nt, that Susan, however busy she might be, came to listen, and
then asked him to say it again, that cook might hear what he learned at
school. Hugh now thought that none of them gabbled quite so fast as
Phil: but he soon found out, by a glance or two of Phil's to one side,
that he was trying to astonish the new boys. It is surprising how it
lightened Hugh's heart to find that his brother did not quite despise,
or feel ashamed of him, as he had begun to think: but that he even took
pains to show off. He was sorry too when the usher spoke sharply to
Phil, and even rapped his head with the cane, asking him what he
spluttered out his nonsense at that rate for. Thus ended Phil's
display; and Hugh felt as hot, and as ready to cry, as if it had
happened to himself.

Perhaps the usher saw this; for when he called Hugh up, he was very
kind. He looked at the Latin grammar he had used with Miss Harold, and
saw by the dogs'-ears exactly how far Hugh had gone in it, and asked him
only what he could answer very well. Hugh said three declensions, with
only one mistake. Then he was shown the part that he was to say
to-morrow morning; and Hugh walked away, all the happier for having
something to do, like everybody else. He was so little afraid of the
usher, that he went back to him to ask where he had better sit.

"Sit! O! I suppose you must have a desk, though you have nothing to
put in it. If there is a spare desk, you shall have it: if not, we will
find a corner for you somewhere."

Some of the boys whispered that Mrs Watson's footstool, under her
apron, would do: but the usher overheard this, and observed that it took
some people a good while to know a new boy; and that they might find
that a little fellow might be as much of a man as a big one. And the
usher called the oldest boy in the school, and asked him to see if there
was a desk for little Proctor. There was: and Hugh put into it his two
or three school-books, and his slate; and felt that he was now indeed a
Crofton boy. Then, the usher was kinder than he had expected; and he
had still to see Mr Tooke, of whom he was not afraid at all. So Hugh's
spirits rose, and he liked the prospect of breakfast as well as any boy
in the school.

There was one more rebuff for him, first, however. He ran up to his
room, to finish combing his hair, while the other boys were thronging
into the long room to breakfast. He found the housemaids there, making
the beds; and they