Mr Tooke did not ask what this meant; but he evidently wished to know. He soon knew, for Hugh found himself growing more fidgety and more cross, the further he looked in the volume of Indian Views, till he threw himself back upon the sofa, and stuffed his handkerchief into his mouth, and stared at the fire, struggling, as his mother saw, to help crying. “I will take away the book,—shall I, my dear?”
“Yes, mother. O dear! I shall never keep my vow, I know.”
Mrs Proctor told Mr Tooke that Hugh had made a resolution which she earnestly hoped he might be able to keep;—to bear cheerfully every disappointment and trouble caused by this accident, from the greatest to the least,—from being obliged to give up being a traveller by-and-by, to the shoemaker’s wondering that he wanted only one shoe. Now, if looking at pictures of foreign countries made him less cheerful, it seemed to belong to his resolution to give up that pleasure for the present. Hugh acknowledged that it did; and Mr Tooke, who was pleased at what he heard, carried away the Indian Views, and brought instead a very fine work on Trades, full of plates representing people engaged in every kind of trade and manufacture. Hugh was too tired to turn over any more pages to-night: but his master said the book might stay in the room now, and when Hugh was removed, it might go with him; and, as he was able to sit up more, he might like to copy some of the plates.
“Removed!” exclaimed Hugh.
His mother smiled, and told him that he was going on so well that he might soon now be removed to his uncle’s.
“Where,” said Mr Tooke, “you will have more quiet and more liberty than you can have here. Your brother, and any other boys you like, can run over to see you at any time; and you will be out of the noise of the playground.”
“I wonder how it is there is so little noise from the playground here,” said Hugh.
“It is because the boys have been careful to make no noise since your accident. We cannot expect them to put themselves under such restraint for long.”
“O no, no! I had better go. But, mother, you— you — aunt Shaw is very kind, but—”
“I shall stay with you as long as you want me.”