Then, without a word, he took my hand, as something that belonged to
him, and before the schoolmistress could recover her breath, or the
scholars awake from their astonishment, he marched me, as if his little
stocky figure had been sixteen feet tall, in stately silence out of the
school.
NINTH CHAPTER
I was never sent back to school, and I heard that Martin, by order of
the butcher, was publicly expelled. This was a cause of distress to our
mothers, who thought the future of our lives had been permanently
darkened, but I cannot say that it ever stood between us and our
sunshine. On the contrary it occurred that--Aunt Bridget having washed
her hands of me, and Martin's father being unable to make up his mind
what to do with him--we found ourselves for some time at large and were
nothing loth to take advantage of our liberty, until a day came which
brought a great disaster.
One morning I found Martin with old Tommy the Mate in his potting-shed,
deep in the discussion of their usual subject--the perils and pains of
Arctic exploration, when you have little food in your wallet and not too
much in your stomach.
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