Our Junior Mathematical Master, and a Perilous Errand (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1876 edition. Excerpt: ...his mother, with the timid feelings which widow ladies so often have, and naturally enough, I suppose, about only sons, had never brought herself to let him go to school. But Mr. Cecil, who had always liked Walter and taken an interest in him, felt sure that it would do him good to mix more than he had yet done with other boys, and had persuaded Mrs. Harvey to entrust Walter to his charge. He had gradually grown stronger since his childhood, and Mr. Cecil guaranteed the lady that Walter, instead of running any risk in regard to his health at Grange House, would be almost certain to gain in strength. He told Mrs. Harvey plainly that it was not good for her son that he should continue any longer tied to her apron-string; that she was not really acting with kindness to him; and that when Walter grew up to be a man, both he and she would find this out. In fact, Mr. Cecil half persuaded and half frightened the good lady until she consented to do as he wished, and Walter was sent to Grange House. I liked Walter Harvey from the first, and soon the whole school more or less liked him. In fact, there was nothing about him that could positively provoke dislike. His face corresponded pretty closely with his disposition. He was frank, sweet tempered, and above all, affectionate. But the liking which we all soon came to have for Watty--we got to call him Watty at once--was in the case of some of the fellows strongly mingled with contempt. To put it plainly, in schoolboy language, "Watty was, in most things that boys know or can do, little better than a muff. 'Not only a muff, but the softest of muffs, ' as Arthur Dennison said, intending a pun. Arthur was the one among us who came out most frequently in this line. Now and then, among a bushel as mild as...