George, who was the youngest of the children, was at this time seven years old; Ralph was two years and half older, and Oscar, who was the oldest son, was about half way between thirteen and fourteen.  They had two sisters.  Alice, the oldest, was fifteen years of age, and Eleanor, or Ella, as she was commonly called, was about eleven.

The father of these boys and girls was a shop-keeper in Boston.  His business required so much of his attention, that he was seldom with his family, except at meal-times and nights.  Even in the evening he was usually at the shop; but when it so happened that he could remain at home after tea, it was his delight to settle himself comfortably down in the big rocking chair, in the well-lighted sitting-room, and to muse and doze, while Alice sang, and played upon the piano-forte.  He had so many other cares, that he did not like to be troubled with bad reports of his children’s conduct, This was so well understood by all the family, that even George seldom ventured to go to him with a complaint.  The management of domestic affairs was thus left almost entirely with Mrs. Preston, and she consulted her husband in regard to these matters only when grave troubles arose.

I have thus briefly introduced to my readers the family, one of whose members is to form the principal subject of the following pages.

CHAPTER II.

OSCAR IN SCHOOL.

The school which Oscar attended was held in a large and lofty brick building, a short distance from the street on which he lived.  His brothers attended the same school, but his sisters did not, it being only for boys.  The pupils numbered four or five hundred—­a good many boys to be together in one building.  But though belonging to one school, and under the control of one head master, they did not often meet together in one assembly.  They were divided into eight or ten branches, of about fifty scholars each, and each branch had its own separate room and teacher.  There were however, only four classes in the whole school; and a this time Oscar was a member of the first, or highest class.  There was a large hall in the upper story of the building, in which the entire school assembled on exhibition days, and when they met for the practice of singing or declamation.

There were lively and merry times in the vicinity of the school-house, I can assure you, for half an hour before the opening of school, and for about the same length of time after the exercises closed.  Four hundred boys cannot well be brought together, without making some stir.  Every morning and afternoon, as the pupils went to and from school, the streets in the neighborhood would for a few minutes seem to swarm with boys, of every imaginable size, shape, manners, dress, and appearance.  Usually, they went back and forth in little knots; and with their books and slates under their arms, their bright, happy faces, their joyous laugh, and their animated movements, they presented a most pleasing sight,—­“a sight for sore eyes,” as a Scotchman might say.  If anybody disputes this, he must be a sour and crabbed fellow.