epared 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 THREE.

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