CHAP. ii. EXPELLED FROM SECOND SCHOOL. 29 



out, after breakfast, when his mother asked him, 

 "Where are ye gaun the day, laddie?" "Till my 

 school," said he. "To your school, are ye? where 

 is't? at the Inches, or the Middens, or Daiddie 

 Brown's burnie ? where is't?" "At the fit o' the 

 Green." "At the fit o' the Green ! But hoo lang is 

 it since ye was putten awa frae that school?" Tom 

 was silent. He saw that his mother had been in- 

 formed of his expulsion. 



In a little while she was ready to go out. She 

 took hold of her son by the cuff of the neck, and took 

 him down to the Green. When she reached the 

 school, for the purpose of imploring the master to 

 take her son back, she knocked at the door, and the 

 master at once appeared. Before she could open her 

 mouth, the master abruptly began, " Don't bring that 

 boy here ! I'll not take him back not though you 

 were to give me twenty pounds ! Neither I, nor my 

 scholars, have had a day's peace since he came here." 

 And with that he shut the door in her face, before she 

 could utter a single word. She turned and came away, 

 very much vexed. She kept her grip on the boy, but, 

 standing still to speak to a neighbour, and her hold 

 getting a little slacker, he made a sudden bolt, and 

 escaped. 



As usual, he crept in late in the evening. His 

 father was at home, reading. On entering, Tom 

 observed that he stopped, fixing his eyes upon him 

 over the top of his book, and looked at him steadily 



