end to in looking
after her household and seeing that the boys were well fed and, if they
were ill, properly looked after--which she took good care they were.

CHAPTER XXVIII

Ernest had heard awful accounts of Dr Skinner's temper, and of the
bullying which the younger boys at Roughborough had to put up with at the
hands of the bigger ones. He had now got about as much as he could
stand, and felt as though it must go hard with him if his burdens of
whatever kind were to be increased. He did not cry on leaving home, but
I am afraid he did on being told that he was getting near Roughborough.
His father and mother were with him, having posted from home in their own
carriage; Roughborough had as yet no railway, and as it was only some
forty miles from Battersby, this was the easiest way of getting there.

On seeing him cry, his mother felt flattered and caressed him. She said
she knew he must feel very sad at leaving such a happy home, and going
among people who, though they would be very good to him, could never,
never be as good as his dear papa and she had been; still, she was
herself, if he only knew it, much more deserving of pity than he was, for
the parting was more painful to her than it could possibly be to him,
etc., and Ernest, on being told that his tears were for grief at leaving
home, took it all on trust, and did not trouble to investigate the real
cause of his tears. As they approached Roughborough he pulled himself
together, and was fairly calm by the time he reached Dr Skinner's.

On their arrival they had luncheon with the Doctor and his wife, and then
Mrs Skinner took Christina over the bedrooms, and showed her where her
dear little boy was to sleep.

Whatever men may think about the study of man, women do really believe
the noblest study for womankind to be woman, and Christina was too much
engrossed with Mrs Skinner to pay much attention to anything else; I
daresay Mrs Skinner, too, was taking pretty accurate stock of Christina.
Christina was charmed, as indeed she generally was with any new
acquaintance, for she found in them (and so must we all) something of the
nature of a cross; as for Mrs Skinner, I imagine she had seen too many
Christinas to find much regeneration in the sample now before her; I
believe her private opinion echoed the dictum of a well-known head-master
who declared that all parents were fools, but more especially mothers;
she was, however, all smiles and sweetness,