“I never respected any teacher as much as I do Master Lewis. How nobly he has treated us!”
CHAPTER III.
FIRST MEETING OF THE CLUB.
Normandy.—Story of the New Forest and the Red King.—Story of Robert of Normandy.—Story of the White Ship.—Story of the Frolicsome Duke and the Tinker’s Good Fortune.—Master Lewis commends the Club.—The Secret.
WHEN the boys were allowed to go to Boston,—once a week,—they had access to the fine Public Library of which that city is justly so proud. It was observed that the whole character of their reading changed from merely entertaining to the most instructive books, after the forming of the Club. Such picturesque historical works as Guizot’s “France” and “England,” Palgrave’s “Norman Conquest,” Froude’s “England,” Agnes Strickland’s “Lives of the Queens,” became especial favorites. Even Tommy Toby read through Dickens’s Child’s History of England, several of Abbott’s short histories of the kings and queens, and a book of marvellous old English ballads.
HAROLD’S OATH.