"God be with you, my son!" he gently whispered. "Remember that Christianity has its heroes in suffering as well as in acting; 'endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.'"
Then her mother's carriage arrived for Julia, the darling and plaything of the house. Mrs. Gore kissed her as tenderly as though she had been her own daughter, and Mr. Presgrave's manner was that of a parent, as he led the little girl to the door. Tom and Willy waved their caps again and again, till the carriage had rolled away down the lane.
On the following morning they themselves departed for school. On their sojourn there I am not about to dwell, but, taking advantage of the privilege of an author to skip over time and space as I please, I beg my young reader to imagine himself beside them on the day when school breaks up for the midsummer holidays.
A school on the eve of dispersion is like a hive on the point of swarming—all bustle, noise, hope, merriment, and confusion; to those who have seen, I need not describe it. Amongst the light-hearted boys now leaving Dr. Paynter's, by omnibus, carriage, or railway train, none were more light-hearted than Tom and Willy. As they drove towards Ivy Lodge, and began to recognise the land-marks around them, what joyous exclamations burst from their lips!
"Tom, I say, there's the old mill; don't you see it on that hill far away?"
Tom looked doubtful for a moment, then joyfully cried, "Yes, yes! And there's the gate over which we saw Sir Hugh leap on his coal-black hunter; and there's the little inn where he watered his horse, with the red lion swinging in the wind."
"I wonder how Duke is, our own frisky little pony."
"Ah! How glad I shall be," cried Tom, "to mount him again!"
"Indeed," said Willy, laughing, "the last time that you mounted you came down a good deal faster than you got up! I thought that you might be a little afraid."
"Afraid!" exclaimed Tom. "That's a fine word for an Englishman! Do you think I've forgotten all those famous stories that we read in the Easter holidays? I tell you what, Willy, I've a mind to be a hero like Outram or Nesham, and I'll never be afraid of anything or anybody!"