The Crofton Boys | Page 2

Tooke's, at Crofton.
The girls had no peace from their brothers climbing about in dangerous
places. Hugh was, if possible, worse than Philip for this. He imitated all
Philip's feats, and had some of his own besides. In answer to Jane's
lectures and the entreaties of Agnes, Hugh always declared that he had
a right to do such things, as he meant to be a soldier or a sailor; and
how should he be able to climb the mast of a ship, or the walls of a city,
if he did not begin to practise now? Agnes was almost sorry they had
been to Broadstairs, and could see ships in the Thames, when she
considered that, if Hugh had not seen so much of the world, he might

have been satisfied to be apprenticed to his father, when old enough,
and to have lived at home happily with his family. Jane advised Agnes
not to argue with Hugh, and then perhaps his wish to rove about the
world might go off. She had heard her father say that, when he was a
boy, and used to bring home news of victories, and help to put up
candles at the windows on illumination nights, he had a great fancy for
being a soldier; but that it was his fortune to see some soldiers from
Spain, and hear from them what war really was, just when peace came,
and when there was no more glory to be got; so that he had happily
settled down to be a London shop-keeper--a lot which he would not
exchange with that of any man living. Hugh was very like papa, Jane
added; and the same change might take place in his mind, if he was not
made perverse by argument. So Agnes only sighed, and bent her head
closer over her work, as she heard Hugh talk of the adventures he
meant to have when he should be old enough to get away from Old
England.
There was one person that laughed at Hugh for this fancy of his;--Miss
Harold, the daily governess, who came to keep school for three hours
every morning. When Hugh forgot his lesson, and sat staring at the
upper panes of the window, in a reverie about his future travels; or
when he was found to have been drawing a soldier on his slate instead
of doing his sum, Miss Harold reminded him what a pretty figure a
soldier would cut who knew no geography, or a sailor who could not
make his reckonings, for want of attending early to his arithmetic.
Hugh could not deny this; but he was always wishing that school-hours
were over, that he might get under the great dining-table to read
Robinson Crusoe, or might play at shipwreck, under pretence of
amusing little Harry. It did make him ashamed to see how his sisters
got on, from the mere pleasure of learning, and without any idea of ever
living anywhere but in London; while he, who seemed to have so much
more reason for wanting the very knowledge that they were obtaining,
could not settle his mind to his lessons. Jane was beginning to read
French books for her amusement in leisure hours; and Agnes was often
found to have covered two slates with sums in Practice, just for
pleasure, while he could not master the very moderate lessons Miss
Harold set him. It is true, he was two years younger than Agnes: but

she had known more of everything that he had learned, at seven years
old, than he now did at eight. Hugh began to feel very unhappy. He saw
that Miss Harold was dissatisfied, and was pretty sure that she had
spoken to his mother about him. He felt that his mother became more
strict in making him sit down beside her, in the afternoon, to learn his
lessons for the next day; and he was pretty sure that Agnes went out of
the room because she could not help crying when his sum was found to
be all wrong, or when he mistook his tenses, or when he said (as he did
every day, though regularly warned to mind what he was about) that
four times seven is fifty-six. Every day these things weighed more on
Hugh's spirits; every day he felt more and more like a dunce; and when
Philip came home for the Midsummer holidays, and told all manner of
stories about all sorts of boys at school, without describing anything
like Hugh's troubles with Miss Harold, Hugh was seized with a longing
to go to Crofton at once, as he was certainly too young to go at present
into the way of a shipwreck or a battle. The worst of it was, there was
no prospect of his going yet