Connecticut western news., 1921-09-08


 ed on the occasion of a visit from Madam Brown: "Job, Job, where's thy cap?"
 "What! Beanie on ma head motherY" replied Job, slowly extricat- ing one hand from a pocket and feel ing for the article in question; which he found on his head and left there, to his mothers horror and Toms great delight.
 Rugby was a new world for Tom. He was sturdy, and cumulative urchin, able to fend for himself on his own heath; yet 1t was a great boon for him that he fell into the hands of a boy of his own age, but bit ahead of him at Rugby. The first sight he encountered on his arrival was lord ly crowd of youngsters who looked quite as if they owned the place. One of these young heroes ran out from the rest and accosted Tom. "I say, you fellow, is your name BrOWnW
 'Yes," said Tom, in considerable as- tOn.shment, glad, however, to have lighted on some one already who seemed to know him.
 "Ah, I thought so; you know my aunt, Miss East; she lives somewhere down your way in Berkshire. She wrote to me that you were coming to- day, and asked me to give you a lift. You see," said his friend, as they strOlled up toward the school gates, "a great deal depends on how a fellow cuts up at first. If he's got nothing odd about him, and answers straight forward and holds his head up, he gets on. You see Pm doing the handsome thing by you, because my father knows yours; besides, I want to please the old lady. She gave me half a soy this half, and perhaps'n double it next if keep in her good books"
 Thus began a friendship which last ed through all their school days and meant much to both of them. Friend ship and loyalty and good sportsman ship are great features in this book, which shows an insight into the brain and heart of a boy which is just as 1t was In the days of William ". Tom and East were together in games, in mischief, in fights, in good deeds, or in deviltry, as they were in ingenious syndicating meth ods of working out the mysteries of the Greek and Latin languages. And years later, when the wise Doctor Arnold of Rugby decided that Tom was headed toward destruction, 1t was by means of friendship for a weaker boy who needed his protection that he rescued him. What was the marvel of the doctors power over boys? "We couldn't enter into half that we heard; we hadn't the knowledge of our own hearts or the knowledge of one an- other; and little enough of the faith, hope and love needed to that end. But we listened, as all boys in their bet ter moods will listen (aye, and men, too, for the matter of that), to a man whom they felt to Se, with all his heart and soul and strength, striv- ing against whatever was mean and and unrighteous in our little world. It was not the cold, clear voice of one giving advice and warn ing from serene heights to those who were struggling and shining below, but the warm, living voice of one who was fighting for us and by our sides, and calling us to help him and our selves and one another. And so, wearily and little by little, was brought home to the young boy, for the first time, the meaning of his life: that 1t was no fools or sluggard's paradise into which he had wandered by chance, but a battle field, ordained from of old, where there are Ep spectators, but the youngest must take his side, and the stakes are life and death. And he who reused this consciousness in them showed them at the same time, by every word he spoke, and by his whole daily life, how that battle was to be fought; and stood before them their fellow-soldier and the captain of their guard. The true sort of captain, too, for boys army, one who had no mis- givings and gave no uncertain word of command, and, let who would yield or make truce, would fight the fight OuL \SO every DOy 4CALI IO IAC AoSL 6o0p and the last drop of blood"
 And so Tom lived his life from the first green days to the last memorable night, when he was "chaired" round the quadrangle by the eleven, shout ing in chorus: "For he's jolly, good fellow" himself as great boy as all the rest, despite the passage of the years and his dignity of captain. It Is a story of humanness with all its good points and It's frailties, but espe- cially of loyalty and of friendship; of games, so much like our own in spirit, and yet so different in details; of East and Arthur, of the brutalities of the old Tagging system, the school bully and Toms classic fight with him, of the final war of independence against what was mean and sOrdid.
 "'I want to leave behind me- said Tom, speaking low, the name of