Identifier: tombrownsschoold00hugh4 (find matches)
Title: Tom Browns school-days
Year: 1911 (1910s)
Authors: Hughes, Thomas, 1822-1896
Subjects:
Publisher: New York, London, Harper & Brothers
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image:
r, whom we have had glimpses of before, but his face has
gained a great deal since we last came across him.
And by his side, in white flannel shirt and trousers, straw hat,
the captain's belt, and the untanned, yellow cricket shoes which
all the eleven wear, sits a strapping figure near six feet high, with
ruddy, tanned face and whiskers, curly brown hair, and a laugh-
ing, dancing eye. He is leaning forward, with his elbows resting
on his knees and dandling his favorite bat, with which he has
made thirty or forty runs to-day, in his strong, brown hands. It
is Tom Brown, grown into a young man nineteen years old, a
praepostor and captain of the eleven, spending his last day as a
Rugby boy, and let us hope as much wiser as he is bigger since we
last had the pleasure of coming across him.
And at their feet on the warm, dry ground, similarly dressed,
sits Arthur, Turkish fashion, with his bat across his knees. He,

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Text Appearing After Image:
IT IS TOM BROWN, GROWN INTO A YOUNG MAN

SCHOOL DAYS

too, is no longer a boy, less of a boy in fact than Tom, if one may
judge from the thoughtfulness of his face, which is somewhat
paler, too, than one could wish; but his figure, though slight, is
well knit and active, and all his old timidity has disappeared, and
is replaced by silent, quaint fun, with which his face twinkles all
over as he listens to the broken talk between the other two, in
which he joins every now and then.
All three are watching the game eagerly, and joining in the
cheering which follows every good hit. It is pleasing to see the
easy, friendly footing which the pupils are on with their master,
perfectly respectful, yet with no reserve and nothing forced in
their intercourse. Tom has clearly abandoned the old theory of
" natural enemies," in this case, at any rate.
But it is time to listen to what they are saying, and see what we
can gather out of it.
" I don't object to your theory," says the master, " and I allow
you have made a fair case for yourself. But now, in such books
as Aristophanes, for instance, you've been reading a play this half
with the Doctor, haven't you ?"

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