own, I forgot to tell you before, but your letter isn't sealed." Poor
Tom took the wax in silence and sealed his letter, with a huge lump
rising in his throat during the process, and then ran away to a quiet
corner of the playground and burst into an agony of tears. The idea of
his mother waiting day after day for the letter he had promised her at
once, and perhaps thinking him forgetful of her, when he had done all in
his power to make good his promise, was as bitter a grief as any which
he had to undergo for many a long year. His wrath then was
proportionately violent when he was aware of two boys, who stopped close
by him, and one of whom, a fat gaby of a fellow, pointed at him and
called him "Young mammy-sick!" Whereupon Tom arose, and giving vent thus
to his grief and shame and rage, smote his derider on the nose, and made
it bleed--which sent that young worthy howling to the usher, who
reported Tom for violent and unprovoked assault and battery. Hitting in
the face was a felony punishable with flogging, other hitting only a
misdemeanour--a distinction not altogether clear in principle. Tom
however escaped the penalty by pleading "primum tempus;" and having
written a second letter to his mother, enclosing some forget-me-nots,
which he picked on their first half-holiday walk, felt quite happy
again, and began to enjoy vastly a good deal of his new life.

These half-holiday walks were the great events of the week. The whole
fifty boys started after dinner with one of the ushers for Hazeldown,
which was distant some mile or so from the school. Hazeldown measured
some three miles round, and in the neighbourhood were several woods full
of all manner of birds and butterflies. The usher walked slowly round
the down with such boys as liked to accompany him; the rest scattered in
all directions, being only bound to appear again when the usher had
completed his round, and accompany him home. They were forbidden,
however, to go anywhere except on the down and into the woods, the
village being especially prohibited, where huge bulls'-eyes and unctuous
toffy might be procured in exchange for coin of the realm.

Various were the amusements to which the boys then betook themselves. At
the entrance of the down there was a steep hillock, like the barrows of
Tom's own downs. This mound was the weekly scene of terrific combats, at
a game called by the queer name of "mud-patties." The boys who played
divided into sides under different