Monna. 17

“Ain’t 1?” said Tommy. “ That’s just what I
thinks about it. I wish other people thought so too,
though ; here’s master ’ve a-hit me this very day,
because all the other boys would laugh.”

“Oh, that was very unfair!” cried I.

“"Twas, too,” said Tommy. “The other boys
needn’t ha’ looked at my faces if they didn’t want.
Well, it’s no odds: when I’m a man I’ll be a sodger
like father, and go away to foreign parts; there ain’t
no schoolmasters there. Prrt, ca-a-ow !”

Tommy Cadwallader’s mother had married a
soldier, and had gone away with him to India, leav-
ing little Tommy with his grandparents. She sent
over a regular sum for his support, however, which
was enough to keep him at school, and to supply
him with better clothes than most of the other
village boys, besides an unlimited allowance of “ile”
with which to plaster down his naturally wavy hair
on Sundays, and on market days when he went
“into town.” These advantages, together with a
remarkable fluency in both the English and Welsh
languages, gave him a certain position among the
other boys, which his bold and joyous temper well
maintained. Although he was only ten years old,
no game was complete without Tommy ; and he
was at the bottom of every joke and every piece of

mischief that went on. He was always in a scrape,
B