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<h2>XVI</h2> DAVID AND JONATHAN Easter came, and to the boys' great delight Roy was so much stronger that it was settled he might accompany Dudley to a private boarding school for one term. Thanks were due to Miss Bertram for this arrangement; and she had great difficulty in obtaining her mother's consent to it. "I am sure the boys will get on best together; Roy will have a better chance of growing strong if he is with Dudley than if he is to mope by himself here. If we find he does not keep well, we can have him home again; and from all we hear of the school, the boys are most carefully looked after." And certainly to judge from Roy's appearance and spirits, this plan seemed most successful. It was a bright morning in April. The air was cold but dry, and the old garden was sweet with the scent of hyacinths and narcissuses. Bright beds of tulips and polyanthuses bordered the green lawn, and old Hal was surveying the results of his work with pride and satisfaction. Miss Bertram, in her leather gloves and garden apron, was busy in and out of the hothouses; and the boys, after scampering round in every one's way, had at last scrambled up to their favorite seat on the garden wall. "This time next week we shall be at school," said Dudley; "how funny we shall feel!" "We shan't be able to climb walls there, I suppose." "On half-holidays, perhaps we shall. It isn't all lessons; old Selby told us the happiest time of his life was when he was at school." "I mean to be happy," said Roy, a smile hovering about his lips. "And so do I," maintained Dudley, stoutly; "but it will be awfully strange at first. It's like Rob going off to be a soldier. We're going out 'to see life' nurse says." "Old Principle wants us to come to tea with him before we go. I saw him this morning going past our gate. He'll give us some of his good advice like he did Rob, but I don't mind him, he's such a jolly old chap." There was silence between them for a few minutes. Dudley was eating a slice of cake which he had brought out of the house with him, and Roy was dreamily watching the figures of his aunt and the old gardener moving about amongst the bright colored flower beds. "Dudley, we'll always keep friends, won't we?" "Of course we will." "But I dare say you'll have a lot of fellows at school who can get about quicker with you than I can; and I don't want to keep you back. I only want you to like me still best in your heart." "Now look here, old chap! You know that I couldn't like any other fellow better than you. You're much more likely to have a lot of chums than I am, because you're so clever. Look at Rob; he used to think nothing of me at all, and I got to think you didn't want me with you, after he came." "That was awful rot then, because we two are quite different to any other people. Only it would be a good thing to have a fresh promise together; a kind of Bible covenant, you know, before we go to school." "All right, here goes, then! Let us have your fists—now then, hear me! I, Dudley Bertram, vow and declare that Fitz Roy Bertram shall continue to be my dearest and nearest chum from this time forth, forevermore. Amen." Roy grasped Dudley's hands eagerly and earnestly, and repeated his vow in the same words, perhaps with additional emphasis; then with a sigh of relief, he turned to chatter of other things. Shortly after Miss Bertram came up to them with a newspaper in her hand. "Granny has just sent out this paper to me, boys. She thought you would like to know that the troops in the place where Rob is, have all been sent out on some expedition against a rebel chief in the mountains, so he will have some fighting now." "Hurrah!" shouted Dudley, "don't I wish I was with him! Does the newspaper mention his name, Aunt Judy?" "When shall we have a letter from him?" "Not for some time yet, because this is telegraphed. It will be all over before we hear. We must hope and pray that Rob may be kept safely through it." Miss Bertram looked grave, and the boys sobered down at once. "But, Aunt Judy, of course fighting is dreadful, but it is a soldier's duty, isn't it?" "And Rob is sure to do his duty." "Yes, boys, we will hope he will serve his Queen as well as he served us whilst here. Rob was a good boy: I wish there were more like him." And Miss Bertram moved away, whilst her little nephews worked off their excitement at this news, by jumping down from the wall, and performing a mimic battle in the pine wood outside. Very eagerly and impatiently did they look for a letter before they went off to school, but none came; and the last word that Roy said as he was leaving the house was,— "Mind, Aunt Judy, you send on my letter when it comes as quick as lightning!" It was rather an ordeal for both the boys when the last leave-takings of all at home came. The old nurse wept profusely, and was only comforted by the assurance that she should go to her charges on the very first intimation of illness. Mrs. Bertram gave them such warnings against choosing evil companions, and becoming depraved in principles, that the boys were quite awed and depressed; and the servants, one and all, expressed such pity and sympathy for their departure, that Dudley at last confided to Roy: "If we were going to prison they couldn't look more shocked and gloomy." General Newton insisted upon taking them himself to school. "It looks well," he said to Miss Bertram, a little pompously; "for the boys to have a man at their back, and I will have a few words with the principal myself about Roy's delicacy of constitution. It will come with more force from me than from you." So the general was allowed to have his way, and by the time the boys were in the train with a large packet of sandwiches and cakes to while away the time, their spirits rose, and they declared that going off to school was "the jolliest thing out." It was late in the evening when they reached their destination. The school was not far from the sea, and the clergyman who kept it would never have more than thirty boarders; his wife, a sweet-faced gentlewoman, received the boys most kindly, and General Newton came away satisfied that it would prove a happy home as well as a good training for the motherless boys. Dudley and Roy were not long in making themselves at home; their high spirits made them general favorites amongst the boys; and even Roy did not feel himself out of place in the playground, whilst in the schoolroom he proved a quick and intelligent pupil. "The boys are happy, mother," said Miss Bertram one morning going into her mother's room and handing her two letters; "and Mrs. Hawthorn has written most favorably of them both." "I should think so," said Mrs. Bertram, stiffly, who though sternness itself to her grandsons was most indignant if any one dared to say a word against them to her; "they would not be true Bertrams if they were not favorites with all." She opened the letters and read— "DEAR AUNT JUDY: "It's our hour for home letters. We like it here awfully. Mrs. Hawthorn is a brick, she lets me come into the drawing-room with her whenever I am tired, but I've only been in once yet because I like to watch the boys play best. I can bowl at cricket and bat too, and I give a boy called 'Gnat' twopence a game to do my runs for me. I'm collecting birds' eggs. There's a boy here who has got 250 of them. I mean to find a sea gull's nest, and then he'll swap twenty of his with me for one gull's, because he has never got one yet. There is a boy called 'Simple Simon,' he thinks I am a wonder because I let him run pins into my cork leg and never cry out. He does not know it's a sham leg and I shan't tell him. We should like another hamper very soon, please. Cook's gingerbread was A1. Give my love to granny, and tell her I take my tonic when I go to bed every night. Give my love to nurse. Tell old Principle Mr. Hawthorn would like to know such a clever man and see his cave. Send me Rob's letter directly it comes, please. We do drill in the gymnasium. "Your loving nephew "FITZ ROY BERTRAM." DEAR AUNT JUDY: "This is an awfully jolly school. I'd like you to be one of the boys. We are going to have a paper chase next Thursday, and I bet I'll lick some of the chaps at running. Roy and I sleep in the next beds to each other. I look after him when he will let me, he is top of his class and Tom Hunter says he is a plucky chap. Hunter is captain of the eleven. We go to bathe every morning down by the sea, and Hunter says his father is going to give him a boat of his own in the summer. There is a jolly tuck shop in the town. We can go to it every Saturday. There is a boy here called 'Fishy,' he wants to be my chum but I like one called 'Cheshire Cat' better, but I have no chum but Roy. Old Hawthorn only canes for lies. A boy got caned last night, and blubbered like a baby before he went in. I send my love to granny, and all of you. Roy expects Rob's letter every day. "Your loving nephew "DUDLEY. "P.S. Hunter says our cake has made his mouth water for the next." <hr style="width: 65%;"> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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