oke 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 a