spluttered out his nonsense at that rate for. Thus ended Phil's
display; and Hugh felt as hot, and as ready to cry, as if it had
happened to himself.

Perhaps the usher saw this; for when he called Hugh up, he was very
kind. He looked at the Latin grammar he had used with Miss Harold, and
saw by the dogs'-ears exactly how far Hugh had gone in it, and asked him
only what he could answer very well. Hugh said three declensions, with
only one mistake. Then he was shown the part that he was to say
to-morrow morning; and Hugh walked away, all the happier for having
something to do, like everybody else. He was so little afraid of the
usher, that he went back to him to ask where he had better sit.

"Sit! O! I suppose you must have a desk, though you have nothing to put
in it. If there is a spare desk, you shall have it: if not, we will find
a corner for you somewhere."

Some of the boys whispered that Mrs. Watson's foot-stool, under her
apron, would do: but the usher overheard this, and observed that it took
some people a good while to know a new boy; and that they might find
that a little fellow might be as much of a man as a big one. And the
usher called the oldest boy in the school, and asked him to see if there
was a desk for little Proctor. There was: and Hugh put into it his two
or three school-books, and his slate; and felt that he was now indeed a
Crofton boy. Then, the usher was kinder than he had expected; and he had
still to see Mr. Tooke, of whom he was not afraid at all. So Hugh's
spirits rose, and he liked the prospect of breakfast as well as any boy
in the school.

There was one more rebuff for him, first, however. He ran up to his
room, to finish combing his hair, while the other boys were thronging
into the long room to breakfast. He found the housemaids there, making
the beds; and they both cried "Out! Out!" and clapped their hands at
him, and threatened to tell Mrs. Watson of his having broken rules, if
he did not go this moment. Hugh asked what Mrs. Watson would say to his
hair, if he went to breakfast with it as it was. One of the maids was
good-natured enough to comb it for him, for once: but she said he must
carry a comb in his pocket; as the boys were not allowed to go to their
rooms, except at stated hours.

At last, Hugh saw Mr. Tooke. When the boys entered school at nine
o'clock, the master was at his desk. Hugh went up to his end of the
room, with a smiling face, while Tom Holt hung back; and h