By Talbot Baines Reed
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Another of this author's well-written and entertaining school books. In
this case the hero is young Master Jones. To prepare for entry to the
school he had been given some tuition by a lady who was a teacher at a
girls' school. Of course the other boys at the boys' school soon found
out that he had come to them from a girls' school, and he became known,
albeit affectionately, by the nickname of "Sarah".
But he is well respected, and enjoys his various friendships with the
other boys, noticing even, at one point, that they seemed to be vieing
with one another for his friendship.
Towards the end of the story his mother visits the school, and is a
great hit with the other boys.
There some moments of drama, amusingly told, such as when our hero is
unwittingly involved in almost blowing the school up! The boys
involved off are hauled off to the magistrate by the local village
policeman, who, comically, had imagined that a blazer, the top garment
worn by schoolboys of that era (and mine) was a kind of lucifer, which
in turn was a kind of match used before the invention of the
safety-match. This is a particularly amusing episode, terminating in
the magistrate awarding the school-keeper, who had been slightly
injured, one guinea costs, to pay for his bandages, which he pays out of
his own pocket.
There are no mountain-side dramas as in several other books by this
author, and the rowing episodes on the river are quite tame. There are
no wicked local beer-house owners. But it is a good story, quietly and
evenly told. Best listened to rather than read. NH.
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TOM, DICK AND HARRY