Ernest Bracebridge | Page 8

bedrooms. "I should have thought, from the way you do things,
that you were an old boy."
Ernest assured him that he had never been in any school whatever, and
that he had associated very little with any boys, except his own
brothers.
"I'll tell you how it is," he continued; "my father says we should do

everything on principle. He has made us practise all sorts of athletic
exercises, and shown us how we can make the best use of our muscles
and bones. The balls of the foot and toes are given us, for instance, as
pads from which we may spring, and on which we may alight, but
clumsy fellows will attempt to leap from their heels or jump down on
them; however, I'll tell you what I know about the matter another time.
He has us taught to row and swim, and climb and ride. He says that
they are essential accomplishments for people who have to knock about
the world, as all of us will have to do. He has always told us that we
must labour before we can be fed; it is the lot of humanity. If we by any
chance neglected to do what he ordered, we had to go without our
dinner or breakfast, as the case might be; so you see we have learned to
depend a good deal upon ourselves, and to feel that if we do not try our
best to get on, no one else will help us."
"Oh, yes! I understand now why you are so different to most new
boys," answered Buttar. "Well, your father is a sensible man, there's no
doubt of it. I got on pretty well when I first came, much from the same
reason. My mother never let us have our own way, always gave us
plenty to do, and taught us to take care of ourselves without our nurses
continually running after us. Now I have seen big fellows come here,
who cried if they were hit, were always eating cakes and sweet things,
and sung out when they went to bed for the maid-servant to put on their
night-caps; these sort of fellows are seldom worth much, either in
school or out of it. They fudge their lessons and shirk their work at play;
regular do-nothing Molly Milksops, I call them."
And the two boys laughed heartily at the picture Buttar had so well
drawn.
Off each room was a washing-place, well supplied with running water,
and a bath for those boys who could not bathe in the pond. Ernest's bed
was pointed out to him. Approaching it, he knelt down, and while most
of the boys were washing, said his prayers. Only one boy in a shrill
voice cried out in the middle of them, Amen. When Ernest rose up he
looked round to try and discover who had used the expression. All were
silent, and pretended to be busily employed in getting into bed; two or

three were chuckling as if something witty had been said.
"I will not ask who said, Amen," remarked Ernest in a serious voice.
"But remember, school-fellows, you are mocking, not a poor worm like
me, but God Almighty, our Maker." Saying this, he placed his head on
his pillow.
"A very odd fellow," observed two or three of the boys; "I wonder how
he will turn out."
CHAPTER TWO.
ERNEST'S FIRST DAYS AT SCHOOL.
The next morning, when he got up, Ernest was told, after prayers, to
take his seat on a vacant bench at the bottom of the school, till the
Doctor had time to examine him. He felt rather nervous about his
examination, for he had been led to suppose it a very awful affair. At
last the Doctor called him up and asked him what books he had read.
Ernest ran through a long list; Sir Walter Scott's novels, and Locke on
the Human Understanding, were among them. The Doctor smiled as he
enumerated them.
"I fear that they will not stand you in good stead here, my man; the
books I mean are Greek and Latin books. What have you read of
them?"
"None, sir, right through. I know a great number of words, and can put
them together, and papa and I sometimes talk Latin and Greek together,
just as easily as we do French and German and Italian."
"I have no doubt that you will do in the end," observed Doctor Carr. "I
make a rule, however, to put boys who have not read certain books in
the class in which those books are about to be read, and let them work
their way up. I reserve the power of removing a boy up as rapidly as I
think fit, so that if you are diligent I