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