Smith been a kind, motherly woman, she might have done
much to reconcile the boy to his new home; but she was a tall, gaunt,
bony woman, more masculine than feminine, not unlike Miss Sally Brass,
whom all readers of Dickens will remember.

I am sorry to say that a homesick boy in a boarding school does not meet
with much sympathy. Even those boys who have once experienced the same
malady are half ashamed of it, and, if they remember it at all, remember
it as a mark of weakness. There was but one boy who made friendly
approaches to Tommy, and this was Hector Roscoe.

Hector had seen the little fellow sitting by himself with a sad face,
and he had gone up to him, and asked him in a pleasant tone some
questions about himself and his home.

"So you have never been away from home before, Tommy," he said.

"No, sir," answered the boy, timidly.

"Don't call me sir. I am only a boy like you. Call me Hector."

"That is a strange name. I never heard it before."

"No, it is not a common name. I suppose you don't like school very
much?"

"I never shall be happy here," sighed Tommy.

"You think so now, but you will get used to it."

"I don't think I shall."

"Oh, yes, you will. It will never seem like home, of course, but you
will get acquainted with some of the boys, and will join in their games,
and then time will pass more pleasantly."

"I think the boys are very rough," said the little boy.

"Yes, they are rough, but they don't mean unkindly. Some of them were
homesick when they came here, just like you."

"Were you homesick?" asked Tommy, looking up, with interest.

"I didn't like the school very well; but I was much older than you when
I came here, and, besides, I didn't leave behind me so pleasant a home.
I am not so rich as you, Tommy. I have no father nor mother," and for
the moment Hector, too, looked sad.

The little fellow became more cheerful under the influence of Hector's
kind and sympathetic words. Our hero, however, was catechised about his
sudden intimacy with the new scholar.

"I see you've got a new situation, Roscoe," said Bates, when Hector was
walking away.

"What do you mean?"

"You've secured the position of nurse to that little cry baby."

"You mean Tommy Cooper?"

"Yes, if that's his name."

"I was cheering up the little fellow a bit. He's made rather a bad
exchange in leaving a happy home for Smith Institute."

"That's so. This is a dreary hole, but there's no need of crying a