CHAPTER XIV.
SCHOOL TRIALS.
WHISTLER’S first day at school was not a day of unalloyed pleasure. It was not without a severe struggle with his feelings that he met his comrades and teachers, and took the familiar seat he had so long occupied. The exciting scenes of the exhibition day, a few weeks previous, came up vividly in his mind. The general credit with which he passed through the examination, the applause with which his declamation was received, and the praise bestowed upon several drawings and maps executed by his hand, certainly were not of themselves unpleasant recollections. But these happy memories were all embittered by another thought, which he could not drive from his mind. He had left the school, at the close of the last term, expecting to return to it no more. He had presented himself as a candidate for admission to a school of higher grade, and, to his great surprise and mortification, had been found lacking in some of the necessary qualifications.
This was the severest blow Whistler ever received. He went home and gave himself up to his grief. His vacation was blasted, his visit to Brookdale was spoilt, and, indeed, it almost seemed to him as if his prospects for life were ruined. His mother tried to comfort him, but without much success. When his father came home, at night, he was informed of the result of Whistler’s application by Mrs. Davenport. The tea-bell rang, but Whistler did not appear. The servant was then sent to his room to call him, and brought back the reply that he did not want any supper. After tea, Mr. Davenport went up to his chamber, and found him lying upon the bed, with his face buried in a pillow.
“Hallo! what does this mean, Whistler? What’s the matter with you?” he inquired.
There was no reply, but a sob.
“Come, speak up!—what ails you?”
“I—couldn’t get into the—High School,” sobbed the poor boy.
“Couldn’t get into the High School? How happened that? Some partiality or trickery, I suppose; they gave you all the hard questions, and the others the easy ones,—didn’t they?”
“No, sir,” replied Whistler, somewhat reluctantly; “the questions were printed, and all the candidates had to answer the whole of them in writing.”