his mood. He kept the little boys waiting, though Holt was
+trembling very much, and still weak from his illness. It occurred to the
+usher that another person might be made uncomfortable; and he
+immediately acted on the idea. He had observed how fond of one another
+Dale and Hugh had become; and he thought he would plague Dale a little.
+He therefore summoned him, and desired him to go, and bring him a
+switch, to cane these boys with.</p>
+
+<p>"I have broken my cane; so bring me a stout switch," said he, "Bring me
+one out of the orchard; one that will lay on well&mdash;one that will not
+break with a good hard stroke;&mdash;mind what I say&mdash;one that will not
+break."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," replied Dale, readily; and he went as if he was not at all
+unwilling. Holt shivered. Hugh never moved.</p>
+
+<p>It was long, very long, before Dale returned. When he did, he brought a
+remarkably stout broomstick.</p>
+
+<p>"This wont break, I think, sir," said he.</p>
+
+<p>The boys giggled. Mr. Carnaby knuckled Dale's head as he asked him if he
+called that a switch.</p>
+
+<p>"Bring me a <i>switch</i>," said he. "One that is not too stout, or else it
+will not sting. It must sting, remember,&mdash;sting well. Not too stout,
+remember."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," said Dale; and away he went again.</p>
+
+<p>He was now gone yet longer; and by the time he returned everybody's eyes
+were fixed on the door, to see what sort of a switch would next appear.
+Dale entered, bringing a straw.</p>
+
+<p>"I think this will not be too stout, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Everybody laughed but Hugh&mdash;even Holt.</p>
+
+<p>There was that sneer about Mr. Carnaby's nose which made everybody sorry
+now for Dale: but everybody started, Mr. Carnaby and all, at Mr. Tooke's
+voice, close at hand. How much he had seen and heard, there was no
+knowing; but it was enough to make him look extremely stern.</p>
+
+<p>"Are these boys not caned yet, Mr. Carnaby?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir;&mdash;I have not&mdash;I&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Have they been standing here all this while?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. I have no cane, sir. I have been sending&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I ordered them an immediate caning, Mr. Carnaby, and not mental
+torture. School is up," he declared to the boys at large. "You may
+go&mdash;you have been punished enough," he said to the little boys. "Mr.
+Carnaby, have the goodness to remain a moment."</p>
+
+<p>And the large room was speedily emptied of all but the master, the
+usher, and poor Lamb.</p>
+
+<p>"The usher will catch it now," observed some boys, as the master himself
+shut the door behind them. "He will get well paid for his spite."</p>
+
+<p>"What will be done to him?" asked Hugh of Dale, whom he loved fervently
+for having saved him from punishment.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't know; and I don't care&mdash;though he was just going to give my
+head some sound raps against the wall, if Mr. Tooke had not come up at
+the moment."</p>
+
+<p>"But what <i>will</i> be done to Mr. Carnaby?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind what; he wont be here long, they say. Fisher says there is
+another coming; and Carnaby is here only till that other is at liberty."</p>
+
+<p>This was good news, if true: and Hugh ran off, quite in spirits, to
+play. He had set himself diligently to learn to play, and would not be
+driven off; and Dale had insisted on fair scope for him. He played too
+well to be objected to any more. They now went to leap-frog; and when
+too hot to keep it up any longer, he and Dale mounted into the
+apple-tree to talk, while they were cooling, and expecting the
+dinner-bell.</p>
+
+<p>Something happened very wonderful before dinner. The gardener went down
+to the main road, and seemed to be looking out. At last he hailed the
+London coach. Hugh and Dale could see from their perch. The coach
+stopped, the gardener ran back, met Mr. Carnaby under the chesnuts,
+relieved him of his portmanteau, and helped him to mount the coach.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he going? Gone for good?" passed from mouth to mouth, all over the
+playground.</p>
+
+<p>"Gone for good," was the answer of those who knew to a certainty.</p>
+
+<p>The boys set up first a groan, so loud that perhaps the departing usher
+heard it. Then they gave a shout of joy, in which the little boys joined
+with all their might&mdash;Hugh waving his cap in the apple-tree.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<h3>WHAT IS ONLY TO BE HAD AT HOME.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Hugh got on far better with his lessons as he grew more intimate with
+Dale. It was not so much that Dale helped him with his grammar and
+construing (for Dale thought every boy should make shift to do his own
+business) as that he liked to talk about his work, even with a younger
+boy; and so, as he said, clear his head. A great deal that he said was
+above Hugh's comprehension; and much of his repetitions mere words: but
+there were other matters which fixed Hugh's attention, and proved to him
+that study might be interesting out of school. When Dale had a theme to
+write, the two boys often walked up and down the playground for half an
+hour together, talking the subject over, and telling of anything they
+had heard or read upon it. Hugh presently learned the names and the
+meanings of the different parts of a theme; and he could sometimes help
+with an illustration or example, though he left it to his friend to lay
+down the Proposition, and search out the Confirmation. Dale's
+nonsense-verses were perfect nonsense to Hugh: but his construing was
+not: and when he went over it aloud, for the purpose of fixing his
+lesson in his ear, as well as his mind, Hugh was sorry when they arrived
+at the end, and eager to know what came next,&mdash;particularly if they had
+to stop in the middle of a story of Ovid's. Every week, almost every day
+now, made a great difference in Hugh's school-life. He still found his
+lessons very hard work, and was often in great fear and pain about
+them,&mdash;but he continually perceived new light breaking in upon his mind:
+his memory served him better; the little he had learned came when he
+wanted it, instead of just a minute too late. He rose in the morning
+with less anxiety about the day: and when playing, could forget school.</p>
+
+<p>There was no usher yet in Mr. Carnaby's place; and all the boys said
+their lessons to Mr. Tooke himself: which Hugh liked very much, when he
+had got over the first fear. A writing-master came from a distance
+twice a-week, when the whole school was at writing and arithmetic all
+the afternoon: but every other lesson was said to the master; and this
+was likely to go on till Christmas, as the new usher, of whom, it was
+said, Mr. Tooke thought so highly as to choose to wait for him, could
+not come before that time. Of course, with so much upon his hands, Mr.
+Tooke had not a moment to spare; and slow or idle boys were sent back to
+their desks at the first trip or hesitation in their lessons. Hugh was
+afraid, at the outset, that he should be like poor Lamb, who never got a
+whole lesson said during these weeks: and he was turned down sometimes;
+but not often enough to depress him. He learned to trust more to his ear
+and his memory: his mind became excited, as in playing a game: and he
+found he got through, he scarcely knew how. His feeling of fatigue
+afterwards proved to him that this was harder work than he had ever done
+at home; but he did not feel it so at the time. When he could learn a
+lesson in ten minutes, and say it in one; when he began to use Latin
+phrases in his private thoughts, and saw the meaning of a rule of
+syntax, so as to be able to find a fresh example out of his own head, he
+felt himself really a Crofton boy, and his heart grew light within him.</p>
+
+<p>The class to which Hugh belonged was one day standing waiting to be
+heard, when the master was giving a subject and directions for an
+English theme to Dale's class. The subject was the Pleasures of
+Friendship. In a moment Hugh thought of Damon and Pythias, and of David
+and Jonathan,&mdash;of the last of whom there was a picture in Mrs. Watson's
+great Bible. He thought how happy he had been since he had known Dale,
+and his heart was in such a glow, he was sure he could write a theme.
+He ran after Mr. Tooke when school was over, and asked whether he might
+write a theme with Dale's class. When Mr. Tooke found he knew what was
+meant by writing a theme, he said he might try, if he neglected nothing
+for it, and wrote every word of it himself, without consultation with
+any one.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh scampered away to tell Dale that they must not talk over this theme
+together, as they were both to do it; and then, instead of playing, he
+went to his desk, and wrote upon his slate till it was quite full. He
+had to borrow two slates before he had written all he had to say. Phil
+ruled his paper for him; but before he had copied one page, his
+neighbours wanted their slates back again,&mdash;said they must have them,
+and rubbed out all he had written. Much of the little time he had was
+lost in this way, and he grew wearied. He thought at first that his
+theme would be very beautiful: but he now began to doubt whether it
+would be worth anything at all; and he was vexed to have tired himself
+with doing what would only make him laughed at. The first page was well
+written out,&mdash;the Confirmation being properly separated from the
+Proposition: but he had to write all the latter part directly from his
+head upon the paper, as the slates were taken away; and he forgot to
+separate the Conclusion from the Inference.</p>
+
+<p>He borrowed a penknife, and tried to scratch out half a line; but he
+only made a hole in the paper, and was obliged to let the line stand.
+Then he found he had strangely forgotten to put in the chief thing of
+all,&mdash;about friends telling one another of their faults,&mdash;though, on
+consideration, he was not sure that this was one of the Pleasures of
+Friendship: so, perhaps, it did not much matter. But there were two
+blots; and he had left out Jonathan's name, which had to be interlined.
+Altogether, it had the appearance of a very bad theme. Firth came and
+looked over his shoulder, as he was gazing at it; and Firth offered to
+write it out for him; and even thought it would be fair, as he had had
+nothing to do with the composition: but Hugh could not think it would be
+fair, and said, sighing, that his must take its chance. He did not think
+he could have done a theme so very badly.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tooke beckoned him up with Dale's class, when they carried up their
+themes; and, seeing how red his face was, the master bade him not be
+afraid. But how could he help being afraid? The themes were not read
+directly. It was Mr. Tooke's practice to read them out of school-hours.
+On this occasion, judgment was given the last thing before school broke
+up the next morning.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh had never been more astonished in his life. Mr. Tooke praised his
+theme very much, and said it had surprised him. He did not mind the
+blots and mistakes, which would, he said, have been great faults in a
+copy-book, but were of less consequence than other things in a theme.
+Time and pains would correct slovenliness of that kind; and the thoughts
+and language were good. Hugh was almost out of his wits with delight; so
+nearly so that he spoiled his own pleasure completely. He could not keep
+his happiness to himself, or his vanity: for Hugh had a good deal of
+vanity,&mdash;more than he was aware of before this day. He told several boys
+what Mr. Tooke had said: but he soon found that would not do. Some were
+indifferent, but most laughed at him. Then he ran to Mrs. Watson's
+parlour, and knocked. Nobody answered; for the room was empty: so Hugh
+sought her in various places, and at last found her in the kitchen,
+boiling some preserves.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you come here for? This is no place for you," said she, when
+the maids tried in vain to put Hugh out.</p>
+
+<p>"I only want to tell you one thing," cried Hugh; and he repeated exactly
+what Mr. Tooke had said of his theme. Mrs. Watson laughed, and the maids
+laughed, and Hugh left them, angry with them, but more angry with
+himself. They did not care for him,&mdash;nobody cared for him, he said to
+himself; he longed for his mother's look or approbation when he had done
+well, and Agnes' pleasure, and even Susan's fondness and praise. He
+sought Dale. Dale was in the midst of a game, and had not a word or look
+to spare till it was over. The boys would have admitted Hugh; for he
+could now play as well as anybody; but he was in no mood for play now.
+He climbed his tree, and sat there, stinging his mind with the thought
+of his having carried his boastings into the kitchen, and with his
+recollection of Mrs. Watson's laugh.</p>
+
+<p>It often happened that Firth and Hugh met at this tree; and it happened
+now. There was room for both; and Firth mounted, and read for some time.
+At last, he seemed to be struck by Hugh's restlessness and heavy sighs;
+and he asked whether he had not got something to amuse himself with.</p>
+
+<p>"No. I don't want to amuse myself," said Hugh, stretching so as almost
+to throw himself out of the tree.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what's the matter? Did not you come off well with your theme? I
+heard somebody say you were quite enough set up about it."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the use of doing a thing well, if nobody cares about it?"
+said Hugh. "I don't believe anybody at Crofton cares a bit about
+me&mdash;cares whether I get on well or ill&mdash;except Dale. If I take pains and
+succeed, they only laugh at me."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! you don't understand school and school-boys yet," replied Firth.
+"To do a difficult lesson well is a grand affair at home, and the whole
+house knows of it. But it is the commonest thing in the world here. If
+you learn to feel with these boys, instead of expecting them to feel
+with you (which they cannot possibly do), you will soon find that they
+care for you accordingly."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>"You will find in every school in England," continued Firth, "that it is
+not the way of boys to talk about feelings&mdash;about anybody's feelings.
+That is the reason why they do not mention their sisters or their
+mothers&mdash;except when two confidential friends are together, in a tree,
+or by themselves in the meadows. But, as sure as ever a boy is full of
+action&mdash;if he tops the rest at play&mdash;holds his tongue, or helps others
+generously&mdash;or shows a manly spirit without being proud of it, the whole
+school is his friend. You have done well, so far, by growing more and
+more sociable; but you will lose ground if you boast about your lessons
+out of school. To prosper at Crofton, you must put off home, and make
+yourself a Crofton boy."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't care about that," said Hugh. "I give it all up. There is
+nothing but injustice here."</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing but injustice! Pray, am I unjust?"</p>
+
+<p>"No&mdash;not you&mdash;not so far. But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Is Mr. Tooke unjust?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes&mdash;very."</p>
+
+<p>"Pray how, and when?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has been so unjust to me, that if it had not been for something, I
+could not have borne it. I am not going to tell you what that something
+is: only you need not be afraid but that I can bear everything. If the
+whole world was against me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, never mind what that something is; but tell me how Mr. Tooke is
+unjust to you."</p>
+
+<p>"He punished me when I did not deserve it; and he praised me when I did
+not deserve it. I was cheated and injured that Saturday; and, instead of
+seeing me righted, Mr. Tooke ordered me to be punished. And to-day, when
+my theme was so badly done that I made sure of being blamed, he praised
+me."</p>
+
+<p>"This might be injustice at home," replied Firth, "because parents know,
+or ought to know, all that is in their children's minds, and exactly
+what their children can do. A school-master can judge only by what he
+sees. Mr. Tooke does not know yet that you could have done your theme
+better than you did&mdash;as your mother would have known. When he finds you
+can do better, he will not praise such a theme again. Meantime, how you
+can boast of his praise, if you think it unjust, is the wonder to me."</p>
+
+<p>"So it is to me now. I wish I had never asked to do that theme at all,"
+cried Hugh, again stretching himself to get rid of his shame. "But why
+did Mr. Tooke order me to be caned? Why did he not make Lamb and Holt
+pay me what they owe? I was injured before; and he injured me more."</p>
+
+<p>"You were to be caned because you left the heath and entered a house,
+without leave&mdash;not because you had been cheated of your money."</p>
+
+<p>"But I did not know where I was going. I never meant to enter a house."</p>
+
+<p>"But you did both; and what you suffered will prevent your letting
+yourself be led into such a scrape again. As for the money part of the
+matter&mdash;a school is to boys what the world is when they become men. They
+must manage their own affairs among themselves. The difference is, that
+here is the master to be applied to, if we choose. He will advise you
+about your money, if you choose to ask him: but, for my part, I would
+rather put up with the loss, if I were you."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody will ever understand what I mean about justice," muttered Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose," said Firth, "while you are complaining of injustice in this
+way, somebody else should be complaining in the same way of your
+injustice."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody can&mdash;fairly," replied Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you see that poor fellow, skulking there under the orchard-wall?"</p>
+
+<p>"What, Holt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Holt. I fancy the thought in his mind at this moment is that you
+are the most unjust person at Crofton."</p>
+
+<p>"I! unjust!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; so he thinks. When you first came, you and he were companions. You
+found comfort in each other while all the rest were strangers to you.
+You were glad to hear, by the hour together, what he had to tell you
+about India, and his voyages and travels. Now he feels himself lonely
+and forsaken, while he sees you happy with a friend. He thinks it hard
+that you should desert him because he owes you a shilling, when he was
+cheated quite as much as you."</p>
+
+<p>"Because he owes me a shilling!" cried Hugh, starting to his feet, "as
+if&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Once more he had nearly fallen from his perch. Firth caught him; and
+then asked him how Holt should think otherwise than as he did, since
+Hugh had been his constant companion up to that Saturday afternoon, and
+had hardly spoken to him since.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh protested that the shilling had nothing to do with the matter; and
+he never meant to take more than sixpence from Holt, because he thought
+Lamb was the one who ought to pay the shilling. The thing was, he did
+not, and could not, like Holt half so well as Dale. He could not make a
+friend of Holt, because he wanted spirit&mdash;he had no courage. What could
+he do? He could not pretend to be intimate with Holt when he did not
+like him; and if he explained that the shilling had nothing to do with
+the matter, he could not explain how it really was, when the fault was
+in the boy's character, and not in his having given any particular
+offence. What could he do?</p>
+
+<p>Firth thought he could only learn not to expect, anywhere out of the
+bounds of home, what he thought justice. He must, of course, try himself
+to be just to everybody; but he must make up his mind in school, as men
+have to do in the world, to be misunderstood&mdash;to be wrongly valued; to
+be blamed when he felt himself the injured one; and praised when he knew
+he did not deserve it.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is so hard," said Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"And what do people leave home for but to learn hard lessons?"</p>
+
+<p>"But, still, if it were not for&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"For what? Do you see any comfort under it?" asked Firth, fixing his
+eyes on Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh nodded, without speaking.</p>
+
+<p>"That One understands us who cannot be unjust!" whispered Firth. "I am
+glad you feel that."</p>
+
+<p>"Even home would be bad enough without that," said Hugh. "And what would
+school be?"</p>
+
+<p>"Or the world?" added Firth. "But do not get cross, and complain again.
+Leave that to those who have no comfort."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh nodded again. Then he got down, and ran to tell Holt that he did
+not want a shilling from him, because he thought sixpence would be
+fairer.</p>
+
+<p>Holt was glad to hear this at first; but he presently said that it did
+not much matter, for that he had no more chance of being able to pay
+sixpence than a shilling. His parents were in India, and his uncle never
+offered him any money. He knew indeed that his uncle had none to spare;
+for he had said in the boy's hearing, that it was hard on him to have to
+pay the school-bills (unless he might pay them in the produce of his
+farm), so long as it must be before he could be repaid from India. So
+Holt did not dare to ask for pocket-money; and for the hundredth time he
+sighed over his debt. He had almost left off hoping that Hugh would
+excuse him altogether, though everybody knew that Hugh had five
+shillings in Mrs. Watson's hands. This fact, and Hugh's frequent
+applications to Lamb for payment, had caused an impression that Hugh was
+fond of money. It was not so; and yet the charge was not unfair. Hugh
+was ready to give if properly asked; but he did not relish, and could
+not bear with temper, the injustice of such a forced borrowing as had
+stripped him of his half-crown. He wanted his five shillings for
+presents for his family; and for these reasons, and not because he was
+miserly, he did not offer to excuse Holt's debt; which it would have
+been more generous to have done. Nobody could wish that he should excuse
+Lamb's.</p>
+
+<p>"When are you going to your uncle's?" asked Holt. "I suppose you <i>are</i>
+going some day before Christmas."</p>
+
+<p>"On Saturday, to stay till Sunday night," said Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"And Proctor goes too, I suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; of course, Phil goes too."</p>
+
+<p>"Anybody else?"</p>
+
+<p>"We are each to take one friend, just for Saturday, to come home at
+night."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh? then, you will take me. You said you would."</p>
+
+<p>"Did I? That must have been a long time ago."</p>
+
+<p>"But you did say so,&mdash;that, whenever you went, you would ask leave to
+take me."</p>
+
+<p>"I don't remember any such thing. And I am going to take Dale this time.
+I have promised him."</p>
+
+<p>Holt cried with vexation. Dale was always in his way. Hugh cared for
+nobody but Dale; but Dale should not go to Mr. Shaw's till he had had
+his turn. He had been promised first, and he would go first. He would
+speak to Mrs. Watson, and get leave to go and tell Mr. Shaw, and then he
+was sure Mr. Shaw would let him go.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh was very uncomfortable. He really could not remember having made
+this promise: but he could not be sure that he had not. He asked Holt if
+he thought he should like to be in people's way, to spoil the holiday by
+going where he was not wished for; but this sort of remonstrance did not
+comfort Holt at all. Hugh offered that he should have the very next
+turn, if he would give up now.</p>
+
+<p>"I dare say! And when will that be? You know on Sunday it will want only
+nineteen days to the holidays; and you will not be going to your uncle's
+again this half-year. A pretty way of putting me off!"</p>
+
+<p>Then, as if a sudden thought had struck him, he cried,</p>
+
+<p>"But Proctor has to take somebody."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; Phil takes Tooke. They settled that a week ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! can't you ask him to take me?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; I shall not meddle with Phil. Besides, I am glad he has chosen
+Tooke. Tooke behaved well to me about the sponge, that day. Tooke has
+some spirit."</p>
+
+<p>This put Holt in mind of the worst of his adventures since he came to
+Crofton, and of all the miseries of being shunned as a tell-tale. He
+cried so bitterly as to touch Hugh's heart. As if thinking aloud, Hugh
+told him that he seemed very forlorn, and that he wished he would find a
+friend to be intimate with. This would make him so much happier as he
+had no idea of; as he himself had found since he had had Dale for a
+friend.</p>
+
+<p>This naturally brought out a torrent of reproaches, which was followed
+by a hot argument; Holt insisting that Hugh ought to have been his
+intimate friend; and Hugh asking how he could make a friend of a boy who
+wanted spirit. They broke away from one another at last, Hugh declaring
+Holt to be unreasonable and selfish, and Holt thinking Hugh cruel and
+insulting.</p>
+
+<p>Of course Mrs. Watson would not hear of Holt's going to Mr. Shaw, to ask
+for an invitation for Saturday. He was told he must wait till another
+time. It was no great consolation to Holt that on Sunday it would want
+only nineteen days to the holidays: for he was to remain at Crofton. He
+hoped to like the holidays better than school-days, and to be petted by
+Mrs. Watson, and to sit by the fire, instead of being forced into the
+playground in all weathers: but still he could not look forward to
+Christmas with the glee which other boys felt.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>A LONG DAY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Hugh, meantime, was counting the hours till Saturday. Perhaps, if the
+truth were known, so was Phil, though he was too old to acknowledge such
+a longing. But the climbing about the mill,&mdash;the play encouraged there
+by his uncle and the men,&mdash;his uncle's stories within doors, his aunt's
+good dinners,&mdash;the fire-side, the picture-books, the talk of home,
+altogether made up the greatest treat of the half-year. Phil had plenty
+of ways of passing the time. Hugh began a long letter home,&mdash;the very
+last letter, except the short formal one which should declare when the
+Christmas vacation should commence. Hugh meant to write half the letter
+before Saturday, and then fill it up with an account of his visit to his
+uncle's.</p>
+
+<p>The days were passed, however, when Hugh had the command of his leisure
+time, as on his arrival, when his hours were apt to hang heavy. He had
+long since become too valuable in the playground to be left to follow
+his own devices. As the youngest boy, he was looked upon as a sort of
+servant to the rest, when once it was found that he was quick and
+clever. Either as scout, messenger, or in some such capacity, he was
+continually wanted; and often at times inconvenient to himself. He then
+usually remembered what Mr. Tooke had told him of his boy, when Tooke
+was the youngest,&mdash;how he bore things&mdash;not only being put on the high
+wall, but being well worked in the service of the older boys. Usually
+Hugh was obliging, but he could and did feel cross at times. He was
+cross on this Friday,&mdash;the day when he was so anxious to write his
+letter before going to his uncle's. On Saturday there would be no time.
+The early mornings were dark now; and after school he should have to
+wash and dress, and be off to his uncle's. On Friday then, his paper was
+ruled, and he had only to run across the playground to borrow Firth's
+penknife, and then nothing should delay his letter.</p>
+
+<p>In that run across the playground he was stopped. He was wanted to
+collect clean snow for the boys who were bent on finishing their
+snow-man while it would bind. He should be let off when he had brought
+snow enough. But he knew that by that time his fingers would be too
+stiff to hold his pen; and he said he did not choose to stop now. Upon
+this Lamb launched a snow-ball in his face. Hugh grew angry,&mdash;or, as his
+school-fellows said, insolent. Some stood between him and the house, to
+prevent his getting home, while others promised to roll him in the snow
+till he yielded full submission. Instead of yielding, Hugh made for the
+orchard wall, scrambled up it, and stood for the moment out of the reach
+of his enemies. He kicked down such a quantity of snow upon any one who
+came near, that he held all at bay for some little time. At last,
+however, he had disposed of all the snow within his reach, and they
+were pelting him thickly with snow-balls. It was not at any time very
+easy to stand upright, for long together, upon this wall, as the stones
+which capped it were rounded. Now, when the coping-stones were slippery
+after the frost, and Hugh nearly blinded with the shower of snow-balls,
+he could not keep his footing, and was obliged to sit astride upon the
+wall. This brought one foot within reach from below; and though Hugh
+kicked, and drew up his foot as far and as often as he could, so as not
+to lose his balance, it was snatched at by many hands. At last, one hand
+kept its hold, and plenty more then fastened upon his leg. They pulled:
+he clung. In another moment, down he came, and the large heavy
+coping-stone, loosened by the frost, came after him, and fell upon his
+left foot as he lay.</p>
+
+<p>It was a dreadful shriek that he gave. Mrs. Watson heard it in her
+store-room, and Mr. Tooke in his study. Some labourers felling a tree in
+a wood, a quarter of a mile off, heard it, and came running to see what
+could be the matter. The whole school was in a cluster round the poor
+boy in a few seconds. During this time, while several were engaged in
+lifting away the stone, Tooke stooped over him, and said, with his lips
+as white as paper,</p>
+
+<p>"Who was it that pulled you,&mdash;that got the first hold of you? Was it I?
+O! say it was not I."</p>
+
+<p>"It was you," said Hugh. "But never mind! You did not mean it."&mdash;He saw
+that Tooke's pain was worse than his own, and he added, in a faint
+whisper,</p>
+
+<p>"Don't you tell, and then nobody will know. Mind you don't!"</p>
+
+<p>One boy after another turned away from the sight of his foot, when the
+stone was removed. Tooke fainted, but, then, so did another boy who had
+nothing to do with the matter. Everybody who came up asked who did it;
+and nobody could answer. Tooke did not hear; and so many felt themselves
+concerned, that no one wished that any answer should be given.</p>
+
+<p>"Who did it, my dear boy?" asked Firth, bending over him.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind!" was all Hugh could say. He groaned in terrible pain.</p>
+
+<p>He must not lie there; but who could touch him? Firth did; and he was
+the right person, as he was one of the strongest. He made two boys pass
+their handkerchiefs under the leg, and sling it, without touching it;
+and he lifted Hugh, and carried him across his arms towards the house.
+They met Mr. Tooke, and every person belonging to the household, before
+they reached the door.</p>
+
+<p>"To my bed!" said the master, when he saw: and in an instant the
+gardener had his orders to saddle Mr. Tooke's horse, and ride to London
+for an eminent surgeon: stopping by the way to beg Mr. and Mrs. Shaw to
+come, and bring with them the surgeon who was their neighbour, Mr.
+Annanby.</p>
+
+<p>"Who did it?" "Who pulled him down?" passed from mouth to mouth of the
+household.</p>
+
+<p>"He wont tell,&mdash;noble fellow," cried Firth. "Don't ask him. Never ask
+him who pulled him down."</p>
+
+<p>"You will never repent it, my dear boy," whispered Firth.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh tried to smile, but he could not help groaning again. There was a
+suppressed groan from some one else. It was from Mr. Tooke. Hugh was
+sadly afraid he had, by some means, found out who did the mischief. But
+it was not so. Mr. Tooke was quite wretched enough without that.</p>
+
+<p>Everybody was very kind, and did the best that could be done. Hugh was
+held up on the side of Mr. Tooke's bed, while Mrs. Watson took off his
+clothes, cutting the left side of his trousers to pieces, without any
+hesitation. The master held the leg firmly while the undressing went on;
+and then poor Hugh was laid back, and covered up warm, while the foot
+was placed on a pillow, with only a light handkerchief thrown over it.</p>
+
+<p>It was terrible to witness his pain; but Mr. Tooke never left him all
+day. He chafed his hands, he gave him drink; he told him he had no doubt
+his mother would arrive soon; he encouraged him to say or do anything
+that he thought would give him ease.</p>
+
+<p>"Cry my dear," he said, "if you want to cry. Do not hide tears from me."</p>
+
+<p>"I can't help crying," sobbed Hugh: "but it is not the pain,&mdash;not only
+the pain; it is because you are so kind!"</p>
+
+<p>"Where <i>is</i> Phil?" he said at last.</p>
+
+<p>"He is so very unhappy, that we think he had better not see you till
+this pain is over. When you are asleep, perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! when will that be?" and poor Hugh rolled his head on the pillow.</p>
+
+<p>"George rides fast; he is far on his way by this time," said Mr. Tooke.
+"And one or other of the surgeons will soon be here; and they will tell
+us what to do, and what to expect."</p>
+
+<p>"Do tell Phil so,&mdash;will you?"</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tooke rang the bell; and the message was sent to Phil, with Hugh's
+love.</p>
+
+<p>"Will the surgeon hurt me much, do you think?" Hugh asked. "I will bear
+it. I only want to know."</p>
+
+<p>"I should think you hardly could be in more pain than you are now,"
+replied Mr. Tooke. "I trust they will relieve you of this pain. I should
+not wonder if you are asleep to-night as quietly as any of us; and then
+you will not mind what they may have done to you."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh thought he should mind nothing, if he could ever be asleep again.</p>
+
+<p>He was soon asked if he would like to see his uncle and aunt, who were
+come. He wished to see his uncle; and Mr. Shaw came up, with the
+surgeon. Mr. Annanby did scarcely anything to the foot at present. He
+soon covered it up again, and said he would return in time to meet the
+surgeon who was expected from London. Then Hugh and his uncle were
+alone.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Shaw told him how sorry the boys all were, and how they had come in
+from the playground at once, and put themselves under Firth, to be kept
+quiet; and that very little dinner had been eaten; and that, when the
+writing-master arrived, he was quite astonished to find everything so
+still, and the boys so spiritless: but that nobody told him till he
+observed how two or three were crying, so that he was sure something was
+the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"Which? Who? Who is crying?" asked Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Poor Phil, and I do not know who else,&mdash;not being acquainted with the
+rest."</p>
+
+<p>"How glad I am that Dale had nothing to do with it!" said Hugh. "He was
+quite on the other side of the playground."</p>
+
+<p>"They tell me below that I must not ask you how it happened."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh yes! you may. Everything except just who it was that pulled me down.
+So many got hold of me that nobody knows exactly who gave <i>the</i> pull,
+except myself and one other. He did not mean it; and I was cross about
+playing with them; and the stone on the wall was loose, or it would not
+have happened. O dear! O dear! Uncle, do you think it a bad accident?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, my boy, a very bad accident."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think I shall die? I never thought of that," said Hugh. And he
+raised himself a little, but was obliged to lie back again.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I do not think you will die."</p>
+
+<p>"Will they think so at home? Was that the reason they were sent to?"</p>
+
+<p>"No: I have no doubt your mother will come to nurse you, and to comfort
+you: but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"To comfort me? Why, Mr. Tooke said the pain would soon be over, he
+thought, and I should be asleep to-night."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but, though the pain may be over, it may leave you lame. That will
+be a misfortune; and you will be glad of your mother to comfort you."</p>
+
+<p>"Lame!" said the boy. Then, as he looked wistfully in his uncle's face,
+he saw the truth.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! uncle, they are going to cut off my leg."</p>
+
+<p>"Not your leg, I hope, Hugh. You will not be quite so lame as that: but
+I am afraid you must lose your foot."</p>
+
+<p>"Was that what Mr. Tooke meant by the surgeon's relieving me of my
+pain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; it was."</p>
+
+<p>"Then it will be before night. Is it quite certain, uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Annanby thinks so. Your foot is too much hurt ever to be cured. Do
+you think you can bear it, Hugh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, I suppose so. So many people have. It is less than some of
+the savages bear. What horrid things they do to their captives,&mdash;and
+even to some of their own boys! And they bear it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; but you are not a savage."</p>
+
+<p>"But one may be as brave, without being a savage. Think of the martyrs
+that were burnt, and some that were worse than burnt! And they bore it."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Shaw perceived that Hugh was either in much less pain now, or that
+he forgot everything in a subject which always interested him extremely.
+He told his uncle what he had read of the tortures inflicted by savages,
+till his uncle, already a good deal agitated, was quite sick: but he let
+him go on, hoping that the boy might think lightly in comparison of what
+he himself had to undergo. This could not last long, however. The
+wringing pain soon came back; and as Hugh cried, he said he bore it so
+very badly, he did not know what his mother would say if she saw him.
+She had trusted him not to fail; but really he could not bear this much
+longer.</p>
+
+<p>His uncle told him that nobody had thought of his having such pain as
+this to bear: that he had often shown himself a brave little fellow; and
+he did not doubt that, when this terrible day was over, he would keep up
+his spirits through all the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh would have his uncle go down to tea. Then he saw a gown and shawl
+through the curtain, and started up; but it was not his mother yet. It
+was only Mrs. Watson come to sit with him while his uncle had his tea.</p>
+
+<p>Tea was over, and the younger boys had all gone up to bed, and the older
+ones were just going, when there was a ring at the gate. It was Mrs.
+Proctor; and with her the surgeon from London.</p>
+
+<p>"Mother! Never mind, mother!" Hugh was beginning to say; but he stopped
+when he saw her face,&mdash;it was so very pale and grave. At least, he
+thought so; but he saw her only by fire-light; for the candle had been
+shaded from his eyes, because he could not bear it. She kissed him with
+a long, long kiss; but she did not speak.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish the surgeon had come first," he whispered, "and then they would
+have had my foot off before you came. When <i>will</i> he come?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is here,&mdash;they are both here."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, then, do make them make haste. Mr. Tooke says I shall go to sleep
+afterwards. You think so? Then we will both go to sleep, and have our
+talk in the morning. Do not stay now,&mdash;this pain is <i>so</i> bad,&mdash;I can't
+bear it well at all. Do go, now, and bid them make haste, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>His mother whispered that she heard he had been a brave boy, and she
+knew he would be so still. Then the surgeons came up, and Mr. Shaw.
+There was some bustle in the room, and Mr. Shaw took his sister down
+stairs, and came up again, with Mr. Tooke.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't let mother come," said Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"No, my boy, I will stay with you," said his uncle.</p>
+
+<p>The surgeons took off his foot. As he sat in a chair, and his uncle
+stood behind him, and held his hands, and pressed his head against him,
+Hugh felt how his uncle's breast was heaving,&mdash;and was sure he was
+crying. In the very middle of it all, Hugh looked up in his uncle's
+face, and said,</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind, uncle! I can bear it."</p>
+
+<p>He did bear it finely. It was far more terrible than he had fancied; and
+he felt that he could not have gone on a minute longer. When it was
+over, he muttered something, and Mr. Tooke bent down to hear what it
+was. It was&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I can't think how the Red Indians bear things so."</p>
+
+<p>His uncle lifted him gently into bed, and told him that he would soon
+feel easy now.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you told mother?" asked Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; we sent to her directly."</p>
+
+<p>"How long did it take?" asked Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"You have been out of bed only a few minutes&mdash;seven or eight, perhaps."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, uncle, you don't mean really?"</p>
+
+<p>"Really: but we know they seemed like hours to you. Now, your mother
+will bring you some tea. When you have had that, you will go to sleep:
+so I shall wish you good night now."</p>
+
+<p>"When will you come again?"</p>
+
+<p>"Very often, till you come to me. Not a word more now. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh was half asleep when his tea came up, and quite so directly after
+he had drunk it. Though he slept a great deal in the course of the
+night, he woke often,&mdash;such odd feelings disturbed him! Every time he
+opened his eyes, he saw his mother sitting by the fire-side; and every
+time he moved in the least, she came softly to look. She would not let
+him talk at all till near morning, when she found that he could not
+sleep any more, and that he seemed a little confused about where he
+was,&mdash;what room it was, and how she came to be there by fire-light. Then
+she lighted a candle, and allowed him to talk about his friend Dale, and
+several school affairs; and this brought back gradually the recollection
+of all that had happened.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know what I have been about, I declare," said he, half
+laughing. But he was soon as serious as ever he was in his life, as he
+said, "But oh! mother, tell me,&mdash;do tell me if I have let out who pulled
+me off the wall."</p>
+
+<p>"You have not,&mdash;you have not indeed," replied she. "I shall never ask. I
+do not wish to know. I am glad you have not told; for it would do no
+good. It was altogether an accident."</p>
+
+<p>"So it was," said Hugh; "and it would make the boy so unhappy to be
+pointed at! Do promise me, if I should let it out in my sleep, that you
+will never, never tell anybody."</p>
+
+<p>"I promise you. And I shall be the only person beside you while you are
+asleep, till you get well. So you need not be afraid.&mdash;Now, lie still
+again."</p>
+
+<p>She put out the light, and he did lie still for some time; but then he
+was struck with a sudden thought which made him cry out.</p>
+
+<p>"O, mother, if I am so lame, I can never be a soldier or a sailor.&mdash;I
+can never go round the world!"</p>
+
+<p>And Hugh burst into tears, now more really afflicted than he had been
+yet. His mother sat on the bed beside him, and wiped away his tears as
+they flowed, while he told her, as well as his sobs would let him, how
+long and how much he had reckoned on going round the world, and how
+little he cared for anything else in the future; and now this was just
+the very thing he should never be able to do! He had practised climbing
+ever since he could remember;&mdash;and now that was of no use;&mdash;he had
+practised marching, and now he should never march again. When he had
+finished his complaint, there was a pause, and his mother said,</p>
+
+<p>"Hugh, do you remember Richard Grant?"</p>
+
+<p>"What,&mdash;the cabinet-maker? The man who carved so beautifully?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. Do you remember&mdash;&mdash;No, you could hardly have known: but I will
+tell you. He had planned a most beautiful set of carvings in wood for a
+chapel belonging to a nobleman's mansion. He was to be well paid,&mdash;his
+work was so superior; and he would be able to make his parents
+comfortable, as well as his wife and children. But the thing he most
+cared for was the honour of producing a noble work which would outlive
+him. Well, at the very beginning of his task, his chisel flew up against
+his wrist: and the narrow cut that it made,&mdash;not more than half an inch
+wide,&mdash;made his right hand entirely useless for life. He could never
+again hold a tool;&mdash;his work was gone,&mdash;his business in life seemed
+over,&mdash;the support of the whole family was taken away,&mdash;and the only
+strong wish Richard Grant had in the world was disappointed."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh hid his face with his handkerchief, and his mother went on:</p>
+
+<p>"You have heard of Huber."</p>
+
+<p>"The man who found out so much about bees. Miss Harold read that account
+to us."</p>
+
+<p>"Bees and ants. When Huber had discovered more than had ever been known
+before about bees and ants, and when he was sure he could learn more
+still, and was more and more anxious to peep and pry into their tiny
+homes, and their curious ways, Huber became blind."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh sighed, and his mother went on:</p>
+
+<p>"Did you ever hear of Beethoven? He was one of the greatest musical
+composers that ever lived. His great, his sole delight was in music. It
+was the passion of his life. When all his time and all his mind were
+given to music, he became deaf&mdash;perfectly deaf; so that he never more
+heard one single note from the loudest orchestra. While crowds were
+moved and delighted with his compositions, it was all silence to him."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, do you think," asked his mother,&mdash;and Hugh saw by the grey light
+that began to shine in, that she smiled&mdash;"do you think that these people
+were without a heavenly Parent?"</p>
+
+<p>"O no! But were they all patient?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, in their different ways and degrees. Would you say that they were
+hardly treated? Or would you rather suppose that their Father gave them
+something more and better to do than they had planned for themselves?"</p>
+
+<p>"He must know best, of course: but it does seem hard that that very
+thing should happen to them. Huber would not have so much minded being
+deaf, perhaps; or that musical man being blind; or Richard Grant losing
+his foot, instead of his hand: for he did not want to go round the
+world."</p>
+
+<p>"No doubt their hearts often swelled within them at their
+disappointments: but I fully believe that they found very soon that
+God's will was wiser than their wishes. They found, if they bore their
+trial well, that there was work for their hearts to do, far nobler than
+any work that the head can do through the eye, and the ear, and the
+hand. And they soon felt a new and delicious pleasure, which none but
+the bitterly disappointed can feel."</p>
+
+<p>"What is that?"</p>
+
+<p>"The pleasure of rousing their souls to bear pain, and of agreeing with
+God silently, when nobody knows what is in their hearts. There is a
+great pleasure in the exercise of the body,&mdash;in making the heart beat,
+and the limbs glow, in a run by the sea-side, or a game in the
+playground; but this is nothing to the pleasure there is in exercising
+one's soul in bearing pain,&mdash;in finding one's heart glow with the hope
+that one is pleasing God."</p>
+
+<p>"Shall I feel that pleasure?"</p>
+
+<p>"Often and often, I have no doubt,&mdash;every time that you can willingly
+give up your wish to be a soldier or a sailor,&mdash;or anything else that
+you have set your mind upon, if you can smile to yourself, and say that
+you will be content at home.&mdash;Well, I don't expect it of you yet. I dare
+say it was long a bitter thing to Beethoven to see hundreds of people
+in raptures with his music, when he could not hear a note of it. And
+Huber&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But did Beethoven get to smile?"</p>
+
+<p>"If he did, he was happier than all the fine music in the world could
+have made him."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder&mdash;O! I wonder if I ever shall feel so."</p>
+
+<p>"We will pray to God that you may. Shall we ask him now?"</p>
+
+<p>Hugh clasped his hands. His mother kneeled beside the bed, and, in a
+very few words, prayed that Hugh might be able to bear his misfortune
+well, and that his friends might give him such help and comfort as God
+should approve.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, my dear, you will sleep again," she said, as she arose.</p>
+
+<p>"If you will lie down too, instead of sitting by the fire. Do, mother."</p>
+
+<p>She did so; and they were soon both asleep.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<h3>CROFTON QUIET.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The boys were all in the school-room in the grey of the morning;&mdash;no one
+late. Mr. Tooke was already there. Almost every boy looked wistfully in
+the grave face of the master;&mdash;almost every one but his own son. He
+looked down; and it seemed natural: for his eyes were swollen with
+crying. He had been crying as much as Proctor: but, then, so had Dale.</p>
+
+<p>"Your school-fellow is doing well," said Mr. Tooke, in a low voice,
+which, however, was heard to the farthest end of the room. "His brother
+will tell you that he saw him quietly asleep; and I have just seen him
+so. He deserves to do well; for he is a brave little boy. He is the
+youngest of you; but I doubt whether there is a more manly heart among
+you all."</p>
+
+<p>There was a murmur, as if everybody wished to agree to this. That murmur
+set Phil crying again.</p>
+
+<p>"As to how this accident happened," continued the master, "I have only
+to say this. The coping-stone of the wall was loose,&mdash;had become
+loosened by the frost. Of that I am aware. But it would not,&mdash;it could
+not have fallen, if your school-fellow had not been pulled from the top
+of the wall. Several hands pulled him,&mdash;as many as could get a hold.
+Whose these hands were, it would be easy to ascertain; and it would not
+be difficult to discover whose was the hand which first laid hold, and
+gave the rest their grasp. But&mdash;" How earnestly here did every one look
+for the next words!&mdash;"But your school-fellow considers the affair an
+accident,&mdash;says he himself was cross."</p>
+
+<p>"No! No! We plagued him," cried many voices.</p>
+
+<p>"Well! he is sure no one meant him any harm, and earnestly desires that
+no further inquiry may be made. For his part, nothing, he declares,
+shall ever induce him to tell who first seized him."</p>
+
+<p>The boys were about to give a loud cheer, but stopped for Hugh's sake,
+just in time. There was no want of signs of what they felt. There was no
+noise; but there were many tears.</p>
+
+<p>"I do not think that a promise of impunity can be any great comfort to
+those concerned," continued Mr. Tooke: "but such comfort as they can
+find in it, they may. Both from my wish to indulge one who has just
+sustained so great a misfortune, and because I think he is right, I
+shall never inquire,&mdash;never wish to know more than I do of the origin of
+this accident. His mother declares the same, on the part of both of his
+parents. I hope you will every one feel yourselves put upon honour, to
+follow my example."</p>
+
+<p>Another general murmur, in sign of agreement.</p>
+
+<p>"The only thing you can now do for your school-fellow," concluded the
+master, "is to be quiet throughout the day. As soon as he can be
+removed, he will be carried to Mr. Shaw's. Till then, you will take care
+that he loses no rest through you.&mdash;Now, first class, come up."</p>
+
+<p>While this class was up, Phil's neighbour began whispering; and the next
+boy leaned over to hear; and one or two came softly up behind: but,
+though they were busily engaged in question and answer, the master's
+stern voice was not heard (as usual when there was talking) to say
+"Silence there!" His class saw him looking that way, once or twice; but
+he took no notice. Phil had seen his brother, and was privileged to
+tell.</p>
+
+<p>"So you saw him! Did you get a real good sight of him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes. I stayed some time; half-an-hour, I dare say."</p>
+
+<p>"What did he look like? Did he say anything?"</p>
+
+<p>"Say anything!" cried Dale; "why, did you not hear he was asleep?"</p>
+
+<p>"What did he look like, then?"</p>
+
+<p>"He looked as he always does when he is asleep, as far as I could see.
+But we did not bring the light too near, for fear of waking him."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you hear&mdash;did anybody tell you anything about it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: my mother told me whatever I wanted to know."</p>
+
+<p>"What? What did she tell you?"</p>
+
+<p>"She says it will not be so very bad a lameness as it might have
+been&mdash;as if he had not had his knee left. That makes a great difference.
+They make a false foot now, very light; and if his leg gets quite
+properly well, and we are not too much in a hurry, and we all take pains
+to help Hugh to practise walking carefully at first, he may not be very
+lame."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! then, it is not so bad," said one, while Tooke, who was listening,
+gave a deep sigh of relief.</p>
+
+<p>"Not so bad!" exclaimed Phil. "Why, he will never be so strong&mdash;so able
+and active as other men. He will never be able to take care of himself
+and other people. He will be so unlike other people always; and now,
+while he is a boy, he will never&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>The images of poor Hugh's privations and troubles as a school-boy were
+too much for Phil; and he laid down his head on his desk, to hide his
+grief. As for Tooke, he walked away, looking the picture of
+wretchedness.</p>
+
+<p>"When will you see him again?" asked Dale, passing his arm round Phil's
+neck.</p>
+
+<p>"To-day, if he is pretty well. My mother promised me that."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you could get leave for me too? I would not make any
+noise, nor let him talk too much, if I might just see him."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll see about it," said Phil.</p>
+
+<p>As Mrs. Proctor was placing the pillows comfortably, for Hugh to have
+his breakfast, after he was washed, and the bed made nicely smooth, he
+yawned, and said he was sleepy still, and that he wondered what o'clock
+it was. His mother told him it was a quarter past ten.</p>
+
+<p>"A quarter past ten! Why, how odd! The boys are half through school,
+almost, and I am only just awake!"</p>
+
+<p>"They slept through the whole night, I dare say. You were awake a good
+many times; and you and I had some talk. Do you remember that? or has it
+gone out of your head with your sound sleep?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no: I remember that," said Hugh. "But it was the oddest, longest
+night!&mdash;and yesterday too! To think that it is not a whole day yet since
+it all happened! Oh! here comes my breakfast. What is it? Coffee!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: we know you are fond of coffee; and so am I. So we will have some
+together."</p>
+
+<p>"How comfortable!" exclaimed Hugh; for he was really hungry; which was
+no wonder, after the pain and exhaustion he had gone through. His state
+was like that of a person recovering from an illness&mdash;extremely ready to
+eat and drink, but obliged to be moderate.</p>
+
+<p>When warmed and cheered by his coffee, Hugh gave a broad hint that he
+should like to see Phil, and one or two more boys&mdash;particularly Dale.
+His mother told him that the surgeon, Mr. Annanby, would be coming soon.
+If he gave leave, Phil should come in, and perhaps Dale. So Hugh was
+prepared with a strong entreaty to Mr. Annanby on the subject; but no
+entreaty was needed. Mr. Annanby thought he was doing very well; and
+that he would not be the worse for a little amusement and a little
+fatigue this morning, if it did not go on too long. So Phil was sent
+for, when the surgeon was gone. As he entered, his mother went out to
+speak to Mr. Tooke, and write home.</p>
+
+<p>She then heard from Mr. Tooke and from Firth and Dale, how strong was
+the feeling in Hugh's favour&mdash;how strong the sympathy for his misfortune
+throughout the school. Hugh had seen no tears from her; but she shed
+them now. She then earnestly entreated that Hugh might not hear what she
+had just been told. He felt no doubt of the kindness of his
+school-fellows, and was therefore quite happy on that score. He was very
+young, and to a certain degree vain; and if this event went to
+strengthen his vanity, to fill his head with selfish thoughts, it would
+be a misfortune indeed. The loss of his foot would be the least part of
+it. It lay with those about him to make this event a deep injury to him,
+instead of the blessing which all trials are meant by Providence
+eventually to be. They all promised that, while treating Hugh with the
+tenderness he deserved, they would not spoil the temper in which he had
+acted so well, by making it vain and selfish. There was no fear meantime
+of Phil's doing him any harm in that way; for Phil had a great idea of
+the privileges and dignity of seniority; and his plan was to keep down
+little boys, and make them humble; not being aware that to keep people
+down is not the way to make them humble, but the contrary. Older people
+than Phil, however, often fall into this mistake. Many parents do, and
+many teachers; and very many elder brothers and sisters.</p>
+
+<p>Phil entered the room shyly, and stood by the fire, so that the
+bed-curtain was between him and Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Are you there, Phil?" cried Hugh, pulling aside the curtain.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Phil; "how do you do this morning?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, very well. Come here. I want to know ever so many things. Have you
+heard yet anything real and true about the new usher?"</p>
+
+<p>"No," replied Phil. "But I have no doubt it is really Mr. Crabbe who is
+coming; and that he will be here after Christmas. Why, Hugh, you look
+just the same as usual!"</p>
+
+<p>"So I am, just the same, except under this thing," pointing to the hoop,
+or basket, which was placed over his limb, to keep off the weight of the
+bed-clothes. "I am not hurt anywhere else, except this bruise;" and he
+showed a black bruise on his arm, such as almost any school-boy can
+show, almost any day.</p>
+
+<p>"That's nothing," pronounced Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"The other was, though, I can tell you," declared Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it very, very bad? Worse than you had ever fancied?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! yes. I could have screamed myself to death. I did not, though. Did
+you hear me, did anybody hear me call out?"</p>
+
+<p>"I heard you&mdash;just outside the door there&mdash;before the doctors came."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! but not after, not while uncle was here. He cried so! I could not
+call out while he was crying so. Where were you when they were doing
+it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Just outside the door there. I heard you once&mdash;only once; and that was
+not much."</p>
+
+<p>"But how came you to be there? It was past bedtime. Had you leave to be
+up so late?"</p>
+
+<p>"I did not ask it; and nobody meddled with me."</p>
+
+<p>"Was anybody there with you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Firth. Dale would not. He was afraid, and he kept away."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! is not he very sorry?"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course. Nobody can help being sorry."</p>
+
+<p>"Do they all seem sorry? What did they do? What do they say?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! they are very sorry; you must know that."</p>
+
+<p>"Anybody more than the rest?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, some few of them cried; but I don't know that that shows them to
+be more sorry. It is some people's way to cry&mdash;and others not."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh wished much to learn something about Tooke; but, afraid of showing
+what was in his thoughts, he went off to quite another subject.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you know, Phil," said he, "you would hardly believe it; but I have
+never been half so miserable as I was the first day or two I came here?
+I don't care now, half so much, for all the pain, and for being lame,
+and&mdash;&mdash;Oh! but I can never be a soldier or a sailor&mdash;I can never go
+round the world! I forgot that."</p>
+
+<p>And poor Hugh hid his face in his pillow.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind!" said Phil, stooping over him very kindly. "Here is a long
+time before you; and you will get to like something else just as well.
+Papa wanted to be a soldier, you remember, and could not; and he is as
+happy as ever he can be, now that he is a shop-keeper in London. Did you
+ever see anybody merrier than my father is? I never did. Come! cheer up,
+Hugh! You will be very happy somehow."</p>
+
+<p>Phil kissed him; and when Hugh looked up in surprise, Phil's eyes were
+full of tears.</p>
+
+<p>"Now I have a good mind to ask you," said Hugh, "something that has been
+in my mind ever since."</p>
+
+<p>"Ever since when?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ever since I came to Crofton. What could be the reason that you were
+not more kind to me then?"</p>
+
+<p>"I! not kind?" said Phil, in some confusion. "Was not I kind?"</p>
+
+<p>"No. At least I thought not. I was so uncomfortable,&mdash;I did not know
+anybody, or what to do; and I expected you would show me, and help me. I
+always thought I could not have felt lonely with you here; and then when
+I came, you got out of my way, as if you were ashamed of me, and you did
+not help me at all; and you laughed at me."</p>
+
+<p>"No; I don't think I did that."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you did, indeed."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you know, little boys always have to shift for themselves when
+they go to a great school&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But why, if they have brothers there? That is the very thing I want to
+know. I think it is very cruel."</p>
+
+<p>"I never meant to be cruel, of course. But&mdash;but&mdash;the boys were all ready
+to laugh at me about a little brother that was scarcely any better than
+a girl:&mdash;and consider how you talked on the coach, and what ridiculous
+hair you had,&mdash;and what a fuss you made about your money and your
+pocket,&mdash;and how you kept popping out things about Miss Harold, and the
+girls, and Susan."</p>
+
+<p>"You <i>were</i> ashamed of me, then."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what wonder if I was?"</p>
+
+<p>"And you never told me about all these things. You let me learn them all
+without any warning, or any help."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure. That is the way all boys have to get on. They must make
+their own way."</p>
+
+<p>"If ever little Harry comes to Crofton," said Hugh, more to himself than
+to Phil, "I will not leave him in the lurch,&mdash;I will never be ashamed of
+him. Pray," said he, turning quickly to Phil, "are you ashamed of me
+still?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no," protested Phil. "You can shift for yourself,&mdash;you can play,
+and do everything like other boys, now. You&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He stopped short, overcome with the sudden recollection that Hugh would
+never again be able to play like other boys,&mdash;to be like them in
+strength, and in shifting for himself.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! I see what you are thinking of," said Hugh. "I am so afraid you
+should be ashamed of me again, when I come into the playground. The boys
+will quiz me;&mdash;and if you are ashamed of me&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, no, no!" earnestly declared Phil. "There is nobody in the world
+that will quiz you;&mdash;or, if there is, they had better take care of me, I
+can tell them. But nobody will. You don't know how sorry the boys are.
+Here comes Dale. He will tell you the same thing."</p>
+
+<p>Dale was quite sure that any boy would, from this time for ever, be sent
+to Coventry who should quiz Hugh for his lameness. There was not a boy
+now at Crofton who would not do anything in the world to help him.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Dale, how you have been crying!" exclaimed Hugh. "Is anything
+wrong in school? Can't you manage your verses yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'll try that to-night," said Dale, cheerfully. "Yes I'll manage them.
+Never mind what made my eyes red; only, if such a thing had happened to
+me, you would have cried,&mdash;I am sure of that."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, indeed," said Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Proctor, you had better go," said Dale. "One at a time is enough
+to-day; and I shall not stay long."</p>
+
+<p>Phil agreed, and actually shook hands with Hugh before he went.</p>
+
+<p>"Phil is so kind to-day!" cried Hugh, with glee; "though he is
+disappointed of going to uncle Shaw's on my account. And I know he had
+reckoned on it. Now, I want to know one thing,&mdash;where did Mr. Tooke
+sleep last night? for this is his bed."</p>
+
+<p>Dale believed he slept on the sofa. He was sure, at least, that he had
+not taken off his clothes; for he had come to the door several times in
+the course of the night, to know how all was going on.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, I never knew that!" cried Hugh. "I suppose I was asleep. Dale,
+what do you think is the reason that our fathers and mothers and people
+take care of us as they do?"</p>
+
+<p>"How do you mean?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Agnes and I cannot make it out. When we were by the sea-side,
+mother took us a great way along the beach, to a place we did not know
+at all; and she bade us pick up shells, and amuse ourselves, while she
+went to see a poor woman that lived just out of sight. We played till we
+were quite tired; and then we sat down; and still she did not come. At
+last, we were sure that she had forgotten all about us; and we did not
+think she would remember us any more: and we both cried. Oh! how we did
+cry! Then a woman came along, with a basket at her back, and a great net
+over her arm: and she asked us what was the matter; and when we told
+her, she said she thought it was not likely that mother would forget us.
+And then she bade us take hold of her gown, one on each side, and she
+would try to take us to mother, and the next thing was mother came in
+sight. When the woman told her what we had said, they both laughed; and
+mother told us it was impossible that she should leave us behind. I
+asked Agnes afterwards why it was impossible; and she did not know; and
+I am sure she was as glad as I was to see mother come in sight. If she
+really never can forget us, what makes her remember us?"</p>
+
+<p>Dale shook his head. He could not tell.</p>
+
+<p>"Because," continued Hugh, "we can't do anything for anybody, and we
+give a great deal of trouble. Mother sits up very late, sometimes till
+near twelve, mending our things. There is that great basket of stockings
+she has to mend, once a fortnight! And papa works very hard to got
+money; and what a quantity he pays for our schooling, and our clothes,
+and everything!"</p>
+
+<p>"Everybody would think it very shameful if he did not," suggested Dale.
+"If he let you go ragged and ignorant, it would be wicked."</p>
+
+<p>"But why?" said Hugh, vehemently. "That is what I want to know. We are
+not worth anything. We are nothing but trouble. Only think what so many
+people did yesterday! My mother came a journey; and uncle and aunt Shaw
+came: and mother sat up all night; and Mr. Tooke never went to bed,&mdash;and
+all about me! I declare I can't think why."</p>
+
+<p>Dale felt as if he knew why; but he could not explain it. Mrs. Proctor
+had heard much of what they were saying. She had come in before closing
+her letter to Mr. Proctor, to ask whether Hugh wished to send any
+particular message home. As she listened, she was too sorry to feel
+amused. She perceived that she could not have done her whole duty to her
+children, if there could be such a question as this in their
+hearts&mdash;such a question discussed between them, unknown to her. She
+spoke now; and Hugh started, for he was not aware that she was in the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>She asked both the boys why they thought it was that before little birds
+are fledged, the parent birds bring them food, as often as once in a
+minute, all day long for some weeks. Perhaps no creatures can go through
+harder work than this; and why do they do it? for unfledged birds, which
+are capable of nothing whatever but clamouring for food, are as useless
+little creatures as can be imagined. Why does the cat take care of her
+little blind kitten with so much watchfulness, hiding it from all
+enemies till it can take care of itself. It is because love does not
+depend on the value of the creature loved&mdash;it is because love grows up
+in our hearts at God's pleasure, and not by our own choice; and it is
+God's pleasure that the weakest and the least useful and profitable
+should be the most beloved, till they become able to love and help in
+their turn.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it possible, my dear," she said to Hugh, "that you did not know
+this,&mdash;you who love little Harry so much, and take such care of him at
+home? I am sure you never stopped to think whether Harry could do you
+any service, before helping him to play."</p>
+
+<p>"No; but then&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But what?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is such a sweet little fellow, it is a treat to look at him. Every
+morning when I woke, I longed to be up, and to get to him."</p>
+
+<p>"That is, you loved him. Well: your papa and I love you all, in the same
+way. We get up with pleasure to our business&mdash;your father to his shop,
+and I to my work-basket&mdash;because it is the greatest happiness in the
+world to serve those we love."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh said nothing; but still, though pleased, he did not look quite
+satisfied.</p>
+
+<p>"Susan and cook are far more useful to me than any of you children,"
+continued his mother, "and yet I could not work early and late for them,
+with the same pleasure as for you."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh laughed; and then he asked whether Jane was not now as useful as
+Susan.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps she is," replied his mother; "and the more she learns and does,
+and the more she becomes my friend,&mdash;the more I respect her: but it is
+impossible to love her more than I did before she could speak or walk.
+There is some objection in your mind still, my dear. What is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"It makes us of so much consequence,&mdash;so much more than I ever thought
+of,&mdash;that the minds of grown people should be busy about us."</p>
+
+<p>"There is nothing to be vain of in that, my dear, any more than for
+young kittens, and birds just hatched. But it is very true that all
+young creatures are of great consequence; for they are the children of
+God. When, besides this, we consider what human beings are,&mdash;that they
+can never perish, but are to live for ever,&mdash;and that they are meant to
+become more wise and holy than we can imagine, we see that the feeblest
+infant is indeed a being of infinite consequence. This is surely a
+reason for God filling the hearts of parents with love, and making them
+willing to work and suffer for their children, even while the little
+ones are most unwise and unprofitable. When you and Agnes fancied I
+should forget you and desert you, you must have forgotten that you had
+another Parent who rules the hearts of all the fathers and mothers on
+earth."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh was left alone to think this over, when he had given his messages
+home, and got Dale's promise to come again as soon as he could obtain
+leave to do so. Both the boys were warned that this would not be till
+to-morrow, as Hugh had seen quite company enough for one day. Indeed, he
+slept so much, that night seemed to be soon come.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<h3>LITTLE VICTORIES.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Though Mr. Tooke was so busy from having no usher, he found time to come
+and see Hugh pretty often. He had a sofa moved into that room: and he
+carried Hugh, without hurting him at all, and laid him down there
+comfortably, beside the fire. He took his tea there, with Mrs. Proctor;
+and he brought up his newspaper, and read from it anything which he
+thought would amuse the boy. He smiled at Hugh's scruple about occupying
+his room, and assured him that he was quite as well off in Mr. Carnaby's
+room, except that it was not so quiet as this, and therefore more fit
+for a person in health than for an invalid. Mr. Tooke not only brought
+up plenty of books from the school library, but lent Hugh some valuable
+volumes of prints from his own shelves.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh could not look at these for long together. His head soon began to
+ache, and his eyes to be dazzled; for he was a good deal weakened. His
+mother observed also that he became too eager about views in foreign
+countries, and that he even grew impatient in his temper when talking
+about them.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear boy," said she one evening, after tea, when she saw him in this
+state, and that it rather perplexed Mr. Tooke, "if you remember your
+resolution, I think you will put away that book."</p>
+
+<p>"O, mother!" exclaimed he, "you want to take away the greatest pleasure
+I have!"</p>
+
+<p>"If it is a pleasure, go on. I was afraid it was becoming a pain."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tooke did not ask what this meant; but he evidently wished to know.
+He soon knew, for Hugh found himself growing more fidgety and more
+cross, the further he looked in the volume of Indian Views, till he
+threw himself back upon the sofa, and stuffed his handkerchief into his
+mouth, and stared at the fire, struggling, as his mother saw, to help
+crying. "I will take away the book,&mdash;shall I, my dear?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, mother. O dear! I shall never keep my vow, I know."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Proctor told Mr. Tooke that Hugh had made a resolution which she
+earnestly hoped he might be able to keep;&mdash;to bear cheerfully every
+disappointment and trouble caused by this accident, from the greatest to
+the least,&mdash;from being obliged to give up being a traveller by-and-by,
+to the shoemaker's wondering that he wanted only one shoe. Now, if
+looking at pictures of foreign countries made him less cheerful, it
+seemed to belong to his resolution to give up that pleasure for the
+present. Hugh acknowledged that it did; and Mr. Tooke, who was pleased
+at what he heard, carried away the Indian Views, and brought instead a
+very fine work on Trades, full of plates representing people engaged in
+every kind of trade and manufacture. Hugh was too tired to turn over any
+more pages to-night: but his master said the book might stay in the room
+now, and when Hugh was removed, it might go with him; and, as he was
+able to sit up more, he might like to copy some of the plates.</p>
+
+<p>"Removed!" exclaimed Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>His mother smiled, and told him that he was going on so well that he
+might soon now be removed to his uncle's.</p>
+
+<p>"Where," said Mr. Tooke, "you will have more quiet and more liberty than
+you can have here. Your brother, and any other boys you like, can run
+over to see you at any time; and you will be out of the noise of the
+playground."</p>
+
+<p>"I wonder how it is there is so little noise from the playground here,"
+said Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"It is because the boys have been careful to make no noise since your
+accident. We cannot expect them to put themselves under such restraint
+for long."</p>
+
+<p>"O no, no! I had better go. But, mother, you&mdash;&mdash;you&mdash;&mdash;aunt Shaw is very
+kind, but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I shall stay with you as long as you want me."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh was quite happy.</p>
+
+<p>"But how in the world shall I get there?" he presently asked. "It is two
+whole miles; and we can't lay my leg up in the gig: besides its being so
+cold."</p>
+
+<p>His mother told him that his uncle had a very nice plan for his
+conveyance. Mr. Annanby approved of it, and thought he might be moved
+the first sunny day.</p>
+
+<p>"What, to-morrow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if the sun shines."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tooke unbolted the shutter, and declared that it was such a bright
+starry evening that he thought to-morrow would be fine.</p>
+
+<p>The morning was fine; and during the very finest part of it came Mr.
+Shaw. He told Hugh that there was a good fire blazing at home in the
+back room that looked into the garden, which was to be Hugh's. From the
+sofa by the fire-side one might see the laurustinus on the
+grass-plot,&mdash;now covered with flowers: and when the day was warm enough
+to let him lie in the window, he could see the mill, and all that was
+going on round it.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh liked the idea of all this: but he still looked anxious.</p>
+
+<p>"Now tell me," said his uncle, "what person in all the world you would
+like best for a companion."</p>
+
+<p>"In all the world!" exclaimed Hugh. "Suppose I say the Great Mogul!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well; tell us how to catch him, and we will try. Meantime, you can have
+his picture. I believe we have a pack of cards in the house."</p>
+
+<p>"But do you mean really, uncle,&mdash;the person I should like best in all
+the world,&mdash;out of Crofton?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; out with it!"</p>
+
+<p>"I should like Agnes best," said Hugh, timidly.</p>
+
+<p>"We thought as much. I am glad we were right. Well, my boy, Agnes is
+there."</p>
+
+<p>"Agnes there! Only two miles off! How long will she stay?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, there is no hurry about that. We shall see when you are well what to
+do next."</p>
+
+<p>"But will she stay till the holidays?"</p>
+
+<p>"O, yes, longer than that, I hope."</p>
+
+<p>"But then she will not go home with me for the holidays?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind about the holidays now. Your holidays begin to-day. You have
+nothing to do but to get well now, and make yourself at home at my
+house, and be merry with Agnes. Now shall we go, while the sun shines?
+Here is your mother all cloaked up in her warm things."</p>
+
+<p>"O, mother! Agnes is come," cried Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>This was no news; for it was his mother who had guessed what companion
+he would like to have. She now showed her large warm cloak, in which
+Hugh was to be wrapped; and his neck was muffled up in a comforter.</p>
+
+<p>"But how am I to go?" asked Hugh, trembling with this little bustle.</p>
+
+<p>"Quietly in your bed," said his uncle. "Come, I will lift you into it."</p>
+
+<p>And his uncle carried him downstairs to the front door, where two of Mr.
+Shaw's men stood with a litter, which was slung upon poles, and carried
+like a sedan-chair. There was a mattress upon the litter, on which Hugh
+lay as comfortably as on a sofa. He said it was like being carried in a
+palanquin in India,&mdash;if only there was hot sunshine, and no frost and
+snow.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tooke, and Mrs. Watson, and Firth shook hands with Hugh, and said
+they should be glad to see him back again: and Mr. Tooke added that some
+of the boys should visit him pretty often till the breaking-up. Nobody
+else was allowed to come quite near; but the boys clustered at that side
+of the playground, to see as much as they could. Hugh waved his hand;
+and every boy saw it; and in a moment every hat and cap was off, and
+the boys gave three cheers,&mdash;the loudest that had ever been heard at
+Crofton. The most surprising thing was that Mr. Tooke cheered, and Mr.
+Shaw too. The men looked as if they would have liked to set down the
+litter, and cheer too: but they did not quite do that. They only smiled
+as if they were pleased.</p>
+
+<p>There was one person besides who did not cheer. Tooke stood apart from
+the other boys, looking very sad. As the litter went down the by-road,
+he began to walk away; but Hugh begged the men to stop, and called to
+Tooke. Tooke turned: and when Hugh beckoned, he forgot all about bounds,
+leaped the paling, and came running. Hugh said,</p>
+
+<p>"I have been wanting to see you so! but I did not like to ask for you
+particularly."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I had known that."</p>
+
+<p>"Come and see me,&mdash;do," said Hugh. "Come the very first, wont you?"</p>
+
+<p>"If I may."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you may, I know."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I will, thank you. Good-bye."</p>
+
+<p>And on went the litter, with Mrs. Proctor and Mr. Shaw walking beside
+it. The motion did not hurt Hugh at all; and he was so warmly wrapped
+up, and the day so fine, that he was almost sorry when the two miles
+were over. And yet there was Agnes out upon the steps; and she sat
+beside him on the sofa in his cheerful room, and told him that she had
+nothing to do but to wait on him, and play with him. She did not tell
+him yet that she must learn directly to nurse him, and, with her aunt's
+help, fill her mother's place, because her mother was much wanted at
+home: but this was in truth one chief reason for her coming.</p>
+
+<p>Though there was now really nothing the matter with Hugh&mdash;though he ate,
+drank, slept, and gained strength&mdash;his mother would not leave him till
+she saw him well able to go about.</p>
+
+<p>The carpenter soon came, with some crutches he had borrowed for Hugh to
+try; and when they were sure of the right length, Hugh had a new pair.
+He found it rather nervous work at first, using them; and he afterwards
+laughed at the caution with which he began. First, he had somebody to
+lift him from his seat, and hold him till he was firm on his crutches.
+Then he carefully moved forwards one crutch at a time, and then the
+other; and he put so much strength into it, that he was quite tired when
+he had been once across the room and back again. Every stumble made him
+shake all over. He made Agnes try; and he was almost provoked to see how
+lightly she could hop about; but then, as he said, she could put a
+second foot down to save herself, whenever she pleased. Every day,
+however, walking became easier to him; and he even discovered, when
+accidentally left alone, and wanting something from the opposite end of
+the room, that he could rise, and set forth by himself, and be
+independent. And in one of these excursions it was that he found the
+truth of what Agnes had told him&mdash;how much easier it was to move both
+crutches together. When he showed his mother this, she said she thought
+he would soon learn to do with only one.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh found himself subject to very painful feelings sometimes&mdash;such as
+no one quite understood, and such as he feared no one was able to pity
+as they deserved. A surprise of this sort happened to him the evening
+before his father was to come to see him, and to fetch away his mother.</p>
+
+<p>It was the dark hour in the afternoon&mdash;the hour when Mrs. Proctor and
+her children enjoyed every day a quiet talk, before Mr. Shaw came to
+carry Hugh into his aunt's parlour to tea. Nothing could be merrier than
+Hugh had been; and his mother and Agnes were chatting, when they thought
+they heard a sob from the sofa. They spoke to Hugh, and found that he
+was indeed crying bitterly.</p>
+
+<p>"What is it, my dear?" said his mother. "Agnes, have we said anything
+that could hurt him?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, no," sobbed Hugh. "I will tell you presently."</p>
+
+<p>And presently he told them that he was so busy listening to what they
+said, that he forgot everything else, when he felt as if something had
+got between two of his toes; unconsciously he put his hand down, and his
+foot was not there! Nothing could be plainer than the feeling in his
+toes: and then, when he put out his hand, and found nothing, it was so
+terrible&mdash;it startled him so.</p>
+
+<p>It was a comfort to him to find that his mother knew all about this. She
+came and kneeled beside his sofa, and told him that many persons who had
+lost a limb considered this odd feeling the most painful thing they had
+to bear for some time; but that, though the feeling would return
+occasionally through life, it would cease to be painful. When he had
+become so used to do without his foot as to leave off wanting or wishing
+for it, he would perhaps make a joke of the feeling, instead of being
+disappointed. At least she knew that some persons did so who had lost a
+limb.</p>
+
+<p>This did not comfort Hugh much, for every prospect had suddenly become
+darkened. He said he did not know how he should bear his misfortune;&mdash;he
+was pretty sure he could not bear it. It seemed so long already since it
+had happened! And when he thought of the long long days, and months, and
+years, to the end of his life, and that he should never run and play,
+and never be like other people, and never able to do the commonest
+things without labour and trouble, he wished he was dead. He had rather
+have died.</p>
+
+<p>Agnes thought he must be miserable indeed, if he could venture to say
+this to his mother. She glanced at her mother's face; but there was no
+displeasure there. Mrs. Proctor said this feeling was very natural. She
+had felt it herself, under smaller misfortunes than Hugh's: but she had
+found that, though the prospect appears all strewn with troubles, they
+come singly, and are not worth minding, after all. She told Hugh that,
+when she was a little girl, very lazy&mdash;fond of her bed&mdash;fond of her
+book&mdash;and not at all fond of washing and dressing&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Why, mother, you!" exclaimed Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes; that was the sort of little girl I was. Well, I was in despair,
+one day, at the thought that I should have to wash, and clean my teeth,
+and brush my hair, and put on every daily article of dress, every
+morning, as long as I lived. There was nothing I disliked so much; and
+yet it was the thing that must be done every day of my whole life."</p>
+
+<p>"Did you tell anybody?" asked Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"No; I was ashamed to do that: but I remember I cried. You see how it
+turns out. Grown people, who have got to do everything by habit, so
+easily as not to think about it, wash and dress every morning, without
+ever being weary of it. We do not consider so much as once a year what
+we are doing at dressing-time, though at seven years old it is a very
+laborious and tiresome affair to get ready for breakfast."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the same about writing letters," observed Agnes. "The first
+letter I ever wrote was to aunt Shaw; and it took so long, and was so
+tiresome, that, when I thought of all the exercises I should have to
+write for Miss Harold, and all the letters that I must send to my
+relations when I grew up, I would have given everything I had in the
+world not to have learned to write. Oh! how I pitied papa, when I saw
+sometimes the pile of letters that were lying to go to the post!"</p>
+
+<p>"And how do you like corresponding with Phil now?"</p>
+
+<p>Agnes owned, with blushes, that she still dreaded the task for some days
+before, and felt particularly gay when it was done. Her mother believed
+that, if infants could think and look forward, they would be far more
+terrified with the prospect of having to walk on their two legs all
+their lives, than lame people could be at having to learn the art in
+part over again. Grown people are apt to doubt whether they can learn a
+new language, though children make no difficulty about it: the reason of
+which is, that grown people see at one view the whole labour, while
+children do not look beyond their daily task. Experience, however,
+always brings relief. Experience shows that every effort comes at its
+proper time, and that there is variety or rest in the intervals. People
+who have to wash and dress every morning have other things to do in the
+after-part of the day; and, as the old fable tells us, the clock that
+has to tick, before it is worn out, so many millions of times as it
+perplexes the mind to think of, has exactly the same number of seconds
+to do it in; so that it never has more work on its hands than it can get
+through. So Hugh would find that he could move about on each separate
+occasion, as he wanted; and practice would, in time, enable him to do it
+without any more thought than it now cost him to put all the bones of
+his hands in order, so as to carry his tea and bread-and-butter to his
+mouth.</p>
+
+<p>"But that is not all&mdash;nor half what I mean," said Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"No, my dear; nor half what you will have to make up your mind to bear.
+You will have a great deal to bear, Hugh. You resolved to bear it all
+patiently, I remember: but what is it that you dread the most?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! all manner of things. I can never do things like other people."</p>
+
+<p>"Some things. You can never play cricket, as every Crofton boy would
+like to do. You can never dance at your sisters' Christmas parties."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! mamma!" cried Agnes, with tears in her eyes, and the thought in her
+mind that it was cruel to talk so.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on! go on!" cried Hugh, brightening. "You know what I feel, mother;
+and you don't keep telling me, as aunt Shaw does (and even Agnes
+sometimes), that it wont signify much, and that I shall not care, and
+all that; making out that it is no misfortune hardly, when I know what
+it is, and they don't."</p>
+
+<p>"That is a common way of trying to give comfort, and it is kindly
+meant," said Mrs. Proctor. "But those who have suffered much themselves
+know a better way. The best way is not to deny any of the trouble or the
+sorrow, and not to press on the sufferer any comforts which he cannot
+now see and enjoy. If comforts arise, he will enjoy them as they come."</p>
+
+<p>"Now then, go on," said Hugh. "What else?"</p>
+
+<p>"There will be little checks and mortifications continually&mdash;when you
+see boys leaping over this, and climbing that, and playing at the other,
+while you must stand out, and can only look on. And some people will
+pity you in a way you don't like; and some may even laugh at you."</p>
+
+<p>"O mamma!" exclaimed Agnes.</p>
+
+<p>"I have seen and heard children in the street do it," replied Mrs.
+Proctor. "This is a thing almost below notice; but I mentioned it while
+we were reckoning up our troubles."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what else?" said Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Sooner or later, you will have to follow some way of life, determined
+by this accident, instead of one that you would have liked better. But
+we need not think of this yet:&mdash;not till you have become quite
+accustomed to your lameness."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what else?"</p>
+
+<p>"I must ask you now. I can think of nothing more; and I hope there is
+not much else; for indeed I think here is quite enough for a boy&mdash;or any
+one else&mdash;to bear."</p>
+
+<p>"I will bear it, though,&mdash;you will see."</p>
+
+<p>"You will find great helps. These misfortunes, of themselves, strengthen
+one's mind. They have some advantages too. You will be a better scholar
+for your lameness, I have no doubt. You will read more books, and have a
+mind richer in thoughts. You will be more beloved;&mdash;not out of mere
+pity; for people in general will soon leave off pitying you, when once
+you learn to be active again; but because you have kept faith with your
+school-fellows, and shown that you can bear pain. Yes, you will be more
+loved by us all; and you yourself will love God more for having given
+you something to bear for his sake."</p>
+
+<p>"I hope so,&mdash;I think so," said Hugh. "O mother! I may be very happy
+yet."</p>
+
+<p>"Very happy; and, when you have once made up your mind to everything,
+the less you think and speak about it, the happier you will be. It is
+very right for us now, when it is all new, and strange, and painful, to
+talk it well over; to face it completely: but when your mind is made up,
+and you are a Crofton boy again, you will not wish to speak much of your
+own concerns, unless it be to me, or to Agnes, sometimes, when your
+heart is full."</p>
+
+<p>"Or to Dale, when you are far off."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes,&mdash;to Dale, or some one friend at Crofton. But there is only one
+Friend that one is quite sure to get strength from,&mdash;the same who has
+given strength to all the brave people that ever lived, and comfort to
+all sufferers. When the greatest of all sufferers wanted relief, what
+did he do?"</p>
+
+<p>"He went by himself, and prayed," said Agnes.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that is the way," observed Hugh, as if he knew by experience.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Shaw presently came, to say that tea was ready.</p>
+
+<p>"I am too big a baby to be carried now," cried Hugh, gaily. "Let me try
+if I cannot go alone."</p>
+
+<p>"Why,&mdash;there is the step at the parlour door," said Mr. Shaw,
+doubtfully. "At any rate, stop till I bring a light."</p>
+
+<p>But Hugh followed close upon his uncle's heels, and was over the step
+before his aunt supposed he was half way across the hall. After tea, his
+uncle and he were so full of play, that the ladies could hardly hear one
+another speak till Hugh was gone to bed, too tired to laugh any more.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<h3>DOMESTIC MANNERS.</h3>
+
+
+<p>After Mr. Proctor had come and was gone, and Mrs. Proctor was gone with
+him, Hugh began to wonder why Tooke had never paid the visit he had
+promised. Several boys had called; some to thank Hugh for balls that he
+had quilted; some to see how he got on; and some to bring him Crofton
+news. Mr. Tooke had fastened his horse up at the door, in passing, and
+stepped in for a few minutes, two or three times a week: but it was now
+within six days of the holidays, and the one Hugh most wished to see had
+not appeared. His uncle observed his wistful look when the door-bell
+rang, and drew his conclusions. He said, on the Wednesday before the
+breaking-up, that he was going to drive past the Crofton school; that it
+was such a fine day that he thought Hugh might go with him, and perhaps
+they might persuade some one to come home to dinner with them.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh had never enjoyed the open air more than during this drive. He had
+yet much to learn about the country, and it was all as beautiful as it
+was new. His uncle pointed out to him the fieldfares wheeling in flocks
+over the fallows; and the rabbits in the warren, scampering away with
+their little white tails turned up; and the robin hopping in the frosty
+pathway; and the wild-ducks splashing among the reeds in the marshes.
+They saw the cottagers' children trying to collect snow enough from the
+small remains of the drifts to make snow-balls, and obliged to throw
+away the dirty snow that would melt, and would not bind. As they left
+the road, and turned through a copse, because Mr. Shaw had business with
+Mr. Sullivan's gamekeeper, a pheasant flew out, whirring, from some
+ferns and brambles, and showed its long tail-feathers before it
+disappeared over the hedge. All these sights were new to Hugh: and all,
+after pain and confinement, looked beautiful and gay.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Shaw could not stop for Hugh to get out at Crofton; so, when his
+arrival was seen, the boys were allowed to go out of bounds, as far as
+the gig, to speak to their school-fellow. Mr. Shaw asked Tooke to mount,
+and go home with them for the day; and Tooke was so pleased,&mdash;so
+agreeably surprised to see Hugh look quite well and merry, that he
+willingly ran off to ask leave, and to wash his face, and change his
+jacket. When he had jumped in, and Hugh had bidden the rest good-bye, a
+sudden shyness came over his poor conscious visitor: and it was not
+lessened by Mr. Shaw telling Tooke that he did not do credit to Crofton
+air,&mdash;so puny as he seemed: and that he looked at that moment more like
+one that had had a bad accident than Hugh did. When Mr. Shaw perceived
+how the boy's eyes filled with tears in an instant, he probably thought
+within himself that Tooke was sadly weak-spirited, and altogether more
+delicate than he had been aware of.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh was full of questions about Crofton matters, however; and long
+before they reached Mr. Shaw's, they were chattering as busily as
+possible. But then it was all spoiled to Tooke again by seeing Hugh
+lifted out, and his crutches brought to him, and Agnes ready to take his
+hat and cloak, instead of his being able to run about, doing everything
+for himself.</p>
+
+<p>The sofa had been left in Hugh's room, and there was a fire there every
+afternoon, for him and Agnes, that their aunt might have the parlour to
+herself till tea-time. The three young people went therefore to this
+room after dinner. Agnes felt a little uncomfortable, as she always did
+when any Crofton boys came. They had so much to say to each other of
+things that she did not understand, and so very little to say to her,
+that she continually felt as if she was in the way. When she proposed,
+as usual, that Hugh should go through his exercises in walking and
+running (for she was indefatigable in helping him to learn to walk well,
+and superintended his practice every afternoon), he refused hastily and
+rather rudely. Of course, she could not know that he had a reason for
+wishing not to show off his lameness before Tooke; and she thought him
+unkind. He might indeed have remembered to ask her before to say nothing
+this afternoon about his exercises. She took out her work, and sat down
+at some distance from the boys; but they did not get on. It was very
+awkward. At last, the boys' eyes met, and they saw that they should like
+to talk freely, if they could.</p>
+
+<p>"Agnes," said Hugh, "cannot you go somewhere, and leave us alone?"</p>
+
+<p>"I hardly know where I can go," replied Agnes. "I must not disturb aunt;
+and there is no fire anywhere else."</p>
+
+<p>"O, I am sure aunt wont mind, for this one afternoon. You can be as
+still as a mouse; and she can doze away, as if nobody was there."</p>
+
+<p>"I can be as still as a mouse here," observed Agnes. "I can take my work
+to that farthest window; and if you whisper, I shall not hear a word you
+say. Or, if I do hear a word, I will tell you directly. And you will let
+me come, now and then, and warm myself, if I find I cannot hold my
+needle any longer."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no; that wont do. We can't talk so. Do just go, and see whether
+aunt cannot let you be there for this one afternoon."</p>
+
+<p>Agnes did not like to refuse anything to Hugh: but she hesitated to take
+such a bold step as this. In his eagerness, Hugh requested the same
+favour of Tooke; but Tooke, more anxious than even Agnes to oblige, had
+not courage for such an errand. Hugh snatched his crutches, and declared
+he would go himself. But now Agnes gave way. She gathered up her work,
+and left the room. Hugh little imagined where she went, this cold,
+darkening December afternoon. She went to her own room, put on her
+cloak, and walked up and down till tea was ready, without fire or
+candle, and not very happy in her mind.</p>
+
+<p>Meanwhile the boys basked before a glowing fire. Tooke began directly to
+open his full heart.</p>
+
+<p>"Was that true that your sister said at dinner, about your always
+longing so to come to Crofton?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"How sorry you must be that you came! How you must wish you had never
+seen me!"</p>
+
+<p>"I knew there would be things to bear, whenever I came; and
+particularly while I was the youngest. Your father told me that: and one
+of the things that made me want to come more than ever was his telling
+me how you bore things when you were the youngest&mdash;being set on the top
+of that wall, and so on."</p>
+
+<p>"Indeed, indeed, I never meant to hurt you when I pulled your foot.&mdash;I
+suppose you are quite sure that it was I that gave the first pull? Are
+you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes; I am sure of that; and so are you: but I know very well that
+you meant no harm; and that is the reason I would not tell. After what
+you did about the sponge, I could not think you meant any harm to me."</p>
+
+<p>Tooke could not remember anything about a sponge; and when he was told,
+he thought nothing of it. He went on&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think you shall never tell anybody, as long as you live, who
+pulled you first?"</p>
+
+<p>"Never," said Hugh, "unless I tell it in my sleep; and that is not
+likely, for I never think about it in the daytime,&mdash;or scarcely ever;
+and when I can run about again, I dare say I shall never think of it at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>"But will you ever run about?"</p>
+
+<p>"O yes! finely, you will see. I shall begin first with a little
+stick-leg, very light. Mother is going to send some for me to try. When
+I am a man, I shall have one that will look like a real foot; but that
+will not be so light as the one you will see me with after the holidays.
+But you do not half know what I can do now, with my crutches. Here, I
+will show you."</p>
+
+<p>As he flourished about, and played antics, Agnes heard the pit-pat of
+his crutches, and she thought she might as well have been there, if they
+had told all their secrets, and had got to play. But the noise did not
+last long, for Hugh's performances did not make Tooke very merry; and
+the boys sat down quietly again.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, I'll tell you what," said Tooke. "I am a bigger and stronger boy
+than you, without considering this accident. I'll take care of you all
+the time you are at Crofton: and always afterwards, if I can. Mind you
+that. If anybody teases you, you call me,&mdash;that's all. Say you will."</p>
+
+<p>"Why," said Hugh, "I had rather take care of myself. I had rather make
+no difference between you and everybody else."</p>
+
+<p>"There now! You don't forgive me, after all."</p>
+
+<p>"I do,&mdash;upon my word, I do. But why should I make any difference between
+you and the rest, when you did not mean me any harm,&mdash;any more than
+they? Besides, it might make people suspect."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, let them. Sometimes I wish," continued Tooke, twisting himself
+about in the uneasiness of his mind, "sometimes I wish that everybody
+knew now. They say murderers cannot keep their secret. They are sure to
+tell, when they cannot bear it any longer."</p>
+
+<p>"That is because of their consciences," said Hugh. "But you are not
+guilty of anything, you know. I am sure I can keep a secret easily
+enough, when I am not to blame in it."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes? you have shown that. But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Come! don't let us talk any more about that.&mdash;Only just this. Has
+anybody accused you? Because I must know,&mdash;I must be on my guard."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody has said a word, because my father put us all upon honour never
+to mention it: but I always feel as if all their eyes were upon me all
+day,&mdash;and sometimes in the night."</p>
+
+<p>"Nonsense! I don't believe anybody has pitched on you particularly. And
+when school opens again, all their eyes will be on me, to see how I
+manage. But I don't mean to mind that. Anybody may stare that likes."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh sighed, however, after saying this; and Tooke was silent. At length
+he declared,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Whatever you say against it, I shall always take your part: and you
+have only to ask me, and I will always run anywhere, and do anything for
+you. Mind you that."</p>
+
+<p>"Thank you," said Hugh. "Now tell me about the new usher; for I dare say
+you know more than the other boys do. Holt and I shall be under him
+altogether, I suppose."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes: and you will be well off, by what I hear. He is as little like Mr.
+Carnaby as need be."</p>
+
+<p>All the rest of the afternoon was taken up with stories of Mr. Carnaby
+and other ushers, so that the boys were surprised when the maid came to
+tell them that tea was ready.</p>
+
+<p>Agnes was making tea. Hugh was so eager to repeat to his uncle some of
+the good stories that he had just heard, that he did not observe, as his
+aunt did, how red his sister's fingers were, and how she shivered still.</p>
+
+<p>"My dear," said Mrs. Shaw, "you have let these boys keep you away from
+the fire."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, aunt. Never mind! I shall be warm enough presently."</p>
+
+<p>"But you should not allow it, Agnes. How are they ever to learn manners,
+if they are not made to give way to young ladies while they are young?
+Boys are sure to be rude enough, at any rate. Their sisters should know
+better than to spoil them."</p>
+
+<p>While poor Agnes' hardships were ending with a lecture, Hugh was
+chattering away, not at all aware that he had treated his sister much as
+Phil had treated him on his going to Crofton. If any one had told him
+that he was tyrannical, he would have been as much surprised as he had
+been at Phil's tyranny over him. He did not know indeed that his sister
+had been in the cold and in the dark; but he might have felt that he had
+used her with a roughness which is more painful to a loving heart than
+cold and darkness are to the body.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+
+<h3>HOLT AND HIS DIGNITY.</h3>
+
+
+<p>There was no reason now why Hugh should not go to church. He and his
+crutches went between his uncle and aunt in the gig one way, and between
+his uncle and Agnes home again; and he could walk up the aisle quite
+well. He had been pleased at the idea of attending church again, and had
+never thought of the pain of being stared at for his lameness. This pain
+came upon him as he entered the church; and as he went up towards his
+uncle's pew, and saw the crowd of Crofton boys all looking at him, and
+some of the poor people turning their heads as he passed, to observe how
+he got on, he felt covered with confusion, and wished that he had waited
+one more Sunday, when the Crofton boys would have been all gone, and
+there would have been fewer eyes to mark his infirmity. But better
+thoughts soon arose, and made him ashamed of his false shame; and
+before the service was over, he felt how trifling is any misfortune
+while we are friends with God, in comparison with the least wrong-doing
+which sets us at a distance from him. He could not but feel after church
+that he had rather, a thousand times, be as he was than be poor Lamb,
+who slunk away from him, and hid himself behind the other boys,&mdash;his
+mind sore and troubled, no doubt, about his debt, and his cheating
+transaction, so long ago. Hugh asked some of the boys to bring up Lamb,
+to shake hands before parting for the holidays; but he would not come,
+and wriggled himself out of sight. Then Hugh recollected that he could
+forgive Lamb as well without Lamb's knowing it; and he let him alone.</p>
+
+<p>Then there was Holt. He and Holt had parted on uneasy terms; and Holt
+now looked shy and uncomfortable. Hugh beckoned to him, and asked him
+whether he was really to remain at Crofton all the holidays.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Holt. "I am the only one not going home, unless you are to
+stay hereabouts. Even Tooke is to be at his uncle's in London. When do
+you go home?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not quite yet;&mdash;not at the beginning of the holidays," said Hugh,
+hesitating, and looking up at his uncle. For, in truth, he did not know
+exactly what was planned for him, and had been afraid to ask.</p>
+
+<p>His uncle said, very kindly, that he was not going to part with Hugh
+till school opened again. He would recover his full strength better in
+the country; and his aunt had promised his parents that he should be a
+stout boy again by the time he was wanted at Crofton.</p>
+
+<p>This was what Hugh had dreaded to hear; and when he thought that he
+should not see his parents, nor little Harry, for so many months, his
+heart sank. But he was still in the church; and perhaps the place helped
+him to remember his mother's expectation that he should not fail, and
+his own resolution to bear cheerfully whatever troubles his misfortune
+brought upon him, from the greatest to the least. So when he heard his
+uncle saying to Holt that he should ask Mr. Tooke to let him come and
+spend two or three weeks at his house, he said so heartily that he hoped
+Holt would come, that Holt felt that whatever discontent had been
+between them was forgiven and forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Phil went home, of course; and when Holt arrived at Mr. Shaw's, Agnes
+also returned to London, that she might see something of Phil. Then the
+two boys were glad to be together, though Hugh would rather have had his
+dear friend Dale for a companion; and Holt knew that this was the case.
+Yet Hugh saw, and was glad to see, that Holt was improved. He had
+plucked up some spirit, and was more like other lads, though still, by
+his own account, too much like a timid, helpless foreigner among the
+rough Crofton boys.</p>
+
+<p>All the boys had some lessons to prepare in the holidays. Every one who
+had ever written a theme had a theme to write now. Every boy who could
+construe had a good piece of Latin to prepare; and all had either Latin
+or English verses to learn by heart. Mrs. Shaw made a point of her young
+visitors sitting down every morning after breakfast to their business;
+and Hugh was anxious to spare no pains, this time, about his theme,
+that, if he was to be praised, he might deserve it. He saw that Holt
+could not fix his attention well, either upon work or play; and one
+morning, when Hugh was pondering how, without knowing anything of
+history, he should find a modern example to match well with his ancient
+one (which he had picked up by chance), Holt burst upon his meditation
+with&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I have a good mind to tell you what has been upon my mind this ever so
+long."</p>
+
+<p>"Wait a minute," said Hugh. "I must find my example first."</p>
+
+<p>No example could he find, to his satisfaction, this day. He gave it up
+till to-morrow, and then asked Holt what was on his mind. But Holt now
+drew back, and did not think he could tell. This made Hugh press; and
+Hugh's pressing looked like sympathy, and gave Holt courage: so that the
+thing came out at last. Holt was very miserable, for he was deep in
+debt, and the boys never let him alone about it; and he did not see how
+he should ever pay, as nobody was likely to give him any money.</p>
+
+<p>"Remember, it is only sixpence that you owe me&mdash;not a shilling," said
+Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>Holt sighed. Perhaps he had hoped that Hugh would excuse him altogether.
+He explained that this sixpence was not all, nor the chief part. He told
+that, when the whole school was on the heath, one Saturday, they had
+seen a balloon rising at a distance, and some boys began betting about
+what direction it would move in when it ceased to rise perpendicularly.
+The betting spread till the boys told him he must bet, or he would be
+the only one left out, and would look like a shabby fellow.</p>
+
+<p>"And you did?" exclaimed Hugh. "How silly!"</p>
+
+<p>"You would have done it, if you had been there."</p>
+
+<p>"No: I should not."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you would. Or, if you had not, it would have been because of&mdash;&mdash;I
+know what."</p>
+
+<p>"Because of what, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"Because of something the boys say about you. They say you are very fond
+of money."</p>
+
+<p>"I! fond of money! I declare I never heard of such a thing."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you know you made a great fuss about that half-crown."</p>
+
+<p>"As if it was about the money!" cried Hugh. "I should not have cared a
+bit if my uncle had asked me for it back again the next day. It was the
+being cheated. That was the thing. What a shame&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"By-the-bye, did your uncle ever ask what you did with that half-crown?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; but he will next week, at the January fair. He will be sure to ask
+then. What a shame of the boys to say so, when I forgave&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>He remembered, just in time, that he had better not boast, or speak
+aloud, of having forgiven Lamb his debt in secret. He resolved that he
+would not say another word, but let the boys see that he did not care
+for money for its own sake. They were all wrong, but he would be above
+noticing it; and, besides, he really had been very anxious about his
+half-crown, and they had only mistaken the reason.</p>
+
+<p>"How much did you bet on the balloon?" he inquired of Holt.</p>
+
+<p>"A shilling; and I lost."</p>
+
+<p>"Then you owe eighteen-pence."</p>
+
+<p>"But that is not all. I borrowed a shilling of Meredith to pay
+school-fines&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"What for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Chiefly for leaving my books about. Meredith says I promised to pay him
+before the holidays; but I am sure I never did. He twitted me about it
+so that I declare I would have fought him, if I could have paid him
+first."</p>
+
+<p>"That's right," exclaimed Hugh. "Why, Holt, what a different fellow you
+are! You never used to talk of fighting."</p>
+
+<p>"But this fellow Meredith plagued me so! If it had not been for that
+shilling, I would have knocked him down. Well, here is half-a-crown
+altogether; and how am I ever to get half-a-crown?"</p>
+
+<p>"Cannot you ask your uncle?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; you know I can't. You know he complains about having to pay the
+bills for me before my father can send the money from India."</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose it would take too long to ask your father. Yes; of course it
+would. There would be another holidays before you could have an answer;
+and almost another still. I wonder what uncle Shaw would say. He is very
+kind always, but it might set him asking&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And what should I do, staying here, if he should be angry and refuse?
+What should I do every day at dinner?"</p>
+
+<p>"I know what I would do!" said Hugh, decidedly. "I would tell Mr. Tooke
+all about it, and ask him for half-a-crown."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Tooke? Oh! I dare not."</p>
+
+<p>"I dare,&mdash;in holiday-time. He is your master,&mdash;next to being your
+father, while your father is so far away. You had better ask Mr. Tooke,
+to be sure."</p>
+
+<p>"What go to Crofton, and speak to him? I really want not to be a
+coward,&mdash;but I never could go and tell him."</p>
+
+<p>"Write him a letter, then. Yes: that is the way. Write a letter, and I
+will get one of my uncle's men to carry it, and wait for an answer: and
+then you will not be long in suspense, at any rate."</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I dare!"</p>
+
+<p>Holt was not long in passing from wishing to daring. He wrote a letter,
+which Hugh thought would do, though he rather wished Holt had not
+mentioned him as instigating the act. This was the letter:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot">
+<p>"<span class="smcap">The Mill</span>, <i>January 6th</i>.</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Dear Sir</span>,</p>
+
+<p>"I am very unhappy; and Proctor thinks I had better tell you what
+is upon my mind. I owe some money, and I do not see how I can ever
+pay it, unless you will help me. You know I have owed Proctor
+sixpence for ginger-beer, this long time; and as Lamb has never
+paid him his share, Proctor cannot excuse me this debt. Then I owe
+a boy a shilling, lent me for school-fines; and he never lets me
+alone about it. Then I was led into betting a shilling on a
+balloon, and I lost; and so I owe half-a-crown. If you would lend
+me that sum, sir, I shall be obliged to you for ever, and I shall
+never forget it.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Yours respectfully,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"<span class="smcap">Thomas Holt</span>."<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Mr. Shaw's man George carried the letter; but he brought back neither
+letter nor money: only a message that Mr. Tooke would call; which put
+Holt into a great fright, and made Hugh rather uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>There was no occasion for this, however. Mr. Tooke came alone into the
+room where the boys were sitting; and neither Mr. nor Mrs. Shaw appeared
+during the whole time of his visit: a thing which was rather odd, but
+which the boys were very glad of. When Mr. Tooke had told them a little
+of some new boys expected after the holidays, he said:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, now, Holt, let us see what can be done about your affairs."</p>
+
+<p>Holt looked uneasy; for it seemed as if Mr. Tooke was not going to lend
+him the money,&mdash;or to give it, which was what he had hoped, while using
+the word "lend."</p>
+
+<p>"I am glad you asked me," continued Mr. Tooke; "for people, whether they
+be men or boys, can usually retrieve their affairs when they have
+resolution to face their difficulties. There is no occasion to say
+anything about how you got into debt. We must consider how you are to
+get out of it."</p>
+
+<p>"That is very kind indeed!" exclaimed Holt.</p>
+
+<p>"As to my lending you half-a-crown," continued Mr. Tooke, "that would
+not be helping you out of debt; for if you had had any prospect of being
+able to pay half-a-crown, you would not have needed to apply to me at
+all."</p>
+
+<p>Holt sighed. Mr. Tooke went on.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot give you the money. I have less to give away than I should
+like to have, for the sake of the poor people round us. I cannot pay for
+a bet and school-fines while the children of our neighbours want clothes
+and fire."</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir, certainly," said both the boys.</p>
+
+<p>"What do people do, all the world over, when they want money?" asked Mr.
+Tooke. Holt looked puzzled. Hugh smiled. Holt was hesitating whether to
+guess that they put into the lottery, or dig for treasure, or borrow
+from their friends, or what. Having always till lately lived in India,
+where Europeans are rather lazy, and life altogether is very languid, he
+did not see, as Hugh did, what Mr. Tooke could mean.</p>
+
+<p>"When men come begging to our doors," said Mr. Tooke, "what is the first
+question we ask them?"</p>
+
+<p>Holt still look puzzled, and Hugh laughed, saying,</p>
+
+<p>"Why, Holt, you must know very well. We ask them whether they cannot get
+work."</p>
+
+<p>"Work!" cried Holt.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes," said Mr. Tooke. "The fathers and uncles of both of you work for
+what money they have; and so do I; and so does every man among our
+neighbours who is satisfied with his condition. As far as I see, you
+must get the money you want in the same way."</p>
+
+<p>"Work!" exclaimed Holt again.</p>
+
+<p>"How is he to get work?" asked Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"That is where I hope to assist him," replied Mr. Tooke. "Are you
+willing to earn your half-crown, Holt?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know how, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Widow Murray thinks she should have a better chance for a new lodger if
+her little parlour was fresh papered; but she is too rheumatic to do it
+herself, and cannot afford to engage a workman. If you like to try,
+under her directions, I will pay you as your work deserves."</p>
+
+<p>"But, sir, I never papered a room in my life!"</p>
+
+<p>"No more had the best paper-hanger in London when he first tried. But if
+you do not like that work, what do you think of doing some writing for
+me? Our tables of rules are dirty. If you will make good copies of our
+rules for all the rooms in which they hang, in the course of the
+holidays, I will pay you half-a-crown. But the copies must be quite
+correct, and the writing good. I can offer you one other choice. Our
+school library wants looking to. If you will put fresh paper covers to
+all the books that want covering, write the titles on the backs, compare
+the whole with the catalogue, and arrange them properly on the shelves,
+I will pay you half-a-crown."</p>
+
+<p>Holt's pleasure in the prospect of being out of debt was swallowed up in
+the anxiety of undertaking anything so new to him as work out of school.
+Hugh hurried him on to a decision.</p>
+
+<p>"Do choose the papering," urged Hugh. "I can help you in that, I do
+believe. I can walk that little way, to widow Murray's; and I can paste
+the paper. Widow Murray will show you how to do it; and it is very easy,
+if you once learn to join the pattern. I found that, when I helped to
+paper the nursery closet at home."</p>
+
+<p>"It is an easy pattern to join," said Mr. Tooke.</p>
+
+<p>"There, now! And that is the chief thing. If you do the library books, I
+cannot help you, you know. And remember, you will have two miles to walk
+each way; four miles a day in addition to the work."</p>
+
+<p>"He can sleep at Crofton, if he likes," said Mr. Tooke.</p>
+
+<p>"That would be a queer way of staying at uncle Shaw's," observed Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"Then there is copying the rules," said Holt. "I might do that here; and
+you might help me, if you liked."</p>
+
+<p>"Dull work!" exclaimed Hugh. "Think of copying the same rules three or
+four times over! And then, if you make mistakes, or if you do not write
+clearly, where is your half-crown? I don't mean that I would not help
+you, but it would be the dullest work of all."</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tooke sat patiently waiting till Holt had made up his mind. He
+perceived something that never entered Hugh's mind: that Holt's pride
+was hurt at the notion of doing workman's work. He wrote on a slip of
+paper these few words, and pushed them across the table to Holt, with a
+smile:&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"No debtor's hands are clean, however white they be:<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">Who digs and pays his way&mdash;the true gentleman is he."<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Holt coloured as he read, and immediately said that he chose the
+papering job. Mr. Tooke rose, tossed the slip of paper into the fire,
+buttoned up his coat, and said that he should let widow Murray know that
+a workman would wait upon her the next morning, and that she must have
+her paste and brushes and scissors ready.</p>
+
+<p>"And a pair of steps," said Hugh, with a sigh.</p>
+
+<p>"Steps, of course," replied Mr. Tooke. "You will think it a pretty
+paper, I am sure."</p>
+
+<p>"But, sir, she must quite understand that she is not at all obliged to
+us,&mdash;that is, to me," said Holt.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly. You will tell her so yourself, of course."</p>
+
+<p>Here again Holt's pride was hurt; but the thought of being out of
+Meredith's power sustained him.</p>
+
+<p>When Mr. Tooke was gone, Hugh said to his companion,</p>
+
+<p>"I do not want you to tell me what Mr. Tooke wrote on that paper that
+he burned. I only want to know whether he asked you to choose so as to
+indulge me."</p>
+
+<p>"You! O no! there was not a word about you."</p>
+
+<p>"O! very well!" replied Hugh, not sure whether he was pleased or not.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning was so fine that there was no difficulty about Hugh's
+walking the short distance to the widow Murray's; and there, for three
+mornings, did the boys work diligently, till the room was papered, and
+two cupboards into the bargain. Holt liked it very well, except for two
+things:&mdash;that Hugh was sure he could have done some difficult corners
+better than Holt had done them, if he could but have stood upon the
+steps; and that widow Murray did so persist in thanking him, that he had
+to tell her several times over that she was not obliged to him at all,
+because he was to be paid for the job.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Tooke came to see the work when it was done, and returned to Mr.
+Shaw's with the boys, in order to pay Holt his half-crown immediately,
+and yet so that the widow should not see. Hugh's eye followed Mr.
+Tooke's hand as it went a second time into his pocket; and he was
+conscious of some sort of hope that he might be paid something too. When
+no more silver came forth, he felt aware that he ought not to have
+dreamed of any reward for the help he had freely offered to his
+companion: and he asked himself whether his school-fellows were
+altogether wrong in thinking him too fond of money; and whether he was
+altogether right in having said that it was justice that he cared for,
+and not money, when he had pressed his debtor hard. However this might
+be, he was very glad to receive his sixpence from Holt. As he put it in
+his inner pocket, he observed that this would be all the money he
+should have in the world when he should have spent his five shillings in
+fairings for home.</p>
+
+<p>Holt made no answer. He had nothing to spend in the fair; still less,
+anything left over. But he remembered that he was out of debt,&mdash;that
+Meredith would twit him no more,&mdash;and he began to whistle, so
+light-hearted, that no amount of money could have made him happier. He
+only left off whistling to thank Hugh earnestly for having persuaded him
+to open his heart to Mr. Tooke.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+
+<h3>TRIPPING.</h3>
+
+
+<p>When the day came for returning to Crofton, Hugh would have left his
+crutches behind at his uncle's, so much did he prefer walking with the
+little light stick-leg he had been practising with for a fortnight. But
+his aunt shook her head at this, and ordered the crutches into the gig.
+He still walked slowly and cautiously, and soon grew tired: and she
+thought he might find it a relief at times to hop about on his crutches.
+They were hidden under the bed, however, immediately on his arrival; so
+anxious was Hugh to make the least of his lameness, and look as like
+other boys as possible, both for Tooke's sake and his own. When the boys
+had been all assembled for one day, and everybody had seen how little
+Proctor could walk, the subject seemed to be dropped, and nothing was
+talked of but the new usher. So Hugh said to himself; and he really
+thought that he had fully taken his place again as a Crofton boy, and
+that he should be let off all notice of his infirmity henceforth, and
+all trials from it, except such as no one but himself need know of. He
+was even not quite sure whether he should not be a gainer by it on the
+whole. He remembered Tooke's assurances of protection and friendship; he
+found Phil very kind and watchful; and Mrs. Watson told him privately
+that he was to be free of the orchard. She showed him the little door
+through which he might enter at any time, alone, or with one companion.
+Here he might read, or talk, and get out of sight of play that he could
+not share. The privilege was to be continued as long as no mischief was
+done to anything within the orchard. The prospect of the hours, the
+quiet hours, the bright hours that he should spend here alone with Dale,
+delighted Hugh: and when he told Dale, Dale liked the prospect too; and
+they went together, at the earliest opportunity, to survey their new
+domain, and plan where they would sit in spring, and how they would lie
+on the grass in summer, and be closer and closer friends for ever.</p>
+
+<p>Holt was encouraged to hope that he should have his turn sometimes; but
+he saw that, though Hugh cared more for him than before the holidays, he
+yet loved Dale the best.</p>
+
+<p>While Hugh was still in spirits at the thought that his worst trials
+were over, and the pleasure of his indulgences to come, he felt very
+complacent; and he thought he would gratify himself with one more
+reading of the theme which he had written in the holidays,&mdash;the theme
+which he really believed Mr. Tooke might fairly praise,&mdash;so great had
+been the pains he had taken with the composition, and so neatly was it
+written out. He searched for it in vain among his books and in his
+portfolio. Then he got leave to go up to his room, and turn over all
+his clothes. He did so in vain; and at last he remembered that it was
+far indeed out of his reach,&mdash;in the drawer of his aunt's work-table,
+where it had lain ever since she had asked him for it, to read to a lady
+who had visited her.</p>
+
+<p>The themes would certainly be called for the first thing on Mr. Tooke's
+appearance in school, at nine the next morning. The duties of the early
+morning would leave no one any time to run to Mr. Shaw's then. If
+anybody went, it must be now. The first day was one of little
+regularity; it was only just beginning to grow dusk; any willing boy
+might be back before supper; and there was no doubt that leave would be
+given on such an occasion. So Hugh made his way to the playground as
+fast as possible, and told his trouble to his best friends there,&mdash;to
+Phil, and Holt, and Dale, and as many as happened to be within hearing.</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind your theme!" said Phil. "Nobody expected you to do one; and
+you have only to say that you left it behind you."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not that," said Hugh. "I must show up my theme."</p>
+
+<p>"You can't, you know, if you have it not to show," said two or three,
+who thought this settled the matter.</p>
+
+<p>"But it is there: it is at my uncle's, if any one would go for it," said
+Hugh, beginning to be agitated.</p>
+
+<p>"Go for it!" exclaimed Phil. "What, in the dark,&mdash;this freezing
+afternoon?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is not near dark; it will not be dark this hour. Anybody might run
+there and back before supper."</p>
+
+<p>He looked at Dale; but Dale looked another way. For a moment he thought
+of Tooke's permission to appeal to him when he wanted a friend: but
+Tooke was not within hearing; and he dismissed the thought of pointing
+out Tooke to anybody's notice. He turned away as Phil repeated that it
+was quite certain that there would be no bad consequences from his being
+unprovided with a theme, which was not one of his regular lessons.</p>
+
+<p>Phil was not quite easy, however: nor were the others who heard; and in
+a minute they looked round for Hugh. He was leaning his face upon his
+arms, against the orchard wall; and when, with gentle force, they pulled
+him away, they saw that his face was bathed in tears. He sobbed out,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I took such pains with that theme,&mdash;all the holidays! And I can't go
+for it myself."</p>
+
+<p>There were loud exclamations from many against Phil, against one
+another, and against themselves; and now everybody was eager to go. Phil
+stopped all who had started off saying that it was his business; and the
+next moment, Phil was at Mr. Tooke's study-door, asking leave of absence
+till supper.</p>
+
+<p>"Little Holt has been beforehand with you," said Mr. Tooke. "I refused
+him, however, as he is not so fit as you to be out after dark. Off with
+you!"</p>
+
+<p>Before Phil returned, it struck Hugh that he had been very selfish; and
+that it was not a good way of bearing his trial to impose on any one a
+walk of four miles, to repair a piece of carelessness of his own. Nobody
+blamed him; but he did not like to look in the faces round him, to see
+what people thought. When Phil returned, fresh and hungry from the
+frosty air, and threw down the paper, saying,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"There is your theme, and my aunt is very sorry." Hugh said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! Phil, and I am so sorry too! I hope you are not very tired."</p>
+
+<p>"Never mind!" replied Phil. "There is your theme."</p>
+
+<p>And with this Hugh was obliged to be satisfied; but it left him
+exceedingly uncomfortable&mdash;sorry for Phil&mdash;disappointed in Dale&mdash;and
+much more disappointed in himself. The thought of what Holt had wished
+to do was the only pleasant part of it; and Hugh worked beside Holt, and
+talked with him all the evening.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh felt, the next morning, as if he was never to have any pleasure
+from his themes, though they were the lesson he did best. This one was
+praised, quite as much as the former one: and he did not this time tell
+anybody what Mr. Tooke had said about it: but the pleasure was spoiled
+by the recollection that his brother had run four miles on account of
+it, and that he himself must have appeared to others more selfish than
+he thought them. He burned his theme, that he might the more easily
+forget all about it; and the moment after he had done so, Phil said he
+should have kept it, as other boys did theirs, for his parents to see.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Crabbe was just such a master as it was good for the little boys to
+be under. He did not punish capriciously, nor terrify them by anything
+worse than his strictness. Very strict he was; and he thus caused them
+some fear every day: for Holt was backward, and not very clever: and
+Hugh was still much less able to learn than most other boys. But all
+felt that Mr. Crabbe was not unreasonable, and they always knew exactly
+how much to be afraid of. Whether he had inquired, or been told, the
+story of Hugh's lameness, they did not know. He said nothing about it,
+except just asking Hugh whether it tired him to stand up in class,
+saying that he might sit at the top or bottom of the class, instead of
+taking places if he chose. Hugh did find it rather fatiguing at first
+but he did not like to take advantage of Mr. Crabbe's offer, because it
+so happened that he was almost always at the bottom of his classes: and
+to have withdrawn from the contest would have looked like a trick to
+hide the shame, and might have caused him to be set down as a dunce who
+never could rise. He thanked Mr. Crabbe, and said that if he should rise
+in his classes, and keep a good place for some time, he thought he
+should be glad to sit, instead of standing; but meantime he had rather
+be tired. Then the feeling of fatigue went off before he rose, or saw
+any chance of rising.</p>
+
+<p>This inability to do his lessons so well as other boys was a deep and
+lasting grief to Hugh. Though he had in reality improved much since he
+came to Crofton, and was now and then cheered by some proof of this, his
+general inferiority in this respect was such as to mortify him every day
+of his life, and sometimes to throw him almost into despair. He saw that
+everybody pitied him for the loss of his foot, but not for this other
+trouble, while he felt this to be rather the worst of the two; and all
+the more because he was not sure himself whether or not he could help
+it, as every one else seemed certain that he might. When he said his
+prayer in his bed, he earnestly entreated that he might be able to bear
+the one trouble, and be delivered from the other; and when, as the
+spring came on, he was found by one friend or another lying on the grass
+with his face hidden, he was often praying with tears for help in doing
+this duty, when he was thought to be grieving that he could not play at
+leaping or foot-ball, like other boys. And yet, the very next evening,
+when the whole school were busy over their books, and there was nothing
+to interfere with his work, he would pore over his lesson without taking
+in half the sense, while his fancy was straying everywhere but where it
+ought;&mdash;perhaps to little Harry, or the Temple Gardens at home, or to
+Cape Horn, or Japan&mdash;some way farther off still. It did not often happen
+now, as formerly, that he forgot before morning a lesson well learned
+over-night. He was aware that now everything depended on whether he was
+once sure of his lesson; but the difficulty was in once being sure of
+it.</p>
+
+<p>Finding Phil's kindness continue through the first weeks and months of
+the half-year, Hugh took courage at last to open his mind pretty freely
+to his brother, offering to do anything in the world for Phil, if he
+would only hear him his lessons every evening till he could say them
+perfect. Phil was going to plead that he had no time, when Hugh popped
+out&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"The thing is that it does not help me to say them to just anybody.
+Saying them to somebody that I am afraid of is what I want."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, you are not afraid of me?" said Phil.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes I am&mdash;rather."</p>
+
+<p>"What for?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, because you are older;&mdash;and you are so much more of a Crofton boy
+than I am&mdash;and you are very strict&mdash;and altogether&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, you will find me pretty strict, I can tell you," said Phil, unable
+to restrain a complacent smile on finding that somebody was afraid of
+him. "Well, we must see what we can do. I will hear you to-night, at any
+rate."</p>
+
+<p>Between his feeling of kindness and the gratification of his vanity,
+Phil found himself able to hear his brother's lessons every evening. He
+was certainly very strict, and was not sparing of such pushes, joggings,
+and ridicule as were necessary to keep Hugh up to his work. Those were
+very provoking sometimes; but Hugh tried to bear them for the sake of
+the gain. Whenever Phil would condescend to explain, in fresh words, the
+sense of what Hugh had to learn, he saved trouble to both, and the
+lesson went off quickly and easily: but sometimes he would not explain
+anything, and soon went away in impatience, leaving Hugh in the midst of
+his perplexities. There was a chance, on such occasions, that Firth
+might be at leisure, or Dale able to help: so that, one way and another,
+Hugh found his affairs improving as the spring advanced; and he began to
+lose his anxiety, and to gain credit with the usher. He also now and
+then won a place in his classes.</p>
+
+<p>Towards the end of May, when the trees were full of leaf, and the
+evenings sunny, and the open air delicious, quite up to bedtime, Phil
+became persuaded, very suddenly, that Hugh could get on by himself now;
+that it was not fair that he should be helped; and that it was even
+hurtful to him to rely on any one but himself. If Phil had acted
+gradually upon this conviction, withdrawing his help by degrees, it
+might have been all very well: but he refused at once and decidedly to
+have anything more to do with Hugh's lessons, as he was quite old and
+forward enough now to do them by himself. This announcement threw his
+brother into a state of consternation not at all favourable to learning;
+and the next morning Hugh made several blunders. He did the same every
+day that week; was every afternoon detained from play to learn his
+lessons again; and on the Saturday morning (repetition day) he lost all
+the places he had gained, and left off at the bottom of every class.</p>
+
+<p>What could Mr. Crabbe suppose but that a sudden fit of idleness was the
+cause of this falling back? It appeared so to him, and to the whole
+school; and poor Hugh felt as if there was scorn in every eye that
+looked upon his disgrace. He thought there could not be a boy in the
+school who did not see or hear that he was at the bottom of every class.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Crabbe always desired to be just: and he now gave Hugh the
+opportunity of explaining, if he had anything to say. He remained in the
+school-room after the boys had left it, and asked Hugh a question or
+two. But Hugh sobbed and cried so bitterly that he could not speak so as
+to be understood; and he did not wish to explain, feeling that he was
+much obliged to Phil for his former help, and that he ought not to
+complain to any master of its being now withdrawn. So Mr. Crabbe could
+only hope that next week would show a great difference, and advise him
+to go out with the rest this afternoon, to refresh himself for a new
+effort.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh did not know whether he had not rather have been desired to stay at
+home than go out among so many who considered him disgraced. It really
+was hard (though Holt stood by him, and Dale was his companion as usual)
+to bear the glances he saw, and the words that came to his ear. Some
+boys looked to see how red his eyes were: some were surprised to see him
+abroad, and hinted at favouritism because he was not shut up in the
+school-room. Some asked whether he could say his alphabet yet; and
+others whether he could spell "dunce." The most cruel thing of all was
+to see Tooke in particularly high spirits. He kept away from Hugh; but
+Hugh's eye followed him from afar, and saw that he capered and laughed,
+and was gayer than at any time this half-year. Hugh saw into his heart
+(or thought he did) as plain as he saw to the bottom of the clear stream
+in the meadows, to which they were bound for their afternoon's sport.</p>
+
+<p>"I know what Tooke is feeling," thought he. "He is pleased to see me
+lowered, as long as it is not his doing. He is sorry to see me suffer by
+my lameness; because that hurts his conscience: but he is pleased to see
+me wrong and disgraced, because that relieves him of the feeling of
+being obliged to me. If I were now to put him in mind of his promise, to
+stand by me, and protect me&mdash;&mdash;I declare I will&mdash;&mdash;it will stop his
+wicked joy&mdash;&mdash;it will make him remember his duty."</p>
+
+<p>Dale wondered to see Hugh start off, as fast as he could go, to overtake
+the foremost boys who were just entering the meadow, and spreading
+themselves over it. Tooke could, alas! like everybody else, go faster
+than Hugh; and there was no catching him, though he did not seem to see
+that anybody wanted him. Neither could he be made to hear, though Hugh
+called him as loud as he could shout. Holt was so sorry to see Hugh hot
+and agitated, that he made no objection to going after Tooke, though he
+was pretty sure Tooke would be angry with him. Holt could run as fast as
+anybody, and he soon caught the boy he was pursuing, and told him that
+little Proctor wanted him very much indeed, that very moment. Tooke sent
+him about his business, saying that he could not come; and then
+immediately proposed brook-leaping for their sport, leading the way
+himself over a place so wide that no lesser boy, however nimble, could
+follow. Holt came running back, shaking his head, and showing that his
+errand was in vain. Tooke was so full of play that he could think of
+nothing else; which was a shame.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! and you little know," thought Hugh, "how deep a shame it is."</p>
+
+<p>With a swelling heart he turned away, and went towards the bank of the
+broader stream which ran through the meadows. Dale was with him in a
+moment,&mdash;very sorry for him, because everybody else was at
+brook-leaping,&mdash;the sport that Hugh had loved so well last autumn. Dale
+passed his arm round Hugh's neck, and asked where they should sit and
+tell stories,&mdash;where they could best hide themselves, so that nobody
+should come and tease them. Hugh wished to thank his friend for this;
+but he could not speak directly. They found a pleasant place among the
+flowering reeds on the bank, where they thought nobody would see them;
+and having given Holt to understand that they did not want him, they
+settled themselves for their favourite amusement of story-telling.</p>
+
+<p>But Hugh's heart was too full and too sick for even his favourite
+amusement; and Dale was perhaps too sorry for him to be the most
+judicious companion he could have at such a time. Dale agreed that the
+boys were hard and careless; and he added that it was particularly
+shameful to bring up a boy's other faults when he was in disgrace for
+one. In the warmth of his zeal, he told how one boy had been laughing at
+Hugh's conceit about his themes, when he had shown to-day that he could
+not go half through his syntax; and how he had heard another say that
+all that did not signify half so much as his being mean about money.
+Between Hugh's eagerness to hear, and Dale's sympathy, five minutes were
+not over before Hugh had heard every charge that could be brought
+against his character, and knew that they were all circulating this very
+afternoon. In his agony of mind he declared that everybody at Crofton
+hated him,&mdash;that he could never hold up his head there,&mdash;that he would
+ask to be sent home by the coach, and never come near Crofton again.</p>
+
+<p>Dale now began to be frightened, and wished he had not said so much. He
+tried to make light of it; but Hugh seemed disposed to do something
+decided;&mdash;to go to his uncle Shaw's, at least, if he could not get home.
+Dale earnestly protested against any such idea, and put him in mind how
+he was respected by everybody for his bravery about the loss of his
+foot.</p>
+
+<p>"Respected? Not a bit of it!" cried Hugh. "They none of them remember:
+they don't care a bit about it."</p>
+
+<p>Dale was sure they did.</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you they don't. I know they don't. I know it for certain; and I
+will tell you how I know. There is the very boy that did it,&mdash;the very
+boy that pulled me from the wall&mdash;&mdash;O! if you knew who it was, you would
+say it was a shame!"</p>
+
+<p>Dale involuntarily sat up, and looked back, over the tops of the reeds,
+at the boys who were brook-leaping.</p>
+
+<p>"Would you like to know who it was that did it, Dale?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, if you like to tell; but&mdash;&mdash;And if he treats you ill, after the
+way you used him, he cannot expect you should consider him
+so&mdash;&mdash;Besides, I am your best friend; and I always tell you everything!"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that you do. And he has treated me so shamefully to-day! And I
+have nobody to speak to that knows. You will promise never&mdash;never to
+tell anybody as long as you live."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure," said Dale.</p>
+
+<p>"And you wont tell anybody that I have told you."</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure not."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Here there was a rustling among the reeds which startled them both, with
+a sort of guilty feeling. It was Holt, quite out of breath.</p>
+
+<p>"I don't want to interrupt you," said he, "and I know you wish I would
+not come; but the others made me come. The biggest boys lay that the
+second size can't jump the brook at the willow-stump; and the
+second-size boys want Dale to try. They made me come. I could not help
+it."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh looked at Dale, with eyes which said, as plainly as eyes could
+speak, "You will not go&mdash;&mdash;you will not leave me at such a moment?"</p>
+
+<p>But Dale was not looking at his face, but at the clusters of boys beside
+the brook. He said&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"You will not mind my going, just for one leap. It will hardly take a
+minute. I shall not stay for a game. But I must have just one leap."</p>
+
+<p>And he was off. Holt looked after him, and then towards Hugh, hesitating
+whether to go or stay. Hugh took no notice of him: so he went slowly
+away; and Hugh was left alone.</p>
+
+<p>He was in an extreme perturbation. At the first moment, he was beyond
+measure hurt with Dale. He did not think his best friend would have so
+reminded him of his infirmity, and of his being a restraint on his
+companions. He did not think any friend could have left him at such a
+moment. Then it occurred to him,</p>
+
+<p>"What, then, am I? If Dale was selfish, what was I? I was just going to
+tell what would have pointed out Tooke to him for life. I know as well
+as can be that it was all accident his pulling me off the wall; and yet
+I was going to bring it up against him; and for the very reason why I
+should not,&mdash;because he has not behaved well to me. I was just going to
+spoil the only good thing I ever did for anybody in my life. But it is
+spoiled&mdash;completely spoiled. I shall never be able to trust myself
+again. It is all by mere accident that it is not all over now. If Holt
+had not come that very instant, my secret would have been out, and I
+could never have got it back again! I could never have looked Tooke in
+the face any more. I don't know that I can now; for I am as wicked as if
+I had told."</p>
+
+<p>Dale came back presently, fanning himself with his cap. As he plunged
+into the reeds, and threw himself down beside Hugh, he cried,</p>
+
+<p>"I did it! I took the leap, and came off with my shoe-soles as dry as a
+crust. Ah! they are wet now; but that is with another leap I took for
+sport. I told you I should not be long gone. Now for it! Who did it?"</p>
+
+<p>"I am not going to tell you, Dale,&mdash;not now, nor ever."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that is too bad! I am sure I stay beside you often enough, when
+the others are playing: you need not grudge me this one leap,&mdash;when the
+boys sent for me, too."</p>
+
+<p>"It is not that, Dale. You are very kind always in staying beside me;
+and I do not wish that you should give up play for my sake half so much
+as you do. But I was very, very wrong in meaning to tell you that
+secret. I should have been miserable by this time if I had."</p>
+
+<p>"But you promised. You must keep your promise. What would all the boys
+say, if I told them you had broken your promise?"</p>
+
+<p>"If they knew what it was about, they would despise me for ever meaning
+to tell&mdash;not for stopping short in time. That was only accident,
+however. But my secret is my own still."</p>
+
+<p>Dale's curiosity was so strong, that Hugh saw how dangerous it was to
+have tantalised it. He had to remind his friend of Mr. Tooke's having
+put all the boys upon honour not to inquire on this subject. This
+brought Dale to himself; and he promised never again to urge Hugh, or
+encourage his speaking of the matter at all. They then went to
+story-telling; but it would not do to-day. Hugh could not attend; and
+Dale could not invent, while there was no sympathy in his hearer. He was
+presently released, for it struck Hugh that he should like to write to
+his mother this very afternoon. His heart was heavy, and he wanted to
+tell her what was in it. Mr. Crabbe gave him leave to go home; and Dale
+was in time for plenty more play.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh had the great school-room all to himself; and as the window before
+his desk was open, he had the pleasure of the fresh air, and the smell
+of the blossoms from the orchard, and the sound of the waving of the
+tall trees in the wind, and the cawing of the rooks as the trees waved.
+These things all made him enjoy scribbling away to his mother, as well
+as finding his mind grow easier as he went on. Besides, he had not to
+care for the writing; for he had met Mr. Tooke by the church, and had
+got his leave to send his letter without anybody's looking at it, as he
+had something very particular to say. He wrote,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Dear Mother,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"It is Saturday afternoon, and I have come home from the meadows
+before the rest, to tell you something that has made me very
+uneasy. If I had told anybody in the world who pulled me off the
+wall, it should and would have been you,&mdash;that night after it
+happened: and I am afraid I should have told you, if you had not
+prevented it: for I find I am not to be trusted when I am talking
+with anybody I love very much. I have not told yet: but I should
+have told Dale if Holt had not run up at the very moment. It makes
+me very unhappy,&mdash;almost as much as if I had let it out: for how do
+I know but that I may tell a hundred times over in my life, if I
+could forget so soon? I shall be afraid of loving anybody very
+much, and talking with them alone, as long as I live. I never felt
+the least afraid of telling till to-day; and you cannot think how
+unhappy it makes me. And then, the thing that provoked me to tell
+was that boy's being surly to me, and glad that I was in disgrace
+this morning, for doing my lessons badly all this week,&mdash;the very
+thing that should have made me particularly careful how I behaved
+to him; for his pulling me off the wall was by accident, after all.
+Everything has gone wrong to-day; and I am very unhappy, and I feel
+as if I should never be sure of anything again; and so I write to
+you. You told me you expected me not to fail; and you see I have;
+and the next thing is that I must tell you of it.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Your affectionate son,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"<span class="smcap">Hugh Proctor</span>.<br /></span>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>"P.S. Phil has been very kind about my lessons, till this week
+[<i>interlined</i>], when he has been very busy.</p>
+
+<p>"P.S. If you should answer this, please put 'private' outside, or
+at the top; and then Mr. Tooke will not read it, nor anybody. But I
+know you are very busy always; so I do not quite expect an answer."</p></div>
+
+<p>When the letter was finished and closed, Hugh felt a good deal relieved:
+but still not happy. He had opened his heart to the best friend he had
+in this world: but he still felt grievously humbled for the present, and
+alarmed for the future. Then he remembered that he might seek comfort
+from a better Friend still; and that He who had sent him his trial could
+and would help him to bear it, with honour as well as with patience. As
+he thought of this, he saw that the boys were trooping home, along the
+road, and he slipped out, and into the orchard, where he knew he might
+be alone with his Best Friend. He stayed there till the supper-bell
+rang; and when he came in, it was with a cheerful face. He was as merry
+as anybody at supper: and afterwards he found his lessons more easy to
+him than usual. The truth was that his mind was roused by the conflicts
+of the day. He said his lessons to Phil (who found time to-night to hear
+him), without missing a word. When he went to bed, he had several
+pleasant thoughts. His secret was still his own (though by no merit of
+his); to-morrow was Sunday,&mdash;likely to be a bright, sweet May
+Sunday,&mdash;his lessons were quite ready for Monday; and possibly there
+might be a letter from his mother in the course of the week.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Proctor was in the midst of her Monday morning's business (and
+Monday morning was the busiest of the week), when she received Hugh's
+letter. Yet she found time to answer it by the very next post. When her
+letter was handed to Hugh, with the seal unbroken, because 'private' was
+written large on the outside, he thought she was the kindest mother that
+ever was, to have written so soon, and to have minded all his wishes.
+Her letter was,&mdash;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"Dear Hugh,</p>
+
+<p>"There was nothing in your letter to surprise me at all; for I
+believe, if all our hearts were known, it would be found that we
+have every one been saved from doing wrong by what we call
+accident. The very best people say this of themselves, in their
+thanksgivings to God, and their confessions to one another. Though
+you were very unhappy on Saturday, I am not sorry that these things
+have happened, as I think you will be the safer and the wiser for
+them. You say you never till then felt the least afraid of telling.
+Now you know the danger; and that is a good thing. I think you will
+never again see that boy (whoever he may be), without being put
+upon your guard. Still, we are all sadly forgetful about our duty;
+and, if I were you, I would use every precaution against such a
+danger as you have escaped,&mdash;it makes me tremble to think how
+narrowly. If I were you, I would engage any friend I should become
+intimate with, the whole time of being at school, and perhaps
+afterwards, never to say a word about the accident,&mdash;or, at least,
+about how it happened. Another way is to tell me your mind, as you
+have now; for you may be sure that it is my wish that you should
+keep your secret, and that I shall always be glad to help you to do
+it.</p>
+
+<p>"But, my dear boy, I can do but little, in comparison with the best
+Friend you have. He can help you without waiting for your
+confidence,&mdash;even at the very instant when you are tempted. It is
+He who sends these very accidents (as we call them) by which you
+have now been saved. Have you thanked Him for saving you this time?
+And will you not trust in His help henceforward, instead of
+supposing yourself safe, as you now find you are not? If you use
+his strength, I feel that you will not fail. If you trust your own
+intentions alone, I shall never feel sure of you for a single hour,
+nor be certain that the companion you love best may not be your
+worst enemy, in breaking down your self-command. But, as you say
+you were very unhappy on Saturday, I have no doubt you did go for
+comfort to the right Friend, and that you were happier on Sunday.</p>
+
+<p>"Your sisters do not know that I am writing, as I consider your
+letter a secret from everybody but your father, who sends his love.
+You need not show this to Phil; but you can give him our love. Your
+sisters are counting the days to the holidays; and so are some
+older members of the family. As for Harry, he shouts for you from
+the yard every day, and seems to think that every shout will bring
+nearer the happy time when Phil and you will come home.</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<span class="i0">"Your affectionate mother,<br /></span>
+<span class="i0">"<span class="smcap">Jane Proctor</span>."<br /></span>
+</div></div></div>
+
+<p>Hugh was, of course, very glad of this letter. And he was glad of
+something else;&mdash;that he had done the very things his mother had
+advised. He had engaged Dale not to tempt him on this subject any more.
+He had opened his heart to his mother, and obtained her help; and he had
+sought a better assistance, and a higher comfort still. It was so
+delightful to have such a letter as this,&mdash;to be so understood and
+aided, that he determined to tell his mother all his concerns, as long
+as he lived. When, in the course of the holidays, he told her so, she
+smiled, and said she supposed he meant as long as <i>she</i> lived; for she
+was likely to die long before he did. Hugh could not deny this; but he
+never liked to think about it:&mdash;he always drove away the thought; though
+he knew, as his mother said, that this was rather cowardly, and that the
+wisest and most loving people in the world remember the most constantly
+and cheerfully that friends must be parted for a while, before they can
+live together for ever.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+
+<h3>HOLT AND HIS HELP.</h3>
+
+
+<p>Nothing more was heard by Hugh, or any one else, of Lamb's debt. The
+creditor himself chose to say nothing about it, so much was he annoyed
+at being considered fond of money: but he was sure that Lamb's pockets
+were filled, from time to time, as he was seen eating good things in
+by-corners when everybody knew that his credit with his companions, and
+with all the neighbouring tradespeople, was exhausted. It was surprising
+that anybody could care so much for a shilling's worth of tarts or
+fruit as to be at the trouble of any concealment, or of constantly
+getting out of Hugh's way, rather than pay, and have done with it. When
+Lamb was seen munching or skulking, Firth sometimes asked Hugh whether
+he had got justice yet in that quarter: and then Hugh laughed; and Firth
+saw that he had gained something quite as good,&mdash;a power of doing
+without it good-humouredly, from those who were so unhappy as not to
+understand or care for justice.</p>
+
+<p>In one respect, however, Hugh was still within Lamb's power. When Lamb
+was not skulking, he was much given to boasting; and his boasts were
+chiefly about what a great man he was to be in India. He was really
+destined for India; and his own opinion was that he should have a fine
+life of it there, riding on an elephant, with a score of servants always
+about him, spending all his mornings in shooting, and all his evenings
+at dinners and balls. Hugh did not care about the servants, sport, or
+dissipation; and he did not see why any one should cross the globe to
+enjoy things like these, which might be had at home. But it did make him
+sigh to think that a lazy and ignorant boy should be destined to live
+among those mountains, and that tropical verdure of which he had
+read,&mdash;to see the cave-temples, the tanks, the prodigious rivers, and
+the natives and their ways, of which his imagination was full, while he
+must stay at home, and see nothing beyond London, as long as he lived.
+He did not grudge Holt his prospect of going to India; for Holt was an
+improved and improving boy, and had, moreover, a father there whom he
+loved very much: but Hugh could never hear Lamb's talk about India
+without being ready to cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you think," he said to Holt, "that all this is true?"</p>
+
+<p>"It is true that he is to go to India. His father has interest to get
+him out. But I do not believe he will like it so well as he thinks. At
+least, I know that my father has to work pretty hard,&mdash;harder than Lamb
+ever worked, or ever will work."</p>
+
+<p>"O dear! I wish I could go and do the work; and I would send all the
+money home to him (except just enough to live upon), and then he might
+go to dinners and balls in London, as much as he liked, and I could see
+the Hindoos and the cave-temples."</p>
+
+<p>"That is another mistake of Lamb's,&mdash;about the quantity of money," said
+Holt. "I do not believe anybody in India is so rich as he pretends, if
+they work ever so hard. I know my father works as hard as anybody, and
+he is not rich; and I know the same of several of his friends. So it is
+hardly likely that such a lazy dunce as Lamb should be rich, unless he
+has a fortune here at home; and if he had that, I do not believe he
+would take the trouble of going so far, to suffer by the heat."</p>
+
+<p>"I should not mind the heat," sighed Hugh, "if I could go. You must
+write to me, Holt, all about India. Write me the longest letters in the
+world; and tell me everything you can think of about the natives, and
+Juggernaut's Car."</p>
+
+<p>"That I will, if you like. But I am afraid that would only make you long
+the more to go,&mdash;like reading Voyages and Travels. How I do wish,
+though, that you were going with me by-and-bye, as you let me go home
+with you these holidays!"</p>
+
+<p>It was really true that Holt was going to London these holidays. He was
+not slow to acknowledge that Hugh's example had put into him some of the
+spirit that he had wanted when he came to Crofton, languid, indolent,
+and somewhat spoiled, as little boys from India are apt to be; and Hugh,
+for his part, saw now that he had been impatient and unkind towards
+Holt, and had left him forlorn, after having given him hopes that they
+were to be friends and companions. They were gradually becoming real
+friends now; and the faster, because Holt was so humble as not to be
+jealous of Hugh's still liking Dale best. Holt was satisfied to be liked
+best when Dale could not be had; and as this was the case in the
+Midsummer holidays, he was grateful to be allowed to spend them with the
+Proctors.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh was so thankful for his father's kindness in giving him a companion
+of his own age, and so pleased to show Holt little Harry, and the leads,
+and the river, and his shelf of books, and Covent Garden Market, and
+other wonders of London, that any unpleasant feelings that the boys had
+ever entertained towards each other were quite forgotten, and they grew
+more intimate every day. It touched Hugh's heart to see how sorry Holt
+was for every little trial that befel him, on coming home, altered as he
+was. Agnes herself did not turn red oftener, or watch more closely to
+help him than Holt did. Hugh himself had to tell him not to mind when he
+saw the shop-boy watching his way of walking, or little Harry trying to
+limp like him, or Susan pretending to find fault with him, as she used
+to do, as an excuse for brushing away her tears. Holt was one of the
+first to find out that Hugh liked to be sent errands about the house, or
+in the neighbourhood; and it was he who convinced the family of it,
+though at first they could not understand or believe it at all. When
+they saw, however, that Hugh, who used to like that his sisters should
+wait upon him, and to be very slow in moving from his book, even at his
+mother's desire, now went up stairs and down stairs for everybody, and
+tried to be more independent in his habits than any one else, they began
+to think that Holt knew Hugh's mind better than even they, and to
+respect and love him accordingly.</p>
+
+<p>There was another proof of friendship given by Holt, more difficult by
+far; and in giving it, he showed that he really had learned courage and
+spirit from Hugh, or in some other way. He saw that his friend was now
+and then apt to do what most people who have an infirmity are prone
+to,&mdash;to make use of his privation to obtain indulgences for himself, or
+as an excuse for wrong feelings; and when Holt could not help seeing
+this, he resolutely told his friend of it. No one else but Mrs. Proctor
+would see or speak the truth on such occasions; and when his mother was
+not by, Hugh would often have done selfish things unchecked, if it had
+not been for Holt. His father pitied him so deeply, that he joked even
+about Hugh's faults, rather than give him present pain. Phil thought he
+had enough to bear at Crofton, and that everybody should let him alone
+in the holidays. His sisters humoured him in everything: so that if it
+had not been for Holt, Hugh might have had more trouble with his faults
+than ever, on going back to Crofton.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really and truly wish not to fail, as you say, Hugh?" asked
+Holt.</p>
+
+<p>"To be sure."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, do try not to be cross."</p>
+
+<p>"I am not cross."</p>
+
+<p>"I know you think it is low spirits. I am not quite sure of that: but if
+it is, would not it be braver not to be low in spirits?"</p>
+
+<p>Hugh muttered that that was fine talking for people that did not know.</p>
+
+<p>"That is true, I dare say; and I do not believe I should be half as
+brave as you, but I <i>should</i> like to see you quite brave."</p>
+
+<p>"It is a pretty thing for you to lecture me, when I got down those books
+on purpose for you,&mdash;those Voyages and Travels. And how can I look at
+those same books, now and not&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>Hugh could not go on, and he turned away his head.</p>
+
+<p>"Was it for me?" exclaimed Holt, in great concern. "Then I am very
+sorry. I will carry them to Mrs. Proctor, and ask her to put them quite
+away till we are gone back to Crofton."</p>
+
+<p>"No, no. Don't do that. I want them," said Hugh, finding now that he had
+not fetched them down entirely on Holt's account. But Holt took him at
+his word, and carried the books away, and succeeded in persuading Hugh
+that it was better not to look at volumes which he really almost knew by
+heart, and every crease, stain and dog's-ear of which brought up fresh
+in his mind his old visions of foreign travel and adventure. Then, Holt
+never encouraged any conversation about the accident with Susan, or with
+Mr. Blake, when they were in the shop; and he never pretended to see
+that Hugh's lameness was any reason why he should have the best of their
+places in the Haymarket Theatre (where they went once), or be the chief
+person when they capped verses, or played other games round the table,
+in the evenings at home. The next time Hugh was in his right mood, he
+was sure to feel obliged to Holt; and he sometimes said so.</p>
+
+<p>"I consider you a real friend to Hugh," said Mrs. Proctor, one day, when
+they three were together. "I have dreaded seeing my boy capable only of
+a short effort of courage;&mdash;bearing pain of body and mind well while
+everybody was sorry for him, and ready to praise him; and then failing
+in the long trial afterwards. When other people are leaving off being
+sorry for him, you continue your concern for him, and still remind him
+not to fail."</p>
+
+<p>"Would not it be a pity, ma'am," said Holt, earnestly, "would it not be
+a pity for him to fail when he bore everything so well at first, and
+when he helped me so that I don't know what I should have done without
+him? He made me write to Mr. Tooke, and so got me out of debt; and a
+hundred times, I am sure, the thought of him and his secret has put
+spirit into me. It would be a pity if he should fail without knowing it,
+for want of somebody to put him in mind. He might so easily think he was
+bearing it all well, as long as he could talk about his foot, and make a
+joke of being lame, when, all the while, he might be losing his temper
+in other ways."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, how true that is!" exclaimed Hugh. "I was going to ask if I was
+ever cross about being lame: but I know I am about other things, because
+I am worried about that, sometimes."</p>
+
+<p>"It is so easy to put you in mind," continued Holt; "and we shall all be
+so glad if you are brave to the very end&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I will," said Hugh. "Only do you go on to put me in mind&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"And <i>you</i> will grow more and more brave, too," observed Mrs. Proctor to
+Holt.</p>
+
+<p>Holt sighed; for he thought it would take a great deal of practice yet
+to make him a brave boy. Other people thought he was getting on very
+fast.</p>
+
+
+
+<hr style="width: 65%;" />
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+
+<h3>CONCLUSION.</h3>
+
+
+<p>The longer these two boys were together, the more they wished that they
+could spend their lives side by side; or, at least, not be separated by
+half the globe. Just before the Christmas holidays, some news arrived
+which startled them so much that they could hardly speak to one another
+about it for some hours. There was a deep feeling in their hearts which
+disposed them to speak alone to the Ruler of their lives, before they
+could even rejoice with one another. When they meditated upon it, they
+saw that the event had come about naturally enough; but it so exactly
+met the strongest desire they had in the world, that if a miracle had
+happened before their eyes, they could not have been more struck.</p>
+
+<p>Holt's father wrote a letter to Mr. Proctor, which reached its
+destination through Mr. Tooke's hands; and Mr. Tooke was consulted in
+the whole matter, and requested by Mr. Proctor to tell the two boys and
+Phil all about it. These three were therefore called into Mr. Tooke's
+study, one day, to hear some news.</p>
+
+<p>The letters which Mr. Tooke read were about Hugh. Mr. Holt explained
+that his son's best years were to be spent, like his own, in India; that
+his own experience had made him extremely anxious that his son should
+be associated with companions whom he could respect and love; and that
+he had long resolved to use such interest as he had in bringing out only
+such a youth, or youths, as he could wish his son to associate with. He
+mentioned that he was aware that one lad now at Crofton was destined for
+India&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"That is Lamb," whispered the boys to each other.</p>
+
+<p>But that he did not hear of any friendship formed, or likely to be
+formed with advantage between his son and this young gentleman.</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed!" muttered Holt.</p>
+
+<p>There was one boy, however, Mr. Holt went on to say, to whom his son
+seemed to be attached, and concerning whom he had related circumstances
+which inspired a strong interest, and which seemed to afford an
+expectation of an upright manhood following a gallant youth.</p>
+
+<p>Here all the boys reddened, and Hugh looked hard at the carpet.</p>
+
+<p>This boy had evidently a strong inclination for travel and adventure;
+and though his lameness put military or naval service out of the
+question, it might not unfit him for civil service in India. If Mr.
+Tooke could give such a report of his health, industry, and capability
+as should warrant his being offered an appointment, and if his parents
+were willing so to dispose of him, Mr. Holt was anxious to make
+arrangements for the education of the boys proceeding together, in order
+to their being companions in their voyage and subsequent employments.
+And then followed some account of what these arrangements were to be.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Proctor," said Mr. Tooke to the breathless Hugh, "you must
+consider what you have to say to this. Your parents are willing to
+agree, if you are. But if," he continued, with a kind smile, "it would
+make you very unhappy to go to India, no one will force your
+inclinations."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, sir," said Hugh, "I will work very hard,&mdash;I will work as hard as
+ever I can, if I may go."</p>
+
+<p>"Well: you may go, you see, if you will work hard. You can consider it
+quietly, or talk it over with your brother and Holt; and to-morrow you
+are to dine at your uncle's, where you will meet your father; and he and
+you will settle what to write to Mr. Holt, by the next ship."</p>
+
+<p>"And you, sir," said Phil, anxiously&mdash;"Mr. Holt asks your opinion."</p>
+
+<p>"My opinion is that your brother can be what he pleases. He wants some
+inducement to pursue his learning more strenuously than he has done
+yet&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I will, sir. I will, indeed," cried Hugh.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe you will. Such a prospect as this will be an inducement, if
+anything can. You are, on the whole, a brave boy; and brave boys are not
+apt to be ungrateful to God or man; and I am sure you think it would be
+ungrateful, both to God and man, to refuse to do your best in the
+situation which gratifies the first wish of your heart."</p>
+
+<p>Hugh could not say another word. He made his lowest bow, and went
+straight to his desk. As the first-fruits of his gratitude, he learned
+his lessons thoroughly well that night; much as he would have liked to
+spend the time in dreaming.</p>
+
+<p>His father and he had no difficulty in settling what to write to Mr.
+Holt; and very merry were they together when the business was done. In
+a day or two, when Hugh had had time to think, he began to be glad on
+Tooke's account; and he found an opportunity of saying to him one day,</p>
+
+<p>"I never should have gone to India if I had not lost my foot; and I
+think it is well worth while losing my foot to go to India."</p>
+
+<p>"Do you really? or do you say it because&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I think so really." And then he went off into such a description as
+convinced Tooke that he was in earnest, though it was to be feared that
+he would be disappointed by experience. But then again, Mr. Tooke was
+heard to say that one chief requisite for success and enjoyment in
+foreign service of any kind was a strong inclination for it. So Tooke
+was consoled, and easier in mind than for a whole year past.</p>
+
+<p>Hugh was able to keep his promise of working hard. Both at Crofton and
+at the India College, where his education was finished, he studied well
+and successfully; and when he set sail with his companion, it was with a
+heart free from all cares but one. Parting from his family was certainly
+a great grief; and he could not forget the last tone he had heard from
+Agnes. But this was his only sorrow. He was, at last, on the wide sea,
+and going to Asia. Holt was his dear friend. He had left none but
+well-wishers behind. His secret was his own; (though, indeed, he
+scarcely remembered that he had any secret;) and he could not but be
+conscious that he went out well prepared for honourable duty.</p>
+
+
+<p>THE END</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
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@@ -0,0 +1,6393 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crofton Boys, by Harriet Martineau
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: The Crofton Boys
+
+Author: Harriet Martineau
+
+Release Date: August 26, 2007 [EBook #22410]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CROFTON BOYS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Mary Meehan and the
+Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net
+(This file was made using scans of public domain works in
+the International Children's Digital Library.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+                             THE CROFTON BOYS
+
+                           BY HARRIET MARTINEAU
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE PEASANT AND THE PRINCE," "FEATS ON THE FIORD," ETC., ETC.
+
+
+
+
+    LONDON
+    GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS
+
+    BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL
+    NEW YORK: 9, LAFAYETTE PLACE
+
+    Ballantyne Press
+    BALLANTYNE, HANSON AND CO., EDINBURGH
+    CHANDOS STREET, LONDON
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: The Crofton Boys.]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+
+       I. ALL THE PROCTORS BUT PHIL
+
+      II. WHY MR. TOOKE CAME
+
+     III. MICHAELMAS-DAY COME
+
+      IV. MICHAELMAS-DAY OVER
+
+       V. CROFTON PLAY
+
+      VI. FIRST RAMBLE
+
+     VII. WHAT IS ONLY TO BE HAD AT HOME
+
+    VIII. A LONG DAY
+
+      IX. CROFTON QUIET
+
+       X. LITTLE VICTORIES
+
+      XI. DOMESTIC MANNERS
+
+     XII. HOLT AND HIS DIGNITY
+
+    XIII. TRIPPING
+
+     XIV. HOLT AND HIS HELP
+
+      XV. CONCLUSION
+
+
+
+
+THE CROFTON BOYS.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+ALL THE PROCTORS BUT PHIL.
+
+
+Mr. Proctor, the chemist and druggist, kept his shop, and lived in the
+Strand, London. His children thought that there was never anything
+pleasanter than the way they lived. Their house was warm in winter, and
+such a little distance from the church, that they had no difficulty in
+getting to church and back again, in the worst weather, before their
+shoes were wet. They were also conveniently near to Covent Garden
+market; so that, if any friend dropped in to dinner unexpectedly, Jane
+and Agnes could be off to the market, and buy a fowl, or some vegetables
+or fruit, and be back again before they were missed. It was not even too
+far for little Harry to trot with one of his sisters, early on a
+summer's morning, to spend his penny (when he happened to have one) on a
+bunch of flowers, to lay on papa's plate, to surprise him when he came
+in to breakfast. Not much farther off was the Temple Garden, where Mrs.
+Proctor took her children every fine summer evening to walk and breathe
+the air from the river; and when Mr. Proctor could find time to come to
+them for a turn or two before the younger ones must go home to bed, it
+seemed to the whole party the happiest and most beautiful place in the
+whole world,--except one. They had once been to Broadstairs, when the
+children were in poor health after the measles: and for ever after, when
+they thought of the waves beating on the shore, and of the pleasures of
+growing strong and well among the sea-breezes, they felt that there
+might be places more delightful than the Temple Garden: but they were
+still very proud and fond of the grass and trees, and the gravel walks,
+and the view over the Thames, and were pleased to show off the garden to
+all friends from the country who came to visit them.
+
+The greatest privilege of all, however, was that they could see the
+river without going out of their own house. There were three back
+windows to the house, one above another; and from the two uppermost of
+these windows there was what the children called a view of the Thames.
+There was a gap of a few yards wide between two high brick houses: and
+through this gap might be seen the broad river, with vessels of every
+kind passing up or down. Outside the second window were some leads,
+affording space for three or four chairs: and here it was that Jane and
+Agnes liked to sit at work, on certain hours of fine days. There were
+times when these leads were too hot, the heat of the sun being reflected
+from the surrounding brick walls; but at an earlier hour before the
+shadows were gone, and when the air blew in from the river, the place
+was cool, and the little girls delighted to carry their stools to the
+leads, and do their sewing there. There Philip would condescend to spend
+a part of his mornings, in his Midsummer holidays, frightening his
+sisters with climbing about in dangerous places, or amusing them with
+stories of school-pranks, or raising his younger brother Hugh's envy of
+the boys who were so happy as to be old enough to go to school at Mr.
+Tooke's, at Crofton.
+
+The girls had no peace from their brothers climbing about in dangerous
+places. Hugh was, if possible, worse than Philip for this. He imitated
+all Philip's feats, and had some of his own besides. In answer to Jane's
+lectures and the entreaties of Agnes, Hugh always declared that he had a
+right to do such things, as he meant to be a soldier or a sailor; and
+how should he be able to climb the mast of a ship, or the walls of a
+city, if he did not begin to practise now? Agnes was almost sorry they
+had been to Broadstairs, and could see ships in the Thames, when she
+considered that, if Hugh had not seen so much of the world, he might
+have been satisfied to be apprenticed to his father, when old enough,
+and to have lived at home happily with his family. Jane advised Agnes
+not to argue with Hugh, and then perhaps his wish to rove about the
+world might go off. She had heard her father say that, when he was a
+boy, and used to bring home news of victories, and help to put up
+candles at the windows on illumination nights, he had a great fancy for
+being a soldier; but that it was his fortune to see some soldiers from
+Spain, and hear from them what war really was, just when peace came, and
+when there was no more glory to be got; so that he had happily settled
+down to be a London shop-keeper--a lot which he would not exchange with
+that of any man living. Hugh was very like papa, Jane added; and the
+same change might take place in his mind, if he was not made perverse by
+argument. So Agnes only sighed, and bent her head closer over her work,
+as she heard Hugh talk of the adventures he meant to have when he
+should be old enough to get away from Old England.
+
+There was one person that laughed at Hugh for this fancy of his;--Miss
+Harold, the daily governess, who came to keep school for three hours
+every morning. When Hugh forgot his lesson, and sat staring at the upper
+panes of the window, in a reverie about his future travels; or when he
+was found to have been drawing a soldier on his slate instead of doing
+his sum, Miss Harold reminded him what a pretty figure a soldier would
+cut who knew no geography, or a sailor who could not make his
+reckonings, for want of attending early to his arithmetic. Hugh could
+not deny this; but he was always wishing that school-hours were over,
+that he might get under the great dining-table to read Robinson Crusoe,
+or might play at shipwreck, under pretence of amusing little Harry. It
+did make him ashamed to see how his sisters got on, from the mere
+pleasure of learning, and without any idea of ever living anywhere but
+in London; while he, who seemed to have so much more reason for wanting
+the very knowledge that they were obtaining, could not settle his mind
+to his lessons. Jane was beginning to read French books for her
+amusement in leisure hours; and Agnes was often found to have covered
+two slates with sums in Practice, just for pleasure, while he could not
+master the very moderate lessons Miss Harold set him. It is true, he was
+two years younger than Agnes: but she had known more of everything that
+he had learned, at seven years old, than he now did at eight. Hugh began
+to feel very unhappy. He saw that Miss Harold was dissatisfied, and was
+pretty sure that she had spoken to his mother about him. He felt that
+his mother became more strict in making him sit down beside her, in the
+afternoon, to learn his lessons for the next day; and he was pretty sure
+that Agnes went out of the room because she could not help crying when
+his sum was found to be all wrong, or when he mistook his tenses, or
+when he said (as he did every day, though regularly warned to mind what
+he was about) that four times seven is fifty-six. Every day these things
+weighed more on Hugh's spirits; every day he felt more and more like a
+dunce; and when Philip came home for the Midsummer holidays, and told
+all manner of stories about all sorts of boys at school, without
+describing anything like Hugh's troubles with Miss Harold, Hugh was
+seized with a longing to go to Crofton at once, as he was certainly too
+young to go at present into the way of a shipwreck or a battle. The
+worst of it was, there was no prospect of his going yet to Crofton. In
+Mr. Tooke's large school there was not one boy younger than ten; and
+Philip believed that Mr. Tooke did not like to take little boys. Hugh
+was aware that his father and mother meant to send him to school with
+Philip by-and-by; but the idea of having to wait--to do his lessons with
+Miss Harold every day till he should be ten years old, made him roll
+himself on the parlour carpet in despair.
+
+Philip was between eleven and twelve. He was happy at school: and he
+liked to talk all about it at home. These holidays, Hugh made a better
+listener than even his sisters; and he was a more amusing one--he knew
+so little about the country. He asked every question that could be
+imagined about the playground at the Crofton school, and the boys'
+doings out of school; and then, when Philip fancied he must know all
+about what was done, out came some odd remark which showed what wrong
+notions he had formed of a country life. Hugh had not learned half that
+he wanted to know, and his little head was full of wonder and mysterious
+notions, when the holidays came to an end, and Philip had to go away.
+From that day Hugh was heard to talk less of Spain, and the sea, and
+desert islands, and more of the Crofton boys; and his play with little
+Harry was all of being at school. At his lessons, meantime, he did not
+improve at all.
+
+One very warm day, at the end of August, five weeks after Philip had
+returned to school, Miss Harold had stayed full ten minutes after twelve
+o'clock to hear Hugh say one line of the multiplication-table over and
+over again, to cure him of saying that four times seven is fifty-six;
+but all in vain: and Mrs. Proctor had begged her not to spend any more
+time to-day upon it.
+
+Miss Harold went away, the girls took their sewing, and sat down at
+their mother's work-table, while Hugh was placed before her, with his
+hands behind his back, and desired to look his mother full in the face,
+to begin again with "four times one is four," and go through the line,
+taking care what he was about. He did so; but before he came to four
+times seven, he sighed, fidgetted, looked up at the corners of the room,
+off into the work-basket, out into the street, and always, as if by a
+spell, finished with "four times seven is fifty-six." Jane looked up
+amazed--Agnes looked down ashamed; his mother looked with severity in
+his face. He began the line a fourth time, when, at the third figure, he
+started as if he had been shot. It was only a knock at the door that he
+had heard; a treble knock, which startled nobody else, though, from the
+parlour door being open, it sounded pretty loud.
+
+Mrs. Proctor spread a handkerchief over the stockings in her
+work-basket; Jane put back a stray curl which had fallen over her face;
+Agnes lifted up her head with a sigh, as if relieved that the
+multiplication-table must stop for this time; and Hugh gazed into the
+passage, through the open door, when he heard a man's step there. The
+maid announced Mr. Tooke, of Crofton; and Mr. Tooke walked in.
+
+Mrs. Proctor had actually to push Hugh to one side,--so directly did he
+stand in the way between her and her visitor. He stood, with his hands
+still behind his back, gazing up at Mr. Tooke, with his face hotter than
+the multiplication-table had ever made it, and his eyes staring quite as
+earnestly as they had ever done to find Robinson Crusoe's island in the
+map.
+
+"Go, child," said Mrs. Proctor: but this was not enough. Mr. Tooke
+himself had to pass him under his left arm before he could shake hands
+with Mrs. Proctor. Hugh was now covered with shame at this hint that he
+was in the way; but yet he did not leave the room. He stole to the
+window, and flung himself down on two chairs, as if looking into the
+street from behind the blind; but he saw nothing that passed out of
+doors, so eager was his hope of hearing something of the Crofton
+boys,--their trap-ball, and their Saturday walk with the usher. Not a
+word of this kind did he hear. As soon as Mr. Tooke had agreed to stay
+to dinner, his sisters were desired to carry their work elsewhere,--to
+the leads, if they liked; and he was told that he might go to play. He
+had hoped he might be overlooked in the window; and unwillingly did he
+put down first one leg and then the other from the chairs, and saunter
+out of the room. He did not choose to go near his sisters, to be told
+how stupidly he had stood in the gentleman's way; so, when he saw that
+they were placing their stools on the leads, he went up into the attic,
+and then down into the kitchen, to see where little Harry was, to play
+at school-boys in the back yard.
+
+The maid Susan was not sorry that Harry was taken off her hands; for she
+wished to rub up her spoons, and fill her castors afresh, for the sake
+of the visitor who had come in. The thoughtful Jane soon came down with
+the keys to get out a clean table-cloth, and order a dish of cutlets, in
+addition to the dinner, and consult with Susan about some dessert; so
+that, as the little boys looked up from their play, they saw Agnes
+sitting alone at work upon the leads.
+
+They had played some time, Hugh acting a naughty boy who could not say
+his Latin lesson to the usher, and little Harry punishing him with far
+more words than a real usher uses on such an occasion, when they heard
+Agnes calling them from above their heads. She was leaning over from the
+leads, begging Hugh to come up to her,--that very moment. Harry must be
+left below, as the leads were a forbidden place for him. So Harry went
+to Jane, to see her dish up greengage plums which he must not touch: and
+Hugh ran up the stairs. As he passed through the passage, his mother
+called him. Full of some kind of hope (he did not himself know what), he
+entered the parlour, and saw Mr. Tooke's eyes fixed on him. But his
+mother only wanted him to shut the door as he passed; that was all. It
+had stood open, as it usually did on warm days. Could his mother wish
+it shut on account of anything she was saying? It was possible.
+
+"O Hugh!" exclaimed Agnes, as soon as he set foot on the leads. "What do
+you think?--But is the parlour door shut? Who shut it?"
+
+"Mother bade me shut it, as I passed."
+
+"O dear!" said Agnes, in a tone of disappointment; "then she did not
+mean us to hear what they were talking about."
+
+"What was it? Anything about the Crofton boys? Anything about Phil?"
+
+"I cannot tell you a word about it. Mamma did not know I heard them. How
+plain one can hear what they say in that parlour, Hugh, when the door is
+open! What do you think I heard mamma tell Mrs. Bicknor, last week, when
+I was jumping Harry off the third stair?"
+
+"Never mind that. Tell me what they are talking about now. Do, Agnes."
+
+Agnes shook her head.
+
+"Now do, dear."
+
+It was hard for Agnes to refuse Hugh anything, at any time; more still
+when he called her "dear," which he seldom did; and most of all when he
+put his arm round her neck, as he did now. But she answered,--
+
+"I should like to tell you every word; but I cannot now. Mamma has made
+you shut the door. She does not wish you to hear it."
+
+"Me! Then will you tell Jane?"
+
+"Yes. I shall tell Jane, when we are with mamma at work."
+
+"That is too bad!" exclaimed Hugh, flinging himself down on the leads so
+vehemently that his sister was afraid he would roll over into the yard.
+"What does Jane care about Crofton and the boys to what I do?"
+
+"There is one boy there that Jane cares about more than you do, or I, or
+anybody, except papa and mamma. Jane loves Phil."
+
+"O, then, what they are saying in the parlour is about Phil."
+
+"I did not say that."
+
+"You pretend you love me as Jane loves Phil! and now you are going to
+tell her what you wont tell me! Agnes, I will tell you everything I know
+all my whole life, if you will just whisper this now. Only just
+whisper--Or, I will tell you what. I will guess and guess; and you can
+nod or shake your head. That wont be telling."
+
+"For shame, Hugh! Phil would laugh at you for being a girl, if you are
+so curious. What mamma told Mrs. Bicknor was that Jane was her right
+hand. What do you think that meant exactly?"
+
+"That Jane might give you a good slap when you are so provoking," said
+Hugh, rolling over and over, till his clothes were covered with dust,
+and Agnes really thought once that he was fairly going over the edge
+into the yard.
+
+"There is something that I can tell you, Hugh; something that I want to
+tell you, and nobody else," said Agnes, glad to see him stop rolling
+about, and raise himself on his dusty elbow to look at her.
+
+"Well, come, what is it?"
+
+"You must promise beforehand not to be angry."
+
+"Angry! when am I angry, pray? Come, tell me."
+
+"You must--you really must--I have a particular reason for saying
+so--you must learn how much four times seven is. Now, remember, you
+promised not to be angry."
+
+Hugh carried off his anger by balancing himself on his head, as if he
+meant to send his heels over, but that there was no room. From upside
+down, his voice was heard saying that he knew that as well as Agnes.
+
+"Well, then, how much is it?"
+
+"Twenty-eight, to be sure. Who does not know that?"
+
+"Then pray do not call it fifty-six any more. Miss Harold----"
+
+"There's the thing," said Hugh. "When Miss Harold is here, I can think
+of nothing but fifty-six. It seems to sound in my ears, as if somebody
+spoke it, 'four times seven is fifty-six.'"
+
+"You will make me get it by heart, too, if you say it so often," said
+Agnes. "You had better say 'twenty-eight' over to yourself all day long.
+You may say it to me as often as you like. I shall not get tired. Come,
+begin now--'four times seven----'"
+
+"I have had enough of that for to-day--tiresome stuff! Now, I shall go
+and play with Harry again."
+
+"But wait--just say that line once over, Hugh. I have a reason for
+wishing it. I have, indeed."
+
+"Mother has been telling Mr. Tooke that I cannot say my
+multiplication-table! Now, that is too bad!" exclaimed Hugh. "And they
+will make me say it after dinner! What a shame!"
+
+"Why, Hugh! you know mamma does not like--you know mamma would not--you
+know mamma never does anything unkind. You should not say such things,
+Hugh."
+
+"Ay, there! you cannot say that she has not told Mr. Tooke that I say my
+tables wrong."
+
+"Well--you know you always do say it wrong to her."
+
+"I will go somewhere. I will hide myself. I will run to the market while
+the cloth is laying. I will get away, and not come back till Mr. Tooke
+is gone. I will never say my multiplication-table to him!"
+
+"Never?" said Agnes, with an odd smile and a sigh. "However, do not talk
+of running away, or hiding yourself. You will not have to say anything
+to Mr. Tooke to-day."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"I feel sure you will not. I do not believe Mr. Tooke will talk to you,
+or to any of us. There you go! You will be in the water-butt in a
+minute, if you tumble so."
+
+"I don't care if I am. Mr. Tooke will not come there to hear me say my
+tables. Let me go!" he cried, struggling, for now Agnes had caught him
+by the ankle. "If I do tumble in, the water is not up to my chin, and it
+will be a cool hiding-place this hot day."
+
+"But there is Susan gone to lay the cloth; and you must be brushed; for
+you are all over dust. Come up, and I will brush you."
+
+Hugh was determined to have a little more dust first. He rolled once
+more the whole length of the leads, turned over Jane's stool, and upset
+her work-basket, so that her thimble bounded off to a far corner, and
+the shirt-collar she was stitching fell over into the water-butt.
+
+"There! what will Jane say?" cried Agnes, picking up the basket, and
+peeping over into the small part of the top of the water-butt which was
+not covered.
+
+"There never was anything like boys for mischief," said the maid Susan,
+who now appeared to pull Hugh in, and make him neat. Susan always found
+time, between laying the cloth and bringing up dinner, to smooth Hugh's
+hair, and give a particular lock a particular turn on his forehead with
+a wet comb.
+
+"Let that alone," said Hugh, as Agnes peeped into the butt after the
+drowning collar. "I will have the top off this afternoon, and it will
+make good fishing for Harry and me."
+
+Agnes had to let the matter alone; for Hugh was so dusty that she had to
+brush one side of him while Susan did the other. Susan gave him some
+hard knocks while she assured him that he was not going to have Harry up
+on the leads to learn his tricks, or to be drowned. She hardly knew
+which of the two would be the worst for Harry. It was lucky for Hugh
+that Susan was wanted below directly, for she scolded him the whole time
+she was parting and smoothing his hair. When it was done, however, and
+the wet lock on his forehead took the right turn at once, she gave him a
+kiss in the very middle of it, and said she knew he would be a good boy
+before the gentleman from the country.
+
+Hugh would not go in with Agnes, because he knew Mr. Tooke would shake
+hands with her, and take notice of any one who was with her. He waited
+in the passage till Susan carried in the fish, when he entered behind
+her, and slipped to the window till the party took their seats, when he
+hoped Mr. Tooke would not observe who sat between Agnes and his father.
+But the very first thing his father did was to pull his head back by the
+hair behind, and ask him whether he had persuaded Mr. Tooke to tell him
+all about the Crofton boys.
+
+Hugh did not wish to make any answer; but his father said "Eh?" and he
+thought he must speak; so he said that Phil had told him all he wanted
+to know about the Crofton boys.
+
+"Then you can get Mr. Tooke to tell you about Phil, if you want nothing
+else," said Mr. Proctor.
+
+Mr. Tooke nodded and smiled; but Hugh began to hand plates with all his
+might, he was so afraid that the next thing would be a question how much
+four times seven was.
+
+The dinner went on, however; and the fish was eaten, and the meat, and
+the pudding; and the dessert was on the table, without any one having
+even alluded to the multiplication-table. Before this time, Hugh had
+become quite at his ease, and had looked at Mr. Tooke till he knew his
+face quite well.
+
+Soon after dinner Mr. Proctor was called away upon business; and Hugh
+slipped into his father's arm chair, and crossed one leg over the other
+knee, as he leaned back at his leisure, listening to Mr. Tooke's
+conversation with his mother about the sort of education that he
+considered most fit for some boys from India, who had only a certain
+time to devote to school-learning. In the course of this conversation
+some curious things dropped about the curiosity of children from India
+about some things very common here;--their wonder at snow and ice, their
+delight at being able to slide in the winter, and their curiosity about
+the harvest and gleaning, now approaching. Mr. Proctor came back just as
+Mr. Tooke was telling of the annual holiday of the boys at harvest-time,
+when they gleaned for the poor of the village. As Hugh had never seen a
+corn-field, he had no very clear idea of harvest and gleaning; and he
+wanted to hear all he could. When obliged to turn out of the arm-chair,
+he drew a stool between his mother and Mr. Tooke: and presently he was
+leaning on his arms on the table, with his face close to Mr. Tooke's, as
+if swallowing the gentleman's words as they fell. This was inconvenient;
+and his mother made him draw back his stool a good way. Though he could
+hear very well, Hugh did not like this, and he slipped off his stool,
+and came closer and closer.
+
+"And did you say," asked Mr. Proctor, "that your youngest pupil is
+nine?"
+
+"Just nine;--the age of my own boy. I could have wished to have none
+under ten, for the reason you know of. But----"
+
+"I wish," cried Hugh, thrusting himself in so that Mr. Tooke saw the boy
+had a mind to sit on his knee,--"I wish you would take boys at eight and
+a quarter."
+
+"That is your age," said Mr. Tooke, smiling and making room between his
+knees.
+
+"How did you know? Mother told you."
+
+"No; indeed she did not,--not exactly. My boy was eight and a quarter
+not very long ago; and he----"
+
+"Did he like being in your school?"
+
+"He always seemed very happy there, though he was so much the youngest.
+And they teased him sometimes for being the youngest. Now you know, if
+you came, you would be the youngest, and they might tease you for it."
+
+"I don't think I should mind that. What sort of teasing, though?"
+
+"Trying whether he was afraid of things."
+
+"What sort of things?"
+
+"Being on the top of a wall, or up in a tree. And then they sent him
+errands when he was tired, or when he wanted to be doing something
+else. They tried too whether he could bear some rough things without
+telling."
+
+"And did he?"
+
+"Yes, generally. On the whole, very well. I see they think him a brave
+boy now."
+
+"I think I could. But do not you really take boys as young as I am?"
+
+"Such is really my rule."
+
+It was very provoking, but Hugh was here called away to fish up Jane's
+work out of the water-butt. As he had put it in, he was the proper
+person to get it out. He thought he should have liked the fun of it; but
+now he was in a great hurry back, to hear Mr. Tooke talk. It really
+seemed as if the shirt-collar was alive, it always slipped away so when
+he thought he had it. Jane kept him to the job till he brought up her
+work, dripping and soiled. By that time tea was ready,--an early tea,
+because Mr. Tooke had to go away. Whatever was said at tea was about
+politics, and about a new black dye which some chemist had discovered;
+and Mr. Tooke went away directly after.
+
+He turned round full upon Hugh, just as he was going. Hugh stepped back,
+for it flashed upon him that he was now to be asked how much four times
+seven was. But Mr. Tooke only shook hands with him, and bade him grow
+older as fast as he could.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+WHY MR. TOOKE CAME.
+
+
+After tea the young people had to learn their lessons for the next day.
+They always tried to get these done, and the books put away, before Mr.
+Proctor came in on his shop being shut, and the business of the day
+being finished. He liked to find his children at liberty for a little
+play, or half an hour of pleasant reading; or, in the winter evenings,
+for a dance to the music of his violin. Little Harry had been known to
+be kept up far too late, that he might hear the violin, and that his
+papa might enjoy the fun of seeing him run about among the rest, putting
+them all out, and fancying he was dancing. All believed there would be
+time for play with papa to-night, tea had been so much earlier than
+usual. But Agnes soon feared there would be no play for Hugh. Though
+Jane pored over her German, twisting her forefinger in the particular
+curl which she always twisted when she was deep in her lessons; though
+Agnes rocked herself on her chair, as she always did when she was
+learning by heart; and though Mrs. Proctor kept Harry quiet at the other
+end of the room with telling him long stories, in a very low voice,
+about the elephant and Brighton pier, in the picture-book, Hugh could
+not learn his capital cities. He even spoke out twice, and stopped
+himself when he saw all the heads in the room raised in surprise. Then
+he set himself to work again, and he said "Copenhagen" so often over
+that he was not likely to forget the word; but what country it belonged
+to he could not fix in his mind, though Agnes wrote it down large on the
+slate, in hopes that the sight of the letters would help him to
+remember. Before he had got on to "Constantinople," the well-known sound
+was heard of the shop-boy taking the shop-shutters out of their
+day-place, and Mr. Proctor would certainly be coming presently. Jane
+closed her dictionary, and shook back her curls from over her eyes; Mrs.
+Proctor put down Harry from her lap, and let him call for papa as loud
+as he would; and papa came bustling in, and gave Harry a long toss, and
+several topplings over his shoulder, and yet Hugh was not ready.
+
+"Come, children," said Mr. Proctor to Agnes and Hugh, "we have all done
+enough for to-day. Away with books and slates!"
+
+"But, papa," said Agnes, "Hugh has not quite done. If he might have just
+five minutes more, Miss Harold----"
+
+"Never mind what Miss Harold says! That is, you girls must; but between
+this and Michaelmas----"
+
+He stopped short, and the girls saw that it was a sign from their mother
+that made him do so. He immediately proceeded to make so much noise with
+Harry, that Hugh discovered nothing more than that he might put away his
+books, and not mind Miss Harold this time. If she asked him to-morrow
+why he had not got down to "Constantinople," he could tell her exactly
+what his father had said. So, merry was Hugh's play this evening. He
+stood so perfectly upright on his father's shoulders, that he could
+reach the top of his grandmamma's picture, and show by his finger-ends
+how thick the dust lay upon the frame: and neither he nor his father
+minded being told that he was far too old for such play.
+
+In the midst of the fun, Hugh had a misgiving, more than once, of his
+mother having something severe to say to him when she should come up to
+his room, to hear him say his prayer, and to look back a little with him
+upon the events of the day. Besides his consciousness that he had done
+nothing well this day, there were grave looks from his mother which made
+him think that she was not pleased with him. When he was undressing,
+therefore, he listened with some anxiety for her footsteps, and, when
+she appeared, he was ready with his confession of idleness. She stopped
+him in the beginning, saying that she had rather not hear any more such
+confessions. She had listened to too many, and had allowed him to spend
+in confessions some of the strength which should have been applied to
+mending his faults. For the present, while she was preparing a way to
+help him to conquer his inattention, she advised him to say nothing to
+her, or to any one else, on the subject; but this need not prevent him
+from praying to God to give him strength to overcome his great fault.
+
+"Oh, mother! mother!" cried Hugh, in an agony, "you give me up! What
+shall I do if you will not help me any more?"
+
+His mother smiled, and told him he need not fear any such thing. It
+would be very cruel to leave off providing him with food and clothes,
+because it gave trouble to do so; and it would be far more cruel to
+abandon him to his faults, for such a reason. She would never cease to
+help him till they were cured: but, as all means yet tried had failed,
+she must plan some others; and meantime she did not wish him to become
+hardened to his faults, by talking about them every night, when there
+was no amendment during the day.
+
+Though she spoke very kindly, and kissed him before she went away, Hugh
+felt that he was punished. He felt more unhappy than if his mother had
+told him all she thought of his idleness. Though his mother had told him
+to go to sleep, and blessed him, he could not help crying a little, and
+wishing that he was a Crofton boy. He supposed the Crofton boys all got
+their lessons done somehow, as a matter of course; and then they could
+go to sleep without any uncomfortable feelings or any tears.
+
+In the morning all these thoughts were gone. He had something else to
+think about; for he had to play with Harry, and take care of him, while
+Susan swept and dusted the parlour: and Harry was bent upon going into
+the shop--a place where, according to the rule of the house, no child of
+the family was ever to set foot, till it was old enough to be trusted:
+nor to taste anything there, asked or unasked. There were some poisonous
+things in the shop, and some few nice syrups and gums; and no child
+could be safe and well there who could not let alone whatever might be
+left on the counter, or refuse any nice taste that a good-natured
+shopman might offer. Harry was, as yet, far too young; but, as often as
+the cook washed the floor-cloth in the passage, so that the inner shop
+door had to be opened, Master Harry was seized with an unconquerable
+desire to go and see the blue and red glass bowls which he was permitted
+to admire from the street, as he went out and came in from his walks.
+Mr. Proctor came down this morning as Hugh was catching Harry in the
+passage. He snatched up his boys, packed one under each arm, and ran
+with them into the yard, where he rolled Harry up in a new mat, which
+the cook was going to lay at the house-door.
+
+"There!" said he. "Keep him fast, Hugh, till the passage-door is shut.
+What shall we do with the rogue when you are at Crofton, I wonder?"
+
+"Why, papa! he will be big enough to take care of himself by that time."
+
+"Bless me! I forgot again," exclaimed Mr. Proctor, as he made haste away
+into the shop.
+
+Before long, Harry was safe under the attraction of his basin of bread
+and milk; and Hugh fell into a reverie at the breakfast-table, keeping
+his spoon suspended in his hand as he looked up at the windows, without
+seeing anything. Jane asked him twice to hand the butter before he
+heard.
+
+"He is thinking how much four times seven is," observed Mr. Proctor: and
+Hugh started at the words.
+
+"I tell you what, Hugh," continued his father; "if the Crofton people do
+not teach you how much four times seven is when you come within four
+weeks of next Christmas day, I shall give you up, and them too, for
+dunces all."
+
+All the eyes round the table were fixed on Mr. Proctor in an instant.
+
+"There now!" said he, "I have let the cat out of the bag. Look at
+Agnes!" and he pinched her crimson cheek.
+
+Everybody then looked at Agnes, except Harry, who was busy looking for
+the cat which papa said had come out of mamma's work-bag. Agnes could
+not bear the gaze, and burst into tears.
+
+"Agnes has taken more pains to keep the secret than her papa," said Mrs.
+Proctor. "The secret is, that Hugh is going to Crofton next month."
+
+"Am I ten, then?" asked Hugh, in his hurry and surprise.
+
+"Scarcely; since you were only eight and a quarter yesterday afternoon,"
+replied his father.
+
+"I will tell you all about it by-and-by, my dear," said his mother. Her
+glance towards Agnes made all the rest understand that they had better
+speak of something else now. So Mr. Proctor beckoned Harry to come and
+see whether the cat had not got into the bag again, as she was not to be
+seen anywhere else. It is true, the bag was not much bigger than a cat's
+head; but that did not matter to Harry, who never cared for that sort of
+consideration, and had been busy for half an hour, the day before, in
+trying to put the key of the house-door into the key-hole of the
+tea-caddy.
+
+By the time Agnes had recovered herself, and the table was cleared, Miss
+Harold had arrived. Hugh brought his books with the rest, but, instead
+of opening them, rested his elbow on the uppermost, and stared full at
+Miss Harold.
+
+"Well, Hugh!" said she, smiling.
+
+"I have not learned quite down to 'Constantinople,'" said he. "Papa told
+me I need not, and not to mind you."
+
+"Why, Hugh! hush!" cried Jane.
+
+"He did,--he said exactly that. But he meant, Miss Harold, that I am to
+be a Crofton boy,--directly, next month."
+
+"Then have we done with one another, Hugh?" asked Miss Harold, gently.
+"Will you not learn any more from me?"
+
+"That is for your choice, Miss Harold," observed Mr. Proctor. "Hugh has
+not deserved the pains you have taken with him: and if you decline more
+trouble with him now he is going into other hands, no one can wonder."
+
+Miss Harold feared that he was but poorly prepared for school, and was
+quite ready to help him, if he would give his mind to the effort. She
+thought that play, or reading books that he liked, was less waste of
+time than his common way of doing his lessons; but if he was disposed
+really to work, with the expectation of Crofton before him, she was
+ready to do her best to prepare him for the real hard work he would have
+to do there.
+
+His mother proposed that he should have time to consider whether he
+would have a month's holiday, or a month's work, before leaving home.
+She had to go out this morning. He might go with her, if he liked; and,
+as they returned, they would sit down in the Temple Garden, and she
+would tell him all about the plan.
+
+Hugh liked this beginning of his new prospects. He ran to be made neat
+for his walk with his mother. He knew he must have the wet curl on his
+forehead twice over to-day; but he comforted himself with hoping that
+there would be no time at Crofton for him to be kept standing, to have
+his hair done so particularly, and to be scolded all the while, and then
+kissed, like a baby, at the end.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+MICHAELMAS-DAY COME.
+
+
+Hugh was about to ask his mother, again and again during their walk, why
+Mr. Tooke let him go to Crofton before he was ten; but Mrs. Proctor was
+grave and silent; and though she spoke kindly to him now and then, she
+did not seem disposed to talk. At last, they were in the Temple Garden;
+and they sat down where there was no one to overhear them; and then Hugh
+looked up at his mother. She saw, and told him, what it was that he
+wanted to ask.
+
+"It is on account of the little boys themselves," said she, "that Mr.
+Tooke does not wish to have them very young, now that there is no kind
+lady in the house who could be like a mother to them."
+
+"But there is Mrs. Watson. Phil has told me a hundred things about Mrs.
+Watson."
+
+"Mrs. Watson is the housekeeper. She is careful, I know, about the boys'
+health and comfort; but she has no time to attend to the younger ones,
+as Mrs. Tooke did,--hearing their little troubles, and being a friend to
+them like their mothers at home."
+
+"There is Phil----"
+
+"Yes. You will have Phil to look to. But neither Phil, nor any one else,
+can save you from some troubles you are likely to have from being the
+youngest."
+
+"Such as Mr. Tooke told me his boy had;--being put on the top of a high
+wall, and plagued when he was tired: and all that. I don't think I
+should much mind those things."
+
+"So we hope, and so we believe. Your fault is not cowardice----"
+
+Mrs. Proctor so seldom praised anybody that her words of esteem went a
+great way. Hugh first looked up at her and then down on the grass,--his
+cheeks glowed so. She went on--
+
+"You have faults,--faults which give your father and me great pain; and
+though, you are not cowardly about being hurt in your body, you sadly
+want courage of a better kind,--courage to mend the weakness of your
+mind. You are so young that we are sorry for you, and mean to send you
+where the example of other boys may give you the resolution you want so
+much."
+
+"All the boys learn their lessons at Crofton," observed Hugh.
+
+"Yes; but not by magic. They have to give their minds to their work. You
+will find it painful and difficult to learn this, after your idle habits
+at home. I give you warning that you will find it much more difficult
+than you suppose; and I should not wonder if you wish yourself at home
+with Miss Harold many times before Christmas."
+
+Mrs. Proctor was not unkind in saying this. She saw that Hugh was so
+delighted about going that nothing would depress his spirits, and that
+the chief fear was his being disappointed and unhappy when she should be
+far away. It might then be some consolation to him to remember that she
+was aware of what he would have to go through. He now smiled, and said
+he did not think he should ever wish to say his lessons to Miss Harold,
+as long as he lived. Then it quickly passed through his mind that,
+instead of the leads and the little yard, there would be the playground;
+and instead of the church bells, the rooks; and instead of Susan with
+her washing and combing, and scolding and kissing, there would be plenty
+of boys to play with. As he thought of these things, he started up, and
+toppled head over heels on the grass, and then was up by his mother's
+side again, saying that he did not care about anything that was to
+happen at Crofton;--he was not afraid,--not even of the usher, though
+Phil could not bear him.
+
+"If you can bring yourself to learn your lessons well," said his mother,
+"you need not fear the usher. But remember, it depends upon that. You
+will do well enough in the playground, I have no doubt."
+
+After this, there was only to settle the time that was to pass--the
+weeks, days, and hours before Michaelmas-day; and whether these weeks
+and days should be employed in preparing for Crofton under Miss Harold,
+or whether he should take his chance there unprepared as he was. Mrs.
+Proctor saw that his habits of inattention were so fixed, and his
+disgust at lessons in the parlour so strong, that she encouraged his
+doing no lessons in the interval. Hugh would have said beforehand that
+three weeks' liberty to read voyages and travels, and play with Harry,
+would have made him perfectly happy; but he felt that there was some
+disgrace mixed up with his holiday, and that everybody would look upon
+him with a sort of pity, instead of wishing him joy; and this spoiled
+his pleasure a good deal. When he came home from his walk, Agnes thought
+he looked less happy than when he went out; and she feared his spirits
+were down about Crofton.
+
+His spirits were up and down many times during the next three weeks. He
+thought these weeks would never be over. Every day dragged on more
+slowly than the last; at every meal he was less inclined to eat; and his
+happiest time was when going to bed, because he was a day nearer
+Crofton. His mother, foreseeing just what happened, wished to have kept
+the news from him till within a week of his departure, and had agreed
+with Mr. Proctor that it should be so. But Mr. Proctor hated secrets,
+and, as we see, let it out immediately.
+
+At last, the day came;--a warm, sunny, autumn day, on which any one
+might have enjoyed the prospect of a drive into the country. The coach
+was to set off from an inn in Fleet-street at noon, and would set Hugh
+down at his uncle's door in time for dinner, the distance being
+twenty-eight miles. His uncle's house was just two miles from the
+school. Phil would probably be there to meet his brother, and take him
+to Crofton in the afternoon.
+
+How to get rid of the hours till noon was the question. Hugh had had
+everything packed up, over which he had any control, for some days. He
+had not left himself a plaything of those which he might carry: and it
+frightened him that his mother did not seem to think of packing his
+clothes till after breakfast this very morning. When she entered his
+room for the purpose, he was fidgeting about, saying to himself that he
+should never be ready. Agnes came with her mother, to help: but before
+the second shirt was laid in the box, she was in tears, and had to go
+away; for every one in the house was in the habit of hiding tears from
+Mrs. Proctor, who rarely shed them herself, and was known to think that
+they might, generally be suppressed, and should be so.
+
+As Hugh stood beside her, handing stockings and handkerchiefs, to fill
+up the corners of the box, she spoke as she might not have done if they
+had not been alone. She said but a few words; but Hugh never forgot
+them.
+
+"You know, my dear," said she, "that I do not approve of dwelling upon
+troubles. You know I never encourage my children to fret about what
+cannot be helped."
+
+There was nothing in the world that Hugh was more certain of than this.
+
+"And yet I tell you," she continued, "that you will not be nearly so
+happy at Crofton as you expect--at least, at first. It grieves me to see
+you so full of expectation----"
+
+"Does it indeed, mother?"
+
+"It does indeed. But my comfort is----"
+
+"You think I can bear it," cried Hugh, holding up his head. "You think I
+can bear anything."
+
+"I think you are a brave boy, on the whole. But that is not the comfort
+I was speaking of; for there is a world of troubles too heavy for the
+bravery of a thoughtless child, like you. My comfort is, my dear, that
+you know where to go for strength when your heart fails you. You will be
+away from your father and me; but a far wiser and kinder parent will be
+always with you. If I were not sure that you would continually open your
+heart to Him, I could not let you go from me."
+
+"I will--I always do," said Hugh, in a low voice.
+
+"Then remember this, my boy. If you have that help, _you must not fail_.
+Knowing that you have that help, I expect of you that you do your own
+duty, and bear your own troubles, like a man. If you were to be all
+alone in the new world you are going to, you would be but a helpless
+child: but remember, when a child makes God his friend, God puts into
+the youngest and weakest the spirit of a man."
+
+"You will ask Him too, mother;--you will pray Him to make me brave,
+and--and----"
+
+"And what else?" she inquired, fixing her eyes upon him.
+
+"And steady," replied Hugh, casting down, his eyes; "for that is what I
+want most of all."
+
+"It is," replied his mother. "I do, and always will, pray for you."
+
+Not another word was said till they went down into the parlour. Though
+it was only eleven o'clock, Miss Harold was putting on her bonnet to go
+away: and there was a plate of bread and cheese on the table.
+
+"Lunch!" said Hugh, turning away with disgust.
+
+"Do eat it," said Agnes, who had brought it. "You had no breakfast, you
+know."
+
+"Because I did not want it; and I can't eat anything now."
+
+Jane made a sign to Agnes to take the plate out of sight: and she put
+some biscuits into a paper bag, that he might eat on the road, if he
+should become hungry.
+
+Neither Miss Harold nor Hugh could possibly feel any grief at parting;
+for they had had little satisfaction together; but she said very kindly
+that she should hope to hear often of him, and wished he might be happy
+as a Crofton boy. Hugh could hardly answer her;--so amazed was he to
+find that his sisters were giving up an hour of their lessons on his
+account,--that they might go with him to the coach!--And then Susan came
+in, about the cord for his box, and her eyes were red:--and, at the
+sight of her, Agnes began to cry again; and Jane bent down her head over
+the glove she was mending for him, and her needle stopped.
+
+"Jane," said her mother, gravely, "if you are not mending that glove,
+give it to me. It is getting late."
+
+Jane brushed her hand across her eyes, and stitched away again. Then,
+she threw the gloves to Hugh without looking at him, and ran to get
+ready to go to the coach.
+
+The bustle of the inn-yard would not do for little Harry. He could not
+go. Hugh was extremely surprised to find that all the rest were
+going;--that even his father was smoothing his hat in the passage for
+the walk,--really leaving the shop at noon on his account! The porter
+was at his service too,--waiting for his box! It was very odd to feel of
+such consequence.
+
+Hugh ran down to bid the maids good-bye. The cook had cut a sandwich,
+which she thrust into his pocket, though he told her he had some
+biscuits. Susan cried so that little Harry stood grave and wondering.
+Susan sobbed out that she knew he did not care a bit about leaving home
+and everybody. Hugh wished she would not say so, though he felt it was
+true, and wondered at it himself. Mr. Proctor heard Susan's
+lamentations, and called to her from the passage above not to make
+herself unhappy about that; for the time would soon come when Hugh would
+be homesick enough.
+
+Mr. Blake, the shopman, came to the shop-door as they passed, and bowed
+and smiled; and the boy put himself in the way, with a broad grin: and
+then the party walked on quickly.
+
+The sun seemed to Hugh to glare very much; and he thought he had never
+known the streets so noisy, or the people so pushing. The truth was, his
+heart was beating so he could scarcely see: and yet he was so busy
+looking about him for a sight of the river, and everything he wished to
+bid good-bye to, that his father, who held him fast by the hand, shook
+him more than once, and told him he would run everybody down if he
+could,--to judge by his way of walking. He must learn to march better,
+if he was to be a soldier; and to steer, if he was to be a sailor.
+
+There were just two minutes to spare when they reached the inn-yard. The
+horses were pawing and fidgeting, and some of the passengers had
+mounted: so Mr. Proctor said he would seat the boy at once. He spoke to
+two men who were on the roof, just behind the coachman; and they agreed
+to let Hugh sit between them, on the assurance that the driver would
+look to his concerns, and see that he was set down at the right place.
+
+"Now, my boy, up with you!" said his father, as he turned from speaking
+to these men. Hugh was so eager, that he put up his foot to mount,
+without remembering to bid his mother and sisters good-bye. Mr. Proctor
+laughed at this; and nobody wondered; but Agnes cried bitterly; and she
+could not forget it, from that time till she saw her brother again. When
+they had all kissed him, and his mother's earnest look had bidden him
+remember what had passed between them that morning, he was lifted up by
+his father, and received by the two men, between whom he found a safe
+seat.
+
+Then he wished they were off. It was uncomfortable to see his sisters
+crying there, and not to be able to cry too, or to speak to them. When
+the coachman was drawing on his second glove, and the ostlers held each
+a hand to pull off the horse-cloths, and the last moment was come, Mr.
+Proctor swung himself up by the step, to say one thing more. It was--
+
+"I say, Hugh,--can you tell me,--how much is four times seven?"
+
+Mrs. Proctor pulled her husband's coat-tail, and he leaped down, the
+horses' feet scrambled, their heads issued from the gate-way of the
+inn-yard, and Hugh's family were left behind. In the midst of the noise,
+the man on Hugh's right hand said to the one on his left,
+
+"There is some joke in that last remark, I imagine."
+
+The other man nodded; and then there was no more speaking till they were
+off the stones. When the clatter was over, and the coach began to roll
+along the smooth road, Hugh's neighbour repeated,
+
+"There was some joke, I fancy, in that last remark of your father's."
+
+"Yes," said Hugh.
+
+"Are you in the habit of saying the multiplication-table when you
+travel?" said the other. "If so, we shall be happy to hear it."
+
+"Exceedingly happy," observed the first.
+
+"I never say it when I can help it," said Hugh; "and I see no occasion
+now."
+
+The men laughed, and then asked him if he was going far.
+
+"To Crofton. I am going to be a Crofton boy," said Hugh.
+
+"A what? Where is he going?" his companions asked one another over his
+head. They were no wiser when Hugh repeated what he had said; nor could
+the coachman enlighten them. He only knew that he was to put the boy
+down at Shaw's, the great miller's, near thirty miles along the road.
+
+"Eight-and-twenty," said Hugh, in correction; "and Crofton is two miles
+from my uncle's."
+
+"Eight-and-twenty. The father's joke lies there," observed the
+right-hand man.
+
+"No, it does not," said Hugh. He thought he was among a set of very odd
+people,--none of them knowing what a Crofton boy was. A passenger who
+sat beside the coachman only smiled when he was appealed to; so it might
+be concluded that he was ignorant too; and the right and left-hand men
+seemed so anxious for information, that Hugh told them all he
+knew;--about the orchard and the avenue, and the pond on the heath, and
+the playground; and Mrs. Watson, and the usher, and Phil, and Joe Cape,
+and Tony Nelson, and several others of the boys.
+
+One of the men asked him if he was sure he was going for the first
+time,--he seemed so thoroughly informed of everything about Crofton.
+Hugh replied that it was a good thing to have an elder brother like
+Phil. Phil had told him just what to take to Crofton, and how to take
+care of his money, and everything.
+
+"Ay! and how do the Crofton boys take care of their money?"
+
+Hugh showed a curious little inner pocket in his jacket, which nobody
+would dream of that did not know. His mother had let him have such a
+pocket in both his jackets; and he had wanted to have all his money in
+this one now, to show how safely he could carry it. But his mother had
+chosen to pack up all his five shillings in his box,--that square box,
+with the new brass lock, on the top of all the luggage. In this pocket
+there was only sixpence now,--the sixpence he was to give the coachman
+when he was set down.
+
+Then he went on to explain that this sixpence was not out of his own
+money, but given him by his father, expressly for the coachman. Then
+his right-hand companion congratulated him upon his spirits, and began
+to punch and tickle him; and when Hugh writhed himself about, because he
+could not bear tickling, the coachman said he would have no such doings,
+and bade them be quiet. Then the passengers seemed to forget Hugh, and
+talked to one another of the harvest in the north, and the hopping in
+Kent. Hugh listened about the hopping, supposing it might be some new
+game, as good as leap-frog; though it seemed strange that one farmer
+should begin hopping on Monday, and that another should fix Thursday;
+and that both should be so extremely anxious about the weather. But when
+he found it was some sort of harvest-work, he left off listening, and
+gave all his attention to the country sights that were about him. He did
+not grow tired of the gardens, gay with dahlias and hollyhocks, and
+asters: nor of the orchards, where the ladder against the tree, and the
+basket under, showed that apple-gathering was going on; nor of the nooks
+in the fields, where blackberries were ripening; nor of the chequered
+sunlight and shadow which lay upon the road; nor of the breezy heath
+where the blue ponds were ruffled; nor of the pleasant grove where the
+leaves were beginning to show a tinge of yellow and red, here and there
+among the green. Silently he enjoyed all these things, only awakening
+from them when there was a stop to change horses.
+
+He was not thinking of time or distance when he saw the coachman glance
+round at him, and felt that the speed of the horses was slackening.
+Still he had no idea that this was any concern of his, till he saw
+something that made him start,
+
+"Why, there's Phil!" he exclaimed, jumping to his feet.
+
+"This is Shaw's mill, and there is Shaw; which is all I have to do
+with," said the coachman, as he pulled up.
+
+Hugh was soon down, with his uncle and Phil, and one of the men from the
+mill to help. His aunt was at the window too; so that altogether Hugh
+forgot to thank his companions for his safe seat. He would have
+forgotten his box, but for the coachman. One thing more he also forgot.
+
+"I say, young master," said the driver; "remember the coachman. Where's
+your sixpence?"
+
+"Oh, my sixpence!" cried Hugh, throwing down what he held, to feel in
+his curious inner pocket, which was empty.
+
+"Lest you find a hole in your pocket, here is a sixpence for you," cried
+the right-hand passenger, tossing him his own sixpence. "Thank you for
+teaching us the secret of such a curious pocket."
+
+The coachman was impatient, got his money, and drove off, leaving Hugh
+to make out why he had been tickled, and how his money had changed
+hands. With a very red face, he declared it was too bad of the man: but
+the man was out of his hearing, and could never know how angry he was.
+
+"A pretty story this is for our usher to have against you, to begin
+with," was Phil's consolation. "Every boy will know it before you show
+yourself; and you will never hear the last of it, I can tell you."
+
+"Your usher!" exclaimed Hugh, bewildered.
+
+"Yes, our usher. That was he on the box, beside coachee. Did not you
+find out that much in all these eight-and-twenty miles?"
+
+"How should I? He never told me."
+
+Hugh could hardly speak to his uncle and aunt, he was so taken up with
+trying to remember what he had said, in the usher's hearing, of the
+usher himself, and everybody at Crofton.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+MICHAELMAS-DAY OVER.
+
+
+Mrs. Shaw ordered dinner presently; and while it was being served, she
+desired Phil to brush his brother's clothes, as they were dusty from his
+ride. All the while he was brushing (which he did very roughly), and all
+the first part of dinner-time, Phil continued to tease Hugh about what
+he had said on the top of the coach. Mrs. Shaw spoke of the imprudence
+of talking freely before strangers; and Hugh could have told her that he
+did not need such a lecture at the very time that he found the same
+thing by his experience. He did wish Phil would stop. If anybody should
+ask him a question, he could not answer without crying. Then he
+remembered how his mother expected him to bear things; and he almost
+wished he was at home with her now, after all his longing to be away.
+This thought nearly made him cry again; so he tried to dwell on how his
+mother would expect him to bear things: but neither of them had thought
+that morning, beside his box, that the first trial would come from Phil.
+This again made him so nearly cry that his uncle observed his twitching
+face, and, without noticing him, said that he, for his part, did not
+want to see little boys wise before they had time to learn; and that the
+most silent companion he had ever been shut up with in a coach was
+certainly the least agreeable: and he went on to relate an adventure
+which has happened to more persons than one. He had found the gentleman
+in the corner, with the shaggy coat, to be a bear--a tame bear, which
+had to take the quickest mode of conveyance, in order to be at a distant
+fair in good time. Mr. Shaw spun out his story, so that Hugh quite
+recovered himself, and laughed as much as anybody at his uncle having
+formed a bad opinion of Bruin in the early twilight, for his incivility
+in not bowing to the passenger who left the coach.
+
+After dinner, Phil thought it time to be off to Crofton. He had missed
+something by coming away at all to-day; and he was not going to run the
+chance of losing the top of the class by not having time to do his
+Sallust properly. Mrs. Shaw said they must have some of her plums before
+they went, and a glass of wine; and Mr. Shaw ordered the gig, saying he
+would drive them, and thus no time would be lost, though he hoped Phil
+would not mind being at the bottom of every class for once to help his
+brother, seeing how soon a diligent boy might work his way up again.
+Phil replied that that was not so easy as people might think, when there
+was one like Joe Cape determined to keep him down, if he could once get
+him down.
+
+"I hope you will find time to help Hugh up from the bottom, in a class
+or two," said Mr. Shaw. "You will not be too busy about your own affairs
+to look to his I suppose."
+
+"Where is the use of my meddling?" said Phil. "He can't rise for years
+to come. Besides----"
+
+"Why can't I rise?" exclaimed Hugh, with glowing cheeks.
+
+"That is right, Hugh," said his uncle. "Let nobody prophesy for you till
+you show what you can do."
+
+"Why, uncle, he is nearly two years younger than any boy in the school;
+and----"
+
+"And there is little Page above you in algebra. He is about two years
+younger than you, Phil, if I remember right."
+
+Hugh could not help clapping his hands at the prospect this held out to
+him. Phil took the act for triumphing over him, and went on to say, very
+insultingly, that a little fellow who had been brought up among the
+girls all his life, and had learned of nobody but Miss Harold, could not
+be expected to cut any figure among boys. Hugh looked so grieved for a
+moment, and then suddenly so relieved, that his kind uncle wondered what
+was in his mind. He took the boy between his knees and asked him.
+
+Hugh loved his uncle already, as if he had always known him. He put his
+arms round his neck, and whispered in his ear what he was thinking
+of;--his mother's saying that God could and would, if He was sought, put
+the spirit of a man into the feeblest child.
+
+"True!--quite true! I am very glad you know that, my boy. That will help
+you to learn at Crofton, though it is better than anything they can
+teach you in their school-room."
+
+Mrs. Shaw and Phil looked curious; but Mr. Shaw did not repeat a word of
+what Hugh had said. He put the boy away from his knees, because he
+heard the gig coming round.
+
+Mrs. Shaw told Hugh that she hoped he would spend some of his Sundays
+with his uncle and her; and his uncle added that he must come on
+holidays as well as Sundays,--there was so much to see about the mill.
+
+Phil was amused, and somewhat pleased, to find how exactly Hugh
+remembered his description of the place and neighbourhood. He recognised
+the duck-pond under the hedge by the road-side, with the very finest
+blackberries growing above it, just out of reach. The church he knew, of
+course, and the row of chestnuts, whose leaves were just beginning to
+fall; and the high wall dividing the orchard from the playground. That
+must have been the wall on which Mr. Tooke's little boy used to be
+placed to frighten him. It did not look so very high as Hugh had fancied
+it. One thing which he had never seen or heard of was the bell, under
+its little roof on the ridge of Mr. Tooke's great house. Was it to call
+in the boys to school, or for an alarm? His uncle told him it might
+serve the one purpose in the day, and the other by night; and that
+almost every large farm thereabouts had such a bell on the top of the
+house.
+
+The sun was near its setting when they came in sight of the Crofton
+house. A long range of windows glittered in the yellow light, and Phil
+said that the lower row all belonged to the school-room;--that whole
+row.
+
+In the midst of his explanations Phil stopped, and his manner grew more
+rough than ever--with a sort of shyness in it too. It was because some
+of the boys were within hearing, leaning over the pales which separated
+the playground from the road.
+
+"I say; hello there!" cried one. "Is that Prater you have got with you?"
+
+"Prater the second," cried another. "He could not have had his name if
+there had not been Prater the first."
+
+"There! there's a scrape you have got me into already!" muttered Phil.
+
+"Be a man, Phil, and bear your own share," said Mr. Shaw; "and no spite,
+because your words come back to you!"
+
+The talk at the palings still went on, as the gig rolled quietly in the
+sandy by-road.
+
+"Prater!" poor Hugh exclaimed. "What a name!"
+
+"Yes; that is you," said his uncle. "You know now what your nickname
+will be. Every boy has one or another: and yours might have been worse,
+because you might have done many a worse thing to earn it."
+
+"But the usher, uncle?"
+
+"What of him?"
+
+"He should not have told about me."
+
+"Don't call him 'Prater the third,' however. Bear your own share, as I
+said to Phil, and don't meddle with another's."
+
+Perhaps Mr. Shaw hoped that through one of the boys the usher would get
+a new nickname for his ill-nature in telling tales of a little boy,
+before he was so much as seen by his companions. He certainly put it
+into their heads, whether they would make use of it or not.
+
+Mr. Tooke was out, taking his evening ride; but Mr. Shaw would not drive
+off till he had seen Mrs. Watson, and introduced his younger nephew to
+her, observing to her that he was but a little fellow to come among
+such a number of rough boys. Mrs. Watson smiled kindly at Hugh, and
+said she was glad he had a brother in the school, to prevent his feeling
+lonely at first. It would not take many days, she hoped, to make him
+feel quite at home. Mr. Shaw slipped half-a-crown into Hugh's hand, and
+whispered to him to try to keep it safe in his inner pocket. Hugh ran
+after him to the door, to tell him that he had five shillings
+already--safe in his box: but his uncle would not take back the
+half-crown. He thought that, in course of time, Hugh would want all the
+money he had.
+
+Mrs. Watson desired Phil to show his brother where he was to sleep, and
+to help him to put by his clothes. Phil was in a hurry to get to his
+Sallust; so that he was not sorry when Mrs. Watson herself came up to
+see that the boy's clothes were laid properly in the deep drawer in
+which Hugh was to keep his things. Phil then slipped away.
+
+"Dear me!" said Mrs. Watson, turning over one of Hugh's new collars, "we
+must have something different from this. These collars tied with a black
+ribbon are never tidy. They are always over one shoulder or the other."
+
+"My sisters made them; and they worked so hard to get them done!" said
+Hugh.
+
+"Very well--very right: only it is a pity they are not of a better make.
+Every Sunday at church, I shall see your collar awry--and every time you
+go to your aunt's, she will think we do not make you neat. I must see
+about that. Here are good stockings, however--properly stout. My dear,
+are these all the shoes you have got?"
+
+"I have a pair on."
+
+"Of course; I don't doubt that. We must have you measured to-morrow for
+some boots fitter for the country than these. We have no London pavement
+here."
+
+And so Mrs. Watson went on, sometimes approving and sometimes
+criticising, till Hugh did not know whether to cry or to be angry. After
+all the pains his mother and sisters had taken about his things, they
+were to be found fault with in this way!
+
+When his box was emptied, and his drawer filled, Mrs. Watson took him
+into the school-room, where the boys were at supper. Outside the door
+the buzz seemed prodigious, and Hugh hoped that, in such a bustle,
+nobody would notice him. Here he was quite mistaken. The moment he
+entered there was a hush, and all eyes were turned upon him, except his
+brother's. Phil hardly looked up from his book; but he made room for
+Hugh between himself and another boy, and drew the great plate of bread
+within reach. Mrs. Watson saw that Hugh had his basin of milk; and he
+found it a good thing to have something to do while so many eyes were
+upon him. He felt that he might have cried if he had not had his supper
+to eat.
+
+The usher sat at the top of the table, reading. Mrs. Watson called his
+attention, to Hugh; and Hugh stood up and made his bow. His face was
+red, as much with anger as timidity, when he recognised in him the
+passenger who had sat beside the coachman.
+
+"Perhaps, Mr. Carnaby," said Mrs. Watson, "you will find something for
+this young gentleman to do, when he has had his supper, while the rest
+are learning their lessons. To-morrow he will have his own lessons; but
+to-night----"
+
+"There is always the multiplication-table," replied Mr. Carnaby. "The
+young gentleman is partial to that, I fancy."
+
+Hugh reddened, and applied himself to his bread and milk.
+
+"Never mind a joke," whispered Mrs. Watson. "We wont plague you with the
+multiplication-table the first evening. I will find you a book or
+something. Meantime, there is a companion for you--I forgot that."
+
+The good lady went down the room, and brought back a boy who seemed to
+be doing all he could to stop crying. He dashed his hand over his eyes
+every minute, and could not look anybody in the face. He had finished
+his supper, and was at a loss what to do next, as he had only arrived
+that morning, and did not know anybody at Crofton. His name was Tom
+Holt, and he was ten years old.
+
+When they had told their names and ages, and where they came from, the
+boys did not know what to say next; and Hugh wished Phil would stop
+murmuring over his Sallust and looking in the dictionary every minute;
+but Mrs. Watson did not forget the strangers. She brought them Cook's
+Voyages out of the library, to amuse themselves with, on condition of
+their delivering the book to Mr. Carnaby at bedtime.
+
+The rest of the evening passed away very pleasantly. Hugh told Holt a
+great deal about Broadstairs and the South Sea Islands, and confided to
+him his own hopes of being a sailor, and going round the world; and, if
+possible, making his way straight through China,--the most difficult
+country left to travel in, he believed, except some parts of Africa. He
+did not want to cross the Great Desert, on account of the heat. He knew
+something of what that was by the leads at home, when the sun was on
+them. What was the greatest heat Holt had ever felt? Then came the
+surprise. Holt had last come from his uncle's farm; but he was born in
+India, and had lived there till eighteen months ago. So, while Hugh had
+chattered away about the sea at Broadstairs, and the heat on the leads
+at home, his companion had come fourteen thousand miles over the ocean,
+and had felt a heat nearly as extreme as that of the Great Desert! Holt
+was very unassuming too. He talked of the heat of gleaning in his
+uncle's harvest-fields, and of the kitchen when the harvest-supper was
+cooking; owning that he remembered he had felt hotter in India. Hugh
+heaped questions upon him about his native country and the voyage; and
+Holt liked to be asked: so that the boys were not at all like strangers
+just met for the first time. They raised their voices in the eagerness
+of their talk, from a whisper so as to be heard quite across the table,
+above the hum and buzz of above thirty others, who were learning their
+lessons half-aloud. At last Hugh was startled by hearing the words
+"Prater," "Prater the second." He was silent instantly, to Holt's great
+wonder.
+
+Without raising his eyes from his book, Phil said, so as to be heard as
+far as the usher,--
+
+"Who prated of Prater the second? Who is Prater the third?"
+
+There was a laugh which provoked the usher to come and see whereabouts
+in Sallust such a passage as this was to be found. Not finding any such,
+he knuckled Phil's head, and pulled his hair, till Hugh cried out--
+
+"O, don't, sir! Don't hurt him so!"
+
+"Do you call that hurting? You will soon find what hurting is, when you
+become acquainted with our birch. You shall have four times seven with
+our birch----Let us see,--that is your favourite number, I think."
+
+The usher looked round, and almost everybody laughed.
+
+"You see I have your secret;--four times seven," continued Mr. Carnaby.
+"What do you shake your head for?"
+
+"Because you have not my secret about four times seven."
+
+"Did not I hear your father? Eh?"
+
+"What did you hear my father say? Nobody here knows what he meant? and
+nobody need know, unless I choose to tell--which I don't.--Please don't
+teaze Phil about it, sir: for he knows no more about it than you do."
+
+Mr. Carnaby said something about the impertinence of little boys, as if
+they could have secrets, and then declared it high time that the
+youngsters should go to bed. Hugh delivered Cook's Voyages into his
+hands, and then bade Phil good night. He was just going to put his face
+up to be kissed, but recollected in time that he was to leave off
+kissing when he went to school. He held out his hand, but Phil seemed
+not to see it, and only told him to be sure to lie enough on one side,
+so as to leave him room; and that he was to take the side of the bed
+next the window. Hugh nodded and went off, with Holt and two more, who
+slept in the same room.
+
+The two who were not new boys were in bed in a minute; and when they saw
+Hugh wash his face and hands, they sat up in bed to stare. One of them
+told him that he had better not do that, as the maid would be coming
+for the light, and would leave him in the dark, and report of him if he
+was not in bed. So Hugh made a great splutter, and did not half dry his
+face, and left the water in the basin;--a thing which they told him was
+not allowed. He saw that the others had not kneeled down to say their
+prayers,--a practice which he had never omitted since he could say a
+prayer, except when he had the measles. He knew the boys were watching
+him; but he thought of his mother, and how she had taught him to pray at
+her knee. He hid himself as well as he could with the scanty
+bed-curtains, and kneeled. He could not attend to the words he said,
+while feeling that eyes were upon him; and before he had done, the maid
+came in for the candle. She waited; but when he got into bed, she told
+him that he must be quicker to-morrow night, as she had no time to spare
+waiting for the candle.
+
+Hugh was more tired than he had ever been in his life. This had been the
+longest day he had ever known. It seemed more like a week than a day.
+Yet he could not go to sleep. He had forgotten to ask Phil to be sure
+and wake him in time in the morning: and now he must keep awake till
+Phil came, to say this. Then, he could not but ask himself whether he
+liked, and should like, being at school as much as he expected; and when
+he felt how very unlike home it was, and how rough everybody seemed, and
+how Phil appeared almost as if he was ashamed of him, instead of helping
+him, he was so miserable he did not know what to do. He cried
+bitterly,--cried till his pillow was quite wet, and he was almost choked
+with his grief; for he tried hard not to let his sobs be heard. After
+awhile, he felt what he might do. Though he had kneeled he had not
+really prayed: and if he had, God is never weary of prayers. It was a
+happy thought to Hugh that his very best friend was with him still, and
+that he might speak to Him at any time. He spoke now in his heart; and a
+great comfort it was. He said--
+
+"O God, I am all alone here, where nobody knows me; and everything is
+very strange and uncomfortable. Please, make people kind to me till I am
+used to them; and keep up a brave heart in me, if they are not. Help me
+not to mind little things; but to do my lessons well, that I may get to
+like being a Crofton boy, as I thought I should. I love them all at home
+very much,--better than I ever did before. Make them love me, and think
+of me every day,--particularly Agnes,--that they may be as glad as I
+shall be when I go home at Christmas."
+
+This was the most of what he had to say; and he dropped asleep with the
+feeling that God was listening to him.
+
+After a long while, as it seemed to him, though it was only an hour,
+there was a light and some bustle in the room. It was Phil and two
+others coming to bed.
+
+"O Phil!" cried Hugh, starting bolt upright and winking with sleep,--"I
+meant to keep awake, to ask you to be sure and call me in the morning,
+time enough,--quite time enough, please."
+
+The others laughed; and Phil asked whether he had not seen the bell, as
+he came; and what it should be for but to ring everybody up in the
+morning.
+
+"But I might not hear it," pleaded Hugh.
+
+"Not hear it? You'll soon see that."
+
+"Well, but you will see that I really do wake, wont you?"
+
+"The bell will take care of that, I tell you," was all he could get from
+Phil.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+CROFTON PLAY.
+
+
+Hugh found, in the morning, that there was no danger of his not hearing
+the bell. Its clang clang startled him out of a sound sleep; and he was
+on his feet on the floor almost before his eyes were open. The boys who
+were more used to the bell did not make quite so much haste. They yawned
+a few times, and turned out more slowly; so that Hugh had the great tin
+wash basin to himself longer than the rest. There was a basin to every
+three boys; and, early as Hugh began, his companions were impatient long
+before he had done. At first, they waited, in curiosity to see what he
+was going to do after washing his face; when he went further, they began
+to quiz; but when they found that he actually thought of washing his
+feet, they hooted and groaned at him for a dirty brat.
+
+"Dirty!" cried Hugh, facing them, amazed, "Dirty for washing my feet!
+Mother says it is a dirty trick not to wash all over every day."
+
+Phil told him that was stuff and nonsense here. There was no room and no
+time for such home-doings. The boys all washed their heads and feet on
+Saturdays. He would soon find that he might be glad to get his face and
+hands done in the mornings.
+
+The other boys in the room were, or pretended to be, so disgusted with
+the very idea of washing feet in a basin, that they made Hugh rinse and
+rub out the tin basin several times before they would use it, and then
+there was a great bustle to get down stairs at the second bell. Hugh
+pulled his brother's arm, as Phil was brushing out of the room, and
+asked, in a whisper, whether there would be time to say his prayers.
+
+"There will be prayers in the school-room. You must be in time for
+them," said Phil. "You had better come with me."
+
+"Do wait one moment, while I just comb my hair."
+
+Phil fidgeted, and others giggled, while Hugh tried to part his hair, as
+Susan had taught him. He gave it up, and left it rough, thinking he
+would come up and do it when there was nobody there to laugh at him.
+
+The school-room looked chilly and dull, as there was no sunshine in it
+till the afternoon; and still Mr. Tooke was not there, as Hugh had hoped
+he would be. Mrs. Watson and the servants came in for prayers, which
+were well read by the usher; and then everybody went to
+business:--everybody but Hugh and Holt, who had nothing to do. Class
+after class came up for repetition; and this repetition seemed to the
+new boys an accomplishment they should never acquire. They did not think
+that any practice would enable them to gabble, as everybody seemed able
+to gabble here. Hugh had witnessed something of it before,--Phil having
+been wont to run off at home, "Sal, Sol, Ren et Splen," to the end of
+the passage, for the admiration of his sisters, and so much to little
+Harry's amusement, that Susan, however busy she might be, came to
+listen, and then asked him to say it again, that cook might hear what he
+learned at school. Hugh now thought that none of them gabbled quite so
+fast as Phil: but he soon found out, by a glance or two of Phil's to
+one side, that he was trying to astonish the new boys. It is surprising
+how it lightened Hugh's heart to find that his brother did not quite
+despise, or feel ashamed of him, as he had begun to think: but that he
+even took pains to show off. He was sorry too when the usher spoke
+sharply to Phil, and even rapped his head with the cane, asking him what
+he spluttered out his nonsense at that rate for. Thus ended Phil's
+display; and Hugh felt as hot, and as ready to cry, as if it had
+happened to himself.
+
+Perhaps the usher saw this; for when he called Hugh up, he was very
+kind. He looked at the Latin grammar he had used with Miss Harold, and
+saw by the dogs'-ears exactly how far Hugh had gone in it, and asked him
+only what he could answer very well. Hugh said three declensions, with
+only one mistake. Then he was shown the part that he was to say
+to-morrow morning; and Hugh walked away, all the happier for having
+something to do, like everybody else. He was so little afraid of the
+usher, that he went back to him to ask where he had better sit.
+
+"Sit! O! I suppose you must have a desk, though you have nothing to put
+in it. If there is a spare desk, you shall have it: if not, we will find
+a corner for you somewhere."
+
+Some of the boys whispered that Mrs. Watson's foot-stool, under her
+apron, would do: but the usher overheard this, and observed that it took
+some people a good while to know a new boy; and that they might find
+that a little fellow might be as much of a man as a big one. And the
+usher called the oldest boy in the school, and asked him to see if there
+was a desk for little Proctor. There was: and Hugh put into it his two
+or three school-books, and his slate; and felt that he was now indeed a
+Crofton boy. Then, the usher was kinder than he had expected; and he had
+still to see Mr. Tooke, of whom he was not afraid at all. So Hugh's
+spirits rose, and he liked the prospect of breakfast as well as any boy
+in the school.
+
+There was one more rebuff for him, first, however. He ran up to his
+room, to finish combing his hair, while the other boys were thronging
+into the long room to breakfast. He found the housemaids there, making
+the beds; and they both cried "Out! Out!" and clapped their hands at
+him, and threatened to tell Mrs. Watson of his having broken rules, if
+he did not go this moment. Hugh asked what Mrs. Watson would say to his
+hair, if he went to breakfast with it as it was. One of the maids was
+good-natured enough to comb it for him, for once: but she said he must
+carry a comb in his pocket; as the boys were not allowed to go to their
+rooms, except at stated hours.
+
+At last, Hugh saw Mr. Tooke. When the boys entered school at nine
+o'clock, the master was at his desk. Hugh went up to his end of the
+room, with a smiling face, while Tom Holt hung back; and he kept
+beckoning Tom Holt on, having told him there was nothing to be afraid
+of. But when, at last, Mr. Tooke saw them, he made no difference between
+the two, and seemed to forget having ever seen Hugh. He told them he
+hoped they would be good boys, and would do credit to Crofton; and then
+he asked Mr. Carnaby to set them something to learn. And this was all
+they had to do with Mr. Tooke for a long while.
+
+This morning in school, from nine till twelve, seemed the longest
+morning these little boys had ever known. When they remembered that the
+afternoon would be as long, and every morning and afternoon for three
+months, their hearts sank. Perhaps, if any one had told them that the
+time would grow shorter and shorter by use, and at last, when they had
+plenty to do, almost too short, they would not have believed it, because
+they could not yet feel it. But what they now found was only what every
+boy and girl finds, on beginning school, or entering upon any new way of
+life.
+
+Mr. Carnaby, who was busy with others, found it rather difficult to fill
+up their time. When Hugh had said some Latin, and helped his companion
+to learn his first Latin lesson, and both had written a copy, and done a
+sum, Mr. Carnaby could not spare them any more time or thought, and told
+them they might do what they liked, if they only kept quiet, till school
+was up. So they made out the ridiculous figures which somebody had
+carved upon their desks, and the verses, half-rubbed out, which were
+scribbled inside: and then they reckoned, on their slates, how many days
+there were before the Christmas holidays;--how many school-days, and how
+many Sundays. And then Hugh began to draw a steamboat in the Thames, as
+seen from the leads of his father's house; while Holt drew on his slate
+the ship in which he came over from India. But before they had done, the
+clock struck twelve, school was up, and there was a general rush into
+the playground.
+
+Now Hugh was really to see the country. Except that the sun had shone
+pleasantly into his room in the morning, through waving trees, nothing
+had yet occurred to make him feel that he was in the country. Now,
+however, he was in the open air, with trees sprinkled all over the
+landscape, and green fields stretching away, and the old church tower
+half-covered with ivy. Hugh screamed with pleasure; and nobody thought
+it odd, for almost every boy was shouting. Hugh longed to pick up some
+of the shining brown chesnuts which he had seen yesterday in the road,
+under the trees; and he was now cantering away to the spot, when Phil
+ran after him, and roughly stopped him, saying he would get into a fine
+scrape for the first day, if he went out of bounds.
+
+Hugh had forgotten there were such things as bounds, and was not at all
+glad to be reminded of them now. He sighed as he begged Phil to show him
+exactly where he might go and where he might not. Phil did so in an
+impatient way, and then was off to trap-ball, because his party were
+waiting for him.
+
+The chesnut-trees overhung one corner of the playground, within the
+paling: and in that corner Hugh found several chesnuts which had burst
+their sheaths, and lay among the first fallen leaves. He pocketed them
+with great delight, wondering that nobody had been before him to secure
+such a treasure. Agnes should have some; and little Harry would find
+them nice playthings. They looked good to eat too; and he thought he
+could spare one to taste: so he took out his knife, cut off the point of
+a fine swelling chesnut, and tasted a bit of the inside. Just as he was
+making a face over it, and wondering that it was so nasty, when those
+which his father roasted in the fire-shovel on Christmas-day were so
+good, he heard laughter behind him, and found that he was again doing
+something ridiculous, though he knew not what: and in a moment poor Hugh
+was as unhappy as ever.
+
+He ran away from the laughing boys, and went quite to the opposite
+corner of the playground, where a good number of his school-fellows were
+playing ball under the orchard wall. Hugh ran hither and thither, like
+the rest, trying to catch the ball; but he never could do it; and he was
+jostled, and thrown down, and another boy fell over him; and he was told
+that he knew nothing about play, and had better move off.
+
+He did so, with a heavy heart, wondering how he was ever to be like the
+other boys, if nobody would take him in hand, and teach him to play, or
+even let him learn. Remembering what his mother expected of him, he
+tried to sing, to prevent crying, and began to count the pales round the
+playground, for something to do. This presently brought him to a tree
+which stood on the very boundary, its trunk serving instead of two or
+three pales. It was only a twisted old apple-tree; but the more twisted
+and gnarled it was, the more it looked like a tree that Hugh could
+climb; and he had always longed to climb a tree. Glancing up, he saw a
+boy already there, sitting on the fork of two branches, reading.
+
+"Have you a mind to come up?" asked the boy.
+
+"Yes, sir, I should like to try to climb a tree. I never did."
+
+"Well, this is a good one to begin with. I'll lend you a hand; shall I?"
+
+"Thank you, sir."
+
+"Don't call me, 'sir.' I'm only a school-boy, like you. I am Dan Firth.
+Call me Firth, as I am the only one of the name here. You are little
+Proctor, I think--Proctor's brother."
+
+"Yes: but, Firth, I shall pull you down, if I slip."
+
+"Not you: but I'll come down, and so send you up to my seat, which is
+the safest to begin with. Stand off."
+
+Firth swung himself down, and then, showing Hugh where to plant his
+feet, and propping him when he wanted it, he soon seated him on the
+fork, and laughed good-naturedly when Hugh waved his cap over his head,
+on occasion of being up in a tree. He let him get down and up again
+several times, till he could do it quite alone, and felt that he might
+have a seat here whenever it was not occupied by any one else.
+
+While Hugh sat in the branches, venturing to leave hold with one hand,
+that he might fan his hot face with his cap, Firth stood on the rail of
+the palings, holding by the tree, and talking to him. Firth told him
+that this was the only tree the boys were allowed to climb, since Ned
+Reeve had fallen from the great ash, and hurt his spine. He showed what
+trees he had himself climbed before that accident; and it made Hugh
+giddy to think of being within eight feet of the top of the lofty elm in
+the church-yard, which Firth had thought nothing of mounting.
+
+"Did anybody teach you?" asked Hugh.
+
+"Yes; my father taught me to climb, when I was younger than you."
+
+"And had you anybody to teach you games and things, when you came here?"
+
+"No: but I had learned a good deal of that before I came; and so I soon
+fell into the ways here. Have you anybody to teach you?"
+
+"No----yes----why, no. I thought Phil would have showed me things; but
+he does not seem to mind me at all." And Hugh bit his lip, and fanned
+himself faster.
+
+"Ah! he attends to you more than you think."
+
+"Does he? Then why----but what good does it do me?"
+
+"What good? His holding off makes you push your own way. It lets you
+make friends for yourself."
+
+"I have no friends here," said Hugh.
+
+"Yes, you have. Here am I. You would not have had me, if you had been at
+Proctor's heels at this moment."
+
+"Will you be my friend, then?"
+
+"That I will."
+
+"What, a great boy like you, that sits reading in a tree! But I may read
+here beside you. You said there was room for two."
+
+"Ay; but you must not use it yet,--at least, not often, if you wish to
+do well here. Everybody knows I can play at anything. From the time I
+became captain of the wall at fives, I have had liberty to do what I
+like, without question. But you must show that you are up to play,
+before they will let you read in peace and quiet."
+
+"But how can I, if----if----"
+
+"Once show your spirit,--prove that you can shift for yourself, and you
+will find Phil open out wonderfully. He and you will forget all his
+shyness then. Once show him that he need not be ashamed of you----"
+
+"Ashamed of me!" cried Hugh, firing up.
+
+"Yes. Little boys are looked upon as girls in a school till they show
+that they are little men. And then again, you have been brought up with
+girls,--have not you?"
+
+"To be sure; and so was he."
+
+"And half the boys here, I dare say. Well, they are called Bettys
+till----"
+
+"I am not a Betty," cried Hugh, flashing again.
+
+"They suppose you are, because you part your hair, and do as you have
+been used to do at home."
+
+"What business have they with my hair? I might as well call them Bruins
+for wearing theirs shaggy."
+
+"Very true. They will let you and your hair alone when they see what you
+are made of; and then Phil will----"
+
+"He will own me when I don't want it; and now, when he might help me,
+there he is, far off, never caring about what becomes of me!"
+
+"O yes, he does. He is watching you all the time. You and he will have
+it all out some day before Christmas, and then you will see how he
+really cares about you. Really your hair is very long,--too like a
+girl's. Shall I cut it for you?"
+
+"I should like it," said Hugh, "but I don't want the boys to think I am
+afraid of them; or to begin giving up to them."
+
+"You are right there. We will let it alone now, and cut it when it suits
+our convenience."
+
+"What a nice place this is, to be sure!" cried Hugh, as the feeling of
+loneliness went off. "But the rooks do not make so much noise as I
+expected."
+
+"You will find what they can do in that way when spring comes,--when
+they are building."
+
+"And when may we go out upon the heath, and into the fields where the
+lambs are?"
+
+"We go long walks on Saturday afternoons; but you do not expect to see
+young lambs in October, do you?"
+
+"O, I forgot. I never can remember the seasons for things."
+
+"That shows you are a Londoner. You will learn all those things here. If
+you look for hares in our walks, you may chance to see one; or you may
+start a pheasant; but take care you don't mention lambs, or goslings, or
+cowslips, or any spring things; or you will never hear the last of it."
+
+"Thank you: but what will poor Holt do? He is from India, and he knows
+very little about our ways."
+
+"They may laugh at him; but they will not despise him, as they might a
+Londoner. Being an Indian, and being a Londoner, are very different
+things."
+
+"And yet how proud the Londoners are over the country! It is very odd."
+
+"People are proud of their own ways all the world over. You will be
+proud of being a Crofton boy, by-and-by."
+
+"Perhaps I am now, a little," said Hugh, blushing.
+
+"What, already? Ah! you will do, I see. I have known old people proud of
+their age, and young people of their youth. I have seen poor people
+proud of their poverty; and everybody has seen rich people proud of
+their wealth. I have seen happy people proud of their prosperity, and
+the afflicted proud of their afflictions. Yes; people can always manage
+to be proud: so you have boasted of being a Londoner up to this time;
+and from this time you will hold your head high as a Crofton boy."
+
+"How long? Till when?"
+
+"Ah! till when? What next! What do you mean to be afterwards?"
+
+"A soldier, or a sailor, or a great traveller, or something of that
+kind. I mean to go quite round the world, like Captain Cook."
+
+"Then you will come home, proud of having been round the world; and you
+will meet with some old neighbour who boasts of having spent all his
+life in the house he was born in."
+
+"Old Mr. Dixon told mother that of himself, very lately. Oh dear, how
+often does the postman come?"
+
+"You want a letter from home, do you? But you left them only yesterday
+morning."
+
+"I don't know how to believe that,--it seems such an immense time! But
+when does the postman come?"
+
+"Any day when he has letters to bring,--at about four in the afternoon.
+We see him come, from the school-room; but we do not know who the
+letters are for till school breaks up at five."
+
+"O dear!" cried Hugh, thinking what the suspense must be, and the
+disappointment at last to twenty boys, perhaps, for one that was
+gratified. Firth advised him to write a letter home before he began to
+expect one. If he did not like to ask the usher, he himself would rule
+the paper for him, and he could write a bit at a time, after his lessons
+were done in the evening, till the sheet was full.
+
+Hugh then told his grievance about the usher, and Firth thought that
+though it was not wise in Hugh to prate about Crofton on the top of the
+coach, it was worse to sit by and listen without warning, unless the
+listener meant to hold his own tongue. But he fancied the usher had
+since heard something which made him sorry; and the best way now was for
+Hugh to bear no malice, and remember nothing more of the affair than to
+be discreet in his future journeys.
+
+"What is the matter there?" cried Hugh. "O dear! something very
+terrible must have happened. How that boy is screaming!"
+
+"It is only Lamb again," replied Firth. "You will soon get used to his
+screaming. He is a very passionate boy--I never saw such a passionate
+fellow."
+
+"But what are they doing to him?"
+
+"Somebody is putting him into a passion, I suppose. There is always
+somebody to do that."
+
+"What a shame!" cried Hugh.
+
+"Yes: I see no wit in it," replied Firth. "Anybody may do it. You have
+only to hold your little finger up to put him in a rage."
+
+Hugh thought Firth was rather cool about the matter. But Firth was not
+so cool when the throng opened for a moment, and showed what was really
+done to the angry boy. Only his head appeared above ground. His
+school-fellows had put him into a hole they had dug, and had filled it
+up to his chin, stamping down the earth, so that the boy was perfectly
+helpless, while wild with rage.
+
+"That is too bad!" cried Firth. "That would madden a saint."
+
+And he jumped down from the paling, and ran towards the crowd. Hugh,
+forgetting his height from the ground, stood up in the tree, almost as
+angry as Lamb himself, and staring with all his might to see what he
+could. He saw Firth making his way through the crowd, evidently
+remonstrating, if not threatening. He saw him snatch a spade from a boy
+who was flourishing it in Lamb's face. He saw that Firth was digging,
+though half-a-dozen boys had thrown themselves on his back, and hung on
+his arms. He saw that Firth persevered till Lamb had got his right arm
+out of the ground, and was striking everywhere within reach. Then he
+saw Firth dragged down and away, while the boys made a circle round
+Lamb, putting a foot or hand within his reach, and then snatching it
+away again, till the boy yelled with rage at the mockery.
+
+Hugh could look on no longer. He scrambled down from the tree, scampered
+to the spot, burst through the throng, and seized Lamb's hand. Lamb
+struck him a heavy blow, taking him for an enemy; but Hugh cried "I am
+your friend," seized his hand again, and tugged till he was first red
+and then black in the face, and till Lamb had worked his shoulders out
+of the hole, and seemed likely to have the use of his other arm in a
+trice.
+
+Lamb's tormentors at first let Hugh alone in amazement; but they were
+not long in growing angry with him too. They hustled him--they pulled
+him all ways--they tripped him up; but Hugh's spirit was roused, and
+that brought his body up to the struggle again and again. He wrenched
+himself free, he scrambled to his feet again, as often as he was thrown
+down; and in a few minutes he had plenty of support. Phil was taking his
+part, and shielding him from many blows. Firth had got Lamb out of the
+hole; and the party against the tormentors was now so strong that they
+began to part off till the struggle ceased. Firth kept his grasp of the
+spade; for Lamb's passion still ran so high that there was no saying
+what might be the consequences of leaving any dangerous weapon within
+his reach. He was still fuming and stamping, Hugh gazing at him the
+while in wonder and fear.
+
+"There stands your defender, Lamb," said Firth, "thinking he never saw a
+boy in a passion before. Come, have done with it for his sake: be a
+man, as he is. Here, help me to fill up this hole--both of you. Stamp
+down the earth, Lamb. Tread it well--tread your anger well down into it.
+Think of this little friend of yours here--a Crofton boy only
+yesterday!"
+
+Lamb did help to fill the hole, but he did not say a word--not one word
+to anybody, till the dinner-bell rang. Then, at the pump, where the
+party were washing their hot and dirty and bruised hands, he held out
+his hand to Hugh, muttering, with no very good grace--
+
+"I don't know what made you help me, but I will never be in a passion
+with you:--unless you put me out, that is."
+
+Hugh replied that he had come to help because he never could bear to see
+anybody _made worse_. He always tried at home to keep the little boys
+and girls off "drunk old Tom," as he was called in the neighbourhood. It
+was such a shame to make anybody worse! Lamb looked as if he was going
+to fly at Hugh now: but Firth put his arm round Hugh's neck, and drew
+him into the house, saying in his ear--
+
+"Don't say any more that you have no friends here. You have me for one;
+and you might have had another--two in one morning--but for your plain
+speaking about drunk old Tom."
+
+"Did I say any harm?"
+
+"No--no harm," replied Firth; laughing. "You will do, my boy--when you
+have got through a few scrapes. I'm your friend, at any rate."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+FIRST RAMBLE.
+
+
+Hugh's afternoon lessons were harder than those of the morning; and in
+the evening he found he had so much to do that there was very little
+time left for writing his letter home. Some time there was, however; and
+Firth did not forget to rule his paper, and to let Hugh use his ink.
+Hugh had been accustomed to copy the prints he found in the Voyages and
+Travels he read; and he could never see a picture of a savage but he
+wanted to copy it. He was thus accustomed to a pretty free use of his
+slate-pencil. He now thought that it would save a great deal of
+description if he sent a picture or two in his letter: so he flourished
+off, on the first page, a sketch of Mr. Tooke sitting at his desk at the
+top of the school, and of Mr. Carnaby standing at his desk at the bottom
+of the school.
+
+The next evening he made haste to fill up the sheet, for he found his
+business increasing upon his hands so fast that he did not know when he
+should get his letter off, if he did not despatch it at once. He was
+just folding it up when Tom Holt observed that it was a pity not to put
+some words into the mouths of the figures, to make them more animated;
+and he showed Hugh, by the curious carvings of their desks, how to put
+words into the mouths of figures. Hugh then remembered having seen this
+done in the caricatures in the print-shops in London; and he seized on
+the idea. He put into Mr. Tooke's mouth the words which were oftenest
+heard from him, "Proceed, gentlemen;" and into Mr. Carnaby's, "Hold
+your din."
+
+Firth was too busy with his sense-verses to mind the little boys, as
+they giggled, with their heads close together, over Hugh's sheet of
+paper; but the usher was never too busy to be aware of any fun which
+might possibly concern his dignity. He had his eye on the new boys the
+whole while. He let Hugh direct his letter, and paint up a stroke or two
+which did not look so well as the rest; and it was not till Hugh was
+rolling the wafer about on his tongue that he interfered. Mr. Carnaby
+then came up, tapped Hugh's head, told him not to get on so fast, for
+that every letter must be looked over before it went to the post. While
+saying this, he took the letter, and put it into his waistcoat pocket.
+In vain Hugh begged to have it again, saying he would write another. The
+more he begged, and the more dismayed Tom Holt looked, the less Mr.
+Carnaby would attend to either. Firth let himself be interrupted to hear
+the case: but he could do nothing in it. It was a general rule, which he
+thought every boy had known; and it was too late now to prevent the
+letter being looked over.
+
+Mr. Carnaby was so angry at the liberty Hugh had taken with his face and
+figure, that, in spite of all prayers, and a good many tears, he walked
+up the school with the letter, followed by poor Hugh, as soon as Mr.
+Tooke had taken his seat next morning. Hugh thought that Holt, who had
+put him up to the most offensive part of the pictures, might have borne
+him company; but Holt was a timid boy, and he really had not courage to
+leave his seat. So Hugh stood alone, awaiting Mr. Tooke's awful words,
+while the whole of the first class looked up from their books, in
+expectation of what was to happen. They waited some time for the
+master's words; for he was trying to help laughing. He and Mr. Carnaby
+were so much alike in the pictures, and both so like South Sea
+islanders, that it was impossible to help laughing at the thought of
+this sketch going abroad as a representation of the Crofton masters. At
+last, all parties laughed aloud, and Mr. Tooke handed Hugh his
+wafer-glass, and bade him wafer up his letter, and by all means send it.
+Mr. Carnaby could not remain offended, if his principal was not angry:
+so here the matter ended, except that Hugh made some strong resolutions
+about his future letters; and that the corners of the master's mouth
+were seen to be out of their usual order several times in the course of
+the morning.
+
+This incident, and everything which haunted Hugh's mind, and engrossed
+his attention, was a serious evil to him; for his business soon grew to
+be more than his habit of mind was equal to. In a few days, he learned
+to envy the boys (and they were almost the whole school) who could fix
+their attention completely and immediately on the work before them, and
+relax as completely, when it was accomplished. When his eyes were
+wandering, they observed boy after boy frowning over his dictionary, or
+repeating to himself, earnestly and without pause; and presently the
+business was done, and the learner at ease, feeling confident that he
+was ready to meet his master. After double the time had passed, Hugh was
+still trying to get the meaning of his lesson into his head--going over
+the same words a dozen times, without gaining any notion of their
+meaning--suffering, in short, from his long habit of inattention at
+home. He did now try hard; but he seemed to get only headaches for his
+pains. His brother saw enough to make him very sorry for Hugh before ten
+days was over. He might not, perhaps, have been struck with his anxious
+countenance, his frequent starts, and his laying his head down on his
+desk because it ached so, if it had not been for what happened at night.
+Sometimes Hugh started out of bed, and began to dress, when the elder
+boys went up with their light, only an hour after the younger ones.
+Sometimes he would begin saying his syntax in the middle of the night,
+fancying he was standing before Mr. Carnaby; and once, he walked in his
+sleep as far as the head of the stairs, and then suddenly woke, and
+could not make out where he was. Phil should have told Mr. Tooke of
+these things; but Hugh was so very anxious that nobody should know of
+his "tricks" (as the boys in his room called his troubles), that Phil
+only mentioned the matter to Mrs. Watson, who had known so many bad
+sleepers among little boys, and had so little idea that the habit was
+anything new, that she took scarcely any notice of it. She had his hair
+cut very short and close, and saw that he took a moderate supper, and
+was satisfied that all would be well. Hugh did not part with his hair
+till he had joked himself about its length, as much as any one could
+quiz him for it. When he had pulled it down over the end of his nose,
+and peeped through it, like an owl out of an ivy-bush, he might be
+supposed to part with it voluntarily, and not because he was laughed at.
+
+Phil's observation of his brother's toil and trouble led him to give him
+some help. Almost every day he would hear Hugh say his lesson--or try to
+say it; for the poor boy seldom succeeded. Phil sometimes called him
+stupid, and sometimes refrained from saying so, whatever he might
+think; but there really was very little difference in the result,
+whether Phil heard the lessons beforehand or not; and it gave Joe Cape a
+great advantage over Phil that he had no little brother to attend to.
+Considering how selfish rivalship is apt to make boys (and even men), it
+was perhaps no wonder that Phil sometimes kept out of Hugh's way at the
+right hour, saying to himself that his proper business was to do his
+lessons, and get or keep ahead of Joe Cape; and that Hugh must take his
+chance, and work his own way, as other boys had to do. This conduct
+might not be wondered at in Phil; but it hurt Hugh, and made him do his
+lessons all the worse. He did not like to expose his brother's
+unkindness to any one, or he would oftener have asked Firth to help him.
+Firth, too, had plenty of work of his own to do. More than once,
+however, Firth met the little lad, wandering about, with his grammar in
+his hand, in search of the hidden Phil; and then Firth would stop him,
+and sit down with him, and have patience, and give him such clear
+explanations, such good examples of the rules he was to learn, that it
+all became easy, and Hugh found his lessons were to him only what those
+of other boys seemed to them. Still, however, and at the best, Hugh was,
+as a learner, far too much at the mercy of circumstances--the victim of
+what passed before his eyes, or was said within his hearing.
+
+Boys who find difficulty in attending to their lessons are sure to be
+more teased with interruptions than any others. Holt had not the habit
+of learning; and he and Hugh were continually annoyed by the boys who
+sat near them watching how they got on, and making remarks upon them.
+One day, Mr. Tooke was called out of the school-room to a visitor, and
+Mr. Carnaby went up to take the master's place, and hear his class. This
+was too good an opportunity for the boys below to let slip; and they
+began to play tricks,--most of them directed against Hugh and Tom Holt.
+One boy, Warner, began to make the face that always made Holt laugh,
+however he tried to be grave. Page drew a caricature of Mrs. Watson on
+his slate, and held it up; and Davison took a mask out of his desk, and
+even ventured to tie it on, as if it had not been school-time.
+
+"I declare I can't learn my lesson--'tis too bad!" cried Hugh.
+
+"'Tis a shame!" said Tom Holt, sighing for breath after his struggle not
+to laugh. "We shall never be ready."
+
+Hugh made gestures of indignation at the boys, which only caused worse
+faces to be made, and the mask to nod.
+
+"We wont look at them," proposed Holt. "Let us cover our eyes, and not
+look up at all."
+
+Hugh put his hands before his eyes; but still his mind's eye saw the
+grinning mask, and his lesson did not get on. Besides, a piece of wet
+sponge lighted on the very page he was learning from. He looked up
+fiercely, to see who had thrown it. It was no other than Tooke, who
+belonged to that class:--it was Tooke, to judge by his giggle, and his
+pretending to hide his face, as if ashamed. Hugh tossed back the sponge,
+so as to hit Tooke on the nose. Then Tooke was angry, and threw it
+again, and the sponge passed backwards and forwards several times: for
+Hugh was by this time very angry,--boiling with indignation at the
+hardship of not being able to learn his lesson, when he really would if
+he could. While the sponge was still passing to and fro, Mr. Carnaby's
+voice was heard from the far end of the room, desiring Warner, Page,
+Davison, and Tooke to be quiet, and let the boys alone till Mr. Tooke
+came in, when Mr. Tooke would take his own measures.
+
+Hugh, wondering how Mr. Carnaby knew, at that distance, what was going
+on, found that Holt was no longer by his side. In a moment, Holt
+returned to his seat, flushed and out of breath. A very slight hiss was
+heard from every form near, as he came down the room.
+
+"O! Holt! you have been telling tales!" cried Hugh.
+
+"Telling tales!" exclaimed Holt, in consternation, for Holt knew nothing
+of school ways. "I never thought of that. They asked me to tell Mr.
+Carnaby that we could not learn our lessons."
+
+"They! Who? I am sure I never asked you."
+
+"No; you did not: but Harvey and Prince did,--and Gillingham. They said
+Mr. Carnaby would soon make those fellows quiet; and they told me to
+go."
+
+"You hear! They are calling you 'tell-tale.' That will be your name now.
+Oh, Holt! you should not have told tales. However, I will stand by you,"
+Hugh continued, seeing the terror that Holt was in.
+
+"I meant no harm," said Holt, trembling. "Was not it a shame that they
+would not let us learn our lessons?"
+
+"Yes, it was--but----"
+
+At this moment Mr. Tooke entered the room. As he passed the forms, the
+boys were all bent over their books, as if they could think of nothing
+else. Mr. Tooke walked up the room to his desk, and Mr. Carnaby walked
+down the room to _his_ desk; and then Mr. Carnaby said, quite aloud,
+
+"Mr. Tooke, sir."
+
+"Well."
+
+Here Holt sprang from his desk, and ran to the usher and besought him
+not to say a word about what Warner's class had been doing. He even hung
+on Mr. Carnaby's arm in entreaty; but Mr. Carnaby shook him off, and
+commanded him back to his seat. Then the whole school heard Mr. Tooke
+told about the wry faces and the mask, and the trouble of the little
+boys. Mr. Tooke was not often angry; but when he was, his face grew
+white, and his lips trembled. His face was white now. He stood up, and
+called before him the little boy who had informed. Hugh chose to go with
+Holt, though Holt had not gone up with him about the letter, the other
+day; and Holt felt how kind this was. Mr. Tooke desired to know who the
+offenders were; and as they were named, he called to them to stand up in
+their places. Then came the sentence. Mr. Tooke would never forgive
+advantage being taken of his absence. If there were boys who could not
+be trusted while his back was turned, they must be made to remember him
+when he was out of sight, by punishment. Page must remain in school
+after hours, to learn twenty lines of Virgil; Davison twenty; Tooke
+forty----
+
+Here everybody looked round to see how Tooke bore his father being so
+angry with him.
+
+"Please, sir," cried one boy, "I saw little Proctor throw a sponge at
+Tooke. He did it twice."
+
+"Never mind!" answered Tooke. "I threw it at him first. It is my
+sponge."
+
+"And Warner," continued the master, as if he had not heard the
+interruption, "considering that Warner has got off too easily for many
+pranks of late,--Warner seventy."
+
+Seventy! The idea of having anybody condemned, through him, to learn
+seventy lines of Latin by heart, made Holt so miserable, that the word
+seventy seemed really to prick his very ears. Though Mr. Tooke's face
+was still white, Holt ventured up to him--
+
+"Pray, sir----"
+
+"Not a word of intercession for those boys?" said the master. "I will
+not hear a word in their favour."
+
+"Then, sir----"
+
+"Well."
+
+"I only want to say, then, that Proctor told no tales, sir. I did not
+mean any harm, sir, but I told, because----"
+
+"Never mind that," cried Hugh, afraid that he would now be telling of
+Harvey, Prince, and Gillingham, who had persuaded him to go up.
+
+"I have nothing to do with that. That is your affair," said the master,
+sending the boys back to their seats.
+
+Poor Holt had cause to rue this morning, for long after. He was weary of
+the sound of hissing, and of the name "tell-tale;" and the very boys who
+had prompted him to go up were at first silent, and then joined against
+him. He complained to Hugh of the difficulty of knowing what it was
+right to do. He had been angry on Hugh's account chiefly; and he still
+thought it _was_ very unjust to hinder their lessons, when they wished
+not to be idle: and yet they were all treating him as if he had done
+something worse than the boys with the mask. Hugh thought all this was
+true; but he believed it was settled among school-boys (though Holt had
+never had the opportunity of knowing it) that it was a braver thing for
+boys to bear any teasing from one another than to call in the power of
+the master to help. A boy who did that was supposed not to be able to
+take care of himself; and for this he was despised, besides being
+disliked, for having brought punishment upon his companions.
+
+Holt wished Hugh had not been throwing sponges at the time:--he wished
+Hugh had prevented his going up. He would take good care how he told
+tales again.
+
+"You had better say so," advised Hugh; "and then they will see that you
+had never been at school, and did not know how to manage."
+
+The first Saturday had been partly dreaded, and partly longed for, by
+Hugh. He had longed for the afternoon's ramble; but Saturday morning was
+the time for saying tables, among other things. Nothing happened as he
+had expected. The afternoon was so rainy that there was no going out;
+and, as for the tables, he was in a class of five; and "four times
+seven" did not come to him in regular course. Eight times seven did, and
+he said "fifty-six" with great satisfaction. Mr. Carnaby asked him
+afterwards the dreaded question, but he was on his guard; and as he
+answered it right, and the usher had not found out the joke, he hoped he
+should hear no more of the matter.
+
+The next Saturday was fine, and at last he was to have the walk he
+longed for. The weekly repetitions were over, dinner was done, Mr.
+Carnaby appeared with his hat on, the whole throng burst into the open
+air, and out of bounds, and the new boys were wild with expectation and
+delight. When they had passed the church-yard and the green, and were
+wading through the sandy road which led up to the heath, Firth saw Hugh
+running and leaping hither and thither, not knowing what to do with his
+spirits. Firth called him, and putting his arm round Hugh's neck, so as
+to keep him prisoner, said he did not know how he might want his
+strength before he got home, and he had better not spend it on a bit of
+sandy road. So Hugh was made to walk quietly, and gained his breath
+before the breezy heath was reached.
+
+On the way, he saw that a boy of the name of Dale, whom he had never
+particularly observed before, was a good deal teased by some boys who
+kept crossing their hands before them, and curtseying like girls,
+talking in a mincing way, and calling one another Amelia, with great
+affectation. Dale tried to get away, but he was followed, whichever way
+he turned.
+
+"What do they mean by that?" inquired Hugh of Firth.
+
+"Dale has a sister at a school not far off, and her name is Amelia; and
+she came to see him to-day. Ah! you have not found out yet that boys are
+laughed at about their sisters, particularly if the girls have fine
+names."
+
+"What a shame!" cried Hugh; words which he had used very often already
+since he came to Crofton.
+
+He broke from Firth, ran up to Dale, and said to him, in a low voice, "I
+have two sisters, and one of them is called Agnes."
+
+"Don't let them come to see you, then, or these fellows will quiz you as
+they do me. As if I could help having a sister Amelia!"
+
+"Why, you are not sorry for that? You would not wish your sister dead,
+or not born, would you?"
+
+"No; but I wish she was not hereabouts: that is, I wish she had not
+come up to the pales, with the maid-servant behind her, for everybody to
+see. And then, when Mr. Tooke sent us into the orchard together, some
+spies were peeping over the wall at us all the time."
+
+"I only wish Agnes would come," cried Hugh, "and I would----"
+
+"Ah! you think so now; but depend upon it, you would like much better to
+see her at home. Why, her name is finer than my sister's! I wonder what
+girls ever have such names for!"
+
+"I don't see that these names are finer than some boys' names. There's
+Frazer, is not his name Colin? And then there's Hercules Fisticuff----"
+
+"Why, you know--to be sure you know that is a nickname?" said Dale.
+
+"Is it? I never thought of that," replied Hugh. "What is his real name?"
+
+"Samuel Jones. However, there is Colin Frazer--and Fry, his name is
+Augustus Adolphus; I will play them off the next time they quiz Amelia.
+How old is your sister Agnes?"
+
+Then the two boys wandered off among the furze bushes, talking about
+their homes; and in a little while, they had so opened their hearts to
+each other, that they felt as if they had always been friends. Nobody
+thought any more about them when once the whole school was dispersed
+over the heath. Some boys made for a hazel copse, some way beyond the
+heath, in hopes of finding a few nuts already ripe. Others had boats to
+float on the pond. A large number played leap-frog, and some ran races.
+Mr. Carnaby threw himself down on a soft couch of wild thyme, on a
+rising ground, and took out his book. So Dale and Hugh felt themselves
+unobserved, and they chatted away at a great rate. Not but that an
+interruption or two did occur. They fell in with a flock of geese, and
+Hugh did not much like their appearance, never having heard a goose make
+a noise before. He had eaten roast goose, and he had seen geese in the
+feathers at the poulterers'; but he had never seen them alive, and
+stretching their necks at passengers. He flinched at the first moment.
+Dale, who never imagined that a boy who was not afraid of his
+school-fellows could be afraid of geese, luckily mistook the movement,
+and said, "Ay, get a switch,--a bunch of furze will do, and we will be
+rid of the noisy things."
+
+He drove them away, and Hugh had now learned, for ever, how much noise
+geese can make, and how little they are to be feared.
+
+They soon came upon some creatures which were larger and stronger, and
+with which Hugh was no better acquainted. Some cows were grazing, or had
+been grazing, till a party of boys came up. They were now restless,
+moving uneasily about, so that Dale himself hesitated for a moment which
+way to go. Lamb was near,--the passionate boy, who was nobody's friend,
+and who was therefore seldom at play with others. He was also something
+of a coward, as any one might know from his frequent bullying. He and
+Holt happened to be together at this time; and it was their appearance
+of fright at the restless cows which frightened Hugh. One cow at last
+began to trot towards them at a pretty good rate. Lamb ran off to the
+right, and the two little boys after him, though Dale pulled at Hugh's
+hand to make him stand still; as Dale chose to do himself. He pulled in
+vain--Hugh burst away, and off went the three boys, over the hillocks
+and through the furze, the cow trotting at some distance behind. They
+did not pause till Lamb had led them off the heath into a deep lane,
+different from the one by which they had come. The cow stopped at a
+patch of green grass, just at the entrance of the hollow way; and the
+runners therefore could take breath.
+
+"Now we are here," said Lamb, "I will show you a nice place,--a place
+where we can get something nice. How thirsty I am!"
+
+"And so am I," declared Holt, smacking his dry tongue. Hugh's mouth was
+very dry too, between the run and the fright.
+
+"Well, then, come along with me, and I will show you," said Lamb.
+
+Hugh thought they ought not to go farther from the heath: but Lamb said
+they would get back by another way,--through a gate belonging to a
+friend of his. They could not get back the way they came, because the
+cow was there still. He walked briskly on till they came to a cottage,
+over whose door swung a sign; and on the sign was a painting of a bottle
+and a glass, and a heap of things which were probably meant for cakes,
+as there were cakes in the window. Here Lamb turned in, and the woman
+seemed to know him well. She smiled, and closed the door behind the
+three boys, and asked them to sit down: but Lamb said there was no time
+for that to-day,--she must be quick. He then told the boys that they
+would have some ginger-beer.
+
+"But may we?" asked the little boys.
+
+"To be sure: who is to prevent us? You shall see how you like
+ginger-beer when you are thirsty."
+
+The woman declared that it was the most wholesome thing in the world;
+and if the young gentleman did not find it so, she would never ask him
+to taste her ginger-beer again. Hugh thanked them both; but he did not
+feel quite comfortable. He looked at Holt, to find out what he thought:
+but Holt was quite engrossed with watching the woman untwisting the wire
+of the first bottle. The cork did not fly; indeed there was some
+difficulty in getting it out: so Lamb waived his right, as the eldest,
+to drink first; and the little boys were so long in settling which
+should have it, that the little spirit there was had all gone off before
+Hugh began to drink; and he did not find ginger-beer such particularly
+good stuff as Lamb had said. He would have liked a drink of water
+better. The next bottle was very brisk: so Lamb seized upon it; and the
+froth hung round his mouth when he had done: but Holt was no better off
+with his than Hugh had been. They were both urged to try their luck
+again. Hugh would not; but Holt did once; and Lamb, two or three times.
+Then the woman offered them some cakes upon a plate: and the little boys
+thanked her, and took each one. Lamb put some in his pocket, and advised
+the others to do the same, as they had no time to spare. He kept some
+room in his pocket, however, for some plums; and told the boys that they
+might carry theirs in their handkerchiefs, or in their caps, if they
+would take care to have finished before they came within sight of the
+usher. He then asked the woman to let them out upon the heath through
+her garden gate; and she said she certainly would when they had paid.
+She then stood drumming with her fingers upon the table, and looking
+through the window, as if waiting.
+
+"Come, Proctor, you have half-a-crown," said Lamb. "Out with it!"
+
+"My half-crown!" exclaimed Proctor. "You did not say I had anything to
+pay."
+
+"As if you did not know that, without my telling you! You don't think
+people give away their good things, I suppose! Come,--where's your
+half-crown? My money is all at home."
+
+Holt had nothing with him either. Lamb asked the woman what there was to
+pay. She seemed to count and consider; and Holt told Hugh afterwards
+that he saw Lamb wink at her. She then said that the younger gentlemen
+had had the most plums and cakes. The charge was a shilling a-piece for
+them, and sixpence for Master Lamb:--half-a-crown exactly. Hugh
+protested he never meant anything like this, and that he wanted part of
+his half-crown to buy a comb with; and he would have emptied out the
+cakes and fruit he had left; but the woman stopped him, saying that she
+never took back what she had sold. Lamb hurried him, too, declaring that
+their time was up; and he even thrust his finger and thumb into Hugh's
+inner pocket, and took out the half-crown, which he gave to the woman.
+He was sure that Hugh could wait for his comb till Holt paid him, and
+the woman said she did not see that any more combing was wanted: the
+young gentleman's hair looked so pretty as it was. She then showed them
+through the garden, and gave them each a marigold full-blown. She
+unlocked her gate, pushed them through, locked it behind them, and left
+them to hide their purchases as well as they could. Though the little
+boys stuffed their pockets till the ripest plums burst, and wetted the
+linings, they could not dispose of them all; and they were obliged to
+give away a good many.
+
+Hugh went in search of his new friend, and drew him aside from the rest
+to relate his trouble. Dale wondered he had not found out Lamb before
+this, enough to refuse to follow his lead. Lamb would never pay a penny.
+He always spent the little money he had upon good things, the first day
+or two; and then he got what he could out of any one who was silly
+enough to trust him.
+
+"But," said Hugh, "the only thing we had to do with each other before
+was by my being kind to him."
+
+"That makes no difference," said Dale.
+
+"But what a bad boy he must be! To be sure, he will pay me, when he
+knows how much I want a comb."
+
+"He will tell you to buy it out of your five shillings. You let him know
+you had five shillings in Mrs. Watson's hands."
+
+"Yes; but he knows how I mean to spend that,--for presents to carry home
+at Christmas. But I'll never tell him anything again. Oh! Dale! do you
+really think he will never pay me?"
+
+"He never pays anybody; that is all I know. Come,--forget it all, as
+fast as you can. Let us go and see if we can get any nuts."
+
+Hugh did not at all succeed in his endeavours to forget his adventure.
+The more he thought about it, the worse it seemed; and the next time he
+spoke to Holt, and told him to remember that he owed him a shilling,
+Holt said he did not know that,--he did not mean to spend a shilling;
+and it was clear that it was only his fear of Hugh's speaking to Mrs.
+Watson or the usher, that prevented his saying outright that he should
+not pay it. Hugh felt very hot, and bit his lip to make his voice
+steady when he told Dale, on the way home, that he did not believe he
+should ever see any part of his half-crown again. Dale thought so too;
+but he advised him to do nothing more than keep the two debtors up to
+the remembrance of their debt. If he told so powerful a person as Firth,
+it would be almost as much tale-telling as if he went to the master at
+once; and Hugh himself had no inclination to expose his folly to Phil,
+who was already quite sufficiently ashamed of his inexperience. So poor
+Hugh threw the last of his plums to some cottager's children on the
+green, in his way home; and, when he set foot within bounds again, he
+heartily wished that this Saturday afternoon had been rainy too; for any
+disappointment would have been better than this scrape.
+
+While learning his lessons for Monday, he forgot the whole matter; and
+then he grew merry over the great Saturday night's washing; but after he
+was in bed, it flashed upon him that he should meet uncle and aunt Shaw
+in church to-morrow, and they would speak to Phil and him after church;
+and his uncle might ask after the half-crown. He determined not to
+expose his companions, at any rate: but his uncle would be displeased;
+and this thought was so sad that Hugh cried himself to sleep. His uncle
+and aunt were at church the next morning; and Hugh could not forget the
+ginger-beer, or help watching his uncle: so that, though he tried
+several times to attend to the sermon, he knew nothing about it when it
+was done. His uncle observed in the church-yard that they must have had
+a fine ramble the day before; but did not say anything about
+pocket-money. Neither did he name a day for his nephews to visit him,
+though he said they must come before the days grew much shorter. So Hugh
+thought he had got off very well thus far. In the afternoon, however,
+Mrs. Watson, who invited him and Holt into her parlour, to look over the
+pictures in her great Bible, was rather surprised to find how little
+Hugh could tell her of the sermon, considering how much he had
+remembered the Sunday before. She had certainly thought that to-day's
+sermon had been the simpler, and the more interesting to young people,
+of the two. Her conversation with Hugh did him good, however. It
+reminded him of his mother's words, and of her expectations from him;
+and it made him resolve to bear, not only his loss, but any blame which
+might come upon him silently, and without betraying anybody. He had
+already determined, fifty times within the twenty-four hours, never to
+be so weakly led again, when his own mind was doubtful, as he had felt
+it all the time from leaving the heath to getting back to it again. He
+began to reckon on the Christmas holidays, when he should have five
+weeks at home, free from the evils of both places,--from lessons with
+Miss Harold, and from Crofton scrapes.
+
+It is probable that the whole affair would have passed over quietly, and
+the woman in the lane might have made large profits by other
+inexperienced boys, and Mr. Carnaby might have gone on being careless as
+to where the boys went out of his sight on Saturdays, but that Tom Holt
+ate too many plums on the present occasion. On Sunday morning he was not
+well; and was so ill by the evening, and all Monday, that he had to be
+regularly nursed; and when he left his bed, he was taken to Mrs.
+Watson's parlour,--the comfortable, quiet place where invalid boys
+enjoyed themselves. Poor Holt was in very low spirits; and Mrs. Watson
+was so kind that he could not help telling her that he owed a shilling,
+and he did not know how he should ever pay it; and that Hugh Proctor,
+who had been his friend till now, seemed on a sudden much more fond of
+Dale; and this made it harder to be in debt to him.
+
+The wet, smeared lining of the pockets had told Mrs. Watson already that
+there had been some improper indulgence in good things; and when she
+heard what part Lamb had played towards the little boys, she thought it
+right to tell Mr. Tooke. Mr. Tooke said nothing till Holt was in the
+school again, which was on Thursday; and not then till the little boys
+had said their lessons, at past eleven o'clock. They were drawing on
+their slates, and Lamb was still mumbling over his book, without getting
+on, when the master's awful voice was heard, calling up before him Lamb,
+little Proctor, and Holt. All three started, and turned red; so that the
+school concluded them guilty before it was known what they were charged
+with. Dale knew,--and he alone; and very sorry he was, for the intimacy
+between Hugh and him had grown very close indeed since Saturday.
+
+The master was considerate towards the younger boys. He made Lamb tell
+the whole. Even when the cowardly lad "bellowed" (as his school-fellows
+called his usual mode of crying) so that nothing else could be heard,
+Mr. Tooke waited, rather than question the other two. When the whole
+story was extracted, in all its shamefulness, from Lamb's own lips, the
+master expressed his disgust. He said nothing about the money part of
+it--about how Hugh was to be paid. He probably thought it best for the
+boys to take the consequences of their folly in losing their money. He
+handed the little boys over to Mr. Carnaby to be caned--"To make them
+remember," as he said; though they themselves were pretty sure they
+should never forget. Lamb was kept to be punished by the master himself.
+Though Lamb knew he should be severely flogged, and though he was the
+most cowardly boy in the school, he did not suffer so much as Hugh did
+in the prospect of being caned--being punished at all. Phil, who knew
+his brother's face well, saw, as he passed down the room, how miserable
+he was--too miserable to cry; and Phil pulled him by the sleeve, and
+whispered that being caned was nothing to mind--only a stroke or two
+across the shoulders. Hugh shook his head, as much as to say, "It is not
+that."
+
+No--it was not the pain. It was the being punished in open school, and
+when he did not feel that he deserved it. How should he know where Lamb
+was taking him? How should he know that the ginger-beer was to be paid
+for, and that he was to pay? He felt himself injured enough already; and
+now to be punished in addition! He would have died on the spot for
+liberty to tell Mr. Tooke and everybody what he thought of the way he
+was treated. He had felt his mother hard sometimes; but what had she
+ever done to him compared with this? It was well he thought of his
+mother. At the first moment, the picture of home in his mind nearly made
+him cry--the thing of all others he most wished to avoid while so many
+eyes were on him; but the remembrance of what his mother expected of
+him--her look when she told him _he must not fail_, gave him courage.
+Hard as it was to be, as he believed, unjustly punished, it was better
+than having done anything very wrong--anything that he really could not
+have told his mother.
+
+Mr. Carnaby foresaw that a rebuke was in store for him for his
+negligence during the walk on Saturday; and this anticipation did not
+sweeten his mood. He kept the little boys waiting, though Holt was
+trembling very much, and still weak from his illness. It occurred to the
+usher that another person might be made uncomfortable; and he
+immediately acted on the idea. He had observed how fond of one another
+Dale and Hugh had become; and he thought he would plague Dale a little.
+He therefore summoned him, and desired him to go, and bring him a
+switch, to cane these boys with.
+
+"I have broken my cane; so bring me a stout switch," said he, "Bring me
+one out of the orchard; one that will lay on well--one that will not
+break with a good hard stroke;--mind what I say--one that will not
+break."
+
+"Yes, sir," replied Dale, readily; and he went as if he was not at all
+unwilling. Holt shivered. Hugh never moved.
+
+It was long, very long, before Dale returned. When he did, he brought a
+remarkably stout broomstick.
+
+"This wont break, I think, sir," said he.
+
+The boys giggled. Mr. Carnaby knuckled Dale's head as he asked him if he
+called that a switch.
+
+"Bring me a _switch_," said he. "One that is not too stout, or else it
+will not sting. It must sting, remember,--sting well. Not too stout,
+remember."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Dale; and away he went again.
+
+He was now gone yet longer; and by the time he returned everybody's eyes
+were fixed on the door, to see what sort of a switch would next appear.
+Dale entered, bringing a straw.
+
+"I think this will not be too stout, sir."
+
+Everybody laughed but Hugh--even Holt.
+
+There was that sneer about Mr. Carnaby's nose which made everybody sorry
+now for Dale: but everybody started, Mr. Carnaby and all, at Mr. Tooke's
+voice, close at hand. How much he had seen and heard, there was no
+knowing; but it was enough to make him look extremely stern.
+
+"Are these boys not caned yet, Mr. Carnaby?"
+
+"No, sir;--I have not--I----"
+
+"Have they been standing here all this while?"
+
+"Yes, sir. I have no cane, sir. I have been sending----"
+
+"I ordered them an immediate caning, Mr. Carnaby, and not mental
+torture. School is up," he declared to the boys at large. "You may
+go--you have been punished enough," he said to the little boys. "Mr.
+Carnaby, have the goodness to remain a moment."
+
+And the large room was speedily emptied of all but the master, the
+usher, and poor Lamb.
+
+"The usher will catch it now," observed some boys, as the master himself
+shut the door behind them. "He will get well paid for his spite."
+
+"What will be done to him?" asked Hugh of Dale, whom he loved fervently
+for having saved him from punishment.
+
+"Oh, I don't know; and I don't care--though he was just going to give my
+head some sound raps against the wall, if Mr. Tooke had not come up at
+the moment."
+
+"But what _will_ be done to Mr. Carnaby?"
+
+"Never mind what; he wont be here long, they say. Fisher says there is
+another coming; and Carnaby is here only till that other is at liberty."
+
+This was good news, if true: and Hugh ran off, quite in spirits, to
+play. He had set himself diligently to learn to play, and would not be
+driven off; and Dale had insisted on fair scope for him. He played too
+well to be objected to any more. They now went to leap-frog; and when
+too hot to keep it up any longer, he and Dale mounted into the
+apple-tree to talk, while they were cooling, and expecting the
+dinner-bell.
+
+Something happened very wonderful before dinner. The gardener went down
+to the main road, and seemed to be looking out. At last he hailed the
+London coach. Hugh and Dale could see from their perch. The coach
+stopped, the gardener ran back, met Mr. Carnaby under the chesnuts,
+relieved him of his portmanteau, and helped him to mount the coach.
+
+"Is he going? Gone for good?" passed from mouth to mouth, all over the
+playground.
+
+"Gone for good," was the answer of those who knew to a certainty.
+
+The boys set up first a groan, so loud that perhaps the departing usher
+heard it. Then they gave a shout of joy, in which the little boys joined
+with all their might--Hugh waving his cap in the apple-tree.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+WHAT IS ONLY TO BE HAD AT HOME.
+
+
+Hugh got on far better with his lessons as he grew more intimate with
+Dale. It was not so much that Dale helped him with his grammar and
+construing (for Dale thought every boy should make shift to do his own
+business) as that he liked to talk about his work, even with a younger
+boy; and so, as he said, clear his head. A great deal that he said was
+above Hugh's comprehension; and much of his repetitions mere words: but
+there were other matters which fixed Hugh's attention, and proved to him
+that study might be interesting out of school. When Dale had a theme to
+write, the two boys often walked up and down the playground for half an
+hour together, talking the subject over, and telling of anything they
+had heard or read upon it. Hugh presently learned the names and the
+meanings of the different parts of a theme; and he could sometimes help
+with an illustration or example, though he left it to his friend to lay
+down the Proposition, and search out the Confirmation. Dale's
+nonsense-verses were perfect nonsense to Hugh: but his construing was
+not: and when he went over it aloud, for the purpose of fixing his
+lesson in his ear, as well as his mind, Hugh was sorry when they arrived
+at the end, and eager to know what came next,--particularly if they had
+to stop in the middle of a story of Ovid's. Every week, almost every day
+now, made a great difference in Hugh's school-life. He still found his
+lessons very hard work, and was often in great fear and pain about
+them,--but he continually perceived new light breaking in upon his mind:
+his memory served him better; the little he had learned came when he
+wanted it, instead of just a minute too late. He rose in the morning
+with less anxiety about the day: and when playing, could forget school.
+
+There was no usher yet in Mr. Carnaby's place; and all the boys said
+their lessons to Mr. Tooke himself: which Hugh liked very much, when he
+had got over the first fear. A writing-master came from a distance
+twice a-week, when the whole school was at writing and arithmetic all
+the afternoon: but every other lesson was said to the master; and this
+was likely to go on till Christmas, as the new usher, of whom, it was
+said, Mr. Tooke thought so highly as to choose to wait for him, could
+not come before that time. Of course, with so much upon his hands, Mr.
+Tooke had not a moment to spare; and slow or idle boys were sent back to
+their desks at the first trip or hesitation in their lessons. Hugh was
+afraid, at the outset, that he should be like poor Lamb, who never got a
+whole lesson said during these weeks: and he was turned down sometimes;
+but not often enough to depress him. He learned to trust more to his ear
+and his memory: his mind became excited, as in playing a game: and he
+found he got through, he scarcely knew how. His feeling of fatigue
+afterwards proved to him that this was harder work than he had ever done
+at home; but he did not feel it so at the time. When he could learn a
+lesson in ten minutes, and say it in one; when he began to use Latin
+phrases in his private thoughts, and saw the meaning of a rule of
+syntax, so as to be able to find a fresh example out of his own head, he
+felt himself really a Crofton boy, and his heart grew light within him.
+
+The class to which Hugh belonged was one day standing waiting to be
+heard, when the master was giving a subject and directions for an
+English theme to Dale's class. The subject was the Pleasures of
+Friendship. In a moment Hugh thought of Damon and Pythias, and of David
+and Jonathan,--of the last of whom there was a picture in Mrs. Watson's
+great Bible. He thought how happy he had been since he had known Dale,
+and his heart was in such a glow, he was sure he could write a theme.
+He ran after Mr. Tooke when school was over, and asked whether he might
+write a theme with Dale's class. When Mr. Tooke found he knew what was
+meant by writing a theme, he said he might try, if he neglected nothing
+for it, and wrote every word of it himself, without consultation with
+any one.
+
+Hugh scampered away to tell Dale that they must not talk over this theme
+together, as they were both to do it; and then, instead of playing, he
+went to his desk, and wrote upon his slate till it was quite full. He
+had to borrow two slates before he had written all he had to say. Phil
+ruled his paper for him; but before he had copied one page, his
+neighbours wanted their slates back again,--said they must have them,
+and rubbed out all he had written. Much of the little time he had was
+lost in this way, and he grew wearied. He thought at first that his
+theme would be very beautiful: but he now began to doubt whether it
+would be worth anything at all; and he was vexed to have tired himself
+with doing what would only make him laughed at. The first page was well
+written out,--the Confirmation being properly separated from the
+Proposition: but he had to write all the latter part directly from his
+head upon the paper, as the slates were taken away; and he forgot to
+separate the Conclusion from the Inference.
+
+He borrowed a penknife, and tried to scratch out half a line; but he
+only made a hole in the paper, and was obliged to let the line stand.
+Then he found he had strangely forgotten to put in the chief thing of
+all,--about friends telling one another of their faults,--though, on
+consideration, he was not sure that this was one of the Pleasures of
+Friendship: so, perhaps, it did not much matter. But there were two
+blots; and he had left out Jonathan's name, which had to be interlined.
+Altogether, it had the appearance of a very bad theme. Firth came and
+looked over his shoulder, as he was gazing at it; and Firth offered to
+write it out for him; and even thought it would be fair, as he had had
+nothing to do with the composition: but Hugh could not think it would be
+fair, and said, sighing, that his must take its chance. He did not think
+he could have done a theme so very badly.
+
+Mr. Tooke beckoned him up with Dale's class, when they carried up their
+themes; and, seeing how red his face was, the master bade him not be
+afraid. But how could he help being afraid? The themes were not read
+directly. It was Mr. Tooke's practice to read them out of school-hours.
+On this occasion, judgment was given the last thing before school broke
+up the next morning.
+
+Hugh had never been more astonished in his life. Mr. Tooke praised his
+theme very much, and said it had surprised him. He did not mind the
+blots and mistakes, which would, he said, have been great faults in a
+copy-book, but were of less consequence than other things in a theme.
+Time and pains would correct slovenliness of that kind; and the thoughts
+and language were good. Hugh was almost out of his wits with delight; so
+nearly so that he spoiled his own pleasure completely. He could not keep
+his happiness to himself, or his vanity: for Hugh had a good deal of
+vanity,--more than he was aware of before this day. He told several boys
+what Mr. Tooke had said: but he soon found that would not do. Some were
+indifferent, but most laughed at him. Then he ran to Mrs. Watson's
+parlour, and knocked. Nobody answered; for the room was empty: so Hugh
+sought her in various places, and at last found her in the kitchen,
+boiling some preserves.
+
+"What do you come here for? This is no place for you," said she, when
+the maids tried in vain to put Hugh out.
+
+"I only want to tell you one thing," cried Hugh; and he repeated exactly
+what Mr. Tooke had said of his theme. Mrs. Watson laughed, and the maids
+laughed, and Hugh left them, angry with them, but more angry with
+himself. They did not care for him,--nobody cared for him, he said to
+himself; he longed for his mother's look or approbation when he had done
+well, and Agnes' pleasure, and even Susan's fondness and praise. He
+sought Dale. Dale was in the midst of a game, and had not a word or look
+to spare till it was over. The boys would have admitted Hugh; for he
+could now play as well as anybody; but he was in no mood for play now.
+He climbed his tree, and sat there, stinging his mind with the thought
+of his having carried his boastings into the kitchen, and with his
+recollection of Mrs. Watson's laugh.
+
+It often happened that Firth and Hugh met at this tree; and it happened
+now. There was room for both; and Firth mounted, and read for some time.
+At last, he seemed to be struck by Hugh's restlessness and heavy sighs;
+and he asked whether he had not got something to amuse himself with.
+
+"No. I don't want to amuse myself," said Hugh, stretching so as almost
+to throw himself out of the tree.
+
+"Why, what's the matter? Did not you come off well with your theme? I
+heard somebody say you were quite enough set up about it."
+
+"Where is the use of doing a thing well, if nobody cares about it?"
+said Hugh. "I don't believe anybody at Crofton cares a bit about
+me--cares whether I get on well or ill--except Dale. If I take pains and
+succeed, they only laugh at me."
+
+"Ah! you don't understand school and school-boys yet," replied Firth.
+"To do a difficult lesson well is a grand affair at home, and the whole
+house knows of it. But it is the commonest thing in the world here. If
+you learn to feel with these boys, instead of expecting them to feel
+with you (which they cannot possibly do), you will soon find that they
+care for you accordingly."
+
+Hugh shook his head.
+
+"You will find in every school in England," continued Firth, "that it is
+not the way of boys to talk about feelings--about anybody's feelings.
+That is the reason why they do not mention their sisters or their
+mothers--except when two confidential friends are together, in a tree,
+or by themselves in the meadows. But, as sure as ever a boy is full of
+action--if he tops the rest at play--holds his tongue, or helps others
+generously--or shows a manly spirit without being proud of it, the whole
+school is his friend. You have done well, so far, by growing more and
+more sociable; but you will lose ground if you boast about your lessons
+out of school. To prosper at Crofton, you must put off home, and make
+yourself a Crofton boy."
+
+"I don't care about that," said Hugh. "I give it all up. There is
+nothing but injustice here."
+
+"Nothing but injustice! Pray, am I unjust?"
+
+"No--not you--not so far. But----"
+
+"Is Mr. Tooke unjust?"
+
+"Yes--very."
+
+"Pray how, and when?"
+
+"He has been so unjust to me, that if it had not been for something, I
+could not have borne it. I am not going to tell you what that something
+is: only you need not be afraid but that I can bear everything. If the
+whole world was against me----"
+
+"Well, never mind what that something is; but tell me how Mr. Tooke is
+unjust to you."
+
+"He punished me when I did not deserve it; and he praised me when I did
+not deserve it. I was cheated and injured that Saturday; and, instead of
+seeing me righted, Mr. Tooke ordered me to be punished. And to-day, when
+my theme was so badly done that I made sure of being blamed, he praised
+me."
+
+"This might be injustice at home," replied Firth, "because parents know,
+or ought to know, all that is in their children's minds, and exactly
+what their children can do. A school-master can judge only by what he
+sees. Mr. Tooke does not know yet that you could have done your theme
+better than you did--as your mother would have known. When he finds you
+can do better, he will not praise such a theme again. Meantime, how you
+can boast of his praise, if you think it unjust, is the wonder to me."
+
+"So it is to me now. I wish I had never asked to do that theme at all,"
+cried Hugh, again stretching himself to get rid of his shame. "But why
+did Mr. Tooke order me to be caned? Why did he not make Lamb and Holt
+pay me what they owe? I was injured before; and he injured me more."
+
+"You were to be caned because you left the heath and entered a house,
+without leave--not because you had been cheated of your money."
+
+"But I did not know where I was going. I never meant to enter a house."
+
+"But you did both; and what you suffered will prevent your letting
+yourself be led into such a scrape again. As for the money part of the
+matter--a school is to boys what the world is when they become men. They
+must manage their own affairs among themselves. The difference is, that
+here is the master to be applied to, if we choose. He will advise you
+about your money, if you choose to ask him: but, for my part, I would
+rather put up with the loss, if I were you."
+
+"Nobody will ever understand what I mean about justice," muttered Hugh.
+
+"Suppose," said Firth, "while you are complaining of injustice in this
+way, somebody else should be complaining in the same way of your
+injustice."
+
+"Nobody can--fairly," replied Hugh.
+
+"Do you see that poor fellow, skulking there under the orchard-wall?"
+
+"What, Holt?"
+
+"Yes, Holt. I fancy the thought in his mind at this moment is that you
+are the most unjust person at Crofton."
+
+"I! unjust!"
+
+"Yes; so he thinks. When you first came, you and he were companions. You
+found comfort in each other while all the rest were strangers to you.
+You were glad to hear, by the hour together, what he had to tell you
+about India, and his voyages and travels. Now he feels himself lonely
+and forsaken, while he sees you happy with a friend. He thinks it hard
+that you should desert him because he owes you a shilling, when he was
+cheated quite as much as you."
+
+"Because he owes me a shilling!" cried Hugh, starting to his feet, "as
+if----"
+
+Once more he had nearly fallen from his perch. Firth caught him; and
+then asked him how Holt should think otherwise than as he did, since
+Hugh had been his constant companion up to that Saturday afternoon, and
+had hardly spoken to him since.
+
+Hugh protested that the shilling had nothing to do with the matter; and
+he never meant to take more than sixpence from Holt, because he thought
+Lamb was the one who ought to pay the shilling. The thing was, he did
+not, and could not, like Holt half so well as Dale. He could not make a
+friend of Holt, because he wanted spirit--he had no courage. What could
+he do? He could not pretend to be intimate with Holt when he did not
+like him; and if he explained that the shilling had nothing to do with
+the matter, he could not explain how it really was, when the fault was
+in the boy's character, and not in his having given any particular
+offence. What could he do?
+
+Firth thought he could only learn not to expect, anywhere out of the
+bounds of home, what he thought justice. He must, of course, try himself
+to be just to everybody; but he must make up his mind in school, as men
+have to do in the world, to be misunderstood--to be wrongly valued; to
+be blamed when he felt himself the injured one; and praised when he knew
+he did not deserve it.
+
+"But it is so hard," said Hugh.
+
+"And what do people leave home for but to learn hard lessons?"
+
+"But, still, if it were not for----"
+
+"For what? Do you see any comfort under it?" asked Firth, fixing his
+eyes on Hugh.
+
+Hugh nodded, without speaking.
+
+"That One understands us who cannot be unjust!" whispered Firth. "I am
+glad you feel that."
+
+"Even home would be bad enough without that," said Hugh. "And what would
+school be?"
+
+"Or the world?" added Firth. "But do not get cross, and complain again.
+Leave that to those who have no comfort."
+
+Hugh nodded again. Then he got down, and ran to tell Holt that he did
+not want a shilling from him, because he thought sixpence would be
+fairer.
+
+Holt was glad to hear this at first; but he presently said that it did
+not much matter, for that he had no more chance of being able to pay
+sixpence than a shilling. His parents were in India, and his uncle never
+offered him any money. He knew indeed that his uncle had none to spare;
+for he had said in the boy's hearing, that it was hard on him to have to
+pay the school-bills (unless he might pay them in the produce of his
+farm), so long as it must be before he could be repaid from India. So
+Holt did not dare to ask for pocket-money; and for the hundredth time he
+sighed over his debt. He had almost left off hoping that Hugh would
+excuse him altogether, though everybody knew that Hugh had five
+shillings in Mrs. Watson's hands. This fact, and Hugh's frequent
+applications to Lamb for payment, had caused an impression that Hugh was
+fond of money. It was not so; and yet the charge was not unfair. Hugh
+was ready to give if properly asked; but he did not relish, and could
+not bear with temper, the injustice of such a forced borrowing as had
+stripped him of his half-crown. He wanted his five shillings for
+presents for his family; and for these reasons, and not because he was
+miserly, he did not offer to excuse Holt's debt; which it would have
+been more generous to have done. Nobody could wish that he should excuse
+Lamb's.
+
+"When are you going to your uncle's?" asked Holt. "I suppose you _are_
+going some day before Christmas."
+
+"On Saturday, to stay till Sunday night," said Hugh.
+
+"And Proctor goes too, I suppose?"
+
+"Yes; of course, Phil goes too."
+
+"Anybody else?"
+
+"We are each to take one friend, just for Saturday, to come home at
+night."
+
+"Oh? then, you will take me. You said you would."
+
+"Did I? That must have been a long time ago."
+
+"But you did say so,--that, whenever you went, you would ask leave to
+take me."
+
+"I don't remember any such thing. And I am going to take Dale this time.
+I have promised him."
+
+Holt cried with vexation. Dale was always in his way. Hugh cared for
+nobody but Dale; but Dale should not go to Mr. Shaw's till he had had
+his turn. He had been promised first, and he would go first. He would
+speak to Mrs. Watson, and get leave to go and tell Mr. Shaw, and then he
+was sure Mr. Shaw would let him go.
+
+Hugh was very uncomfortable. He really could not remember having made
+this promise: but he could not be sure that he had not. He asked Holt if
+he thought he should like to be in people's way, to spoil the holiday by
+going where he was not wished for; but this sort of remonstrance did not
+comfort Holt at all. Hugh offered that he should have the very next
+turn, if he would give up now.
+
+"I dare say! And when will that be? You know on Sunday it will want only
+nineteen days to the holidays; and you will not be going to your uncle's
+again this half-year. A pretty way of putting me off!"
+
+Then, as if a sudden thought had struck him, he cried,
+
+"But Proctor has to take somebody."
+
+"Yes; Phil takes Tooke. They settled that a week ago."
+
+"Oh! can't you ask him to take me?"
+
+"No; I shall not meddle with Phil. Besides, I am glad he has chosen
+Tooke. Tooke behaved well to me about the sponge, that day. Tooke has
+some spirit."
+
+This put Holt in mind of the worst of his adventures since he came to
+Crofton, and of all the miseries of being shunned as a tell-tale. He
+cried so bitterly as to touch Hugh's heart. As if thinking aloud, Hugh
+told him that he seemed very forlorn, and that he wished he would find a
+friend to be intimate with. This would make him so much happier as he
+had no idea of; as he himself had found since he had had Dale for a
+friend.
+
+This naturally brought out a torrent of reproaches, which was followed
+by a hot argument; Holt insisting that Hugh ought to have been his
+intimate friend; and Hugh asking how he could make a friend of a boy who
+wanted spirit. They broke away from one another at last, Hugh declaring
+Holt to be unreasonable and selfish, and Holt thinking Hugh cruel and
+insulting.
+
+Of course Mrs. Watson would not hear of Holt's going to Mr. Shaw, to ask
+for an invitation for Saturday. He was told he must wait till another
+time. It was no great consolation to Holt that on Sunday it would want
+only nineteen days to the holidays: for he was to remain at Crofton. He
+hoped to like the holidays better than school-days, and to be petted by
+Mrs. Watson, and to sit by the fire, instead of being forced into the
+playground in all weathers: but still he could not look forward to
+Christmas with the glee which other boys felt.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+A LONG DAY.
+
+
+Hugh, meantime, was counting the hours till Saturday. Perhaps, if the
+truth were known, so was Phil, though he was too old to acknowledge such
+a longing. But the climbing about the mill,--the play encouraged there
+by his uncle and the men,--his uncle's stories within doors, his aunt's
+good dinners,--the fire-side, the picture-books, the talk of home,
+altogether made up the greatest treat of the half-year. Phil had plenty
+of ways of passing the time. Hugh began a long letter home,--the very
+last letter, except the short formal one which should declare when the
+Christmas vacation should commence. Hugh meant to write half the letter
+before Saturday, and then fill it up with an account of his visit to his
+uncle's.
+
+The days were passed, however, when Hugh had the command of his leisure
+time, as on his arrival, when his hours were apt to hang heavy. He had
+long since become too valuable in the playground to be left to follow
+his own devices. As the youngest boy, he was looked upon as a sort of
+servant to the rest, when once it was found that he was quick and
+clever. Either as scout, messenger, or in some such capacity, he was
+continually wanted; and often at times inconvenient to himself. He then
+usually remembered what Mr. Tooke had told him of his boy, when Tooke
+was the youngest,--how he bore things--not only being put on the high
+wall, but being well worked in the service of the older boys. Usually
+Hugh was obliging, but he could and did feel cross at times. He was
+cross on this Friday,--the day when he was so anxious to write his
+letter before going to his uncle's. On Saturday there would be no time.
+The early mornings were dark now; and after school he should have to
+wash and dress, and be off to his uncle's. On Friday then, his paper was
+ruled, and he had only to run across the playground to borrow Firth's
+penknife, and then nothing should delay his letter.
+
+In that run across the playground he was stopped. He was wanted to
+collect clean snow for the boys who were bent on finishing their
+snow-man while it would bind. He should be let off when he had brought
+snow enough. But he knew that by that time his fingers would be too
+stiff to hold his pen; and he said he did not choose to stop now. Upon
+this Lamb launched a snow-ball in his face. Hugh grew angry,--or, as his
+school-fellows said, insolent. Some stood between him and the house, to
+prevent his getting home, while others promised to roll him in the snow
+till he yielded full submission. Instead of yielding, Hugh made for the
+orchard wall, scrambled up it, and stood for the moment out of the reach
+of his enemies. He kicked down such a quantity of snow upon any one who
+came near, that he held all at bay for some little time. At last,
+however, he had disposed of all the snow within his reach, and they
+were pelting him thickly with snow-balls. It was not at any time very
+easy to stand upright, for long together, upon this wall, as the stones
+which capped it were rounded. Now, when the coping-stones were slippery
+after the frost, and Hugh nearly blinded with the shower of snow-balls,
+he could not keep his footing, and was obliged to sit astride upon the
+wall. This brought one foot within reach from below; and though Hugh
+kicked, and drew up his foot as far and as often as he could, so as not
+to lose his balance, it was snatched at by many hands. At last, one hand
+kept its hold, and plenty more then fastened upon his leg. They pulled:
+he clung. In another moment, down he came, and the large heavy
+coping-stone, loosened by the frost, came after him, and fell upon his
+left foot as he lay.
+
+It was a dreadful shriek that he gave. Mrs. Watson heard it in her
+store-room, and Mr. Tooke in his study. Some labourers felling a tree in
+a wood, a quarter of a mile off, heard it, and came running to see what
+could be the matter. The whole school was in a cluster round the poor
+boy in a few seconds. During this time, while several were engaged in
+lifting away the stone, Tooke stooped over him, and said, with his lips
+as white as paper,
+
+"Who was it that pulled you,--that got the first hold of you? Was it I?
+O! say it was not I."
+
+"It was you," said Hugh. "But never mind! You did not mean it."--He saw
+that Tooke's pain was worse than his own, and he added, in a faint
+whisper,
+
+"Don't you tell, and then nobody will know. Mind you don't!"
+
+One boy after another turned away from the sight of his foot, when the
+stone was removed. Tooke fainted, but, then, so did another boy who had
+nothing to do with the matter. Everybody who came up asked who did it;
+and nobody could answer. Tooke did not hear; and so many felt themselves
+concerned, that no one wished that any answer should be given.
+
+"Who did it, my dear boy?" asked Firth, bending over him.
+
+"Never mind!" was all Hugh could say. He groaned in terrible pain.
+
+He must not lie there; but who could touch him? Firth did; and he was
+the right person, as he was one of the strongest. He made two boys pass
+their handkerchiefs under the leg, and sling it, without touching it;
+and he lifted Hugh, and carried him across his arms towards the house.
+They met Mr. Tooke, and every person belonging to the household, before
+they reached the door.
+
+"To my bed!" said the master, when he saw: and in an instant the
+gardener had his orders to saddle Mr. Tooke's horse, and ride to London
+for an eminent surgeon: stopping by the way to beg Mr. and Mrs. Shaw to
+come, and bring with them the surgeon who was their neighbour, Mr.
+Annanby.
+
+"Who did it?" "Who pulled him down?" passed from mouth to mouth of the
+household.
+
+"He wont tell,--noble fellow," cried Firth. "Don't ask him. Never ask
+him who pulled him down."
+
+"You will never repent it, my dear boy," whispered Firth.
+
+Hugh tried to smile, but he could not help groaning again. There was a
+suppressed groan from some one else. It was from Mr. Tooke. Hugh was
+sadly afraid he had, by some means, found out who did the mischief. But
+it was not so. Mr. Tooke was quite wretched enough without that.
+
+Everybody was very kind, and did the best that could be done. Hugh was
+held up on the side of Mr. Tooke's bed, while Mrs. Watson took off his
+clothes, cutting the left side of his trousers to pieces, without any
+hesitation. The master held the leg firmly while the undressing went on;
+and then poor Hugh was laid back, and covered up warm, while the foot
+was placed on a pillow, with only a light handkerchief thrown over it.
+
+It was terrible to witness his pain; but Mr. Tooke never left him all
+day. He chafed his hands, he gave him drink; he told him he had no doubt
+his mother would arrive soon; he encouraged him to say or do anything
+that he thought would give him ease.
+
+"Cry my dear," he said, "if you want to cry. Do not hide tears from me."
+
+"I can't help crying," sobbed Hugh: "but it is not the pain,--not only
+the pain; it is because you are so kind!"
+
+"Where _is_ Phil?" he said at last.
+
+"He is so very unhappy, that we think he had better not see you till
+this pain is over. When you are asleep, perhaps."
+
+"Oh! when will that be?" and poor Hugh rolled his head on the pillow.
+
+"George rides fast; he is far on his way by this time," said Mr. Tooke.
+"And one or other of the surgeons will soon be here; and they will tell
+us what to do, and what to expect."
+
+"Do tell Phil so,--will you?"
+
+Mr. Tooke rang the bell; and the message was sent to Phil, with Hugh's
+love.
+
+"Will the surgeon hurt me much, do you think?" Hugh asked. "I will bear
+it. I only want to know."
+
+"I should think you hardly could be in more pain than you are now,"
+replied Mr. Tooke. "I trust they will relieve you of this pain. I should
+not wonder if you are asleep to-night as quietly as any of us; and then
+you will not mind what they may have done to you."
+
+Hugh thought he should mind nothing, if he could ever be asleep again.
+
+He was soon asked if he would like to see his uncle and aunt, who were
+come. He wished to see his uncle; and Mr. Shaw came up, with the
+surgeon. Mr. Annanby did scarcely anything to the foot at present. He
+soon covered it up again, and said he would return in time to meet the
+surgeon who was expected from London. Then Hugh and his uncle were
+alone.
+
+Mr. Shaw told him how sorry the boys all were, and how they had come in
+from the playground at once, and put themselves under Firth, to be kept
+quiet; and that very little dinner had been eaten; and that, when the
+writing-master arrived, he was quite astonished to find everything so
+still, and the boys so spiritless: but that nobody told him till he
+observed how two or three were crying, so that he was sure something was
+the matter.
+
+"Which? Who? Who is crying?" asked Hugh.
+
+"Poor Phil, and I do not know who else,--not being acquainted with the
+rest."
+
+"How glad I am that Dale had nothing to do with it!" said Hugh. "He was
+quite on the other side of the playground."
+
+"They tell me below that I must not ask you how it happened."
+
+"Oh yes! you may. Everything except just who it was that pulled me down.
+So many got hold of me that nobody knows exactly who gave _the_ pull,
+except myself and one other. He did not mean it; and I was cross about
+playing with them; and the stone on the wall was loose, or it would not
+have happened. O dear! O dear! Uncle, do you think it a bad accident?"
+
+"Yes, my boy, a very bad accident."
+
+"Do you think I shall die? I never thought of that," said Hugh. And he
+raised himself a little, but was obliged to lie back again.
+
+"No; I do not think you will die."
+
+"Will they think so at home? Was that the reason they were sent to?"
+
+"No: I have no doubt your mother will come to nurse you, and to comfort
+you: but----"
+
+"To comfort me? Why, Mr. Tooke said the pain would soon be over, he
+thought, and I should be asleep to-night."
+
+"Yes; but, though the pain may be over, it may leave you lame. That will
+be a misfortune; and you will be glad of your mother to comfort you."
+
+"Lame!" said the boy. Then, as he looked wistfully in his uncle's face,
+he saw the truth.
+
+"Oh! uncle, they are going to cut off my leg."
+
+"Not your leg, I hope, Hugh. You will not be quite so lame as that: but
+I am afraid you must lose your foot."
+
+"Was that what Mr. Tooke meant by the surgeon's relieving me of my
+pain?"
+
+"Yes; it was."
+
+"Then it will be before night. Is it quite certain, uncle?"
+
+"Mr. Annanby thinks so. Your foot is too much hurt ever to be cured. Do
+you think you can bear it, Hugh?"
+
+"Why, yes, I suppose so. So many people have. It is less than some of
+the savages bear. What horrid things they do to their captives,--and
+even to some of their own boys! And they bear it."
+
+"Yes; but you are not a savage."
+
+"But one may be as brave, without being a savage. Think of the martyrs
+that were burnt, and some that were worse than burnt! And they bore it."
+
+Mr. Shaw perceived that Hugh was either in much less pain now, or that
+he forgot everything in a subject which always interested him extremely.
+He told his uncle what he had read of the tortures inflicted by savages,
+till his uncle, already a good deal agitated, was quite sick: but he let
+him go on, hoping that the boy might think lightly in comparison of what
+he himself had to undergo. This could not last long, however. The
+wringing pain soon came back; and as Hugh cried, he said he bore it so
+very badly, he did not know what his mother would say if she saw him.
+She had trusted him not to fail; but really he could not bear this much
+longer.
+
+His uncle told him that nobody had thought of his having such pain as
+this to bear: that he had often shown himself a brave little fellow; and
+he did not doubt that, when this terrible day was over, he would keep up
+his spirits through all the rest.
+
+Hugh would have his uncle go down to tea. Then he saw a gown and shawl
+through the curtain, and started up; but it was not his mother yet. It
+was only Mrs. Watson come to sit with him while his uncle had his tea.
+
+Tea was over, and the younger boys had all gone up to bed, and the older
+ones were just going, when there was a ring at the gate. It was Mrs.
+Proctor; and with her the surgeon from London.
+
+"Mother! Never mind, mother!" Hugh was beginning to say; but he stopped
+when he saw her face,--it was so very pale and grave. At least, he
+thought so; but he saw her only by fire-light; for the candle had been
+shaded from his eyes, because he could not bear it. She kissed him with
+a long, long kiss; but she did not speak.
+
+"I wish the surgeon had come first," he whispered, "and then they would
+have had my foot off before you came. When _will_ he come?"
+
+"He is here,--they are both here."
+
+"Oh, then, do make them make haste. Mr. Tooke says I shall go to sleep
+afterwards. You think so? Then we will both go to sleep, and have our
+talk in the morning. Do not stay now,--this pain is _so_ bad,--I can't
+bear it well at all. Do go, now, and bid them make haste, will you?"
+
+His mother whispered that she heard he had been a brave boy, and she
+knew he would be so still. Then the surgeons came up, and Mr. Shaw.
+There was some bustle in the room, and Mr. Shaw took his sister down
+stairs, and came up again, with Mr. Tooke.
+
+"Don't let mother come," said Hugh.
+
+"No, my boy, I will stay with you," said his uncle.
+
+The surgeons took off his foot. As he sat in a chair, and his uncle
+stood behind him, and held his hands, and pressed his head against him,
+Hugh felt how his uncle's breast was heaving,--and was sure he was
+crying. In the very middle of it all, Hugh looked up in his uncle's
+face, and said,
+
+"Never mind, uncle! I can bear it."
+
+He did bear it finely. It was far more terrible than he had fancied; and
+he felt that he could not have gone on a minute longer. When it was
+over, he muttered something, and Mr. Tooke bent down to hear what it
+was. It was--
+
+"I can't think how the Red Indians bear things so."
+
+His uncle lifted him gently into bed, and told him that he would soon
+feel easy now.
+
+"Have you told mother?" asked Hugh.
+
+"Yes; we sent to her directly."
+
+"How long did it take?" asked Hugh.
+
+"You have been out of bed only a few minutes--seven or eight, perhaps."
+
+"Oh, uncle, you don't mean really?"
+
+"Really: but we know they seemed like hours to you. Now, your mother
+will bring you some tea. When you have had that, you will go to sleep:
+so I shall wish you good night now."
+
+"When will you come again?"
+
+"Very often, till you come to me. Not a word more now. Good-night."
+
+Hugh was half asleep when his tea came up, and quite so directly after
+he had drunk it. Though he slept a great deal in the course of the
+night, he woke often,--such odd feelings disturbed him! Every time he
+opened his eyes, he saw his mother sitting by the fire-side; and every
+time he moved in the least, she came softly to look. She would not let
+him talk at all till near morning, when she found that he could not
+sleep any more, and that he seemed a little confused about where he
+was,--what room it was, and how she came to be there by fire-light. Then
+she lighted a candle, and allowed him to talk about his friend Dale, and
+several school affairs; and this brought back gradually the recollection
+of all that had happened.
+
+"I don't know what I have been about, I declare," said he, half
+laughing. But he was soon as serious as ever he was in his life, as he
+said, "But oh! mother, tell me,--do tell me if I have let out who pulled
+me off the wall."
+
+"You have not,--you have not indeed," replied she. "I shall never ask. I
+do not wish to know. I am glad you have not told; for it would do no
+good. It was altogether an accident."
+
+"So it was," said Hugh; "and it would make the boy so unhappy to be
+pointed at! Do promise me, if I should let it out in my sleep, that you
+will never, never tell anybody."
+
+"I promise you. And I shall be the only person beside you while you are
+asleep, till you get well. So you need not be afraid.--Now, lie still
+again."
+
+She put out the light, and he did lie still for some time; but then he
+was struck with a sudden thought which made him cry out.
+
+"O, mother, if I am so lame, I can never be a soldier or a sailor.--I
+can never go round the world!"
+
+And Hugh burst into tears, now more really afflicted than he had been
+yet. His mother sat on the bed beside him, and wiped away his tears as
+they flowed, while he told her, as well as his sobs would let him, how
+long and how much he had reckoned on going round the world, and how
+little he cared for anything else in the future; and now this was just
+the very thing he should never be able to do! He had practised climbing
+ever since he could remember;--and now that was of no use;--he had
+practised marching, and now he should never march again. When he had
+finished his complaint, there was a pause, and his mother said,
+
+"Hugh, do you remember Richard Grant?"
+
+"What,--the cabinet-maker? The man who carved so beautifully?"
+
+"Yes. Do you remember----No, you could hardly have known: but I will
+tell you. He had planned a most beautiful set of carvings in wood for a
+chapel belonging to a nobleman's mansion. He was to be well paid,--his
+work was so superior; and he would be able to make his parents
+comfortable, as well as his wife and children. But the thing he most
+cared for was the honour of producing a noble work which would outlive
+him. Well, at the very beginning of his task, his chisel flew up against
+his wrist: and the narrow cut that it made,--not more than half an inch
+wide,--made his right hand entirely useless for life. He could never
+again hold a tool;--his work was gone,--his business in life seemed
+over,--the support of the whole family was taken away,--and the only
+strong wish Richard Grant had in the world was disappointed."
+
+Hugh hid his face with his handkerchief, and his mother went on:
+
+"You have heard of Huber."
+
+"The man who found out so much about bees. Miss Harold read that account
+to us."
+
+"Bees and ants. When Huber had discovered more than had ever been known
+before about bees and ants, and when he was sure he could learn more
+still, and was more and more anxious to peep and pry into their tiny
+homes, and their curious ways, Huber became blind."
+
+Hugh sighed, and his mother went on:
+
+"Did you ever hear of Beethoven? He was one of the greatest musical
+composers that ever lived. His great, his sole delight was in music. It
+was the passion of his life. When all his time and all his mind were
+given to music, he became deaf--perfectly deaf; so that he never more
+heard one single note from the loudest orchestra. While crowds were
+moved and delighted with his compositions, it was all silence to him."
+
+Hugh said nothing.
+
+"Now, do you think," asked his mother,--and Hugh saw by the grey light
+that began to shine in, that she smiled--"do you think that these people
+were without a heavenly Parent?"
+
+"O no! But were they all patient?"
+
+"Yes, in their different ways and degrees. Would you say that they were
+hardly treated? Or would you rather suppose that their Father gave them
+something more and better to do than they had planned for themselves?"
+
+"He must know best, of course: but it does seem hard that that very
+thing should happen to them. Huber would not have so much minded being
+deaf, perhaps; or that musical man being blind; or Richard Grant losing
+his foot, instead of his hand: for he did not want to go round the
+world."
+
+"No doubt their hearts often swelled within them at their
+disappointments: but I fully believe that they found very soon that
+God's will was wiser than their wishes. They found, if they bore their
+trial well, that there was work for their hearts to do, far nobler than
+any work that the head can do through the eye, and the ear, and the
+hand. And they soon felt a new and delicious pleasure, which none but
+the bitterly disappointed can feel."
+
+"What is that?"
+
+"The pleasure of rousing their souls to bear pain, and of agreeing with
+God silently, when nobody knows what is in their hearts. There is a
+great pleasure in the exercise of the body,--in making the heart beat,
+and the limbs glow, in a run by the sea-side, or a game in the
+playground; but this is nothing to the pleasure there is in exercising
+one's soul in bearing pain,--in finding one's heart glow with the hope
+that one is pleasing God."
+
+"Shall I feel that pleasure?"
+
+"Often and often, I have no doubt,--every time that you can willingly
+give up your wish to be a soldier or a sailor,--or anything else that
+you have set your mind upon, if you can smile to yourself, and say that
+you will be content at home.--Well, I don't expect it of you yet. I dare
+say it was long a bitter thing to Beethoven to see hundreds of people
+in raptures with his music, when he could not hear a note of it. And
+Huber----"
+
+"But did Beethoven get to smile?"
+
+"If he did, he was happier than all the fine music in the world could
+have made him."
+
+"I wonder--O! I wonder if I ever shall feel so."
+
+"We will pray to God that you may. Shall we ask him now?"
+
+Hugh clasped his hands. His mother kneeled beside the bed, and, in a
+very few words, prayed that Hugh might be able to bear his misfortune
+well, and that his friends might give him such help and comfort as God
+should approve.
+
+"Now, my dear, you will sleep again," she said, as she arose.
+
+"If you will lie down too, instead of sitting by the fire. Do, mother."
+
+She did so; and they were soon both asleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+CROFTON QUIET.
+
+
+The boys were all in the school-room in the grey of the morning;--no one
+late. Mr. Tooke was already there. Almost every boy looked wistfully in
+the grave face of the master;--almost every one but his own son. He
+looked down; and it seemed natural: for his eyes were swollen with
+crying. He had been crying as much as Proctor: but, then, so had Dale.
+
+"Your school-fellow is doing well," said Mr. Tooke, in a low voice,
+which, however, was heard to the farthest end of the room. "His brother
+will tell you that he saw him quietly asleep; and I have just seen him
+so. He deserves to do well; for he is a brave little boy. He is the
+youngest of you; but I doubt whether there is a more manly heart among
+you all."
+
+There was a murmur, as if everybody wished to agree to this. That murmur
+set Phil crying again.
+
+"As to how this accident happened," continued the master, "I have only
+to say this. The coping-stone of the wall was loose,--had become
+loosened by the frost. Of that I am aware. But it would not,--it could
+not have fallen, if your school-fellow had not been pulled from the top
+of the wall. Several hands pulled him,--as many as could get a hold.
+Whose these hands were, it would be easy to ascertain; and it would not
+be difficult to discover whose was the hand which first laid hold, and
+gave the rest their grasp. But--" How earnestly here did every one look
+for the next words!--"But your school-fellow considers the affair an
+accident,--says he himself was cross."
+
+"No! No! We plagued him," cried many voices.
+
+"Well! he is sure no one meant him any harm, and earnestly desires that
+no further inquiry may be made. For his part, nothing, he declares,
+shall ever induce him to tell who first seized him."
+
+The boys were about to give a loud cheer, but stopped for Hugh's sake,
+just in time. There was no want of signs of what they felt. There was no
+noise; but there were many tears.
+
+"I do not think that a promise of impunity can be any great comfort to
+those concerned," continued Mr. Tooke: "but such comfort as they can
+find in it, they may. Both from my wish to indulge one who has just
+sustained so great a misfortune, and because I think he is right, I
+shall never inquire,--never wish to know more than I do of the origin of
+this accident. His mother declares the same, on the part of both of his
+parents. I hope you will every one feel yourselves put upon honour, to
+follow my example."
+
+Another general murmur, in sign of agreement.
+
+"The only thing you can now do for your school-fellow," concluded the
+master, "is to be quiet throughout the day. As soon as he can be
+removed, he will be carried to Mr. Shaw's. Till then, you will take care
+that he loses no rest through you.--Now, first class, come up."
+
+While this class was up, Phil's neighbour began whispering; and the next
+boy leaned over to hear; and one or two came softly up behind: but,
+though they were busily engaged in question and answer, the master's
+stern voice was not heard (as usual when there was talking) to say
+"Silence there!" His class saw him looking that way, once or twice; but
+he took no notice. Phil had seen his brother, and was privileged to
+tell.
+
+"So you saw him! Did you get a real good sight of him?"
+
+"Yes. I stayed some time; half-an-hour, I dare say."
+
+"What did he look like? Did he say anything?"
+
+"Say anything!" cried Dale; "why, did you not hear he was asleep?"
+
+"What did he look like, then?"
+
+"He looked as he always does when he is asleep, as far as I could see.
+But we did not bring the light too near, for fear of waking him."
+
+"Did you hear--did anybody tell you anything about it?"
+
+"Yes: my mother told me whatever I wanted to know."
+
+"What? What did she tell you?"
+
+"She says it will not be so very bad a lameness as it might have
+been--as if he had not had his knee left. That makes a great difference.
+They make a false foot now, very light; and if his leg gets quite
+properly well, and we are not too much in a hurry, and we all take pains
+to help Hugh to practise walking carefully at first, he may not be very
+lame."
+
+"Oh! then, it is not so bad," said one, while Tooke, who was listening,
+gave a deep sigh of relief.
+
+"Not so bad!" exclaimed Phil. "Why, he will never be so strong--so able
+and active as other men. He will never be able to take care of himself
+and other people. He will be so unlike other people always; and now,
+while he is a boy, he will never----"
+
+The images of poor Hugh's privations and troubles as a school-boy were
+too much for Phil; and he laid down his head on his desk, to hide his
+grief. As for Tooke, he walked away, looking the picture of
+wretchedness.
+
+"When will you see him again?" asked Dale, passing his arm round Phil's
+neck.
+
+"To-day, if he is pretty well. My mother promised me that."
+
+"Do you think you could get leave for me too? I would not make any
+noise, nor let him talk too much, if I might just see him."
+
+"I'll see about it," said Phil.
+
+As Mrs. Proctor was placing the pillows comfortably, for Hugh to have
+his breakfast, after he was washed, and the bed made nicely smooth, he
+yawned, and said he was sleepy still, and that he wondered what o'clock
+it was. His mother told him it was a quarter past ten.
+
+"A quarter past ten! Why, how odd! The boys are half through school,
+almost, and I am only just awake!"
+
+"They slept through the whole night, I dare say. You were awake a good
+many times; and you and I had some talk. Do you remember that? or has it
+gone out of your head with your sound sleep?"
+
+"No, no: I remember that," said Hugh. "But it was the oddest, longest
+night!--and yesterday too! To think that it is not a whole day yet since
+it all happened! Oh! here comes my breakfast. What is it? Coffee!"
+
+"Yes: we know you are fond of coffee; and so am I. So we will have some
+together."
+
+"How comfortable!" exclaimed Hugh; for he was really hungry; which was
+no wonder, after the pain and exhaustion he had gone through. His state
+was like that of a person recovering from an illness--extremely ready to
+eat and drink, but obliged to be moderate.
+
+When warmed and cheered by his coffee, Hugh gave a broad hint that he
+should like to see Phil, and one or two more boys--particularly Dale.
+His mother told him that the surgeon, Mr. Annanby, would be coming soon.
+If he gave leave, Phil should come in, and perhaps Dale. So Hugh was
+prepared with a strong entreaty to Mr. Annanby on the subject; but no
+entreaty was needed. Mr. Annanby thought he was doing very well; and
+that he would not be the worse for a little amusement and a little
+fatigue this morning, if it did not go on too long. So Phil was sent
+for, when the surgeon was gone. As he entered, his mother went out to
+speak to Mr. Tooke, and write home.
+
+She then heard from Mr. Tooke and from Firth and Dale, how strong was
+the feeling in Hugh's favour--how strong the sympathy for his misfortune
+throughout the school. Hugh had seen no tears from her; but she shed
+them now. She then earnestly entreated that Hugh might not hear what she
+had just been told. He felt no doubt of the kindness of his
+school-fellows, and was therefore quite happy on that score. He was very
+young, and to a certain degree vain; and if this event went to
+strengthen his vanity, to fill his head with selfish thoughts, it would
+be a misfortune indeed. The loss of his foot would be the least part of
+it. It lay with those about him to make this event a deep injury to him,
+instead of the blessing which all trials are meant by Providence
+eventually to be. They all promised that, while treating Hugh with the
+tenderness he deserved, they would not spoil the temper in which he had
+acted so well, by making it vain and selfish. There was no fear meantime
+of Phil's doing him any harm in that way; for Phil had a great idea of
+the privileges and dignity of seniority; and his plan was to keep down
+little boys, and make them humble; not being aware that to keep people
+down is not the way to make them humble, but the contrary. Older people
+than Phil, however, often fall into this mistake. Many parents do, and
+many teachers; and very many elder brothers and sisters.
+
+Phil entered the room shyly, and stood by the fire, so that the
+bed-curtain was between him and Hugh.
+
+"Are you there, Phil?" cried Hugh, pulling aside the curtain.
+
+"Yes," said Phil; "how do you do this morning?"
+
+"Oh, very well. Come here. I want to know ever so many things. Have you
+heard yet anything real and true about the new usher?"
+
+"No," replied Phil. "But I have no doubt it is really Mr. Crabbe who is
+coming; and that he will be here after Christmas. Why, Hugh, you look
+just the same as usual!"
+
+"So I am, just the same, except under this thing," pointing to the hoop,
+or basket, which was placed over his limb, to keep off the weight of the
+bed-clothes. "I am not hurt anywhere else, except this bruise;" and he
+showed a black bruise on his arm, such as almost any school-boy can
+show, almost any day.
+
+"That's nothing," pronounced Phil.
+
+"The other was, though, I can tell you," declared Hugh.
+
+"Was it very, very bad? Worse than you had ever fancied?"
+
+"Oh! yes. I could have screamed myself to death. I did not, though. Did
+you hear me, did anybody hear me call out?"
+
+"I heard you--just outside the door there--before the doctors came."
+
+"Ah! but not after, not while uncle was here. He cried so! I could not
+call out while he was crying so. Where were you when they were doing
+it?"
+
+"Just outside the door there. I heard you once--only once; and that was
+not much."
+
+"But how came you to be there? It was past bedtime. Had you leave to be
+up so late?"
+
+"I did not ask it; and nobody meddled with me."
+
+"Was anybody there with you?"
+
+"Yes, Firth. Dale would not. He was afraid, and he kept away."
+
+"Oh! is not he very sorry?"
+
+"Of course. Nobody can help being sorry."
+
+"Do they all seem sorry? What did they do? What do they say?"
+
+"Oh! they are very sorry; you must know that."
+
+"Anybody more than the rest?"
+
+"Why, some few of them cried; but I don't know that that shows them to
+be more sorry. It is some people's way to cry--and others not."
+
+Hugh wished much to learn something about Tooke; but, afraid of showing
+what was in his thoughts, he went off to quite another subject.
+
+"Do you know, Phil," said he, "you would hardly believe it; but I have
+never been half so miserable as I was the first day or two I came here?
+I don't care now, half so much, for all the pain, and for being lame,
+and----Oh! but I can never be a soldier or a sailor--I can never go
+round the world! I forgot that."
+
+And poor Hugh hid his face in his pillow.
+
+"Never mind!" said Phil, stooping over him very kindly. "Here is a long
+time before you; and you will get to like something else just as well.
+Papa wanted to be a soldier, you remember, and could not; and he is as
+happy as ever he can be, now that he is a shop-keeper in London. Did you
+ever see anybody merrier than my father is? I never did. Come! cheer up,
+Hugh! You will be very happy somehow."
+
+Phil kissed him; and when Hugh looked up in surprise, Phil's eyes were
+full of tears.
+
+"Now I have a good mind to ask you," said Hugh, "something that has been
+in my mind ever since."
+
+"Ever since when?"
+
+"Ever since I came to Crofton. What could be the reason that you were
+not more kind to me then?"
+
+"I! not kind?" said Phil, in some confusion. "Was not I kind?"
+
+"No. At least I thought not. I was so uncomfortable,--I did not know
+anybody, or what to do; and I expected you would show me, and help me. I
+always thought I could not have felt lonely with you here; and then when
+I came, you got out of my way, as if you were ashamed of me, and you did
+not help me at all; and you laughed at me."
+
+"No; I don't think I did that."
+
+"Yes, you did, indeed."
+
+"Well, you know, little boys always have to shift for themselves when
+they go to a great school----"
+
+"But why, if they have brothers there? That is the very thing I want to
+know. I think it is very cruel."
+
+"I never meant to be cruel, of course. But--but--the boys were all ready
+to laugh at me about a little brother that was scarcely any better than
+a girl:--and consider how you talked on the coach, and what ridiculous
+hair you had,--and what a fuss you made about your money and your
+pocket,--and how you kept popping out things about Miss Harold, and the
+girls, and Susan."
+
+"You _were_ ashamed of me, then."
+
+"Well, what wonder if I was?"
+
+"And you never told me about all these things. You let me learn them all
+without any warning, or any help."
+
+"To be sure. That is the way all boys have to get on. They must make
+their own way."
+
+"If ever little Harry comes to Crofton," said Hugh, more to himself than
+to Phil, "I will not leave him in the lurch,--I will never be ashamed of
+him. Pray," said he, turning quickly to Phil, "are you ashamed of me
+still?"
+
+"Oh, no," protested Phil. "You can shift for yourself,--you can play,
+and do everything like other boys, now. You----"
+
+He stopped short, overcome with the sudden recollection that Hugh would
+never again be able to play like other boys,--to be like them in
+strength, and in shifting for himself.
+
+"Ah! I see what you are thinking of," said Hugh. "I am so afraid you
+should be ashamed of me again, when I come into the playground. The boys
+will quiz me;--and if you are ashamed of me----"
+
+"Oh, no, no!" earnestly declared Phil. "There is nobody in the world
+that will quiz you;--or, if there is, they had better take care of me, I
+can tell them. But nobody will. You don't know how sorry the boys are.
+Here comes Dale. He will tell you the same thing."
+
+Dale was quite sure that any boy would, from this time for ever, be sent
+to Coventry who should quiz Hugh for his lameness. There was not a boy
+now at Crofton who would not do anything in the world to help him.
+
+"Why, Dale, how you have been crying!" exclaimed Hugh. "Is anything
+wrong in school? Can't you manage your verses yet?"
+
+"I'll try that to-night," said Dale, cheerfully. "Yes I'll manage them.
+Never mind what made my eyes red; only, if such a thing had happened to
+me, you would have cried,--I am sure of that."
+
+"Yes, indeed," said Phil.
+
+"Now, Proctor, you had better go," said Dale. "One at a time is enough
+to-day; and I shall not stay long."
+
+Phil agreed, and actually shook hands with Hugh before he went.
+
+"Phil is so kind to-day!" cried Hugh, with glee; "though he is
+disappointed of going to uncle Shaw's on my account. And I know he had
+reckoned on it. Now, I want to know one thing,--where did Mr. Tooke
+sleep last night? for this is his bed."
+
+Dale believed he slept on the sofa. He was sure, at least, that he had
+not taken off his clothes; for he had come to the door several times in
+the course of the night, to know how all was going on.
+
+"Why, I never knew that!" cried Hugh. "I suppose I was asleep. Dale,
+what do you think is the reason that our fathers and mothers and people
+take care of us as they do?"
+
+"How do you mean?"
+
+"Why, Agnes and I cannot make it out. When we were by the sea-side,
+mother took us a great way along the beach, to a place we did not know
+at all; and she bade us pick up shells, and amuse ourselves, while she
+went to see a poor woman that lived just out of sight. We played till we
+were quite tired; and then we sat down; and still she did not come. At
+last, we were sure that she had forgotten all about us; and we did not
+think she would remember us any more: and we both cried. Oh! how we did
+cry! Then a woman came along, with a basket at her back, and a great net
+over her arm: and she asked us what was the matter; and when we told
+her, she said she thought it was not likely that mother would forget us.
+And then she bade us take hold of her gown, one on each side, and she
+would try to take us to mother, and the next thing was mother came in
+sight. When the woman told her what we had said, they both laughed; and
+mother told us it was impossible that she should leave us behind. I
+asked Agnes afterwards why it was impossible; and she did not know; and
+I am sure she was as glad as I was to see mother come in sight. If she
+really never can forget us, what makes her remember us?"
+
+Dale shook his head. He could not tell.
+
+"Because," continued Hugh, "we can't do anything for anybody, and we
+give a great deal of trouble. Mother sits up very late, sometimes till
+near twelve, mending our things. There is that great basket of stockings
+she has to mend, once a fortnight! And papa works very hard to got
+money; and what a quantity he pays for our schooling, and our clothes,
+and everything!"
+
+"Everybody would think it very shameful if he did not," suggested Dale.
+"If he let you go ragged and ignorant, it would be wicked."
+
+"But why?" said Hugh, vehemently. "That is what I want to know. We are
+not worth anything. We are nothing but trouble. Only think what so many
+people did yesterday! My mother came a journey; and uncle and aunt Shaw
+came: and mother sat up all night; and Mr. Tooke never went to bed,--and
+all about me! I declare I can't think why."
+
+Dale felt as if he knew why; but he could not explain it. Mrs. Proctor
+had heard much of what they were saying. She had come in before closing
+her letter to Mr. Proctor, to ask whether Hugh wished to send any
+particular message home. As she listened, she was too sorry to feel
+amused. She perceived that she could not have done her whole duty to her
+children, if there could be such a question as this in their
+hearts--such a question discussed between them, unknown to her. She
+spoke now; and Hugh started, for he was not aware that she was in the
+room.
+
+She asked both the boys why they thought it was that before little birds
+are fledged, the parent birds bring them food, as often as once in a
+minute, all day long for some weeks. Perhaps no creatures can go through
+harder work than this; and why do they do it? for unfledged birds, which
+are capable of nothing whatever but clamouring for food, are as useless
+little creatures as can be imagined. Why does the cat take care of her
+little blind kitten with so much watchfulness, hiding it from all
+enemies till it can take care of itself. It is because love does not
+depend on the value of the creature loved--it is because love grows up
+in our hearts at God's pleasure, and not by our own choice; and it is
+God's pleasure that the weakest and the least useful and profitable
+should be the most beloved, till they become able to love and help in
+their turn.
+
+"Is it possible, my dear," she said to Hugh, "that you did not know
+this,--you who love little Harry so much, and take such care of him at
+home? I am sure you never stopped to think whether Harry could do you
+any service, before helping him to play."
+
+"No; but then----"
+
+"But what?"
+
+"He is such a sweet little fellow, it is a treat to look at him. Every
+morning when I woke, I longed to be up, and to get to him."
+
+"That is, you loved him. Well: your papa and I love you all, in the same
+way. We get up with pleasure to our business--your father to his shop,
+and I to my work-basket--because it is the greatest happiness in the
+world to serve those we love."
+
+Hugh said nothing; but still, though pleased, he did not look quite
+satisfied.
+
+"Susan and cook are far more useful to me than any of you children,"
+continued his mother, "and yet I could not work early and late for them,
+with the same pleasure as for you."
+
+Hugh laughed; and then he asked whether Jane was not now as useful as
+Susan.
+
+"Perhaps she is," replied his mother; "and the more she learns and does,
+and the more she becomes my friend,--the more I respect her: but it is
+impossible to love her more than I did before she could speak or walk.
+There is some objection in your mind still, my dear. What is it?"
+
+"It makes us of so much consequence,--so much more than I ever thought
+of,--that the minds of grown people should be busy about us."
+
+"There is nothing to be vain of in that, my dear, any more than for
+young kittens, and birds just hatched. But it is very true that all
+young creatures are of great consequence; for they are the children of
+God. When, besides this, we consider what human beings are,--that they
+can never perish, but are to live for ever,--and that they are meant to
+become more wise and holy than we can imagine, we see that the feeblest
+infant is indeed a being of infinite consequence. This is surely a
+reason for God filling the hearts of parents with love, and making them
+willing to work and suffer for their children, even while the little
+ones are most unwise and unprofitable. When you and Agnes fancied I
+should forget you and desert you, you must have forgotten that you had
+another Parent who rules the hearts of all the fathers and mothers on
+earth."
+
+Hugh was left alone to think this over, when he had given his messages
+home, and got Dale's promise to come again as soon as he could obtain
+leave to do so. Both the boys were warned that this would not be till
+to-morrow, as Hugh had seen quite company enough for one day. Indeed, he
+slept so much, that night seemed to be soon come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+LITTLE VICTORIES.
+
+
+Though Mr. Tooke was so busy from having no usher, he found time to come
+and see Hugh pretty often. He had a sofa moved into that room: and he
+carried Hugh, without hurting him at all, and laid him down there
+comfortably, beside the fire. He took his tea there, with Mrs. Proctor;
+and he brought up his newspaper, and read from it anything which he
+thought would amuse the boy. He smiled at Hugh's scruple about occupying
+his room, and assured him that he was quite as well off in Mr. Carnaby's
+room, except that it was not so quiet as this, and therefore more fit
+for a person in health than for an invalid. Mr. Tooke not only brought
+up plenty of books from the school library, but lent Hugh some valuable
+volumes of prints from his own shelves.
+
+Hugh could not look at these for long together. His head soon began to
+ache, and his eyes to be dazzled; for he was a good deal weakened. His
+mother observed also that he became too eager about views in foreign
+countries, and that he even grew impatient in his temper when talking
+about them.
+
+"My dear boy," said she one evening, after tea, when she saw him in this
+state, and that it rather perplexed Mr. Tooke, "if you remember your
+resolution, I think you will put away that book."
+
+"O, mother!" exclaimed he, "you want to take away the greatest pleasure
+I have!"
+
+"If it is a pleasure, go on. I was afraid it was becoming a pain."
+
+Mr. Tooke did not ask what this meant; but he evidently wished to know.
+He soon knew, for Hugh found himself growing more fidgety and more
+cross, the further he looked in the volume of Indian Views, till he
+threw himself back upon the sofa, and stuffed his handkerchief into his
+mouth, and stared at the fire, struggling, as his mother saw, to help
+crying. "I will take away the book,--shall I, my dear?"
+
+"Yes, mother. O dear! I shall never keep my vow, I know."
+
+Mrs. Proctor told Mr. Tooke that Hugh had made a resolution which she
+earnestly hoped he might be able to keep;--to bear cheerfully every
+disappointment and trouble caused by this accident, from the greatest to
+the least,--from being obliged to give up being a traveller by-and-by,
+to the shoemaker's wondering that he wanted only one shoe. Now, if
+looking at pictures of foreign countries made him less cheerful, it
+seemed to belong to his resolution to give up that pleasure for the
+present. Hugh acknowledged that it did; and Mr. Tooke, who was pleased
+at what he heard, carried away the Indian Views, and brought instead a
+very fine work on Trades, full of plates representing people engaged in
+every kind of trade and manufacture. Hugh was too tired to turn over any
+more pages to-night: but his master said the book might stay in the room
+now, and when Hugh was removed, it might go with him; and, as he was
+able to sit up more, he might like to copy some of the plates.
+
+"Removed!" exclaimed Hugh.
+
+His mother smiled, and told him that he was going on so well that he
+might soon now be removed to his uncle's.
+
+"Where," said Mr. Tooke, "you will have more quiet and more liberty than
+you can have here. Your brother, and any other boys you like, can run
+over to see you at any time; and you will be out of the noise of the
+playground."
+
+"I wonder how it is there is so little noise from the playground here,"
+said Hugh.
+
+"It is because the boys have been careful to make no noise since your
+accident. We cannot expect them to put themselves under such restraint
+for long."
+
+"O no, no! I had better go. But, mother, you----you----aunt Shaw is very
+kind, but----"
+
+"I shall stay with you as long as you want me."
+
+Hugh was quite happy.
+
+"But how in the world shall I get there?" he presently asked. "It is two
+whole miles; and we can't lay my leg up in the gig: besides its being so
+cold."
+
+His mother told him that his uncle had a very nice plan for his
+conveyance. Mr. Annanby approved of it, and thought he might be moved
+the first sunny day.
+
+"What, to-morrow?"
+
+"Yes, if the sun shines."
+
+Mr. Tooke unbolted the shutter, and declared that it was such a bright
+starry evening that he thought to-morrow would be fine.
+
+The morning was fine; and during the very finest part of it came Mr.
+Shaw. He told Hugh that there was a good fire blazing at home in the
+back room that looked into the garden, which was to be Hugh's. From the
+sofa by the fire-side one might see the laurustinus on the
+grass-plot,--now covered with flowers: and when the day was warm enough
+to let him lie in the window, he could see the mill, and all that was
+going on round it.
+
+Hugh liked the idea of all this: but he still looked anxious.
+
+"Now tell me," said his uncle, "what person in all the world you would
+like best for a companion."
+
+"In all the world!" exclaimed Hugh. "Suppose I say the Great Mogul!"
+
+"Well; tell us how to catch him, and we will try. Meantime, you can have
+his picture. I believe we have a pack of cards in the house."
+
+"But do you mean really, uncle,--the person I should like best in all
+the world,--out of Crofton?"
+
+"Yes; out with it!"
+
+"I should like Agnes best," said Hugh, timidly.
+
+"We thought as much. I am glad we were right. Well, my boy, Agnes is
+there."
+
+"Agnes there! Only two miles off! How long will she stay?"
+
+"O, there is no hurry about that. We shall see when you are well what to
+do next."
+
+"But will she stay till the holidays?"
+
+"O, yes, longer than that, I hope."
+
+"But then she will not go home with me for the holidays?"
+
+"Never mind about the holidays now. Your holidays begin to-day. You have
+nothing to do but to get well now, and make yourself at home at my
+house, and be merry with Agnes. Now shall we go, while the sun shines?
+Here is your mother all cloaked up in her warm things."
+
+"O, mother! Agnes is come," cried Hugh.
+
+This was no news; for it was his mother who had guessed what companion
+he would like to have. She now showed her large warm cloak, in which
+Hugh was to be wrapped; and his neck was muffled up in a comforter.
+
+"But how am I to go?" asked Hugh, trembling with this little bustle.
+
+"Quietly in your bed," said his uncle. "Come, I will lift you into it."
+
+And his uncle carried him downstairs to the front door, where two of Mr.
+Shaw's men stood with a litter, which was slung upon poles, and carried
+like a sedan-chair. There was a mattress upon the litter, on which Hugh
+lay as comfortably as on a sofa. He said it was like being carried in a
+palanquin in India,--if only there was hot sunshine, and no frost and
+snow.
+
+Mr. Tooke, and Mrs. Watson, and Firth shook hands with Hugh, and said
+they should be glad to see him back again: and Mr. Tooke added that some
+of the boys should visit him pretty often till the breaking-up. Nobody
+else was allowed to come quite near; but the boys clustered at that side
+of the playground, to see as much as they could. Hugh waved his hand;
+and every boy saw it; and in a moment every hat and cap was off, and
+the boys gave three cheers,--the loudest that had ever been heard at
+Crofton. The most surprising thing was that Mr. Tooke cheered, and Mr.
+Shaw too. The men looked as if they would have liked to set down the
+litter, and cheer too: but they did not quite do that. They only smiled
+as if they were pleased.
+
+There was one person besides who did not cheer. Tooke stood apart from
+the other boys, looking very sad. As the litter went down the by-road,
+he began to walk away; but Hugh begged the men to stop, and called to
+Tooke. Tooke turned: and when Hugh beckoned, he forgot all about bounds,
+leaped the paling, and came running. Hugh said,
+
+"I have been wanting to see you so! but I did not like to ask for you
+particularly."
+
+"I wish I had known that."
+
+"Come and see me,--do," said Hugh. "Come the very first, wont you?"
+
+"If I may."
+
+"Oh, you may, I know."
+
+"Well, I will, thank you. Good-bye."
+
+And on went the litter, with Mrs. Proctor and Mr. Shaw walking beside
+it. The motion did not hurt Hugh at all; and he was so warmly wrapped
+up, and the day so fine, that he was almost sorry when the two miles
+were over. And yet there was Agnes out upon the steps; and she sat
+beside him on the sofa in his cheerful room, and told him that she had
+nothing to do but to wait on him, and play with him. She did not tell
+him yet that she must learn directly to nurse him, and, with her aunt's
+help, fill her mother's place, because her mother was much wanted at
+home: but this was in truth one chief reason for her coming.
+
+Though there was now really nothing the matter with Hugh--though he ate,
+drank, slept, and gained strength--his mother would not leave him till
+she saw him well able to go about.
+
+The carpenter soon came, with some crutches he had borrowed for Hugh to
+try; and when they were sure of the right length, Hugh had a new pair.
+He found it rather nervous work at first, using them; and he afterwards
+laughed at the caution with which he began. First, he had somebody to
+lift him from his seat, and hold him till he was firm on his crutches.
+Then he carefully moved forwards one crutch at a time, and then the
+other; and he put so much strength into it, that he was quite tired when
+he had been once across the room and back again. Every stumble made him
+shake all over. He made Agnes try; and he was almost provoked to see how
+lightly she could hop about; but then, as he said, she could put a
+second foot down to save herself, whenever she pleased. Every day,
+however, walking became easier to him; and he even discovered, when
+accidentally left alone, and wanting something from the opposite end of
+the room, that he could rise, and set forth by himself, and be
+independent. And in one of these excursions it was that he found the
+truth of what Agnes had told him--how much easier it was to move both
+crutches together. When he showed his mother this, she said she thought
+he would soon learn to do with only one.
+
+Hugh found himself subject to very painful feelings sometimes--such as
+no one quite understood, and such as he feared no one was able to pity
+as they deserved. A surprise of this sort happened to him the evening
+before his father was to come to see him, and to fetch away his mother.
+
+It was the dark hour in the afternoon--the hour when Mrs. Proctor and
+her children enjoyed every day a quiet talk, before Mr. Shaw came to
+carry Hugh into his aunt's parlour to tea. Nothing could be merrier than
+Hugh had been; and his mother and Agnes were chatting, when they thought
+they heard a sob from the sofa. They spoke to Hugh, and found that he
+was indeed crying bitterly.
+
+"What is it, my dear?" said his mother. "Agnes, have we said anything
+that could hurt him?"
+
+"No, no," sobbed Hugh. "I will tell you presently."
+
+And presently he told them that he was so busy listening to what they
+said, that he forgot everything else, when he felt as if something had
+got between two of his toes; unconsciously he put his hand down, and his
+foot was not there! Nothing could be plainer than the feeling in his
+toes: and then, when he put out his hand, and found nothing, it was so
+terrible--it startled him so.
+
+It was a comfort to him to find that his mother knew all about this. She
+came and kneeled beside his sofa, and told him that many persons who had
+lost a limb considered this odd feeling the most painful thing they had
+to bear for some time; but that, though the feeling would return
+occasionally through life, it would cease to be painful. When he had
+become so used to do without his foot as to leave off wanting or wishing
+for it, he would perhaps make a joke of the feeling, instead of being
+disappointed. At least she knew that some persons did so who had lost a
+limb.
+
+This did not comfort Hugh much, for every prospect had suddenly become
+darkened. He said he did not know how he should bear his misfortune;--he
+was pretty sure he could not bear it. It seemed so long already since it
+had happened! And when he thought of the long long days, and months, and
+years, to the end of his life, and that he should never run and play,
+and never be like other people, and never able to do the commonest
+things without labour and trouble, he wished he was dead. He had rather
+have died.
+
+Agnes thought he must be miserable indeed, if he could venture to say
+this to his mother. She glanced at her mother's face; but there was no
+displeasure there. Mrs. Proctor said this feeling was very natural. She
+had felt it herself, under smaller misfortunes than Hugh's: but she had
+found that, though the prospect appears all strewn with troubles, they
+come singly, and are not worth minding, after all. She told Hugh that,
+when she was a little girl, very lazy--fond of her bed--fond of her
+book--and not at all fond of washing and dressing----
+
+"Why, mother, you!" exclaimed Hugh.
+
+"Yes; that was the sort of little girl I was. Well, I was in despair,
+one day, at the thought that I should have to wash, and clean my teeth,
+and brush my hair, and put on every daily article of dress, every
+morning, as long as I lived. There was nothing I disliked so much; and
+yet it was the thing that must be done every day of my whole life."
+
+"Did you tell anybody?" asked Hugh.
+
+"No; I was ashamed to do that: but I remember I cried. You see how it
+turns out. Grown people, who have got to do everything by habit, so
+easily as not to think about it, wash and dress every morning, without
+ever being weary of it. We do not consider so much as once a year what
+we are doing at dressing-time, though at seven years old it is a very
+laborious and tiresome affair to get ready for breakfast."
+
+"It is the same about writing letters," observed Agnes. "The first
+letter I ever wrote was to aunt Shaw; and it took so long, and was so
+tiresome, that, when I thought of all the exercises I should have to
+write for Miss Harold, and all the letters that I must send to my
+relations when I grew up, I would have given everything I had in the
+world not to have learned to write. Oh! how I pitied papa, when I saw
+sometimes the pile of letters that were lying to go to the post!"
+
+"And how do you like corresponding with Phil now?"
+
+Agnes owned, with blushes, that she still dreaded the task for some days
+before, and felt particularly gay when it was done. Her mother believed
+that, if infants could think and look forward, they would be far more
+terrified with the prospect of having to walk on their two legs all
+their lives, than lame people could be at having to learn the art in
+part over again. Grown people are apt to doubt whether they can learn a
+new language, though children make no difficulty about it: the reason of
+which is, that grown people see at one view the whole labour, while
+children do not look beyond their daily task. Experience, however,
+always brings relief. Experience shows that every effort comes at its
+proper time, and that there is variety or rest in the intervals. People
+who have to wash and dress every morning have other things to do in the
+after-part of the day; and, as the old fable tells us, the clock that
+has to tick, before it is worn out, so many millions of times as it
+perplexes the mind to think of, has exactly the same number of seconds
+to do it in; so that it never has more work on its hands than it can get
+through. So Hugh would find that he could move about on each separate
+occasion, as he wanted; and practice would, in time, enable him to do it
+without any more thought than it now cost him to put all the bones of
+his hands in order, so as to carry his tea and bread-and-butter to his
+mouth.
+
+"But that is not all--nor half what I mean," said Hugh.
+
+"No, my dear; nor half what you will have to make up your mind to bear.
+You will have a great deal to bear, Hugh. You resolved to bear it all
+patiently, I remember: but what is it that you dread the most?"
+
+"Oh! all manner of things. I can never do things like other people."
+
+"Some things. You can never play cricket, as every Crofton boy would
+like to do. You can never dance at your sisters' Christmas parties."
+
+"Oh! mamma!" cried Agnes, with tears in her eyes, and the thought in her
+mind that it was cruel to talk so.
+
+"Go on! go on!" cried Hugh, brightening. "You know what I feel, mother;
+and you don't keep telling me, as aunt Shaw does (and even Agnes
+sometimes), that it wont signify much, and that I shall not care, and
+all that; making out that it is no misfortune hardly, when I know what
+it is, and they don't."
+
+"That is a common way of trying to give comfort, and it is kindly
+meant," said Mrs. Proctor. "But those who have suffered much themselves
+know a better way. The best way is not to deny any of the trouble or the
+sorrow, and not to press on the sufferer any comforts which he cannot
+now see and enjoy. If comforts arise, he will enjoy them as they come."
+
+"Now then, go on," said Hugh. "What else?"
+
+"There will be little checks and mortifications continually--when you
+see boys leaping over this, and climbing that, and playing at the other,
+while you must stand out, and can only look on. And some people will
+pity you in a way you don't like; and some may even laugh at you."
+
+"O mamma!" exclaimed Agnes.
+
+"I have seen and heard children in the street do it," replied Mrs.
+Proctor. "This is a thing almost below notice; but I mentioned it while
+we were reckoning up our troubles."
+
+"Well, what else?" said Hugh.
+
+"Sooner or later, you will have to follow some way of life, determined
+by this accident, instead of one that you would have liked better. But
+we need not think of this yet:--not till you have become quite
+accustomed to your lameness."
+
+"Well, what else?"
+
+"I must ask you now. I can think of nothing more; and I hope there is
+not much else; for indeed I think here is quite enough for a boy--or any
+one else--to bear."
+
+"I will bear it, though,--you will see."
+
+"You will find great helps. These misfortunes, of themselves, strengthen
+one's mind. They have some advantages too. You will be a better scholar
+for your lameness, I have no doubt. You will read more books, and have a
+mind richer in thoughts. You will be more beloved;--not out of mere
+pity; for people in general will soon leave off pitying you, when once
+you learn to be active again; but because you have kept faith with your
+school-fellows, and shown that you can bear pain. Yes, you will be more
+loved by us all; and you yourself will love God more for having given
+you something to bear for his sake."
+
+"I hope so,--I think so," said Hugh. "O mother! I may be very happy
+yet."
+
+"Very happy; and, when you have once made up your mind to everything,
+the less you think and speak about it, the happier you will be. It is
+very right for us now, when it is all new, and strange, and painful, to
+talk it well over; to face it completely: but when your mind is made up,
+and you are a Crofton boy again, you will not wish to speak much of your
+own concerns, unless it be to me, or to Agnes, sometimes, when your
+heart is full."
+
+"Or to Dale, when you are far off."
+
+"Yes,--to Dale, or some one friend at Crofton. But there is only one
+Friend that one is quite sure to get strength from,--the same who has
+given strength to all the brave people that ever lived, and comfort to
+all sufferers. When the greatest of all sufferers wanted relief, what
+did he do?"
+
+"He went by himself, and prayed," said Agnes.
+
+"Yes, that is the way," observed Hugh, as if he knew by experience.
+
+Mr. Shaw presently came, to say that tea was ready.
+
+"I am too big a baby to be carried now," cried Hugh, gaily. "Let me try
+if I cannot go alone."
+
+"Why,--there is the step at the parlour door," said Mr. Shaw,
+doubtfully. "At any rate, stop till I bring a light."
+
+But Hugh followed close upon his uncle's heels, and was over the step
+before his aunt supposed he was half way across the hall. After tea, his
+uncle and he were so full of play, that the ladies could hardly hear one
+another speak till Hugh was gone to bed, too tired to laugh any more.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+DOMESTIC MANNERS.
+
+
+After Mr. Proctor had come and was gone, and Mrs. Proctor was gone with
+him, Hugh began to wonder why Tooke had never paid the visit he had
+promised. Several boys had called; some to thank Hugh for balls that he
+had quilted; some to see how he got on; and some to bring him Crofton
+news. Mr. Tooke had fastened his horse up at the door, in passing, and
+stepped in for a few minutes, two or three times a week: but it was now
+within six days of the holidays, and the one Hugh most wished to see had
+not appeared. His uncle observed his wistful look when the door-bell
+rang, and drew his conclusions. He said, on the Wednesday before the
+breaking-up, that he was going to drive past the Crofton school; that it
+was such a fine day that he thought Hugh might go with him, and perhaps
+they might persuade some one to come home to dinner with them.
+
+Hugh had never enjoyed the open air more than during this drive. He had
+yet much to learn about the country, and it was all as beautiful as it
+was new. His uncle pointed out to him the fieldfares wheeling in flocks
+over the fallows; and the rabbits in the warren, scampering away with
+their little white tails turned up; and the robin hopping in the frosty
+pathway; and the wild-ducks splashing among the reeds in the marshes.
+They saw the cottagers' children trying to collect snow enough from the
+small remains of the drifts to make snow-balls, and obliged to throw
+away the dirty snow that would melt, and would not bind. As they left
+the road, and turned through a copse, because Mr. Shaw had business with
+Mr. Sullivan's gamekeeper, a pheasant flew out, whirring, from some
+ferns and brambles, and showed its long tail-feathers before it
+disappeared over the hedge. All these sights were new to Hugh: and all,
+after pain and confinement, looked beautiful and gay.
+
+Mr. Shaw could not stop for Hugh to get out at Crofton; so, when his
+arrival was seen, the boys were allowed to go out of bounds, as far as
+the gig, to speak to their school-fellow. Mr. Shaw asked Tooke to mount,
+and go home with them for the day; and Tooke was so pleased,--so
+agreeably surprised to see Hugh look quite well and merry, that he
+willingly ran off to ask leave, and to wash his face, and change his
+jacket. When he had jumped in, and Hugh had bidden the rest good-bye, a
+sudden shyness came over his poor conscious visitor: and it was not
+lessened by Mr. Shaw telling Tooke that he did not do credit to Crofton
+air,--so puny as he seemed: and that he looked at that moment more like
+one that had had a bad accident than Hugh did. When Mr. Shaw perceived
+how the boy's eyes filled with tears in an instant, he probably thought
+within himself that Tooke was sadly weak-spirited, and altogether more
+delicate than he had been aware of.
+
+Hugh was full of questions about Crofton matters, however; and long
+before they reached Mr. Shaw's, they were chattering as busily as
+possible. But then it was all spoiled to Tooke again by seeing Hugh
+lifted out, and his crutches brought to him, and Agnes ready to take his
+hat and cloak, instead of his being able to run about, doing everything
+for himself.
+
+The sofa had been left in Hugh's room, and there was a fire there every
+afternoon, for him and Agnes, that their aunt might have the parlour to
+herself till tea-time. The three young people went therefore to this
+room after dinner. Agnes felt a little uncomfortable, as she always did
+when any Crofton boys came. They had so much to say to each other of
+things that she did not understand, and so very little to say to her,
+that she continually felt as if she was in the way. When she proposed,
+as usual, that Hugh should go through his exercises in walking and
+running (for she was indefatigable in helping him to learn to walk well,
+and superintended his practice every afternoon), he refused hastily and
+rather rudely. Of course, she could not know that he had a reason for
+wishing not to show off his lameness before Tooke; and she thought him
+unkind. He might indeed have remembered to ask her before to say nothing
+this afternoon about his exercises. She took out her work, and sat down
+at some distance from the boys; but they did not get on. It was very
+awkward. At last, the boys' eyes met, and they saw that they should like
+to talk freely, if they could.
+
+"Agnes," said Hugh, "cannot you go somewhere, and leave us alone?"
+
+"I hardly know where I can go," replied Agnes. "I must not disturb aunt;
+and there is no fire anywhere else."
+
+"O, I am sure aunt wont mind, for this one afternoon. You can be as
+still as a mouse; and she can doze away, as if nobody was there."
+
+"I can be as still as a mouse here," observed Agnes. "I can take my work
+to that farthest window; and if you whisper, I shall not hear a word you
+say. Or, if I do hear a word, I will tell you directly. And you will let
+me come, now and then, and warm myself, if I find I cannot hold my
+needle any longer."
+
+"No, no; that wont do. We can't talk so. Do just go, and see whether
+aunt cannot let you be there for this one afternoon."
+
+Agnes did not like to refuse anything to Hugh: but she hesitated to take
+such a bold step as this. In his eagerness, Hugh requested the same
+favour of Tooke; but Tooke, more anxious than even Agnes to oblige, had
+not courage for such an errand. Hugh snatched his crutches, and declared
+he would go himself. But now Agnes gave way. She gathered up her work,
+and left the room. Hugh little imagined where she went, this cold,
+darkening December afternoon. She went to her own room, put on her
+cloak, and walked up and down till tea was ready, without fire or
+candle, and not very happy in her mind.
+
+Meanwhile the boys basked before a glowing fire. Tooke began directly to
+open his full heart.
+
+"Was that true that your sister said at dinner, about your always
+longing so to come to Crofton?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"How sorry you must be that you came! How you must wish you had never
+seen me!"
+
+"I knew there would be things to bear, whenever I came; and
+particularly while I was the youngest. Your father told me that: and one
+of the things that made me want to come more than ever was his telling
+me how you bore things when you were the youngest--being set on the top
+of that wall, and so on."
+
+"Indeed, indeed, I never meant to hurt you when I pulled your foot.--I
+suppose you are quite sure that it was I that gave the first pull? Are
+you?"
+
+"Why, yes; I am sure of that; and so are you: but I know very well that
+you meant no harm; and that is the reason I would not tell. After what
+you did about the sponge, I could not think you meant any harm to me."
+
+Tooke could not remember anything about a sponge; and when he was told,
+he thought nothing of it. He went on--
+
+"Do you think you shall never tell anybody, as long as you live, who
+pulled you first?"
+
+"Never," said Hugh, "unless I tell it in my sleep; and that is not
+likely, for I never think about it in the daytime,--or scarcely ever;
+and when I can run about again, I dare say I shall never think of it at
+all."
+
+"But will you ever run about?"
+
+"O yes! finely, you will see. I shall begin first with a little
+stick-leg, very light. Mother is going to send some for me to try. When
+I am a man, I shall have one that will look like a real foot; but that
+will not be so light as the one you will see me with after the holidays.
+But you do not half know what I can do now, with my crutches. Here, I
+will show you."
+
+As he flourished about, and played antics, Agnes heard the pit-pat of
+his crutches, and she thought she might as well have been there, if they
+had told all their secrets, and had got to play. But the noise did not
+last long, for Hugh's performances did not make Tooke very merry; and
+the boys sat down quietly again.
+
+"Now, I'll tell you what," said Tooke. "I am a bigger and stronger boy
+than you, without considering this accident. I'll take care of you all
+the time you are at Crofton: and always afterwards, if I can. Mind you
+that. If anybody teases you, you call me,--that's all. Say you will."
+
+"Why," said Hugh, "I had rather take care of myself. I had rather make
+no difference between you and everybody else."
+
+"There now! You don't forgive me, after all."
+
+"I do,--upon my word, I do. But why should I make any difference between
+you and the rest, when you did not mean me any harm,--any more than
+they? Besides, it might make people suspect."
+
+"Well, let them. Sometimes I wish," continued Tooke, twisting himself
+about in the uneasiness of his mind, "sometimes I wish that everybody
+knew now. They say murderers cannot keep their secret. They are sure to
+tell, when they cannot bear it any longer."
+
+"That is because of their consciences," said Hugh. "But you are not
+guilty of anything, you know. I am sure I can keep a secret easily
+enough, when I am not to blame in it."
+
+"Yes? you have shown that. But----"
+
+"Come! don't let us talk any more about that.--Only just this. Has
+anybody accused you? Because I must know,--I must be on my guard."
+
+"Nobody has said a word, because my father put us all upon honour never
+to mention it: but I always feel as if all their eyes were upon me all
+day,--and sometimes in the night."
+
+"Nonsense! I don't believe anybody has pitched on you particularly. And
+when school opens again, all their eyes will be on me, to see how I
+manage. But I don't mean to mind that. Anybody may stare that likes."
+
+Hugh sighed, however, after saying this; and Tooke was silent. At length
+he declared,--
+
+"Whatever you say against it, I shall always take your part: and you
+have only to ask me, and I will always run anywhere, and do anything for
+you. Mind you that."
+
+"Thank you," said Hugh. "Now tell me about the new usher; for I dare say
+you know more than the other boys do. Holt and I shall be under him
+altogether, I suppose."
+
+"Yes: and you will be well off, by what I hear. He is as little like Mr.
+Carnaby as need be."
+
+All the rest of the afternoon was taken up with stories of Mr. Carnaby
+and other ushers, so that the boys were surprised when the maid came to
+tell them that tea was ready.
+
+Agnes was making tea. Hugh was so eager to repeat to his uncle some of
+the good stories that he had just heard, that he did not observe, as his
+aunt did, how red his sister's fingers were, and how she shivered still.
+
+"My dear," said Mrs. Shaw, "you have let these boys keep you away from
+the fire."
+
+"Yes, aunt. Never mind! I shall be warm enough presently."
+
+"But you should not allow it, Agnes. How are they ever to learn manners,
+if they are not made to give way to young ladies while they are young?
+Boys are sure to be rude enough, at any rate. Their sisters should know
+better than to spoil them."
+
+While poor Agnes' hardships were ending with a lecture, Hugh was
+chattering away, not at all aware that he had treated his sister much as
+Phil had treated him on his going to Crofton. If any one had told him
+that he was tyrannical, he would have been as much surprised as he had
+been at Phil's tyranny over him. He did not know indeed that his sister
+had been in the cold and in the dark; but he might have felt that he had
+used her with a roughness which is more painful to a loving heart than
+cold and darkness are to the body.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+HOLT AND HIS DIGNITY.
+
+
+There was no reason now why Hugh should not go to church. He and his
+crutches went between his uncle and aunt in the gig one way, and between
+his uncle and Agnes home again; and he could walk up the aisle quite
+well. He had been pleased at the idea of attending church again, and had
+never thought of the pain of being stared at for his lameness. This pain
+came upon him as he entered the church; and as he went up towards his
+uncle's pew, and saw the crowd of Crofton boys all looking at him, and
+some of the poor people turning their heads as he passed, to observe how
+he got on, he felt covered with confusion, and wished that he had waited
+one more Sunday, when the Crofton boys would have been all gone, and
+there would have been fewer eyes to mark his infirmity. But better
+thoughts soon arose, and made him ashamed of his false shame; and
+before the service was over, he felt how trifling is any misfortune
+while we are friends with God, in comparison with the least wrong-doing
+which sets us at a distance from him. He could not but feel after church
+that he had rather, a thousand times, be as he was than be poor Lamb,
+who slunk away from him, and hid himself behind the other boys,--his
+mind sore and troubled, no doubt, about his debt, and his cheating
+transaction, so long ago. Hugh asked some of the boys to bring up Lamb,
+to shake hands before parting for the holidays; but he would not come,
+and wriggled himself out of sight. Then Hugh recollected that he could
+forgive Lamb as well without Lamb's knowing it; and he let him alone.
+
+Then there was Holt. He and Holt had parted on uneasy terms; and Holt
+now looked shy and uncomfortable. Hugh beckoned to him, and asked him
+whether he was really to remain at Crofton all the holidays.
+
+"Yes," said Holt. "I am the only one not going home, unless you are to
+stay hereabouts. Even Tooke is to be at his uncle's in London. When do
+you go home?"
+
+"Not quite yet;--not at the beginning of the holidays," said Hugh,
+hesitating, and looking up at his uncle. For, in truth, he did not know
+exactly what was planned for him, and had been afraid to ask.
+
+His uncle said, very kindly, that he was not going to part with Hugh
+till school opened again. He would recover his full strength better in
+the country; and his aunt had promised his parents that he should be a
+stout boy again by the time he was wanted at Crofton.
+
+This was what Hugh had dreaded to hear; and when he thought that he
+should not see his parents, nor little Harry, for so many months, his
+heart sank. But he was still in the church; and perhaps the place helped
+him to remember his mother's expectation that he should not fail, and
+his own resolution to bear cheerfully whatever troubles his misfortune
+brought upon him, from the greatest to the least. So when he heard his
+uncle saying to Holt that he should ask Mr. Tooke to let him come and
+spend two or three weeks at his house, he said so heartily that he hoped
+Holt would come, that Holt felt that whatever discontent had been
+between them was forgiven and forgotten.
+
+Phil went home, of course; and when Holt arrived at Mr. Shaw's, Agnes
+also returned to London, that she might see something of Phil. Then the
+two boys were glad to be together, though Hugh would rather have had his
+dear friend Dale for a companion; and Holt knew that this was the case.
+Yet Hugh saw, and was glad to see, that Holt was improved. He had
+plucked up some spirit, and was more like other lads, though still, by
+his own account, too much like a timid, helpless foreigner among the
+rough Crofton boys.
+
+All the boys had some lessons to prepare in the holidays. Every one who
+had ever written a theme had a theme to write now. Every boy who could
+construe had a good piece of Latin to prepare; and all had either Latin
+or English verses to learn by heart. Mrs. Shaw made a point of her young
+visitors sitting down every morning after breakfast to their business;
+and Hugh was anxious to spare no pains, this time, about his theme,
+that, if he was to be praised, he might deserve it. He saw that Holt
+could not fix his attention well, either upon work or play; and one
+morning, when Hugh was pondering how, without knowing anything of
+history, he should find a modern example to match well with his ancient
+one (which he had picked up by chance), Holt burst upon his meditation
+with--
+
+"I have a good mind to tell you what has been upon my mind this ever so
+long."
+
+"Wait a minute," said Hugh. "I must find my example first."
+
+No example could he find, to his satisfaction, this day. He gave it up
+till to-morrow, and then asked Holt what was on his mind. But Holt now
+drew back, and did not think he could tell. This made Hugh press; and
+Hugh's pressing looked like sympathy, and gave Holt courage: so that the
+thing came out at last. Holt was very miserable, for he was deep in
+debt, and the boys never let him alone about it; and he did not see how
+he should ever pay, as nobody was likely to give him any money.
+
+"Remember, it is only sixpence that you owe me--not a shilling," said
+Hugh.
+
+Holt sighed. Perhaps he had hoped that Hugh would excuse him altogether.
+He explained that this sixpence was not all, nor the chief part. He told
+that, when the whole school was on the heath, one Saturday, they had
+seen a balloon rising at a distance, and some boys began betting about
+what direction it would move in when it ceased to rise perpendicularly.
+The betting spread till the boys told him he must bet, or he would be
+the only one left out, and would look like a shabby fellow.
+
+"And you did?" exclaimed Hugh. "How silly!"
+
+"You would have done it, if you had been there."
+
+"No: I should not."
+
+"Yes, you would. Or, if you had not, it would have been because of----I
+know what."
+
+"Because of what, pray?"
+
+"Because of something the boys say about you. They say you are very fond
+of money."
+
+"I! fond of money! I declare I never heard of such a thing."
+
+"Well, you know you made a great fuss about that half-crown."
+
+"As if it was about the money!" cried Hugh. "I should not have cared a
+bit if my uncle had asked me for it back again the next day. It was the
+being cheated. That was the thing. What a shame----"
+
+"By-the-bye, did your uncle ever ask what you did with that half-crown?"
+
+"No; but he will next week, at the January fair. He will be sure to ask
+then. What a shame of the boys to say so, when I forgave----"
+
+He remembered, just in time, that he had better not boast, or speak
+aloud, of having forgiven Lamb his debt in secret. He resolved that he
+would not say another word, but let the boys see that he did not care
+for money for its own sake. They were all wrong, but he would be above
+noticing it; and, besides, he really had been very anxious about his
+half-crown, and they had only mistaken the reason.
+
+"How much did you bet on the balloon?" he inquired of Holt.
+
+"A shilling; and I lost."
+
+"Then you owe eighteen-pence."
+
+"But that is not all. I borrowed a shilling of Meredith to pay
+school-fines----"
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Chiefly for leaving my books about. Meredith says I promised to pay him
+before the holidays; but I am sure I never did. He twitted me about it
+so that I declare I would have fought him, if I could have paid him
+first."
+
+"That's right," exclaimed Hugh. "Why, Holt, what a different fellow you
+are! You never used to talk of fighting."
+
+"But this fellow Meredith plagued me so! If it had not been for that
+shilling, I would have knocked him down. Well, here is half-a-crown
+altogether; and how am I ever to get half-a-crown?"
+
+"Cannot you ask your uncle?"
+
+"No; you know I can't. You know he complains about having to pay the
+bills for me before my father can send the money from India."
+
+"I suppose it would take too long to ask your father. Yes; of course it
+would. There would be another holidays before you could have an answer;
+and almost another still. I wonder what uncle Shaw would say. He is very
+kind always, but it might set him asking----"
+
+"And what should I do, staying here, if he should be angry and refuse?
+What should I do every day at dinner?"
+
+"I know what I would do!" said Hugh, decidedly. "I would tell Mr. Tooke
+all about it, and ask him for half-a-crown."
+
+"Mr. Tooke? Oh! I dare not."
+
+"I dare,--in holiday-time. He is your master,--next to being your
+father, while your father is so far away. You had better ask Mr. Tooke,
+to be sure."
+
+"What go to Crofton, and speak to him? I really want not to be a
+coward,--but I never could go and tell him."
+
+"Write him a letter, then. Yes: that is the way. Write a letter, and I
+will get one of my uncle's men to carry it, and wait for an answer: and
+then you will not be long in suspense, at any rate."
+
+"I wish I dare!"
+
+Holt was not long in passing from wishing to daring. He wrote a letter,
+which Hugh thought would do, though he rather wished Holt had not
+mentioned him as instigating the act. This was the letter:
+
+     "THE MILL, _January 6th_.
+
+     "DEAR SIR,
+
+     "I am very unhappy; and Proctor thinks I had better tell you what
+     is upon my mind. I owe some money, and I do not see how I can ever
+     pay it, unless you will help me. You know I have owed Proctor
+     sixpence for ginger-beer, this long time; and as Lamb has never
+     paid him his share, Proctor cannot excuse me this debt. Then I owe
+     a boy a shilling, lent me for school-fines; and he never lets me
+     alone about it. Then I was led into betting a shilling on a
+     balloon, and I lost; and so I owe half-a-crown. If you would lend
+     me that sum, sir, I shall be obliged to you for ever, and I shall
+     never forget it.
+
+     "Yours respectfully,
+     "THOMAS HOLT."
+
+Mr. Shaw's man George carried the letter; but he brought back neither
+letter nor money: only a message that Mr. Tooke would call; which put
+Holt into a great fright, and made Hugh rather uneasy.
+
+There was no occasion for this, however. Mr. Tooke came alone into the
+room where the boys were sitting; and neither Mr. nor Mrs. Shaw appeared
+during the whole time of his visit: a thing which was rather odd, but
+which the boys were very glad of. When Mr. Tooke had told them a little
+of some new boys expected after the holidays, he said:
+
+"Well, now, Holt, let us see what can be done about your affairs."
+
+Holt looked uneasy; for it seemed as if Mr. Tooke was not going to lend
+him the money,--or to give it, which was what he had hoped, while using
+the word "lend."
+
+"I am glad you asked me," continued Mr. Tooke; "for people, whether they
+be men or boys, can usually retrieve their affairs when they have
+resolution to face their difficulties. There is no occasion to say
+anything about how you got into debt. We must consider how you are to
+get out of it."
+
+"That is very kind indeed!" exclaimed Holt.
+
+"As to my lending you half-a-crown," continued Mr. Tooke, "that would
+not be helping you out of debt; for if you had had any prospect of being
+able to pay half-a-crown, you would not have needed to apply to me at
+all."
+
+Holt sighed. Mr. Tooke went on.
+
+"I cannot give you the money. I have less to give away than I should
+like to have, for the sake of the poor people round us. I cannot pay for
+a bet and school-fines while the children of our neighbours want clothes
+and fire."
+
+"No, sir, certainly," said both the boys.
+
+"What do people do, all the world over, when they want money?" asked Mr.
+Tooke. Holt looked puzzled. Hugh smiled. Holt was hesitating whether to
+guess that they put into the lottery, or dig for treasure, or borrow
+from their friends, or what. Having always till lately lived in India,
+where Europeans are rather lazy, and life altogether is very languid, he
+did not see, as Hugh did, what Mr. Tooke could mean.
+
+"When men come begging to our doors," said Mr. Tooke, "what is the first
+question we ask them?"
+
+Holt still look puzzled, and Hugh laughed, saying,
+
+"Why, Holt, you must know very well. We ask them whether they cannot get
+work."
+
+"Work!" cried Holt.
+
+"Yes," said Mr. Tooke. "The fathers and uncles of both of you work for
+what money they have; and so do I; and so does every man among our
+neighbours who is satisfied with his condition. As far as I see, you
+must get the money you want in the same way."
+
+"Work!" exclaimed Holt again.
+
+"How is he to get work?" asked Hugh.
+
+"That is where I hope to assist him," replied Mr. Tooke. "Are you
+willing to earn your half-crown, Holt?"
+
+"I don't know how, sir."
+
+"Widow Murray thinks she should have a better chance for a new lodger if
+her little parlour was fresh papered; but she is too rheumatic to do it
+herself, and cannot afford to engage a workman. If you like to try,
+under her directions, I will pay you as your work deserves."
+
+"But, sir, I never papered a room in my life!"
+
+"No more had the best paper-hanger in London when he first tried. But if
+you do not like that work, what do you think of doing some writing for
+me? Our tables of rules are dirty. If you will make good copies of our
+rules for all the rooms in which they hang, in the course of the
+holidays, I will pay you half-a-crown. But the copies must be quite
+correct, and the writing good. I can offer you one other choice. Our
+school library wants looking to. If you will put fresh paper covers to
+all the books that want covering, write the titles on the backs, compare
+the whole with the catalogue, and arrange them properly on the shelves,
+I will pay you half-a-crown."
+
+Holt's pleasure in the prospect of being out of debt was swallowed up in
+the anxiety of undertaking anything so new to him as work out of school.
+Hugh hurried him on to a decision.
+
+"Do choose the papering," urged Hugh. "I can help you in that, I do
+believe. I can walk that little way, to widow Murray's; and I can paste
+the paper. Widow Murray will show you how to do it; and it is very easy,
+if you once learn to join the pattern. I found that, when I helped to
+paper the nursery closet at home."
+
+"It is an easy pattern to join," said Mr. Tooke.
+
+"There, now! And that is the chief thing. If you do the library books, I
+cannot help you, you know. And remember, you will have two miles to walk
+each way; four miles a day in addition to the work."
+
+"He can sleep at Crofton, if he likes," said Mr. Tooke.
+
+"That would be a queer way of staying at uncle Shaw's," observed Hugh.
+
+"Then there is copying the rules," said Holt. "I might do that here; and
+you might help me, if you liked."
+
+"Dull work!" exclaimed Hugh. "Think of copying the same rules three or
+four times over! And then, if you make mistakes, or if you do not write
+clearly, where is your half-crown? I don't mean that I would not help
+you, but it would be the dullest work of all."
+
+Mr. Tooke sat patiently waiting till Holt had made up his mind. He
+perceived something that never entered Hugh's mind: that Holt's pride
+was hurt at the notion of doing workman's work. He wrote on a slip of
+paper these few words, and pushed them across the table to Holt, with a
+smile:--
+
+    "No debtor's hands are clean, however white they be:
+    Who digs and pays his way--the true gentleman is he."
+
+Holt coloured as he read, and immediately said that he chose the
+papering job. Mr. Tooke rose, tossed the slip of paper into the fire,
+buttoned up his coat, and said that he should let widow Murray know that
+a workman would wait upon her the next morning, and that she must have
+her paste and brushes and scissors ready.
+
+"And a pair of steps," said Hugh, with a sigh.
+
+"Steps, of course," replied Mr. Tooke. "You will think it a pretty
+paper, I am sure."
+
+"But, sir, she must quite understand that she is not at all obliged to
+us,--that is, to me," said Holt.
+
+"Certainly. You will tell her so yourself, of course."
+
+Here again Holt's pride was hurt; but the thought of being out of
+Meredith's power sustained him.
+
+When Mr. Tooke was gone, Hugh said to his companion,
+
+"I do not want you to tell me what Mr. Tooke wrote on that paper that
+he burned. I only want to know whether he asked you to choose so as to
+indulge me."
+
+"You! O no! there was not a word about you."
+
+"O! very well!" replied Hugh, not sure whether he was pleased or not.
+
+The next morning was so fine that there was no difficulty about Hugh's
+walking the short distance to the widow Murray's; and there, for three
+mornings, did the boys work diligently, till the room was papered, and
+two cupboards into the bargain. Holt liked it very well, except for two
+things:--that Hugh was sure he could have done some difficult corners
+better than Holt had done them, if he could but have stood upon the
+steps; and that widow Murray did so persist in thanking him, that he had
+to tell her several times over that she was not obliged to him at all,
+because he was to be paid for the job.
+
+Mr. Tooke came to see the work when it was done, and returned to Mr.
+Shaw's with the boys, in order to pay Holt his half-crown immediately,
+and yet so that the widow should not see. Hugh's eye followed Mr.
+Tooke's hand as it went a second time into his pocket; and he was
+conscious of some sort of hope that he might be paid something too. When
+no more silver came forth, he felt aware that he ought not to have
+dreamed of any reward for the help he had freely offered to his
+companion: and he asked himself whether his school-fellows were
+altogether wrong in thinking him too fond of money; and whether he was
+altogether right in having said that it was justice that he cared for,
+and not money, when he had pressed his debtor hard. However this might
+be, he was very glad to receive his sixpence from Holt. As he put it in
+his inner pocket, he observed that this would be all the money he
+should have in the world when he should have spent his five shillings in
+fairings for home.
+
+Holt made no answer. He had nothing to spend in the fair; still less,
+anything left over. But he remembered that he was out of debt,--that
+Meredith would twit him no more,--and he began to whistle, so
+light-hearted, that no amount of money could have made him happier. He
+only left off whistling to thank Hugh earnestly for having persuaded him
+to open his heart to Mr. Tooke.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+TRIPPING.
+
+
+When the day came for returning to Crofton, Hugh would have left his
+crutches behind at his uncle's, so much did he prefer walking with the
+little light stick-leg he had been practising with for a fortnight. But
+his aunt shook her head at this, and ordered the crutches into the gig.
+He still walked slowly and cautiously, and soon grew tired: and she
+thought he might find it a relief at times to hop about on his crutches.
+They were hidden under the bed, however, immediately on his arrival; so
+anxious was Hugh to make the least of his lameness, and look as like
+other boys as possible, both for Tooke's sake and his own. When the boys
+had been all assembled for one day, and everybody had seen how little
+Proctor could walk, the subject seemed to be dropped, and nothing was
+talked of but the new usher. So Hugh said to himself; and he really
+thought that he had fully taken his place again as a Crofton boy, and
+that he should be let off all notice of his infirmity henceforth, and
+all trials from it, except such as no one but himself need know of. He
+was even not quite sure whether he should not be a gainer by it on the
+whole. He remembered Tooke's assurances of protection and friendship; he
+found Phil very kind and watchful; and Mrs. Watson told him privately
+that he was to be free of the orchard. She showed him the little door
+through which he might enter at any time, alone, or with one companion.
+Here he might read, or talk, and get out of sight of play that he could
+not share. The privilege was to be continued as long as no mischief was
+done to anything within the orchard. The prospect of the hours, the
+quiet hours, the bright hours that he should spend here alone with Dale,
+delighted Hugh: and when he told Dale, Dale liked the prospect too; and
+they went together, at the earliest opportunity, to survey their new
+domain, and plan where they would sit in spring, and how they would lie
+on the grass in summer, and be closer and closer friends for ever.
+
+Holt was encouraged to hope that he should have his turn sometimes; but
+he saw that, though Hugh cared more for him than before the holidays, he
+yet loved Dale the best.
+
+While Hugh was still in spirits at the thought that his worst trials
+were over, and the pleasure of his indulgences to come, he felt very
+complacent; and he thought he would gratify himself with one more
+reading of the theme which he had written in the holidays,--the theme
+which he really believed Mr. Tooke might fairly praise,--so great had
+been the pains he had taken with the composition, and so neatly was it
+written out. He searched for it in vain among his books and in his
+portfolio. Then he got leave to go up to his room, and turn over all
+his clothes. He did so in vain; and at last he remembered that it was
+far indeed out of his reach,--in the drawer of his aunt's work-table,
+where it had lain ever since she had asked him for it, to read to a lady
+who had visited her.
+
+The themes would certainly be called for the first thing on Mr. Tooke's
+appearance in school, at nine the next morning. The duties of the early
+morning would leave no one any time to run to Mr. Shaw's then. If
+anybody went, it must be now. The first day was one of little
+regularity; it was only just beginning to grow dusk; any willing boy
+might be back before supper; and there was no doubt that leave would be
+given on such an occasion. So Hugh made his way to the playground as
+fast as possible, and told his trouble to his best friends there,--to
+Phil, and Holt, and Dale, and as many as happened to be within hearing.
+
+"Never mind your theme!" said Phil. "Nobody expected you to do one; and
+you have only to say that you left it behind you."
+
+"It is not that," said Hugh. "I must show up my theme."
+
+"You can't, you know, if you have it not to show," said two or three,
+who thought this settled the matter.
+
+"But it is there: it is at my uncle's, if any one would go for it," said
+Hugh, beginning to be agitated.
+
+"Go for it!" exclaimed Phil. "What, in the dark,--this freezing
+afternoon?"
+
+"It is not near dark; it will not be dark this hour. Anybody might run
+there and back before supper."
+
+He looked at Dale; but Dale looked another way. For a moment he thought
+of Tooke's permission to appeal to him when he wanted a friend: but
+Tooke was not within hearing; and he dismissed the thought of pointing
+out Tooke to anybody's notice. He turned away as Phil repeated that it
+was quite certain that there would be no bad consequences from his being
+unprovided with a theme, which was not one of his regular lessons.
+
+Phil was not quite easy, however: nor were the others who heard; and in
+a minute they looked round for Hugh. He was leaning his face upon his
+arms, against the orchard wall; and when, with gentle force, they pulled
+him away, they saw that his face was bathed in tears. He sobbed out,--
+
+"I took such pains with that theme,--all the holidays! And I can't go
+for it myself."
+
+There were loud exclamations from many against Phil, against one
+another, and against themselves; and now everybody was eager to go. Phil
+stopped all who had started off saying that it was his business; and the
+next moment, Phil was at Mr. Tooke's study-door, asking leave of absence
+till supper.
+
+"Little Holt has been beforehand with you," said Mr. Tooke. "I refused
+him, however, as he is not so fit as you to be out after dark. Off with
+you!"
+
+Before Phil returned, it struck Hugh that he had been very selfish; and
+that it was not a good way of bearing his trial to impose on any one a
+walk of four miles, to repair a piece of carelessness of his own. Nobody
+blamed him; but he did not like to look in the faces round him, to see
+what people thought. When Phil returned, fresh and hungry from the
+frosty air, and threw down the paper, saying,--
+
+"There is your theme, and my aunt is very sorry." Hugh said,--
+
+"Oh! Phil, and I am so sorry too! I hope you are not very tired."
+
+"Never mind!" replied Phil. "There is your theme."
+
+And with this Hugh was obliged to be satisfied; but it left him
+exceedingly uncomfortable--sorry for Phil--disappointed in Dale--and
+much more disappointed in himself. The thought of what Holt had wished
+to do was the only pleasant part of it; and Hugh worked beside Holt, and
+talked with him all the evening.
+
+Hugh felt, the next morning, as if he was never to have any pleasure
+from his themes, though they were the lesson he did best. This one was
+praised, quite as much as the former one: and he did not this time tell
+anybody what Mr. Tooke had said about it: but the pleasure was spoiled
+by the recollection that his brother had run four miles on account of
+it, and that he himself must have appeared to others more selfish than
+he thought them. He burned his theme, that he might the more easily
+forget all about it; and the moment after he had done so, Phil said he
+should have kept it, as other boys did theirs, for his parents to see.
+
+Mr. Crabbe was just such a master as it was good for the little boys to
+be under. He did not punish capriciously, nor terrify them by anything
+worse than his strictness. Very strict he was; and he thus caused them
+some fear every day: for Holt was backward, and not very clever: and
+Hugh was still much less able to learn than most other boys. But all
+felt that Mr. Crabbe was not unreasonable, and they always knew exactly
+how much to be afraid of. Whether he had inquired, or been told, the
+story of Hugh's lameness, they did not know. He said nothing about it,
+except just asking Hugh whether it tired him to stand up in class,
+saying that he might sit at the top or bottom of the class, instead of
+taking places if he chose. Hugh did find it rather fatiguing at first
+but he did not like to take advantage of Mr. Crabbe's offer, because it
+so happened that he was almost always at the bottom of his classes: and
+to have withdrawn from the contest would have looked like a trick to
+hide the shame, and might have caused him to be set down as a dunce who
+never could rise. He thanked Mr. Crabbe, and said that if he should rise
+in his classes, and keep a good place for some time, he thought he
+should be glad to sit, instead of standing; but meantime he had rather
+be tired. Then the feeling of fatigue went off before he rose, or saw
+any chance of rising.
+
+This inability to do his lessons so well as other boys was a deep and
+lasting grief to Hugh. Though he had in reality improved much since he
+came to Crofton, and was now and then cheered by some proof of this, his
+general inferiority in this respect was such as to mortify him every day
+of his life, and sometimes to throw him almost into despair. He saw that
+everybody pitied him for the loss of his foot, but not for this other
+trouble, while he felt this to be rather the worst of the two; and all
+the more because he was not sure himself whether or not he could help
+it, as every one else seemed certain that he might. When he said his
+prayer in his bed, he earnestly entreated that he might be able to bear
+the one trouble, and be delivered from the other; and when, as the
+spring came on, he was found by one friend or another lying on the grass
+with his face hidden, he was often praying with tears for help in doing
+this duty, when he was thought to be grieving that he could not play at
+leaping or foot-ball, like other boys. And yet, the very next evening,
+when the whole school were busy over their books, and there was nothing
+to interfere with his work, he would pore over his lesson without taking
+in half the sense, while his fancy was straying everywhere but where it
+ought;--perhaps to little Harry, or the Temple Gardens at home, or to
+Cape Horn, or Japan--some way farther off still. It did not often happen
+now, as formerly, that he forgot before morning a lesson well learned
+over-night. He was aware that now everything depended on whether he was
+once sure of his lesson; but the difficulty was in once being sure of
+it.
+
+Finding Phil's kindness continue through the first weeks and months of
+the half-year, Hugh took courage at last to open his mind pretty freely
+to his brother, offering to do anything in the world for Phil, if he
+would only hear him his lessons every evening till he could say them
+perfect. Phil was going to plead that he had no time, when Hugh popped
+out--
+
+"The thing is that it does not help me to say them to just anybody.
+Saying them to somebody that I am afraid of is what I want."
+
+"Why, you are not afraid of me?" said Phil.
+
+"Yes I am--rather."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Oh, because you are older;--and you are so much more of a Crofton boy
+than I am--and you are very strict--and altogether----"
+
+"Yes, you will find me pretty strict, I can tell you," said Phil, unable
+to restrain a complacent smile on finding that somebody was afraid of
+him. "Well, we must see what we can do. I will hear you to-night, at any
+rate."
+
+Between his feeling of kindness and the gratification of his vanity,
+Phil found himself able to hear his brother's lessons every evening. He
+was certainly very strict, and was not sparing of such pushes, joggings,
+and ridicule as were necessary to keep Hugh up to his work. Those were
+very provoking sometimes; but Hugh tried to bear them for the sake of
+the gain. Whenever Phil would condescend to explain, in fresh words, the
+sense of what Hugh had to learn, he saved trouble to both, and the
+lesson went off quickly and easily: but sometimes he would not explain
+anything, and soon went away in impatience, leaving Hugh in the midst of
+his perplexities. There was a chance, on such occasions, that Firth
+might be at leisure, or Dale able to help: so that, one way and another,
+Hugh found his affairs improving as the spring advanced; and he began to
+lose his anxiety, and to gain credit with the usher. He also now and
+then won a place in his classes.
+
+Towards the end of May, when the trees were full of leaf, and the
+evenings sunny, and the open air delicious, quite up to bedtime, Phil
+became persuaded, very suddenly, that Hugh could get on by himself now;
+that it was not fair that he should be helped; and that it was even
+hurtful to him to rely on any one but himself. If Phil had acted
+gradually upon this conviction, withdrawing his help by degrees, it
+might have been all very well: but he refused at once and decidedly to
+have anything more to do with Hugh's lessons, as he was quite old and
+forward enough now to do them by himself. This announcement threw his
+brother into a state of consternation not at all favourable to learning;
+and the next morning Hugh made several blunders. He did the same every
+day that week; was every afternoon detained from play to learn his
+lessons again; and on the Saturday morning (repetition day) he lost all
+the places he had gained, and left off at the bottom of every class.
+
+What could Mr. Crabbe suppose but that a sudden fit of idleness was the
+cause of this falling back? It appeared so to him, and to the whole
+school; and poor Hugh felt as if there was scorn in every eye that
+looked upon his disgrace. He thought there could not be a boy in the
+school who did not see or hear that he was at the bottom of every class.
+
+Mr. Crabbe always desired to be just: and he now gave Hugh the
+opportunity of explaining, if he had anything to say. He remained in the
+school-room after the boys had left it, and asked Hugh a question or
+two. But Hugh sobbed and cried so bitterly that he could not speak so as
+to be understood; and he did not wish to explain, feeling that he was
+much obliged to Phil for his former help, and that he ought not to
+complain to any master of its being now withdrawn. So Mr. Crabbe could
+only hope that next week would show a great difference, and advise him
+to go out with the rest this afternoon, to refresh himself for a new
+effort.
+
+Hugh did not know whether he had not rather have been desired to stay at
+home than go out among so many who considered him disgraced. It really
+was hard (though Holt stood by him, and Dale was his companion as usual)
+to bear the glances he saw, and the words that came to his ear. Some
+boys looked to see how red his eyes were: some were surprised to see him
+abroad, and hinted at favouritism because he was not shut up in the
+school-room. Some asked whether he could say his alphabet yet; and
+others whether he could spell "dunce." The most cruel thing of all was
+to see Tooke in particularly high spirits. He kept away from Hugh; but
+Hugh's eye followed him from afar, and saw that he capered and laughed,
+and was gayer than at any time this half-year. Hugh saw into his heart
+(or thought he did) as plain as he saw to the bottom of the clear stream
+in the meadows, to which they were bound for their afternoon's sport.
+
+"I know what Tooke is feeling," thought he. "He is pleased to see me
+lowered, as long as it is not his doing. He is sorry to see me suffer by
+my lameness; because that hurts his conscience: but he is pleased to see
+me wrong and disgraced, because that relieves him of the feeling of
+being obliged to me. If I were now to put him in mind of his promise, to
+stand by me, and protect me----I declare I will----it will stop his
+wicked joy----it will make him remember his duty."
+
+Dale wondered to see Hugh start off, as fast as he could go, to overtake
+the foremost boys who were just entering the meadow, and spreading
+themselves over it. Tooke could, alas! like everybody else, go faster
+than Hugh; and there was no catching him, though he did not seem to see
+that anybody wanted him. Neither could he be made to hear, though Hugh
+called him as loud as he could shout. Holt was so sorry to see Hugh hot
+and agitated, that he made no objection to going after Tooke, though he
+was pretty sure Tooke would be angry with him. Holt could run as fast as
+anybody, and he soon caught the boy he was pursuing, and told him that
+little Proctor wanted him very much indeed, that very moment. Tooke sent
+him about his business, saying that he could not come; and then
+immediately proposed brook-leaping for their sport, leading the way
+himself over a place so wide that no lesser boy, however nimble, could
+follow. Holt came running back, shaking his head, and showing that his
+errand was in vain. Tooke was so full of play that he could think of
+nothing else; which was a shame.
+
+"Ah! and you little know," thought Hugh, "how deep a shame it is."
+
+With a swelling heart he turned away, and went towards the bank of the
+broader stream which ran through the meadows. Dale was with him in a
+moment,--very sorry for him, because everybody else was at
+brook-leaping,--the sport that Hugh had loved so well last autumn. Dale
+passed his arm round Hugh's neck, and asked where they should sit and
+tell stories,--where they could best hide themselves, so that nobody
+should come and tease them. Hugh wished to thank his friend for this;
+but he could not speak directly. They found a pleasant place among the
+flowering reeds on the bank, where they thought nobody would see them;
+and having given Holt to understand that they did not want him, they
+settled themselves for their favourite amusement of story-telling.
+
+But Hugh's heart was too full and too sick for even his favourite
+amusement; and Dale was perhaps too sorry for him to be the most
+judicious companion he could have at such a time. Dale agreed that the
+boys were hard and careless; and he added that it was particularly
+shameful to bring up a boy's other faults when he was in disgrace for
+one. In the warmth of his zeal, he told how one boy had been laughing at
+Hugh's conceit about his themes, when he had shown to-day that he could
+not go half through his syntax; and how he had heard another say that
+all that did not signify half so much as his being mean about money.
+Between Hugh's eagerness to hear, and Dale's sympathy, five minutes were
+not over before Hugh had heard every charge that could be brought
+against his character, and knew that they were all circulating this very
+afternoon. In his agony of mind he declared that everybody at Crofton
+hated him,--that he could never hold up his head there,--that he would
+ask to be sent home by the coach, and never come near Crofton again.
+
+Dale now began to be frightened, and wished he had not said so much. He
+tried to make light of it; but Hugh seemed disposed to do something
+decided;--to go to his uncle Shaw's, at least, if he could not get home.
+Dale earnestly protested against any such idea, and put him in mind how
+he was respected by everybody for his bravery about the loss of his
+foot.
+
+"Respected? Not a bit of it!" cried Hugh. "They none of them remember:
+they don't care a bit about it."
+
+Dale was sure they did.
+
+"I tell you they don't. I know they don't. I know it for certain; and I
+will tell you how I know. There is the very boy that did it,--the very
+boy that pulled me from the wall----O! if you knew who it was, you would
+say it was a shame!"
+
+Dale involuntarily sat up, and looked back, over the tops of the reeds,
+at the boys who were brook-leaping.
+
+"Would you like to know who it was that did it, Dale?"
+
+"Yes, if you like to tell; but----And if he treats you ill, after the
+way you used him, he cannot expect you should consider him
+so----Besides, I am your best friend; and I always tell you everything!"
+
+"Yes, that you do. And he has treated me so shamefully to-day! And I
+have nobody to speak to that knows. You will promise never--never to
+tell anybody as long as you live."
+
+"To be sure," said Dale.
+
+"And you wont tell anybody that I have told you."
+
+"To be sure not."
+
+"Well, then----"
+
+Here there was a rustling among the reeds which startled them both, with
+a sort of guilty feeling. It was Holt, quite out of breath.
+
+"I don't want to interrupt you," said he, "and I know you wish I would
+not come; but the others made me come. The biggest boys lay that the
+second size can't jump the brook at the willow-stump; and the
+second-size boys want Dale to try. They made me come. I could not help
+it."
+
+Hugh looked at Dale, with eyes which said, as plainly as eyes could
+speak, "You will not go----you will not leave me at such a moment?"
+
+But Dale was not looking at his face, but at the clusters of boys beside
+the brook. He said--
+
+"You will not mind my going, just for one leap. It will hardly take a
+minute. I shall not stay for a game. But I must have just one leap."
+
+And he was off. Holt looked after him, and then towards Hugh, hesitating
+whether to go or stay. Hugh took no notice of him: so he went slowly
+away; and Hugh was left alone.
+
+He was in an extreme perturbation. At the first moment, he was beyond
+measure hurt with Dale. He did not think his best friend would have so
+reminded him of his infirmity, and of his being a restraint on his
+companions. He did not think any friend could have left him at such a
+moment. Then it occurred to him,
+
+"What, then, am I? If Dale was selfish, what was I? I was just going to
+tell what would have pointed out Tooke to him for life. I know as well
+as can be that it was all accident his pulling me off the wall; and yet
+I was going to bring it up against him; and for the very reason why I
+should not,--because he has not behaved well to me. I was just going to
+spoil the only good thing I ever did for anybody in my life. But it is
+spoiled--completely spoiled. I shall never be able to trust myself
+again. It is all by mere accident that it is not all over now. If Holt
+had not come that very instant, my secret would have been out, and I
+could never have got it back again! I could never have looked Tooke in
+the face any more. I don't know that I can now; for I am as wicked as if
+I had told."
+
+Dale came back presently, fanning himself with his cap. As he plunged
+into the reeds, and threw himself down beside Hugh, he cried,
+
+"I did it! I took the leap, and came off with my shoe-soles as dry as a
+crust. Ah! they are wet now; but that is with another leap I took for
+sport. I told you I should not be long gone. Now for it! Who did it?"
+
+"I am not going to tell you, Dale,--not now, nor ever."
+
+"Why, that is too bad! I am sure I stay beside you often enough, when
+the others are playing: you need not grudge me this one leap,--when the
+boys sent for me, too."
+
+"It is not that, Dale. You are very kind always in staying beside me;
+and I do not wish that you should give up play for my sake half so much
+as you do. But I was very, very wrong in meaning to tell you that
+secret. I should have been miserable by this time if I had."
+
+"But you promised. You must keep your promise. What would all the boys
+say, if I told them you had broken your promise?"
+
+"If they knew what it was about, they would despise me for ever meaning
+to tell--not for stopping short in time. That was only accident,
+however. But my secret is my own still."
+
+Dale's curiosity was so strong, that Hugh saw how dangerous it was to
+have tantalised it. He had to remind his friend of Mr. Tooke's having
+put all the boys upon honour not to inquire on this subject. This
+brought Dale to himself; and he promised never again to urge Hugh, or
+encourage his speaking of the matter at all. They then went to
+story-telling; but it would not do to-day. Hugh could not attend; and
+Dale could not invent, while there was no sympathy in his hearer. He was
+presently released, for it struck Hugh that he should like to write to
+his mother this very afternoon. His heart was heavy, and he wanted to
+tell her what was in it. Mr. Crabbe gave him leave to go home; and Dale
+was in time for plenty more play.
+
+Hugh had the great school-room all to himself; and as the window before
+his desk was open, he had the pleasure of the fresh air, and the smell
+of the blossoms from the orchard, and the sound of the waving of the
+tall trees in the wind, and the cawing of the rooks as the trees waved.
+These things all made him enjoy scribbling away to his mother, as well
+as finding his mind grow easier as he went on. Besides, he had not to
+care for the writing; for he had met Mr. Tooke by the church, and had
+got his leave to send his letter without anybody's looking at it, as he
+had something very particular to say. He wrote,--
+
+     "Dear Mother,--
+
+     "It is Saturday afternoon, and I have come home from the meadows
+     before the rest, to tell you something that has made me very
+     uneasy. If I had told anybody in the world who pulled me off the
+     wall, it should and would have been you,--that night after it
+     happened: and I am afraid I should have told you, if you had not
+     prevented it: for I find I am not to be trusted when I am talking
+     with anybody I love very much. I have not told yet: but I should
+     have told Dale if Holt had not run up at the very moment. It makes
+     me very unhappy,--almost as much as if I had let it out: for how do
+     I know but that I may tell a hundred times over in my life, if I
+     could forget so soon? I shall be afraid of loving anybody very
+     much, and talking with them alone, as long as I live. I never felt
+     the least afraid of telling till to-day; and you cannot think how
+     unhappy it makes me. And then, the thing that provoked me to tell
+     was that boy's being surly to me, and glad that I was in disgrace
+     this morning, for doing my lessons badly all this week,--the very
+     thing that should have made me particularly careful how I behaved
+     to him; for his pulling me off the wall was by accident, after all.
+     Everything has gone wrong to-day; and I am very unhappy, and I feel
+     as if I should never be sure of anything again; and so I write to
+     you. You told me you expected me not to fail; and you see I have;
+     and the next thing is that I must tell you of it.
+
+     "Your affectionate son,
+     "HUGH PROCTOR.
+
+     "P.S. Phil has been very kind about my lessons, till this week
+     [_interlined_], when he has been very busy.
+
+     "P.S. If you should answer this, please put 'private' outside, or
+     at the top; and then Mr. Tooke will not read it, nor anybody. But I
+     know you are very busy always; so I do not quite expect an answer."
+
+When the letter was finished and closed, Hugh felt a good deal relieved:
+but still not happy. He had opened his heart to the best friend he had
+in this world: but he still felt grievously humbled for the present, and
+alarmed for the future. Then he remembered that he might seek comfort
+from a better Friend still; and that He who had sent him his trial could
+and would help him to bear it, with honour as well as with patience. As
+he thought of this, he saw that the boys were trooping home, along the
+road, and he slipped out, and into the orchard, where he knew he might
+be alone with his Best Friend. He stayed there till the supper-bell
+rang; and when he came in, it was with a cheerful face. He was as merry
+as anybody at supper: and afterwards he found his lessons more easy to
+him than usual. The truth was that his mind was roused by the conflicts
+of the day. He said his lessons to Phil (who found time to-night to hear
+him), without missing a word. When he went to bed, he had several
+pleasant thoughts. His secret was still his own (though by no merit of
+his); to-morrow was Sunday,--likely to be a bright, sweet May
+Sunday,--his lessons were quite ready for Monday; and possibly there
+might be a letter from his mother in the course of the week.
+
+Mrs. Proctor was in the midst of her Monday morning's business (and
+Monday morning was the busiest of the week), when she received Hugh's
+letter. Yet she found time to answer it by the very next post. When her
+letter was handed to Hugh, with the seal unbroken, because 'private' was
+written large on the outside, he thought she was the kindest mother that
+ever was, to have written so soon, and to have minded all his wishes.
+Her letter was,--
+
+     "Dear Hugh,
+
+     "There was nothing in your letter to surprise me at all; for I
+     believe, if all our hearts were known, it would be found that we
+     have every one been saved from doing wrong by what we call
+     accident. The very best people say this of themselves, in their
+     thanksgivings to God, and their confessions to one another. Though
+     you were very unhappy on Saturday, I am not sorry that these things
+     have happened, as I think you will be the safer and the wiser for
+     them. You say you never till then felt the least afraid of telling.
+     Now you know the danger; and that is a good thing. I think you will
+     never again see that boy (whoever he may be), without being put
+     upon your guard. Still, we are all sadly forgetful about our duty;
+     and, if I were you, I would use every precaution against such a
+     danger as you have escaped,--it makes me tremble to think how
+     narrowly. If I were you, I would engage any friend I should become
+     intimate with, the whole time of being at school, and perhaps
+     afterwards, never to say a word about the accident,--or, at least,
+     about how it happened. Another way is to tell me your mind, as you
+     have now; for you may be sure that it is my wish that you should
+     keep your secret, and that I shall always be glad to help you to do
+     it.
+
+     "But, my dear boy, I can do but little, in comparison with the best
+     Friend you have. He can help you without waiting for your
+     confidence,--even at the very instant when you are tempted. It is
+     He who sends these very accidents (as we call them) by which you
+     have now been saved. Have you thanked Him for saving you this time?
+     And will you not trust in His help henceforward, instead of
+     supposing yourself safe, as you now find you are not? If you use
+     his strength, I feel that you will not fail. If you trust your own
+     intentions alone, I shall never feel sure of you for a single hour,
+     nor be certain that the companion you love best may not be your
+     worst enemy, in breaking down your self-command. But, as you say
+     you were very unhappy on Saturday, I have no doubt you did go for
+     comfort to the right Friend, and that you were happier on Sunday.
+
+     "Your sisters do not know that I am writing, as I consider your
+     letter a secret from everybody but your father, who sends his love.
+     You need not show this to Phil; but you can give him our love. Your
+     sisters are counting the days to the holidays; and so are some
+     older members of the family. As for Harry, he shouts for you from
+     the yard every day, and seems to think that every shout will bring
+     nearer the happy time when Phil and you will come home.
+
+     "Your affectionate mother,
+     "JANE PROCTOR."
+
+Hugh was, of course, very glad of this letter. And he was glad of
+something else;--that he had done the very things his mother had
+advised. He had engaged Dale not to tempt him on this subject any more.
+He had opened his heart to his mother, and obtained her help; and he had
+sought a better assistance, and a higher comfort still. It was so
+delightful to have such a letter as this,--to be so understood and
+aided, that he determined to tell his mother all his concerns, as long
+as he lived. When, in the course of the holidays, he told her so, she
+smiled, and said she supposed he meant as long as _she_ lived; for she
+was likely to die long before he did. Hugh could not deny this; but he
+never liked to think about it:--he always drove away the thought; though
+he knew, as his mother said, that this was rather cowardly, and that the
+wisest and most loving people in the world remember the most constantly
+and cheerfully that friends must be parted for a while, before they can
+live together for ever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+HOLT AND HIS HELP.
+
+
+Nothing more was heard by Hugh, or any one else, of Lamb's debt. The
+creditor himself chose to say nothing about it, so much was he annoyed
+at being considered fond of money: but he was sure that Lamb's pockets
+were filled, from time to time, as he was seen eating good things in
+by-corners when everybody knew that his credit with his companions, and
+with all the neighbouring tradespeople, was exhausted. It was surprising
+that anybody could care so much for a shilling's worth of tarts or
+fruit as to be at the trouble of any concealment, or of constantly
+getting out of Hugh's way, rather than pay, and have done with it. When
+Lamb was seen munching or skulking, Firth sometimes asked Hugh whether
+he had got justice yet in that quarter: and then Hugh laughed; and Firth
+saw that he had gained something quite as good,--a power of doing
+without it good-humouredly, from those who were so unhappy as not to
+understand or care for justice.
+
+In one respect, however, Hugh was still within Lamb's power. When Lamb
+was not skulking, he was much given to boasting; and his boasts were
+chiefly about what a great man he was to be in India. He was really
+destined for India; and his own opinion was that he should have a fine
+life of it there, riding on an elephant, with a score of servants always
+about him, spending all his mornings in shooting, and all his evenings
+at dinners and balls. Hugh did not care about the servants, sport, or
+dissipation; and he did not see why any one should cross the globe to
+enjoy things like these, which might be had at home. But it did make him
+sigh to think that a lazy and ignorant boy should be destined to live
+among those mountains, and that tropical verdure of which he had
+read,--to see the cave-temples, the tanks, the prodigious rivers, and
+the natives and their ways, of which his imagination was full, while he
+must stay at home, and see nothing beyond London, as long as he lived.
+He did not grudge Holt his prospect of going to India; for Holt was an
+improved and improving boy, and had, moreover, a father there whom he
+loved very much: but Hugh could never hear Lamb's talk about India
+without being ready to cry.
+
+"Do you think," he said to Holt, "that all this is true?"
+
+"It is true that he is to go to India. His father has interest to get
+him out. But I do not believe he will like it so well as he thinks. At
+least, I know that my father has to work pretty hard,--harder than Lamb
+ever worked, or ever will work."
+
+"O dear! I wish I could go and do the work; and I would send all the
+money home to him (except just enough to live upon), and then he might
+go to dinners and balls in London, as much as he liked, and I could see
+the Hindoos and the cave-temples."
+
+"That is another mistake of Lamb's,--about the quantity of money," said
+Holt. "I do not believe anybody in India is so rich as he pretends, if
+they work ever so hard. I know my father works as hard as anybody, and
+he is not rich; and I know the same of several of his friends. So it is
+hardly likely that such a lazy dunce as Lamb should be rich, unless he
+has a fortune here at home; and if he had that, I do not believe he
+would take the trouble of going so far, to suffer by the heat."
+
+"I should not mind the heat," sighed Hugh, "if I could go. You must
+write to me, Holt, all about India. Write me the longest letters in the
+world; and tell me everything you can think of about the natives, and
+Juggernaut's Car."
+
+"That I will, if you like. But I am afraid that would only make you long
+the more to go,--like reading Voyages and Travels. How I do wish,
+though, that you were going with me by-and-bye, as you let me go home
+with you these holidays!"
+
+It was really true that Holt was going to London these holidays. He was
+not slow to acknowledge that Hugh's example had put into him some of the
+spirit that he had wanted when he came to Crofton, languid, indolent,
+and somewhat spoiled, as little boys from India are apt to be; and Hugh,
+for his part, saw now that he had been impatient and unkind towards
+Holt, and had left him forlorn, after having given him hopes that they
+were to be friends and companions. They were gradually becoming real
+friends now; and the faster, because Holt was so humble as not to be
+jealous of Hugh's still liking Dale best. Holt was satisfied to be liked
+best when Dale could not be had; and as this was the case in the
+Midsummer holidays, he was grateful to be allowed to spend them with the
+Proctors.
+
+Hugh was so thankful for his father's kindness in giving him a companion
+of his own age, and so pleased to show Holt little Harry, and the leads,
+and the river, and his shelf of books, and Covent Garden Market, and
+other wonders of London, that any unpleasant feelings that the boys had
+ever entertained towards each other were quite forgotten, and they grew
+more intimate every day. It touched Hugh's heart to see how sorry Holt
+was for every little trial that befel him, on coming home, altered as he
+was. Agnes herself did not turn red oftener, or watch more closely to
+help him than Holt did. Hugh himself had to tell him not to mind when he
+saw the shop-boy watching his way of walking, or little Harry trying to
+limp like him, or Susan pretending to find fault with him, as she used
+to do, as an excuse for brushing away her tears. Holt was one of the
+first to find out that Hugh liked to be sent errands about the house, or
+in the neighbourhood; and it was he who convinced the family of it,
+though at first they could not understand or believe it at all. When
+they saw, however, that Hugh, who used to like that his sisters should
+wait upon him, and to be very slow in moving from his book, even at his
+mother's desire, now went up stairs and down stairs for everybody, and
+tried to be more independent in his habits than any one else, they began
+to think that Holt knew Hugh's mind better than even they, and to
+respect and love him accordingly.
+
+There was another proof of friendship given by Holt, more difficult by
+far; and in giving it, he showed that he really had learned courage and
+spirit from Hugh, or in some other way. He saw that his friend was now
+and then apt to do what most people who have an infirmity are prone
+to,--to make use of his privation to obtain indulgences for himself, or
+as an excuse for wrong feelings; and when Holt could not help seeing
+this, he resolutely told his friend of it. No one else but Mrs. Proctor
+would see or speak the truth on such occasions; and when his mother was
+not by, Hugh would often have done selfish things unchecked, if it had
+not been for Holt. His father pitied him so deeply, that he joked even
+about Hugh's faults, rather than give him present pain. Phil thought he
+had enough to bear at Crofton, and that everybody should let him alone
+in the holidays. His sisters humoured him in everything: so that if it
+had not been for Holt, Hugh might have had more trouble with his faults
+than ever, on going back to Crofton.
+
+"Do you really and truly wish not to fail, as you say, Hugh?" asked
+Holt.
+
+"To be sure."
+
+"Well, then, do try not to be cross."
+
+"I am not cross."
+
+"I know you think it is low spirits. I am not quite sure of that: but if
+it is, would not it be braver not to be low in spirits?"
+
+Hugh muttered that that was fine talking for people that did not know.
+
+"That is true, I dare say; and I do not believe I should be half as
+brave as you, but I _should_ like to see you quite brave."
+
+"It is a pretty thing for you to lecture me, when I got down those books
+on purpose for you,--those Voyages and Travels. And how can I look at
+those same books, now and not----"
+
+Hugh could not go on, and he turned away his head.
+
+"Was it for me?" exclaimed Holt, in great concern. "Then I am very
+sorry. I will carry them to Mrs. Proctor, and ask her to put them quite
+away till we are gone back to Crofton."
+
+"No, no. Don't do that. I want them," said Hugh, finding now that he had
+not fetched them down entirely on Holt's account. But Holt took him at
+his word, and carried the books away, and succeeded in persuading Hugh
+that it was better not to look at volumes which he really almost knew by
+heart, and every crease, stain and dog's-ear of which brought up fresh
+in his mind his old visions of foreign travel and adventure. Then, Holt
+never encouraged any conversation about the accident with Susan, or with
+Mr. Blake, when they were in the shop; and he never pretended to see
+that Hugh's lameness was any reason why he should have the best of their
+places in the Haymarket Theatre (where they went once), or be the chief
+person when they capped verses, or played other games round the table,
+in the evenings at home. The next time Hugh was in his right mood, he
+was sure to feel obliged to Holt; and he sometimes said so.
+
+"I consider you a real friend to Hugh," said Mrs. Proctor, one day, when
+they three were together. "I have dreaded seeing my boy capable only of
+a short effort of courage;--bearing pain of body and mind well while
+everybody was sorry for him, and ready to praise him; and then failing
+in the long trial afterwards. When other people are leaving off being
+sorry for him, you continue your concern for him, and still remind him
+not to fail."
+
+"Would not it be a pity, ma'am," said Holt, earnestly, "would it not be
+a pity for him to fail when he bore everything so well at first, and
+when he helped me so that I don't know what I should have done without
+him? He made me write to Mr. Tooke, and so got me out of debt; and a
+hundred times, I am sure, the thought of him and his secret has put
+spirit into me. It would be a pity if he should fail without knowing it,
+for want of somebody to put him in mind. He might so easily think he was
+bearing it all well, as long as he could talk about his foot, and make a
+joke of being lame, when, all the while, he might be losing his temper
+in other ways."
+
+"Why, how true that is!" exclaimed Hugh. "I was going to ask if I was
+ever cross about being lame: but I know I am about other things, because
+I am worried about that, sometimes."
+
+"It is so easy to put you in mind," continued Holt; "and we shall all be
+so glad if you are brave to the very end----"
+
+"I will," said Hugh. "Only do you go on to put me in mind----"
+
+"And _you_ will grow more and more brave, too," observed Mrs. Proctor to
+Holt.
+
+Holt sighed; for he thought it would take a great deal of practice yet
+to make him a brave boy. Other people thought he was getting on very
+fast.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+CONCLUSION.
+
+
+The longer these two boys were together, the more they wished that they
+could spend their lives side by side; or, at least, not be separated by
+half the globe. Just before the Christmas holidays, some news arrived
+which startled them so much that they could hardly speak to one another
+about it for some hours. There was a deep feeling in their hearts which
+disposed them to speak alone to the Ruler of their lives, before they
+could even rejoice with one another. When they meditated upon it, they
+saw that the event had come about naturally enough; but it so exactly
+met the strongest desire they had in the world, that if a miracle had
+happened before their eyes, they could not have been more struck.
+
+Holt's father wrote a letter to Mr. Proctor, which reached its
+destination through Mr. Tooke's hands; and Mr. Tooke was consulted in
+the whole matter, and requested by Mr. Proctor to tell the two boys and
+Phil all about it. These three were therefore called into Mr. Tooke's
+study, one day, to hear some news.
+
+The letters which Mr. Tooke read were about Hugh. Mr. Holt explained
+that his son's best years were to be spent, like his own, in India; that
+his own experience had made him extremely anxious that his son should
+be associated with companions whom he could respect and love; and that
+he had long resolved to use such interest as he had in bringing out only
+such a youth, or youths, as he could wish his son to associate with. He
+mentioned that he was aware that one lad now at Crofton was destined for
+India--
+
+"That is Lamb," whispered the boys to each other.
+
+But that he did not hear of any friendship formed, or likely to be
+formed with advantage between his son and this young gentleman.
+
+"No, indeed!" muttered Holt.
+
+There was one boy, however, Mr. Holt went on to say, to whom his son
+seemed to be attached, and concerning whom he had related circumstances
+which inspired a strong interest, and which seemed to afford an
+expectation of an upright manhood following a gallant youth.
+
+Here all the boys reddened, and Hugh looked hard at the carpet.
+
+This boy had evidently a strong inclination for travel and adventure;
+and though his lameness put military or naval service out of the
+question, it might not unfit him for civil service in India. If Mr.
+Tooke could give such a report of his health, industry, and capability
+as should warrant his being offered an appointment, and if his parents
+were willing so to dispose of him, Mr. Holt was anxious to make
+arrangements for the education of the boys proceeding together, in order
+to their being companions in their voyage and subsequent employments.
+And then followed some account of what these arrangements were to be.
+
+"Now, Proctor," said Mr. Tooke to the breathless Hugh, "you must
+consider what you have to say to this. Your parents are willing to
+agree, if you are. But if," he continued, with a kind smile, "it would
+make you very unhappy to go to India, no one will force your
+inclinations."
+
+"Oh, sir," said Hugh, "I will work very hard,--I will work as hard as
+ever I can, if I may go."
+
+"Well: you may go, you see, if you will work hard. You can consider it
+quietly, or talk it over with your brother and Holt; and to-morrow you
+are to dine at your uncle's, where you will meet your father; and he and
+you will settle what to write to Mr. Holt, by the next ship."
+
+"And you, sir," said Phil, anxiously--"Mr. Holt asks your opinion."
+
+"My opinion is that your brother can be what he pleases. He wants some
+inducement to pursue his learning more strenuously than he has done
+yet----"
+
+"I will, sir. I will, indeed," cried Hugh.
+
+"I believe you will. Such a prospect as this will be an inducement, if
+anything can. You are, on the whole, a brave boy; and brave boys are not
+apt to be ungrateful to God or man; and I am sure you think it would be
+ungrateful, both to God and man, to refuse to do your best in the
+situation which gratifies the first wish of your heart."
+
+Hugh could not say another word. He made his lowest bow, and went
+straight to his desk. As the first-fruits of his gratitude, he learned
+his lessons thoroughly well that night; much as he would have liked to
+spend the time in dreaming.
+
+His father and he had no difficulty in settling what to write to Mr.
+Holt; and very merry were they together when the business was done. In
+a day or two, when Hugh had had time to think, he began to be glad on
+Tooke's account; and he found an opportunity of saying to him one day,
+
+"I never should have gone to India if I had not lost my foot; and I
+think it is well worth while losing my foot to go to India."
+
+"Do you really? or do you say it because----"
+
+"I think so really." And then he went off into such a description as
+convinced Tooke that he was in earnest, though it was to be feared that
+he would be disappointed by experience. But then again, Mr. Tooke was
+heard to say that one chief requisite for success and enjoyment in
+foreign service of any kind was a strong inclination for it. So Tooke
+was consoled, and easier in mind than for a whole year past.
+
+Hugh was able to keep his promise of working hard. Both at Crofton and
+at the India College, where his education was finished, he studied well
+and successfully; and when he set sail with his companion, it was with a
+heart free from all cares but one. Parting from his family was certainly
+a great grief; and he could not forget the last tone he had heard from
+Agnes. But this was his only sorrow. He was, at last, on the wide sea,
+and going to Asia. Holt was his dear friend. He had left none but
+well-wishers behind. His secret was his own; (though, indeed, he
+scarcely remembered that he had any secret;) and he could not but be
+conscious that he went out well prepared for honourable duty.
+
+
+THE END
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Crofton Boys, by Harriet Martineau
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