A cloud had been cast over the sunshine of my first school-day; and what was worse, I had, in this plight, to face the anger of my father, and the anxious looks of my poor expecting mother.” CHAPTER VI. I’ve wander’d far, I’ve wander’d near, I’ve liv’d with low and high, But ne’er knew I a thing so dear As my own Mother’s eye! It swell’d with grief, when grief was mine; It beam’d, when joy was given; On earth no sun like it could shine— How glows it now, in Heaven! “HOW changed to my eye was now that mountain road, by which, in the early morning, I had hastened, full of joy and expectation, to Hawkshead School! Not that there was any change in reality; for the evening sun shone as bright in the West over my returning path, as its morning beams had gilded my eastern track. The cows were once more lowing in the valleys for the evening milking. The cuckoos were shouting to each other from glen to glen, as if they alone had a right to be heard in their own domain. The lark was whistling a highland fling in the sunbeams, and dancing to his own merry music in the very centre of the sky. But all this was lost upon me; for my spirits had sunk to the very lowest point of despair, and I was thinking, in melancholy sadness, of the reception I should meet with at home, all black and bruised as I was; and of the blank which would sadden my poor mother’s face, when she hastened to meet me, and hear my account of the adventures of the day. My little companions, to do them justice, sympathized with my feelings; for though they said little to comfort me, yet they restrained their boyish mirth within a reasonable compass; and tried to conduct themselves as if nothing particular had happened—all that could be expected from youths like them. I shall never forget my feelings when Dash rushed out, wagging his tail, and bounding with joy at my approach, and then, suddenly looking me in the face, turned round with his tail between his legs, and ran into the house as though he had been guilty of some serious doggish fault, and expected instant chastisement! ‘Surely,’ thought I, ‘if Dash does not know me, my own mother wont!’ and so it proved; for at first sight she hardly recollected who it was, so changed was I in appearance. But her experience in the history of schoolboys was much greater than my own; and I saw at once that she comprehended the whole matter before I had said a word to her. She looked deadly pale for a moment; but all she said was,—‘My dear boy, are _you_ to blame for this?’ ‘No, mother, I am NOT,’ said I, with a firmness which I saw at once carried conviction to her heart, and I felt I had made peace with one of my parents. But the worst, I knew, and so did my mother, was yet to come. My father was of another stamp, and viewed matters in another light. He saw, too, and comprehended at a glance what had happened; but, quite independent of the right or wrong of the question, his