re on the roof, just behind the coachman; and they agreed
to let Hugh sit between them, on the assurance that the driver would
look to his concerns, and see that he was set down at the right place.

"Now, my boy, up with you!" said his father, as he turned from speaking
to these men. Hugh was so eager, that he put up his foot to mount,
without remembering to bid his mother and sisters good-bye. Mr. Proctor
laughed at this; and nobody wondered; but Agnes cried bitterly; and she
could not forget it, from that time till she saw her brother again. When
they had all kissed him, and his mother's earnest look had bidden him
remember what had passed between them that morning, he was lifted up by
his father, and received by the two men, between whom he found a safe
seat.

Then he wished they were off. It was uncomfortable to see his sisters
crying there, and not to be able to cry too, or to speak to them. When
the coachman was drawing on his second glove, and the ostlers held each
a hand to pull off the horse-cloths, and the last moment was come, Mr.
Proctor swung himself up by the step, to say one thing more. It was--

"I say, Hugh,--can you tell me,--how much is four times seven?"

Mrs. Proctor pulled her husband's coat-tail, and he leaped down, the
horses' feet scrambled, their heads issued from the gate-way of the
inn-yard, and Hugh's family were left behind. In the midst of the noise,
the man on Hugh's right hand said to the one on his left,

"There is some joke in that last remark, I imagine."

The other man nodded; and then there was no more speaking till they were
off the stones. When the clatter was over, and the coach began to roll
along the smooth road, Hugh's neighbour repeated,

"There was some joke, I fancy, in that last remark of your father's."

"Yes," said Hugh.

"Are you in the habit of saying the multiplication-table when you
travel?" said the other. "If so, we shall be happy to hear it."

"Exceedingly happy," observed the first.

"I never say it when I can help it," said Hugh; "and I see no occasion
now."

The men laughed, and then asked him if he was going far.

"To Crofton. I am going to be a Crofton boy," said Hugh.

"A what? Where is he going?" his companions asked one another over his
head. They were no wiser when Hugh repeated what he had said; nor could
the coachman enlighten them. He only knew that he was to put the boy
down at Shaw's, the great miller's, near thirty miles along the roa