ool-boys 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 peg-tops, white
marbles (called "alley taws" in the Vale), screws, birds'-eggs,
whipcord, Jews-harps, and other miscellaneous boys' wealth. Poor Jacob
Doodle-calf, in floods of tears, had pressed upon him, in spluttering
earnestness, his lame pet hedgehog (he had always some poor
broken-down 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 be, perfect self-sacrifice 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 mothers,--ay, and of English fathers,
and sisters, and brothers, too.

OF PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

Neither have I room to speak of our private schools; what I
have to say is about public schools,[38] those much-abused and
much-belauded[39] institutions peculiar to England. So we must hurry
through Master Tom's year at a private school as fast as we can.

[38] #Public schools#: a name given to certain large and
richly endowed schools in England which are chiefly patronized
by wealthy men. They are wholly unlike the public schools
of the United States. Eton, Harrow, Winchester, Rugby, and
Westminster are among the best known of this class of schools.

[39] #Belauded#: praised.

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 did,--merely coming into school when lessons were prepared and
already to be heard. The whole discipline of the school out of lesson
hours was in the hands of the two ushers,[40] one of whom was always
with the boys in their playground, in the school, at meals,--in fact,
at all times and everywhere, till they were fairly in bed