eir hot and dirty and bruised hands, he held out
his hand to Hugh, muttering, with no very good grace--

"I don't know what made you help me, but I will never be in a passion
with you;--unless you put me out, that is."

Hugh replied that he had come to help because he never could bear to see
anybody _made worse_. He always tried at home to keep the little boys
and girls off "drunk old Tom," as he was called in the neighbourhood.
It was such a shame to make anybody worse! Lamb looked as if he was
going to fly at Hugh now: but Firth put his arm round Hugh's neck, and
drew him into the house, saying in his ear--

"Don't say any more that you have no friends here. You have me for one;
and you might have had another--two in one morning--but for your plain
speaking about drunk old Tom."

"Did I say any harm?"

"No--no harm," replied Firth, laughing. "You will do, my boy--when you
have got through a few scrapes. I'm your friend, at any rate."

CHAPTER SIX.

FIRST RAMBLE.

Hugh's afternoon lessons were harder than those of the morning; and in
the evening he found he had so much to do that there was very little
time left for writing his letter home. Some time there was, however;
and Firth did not forget to rule his paper, and to let Hugh use his ink.
Hugh had been accustomed to copy the prints he found in the Voyages and
Travels he read; and he could never see a picture of a savage but he
wanted to copy it. He was thus accustomed to a pretty free use of his
slate-pencil. He now thought that it would save a great deal of
description if he sent a picture or two in his letter: so he flourished
off, on the first page, a sketch of Mr Tooke sitting at his desk at the
top of the school, and of Mr Carnaby standing at his desk at the bottom
of the school.

The next evening he made haste to fill up the sheet, for he found his
business increasing upon his hands so fast that he did not know when he
should get his letter off, if he did not despatch it at once. He was
just folding it up when Tom Holt observed that it was a pity not to put
some words into the mouths of the figures, to make them more animated;
and he showed Hugh, by the curious carvings of their desks, how to put
words into the mouths of figures. Hugh then remembered having seen this
done in the caricatures in the print-shops in London; and he seized on
the idea. He put into Mr Tooke's mouth the words which were oftenest
heard from him, "Proceed, gentl