y," 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 his 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 h