Tom Brown's Schooldays...................................................................................................................................1

Thomas Hughes.......................................................................................................................................1

The Browns have become illustrious by the pen of Thackeray and the pencil of Doyle, within the memory of

the young gentlemen who are now matriculating at the universities. Notwithstanding the wellmerited but

late fame which has now fallen upon them, any one at all acquainted with the family must feel that much has

yet to be written and said before the British nation will be properly sensible of how much of its greatness it

owes to the Browns. For centuries, in their quiet, dogged, homespun way, they have been subduing the earth

in most English counties, and leaving their mark in American forests and Australian uplands. Wherever the

fleets and armies of England have won renown, there stalwart sons of the Browns have done yeomen's work.

With the yew bow and clothyard shaft at Cressy and Agincourtwith the brown bill and pike under the

brave Lord Willoughbywith culverin and demiculverin against Spaniards and Dutchmenwith

handgrenade and sabre, and musket and bayonet, under Rodney and St. Vincent, Wolfe and Moore, Nelson

and Wellington, they have carried their lives in their hands, getting hard knocks and hard work in

plentywhich was on the whole what they looked for, and the best thing for themand little praise or

pudding, which indeed they, and most of us, are better without. Talbots and Stanleys, St. Maurs, and

suchlike folk, have led armies and made laws time out of mind; but those noble families would be

somewhat astoundedif the accounts ever came to be fairly takento find how small their work for

These latter, indeed, have, until the present generation, rarely been sung by poet, or chronicled by sage. They

have wanted their sacer vates, having been too solid to rise to the top by themselves, and not having been

largely gifted with the talent of catching hold of, and holding on tight to, whatever good things happened to

be goingthe foundation of the fortunes of so many noble families. But the world goes on its way, and the

wheel turns, and the wrongs of the Browns, like other wrongs, seem in a fair way to get righted. And this

present writer, having for many years of his life been a devout Brownworshipper, and, moreover, having the

honour of being nearly connected with an eminently respectable branch of the great Brown family, is

anxious, so far as in him lies, to help the wheel over, and throw his stone on to the pile.

However, gentle reader, or simple reader, whichever you may be, lest you should be led to waste your

precious time upon these pages, I make so bold as at once to tell you the sort of folk you'll have to meet and

put up with, if you and I are to jog on comfortably together. You shall hear at once what sort of folk the

Browns areat least my branch of them; and then, if you don't like the sort, why, cut the concern at once,

In the first place, the Browns are a fighting family. One may question their wisdom, or wit, or beauty, but

about their fight there can be no question. Wherever hard knocks of any kind, visible or invisible, are going;

there the Brown who is nearest must shove in his carcass. And these carcasses, for the most part, answer very

well to the characteristic propensity: they are a squareheaded and snakenecked generation, broad in the

shoulder, deep in the chest, and thin in the flank, carrying no lumber. Then for clanship, they are as bad as

Highlanders; it is amazing the belief they have in one another. With them there is nothing like the Browns, to

the third and fourth generation. "Blood is thicker than water," is one of their pet sayings. They can't be happy

unless they are always meeting one another. Never were such people for family gatherings; which, were you

a stranger, or sensitive, you might think had better not have been gathered together. For during the whole

time of their being together they luxuriate in telling one another their minds on whatever subject turns up; and

their minds are wonderfully antagonistic, and all their opinions are downright beliefs. Till you've been among

them some time and understand them, you can't think but that they are quarrelling. Not a bit of it. They love

and respect one another ten times the more after a good set family arguing bout, and go back, one to his

curacy, another to his chambers, and another to his regiment, freshened for work, and more than ever

This family training, too, combined with their turn for combativeness, makes them eminently quixotic. They

can't let anything alone which they think going wrong. They must speak their mind about it, annoying all

easygoing folk, and spend their time and money in having a tinker at it, however hopeless the job. It is an

impossibility to a Brown to leave the most disreputable lame dog on the other side of a stile. Most other folk

get tired of such work. The old Browns, with red faces, white whiskers, and bald heads, go on believing and

fighting to a green old age. They have always a crotchet going, till the old man with the scythe reaps and

And the most provoking thing is, that no failures knock them up, or make them hold their hands, or think you,

or me, or other sane people in the right. Failures slide off them like July rain off a duck's back feathers. Jem

and his whole family turn out bad, and cheat them one week, and the next they are doing the same thing for

Jack; and when he goes to the treadmill, and his wife and children to the workhouse, they will be on the

However, it is time for us to get from the general to the particular; so, leaving the great army of Browns, who

are scattered over the whole empire on which the sun never sets, and whose general diffusion I take to be the

chief cause of that empire's stability; let us at once fix our attention upon the small nest of Browns in which

our hero was hatched, and which dwelt in that portion of the royal county of Berks which is called the Vale of

Most of you have probably travelled down the Great Western Railway as far as Swindon. Those of you who

did so with their eyes open have been aware, soon after leaving the Didcot station, of a fine range of chalk

hills running parallel with the railway on the lefthand side as you go down, and distant some two or three

miles, more or less, from the line. The highest point in the range is the White Horse Hill, which you come in

front of just before you stop at the Shrivenham station. If you love English scenery, and have a few hours to

spare, you can't do better, the next time you pass, than stop at the Farringdon Road or Shrivenham station,

and make your way to that highest point. And those who care for the vague old stories that haunt

countrysides all about England, will not, if they are wise, be content with only a few hours' stay; for,

glorious as the view is, the neighbourhood is yet more interesting for its relics of bygone times. I only know

two English neighbourhoods thoroughly, and in each, within a circle of five miles, there is enough of interest

and beauty to last any reasonable man his life. I believe this to be the case almost throughout the country, but

each has a special attraction, and none can be richer than the one I am speaking of and going to introduce you

to very particularly, for on this subject I must be prosy; so those that don't care for England in detail may skip

O young England! young England! you who are born into these racing railroad times, when there's a Great

Exhibition, or some monster sight, every year, and you can get over a couple of thousand miles of ground for

three pound ten in a fiveweeks' holiday, why don't you know more of your own birthplaces? You're all in

the ends of the earth, it seems to me, as soon as you get your necks out of the educational collar, for

midsummer holidays, long vacations, or what notgoing round Ireland, with a return ticket, in a fortnight;

dropping your copies of Tennyson on the tops of Swiss mountains; or pulling down the Danube in Oxford

racing boats. And when you get home for a quiet fortnight, you turn the steam off, and lie on your backs in

the paternal garden, surrounded by the last batch of books from Mudie's library, and half bored to death.

Well, well! I know it has its good side. You all patter French more or less, and perhaps German; you have

seen men and cities, no doubt, and have your opinions, such as they are, about schools of painting, high art,

and all that; have seen the pictures of Dresden and the Louvre, and know the taste of sour krout. All I say is,

you don't know your own lanes and woods and fields. Though you may be chokefull of science, not one in

twenty of you knows where to find the woodsorrel, or beeorchis, which grow in the next wood, or on the

down three miles off, or what the bogbean and woodsage are good for. And as for the country legends, the

stories of the old gableended farmhouses, the place where the last skirmish was fought in the civil wars,

where the parish butts stood, where the last highwayman turned to bay, where the last ghost was laid by the

Now, in my time, when we got home by the old coach, which put us down at the crossroads with our boxes,

the first day of the holidays, and had been driven off by the family coachman, singing "Dulce Domum" at the

top of our voices, there we were, fixtures, till black Monday came round. We had to cut out our own

amusements within a walk or a ride of home. And so we got to know all the country folk and their ways and

songs and stories by heart, and went over the fields and woods and hills, again and again, till we made friends

of them all. We were Berkshire, or Gloucestershire, or Yorkshire boys; and you're young cosmopolites,

belonging to all countries and no countries. No doubt it's all right; I dare say it is. This is the day of large

views, and glorious humanity, and all that; but I wish backsword play hadn't gone out in the Vale of White

Horse, and that that confounded Great Western hadn't carried away Alfred's Hill to make an embankment.

But to return to the said Vale of White Horse, the country in which the first scenes of this true and interesting

story are laid. As I said, the Great Western now runs right through it, and it is a land of large, rich pastures

bounded by oxfences, and covered with fine hedgerow timber, with here and there a nice little gorse or

spinney, where abideth poor Charley, having no other cover to which to betake himself for miles and miles,

when pushed out some fine November morning by the old Berkshire. Those who have been there, and well

mounted, only know how he and the stanch little pack who dash after himheads high and sterns low, with a

breasthigh scentcan consume the ground at such times. There being little ploughland, and few woods, the

Vale is only an average sporting country, except for hunting. The villages are straggling, queer,

oldfashioned places, the houses being dropped down without the least regularity, in nooks and

outoftheway corners, by the sides of shadowy lanes and footpaths, each with its patch of garden. They are

built chiefly of good gray stone, and thatched; though I see that within the last year or two the redbrick

cottages are multiplying, for the Vale is beginning to manufacture largely both bricks and tiles. There are lots

of waste ground by the side of the roads in every village, amounting often to village greens, where feed the

pigs and ganders of the people; and these roads are oldfashioned, homely roads, very dirty and badly made,

and hardly endurable in winter, but still pleasant jog trot roads running through the great pasturelands,

dotted here and there with little clumps of thorns, where the sleek kine are feeding, with no fence on either

side of them, and a gate at the end of each field, which makes you get out of your gig (if you keep one), and

One of the moralists whom we sat under in our youthwas it the great Richard Swiveller, or Mr.

Stigginssays, "We are born in a vale, and must take the consequences of being found in such a situation."

These consequences I, for one, am ready to encounter. I pity people who weren't born in a vale. I don't mean

a flat country; but a valethat is, a flat country bounded by hills. The having your hill always in view if you

choose to turn towards himthat's the essence of a vale. There he is for ever in the distance, your friend and

And then what a hill is the White Horse Hill! There it stands right up above all the rest, nine hundred feet

above the sea, and the boldest, bravest shape for a chalk hill that you ever saw. Let us go up to the top of him,

and see what is to be found there. Ay, you may well wonder and think it odd you never heard of this before;

but wonder or not, as you please, there are hundreds of such things lying about England, which wiser folk

than you know nothing of, and care nothing for. Yes, it's a magnificent Roman camp, and no mistake, with

gates and ditch and mounds, all as complete as it was twenty years after the strong old rogues left it. Here,

right up on the highest point, from which they say you can see eleven counties, they trenched round all the

tableland, some twelve or fourteen acres, as was their custom, for they couldn't bear anybody to overlook

them, and made their eyrie. The ground falls away rapidly on all sides. Was there ever such turf in the whole

world? You sink up to your ankles at every step, and yet the spring of it is delicious. There is always a breeze

in the "camp," as it is called; and here it lies, just as the Romans left it, except that cairn on the east side, left

by her Majesty's corps of sappers and miners the other day, when they and the engineer officer had finished

their sojourn there, and their surveys for the ordnance map of Berkshire. It is altogether a place that you won't

forget, a place to open a man's soul, and make him prophesy, as he looks down on that great Vale spread out

as the garden of the Lord before him, and wave on wave of the mysterious downs behind, and to the right and

left the chalk hills running away into the distance, along which he can trace for miles the old Roman road,

"the Ridgeway" ("the Rudge," as the country folk call it), keeping straight along the highest back of the

hillssuch a place as Balak brought Balaam to, and told him to prophesy against the people in the valley

beneath. And he could not, neither shall you, for they are a people of the Lord who abide there.

And now we leave the camp, and descend towards the west, and are on the Ashdown. We are treading on

heroes. It is sacred ground for Englishmenmore sacred than all but one or two fields where their bones lie

whitening. For this is the actual place where our Alfred won his great battle, the battle of Ashdown

("Aescendum" in the chroniclers), which broke the Danish power, and made England a Christian land. The

Danes held the camp and the slope where we are standingthe whole crown of the hill, in fact. "The heathen

had beforehand seized the higher ground," as old Asser says, having wasted everything behind them from

London, and being just ready to burst down on the fair Vale, Alfred's own birthplace and heritage. And up the

heights came the Saxons, as they did at the Alma. "The Christians led up their line from the lower ground.

There stood also on that same spot a single thorntree, marvellous stumpy (which we ourselves with our very

own eyes have seen)." Bless the old chronicler! Does he think nobody ever saw the "single thorntree" but

himself? Why, there it stands to this very day, just on the edge of the slope, and I saw it not three weeks

sincean old single thorntree, "marvellous stumpy." At least, if it isn't the same tree it ought to have been,

for it's just in the place where the battle must have been won or lost"around which, as I was saying, the two

lines of foemen came together in battle with a huge shout. And in this place one of the two kings of the

heathen and five of his earls fell down and died, and many thousands of the heathen side in the same place." *

After which crowning mercy, the pious king, that there might never be wanting a sign and a memorial to the

countryside, carved out on the northern side of the chalk hill, under the camp, where it is almost precipitous,

the great Saxon White Horse, which he who will may see from the railway, and which gives its name to the

* "Pagani editiorem Iocum praeoccupaverant. Christiani ab inferiori loco aciem dirigebant. Erat quoque in

eodem loco unica spinosa arbor, brevis admodum (quam nos ipsi nostris propriis oculis vidimus). Circa quam

ergo hostiles inter se acies cum ingenti clamore hostiliter conveniunt. Quo in loco alter de duobus Paganorum

regibus et quinque comites occisi occubuerunt, et multa millia Paganae partis in eodem loco. Cecidit illic

ergo Boegsceg Rex, et Sidroc ille senex comes, et Sidroc Junior comes, et Obsbern comes," etc. Annales

Rerum Gestarum AElfredi Magni, Auctore Asserio. Recensuit Franciscus Wise. Oxford, 1722, p.23.

Right down below the White Horse is a curious deep and broad gully called "the Manger," into one side of

which the hills fall with a series of the most lovely sweeping curves, known as "the Giant's Stairs." They are

not a bit like stairs, but I never saw anything like them anywhere else, with their short green turf, and tender

bluebells, and gossamer and thistledown gleaming in the sun and the sheeppaths running along their sides

The other side of the Manger is formed by the Dragon's Hill, a curious little round selfconfident fellow,

thrown forward from the range, utterly unlike everything round him. On this hill some deliverer of

mankindSt. George, the country folk used to tell mekilled a dragon. Whether it were St. George, I

cannot say; but surely a dragon was killed there, for you may see the marks yet where his blood ran down,

and more by token the place where it ran down is the easiest way up the hillside.

Passing along the Ridgeway to the west for about a mile, we come to a little clump of young beech and firs,

with a growth of thorn and privet underwood. Here you may find nests of the strong down partridge and

peewit, but take care that the keeper isn't down upon you; and in the middle of it is an old cromlech, a huge

flat stone raised on seven or eight others, and led up to by a path, with large single stones set up on each side.

This is Wayland Smith's cave, a place of classic fame now; but as Sir Walter has touched it, I may as well let

The thick, deep wood which you see in the hollow, about a mile off, surrounds Ashdown Park, built by Inigo

Jones. Four broad alleys are cut through the wood from circumference to centre, and each leads to one face of

the house. The mystery of the downs hangs about house and wood, as they stand there alone, so unlike all

around, with the green slopes studded with great stones just about this part, stretching away on all sides. It

Passing along the Ridgeway to the east, we soon come to cultivated land. The downs, strictly so called, are no

more. Lincolnshire farmers have been imported, and the long, fresh slopes are sheepwalks no more, but

grow famous turnips and barley. One of these improvers lives over there at the "Seven Barrows" farm,

another mystery of the great downs. There are the barrows still, solemn and silent, like ships in the calm sea,

the sepulchres of some sons of men. But of whom? It is three miles from the White Horsetoo far for the

slain of Ashdown to be buried there. Who shall say what heroes are waiting there? But we must get down into

the Vale again, and so away by the Great Western Railway to town, for time and the printer's devil press, and

it is a terrible long and slippery descent, and a shocking bad road. At the bottom, however, there is a pleasant

public; whereat we must really take a modest quencher, for the down air is provocative of thirst. So we pull

"Blawing Stwun, sir," says the landlord, pouring out his old ale from a Toby Philpot jug, with a melodious

"What queer names!" say we, sighing at the end of our draught, and holding out the glass to be replenished.

"Bean't queer at all, as I can see, sir," says mine host, handing back our glass, "seeing as this here is the

Blawing Stwun, his self," putting his hand on a square lump of stone, some three feet and a half high,

perforated with two or three queer holes, like petrified antediluvian ratholes, which lies there close under the

oak, under our very nose. We are more than ever puzzled, and drink our second glass of ale, wondering what

will come next. "Like to hear un, sir?" says mine host, setting down Toby Philpot on the tray, and resting

both hands on the "Stwun." We are ready for anything; and he, without waiting for a reply, applies his mouth

to one of the ratholes. Something must come of it, if he doesn't burst. Good heavens! I hope he has no

apoplectic tendencies. Yes, here it comes, sure enough, a gruesome sound between a moan and a roar, and

spreads itself away over the valley, and up the hillside, and into the woods at the back of the house, a

ghostlike, awful voice. "Um do say, sir," says mine host, rising purplefaced, while the moan is still coming

out of the Stwun, "as they used in old times to warn the countryside by blawing the Stwun when the enemy

was acomin', and as how folks could make un heered then for seven mile round; leastways, so I've heered

Lawyer Smith say, and he knows a smart sight about them old times." We can hardly swallow Lawyer

Smith's seven miles; but could the blowing of the stone have been a summons, a sort of sending the fiery

cross round the neighbourhood in the old times? What old times? Who knows? We pay for our beer, and are

And now, my boys, you whom I want to get for readers, have you had enough? Will you give in at once, and

say you're convinced, and let me begin my story, or will you have more of it? Remember, I've only been over

a little bit of the hillside yet what you could ride round easily on your ponies in an hour. I'm only just come

down into the Vale, by Blowing Stone Hill; and if I once begin about the Vale, what's to stop me? You'll have

to hear all about Wantage, the birthplace of Alfred, and Farringdon, which held out so long for Charles the

First (the Vale was near Oxford, and dreadfully malignantfull of Throgmortons, Puseys, and Pyes, and

such like; and their brawny retainers). Did you ever read Thomas Ingoldsby's "Legend of Hamilton Tighe"? If

you haven't, you ought to have. Well, Farringdon is where he lived, before he went to sea; his real name was

Hamden Pye, and the Pyes were the great folk at Farringdon. Then there's Pusey. You've heard of the Pusey

horn, which King Canute gave to the Puseys of that day, and which the gallant old squire, lately gone to his

rest (whom Berkshire freeholders turned out of last Parliament, to their eternal disgrace, for voting according

to his conscience), used to bring out on high days, holidays, and bonfire nights. And the splendid old cross

church at Uffington, the Uffingas town. How the whole countryside teems with Saxon names and memories!

And the old moated grange at Compton, nestled close under the hillside, where twenty Marianas may have

lived, with its bright waterlilies in the moat, and its yew walk, "the cloister walk," and its peerless terraced

gardens. There they all are, and twenty things beside, for those who care about them, and have eyes. And

these are the sort of things you may find, I believe, every one of you, in any common English country

Will you look for them under your own noses, or will you not? Well, well, I've done what I can to make you;

and if you will go gadding over half Europe now, every holidays, I can't help it. I was born and bred a

westcountry man, thank God! a Wessex man, a citizen of the noblest Saxon kingdom of Wessex, a regular

"Angular Saxon," the very soul of me adscriptus glebae. There's nothing like the old countryside for me, and

no music like the twang of the real old Saxon tongue, as one gets it fresh from the veritable chaw in the White

"Throo aall the waarld owld Gaarge would bwoast, Commend me to merry owld England mwoast; While

Here, at any rate, lived and stopped at home Squire Brown, J.P. for the county of Berks, in a village near the

foot of the White Horse range. And here he dealt out justice and mercy in a rough way, and begat sons and

daughters, and hunted the fox, and grumbled at the badness of the roads and the times. And his wife dealt out

stockings, and calico shirts, and smock frocks, and comforting drinks to the old folks with the "rheumatiz,"

and good counsel to all; and kept the coal and clothes' clubs going, for yuletide, when the bands of

mummers came round, dressed out in ribbons and coloured paper caps, and stamped round the Squire's

kitchen, repeating in true singsong vernacular the legend of St. George and his fight, and the tenpound

doctor, who plays his part at healing the Sainta relic, I believe, of the old Middleage mysteries. It was the

first dramatic representation which greeted the eyes of little Tom, who was brought down into the kitchen by

his nurse to witness it, at the mature age of three years. Tom was the eldest child of his parents, and from his

earliest babyhood exhibited the family characteristics in great strength. He was a hearty, strong boy from the

first, given to fighting with and escaping from his nurse, and fraternizing with all the village boys, with

whom he made expeditions all round the neighbourhood. And here, in the quiet oldfashioned country

village, under the shadow of the everlasting hills, Tom Brown was reared, and never left it till he went first to

school, when nearly eight years of age, for in those days change of air twice a year was not thought

I have been credibly informed, and am inclined to believe, that the various boards of directors of railway

companies, those gigantic jobbers and bribers, while quarrelling about everything else, agreed together some

ten years back to buy up the learned profession of medicine, body and soul. To this end they set apart several

millions of money, which they continually distribute judiciously among the doctors, stipulating only this one

thing, that they shall prescribe change of air to every patient who can pay, or borrow money to pay, a railway

fare, and see their prescription carried out. If it be not for this, why is it that none of us can be well at home

for a year together? It wasn't so twenty years ago, not a bit of it. The Browns didn't go out of the country once

in five years. A visit to Reading or Abingdon twice a year, at assizes or quarter sessions, which the Squire

made on his horse with a pair of saddlebags containing his wardrobe, a stay of a day or two at some country

neighbour's, or an expedition to a county ball or the yeomanry review, made up the sum of the Brown

locomotion in most years. A stray Brown from some distant county dropped in every now and then; or from

Oxford, on grave nag, an old don, contemporary of the Squire; and were looked upon by the Brown

household and the villagers with the same sort of feeling with which we now regard a man who has crossed

the Rocky Mountains, or launched a boat on the Great Lake in Central Africa. The White Horse Vale,

remember, was traversed by no great road nothing but country parish roads, and these very bad. Only one

coach ran there, and this one only from Wantage to London, so that the western part of the Vale was without

regular means of moving on, and certainly didn't seem to want them. There was the canal, by the way, which

supplied the countryside with coal, and up and down which continually went the long barges, with the big

black men lounging by the side of the horses along the towingpath, and the women in brightcoloured

handkerchiefs standing in the sterns steering. Standing I say, but you could never see whether they were

standing or sitting, all but their heads and shoulders being out of sight in the cozy little cabins which occupied

some eight feet of the stern, and which Tom Brown pictured to himself as the most desirable of residences.

His nurse told him that those goodnaturedlooking women were in the constant habit of enticing children

into the barges, and taking them up to London and selling them, which Tom wouldn't believe, and which

made him resolve as soon as possible to accept the oftproffered invitation of these sirens to "young master"

Yet why should I, after all, abuse the gadabout propensities of my countrymen? We are a vagabond nation

now, that's certain, for better for worse. I am a vagabond; I have been away from home no less than five

distinct times in the last year. The Queen sets us the example: we are moving on from top to bottom. Little

dirty Jack, who abides in Clement's Inn gateway, and blacks my boots for a penny, takes his month's

hoppicking every year as a matter of course. Why shouldn't he? I'm delighted at it. I love vagabonds, only I

prefer poor to rich ones. Couriers and ladies'maids, imperials and travelling carriages, are an abomination

unto me; I cannot away with them. But for dirty Jack, and every good fellow who, in the words of the capital

on his own back, why, good luck to them, and many a merry roadside adventure, and steaming supper in the

chimney corners of roadside inns, Swiss chalets, Hottentot kraals, or wherever else they like to go. So, having

succeeded in contradicting myself in my first chapter (which gives me great hopes that you will all go on, and

think me a good fellow notwithstanding my crotchets), I shall here shut up for the present, and consider my

ways; having resolved to "sar' it out," as we say in the Vale, "holus bolus" just as it comes, and then you'll

As that venerable and learned poet (whose voluminous works we all think it the correct thing to admire and

talk about, but don't read often) most truly says, "The child is father to the man;" a fortiori, therefore, he must

be father to the boy. So as we are going at any rate to see Tom Brown through his boyhood, supposing we

never get any farther (which, if you show a proper sense of the value of this history, there is no knowing but

what we may), let us have a look at the life and environments of the child in the quiet country village to

Tom, as has been already said, was a robust and combative urchin, and at the age of four began to struggle

against the yoke and authority of his nurse. That functionary was a good hearted, tearful, scatterbrained

girl, lately taken by Tom's mother, Madam Brown, as she was called, from the village school to be trained as

nurserymaid. Madam Brown was a rare trainer of servants, and spent herself freely in the profession; for

profession it was, and gave her more trouble by half than many people take to earn a good income. Her

servants were known and sought after for miles round. Almost all the girls who attained a certain place in the

village school were taken by her, one or two at a time, as housemaids, laundrymaids, nurserymaids, or

kitchenmaids, and after a year or two's training were started in life amongst the neighbouring families, with

good principles and wardrobes. One of the results of this system was the perpetual despair of Mrs. Brown's

cook and own maid, who no sooner had a notable girl made to their hands than missus was sure to find a

good place for her and send her off, taking in fresh importations from the school. Another was, that the house

was always full of young girls, with clean, shining faces, who broke plates and scorched linen, but made an

atmosphere of cheerful, homely life about the place, good for every one who came within its influence. Mrs.

Brown loved young people, and in fact human creatures in general, above plates and linen. They were more

like a lot of elder children than servants, and felt to her more as a mother or aunt than as a mistress.

Tom's nurse was one who took in her instruction very slowly she seemed to have two left hands and no

head; and so Mrs. Brown kept her on longer than usual, that she might expend her awkwardness and

forgetfulness upon those who would not judge and punish her too strictly for them.

Charity Lamb was her name. It had been the immemorial habit of the village to christen children either by

Bible names, or by those of the cardinal and other virtues; so that one was for ever hearing in the village

street or on the green, shrill sounds of "Prudence! Prudence! thee cum' out o' the gutter;" or, "Mercy! drat the

girl, what bist thee adoin' wi' little Faith?" and there were Ruths, Rachels, Keziahs, in every corner. The

same with the boys: they were Benjamins, Jacobs, Noahs, Enochs. I suppose the custom has come down from

Well, from early morning till dewy eve, when she had it out of him in the cold tub before putting him to bed,

Charity and Tom were pitted against one another. Physical power was as yet on the side of Charity, but she

hadn't a chance with him wherever headwork was wanted. This war of independence began every morning

before breakfast, when Charity escorted her charge to a neighbouring farmhouse, which supplied the Browns,

and where, by his mother's wish, Master Tom went to drink whey before breakfast. Tom had no sort of

objection to whey, but he had a decided liking for curds, which were forbidden as unwholesome; and there

was seldom a morning that he did not manage to secure a handful of hard curds, in defiance of Charity and of

the farmer's wife. The latter good soul was a gaunt, angular woman, who, with an old black bonnet on the top

of her head, the strings dangling about her shoulders, and her gown tucked through her pocketholes, went

clattering about the dairy, cheeseroom, and yard, in high pattens. Charity was some sort of niece of the old

lady's, and was consequently free of the farmhouse and garden, into which she could not resist going for the

purposes of gossip and flirtation with the heirapparent, who was a dawdling fellow, never out at work as he

ought to have been. The moment Charity had found her cousin, or any other occupation, Tom would slip

away; and in a minute shrill cries would be heard from the dairy, "Charity, Charity, thee lazy huzzy, where

bist?" and Tom would break cover, hands and mouth full of curds, and take refuge on the shaky surface of the

great muck reservoir in the middle of the yard, disturbing the repose of the great pigs. Here he was in safety,

as no grown person could follow without getting over their knees; and the luckless Charity, while her aunt

scolded her from the dairy door, for being "allus hankering about arter our Willum, instead of minding

Master Tom," would descend from threats to coaxing, to lure Tom out of the muck, which was rising over his

shoes, and would soon tell a tale on his stockings, for which she would be sure to catch it from missus's maid.

Tom had two abettors, in the shape of a couple of old boys, Noah and Benjamin by name, who defended him

from Charity, and expended much time upon his education. They were both of them retired servants of

former generations of the Browns. Noah Crooke was a keen, dry old man of almost ninety, but still able to

totter about. He talked to Tom quite as if he were one of his own family, and indeed had long completely

identified the Browns with himself. In some remote age he had been the attendant of a Miss Brown, and had

conveyed her about the country on a pillion. He had a little round picture of the identical gray horse,

caparisoned with the identical pillion, before which he used to do a sort of fetish worship, and abuse

turnpikeroads and carriages. He wore an old fullbottomed wig, the gift of some dandy old Brown whom he

had valeted in the middle of last century, which habiliment Master Tom looked upon with considerable

respect, not to say fear; and indeed his whole feeling towards Noah was strongly tainted with awe. And when

the old gentleman was gathered to his fathers, Tom's lamentation over him was not unaccompanied by a

certain joy at having seen the last of the wig. "Poor old Noah, dead and gone," said he; "Tom Brown so sorry.

But old Benjy was young master's real delight and refuge. He was a youth by the side of Noah, scarce seventy

years olda cheery, humorous, kindhearted old man, full of sixty years of Vale gossip, and of all sorts of

helpful ways for young and old, but above all for children. It was he who bent the first pin with which Tom

extracted his first stickleback out of "Pebbly Brook," the little stream which ran through the village. The first

stickleback was a splendid fellow, with fabulous red and blue gills. Tom kept him in a small basin till the day

of his death, and became a fisherman from that day. Within a month from the taking of the first stickleback,

Benjy had carried off our hero to the canal, in defiance of Charity; and between them, after a whole

afternoon's popjoying, they had caught three or four small, coarse fish and a perch, averaging perhaps two

and a half ounces each, which Tom bore home in rapture to his mother as a precious gift, and which she

received like a true mother with equal rapture, instructing the cook nevertheless, in a private interview, not to

prepare the same for the Squire's dinner. Charity had appealed against old Benjy in the meantime,

representing the dangers of the canal banks; but Mrs. Brown, seeing the boy's inaptitude for female guidance,

had decided in Benjy's favour, and from thenceforth the old man was Tom's dry nurse. And as they sat by the

canal watching their little greenandwhite float, Benjy would instruct him in the doings of deceased

Browns. How his grandfather, in the early days of the great war, when there was much distress and crime in

the Vale, and the magistrates had been threatened by the mob, had ridden in with a big stick in his hand, and

held the petty sessions by himself. How his greatuncle, the rector, had encountered and laid the last ghost,

who had frightened the old women, male and female, of the parish out of their senses, and who turned out to

be the blacksmith's apprentice disguised in drink and a white sheet. It was Benjy, too, who saddled Tom's

first pony, and instructed him in the mysteries of horsemanship, teaching him to throw his weight back and

keep his hand low, and who stood chuckling outside the door of the girls' school when Tom rode his little

Shetland into the cottage and round the table, where the old dame and her pupils were seated at their work.

Benjy himself was come of a family distinguished in the Vale for their prowess in all athletic games. Some

halfdozen of his brothers and kinsmen had gone to the wars, of whom only one had survived to come home,

with a small pension, and three bullets in different parts of his body; he had shared Benjy's cottage till his

death, and had left him his old dragoon's sword and pistol, which hung over the mantelpiece, flanked by a

pair of heavy singlesticks with which Benjy himself had won renown long ago as an old gamester, against

the picked men of Wiltshire and Somersetshire, in many a good bout at the revels and pastimes of the

countryside. For he had been a famous backswordman in his young days, and a good wrestler at elbow and

Backswording and wrestling were the most serious holiday pursuits of the Valethose by which men

attained fameand each village had its champion. I suppose that, on the whole, people were less worked

then than they are now; at any rate, they seemed to have more time and energy for the old pastimes. The great

times for backswording came round once a year in each village; at the feast. The Vale "veasts" were not the

common statute feasts, but much more ancient business. They are literally, so far as one can ascertain, feasts

of the dedication that is, they were first established in the churchyard on the day on which the village

church was opened for public worship, which was on the wake or festival of the patron saint, and have been

There was no longer any remembrance of why the "veast" had been instituted, but nevertheless it had a

pleasant and almost sacred character of its own; for it was then that all the children of the village, wherever

they were scattered, tried to get home for a holiday to visit their fathers and mothers and friends, bringing

with them their wages or some little gift from up the country for the old folk. Perhaps for a day or two before,

but at any rate on "veast day" and the day after, in our village, you might see strapping, healthy young men

and women from all parts of the country going round from house to house in their best clothes, and finishing

up with a call on Madam Brown, whom they would consult as to putting out their earnings to the best

advantage, or how best to expend the same for the benefit of the old folk. Every household, however poor,

managed to raise a "feastcake" and a bottle of ginger or raisin wine, which stood on the cottage table ready

for all comers, and not unlikely to make them remember feasttime, for feastcake is very solid, and full of

huge raisins. Moreover, feasttime was the day of reconciliation for the parish. If Job Higgins and Noah

Freeman hadn't spoken for the last six months, their "old women" would be sure to get it patched up by that

day. And though there was a good deal of drinking and low vice in the booths of an evening, it was pretty

well confined to those who would have been doing the like, "veast or no veast;" and on the whole, the effect

was humanising and Christian. In fact, the only reason why this is not the case still is that gentlefolk and

farmers have taken to other amusements, and have, as usual, forgotten the poor. They don't attend the feasts

themselves, and call them disreputable; whereupon the steadiest of the poor leave them also, and they become

what they are called. Class amusements, be they for dukes or ploughboys, always become nuisances and

curses to a country. The true charm of cricket and hunting is that they are still more or less sociable and

No one in the village enjoyed the approach of "veast day" more than Tom, in the year in which he was taken

under old Benjy's tutelage. The feast was held in a large green field at the lower end of the village. The road

to Farringdon ran along one side of it, and the brook by the side of the road; and above the brook was another

large, gentle, sloping pastureland, with a footpath running down it from the churchyard; and the old church,

the originator of all the mirth, towered up with its gray walls and lancet windows, overlooking and

sanctioning the whole, though its own share therein had been forgotten. At the point where the footpath

crossed the brook and road, and entered on the field where the feast was held, was a long, low roadside inn;

and on the opposite side of the field was a large white thatched farmhouse, where dwelt an old sporting

Past the old church, and down the footpath, pottered the old man and the child handinhand early on the

afternoon of the day before the feast, and wandered all round the ground, which was already being occupied

by the "cheap Jacks," with their green covered carts and marvellous assortment of wares; and the booths of

more legitimate small traders, with their tempting arrays of fairings and eatables; and penny peepshows and

other shows, containing pinkeyed ladies, and dwarfs, and boaconstrictors, and wild Indians. But the object

of most interest to Benjy, and of course to his pupil also, was the stage of rough planks some four feet high,

which was being put up by the village carpenter for the backswording and wrestling. And after surveying

the whole tenderly, old Benjy led his charge away to the roadside inn, where he ordered a glass of ale and a

long pipe for himself, and discussed these unwonted luxuries on the bench outside in the soft autumn evening

with mine host, another old servant of the Browns, and speculated with him on the likelihood of a good show

of old gamesters to contend for the morrow's prizes, and told tales of the gallant bouts of forty years back, to

But who shall tell the joy of the next morning, when the church bells were ringing a merry peal, and old

Benjy appeared in the servants' hall, resplendent in a long blue coat and brass buttons, and a pair of old

yellow buckskins and topboots which he had cleaned for and inherited from Tom's grandfather, a stout thorn

stick in his hand, and a nosegay of pinks and lavender in his buttonhole, and led away Tom in his best

clothes, and two new shillings in his breechespockets? Those two, at any rate, look like enjoying the day's

They quicken their pace when they get into the churchyard, for already they see the field thronged with

country folk; the men in clean, white smocks or velveteen or fustian coats, with rough plush waistcoats of

many colours, and the women in the beautiful, long scarlet cloakthe usual outdoor dress of westcountry

women in those days, and which often descended in families from mother to daughteror in newfashioned

stuff shawls, which, if they would but believe it, don't become them half so well. The air resounds with the

pipe and tabor, and the drums and trumpets of the showmen shouting at the doors of their caravans, over

which tremendous pictures of the wonders to be seen within hang temptingly; while through all rises the

shrill "roottootootoo" of Mr. Punch, and the unceasing panpipe of his satellite.

"Lawk a' massey, Mr. Benjamin," cries a stout, motherly woman in a red cloak, as they enter the field, "be

that you? Well, I never! You do look purely. And how's the Squire, and madam, and the family?"

Benjy graciously shakes hands with the speaker, who has left our village for some years, but has come over

for "veast" day on a visit to an old gossip, and gently indicates the heirapparent of the Browns.

"Bless his little heart! I must gi' un a kiss. Here, Susannah, Susannah!" cries she, raising herself from the

embrace, "come and see Mr. Benjamin and young Master Tom. You minds our Sukey, Mr. Benjamin; she

be growed a rare slip of a wench since you seen her, though her'll be sixteen come Martinmas. I do aim to

And Sukey comes bouncing away from a knot of old schoolfellows, and drops a curtsey to Mr. Benjamin.

And elders come up from all parts to salute Benjy, and girls who have been madam's pupils to kiss Master

Tom. And they carry him off to load him with fairings; and he returns to Benjy, his hat and coat covered with

ribbons, and his pockets crammed with wonderful boxes which open upon ever new boxes, and popguns, and

trumpets, and apples, and gilt gingerbread from the stall of Angel Heavens, sole vender thereof, whose booth

groans with kings and queens, and elephants and prancing steeds, all gleaming with gold. There was more

gold on Angel's cakes than there is ginger in those of this degenerate age. Skilled diggers might yet make a

fortune in the churchyards of the Vale, by carefully washing the dust of the consumers of Angel's

gingerbread. Alas! he is with his namesakes, and his receipts have, I fear, died with him.

And then they inspect the penny peepshowat least Tom does while old Benjy stands outside and

gossips and walks up the steps, and enters the mysterious doors of the pinkeyed lady and the Irish giant,

who do not by any means come up to their pictures; and the boa will not swallow his rabbit, but there the

rabbit is waiting to be swallowed; and what can you expect for tuppence? We are easily pleased in the Vale.

Now there is a rush of the crowd, and a tinkling bell is heard, and shouts of laughter; and Master Tom mounts

on Benjy's shoulders, and beholds a jingling match in all its glory. The games are begun, and this is the

opening of them. It is a quaint game, immensely amusing to look at; and as I don't know whether it is used in

your counties, I had better describe it. A large roped ring is made, into which are introduced a dozen or so of

big boys and young men who mean to play; these are carefully blinded and turned loose into the ring, and

then a man is introduced not blindfolded; with a bell hung round his neck, and his two hands tied behind him.

Of course every time he moves the bell must ring, as he has no hand to hold it; and so the dozen blindfolded

men have to catch him. This they cannot always manage if he is a lively fellow, but half of them always rush

into the arms of the other half, or drive their heads together, or tumble over; and then the crowd laughs

vehemently, and invents nicknames for them on the spur of the moment; and they, if they be choleric, tear off

the handkerchiefs which blind them, and not unfrequently pitch into one another, each thinking that the other

must have run against him on purpose. It is great fun to look at a jingling match certainly, and Tom shouts

and jumps on old Benjy's shoulders at the sight, until the old man feels weary, and shifts him to the strong

And now, while they are climbing the pole in another part of the field, and muzzling in a flourtub in

another, the old farmer whose house, as has been said, overlooks the field, and who is master of the revels,

gets up the steps on to the stage, and announces to all whom it may concern that a halfsovereign in money

will be forthcoming to the old gamester who breaks most heads; to which the Squire and he have added a new

The amount of the prize is sufficient to stimulate the men of the immediate neighbourhood, but not enough to

bring any very high talent from a distance; so, after a glance or two round, a tall fellow, who is a down

shepherd, chucks his hat on to the stage and climbs up the steps, looking rather sheepish. The crowd, of

course, first cheer, and then chaff as usual, as he picks up his hat and begins handling the sticks to see which

"Wooy, Willum Smith, thee canst plaay wi' he arra daay," says his companion to the blacksmith's apprentice,

a stout young fellow of nineteen or twenty. Willum's sweetheart is in the "veast" somewhere, and has strictly

enjoined him not to get his head broke at backswording, on pain of her highest displeasure; but as she is not

to be seen (the women pretend not to like to see the backsword play, and keep away from the stage), and as

his hat is decidedly getting old, he chucks it on to the stage, and follows himself, hoping that he will only

have to break other people's heads, or that, after all, Rachel won't really mind.

Then follows the greasy cap lined with fur of a halfgipsy, poaching, loafing fellow, who travels the Vale not

in fact. And then three or four other hats, including the glossy castor of Joe Willis, the selfelected and

wouldbe champion of the neighbourhood, a welltodo young butcher of twentyeight or thereabouts, and

a great strapping fellow, with his full allowance of bluster. This is a capital show of gamesters, considering

the amount of the prize; so, while they are picking their sticks and drawing their lots, I think I must tell you,

as shortly as I can, how the noble old game of back sword is played; for it is sadly gone out of late, even in

The weapon is a good stout ash stick with a large basket handle, heavier and somewhat shorter than a

common singlestick. The players are called "old gamesters"why, I can't tell youand their object is

simply to break one another's heads; for the moment that blood runs an inch anywhere above the eyebrow,

the old gamester to whom it belongs is beaten, and has to stop. A very slight blow with the sticks will fetch

blood, so that it is by no means a punishing pastime, if the men don't play on purpose and savagely at the

body and arms of their adversaries. The old gamester going into action only takes off his hat and coat, and

arms himself with a stick; he then loops the fingers of his left hand in a handkerchief or strap, which he

fastens round his left leg, measuring the length, so that when he draws it tight with his left elbow in the air,

that elbow shall just reach as high as his crown. Thus you see, so long as he chooses to keep his left elbow

up, regardless of cuts, he has a perfect guard for the left side of his head. Then he advances his right hand

above and in front of his head, holding his stick across, so that its point projects an inch or two over his left

elbow; and thus his whole head is completely guarded, and he faces his man armed in like manner; and they

stand some three feet apart, often nearer, and feint, and strike, and return at one another's heads, until one

cries "hold," or blood flows. In the first case they are allowed a minute's time; and go on again; in the latter

another pair of gamesters are called on. If good men are playing, the quickness of the returns is marvellous:

you hear the rattle like that a boy makes drawing his stick along palings, only heavier; and the closeness of

the men in action to one another gives it a strange interest, and makes a spell at backswording a very noble

They are all suited now with sticks, and Joe Willis and the gipsy man have drawn the first lot. So the rest lean

against the rails of the stage, and Joe and the dark man meet in the middle, the boards having been strewed

with sawdust, Joe's white shirt and spotless drab breeches and boots contrasting with the gipsy's coarse blue

shirt and dirty green velveteen breeches and leather gaiters. Joe is evidently turning up his nose at the other,

The gipsy is a tough, active fellow, but not very skilful with his weapon, so that Joe's weight and strength tell

in a minute; he is too heavy metal for him. Whack, whack, whack, come his blows, breaking down the gipsy's

guard, and threatening to reach his head every moment. There it is at last. "Blood, blood!" shout the

spectators, as a thin stream oozes out slowly from the roots of his hair, and the umpire calls to them to stop.

The gipsy scowls at Joe under his brows in no pleasant manner, while Master Joe swaggers about, and makes

attitudes, and thinks himself, and shows that he thinks himself, the greatest man in the field.

Then follow several stout setsto between the other candidates for the new hat, and at last come the shepherd

and Willum Smith. This is the crack setto of the day. They are both in famous wind, and there is no crying

"hold." The shepherd is an old hand, and up to all the dodges. He tries them one after another, and very nearly

gets at Willum's head by coming in near, and playing over his guard at the halfstick; but somehow Willum

blunders through, catching the stick on his shoulders, neck, sides, every now and then, anywhere but on his

head, and his returns are heavy and straight, and he is the youngest gamester and a favourite in the parish, and

his gallant stand brings down shouts and cheers, and the knowing ones think he'll win if he keeps steady; and

Tom, on the groom's shoulder, holds his hands together, and can hardly breathe for excitement.

Alas for Willum! His sweetheart, getting tired of female companionship, has been hunting the booths to see

where he can have got to, and now catches sight of him on the stage in full combat. She flushes and turns

pale; her old aunt catches hold of her, saying, "Bless 'ee, child, doan't 'ee go a'nigst it;" but she breaks away

and runs towards the stage calling his name. Willum keeps up his guard stoutly, but glances for a moment

towards the voice. No guard will do it, Willum, without the eye. The shepherd steps round and strikes, and

the point of his stick just grazes Willum's forehead, fetching off the skin, and the blood flows, and the umpire

cries, "Hold!" and poor Willum's chance is up for the day. But he takes it very well, and puts on his old hat

and coat, and goes down to be scolded by his sweetheart, and led away out of mischief. Tom hears him say

"Now doan't 'ee, Rachel! I wouldn't ha' done it, only I wanted summut to buy 'ee a fairing wi', and I be as

"Thee mind what I tells 'ee," rejoins Rachel saucily, "and doan't 'ee kep blethering about fairings."

Tom resolves in his heart to give Willum the remainder of his two shillings after the backswording.

Joe Willis has all the luck today. His next bout ends in an easy victory, while the shepherd has a tough job

to break his second head; and when Joe and the shepherd meet, and the whole circle expect and hope to see

him get a broken crown, the shepherd slips in the first round and falls against the rails, hurting himself so that

the old farmer will not let him go on, much as he wishes to try; and that impostor Joe (for he is certainly not

the best man) struts and swaggers about the stage the conquering gamester, though he hasn't had five minutes'

Joe takes the new hat in his hand, and puts the money into it, and then, as if a thought strikes him, and he

doesn't think his victory quite acknowledged down below, walks to each face of the stage, and looks down,

shaking the money, and chaffing, as how he'll stake hat and money and another halfsovereign "agin any

gamester as hasn't played already." Cunning Joe! he thus gets rid of Willum and the shepherd, who is quite

No one seems to like the offer, and the umpire is just coming down, when a queer old hat, something like a

doctor of divinity's shovel, is chucked on to the stage and an elderly, quiet man steps out, who has been

watching the play, saying he should like to cross a stick wi' the prodigalish young chap.

The crowd cheer, and begin to chaff Joe, who turns up his nose and swaggers across to the sticks. "Imp'dent

The old boy is very bald, certainly, and the blood will show fast enough if you can touch him, Joe.

He takes off his longflapped coat, and stands up in a long flapped waistcoat, which Sir Roger de Coverley

might have worn when it was new, picks out a stick, and is ready for Master Joe, who loses no time, but

begins his old game, whack, whack, whack, trying to break down the old man's guard by sheer strength. But

it won't do; he catches every blow close by the basket, and though he is rather stiff in his returns, after a

minute walks Joe about the stage, and is clearly a stanch old gamester. Joe now comes in, and making the

most of his height, tries to get over the old man's guard at halfstick, by which he takes a smart blow in the

ribs and another on the elbow, and nothing more. And now he loses wind and begins to puff, and the crowd

laugh. "Cry 'hold,' Joe; thee'st met thy match!" Instead of taking good advice and getting his wind, Joe loses

Who'd have thought it? How did it come? That bodyblow left Joe's head unguarded for a moment; and with

one turn of the wrist the old gentleman has picked a neat little bit of skin off the middle of his forehead; and

though he won't believe it, and hammers on for three more blows despite of the shouts, is then convinced by

the blood trickling into his eye. Poor Joe is sadly crestfallen, and fumbles in his pocket for the other half

sovereign, but the old gamester won't have it. "Keep thy money, man, and gi's thy hand," says he; and they

shake hands. But the old gamester gives the new hat to the shepherd, and, soon after, the halfsovereign to

Willum, who thereout decorates his sweetheart with ribbons to his heart's content.

"Who can a be?" "Wur do a cum from?" ask the crowd. And it soon flies about that the old westcountry

champion, who played a tie with Shaw the Lifeguardsman at "Vizes" twenty years before, has broken Joe

How my country fair is spinning out! I see I must skip the wrestling; and the boys jumping in sacks, and

rolling wheelbarrows blindfolded; and the donkeyrace, and the fight which arose thereout, marring the

otherwise peaceful "veast;" and the frightened scurrying away of the female feastgoers, and descent of

Squire Brown, summoned by the wife of one of the combatants to stop it; which he wouldn't start to do till he

had got on his topboots. Tom is carried away by old Benjy, dog tired and surfeited with pleasure, as the

evening comes on and the dancing begins in the booths; and though Willum, and Rachel in her new ribbons,

and many another good lad and lass don't come away just yet, but have a good step out, and enjoy it, and get

no harm thereby, yet we, being sober folk, will just stroll away up through the churchyard, and by the old

yewtree, and get a quiet dish of tea and a parley with our gossips, as the steady ones of our village do, and

That's the fair, true sketch, as far as it goes, of one of the larger village feasts in the Vale of Berks, when I

was a little boy. They are much altered for the worse, I am told. I haven't been at one these twenty years, but I

have been at the statute fairs in some westcountry towns, where servants are hired, and greater abominations

cannot be found. What village feasts have come to, I fear, in many cases, may be read in the pages of "Yeast"

Do you want to know why? It is because, as I said before, gentlefolk and farmers have left off joining or

taking an interest in them. They don't either subscribe to the prizes, or go down and enjoy the fun.

Is this a good or a bad sign? I hardly know. Bad, sure enough, if it only arises from the further separation of

classes consequent on twenty years of buying cheap and selling dear, and its accompanying overwork; or

because our sons and daughters have their hearts in London clublife, or socalled "society," instead of in the

old English homeduties; because farmers' sons are apeing fine gentlemen, and farmers' daughters caring

more to make bad foreign music than good English cheeses. Good, perhaps, if it be that the time for the old

"veast" has gone by; that it is no longer the healthy, sound expression of English country holidaymaking;

that, in fact, we, as a nation, have got beyond it, and are in a transition state, feeling for and soon likely to

Only I have just got this to say before I quit the text. Don't let reformers of any sort think that they are going

really to lay hold of the working boys and young men of England by any educational grapnel whatever,

which isn't some bona fide equivalent for the games of the old country "veast" in it; something to put in the

place of the backswording and wrestling and racing; something to try the muscles of men's bodies, and the

endurance of their hearts, and to make them rejoice in their strength. In all the newfangled comprehensive

plans which I see, this is all left out; and the consequence is, that your great mechanics' institutes end in

intellectual priggism, and your Christian young men's societies in religious Pharisaism.

Well, well, we must bide our time. Life isn't all beer and skittles; but beer and skittles, or something better of

the same sort, must form a good part of every Englishman's education. If I could only drive this into the heads

of you rising parliamentary lords, and young swells who "have your ways made for you," as the saying is,

you, who frequent palaver houses and Westend clubs, waiting always ready to strap yourselves on to the

back of poor dear old John, as soon as the present usedup lot (your fathers and uncles), who sit there on the

great parliamentarymajorities' packsaddle, and make believe they're guiding him with their redtape

I don't think much of you yetI wish I couldthough you do go talking and lecturing up and down the

country to crowded audiences, and are busy with all sorts of philanthropic intellectualism, and circulating

libraries and museums, and Heaven only knows what besides, and try to make us think, through newspaper

reports, that you are, even as we, of the working classes. But bless your hearts, we "ain't so green," though

lots of us of all sorts toady you enough certainly, and try to make you think so.

I'll tell you what to do now: instead of all this trumpeting and fuss, which is only the old

parliamentarymajority dodge over again, just you go, each of you (you've plenty of time for it, if you'll only

give up t'other line), and quietly make three or four friendsreal friendsamong us. You'll find a little

trouble in getting at the right sort, because such birds don't come lightly to your lure; but found they may be.

Take, say, two out of the professions, lawyer, parson, doctorwhich you will; one out of trade; and three or

four out of the working classestailors, engineers, carpenters, engravers. There's plenty of choice. Let them

be men of your own ages, mind, and ask them to your homes; introduce them to your wives and sisters, and

get introduced to theirs; give them good dinners, and talk to them about what is really at the bottom of your

hearts; and box, and run, and row with them, when you have a chance. Do all this honestly as man to man,

and by the time you come to ride old John, you'll be able to do something more than sit on his back, and may

Ah, if you only would! But you have got too far out of the right rut, I fear. Too much overcivilization, and

the deceitfulness of riches. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. More's the pity. I never

came across but two of you who could value a man wholly and solely for what was in himwho thought

themselves verily and indeed of the same flesh and blood as John Jones the attorney's clerk, and Bill Smith

Poor old Benjy! The "rheumatiz" has much to answer for all through English countrysides, but it never

played a scurvier trick than in laying thee by the heels, when thou wast yet in a green old age. The enemy,

which had long been carrying on a sort of border warfare, and trying his strength against Benjy's on the

battlefield of his hands and legs, now, mustering all his forces, began laying siege to the citadel, and

overrunning the whole country. Benjy was seized in the back and loins; and though he made strong and brave

fight, it was soon clear enough that all which could be beaten of poor old Benjy would have to give in before

It was as much as he could do now, with the help of his big stick and frequent stops, to hobble down to the

canal with Master Tom, and bait his hook for him, and sit and watch his angling, telling him quaint old

country stories; and when Tom had no sport, and detecting a rat some hundred yards or so off along the bank,

would rush off with Toby the turnspit terrier, his other faithful companion, in bootless pursuit, he might have

tumbled in and been drowned twenty times over before Benjy could have got near him.

Cheery and unmindful of himself, as Benjy was, this loss of locomotive power bothered him greatly. He had

got a new object in his old age, and was just beginning to think himself useful again in the world. He feared

much, too, lest Master Tom should fall back again into the hands of Charity and the women. So he tried

everything he could think of to get set up. He even went an expedition to the dwelling of one of those queer

mortals, who say what we will, and reason how we willdo cure simple people of diseases of one kind or

another without the aid of physic, and so get to themselves the reputation of using charms, and inspire for

themselves and their dwellings great respect, not to say fear, amongst a simple folk such as the dwellers in the

Vale of White Horse. Where this power, or whatever else it may be, descends upon the shoulders of a man

whose ways are not straight, he becomes a nuisance to the neighbourhooda receiver of stolen goods, giver

of lovepotions, and deceiver of silly womenthe avowed enemy of law and order, of justices of the peace,

headboroughs, and gamekeepers,such a man, in fact, as was recently caught tripping, and deservedly

dealt with by the Leeds justices, for seducing a girl who had come to him to get back a faithless lover, and

has been convicted of bigamy since then. Sometimes, however, they are of quite a different stampmen who

pretend to nothing, and are with difficulty persuaded to exercise their occult arts in the simplest cases.

Of this latter sort was old Farmer Ives, as he was called, the "wise man" to whom Benjy resorted (taking Tom

with him as usual), in the early spring of the year next after the feast described in the last chapter. Why he

was called "farmer" I cannot say, unless it be that he was the owner of a cow, a pig or two, and some poultry,

which he maintained on about an acre of land inclosed from the middle of a wild common, on which

probably his father had squatted before lords of manors looked as keenly after their rights as they do now.

Here he had lived no one knew how long, a solitary man. It was often rumoured that he was to be turned out

and his cottage pulled down, but somehow it never came to pass; and his pigs and cow went grazing on the

common, and his geese hissed at the passing children and at the heels of the horse of my lord's steward, who

often rode by with a covetous eye on the inclosure still unmolested. His dwelling was some miles from our

village; so Benjy, who was half ashamed of his errand, and wholly unable to walk there, had to exercise much

ingenuity to get the means of transporting himself and Tom thither without exciting suspicion. However, one

fine May morning he managed to borrow the old blind pony of our friend the publican, and Tom persuaded

Madam Brown to give him a holiday to spend with old Benjy, and to lend them the Squire's light cart, stored

with bread and cold meat and a bottle of ale. And so the two in high glee started behind old Dobbin, and

jogged along the deeprutted plashy roads, which had not been mended after their winter's wear, towards the

dwelling of the wizard. About noon they passed the gate which opened on to the large common, and old

Dobbin toiled slowly up the hill, while Benjy pointed out a little deep dingle on the left, out of which welled

a tiny stream. As they crept up the hill the tops of a few birchtrees came in sight, and blue smoke curling up

through their delicate light boughs; and then the little white thatched home and inclosed ground of Farmer

Ives, lying cradled in the dingle, with the gay gorse common rising behind and on both sides; while in front,

after traversing a gentle slope, the eye might travel for miles and miles over the rich vale. They now left the

main road and struck into a green track over the common marked lightly with wheel and horseshoe, which

led down into the dingle and stopped at the rough gate of Farmer Ives. Here they found the farmer, an

irongray old man, with a bushy eyebrow and strong aquiline nose, busied in one of his vocations. He was a

horse and cow doctor, and was tending a sick beast which had been sent up to be cured. Benjy hailed him as

an old friend, and he returned the greeting cordially enough, looking however hard for a moment both at

Benjy and Tom, to see whether there was more in their visit than appeared at first sight. It was a work of

some difficulty and danger for Benjy to reach the ground, which, however, he managed to do without mishap;

and then he devoted himself to unharnessing Dobbin and turning him out for a graze ("a run" one could not

say of that virtuous steed) on the common. This done, he extricated the cold provisions from the cart, and

they entered the farmer's wicket; and he, shutting up the knife with which he was taking maggots out of the

cow's back and sides, accompanied them towards the cottage. A big old lurcher got up slowly from the

doorstone, stretching first one hind leg and then the other, and taking Tom's caresses and the presence of

"Us be cum to pay 'ee a visit. I've a been long minded to do't for old sake's sake, only I vinds I dwon't get

about now as I'd used to't. I be so plaguy bad wi' th' rheumatiz in my back." Benjy paused, in hopes of

drawing the farmer at once on the subject of his ailments without further direct application.

"Ah, I see as you bean't quite so lissom as you was," replied the farmer, with a grim smile, as he lifted the

The farmer's cottage was very like those of the better class of peasantry in general. A snug chimney corner

with two seats, and a small carpet on the hearth, an old flint gun and a pair of spurs over the fireplace, a

dresser with shelves on which some bright pewter plates and crockeryware were arranged, an old walnut

table, a few chairs and settles, some framed samplers, and an old print or two, and a bookcase with some

dozen volumes on the walls, a rack with flitches of bacon, and other stores fastened to the ceiling, and you

have the best part of the furniture. No sign of occult art is to be seen, unless the bundles of dried herbs

hanging to the rack and in the ingle and the row of labelled phials on one of the shelves betoken it.

Tom played about with some kittens who occupied the hearth, and with a goat who walked demurely in at the

open doorwhile their host and Benjy spread the table for dinnerand was soon engaged in conflict with

the cold meat, to which he did much honour. The two old men's talk was of old comrades and their deeds,

mute inglorious Miltons of the Vale, and of the doings thirty years back, which didn't interest him much,

except when they spoke of the making of the canal; and then indeed he began to listen with all his ears, and

learned, to his no small wonder, that his dear and wonderful canal had not been there alwayswas not, in

fact, so old as Benjy or Farmer Ives, which caused a strange commotion in his small brain.

After dinner Benjy called attention to a wart which Tom had on the knuckles of his hand, and which the

family doctor had been trying his skill on without success, and begged the farmer to charm it away. Farmer

Ives looked at it, muttered something or another over it, and cut some notches in a short stick, which he

handed to Benjy, giving him instructions for cutting it down on certain days, and cautioning Tom not to

meddle with the wart for a fortnight. And then they strolled out and sat on a bench in the sun with their pipes,

and the pigs came up and grunted sociably and let Tom scratch them; and the farmer, seeing how he liked

animals, stood up and held his arms in the air, and gave a call, which brought a flock of pigeons wheeling and

dashing through the birchtrees. They settled down in clusters on the farmer's arms and shoulders, making

love to him and scrambling over one another's backs to get to his face; and then he threw them all off, and

they fluttered about close by, and lighted on him again and again when he held up his arms. All the creatures

about the place were clean and fearless, quite unlike their relations elsewhere; and Tom begged to be taught

how to make all the pigs and cows and poultry in our village tame, at which the farmer only gave one of his

It wasn't till they were just ready to go, and old Dobbin was harnessed, that Benjy broached the subject of his

rheumatism again, detailing his symptoms one by one. Poor old boy! He hoped the farmer could charm it

away as easily as he could Tom's wart, and was ready with equal faith to put another notched stick into his

other pocket, for the cure of his own ailments. The physician shook his head, but nevertheless produced a

bottle, and handed it to Benjy, with instructions for use. "Not as 't'll do 'ee much goodleastways I be afeard

not," shading his eyes with his hand, and looking up at them in the cart. "There's only one thing as I knows on

"Churchyard mould," said the old irongray man, with another chuckle. And so they said their goodbyes

and went their ways home. Tom's wart was gone in a fortnight, but not so Benjy's rheumatism, which laid

him by the heels more and more. And though Tom still spent many an hour with him, as he sat on a bench in

the sunshine, or by the chimney corner when it was cold, he soon had to seek elsewhere for his regular

Tom had been accustomed often to accompany his mother in her visits to the cottages, and had thereby made

acquaintance with many of the village boys of his own age. There was Job Rudkin, son of widow Rudkin, the

most bustling woman in the parish. How she could ever have had such a stolid boy as Job for a child must

always remain a mystery. The first time Tom went to their cottage with his mother, Job was not indoors; but

he entered soon after, and stood with both hands in his pockets, staring at Tom. Widow Rudkin, who would

have had to cross madam to get at young Hopefula breach of good manners of which she was wholly

incapablebegan a series of pantomime signs, which only puzzled him; and at last, unable to contain herself

"What! bean't 'ee on ma head, mother?" replied Job, slowly extricating one hand from a pocket, and feeling

for the article in question; which he found on his head sure enough, and left there, to his mother's horror and

Then there was poor Jacob Dodson, the halfwitted boy, who ambled about cheerfully, undertaking messages

and little helpful odds and ends for every one, which, however, poor Jacob managed always hopelessly to

imbrangle. Everything came to pieces in his hands, and nothing would stop in his head. They nicknamed him

But above all there was Harry Winburn, the quickest and best boy in the parish. He might be a year older than

Tom, but was very little bigger, and he was the Crichton of our village boys. He could wrestle and climb and

run better than all the rest, and learned all that the schoolmaster could teach him faster than that worthy at all

liked. He was a boy to be proud of, with his curly brown hair, keen gray eye, straight active figure, and little

ears and hands and feet, "as fine as a lord's," as Charity remarked to Tom one day, talking, as usual, great

nonsense. Lords' hands and ears and feet are just as ugly as other folk's when they are children, as any one

may convince himself if he likes to look. Tight boots and gloves, and doing nothing with them, I allow make

Now that Benjy was laid on the shelf, and his young brothers were still under petticoat government, Tom, in

search of companions, began to cultivate the village boys generally more and more. Squire Brown, be it said,

was a trueblue Tory to the backbone, and believed honestly that the powers which be were ordained of God,

and that loyalty and steadfast obedience were men's first duties. Whether it were in consequence or in spite of

his political creed, I do not mean to give an opinion, though I have one; but certain it is that he held therewith

divers social principles not generally supposed to be true blue in colour. Foremost of these, and the one which

the Squire loved to propound above all others, was the belief that a man is to be valued wholly and solely for

that which he is in himself, for that which stands up in the four fleshly walls of him, apart from clothes, rank,

fortune, and all externals whatsoever. Which belief I take to be a wholesome corrective of all political

opinions, and, if held sincerely, to make all opinions equally harmless, whether they be blue, red, or green. As

a necessary corollary to this belief, Squire Brown held further that it didn't matter a straw whether his son

associated with lords' sons or ploughmen's sons, provided they were brave and honest. He himself had played

football and gone birdnesting with the farmers whom he met at vestry and the labourers who tilled their

fields, and so had his father and grandfather, with their progenitors. So he encouraged Tom in his intimacy

with the boys of the village, and forwarded it by all means in his power, and gave them the run of a close for

Our village was blessed amongst other things with a wellendowed school. The building stood by itself, apart

from the master's house, on an angle of ground where three roads metan old gray stone building with a

steep roof and mullioned windows. On one of the opposite angles stood Squire Brown's stables and kennel,

with their backs to the road, over which towered a great elm tree; on the third stood the village carpenter

and wheelwright's large open shop, and his house and the schoolmaster's, with long low eaves, under which

The moment Tom's lessons were over, he would now get him down to this corner by the stables, and watch

till the boys came out of school. He prevailed on the groom to cut notches for him in the bark of the elm so

that he could climb into the lower branches; and there he would sit watching the school door, and speculating

on the possibility of turning the elm into a dwellingplace for himself and friends, after the manner of the

Swiss Family Robinson. But the school hours were long and Tom's patience short, so that he soon began to

descend into the street, and go and peep in at the school door and the wheelwright's shop, and look out for

something to while away the time. Now the wheelwright was a choleric man, and one fine afternoon,

returning from a short absence, found Tom occupied with one of his pet adzes, the edge of which was fast

vanishing under our hero's care. A speedy flight saved Tom from all but one sound cuff on the ears; but he

resented this unjustifiable interruption of his first essays at carpentering, and still more the further

proceedings of the wheelwright, who cut a switch, and hung it over the door of his workshop, threatening to

use it upon Tom if he came within twenty yards of his gate. So Tom, to retaliate, commenced a war upon the

swallows who dwelt under the wheelwright's eaves, whom he harassed with sticks and stones; and being

fleeter of foot than his enemy, escaped all punishment, and kept him in perpetual anger. Moreover, his

presence about the school door began to incense the master, as the boys in that neighbourhood neglected their

lessons in consequence; and more than once he issued into the porch, rod in hand, just as Tom beat a hasty

retreat. And he and the wheelwright, laying their heads together, resolved to acquaint the Squire with Tom's

afternoon occupations; but in order to do it with effect, determined to take him captive and lead him away to

judgment fresh from his evil doings. This they would have found some difficulty in doing, had Tom

continued the war singlehanded, or rather singlefooted, for he would have taken to the deepest part of

Pebbly Brook to escape them; but, like other active powers, he was ruined by his alliances. Poor Jacob

Doodlecalf could not go to the school with the other boys, and one fine afternoon, about three o'clock (the

school broke up at four), Tom found him ambling about the street, and pressed him into a visit to the

schoolporch. Jacob, always ready to do what he was asked, consented, and the two stole down to the school

together. Tom first reconnoitred the wheelwright's shop; and seeing no signs of activity, thought all safe in

that quarter, and ordered at once an advance of all his troops upon the schoolporch. The door of the school

was ajar, and the boys seated on the nearest bench at once recognized and opened a correspondence with the

invaders. Tom, waxing bold, kept putting his head into the school and making faces at the master when his

back was turned. Poor Jacob, not in the least comprehending the situation, and in high glee at finding himself

so near the school, which he had never been allowed to enter, suddenly, in a fit of enthusiasm, pushed by

Tom, and ambling three steps into the school, stood there, looking round him and nodding with a

selfapproving smile. The master, who was stooping over a boy's slate, with his back to the door, became

aware of something unusual, and turned quickly round. Tom rushed at Jacob, and began dragging him back

by his smockfrock, and the master made at them, scattering forms and boys in his career. Even now they

might have escaped, but that in the porch, barring retreat, appeared the crafty wheelwright, who had been

watching all their proceedings. So they were seized, the school dismissed, and Tom and Jacob led away to

Squire Brown as lawful prize, the boys following to the gate in groups, and speculating on the result.

The Squire was very angry at first, but the interview, by Tom's pleading, ended in a compromise. Tom was

not to go near the school till three o'clock, and only then if he had done his own lessons well, in which case

he was to be the bearer of a note to the master from Squire Brown; and the master agreed in such case to

release ten or twelve of the best boys an hour before the time of breaking up, to go off and play in the close.

The wheelwright's adzes and swallows were to be for ever respected; and that hero and the master withdrew

to the servants' hall to drink the Squire's health, well satisfied with their day's work.

The second act of Tom's life may now be said to have begun. The war of independence had been over for

some time: none of the women nownot even his mother's maiddared offer to help him in dressing or

washing. Between ourselves, he had often at first to run to Benjy in an unfinished state of toilet. Charity and

the rest of them seemed to take a delight in putting impossible buttons and ties in the middle of his back; but

he would have gone without nether integuments altogether, sooner than have had recourse to female valeting.

He had a room to himself, and his father gave him sixpence a week pocketmoney. All this he had achieved

by Benjy's advice and assistance. But now he had conquered another step in lifethe step which all real boys

so long to make: he had got amongst his equals in age and strength, and could measure himself with other

boys; he lived with those whose pursuits and wishes and ways were the same in kind as his own.

The little governess who had lately been installed in the house found her work grow wondrously easy, for

Tom slaved at his lessons, in order to make sure of his note to the schoolmaster. So there were very few days

in the week in which Tom and the village boys were not playing in their close by three o'clock. Prisoner's

base, rounders, highcockalorum, cricket, football he was soon initiated into the delights of them all;

and though most of the boys were older than himself, he managed to hold his own very well. He was

naturally active and strong, and quick of eye and hand, and had the advantage of light shoes and wellfitting

dress, so that in a short time he could run and jump and climb with any of them.

They generally finished their regular games half an hour or so before teatime, and then began trials of skill

and strength in many ways. Some of them would catch the Shetland pony who was turned out in the field,

and get two or three together on his back, and the little rogue, enjoying the fun, would gallop off for fifty

yards, and then turn round, or stop short and shoot them on to the turf, and then graze quietly on till he felt

another load; others played at pegtop or marbles, while a few of the bigger ones stood up for a bout at

wrestling. Tom at first only looked on at this pastime, but it had peculiar attractions for him, and he could not

long keep out of it. Elbow and collar wrestling, as practised in the western counties, was, next to

backswording, the way to fame for the youth of the Vale; and all the boys knew the rules of it, and were

more or less expert. But Job Rudkin and Harry Winburn were the starsthe former stiff and sturdy, with legs

like small towers; the latter pliant as indiarubber and quick as lightning. Day after day they stood foot to foot,

and offered first one hand and then the other, and grappled and closed, and swayed and strained, till a

wellaimed crook of the heel or thrust of the loin took effect, and a fair backfall ended the matter. And Tom

watched with all his eyes, and first challenged one of the less scientific, and threw him; and so one by one

Then indeed for months he had a poor time of it; it was not long indeed before he could manage to keep his

legs against Job, for that hero was slow of offence, and gained his victories chiefly by allowing others to

throw themselves against his immovable legs and loins. But Harry Winburn was undeniably his master; from

the first clutch of hands when they stood up, down to the last trip which sent him on to his back on the turf,

he felt that Harry knew more and could do more than he. Luckily Harry's bright unconsciousness and Tom's

natural good temper kept them from quarrelling; and so Tom worked on and on, and trod more and more

nearly on Harry's heels, and at last mastered all the dodges and falls except one. This one was Harry's own

particular invention and pet; he scarcely ever used it except when hard pressed, but then out it came, and as

sure as it did, over went poor Tom. He thought about that fall at his meals, in his walks, when he lay awake in

bed, in his dreams, but all to no purpose, until Harry one day in his open way suggested to him how he

thought it should be met; and in a week from that time the boys were equal, save only the slight difference of

strength in Harry's favour, which some extra ten months of age gave. Tom had often afterwards reason to be

thankful for that early drilling, and above all, for having mastered Harry Winburn's fall.

Besides their home games, on Saturdays the boys would wander all over the neighbourhood; sometimes to

the downs, or up to the camp, where they cut their initials out in the springy turf, and watched the hawks

soaring, and the "peert" bird, as Harry Winburn called the gray plover, gorgeous in his wedding feathers; and

so home, racing down the Manger with many a roll among the thistles, or through Uffington Wood to watch

the fox cubs playing in the green rides; sometimes to Rosy Brook, to cut long whispering reeds which grew

there, to make panpipes of; sometimes to Moor Mills, where was a piece of old forest land, with short

browsed turf and tufted brambly thickets stretching under the oaks, amongst which rumour declared that a

raven, last of his race, still lingered; or to the sandhills, in vain quest of rabbits; and birdnesting in the

The few neighbours of the Squire's own rank every now and then would shrug their shoulders as they drove

or rode by a party of boys with Tom in the middle, carrying along bulrushes or whispering reeds, or great

bundles of cowslip and meadowsweet, or young starlings or magpies, or other spoil of wood, brook, or

meadow; and Lawyer Redtape might mutter to Squire Straightback at the Board that no good would come

of the young Browns, if they were let run wild with all the dirty village boys, whom the best farmers' sons

even would not play with. And the squire might reply with a shake of his head that his sons only mixed with

their equals, and never went into the village without the governess or a footman. But, luckily, Squire Brown

was full as stiffbacked as his neighbours, and so went on his own way; and Tom and his younger brothers, as

they grew up, went on playing with the village boys, without the idea of equality or inequality (except in

wrestling, running, and climbing) ever entering their heads; as it doesn't till it's put there by Jack Nastys or

I don't mean to say it would be the case in all villages, but it certainly was so in this one: the village boys

were full as manly and honest, and certainly purer, than those in a higher rank; and Tam got more harm from

his equals in his first fortnight at a private school, where he went when he was nine years old, than he had

Great was the grief amongst the village schoolboys when Tom drove off with the Squire, one August

morning, to meet the coach on his way to school. Each of them had given him some little present of the best

that he had, and his small private box was full of pegtaps, white marbles (called "alleytaws" in the Vale),

screws, birds' eggs, whipcord, jewsharps, and other miscellaneous boys' wealth. Poor Jacob Doodlecalf,

in floods of tears, had pressed upon him with spluttering earnestness his lame pet hedgehog (he had always

some poor brokendown beast or bird by him); but this Tom had been obliged to refuse, by the Squire's

order. He had given them all a great tea under the big elm in their playground, for which Madam Brown had

supplied the biggest cake ever seen in our village; and Tom was really as sorry to leave them as they to lose

him, but his sorrow was not unmixed with the pride and excitement of making a new step in life.

And this feeling carried him through his first parting with his mother better than could have been expected.

Their love was as fair and whole as human love can beperfect selfsacrifice on the one side meeting a

young and true heart on the other. It is not within the scope of my book, however, to speak of family

relations, or I should have much to say on the subject of English mothersay, and of English fathers, and

sisters, and brothers too. Neither have I room to speak of our private schools. What I have to say is about

public schoolsthose muchabused and muchbelauded institutions peculiar to England. So we must hurry

It was a fair average specimen, kept by a gentleman, with another gentleman as second master; but it was

little enough of the real work they didmerely coming into school when lessons were prepared and all ready

to be heard. The whole discipline of the school out of lesson hours was in the hands of the two ushers, one of

whom was always with the boys in their playground, in the school, at mealsin fact, at all times and every

Now the theory of private schools is (or was) constant supervision out of schooltherein differing

It may be right or wrong; but if right, this supervision surely ought to be the especial work of the

headmaster, the responsible person. The object of all schools is not to ram Latin and Greek into boys, but to

make them good English boys, good future citizens; and by far the most important part of that work must be

done, or not done, out of school hours. To leave it, therefore, in the hands of inferior men, is just giving up

the highest and hardest part of the work of education. Were I a private schoolmaster, I should say, Let who

will hear the boys their lessons, but let me live with them when they are at play and rest.

The two ushers at Tom's first school were not gentlemen, and very poorly educated, and were only driving

their poor trade of usher to get such living as they could out of it. They were not bad men, but had little heart

for their work, and of course were bent on making it as easy as possible. One of the methods by which they

endeavoured to accomplish this was by encouraging talebearing, which had become a frightfully common

vice in the school in consequence, and had sapped all the foundations of school morality. Another was, by

favouring grossly the biggest boys, who alone could have given them much trouble; whereby those young

gentlemen became most abominable tyrants, oppressing the little boys in all the small mean ways which

Poor little Tom was made dreadfully unhappy in his first week by a catastrophe which happened to his first

letter home. With huge labour he had, on the very evening of his arrival, managed to fill two sides of a sheet

of letterpaper with assurances of his love for dear mamma, his happiness at school, and his resolves to do all

she would wish. This missive, with the help of the boy who sat at the desk next him, also a new arrival, he

managed to fold successfully; but this done, they were sadly put to it for means of sealing. Envelopes were

then unknown; they had no wax, and dared not disturb the stillness of the evening schoolroom by getting up

and going to ask the usher for some. At length Tom's friend, being of an ingenious turn of mind, suggested

sealing with ink; and the letter was accordingly stuck down with a blob of ink, and duly handed by Tom, on

his way to bed, to the housekeeper to be posted. It was not till four days afterwards that the good dame sent

for him, and produced the precious letter and some wax, saying, "O Master Brown, 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 mammysick!" 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 misdemeanoura distinction not altogether clear in principle.

Tom, however, escaped the penalty by pleading primum tempus; and having written a second letter to his

mother, inclosing some forgetmenots, which he picked on their first halfholiday walk, felt quite happy

These halfholiday 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 had been especially prohibited, where huge bull'seyes and unctuous toffy might be

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 "mudpatties." The boys who played divided into sides under

different leaders, and one side occupied the mound. Then, all parties having provided themselves with many

sods of turf, cut with their breadandcheese knives, the side which remained at the bottom proceeded to

assault the mound, advancing up on all sides under cover of a heavy fire of turfs, and then struggling for

victory with the occupants, which was theirs as soon as they could, even for a moment, clear the summit,

when they in turn became the besieged. It was a good, rough, dirty game, and of great use in counteracting

the sneaking tendencies of the school. Then others of the boys spread over the downs, looking for the holes of

humblebees and mice, which they dug up without mercy, often (I regret to say) killing and skinning the

unlucky mice, and (I do not regret to say) getting well stung by the bumblebees. Others went after

butterflies and birds' eggs in their seasons; and Tom found on Hazeldown, for the first time, the beautiful

little blue butterfly with golden spots on his wings, which he had never seen on his own downs, and dug out

his first sandmartin's nest. This latter achievement resulted in a flogging, for the sandmartins built in a high

bank close to the village, consequently out of bounds; but one of the bolder spirits of the school, who never

could be happy unless he was doing something to which risk was attached, easily persuaded Tom to break

bounds and visit the martins' bank. From whence it being only a step to the toffy shop, what could be more

simple than to go on there and fill their pockets; or what more certain than that on their return, a distribution

of treasure having been made, the usher should shortly detect the forbidden smell of bull'seyes, and, a search

This ally of Tom's was indeed a desperate hero in the sight of the boys, and feared as one who dealt in magic,

or something approaching thereto. Which reputation came to him in this wise. The boys went to bed at eight,

and, of course, consequently lay awake in the dark for an hour or two, telling ghoststories by turns. One

night when it came to his turn, and he had dried up their souls by his story, he suddenly declared that he

would make a fiery hand appear on the door; and to the astonishment and terror of the boys in his room, a

hand, or something like it, in pale light, did then and there appear. The fame of this exploit having spread to

the other rooms, and being discredited there, the young necromancer declared that the same wonder would

appear in all the rooms in turn, which it accordingly did; and the whole circumstances having been privately

reported to one of the ushers as usual, that functionary, after listening about at the doors of the rooms, by a

sudden descent caught the performer in his nightshirt, with a box of phosphorus in his guilty hand.

Lucifermatches and all the present facilities for getting acquainted with fire were then unknownthe very

name of phosphorus had something diabolic in it to the boymind; so Tom's ally, at the cost of a sound

flogging, earned what many older folk covet muchthe very decided fear of most of his companions.

He was a remarkable boy, and by no means a bad one. Tom stuck to him till he left, and got into many

scrapes by so doing. But he was the great opponent of the talebearing habits of the school, and the open

Tom imbibed a fair amount of Latin and Greek at the school, but somehow, on the whole, it didn't suit him,

or he it, and in the holidays he was constantly working the Squire to send him at once to a public school.

Great was his joy then, when in the middle of his third halfyear, in October 183, a fever broke out in the

village, and the master having himself slightly sickened of it, the whole of the boys were sent off at a day's

The Squire was not quite so pleased as Master Tom to see that young gentleman's brown, merry face appear

at home, some two months before the proper time, for the Christmas holidays; and so, after putting on his

thinking cap, he retired to his study and wrote several letters, the result of which was that, one morning at the

breakfasttable, about a fortnight after Tom's return, he addressed his wife with"My dear, I have arranged

that Tom shall go to Rugby at once, for the last six weeks of this halfyear, instead of wasting them in riding

and loitering about home. It is very kind of the doctor to allow it. Will you see that his things are all ready by

Friday, when I shall take him up to town, and send him down the next day by himself."

Mrs. Brown was prepared for the announcement, and merely suggested a doubt whether Tom were yet old

enough to travel by himself. However, finding both father and son against her on this point, she gave in, like

a wise woman, and proceeded to prepare Tom's kit for his launch into a public school.

"Now, sir, time to get up, if you please. Tallyho coach for Leicester'll be round in half an hour, and don't

wait for nobody." So spake the boots of the Peacock Inn Islington, at halfpast two o'clock on the morning of

a day in the early part of November 183, giving Tom at the same time a shake by the shoulder, and then

Tom and his father arrived in town from Berkshire the day before, and finding, on inquiry, that the

Birmingham coaches which ran from the city did not pass through Rugby, but deposited their passengers at

Dunchurch, a village three miles distant on the main road, where said passengers had to wait for the Oxford

and Leicester coach in the evening, or to take a postchaise, had resolved that Tom should travel down by the

Tallyho, which diverged from the main road and passed through Rugby itself. And as the Tallyho was an

Tom had never been in London, and would have liked to have stopped at the Belle Savage, where they had

been put down by the Star, just at dusk, that he might have gone roving about those endless, mysterious,

gaslit streets, which, with their glare and hum and moving crowds, excited him so that he couldn't talk even.

But as soon as he found that the Peacock arrangement would get him to Rugby by twelve o'clock in the day,

whereas otherwise he wouldn't be there till the evening, all other plans melted away, his one absorbing aim

being to become a public schoolboy as fast as possible, and six hours sooner or later seeming to him of the

Tom and his father had alighted at the Peacock at about seven in the evening; and having heard with

unfeigned joy the paternal order, at the bar, of steaks and oystersauce for supper in half an hour, and seen

his father seated cozily by the bright fire in the coffeeroom with the paper in his hand, Tom had run out to

see about him, had wondered at all the vehicles passing and repassing, and had fraternized with the boots and

hostler, from whom he ascertained that the Tallyho was a tiptop goerten miles an hour including

Then being summoned to supper, he had regaled himself in one of the bright little boxes of the Peacock

coffeeroom, on the beef steak and unlimited oystersauce and brown stout (tasted then for the first

timea day to be marked for ever by Tom with a white stone); had at first attended to the excellent advice

which his father was bestowing on him from over his glass of steaming brandyandwater, and then began

nodding, from the united effects of the stout, the fire, and the lecture; till the Squire, observing Tom's state,

and remembering that it was nearly nine o'clock, and that the Tallyho left at three, sent the little fellow off to

the chambermaid, with a shake of the hand (Tom having stipulated in the morning before starting that kissing

"And now, Tom, my boy," said the Squire, "remember you are going, at your own earnest request, to be

chucked into this great school, like a young bear, with all your troubles before youearlier than we should

have sent you perhaps. If schools are what they were in my time, you'll see a great many cruel blackguard

things done, and hear a deal of foul, bad talk. But never fear. You tell the truth, keep a brave and kind heart,

and never listen to or say anything you wouldn't have your mother and sister hear, and you'll never feel

The allusion to his mother made Tom feel rather choky, and he would have liked to have hugged his father

As it was, he only squeezed his father's hand, and looked bravely up and said, "I'll try, father."

"Well, then, goodnight. God bless you! I'll tell boots to call you, and be up to see you off."

Tom was carried off by the chambermaid in a brown study, from which he was roused in a clean little attic,

by that buxom person calling him a little darling and kissing him as she left the room; which indignity he was

too much surprised to resent. And still thinking of his father's last words, and the look with which they were

spoken, he knelt down and prayed that, come what might, he might never bring shame or sorrow on the dear

Indeed, the Squire's last words deserved to have their effect, for they had been the result of much anxious

thought. All the way up to London he had pondered what he should say to Tom by way of parting

advicesomething that the boy could keep in his head ready for use. By way of assisting meditation, he had

even gone the length of taking out his flint and steel and tinder, and hammering away for a quarter of an hour

till he had manufactured a light for a long Trichinopoli cheroot, which he silently puffed, to the no small

wonder of coachee, who was an old friend, and an institution on the Bath road, and who always expected a

talk on the prospects and doings, agricultural and social, of the whole country, when he carried the Squire.

To condense the Squire's meditation, it was somewhat as follows: "I won't tell him to read his Bible, and love

and serve God; if he don't do that for his mother's sake and teaching, he won't for mine. Shall I go into the

sort of temptations he'll meet with? No, I can't do that. Never do for an old fellow to go into such things with

a boy. He won't understand me. Do him more harm than good, ten to one. Shall I tell him to mind his work,

and say he's sent to school to make himself a good scholar? Well, but he isn't sent to school for thatat any

rate, not for that mainly. I don't care a straw for Greek particles, or the digamma; no more does his mother.

What is he sent to school for? Well, partly because he wanted so to go. If he'll only turn out a brave, helpful,

truthtelling Englishman, and a gentleman, and a Christian, that's all I want," thought the Squire; and upon

this view of the case he framed his last words of advice to Tom, which were well enough suited to his

For they were Tom's first thoughts as he tumbled out of bed at the summons of boots, and proceeded rapidly

to wash and dress himself. At ten minutes to three he was down in the coffeeroom in his stockings, carrying

his hatbox, coat, and comforter in his hand; and there he found his father nursing a bright fire, and a cup of

"Now, then, Tom, give us your things here, and drink this. There's nothing like starting warm, old fellow."

Tom addressed himself to the coffee, and prattled away while he worked himself into his shoes and his

greatcoat, well warmed througha Petersham coat with velvet collar, made tight after the abominable

fashion of those days. And just as he is swallowing his last mouthful, winding his comforter round his throat,

and tucking the ends into the breast of his coat, the horn sounds; boots looks in and says, "Tallyho, sir;" and

they hear the ring and the rattle of the four fast trotters and the townmade drag, as it dashes up to the

"Anything for us, Bob?" says the burly guard, dropping down from behind, and slapping himself across the

"Young gen'lm'n, Rugby; three parcels, Leicester; hamper o' game, Rugby," answers hostler.

"Tell young gent to look alive," says guard, opening the hind boot and shooting in the parcels after

examining them by the lamps. "Here; shove the portmanteau up atop. I'll fasten him presently. Now then,

"Goodbye, fathermy love at home." A last shake of the hand. Up goes Tom, the guard catching his

hatbox and holding on with one hand, while with the other he claps the horn to his mouth. Toot, toot, toot!

the hostlers let go their heads, the four bays plunge at the collar, and away goes the Tallyho into the

darkness, fortyfive seconds from the time they pulled up. Hostler, boots, and the Squire stand looking after

"Sharp work!" says the Squire, and goes in again to his bed, the coach being well out of sight and hearing.

Tom stands up on the coach and looks back at his father's figure as long as he can see it; and then the guard,

having disposed of his luggage, comes to an anchor, and finishes his buttonings and other preparations for

facing the three hours before dawnno joke for those who minded cold, on a fast coach in November, in the

I sometimes think that you boys of this generation are a deal tenderer fellows than we used to be. At any rate

you're much more comfortable travellers, for I see every one of you with his rug or plaid, and other dodges

for preserving the caloric, and most of you going in, those fuzzy, dusty, padded firstclass carriages. It was

another affair altogether, a dark ride on the top of the Tallyho, I can tell you, in a tight Petersham coat, and

your feet dangling six inches from the floor. Then you knew what cold was, and what it was to be without

legs, for not a bit of feeling had you in them after the first halfhour. But it had its pleasures, the old dark

ride. First there was the consciousness of silent endurance, so dear to every Englishman of standing out

against something, and not giving in. Then there was the music of the rattling harness, and the ring of the

horses' feet on the hard road, and the glare of the two bright lamps through the steaming hoar frost, over the

leaders' ears, into the darkness, and the cheery toot of the guard's horn, to warn some drowsy pikeman or the

hostler at the next change; and the looking forward to daylight; and last, but not least, the delight of returning

Then the break of dawn and the sunrise, where can they be ever seen in perfection but from a coach roof?

You want motion and change and music to see them in their glorynot the music of singing men and

singing women, but good, silent music, which sets itself in your own head, the accompaniment of work and

The Tallyho is past St. Albans, and Tom is enjoying the ride, though halffrozen. The guard, who is alone

with him on the back of the coach, is silent, but has muffled Tom's feet up in straw, and put the end of an

oatsack over his knees. The darkness has driven him inwards, and he has gone over his little past life, and

thought of all his doings and promises, and of his mother and sister, and his father's last words; and has made

fifty good resolutions, and means to bear himself like a brave Brown as he is, though a young one. Then he

has been forward into the mysterious boyfuture, speculating as to what sort of place Rugby is, and what they

do there, and calling up all the stories of public schools which he has heard from big boys in the holidays. He

is chokefull of hope and life, notwithstanding the cold, and kicks his heels against the back board, and

would like to sing, only he doesn't know how his friend the silent guard might take it.

And now the dawn breaks at the end of the fourth stage, and the coach pulls up at a little roadside inn with

huge stables behind. There is a bright fire gleaming through the red curtains of the bar window, and the door

is open. The coachman catches his whip into a double thong, and throws it to the hostler; the steam of the

horses rises straight up into the air. He has put them along over the last two miles, and is two minutes before

his time. He rolls down from the box and into the inn. The guard rolls off behind. "Now, sir," says he to Tom,

"you just jump down, and I'll give you a drop of something to keep the cold out."

Tom finds a difficulty in jumping, or indeed in finding the top of the wheel with his feet, which may be in the

next world for all he feels; so the guard picks him off the coach top, and sets him on his legs, and they stump

Here a freshlooking barmaid serves them each with a glass of early purl as they stand before the fire,

coachman and guard exchanging business remarks. The purl warms the cockles of Tom's heart, and makes

"Rare tackle that, sir, of a cold morning," says the coachman, smiling. "Time's up." They are out again and

up; coachee the last, gathering the reins into his hands and talking to Jem the hostler about the mare's

shoulder, and then swinging himself up on to the boxthe horses dashing off in a canter before he falls into

his seat. Toottoottootletoo goes the horn, and away they are again, fiveandthirty miles on their road

(nearly halfway to Rugby, thinks Tom), and the prospect of breakfast at the end of the stage.

And now they begin to see, and the early life of the country side comes outa market cart or two; men in

smockfrocks going to their work, pipe in mouth, a whiff of which is no bad smell this bright morning. The

sun gets up, and the mist shines like silver gauze. They pass the hounds jogging along to a distant meet, at the

heels of the huntsman's back, whose face is about the colour of the tails of his old pink, as he exchanges

greetings with coachman and guard. Now they pull up at a lodge, and take on board a wellmuffledup

sportsman, with his guncase and carpetbag, An early upcoach meets them, and the coachmen gather up

their horses, and pass one another with the accustomed lift of the elbow, each team doing eleven miles an

"Twenty minutes here, gentlemen," says the coachman, as they pull up at halfpast seven at the inndoor.

Have we not endured nobly this morning? and is not this a worthy reward for much endurance? There is the

low, dark wainscoted room hung with sporting prints; the hatstand (with a whip or two standing up in it

belonging to bagmen who are still snug in bed) by the door; the blazing fire, with the quaint old glass over the

mantelpiece, in which is stuck a large card with the list of the meets for the week of the county hounds; the

table covered with the whitest of cloths and of china, and bearing a pigeonpie, ham, round of cold boiled

beef cut from a mammoth ox, and the great loaf of household bread on a wooden trencher. And here comes in

the stout head waiter, puffing under a tray of hot viandskidneys and a steak, transparent rashers and

poached eggs, buttered toast and muffins, coffee and tea, all smoking hot. The table can never hold it all. The

cold meats are removed to the sideboardthey were only put on for show and to give us an appetite. And

now fall on, gentlemen all. It is a wellknown sportinghouse, and the breakfasts are famous. Two or three

men in pink, on their way to the meet, drop in, and are very jovial and sharpset, as indeed we all are.

"Coffee, please," says Tom, with his mouth full of muffin and kidney. Coffee is a treat to him, tea is not.

Our coachman, I perceive, who breakfasts with us, is a cold beef man. He also eschews hot potations, and

addicts himself to a tankard of ale, which is brought him by the barmaid. Sportsman looks on approvingly,

Tom has eaten kidney and pigeonpie, and imbibed coffee, till his little skin is as tight as a drum; and then

has the further pleasure of paying head waiter out of his own purse, in a dignified manner, and walks out

before the inndoor to see the horses put to. This is done leisurely and in a highlyfinished manner by the

hostlers, as if they enjoyed the not being hurried. Coachman comes out with his waybill, and puffing a fat

cigar which the sportsman has given him. Guard emerges from the tap, where he prefers breakfasting, licking

round a tough looking doubtful cheroot, which you might tie round your finger, and three whiffs of which

The pinks stand about the inndoor lighting cigars and waiting to see us start, while their hacks are led up

and down the marketplace, on which the inn looks. They all know our sportsman, and we feel a reflected

"Now, sir, please," says the coachman. All the rest of the passengers are up; the guard is locking up the

"A good run to you!" says the sportsman to the pinks, and is by the coachman's side in no time.

"Let 'em go, Dick!" The hostlers fly back, drawing off the cloths from their glossy loins, and away we go

through the marketplace and down the High Street, looking in at the first floor windows, and seeing

several worthy burgesses shaving thereat; while all the shopboys who are cleaning the windows, and

housemaids who are doing the steps, stop and look pleased as we rattle past, as if we were a part of their

legitimate morning's amusement. We clear the town, and are well out between the hedgerows again as the

The sun shines almost warmly, and breakfast has oiled all springs and loosened all tongues. Tom is

encouraged by a remark or two of the guard's between the puffs of his oily cheroot, and besides is getting

tired of not talking. He is too full of his destination to talk about anything else, and so asks the guard if he

"Goes through it every day of my life. Twenty minutes afore twelve downten o'clock up."

Guard looks at him with a comical expression. "Werry outo' theway place, sir; no paving to streets, nor

no lighting. 'Mazin' big horse and cattle fair in autumnlasts a week just over now. Takes town a week to

get clean after it. Fairish hunting country. But slow place, sir, slow placeoff the main road, you seeonly

three coaches a day, and one on 'em a twooss wan, more like a hearse nor a coachRegulator comes

from Oxford. Young genl'm'n at school calls her Pig and Whistle, and goes up to college by her (six miles an

"Yes," says Tom, not unwilling for a moment that the guard should think him an old boy. But then, having

some qualms as to the truth of the assertion, and seeing that if he were to assume the character of an old boy

he couldn't go on asking the questions he wanted, added"That is to say, I'm on my way there. I'm a new

"You're werry late, sir," says the guard; "only six weeks today to the end of the half." Tom assented. "We

takes up fine loads this day six weeks, and Monday and Tuesday arter. Hopes we shall have the pleasure of

Tom said he hoped they would; but he thought within himself that his fate would probably be the Pig and

"It pays uncommon cert'nly," continues the guard. "Werry free with their cash is the young genl'm'n. But, Lor'

bless you, we gets into such rows all 'long the road, what wi' their pea shooters, and long whips, and

hollering, and upsetting every one as comes by, I'd a sight sooner carry one or two on 'em, sir, as I may be

"Do wi' 'em! Why, peppers every one's faces as we comes near, 'cept the young gals, and breaks windows wi'

them too, some on 'em shoots so hard. Now 'twas just here last June, as we was a driving up the firstday

boys, they was mendin' a quartermile of road, and there was a lot of Irish chaps, reg'lar roughs, a breaking

stones. As we comes up, 'Now, boys,' says young gent on the box (smart young fellow and desper't reckless),

'here's fun! Let the Pats have it about the ears.' 'God's sake sir!' says Bob (that's my mate the coachman);

'don't go for to shoot at 'em. They'll knock us off the coach.' 'Damme, coachee,' says young my lord, 'you ain't

afraid. Hoora, boys! let 'em have it.' 'Hoora!' sings out the others, and fill their mouths chokefull of peas

to last the whole line. Bob, seeing as 'twas to come, knocks his hat over his eyes, hollers to his osses, and

shakes 'em up; and away we goes up to the line on 'em, twenty miles an hour. The Pats begin to hoora too,

thinking it was a runaway; and first lot on 'em stands grinnin' and wavin' their old hats as we comes abreast

on 'em; and then you'd ha' laughed to see how took aback and choking savage they looked, when they gets the

peas astinging all over 'em. But bless you, the laugh weren't all of our side, sir, by a long way. We was

going so fast, and they was so took aback, that they didn't take what was up till we was halfway up the line.

Then 'twas, 'Look out all!' surely. They howls all down the line fit to frighten you; some on 'em runs arter us

and tries to clamber up behind, only we hits 'em over the fingers and pulls their hands off; one as had had it

very sharp act'ly runs right at the leaders, as though he'd ketch 'em by the heads, only luck'ly for him he

misses his tip and comes over a heap o' stones first. The rest picks up stones, and gives it us right away till we

gets out of shot, the young gents holding out werry manful with the pea shooters and such stones as lodged

on us, and a pretty many there was too. Then Bob picks hisself up again, and looks at young gent on box

werry solemn. Bob'd had a rum un in the ribs, which'd like to ha' knocked him off the box, or made him drop

the reins. Young gent on box picks hisself up, and so does we all, and looks round to count damage. Box's

head cut open and his hat gone; 'nother young gent's hat gone; mine knocked in at the side, and not one on us

as wasn't black and blue somewheres or another, most on 'em all over. Two pound ten to pay for damage to

paint, which they subscribed for there and then, and give Bob and me a extra halfsovereign each; but I

wouldn't go down that line again not for twenty halfsovereigns." And the guard shook his head slowly, and

"What fun!" said Tom, who could scarcely contain his pride at this exploit of his future schoolfellows. He

"'Taint such good fun, though, sir, for the folk as meets the coach, nor for we who has to go back with it next

day. Them Irishers last summer had all got stones ready for us, and was all but letting drive, and we'd got two

reverend gents aboard too. We pulled up at the beginning of the line, and pacified them, and we're never

going to carry no more peashooters, unless they promises not to fire where there's a line of Irish chaps

astonebreaking." The guard stopped and pulled away at his cheroot, regarding Tom benignantly the while.

"Well, there'd like to have been a pretty piece of work over it at Bicester, a while back. We was six mile from

the town, when we meets an old squareheaded grayhaired yeoman chap, ajogging along quite quiet. He

looks up at the coach, and just then a pea hits him on the nose, and some catches his cob behind and makes

him dance up on his hind legs. I see'd the old boy's face flush and look plaguy awkward, and I thought we

"He turns his cob's head and rides quietly after us just out of shot. How that 'ere cob did step! We never shook

him off not a dozen yards in the six miles. At first the young gents was werry lively on him; but afore we got

in, seeing how steady the old chap come on, they was quite quiet, and laid their heads together what they

should do. Some was for fighting, some for axing his pardon. He rides into the town close after us, comes up

when we stops, and says the two as shot at him must come before a magistrate; and a great crowd comes

round, and we couldn't get the osses to. But the young uns they all stand by one another, and says all or none

must go, and as how they'd fight it out, and have to be carried. Just as 'twas gettin' serious, and the old boy

and the mob was going to pull 'em off the coach, one little fellow jumps up and says, 'HereI'll stay. I'm

only going three miles farther. My father's name's Davis; he's known about here, and I'll go before the

magistrate with this gentleman.' 'What! be thee parson Davis's son?' says the old boy. 'Yes,' says the young

un. 'Well, I be mortal sorry to meet thee in such company; but for thy father's sake and thine (for thee bist a

brave young chap) I'll say no more about it.' Didn't the boys cheer him, and the mob cheered the young chap;

and then one of the biggest gets down, and begs his pardon werry gentlemanly for all the rest, saying as they

all had been plaguy vexed from the first, but didn't like to ax his pardon till then, 'cause they felt they hadn't

ought to shirk the consequences of their joke. And then they all got down, and shook hands with the old boy,

and asked him to all parts of the country, to their homes; and we drives off twenty minutes behind time, with

cheering and hollering as if we was county 'members. But, Lor' bless you, sir," says the guard, smacking his

hand down on his knee and looking full into Tom's face, "ten minutes arter they was all as bad as ever."

Tom showed such undisguised and openmouthed interest in his narrations that the old guard rubbed up his

memory, and launched out into a graphic history of all the performances of the boys on the roads for the last

twenty years. Off the road he couldn't go; the exploit must have been connected with horses or vehicles to

hang in the old fellow's head. Tom tried him off his own ground once or twice, but found he knew nothing

beyond, and so let him have his head, and the rest of the road bowled easily away; for old Blowhard (as the

boys called him) was a dry old file, with much kindness and humour, and a capital spinner of a yarn when he

What struck Tom's youthful imagination most was the desperate and lawless character of most of the stories.

Was the guard hoaxing him? He couldn't help hoping that they were true. It's very odd how almost all English

boys love danger. You can get ten to join a game, or climb a tree, or swim a stream, when there's a chance of

breaking their limbs or getting drowned, for one who'll stay on level ground, or in his depth, or play quoits or

The guard had just finished an account of a desperate fight which had happened at one of the fairs between

the drovers and the farmers with their whips, and the boys with cricketbats and wickets, which arose out of

a playful but objectionable practice of the boys going round to the publichouses and taking the linchpins

out of the wheels of the gigs, and was moralizing upon the way in which the Doctor, "a terrible stern man

he'd heard tell," had come down upon several of the performers, "sending three on 'em off next morning in a

poshay with a parish constable," when they turned a corner and neared the milestone, the third from Rugby.

By the stone two boys stood, their jackets buttoned tight, waiting for the coach.

"Look here, sir," says the guard, after giving a sharp toot toot; "there's two on 'em; outandout runners

they be. They comes out about twice or three times a week, and spirts a mile alongside of us."

And as they came up, sure enough, away went two boys along the footpath, keeping up with the horsesthe

first a light, clean made fellow going on springs; the other stout and round shouldered, labouring in his

Old Blowhard looked on admiringly. "See how beautiful that there un holds hisself together, and goes from

his hips, sir," said he; "he's a 'mazin' fine runner. Now many coachmen as drives a firstrate team'd put it on,

and try and pass 'em. But Bob, sir, bless you, he's tenderhearted; he'd sooner pull in a bit if he see'd 'em

agettin' beat. I do b'lieve, too, as that there un'd sooner break his heart than let us go by him afore next

At the second milestone the boys pulled up short, and waved their hats to the guard, who had his watch out

and shouted "4.56," thereby indicating that the mile had been done in four seconds under the five minutes.

They passed several more parties of boys, all of them objects of the deepest interest to Tom, and came in

sight of the town at ten minutes before twelve. Tom fetched a long breath, and thought he had never spent a

pleasanter day. Before he went to bed he had quite settled that it must be the greatest day he should ever

"And so here's Rugby, sir, at last, and you'll be in plenty of time for dinner at the Schoolhouse, as I telled

you," said the old guard, pulling his horn out of its case and tootletooing away, while the coachman shook

up his horses, and carried them along the side of the school close, round Deadman's corner, past the

schoolgates, and down the High Street to the Spread Eagle, the wheelers in a spanking trot, and leaders

cantering, in a style which would not have disgraced "Cherry Bob," "ramping, stamping, tearing, swearing

Tom's heart beat quick as he passed the great schoolfield or close, with its noble elms, in which several

games at football were going on, and tried to take in at once the long line of gray buildings, beginning with

the chapel, and ending with the Schoolhouse, the residence of the headmaster, where the great flag was

lazily waving from the highest round tower. And he began already to be proud of being a Rugby boy, as he

passed the schoolgates, with the oriel window above, and saw the boys standing there, looking as if the town

belonged to them, and nodding in a familiar manner to the coachman, as if any one of them would be quite

One of the young heroes, however, ran out from the rest, and scrambled up behind; where, having righted

himself, and nodded to the guard, with "How do, Jem?" he turned short round to Tom, and after looking him

"Yes," said Tom, in considerable astonishment, glad, however, to have lighted on some one already who

"Ah, I thought so. You know my old aunt, Miss East. She lives somewhere down your way in Berkshire. She

Tom was somewhat inclined to resent the patronizing air of his new friend, a boy of just about his own height

and age, but gifted with the most transcendent coolness and assurance, which Tom felt to be aggravating and

hard to bear, but couldn't for the life of him help admiring and envyingespecially when young my lord

begins hectoring two or three long loafing fellows, half porter, half stableman, with a strong touch of the

blackguard, and in the end arranges with one of them, nicknamed Cooey, to carry Tom's luggage up to the

"And hark 'ee, Cooey; it must be up in ten minutes, or no more jobs from me. Come along, Brown." And

away swaggers the young potentate, with his hands in his pockets, and Tom at his side.

"All right, sir," says Cooey, touching his hat, with a leer and a wink at his companions.

"Hullo though," says East, pulling up, and taking another look at Tom; "this'll never do. Haven't you got a

hat? We never wear caps here. Only the louts wear caps. Bless you, if you were to go into the quadrangle

with that thing on, I don't know what'd happen." The very idea was quite beyond young Master East, and he

Tom thought his cap a very knowing affair, but confessed that he had a hat in his hatbox; which was

accordingly at once extracted from the hindboot, and Tom equipped in his goto meeting roof, as his new

friend called it. But this didn't quite suit his fastidious taste in another minute, being too shiny; so, as they

walk up the town, they dive into Nixon's the hatter's, and Tom is arrayed, to his utter astonishment, and

without paying for it, in a regulation catskin at sevenand sixpence, Nixon undertaking to send the best hat

"You can send in a note for a tile on Monday, and make it all right, you know," said Mentor; "we're allowed

Tom by this time began to be conscious of his new social position and dignities, and to luxuriate in the

realized ambition of being a public schoolboy at last, with a vested right of spoiling two sevenandsixers

"You see," said his friend, as they strolled up towards the schoolgates, in explanation of his conduct, "a

great deal depends on how a fellow cuts up at first. If he's got nothing odd about him, and answers

straightforward, and holds his head up, he gets on. Now, you'll do very well as to rig, all but that cap. You see

I'm doing the handsome thing by you, because my father knows yours; besides, I want to please the old lady.

She gave me half a sov. this half, and perhaps'll double it next, if I keep in her good books."

There's nothing for candour like a lowerschool boy, and East was a genuine specimenfrank, hearty, and

goodnatured, well satisfied with himself and his position, and chokefull of life and spirits, and all the

Rugby prejudices and traditions which he had been able to get together in the long course of one half year

And Tom, notwithstanding his bumptiousness, felt friends with him at once, and began sucking in all his

East was great in the character of cicerone. He carried Tom through the great gates, where were only two or

three boys. These satisfied themselves with the stock questions, "You fellow, what's your name? Where do

you come from? How old are you? Where do you board?" and, "What form are you in?" And so they passed

on through the quadrangle and a small courtyard, upon which looked down a lot of little windows (belonging,

as his guide informed him, to some of the Schoolhouse studies), into the matron's room, where East

introduced Tom to that dignitary; made him give up the key of his trunk, that the matron might unpack his

linen, and told the story of the hat and of his own presence of mind: upon the relation whereof the matron

laughingly scolded him for the coolest new boy in the house; and East, indignant at the accusation of

newness, marched Tom off into the quadrangle, and began showing him the schools, and examining him as to

his literary attainments; the result of which was a prophecy that they would be in the same form, and could do

"And now come in and see my studywe shall have just time before dinner; and afterwards, before calling

Tom followed his guide through the Schoolhouse hall, which opens into the quadrangle. It is a great room,

thirty feet long and eighteen high, or thereabouts, with two great tables running the whole length, and two

large fireplaces at the side, with blazing fires in them, at one of which some dozen boys were standing and

lounging, some of whom shouted to East to stop; but he shot through with his convoy, and landed him in the

long, dark passages, with a large fire at the end of each, upon which the studies opened. Into one of these, in

the bottom passage, East bolted with our hero, slamming and bolting the door behind them, in case of pursuit

He hadn't been prepared for separate studies, and was not a little astonished and delighted with the palace in

It wasn't very large, certainly, being about six feet long by four broad. It couldn't be called light, as there were

bars and a grating to the window; which little precautions were necessary in the studies on the groundfloor

looking out into the close, to prevent the exit of small boys after locking up, and the entrance of contraband

articles. But it was uncommonly comfortable to look at, Tom thought. The space under the window at the

farther end was occupied by a square table covered with a reasonably clean and whole red and blue check

tablecloth; a hardseated sofa covered with red stuff occupied one side, running up to the end, and making a

seat for one, or by sitting close, for two, at the table and a good stout wooden chair afforded a seat to another

boy, so that three could sit and work together. The walls were wainscoted halfway up, the wainscot being

covered with green baize, the remainder with a bright patterned paper, on which hung three or four prints of

dogs' heads; Grimaldi winning the Aylesbury steeplechase; Amy Robsart, the reigning Waverley beauty of

the day; and Tom Crib, in a posture of defence, which did no credit to the science of that hero, if truly

represented. Over the door were a row of hatpegs, and on each side bookcases with cupboards at the bottom,

shelves and cupboards being filled indiscriminately with schoolbooks, a cup or two, a mousetrap and

candlesticks, leather straps, a fustian bag, and some curiouslooking articles which puzzled Tom not a little,

until his friend explained that they were climbingirons, and showed their use. A cricketbat and small

This was the residence of East and another boy in the same form, and had more interest for Tom than

Windsor Castle, or any other residence in the British Isles. For was he not about to become the joint owner of

a similar home, the first place he could call his own? One's own! What a charm there is in the words! How

long it takes boy and man to find out their worth! How fast most of us hold on to themfaster and more

jealously, the nearer we are to that general home into which we can take nothing, but must go naked as we

came into the world! When shall we learn that he who multiplieth possessions multiplieth troubles, and that

the one single use of things which we call our own is that they may be his who hath need of them?

"Yes, of course; you'll be chummed with some fellow on Monday, and you can sit here till then."

"They're well enough," answered East, patronizingly, "only uncommon cold at nights sometimes.

Gowerthat's my chumand I make a fire with paper on the floor after supper generally, only that makes it

"Precious little we get out of that, though," said East. "Jones the prepostor has the study at the fire end, and he

has rigged up an iron rod and green baize curtain across the passage, which he draws at night, and sits there

with his door open; so he gets all the fire, and hears if we come out of our studies after eight, or make a noise.

However, he's taken to sitting in the fifthform room lately, so we do get a bit of fire now sometimes; only to

keep a sharp lookout that he don't catch you behind his curtain when he comes downthat's all."

A quarter past one now struck, and the bell began tolling for dinner; so they went into the hall and took their

places, Tom at the very bottom of the second table, next to the prepostor (who sat at the end to keep order

there), and East a few paces higher. And now Tom for the first time saw his future school fellows in a body.

In they came, some hot and ruddy from football or long walks, some pale and chilly from hard reading in

their studies, some from loitering over the fire at the pastrycook's, dainty mortals, bringing with them pickles

and saucebottles to help them with their dinners. And a great big bearded man, whom Tom took for a

master, began calling over the names, while the great joints were being rapidly carved on the third table in the

corner by the old verger and the housekeeper. Tom's turn came last, and meanwhile he was all eyes, looking

first with awe at the great man, who sat close to him, and was helped first, and who read a hardlooking book

all the time he was eating; and when he got up and walked off to the fire, at the small boys round him, some

of whom were reading, and the rest talking in whispers to one another, or stealing one another's bread, or

shooting pellets, or digging their forks through the tablecloth. However, notwithstanding his curiosity, he

managed to make a capital dinner by the time the big man called "Stand up!" and said grace.

As soon as dinner was over, and Tom had been questioned by such of his neighbours as were curious as to his

birth, parentage, education, and other like matters, East, who evidently enjoyed his new dignity of patron and

mentor, proposed having a look at the close, which Tom, athirst for knowledge, gladly assented to; and they

went out through the quadrangle and past the big fives court, into the great playground.

"That's the chapel, you see," said East; "and there, just behind it, is the place for fights. You see it's most out

of the way of the masters, who all live on the other side, and don't come by here after first lesson or

callingsover. That's when the fights come off. And all this part where we are is the little side ground, right

up to the trees; and on the other side of the trees is the bigside ground, where the great matches are played.

And there's the island in the farthest corner; you'll know that well enough next half, when there's island

fagging. I say, it's horrid cold; let's have a run across." And away went East, Tom close behind him. East was

evidently putting his best foot foremost; and Tom, who was mighty proud of his running, and not a little

anxious to show his friend that, although a new boy, he was no milksop, laid himself down to work in his

very best style. Right across the close they went, each doing all he knew, and there wasn't a yard between

"I say," said East, as soon as he got his wind, looking with much increased respect at Tom, "you ain't a bad

"But why do you wear white trousers in November?" said Tom. He had been struck by this peculiarity in the

"Why, bless us, don't you know? No; I forgot. Why, today's the Schoolhouse match. Our house plays the

whole of the School at football. And we all wear white trousers, to show 'em we don't care for hacks. You're

in luck to come today. You just will see a match; and Brooke's going to let me play in quarters. That's more

"Why, that big fellow who called over at dinner, to be sure. He's cock of the school, and head of the

"Oh, but do show me where they play. And tell me about it. I love football so, and have played all my life.

"Not he," said East, with some indignation. "Why, you don't know the rules; you'll be a month learning them.

And then it's no joke playingup in a match, I can tell youquite another thing from your private school

games. Why, there's been two collarbones broken this half, and a dozen fellows lamed. And last year a

Tom listened with the profoundest respect to this chapter of accidents, and followed East across the level

ground till they came to a sort of gigantic gallows of two poles, eighteen feet high, fixed upright in the

ground some fourteen feet apart, with a crossbar running from one to the other at the height of ten feet or

"This is one of the goals," said East, "and you see the other, across there, right opposite, under the Doctor's

wall. Well, the match is for the best of three goals; whichever side kicks two goals wins: and it won't do, you

see, just to kick the ball through these postsit must go over the crossbar; any height'll do, so long as it's

between the posts. You'll have to stay in goal to touch the ball when it rolls behind the posts, because if the

other side touch it they have a try at goal. Then we fellows in quarters, we play just about in front of goal

here, and have to turn the ball and kick it back before the big fellows on the other side can follow it up. And

in front of us all the big fellows play, and that's where the scrummages are mostly."

Tom's respect increased as he struggled to make out his friend's technicalities, and the other set to work to

explain the mysteries of "off your side," "dropkicks," "punts," "places," and the other intricacies of the great

"But how do you keep the ball between the goals?" said he; "I can't see why it mightn't go right down to the

"Why; that's out of play," answered East. "You see this gravel walk running down all along this side of the

playingground, and the line of elms opposite on the other? Well, they're the bounds. As soon as the ball gets

past them, it's in touch, and out of play. And then whoever first touches it has to knock it straight out amongst

the playersup, who make two lines with a space between them, every fellow going on his own side. Ain't

there just fine scrummages then! And the three trees you see there which come out into the play, that's a

tremendous place when the ball hangs there, for you get thrown against the trees, and that's worse than any

Tom wondered within himself, as they strolled back again towards the fives court, whether the matches were

really such breakneck affairs as East represented, and whether, if they were, he should ever get to like them

He hadn't long to wonder, however, for next minute East cried out, "Hurrah! here's the puntabout; come

along and try your hand at a kick." The puntabout is the practiceball, which is just brought out and kicked

about anyhow from one boy to another before callingsover and dinner, and at other odd times. They joined

the boys who had brought it out, all small Schoolhouse fellows, friends of East; and Tom had the pleasure

of trying his skill, and performed very creditably, after first driving his foot three inches into the ground, and

then nearly kicking his leg into the air, in vigorous efforts to accomplish a dropkick after the manner of

Presently more boys and bigger came out, and boys from other houses on their way to callingover, and more

balls were sent for. The crowd thickened as three o'clock approached; and when the hour struck, one hundred

and fifty boys were hard at work. Then the balls were held, the master of the week came down in cap and

gown to callingover, and the whole school of three hundred boys swept into the big school to answer to their

"I may come in, mayn't I?" said Tom, catching East by the arm, and longing to feel one of them.

"Yes, come along; nobody'll say anything. You won't be so eager to get into callingover after a month,"

replied his friend; and they marched into the big school together, and up to the farther end, where that

illustrious form, the lower fourth, which had the honour of East's patronage for the time being, stood.

The master mounted into the high desk by the door, and one of the prepostors of the week stood by him on

the steps, the other three marching up and down the middle of the school with their canes, calling out,

"Silence, silence!" The sixth form stood close by the door on the left, some thirty in number, mostly great big

grown men, as Tom thought, surveying them from a distance with awe; the fifth form behind them, twice

their number, and not quite so big. These on the left; and on the right the lower fifth, shell, and all the junior

Then the prepostor who stands by the master calls out the names, beginning with the sixth form; and as he

calls each boy answers "here" to his name, and walks out. Some of the sixth stop at the door to turn the whole

string of boys into the close. It is a great matchday, and every boy in the school, will he, nill he, must be

there. The rest of the sixth go forwards into the close, to see that no one escapes by any of the side gates.

Today, however, being the Schoolhouse match, none of the Schoolhouse prepostors stay by the door to

watch for truants of their side; there is carte blanche to the Schoolhouse fags to go where they like. "They

trust to our honour," as East proudly informs Tom; "they know very well that no Schoolhouse boy would

The master of the week being shortsighted, and the prepostors of the week small and not well up to their

work, the lower school boys employ the ten minutes which elapse before their names are called in pelting

one another vigorously with acorns, which fly about in all directions. The small prepostors dash in every now

and then, and generally chastise some quiet, timid boy who is equally afraid of acorns and canes, while the

principal performers get dexterously out of the way. And so callingover rolls on somehow, much like the

big world, punishments lighting on wrong shoulders, and matters going generally in a queer, crossgrained

way, but the end coming somehow, which is, after all, the great point. And now the master of the week has

finished, and locked up the big school; and the prepostors of the week come out, sweeping the last remnant of

the school fags, who had been loafing about the corners by the fives court, in hopes of a chance of bolting,

"Hold the puntabout!" "To the goals!" are the cries; and all stray balls are impounded by the authorities, and

the whole mass of boys moves up towards the two goals, dividing as they go into three bodies. That little

band on the left, consisting of from fifteen to twenty boys, Tom amongst them, who are making for the goal

under the Schoolhouse wall, are the Schoolhouse boys who are not to play up, and have to stay in goal.

The larger body moving to the island goal are the School boys in a like predicament. The great mass in the

middle are the playersup, both sides mingled together; they are hanging their jackets (and all who mean real

work), their hats, waistcoats, neck handkerchiefs, and braces, on the railings round the small trees; and there

they go by twos and threes up to their respective grounds. There is none of the colour and tastiness of getup,

you will perceive, which lends such a life to the present game at Rugby, making the dullest and worstfought

match a pretty sight. Now each house has its own uniform of cap and jersey, of some lively colour; but at the

time we are speaking of plush caps have not yet come in, or uniforms of any sort, except the Schoolhouse

white trousers, which are abominably cold today. Let us get to work, bareheaded, and girded with our

And now that the two sides have fairly sundered, and each occupies its own ground, and we get a good look

at them, what absurdity is this? You don't mean to say that those fifty or sixty boys in white trousers, many of

them quite small, are going to play that huge mass opposite? Indeed I do, gentlemen. They're going to try, at

any rate, and won't make such a bad fight of it either, mark my word; for hasn't old Brooke won the toss, with

his lucky halfpenny, and got choice of goals and kickoff? The new ball you may see lie there quite by itself,

in the middle, pointing towards the School or island goal; in another minute it will be well on its way there.

Use that minute in remarking how the Schoolhouse side is drilled. You will see, in the first place, that the

sixthform boy, who has the charge of goal, has spread his force (the goalkeepers) so as to occupy the whole

space behind the goalposts, at distances of about five yards apart. A safe and wellkept goal is the

foundation of all good play. Old Brooke is talking to the captain of quarters, and now he moves away. See

how that youngster spreads his men (the light brigade) carefully over the ground, halfway between their

own goal and the body of their own playersup (the heavy brigade). These again play in several bodies.

There is young Brooke and the bulldogs. Mark them well. They are the "fighting brigade," the "diehards,"

larking about at leapfrog to keep themselves warm, and playing tricks on one another. And on each side of

old Brooke, who is now standing in the middle of the ground and just going to kick off, you see a separate

wing of playersup, each with a boy of acknowledged prowess to look tohere Warner, and there Hedge;

but over all is old Brooke, absolute as he of Russia, but wisely and bravely ruling over willing and

worshipping subjects, a true football king. His face is earnest and careful as he glances a last time over his

array, but full of pluck and hopethe sort of look I hope to see in my general when I go out to fight.

The School side is not organized in the same way. The goal keepers are all in lumps, anyhow and nohow;

you can't distinguish between the playersup and the boys in quarters, and there is divided leadership. But

with such odds in strength and weight it must take more than that to hinder them from winning; and so their

But now look! there is a slight move forward of the Schoolhouse wings, a shout of "Are you ready?" and

loud affirmative reply. Old Brooke takes half a dozen quick steps, and away goes the ball spinning towards

the School goal, seventy yards before it touches ground, and at no point above twelve or fifteen feet high, a

model kickoff; and the Schoolhouse cheer and rush on. The ball is returned, and they meet it and drive it

back amongst the masses of the School already in motion. Then the two sides close, and you can see nothing

for minutes but a swaying crowd of boys, at one point violently agitated. That is where the ball is, and there

are the keen players to be met, and the glory and the hard knocks to be got. You hear the dull thud, thud of

the ball, and the shouts of "Off your side," "Down with him," "Put him over," "Bravo." This is what we call

"a scrummage," gentlemen, and the first scrummage in a Schoolhouse match was no joke in the consulship

But see! it has broken; the ball is driven out on the School house side, and a rush of the School carries it past

the School house playersup. "Look out in quarters," Brooke's and twenty other voices ring out. No need to

call, though: the School house captain of quarters has caught it on the bound, dodges the foremost School

boys, who are heading the rush, and sends it back with a good dropkick well into the enemy's country. And

then follows rush upon rush, and scrummage upon scrummage, the ball now driven through into the

Schoolhouse quarters, and now into the School goal; for the Schoolhouse have not lost the advantage

which the kickoff and a slight wind gave them at the outset, and are slightly "penning" their adversaries.

You say you don't see much in it allnothing but a struggling mass of boys, and a leather ball which seems

to excite them all to great fury, as a red rag does a bull. My dear sir, a battle would look much the same to

you, except that the boys would be men, and the balls iron; but a battle would be worth your looking at for all

that, and so is a football match. You can't be expected to appreciate the delicate strokes of play, the turns by

which a game is lost and wonit takes an old player to do that; but the broad philosophy of football you can

understand if you will. Come along with me a little nearer, and let us consider it together.

The ball has just fallen again where the two sides are thickest, and they close rapidly around it in a

scrummage. It must be driven through now by force or skill, till it flies out on one side or the other. Look

how differently the boys face it! Here come two of the bulldogs, bursting through the outsiders; in they go,

straight to the heart of the scrummage, bent on driving that ball out on the opposite side. That is what they

mean to do. My sons, my sons! you are too hot; you have gone past the ball, and must struggle now right

through the scrummage, and get round and back again to your own side, before you can be of any further use.

Here comes young Brooke; he goes in as straight as you, but keeps his head, and backs and bends, holding

himself still behind the ball, and driving it furiously when he gets the chance. Take a leaf out of his book, you

young chargers. Here comes Speedicut, and Flashman the Schoolhouse bully, with shouts and great action.

Won't you two come up to young Brooke, after lockingup, by the Schoolhouse fire, with "Old fellow,

wasn't that just a splendid scrummage by the three trees?" But he knows you, and so do we. You don't really

want to drive that ball through that scrummage, chancing all hurt for the glory of the Schoolhouse, but to

make us think that's what you wanta vastly different thing; and fellows of your kidney will never go

through more than the skirts of a scrummage, where it's all push and no kicking. We respect boys who keep

out of it, and don't sham going in; but youwe had rather not say what we think of you.

Then the boys who are bending and watching on the outside, mark them: they are most useful players, the

dodgers, who seize on the ball the moment it rolls out from amongst the chargers, and away with it across to

the opposite goal. They seldom go into the scrummage, but must have more coolness than the chargers. As

endless as are boys' characters, so are their ways of facing or not facing a scrummage at football.

Threequarters of an hour are gone; first winds are failing, and weight and numbers beginning to tell. Yard

by yard the School house have been driven back, contesting every inch of ground. The bulldogs are the

colour of mother earth from shoulder to ankle, except young Brooke, who has a marvellous knack of keeping

his legs. The Schoolhouse are being penned in their turn, and now the ball is behind their goal, under the

Doctor's wall. The Doctor and some of his family are there looking on, and seem as anxious as any boy for

the success of the School house. We get a minute's breathingtime before old Brooke kicks out, and he

gives the word to play strongly for touch, by the three trees. Away goes the ball, and the bulldogs after it,

and in another minute there is shout of "In touch!" "Our ball!" Now's your time, old Brooke, while your men

are still fresh. He stands with the ball in his hand, while the two sides form in deep lines opposite one

another; he must strike it straight out between them. The lines are thickest close to him, but young Brooke

and two or three of his men are shifting up farther, where the opposite line is weak. Old Brooke strikes it out

straight and strong, and it falls opposite his brother. Hurrah! that rush has taken it right through the School

line, and away past the three trees, far into their quarters, and young Brooke and the bulldogs are close upon

it. The School leaders rush back, shouting, "Look out in goal!" and strain every nerve to catch him, but they

are after the fleetest foot in Rugby. There they go straight for the School goalposts, quarters scattering

before them. One after another the bulldogs go down, but young Brooke holds on. "He is down." No! a long

stagger, but the danger is past. That was the shock of Crew, the most dangerous of dodgers. And now he is

close to the School goal, the ball not three yards before him. There is a hurried rush of the School fags to the

spot, but no one throws himself on the ball, the only chance, and young Brooke has touched it right under the

The School leaders come up furious, and administer toco to the wretched fags nearest at hand. They may well

be angry, for it is all Lombard Street to a china orange that the Schoolhouse kick a goal with the ball

touched in such a good place. Old Brooke, of course, will kick it out, but who shall catch and place it? Call

Crab Jones. Here he comes, sauntering along with a straw in his mouth, the queerest, coolest fish in Rugby. If

he were tumbled into the moon this minute, he would just pick himself up without taking his hands out of his

pockets or turning a hair. But it is a moment when the boldest charger's heart beats quick. Old Brooke stands

with the ball under his arm motioning the School back; he will not kick out till they are all in goal, behind the

posts. They are all edging forwards, inch by inch, to get nearer for the rush at Crab Jones, who stands there in

front of old Brooke to catch the ball. If they can reach and destroy him before he catches, the danger is over;

and with one and the same rush they will carry it right away to the Schoolhouse goal. Fond hope! it is

kicked out and caught beautifully. Crab strikes his heel into the ground, to mark the spot where the ball was

caught, beyond which the school line may not advance; but there they stand, five deep, ready to rush the

moment the ball touches the ground. Take plenty of room. Don't give the rush a chance of reaching you.

Place it true and steady. Trust Crab Jones. He has made a small hole with his heel for the ball to lie on, by

which he is resting on one knee, with his eye on old Brooke. "Now!" Crab places the ball at the word, old

Then a moment's pause, while both sides look up at the spinning ball. There it flies, straight between the two

posts, some five feet above the crossbar, an unquestioned goal; and a shout of real, genuine joy rings out

from the Schoolhouse playersup, and a faint echo of it comes over the close from the goal keepers under

the Doctor's wall. A goal in the first hour such a thing hasn't been done in the Schoolhouse match these

"Over!" is the cry. The two sides change goals, and the School house goalkeepers come threading their

way across through the masses of the School, the most openly triumphant of them amongst whom is Tom,

a Schoolhouse boy of two hours' standing getting their ears boxed in the transit. Tom indeed is excited

beyond measure, and it is all the sixthform boy, kindest and safest of goalkeepers, has been able to do, to

keep him from rushing out whenever the ball has been near their goal. So he holds him by his side, and

At this moment Griffith, the itinerant vender of oranges from Hill Morton, enters the close with his heavy

baskets. There is a rush of small boys upon the little palefaced man, the two sides mingling together,

subdued by the great goddess Thirst, like the English and French by the streams in the Pyrenees. The leaders

are past oranges and apples, but some of them visit their coats, and apply innocentlooking gingerbeer

bottles to their mouths. It is no gingerbeer though, I fear, and will do you no good. One short mad rush, and

then a stitch in the side, and no more honest play. That's what comes of those bottles.

But now Griffith's baskets are empty, the ball is placed again midway, and the School are going to kick off.

Their leaders have sent their lumber into goal, and rated the rest soundly, and one hundred and twenty picked

playersup are there, bent on retrieving the game. They are to keep the ball in front of the Schoolhouse goal,

and then to drive it in by sheer strength and weight. They mean heavy play and no mistake, and so old Brooke

sees, and places Crab Jones in quarters just before the goal, with four or five picked players who are to keep

the ball away to the sides, where a try at goal, if obtained, will be less dangerous than in front. He himself,

and Warner and Hedge, who have saved themselves till now, will lead the charges.

"Are you ready?" "Yes." And away comes the ball, kicked high in the air, to give the School time to rush on

and catch it as it falls. And here they are amongst us. Meet them like Englishmen, you Schoolhouse boys, and

charge them home. Now is the time to show what mettle is in you; and there shall be a warm seat by the hall

fire, and honour, and lots of bottled beer tonight for him who does his duty in the next halfhour. And they

are well met. Again and again the cloud of their players up gathers before our goal, and comes threatening

on, and Warner or Hedge, with young Brooke and the relics of the bulldogs, break through and carry the

ball back; and old Brooke ranges the field like Job's warhorse. The thickest scrummage parts asunder before

his rush, like the waves before a clipper's bows; his cheery voice rings out over the field, and his eye is

everywhere. And if these miss the ball, and it rolls dangerously in front of our goal, Crab Jones and his men

have seized it and sent it away towards the sides with the unerring dropkick. This is worth living forthe

whole sum of school boy existence gathered up into one straining, struggling half hour, a halfhour worth

The quarter to five has struck, and the play slackens for a minute before goal; but there is Crew, the artful

dodger, driving the ball in behind our goal, on the island side, where our quarters are weakest. Is there no one

to meet him? Yes; look at little East! The ball is just at equal distances between the two, and they rush

together, the young man of seventeen and the boy of twelve, and kick it at the same moment. Crew passes on

without a stagger; East is hurled forward by the shock, and plunges on his shoulder, as if he would bury

himself in the ground; but the ball rises straight into the air, and falls behind Crew's back, while the "bravoes"

of the School house attest the pluckiest charge of all that hardfought day. Warner picks East up lame and

half stunned, and he hobbles back into goal, conscious of having played the man.

And now the last minutes are come, and the School gather for their last rush, every boy of the hundred and

twenty who has a run left in him. Reckless of the defence of their own goal, on they come across the level

bigside ground, the ball well down amongst them, straight for our goal, like the column of the Old Guard up

the slope at Waterloo. All former charges have been child's play to this. Warner and Hedge have met them,

but still on they come. The bulldogs rush in for the last time; they are hurled over or carried back, striving

hand, foot, and eyelids. Old Brooke comes sweeping round the skirts of the play, and turning short round,

picks out the very heart of the scrummage, and plunges in. It wavers for a moment; he has the ball. No, it has

passed him, and his voice rings out clear over the advancing tide, "Look out in goal!" Crab Jones catches it

for a moment; but before he can kick, the rush is upon him and passes over him; and he picks himself up

The ball rolls slowly in behind the Schoolhouse goal, not three yards in front of a dozen of the biggest

There stands the Schoolhouse prepostor, safest of goalkeepers, and Tom Brown by his side, who has

learned his trade by this time. Now is your time, Tom. The blood of all the Browns is up, and the two rush in

together, and throw themselves on the ball, under the very feet of the advancing columnthe prepostor on

his hands and knees, arching his back, and Tom all along on his face. Over them topple the leaders of the

rush, shooting over the back of the prepostor, but falling flat on Tom, and knocking all the wind out of his

small carcass. "Our ball," says the prepostor, rising with his prize; "but get up there; there's a little fellow

under you." They are hauled and roll off him, and Tom is discovered, a motionless body.

Old Brooke picks him up. "Stand back, give him air," he says; and then feeling his limbs, adds, "No bones

And five o'clock strikes. "No side" is called, and the first day of the Schoolhouse match is over.

As the boys scattered away from the ground, and East, leaning on Tom's arm, and limping along, was

beginning to consider what luxury they should go and buy for tea to celebrate that glorious victory, the two

Brookes came striding by. Old Brooke caught sight of East, and stopped; put his hand kindly on his shoulder,

"Well, mind and get all right for next Saturday." And the leader passed on, leaving East better for those few

words than all the opodeldoc in England would have made him, and Tom ready to give one of his ears for as

much notice. Ah! light words of those whom we love and honour, what a power ye are, and how carelessly

wielded by those who can use you! Surely for these things also God will ask an account.

"Tea's directly after lockingup, you see," said East, hobbling along as fast as he could, "so you come along

down to Sally Harrowell's; that's our Schoolhouse tuckshop. She bakes such stunning murphies, we'll have

Tom's new purse and money burnt in his pocket; he wondered, as they toddled through the quadrangle and

along the street, whether East would be insulted if he suggested further extravagance, as he had not sufficient

"I say, East, can't we get something else besides potatoes? I've got lots of money, you know."

"Bless us, yes; I forgot," said East, "you've only just come. You see all my tin's been gone this twelve

weeksit hardly ever lasts beyond the first fortnight; and our allowances were all stopped this morning for

broken windows, so I haven't got a penny. I've got a tick at Sally's, of course; but then I hate running it high,

you see, towards the end of the half, 'cause one has to shell out for it all directly one comes back, and that's a

Tom didn't understand much of this talk, but seized on the fact that East had no money, and was denying

himself some little pet luxury in consequence. "Well, what shall I buy?" said he, "I'm uncommon hungry."

"I say," said East, stopping to look at him and rest his leg, "you're a trump, Brown. I'll do the same by you

next half. Let's have a pound of sausages then. That's the best grub for tea I know of."

"Oh, over here, just opposite." And they crossed the street and walked into the cleanest little front room of a

small house, half parlour, half shop, and bought a pound of most particular sausages, East talking pleasantly

From Porter's they adjourned to Sally Harrowell's, where they found a lot of Schoolhouse boys waiting for

the roast potatoes, and relating their own exploits in the day's match at the top of their voices. The street

opened at once into Sally's kitchen, a low brickfloored room, with large recess for fire, and chimney corner

seats. Poor little Sally, the most goodnatured and muchenduring of womankind, was bustling about, with a

napkin in her hand, from her own oven to those of the neighbours' cottages up the yard at the back of the

house. Stumps, her husband, a short, easygoing shoemaker, with a beery, humorous eye and ponderous

calves, who lived mostly on his wife's earnings, stood in a corner of the room, exchanging shots of the

roughest description of repartee with every boy in turn. "Stumps, you lout, you've had too much beer again

today." "'Twasn't of your paying for, then." "Stumps's calves are running down into his ankles; they want to

get to grass." "Better be doing that than gone altogether like yours," etc. Very poor stuff it was, but it served

to make time pass; and every now and then Sally arrived in the middle with a smoking tin of potatoes, which

was cleared off in a few seconds, each boy as he seized his lot running off to the house with "Put me down

twopenn'orth, Sally;" "Put down threepenn'orth between me and Davis," etc. How she ever kept the

accounts so straight as she did, in her head and on her slate, was a perfect wonder.

East and Tom got served at last, and started back for the Schoolhouse, just as the lockingup bell began to

ring, East on the way recounting the life and adventures of Stumps, who was a character. Amongst his other

small avocations, he was the hind carrier of a sedanchair, the last of its race, in which the Rugby ladies still

went out to tea, and in which, when he was fairly harnessed and carrying a load, it was the delight of small

and mischievous boys to follow him and whip his calves. This was too much for the temper even of Stumps,

and he would pursue his tormentors in a vindictive and apoplectic manner when released, but was easily

The lowerschool boys of the Schoolhouse, some fifteen in number, had tea in the lowerfifth school, and

were presided over by the old verger or headporter. Each boy had a quarter of a loaf of bread and pat of

butter, and as much tea as he pleased; and there was scarcely one who didn't add to this some further luxury,

such as baked potatoes, a herring, sprats, or something of the sort. But few at this period of the halfyear

could live up to a pound of Porter's sausages, and East was in great magnificence upon the strength of theirs.

He had produced a toastingfork from his study, and set Tom to toast the sausages, while he mounted guard

over their butter and potatoes. "'Cause," as he explained, "you're a new boy, and they'll play you some trick

and get our butter; but you can toast just as well as I." So Tom, in the midst of three or four more urchins

similarly employed, toasted his face and the sausages at the same time before the huge fire, till the latter

cracked; when East from his watchtower shouted that they were done, and then the feast proceeded, and the

festive cups of tea were filled and emptied, and Tom imparted of the sausages in small bits to many

neighbours, and thought he had never tasted such good potatoes or seen such jolly boys. They on their parts

waived all ceremony, and pegged away at the sausages and potatoes, and remembering Tom's performance in

goal, voted East's new crony a brick. After tea, and while the things were being cleared away, they gathered

round the fire, and the talk on the match still went on; and those who had them to show pulled up their

They were soon, however, all turned out of the school; and East conducted Tom up to his bedroom, that he

"What's singing?" said Tom, taking his head out of his basin, where he had been plunging it in cold water.

"Well, you are jolly green," answered his friend, from a neighbouring basin. "Why, the last six Saturdays of

every half we sing of course; and this is the first of them. No first lesson to do, you know, and lie in bed

"Why, everybody, of course; you'll see soon enough. We begin directly after supper, and sing till bedtime. It

ain't such good fun now, though, as in the summer half; 'cause then we sing in the little fives court, under the

library, you know. We take out tables, and the big boys sit round and drink beerdouble allowance on

Saturday nights; and we cut about the quadrangle between the songs, and it looks like a lot of robbers in a

cave. And the louts come and pound at the great gates, and we pound back again, and shout at them. But this

Their principal employment in the study was to clear out East's table; removing the drawers and ornaments

and tablecloth; for he lived in the bottom passage, and his table was in requisition for the singing.

Supper came in due course at seven o'clock, consisting of bread and cheese and beer, which was all saved for

the singing; and directly afterwards the fags went to work to prepare the hall. The Schoolhouse hall, as has

been said, is a great long high room, with two large fires on one side, and two large ironbound tables, one

running down the middle, and the other along the wall opposite the fireplaces. Around the upper fire the fags

placed the tables in the form of a horseshoe, and upon them the jugs with the Saturday night's allowance of

beer. Then the big boys used to drop in and take their seats, bringing with them bottled beer and song books;

for although they all knew the songs by heart, it was the thing to have an old manuscript book descended

The sixthform boys had not yet appeared; so, to fill up the gap, an interesting and timehonoured ceremony

was gone through. Each new boy was placed on the table in turn, and made to sing a solo, under the penalty

of drinking a large mug of salt and water if he resisted or broke down. However, the new boys all sing like

nightingales tonight, and the salt water is not in requisitionTom, as his part, performing the old

westcountry song of "The Leather Bottel" with considerable applause. And at the halfhour down come the

sixth and fifth form boys, and take their places at the tables, which are filled up by the next biggest boys, the

The glasses and mugs are filled, and then the fugleman strikes up the old seasong,

which is the invariable first song in the Schoolhouse; and all the seventy voices join in, not mindful of

harmony, but bent on noise, which they attain decidedly, but the general effect isn't bad. And then follow

"The British Grenadiers," "Billy Taylor," "The Siege of Seringapatam," "Three Jolly Postboys," and other

vociferous songs in rapid succession, including "The Chesapeake and Shannon," a song lately introduced in

"Brave Broke he waved his sword, crying, Now, my lads, aboard, And we'll stop their playing

you expect the roof to come down. The sixth and fifth know that "brave Broke" of the Shannon was no sort of

relation to our old Brooke. The fourth form are uncertain in their belief, but for the most part hold that old

Brooke was a midshipman then on board his uncle's ship. And the lower school never doubt for a moment

that it was our old Brooke who led the boarders, in what capacity they care not a straw. During the pauses the

bottled beer corks fly rapidly, and the talk is fast and merry, and the big boysat least all of them who have

a fellowfeeling for dry throatshand their mugs over their shoulders to be emptied by the small ones who

Then Warner, the head of the house, gets up and wants to speak; but he can't, for every boy knows what's

coming. And the big boys who sit at the tables pound them and cheer; and the small boys who stand behind

pound one another, and cheer, and rush about the hall cheering. Then silence being made, Warner reminds

them of the old Schoolhouse custom of drinking the healths, on the first night of singing, of those who are

going to leave at the end of the half. "He sees that they know what he is going to say already" (loud cheers),

"and so won't keep them, but only ask them to treat the toast as it deserves. It is the head of the eleven, the

And away goes the pounding and cheering again, becoming deafening when old Brooke gets on his legs; till,

a table having broken down, and a gallon or so of beer been upset, and all throats getting dry, silence ensues,

and the hero speaks, leaning his hands on the table, and bending a little forwards. No action, no tricks of

"Gentlemen of the Schoolhouse! I am very proud of the way in which you have received my name, and I

wish I could say all I should like in return. But I know I shan't. However, I'll do the best I can to say what

seems to me ought to be said by a fellow who's just going to leave, and who has spent a good slice of his life

here. Eight years it is, and eight such years as I can never hope to have again. So now I hope you'll all listen

to me" (loud cheers of "That we will"), "for I'm going to talk seriously. You're bound to listen to me for

what's the use of calling me 'pater,' and all that, if you don't mind what I say? And I'm going to talk seriously,

because I feel so. It's a jolly time, too, getting to the end of the half, and a goal kicked by us first day"

(tremendous applause), "after one of the hardest and fiercest day's play I can remember in eight years."

(Frantic shoutings.) "The School played splendidly, too, I will say, and kept it up to the last. That last charge

of theirs would have carried away a house. I never thought to see anything again of old Crab there, except

little pieces, when I saw him tumbled over by it." (Laughter and shouting, and great slapping on the back of

Jones by the boys nearest him.) "Well, but we beat 'em." (Cheers.) "Ay, but why did we beat 'em? Answer me

that." (Shouts of "Your play.") "Nonsense! 'Twasn't the wind and kickoff eitherthat wouldn't do it.

'Twasn't because we've half a dozen of the best players in the school, as we have. I wouldn't change Warner,

and Hedge, and Crab, and the young un, for any six on their side." (Violent cheers.) "But half a dozen fellows

can't keep it up for two hours against two hundred. Why is it, then? I'll tell you what I think. It's because

we've more reliance on one another, more of a house feeling, more fellowship than the School can have. Each

of us knows and can depend on his nexthand man better. That's why we beat 'em today. We've union,

they've divisionthere's the secret." (Cheers.) "But how's this to be kept up? How's it to be improved? That's

the question. For I take it we're all in earnest about beating the School, whatever else we care about. I know

I'd sooner win two Schoolhouse matches running than get the Balliol scholarship any day." (Frantic cheers.)

"Now, I'm as proud of the house as any one. I believe it's the best house in the school, out and out." (Cheers.)

"But it's a long way from what I want to see it. First, there's a deal of bullying going on. I know it well. I don't

pry about and interfere; that only makes it more underhand, and encourages the small boys to come to us with

their fingers in their eyes telling tales, and so we should be worse off than ever. It's very little kindness for the

sixth to meddle generallyyou youngsters mind that. You'll be all the better football players for learning to

stand it, and to take your own parts, and fight it through. But depend on it, there's nothing breaks up a house

like bullying. Bullies are cowards, and one coward makes many; so goodbye to the Schoolhouse match if

bullying gets ahead here." (Loud applause from the small boys, who look meaningly at Flashman and other

boys at the tables.) "Then there's fuddling about in the publichouse, and drinking bad spirits, and punch, and

such rotgut stuff. That won't make good drop kicks or chargers of you, take my word for it. You get plenty

of good beer here, and that's enough for you; and drinking isn't fine or manly, whatever some of you may

"One other thing I must have a word about. A lot of you think and say, for I've heard you, 'There's this new

Doctor hasn't been here so long as some of us, and he's changing all the old customs. Rugby, and the

Schoolhouse especially, are going to the dogs. Stand up for the good old ways, and down with the Doctor!'

Now I'm as fond of old Rugby customs and ways as any of you, and I've been here longer than any of you,

and I'll give you a word of advice in time, for I shouldn't like to see any of you getting sacked. 'Down with

the Doctor's' easier said than done. You'll find him pretty tight on his perch, I take it, and an awkwardish

customer to handle in that line. Besides now, what customs has he put down? There was the good old custom

of taking the linchpins out of the farmers' and bagmen's gigs at the fairs, and a cowardly, blackguard custom

it was. We all know what came of it, and no wonder the Doctor objected to it. But come now, any of you,

"The hounds," calls out a fifthform boy, clad in a green cutaway with brass buttons and cord trousers, the

leader of the sporting interest, and reputed a great rider and keen hand generally.

"Well, we had six or seven mangy harriers and beagles belonging to the house, I'll allow, and had had them

for years, and that the Doctor put them down. But what good ever came of them? Only rows with all the

keepers for ten miles round; and bigside hareandhounds is better fun ten times over. What else?"

"Well, I won't go on. Think it over for yourselves. You'll find, I believe, that he don't meddle with any one

that's worth keeping. And mind now, I say again, look out for squalls if you will go your own way, and that

way ain't the Doctor's, for it'll lead to grief. You all know that I'm not the fellow to back a master through

thick and thin. If I saw him stopping football, or cricket, or bathing, or sparring, I'd be as ready as any fellow

to stand up about it. But he don't; he encourages them. Didn't you see him out today for half an hour

watching us?" (loud cheers for the Doctor); "and he's a strong, true man, and a wise one too, and a

publicschool man too" (cheers), "and so let's stick to him, and talk no more rot, and drink his health as the

head of the house." (Loud cheers.) "And now I've done blowing up, and very glad I am to have done. But it's

a solemn thing to be thinking of leaving a place which one has lived in and loved for eight years; and if one

can say a word for the good of the old house at such a time, why, it should be said, whether bitter or sweet. If

I hadn't been proud of the house and youay, no one knows how proudI shouldn't be blowing you up.

And now let's get to singing. But before I sit down I must give you a toast to be drunk with threetimesthree

and all the honours. It's a toast which I hope every one of us, wherever he may go hereafter, will never fail to

drink when he thinks of the brave, bright days of his boyhood. It's a toast which should bind us all together,

and to those who've gone before and who'll come after us here. It is the dear old Schoolhousethe best

My dear boys, old and young, you who have belonged, or do belong, to other schools and other houses, don't

begin throwing my poor little book about the room, and abusing me and it, and vowing you'll read no more

when you get to this point. I allow you've provocation for it. But come nowwould you, any of you, give a

fig for a fellow who didn't believe in and stand up for his own house and his own school? You know you

wouldn't. Then don't object to me cracking up the old School house, Rugby. Haven't I a right to do it, when

I'm taking all the trouble of writing this true history for all of your benefits? If you ain't satisfied, go and write

the history of your own houses in your own times, and say all you know for your own schools and houses,

The last few words hit the audience in their weakest place. They had been not altogether enthusiastic at

several parts of old Brooke's speech; but "the best house of the best school in England" was too much for

them all, and carried even the sporting and drinking interests off their legs into rapturous applause, and (it is

to be hoped} resolutions to lead a new life and remember old Brooke's wordswhich, however, they didn't

But it required all old Brooke's popularity to carry down parts of his speechespecially that relating to the

Doctor. For there are no such bigoted holders by established forms and customs, be they never so foolish or

meaningless, as English schoolboysat least, as the schoolboys of our generation. We magnified into

heroes every boy who had left, and looked upon him with awe and reverence when he revisited the place a

year or so afterwards, on his way to or from Oxford or Cambridge; and happy was the boy who remembered

him, and sure of an audience as he expounded what he used to do and say, though it were sad enough stuff to

We looked upon every trumpery little custom and habit which had obtained in the School as though it had

been a law of the Medes and Persians, and regarded the infringement or variation of it as a sort of sacrilege.

And the Doctor, than whom no man or boy had a stronger liking for old school customs which were good and

sensible, had, as has already been hinted, come into most decided collision with several which were neither

the one nor the other. And as old Brooke had said, when he came into collision with boys or customs, there

was nothing for them but to give in or take themselves off; because what he said had to be done, and no

mistake about it. And this was beginning to be pretty clearly understood. The boys felt that there was a strong

man over them, who would have things his own way, and hadn't yet learnt that he was a wise and loving man

also. His personal character and influence had not had time to make itself felt, except by a very few of the

bigger boys with whom he came more directly into contact; and he was looked upon with great fear and

dislike by the great majority even of his own house. For he had found School and Schoolhouse in a state of

monstrous license and misrule, and was still employed in the necessary but unpopular work of setting up

However, as has been said, old Brooke triumphed, and the boys cheered him and then the Doctor. And then

more songs came, and the healths of the other boys about to leave, who each made a speech, one flowery,

another maudlin, a third prosy, and so on, which are not necessary to be here recorded.

Halfpast nine struck in the middle of the performance of "Auld Lang Syne," a most obstreperous

proceeding, during which there was an immense amount of standing with one foot on the table, knocking

mugs together and shaking hands, without which accompaniments it seems impossible for the youths of

Britain to take part in that famous old song. The underporter of the Schoolhouse entered during the

performance, bearing five or six long wooden candlesticks with lighted dips in them, which he proceeded to

stick into their holes in such part of the great tables as he could get at; and then stood outside the ring till the

"Bill you old muff, the halfhour hasn't struck." "Here, Bill, drink some cocktail." "Sing us a song, old boy."

"Don't you wish you may get the table?" Bill drank the proffered cocktail not unwillingly, and putting down

the empty glass, remonstrated. "Now gentlemen, there's only ten minutes to prayers, and we must get the hall

Shouts of "No, no!" and a violent effort to strike up "Billy Taylor" for the third time. Bill looked appealingly

to old Brooke, who got up and stopped the noise. "Now then, lend a hand, you youngsters, and get the tables

back; clear away the jugs and glasses. Bill's right. Open the windows, Warner." The boy addressed, who sat

by the long ropes, proceeded to pull up the great windows, and let in a clear, fresh rush of night air, which

made the candles flicker and gutter, and the fires roar. The circle broke up, each collaring his own jug, glass,

and songbook; Bill pounced on the big table, and began to rattle it away to its place outside the buttery door.

The lowerpassage boys carried off their small tables, aided by their friends; while above all, standing on the

great hall table, a knot of untiring sons of harmony made night doleful by a prolonged performance of "God

Save the King." His Majesty King William the Fourth then reigned over us, a monarch deservedly popular

amongst the boys addicted to melody, to whom he was chiefly known from the beginning of that excellent if

"Come, neighbours all, both great and small, Perform your duties here, And loudly sing, 'Live Billy, our

Others of the more learned in songs also celebrated his praises in a sort of ballad, which I take to have been

"God save our good King William, be his name for ever blest; He's the father of all his people, and the

In troth we were loyal subjects in those days, in a rough way. I trust that our successors make as much of her

present Majesty, and, having regard to the greater refinement of the times, have adopted or written other

Then the quarter to ten struck, and the prayerbell rang. The sixth and fifth form boys ranged themselves in

their school order along the wall, on either side of the great fires, the middlefifth and upperschool boys

round the long table in the middle of the hall, and the lowerschool boys round the upper part of the second

long table, which ran down the side of the hall farthest from the fires. Here Tom found himself at the bottom

of all, in a state of mind and body not at all fit for prayers, as he thought; and so tried hard to make himself

serious, but couldn't, for the life of him, do anything but repeat in his head the choruses of some of the songs,

and stare at all the boys opposite, wondering at the brilliancy of their waistcoats, and speculating what sort of

fellows they were. The steps of the headporter are heard on the stairs, and a light gleams at the door.

"Hush!" from the fifthform boys who stand there, and then in strides the Doctor, cap on head, book in one

hand, and gathering up his gown in the other. He walks up the middle, and takes his post by Warner, who

begins calling over the names. The Doctor takes no notice of anything, but quietly turns over his book and

finds the place, and then stands, cap in hand and finger in book, looking straight before his nose. He knows

better than any one when to look, and when to see nothing. Tonight is singing night, and there's been lots of

noise and no harm donenothing but beer drunk, and nobody the worse for it, though some of them do look

hot and excited. So the Doctor sees nothing, but fascinates Tom in a horrible manner as he stands there, and

reads out the psalm, in that deep, ringing, searching voice of his. Prayers are over, and Tom still stares open

mouthed after the Doctor's retiring figure, when he feels a pull at his sleeve, and turning round, sees East.

"'Cause there'll be tossing tonight, most likely, before the sixth come up to bed. So if you funk, you just

"Oh yes, bless you, a dozen times," said East, as he hobbled along by Tom's side upstairs. "It don't hurt unless

They stopped at the fireplace in the top passage, where were a crowd of small boys whispering together, and

evidently unwilling to go up into the bedrooms. In a minute, however, a study door opened, and a sixthform

boy came out, and off they all scuttled up the stairs, and then noiselessly dispersed to their different rooms.

Tom's heart beat rather quick as he and East reached their room, but he had made up his mind. "I shan't hide,

"Very well, old fellow," replied East, evidently pleased; "no more shall I. They'll be here for us directly."

The room was a great big one, with a dozen beds in it, but not a boy that Tom could see except East and

himself. East pulled off his coat and waistcoat, and then sat on the bottom of his bed whistling and pulling off

A noise and steps are heard in the passage, the door opens, and in rush four or five great fifthform boys,

Tom and East slept in the farther corner of the room, and were not seen at first.

" Gone to ground, eh?" roared Flashman. "Push 'em out then, boys; look under the beds." And he pulled up

the little white curtain of the one nearest him. "Whooop!" he roared, pulling away at the leg of a small boy,

"Here, lend a hand, one of you, and help me pull out this young howling brute. Hold your tongue, sir, or

"Oh, please, Flashman, please, Walker, don't toss me! I'll fag for youI'll do anythingonly don't toss me."

"You be hanged," said Flashman, lugging the wretched boy along; "'twon't hurt you,you !Come along,

"I say, Flashey," sang out another of the big boys; "drop that; you heard what old Pater Brooke said tonight.

I'll be hanged if we'll toss any one against their will. No more bullying. Let him go, I say."

Flashman, with an oath and a kick, released his prey, who rushed headlong under his bed again, for fear they

should change their minds, and crept along underneath the other beds, till he got under that of the sixthform

"There's plenty of youngsters don't care about it," said Walker. "Here, here's Scud Eastyou'll be tossed,

won't you, young un?" Scud was East's nickname, or Black, as we called it, gained by his fleetness of foot.

"Come along then, boys," sang out Walker; and away they all went, carrying along Tom and East, to the

intense relief of four or five other small boys, who crept out from under the beds and behind them.

Meantime the procession went down the passage to Number 7, the largest room, and the scene of the tossing,

in the middle of which was a great open space. Here they joined other parties of the bigger boys, each with a

captive or two, some willing to be tossed, some sullen, and some frightened to death. At Walker's suggestion

Then a dozen big boys seized hold of a blanket, dragged from one of the beds. "In with Scud; quick! there's

no time to lose." East was chucked into the blanket. "Once, twice, thrice, and away!" Up he went like a

"Now, boys, with a will," cried Walker; "once, twice, thrice, and away!" This time he went clean up, and kept

himself from touching the ceiling with his hand, and so again a third time, when he was turned out, and up

went another boy. And then came Tom's turn. He lay quite still, by East's advice, and didn't dislike the "once,

twice, thrice;" but the "away" wasn't so pleasant. They were in good wind now, and sent him slap up to the

ceiling first time, against which his knees came rather sharply. But the moment's pause before descending

was the rub the feeling of utter helplessness and of leaving his whole inside behind him sticking to the

ceiling. Tom was very near shouting to be set down when he found himself back in the blanket, but thought

of East, and didn't; and so took his three tosses without a kick or a cry, and was called a young trump for his

He and East, having earned it, stood now looking on. No catastrophe happened, as all the captives were cool

hands, and didn't struggle. This didn't suit Flashman. What your real bully likes in tossing is when the boys

kick and struggle, or hold on to one side of the blanket, and so get pitched bodily on to the floor; it's no fun to

"What a cursed bully you are, Flashey!" rejoined the other. "Up with another one."

And so now two boys were tossed together, the peculiar hardship of which is, that it's too much for human

nature to lie still then and share troubles; and so the wretched pair of small boys struggle in the air which

shall fall atop in the descent, to the no small risk of both falling out of the blanket, and the huge delight of

But now there's a cry that the prepostor of the room is coming; so the tossing stops, and all scatter to their

different rooms; and Tom is left to turn in, with the first day's experience of a public school to meditate upon.

Everybody, I suppose, knows the dreamy, delicious state in which one lies, half asleep, half awake, while

consciousness begins to return after a sound night's rest in a new place which we are glad to be in, following

upon a day of unwonted excitement and exertion. There are few pleasanter pieces of life. The worst of it is

that they last such a short time; for nurse them as you will, by lying perfectly passive in mind and body, you

can't make more than five minutes or so of them. After which time the stupid, obtrusive, wakeful entity which

we call "I", as impatient as he is stiffnecked, spite of our teeth will force himself back again, and take

It was in this state that Master Tom lay at halfpast seven on the morning following the day of his arrival,

and from his clean little white bed watched the movements of Bogle (the generic name by which the

successive shoeblacks of the Schoolhouse were known), as he marched round from bed to bed, collecting

There he lay, half doubtful as to where exactly in the universe he was, but conscious that he had made a step

in life which he had been anxious to make. It was only just light as he looked lazily out of the wide windows,

and saw the tops of the great elms, and the rooks circling about and cawing remonstrances to the lazy ones of

their commonwealth before starting in a body for the neighbouring ploughed fields. The noise of the room

door closing behind Bogle, as he made his exit with the shoebasket under his arm, roused him thoroughly,

and he sat up in bed and looked round the room. What in the world could be the matter with his shoulders and

loins? He felt as if he had been severely beaten all down his backthe natural results of his performance at

his first match. He drew up his knees and rested his chin on them, and went over all the events of yesterday,

Presently one or two of the other boys roused themselves, and began to sit up and talk to one another in low

tones. Then East, after a roll or two, came to an anchor also, and nodding to Tom, began examining his ankle.

"What a pull," said he, "that it's lieinbed, for I shall be as lame as a tree, I think."

It was Sunday morning, and Sunday lectures had not yet been established; so that nothing but breakfast

intervened between bed and eleven o'clock chapela gap by no means easy to fill up: in fact, though

received with the correct amount of grumbling, the first lecture instituted by the Doctor shortly afterwards

was a great boon to the School. It was lieinbed, and no one was in a hurry to get up, especially in rooms

where the sixthform boy was a goodtempered fellow, as was the case in Tom's room, and allowed the

small boys to talk and laugh and do pretty much what they pleased, so long as they didn't disturb him. His

bed was a bigger one than the rest, standing in the corner by the fireplace, with a washingstand and large

basin by the side, where he lay in state with his white curtains tucked in so as to form a retiring placean

awful subject of contemplation to Tom, who slept nearly opposite, and watched the great man rouse himself

and take a book from under his pillow, and begin reading, leaning his head on his hand, and turning his back

to the room. Soon, however, a noise of striving urchins arose, and muttered encouragements from the

neighbouring boys of "Go it, Tadpole!" "Now, young Green!" "Haul away his blanket!" "Slipper him on the

hands!" Young Green and little Hall, commonly called Tadpole, from his great black head and thin legs, slept

side by side far away by the door, and were for ever playing one another tricks, which usually ended, as on

this morning, in open and violent collision; and now, unmindful of all order and authority, there they were,

each hauling away at the other's bedclothes with one hand, and with the other, armed with a slipper,

"Hold that noise up in the corner," called out the prepostor, sitting up and looking round his curtains; and the

Tadpole and young Green sank down into their disordered beds; and then, looking at his watch, added,

(Where the prepostor was particular in his ablutions, the fags in his room had to descend in turn to the

kitchen, and beg or steal hot water for him; and often the custom extended farther, and two boys went down

"Well, be quick some of you, that's all," said the great man, as he turned out of bed, and putting on his

slippers, went out into the great passage, which runs the whole length of the bedrooms, to get his Sunday

"Well, thank 'ee, that's a good fellow. Just pull on your trousers, and take your jug and mine. Tadpole will

And so Tom and the Tadpole, in nightshirts and trousers, started off downstairs, and through "Thos's hole," as

the little buttery, where candles and beer and bread and cheese were served out at night, was called, across

the Schoolhouse court, down a long passage, and into the kitchen; where, after some parley with the

stalwart, handsome cook, who declared that she had filled a dozen jugs already, they got their hot water, and

returned with all speed and great caution. As it was, they narrowly escaped capture by some privateers from

the fifthform rooms, who were on the lookout for the hotwater convoys, and pursued them up to the very

"Better than going down again though," as Tadpole remarked, "as we should have had to do if those beggars

By the time that the callingover bell rang, Tom and his new comrades were all down, dressed in their best

clothes, and he had the satisfaction of answering "here" to his name for the first time, the prepostor of the

week having put it in at the bottom of his list. And then came breakfast and a saunter about the close and

town with East, whose lameness only became severe when any fagging had to be done. And so they whiled

It was a fine November morning, and the close soon became alive with boys of all ages, who sauntered about

on the grass, or walked round the gravel walk, in parties of two or three. East, still doing the cicerone, pointed

out all the remarkable characters to Tom as they passed: Osbert, who could throw a cricketball from the

littleside ground over the rooktrees to the Doctor's wall; Gray, who had got the Balliol scholarship, and,

what East evidently thought of much more importance, a halfholiday for the School by his success; Thorne,

who had run ten miles in two minutes over the hour; Black, who had held his own against the cock of the

town in the last row with the louts; and many more heroes, who then and there walked about and were

worshipped, all trace of whom has long since vanished from the scene of their fame. And the fourthform

boy who reads their names rudely cut on the old hall tables, or painted upon the bigside cupboard (if hall

tables and bigside cupboards still exist), wonders what manner of boys they were. It will be the same with

you who wonder, my sons, whatever your prowess may be in cricket, or scholarship, or football. Two or three

years, more or less, and then the steadily advancing, blessed wave will pass over your names as it has passed

over ours. Nevertheless, play your games and do your work manfullysee only that that be doneand let

The chapelbell began to ring at a quarter to eleven, and Tom got in early and took his place in the lowest

row, and watched all the other boys come in and take their places, filling row after row; and tried to construe

the Greek text which was inscribed over the door with the slightest possible success, and wondered which of

the masters, who walked down the chapel and took their seats in the exalted boxes at the end, would be his

lord. And then came the closing of the doors, and the Doctor in his robes, and the service, which, however,

didn't impress him much, for his feeling of wonder and curiosity was too strong. And the boy on one side of

him was scratching his name on the oak panelling in front, and he couldn't help watching to see what the

name was, and whether it was well scratched; and the boy on the other side went to sleep, and kept falling

against him; and on the whole, though many boys even in that part of the school were serious and attentive,

the general atmosphere was by no means devotional; and when he got out into the close again, he didn't feel

But at afternoon chapel it was quite another thing. He had spent the time after dinner in writing home to his

mother, and so was in a better frame of mind; and his first curiosity was over, and he could attend more to the

service. As the hymn after the prayers was being sung, and the chapel was getting a little dark, he was

beginning to feel that he had been really worshipping. And then came that great event in his, as in every

More worthy pens than mine have described that scenethe oak pulpit standing out by itself above the

School seats; the tall, gallant form, the kindling eye, the voice, now soft as the low notes of a flute, now clear

and stirring as the call of the lightinfantry bugle, of him who stood there Sunday after Sunday, witnessing

and pleading for his Lord, the King of righteousness and love and glory, with whose Spirit he was filled, and

in whose power he spoke; the long lines of young faces, rising tier above tier down the whole length of the

chapel, from the little boy's who had just left his mother to the young man's who was going out next week

into the great world, rejoicing in his strength. It was a great and solemn sight, and never more so than at this

time of year, when the only lights in the chapel were in the pulpit and at the seats of the prepostors of the

week, and the soft twilight stole over the rest of the chapel, deepening into darkness in the high gallery

But what was it, after all, which seized and held these three hundred boys, dragging them out of themselves,

willing or unwilling, for twenty minutes, on Sunday afternoons? True, there always were boys scattered up

and down the School, who in heart and head were worthy to hear and able to carry away the deepest and

wisest words there spoken. But these were a minority always, generally a very small one, often so small a one

as to be countable on the fingers of your hand. What was it that moved and held us, the rest of the three

hundred reckless, childish boys, who feared the Doctor with all our hearts, and very little besides in heaven or

earth; who thought more of our sets in the School than of the Church of Christ, and put the traditions of

Rugby and the public opinion of boys in our daily life above the laws of God? We couldn't enter into half that

we heard; we hadn't the knowledge of our own hearts or the knowledge of one another, and little enough of

the faith, hope, and love needed to that end. But we listened, as all boys in their better moods will listen (ay,

and men too for the matter of that), to a man whom we felt to be, with all his heart and soul and strength,

striving against whatever was mean and unmanly and unrighteous in our little world. It was not the cold, clear

voice of one giving advice and warning from serene heights to those who were struggling and sinning below,

but the warm, living voice of one who was fighting for us and by our sides, and calling on us to help him and

ourselves and one another. And so, wearily and little by little, but surely and steadily on the whole, was

brought home to the young boy, for the first time, the meaning of his lifethat it was no fool's or sluggard's

paradise into which he had wandered by chance, but a battlefield ordained from of old, where there are no

spectators, but the youngest must take his side, and the stakes are life and death. And he who roused this

consciousness in them showed them at the same time, by every word he spoke in the pulpit, and by his whole

daily life, how that battle was to be fought, and stood there before them their fellowsoldier and the captain

of their bandthe true sort of captain, too, for a boy's armyone who had no misgivings, and gave no

uncertain word of command, and, let who would yield or make truce, would fight the fight out (so every boy

felt) to the last gasp and the last drop of blood. Other sides of his character might take hold of and influence

boys here and there; but it was this thoroughness and undaunted courage which, more than anything else, won

his way to the hearts of the great mass of those on whom he left his mark, and made them believe first in him

It was this quality above all others which moved such boys as our hero, who had nothing whatever

remarkable about him except excess of boyishnessby which I mean animal life in its fullest measure, good

nature and honest impulses, hatred of injustice and meanness, and thoughtlessness enough to sink a

threedecker. And so, during the next two years, in which it was more than doubtful whether he would get

good or evil from the School, and before any steady purpose or principle grew up in him, whatever his week's

sins and shortcomings might have been, he hardly ever left the chapel on Sunday evenings without a serious

resolve to stand by and follow the Doctor, and a feeling that it was only cowardice (the incarnation of all

other sins in such a boy's mind) which hindered him from doing so with all his heart.

The next day Tom was duly placed in the third form, and began his lessons in a corner of the big School. He

found the work very easy, as he had been well grounded, and knew his grammar by heart; and, as he had no

intimate companions to make him idle (East and his other Schoolhouse friends being in the lower fourth, the

form above him), soon gained golden opinions from his master, who said he was placed too low, and should

be put out at the end of the halfyear. So all went well with him in School, and he wrote the most flourishing

letters home to his mother, full of his own success and the unspeakable delights of a public school.

In the house, too, all went well. The end of the halfyear was drawing near, which kept everybody in a good

humour, and the house was ruled well and strongly by Warner and Brooke. True, the general system was

rough and hard, and there was bullying in nooks and cornersbad signs for the future; but it never got

farther, or dared show itself openly, stalking about the passages and hall and bedrooms, and making the life

Tom, as a new boy, was of right excused fagging for the first month, but in his enthusiasm for his new life

this privilege hardly pleased him; and East and others of his young friends, discovering this, kindly allowed

him to indulge his fancy, and take their turns at night fagging and cleaning studies. These were the principal

duties of the fags in the house. From supper until nine o'clock three fags taken in order stood in the passages,

and answered any prepostor who called "Fag," racing to the door, the last comer having to do the work. This

consisted generally of going to the buttery for beer and bread and cheese (for the great men did not sup with

the rest, but had each his own allowance in his study or the fifthform room), cleaning candlesticks and

putting in new candles, toasting cheese, bottling beer, and carrying messages about the house; and Tom, in

the first blush of his heroworship, felt it a high privilege to receive orders from and be the bearer of the

supper of old Brooke. And besides this nightwork, each prepostor had three or four fags specially allotted to

him, of whom he was supposed to be the guide, philosopher, and friend, and who in return for these good

offices had to clean out his study every morning by turns, directly after first lesson and before he returned

from breakfast. And the pleasure of seeing the great men's studies, and looking at their pictures, and peeping

into their books, made Tom a ready substitute for any boy who was too lazy to do his own work. And so he

soon gained the character of a good natured, willing fellow, who was ready to do a turn for any one.

In all the games, too, he joined with all his heart, and soon became well versed in all the mysteries of football,

The only incident worth recording here, however, was his first run at hareandhounds. On the last Tuesday

but one of the halfyear he was passing through the hall after dinner, when he was hailed with shouts from

Tadpole and several other fags seated at one of the long tables, the chorus of which was, "Come and help us

Tom approached the table in obedience to the mysterious summons, always ready to help, and found the party

engaged in tearing up old newspapers, copybooks, and magazines, into small pieces, with which they were

"It's the turn of our house to find scent for bigside hareand hounds," exclaimed Tadpole. "Tear away;

"I think it's a great shame," said another small boy, "to have such a hard run for the last day."

"Oh, the Barby run, I hear," answered the other; "nine miles at least, and hard ground; no chance of getting in

"Well, I'm going to have a try," said Tadpole; "it's the last run of the half, and if a fellow gets in at the end

bigside stands ale and bread and cheese and a bowl of punch; and the Cock's such a famous place for ale."

"Well, then, leave your waistcoat behind, and listen at the door, after callingover, and you'll hear where the

After callingover, sure enough there were two boys at the door, calling out, "Bigside hareandhounds

meet at White Hall;" and Tom, having girded himself with leather strap, and left all superfluous clothing

behind, set off for White Hall, an old gableended house some quarter of a mile from the town, with East,

whom he had persuaded to join, notwithstanding his prophecy that they could never get in, as it was the

At the meet they found some forty or fifty boys, and Tom felt sure, from having seen many of them run at

After a few minutes' waiting, two wellknown runners, chosen for the hares, buckled on the four bags filled

with scent, compared their watches with those of young Brooke and Thorne, and started off at a long, slinging

Then the hounds clustered round Thorne, who explained shortly, "They're to have six minutes' law. We run

into the Cock, and every one who comes in within a quarter of an hour of the hares'll be counted, if he has

been round Barby church." Then came a minute's pause or so, and then the watches are pocketed, and the

pack is led through the gateway into the field which the hares had first crossed. Here they break into a trot,

scattering over the field to find the first traces of the scent which the hares throw out as they go along. The

old hounds make straight for the likely points, and in a minute a cry of "Forward" comes from one of them,

and the whole pack, quickening their pace, make for the spot, while the boy who hit the scent first, and the

two or three nearest to him, are over the first fence, and making play along the hedgerow in the long grass

field beyond. The rest of the pack rush at the gap already made, and scramble through, jostling one another.

"Forward" again, before they are half through. The pace quickens into a sharp run, the tail hounds all

straining to get up to the lucky leaders. They are gallant hares, and the scent lies thick right across another

meadow and into a ploughed field, where the pace begins to tell; then over a good wattle with a ditch on the

other side, and down a large pasture studded with old thorns, which slopes down to the first brook. The great

Leicestershire sheep charge away across the field as the pack comes racing down the slope. The brook is a

small one, and the scent lies right ahead up the opposite slope, and as thick as evernot a turn or a check to

favour the tail hounds, who strain on, now trailing in a long line, many a youngster beginning to drag his legs

heavily, and feel his heart beat like a hammer, and the badplucked ones thinking that after all it isn't worth

Tom, East, and the Tadpole had a good start, and are well up for such young hands, and after rising the slope

and crossing the next field, find themselves up with the leading hounds, who have overrun the scent, and are

trying back. They have come a mile and a half in about eleven minutes, a pace which shows that it is the last

day. About twentyfive of the original starters only show here, the rest having already given in; the leaders

are busy making casts into the fields on the left and right, and the others get their second winds.

Then comes the cry of "Forward" again from young Brooke, from the extreme left, and the pack settles down

to work again steadily and doggedly, the whole keeping pretty well together. The scent, though still good, is

not so thick; there is no need of that, for in this part of the run every one knows the line which must be taken,

and so there are no casts to be made, but good downright running and fencing to be done. All who are now up

mean coming in, and they come to the foot of Barby Hill without losing more than two or three more of the

pack. This last straight two miles and a half is always a vantage ground for the hounds, and the hares know it

well; they are generally viewed on the side of Barby Hill, and all eyes are on the lookout for them today.

But not a sign of them appears, so now will be the hard work for the hounds, and there is nothing for it but to

cast about for the scent, for it is now the hares' turn, and they may baffle the pack dreadfully in the next two

Ill fares it now with our youngsters, that they are Schoolhouse boys, and so follow young Brooke, for he

takes the wide casts round to the left, conscious of his own powers, and loving the hard work. For if you

would consider for a moment, you small boys, you would remember that the Cock, where the run ends and

the good ale will be going, lies far out to the right on the Dunchurch road, so that every cast you take to the

left is so much extra work. And at this stage of the run, when the evening is closing in already, no one

remarks whether you run a little cunning or not; so you should stick to those crafty hounds who keep edging

away to the right, and not follow a prodigal like young Brooke, whose legs are twice as long as yours and of

cast iron, wholly indifferent to one or two miles more or less. However, they struggle after him, sobbing and

plunging along, Tom and East pretty close, and Tadpole, whose big head begins to pull him down, some

Now comes a brook, with stiff clay banks, from which they can hardly drag their legs, and they hear faint

cries for help from the wretched Tadpole, who has fairly stuck fast. But they have too little run left in

themselves to pull up for their own brothers. Three fields more, and another check, and then "Forward" called

The two boys' souls die within them; they can never do it. Young Brooke thinks so too, and says kindly,

"You'll cross a lane after next field; keep down it, and you'll hit the Dunchurch road below the Cock," and

then steams away for the run in, in which he's sure to be first, as if he were just starting. They struggle on

across the next field, the "forwards" getting fainter and fainter, and then ceasing. The whole hunt is out of

"Hang it all!" broke out East, as soon as he had got wind enough, pulling off his hat and mopping at his face,

all spattered with dirt and lined with sweat, from which went up a thick steam into the still, cold air. "I told

you how it would be. What a thick I was to come! Here we are, dead beat, and yet I know we're close to the

"Well," said Tom, mopping away, and gulping down his disappointment, "it can't be helped. We did our best

anyhow. Hadn't we better find this lane, and go down it, as young Brooke told us?"

"I suppose sonothing else for it," grunted East. "If ever I go out last day again." Growl, growl, growl.

So they tried back slowly and sorrowfully, and found the lane, and went limping down it, plashing in the cold

puddly ruts, and beginning to feel how the run had taken it out of them. The evening closed in fast, and

"I say, it must be lockingup, I should think," remarked East, breaking the silence"it's so dark."

The thought didn't add to their cheerfulness. Presently a faint halloo was heard from an adjoining field. They

answered it and stopped, hoping for some competent rustic to guide them, when over a gate some twenty

yards ahead crawled the wretched Tadpole, in a state of collapse. He had lost a shoe in the brook, and had

been groping after it up to his elbows in the stiff, wet clay, and a more miserable creature in the shape of boy

The sight of him, notwithstanding, cheered them, for he was some degrees more wretched than they. They

also cheered him, as he was no longer under the dread of passing his night alone in the fields. And so, in

better heart, the three plashed painfully down the neverending lane. At last it widened, just as utter darkness

set in, and they came out on a turnpike road, and there paused, bewildered, for they had lost all bearings, and

Luckily for them they had not to decide, for lumbering along the road, with one lamp lighted and two

spavined horses in the shafts, came a heavy coach, which after a moment's suspense they recognized as the

It lumbered slowly up, and the boys, mustering their last run, caught it as it passed, and began clambering up

behind, in which exploit East missed his footing and fell flat on his nose along the road. Then the others

hailed the old scarecrow of a coachman, who pulled up and agreed to take them in for a shilling; so there they

sat on the back seat, drubbing with their heels, and their teeth chattering with cold, and jogged into Rugby

Five minutes afterwards three small, limping, shivering figures steal along through the Doctor's garden, and

into the house by the servants' entrance (all the other gates have been closed long since), where the first thing

they light upon in the passage is old Thomas, ambling along, candle in one hand and keys in the other.

He stops and examines their condition with a grim smile. "Ah! East, Hall, and Brown, late for lockingup.

"Well but, Thomas, mayn't we go and wash first? You can put down the time, you know."

"Doctor's study d'rectly you come inthat's the orders," replied old Thomas, motioning towards the stairs at

the end of the passage which led up into the Doctor's house; and the boys turned ruefully down it, not cheered

by the old verger's muttered remark, "What a pickle they boys be in!" Thomas referred to their faces and

habiliments, but they construed it as indicating the Doctor's state of mind. Upon the short flight of stairs they

"Catch me. Look at the state I'm in," rejoined Hall, showing the arms of his jacket. "I must get behind you

"Well, but look at me," said East, indicating the mass of clay behind which he was standing; "I'm worse than

"Oh, we're all in one boat for that matter; but come on; we're only making it worse, dawdling here."

"Well, just give us a brush then," said Tom. And they began trying to rub off the superfluous dirt from each

other's jackets; but it was not dry enough, and the rubbing made them worse; so in despair they pushed

through the swingdoor at the head of the stairs, and found themselves in the Doctor's hall.

"That's the library door," said East in a whisper, pushing Tom forwards. The sound of merry voices and

laughter came from within, and his first hesitating knock was unanswered. But at the second, the Doctor's

voice said, "Come in;" and Tom turned the handle, and he, with the others behind him, sidled into the room.

The Doctor looked up from his task; he was working away with a great chisel at the bottom of a boy's sailing

boat, the lines of which he was no doubt fashioning on the model of one of Nicias's galleys. Round him stood

three or four children; the candles burnt brightly on a large table at the farther end, covered with books and

papers, and a great fire threw a ruddy glow over the rest of the room. All looked so kindly, and homely, and

comfortable that the boys took heart in a moment, and Tom advanced from behind the shelter of the great

sofa. The Doctor nodded to the children, who went out, casting curious and amused glances at the three

"Well, my little fellows," began the Doctor, drawing himself up with his back to the fire, the chisel in one

hand and his coat tails in the other, and his eyes twinkling as he looked them over; "what makes you so

"Well, sir," said East, stepping out, and not liking that the Doctor should think lightly of his running powers,

"Why, what a state you're in, my boy!" interrupted the Doctor, as the pitiful condition of East's garments was

"That's the fall I got, sir, in the road," said East, looking down at himself; "the Old Pig came by "

"Well now, run upstairs, all three of you, and get clean things on, and then tell the housekeeper to give you

some tea. You're too young to try such long runs. Let Warner know I've seen you. Goodnight."

"What a brick, not to give us even twenty lines to learn!" said the Tadpole, as they reached their bedroom;

and in half an hour afterwards they were sitting by the fire in the housekeeper's room at a sumptuous tea, with

cold meat"Twice as good a grub as we should have got in the hall," as the Tadpole remarked with a grin,

his mouth full of buttered toast. All their grievances were forgotten, and they were resolving to go out the

first big side next half, and thinking hareandhounds the most delightful of games.

A day or two afterwards the great passage outside the bedrooms was cleared of the boxes and portmanteaus,

which went down to be packed by the matron, and great games of chariotracing, and cockfighting, and

Then came the making up of parties for the journey home, and Tom joined a party who were to hire a coach,

Then the last Saturday, on which the Doctor came round to each form to give out the prizes, and hear the

master's last reports of how they and their charges had been conducting themselves; and Tom, to his huge

delight, was praised, and got his remove into the lower fourth, in which all his Schoolhouse friends were.

On the next Tuesday morning at four o'clock hot coffee was going on in the housekeeper's and matron's

rooms; boys wrapped in greatcoats and mufflers were swallowing hasty mouthfuls, rushing about, tumbling

over luggage, and asking questions all at once of the matron; outside the Schoolgates were drawn up several

chaises and the fourhorse coach which Tom's party had chartered, the postboys in their best jackets and

breeches, and a cornopean player, hired for the occasion, blowing away "A southerly wind and a cloudy sky,"

Every minute the bustle and hubbub increased: porters staggered about with boxes and bags, the cornopean

played louder. Old Thomas sat in his den with a great yellow bag by his side, out of which he was paying

journeymoney to each boy, comparing by the light of a solitary dip the dirty, crabbed little list in his own

handwriting with the Doctor's list and the amount of his cash; his head was on one side, his mouth screwed

up, and his spectacles dim from early toil. He had prudently locked the door, and carried on his operations

solely through the window, or he would have been driven wild and lost all his money.

"Hullo, Thomas, the Doctor said I was to have two pound ten; you've only given me two pound." (I fear that

Master Green is not confining himself strictly to truth.) Thomas turns his head more on one side than ever,

"Here, Thomasnever mind him; mine's thirty shillings." "And mine too," "And mine," shouted others.

One way or another, the party to which Tom belonged all got packed and paid, and sallied out to the gates,

the cornopean playing frantically "Drops of Brandy," in allusion, probably, to the slight potations in which

the musician and postboys had been already indulging. All luggage was carefully stowed away inside the

coach and in the front and hind boots, so that not a hatbox was visible outside. Five or six small boys, with

peashooters, and the cornopean player, got up behind; in front the big boys, mostly smoking, not for

pleasure, but because they are now gentlemen at large, and this is the most correct public method of notifying

"Robinson's coach will be down the road in a minute; it has gone up to Bird's to pick up. We'll wait till they're

close, and make a race of it," says the leader. "Now, boys, half a sovereign apiece if you beat 'em into

Down comes Robinson's coach in a minute or two, with a rival cornopean, and away go the two vehicles,

horses galloping, boys cheering, horns playing loud. There is a special providence over schoolboys as well

as sailors, or they must have upset twenty times in the first five milessometimes actually abreast of one

another, and the boys on the roofs exchanging volleys of peas; now nearly running over a postchaise which

had started before them; now halfway up a bank; now with a wheel and a half over a yawning ditch: and all

this in a dark morning, with nothing but their own lamps to guide them. However, it's all over at last, and they

have run over nothing but an old pig in Southam Street. The last peas are distributed in the Corn Market at

Oxford, where they arrive between eleven and twelve, and sit down to a sumptuous breakfast at the Angel,

which they are made to pay for accordingly. Here the party breaks up, all going now different ways; and Tom

orders out a chaise and pair as grand as a lord, though he has scarcely five shillings left in his pocket, and

"All right, sir.Red Lion, Jem," to the postboy; and Tom rattles away towards home. At Farringdon, being

known to the innkeeper, he gets that worthy to pay for the Oxford horses, and forward him in another chaise

at once; and so the gorgeous young gentleman arrives at the paternal mansion, and Squire Brown looks rather

blue at having to pay two pound ten shillings for the posting expenses from Oxford. But the boy's intense joy

at getting home, and the wonderful health he is in, and the good character he brings, and the brave stories he

tells of Rugby, its doings and delights, soon mollify the Squire, and three happier people didn't sit down to

dinner that day in England (it is the boy's first dinner at six o'clock at homegreat promotion already) than

the Squire and his wife and Tom Brown, at the end of his first halfyear at Rugby.

The lowerfourth form, in which Tom found himself at the beginning of the next halfyear, was the largest

form in the lower school, and numbered upwards of forty boys. Young gentlemen of all ages from nine to

fifteen were to be found there, who expended such part of their energies as was devoted to Latin and Greek

upon a book of Livy, the "Bucolics" of Virgil, and the "Hecuba" of Euripides, which were ground out in

small daily portions. The driving of this unlucky lowerfourth must have been grievous work to the

unfortunate master, for it was the most unhappily constituted of any in the school. Here stuck the great stupid

boys, who, for the life of them, could never master the accidencethe objects alternately of mirth and terror

to the youngsters, who were daily taking them up and laughing at them in lesson, and getting kicked by them

for so doing in playhours. There were no less than three unhappy fellows in tail coats, with incipient down

on their chins, whom the Doctor and the master of the form were always endeavouring to hoist into the upper

school, but whose parsing and construing resisted the most wellmeant shoves. Then came the mass of the

form, boys of eleven and twelve, the most mischievous and reckless age of British youth, of whom East and

Tom Brown were fair specimens. As full of tricks as monkeys, and of excuses as Irishwomen, making fun of

their master, one another, and their lessons, Argus himself would have been puzzled to keep an eye on them;

and as for making them steady or serious for half an hour together, it was simply hopeless. The remainder of

the form consisted of young prodigies of nine and ten, who were going up the school at the rate of a form a

halfyear, all boys' hands and wits being against them in their progress. It would have been one man's work

to see that the precocious youngsters had fair play; and as the master had a good deal besides to do, they

hadn't, and were for ever being shoved down three or four places, their verses stolen, their books inked, their

The lowerfourth, and all the forms below it, were heard in the great school, and were not trusted to prepare

their lessons before coming in, but were whipped into school threequarters of an hour before the lesson

began by their respective masters, and there, scattered about on the benches, with dictionary and grammar,

hammered out their twenty lines of Virgil and Euripides in the midst of babel. The masters of the lower

school walked up and down the great school together during this threequarters of an hour, or sat in their

desks reading or looking over copies, and keeping such order as was possible. But the lower fourth was just

now an overgrown form, too large for any one man to attend to properly, and consequently the elysium or

Tom, as has been said, had come up from the third with a good character, but the temptations of the

lowerfourth soon proved too strong for him, and he rapidly fell away, and became as unmanageable as the

rest. For some weeks, indeed, he succeeded in maintaining the appearance of steadiness, and was looked

upon favourably by his new master, whose eyes were first opened by the following little incident.

Besides the desk which the master himself occupied, there was another large unoccupied desk in the corner of

the great school, which was untenanted. To rush and seize upon this desk, which was ascended by three steps

and held four boys, was the great object of ambition of the lowerfourthers; and the contentions for the

occupation of it bred such disorder that at last the master forbade its use altogether. This, of course, was a

challenge to the more adventurous spirits to occupy it; and as it was capacious enough for two boys to lie hid

there completely, it was seldom that it remained empty, notwithstanding the veto. Small holes were cut in the

front, through which the occupants watched the masters as they walked up and down; and as lesson time

approached, one boy at a time stole out and down the steps, as the masters' backs were turned, and mingled

with the general crowd on the forms below. Tom and East had successfully occupied the desk some

halfdozen times, and were grown so reckless that they were in the habit of playing small games with fives

balls inside when the masters were at the other end of the big school. One day, as illluck would have it, the

game became more exciting than usual, and the ball slipped through East's fingers, and rolled slowly down

the steps and out into the middle of the school, just as the masters turned in their walk and faced round upon

the desk. The young delinquents watched their master, through the lookout holes, march slowly down the

school straight upon their retreat, while all the boys in the neighbourhood, of course, stopped their work to

look on; and not only were they ignominiously drawn out, and caned over the hand then and there, but their

characters for steadiness were gone from that time. However, as they only shared the fate of some

In fact, the only occasions on which they cared about the matter were the monthly examinations, when the

Doctor came round to examine their form, for one long, awful hour, in the work which they had done in the

preceding month. The second monthly examination came round soon after Tom's fall, and it was with

anything but lively anticipations that he and the other lower fourth boys came in to prayers on the morning

Prayers and callingover seemed twice as short as usual, and before they could get construes of a tithe of the

hard passages marked in the margin of their books, they were all seated round, and the Doctor was standing

in the middle, talking in whispers to the master. Tom couldn't hear a word which passed, and never lifted his

eyes from his book; but he knew by a sort of magnetic instinct that the Doctor's underlip was coming out,

and his eye beginning to burn, and his gown getting gathered up more and more tightly in his left hand. The

suspense was agonizing, and Tom knew that he was sure on such occasions to make an example of the

At last the whispering ceased, and the name which was called out was not Brown. He looked up for a

moment, but the Doctor's face was too awful; Tom wouldn't have met his eye for all he was worth, and buried

The boy who was called up first was a clever, merry Schoolhouse boy, one of their set; he was some

connection of the Doctor's, and a great favourite, and ran in and out of his house as he liked, and so was

"Triste lupus stabulis," began the luckless youngster, and stammered through some eight or ten lines.

On common occasions the boy could have construed the passage well enough probably, but now his head was

A shudder ran through the whole form, and the Doctor's wrath fairly boiled over. He made three steps up to

the construer, and gave him a good box on the ear. The blow was not a hard one, but the boy was so taken by

surprise that he started back; the form caught the back of his knees, and over he went on to the floor behind.

There was a dead silence over the whole school. Never before and never again while Tom was at school did

the Doctor strike a boy in lesson. The provocation must have been great. However, the victim had saved his

form for that occasion, for the Doctor turned to the top bench, and put on the best boys for the rest of the hour

and though, at the end of the lesson, he gave them all such a rating as they did not forget, this terrible

fieldday passed over without any severe visitations in the shape of punishments or floggings. Forty young

scapegraces expressed their thanks to the "sorrowful wolf" in their different ways before second lesson.

But a character for steadiness once gone is not easily recovered, as Tom found; and for years afterwards he

went up the school without it, and the masters' hands were against him, and his against them. And he

Matters were not so comfortable, either, in the house as they had been; for old Brooke left at Christmas, and

one or two others of the sixthform boys at the following Easter. Their rule had been rough, but strong and

just in the main, and a higher standard was beginning to be set up; in fact, there had been a short foretaste of

the good time which followed some years later. Just now, however, all threatened to return into darkness and

chaos again. For the new prepostors were either small young boys, whose cleverness had carried them up to

the top of the school, while in strength of body and character they were not yet fit for a share in the

government; or else big fellows of the wrong sortboys whose friendships and tastes had a downward

tendency, who had not caught the meaning of their position and work, and felt none of its responsibilities. So

under this nogovernment the Schoolhouse began to see bad times. The big fifthform boys, who were a

sporting and drinking set, soon began to usurp power, and to fag the little boys as if they were prepostors, and

to bully and oppress any who showed signs of resistance. The bigger sort of sixthform boys just described

soon made common cause with the fifth, while the smaller sort, hampered by their colleagues' desertion to the

enemy, could not make head against them. So the fags were without their lawful masters and protectors, and

ridden over roughshod by a set of boys whom they were not bound to obey, and whose only right over them

stood in their bodily powers; and, as old Brooke had prophesied, the house by degrees broke up into small

sets and parties, and lost the strong feeling of fellowship which he set so much store by, and with it much of

the prowess in games and the lead in all school matters which he had done so much to keep up.

In no place in the world has individual character more weight than at a public school. Remember this, I

beseech you, all you boys who are getting into the upper forms. Now is the time in all your lives, probably,

when you may have more wide influence for good or evil on the society you live in than you ever can have

again. Quit yourselves like men, then; speak up, and strike out if necessary, for whatsoever is true, and

manly, and lovely, and of good report; never try to be popular, but only to do your duty and help others to do

theirs, and you may leave the tone of feeling in the school higher than you found it, and so be doing good

which no living soul can measure to generations of your countrymen yet unborn. For boys follow one another

in herds like sheep, for good or evil; they hate thinking, and have rarely any settled principles. Every school,

indeed, has its own traditionary standard of right and wrong, which cannot be transgressed with impunity,

marking certain things as low and blackguard, and certain others as lawful and right. This standard is ever

varying, though it changes only slowly and little by little; and, subject only to such standard, it is the leading

boys for the time being who give the tone to all the rest, and make the School either a noble institution for the

training of Christian Englishmen, or a place where a young boy will get more evil than he would if he were

turned out to make his way in London streets, or anything between these two extremes.

The change for the worse in the Schoolhouse, however, didn't press very heavily on our youngsters for some

time. They were in a good bedroom, where slept the only prepostor left who was able to keep thorough order,

and their study was in his passage. So, though they were fagged more or less, and occasionally kicked or

cuffed by the bullies, they were, on the whole, well off; and the fresh, brave schoollife, so full of games,

adventures, and goodfellowship, so ready at forgetting, so capacious at enjoying, so bright at forecasting,

outweighed a thousandfold their troubles with the master of their form, and the occasional illusage of the

big boys in the house. It wasn't till some year or so after the events recorded above that the prepostor of their

room and passage left. None of the other sixthform boys would move into their passage, and, to the disgust

and indignation of Tom and East, one morning after breakfast they were seized upon by Flashman, and made

to carry down his books and furniture into the unoccupied study, which he had taken. From this time they

began to feel the weight of the tyranny of Flashman and his friends, and, now that trouble had come home to

their own doors, began to look out for sympathizers and partners amongst the rest of the fags; and meetings

of the oppressed began to be held, and murmurs to arise, and plots to be laid as to how they should free

While matters were in this state, East and Tom were one evening sitting in their study. They had done their

work for first lesson, and Tom was in a brown study, brooding, like a young William Tell, upon the wrongs

"I say, Scud," said he at last, rousing himself to snuff the candle, "what right have the fifthform boys to fag

"No more right than you have to fag them," answered East, without looking up from an early number of

"Pickwick," which was just coming out, and which he was luxuriously devouring, stretched on his back on

Tom relapsed into his brown study, and East went on reading and chuckling. The contrast of the boys' faces

would have given infinite amusement to a lookeronthe one so solemn and big with mighty purpose, the

"Do you know, old fellow, I've been thinking it over a good deal," began Tom again.

"Oh yes, I knowfagging you are thinking of. Hang it all! But listen here, Tomhere's fun. Mr. Winkle's

"And I've made up my mind," broke in Tom, "that I won't fag except for the sixth."

"Quite right too, my boy," cried East, putting his finger on the place and looking up; "but a pretty peck of

troubles you'll get into, if you're going to play that game. However, I'm all for a strike myself, if we can get

"Well, perhaps we might. Morgan would interfere, I think. Only," added East, after a moment's pause, "you

see, we should have to tell him about it, and that's against School principles. Don't you remember what old

"Why, yes, you see, then the strongest and best fellows were in the sixth, and the fifthform fellows were

afraid of them, and they kept good order; but now our sixthform fellows are too small, and the fifth don't

"And so we get a double set of masters," cried Tom indignantly "the lawful ones, who are responsible to

the Doctor at any rate, and the unlawful, the tyrants, who are responsible to nobody."

"Down with the tyrants!" cried East; "I'm all for law and order, and hurrah for a revolution."

"I shouldn't mind if it were only for young Brooke now," said Tom; "he's such a goodhearted, gentlemanly

fellow, and ought to be in the sixth. I'd do anything for him. But that blackguard Flashman, who never speaks

"The cowardly brute," broke in East"how I hate him! And he knows it too; he knows that you and I think

him a coward. What a bore that he's got a study in this passage! Don't you hear them now at supper in his

den? Brandypunch going, I'll bet. I wish the Doctor would come out and catch him. We must change our

"Change or no change, I'll never fag for him again," said Tom, thumping the table.

"Faaaag!" sounded along the passage from Flashman's study. The two boys looked at one another in

silence. It had struck nine, so the regular nightfags had left duty, and they were the nearest to the

supperparty. East sat up, and began to look comical, as he always did under difficulties.

"Here, Brown! East! you cursed young skulks," roared out Flashman, coming to his open door; "I know

Tom stole to their door, and drew the bolts as noiselessly as he could; East blew out the candle.

In another minute they heard the supperparty turn out and come down the passage to their door. They held

their breaths, and heard whispering, of which they only made out Flashman's words, "I know the young

Then came summonses to open, which being unanswered, the assault commenced. Luckily the door was a

good strong oak one, and resisted the united weight of Flashman's party. A pause followed, and they heard a

besieger remark, "They're in safe enough. Don't you see how the door holds at top and bottom? So the bolts

must be drawn. We should have forced the lock long ago." East gave Tom a nudge, to call attention to this

Then came attacks on particular panels, one of which at last gave way to the repeated kicks; but it broke

inwards, and the broken pieces got jammed across (the door being lined with green baize), and couldn't easily

be removed from outside: and the besieged, scorning further concealment, strengthened their defences by

pressing the end of their sofa against the door. So, after one or two more ineffectual efforts, Flashman and

The first danger over, it only remained for the besieged to effect a safe retreat, as it was now near bedtime.

They listened intently, and heard the supperparty resettle themselves, and then gently drew back first one

bolt and then the other. Presently the convivial noises began again steadily. "Now then, stand by for a run,"

said East, throwing the door wide open and rushing into the passage, closely followed by Tom. They were too

quick to be caught; but Flashman was on the lookout, and sent an empty picklejar whizzing after them,

which narrowly missed Tom's head, and broke into twenty pieces at the end of the passage. "He wouldn't

There was no pursuit, so the two turned into the hall, where they found a knot of small boys round the fire.

Their story was told. The war of independence had broken out. Who would join the revolutionary forces?

Several others present bound themselves not to fag for the fifth form at once. One or two only edged off, and

left the rebels. What else could they do? "I've a good mind to go to the Doctor straight," said Tom.

"That'll never do. Don't you remember the levy of the school last half?" put in another.

In fact, the solemn assembly, a levy of the School, had been held, at which the captain of the School had got

up, and after premising that several instances had occurred of matters having been reported to the masters;

that this was against public morality and School tradition; that a levy of the sixth had been held on the

subject, and they had resolved that the practice must be stopped at once; and given out that any boy, in

whatever form, who should thenceforth appeal to a master, without having first gone to some prepostor and

"Well, then, let's try the sixth. Try Morgan," suggested another. "No use""Blabbing won't do," was the

"I'll give you fellows a piece of advice," said a voice from the end of the hall. They all turned round with a

start, and the speaker got up from a bench on which he had been lying unobserved, and gave himself a shake.

He was a big, loosemade fellow, with huge limbs which had grown too far through his jacket and trousers.

"Don't you go to anybody at allyou just stand out; say you won't fag. They'll soon get tired of licking you.

"No! Did you? Tell us how it was?" cried a chorus of voices, as they clustered round him.

"Well, just as it is with you. The fifth form would fag us, and I and some more struck, and we beat 'em. The

"Yes; and a dirty, little, snivelling, sneaking fellow he was too. He never dared join us, and used to toady the

"Oh, toadies never get cut; they're too useful. Besides, he has no end of great hampers from home, with wine

The quartertoten bell now rang, and the small boys went off upstairs, still consulting together, and praising

their new counsellor, who stretched himself out on the bench before the hall fire again. There he lay, a very

queer specimen of boyhood, by name Diggs, and familiarly called "the Mucker." He was young for his size,

and a very clever fellow, nearly at the top of the fifth. His friends at home, having regard, I suppose, to his

age, and not to his size and place in the school, hadn't put him into tails; and even his jackets were always too

small; and he had a talent for destroying clothes and making himself look shabby. He wasn't on terms with

Flashman's set, who sneered at his dress and ways behind his back; which he knew, and revenged himself by

asking Flashman the most disagreeable questions, and treating him familiarly whenever a crowd of boys were

round him. Neither was he intimate with any of the other bigger boys, who were warned off by his oddnesses,

for he was a very queer fellow; besides, amongst other failings, he had that of impecuniosity in a remarkable

degree. He brought as much money as other boys to school, but got rid of it in no time, no one knew how;

and then, being also reckless, borrowed from any one; and when his debts accumulated and creditors pressed,

would have an auction in the hall of everything he possessed in the world, selling even his schoolbooks,

candlestick, and study table. For weeks after one of these auctions, having rendered his study uninhabitable,

he would live about in the fifthform room and hall, doing his verses on old letterbacks and odd scraps of

paper, and learning his lessons no one knew how. He never meddled with any little boy, and was popular

with them, though they all looked on him with a sort of compassion, and called him "Poor Diggs," not being

able to resist appearances, or to disregard wholly even the sneers of their enemy Flashman. However, he

seemed equally indifferent to the sneers of big boys and the pity of small ones, and lived his own queer life

with much apparent enjoyment to himself. It is necessary to introduce Diggs thus particularly, as he not only

did Tom and East good service in their present warfare, as is about to be told, but soon afterwards, when he

got into the sixth, chose them for his fags, and excused them from study fagging, thereby earning unto

himself eternal gratitude from them and all who are interested in their history.

And seldom had small boys more need of a friend, for the morning after the siege the storm burst upon the

rebels in all its violence. Flashman laid wait, and caught Tom before second lesson, and receiving a

pointblank "No" when told to fetch his hat, seized him and twisted his arm, and went through the other

methods of torture in use. "He couldn't make me cry, though," as Tom said triumphantly to the rest of the

rebels; "and I kicked his shins well, I know." And soon it crept out that a lot of the fags were in league, and

Flashman excited his associates to join him in bringing the young vagabonds to their senses; and the house

was filled with constant chasings, and sieges, and lickings of all sorts; and in return, the bullies' beds were

pulled to pieces and drenched with water, and their names written up on the walls with every insulting epithet

which the fag invention could furnish. The war, in short, raged fiercely; but soon, as Diggs had told them, all

the better fellows in the fifth gave up trying to fag them, and public feeling began to set against Flashman and

his two or three intimates, and they were obliged to keep their doings more secret, but being thorough bad

fellows, missed no opportunity of torturing in private. Flashman was an adept in all ways, but above all in the

power of saying cutting and cruel things, and could often bring tears to the eyes of boys in this way, which all

And as his operations were being cut short in other directions, he now devoted himself chiefly to Tom and

East, who lived at his own door, and would force himself into their study whenever he found a chance, and sit

there, sometimes alone, and sometimes with a companion, interrupting all their work, and exulting in the

evident pain which every now and then he could see he was inflicting on one or the other.

The storm had cleared the air for the rest of the house, and a better state of things now began than there had

been since old Brooke had left; but an angry, dark spot of thundercloud still hung over the end of the

He felt that they had been the first rebels, and that the rebellion had been to a great extent successful; but

what above all stirred the hatred and bitterness of his heart against them was that in the frequent collisions

which there had been of late they had openly called him coward and sneak. The taunts were too true to be

forgiven. While he was in the act of thrashing them, they would roar out instances of his funking at football,

or shirking some encounter with a lout of half his own size. These things were all well enough known in the

house, but to have his own disgrace shouted out by small boys, to feel that they despised him, to be unable to

silence them by any amount of torture, and to see the open laugh and sneer of his own associates (who were

looking on, and took no trouble to hide their scorn from him, though they neither interfered with his bullying

nor lived a bit the less intimately with him), made him beside himself. Come what might, he would make

those boys' lives miserable. So the strife settled down into a personal affair between Flashman and our

youngstersa war to the knife, to be fought out in the little cockpit at the end of the bottom passage.

Flashman, be it said, was about seventeen years old, and big and strong of his age. He played well at all

games where pluck wasn't much wanted, and managed generally to keep up appearances where it was; and

having a bluff, offhand manner, which passed for heartiness, and considerable powers of being pleasant

when he liked, went down with the school in general for a good fellow enough. Even in the Schoolhouse, by

dint of his command of money, the constant supply of good things which he kept up, and his adroit toadyism,

he had managed to make himself not only tolerated, but rather popular amongst his own contemporaries;

although young Brooke scarcely spoke to him, and one or two others of the right sort showed their opinions

of him whenever a chance offered. But the wrong sort happened to be in the ascendant just now, and so

Flashman was a formidable enemy for small boys. This soon became plain enough. Flashman left no slander

unspoken, and no deed undone, which could in any way hurt his victims, or isolate them from the rest of the

house. One by one most of the other rebels fell away from them, while Flashman's cause prospered, and

several other fifthform boys began to look black at them and illtreat them as they passed about the house.

By keeping out of bounds, or at all events out of the house and quadrangle, all day, and carefully barring

themselves in at night, East and Tom managed to hold on without feeling very miserable; but it was as much

as they could do. Greatly were they drawn then towards old Diggs, who, in an uncouth way, began to take a

good deal of notice of them, and once or twice came to their study when Flashman was there, who

immediately decamped in consequence. The boys thought that Diggs must have been watching.

When therefore, about this time, an auction was one night announced to take place in the hall, at which,

amongst the superfluities of other boys, all Diggs's penates for the time being were going to the hammer, East

and Tom laid their heads together, and resolved to devote their ready cash (some four shillings sterling) to

redeem such articles as that sum would cover. Accordingly, they duly attended to bid, and Tom became the

owner of two lots of Diggs's things: Lot 1, price oneand threepence, consisting (as the auctioneer

remarked) of a "valuable assortment of old metals," in the shape of a mouse trap, a cheesetoaster without a

handle, and a saucepan: Lot 2, of a villainous dirty tablecloth and greenbaize curtain; while East, for

oneandsixpence, purchased a leather papercase, with a lock but no key, once handsome, but now much

the worse for wear. But they had still the point to settle of how to get Diggs to take the things without hurting

his feelings. This they solved by leaving them in his study, which was never locked when he was out. Diggs,

who had attended the auction, remembered who had bought the lots, and came to their study soon after, and

sat silent for some time, cracking his great red fingerjoints. Then he laid hold of their verses, and began

looking over and altering them, and at last got up, and turning his back to them, said, "You're uncommon

goodhearted little beggars, you two. I value that papercase; my sister gave it to me last holidays. I won't

forget." And so he tumbled out into the passage, leaving them somewhat embarrassed, but not sorry that he

The next morning was Saturday, the day on which the allowances of one shilling a week were paidan

important event to spendthrift youngsters; and great was the disgust amongst the small fry to hear that all the

allowances had been impounded for the Derby lottery. That great event in the English year, the Derby, was

celebrated at Rugby in those days by many lotteries. It was not an improving custom, I own, gentle reader,

and led to making books, and betting, and other objectionable results; but when our great Houses of Palaver

think it right to stop the nation's business on that day and many of the members bet heavily themselves, can

you blame us boys for following the example of our betters? At any rate we did follow it. First there was the

great school lottery, where the first prize was six or seven pounds; then each house had one or more separate

lotteries. These were all nominally voluntary, no boy being compelled to put in his shilling who didn't choose

to do so. But besides Flashman, there were three or four other fast, sporting young gentlemen in the

Schoolhouse, who considered subscription a matter of duty and necessity; and so, to make their duty come

easy to the small boys, quietly secured the allowances in a lump when given out for distribution, and kept

them. It was no use grumblingso many fewer tartlets and apples were eaten and fives balls bought on that

Saturday; and after lockingup, when the money would otherwise have been spent, consolation was carried

to many a small boy by the sound of the nightfags shouting along the passages, "Gentlemen sportsmen of

the Schoolhouse; the lottery's going to be drawn in the hall." It was pleasant to be called a gentleman

The hall was full of boys, and at the head of one of the long tables stood the sporting interest, with a hat

before them, in which were the tickets folded up. One of them then began calling out the list of the house.

Each boy as his name was called drew a ticket from the hat, and opened it; and most of the bigger boys, after

drawing, left the hall directly to go back to their studies or the fifthform room. The sporting interest had all

drawn blanks, and they were sulky accordingly; neither of the favourites had yet been drawn, and it had come

down to the upperfourth. So now, as each small boy came up and drew his ticket, it was seized and opened

by Flashman, or some other of the standersby. But no great favourite is drawn until it comes to the

Tadpole's turn, and he shuffles up and draws, and tries to make off, but is caught, and his ticket is opened like

"Hullo! don't be in a hurry," breaks in Flashman; "what'll you sell Wanderer for now?"

"Oh, don't you! Now listen, you young fool: you don't know anything about it; the horse is no use to you. He

won't win, but I want him as a hedge. Now, I'll give you half a crown for him." Tadpole holds out, but

between threats and cajoleries at length sells half for one shilling and sixpenceabout a fifth of its fair

market value; however, he is glad to realize anything, and, as he wisely remarks, "Wanderer mayn't win, and

East presently comes up and draws a blank. Soon after comes Tom's turn. His ticket, like the others, is seized

and opened. "Here you are then," shouts the opener, holding it up "Harkaway!By Jove, Flashey, your

"Give me the ticket," says Flashman, with an oath, leaning across the table with open hand and his face black

"Wouldn't you like it?" replies the opener, not a bad fellow at the bottom, and no admirer of Flashman. "Here,

Brown, catch hold." And he hands the ticket to Tom, who pockets it. Whereupon Flashman makes for the

door at once, that Tom and the ticket may not escape, and there keeps watch until the drawing is over and all

the boys are gone, except the sporting set of five or six, who stay to compare books, make bets, and so on;

Tom, who doesn't choose to move while Flashman is at the door; and East, who stays by his friend,

anticipating trouble. The sporting set now gathered round Tom. Public opinion wouldn't allow them actually

to rob him of his ticket, but any humbug or intimidation by which he could be driven to sell the whole or part

"Now, young Brown, come, what'll you sell me Harkaway for? I hear he isn't going to start. I'll give you five

shillings for him," begins the boy who had opened the ticket. Tom, remembering his good deed, and

moreover in his forlorn state wishing to make a friend, is about to accept the offer, when another cries out,

"I'll give you seven shillings." Tom hesitated and looked from one to the other.

"No, no!" said Flashman, pushing in, "leave me to deal with him; we'll draw lots for it afterwards. Now sir,

you know me: you'll sell Harkaway to us for five shillings, or you'll repent it."

"You hear that now!" said Flashman, turning to the others. "He's the coxiest young blackguard in the house. I

always told you so. We're to have all the trouble and risk of getting up the lotteries for the benefit of such

Flashman forgets to explain what risk they ran, but he speaks to willing ears. Gambling makes boys selfish

"That's true. We always draw blanks," cried one. "Now, sir, you shall sell half, at any rate."

"I won't," said Tom, flushing up to his hair, and lumping them all in his mind with his sworn enemy.

"Very well then; let's roast him," cried Flashman, and catches hold of Tom by the collar. One or two boys

hesitate, but the rest join in. East seizes Tom's arm, and tries to pull him away, but is knocked back by one of

the boys, and Tom is dragged along struggling. His shoulders are pushed against the mantelpiece, and he is

held by main force before the fire, Flashman drawing his trousers tight by way of extra torture. Poor East, in

more pain even than Tom, suddenly thinks of Diggs, and darts off to find him. "Will you sell now for ten

"I say, Flashey, he has had enough," says the same boy, dropping the arm he holds.

"No, no; another turn'll do it," answers Flashman. But poor Tom is done already, turns deadly pale, and his

head falls forward on his breast, just as Diggs, in frantic excitement, rushes into the hall with East at his

"You cowardly brutes!" is all he can say, as he catches Tom from them and supports him to the hall table.

Flashman and one or two others slink away; the rest, ashamed and sorry, bend over Tom or run for water,

while East darts off for the housekeeper. Water comes, and they throw it on his hands and face, and he begins

to come to. "Mother!"the words came feebly and slowly"it's very cold tonight." Poor old Diggs is

blubbering like a child. "Where am I?" goes on Tom, opening his eyes, "Ah! I remember now." And he shut

"I say," is whispered, "we can't do any good, and the housekeeper will be here in a minute." And all but one

The housekeeper comes in with strong salts, and Tom soon recovers enough to sit up. There is a smell of

burning. She examines his clothes, and looks up inquiringly. The boys are silent.

"How did he come so?" No answer. "There's been some bad work here," she adds, looking very serious, "and

"Oh, I can walk now," says Tom; and, supported by East and the housekeeper, goes to the sickroom. The

boy who held his ground is soon amongst the rest, who are all in fear of their lives. "Did he peach?" "Does

"Not a word; he's a stanch little fellow." And pausing a moment, he adds, "I'm sick of this work; what brutes

Meantime Tom is stretched on the sofa in the housekeeper's room, with East by his side, while she gets wine

"Only the back of my legs," answers Tom. They are indeed badly scorched, and part of his trousers burnt

through. But soon he is in bed with cold bandages. At first he feels broken, and thinks of writing home and

getting taken away; and the verse of a hymn he had learned years ago sings through his head, and he goes to

But after a sound night's rest, the old boyspirit comes back again. East comes in, reporting that the whole

house is with him; and he forgets everything, except their old resolve never to be beaten by that bully

Not a word could the housekeeper extract from either of them, and though the Doctor knew all that she knew

I trust and believe that such scenes are not possible now at school, and that lotteries and bettingbooks have

gone out; but I am writing of schools as they were in our time, and must give the evil with the good.

When Tom came back into school after a couple of days in the sickroom, he found matters much changed

for the better, as East had led him to expect. Flashman's brutality had disgusted most even of his intimate

friends, and his cowardice had once more been made plain to the house; for Diggs had encountered him on

the morning after the lottery, and after high words on both sides, had struck him, and the blow was not

returned. However, Flashey was not unused to this sort of thing, and had lived through as awkward affairs

before, and, as Diggs had said, fed and toadied himself back into favour again. Two or three of the boys who

had helped to roast Tom came up and begged his pardon, and thanked him for not telling anything. Morgan

sent for him, and was inclined to take the matter up warmly, but Tom begged him not to do it; to which he

agreed, on Tom's promising to come to him at once in futurea promise which, I regret to say, he didn't

keep. Tom kept Harkaway all to himself, and won the second prize in the lottery, some thirty shillings, which

he and East contrived to spend in about three days in the purchase of pictures for their study, two new bats

and a cricketballall the best that could be gotand a supper of sausages, kidneys, and beefsteak pies to

all the rebels. Light come, light go; they wouldn't have been comfortable with money in their pockets in the

The embers of Flashman's wrath, however, were still smouldering, and burst out every now and then in sly

blows and taunts, and they both felt that they hadn't quite done with him yet. It wasn't long, however, before

the last act of that drama came, and with it the end of bullying for Tom and East at Rugby. They now often

stole out into the hall at nights, incited thereto partly by the hope of finding Diggs there and having a talk

with him, partly by the excitement of doing something which was against rules; for, sad to say, both of our

youngsters, since their loss of character for steadiness in their form, had got into the habit of doing things

which were forbidden, as a matter of adventure,just in the same way, I should fancy, as men fall into

smuggling, and for the same sort of reasons thoughtlessness in the first place. It never occurred to them to

consider why such and such rules were laid down: the reason was nothing to them, and they only looked upon

rules as a sort of challenge from the rulemakers, which it would be rather bad pluck in them not to accept;

and then again, in the lower parts of the school they hadn't enough to do. The work of the form they could

manage to get through pretty easily, keeping a good enough place to get their regular yearly remove; and not

having much ambition beyond this, their whole superfluous steam was available for games and scrapes. Now,

one rule of the house which it was a daily pleasure of all such boys to break was that after supper all fags,

except the three on duty in the passages, should remain in their own studies until nine o'clock; and if caught

about the passages or hall, or in one another's studies, they were liable to punishments or caning. The rule

was stricter than its observance; for most of the sixth spent their evenings in the fifthform room, where the

library was, and the lessons were learnt in common. Every now and then, however, a prepostor would be

seized with a fit of district visiting, and would make a tour of the passages and hall and the fags' studies.

Then, if the owner were entertaining a friend or two, the first kick at the door and ominous "Open here" had

the effect of the shadow of a hawk over a chickenyard: every one cut to coverone small boy diving under

the sofa, another under the table, while the owner would hastily pull down a book or two and open them, and

cry out in a meek voice, "Hullo, who's there?" casting an anxious eye round to see that no protruding leg or

elbow could betray the hidden boys. "Open, sir, directly; it's Snooks." "Oh, I'm very sorry; I didn't know it

was you, Snooks." And then with wellfeigned zeal the door would be opened, young hopeful praying that

that beast Snooks mightn't have heard the scuffle caused by his coming. If a study was empty, Snooks

Well, one evening, in forbidden hours, Tom and East were in the hall. They occupied the seats before the fire

nearest the door, while Diggs sprawled as usual before the farther fire. He was busy with a copy of verses,

and East and Tom were chatting together in whispers by the light of the fire, and splicing a favourite old fives

bat which had sprung. Presently a step came down the bottom passage. They listened a moment, assured

themselves that it wasn't a prepostor, and then went on with their work, and the door swung open, and in

walked Flashman. He didn't see Diggs, and thought it a good chance to keep his hand in; and as the boys

"I say, you two," said Diggs, from the end of the hall, rousing up and resting himself on his elbow"you'll

never get rid of that fellow till you lick him. Go in at him, both of you. I'll see fair play."

Flashman was taken aback, and retreated two steps. East looked at Tom. "Shall we try!" said he. "Yes," said

Tom desperately. So the two advanced on Flashman, with clenched fists and beating hearts. They were about

up to his shoulder, but tough boys of their age, and in perfect training; while he, though strong and big, was

in poor condition from his monstrous habit of stuffing and want of exercise. Coward as he was, however,

Flashman couldn't swallow such an insult as this; besides, he was confident of having easy work, and so

faced the boys, saying, "You impudent young blackguards!" Before he could finish his abuse, they rushed in

on him, and began pummelling at all of him which they could reach. He hit out wildly and savagely; but the

full force of his blows didn't tellthey were too near to him. It was long odds, though, in point of strength;

and in another minute Tom went spinning backwards over a form, and Flashman turned to demolish East

with a savage grin. But now Diggs jumped down from the table on which he had seated himself. "Stop there,"

"I'm going to see fair, I tell you," said Diggs, with a grin, and snapping his great red fingers; "'taint fair for

The small boys rushed in again. Closing, they saw, was their best chance, and Flashman was wilder and more

flurried than ever: he caught East by the throat, and tried to force him back on the ironbound table. Tom

grasped his waist, and remembering the old throw he had learned in the Vale from Harry Winburn, crooked

his leg inside Flashman's, and threw his whole weight forward. The three tottered for a moment, and then

over they went on to the floor, Flashman striking his head against a form in the hall.

The two youngsters sprang to their legs, but he lay there still. They began to be frightened. Tom stooped

down, and then cried out, scared out of his wits, "He's bleeding awfully. Come here, East! Diggs, he's dying!"

"Not he," said Diggs, getting leisurely off the table; "it's all sham; he's only afraid to fight it out."

"Fiddlesticks! It's nothing but the skin broken," said the relentless Diggs, feeling his head. "Cold water and a

"Hang your sorrow!" answered Flashman, holding his handkerchief to the place; "you shall pay for this, I can

"He can't be very bad," said Tom, with a deep sigh, much relieved to see his enemy march so well.

"Not he," said Diggs; "and you'll see you won't be troubled with him any more. But, I say, your head's broken

"Well, mop it up, or you'll have your jacket spoilt. And you have got a nasty eye, Scud. You'd better go and

"Cheap enough too, if we're done with our old friend Flashey," said East, as they made off upstairs to bathe

They had done with Flashman in one sense, for he never laid finger on either of them again; but whatever

harm a spiteful heart and venomous tongue could do them, he took care should be done. Only throw dirt

enough, and some of it is sure to stick; and so it was with the fifth form and the bigger boys in general, with

whom he associated more or less, and they not at all. Flashman managed to get Tom and East into disfavour,

which did not wear off for some time after the author of it had disappeared from the School world. This

event, much prayed for by the small fry in general, took place a few months after the above encounter. One

fine summer evening Flashman had been regaling himself on ginpunch, at Brownsover; and, having

exceeded his usual limits, started home uproarious. He fell in with a friend or two coming back from bathing,

proposed a glass of beer, to which they assented, the weather being hot, and they thirsty souls, and unaware

of the quantity of drink which Flashman had already on board. The short result was, that Flashey became

beastly drunk. They tried to get him along, but couldn't; so they chartered a hurdle and two men to carry him.

One of the masters came upon them, and they naturally enough fled. The flight of the rest raised the master's

suspicions, and the good angel of the fags incited him to examine the freight, and, after examination, to

convoy the hurdle himself up to the Schoolhouse; and the Doctor, who had long had his eye on Flashman,

The evil that men and boys too do lives after them: Flashman was gone, but our boys, as hinted above, still

felt the effects of his hate. Besides, they had been the movers of the strike against unlawful fagging. The

cause was righteousthe result had been triumphant to a great extent; but the best of the fifth even those

who had never fagged the small boys, or had given up the practice cheerfullycouldn't help feeling a small

grudge against the first rebels. After all, their form had been defied, on just grounds, no doubtso just,

indeed, that they had at once acknowledged the wrong, and remained passive in the strife. Had they sided

with Flashman and his set, the rebels must have given way at once. They couldn't help, on the whole, being

glad that they had so acted, and that the resistance had been successful against such of their own form as had

shown fight; they felt that law and order had gained thereby, but the ringleaders they couldn't quite pardon at

once. "Confoundedly coxy those young rascals will get, if we don't mind," was the general feeling.

So it is, and must be always, my dear boys. If the angel Gabriel were to come down from heaven, and head a

successful rise against the most abominable and unrighteous vested interest which this poor old world groans

under, he would most certainly lose his character for many years, probably for centuries, not only with the

upholders of said vested interest, but with the respectable mass of the people whom he had delivered. They

wouldn't ask him to dinner, or let their names appear with his in the papers; they would be very careful how

they spoke of him in the Palaver, or at their clubs. What can we expect, then, when we have only poor gallant

blundering men like Kossuth, Garibaldi, Mazzini, and righteous causes which do not triumph in their

handsmen who have holes enough in their armour, God knows, easy to be hit by respectabilities sitting in

their lounging chairs, and having large balances at their bankers'? But you are brave, gallant boys, who hate

easychairs, and have no balances or bankers. You only want to have your heads set straight, to take the right

side; so bear in mind that majorities, especially respectable ones, are nine times out of ten in the wrong; and

that if you see a man or boy striving earnestly on the weak side, however wrongheaded or blundering he

may be, you are not to go and join the cry against him. If you can't join him and help him, and make him

wiser, at any rate remember that he has found something in the world which he will fight and suffer for,

which is just what you have got to do for yourselves; and so think and speak of him tenderly.

So East and Tom, the Tadpole, and one or two more, became a sort of young Ishmaelites, their hands against

every one, and every one's hand against them. It has been already told how they got to war with the masters

and the fifth form, and with the sixth it was much the same. They saw the prepostors cowed by or joining

with the fifth and shirking their own duties; so they didn't respect them, and rendered no willing obedience. It

had been one thing to clean out studies for sons of heroes like old Brooke, but was quite another to do the like

for Snooks and Green, who had never faced a good scrummage at football, and couldn't keep the passages in

order at night. So they only slurred through their fagging just well enough to escape a licking, and not always

that, and got the character of sulky, unwilling fags. In the fifthform room, after supper, when such matters

"I say, Green," Snooks began one night, "isn't that new boy, Harrison, your fag?"

"Oh, I know something of him at home, and should like to excuse him. Will you swop?"

"Well, let's see. There's Willis, Johnson. No, that won't do. Yes, I have it. There's young East; I'll give you

"Don't you wish you may get it?" replied Green. "I'll give you two for Willis, if you like."

"Better than East, though; for they ain't quite so sharp," said Green, getting up and leaning his back against

the mantelpiece. He wasn't a bad fellow, and couldn't help not being able to put down the unruly fifth form.

His eye twinkled as he went on, "Did I ever tell you how the young vagabond sold me last half?"

"Well, he never half cleaned my study outonly just stuck the candlesticks in the cupboard, and swept the

crumbs on to the floor. So at last I was mortal angry, and had him up, and made him go through the whole

performance under my eyes. The dust the young scamp made nearly choked me, and showed that he hadn't

swept the carpet before. Well, when it was all finished, 'Now, young gentleman,' says I, 'mind, I expect this to

be done every morningfloor swept, tablecloth taken off and shaken, and everything dusted.' 'Very well,'

grunts he. Not a bit of it though. I was quite sure, in a day or two, that he never took the tablecloth off even.

So I laid a trap for him. I tore up some paper, and put half a dozen bits on my table one night, and the cloth

over them as usual. Next morning after breakfast up I came, pulled off the cloth, and, sure enough, there was

the paper, which fluttered down on to the floor. I was in a towering rage. 'I've got you now,' thought I, and

sent for him, while I got out my cane. Up he came as cool as you please, with his hands in his pockets. 'Didn't

I tell you to shake my table cloth every morning?' roared I. 'Yes,' says he. 'Did you do it this morning?' 'Yes.'

'You young liar! I put these pieces of paper on the table last night, and if you'd taken the table cloth off

you'd have seen them, so I'm going to give you a good licking.' Then my youngster takes one hand out of his

pocket, and just stoops down and picks up two of the bits of paper, and holds them out to me. There was

written on each, in great round text, 'Harry East, his mark.' The young rogue had found my trap out, taken

away my paper, and put some of his there, every bit earmarked. I'd a great mind to lick him for his

impudence; but, after all, one has no right to be laying traps, so I didn't. Of course I was at his mercy till the

"They spoil one's things so, too," chimed in a third boy. "Hall and Brown were nightfags last week. I called

'fag,' and gave them my candlesticks to clean. Away they went, and didn't appear again. When they'd had

time enough to clean them three times over, I went out to look after them. They weren't in the passages so

down I went into the hall, where I heard music; and there I found them sitting on the table, listening to

Johnson, who was playing the flute, and my candlesticks stuck between the bars well into the fire, redhot,

clean spoiled. They've never stood straight since, and I must get some more. However, I gave them a good

Such were the sort of scrapes they were always getting into; and so, partly by their own faults, partly from

circumstances, partly from the faults of others, they found themselves outlaws, ticketofleave men, or what

you will in that linein short, dangerous partiesand lived the sort of handtomouth, wild, reckless life

which such parties generally have to put up with. Nevertheless they never quite lost favour with young

Brooke, who was now the cock of the house, and just getting into the sixth; and Diggs stuck to them like a

man, and gave them store of good advice, by which they never in the least profited.

And even after the house mended, and law and order had been restored, which soon happened after young

Brooke and Diggs got into the sixth, they couldn't easily or at once return into the paths of steadiness, and

many of the old, wild, outofbounds habits stuck to them as firmly as ever. While they had been quite little

boys, the scrapes they got into in the School hadn't much mattered to any one; but now they were in the upper

school, all wrongdoers from which were sent up straight to the Doctor at once. So they began to come under

his notice; and as they were a sort of leaders in a small way amongst their own contemporaries, his eye,

It was a tossup whether they turned out well or ill, and so they were just the boys who caused most anxiety

to such a master. You have been told of the first occasion on which they were sent up to the Doctor, and the

remembrance of it was so pleasant that they had much less fear of him than most boys of their standing had.

"It's all his look," Tom used to say to East, "that frightens fellows. Don't you remember, he never said

The next time that Tom came before him, however, the interview was of a very different kind. It happened

just about the time at which we have now arrived, and was the first of a series of scrapes into which our hero

The river Avon at Rugby is a slow and not very clear stream, in which chub, dace, roach, and other coarse

fish are (or were) plentiful enough, together with a fair sprinkling of small jack, but no fish worth sixpence

either for sport or food. It is, however, a capital river for bathing, as it has many nice small pools and several

good reaches for swimming, all within about a mile of one another, and at an easy twenty minutes' walk from

the school. This mile of water is rented, or used to be rented, for bathing purposes by the trustees of the

School, for the boys. The footpath to Brownsover crosses the river by "the Planks," a curious old

singleplank bridge running for fifty or sixty yards into the flat meadows on each side of the river for in

the winter there are frequent floods. Above the Planks were the bathingplaces for the smaller

boysSleath's, the first bathingplace, where all new boys had to begin, until they had proved to the bathing

men (three steady individuals, who were paid to attend daily through the summer to prevent accidents) that

they could swim pretty decently, when they were allowed to go on to Anstey's, about one hundred and fifty

yards below. Here there was a hole about six feet deep and twelve feet across, over which the puffing urchins

struggled to the opposite side, and thought no small beer of themselves for having been out of their depths.

Below the Planks came larger and deeper holes, the first of which was Wratislaw's, and the last Swift's, a

famous hole, ten or twelve feet deep in parts, and thirty yards across, from which there was a fine swimming

reach right down to the mill. Swift's was reserved for the sixth and fifth forms, and had a spring board and

two sets of steps: the others had one set of steps each, and were used indifferently by all the lower boys,

though each house addicted itself more to one hole than to another. The Schoolhouse at this time affected

Wratislaw's hole, and Tom and East, who had learnt to swim like fishes, were to be found there as regular as

Now the boys either had, or fancied they had, a right also to fish at their pleasure over the whole of this part

of the river, and would not understand that the right (if any) only extended to the Rugby side. As illluck

would have it, the gentleman who owned the opposite bank, after allowing it for some time without

interference, had ordered his keepers not to let the boys fish on his sidethe consequence of which had been

that there had been first wranglings and then fights between the keepers and boys; and so keen had the quarrel

become that the landlord and his keepers, after a ducking had been inflicted on one of the latter, and a fierce

fight ensued thereon, had been up to the great school at callingover to identify the delinquents, and it was all

the Doctor himself and five or six masters could do to keep the peace. Not even his authority could prevent

the hissing; and so strong was the feeling that the four prepostors of the week walked up the school with their

canes, shouting "S sssilencccce" at the top of their voices. However, the chief offenders for the

time were flogged and kept in bounds; but the victorious party had brought a nice hornet's nest about their

ears. The landlord was hissed at the Schoolgates as he rode past, and when he charged his horse at the mob

of boys, and tried to thrash them with his whip, was driven back by cricket bats and wickets, and pursued

with pebbles and fives balls; while the wretched keepers' lives were a burden to them, from having to watch

The Schoolhouse boys of Tom's standing, one and all, as a protest against this tyranny and cutting short of

their lawful amusements, took to fishing in all ways, and especially by means of nightlines. The little

tacklemaker at the bottom of the town would soon have made his fortune had the rage lasted, and several of

the barbers began to lay in fishingtackle. The boys had this great advantage over their enemies, that they

spent a large portion of the day in nature's garb by the riverside, and so, when tired of swimming, would get

out on the other side and fish, or set nightlines, till the keepers hove in sight, and then plunge in and swim

back and mix with the other bathers, and the keepers were too wise to follow across the stream.

While things were in this state, one day Tom and three or four others were bathing at Wratislaw's, and had, as

a matter of course, been taking up and resetting nightlines. They had all left the water, and were sitting or

standing about at their toilets, in all costumes, from a shirt upwards, when they were aware of a man in a

velveteen shootingcoat approaching from the other side. He was a new keeper, so they didn't recognize or

"I'm the new underkeeper, and master's told me to keep a sharp lookout on all o' you young chaps. And I

tells 'ee I means business, and you'd better keep on your own side, or we shall fall out."

"Look here, old boy," cried East, holding up a miserable, coarse fish or two and a small jack; "would you like

"I'll give you a bit of advice, keeper," shouted Tom, who was sitting in his shirt paddling with his feet in the

river: "you'd better go down there to Swift's, where the big boys are; they're beggars at setting lines, and'll put

you up to a wrinkle or two for catching the fivepounders." Tom was nearest to the keeper, and that officer,

who was getting angry at the chaff, fixed his eyes on our hero, as if to take a note of him for future use. Tom

returned his gaze with a steady stare, and then broke into a laugh, and struck into the middle of a favourite

"As I and my companions Were setting of a snare The gamekeeper was watching us; For him we did not care:

For we can wrestle and fight, my boys, And jump out anywhere. For it's my delight of a likely night, In the

The chorus was taken up by the other boys with shouts of laughter, and the keeper turned away with a grunt,

But now came on the Mayfly season; the soft, hazy summer weather lay sleepily along the rich meadows by

Avon side, and the green and gray flies flickered with their graceful, lazy up anddown flight over the reeds

and the water and the meadows, in myriads upon myriads. The Mayflies must surely be the lotus eaters of

the ephemeraethe happiest, laziest, carelessest fly that dances and dreams out his few hours of sunshiny

Every little pitiful, coarse fish in the Avon was on the alert for the flies, and gorging his wretched carcass

with hundreds daily, the gluttonous rogues! and every lover of the gentle craft was out to avenge the poor

So one fine Thursday afternoon, Tom, having borrowed East's new rod, started by himself to the river. He

fished for some time with small successnot a fish would rise at him; but as he prowled along the bank, he

was presently aware of mighty ones feeding in a pool on the opposite side, under the shade of a huge

willowtree. The stream was deep here, but some fifty yards below was a shallow, for which he made off

hotfoot; and forgetting landlords, keepers, solemn prohibitions of the Doctor, and everything else, pulled up

his trousers, plunged across, and in three minutes was creeping along on all fours towards the clump of

It isn't often that great chub, or any other coarse fish, are in earnest about anything; but just then they were

thoroughly bent on feeding, and in half an hour Master Tom had deposited three thumping fellows at the foot

of the giant willow. As he was baiting for a fourth pounder, and just going to throw in again, he became

aware of a man coming up the bank not one hundred yards off. Another look told him that it was the

underkeeper. Could he reach the shallow before him? No, not carrying his rod. Nothing for it but the tree.

So Tom laid his bones to it, shinning up as fast as he could, and dragging up his rod after him. He had just

time to reach and crouch along upon a huge branch some ten feet up, which stretched out over the river, when

the keeper arrived at the clump. Tom's heart beat fast as he came under the tree; two steps more and he would

have passed, when, as illluck would have it, the gleam on the scales of the dead fish caught his eye, and he

made a dead point at the foot of the tree. He picked up the fish one by one; his eye and touch told him that

they had been alive and feeding within the hour. Tom crouched lower along the branch, and heard the keeper

beating the clump. "If I could only get the rod hidden," thought he, and began gently shifting it to get it

alongside of him; "willowtrees don't throw out straight hickory shoots twelve feet long, with no leaves, worse

luck." Alas! the keeper catches the rustle, and then a sight of the rod, and then of Tom's hand and arm.

"Oh, be up ther', be 'ee?" says he, running under the tree. "Now you come down this minute."

"Tree'd at last," thinks Tom, making no answer, and keeping as close as possible, but working away at the

rod, which he takes to pieces. "I'm in for it, unless I can starve him out." And then he begins to meditate

getting along the branch for a plunge, and scramble to the other side; but the small branches are so thick, and

the opposite bank so difficult, that the keeper will have lots of time to get round by the ford before he can get

out, so he gives that up. And now he hears the keeper beginning to scramble up the trunk. That will never do;

so he scrambles himself back to where his branch joins the trunk; and stands with lifted rod.

The keeper stops and looks up, and then with a grin says, "Oh! be you, be it, young measter? Well, here's

"Thank 'ee, Velveteens; I'm very comfortable," said Tom, shortening the rod in his hand, and preparing for

"Werry well; please yourself," says the keeper, descending, however, to the ground again, and taking his seat

on the bank. "I bean't in no hurry, so you may take your time. I'll l'arn 'ee to gee honest folk names afore I've

"My luck as usual," thinks Tom; "what a fool I was to give him a black! If I'd called him 'keeper,' now, I

The keeper quietly proceeded to take out his pipe, fill, and light it, keeping an eye on Tom, who now sat

disconsolately across the branch, looking at keepera pitiful sight for men and fishes. The more he thought

of it the less he liked it. "It must be getting near second callingover," thinks he. Keeper smokes on stolidly.

"If he takes me up, I shall be flogged safe enough. I can't sit here all night. Wonder if he'll rise at silver."

And so they sat on till long past second callingover, and the sun came slanting in through the

"I'm coming down, keeper," said Tom at last, with a sigh, fairly tired out. "Now what are you going to do?"

"Walk 'ee up to School, and give 'ee over to the Doctor; them's my orders," says Velveteens, knocking the

"Very good," said Tom; "but hands off, you know. I'll go with you quietly, so no collaring or that sort of

Keeper looked at him a minute. "Werry good," said he at last. And so Tom descended, and wended his way

drearily by the side of the keeper, up to the Schoolhouse, where they arrived just at lockingup. As they

passed the Schoolgates, the Tadpole and several others who were standing there caught the state of things,

and rushed out, crying, "Rescue!" But Tom shook his head; so they only followed to the Doctor's gate, and

How changed and stern the Doctor seemed from the last time that Tom was up there, as the keeper told the

story, not omitting to state how Tom had called him blackguard names. "Indeed, sir," broke in the culprit, "it

"And about the rod, sir?" went on the keeper. "Master's told we as we might have all the rods"

The Doctor looked puzzled; but the keeper, who was a good hearted fellow, and melted at Tom's evident

distress, gave up his claim. Tom was flogged next morning, and a few days afterwards met Velveteens, and

presented him with half a crown for giving up the rod claim, and they became sworn friends; and I regret to

say that Tom had many more fish from under the willow that Mayfly season, and was never caught again by

It wasn't three weeks before Tom, and now East by his side, were again in the awful presence. This time,

however, the Doctor was not so terrible. A few days before, they had been fagged at fives to fetch the balls

that went off the court. While standing watching the game, they saw five or six nearly new balls hit on the top

of the School. "I say, Tom," said East, when they were dismissed, "couldn't we get those balls somehow?"

So they reconnoitred the walls carefully, borrowed a coalhammer from old Stumps, bought some big nails,

and after one or two attempts, scaled the Schools, and possessed themselves of huge quantities of fives balls.

The place pleased them so much that they spent all their spare time there, scratching and cutting their names

on the top of every tower; and at last, having exhausted all other places, finished up with inscribing H.EAST,

T.BROWN, on the minutehand of the great clock; in the doing of which they held the minutehand, and

disturbed the clock's economy. So next morning, when masters and boys came trooping down to prayers, and

entered the quadrangle, the injured minute hand was indicating three minutes to the hour. They all pulled

up, and took their time. When the hour struck, doors were closed, and half the school late. Thomas being set

to make inquiry, discovers their names on the minutehand, and reports accordingly; and they are sent for, a

knot of their friends making derisive and pantomimic allusions to what their fate will be as they walk off.

But the Doctor, after hearing their story, doesn't make much of it, and only gives them thirty lines of Homer

to learn by heart, and a lecture on the likelihood of such exploits ending in broken bones.

Alas! almost the next day was one of the great fairs in the town; and as several rows and other disagreeable

accidents had of late taken place on these occasions, the Doctor gives out, after prayers in the morning, that

no boy is to go down into the town. Wherefore East and Tom, for no earthly pleasure except that of doing

what they are told not to do, start away, after second lesson, and making a short circuit through the fields,

strike a back lane which leads into the town, go down it, and run plump upon one of the masters as they

emerge into the High Street. The master in question, though a very clever, is not a righteous man. He has

already caught several of his own pupils, and gives them lines to learn, while he sends East and Tom, who are

not his pupils, up to the Doctor, who, on learning that they had been at prayers in the morning, flogs them

The flogging did them no good at the time, for the injustice of their captor was rankling in their minds; but it

was just the end of the half, and on the next evening but one Thomas knocks at their door, and says the

Doctor wants to see them. They look at one another in silent dismay. What can it be now? Which of their

countless wrongdoings can he have heard of officially? However, it's no use delaying, so up they go to the

study. There they find the Doctor, not angry, but very graver. "He has sent for them to speak to very seriously

before they go home. They have each been flogged several times in the halfyear for direct and wilful

breaches of rules. This cannot go on. They are doing no good to themselves or others, and now they are

getting up in the School, and have influence. They seem to think that rules are made capriciously, and for the

pleasure of the masters; but this is not so. They are made for the good of the whole School, and must and

shall be obeyed. Those who thoughtlessly or wilfully break them will not be allowed to stay at the School. He

should be sorry if they had to leave, as the School might do them both much good, and wishes them to think

And so the two hurry off horribly scared; the idea of having to leave has never crossed their minds, and is

As they go out, they meet at the door old Holmes, a sturdy, cheery prepostor of another house, who goes in to

the Doctor; and they hear his genial, hearty greeting of the newcomer, so different to their own reception, as

the door closes, and return to their study with heavy hearts, and tremendous resolves to break no more rules.

Five minutes afterwards the master of their forma late arrival and a model young masterknocks at the

Doctor's study door. "Come in!" And as he enters, the Doctor goes on, to Holmes"You see, I do not know

anything of the case officially, and if I take any notice of it at all, I must publicly expel the boy. I don't wish

to do that, for I think there is some good in him. There's nothing for it but a good sound thrashing." He

paused to shake hands with the master, which Holmes does also, and then prepares to leave.

"Goodnight, Holmes. And remember," added the Doctor, emphasizing the words, "a good sound thrashing

The door closed on Holmes; and the Doctor, in answer to the puzzled look of his lieutenant, explained

shortly. "A gross case of bullying. Wharton, the head of the house, is a very good fellow, but slight and weak,

and severe physical pain is the only way to deal with such a case; so I have asked Holmes to take it up. He is

very careful and trustworthy, and has plenty of strength. I wish all the sixth had as much. We must have it

Now I don't want any wiseacres to read this book, but if they should, of course they will prick up their long

ears, and howl, or rather bray, at the above story. Very goodI don't object; but what I have to add for you

boys is this, that Holmes called a levy of his house after breakfast next morning, made them a speech on the

case of bullying in question, and then gave the bully a "good sound thrashing;" and that years afterwards, that

boy sought out Holmes, and thanked him, saying it had been the kindest act which had ever been done upon

him, and the turning point in his character; and a very good fellow he became, and a credit to his School.

After some other talk between them, the Doctor said, "I want to speak to you about two boys in your form,

"Well, they are not hard workers, and very thoughtless and full of spirits; but I can't help liking them. I think

"I'm glad of it. I think so too: But they make me very uneasy. They are taking the lead a good deal amongst

the fags in my house, for they are very active, bold fellows. I should be sorry to lose them, but I shan't let

them stay if I don't see them gaining character and manliness. In another year they may do great harm to all

"Not if I can help it. But now I never feel sure, after any halfholiday, that I shan't have to flog one of them

next morning, for some foolish, thoughtless scrape. I quite dread seeing either of them."

"They don't feel that they have any duty or work to do in the school, and how is one to make them feel it?"

"I think if either of them had some little boy to take care of, it would steady them. Brown is the most reckless

"Well," said the Doctor, with something like a sigh, "I'll think of it." And they went on to talk of other

The turningpoint in our hero's school career had now come, and the manner of it was as follows. On the

evening of the first day of the next halfyear, Tom, East, and another Schoolhouse boy, who had just been

dropped at the Spread Eagle by the old Regulator, rushed into the matron's room in high spirits, such as all

"Well, Mrs. Wixie," shouted one, seizing on the methodical, active, little darkeyed woman, who was busy

stowing away the linen of the boys who had already arrived into their several pigeonholes, "here we are

"And, Mary," cried another (she was called indifferently by either name), "who's come back? Has the Doctor

"Am I and East to have Gray's study? You know you promised to get it for us if you could," shouted Tom.

"Bless the boys!" cries Mary, at last getting in a word; "why, you'll shake me to death. There, now, do go

away up to the housekeeper's room and get your suppers; you know I haven't time to talk. You'll find plenty

more in the house. Now, Master East, do let those things alone. You're mixing up three new boys' things."

"Hullo! look here, Tommy," shouted he; "here's fun!" and he brandished above his head some pretty little

nightcaps, beautifully made and marked, the work of loving fingers in some distant country home. The kind

mother and sisters who sewed that delicate stitching with aching hearts little thought of the trouble they might

be bringing on the young head for which they were meant. The little matron was wiser, and snatched the caps

"Now, Master East, I shall be very angry if you don't go," said she; "there's some capital cold beef and pickles

"Hurrah for the pickles! Come along, Tommycome along, Smith. We shall find out who the young count

is, I'll be bound. I hope he'll sleep in my room. Mary's always vicious first week."

As the boys turned to leave the room, the matron touched Tom's arm, and said, "Master Brown, please stop a

"O Master Brown," went on the little matron, when the rest had gone, "you're to have Gray's study, Mrs.

Arnold says. And she wants you to take in this young gentleman. He's a new boy, and thirteen years old

though he don't look it. He's very delicate, and has never been from home before. And I told Mrs. Arnold I

thought you'd be kind to him, and see that they don't bully him at first. He's put into your form, and I've given

Tom was rather put about by this speech. He had got the double study which he coveted, but here were

conditions attached which greatly moderated his joy. He looked across the room, and in the far corner of the

sofa was aware of a slight, pale boy, with large blue eyes and light fair hair, who seemed ready to shrink

through the floor. He saw at a glance that the little stranger was just the boy whose first halfyear at a public

school would be misery to himself if he were left alone, or constant anxiety to any one who meant to see him

through his troubles. Tom was too honest to take in the youngster, and then let him shift for himself; and if he

took him as his chum instead of East, where were all his pet plans of having a bottledbeer cellar under his

window, and making nightlines and slings, and plotting expeditions to Brownsover Mills and Caldecott's

Spinney? East and he had made up their minds to get this study, and then every night from lockingup till ten

they would be together to talk about fishing, drink bottledbeer, read Marryat's novels, and sort birds' eggs.

And this new boy would most likely never go out of the close, and would be afraid of wet feet, and always

getting laughed at, and called Molly, or Jenny, or some derogatory feminine nickname.

The matron watched him for a moment, and saw what was passing in his mind, and so, like a wise negotiator,

threw in an appeal to his warm heart. "Poor little fellow," said she, in almost a whisper; "his father's dead, and

he's got no brothers. And his mammasuch a kind, sweet ladyalmost broke her heart at leaving him this

"Well, well," burst in Tom, with something like a sigh at the effort, "I suppose I must give up East. Come

along, young un. What's your name? We'll go and have some supper, and then I'll show you our study."

"His name's George Arthur," said the matron, walking up to him with Tom, who grasped his little delicate

hand as the proper preliminary to making a chum of him, and felt as if he could have blown him away. "I've

had his books and things put into the study, which his mamma has had new papered, and the sofa covered,

and new greenbaize curtains over the door" (the diplomatic matron threw this in, to show that the new boy

was contributing largely to the partnership comforts). "And Mrs. Arnold told me to say," she added, "that she

should like you both to come up to tea with her. You know the way, Master Brown, and the things are just

Here was an announcement for Master Tom! He was to go up to tea the first night, just as if he were a sixth or

fifth form boy, and of importance in the School world, instead of the most reckless young scapegrace

amongst the fags. He felt himself lifted on to a higher social and moral platform at once. Nevertheless he

couldn't give up without a sigh the idea of the jolly supper in the housekeeper's room with East and the rest,

and a rush round to all the studies of his friends afterwards, to pour out the deeds and wonders of the

holidays, to plot fifty plans for the coming halfyear, and to gather news of who had left and what new boys

had come, who had got who's study, and where the new prepostors slept. However, Tom consoled himself

with thinking that he couldn't have done all this with the new boy at his heels, and so marched off along the

passages to the Doctor's private house with his young charge in tow, in monstrous goodhumour with himself

It is needless, and would be impertinent, to tell how the two young boys were received in that drawingroom.

The lady who presided there is still living, and has carried with her to her peaceful home in the north the

respect and love of all those who ever felt and shared that gentle and highbred hospitality. Ay, many is the

brave heart, now doing its work and bearing its load in country curacies, London chambers, under the Indian

sun, and in Australian towns and clearings, which looks back with fond and grateful memory to that

Schoolhouse drawingroom, and dates much of its highest and best training to the lessons learnt there.

Besides Mrs. Arnold and one or two of the elder children, there were one of the younger masters, young

Brooke (who was now in the sixth, and had succeeded to his brother's position and influence), and another

sixthform boy, talking together before the fire. The master and young Brooke, now a great strapping fellow

six feet high, eighteen years old, and powerful as a coalheaver, nodded kindly to Tom, to his intense glory,

and then went on talking. The other did not notice them. The hostess, after a few kind words, which led the

boys at once and insensibly to feel at their ease and to begin talking to one another, left them with her own

children while she finished a letter. The young ones got on fast and well, Tom holding forth about a

prodigious pony he had been riding out hunting, and hearing stories of the winter glories of the lakes, when

How frank, and kind, and manly was his greeting to the party by the fire! It did Tom's heart good to see him

and young Brooke shake hands, and look one another in the face; and he didn't fail to remark that Brooke was

nearly as tall and quite as broad as the Doctor. And his cup was full when in another moment his master

turned to him with another warm shake of the hand, and, seemingly oblivious of all the late scrapes which he

had been getting into, said, "Ah, Brown, you here! I hope you left your father and all well at home?"

"And this is the little fellow who is to share your study. Well, he doesn't look as we should like to see him.

He wants some Rugby air, and cricket. And you must take him some good long walks, to Bilton Grange, and

Caldecott's Spinney, and show him what a little pretty country we have about here."

Tom wondered if the Doctor knew that his visits to Bilton Grange were for the purpose of taking rooks' nests

(a proceeding strongly discountenanced by the owner thereof), and those to Caldecott's Spinney were

prompted chiefly by the conveniences for setting nightlines. What didn't the Doctor know? And what a

noble use he always made of it! He almost resolved to abjure rookpies and nightlines for ever. The tea

went merrily off, the Doctor now talking of holiday doings, and then of the prospects of the halfyearwhat

chance there was for the Balliol scholarship, whether the eleven would be a good one. Everybody was at his

ease, and everybody felt that he, young as he might be, was of some use in the little School world, and had a

Soon after tea the Doctor went off to his study, and the young boys a few minutes afterwards took their leave

and went out of the private door which led from the Doctor's house into the middle passage.

At the fire, at the farther end of the passage, was a crowd of boys in loud talk and laughter. There was a

sudden pause when the door opened, and then a great shout of greeting, as Tom was recognized marching

"My eye!" cried East, "Oh! so that's why Mary called you back, and you didn't come to supper. You lost

"I say, young fellow," cried Hall, detecting Arthur and catching him by the collar, "what's your name? Where

Tom saw Arthur shrink back and look scared as all the group turned to him, but thought it best to let him

The poor boy was trembling and hesitating. Tom struck in"You be hanged, Tadpole. He'll have to sing,

"No; but he's my chum in Gray's old study, and it's near prayer time, and I haven't had a look at it yet.

Away went the two, Tom longing to get his charge safe under cover, where he might advise him on his

"What a queer chum for Tom Brown," was the comment at the fire; and it must be confessed so thought Tom

himself, as he lighted his candle, and surveyed the new greenbaize curtains and the carpet and sofa with

"I say, Arthur, what a brick your mother is to make us so cozy! But look here now; you must answer straight

up when the fellows speak to you, and don't be afraid. If you're afraid, you'll get bullied. And don't you say

"Oh yes; I like it. But don't talk to boys you don't know, or they'll call you homesick, or mamma's darling,

or some such stuff. What a jolly desk! Is that yours? And what stunning binding! Why, your schoolbooks

And Tom was soon deep in Arthur's goods and chattels, all new, and good enough for a fifthform boy, and

I have already described the Schoolhouse prayers. They were the same on the first night as on the other

nights, save for the gaps caused by the absence of those boys who came late, and the line of new boys who

stood all together at the farther table of all sorts and sizes, like young bears with all their troubles to come,

as Tom's father had said to him when he was in the same position. He thought of it as he looked at the line,

and poor little slight Arthur standing with them, and as he was leading him upstairs to Number 4, directly

after prayers, and showing him his bed. It was a huge, high, airy room, with two large windows looking on to

the School close. There were twelve beds in the room. The one in the farthest corner by the fireplace,

occupied by the sixthform boy, who was responsible for the discipline of the room, and the rest by boys in

the lowerfifth and other junior forms, all fags (for the fifthform boys, as has been said, slept in rooms by

themselves). Being fags, the eldest of them was not more than about sixteen years old, and were all bound to

be up and in bed by ten. The sixthform boys came to bed from ten to a quarterpast (at which time the old

Within a few minutes therefore of their entry, all the other boys who slept in Number 4 had come up. The

little fellows went quietly to their own beds, and began undressing, and talking to each other in whispers;

while the elder, amongst whom was Tom, sat chatting about on one another's beds, with their jackets and

waistcoats off. Poor little Arthur was overwhelmed with the novelty of his position. The idea of sleeping in

the room with strange boys had clearly never crossed his mind before, and was as painful as it was strange to

him. He could hardly bear to take his jacket off; however, presently, with an effort, off it came, and then he

paused and looked at Tom, who was sitting at the bottom of his bed talking and laughing.

"Of course, if you like," said Tom, staring; "that's your washhandstand, under the window, second from

your bed. You'll have to go down for more water in the morning if you use it all." And on he went with his

talk, while Arthur stole timidly from between the beds out to his washhandstand, and began his ablutions,

On went the talk and laughter. Arthur finished his washing and undressing, and put on his nightgown. He

then looked round more nervously than ever. Two or three of the little boys were already in bed, sitting up

with their chins on their knees. The light burned clear, the noise went on. It was a trying moment for the poor

little lonely boy; however, this time he didn't ask Tom what he might or might not do, but dropped on his

knees by his bedside, as he had done every day from his childhood, to open his heart to Him who heareth the

Tom was sitting at the bottom of his bed unlacing his boots, so that his back was towards Arthur, and he

didn't see what had happened, and looked up in wonder at the sudden silence. Then two or three boys laughed

and sneered, and a big, brutal fellow who was standing in the middle of the room picked up a slipper, and

shied it at the kneeling boy, calling him a snivelling young shaver. Then Tom saw the whole, and the next

moment the boot he had just pulled off flew straight at the head of the bully, who had just time to throw up

"Never mind what I mean," said Tom, stepping on to the floor, every drop of blood in his body tingling; "if

What would have been the result is doubtful, for at this moment the sixthform boy came in, and not another

word could be said. Tom and the rest rushed into bed and finished their unrobing there, and the old verger, as

punctual as the clock, had put out the candle in another minute, and toddled on to the next room, shutting

There were many boys in the room by whom that little scene was taken to heart before they slept. But sleep

seemed to have deserted the pillow of poor Tom. For some time his excitement, and the flood of memories

which chased one another through his brain, kept him from thinking or resolving. His head throbbed, his

heart leapt, and he could hardly keep himself from springing out of bed and rushing about the room. Then the

thought of his own mother came across him, and the promise he had made at her knee, years ago, never to

forget to kneel by his bedside, and give himself up to his Father, before he laid his head on the pillow, from

which it might never rise; and he lay down gently, and cried as if his heart would break. He was only fourteen

It was no light act of courage in those days, my dear boys, for a little fellow to say his prayers publicly, even

at Rugby. A few years later, when Arnold's manly piety had begun to leaven the School, the tables turned;

before he died, in the School house at least, and I believe in the other house, the rule was the other way. But

poor Tom had come to school in other times. The first few nights after he came he did not kneel down

because of the noise, but sat up in bed till the candle was out, and then stole out and said his prayers, in fear

lest some one should find him out. So did many another poor little fellow. Then he began to think that he

might just as well say his prayers in bed, and then that it didn't matter whether he was kneeling, or sitting, or

lying down. And so it had come to pass with Tom, as with all who will not confess their Lord before men;

and for the last year he had probably not said his prayers in earnest a dozen times.

Poor Tom! the first and bitterest feeling which was like to break his heart was the sense of his own

cowardice. The vice of all others which he loathed was brought in and burnt in on his own soul. He had lied

to his mother, to his conscience, to his God. How could he bear it? And then the poor little weak boy, whom

he had pitied and almost scorned for his weakness, had done that which he, braggart as he was, dared not do.

The first dawn of comfort came to him in swearing to himself that he would stand by that boy through thick

and thin, and cheer him, and help him, and bear his burdens for the good deed done that night. Then he

resolved to write home next day and tell his mother all, and what a coward her son had been. And then peace

came to him as he resolved, lastly, to bear his testimony next morning. The morning would be harder than the

night to begin with, but he felt that he could not afford to let one chance slip. Several times he faltered, for the

devil showed him first all his old friends calling him "Saint" and "Squaretoes," and a dozen hard names, and

whispered to him that his motives would be misunderstood, and he would only be left alone with the new

boy; whereas it was his duty to keep all means of influence, that he might do good to the largest number. And

then came the more subtle temptation, "Shall I not be showing myself braver than others by doing this? Have

I any right to begin it now? Ought I not rather to pray in my own study, letting other boys know that I do so,

and trying to lead them to it, while in public at least I should go on as I have done?" However, his good angel

was too strong that night, and he turned on his side and slept, tired of trying to reason, but resolved to follow

Next morning he was up and washed and dressed, all but his jacket and waistcoat, just as the ten minutes' bell

began to ring, and then in the face of the whole room knelt down to pray. Not five words could he saythe

bell mocked him; he was listening for every whisper in the roomwhat were they all thinking of him? He

was ashamed to go on kneeling, ashamed to rise from his knees. At last, as it were from his inmost heart, a

still, small voice seemed to breathe forth the words of the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" He

repeated them over and over, clinging to them as for his life, and rose from his knees comforted and humbled,

and ready to face the whole world. It was not needed: two other boys besides Arthur had already followed his

example, and he went down to the great School with a glimmering of another lesson in his heartthe lesson

that he who has conquered his own coward spirit has conquered the whole outward world; and that other one

which the old prophet learnt in the cave in Mount Horeb, when he hid his face, and the still, small voice

asked, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" that however we may fancy ourselves alone on the side of good, the

King and Lord of men is nowhere without His witnesses; for in every society, however seemingly corrupt and

He found, too, how greatly he had exaggerated the effect to be produced by his act. For a few nights there

was a sneer or a laugh when he knelt down, but this passed off soon, and one by one all the other boys but

three or four followed the lead. I fear that this was in some measure owing to the fact that Tom could

probably have thrashed any boy in the room except the prepostor; at any rate, every boy knew that he would

try upon very slight provocation, and didn't choose to run the risk of a hard fight because Tom Brown had

taken a fancy to say his prayers. Some of the small boys of Number 4 communicated the new state of things

to their chums, and in several other rooms the poor little fellows tried it onin one instance or so, where the

prepostor heard of it and interfered very decidedly, with partial success; but in the rest, after a short struggle,

the confessors were bullied or laughed down, and the old state of things went on for some time longer. Before

either Tom Brown or Arthur left the Schoolhouse, there was no room in which it had not become the regular

custom. I trust it is so still, and that the old heathen state of things has gone out for ever.

I do not mean to recount all the little troubles and annoyances which thronged upon Tom at the beginning of

this halfyear, in his new character of bearleader to a gentle little boy straight from home. He seemed to

himself to have become a new boy again, without any of the longsuffering and meekness indispensable for

supporting that character with moderate success. From morning till night he had the feeling of responsibility

on his mind, and even if he left Arthur in their study or in the close for an hour, was never at ease till he had

him in sight again. He waited for him at the doors of the school after every lesson and every callingover;

watched that no tricks were played him, and none but the regulation questions asked; kept his eye on his plate

at dinner and breakfast, to see that no unfair depredations were made upon his viands; in short, as East

Arthur took a long time thawing, too, which made it all the harder work; was sadly timid; scarcely ever spoke

unless Tom spoke to him first; and, worst of all, would agree with him in everythingthe hardest thing in

the world for a Brown to bear. He got quite angry sometimes, as they sat together of a night in their study, at

this provoking habit of agreement, and was on the point of breaking out a dozen times with a lecture upon the

propriety of a fellow having a will of his own and speaking out, but managed to restrain himself by the

thought that he might only frighten Arthur, and the remembrance of the lesson he had learnt from him on his

first night at Number 4. Then he would resolve to sit still and not say a word till Arthur began; but he was

always beat at that game, and had presently to begin talking in despair, fearing lest Arthur might think he was

It was hard work. But Tom had taken it up, and meant to stick to it, and go through with it so as to satisfy

himself; in which resolution he was much assisted by the chafing of East and his other old friends, who began

to call him "drynurse," and otherwise to break their small wit on him. But when they took other ground, as

"Tell you what, Tommy," East would say; "you'll spoil young Hopeful with too much coddling. Why can't

you let him go about by himself and find his own level? He'll never be worth a button if you go on keeping

"Well, but he ain't fit to fight his own way yet; I'm trying to get him to it every day, but he's very odd. Poor

little beggar! I can't make him out a bit. He ain't a bit like anything I've ever seen or heard ofhe seems all

"That sort of boy's no use here," said East; "he'll only spoil. Now I'll tell you what to do, Tommy. Go and get

a nice large bandbox made, and put him in with plenty of cottonwool and a papbottle, labelled 'With

"I think I shall make a hand of him though," said Tom, smiling, "say what you will. There's something about

him, every now and then, which shows me he's got pluck somewhere in him. That's the only thing after all

Tom took one hand out of his breechespocket and stuck it in his back hair for a scratch, giving his hat a tilt

over his nose, his one method of invoking wisdom. He stared at the ground with a ludicrously puzzled look,

and presently looked up and met East's eyes. That young gentleman slapped him on the back, and then put his

arm round his shoulder, as they strolled through the quadrangle together. "Tom," said he, "blest if you ain't

the best old fellow ever was. I do like to see you go into a thing. Hang it, I wish I could take things as you do;

but I never can get higher than a joke. Everything's a joke. If I was going to be flogged next minute, I should

"Hullo, though, that's past a joke," broke out East, springing at the young gentleman who addressed them, and

catching him by the collar. "Here, Tommy, catch hold of him t'other side before he can holla."

The youth was seized, and dragged, struggling, out of the quadrangle into the Schoolhouse hall. He was one

of the miserable little pretty whitehanded, curlyheaded boys, petted and pampered by some of the big

fellows, who wrote their verses for them, taught them to drink and use bad language, and did all they could to

spoil them for everything * in this world and the next. One of the avocations in which these young gentlemen

took particular delight was in going about and getting fags for their protectors, when those heroes were

playing any game. They carried about pencil and paper with them, putting down the names of all the boys

they sent, always sending five times as many as were wanted, and getting all those thrashed who didn't go.

The present youth belonged to a house which was very jealous of the Schoolhouse, and always picked out

Schoolhouse fags when he could find them. However, this time he'd got the wrong sow by the ear. His

captors slammed the great door of the hall, and East put his back against it, while Tom gave the prisoner a

shake up, took away his list, and stood him up on the floor, while he proceeded leisurely to examine that

* A kind and wise critic, an old Rugboean, notes here in the margin: "The small friend system was not so

utterly bad from 18411847." Before that, too, there were many noble friendships between big and little

boys; but I can't strike out the passage. Many boys will know why it is left in.

"Let me out, let me go!" screamed the boy, in a furious passion. "I'll go and tell Jones this minute, and he'll

"Pretty little dear," said East, patting the top of his hat. "Hark how he swears, Tom. Nicely brought up

"Let me alone, you," roared the boy, foaming with rage, and kicking at East, who quietly tripped him up,

"Gently, young fellow," said he; "'tain't improving for little whippersnappers like you to be indulging in

"I'll have you both licked when I get out, that I will," rejoined the boy, beginning to snivel.

"Two can play at that game, mind you," said Tom, who had finished his examination of the list. "Now you

just listen here. We've just come across the fives court, and Jones has four fags there alreadytwo more than

he wants. If he'd wanted us to change, he'd have stopped us himself. And here, you little blackguard, you've

got seven names down on your list besides ours, and five of them Schoolhouse." Tom walked up to him,

and jerked him on to his legs; he was by this time whining like a whipped puppy. "Now just listen to me. We

ain't going to fag for Jones. If you tell him you've sent us, we'll each of us give you such a thrashing as you'll

"And mind you, too," said East, "don't let me catch you again sneaking about the Schoolhouse, and picking

up our fags. You haven't got the sort of hide to take a sound licking kindly." And he opened the door and sent

"Nice boy, Tommy," said East, shoving his hands in his pockets, and strolling to the fire.

"Worst sort we breed," responded Tom, following his example. "Thank goodness, no big fellow ever took to

"You'd never have been like that," said East. "I should like to have put him in a museum: Christian young

gentleman, nineteenth century, highly educated. Stir him up with a long pole, Jack, and hear him swear like a

The young gentleman had brains enough not to tell Jones, reasoning that East and Brown, who were noted as

some of the toughest fags in the School, wouldn't care three straws for any licking Jones might give them,

After the above conversation, East came a good deal to their study, and took notice of Arthur, and soon

allowed to Tom that he was a thorough little gentleman, and would get over his shyness all in good time;

which much comforted our hero. He felt every day, too, the value of having an object in his life something

that drew him out of himself; and it being the dull time of the year, and no games going about for which he

much cared, was happier than he had ever yet been at school, which was saying a great deal.

The time which Tom allowed himself away from his charge was from lockingup till suppertime. During

this hour or hour and a half he used to take his fling, going round to the studies of all his acquaintance,

sparring or gossiping in the hall, now jumping the old ironbound tables, or carving a bit of his name on

them, then joining in some chorus of merry voicesin fact, blowing off his steam, as we should now call it.

This process was so congenial to his temper, and Arthur showed himself so pleased at the arrangement, that it

was several weeks before Tom was ever in their study before supper. One evening, however, he rushed in to

look for an old chisel, or some corks, or other article essential to his pursuit for the time being, and while

rummaging about in the cupboards, looked up for a moment, and was caught at once by the figure of poor

little Arthur. The boy was sitting with his elbows on the table, and his head leaning on his hands, and before

him an open book, on which his tears were falling fast. Tom shut the door at once, and sat down on the sofa

"Why, young un, what's the matter?" said he kindly; "you ain't unhappy, are you?"

"Oh no, Brown," said the little boy, looking up with the great tears in his eyes; "you are so kind to me, I'm

"Why don't you call me Tom? Lots of boys do that I don't like half so much as you. What are you reading,

then? Hang it! you must come about with me, and not mope yourself." And Tom cast down his eyes on the

book, and saw it was the Bible. He was silent for a minute, and thought to himself, "Lesson Number 2, Tom

Brown;" and then said gently, "I'm very glad to see this, Arthur, and ashamed that I don't read the Bible more

"Well, I wish you'd wait till afterwards, and then we'd read together. But, Arthur, why does it make you cry?"

"Oh, it isn't that I'm unhappy. But at home, while my father was alive, we always read the lessons after tea;

and I love to read them over now, and try to remember what he said about them. I can't remember all and I

think I scarcely understand a great deal of what I do remember. But it all comes back to me so fresh that I

Arthur had never spoken of his home before, and Tom hadn't encouraged him to do so, as his blundering

schoolboy reasoning made him think that Arthur would be softened and less manly for thinking of home. But

now he was fairly interested, and forgot all about chisels and bottled beer; while with very little

encouragement Arthur launched into his home history, and the prayerbell put them both out sadly when it

From this time Arthur constantly spoke of his home, and above all, of his father, who had been dead about a

year, and whose memory Tom soon got to love and reverence almost as much as his own son did.

Arthur's father had been the clergyman of a parish in the Midland counties, which had risen into a large town

during the war, and upon which the hard years which followed had fallen with fearful weight. The trade had

been half ruined; and then came the old, sad story, of masters reducing their establishments, men turned off

and wandering about, hungry and wan in body, and fierce in soul, from the thought of wives and children

starving at home, and the last sticks of furniture going to the pawnshop; children taken from school, and

lounging about the dirty streets and courts, too listless almost to play, and squalid in rags and misery; and

then the fearful struggle between the employers and menlowerings of wages, strikes, and the long course

of oftrepeated crime, ending every now and then with a riot, a fire, and the county yeomanry. There is no

need here to dwell upon such tales: the Englishman into whose soul they have not sunk deep is not worthy the

name. You English boys, for whom this book is meant (God bless your bright faces and kind hearts!), will

Into such a parish and state of society Arthur's father had been thrown at the age of twentyfivea young

married parson, full of faith, hope, and love. He had battled with it like a man, and had lots of fine Utopian

ideas about the perfectibility of mankind, glorious humanity, and suchlike, knocked out of his head, and a

real, wholesome Christian love for the poor, struggling, sinning men, of whom he felt himself one, and with

and for whom he spent fortune, and strength, and life, driven into his heart. He had battled like a man, and

gotten a man's rewardno silver teapots or salvers, with flowery inscriptions setting forth his virtues and

the appreciation of a genteel parish; no fat living or stall, for which he never looked, and didn't care; no sighs

and praises of comfortable dowagers and wellgotup young women, who worked him slippers, sugared his

tea, and adored him as "a devoted man;" but a manly respect, wrung from the unwilling souls of men who

fancied his order their natural enemies; the fear and hatred of every one who was false or unjust in the

district, were he master or man; and the blessed sight of women and children daily becoming more human

These things, of course, took time, and had to be fought for with toil and sweat of brain and heart, and with

the lifeblood poured out. All that, Arthur had laid his account to give, and took as a matter of course, neither

pitying himself, nor looking on himself as a martyr, when he felt the wear and tear making him feel old

before his time, and the stifling air of feverdens telling on his health. His wife seconded him in everything.

She had been rather fond of society, and much admired and run after before her marriage; and the London

world to which she had belonged pitied poor Fanny Evelyn when she married the young clergyman, and went

to settle in that smoky hole Turley; a very nest of Chartism and Atheism, in a part of the country which all the

decent families had had to leave for years. However, somehow or other she didn't seem to care. If her

husband's living had been amongst green fields and near pleasant neighbours she would have liked it

betterthat she never pretended to deny. But there they were. The air wasn't bad, after all; the people were

very good sort of peoplecivil to you if you were civil to them, after the first brush; and they didn't expect

to work miracles, and convert them all offhand into model Christians. So he and she went quietly among the

folk, talking to and treating them just as they would have done people of their own rank. They didn't feel that

they were doing anything out of the common way, and so were perfectly natural, and had none of that

condescension or consciousness of manner which so outrages the independent poor. And thus they gradually

won respect and confidence; and after sixteen years he was looked up to by the whole neighbourhood as the

just man, the man to whom masters and men could go in their strikes, and in all their quarrels and difficulties,

and by whom the right and true word would be said without fear or favour. And the women had come round

to take her advice, and go to her as a friend in all their troubles; while the children all worshipped the very

They had three children, two daughters and a son, little Arthur, who came between his sisters. He had been a

very delicate boy from his childhood; they thought he had a tendency to consumption, and so he had been

kept at home and taught by his father, who had made a companion of him, and from whom he had gained

good scholarship, and a knowledge of and interest in many subjects which boys in general never come across

Just as he reached his thirteenth year, and his father had settled that he was strong enough to go to school,

and, after much debating with himself, had resolved to send him there, a desperate typhus fever broke out in

the town. Most of the other clergy, and almost all the doctors, ran away; the work fell with tenfold weight on

those who stood to their work. Arthur and his wife both caught the fever, of which he died in a few days; and

she recovered, having been able to nurse him to the end, and store up his last words. He was sensible to the

last, and calm and happy, leaving his wife and children with fearless trust for a few years in the hands of the

Lord and Friend who had lived and died for him, and for whom he, to the best of his power, had lived and

died. His widow's mourning was deep and gentle. She was more affected by the request of the committee of a

freethinking club, established in the town by some of the factory hands (which he had striven against with

might and main, and nearly suppressed), that some of their number might be allowed to help bear the coffin,

than by anything else. Two of them were chosen, who, with six other labouring men, his own

fellowworkmen and friends, bore him to his gravea man who had fought the Lord's fight even unto the

death. The shops were closed and the factories shut that day in the parish, yet no master stopped the day's

wages; but for many a year afterwards the townsfolk felt the want of that brave, hopeful, loving parson and

his wife, who had lived to teach them mutual forbearance and helpfulness, and had almost at last given them

a glimpse of what this old world would be if people would live for God and each other instead of for

What has all this to do with our story? Well, my dear boys, let a fellow go on his own way, or you won't get

anything out of him worth having. I must show you what sort of a man it was who had begotten and trained

little Arthur, or else you won't believe in him, which I am resolved you shall do; and you won't see how he,

the timid, weak boy, had points in him from which the bravest and strongest recoiled, and made his presence

and example felt from the first on all sides, unconsciously to himself, and without the least attempt at

proselytizing. The spirit of his father was in him, and the Friend to whom his father had left him did not

After supper that night, and almost nightly for years afterwards, Tom and Arthur, and by degrees East

occasionally, and sometimes one, sometimes another, of their friends, read a chapter of the Bible together,

and talked it over afterwards. Tom was at first utterly astonished, and almost shocked, at the sort of way in

which Arthur read the book and talked about the men and women whose lives were there told. The first night

they happened to fall on the chapters about the famine in Egypt, and Arthur began talking about Joseph as if

he were a living statesmanjust as he might have talked about Lord Grey and the Reform Bill, only that they

were much more living realities to him. The book was to him, Tom saw, the most vivid and delightful history

of real people, who might do right or wrong, just like any one who was walking about in Rugbythe Doctor,

or the masters, or the sixthform boys. But the astonishment soon passed off, the scales seemed to drop from

his eyes, and the book became at once and for ever to him the great human and divine book, and the men and

women, whom he had looked upon as something quite different from himself, became his friends and

For our purposes, however, the history of one night's reading will be sufficient, which must be told here, now

we are on the subject, though it didn't happen till a year afterwards, and long after the events recorded in the

Arthur, Tom, and East were together one night, and read the story of Naaman coming to Elisha to be cured of

"I can't stand that fellow Naaman," said he, "after what he'd seen and felt, going back and bowing himself

down in the house of Rimmon, because his effeminate scoundrel of a master did it. I wonder Elisha took the

"Yes; there you go off as usual, with a shell on your head," struck in East, who always took the opposite side

to Tom, half from love of argument, half from conviction. "How do you know he didn't think better of it?

How do you know his master was a scoundrel? His letter don't look like it, and the book don't say so."

"I don't care," rejoined Tom; "why did Naaman talk about bowing down, then, if he didn't mean to do it? He

wasn't likely to get more in earnest when he got back to court, and away from the prophet."

"Well, but, Tom," said Arthur, "look what Elisha says to him 'Go in peace.' He wouldn't have said that if

"I don't see that that means more than saying, 'You're not the man I took you for.'"

"No, no; that won't do at all," said East. "Read the words fairly, and take men as you find them. I like

"Well, I think East is right," said Arthur; "I can't see but what it's right to do the best you can, though it

"Of course, of course," said East; "but he's on one of his pet hobbies. How often have I told you, Tom, that

"And how often have I told you," rejoined Tom, "that it'll always go where you want, if you only stick to it

"Yes, he's a wholehog man, is Tom. Must have the whole animal hair and teeth, claws and tail," laughed

"I don't know;" said Arthur"it's rather puzzling; but ain't most right things got by proper compromisesI

"That's just the point," said Tom; "I don't object to a compromise, where you don't give up your principle."

"Not you," said East laughingly."I know him of old, Arthur, and you'll find him out some day. There isn't

such a reasonable fellow in the world, to hear him talk. He never wants anything but what's right and fair;

only when you come to settle what's right and fair, it's everything that he wants, and nothing that you want.

And that's his idea of a compromise. Give me the Brown compromise when I'm on his side."

"Now, Harry," said Tom, "no more chaff. I'm serious. Look here. This is what makes my blood tingle." And

he turned over the pages of his Bible and read, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed nego answered and said to

the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we

serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But

if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which

thou hast set up." He read the last verse twice, emphasizing the nots, and dwelling on them as if they gave

They were silent a minute, and then Arthur said, "Yes, that's a glorious story, but it don't prove your point,

Tom, I think. There are times when there is only one way, and that the highest, and then the men are found to

"There's always a highest way, and it's always the right one," said Tom. "How many times has the Doctor

"Well, you ain't going to convince usis he, Arthur? No Brown compromise tonight," said East, looking at

So they took down their books and fell to work; but Arthur didn't forget, and thought long and often over the

About six weeks after the beginning of the half, as Tom and Arthur were sitting one night before supper

beginning their verses, Arthur suddenly stopped, and looked up, and said, "Tom, do you know anything of

"Yes," said Tom, taking his hand out of his back hair, and delighted to throw his Gradus ad Parnassum on to

the sofa; "I know him pretty well. He's a very good fellow, but as mad as a hatter. He's called Madman, you

know. And never was such a fellow for getting all sorts of rum things about him. He tamed two snakes last

half, and used to carry them about in his pocket; and I'll be bound he's got some hedgehogs and rats in his

"I should like very much to know him," said Arthur; "he was next to me in the form today, and he'd lost his

book and looked over mine, and he seemed so kind and gentle that I liked him very much."

"Ah, poor old Madman, he's always losing his books," said Tom, "and getting called up and floored because

"Well, he's great fun, I can tell you," said Tom, throwing himself back on the sofa, and chuckling at the

remembrance. "We had such a game with him one day last half. He had been kicking up horrid stinks for

some time in his study, till I suppose some fellow told Mary, and she told the Doctor. Anyhow, one day a

little before dinner, when he came down from the library, the Doctor, instead of going home, came striding

into the hall. East and I and five or six other fellows were at the fire, and preciously we stared, for he don't

come in like that once a year, unless it is a wet day and there's a fight in the hall. 'East,' says he, 'just come

and show me Martin's study.' 'Oh, here's a game,' whispered the rest of us; and we all cut upstairs after the

Doctor, East leading. As we got into the New Row, which was hardly wide enough to hold the Doctor and his

gown, click, click, click, we heard in the old Madman's den. Then that stopped all of a sudden, and the bolts

went to like fun. The Madman knew East's step, and thought there was going to be a siege.

"Then the bolts went back slowly, and the door opened, and there was the old Madman standing, looking

precious scaredhis jacket off, his shirtsleeves up to his elbows, and his long skinny arms all covered with

anchors and arrows and letters, tattooed in with gunpowder like a sailorboy's, and a stink fit to knock you

down coming out. 'Twas all the Doctor could do to stand his ground, and East and I, who were looking in

under his arms, held our noses tight. The old magpie was standing on the windowsill, all his feathers

"'What can you be about, Martin?' says the Doctor. 'You really mustn't go on in this way; you're a nuisance to

"'Please, sir, I was only mixing up this powder; there isn't any harm in it. And the Madman seized nervously

on his pestle and mortar, to show the Doctor the harmlessness of his pursuits, and went on poundingclick,

click, click. He hadn't given six clicks before, puff! up went the whole into a great blaze, away went the

pestle and mortar across the study, and back we tumbled into the passage. The magpie fluttered down into the

court, swearing, and the Madman danced out, howling, with his fingers in his mouth. The Doctor caught hold

of him, and called to us to fetch some water. 'There, you silly fellow,' said he, quite pleased, though, to find

he wasn't much hurt, 'you see you don't know the least what you're doing with all these things; and now,

mind, you must give up practising chemistry by yourself.' Then he took hold of his arm and looked at it, and I

saw he had to bite his lip, and his eyes twinkled; but he said, quite grave, 'Here, you see, you've been making

all these foolish marks on yourself, which you can never get out, and you'll be very sorry for it in a year or

two. Now come down to the housekeeper's room, and let us see if you are hurt.' And away went the two, and

we all stayed and had a regular turnout of the den, till Martin came back with his hand bandaged and turned

us out. However, I'll go and see what he's after, and tell him to come in after prayers to supper." And away

went Tom to find the boy in question, who dwelt in a little study by himself, in New Row.

The aforesaid Martin, whom Arthur had taken such a fancy for, was one of those unfortunates who were at

that time of day (and are, I fear, still) quite out of their places at a public school. If we knew how to use our

boys, Martin would have been seized upon and educated as a natural philosopher. He had a passion for birds,

beasts, and insects, and knew more of them and their habits than any one in Rugbyexcept perhaps the

Doctor, who knew everything. He was also an experimental chemist on a small scale, and had made unto

himself an electric machine, from which it was his greatest pleasure and glory to administer small shocks to

any small boys who were rash enough to venture into his study. And this was by no means an adventure free

from excitement; for besides the probability of a snake dropping on to your head or twining lovingly up your

leg, or a rat getting into your breechespocket in search of food, there was the animal and chemical odour to

be faced, which always hung about the den, and the chance of being blown up in some of the many

experiments which Martin was always trying, with the most wondrous results in the shape of explosions and

smells that mortal boy ever heard of. Of course, poor Martin, in consequence of his pursuits, had become an

Ishmaelite in the house. In the first place, he halfpoisoned all his neighbours, and they in turn were always

on the lookout to pounce upon any of his numerous livestock, and drive him frantic by enticing his pet old

magpie out of his window into a neighbouring study, and making the disreputable old bird drunk on toast

soaked in beer and sugar. Then Martin, for his sins, inhabited a study looking into a small court some ten feet

across, the window of which was completely commanded by those of the studies opposite in the Sickroom

Row, these latter being at a slightly higher elevation. East, and another boy of an equally tormenting and

ingenious turn of mind, now lived exactly opposite, and had expended huge pains and time in the preparation

of instruments of annoyance for the behoof of Martin and his live colony. One morning an old basket made

its appearance, suspended by a short cord outside Martin's window, in which were deposited an amateur nest

containing four young hungry jackdaws, the pride and glory of Martin's life, for the time being, and which he

was currently asserted to have hatched upon his own person. Early in the morning and late at night he was to

be seen half out of window, administering to the varied wants of his callow brood. After deep cogitation, East

and his chum had spliced a knife on to the end of a fishingrod; and having watched Martin out, had, after

half an hour's severe sawing, cut the string by which the basket was suspended, and tumbled it on to the

pavement below, with hideous remonstrance from the occupants. Poor Martin, returning from his short

absence, collected the fragments and replaced his brood (except one whose neck had been broken in the

descent) in their old location, suspending them this time by string and wire twisted together, defiant of any

sharp instrument which his persecutors could command. But, like the Russian engineers at Sebastopol, East

and his chum had an answer for every move of the adversary, and the next day had mounted a gun in the

shape of a peashooter upon the ledge of their window, trained so as to bear exactly upon the spot which

Martin had to occupy while tending his nurslings. The moment he began to feed they began to shoot. In vain

did the enemy himself invest in a pea shooter, and endeavour to answer the fire while he fed the young birds

with his other hand; his attention was divided, and his shots flew wild, while every one of theirs told on his

face and hands, and drove him into howlings and imprecations. He had been driven to ensconce the nest in a

His door was barricaded by a set of ingenious bolts of his own invention, for the sieges were frequent by the

neighbours when any unusually ambrosial odour spread itself from the den to the neighbouring studies. The

door panels were in a normal state of smash, but the frame of the door resisted all besiegers, and behind it the

owner carried on his varied pursuitsmuch in the same state of mind, I should fancy, as a borderfarmer

lived in, in the days of the mosstroopers, when his hold might be summoned or his cattle carried off at any

"Oh, very well; stop a moment." One bolt went back. "You're sure East isn't there?"

"No, no; hang it, open." Tom gave a kick, the other bolt creaked, and he entered the den.

Den indeed it wasabout five feet six inches long by five wide, and seven feet high. About six tattered

schoolbooks, and a few chemical books, Taxidermy, Stanley on Birds, and an odd volume of Bewick, the

latter in much better preservation, occupied the top shelves. The other shelves, where they had not been cut

away and used by the owner for other purposes, were fitted up for the abidingplaces of birds, beasts, and

reptiles. There was no attempt at carpet or curtain. The table was entirely occupied by the great work of

Martin, the electric machine, which was covered carefully with the remains of his tablecloth. The jackdaw

cage occupied one wall; and the other was adorned by a small hatchet, a pair of climbing irons, and his tin

candlebox, in which he was for the time being endeavouring to raise a hopeful young family of fieldmice.

As nothing should be let to lie useless, it was well that the candlebox was thus occupied, for candles Martin

never had. A pound was issued to him weekly, as to the other boys; but as candles were available capital, and

easily exchangeable for birds' eggs or young birds, Martin's pound invariably found its way in a few hours to

Howlett's the birdfancier's, in the Bilton road, who would give a hawk's or nightingale's egg or young linnet

in exchange. Martin's ingenuity was therefore for ever on the rack to supply himself with a light. Just now he

had hit upon a grand invention, and the den was lighted by a flaring cotton wick issuing from a gingerbeer

bottle full of some doleful composition. When light altogether failed him, Martin would loaf about by the

fires in the passages or hall, after the manner of Diggs, and try to do his verses or learn his lines by the

"Well, old boy, you haven't got any sweeter in the den this half. How that stuff in the bottle stinks! Never

mind; I ain't going to stop; but you come up after prayers to our study. You know young Arthur. We've got

Martin was evidently highly pleased at the invitation, and promised to be up without fail.

As soon as prayers were over, and the sixth and fifth form boys had withdrawn to the aristocratic seclusion of

their own room, and the rest, or democracy, had sat down to their supper in the hall, Tom and Arthur, having

secured their allowances of bread and cheese, started on their feet to catch the eye of the prepostor of the

week, who remained in charge during supper, walking up and down the hall. He happened to be an

easygoing fellow, so they got a pleasant nod to their "Please may I go out?" and away they scrambled to

prepare for Martin a sumptuous banquet. This Tom had insisted on, for he was in great delight on the

occasion, the reason of which delight must be expounded. The fact was that this was the first attempt at a

friendship of his own which Arthur had made, and Tom hailed it as a grand step. The ease with which he

himself became hailfellowwell met with anybody, and blundered into and out of twenty friendships a

halfyear, made him sometimes sorry and sometimes angry at Arthur's reserve and loneliness. True, Arthur

was always pleasant, and even jolly, with any boys who came with Tom to their study; but Tom felt that it

was only through him, as it were, that his chum associated with others, and that but for him Arthur would

have been dwelling in a wilderness. This increased his consciousness of responsibility; and though he hadn't

reasoned it out and made it clear to himself yet somehow he knew that this responsibility, this trust which he

had taken on him without thinking about it, head over heels in fact, was the centre and turningpoint of his

schoollife, that which was to make him or mar him, his appointed work and trial for the time being. And

Tom was becoming a new boy, though with frequent tumbles in the dirt and perpetual hard battle with

himself, and was daily growing in manfulness and thoughtfulness, as every highcouraged and

wellprincipled boy must, when he finds himself for the first time consciously at grips with self and the devil.

Already he could turn almost without a sigh from the Schoolgates, from which had just scampered off East

and three or four others of his own particular set, bound for some jolly lark not quite according to law, and

involving probably a row with louts, keepers, or farmlabourers, the skipping dinner or callingover, some of

Phoebe Jennings's beer, and a very possible flogging at the end of all as a relish. He had quite got over the

stage in which he would grumble to himself"Well, hang it, it's very hard of the Doctor to have saddled me

with Arthur. Why couldn't he have chummed him with Fogey, or Thomkin, or any of the fellows who never

do anything but walk round the close, and finish their copies the first day they're set?" But although all this

was past, he longed, and felt that he was right in longing, for more time for the legitimate pastimes of cricket,

fives, bathing, and fishing, within bounds, in which Arthur could not yet be his companion; and he felt that

when the "young un" (as he now generally called him) had found a pursuit and some other friend for himself,

he should be able to give more time to the education of his own body with a clear conscience.

And now what he so wished for had come to pass; he almost hailed it as a special providence (as indeed it

was, but not for the reasons he gave for itwhat providences are?) that Arthur should have singled out

Martin of all fellows for a friend. "The old Madman is the very fellow," thought he; "he will take him

scrambling over half the country after birds' eggs and flowers, make him run and swim and climb like an

Indian, and not teach him a word of anything bad, or keep him from his lessons. What luck!" And so, with

more than his usual heartiness, he dived into his cupboard, and hauled out an old knucklebone of ham, and

two or three bottles of beer, together with the solemn pewter only used on state occasions; while Arthur,

equally elated at the easy accomplishment of his first act of volition in the joint establishment, produced from

his side a bottle of pickles and a pot of jam, and cleared the table. In a minute or two the noise of the boys

coming up from supper was heard, and Martin knocked and was admitted, bearing his bread and cheese; and

the three fell to with hearty goodwill upon the viands, talking faster than they ate, for all shyness

disappeared in a moment before Tom's bottledbeer and hospitable ways. "Here's Arthur, a regular young

townmouse, with a natural taste for the woods, Martin, longing to break his neck climbing trees, and with a

"Well, I say," sputtered out Martin eagerly, "will you come to morrow, both of you, to Caldecott's Spinney

then? for I know of a kestrel's nest, up a firtree. I can't get at it without help; and, Brown, you can climb

"Oh yes, do let us go," said Arthur; "I never saw a hawk's nest nor a hawk's egg."

"You just come down to my study, then, and I'll show you five sorts," said Martin.

"Ay, the old Madman has got the best collection in the house, out and out," said Tom; and then Martin,

warming with unaccustomed good cheer and the chance of a convert, launched out into a proposed

birdnesting campaign, betraying all manner of important secretsa goldencrested wren's nest near

Butlin's Mound, a moorhen who was sitting on nine eggs in a pond down the Barby road, and a kingfisher's

nest in a corner of the old canal above Brownsover Mill. He had heard, he said, that no one had ever got a

kingfisher's nest out perfect, and that the British Museum, or the Government, or somebody, had offered 100

pounds to any one who could bring them a nest and eggs not damaged. In the middle of which astounding

announcement, to which the others were listening with open ears, and already considering the application of

the 100 pounds, a knock came to the door, and East's voice was heard craving admittance.

"There's Harry," said Tom; "we'll let him in. I'll keep him steady, Martin. I thought the old boy would smell

The fact was, that Tom's heart had already smitten him for not asking his fidus Achates to the feast, although

only an extempore affair; and though prudence and the desire to get Martin and Arthur together alone at first

had overcome his scruples, he was now heartily glad to open the door, broach another bottle of beer, and

"Ah, you greedy vagabonds," said East, with his mouth full, "I knew there was something going on when I

saw you cut off out of hall so quick with your suppers. What a stunning tap, Tom! You are a wunner for

"I've had practice enough for the sixth in my time, and it's hard if I haven't picked up a wrinkle or two for my

"Well, old Madman, and how goes the birdnesting campaign? How's Howlett? I expect the young rooks'll

"There'll be no young rooks fit for pies for a month yet; shows how much you know about it," rejoined

Martin, who, though very good friends with East, regarded him with considerable suspicion for his propensity

"Scud knows nothing and cares for nothing but grub and mischief," said Tom; "but young rook pie, specially

when you've had to climb for them, is very pretty eating. However, I say, Scud, we're all going after a

hawk's nest tomorrow, in Caldecott's Spinney; and if you'll come and behave yourself, we'll have a stunning

And the bottledbeer being finished, and his hunger appeased, East departed to his study, "that sneak Jones,"

as he informed them, who had just got into the sixth, and occupied the next study, having instituted a nightly

When he was gone Martin rose to follow, but Tom stopped him. "No one goes near New Row," said he, "so

you may just as well stop here and do your verses, and then we'll have some more talk. We'll be no end quiet.

So the table was cleared, the cloth restored, and the three fell to work with Gradus and dictionary upon the

They were three very fair examples of the way in which such tasks were done at Rugby, in the consulship of

Plancus. And doubtless the method is little changed, for there is nothing new under the sun, especially at

Now be it known unto all you boys who are at schools which do not rejoice in the timehonoured institution

of the vulgus (commonly supposed to have been established by William of Wykeham at Winchester, and

imported to Rugby by Arnold more for the sake of the lines which were learnt by heart with it than for its

own intrinsic value, as I've always understood), that it is a short exercise in Greek or Latin verse, on a given

The master of the form gave out at fourth lesson on the previous day the subject for next morning's vulgus,

and at first lesson each boy had to bring his vulgus ready to be looked over; and with the vulgus, a certain

number of lines from one of the Latin or Greek poets then being construed in the form had to be got by heart.

The master at first lesson called up each boy in the form in order, and put him on in the lines. If he couldn't

say them, or seem to say them, by reading them off the master's or some other boy's book who stood near, he

was sent back, and went below all the boys who did so say or seem to say them; but in either case his vulgus

was looked over by the master, who gave and entered in his book, to the credit or discredit of the boy, so

many marks as the composition merited. At Rugby vulgus and lines were the first lesson every other day in

the week, on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays; and as there were thirty eight weeks in the school year, it

is obvious to the meanest capacity that the master of each form had to set one hundred and fourteen subjects

every year, two hundred and twentyeight every two years, and so on. Now, to persons of moderate invention

this was a considerable task, and human nature being prone to repeat itself, it will not be wondered that the

masters gave the same subjects sometimes over again after a certain lapse of time. To meet and rebuke this

bad habit of the masters, the schoolboy mind, with its accustomed ingenuity, had invented an elaborate

system of tradition. Almost every boy kept his own vulgus written out in a book, and these books were duly

handed down from boy to boy, till (if the tradition has gone on till now) I suppose the popular boys, in whose

hands bequeathed vulgusbooks have accumulated, are prepared with three or four vulguses on any subject in

heaven or earth, or in "more worlds than one," which an unfortunate master can pitch upon. At any rate, such

lucky fellows had generally one for themselves and one for a friend in my time. The only objection to the

traditionary method of doing your vulguses was the risk that the successions might have become confused,

and so that you and another follower of traditions should show up the same identical vulgus some fine

morning; in which case, when it happened, considerable grief was the result. But when did such risk hinder

Now in the study that night Tom was the upholder of the traditionary method of vulgus doing. He carefully

produced two large vulgusbooks, and began diving into them, and picking out a line here, and an ending

there (tags, as they were vulgarly called), till he had gotten all that he thought he could make fit. He then

proceeded to patch his tags together with the help of his Gradus, producing an incongruous and feeble result

of eight elegiac lines, the minimum quantity for his form, and finishing up with two highly moral lines extra,

making ten in all, which he cribbed entire from one of his books, beginning "O genus humanum," and which

he himself must have used a dozen times before, whenever an unfortunate or wicked hero, of whatever nation

or language under the sun, was the subject. Indeed he began to have great doubts whether the master wouldn't

remember them, and so only throw them in as extra lines, because in any case they would call off attention

from the other tags, and if detected, being extra lines, he wouldn't be sent back to do more in their place,

The second method, pursued by Martin, may be called the dogged or prosaic method. He, no more than Tom,

took any pleasure in the task, but having no old vulgusbooks of his own, or any one's else, could not follow

the traditionary method, for which too, as Tom remarked, he hadn't the genius. Martin then proceeded to

write down eight lines in English, of the most matteroffact kind, the first that came into his head; and to

convert these, line by line, by main force of Gradus and dictionary into Latin that would scan. This was all he

cared forto produce eight lines with no false quantities or concords: whether the words were apt, or what

the sense was, mattered nothing; and as the article was all new, not a line beyond the minimum did the

The third, or artistic method, was Arthur's. He considered first what point in the character or event which was

the subject could most neatly be brought out within the limits of a vulgus, trying always to get his idea into

the eight lines, but not binding himself to ten or even twelve lines if he couldn't do this. He then set to work

as much as possible without Gradus or other help, to clothe his idea in appropriate Latin or Greek, and would

not be satisfied till he had polished it well up with the aptest and most poetic words and phrases he could get

A fourth method, indeed, was used in the school, but of too simple a kind to require a comment. It may be

called the vicarious method, obtained amongst big boys of lazy or bullying habits, and consisted simply in

making clever boys whom they could thrash do their whole vulgus for them, and construe it to them

afterwards; which latter is a method not to be encouraged, and which I strongly advise you all not to practise.

Of the others, you will find the traditionary most troublesome, unless you can steal your vulguses whole

(experto crede), and that the artistic method pays the best both in marks and other ways.

The vulguses being finished by nine o'clock, and Martin having rejoiced above measure in the abundance of

light, and of Gradus and dictionary, and other conveniences almost unknown to him for getting through the

work, and having been pressed by Arthur to come and do his verses there whenever he liked, the three boys

went down to Martin's den, and Arthur was initiated into the lore of birds' eggs, to his great delight. The

exquisite colouring and forms astonished and charmed him, who had scarcely ever seen any but a hen's egg

or an ostrich's, and by the time he was lugged away to bed he had learned the names of at least twenty sorts,

and dreamed of the glorious perils of tree climbing, and that he had found a roc's egg in the island as big as

Sinbad's, and clouded like a titlark's, in blowing which Martin and he had nearly been drowned in the yolk.

The next morning, at first lesson, Tom was turned back in his lines, and so had to wait till the second round;

while Martin and Arthur said theirs all right, and got out of school at once. When Tom got out and ran down

to breakfast at Harrowell's they were missing, and Stumps informed him that they had swallowed down their

breakfasts and gone off togetherwhere, he couldn't say. Tom hurried over his own breakfast, and went first

to Martin's study and then to his own; but no signs of the missing boys were to be found. He felt half angry

He learnt second lesson with East and the rest in no very good temper, and then went out into the quadrangle.

About ten minutes before school Martin and Arthur arrived in the quadrangle breathless; and catching sight

"O Tom, look here!" cried he, holding out three moorhen's eggs; "we've been down the Barby road, to the

"Why, young un," said he, "what have you been after? You don't mean to say you've been wading?"

The tone of reproach made poor little Arthur shrink up in a moment and look piteous; and Tom with a shrug

"Well, I didn't think, Madman, that you'd have been such a muff as to let him be getting wet through at this

"So I did, of course; only he would come in too, to see the nest. We left six eggs in. They'll be hatched in a

"Hang the eggs!" said Tom; "a fellow can't turn his back for a moment but all his work's undone. He'll be laid

"Indeed, Tom, now," pleaded Arthur, "my feet ain't wet, for Martin made me take off my shoes and stockings

"But they are wet, and dirty too; can't I see?" answered Tom; "and you'll be called up and floored when the

master sees what a state you're in. You haven't looked at second lesson, you know."

O Tom, you old humbug! you to be upbraiding any one with not learning their lessons! If you hadn't been

floored yourself now at first lesson, do you mean to say you wouldn't have been with them? And you've taken

away all poor little Arthur's joy and pride in his first birds' eggs, and he goes and puts them down in the

study, and takes down his books with a sigh, thinking he has done something horribly wrong, whereas he has

But the old Madman hasn't, and gets called up, and makes some frightful shots, losing about ten places, and

all but getting floored. This somewhat appeases Tom's wrath, and by the end of the lesson he has regained his

temper. And afterwards in their study he begins to get right again, as he watches Arthur's intense joy at seeing

Martin blowing the eggs and gluing them carefully on to bits of cardboard, and notes the anxious, loving

looks which the little fellow casts sidelong at him. And then he thinks, "What an illtempered beast I am!

Here's just what I was wishing for last night come about, and I'm spoiling it all," and in another five minutes

has swallowed the last mouthful of his bile, and is repaid by seeing his little sensitive plant expand again and

After dinner the Madman is busy with the preparations for their expedition, fitting new straps on to his

climbingirons, filling large pillboxes with cottonwool, and sharpening East's small axe. They carry all

their munitions into callingovers and directly afterwards, having dodged such prepostors as are on the

lookout for fags at cricket, the four set off at a smart trot down the Lawford footpath, straight for Caldecott's

Martin leads the way in high feather; it is quite a new sensation to him, getting companions, and he finds it

very pleasant, and means to show them all manner of proofs of his science and skill. Brown and East may be

better at cricket and football and games, thinks he, but out in the fields and woods see if I can't teach them

something. He has taken the leadership already, and strides away in front with his climbing irons strapped

under one arm, his peckingbag under the other, and his pockets and hat full of pillboxes, cottonwool, and

When they had crossed three or four fields without a check, Arthur began to lag; and Tom seeing this shouted

to Martin to pull up a bit. "We ain't out hareandhounds. What's the good of grinding on at this rate?"

"There's the Spinney," said Martin, pulling up on the brow of a slope at the bottom of which lay Lawford

brook, and pointing to the top of the opposite slope; "the nest is in one of those high firtrees at this end. And

down by the brook there I know of a sedgebird's nest. We'll go and look at it coming back."

"Oh, come on, don't let us stop," said Arthur, who was getting excited at the sight of the wood. So they broke

into a trot again, and were soon across the brook, up the slope, and into the Spinney. Here they advanced as

noiselessly as possible, lest keepers or other enemies should be about, and stopped at the foot of a tall fir, at

the top of which Martin pointed out with pride the kestrel's nest, the object of their quest.

"Oh, where? which is it?" asks Arthur, gaping up in the air, and having the most vague idea of what it would

"There, don't you see?" said East, pointing to a lump of mistletoe in the next tree, which was a beech. He saw

that Martin and Tom were busy with the climbingirons, and couldn't resist the temptation of hoaxing. Arthur

"Very odd birds, kestrels," said East, looking waggishly at his victim, who was still stargazing.

"Ah, don't you know? That's a new sort of fir which old Caldecott brought from the Himalayas."

"Really!" said Arthur; "I'm glad I know that. How unlike our firs they are! They do very well too here, don't

"What's that humbug he's telling you?" cried Tom, looking up, having caught the word Himalayas, and

"Fir!" shouted Tom; "why, you don't mean to say, young un, you don't know a beech when you see one?"

Poor little Arthur looked terribly ashamed, and East exploded in laughter which made the wood ring.

"What a shame to hoax him, Scud!" cried Martin. "Never mind, Arthur; you shall know more about trees

"And isn't that the kestrel's nest, then?" asked Arthur. "That! Why, that's a piece of mistletoe. There's the nest,

"Don't believe him, Arthur," struck in the incorrigible East; "I just saw an old magpie go out of it."

Martin did not deign to reply to this sally, except by a grunt, as he buckled the last buckle of his

But now came the tug of war. It was a very difficult tree to climb until the branches were reached, the first of

which was some fourteen feet up, for the trunk was too large at the bottom to be swarmed; in fact, neither of

the boys could reach more than half round it with their arms. Martin and Tom, both of whom had irons on,

tried it without success at first; the fir bark broke away where they stuck the irons in as soon as they leant any

weight on their feet, and the grip of their arms wasn't enough to keep them up; so, after getting up three or

four feet, down they came slithering to the ground, barking their arms and faces. They were furious, and East

"We must try a pyramid," said Tom at last. "Now, Scud, you lazy rascal, stick yourself against the tree!"

"I dare say! and have you standing on my shoulders with the irons on. What do you think my skin's made

of?" However, up he got, and leant against the tree, putting his head down and clasping it with his arms as far

"No, I'm lighter than you; you go next." So Tom got on East's shoulders, and grasped the tree above, and then

Martin scrambled up on to Tom's shoulders, amidst the totterings and groanings of the pyramid, and, with a

spring which sent his supporters howling to the ground, clasped the stem some ten feet up, and remained

clinging. For a moment or two they thought he couldn't get up; but then, holding on with arms and teeth, he

worked first one iron then the other firmly into the bark, got another grip with his arms, and in another minute

"All up with the old magpie now," said East; and after a minute's rest, up went Martin, hand over hand,

"Not a bit," answered Tom; "you can't hurt if you only get good handhold. Try every branch with a good

Martin was now amongst the small branches close to the nest, and away dashed the old bird, and soared up

We boys had an idea that birds couldn't count, and were quite content as long as you left one egg. I hope it is

Martin carefully put one egg into each of his boxes and the third into his mouth, the only other place of

safety, and came down like a lamplighter. All went well till he was within ten feet of the ground, when, as the

trunk enlarged, his hold got less and less firm, and at last down he came with a run, tumbling on to his back

on the turf, spluttering and spitting out the remains of the great egg, which had broken by the jar of his fall.

"Ugh, ugh! something to drinkugh! it was addled," spluttered he, while the wood rang again with the

Then they examined the prizes, gathered up their things, and went off to the brook, where Martin swallowed

huge draughts of water to get rid of the taste; and they visited the sedgebird's nest, and from thence struck

across the country in high glee, beating the hedges and brakes as they went along; and Arthur at last, to his

intense delight, was allowed to climb a small hedgerow oak for a magpie's nest with Tom, who kept all round

him like a mother, and showed him where to hold and how to throw his weight; and though he was in a great

They crossed a road soon afterwards, and there, close to them, lay a great heap of charming pebbles.

"Look here," shouted East; "here's luck! I've been longing for some good, honest pecking this halfhour. Let's

No one objected, so each boy filled the fustian bag he carried full of stones. They crossed into the next field,

Tom and East taking one side of the hedges, and the other two the other side. Noise enough they made

certainly, but it was too early in the season for the young birds, and the old birds were too strong on the wing

for our young marksmen, and flew out of shot after the first discharge. But it was great fun, rushing along the

hedgerows, and discharging stone after stone at blackbirds and chaffinches, though no result in the shape of

slaughtered birds was obtained; and Arthur soon entered into it, and rushed to head back the birds, and

shouted, and threw, and tumbled into ditches, and over and through hedges, as wild as the Madman himself.

Presently the party, in full cry after an old blackbird (who was evidently used to the thing and enjoyed the

fun, for he would wait till they came close to him, and then fly on for forty yards or so, and, with an impudent

flicker of his tail, dart into the depths of the quickset), came beating down a high double hedge, two on each

"There he is again," "Head him," "Let drive," "I had him there," "Take care where you're throwing,

Madman." The shouts might have been heard a quarter of a mile off. They were heard some two hundred

yards off by a farmer and two of his shepherds, who were doctoring sheep in a fold in the next field.

Now, the farmer in question rented a house and yard situate at the end of the field in which the young

birdfanciers had arrived, which house and yard he didn't occupy or keep any one else in. Nevertheless, like a

brainless and unreasoning Briton, he persisted in maintaining on the premises a large stock of cocks, hens,

and other poultry. Of course, all sorts of depredators visited the place from time to time: foxes and gipsies

wrought havoc in the night; while in the daytime, I regret to have to confess that visits from the Rugby boys,

and consequent disappearances of ancient and respectable fowls were not unfrequent. Tom and East had

during the period of their outlawry visited the farm in question for felonious purposes, and on one occasion

had conquered and slain a duck there, and borne away the carcass triumphantly, hidden in their

handkerchiefs. However, they were sickened of the practice by the trouble and anxiety which the wretched

duck's body caused them. They carried it to Sally Harrowell's, in hopes of a good supper; but she, after

examining it, made a long face, and refused to dress or have anything to do with it. Then they took it into

their study, and began plucking it themselves; but what to do with the feathers, where to hide them?

"Good gracious, Tom, what a lot of feathers a duck has!" groaned East, holding a bagful in his hand, and

"And I do think he's getting high, too, already," said Tom, smelling at him cautiously, "so we must finish him

"Yes, all very well; but how are we to cook him? I'm sure I ain't going to try it on in the hall or passages; we

"I wish we were rid of the brute," said Tom, throwing him on the table in disgust. And after a day or two

more it became clear that got rid of he must be; so they packed him and sealed him up in brown paper, and

put him in the cupboard of an unoccupied study, where he was found in the holidays by the matron, a

They had never been duckhunting there since, but others had, and the bold yeoman was very sore on the

subject, and bent on making an example of the first boys he could catch. So he and his shepherds crouched

behind the hurdles, and watched the party, who were approaching all unconscious. Why should that old

guineafowl be lying out in the hedge just at this particular moment of all the year? Who can say?

Guineafowls always are; so are all other things, animals, and persons, requisite for getting one into

scrapesalways ready when any mischief can come of them. At any rate, just under East's nose popped out

the old guineahen, scuttling along and shrieking, "Come back, come back," at the top of her voice. Either of

the other three might perhaps have withstood the temptation, but East first lets drive the stone he has in his

hand at her, and then rushes to turn her into the hedge again. He succeeds, and then they are all at it for dear

life, up and down the hedge in full cry, the "Come back, come back," getting shriller and fainter every

Meantime, the farmer and his men steal over the hurdles and creep down the hedge towards the scene of

action. They are almost within a stone's throw of Martin, who is pressing the unlucky chase hard, when Tom

catches sight of them, and sings out, "Louts, 'ware louts, your side! Madman, look ahead!" and then catching

hold of Arthur, hurries him away across the field towards Rugby as hard as they can tear. Had he been by

himself, he would have stayed to see it out with the others, but now his heart sinks and all his pluck goes. The

idea of being led up to the Doctor with Arthur for bagging fowls quite unmans and takes half the run out of

However, no boys are more able to take care of themselves than East and Martin; they dodge the pursuers,

slip through a gap, and come pelting after Tom and Arthur, whom they catch up in no time. The farmer and

his men are making good running about a field behind. Tom wishes to himself that they had made off in any

"You won't leave the young un, will you?" says he, as they haul poor little Arthur, already losing wind from

the fright, through the next hedge. "Not we," is the answer from both. The next hedge is a stiff one; the

pursuers gain horribly on them, and they only just pull Arthur through, with two great rents in his trousers, as

the foremost shepherd comes up on the other side. As they start into the next field, they are aware of two

figures walking down the footpath in the middle of it, and recognize Holmes and Diggs taking a

constitutional. Those goodnatured fellows immediately shout, "On." "Let's go to them and surrender," pants

Tom. Agreed. And in another minute the four boys, to the great astonishment of those worthies, rush

breathless up to Holmes and Diggs, who pull up to see what is the matter; and then the whole is explained by

the appearance of the farmer and his men, who unite their forces and bear down on the knot of boys.

There is no time to explain, and Tom's heart beats frightfully quick, as he ponders, "Will they stand by us?"

The farmer makes a rush at East and collars him; and that young gentleman, with unusual discretion, instead

"Hullo there; not so fast," says Holmes, who is bound to stand up for them till they are proved in the wrong.

"I've got the young varmint at last, have I," pants the farmer; "why, they've been askulking about my yard

and stealing my fowlsthat's where 'tis; and if I doan't have they flogged for it, every one on 'em, my name

Holmes looks grave and Diggs's face falls. They are quite ready to fightno boys in the school more so; but

they are prepostors, and understand their office, and can't uphold unrighteous causes.

"I haven't been near his old barn this half," cries East. "Nor I," "Nor I," chime in Tom and Martin.

"Ees, I seen 'em sure enough," says Willum, grasping a prong he carried, and preparing for action.

The boys deny stoutly, and Willum is driven to admit that "if it worn't they 'twas chaps as like 'em as two

peas'n;" and "leastways he'll swear he see'd them two in the yard last Martinmas," indicating East and Tom.

Holmes has had time to meditate. "Now, sir," says he to Willum, "you see you can't remember what you have

"I doan't care," blusters the farmer; "they was arter my fowls todaythat's enough for I. Willum, you

catch hold o' t'other chap. They've been asneaking about this two hours, I tells 'ee," shouted he, as Holmes

stands between Martin and Willum, "and have druv a matter of a dozen young pullets pretty nigh to death."

"Oh, there's a whacker!" cried East; "we haven't been within a hundred yards of his barn; we haven't been up

here above ten minutes, and we've seen nothing but a tough old guineahen, who ran like a greyhound."

"Indeed, that's all true, Holmes, upon my honour," added Tom; "we weren't after his fowls; guineahen ran

"Farmer Thompson," said Holmes, warning off Willum and the prong with his stick, while Diggs faced the

other shepherd, cracking his fingers like pistolshots, "now listen to reason. The boys haven't been after your

"Never you mind, farmer," answered Holmes. "And now I'll just tell you what it is: you ought to be ashamed

of yourself for leaving all that poultry about, with no one to watch it, so near the School. You deserve to have

it all stolen. So if you choose to come up to the Doctor with them, I shall go with you, and tell him what I

The farmer began to take Holmes for a master; besides, he wanted to get back to his flock. Corporal

punishment was out of the question, the odds were too great; so he began to hint at paying for the damage.

Arthur jumped at this, offering to pay anything, and the farmer immediately valued the guineahen at half a

"Half a sovereign!" cried East, now released from the farmer's grip; "well, that is a good one! The old hen

ain't hurt a bit, and she's seven years old, I know, and as tough as whipcord; she couldn't lay another egg to

It was at last settled that they should pay the farmer two shillings, and his man one shilling; and so the matter

ended, to the unspeakable relief of Tom, who hadn't been able to say a word, being sick at heart at the idea of

what the Doctor would think of him; and now the whole party of boys marched off down the footpath

towards Rugby. Holmes, who was one of the best boys in the School, began to improve the occasion. "Now,

you youngsters," said he, as he marched along in the middle of them, "mind this; you're very well out of this

"Mind, I don't ask questions," went on Mentor, "but I rather think some of you have been there before this

after his chickens. Now, knocking over other people's chickens, and running off with them, is stealing. It's a

nasty word, but that's the plain English of it. If the chickens were dead and lying in a shop, you wouldn't take

them, I know that, any more than you would apples out of Griffith's basket; but there's no real difference

between chickens running about and apples on a tree, and the same articles in a shop. I wish our morals were

sounder in such matters. There's nothing so mischievous as these school distinctions, which jumble up right

and wrong, and justify things in us for which poor boys would be sent to prison." And good old Holmes

delivered his soul on the walk home of many wise sayings, and, as the song says,

which same sermon sank into them all, more or less, and very penitent they were for several hours. But truth

compels me to admit that East, at any rate, forgot it all in a week, but remembered the insult which had been

put upon him by Farmer Thompson, and with the Tadpole and other hairbrained youngsters committed a

raid on the barn soon afterwards, in which they were caught by the shepherds and severely handled, besides

having to pay eight shillingsall the money they had in the worldto escape being taken up to the Doctor.

Martin became a constant inmate in the joint study from this time, and Arthur took to him so kindly that Tom

couldn't resist slight fits of jealousy, which, however, he managed to keep to himself. The kestrel's eggs had

not been broken, strange to say, and formed the nucleus of Arthur's collection, at which Martin worked heart

and soul, and introduced Arthur to Howlett the birdfancier, and instructed him in the rudiments of the art of

stuffing. In token of his gratitude, Arthur allowed Martin to tattoo a small anchor on one of his wrists; which

decoration, however, he carefully concealed from Tom. Before the end of the halfyear he had trained into a

bold climber and good runner, and, as Martin had foretold, knew twice as much about trees, birds, flowers,

and many other things, as our goodhearted and facetious young friend Harry East.

There is a certain sort of fellowwe who are used to studying boys all know him well enoughof whom

you can predicate with almost positive certainty, after he has been a month at school, that he is sure to have a

fight, and with almost equal certainty that he will have but one. Tom Brown was one of these; and as it is our

wellweighed intention to give a full, true, and correct account of Tom's only single combat with a

schoolfellow in the manner of our old friend Bell's Life, let those young persons whose stomachs are not

strong, or who think a good set to with the weapons which God has given us all an uncivilized, unchristian,

or ungentlemanly affair, just skip this chapter at once, for it won't be to their taste.

It was not at all usual in those days for two Schoolhouse boys to have a fight. Of course there were

exceptions, when some crossgrained, hardheaded fellow came up who would never be happy unless he

was quarrelling with his nearest neighbours, or when there was some classdispute, between the fifth form

and the fags, for instance, which required bloodletting; and a champion was picked out on each side tacitly,

who settled the matter by a good hearty mill. But, for the most part, the constant use of those surest keepers

of the peace, the boxing gloves, kept the Schoolhouse boys from fighting one another. Two or three nights

in every week the gloves were brought out, either in the hall or fifthform room; and every boy who was ever

likely to fight at all knew all his neighbours' prowess perfectly well, and could tell to a nicety what chance he

would have in a standup fight with any other boy in the house. But, of course, no such experience could be

gotten as regarded boys in other houses; and as most of the other houses were more or less jealous of the

After all, what would life be without fighting, I should like to know? From the cradle to the grave, fighting,

rightly understood, is the business, the real highest, honestest business of every son of man. Every one who is

worth his salt has his enemies, who must be beaten, be they evil thoughts and habits in himself, or spiritual

wickednesses in high places, or Russians, or Borderruffians, or Bill, Tom, or Harry, who will not let him

It is no good for quakers, or any other body of men, to uplift their voices against fighting. Human nature is

too strong for them, and they don't follow their own precepts. Every soul of them is doing his own piece of

fighting, somehow and somewhere. The world might be a better world without fighting, for anything I know,

but it wouldn't be our world; and therefore I am dead against crying peace when there is no peace, and isn't

meant to be. I am as sorry as any man to see folk fighting the wrong people and the wrong things, but I'd a

deal sooner see them doing that than that they should have no fight in them. So having recorded, and being

about to record, my hero's fights of all sorts, with all sorts of enemies, I shall now proceed to give an account

of his passageatarms with the only one of his schoolfellows whom he ever had to encounter in this

It was drawing towards the close of Arthur's first halfyear, and the May evenings were lengthening out.

Lockingup was not till eight o'clock, and everybody was beginning to talk about what he would do in the

holidays. The shell, in which form all our dramatis personae now are, were reading, amongst other things, the

last book of Homer's "Iliad," and had worked through it as far as the speeches of the women over Hector's

body. It is a whole schoolday, and four or five of the Schoolhouse boys (amongst whom are Arthur, Tom,

and East) are preparing third lesson together. They have finished the regulation forty lines, and are for the

most part getting very tired, notwithstanding the exquisite pathos of Helen's lamentation. And now several

long foursyllabled words come together, and the boy with the dictionary strikes work.

"I am not going to look out any more words," says he; "we've done the quantity. Ten to one we shan't get so

"Come along, boys," cries East, always ready to leave "the grind," as he called it; "our old coach is laid up,

you know, and we shall have one of the new masters, who's sure to go slow and let us down easy."

So an adjournment to the close was carried nem. con., little Arthur not daring to uplift his voice; but, being

deeply interested in what they were reading, stayed quietly behind, and learnt on for his own pleasure.

As East had said, the regular master of the form was unwell, and they were to be heard by one of the new

mastersquite a young man, who had only just left the university. Certainly it would be hard lines if, by

dawdling as much as possible in coming in and taking their places, entering into longwinded explanations of

what was the usual course of the regular master of the form, and others of the stock contrivances of boys for

wasting time in school, they could not spin out the lesson so that he should not work them through more than

the forty lines. As to which quantity there was a perpetual fight going on between the master and his

formthe latter insisting, and enforcing by passive resistance, that it was the prescribed quantity of Homer

for a shell lesson; the former, that there was no fixed quantity, but that they must always be ready to go on to

fifty or sixty lines if there were time within the hour. However, notwithstanding all their efforts, the new

master got on horribly quick. He seemed to have the bad taste to be really interested in the lesson, and to be

trying to work them up into something like appreciation of it, giving them good, spirited English words,

instead of the wretched bald stuff into which they rendered poor old Homer, and construing over each piece

Now the clock strikes the threequarters; there is only a quarter of an hour more, but the forty lines are all but

done. So the boys, one after another, who are called up, stick more and more, and make balder and ever more

bald work of it. The poor young master is pretty near beat by this time, and feels ready to knock his head

against the wall, or his fingers against somebody else's head. So he gives up altogether the lower and middle

parts of the form, and looks round in despair at the boys on the top bench, to see if there is one out of whom

he can strike a spark or two, and who will be too chivalrous to murder the most beautiful utterances of the

most beautiful woman of the old world. His eye rests on Arthur, and he calls him up to finish construing

Helen's speech. Whereupon all the other boys draw long breaths, and begin to stare about and take it easy.

They are all safe: Arthur is the head of the form, and sure to be able to construe, and that will tide on safely

Arthur proceeds to read out the passage in Greek before construing it, as the custom is. Tom, who isn't paying

much attention, is suddenly caught by the falter in his voice as he reads the two lines

He looks up at Arthur. "Why, bless us," thinks he, "what can be the matter with the young un? He's never

going to get floored. He's sure to have learnt to the end." Next moment he is reassured by the spirited tone in

which Arthur begins construing, and betakes himself to drawing dogs' heads in his notebook, while the

master, evidently enjoying the change, turns his back on the middle bench and stands before Arthur, beating a

sort of time with his hand and foot, and saying; "Yes, yes," "Very well," as Arthur goes on.

But as he nears the fatal two lines, Tom catches that falter, and again looks up. He sees that there is

Suddenly at this point Arthur breaks down altogether, and fairly bursts out crying, and dashes the cuff of his

jacket across his eyes, blushing up to the roots of his hair, and feeling as if he should like to go down

suddenly through the floor. The whole form are taken aback; most of them stare stupidly at him, while those

who are gifted with presence of mind find their places and look steadily at their books, in hopes of not

The master looks puzzled for a moment, and then seeing, as the fact is, that the boy is really affected to tears

by the most touching thing in Homer, perhaps in all profane poetry put together, steps up to him and lays his

hand kindly on his shoulder, saying, "Never mind, my little man, you've construed very well. Stop a minute;

Now, as luck would have it, there sat next above Tom on that day, in the middle bench of the form, a big boy,

by name Williams, generally supposed to be the cock of the shell, therefore of all the school below the fifths.

The small boys, who are great speculators on the prowess of their elders, used to hold forth to one another

about Williams's great strength, and to discuss whether East or Brown would take a licking from him. He was

called Slogger Williams, from the force with which it was supposed he could hit. In the main, he was a rough,

goodnatured fellow enough, but very much alive to his own dignity. He reckoned himself the king of the

form, and kept up his position with the strong hand, especially in the matter of forcing boys not to construe

more than the legitimate forty lines. He had already grunted and grumbled to himself when Arthur went on

reading beyond the forty lines; but now that he had broken down just in the middle of all the long words, the

"Sneaking little brute," muttered he, regardless of prudence "clapping on the waterworks just in the

"Hullo!" exclaimed Williams, looking at Tom with great surprise for a moment, and then giving him a sudden

dig in the ribs with his elbow, which sent Tom's books flying on to the floor, and called the attention of the

The Slogger found his legs very slowly, and proceeded to go below Tom and two other boys with great

disgust; and then, turning round and facing the master, said, "I haven't learnt any more, sir; our lesson is only

"Well, sir, Mr. Graham says we ain't to stop there when there's time to construe more."

"I understand," said the master. "Williams, go down three more places, and write me out the lesson in

"Oh! would I be in Arthur's shoes after fourth lesson?" said the little boys to one another; but Arthur finished

Helen's speech without any further catastrophe, and the clock struck four, which ended third lesson.

Another hour was occupied in preparing and saying fourth lesson, during which Williams was bottling up his

wrath; and when five struck, and the lessons for the day were over, he prepared to take summary vengeance

Tom was detained in school a few minutes after the rest, and on coming out into the quadrangle, the first

thing he saw was a small ring of boys, applauding Williams, who was holding Arthur by the collar.

"There, you young sneak," said he, giving Arthur a cuff on the head with his other hand; "what made you say

"Hullo!" said Tom, shouldering into the crowd; "you drop that, Williams; you shan't touch him."

"I," said Tom; and suiting the action to the word he struck the arm which held Arthur's arm so sharply that the

Slogger dropped it with a start, and turned the full current of his wrath on Tom.

The news ran like wildfire about, and many boys who were on their way to tea at their several houses turned

"Just run and tell East to come and back me," said Tom to a small Schoolhouse boy, who was off like a

rocket to Harrowell's, just stopping for a moment to poke his head into the Schoolhouse hall, where the

lower boys were already at tea, and sing out, "Fight! Tom Brown and Slogger Williams."

Up start half the boys at once, leaving bread, eggs, butter, sprats, and all the rest to take care of themselves.

The greater part of the remainder follow in a minute, after swallowing their tea, carrying their food in their

hands to consume as they go. Three or four only remain, who steal the butter of the more impetuous, and

In another minute East and Martin tear through the quadrangle, carrying a sponge, and arrive at the scene of

Tom felt he had got his work cut out for him, as he stripped off his jacket, waistcoat, and braces. East tied his

handkerchief round his waist, and rolled up his shirtsleeves for him. "Now, old boy, don't you open your

mouth to say a word, or try to help yourself a bitwe'll do all that; you keep all your breath and strength for

the Slogger." Martin meanwhile folded the clothes, and put them under the chapel rails; and now Tom, with

East to handle him, and Martin to give him a knee, steps out on the turf, and is ready for all that may come;

It doesn't look a fair match at first glance: Williams is nearly two inches taller, and probably a long year older

than his opponent, and he is very strongly made about the arms and shoulders"peels well," as the little knot

of big fifthform boys, the amateurs, say, who stand outside the ring of little boys, looking complacently on,

but taking no active part in the proceedings. But down below he is not so good by any meansno spring

from the loins, and feeblish, not to say shipwrecky, about the knees. Tom, on the contrary, though not half so

strong in the arms, is good all over, straight, hard, and springy, from neck to ankle, better perhaps in his legs

than anywhere. Besides, you can see by the clear white of his eye, and fresh, bright look of his skin, that he is

in tiptop training, able to do all he knows; while the Slogger looks rather sodden, as if he didn't take much

exercise and ate too much tuck. The timekeeper is chosen, a large ring made, and the two stand up opposite

"If Tom'll only condescend to fight with his head and heels," as East mutters to Martin, "we shall do."

But seemingly he won't, for there he goes in, making play with both hands. Hard all is the word; the two

stand to one another like men; rally follows rally in quick succession, each fighting as if he thought to finish

the whole thing out of hand. "Can't last at this rate," say the knowing ones, while the partisans of each make

the air ring with their shouts and countershouts of encouragement, approval, and defiance.

"Take it easy, take it easy; keep away; let him come after you," implores East, as he wipes Tom's face after

the first round with a wet sponge, while he sits back on Martin's knee, supported by the Madman's long arms

"There he goes again, hang it all!" growls East, as his man is at it again, as hard as ever. A very severe round

follows, in which Tom gets out and out the worst of it, and is at last hit clean off his legs, and deposited on

Loud shouts rise from the boys of Slogger's house, and the Schoolhouse are silent and vicious, ready to pick

"Two to one in halfcrowns on the big un," says Rattle, one of the amateurs, a tall fellow, in

"Done!" says Groove, another amateur of quieter look, taking out his notebook to enter it, for our friend

Meantime East is freshening up Tom with the sponges for next round, and has set two other boys to rub his

"Tom, old boy," whispers he, "this may be fun for you, but it's death to me. He'll hit all the fight out of you in

another five minutes, and then I shall go and drown myself in the island ditch. Feint him; use your legs; draw

him about. He'll lose his wind then in no time, and you can go into him. Hit at his body too; we'll take care of

Tom felt the wisdom of the counsel, and saw already that he couldn't go in and finish the Slogger off at mere

hammer and tongs, so changed his tactics completely in the third round. He now fights cautiously, getting

away from and parrying the Slogger's lunging hits, instead of trying to counter, and leading his enemy a

dance all round the ring after him. "He's funking; go in, Williams," "Catch him up," "Finish him off," scream

"Just what we want," thinks East, chuckling to himself, as he sees Williams, excited by these shouts, and

thinking the game in his own hands, blowing himself in his exertions to get to close quarters again, while

"Now, then, Tom," sings out East, dancing with delight. Tom goes in in a twinkling, and hits two heavy body

blows, and gets away again before the Slogger can catch his wind, which when he does he rushes with blind

fury at Tom, and being skilfully parried and avoided, overreaches himself and falls on his face, amidst terrific

"Stop a bit," says that hero, looking uncomfortably at Williams, who is puffing away on his second's knee,

After another round the Slogger too seems to see that he can't go in and win right off, and has met his match

or thereabouts. So he too begins to use his head, and tries to make Tom lose his patience, and come in before

his time. And so the fight sways on, now one and now the other getting a trifling pull.

Tom's face begins to look very onesidedthere are little queer bumps on his forehead, and his mouth is

bleeding; but East keeps the wet sponge going so scientifically that he comes up looking as fresh and bright

as ever. Williams is only slightly marked in the face, but by the nervous movement of his elbows you can see

that Tom's body blows are telling. In fact, half the vice of the Slogger's hitting is neutralized, for he daren't

lunge out freely for fear of exposing his sides. It is too interesting by this time for much shouting, and the

"All right, Tommy," whispers East; "hold on's the horse that's to win. We've got the last. Keep your head, old

But where is Arthur all this time? Words cannot paint the poor little fellow's distress. He couldn't muster

courage to come up to the ring, but wandered up and down from the great fives court to the corner of the

chapel rails, now trying to make up his mind to throw himself between them, and try to stop them; then

thinking of running in and telling his friend Mary, who, he knew, would instantly report to the Doctor. The

stories he had heard of men being killed in prizefights rose up horribly before him.

Once only, when the shouts of "Well done, Brown!" "Huzza for the Schoolhouse!" rose higher than ever, he

ventured up to the ring, thinking the victory was won. Catching sight of Tom's face in the state I have

described, all fear of consequences vanishing out of his mind; he rushed straight off to the matron's room,

But it's time for us to get back to the close. What is this fierce tumult and confusion? The ring is broken, and

high and angry words are being bandied about. "It's all fair""It isn't""No hugging!" The fight is stopped.

The combatants, however, sit there quietly, tended by their seconds, while their adherents wrangle in the

middle. East can't help shouting challenges to two or three of the other side, though he never leaves Tom for a

The fact is, that at the end of the last round, Tom, seeing a good opening, had closed with his opponent, and

after a moment's struggle, had thrown him heavily, by help of the fall he had learnt from his village rival in

the Vale of White Horse. Williams hadn't the ghost of a chance with Tom at wrestling; and the conviction

broke at once on the Slogger faction that if this were allowed their man must be licked. There was a strong

feeling in the School against catching hold and throwing, though it was generally ruled all fair within limits;

The Schoolhouse are overruledthe fight is on again, but there is to be no throwing; and East, in high

wrath, threatens to take his man away after next round (which he don't mean to do, by the way), when

suddenly young Brooke comes through the small gate at the end of the chapel. The Schoolhouse faction

"Throw whom?" says Brooke, coming up to the ring. "Oh! Williams, I see. Nonsense! Of course he may

Now, young Brooke, you're in the sixth, you know, and you ought to stop all fights. He looks hard at both

"So so; rather done, I think, since his last fall. He won't stand above two more."

"Time's up!" The boys rise again and face one another. Brooke can't find it in his heart to stop them just yet,

so the round goes on, the Slogger waiting for Tom, and reserving all his strength to hit him out should he

come in for the wrestling dodge again, for he feels that that must be stopped, or his sponge will soon go up in

And now another newcomer appears on the field, to wit, the underporter, with his long brush and great

"You'd better stop, gentlemen," he says; "the Doctor knows that Brown's fightinghe'll be out in a minute."

"You go to Bath, Bill," is all that that excellent servitor gets by his advice; and being a man of his hands, and

a stanch upholder of the Schoolhouse, can't help stopping to look on for a bit, and see Tom Brown, their pet

It is grim earnest now, and no mistake. Both boys feel this, and summon every power of head, hand, and eye

to their aid. A piece of luck on either side, a foot slipping, a blow getting well home, or another fall, may

decide it. Tom works slowly round for an opening; he has all the legs, and can choose his own time. The

Slogger waits for the attack, and hopes to finish it by some heavy righthanded blow. As they quarter slowly

over the ground, the evening sun comes out from behind a cloud and falls full on Williams's face. Tom darts

in; the heavy right hand is delivered, but only grazes his head. A short rally at close quarters, and they close;

"I'll give you three or two on the little one in halfcrowns," said Groove to Rattle.

"No, thank 'ee," answers the other, diving his hands farther into his coattails.

Just at this stage of the proceedings, the door of the turret which leads to the Doctor's library suddenly opens,

and he steps into the close, and makes straight for the ring, in which Brown and the Slogger are both seated

"The Doctor! the Doctor!" shouts some small boy who catches sight of him, and the ring melts away in a few

seconds, the small boys tearing off, Tom collaring his jacket and waistcoat, and slipping through the little

gate by the chapel, and round the corner to Harrowell's with his backers, as lively as need be; Williams and

his backers making off not quite so fast across the close; Groove, Rattle, and the other bigger fellows trying

to combine dignity and prudence in a comical manner, and walking off fast enough, they hope, not to be

Young Brooke alone remains on the ground by the time the Doctor gets there, and touches his hat, not

"Hah! Brooke. I am surprised to see you here. Don't you know that I expect the sixth to stop fighting?"

Brooke felt much more uncomfortable than he had expected, but he was rather a favourite with the Doctor for

his openness and plainness of speech, so blurted out, as he walked by the Doctor's side, who had already

"Yes, sir, generally. But I thought you wished us to exercise a discretion in the matter toonot to interfere

"Yes, sir; but neither was hurt. And they're the sort of boys who'll be all the better friends now, which they

wouldn't have been if they had been stopped, any earlierbefore it was so equal."

"Williams, sir, of Thompson's. He is bigger than Brown, and had the best of it at first, but not when you came

up, sir. There's a good deal of jealousy between our house and Thompson's, and there would have been more

fights if this hadn't been let go on, or if either of them had had much the worst of it."

"Well but, Brooke," said the Doctor, "doesn't this look a little as if you exercised your discretion by only

"Now remember," added the Doctor, as he stopped at the turret door, "this fight is not to go on; you'll see to

"Very well, sir," said young Brooke, touching his hat, and not sorry to see the turretdoor close behind the

Meantime Tom and the stanchest of his adherents had reached Harrowell's, and Sally was bustling about to

get them a late tea, while Stumps had been sent off to Tew, the butcher, to get a piece of raw beef for Tom's

eye, which was to be healed off hand, so that he might show well in the morning. He was not a bit the

worse, except a slight difficulty in his vision, a singing in his ears, and a sprained thumb, which he kept in a

coldwater bandage, while he drank lots of tea, and listened to the babel of voices talking and speculating of

nothing but the fight, and how Williams would have given in after another fall (which he didn't in the least

believe), and how on earth the Doctor could have got to know of itsuch bad luck! He couldn't help

thinking to himself that he was glad he hadn't won; he liked it better as it was, and felt very friendly to the

Slogger. And then poor little Arthur crept in and sat down quietly near him, and kept looking at him and the

"Not a bit of it; don't flatter yourself. We were sure to have had it out sooner or later."

"Can't tell about thatall depends on the houses. We're in the hands of our countrymen, you know. Must

However, the lovers of the science were doomed to disappointment this time. Directly after lockingup, one

"Sure to do that in a fight. Well, you hadn't the worst of it, I could see. Where did you learn that throw?"

"Hullo! why, what are you now? Well, never mind, you're a plucky fellow. Sit down and have some supper."

Tom obeyed, by no means loath. And the fifthform boy next filled him a tumbler of bottled beer, and he ate

and drank, listening to the pleasant talk, and wondering how soon he should be in the fifth, and one of that

As he got up to leave, Brooke said, "You must shake hands to morrow morning; I shall come and see that

And so he did. And Tom and the Slogger shook hands with great satisfaction and mutual respect. And for the

next year or two, whenever fights were being talked of, the small boys who had been present shook their

heads wisely, saying, "Ah! but you should just have seen the fight between Slogger Williams and Tom

And now, boys all, three words before we quit the subject. I have put in this chapter on fighting of malice

prepense, partly because I want to give you a true picture of what everyday school life was in my time, and

not a kidglove and goto meetingcoat picture, and partly because of the cant and twaddle that's talked of

boxing and fighting with fists nowadays. Even Thackeray has given in to it; and only a few weeks ago there

was some rampant stuff in the Times on the subject, in an article on field sports.

Boys will quarrel, and when they quarrel will sometimes fight. Fighting with fists is the natural and English

way for English boys to settle their quarrels. What substitute for it is there, or ever was there, amongst any

Learn to box, then, as you learn to play cricket and football. Not one of you will be the worse, but very much

the better, for learning to box well. Should you never have to use it in earnest, there's no exercise in the world

As to fighting, keep out of it if you can, by all means. When the time comes, if it ever should, that you have

to say "Yes" or "No" to a challenge to fight, say "No" if you canonly take care you make it clear to

yourselves why you say "No." It's a proof of the highest courage, if done from true Christian motives. It's

quite right and justifiable, if done from a simple aversion to physical pain and danger. But don't say "No"

because you fear a licking, and say or think it's because you fear God, for that's neither Christian nor honest.

And if you do fight, fight it out; and don't give in while you can stand and see.

Two years have passed since the events recorded in the last chapter, and the end of the summer halfyear is

again drawing on. Martin has left and gone on a cruise in the South Pacific, in one of his uncle's ships; the old

magpie, as disreputable as ever, his last bequest to Arthur, lives in the joint study. Arthur is nearly sixteen,

and at the head of the twenty, having gone up the school at the rate of a form a halfyear. East and Tom have

been much more deliberate in their progress, and are only a little way up the fifth form. Great strapping boys

they are, but still thorough boys, filling about the same place in the house that young Brooke filled when they

were new boys, and much the same sort of fellows. Constant intercourse with Arthur has done much for both

of them, especially for Tom; but much remains yet to be done, if they are to get all the good out of Rugby

which is to be got there in these times. Arthur is still frail and delicate, with more spirit than body; but, thanks

to his intimacy with them and Martin, has learned to swim, and run, and play cricket, and has never hurt

One evening, as they were all sitting down to supper in the fifthform room, some one started a report that a

fever had broken out at one of the boardinghouses. "They say," he added, "that Thompson is very ill, and

"Then we shall all be sent home," cried another. "Hurrah! five weeks' extra holidays, and no fifthform

"I hope not," said Tom; "there'll be no Marylebone match then at the end of the half."

Some thought one thing, some another, many didn't believe the report; but the next day, Tuesday, Dr.

Robertson arrived, and stayed all day, and had long conferences with the Doctor.

On Wednesday morning, after prayers, the Doctor addressed the whole school. There were several cases of

fever in different houses, he said; but Dr. Robertson, after the most careful examination, had assured him that

it was not infectious, and that if proper care were taken, there could be no reason for stopping the

schoolwork at present. The examinations were just coming on, and it would be very unadvisable to break up

now. However, any boys who chose to do so were at liberty to write home, and, if their parents wished it, to

The next day Arthur sickened, but there was no other case. Before the end of the week thirty or forty boys

had gone, but the rest stayed on. There was a general wish to please the Doctor, and a feeling that it was

On the Saturday Thompson died, in the bright afternoon, while the cricketmatch was going on as usual on

the bigside ground. The Doctor, coming from his deathbed, passed along the gravel walk at the side of the

close, but no one knew what had happened till the next day. At morning lecture it began to be rumoured, and

by afternoon chapel was known generally; and a feeling of seriousness and awe at the actual presence of

death among them came over the whole school. In all the long years of his ministry the Doctor perhaps never

"When I came yesterday from visiting all but the very deathbed of him who has been taken from us, and

looked around upon all the familiar objects and scenes within our own ground, where your common

amusements were going on with your common cheerfulness and activity, I felt there was nothing painful in

witnessing that; it did not seem in any way shocking or out of tune with those feelings which the sight of a

dying Christian must be supposed to awaken. The unsuitableness in point of natural feeling between scenes of

mourning and scenes of liveliness did not at all present itself. But I did feel that if at that moment any of

those faults had been brought before me which sometimes occur amongst us; had I heard that any of you had

been guilty of falsehood, or of drunkenness, or of any other such sin; had I heard from any quarter the

language of profaneness, or of unkindness, or of indecency; had I heard or seen any signs of that wretched

folly which courts the laugh of fools by affecting not to dread evil and not to care for good, then the

unsuitableness of any of these things with the scene I had just quitted would indeed have been most intensely

painful. And why? Not because such things would really have been worse than at any other time, but because

at such a moment the eyes are opened really to know good and evil, because we then feel what it is so to live

as that death becomes an infinite blessing, and what it is so to live also that it were good for us if we had

Tom had gone into chapel in sickening anxiety about Arthur, but he came out cheered and strengthened by

those grand words, and walked up alone to their study. And when he sat down and looked round, and saw

Arthur's straw hat and cricketjacket hanging on their pegs, and marked all his little neat arrangements, not

one of which had been disturbed, the tears indeed rolled down his cheeks; but they were calm and blessed

tears, and he repeated to himself, "Yes, Geordie's eyes are opened; he knows what it is so to live as that death

The week passed mournfully away. No more boys sickened, but Arthur was reported worse each day, and his

mother arrived early in the week. Tom made many appeals to be allowed to see him, and several times tried

to get up to the sickroom; but the housekeeper was always in the way, and at last spoke to the Doctor, who

Thompson was buried on the Tuesday, and the burial service, so soothing and grand always, but beyond all

words solemn when read over a boy's grave to his companions, brought him much comfort, and many strange

new thoughts and longings. He went back to his regular life, and played cricket and bathed as usual. It

seemed to him that this was the right thing to do, and the new thoughts and longings became more brave and

healthy for the effort. The crisis came on Saturday; the day week that Thompson had died; and during that

long afternoon Tom sat in his study reading his Bible, and going every halfhour to the housekeeper's room,

expecting each time to hear that the gentle and brave little spirit had gone home. But God had work for

Arthur to do. The crisis passed: on Sunday evening he was declared out of danger; on Monday he sent a

message to Tom that he was almost well, had changed his room, and was to be allowed to see him the next

It was evening when the housekeeper summoned him to the sick room. Arthur was lying on the sofa by the

open window, through which the rays of the western sun stole gently, lighting up his white face and golden

hair. Tom remembered a German picture of an angel which he knew; often had he thought how transparent

and golden and spiritlike it was; and he shuddered, to think how like it Arthur looked, and felt a shock as if

his blood had all stopped short, as he realized how near the other world his friend must have been to look like

that. Never till that moment had he felt how his little chum had twined himself round his heartstrings, and as

he stole gently across the room and knelt down, and put his arm round Arthur's head on the pillow, felt

ashamed and halfangry at his own red and brown face, and the bounding sense of health and power which

filled every fibre of his body, and made every movement of mere living a joy to him. He needn't have

troubled himself: it was this very strength and power so different from his own which drew Arthur so to him.

Arthur laid his thin, white hand, on which the blue veins stood out so plainly, on Tom's great brown fist, and

smiled at him; and then looked out of the window again, as if he couldn't bear to lose a moment of the sunset,

into the tops of the great feathery elms, round which the rooks were circling and clanging, returning in flocks

from their evening's foraging parties. The elms rustled, the sparrows in the ivy just outside the window

chirped and fluttered about, quarrelling, and making it up again; the rooks, young and old, talked in chorus,

and the merry shouts of the boys and the sweet click of the cricketbats came up cheerily from below.

"Dear George," said Tom, "I am so glad to be let up to see you at last. I've tried hard to come so often, but

"Oh, I know, Tom; Mary has told me every day about you, and how she was obliged to make the Doctor

speak to you to keep you away. I'm very glad you didn't get up, for you might have caught it; and you

couldn't stand being ill, with all the matches going on. And you're in the eleven, too, I hear. I'm so glad."

"Yes; ain't it jolly?" said Tom proudly. "I'm ninth too. I made forty at the last piematch, and caught three

fellows out. So I was put in above Jones and Tucker. Tucker's so savage, for he was head of the twentytwo."

"Well, I think you ought to be higher yet," said Arthur, who was as jealous for the renown of Tom in games

"Never mind. I don't care about cricket or anything now you're getting well, Geordie; and I shouldn't have

hurt, I know, if they'd have let me come up. Nothing hurts me. But you'll get about now directly, won't you?

You won't believe how clean I've kept the study. All your things are just as you left them; and I feed the old

magpie just when you used, though I have to come in from bigside for him, the old rip. He won't look

pleased all I can do, and sticks his head first on one side and then on the other, and blinks at me before he'll

begin to eat, till I'm half inclined to box his ears. And whenever East comes in, you should see him hop off to

Arthur laughed. "Old Gravey has a good memory; he can't forget the sieges of poor Martin's den in old

times." He paused a moment, and then went on: "You can't think how often I've been thinking of old Martin

since I've been ill. I suppose one's mind gets restless, and likes to wander off to strange, unknown places. I

wonder what queer new pets the old boy has got. How he must be revelling in the thousand new birds, beasts,

Tom felt a pang of jealousy, but kicked it out in a moment. "Fancy him on a South Sea island, with the

Cherokees, or Patagonians, or some such wild niggers!" (Tom's ethnology and geography were faulty, but

sufficient for his needs.) "They'll make the old Madman cock medicineman, and tattoo him all over. Perhaps

he's cutting about now all blue, and has a squaw and a wigwam. He'll improve their boomerangs, and be able

to throw them too, without having old Thomas sent after him by the Doctor to take them away."

Arthur laughed at the remembrance of the boomerang story, but then looked grave again, and said, "He'll

"Do you remember, Tom, how you and East used to laugh at him and chaff him, because he said he was sure

the rooks all had callingover or prayers, or something of the sort, when the lockingup bell rang? Well, I

declare," said Arthur, looking up seriously into Tom's laughing eyes, "I do think he was right. Since I've been

lying here, I've watched them every night; and, do you know, they really do come and perch, all of them, just

about lockingup time; and then first there's a regular chorus of caws; and then they stop a bit, and one old

fellow, or perhaps two or three in different trees, caw solos; and then off they all go again, fluttering about

"I wonder if the old blackies do talk," said Tom, looking up at them. "How they must abuse me and East, and

"There! look, look!" cried Arthur; "don't you see the old fellow without a tail coming up? Martin used to call

him the 'clerk.' He can't steer himself. You never saw such fun as he is in a high wind, when he can't steer

himself home, and gets carried right past the trees, and has to bear up again and again before he can perch."

The lockingup bell began to toll, and the two boys were silent, and listened to it. The sound soon carried

Tom off to the river and the woods, and he began to go over in his mind the many occasions on which he had

heard that toll coming faintly down the breeze, and had to pack his rod in a hurry and make a run for it, to get

in before the gates were shut. He was roused with a start from his memories by Arthur's voice, gentle and

"No, dear old boy, not I. But ain't you faint, Arthur, or ill? What can I get you? Don't say anything to hurt

"No, no; I shan't hurt myself. I'd sooner speak to you now, if you don't mind. I've asked Mary to tell the

Doctor that you are with me, so you needn't go down to callingover; and I mayn't have another chance, for I

shall most likely have to go home for change of air to get well, and mayn't come back this half."

"Oh, do you think you must go away before the end of the half? I'm so sorry. It's more than five weeks yet to

the holidays, and all the fifthform examination and half the cricketmatches to come yet. And what shall I

do all that time alone in our study? Why, Arthur, it will be more than twelve weeks before I see you again.

Oh, hang it, I can't stand that! Besides who's to keep me up to working at the examination books? I shall

Tom was rattling on, half in joke, half in earnest, for he wanted to get Arthur out of his serious vein, thinking

"Oh, please, Tom, stop, or you'll drive all I had to say out of my head. And I'm already horribly afraid I'm

"Don't gammon, young un," rejoined Tom (the use of the old name, dear to him from old recollections, made

Arthur start and smile and feel quite happy); "you know you ain't afraid, and you've never made me angry

since the first month we chummed together. Now I'm going to be quite sober for a quarter of an hour, which

is more than I am once in a year; so make the most of it; heave ahead, and pitch into me right and left."

"Dear Tom, I ain't going to pitch into you," said Arthur piteously; "and it seems so cocky in me to be advising

you, who've been my backbone ever since I've been at Rugby, and have made the school a paradise to me.

Ah, I see I shall never do it, unless I go head over heels at once, as you said when you taught me to swim.

Arthur sank back on to his pillow with a sigh, as if the effort had been great; but the worst was now over, and

he looked straight at Tom, who was evidently taken aback. He leant his elbows on his knees, and stuck his

hands into his hair, whistled a verse of "Billy Taylor," and then was quite silent for another minute. Not a

shade crossed his face, but he was clearly puzzled. At last he looked up, and caught Arthur's anxious look,

"Well, I don't know exactlynobody ever told me. I suppose because all boys are sent to a public school in

"But what do you think yourself? What do you want to do here, and to carry away?"

Tom thought a minute. "I want to be A1 at cricket and football, and all the other games, and to make my

hands keep my head against any fellow, lout or gentleman. I want to get into the sixth before I leave, and to

please the Doctor; and I want to carry away just as much Latin and Greek as will take me through Oxford

respectably. There, now, young un; I never thought of it before, but that's pretty much about my figure. Ain't

"Well, I hope so. But you've forgot one thingwhat I want to leave behind me. I want to leave behind me,"

said Tom, speaking slow, and looking much moved, "the name of a fellow who never bullied a little boy, or

Arthur pressed his hand, and after a moment's silence went on, "You say, Tom, you want to please the

Doctor. Now, do you want to please him by what he thinks you do, or by what you really do?"

Tom felt at once that his flank was turned, but he couldn't give in. "He was at Winchester himself," said he;

"You young villain!" said Tom, shaking his fist at Arthur, half vexed and half pleased, "I never think about it.

Arthur saw that he had got his point; he knew his friend well, and was wise in silence as in speech. He only

said, "I would sooner have the doctor's good opinion of me as I really am than any man's in the world."

After another minute, Tom began again, "Look here, young un. How on earth am I to get time to play the

matches this half if I give up cribs? We're in the middle of that long crabbed chorus in the Agamemnon. I can

only just make head or tail of it with the crib. Then there's Pericles's speech coming on in Thucydides, and

'The Birds' to get up for the examination, besides the Tacitus." Tom groaned at the thought of his

accumulated labours. "I say, young un, there's only five weeks or so left to holidays. Mayn't I go on as usual

Arthur looked out of the window. The twilight had come on, and all was silent. He repeated in a low voice:

"In this thing the Lord pardon thy servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship

there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow down myself

Not a word more was said on the subject, and the boys were again silentone of those blessed, short silences

Tom was the first to break it. "You've been very ill indeed, haven't you, Geordie?" said he, with a mixture of

awe and curiosity, feeling as if his friend had been 1n some strange place or scene, of which he could form no

"Yes, very. I'm sure the Doctor thought I was going to die. He gave me the Sacrament last Sunday, and you

can't think what he is when one is ill. He said such brave, and tender, and gentle things to me, I felt quite light

and strong after it, and never had any more fear. My mother brought our old medical man, who attended me

when I was a poor sickly child. He said my constitution was quite changed, and that I'm fit for anything now.

If it hadn't, I couldn't have stood three days of this illness. That's all thanks to you, and the games you've

"Well, I don't know; I did little enough. Did they tell you you won't mind hearing it now, I knowthat

poor Thompson died last week? The other three boys are getting quite round, like you."

Then Tom, who was quite full of it, told Arthur of the burial service in the chapel, and how it had impressed

him, and, he believed, all the other boys. "And though the Doctor never said a word about it," said he, "and it

was a halfholiday and match day, there wasn't a game played in the close all the afternoon, and the boys all

"I'm very glad of it," said Arthur. "But, Tom, I've had such strange thoughts about death lately. I've never told

a soul of them, not even my mother. Sometimes I think they're wrong, but, do you know, I don't think in my

Tom was taken quite aback. "What in the world is the young un after now?" thought he; "I've swallowed a

good many of his crotchets, but this altogether beats me. He can't be quite right in his head." He didn't want

to say a word, and shifted about uneasily in the dark; however, Arthur seemed to be waiting for an answer, so

at last he said, "I don't think I quite see what you mean, Geordie. One's told so often to think about death that

I've tried it on sometimes, especially this last week. But we won't talk of it now. I'd better go. You're getting

"No, no; indeed I ain't, Tom. You must stop till nine; there's only twenty minutes. I've settled you shall stop

till nine. And oh! do let me talk to youI must talk to you. I see it's just as I feared. You think I'm half mad.

Arthur paused a moment, and then said quickly, "I'll tell you how it all happened. At first, when I was sent to

the sick room, and found I had really got the fever, I was terribly frightened. I thought I should die, and I

could not face it for a moment. I don't think it was sheer cowardice at first, but I thought how hard it was to

be taken away from my mother and sisters and you all, just as I was beginning to see my way to many things,

and to feel that I might be a man and do a man's work. To die without having fought, and worked, and given

one's life away, was too hard to bear. I got terribly impatient, and accused God of injustice, and strove to

justify myself. And the harder I strove the deeper I sank. Then the image of my dear father often came across

me, but I turned from it. Whenever it came, a heavy, numbing throb seemed to take hold of my heart, and say,

'Deaddeaddead.' And I cried out, 'The living, the living shall praise Thee, O God; the dead cannot praise

thee. There is no work in the grave; in the night no man can work. But I can work. I can do great things. I will

do great things. Why wilt thou slay me?' And so I struggled and plunged, deeper and deeper, and went down

into a living black tomb. I was alone there, with no power to stir or think; alone with myself; beyond the

reach of all human fellowship; beyond Christ's reach, I thought, in my nightmare. You, who are brave and

bright and strong, can have no idea of that agony. Pray to God you never may. Pray as for your life."

Arthur stoppedfrom exhaustion, Tom thought; but what between his fear lest Arthur should hurt himself,

his awe, and his longing for him to go on, he couldn't ask, or stir to help him.

Presently he went on, but quite calm and slow. "I don't know how long I was in that statefor more than a

day, I know; for I was quite conscious, and lived my outer life all the time, and took my medicines, and spoke

to my mother, and heard what they said. But I didn't take much note of time. I thought time was over for me,

and that that tomb was what was beyond. Well, on last Sunday morning, as I seemed to lie in that tomb,

alone, as I thought, for ever and ever, the black, dead wall was cleft in two, and I was caught up and borne

through into the light by some great power, some living, mighty spirit. Tom, do you remember the living

creatures and the wheels in Ezekiel? It was just like that. 'When they went, I heard the noise of their wings,

like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host; when

they stood, they let down their wings.' 'And they went every one straight forward: whither the spirit was to

go, they went; and they turned not when they went.' And we rushed through the bright air, which was full of

myriads of living creatures, and paused on the brink of a great river. And the power held me up, and I knew

that that great river was the grave, and death dwelt there, but not the death I had met in the black tomb. That,

I felt, was gone for ever. For on the other bank of the great river I saw men and women and children rising up

pure and bright, and the tears were wiped from their eyes, and they put on glory and strength, and all

weariness and pain fell away. And beyond were a multitude which no man could number, and they worked at

some great work; and they who rose from the river went on and joined in the work. They all worked, and

each worked in a different way, but all at the same work. And I saw there my father, and the men in the old

town whom I knew when I was a childmany a hard, stern man, who never came to church, and whom they

called atheist and infidel. There they were, side by side with my father, whom I had seen toil and die for

them, and women and little children, and the seal was on the foreheads of all. And I longed to see what the

work was, and could not; so I tried to plunge in the river, for I thought I would join them, but I could not.

Then I looked about to see how they got into the river. And this I could not see, but I saw myriads on this

side, and they too worked, and I knew that it was the same work, and the same seal was on their foreheads.

And though I saw that there was toil and anguish in the work of these, and that most that were working were

blind and feeble, yet I longed no more to plunge into the river, but more and more to know what the work

was. And as I looked I saw my mother and my sisters, and I saw the Doctor, and you, Tom, and hundreds

more whom I knew; and at last I saw myself too, and I was toiling and doing ever so little a piece of the great

work. Then it all melted away, and the power left me, and as it left me I thought I heard a voice say, 'The

vision is for an appointed time; though it tarry, wait for it, for in the end it shall speak and not lie, it shall

surely come, it shall not tarry.' It was early morning I know, thenit was so quiet and cool, and my mother

was fast asleep in the chair by my bedside; but it wasn't only a dream of mine. I know it wasn't a dream. Then

I fell into a deep sleep, and only woke after afternoon chapel; and the Doctor came and gave me the

Sacrament, as I told you. I told him and my mother I should get wellI knew I should; but I couldn't tell

them why. Tom," said Arthur gently, after another minute, "do you see why I could not grieve now to see my

dearest friend die? It can't beit isn'tall fever or illness. God would never have let me see it so clear if it

wasn't true. I don't understand it all yet; it will take me my life and longer to do thatto find out what the

When Arthur stopped there was a long pause. Tom could not speak; he was almost afraid to breathe, lest he

should break the train of Arthur's thoughts. He longed to hear more, and to ask questions. In another minute

nine o'clock struck, and a gentle tap at the door called them both back into the world again. They did not

answer, however, for a moment; and so the door opened, and a lady came in carrying a candle.

She went straight to the sofa, and took hold of Arthur's hand, and then stooped down and kissed him.

"My dearest boy, you feel a little feverish again. Why didn't you have lights? You've talked too much, and

"Oh no, mother; you can't think how well I feel. I shall start with you tomorrow for Devonshire. But,

"Yes, indeed; I've known him for years," she said, and held out her hand to Tom, who was now standing up

behind the sofa. This was Arthur's mother: tall and slight and fair, with masses of golden hair drawn back

from the broad, white forehead, and the calm blue eye meeting his so deep and openthe eye that he knew

so well, for it was his friend's over again, and the lovely, tender mouth that trembled while he lookedshe

stood there, a woman of thirtyeight, old enough to be his mother, and one whose face showed the lines

which must be written on the faces of good men's wives and widows, but he thought he had never seen

anything so beautiful. He couldn't help wondering if Arthur's sisters were like her.

Tom held her hand, and looked on straight in her face; he could neither let it go nor speak.

"Now, Tom," said Arthur, laughing, "where are your manners? You'll stare my mother out of countenance."

Tom dropped the little hand with a sigh. "There, sit down, both of you. Here, dearest mother; there's room

here." And he made a place on the sofa for her. "Tom, you needn't go; I'm sure you won't be called up at

first lesson." Tom felt that he would risk being floored at every lesson for the rest of his natural schoollife

sooner than go, so sat down. "And now," said Arthur, "I have realized one of the dearest wishes of my life

And then he led away the talk to their home in Devonshire, and the red, bright earth, and the deep green

combes, and the peat streams like cairngorm pebbles, and the wild moor with its high, cloudy tors for a giant

background to the picture, till Tom got jealous, and stood up for the clear chalk streams, and the emerald

water meadows and great elms and willows of the dear old royal county, as he gloried to call it. And the

mother sat on quiet and loving, rejoicing in their life. The quarter to ten struck, and the bell rang for bed,

"Shall I see you in the morning, Geordie?" said he, as he shook his friend's hand. "Never mind, though; you'll

Arthur's mother got up and walked with him to the door, and there gave him her hand again; and again his

eyes met that deep, loving look, which was like a spell upon him. Her voice trembled slightly as she said,

"Goodnight. You are one who knows what our Father has promised to the friend of the widow and the

Tom was quite upset; he mumbled something about owing everything good in him to Geordie, looked in her

face again, pressed her hand to his lips, and rushed downstairs to his study, where he sat till old Thomas came

kicking at the door, to tell him his allowance would be stopped if he didn't go off to bed. (It would have been

stopped anyhow, but that he was a great favourite with the old gentleman, who loved to come out in the

afternoons into the close to Tom's wicket, and bowl slow twisters to him, and talk of the glories of bygone

Surrey heroes, with whom he had played former generations.) So Tom roused himself, and took up his candle

to go to bed; and then for the first time was aware of a beautiful new fishingrod, with old Eton's mark on it,

and a splendidlybound Bible, which lay on his table, on the titlepage of which was written"TOM

BROWN, from his affectionate and grateful friends, Frances Jane Arthur; George Arthur."

The next morning, after breakfast, Tom, East, and Gower met as usual to learn their second lesson together.

Tom had been considering how to break his proposal of giving up the crib to the others, and having found no

better way (as indeed none better can ever be found by man or boy), told them simply what had happened;

how he had been to see Arthur, who had talked to him upon the subject, and what he had said, and for his part

he had made up his mind, and wasn't going to use cribs any more; and not being quite sure of his ground,

took the high and pathetic tone, and was proceeding to say "how that, having learnt his lessons with them for

so many years, it would grieve him much to put an end to the arrangement, and he hoped, at any rate, that if

they wouldn't go on with him, they should still be just as good friends, and respect one another's motives;

"Stuff and nonsense!" cried Gower. "Here, East, get down the crib and find the place."

"O Tommy, Tommy!" said East, proceeding to do as he was bidden, "that it should ever have come to this! I

knew Arthur'd be the ruin of you some day, and you of me. And now the time's come." And he made a

"I don't know about ruin," answered Tom; "I know that you and I would have had the sack long ago if it

"Well, we were in a baddish way before he came, I own; but this new crotchet of his is past a joke."

"Let's give it a trial, Harry; come. You know how often he has been right and we wrong."

"Now, don't you two be jawing away about young Squaretoes," struck in Gower. "He's no end of a sucking

wiseacre, I dare say; but we've no time to lose, and I've got the fives court at halfpast nine."

"I say, Gower," said Tom appealingly, "be a good fellow, and let's try if we can't get on without the crib."

"I say, Tom," cried East, having hit on a new idea, "don't you remember, when we were in the upper fourth,

and old Momus caught me construing off the leaf of a crib which I'd torn out and put in my book, and which

"Well, the Doctor, after he'd flogged me, told me himself that he didn't flog me for using a translation, but for

taking it in to lesson, and using it there when I hadn't learnt a word before I came in. He said there was no

harm in using a translation to get a clue to hard passages, if you tried all you could first to make them out

"Of course he is," said Gower"the little prig. We'll only use the crib when we can't construe without it.

And on this agreement they startedTom, satisfied with having made his confession, and not sorry to have a

locus penitentiae, and not to be deprived altogether of the use of his old and faithful friend.

The boys went on as usual, each taking a sentence in turn, and the crib being handed to the one whose turn it

was to construe. Of course Tom couldn't object to this, as, was it not simply lying there to be appealed to in

case the sentence should prove too hard altogether for the construer? But it must be owned that Gower and

East did not make very tremendous exertions to conquer their sentences before having recourse to its help.

Tom, however, with the most heroic virtue and gallantry, rushed into his sentence, searching in a

highminded manner for nominative and verb, and turning over his dictionary frantically for the first hard

word that stopped him. But in the meantime Gower, who was bent on getting to fives, would peep quietly

into the crib, and then suggest, "Don't you think this is the meaning?" "I think you must take it this way,

Brown." And as Tom didn't see his way to not profiting by these suggestions, the lesson went on about as

quickly as usual, and Gower was able to start for the fives court within five minutes of the halfhour.

When Tom and East were left face to face, they looked at one another for a minute, Tom puzzled, and East

"Well, Tom," said East, recovering himself, "I don t see any objection to the new way. It's about as good as

the old one, I think, besides the advantage it gives one of feeling virtuous, and looking down on one's

Tom shoved his hand into his back hair. "I ain't so sure," said he; "you two fellows carried me off my legs. I

don't think we really tried one sentence fairly. Are you sure you remember what the Doctor said to you?"

"Yes. And I'll swear I couldn't make out one of my sentences todayno, nor ever could. I really don't

remember," said East, speaking slowly and impressively, "to have come across one Latin or Greek sentence

this half that I could go and construe by the light of nature. Whereby I am sure Providence intended cribs to

"The thing to find out," said Tom meditatively, "is how long one ought to grind at a sentence without looking

at the crib. Now I think if one fairly looks out all the words one don't know, and then can't hit it, that's

"To be sure, Tommy," said East demurely, but with a merry twinkle in his eye. "Your new doctrine too, old

fellow," added he, "when one comes to think of it, is a cutting at the root of all school morality. You'll take

away mutual help, brotherly love, or, in the vulgar tongue, giving construes, which I hold to be one of our

highest virtues. For how can you distinguish between getting a construe from another boy and using a crib?

Hang it, Tom, if you're going to deprive all our schoolfellows of the chance of exercising Christian

"I wish you wouldn't joke about it, Harry; it's hard enough to see one's waya precious sight harder than I

thought last night. But I suppose there's a use and an abuse of both, and one'll get straight enough somehow.

But you can't make out, anyhow, that one has a right to use old vulgusbooks and copy books."

"Hullo, more heresy! How fast a fellow goes downhill when he once gets his head before his legs. Listen to

me, Tom. Not use old vulgusbooks! Why, you Goth, ain't we to take the benefit of the wisdom and admire

and use the work of past generations? Not use old copybooks! Why, you might as well say we ought to pull

down Westminster Abbey, and put up a gotomeeting shop with churchwarden windows; or never read

Shakespeare, but only Sheridan Knowles. Think of all the work and labour that our predecessors have

"And then, is it not our duty to consult the pleasure of others rather than our own, and above all, that of our

masters? Fancy, then, the difference to them in looking over a vulgus which has been carefully touched and

retouched by themselves and others, and which must bring them a sort of dreamy pleasure, as if they'd met

the thought or expression of it somewhere or another before they were born perhapsand that of cutting

up, and making pictureframes round all your and my false quantities, and other monstrosities. Why, Tom,

you wouldn't be so cruel as never to let old Momus hum over the 'O genus humanum' again, and then look up

doubtingly through his spectacles, and end by smiling and giving three extra marks for itjust for old sake's

"Well," said Tom, getting up in something as like a huff as he was capable of, "it's deuced hard that when a

fellow's really trying to do what he ought, his best friends'll do nothing but chaff him and try to put him

down." And he stuck his books under his arm and his hat on his head, preparatory to rushing out into the

"Now don't be an ass, Tom," said East, catching hold of him; "you know me well enough by this time; my

bark's worse than my bite. You can't expect to ride your new crotchet without anybody's trying to stick a

nettle under his tail and make him kick you offespecially as we shall all have to go on foot still. But now

Then Tom sat himself down on the table, and waxed eloquent about all the righteousnesses and advantages of

the new plan, as was his wont whenever he took up anything, going into it as if his life depended upon it, and

sparing no abuse which he could think of, of the opposite method, which he denounced as ungentlemanly,

cowardly, mean, lying, and no one knows what besides. "Very cool of Tom," as East thought, but didn't say,

"Well, Tom," said he at last, "you see, when you and I came to school there were none of these sort of

notions. You may be rightI dare say you are. Only what one has always felt about the masters is, that it's a

fair trial of skill and last between us and themlike a match at football or a battle. We're natural enemies in

schoolthat's the fact. We've got to learn so much Latin and Greek, and do so many verses, and they've got

to see that we do it. If we can slip the collar and do so much less without getting caught, that's one to us. If

they can get more out of us, or catch us shirking, that's one to them. All's fair in war but lying. If I run my

luck against theirs, and go into school without looking at my lessons, and don't get called up, why am I a snob

or a sneak? I don't tell the master I've learnt it. He's got to find out whether I have or not. What's he paid for?

If he calls me up and I get floored, he makes me write it out in Greek and English. Very good. He's caught

me, and I don't grumble. I grant you, if I go and snivel to him, and tell him I've really tried to learn it, but

found it so hard without a translation, or say I've had a toothache, or any humbug of that kind, I'm a snob.

That's my school morality; it's served me, and you too, Tom, for the matter of that, these five years. And it's

all clear and fair, no mistake about it. We understand it, and they understand it, and I don't know what we're

Tom looked at him pleased and a little puzzled. He had never heard East speak his mind seriously before, and

couldn't help feeling how completely he had hit his own theory and practice up to that time.

"Thank you, old fellow," said he. "You're a good old brick to be serious, and not put out with me. I said more

than I meant, I dare say, only you see I know I'm right. Whatever you and Gower and the rest do, I shall hold

on. I must. And as it's all new and an uphill game, you see, one must hit hard and hold on tight at first."

"But I must bring you over, Harry, or I shan't be comfortable. Now, I'll allow all you've said. We've always

been honourable enemies with the masters. We found a state of war when we came, and went into it of

course. Only don't you think things are altered a good deal? I don't feel as I used to the masters. They seem to

"Yes, perhaps they do," said East; "there's a new set you see, mostly, who don't feel sure of themselves yet.

"I don't think it's only that," said Tom. "And then the Doctor, he does treat one so openly, and like a

"Well, so he does," said East; "he's a splendid fellow, and when I get into the sixth I shall act accordingly.

Only you know he has nothing to do with our lessons now, except examining us. I say, though," looking at

As they walked out they got a message, to say that Arthur was just starting, and would like to say goodbye.

So they went down to the private entrance of the Schoolhouse, and found an open carriage, with Arthur

They jumped up on to the steps to shake hands with him, and Tom mumbled thanks for the presents he had

East, who had fallen back into his usual humour, looked quaintly at Arthur, and said,

"So you've been at it again, through that hotheaded convert of yours there. He's been making our lives a

burden to us all the morning about using cribs. I shall get floored to a certainty at second lesson, if I'm called

"Oh, it's all right. He's converted already; he always comes through the mud after us, grumbling and

The clock struck, and they had to go off to school, wishing Arthur a pleasant holiday, Tom, lingering behind

Tom renewed the discussion after second lesson, and succeeded so far as to get East to promise to give the

Encouraged by his success, in the evening, when they were sitting alone in the large study, where East lived

now almost, "vice Arthur on leave," after examining the new fishingrod, which both pronounced to be the

genuine article ("play enough to throw a midge tied on a single hair against the wind, and strength enough to

hold a grampus"), they naturally began talking about Arthur. Tom, who was still bubbling over with last

night's scene and all the thoughts of the last week, and wanting to clinch and fix the whole in his own mind,

which he could never do without first going through the process of belabouring somebody else with it all,

suddenly rushed into the subject of Arthur's illness, and what he had said about death.

East had given him the desired opening. After a seriocomic grumble, "that life wasn't worth having, now

they were tied to a young beggar who was always 'raising his standard;' and that he, East, was like a prophet's

donkey, who was obliged to struggle on after the donkeyman who went after the prophet; that he had none

of the pleasure of starting the new crotchets, and didn't half understand them, but had to take the kicks and

carry the luggage as if he had all the fun," he threw his legs up on to the sofa, and put his hands behind his

"Well, after all, he's the most wonderful little fellow I ever came across. There ain't such a meek, humble boy

in the school. Hanged if I don't think now, really, Tom, that he believes himself a much worse fellow than

you or I, and that he don't think he has more influence in the house than Dot Bowles, who came last quarter,

and isn't ten yet. But he turns you and me round his little finger, old boythere's no mistake about that." And

"Now or never!" thought Tom; so, shutting his eyes and hardening his heart, he went straight at it, repeating

all that Arthur had said, as near as he could remember it, in the very words, and all he had himself thought.

The life seemed to ooze out of it as he went on, and several times he felt inclined to stop, give it all up, and

change the subject. But somehow he was borne on; he had a necessity upon him to speak it all out, and did

so. At the end he looked at East with some anxiety, and was delighted to see that that young gentleman was

thoughtful and attentive. The fact is, that in the stage of his inner life at which Tom had lately arrived, his

intimacy with and friendship for East could not have lasted if he had not made him aware of, and a sharer in,

the thoughts that were beginning to exercise him. Nor indeed could the friendship have lasted if East had

shown no sympathy with these thoughts; so that it was a great relief to have unbosomed himself, and to have

Tom had always had a sort of instinct that East's levity was only skindeep, and this instinct was a true one.

East had no want of reverence for anything he felt to be real; but his was one of those natures that burst into

what is generally called recklessness and impiety the moment they feel that anything is being poured upon

them for their good which does not come home to their inborn sense of right, or which appeals to anything

like selfinterest in them. Daring and honest by nature, and outspoken to an extent which alarmed all

respectabilities, with a constant fund of animal health and spirits which he did not feel bound to curb in any

way, he had gained for himself with the steady part of the school (including as well those who wished to

appear steady as those who really were so) the character of a boy with whom it would be dangerous to be

intimate; while his own hatred of everything cruel, or underhand, or false, and his hearty respect for what he

Tom, besides being very like East in many points of character, had largely developed in his composition the

capacity for taking the weakest side. This is not putting it strongly enough: it was a necessity with him; he

couldn't help it any more than he could eating or drinking. He could never play on the strongest side with any

heart at football or cricket, and was sure to make friends with any boy who was unpopular, or down on his

Now, though East was not what is generally called unpopular, Tom felt more and more every day, as their

characters developed, that he stood alone, and did not make friends among their contemporaries, and

therefore sought him out. Tom was himself much more popular, for his power of detecting humbug was much

less acute, and his instincts were much more sociable. He was at this period of his life, too, largely given to

taking people for what they gave themselves out to be; but his singleness of heart, fearlessness, and honesty

were just what East appreciated, and thus the two had been drawn into great intimacy.

East had often, as has been said, joined them in reading the Bible; but their discussions had almost always

turned upon the characters of the men and women of whom they read, and not become personal to

themselves. In fact, the two had shrunk from personal religious discussion, not knowing how it might end,

and fearful of risking a friendship very dear to both, and which they felt somehow, without quite knowing

why, would never be the same, but either tenfold stronger or sapped at its foundation, after such a

What a bother all this explaining is! I wish we could get on without it. But we can't. However, you'll all find,

if you haven't found it out already, that a time comes in every human friendship when you must go down into

the depths of yourself, and lay bare what is there to your friend, and wait in fear for his answer. A few

moments may do it; and it may be (most likely will be, as you are English boys) that you will never do it but

once. But done it must be, if the friendship is to be worth the name. You must find what is there, at the very

root and bottom of one another's hearts; and if you are at one there, nothing on earth can or at least ought to

East had remained lying down until Tom finished speaking, as if fearing to interrupt him; he now sat up at the

table, and leant his head on one hand, taking up a pencil with the other, and working little holes with it in the

tablecover. After a bit he looked up, stopped the pencil, and said, "Thank you very much, old fellow.

There's no other boy in the house would have done it for me but you or Arthur. I can see well enough," he

went on, after a pause, "all the best big fellows look on me with suspicion; they think I'm a devilmaycare,

reckless young scamp. So I ameleven hours out of twelve, but not the twelfth. Then all of our

contemporaries worth knowing follow suit, of course: we're very good friends at games and all that, but not a

soul of them but you and Arthur ever tried to break through the crust, and see whether there was anything at

"Not a bit of it," said East bitterly, pegging away with his pencil. "I see it all plain enough. Bless you, you

"Well, but what's the reason of it? There must be a reason. You can play all the games as well as any one and

sing the best song, and are the best company in the house. You fancy you're not liked, Harry. It's all fancy."

"I only wish it was, Tom. I know I could be popular enough with all the bad ones, but that I won't have, and

"Why not?" persisted Tom; "you don't drink or swear, or get out at night; you never bully, or cheat at lessons.

If you only showed you liked it, you'd have all the best fellows in the house running after you."

"Not I," said East. Then with an effort he went on, "I'll tell you what it is. I never stop the Sacrament. I can

"Yes, I've seen that," said Tom, "and I've been very sorry for it, and Arthur and I have talked about it. I've

often thought of speaking to you, but it's so hard to begin on such subjects. I'm very glad you've opened it.

"Not been confirmed!" said Tom, in astonishment. "I never thought of that. Why weren't you confirmed with

the rest of us nearly three years ago? I always thought you'd been confirmed at home."

"No," answered East sorrowfully; "you see this was how it happened. Last Confirmation was soon after

Arthur came, and you were so taken up with him I hardly saw either of you. Well, when the Doctor sent

round for us about it, I was living mostly with Green's set. You know the sort. They all went in. I dare say it

was all right, and they got good by it; I don't want to judge them. Only all I could see of their reasons drove

me just the other way. 'Twas 'because the Doctor liked it;' 'no boy got on who didn't stay the Sacrament;' it

was the 'correct thing,' in fact, like having a good hat to wear on Sundays. I couldn't stand it. I didn't feel that

I wanted to lead a different life. I was very well content as I was, and I wasn't going to sham religious to

East stopped speaking, and pegged away more diligently than ever with his pencil. Tom was ready to cry. He

felt half sorry at first that he had been confirmed himself. He seemed to have deserted his earliest friendto

have left him by himself at his worst need for those long years. He got up and went and sat by East, and put

"Dear old boy," he said, "how careless and selfish I've been. But why didn't you come and talk to Arthur and

"I wish to Heaven I had," said East, "but I was a fool. It's too late talking of it now."

"I think so," said East. "I've thought about it a good deal; only, often I fancy I must be changing, because I

see it's to do me good herejust what stopped me last time. And then I go back again."

"I'll tell you now how 'twas with me," said Tom warmly. "If it hadn't been for Arthur, I should have done just

as you did. I hope I should. I honour you for it. But then he made it out just as if it was taking the weak side

before all the world going in once for all against everything that's strong and rich, and proud and

respectable, a little band of brothers against the whole world. And the Doctor seemed to say so too, only he

"Ah!" groaned East, "but there again, that's just another of my difficulties whenever I think about the matter. I

don't want to be one of your saints, one of your elect, whatever the right phrase is. My sympathies are all the

other waywith the many, the poor devils who run about the streets and don't go to church. Don't stare,

Tom; mind, I'm telling you all that's in my heartas far as I know itbut it's all a muddle. You must be

gentle with me if you want to land me. Now I've seen a deal of this sort of religion; I was bred up in it, and I

can't stand it. If nineteentwentieths of the world are to be left to uncovenanted mercies, and that sort of

thing, which means in plain English to go to hell, and the other twentieth are to rejoice at it all, why"

"Oh! but, Harry, they ain't, they don't," broke in Tom, really shocked. "Oh, how I wish Arthur hadn't gone!

I'm such a fool about these things. But it's all you want too, East; it is indeed. It cuts both ways somehow,

being confirmed and taking the Sacrament. It makes you feel on the side of all the good and all the bad too, of

everybody in the world. Only there's some great dark strong power, which is crushing you and everybody

else. That's what Christ conquered, and we've got to fight. What a fool I am! I can't explain. If Arthur were

"Well, when I came to take the Sacrament, I had a great struggle about that. I tried to put him out of my head;

and when I couldn't do that, I tried to think of him as evilas something that the Lord who was loving me

hated, and which I might hate too. But it wouldn't do. I broke down; I believe Christ Himself broke me down.

And when the Doctor gave me the bread and wine, and leant over me praying, I prayed for poor Flashman, as

East buried his face in his hands on the table. Tom could feel the table tremble. At last he looked up. "Thank

you again, Tom," said he; "you don't know what you may have done for me to night. I think I see now how

That very night, after prayers, East followed the Doctor, and the old verger bearing the candle, upstairs. Tom

watched, and saw the Doctor turn round when he heard footsteps following him closer than usual, and say,

"If you please, sir." And the private door closed, and Tom went to his study in a state of great trouble of

"Well, it's all right," he shouted, seizing Tom by the hand. "I feel as if a ton weight were off my mind."

"Well, I just told him all about it. You can't think how kind and gentle he was, the great grim man, whom I've

feared more than anybody on earth. When I stuck, he lifted me just as if I'd been a little child. And he seemed

to know all I'd felt, and to have gone through it all. And I burst out cryingmore than I've done this five

years; and he sat down by me, and stroked my head; and I went blundering on, and told him all much

worse things than I've told you. And he wasn't shocked a bit, and didn't snub me, or tell me I was a fool, and

it was all nothing but pride or wickedness, though I dare say it was. And he didn't tell me not to follow out

my thoughts, and he didn't give me any cutanddried explanation. But when I'd done he just talked a bit. I

can hardly remember what he said yet; but it seemed to spread round me like healing, and strength, and light,

and to bear me up, and plant me on a rock, where I could hold my footing and fight for myself. I don't know

what to do, I feel so happy. And it's all owing to you, dear old boy!" And he seized Tom's hand again.

Tom's delight was as great as his friend's. But he hadn't yet had out all his own talk, and was bent on

improving the occasion: so he proceeded to propound Arthur's theory about not being sorry for his friends'

deaths, which he had hitherto kept in the background, and by which he was much exercised; for he didn't feel

it honest to take what pleased him, and throw over the rest, and was trying vigorously to persuade himself

But East's powers of remaining serious were exhausted, and in five minutes he was saying the most ridiculous

Despite of himself, however, he couldn't help laughing and giving it up, when East appealed to him with,

"Well, Tom, you ain't going to punch my head, I hope, because I insist upon being sorry when you got to

And so their talk finished for that time, and they tried to learn first lesson, with very poor success, as

appeared next morning, when they were called up and narrowly escaped being floored, which illluck,

The curtain now rises upon the last act of our little drama, for hardhearted publishers warn me that a single

volume must of necessity have an end. Well, well! the pleasantest things must come to an end. I little thought

last long vacation, when I began these pages to help while away some spare time at a wateringplace, how

vividly many an old scene which had lain hid away for years in some dusty old corner of my brain, would

come back again, and stand before me as clear and bright as if it had happened yesterday. The book has been

a most grateful task to me, and I only hope that all you, my dear young friends, who read it (friends assuredly

you must be, if you get as far as this), will be half as sorry to come to the last stage as I am.

Not but what there has been a solemn and a sad side to it. As the old scenes became living, and the actors in

them became living too, many a grave in the Crimea and distant India, as well as in the quiet churchyards of

our dear old country, seemed to open and send forth their dead, and their voices and looks and ways were

again in one's ears and eyes, as in the old Schooldays. But this was not sad. How should it be, if we believe

as our Lord has taught us? How should it be, when one more turn of the wheel, and we shall be by their sides

Then there were others of the old faces so dear to us once who had somehow or another just gone clean out of

sight. Are they dead or living? We know not, but the thought of them brings no sadness with it. Wherever

But are there not some, whom we still see sometimes in the streets, whose haunts and homes we know, whom

we could probably find almost any day in the week if we were set to do it, yet from whom we are really

farther than we are from the dead, and from those who have gone out of our ken? Yes, there are and must be

such; and therein lies the sadness of old School memories. Yet of these our old comrades, from whom more

than time and space separate us, there are some by whose sides we can feel sure that we shall stand again

when time shall be no more. We may think of one another now as dangerous fanatics or narrow bigots, with

whom no truce is possible, from whom we shall only sever more and more to the end of our lives, whom it

would be our respective duties to imprison or hang, if we had the power. We must go our way, and they

theirs, as long as flesh and spirit hold together; but let our own Rugby poet speak words of healing for this

"To veer how vain! on, onward strain, Brave barks, in light, in darkness too; Through winds and tides one

"But, O blithe breeze, and O great seas, Though ne'er that earliest parting past, On your wide plain they join

"One port, methought, alike they sought, One purpose hold where'er they fare. O bounding breeze, O rushing

This is not mere longing; it is prophecy. So over these too, our old friends, who are friends no more, we

sorrow not as men without hope. It is only for those who seem to us to have lost compass and purpose, and to

be driven helplessly on rocks and quicksands, whose lives are spent in the service of the world, the flesh, and

the devil, for self alone, and not for their fellowmen, their country, or their God, that we must mourn and

pray without sure hope and without light, trusting only that He, in whose hands they as well as we are, who

Another two years have passed, and it is again the end of the summer halfyear at Rugby; in fact, the School

has broken up. The fifthform examinations were over last week, and upon them have followed the speeches,

and the sixthform examinations for exhibitions; and they too are over now. The boys have gone to all the

winds of heaven, except the town boys and the eleven, and the few enthusiasts besides who have asked leave

to stay in their houses to see the result of the cricket matches. For this year the Wellesburn return match and

the Marylebone match are played at Rugby, to the great delight of the town and neighbourhood, and the

sorrow of those aspiring young cricketers who have been reckoning for the last three months on showing off

The Doctor started for the Lakes yesterday morning, after an interview with the captain of the eleven, in the

presence of Thomas, at which he arranged in what school the cricket dinners were to be, and all other matters

necessary for the satisfactory carrying out of the festivities, and warned them as to keeping all spirituous

The Wellesburn match was played out with great success yesterday, the School winning by three wickets; and

today the great event of the cricketing year, the Marylebone match, is being played. What a match it has

been! The London eleven came down by an afternoon train yesterday, in time to see the end of the

Wellesburn match; and as soon as it was over, their leading men and umpire inspected the ground, criticising

it rather unmercifully. The captain of the School eleven, and one or two others, who had played the Lord's

match before, and knew old Mr. Aislabie and several of the Lord's men, accompanied them; while the rest of

the eleven looked on from under the Three Trees with admiring eyes, and asked one another the names of the

illustrious strangers, and recounted how many runs each of them had made in the late matches in Bell's Life.

They looked such hardbitten, wiry, whiskered fellows that their young adversaries felt rather desponding as

to the result of the morrow's match. The ground was at last chosen, and two men set to work upon it to water

and roll; and then, there being yet some halfhour of daylight, some one had suggested a dance on the turf.

The close was half full of citizens and their families, and the idea was hailed with enthusiasm. The cornopean

player was still on the ground. In five minutes the eleven and half a dozen of the Wellesburn and Marylebone

men got partners somehow or another, and a merry countrydance was going on, to which every one flocked,

and new couples joined in every minute, till there were a hundred of them going down the middle and up

again; and the long line of school buildings looked gravely down on them, every window glowing with the

last rays of the western sun; and the rooks clanged about in the tops of the old elms, greatly excited, and

resolved on having their country dance too; and the great flag flapped lazily in the gentle western breeze.

Altogether it was a sight which would have made glad the heart of our brave old founder, Lawrence Sheriff,

if he were half as good a fellow as I take him to have been. It was a cheerful sight to see. But what made it so

valuable in the sight of the captain of the School eleven was that he there saw his young hands shaking off

their shyness and awe of the Lord's men, as they crossed hands and capered about on the grass together; for

the strangers entered into it all, and threw away their cigars, and danced and shouted like boys; while old Mr.

Aislabie stood by looking on in his white hat, leaning on a bat, in benevolent enjoyment. "This hop will be

worth thirty runs to us tomorrow, and will be the making of Raggles and Johnson," thinks the young leader,

as he revolves many things in his mind, standing by the side of Mr. Aislabie, whom he will not leave for a

minute, for he feels that the character of the School for courtesy is resting on his shoulders.

But when a quarter to nine struck, and he saw old Thomas beginning to fidget about with the keys in his

hand, he thought of the Doctor's parting monition, and stopped the cornopean at once, notwithstanding the

loudvoiced remonstrances from all sides; and the crowd scattered away from the close, the eleven all going

into the Schoolhouse, where supper and beds were provided for them by the Doctor's orders.

Deep had been the consultations at supper as to the order of going in, who should bowl the first over, whether

it would be best to play steady or freely; and the youngest hands declared that they shouldn't be a bit nervous,

and praised their opponents as the jolliest fellows in the world, except perhaps their old friends the

Wellesburn men. How far a little good nature from their elders will go with the right sort of boys!

The morning had dawned bright and warm, to the intense relief of many an anxious youngster, up betimes to

mark the signs of the weather. The eleven went down in a body before breakfast, for a plunge in the cold bath

in a corner of the close. The ground was in splendid order, and soon after ten o'clock, before spectators had

arrived, all was ready, and two of the Lord's men took their places at the wicketsthe School, with the usual

liberality of young hands, having put their adversaries in first. Old Bailey stepped up to the wicket, and called

"Oh, well bowled! well bowled, Johnson!" cries the captain, catching up the ball and sending it high above

the rook trees, while the third Marylebone man walks away from the wicket, and old Bailey gravely sets up

"How many runs?" Away scamper three boys to the scoring table, and are back again in a minute amongst the

rest of the eleven, who are collected together in a knot between wicket. "Only eighteen runs, and three

wickets down!" "Huzza for old Rugby!" sings out Jack Raggles, the longstop, toughest and burliest of boys,

commonly called "Swiper Jack," and forthwith stands on his head, and brandishes his legs in the air in

triumph, till the next boy catches hold of his heels, and throws him over on to his back.

"Steady there; don't be such an ass, Jack," says the captain; "we haven't got the best wicket yet. Ah, look out

now at cover point," adds he, as he sees a longarmed bareheaded, slashing looking player coming to the

wicket. "And, Jack, mind your hits. He steals more runs than any man in England."

And they all find that they have got their work to do now. The newcomer's offhitting is tremendous, and his

running like a flash of lightning. He is never in his ground except when his wicket is down. Nothing in the

whole game so trying to boys. He has stolen three byes in the first ten minutes, and Jack Raggles is furious,

and begins throwing over savagely to the farther wicket, until he is sternly stopped by the captain. It is all that

young gentlemen can do to keep his team steady, but he knows that everything depends on it, and faces his

work bravely. The score creeps up to fifty; the boys begin to look blank; and the spectators, who are now

mustering strong, are very silent. The ball flies off his bat to all parts of the field, and he gives no rest and no

catches to any one. But cricket is full of glorious chances, and the goddess who presides over it loves to bring

down the most skilful players. Johnson, the young bowler, is getting wild, and bowls a ball almost wide to the

off; the batter steps out and cuts it beautifully to where coverpoint is standing very deepin fact almost off

the ground. The ball comes skimming and twisting along about three feet from the ground; he rushes at it,

and it sticks somehow or other in the fingers of his left hand, to the utter astonishment of himself and the

whole field. Such a catch hasn't been made in the close for years, and the cheering is maddening. "Pretty

cricket," says the captain, throwing himself on the ground by the deserted wicket with a long breath. He feels

I wish I had space to describe the matchhow the captain stumped the next man off a legshooter, and

bowled small cobs to old Mr. Aislabie, who came in for the last wicket; how the Lord's men were out by

halfpast twelve o'clock for ninetyeight runs; how the captain of the School eleven went in first to give his

men pluck, and scored twentyfive in beautiful style; how Rugby was only four behind in the first innings;

what a glorious dinner they had in the fourthform school; and how the cover point hitter sang the most

topping comic songs, and old Mr. Aislabie made the best speeches that ever were heard, afterwards. But I

haven't spacethat's the fact; and so you must fancy it all, and carry yourselves on to halfpast seven

o'clock, when the School are again in, with five wickets down, and only thirtytwo runs to make to win. The

Marylebone men played carelessly in their second innings, but they are working like horses now to save the

There is much healthy, hearty, happy life scattered up and down the close; but the group to which I beg to call

your especial attention is there, on the slope of the island, which looks towards the cricketground. It consists

of three figures; two are seated on a bench, and one on the ground at their feet. The first, a tall, slight and

rather gaunt man, with a bushy eyebrow and a dry, humorous smile, is evidently a clergyman. He is

carelessly dressed, and looks rather used up, which isn't much to be wondered at, seeing that he has just

finished six weeks of examination work; but there he basks, and spreads himself out in the evening sun, bent

on enjoying life, though he doesn't quite know what to do with his arms and legs. Surely it is our friend the

young master, whom we have had glimpses of before, but his face has gained a great deal since we last came

And by his side, in white flannel shirt and trousers, straw hat, the captain's belt, and the untanned yellow

cricket shoes which all the eleven wear, sits a strapping figure, near six feet high, with ruddy, tanned face and

whiskers, curly brown hair, and a laughing, dancing eye. He is leaning forward with his elbows resting on his

knees, and dandling his favourite bat, with which he has made thirty or forty runs today, in his strong brown

hands. It is Tom Brown, grown into a young man nineteen years old, a prepostor and captain of the eleven,

spending his last day as a Rugby boy, and, let us hope, as much wiser as he is bigger, since we last had the

And at their feet on the warm, dry ground, similarly dressed, sits Arthur, Turkish fashion, with his bat across

his knees. He too is no longer a boyless of a boy, in fact, than Tom, if one may judge from the

thoughtfulness of his face, which is somewhat paler, too, than one could wish; but his figure, though slight, is

well knit and active, and all his old timidity has disappeared, and is replaced by silent, quaint fun, with which

his face twinkles all over, as he listens to the broken talk between the other two, in which he joins every now

All three are watching the game eagerly, and joining in the cheering which follows every good hit. It is

pleasing to see the easy, friendly footing which the pupils are on with their master, perfectly respectful, yet

with no reserve and nothing forced in their intercourse. Tom has clearly abandoned the old theory of "natural

But it is time to listen to what they are saying, and see what we can gather out of it.

"I don't object to your theory," says the master, "and I allow you have made a fair case for yourself. But now,

in such books as Aristophanes, for instance, you've been reading a play this half with the Doctor, haven't

"Well, I'm sure you would have enjoyed the wonderful humour of it twice as much if you had taken more

"Well, sir, I don't believe any boy in the form enjoyed the setsto between Cleon and the Sausageseller

"Yes, I must say he did," said Arthur. "I think, sir, you've hit upon the wrong book there."

"Not a bit of it," said the master. "Why, in those very passages of arms, how can you thoroughly appreciate

them unless you are master of the weapons? and the weapons are the language, which you, Brown, have

never half worked at; and so, as I say, you must have lost all the delicate shades of meaning which make the

"Oh, well played! bravo, Johnson!" shouted Arthur, dropping his bat and clapping furiously, and Tom joined

"Eh! what was it? I didn't see," inquired the master. "They only got one run, I thought?"

"No, but such a ball, threequarters length, and coming straight for his leg bail. Nothing but that turn of the

wrist could have saved him, and he drew it away to leg for a safe one. Bravo, Johnson!"

"How well they are bowling, though," said Arthur; "they don't mean to be beat, I can see."

"There now," struck in the master; "you see that's just what I have been preaching this halfhour. The delicate

play is the true thing. I don't understand cricket, so I don't enjoy those fine draws which you tell me are the

best play, though when you or Raggles hit a ball hard away for six I am as delighted as any one. Don't you

"Yes, sir," answered Tom, looking up roguishly, "I see; only the question remains whether I should have got

most good by understanding Greek particles or cricket thoroughly. I'm such a thick, I never should have had

"I see you are an incorrigible," said the master, with a chuckle; "but I refute you by an example. Arthur there

"Yes, but no thanks to him; Greek came natural to him. Why, when he first came I remember he used to read

Herodotus for pleasure as I did Don Quixote, and couldn't have made a false concord if he'd tried ever so

"Out! Bailey has given him out. Do you see, Tom?" cries Arthur. "How foolish of them to run so hard."

"Let's go and see," said Tom, rising; but at this moment Jack Raggles and two or three more came running to

"Winter's, and then Arthur's," answers the boy who carries it; "but there are only twentysix runs to get, and

no time to lose. I heard Mr. Aislabie say that the stumps must be drawn at a quarter past eight exactly."

"Oh, do let the Swiper go in," chorus the boys; so Tom yields against his better judgment.

"I dare say now I've lost the match by this nonsense," he says, as he sits down again; "they'll be sure to get

Jack's wicket in three or four minutes; however, you'll have the chance, sir, of seeing a hard hit or two," adds

"Come, none of your irony, Brown," answers the master. "I'm beginning to understand the game

"Yes," said Arthur"the birthright of British boys old and young, as habeas corpus and trial by jury are of

"The discipline and reliance on one another which it teaches is so valuable, I think," went on the master, "it

ought to be such an unselfish game. It merges the individual in the eleven; he doesn't play that he may win,

"That's very true," said Tom, "and that's why football and cricket, now one comes to think of it, are such

much better games than fives or hareandhounds, or any others where the object is to come in first or to win

"And then the captain of the eleven!" said the master; "what a post is his in our Schoolworld! almost as hard

as the Doctor's requiring skill and gentleness and firmness, and I know not what other rare qualities."

"Which don't he may wish he may get!" said Tom, laughing; "at any rate he hasn't got them yet, or he

wouldn't have been such a flat tonight as to let Jack Raggles go in out of his turn."

"Ah, the Doctor never would have done that," said Arthur demurely. "Tom, you've a great deal to learn yet in

"Well, I wish you'd tell the Doctor so then, and get him to let me stop till I'm twenty. I don't want to leave,

"What a sight it is," broke in the master, "the Doctor as a ruler! Perhaps ours is the only little corner of the

British Empire which is thoroughly, wisely, and strongly ruled just now. I'm more and more thankful every

"So am I, I'm sure," said Tom, "and more and more sorry that I've got to leave."

"Every place and thing one sees here reminds one of some wise act of his," went on the master. "This island

nowyou remember the time, Brown, when it was laid out in small gardens, and cultivated by frostbitten

"Of course I do," said Tom; "didn't I hate spending two hours in the afternoon grubbing in the tough dirt with

"I dare say it was, but it was always leading to fights with the townspeople; and then the stealing flowers out

"Well, so it was," said Tom, looking down, "but we fags couldn't help ourselves. But what has that to do with

"A great deal, I think," said the master; "what brought island fagging to an end?"

"Why, the Easter speeches were put off till midsummer," said Tom, "and the sixth had the gymnastic poles

"Well, and who changed the time of the speeches, and put the idea of gymnastic poles into the heads of their

"Of course you didn't," said the master, "or else, fag as you were, you would have shouted with the whole

school against putting down old customs. And that's the way that all the Doctor's reforms have been carried

out when he has been left to himselfquietly and naturally, putting a good thing in the place of a bad, and

letting the bad die out; no wavering, and no hurrythe best thing that could be done for the time being, and

"Just Tom's own way," chimed in Arthur, nudging Tom with his elbow"driving a nail where it will go;" to

Meantime Jack Raggles, with his sleeves tucked up above his great brown elbows, scorning pads and gloves,

has presented himself at the wicket; and having run one for a forward drive of Johnson's, is about to receive

his first ball. There are only twentyfour runs to make, and four wickets to go downa winning match if

they play decently steady. The ball is a very swift one, and rises fast, catching Jack on the outside of the

thigh, and bounding away as if from indiarubber, while they run two for a legbye amidst great applause

and shouts from Jack's many admirers. The next ball is a beautifullypitched ball for the outer stump, which

the reckless and unfeeling Jack catches hold of, and hits right round to leg for five, while the applause

becomes deafening. Only seventeen runs to get with four wickets! The game is all but ours!

It is over now, and Jack walks swaggering about his wicket, with his bat over his shoulder, while Mr.

Aislabie holds a short parley with his men. Then the coverpoint hitter, that cunning man, goes on to bowl

slow twisters. Jack waves his hand triumphantly towards the tent, as much as to say, "See if I don't finish it

Alas, my son Jack, the enemy is too old for thee. The first ball of the over Jack steps out and meets, swiping

with all his force. If he had only allowed for the twist! But he hasn't, and so the ball goes spinning up straight

in the air, as if it would never come down again. Away runs Jack, shouting and trusting to the chapter of

accidents; but the bowler runs steadily under it, judging every spin, and calling out, "I have it," catches it, and

playfully pitches it on to the back of the stalwart Jack, who is departing with a rueful countenance.

"I knew how it would be," says Tom, rising. "Come along; the game's getting very serious."

So they leave the island and go to the tent; and after deep consultation, Arthur is sent in, and goes off to the

wicket with a last exhortation from Tom to play steady and keep his bat straight. To the suggestions that

Winter is the best bat left, Tom only replies, "Arthur is the steadiest, and Johnson will make the runs if the

"I am surprised to see Arthur in the eleven," said the master, as they stood together in front of the dense

"Well, I'm not quite sure that he ought to be in for his play," said Tom, "but I couldn't help putting him in. It

The master smiled. The clock strikes eight, and the whole field becomes fevered with excitement. Arthur,

after two narrow escapes, scores one, and Johnson gets the ball. The bowling and fielding are superb, and

Johnson's batting worthy the occasion. He makes here a two, and there a one, managing to keep the ball to

himself, and Arthur backs up and runs perfectly. Only eleven runs to make now, and the crowd scarcely

breathe. At last Arthur gets the ball again, and actually drives it forward for two, and feels prouder than when

he got the three best prizes, at hearing Tom's shout of joy, "Well played, well played, young un!"

But the next ball is too much for the young hand, and his bails fly different ways. Nine runs to make, and two

Before Winter can get in, the omnibus which is to take the Lord's men to the train pulls up at the side of the

close, and Mr. Aislabie and Tom consult, and give out that the stumps will be drawn after the next over. And

so ends the great match. Winter and Johnson carry out their bats, and, it being a one day's match, the Lord's

But such a defeat is a victory: so think Tom and all the School eleven, as they accompany their conquerors to

the omnibus, and send them off with three ringing cheers, after Mr. Aislabie has shaken hands all round,

saying to Tom, "I must compliment you, sir, on your eleven, and I hope we shall have you for a member if

As Tom and the rest of the eleven were turning back into the close, and everybody was beginning to cry out

for another countrydance, encouraged by the success of the night before, the young master, who was just

leaving the close, stopped him, and asked him to come up to tea at halfpast eight, adding, "I won't keep you

"I'll come up with you directly, if you'll let me," said Tom, "for I feel rather melancholy, and not quite up to

So Tom went off to get his boots and things from the tent, to tell Arthur of the invitation, and to speak to his

second in command about stopping the dancing and shutting up the close as soon as it grew dusk. Arthur

promised to follow as soon as he had had a dance. So Tom handed his things over to the man in charge of the

tent, and walked quietly away to the gate where the master was waiting, and the two took their way together

Of course they found the master's house locked up, and all the servants away in the closeabout this time,

no doubt, footing it away on the grass, with extreme delight to themselves, and in utter oblivion of the

unfortunate bachelor their master, whose one enjoyment in the shape of meals was his "dish of tea" (as our

grandmothers called it) in the evening; and the phrase was apt in his case, for he always poured his out into

the saucer before drinking. Great was the good man's horror at finding himself shut out of his own house.

Had he been alone he would have treated it as a matter of course, and would have strolled contentedly up and

down his gravel walk until some one came home; but he was hurt at the stain on his character of host,

especially as the guest was a pupil. However, the guest seemed to think it a great joke, and presently, as they

poked about round the house, mounted a wall, from which he could reach a passage window. The window, as

it turned out, was not bolted, so in another minute Tom was in the house and down at the front door, which he

opened from inside. The master chuckled grimly at this burglarious entry, and insisted on leaving the

halldoor and two of the front windows open, to frighten the truants on their return; and then the two set

about foraging for tea, in which operation the master was much at fault, having the faintest possible idea of

where to find anything, and being, moreover, wondrously shortsighted; but Tom, by a sort of instinct, knew

the right cupboards in the kitchen and pantry, and soon managed to place on the snuggery table better

materials for a meal than had appeared there probably during the reign of his tutor, who was then and there

initiated, amongst other things, into the excellence of that mysterious condiment, a drippingcake. The cake

was newly baked, and all rich and flaky; Tom had found it reposing in the cook's private cupboard, awaiting

her return; and as a warning to her they finished it to the last crumb. The kettle sang away merrily on the hob

of the snuggery, for, notwithstanding the time of year, they lighted a fire, throwing both the windows wide

open at the same time; the heaps of books and papers were pushed away to the other end of the table, and the

great solitary engraving of King's College Chapel over the mantelpiece looked less stiff than usual, as they

After some talk on the match, and other indifferent subjects, the conversation came naturally back to Tom's

"Well, we shall all miss you quite as much as you will miss us," said the master. "You are the Nestor of the

"Yes, I had a letter in February, just before he started for India to join his regiment."

"Ay, won't he!" said Tom, brightening. "No fellow could handle boys better, and I suppose soldiers are very

like boys. And he'll never tell them to go where he won't go himself. No mistake about that. A braver fellow

"His year in the sixth will have taught him a good deal that will be useful to him now."

"So it will,"' said Tom, staring into the fire. "Poor dear Harry," he went on"how well I remember the day

we were put out of the twenty! How he rose to the situation, and burnt his cigarcases, and gave away his

pistols, and pondered on the constitutional authority of the sixth, and his new duties to the Doctor, and the

fifth form, and the fags! Ay, and no fellow ever acted up to them better, though he was always a people's

manfor the fags, and against constituted authorities. He couldn't help that, you know. I'm sure the Doctor

"The Doctor sees the good in every one, and appreciates it," said the master dogmatically; "but I hope East

will get a good colonel. He won't do if he can't respect those above him. How long it took him, even here, to

"Well, I wish I were alongside of him," said Tom. "If I can't be at Rugby, I want to be at work in the world,

"What do you mean by 'at work in the world'?" said the master, pausing with his lips close to his saucerful of

"Well, I mean real workone's professionwhatever one will have really to do and make one's living by. I

want to be doing some real good, feeling that I am not only at play in the world," answered Tom, rather

"You are mixing up two very different things in your head, I think, Brown," said the master, putting down the

empty saucer, "and you ought to get clear about them. You talk of 'working to get your living,' and 'doing

some real good in the world,' in the same breath. Now, you may be getting a very good living in a profession,

and yet doing no good at all in the world, but quite the contrary, at the same time. Keep the latter before you

as your one object, and you will be right, whether you make a living or not; but if you dwell on the other,

you'll very likely drop into mere moneymaking, and let the world take care of itself for good or evil. Don't

be in a hurry about finding your work in the world for yourselfyou are not old enough to judge for yourself

yet; but just look about you in the place you find yourself in, and try to make things a little better and

honester there. You'll find plenty to keep your hand in at Oxford, or wherever else you go. And don't be led

away to think this part of the world important and that unimportant. Every corner of the world is important.

No man knows whether this part or that is most so, but every man may do some honest work in his own

corner." And then the good man went on to talk wisely to Tom of the sort of work which he might take up as

an undergraduate, and warned him of the prevalent university sins, and explained to him the many and great

differences between university and school life, till the twilight changed into darkness, and they heard the

"I wonder where Arthur can be," said Tom at last, looking at his watch; "why, it's nearly halfpast nine

"Oh, he is comfortably at supper with the eleven, forgetful of his oldest friends," said the master. "Nothing

has given me greater pleasure," he went on, "than your friendship for him; it has been the making of you

"Of me, at any rate," answered Tom; "I should never have been here now but for him. It was the luckiest

"Why do you talk of lucky chances?" said the master. "I don't know that there are any such things in the

Tom looked at him inquiringly, and he went on. "Do you remember when the Doctor lectured you and East at

the end of one half year, when you were in the shell, and had been getting into all sorts of scrapes?"

"Exactly so," answered the master. "Now, I was with him a few minutes afterwards, and he was in great

distress about you two. And after some talk, we both agreed that you in particular wanted some object in the

School beyond games and mischief; for it was quite clear that you never would make the regular school work

your first object. And so the Doctor, at the beginning of the next halfyear, looked out the best of the new

boys, and separated you and East, and put the young boy into your study, in the hope that when you had

somebody to lean on you, you would begin to stand a little steadier yourself, and get manliness and

thoughtfulness. And I can assure you he has watched the experiment ever since with great satisfaction. Ah!

not one of you boys will ever know the anxiety you have given him, or the care with which he has watched

Up to this time Tom had never given wholly in to or understood the Doctor. At first he had thoroughly feared

him. For some years, as I have tried to show, he had learnt to regard him with love and respect, and to think

him a very great and wise and good man. But as regarded his own position in the School, of which he was no

little proud, Tom had no idea of giving any one credit for it but himself, and, truth to tell, was a very self

conceited young gentleman on the subject. He was wont to boast that he had fought his own way fairly up the

School, and had never made up to or been taken up by any big fellow or master, and that it was now quite a

different place from what it was when he first came. And, indeed, though he didn't actually boast of it, yet in

his secret soul he did to a great extent believe that the great reform in the School had been owing quite as

much to himself as to any one else. Arthur, he acknowledged, had done him good, and taught him a good

deal; so had other boys in different ways, but they had not had the same means of influence on the School in

general. And as for the Doctor, why, he was a splendid master; but every one knew that masters could do

very little out of school hours. In short, he felt on terms of equality with his chief, so far as the social state of

the School was concerned, and thought that the Doctor would find it no easy matter to get on without him.

Moreover, his School Toryism was still strong, and he looked still with some jealousy on the Doctor, as

somewhat of a fanatic in the matter of change, and thought it very desirable for the School that he should

have some wise person (such as himself) to look sharply after vested Schoolrights, and see that nothing was

It was a new light to him to find that, besides teaching the sixth, and governing and guiding the whole

School, editing classics, and writing histories, the great headmaster had found time in those busy years to

watch over the career even of him, Tom Brown, and his particular friends, and, no doubt, of fifty other boys

at the same time, and all this without taking the least credit to himself, or seeming to know, or let any one

However, the Doctor's victory was complete from that moment over Tom Brown at any rate. He gave way at

all points, and the enemy marched right over himcavalry, infantry, and artillery, and the land transport

corps, and the camp followers. It had taken eight long years to do it; but now it was done thoroughly, and

there wasn't a corner of him left which didn't believe in the Doctor. Had he returned to School again, and the

Doctor begun the halfyear by abolishing fagging, and football, and the Saturday halfholiday, or all or any

of the most cherished School institutions, Tom would have supported him with the blindest faith. And so,

after a half confession of his previous shortcomings, and sorrowful adieus to his tutor, from whom he

received two beautifullybound volumes of the Doctor's sermons, as a parting present, he marched down to

the Schoolhouse, a heroworshipper, who would have satisfied the soul of Thomas Carlyle himself.

There he found the eleven at high jinks after supper, Jack Raggles shouting comic songs and performing feats

of strength, and was greeted by a chorus of mingled remonstrance at his desertion and joy at his

reappearance. And falling in with the humour of the evening, he was soon as great a boy as all the rest; and at

ten o'clock was chaired round the quadrangle, on one of the hall benches, borne aloft by the eleven, shouting

in chorus, "For he's a jolly good fellow," while old Thomas, in a melting mood, and the other Schoolhouse

And the next morning after breakfast he squared up all the cricketing accounts, went round to his tradesmen

and other acquaintance, and said his hearty goodbyes; and by twelve o'clock was in the train, and away for

London, no longer a schoolboy, and divided in his thoughts between heroworship, honest regrets over the

long stage of his life which was now slipping out of sight behind him, and hopes and resolves for the next

In the summer of 1842, our hero stopped once again at the well known station; and leaving his bag and

fishingrod with a porter, walked slowly and sadly up towards the town. It was now July. He had rushed

away from Oxford the moment that term was over, for a fishing ramble in Scotland with two college friends,

and had been for three weeks living on oatcake, muttonhams, and whisky, in the wildest parts of Skye. They

had descended one sultry evening on the little inn at Kyle Rhea ferry; and while Tom and another of the party

put their tackle together and began exploring the stream for a seatrout for supper, the third strolled into the

house to arrange for their entertainment. Presently he came out in a loose blouse and slippers, a short pipe in

his mouth, and an old newspaper in his hand, and threw himself on the heathery scrub which met the shingle,

within easy hail of the fishermen. There he lay, the picture of freeand easy, loafing, handtomouth young

England, "improving his mind," as he shouted to them, by the perusal of the fortnight old weekly paper,

soiled with the marks of toddyglasses and tobaccoashes, the legacy of the last traveller, which he had

hunted out from the kitchen of the little hostelry, and, being a youth of a communicative turn of mind, began

"What a bother they are making about these wretched cornlaws! Here's three or four columns full of nothing

but sliding scales and fixed duties. Hang this tobacco, it's always going out! Ah, here's something bettera

splendid match between Kent and England, Brown, Kent winning by three wickets. Felix fiftysix runs

"Just my luck," grumbled the inquirer, jerking his flies off the water, and throwing again with a heavy, sullen

"I say, can't you throw lighter over there? We ain't fishing for grampuses," shouted Tom across the stream.

"Hullo, Brown! here's something for you," called out the reading man next moment. "Why, your old master,

Tom's hand stopped halfway in his cast, and his line and flies went all tangling round and round his rod; you

might have knocked him over with a feather. Neither of his companions took any notice of him, luckily; and

with a violent effort he set to work mechanically to disentangle his line. He felt completely carried off his

moral and intellectual legs, as if he had lost his standingpoint in the invisible world. Besides which, the

deep, loving loyalty which he felt for his old leader made the shock intensely painful. It was the first great

wrench of his life, the first gap which the angel Death had made in his circle, and he felt numbed, and beaten

down, and spiritless. Well, well! I believe it was good for him and for many others in like case, who had to

learn by that loss that the soul of man cannot stand or lean upon any human prop, however strong, and wise,

and good; but that He upon whom alone it can stand and lean will knock away all such props in His own wise

and merciful way, until there is no ground or stay left but Himself, the Rock of Ages, upon whom alone a

As he wearily laboured at his line, the thought struck him, "It may be all falsea mere newspaper lie." And

"Nothing else in it," answered the other, handing it up to him listlessly. "Hullo, Brown! what's the matter, old

"Where is it?" said Tom, turning over the leaves, his hands trembling, and his eyes swimming, so that he

"What? What are you looking for?" said his friend, jumping up and looking over his shoulder.

"Oh, here," said the other, putting his finger on the paragraph. Tom read it over and over again. There could

"Thank you," said he at last, dropping the paper. "I shall go for a walk. Don't you and Herbert wait supper for

me." And away he strode, up over the moor at the back of the house, to be alone, and master his grief if

His friend looked after him, sympathizing and wondering, and, knocking the ashes out of his pipe, walked

"How odd that he should be so fond of his old master," said Herbert. Yet they also were both publicschool

The two, however, notwithstanding Tom's prohibition, waited supper for him, and had everything ready when

he came back some half an hour afterwards. But he could not join in their cheerful talk, and the party was

soon silent, notwithstanding the efforts of all three. One thing only had Tom resolved, and that was, that he

couldn't stay in Scotland any longer: he felt an irresistible longing to get to Rugby, and then home, and soon

So by daylight the next morning he was marching through Ross shire, and in the evening hit the Caledonian

Canal, took the next steamer, and travelled as fast as boat and railway could carry him to the Rugby station.

As he walked up to the town, he felt shy and afraid of being seen, and took the back streetswhy, he didn't

know, but he followed his instinct. At the Schoolgates he made a dead pause; there was not a soul in the

quadrangleall was lonely, and silent, and sad. So with another effort he strode through the quadrangle, and

He found the little matron in her room in deep mourning; shook her hand, tried to talk, and moved nervously

about. She was evidently thinking of the same subject as he, but he couldn't begin talking.

"In the servants' hall, I think, sir. But won't you take anything?" said the matron, looking rather disappointed.

"No, thank you," said he, and strode off again to find the old verger, who was sitting in his little den, as of

"Ah! you've heard all about it, sir, I see," said he. Tom nodded, and then sat down on the shoeboard, while

the old man told his tale, and wiped his spectacles, and fairly flowed over with quaint, homely, honest

"Under the altar in the chapel, sir," answered Thomas. "You'd like to have the key, I dare say?"

And the old man fumbled among his bunch, and then got up, as though he would go with him; but after a few

Tom nodded, and the bunch of keys were handed to him, with an injunction to be sure and lock the door after

He walked quickly through the quadrangle and out into the close. The longing which had been upon him and

driven him thus far, like the gadfly in the Greek legends, giving him no rest in mind or body, seemed all of a

sudden not to be satisfied, but to shrivel up and pall. "Why should I go on? It's no use," he thought, and threw

himself at full length on the turf, and looked vaguely and listlessly at all the wellknown objects. There were

a few of the town boys playing cricket, their wicket pitched on the best piece in the middle of the bigside

ground a sin about equal to sacrilege in the eyes of a captain of the eleven. He was very nearly getting up

to go and send them off. "Pshaw! they won't remember me. They've more right there than I," he muttered.

And the thought that his sceptre had departed, and his mark was wearing out, came home to him for the first

time, and bitterly enough. He was lying on the very spot where the fights came offwhere he himself had

fought six years ago his first and last battle. He conjured up the scene till he could almost hear the shouts of

the ring, and East's whisper in his ear; and looking across the close to the Doctor's private door, half expected

to see it open, and the tall figure in cap and gown come striding under the elmtrees towards him.

No, no; that sight could never be seen again. There was no flag flying on the round tower; the Schoolhouse

windows were all shuttered up; and when the flag went up again, and the shutters came down, it would be to

welcome a stranger. All that was left on earth of him whom he had honoured was lying cold and still under

the chapel floor. He would go in and see the place once more, and then leave it once for all. New men and

new methods might do for other people; let those who would, worship the rising star; he, at least, would be

faithful to the sun which had set. And so he got up, and walked to the chapel door, and unlocked it, fancying

himself the only mourner in all the broad land, and feeding on his own selfish sorrow.

He passed through the vestibule, and then paused for a moment to glance over the empty benches. His heart

was still proud and high, and he walked up to the seat which he had last occupied as a sixthform boy, and

And, truth to tell, they needed collecting and setting in order not a little. The memories of eight years were all

dancing through his brain, and carrying him about whither they would; while, beneath them all, his heart was

throbbing with the dull sense of a loss that could never be made up to him. The rays of the evening sun came

solemnly through the painted windows above his head, and fell in gorgeous colours on the opposite wall, and

the perfect stillness soothed his spirit by little and little. And he turned to the pulpit, and looked at it, and

then, leaning forward with his head on his hands, groaned aloud. If he could only have seen the Doctor again

for one five minuteshave told him all that was in his heart, what he owed to him, how he loved and

reverenced him, and would, by God's help, follow his steps in life and deathhe could have borne it all

without a murmur. But that he should have gone away for ever without knowing it all, was too much to bear.

"But am I sure that he does not know it all?" The thought made him start. "May he not even now be near me,

in this very chapel? If he be, am I sorrowing as he would have me sorrow, as I should wish to have sorrowed

He raised himself up and looked round, and after a minute rose and walked humbly down to the lowest

bench, and sat down on the very seat which he had occupied on his first Sunday at Rugby. And then the old

memories rushed back again, but softened and subdued, and soothing him as he let himself be carried away

by them. And he looked up at the great painted window above the altar, and remembered how, when a little

boy, he used to try not to look through it at the elmtrees and the rooks, before the painted glass came; and

the subscription for the painted glass, and the letter he wrote home for money to give to it. And there, down

below, was the very name of the boy who sat on his right hand on that first day, scratched rudely in the oak

And then came the thought of all his old schoolfellows; and form after form of boys nobler, and braver, and

purer than he rose up and seemed to rebuke him. Could he not think of them, and what they had felt and were

feelingthey who had honoured and loved from the first the man whom he had taken years to know and

love? Could he not think of those yet dearer to him who was gone, who bore his name and shared his blood,

and were now without a husband or a father? Then the grief which he began to share with others became

gentle and holy, and he rose up once more, and walked up the steps to the altar, and while the tears flowed

freely down his cheeks, knelt down humbly and hopefully, to lay down there his share of a burden which had

Here let us leave him. Where better could we leave him than at the altar before which he had first caught a

glimpse of the glory of his birthright, and felt the drawing of the bond which links all living souls together in

one brotherhoodat the grave beneath the altar of him who had opened his eyes to see that glory, and

And let us not be hard on him, if at that moment his soul is fuller of the tomb and him who lies there than of

the altar and Him of whom it speaks. Such stages have to be gone through, I believe, by all young and brave

souls, who must win their way through heroworship to the worship of Him who is the King and Lord of

heroes. For it is only through our mysterious human relationshipsthrough the love and tenderness and

purity of mothers and sisters and wives, through the strength and courage and wisdom of fathers and brothers

and teachersthat we can come to the knowledge of Him in whom alone the love, and the tenderness, and

the purity, and the strength, and the courage, and the wisdom of all these dwell for ever and ever in perfect