e kept
beckoning Tom Holt on, having told him there was nothing to be afraid
of. But when, at last, Mr. Tooke saw them, he made no difference between
the two, and seemed to forget having ever seen Hugh. He told them he
hoped they would be good boys, and would do credit to Crofton; and then
he asked Mr. Carnaby to set them something to learn. And this was all
they had to do with Mr. Tooke for a long while.

This morning in school, from nine till twelve, seemed the longest
morning these little boys had ever known. When they remembered that the
afternoon would be as long, and every morning and afternoon for three
months, their hearts sank. Perhaps, if any one had told them that the
time would grow shorter and shorter by use, and at last, when they had
plenty to do, almost too short, they would not have believed it, because
they could not yet feel it. But what they now found was only what every
boy and girl finds, on beginning school, or entering upon any new way of
life.

Mr. Carnaby, who was busy with others, found it rather difficult to fill
up their time. When Hugh had said some Latin, and helped his companion
to learn his first Latin lesson, and both had written a copy, and done a
sum, Mr. Carnaby could not spare them any more time or thought, and told
them they might do what they liked, if they only kept quiet, till school
was up. So they made out the ridiculous figures which somebody had
carved upon their desks, and the verses, half-rubbed out, which were
scribbled inside: and then they reckoned, on their slates, how many days
there were before the Christmas holidays;--how many school-days, and how
many Sundays. And then Hugh began to draw a steamboat in the Thames, as
seen from the leads of his father's house; while Holt drew on his slate
the ship in which he came over from India. But before they had done, the
clock struck twelve, school was up, and there was a general rush into
the playground.

Now Hugh was really to see the country. Except that the sun had shone
pleasantly into his room in the morning, through waving trees, nothing
had yet occurred to make him feel that he was in the country. Now,
however, he was in the open air, with trees sprinkled all over the
landscape, and green fields stretching away, and the old church tower
half-covered with ivy. Hugh screamed with pleasure; and nobody thought
it odd, for almost every boy was shouting. Hugh longed to pick up some
of the shining brown chesnuts which he h