Mr Proctor, the chemist and druggist, kept his shop, and lived in the
Strand, London. His children thought that there was never anything
pleasanter than the way they lived. Their house was warm in winter, and
such a little distance from the church, that they had no difficulty in
getting to church and back again, in the worst weather, before their
shoes were wet. They were also conveniently near to Covent Garden
market; so that, if any friend dropped in to dinner unexpectedly, Jane
and Agnes could be off to the market, and buy a fowl, or some vegetables
or fruit, and be back again before they were missed. It was not even
too far for little Harry to trot with one of his sisters, early on a
summer's morning, to spend his penny (when he happened to have one) on a
bunch of flowers, to lay on papa's plate, to surprise him when he came
in to breakfast. Not much farther off was the Temple Garden, where Mrs
Proctor took her children every fine summer evening to walk and breathe
the air from the river; and when Mr Proctor could find time to come to
them for a turn or two before the younger ones must go home to bed, it
seemed to the whole party the happiest and most beautiful place in the
whole world,--except one. They had once been to Broadstairs, when the
children were in poor health after the measles: and for ever after, when
they thought of the waves beating on the shore, and of the pleasures of
growing strong and well among the sea-breezes, they felt that there
might be places more delightful than the Temple Garden: but they were
still very proud and fond of the grass and trees, and the gravel walks,
and the view over the Thames, and were pleased to show off the garden to
all friends from the country who came to visit them.
The greatest privilege of all, however, was that they could see the
river without going out of their own house. There were three back
windows to the house, one above another; and from the two uppermost of
these windows there was what the children called a view of the Thames.
There was a gap of a few yards wide between two high brick houses: and
through this gap might be seen the broad river, with vessels of every
kind passing up or down. Outside the second window were some leads,
affording space for three or four chairs: and here it was that Jane and
Agnes liked to sit at work, on certain hours of fine days. There were
times when these leads were too hot, the heat of the sun being reflected
from the surrounding brick walls; but at an earlier hour before the
shadows were gone, and when the air blew in from the river, the place
was cool, and the little girls delighted to carry their stools to the
leads, and do their sewing there. There Philip would condescend to
spend a part of his mornings, in his Midsummer holidays, frightening his
sisters with climbing about in dangerous places, or amusing them with
stories of school pranks, or raising his younger brother Hugh's envy of
the boys who were so happy as to be old enough to go to school at Mr
Tooke's, at Crofton.
The girls had no peace from their brothers climbing about in dangerous
places. Hugh was, if possible, worse than Philip for this. He imitated
all Philip's feats, and had some of his own besides. In answer to
Jane's lectures and the entreaties of Agnes, Hugh always declared that
he had a right to do such things, as he meant to be a soldier or a
sailor; and how should he be able to climb the mast of a ship, or the
walls of a city, if he did not begin to practise now? Agnes was almost
sorry they had been to Broadstairs, and could see ships in the Thames,
when she considered that, if Hugh had not seen so much of the world, he
might have been satisfied to be apprenticed to his father, when old
enough, and to have lived at home happily with his family. Jane advised
Agnes not to argue with Hugh, and then perhaps his wish to rove about
the world might go off. She had heard her father say that, when he was
a boy, and used to bring home news of victories, and help to put up
candles at the windows on illumination nights, he had a great fancy for
being a soldier; but that it was his fortune to see some soldiers from
Spain, and hear from them what war really was, just when peace came, and
when there was no more glory to be got; so that he had happily settled
down to be a London shop-keeper--a lot which he would not exchange with
that of any man living. Hugh was very like papa, Jane added; and the
same change might take place in his mind, if he was not made perverse by
argument. So Agnes only sighed, and bent her head closer over her work,
as she heard Hugh talk of the adventures he meant to have when he should
be old enough to get away from Old England.
There was one person that laughed at Hugh for this fancy of his;--Miss
Harold, the daily governess, who came to keep school for three hours
every morning. When Hugh forgot his lesson, and sat staring at the
upper panes of the window, in a reverie about his future travels; or
when he was found to have been drawing a soldier on his slate instead of
doing his sum, Miss Harold reminded him what a pretty figure a soldier
would cut who knew no geography, or a sailor who could not make his
reckonings, for want of attending early to his arithmetic Hugh could not
deny this; but he was always wishing that school-hours were over, that
he might get under the great dining table to read Robinson Crusoe, or
might play at shipwreck, under pretence of amusing little Harry. It did
make him ashamed to see how his sisters got on, from the mere pleasure
of learning, and without any idea of ever living anywhere but in London;
while he, who seemed to have so much more reason for wanting the very
knowledge that they were obtaining, could not settle his mind to his
lessons. Jane was beginning to read French books for her amusement in
leisure hours; and Agnes was often found to have covered two slates with
sums in Practice, just for pleasure, while he could not master the very
moderate lessons Miss Harold set him. It is true, he was two years
younger than Agnes: but she had known more of everything that he had
learned, at seven years old, than he now did at eight. Hugh began to
feel very unhappy. He saw that Miss Harold was dissatisfied, and was
pretty sure that she had spoken to his mother about him. He felt that
his mother became more strict in making him sit down beside her, in the
afternoon, to learn his lessons for the next day; and he was pretty sure
that Agnes went out of the room because she could not help crying when
his sum was found to be all wrong, or when he mistook his tenses, or
when he said (as he did every day, though regularly warned to mind what
he was about) that four times seven is fifty-six. Every day these
things weighed more on Hugh's spirits; every day he felt more and more
like a dunce; and when Philip came home for the Midsummer holidays, and
told all manner of stories about all sorts of boys at school, without
describing anything like Hugh's troubles with Miss Harold, Hugh was
seized with a longing to go to Crofton at once, as he was certainly too
young to go at present into the way of a shipwreck or a battle. The
worst of it was, there was no prospect of his going yet to Crofton. In
Mr Tooke's large school there was not one boy younger than ten; and
Philip believed that Mr Tooke did not like to take little boys. Hugh
was aware that his father and mother meant to send him to school with
Philip by-and-by; but the idea of having to wait--to do his lessons with
Miss Harold every day till he should be ten years old, made him roll
himself on the parlour carpet in despair.
Philip was between eleven and twelve. He was happy at school: and he
liked to talk all about it at home. These holidays, Hugh made a better
listener than even his sisters; and he was a more amusing one--he knew
so little about the country. He asked every question that could be
imagined about the playground at the Crofton school, and the boys'
doings out of school; and then, when Philip fancied he must know all
about what was done, out came some odd remark which showed what wrong
notions he had formed of a country life. Hugh had not learned half that
he wanted to know, and his little head was full of wonder and mysterious
notions, when the holidays came to an end, and Philip had to go away.
From that day Hugh was heard to talk less of Spain, and the sea, and
desert islands, and more of the Crofton boys; and his play with little
Harry was all of being at school. At his lessons, meantime, he did not
improve at all.
One very warm day, at the end of August, five weeks after Philip had
returned to school, Miss Harold had stayed full ten minutes after twelve
o'clock to hear Hugh say one line of the multiplication-table over and
over again, to cure him of saying that four times seven is fifty-six;
but all in vain: and Mrs Proctor had pegged her not to spend any more
time to-day upon it.
Miss Harold went away, the girls took their sewing, and sat down at
their mother's work-table, while Hugh was placed before her, with his
hands behind his back, and desired to look his mother full in the face,
to begin again with "four times one is four," and go through the line,
taking care what he was about. He did so; but before he came to four
times seven, he sighed, fidgetted, looked up at the corners of the room,
off into the work-basket, out into the street, and always, as if by a
spell, finished with "four times seven is fifty-six." Jane looked up
amazed--Agnes looked down ashamed; his mother looked with severity in
his face. He began the line a fourth time, when, at the third figure,
he started as if he had been shot. It was only a knock at the door that
he had heard; a treble knock, which startled nobody else, though, from
the parlour-door being open, it sounded pretty loud.
Mrs Proctor spread a handkerchief over the stockings in her
work-basket; Jane put back a stray curl which had fallen over her face;
Agnes lifted up her head with a sigh, as if relieved that the
multiplication-table must stop for this time; and Hugh gazed into the
passage, through the open door, when he heard a man's step there. The
maid announced Mr Tooke, of Crofton; and Mr Tooke walked in.
Mrs Proctor had actually to push Hugh to one side,--so directly did he
stand in the way between her and her visitor. He stood, with his hands
still behind his back, gazing up at Mr Tooke, with his face hotter than
the multiplication-table had ever made it, and his eyes staring quite as
earnestly as they had ever done to find Robinson Crusoe's island in the
map.
"Go, child," said Mrs Proctor: but this was not enough. Mr Tooke
himself had to pass him under his left arm before he could shake hands
with Mrs Proctor. Hugh was now covered with shame at this hint that he
was in the way; but yet he did not leave the room. He stole to the
window, and flung himself down on two chairs, as if looking into the
street from behind the blind; but he saw nothing that passed out of
doors, so eager was his hope of hearing something of the Crofton boys,--
their trap-ball, and their Saturday walk with the usher. Not a word of
this kind did he hear. As soon as Mr Tooke had agreed to stay to
dinner, his sisters were desired to carry their work elsewhere,--to the
leads, if they liked; and he was told that he might go to play. He had
hoped he might be overlooked in the window; and unwillingly did he put
down first one leg and then the other from the chairs, and saunter out
of the room. He did not choose to go near his sisters, to be told how
stupidly he had stood in the gentleman's way; so, when he saw that they
were placing their stools on the leads, he went up into the attic, and
then down into the kitchen, to see where little Harry was, to play at
schoolboys in the back yard.
The maid Susan was not sorry that Harry was taken off her hands; for she
wished to rub up her spoons, and fill her castors afresh, for the sake
of the visitor who had come in. The thoughtful Jane soon came down with
the keys to get out a clean tablecloth, and order a dish of cutlets, in
addition to the dinner, and consult with Susan about some dessert; so
that, as the little boys looked up from their play, they saw Agnes
sitting alone at work upon the leads.
They had played some time, Hugh acting a naughty boy who could not say
his Latin lesson to the usher, and little Harry punishing him with far
more words than a real usher uses on such an occasion, when they heard
Agnes calling them from above their heads. She was leaning over from
the leads, begging Hugh to come up to her,--that very moment. Harry
must be left below, as the leads were a forbidden place for him. So
Harry went to Jane, to see her dish up greengage plums which he must not
touch: and Hugh ran up the stairs. As he passed through the passage,
his mother called him. Full of some kind of hope (he did not himself
know what), he entered the parlour, and saw Mr Tooke's eyes fixed on
him. But his mother only wanted him to shut the door as he passed; that
was all. It had stood open, as it usually did on warm days. Could his
mother wish it shut on account of anything she was saying? It was
possible.
"O Hugh!" exclaimed Agnes, as soon as he set foot on the leads. "What
do you think?--But is the parlour-door shut? Who shut it?"
"Mother bade me shut it, as I passed."
"O dear!" said Agnes, in a tone of disappointment; "then she did not
mean us to hear what they were talking about."
"What was it? Anything about the Crofton boys? Anything about Phil?"
"I cannot tell you a word about it. Mamma did not know I heard them.
How plain anyone can hear what they say in that parlour, Hugh, when the
door is open! What do you think I heard mamma tell Mrs Bicknor, last
week, when I was jumping Harry off the third stair?"
"Never mind that. Tell me what they are talking about now. Do, Agnes."
Agnes shook her head.
"Now do, dear."
It was hard for Agnes to refuse Hugh anything, at any time; more still
when he called her "dear," which he seldom did; and most of all when he
put his arm round her neck, as he did now. But she answered--
"I should like to tell you every word; but I cannot now. Mamma has made
you shut the door. She does not wish you to hear it."
"Me! Then will you tell Jane?"
"Yes. I shall tell Jane, when we are with mamma at work."
"That is too bad!" exclaimed Hugh, flinging himself down on the leads so
vehemently that his sister was afraid he would roll over into the yard.
"What does Jane care about Crofton and the boys to what I do?"
"There is one boy there that Jane cares about more than you do, or I, or
anybody, except papa and mamma. Jane loves Phil."
"O, then, what they are saying in the parlour is about Phil."
"I did not say that."
"You pretend you love me as Jane loves Phil! And now you are going to
tell her what you won't tell me! Agnes, I will tell you everything I
know all my whole life, if you will just whisper this now. Only just
whisper.--Or, I will tell you what. I will guess and guess; and you can
nod or shake your head. That won't be telling."
"For shame, Hugh! Phil would laugh at you for being a girl if you are
so curious. What mamma told Mrs Bicknor was that Jane was her
right-hand. What do you think that meant exactly?"
"That Jane might give you a good slap when you are so provoking," said
Hugh, rolling over and over, till his clothes were covered with dust,
and Agnes really thought once that he was fairly going over the edge
into the yard.
"There is something that I can tell you, Hugh; something that I want to
tell you, and nobody else," said Agnes, glad to see him stop rolling
about, and raise himself on his dusty elbow to look at her.
"Well, come, what is it?"
"You must promise beforehand not to be angry."
"Angry! When am I angry, pray? Come, tell me."
"You must--you really must--I have a particular reason for saying so--
you must learn how much four times seven is. Now, remember, you
promised not to be angry."
Hugh carried off his anger by balancing himself on his head, as if he
meant to send his heels over, but that there was no room. From upside
downs his voice was heard saying that he knew that as well as Agnes.
"Well, then, how much is it?"
"Twenty-eight, to be sure. Who does not know that?"
"Then pray do not call it fifty-six any more. Miss Harold--"
"There's the thing," said Hugh. "When Miss Harold is here, I can think
of nothing but fifty-six. It seems to sound in my ears, as if somebody
spoke it, `four times seven is fifty-six.'"
"You will make me get it by heart too, if you say it so often," said
Agnes. "You had better say `twenty-eight' over to yourself all day
long. You may say it to me as often as you like. I shall not get
tired. Come, begin now--`four times seven'--"
"I have had enough of that for to-day--tiresome stuff! Now, I shall go
and play with Harry again."
"But wait--just say that line once over, Hugh. I have a reason for
wishing it. I have, indeed."
"Mother has been telling Mr Tooke that I cannot say my
multiplication-table! Now, that is too bad!" exclaimed Hugh. "And they
will make me say it after dinner! What a shame!"
"Why Hugh! You know mamma does not like--you know mamma would not--you
know mamma never does anything unkind. You should not say such things,
Hugh."
"Ay, there! You cannot say that she has not told Mr Tooke that I say
my tables wrong."
"Well--you know you always do say it wrong to her."
"I will go somewhere. I will hide myself. I will run to the market
while the cloth is laying. I will get away, and not come back till Mr
Tooke is gone. I will never say my multiplication table to him!"
"Never?" said Agnes, with an odd smile and a sigh. "However, do not
talk of running away, or hiding yourself. You will not have to say
anything to Mr Tooke to-day."
"How do you know?"
"I feel sure you will not. I do not believe Mr Tooke will talk to you,
or to any of us. There you go! You will be in the water-butt in a
minute, if you tumble so."
"I don't care if I am. Mr Tooke will not come there to hear me say my
tables. Let me go!" he cried, struggling, for now Agnes had caught him
by the ankle. "If I do tumble in, the water is not up to my chin, and
it will be a cool hiding-place this hot day."
"But there is Susan gone to lay the cloth; and you must be brushed; for
you are all over dust. Come up, and I will brush you."
Hugh was determined to have a little more dust first. He rolled once
more the whole length of the leads, turned over Jane's stool, and upset
her work-basket, so that her thimble bounded off to a far corner, and
the shirt-collar she was stitching fell over into the water-butt.
"There! What will Jane say?" cried Agnes, picking up the basket, and
peeping over into the small part of the top of the water-butt which was
not covered.
"There never was anything like boys for mischief," said the maid Susan,
who now appeared to pull Hugh in, and make him neat. Susan always found
time, between laying the cloth and bringing up dinner, to smooth Hugh's
hair, and give a particular lock a particular turn on his forehead with
a wet comb.
"Let that alone," said Hugh, as Agnes peeped into the butt after the
drowning collar. "I will have the top off this afternoon, and it will
make good fishing for Harry and me."
Agnes had to let the matter alone; for Hugh was so dusty that she had to
brush one side of him while Susan did the other. Susan gave him some
hard knocks while she assured him that he was not going to have Harry up
on the leads to learn his tricks, or to be drowned. She hardly knew
which of the two would be the worst for Harry. It was lucky for Hugh
that Susan was wanted below directly, for she scolded him the whole time
she was parting and smoothing his hair. When it was done, however, and
the wet lock on his forehead took the right turn at once, she gave him a
kiss in the very middle of it, and said she knew he would be a good boy
before the gentleman from the country.
Hugh would not go in with Agnes, because he knew Mr Tooke would shake
hands with her, and take notice of anyone who was with her. He waited
in the passage till Susan carried in the fish, when he entered behind
her, and slipped to the window till the party took their seats, when he
hoped Mr Tooke would not observe who sat between Agnes and his father.
But the very first thing his father did was to pull his head back by the
hair behind, and ask him whether he had persuaded Mr Tooke to tell him
all about the Crofton boys.
Hugh did not wish to make any answer; but his father said "Eh?" and he
thought he must speak; so he said that Phil had told him all he wanted
to know about the Crofton boys.
"Then you can get Mr Tooke to tell you about Phil, if you want nothing
else," said Mr Proctor.
Mr Tooke nodded and smiled; but Hugh began to hand plates with all his
might, he was so afraid that the next thing would be a question how much
four times seven was.
The dinner went on, however; and the fish was eaten, and the meat, and
the pudding; and the dessert was on the table, without any one having
even alluded to the multiplication-table. Before this time, Hugh had
become quite at his ease, and had looked at Mr Tooke till he knew his
face quite well.
Soon after dinner Mr Proctor was called away upon business; and Hugh
slipped into his father's arm-chair, and crossed one leg over the other
knee, as he leaned back at his leisure, listening to Mr Tooke's
conversation with his mother about the sort of education that he
considered most fit for some boys from India, who had only a certain
time to devote to school-learning. In the course of this conversation
some curious things dropped about the curiosity of children from India
about some things very common here;--their wonder at snow and ice, their
delight at being able to slide in the winter, and their curiosity about
the harvest and gleaning, now approaching. Mr Proctor came back just
as Mr Tooke was telling of the annual holiday of the boys at
harvest-time, when they gleaned for the poor of the village. As Hugh
had never seen a corn-field, he had no very clear idea of harvest and
gleaning; and he wanted to hear all he could. When obliged to turn out
of the arm-chair, he drew a stool between his mother and Mr Tooke: and
presently he was leaning on his arms on the table, with his face close
to Mr Tooke's, as if swallowing the gentleman's words as they fell.
This was inconvenient; and his mother made him draw back his stool a
good way. Though he could hear very well, Hugh did not like this, and
he slipped off his stool, and came closer and closer.
"And did you say," asked Mr Proctor, "that your youngest pupil is
nine?"
"Just nine;--the age of my own boy. I could have wished to have none
under ten, for the reason you know of. But--"
"I wish," cried Hugh, thrusting himself in so that Mr Tooke saw the boy
had a mind to sit on his knee,--"I wish you would take boys at eight and
a quarter."
"That is your age," said Mr Tooke, smiling and making room between his
knees.
"How did you know? Mother told you."
"No; indeed she did not,--not exactly. My boy was eight and a quarter
not very long ago; and he--"
"Did he like being in your school?"
"He always seemed very happy there, though he was so much the youngest.
And they teased him sometimes for being the youngest. Now you know, if
you came, you would be the youngest, and they might tease you for it."
"I don't think I should mind that. What sort of teasing, though?"
"Trying whether he was afraid of things."
"What sort of things?"
"Being on the top of a wall, or up in a tree. And then they sent him
errands when he was tired, or when he wanted to be doing something else.
They tried too whether he could bear some rough things without
telling."
"And did he?"
"Yes, generally. On the whole, very well. I see they think him a brave
boy now."
"I think I could. But do not you really take boys as young as I am?"
"Such is really my rule."
It was very provoking, but Hugh was here called away to fish up Jane's
work out of the water-butt. As he had put it in, he was the proper
person to get it out. He thought he should have liked the fun of it;
but now he was in a great hurry back, to hear Mr Tooke talk. It really
seemed as if the shirt-collar was alive, it always slipped away so when
he thought he had it. Jane kept him to the job till he brought up her
work, dripping and soiled. By that time tea was ready,--an early tea,
because Mr Tooke had to go away. Whatever was said at tea was about
politics, and about a new black dye which some chemist had discovered;
and Mr Tooke went away directly after.
He turned round full upon Hugh, just as he was going. Hugh stepped
back, for it flashed upon him that he was now to be asked how much four
times seven was. But Mr Tooke only shook hands with him, and bade him
grow older as fast as he could.