Quicksilver; or, The Boy With No Skid To His Wheel, by George Manville
Fenn.
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I don't know where they get titles for books from. The subtitle is "The
Boy with no Skid to his Wheel", and that is the only mention of the word
"skid" in the entire book. The only "wheel" mentioned is when the boy
hero does cartwheels round the drawing-room. And the said boy is
referred to as "a globule of quicksilver". So I suppose it is something
the author had in his mind before he began the book.
Unlike most of Fenn's books, which involve dire situations with pirates
in the China Seas, and other such places, the entire action of this book
takes place in a small English village. The local doctor, having
retired childless, decides he would like to adopt a boy. Being a
Governor of the local Institute for the Poor he goes there and selects a
boy who at the age of two had been a foundling, and who is now eleven or
twelve.
Everyone is keen to make this work, but there is a big difference in
social manners between a boy brought up in an Institute, and the boy the
doctor would like to have. So a certain amount of retraining has to
take place. Of course this is successful in the end, but there are a
lot of blips long the way. Our hero makes friends with a local boy who
is definitely "non-U". They run away together in a boat they have
nicked for the purpose. For a few days they have various adventures,
some enjoyable, but most of them not.
On being brought back our hero is sent to a small private school run by
a clergyman, who beats the boy mercilessly, so that he runs away from
the school, back to the doctor's, but remains hidden in an out-house.
He is found, but becomes very ill, so the whole household is taken to a
rented house in the Isle of Wight, where he eventually recovers. At
which point it is discovered who his real parents are, and he is "U"
after all, so everyone feels good about it.
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QUICKSILVER; OR, THE BOY WITH NO SKID TO HIS WHEEL, BY GEORGE MANVILLE
FENN.