Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England The Crofton Boys, by Harriet Martineau. ________________________________________________________________________ Crofton is the name of a boarding school which takes in boys aged from eight to perhaps thirteen. Such a school is known in the UK as a Prep School, and it is normal for well-bred boys to attend such a school, as I and my brothers all did. Hugh is packed off to school from his comfortable home in the Strand, London. His older brother is already at the school, and can give him some guidance, but on the whole he is on his own. Boys can be very cruel to one another, and Hugh gets his fair share of the bullying, the fights, the unfair masters, and the small squabbles over borrowed money. One day in the playground there is an episode which little Hugh tries to escape from by climbing over a wall. He is pulled back, and the very heavy loose coping stone on the top of the wall falls from onto his foot, crushing it so badly that it has to be amputated. That's about half-way through the book. How Hugh endures the operation, recovers, and rebuilds his life with the other boys at school, his family relations and the school staff takes up the rest of the book, which is well and sensitively written, coming as it does from a talented authoress who is no stranger to personal problems. ________________________________________________________________________ THE CROFTON BOYS, BY HARRIET MARTINEAU. CHAPTER ONE. ALL THE PROCTORS BUT PHIL.