That scholarship boy

by Emma Leslie

CHAPTER II.

Sending Him to Coventry.

Horace Howard sat longer over his lessons that night, and was quite undisturbed by any talking with his mother and brother, and when the time came for him to put the lessons aside and go to bed, he knew he had only half mastered them, for his thoughts had wandered continually from the subject of the lesson before him to the events of his day at school, trying to discover what he had done to offend his schoolfellows, that they should all at once send him to Coventry in this fashion. The study of mathematics, French, chemistry, and physics did not help him to the solution of this problem; but the school mystery greatly hindered the other subjects from becoming clear to his mind, and when he took his place in class the next morning he knew it would be a bad day for him with his class-work.

It was worse even than he feared, and as he lost place after place, and went down at last even below the dunces of the form, it hurt him more to see how gleeful the other boys were over his mistakes than to lose his place in the class.

At last, when Horace had blundered worse than usual over some lesson, the master said, 'What is the matter with you to-day, Howard? Are you ill? Have you got a headache?'

'No, sir,' answered Horace, for he was a truthful lad, and could not avail himself of the excuse the master had thus offered him.

'You could not have prepared your lessons last night, then; you know the rule about this, don't you?' said the master sternly.

'Yes, sir; I studied my lessons for more than two hours last night,' said Horace, reddening and growing more confused, for he knew all the class were staring at him, and, as he fancied, glorying in his discomfiture. In this he was not far wrong; but there were one or two who pitied him in his various dilemmas, and would have broken that ban of silence that had been decreed against him, but the leaders kept their eyes upon them, and they would not venture to brave the displeasure of their elders.

Altogether it was a cruelly hard day for Horace, and he felt strongly inclined to say when he went home, that he would never go near the school again, but become a carpenter like his brother. One trade would be as good as another, if he could not go on and learn more of the mysteries of chemistry and physics It was some consolation to him that his master had told him to prepare a special lesson in chemistry, in readiness for some practical experiments that were to take place the following day.

In his eagerness over this Horace forgot the vexations and trials of the day, and had mastered it so quickly, that he was able to look over again the lessons that had floored him in class. These imperfect lessons would be like the damaged links of a chain, and might bring him trouble again and again, if he did not repair the mischief at once; and so by the time he went to bed he had well-nigh mastered all the difficulties, and worked himself into a state of self-content, which was about the best preparation for the next day's work, for he went to sleep without a thought beyond his lessons, and took his place in the class looking bright and cheery once more.