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
amuseme