Produced by Annie R. McGuire. This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print archive. TOMMY WIDEAWAKE TOMMY WIDEAWAKE BY H. H. BASHFORD * * * * * PUBLISHED BY JOHN LANE The Bodley Head NEW YORK AND LONDON MCMIII _Copyright, 1903_ By JOHN LANE CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I--In which four men make a promise 9 II--In which two rats meet a sudden death 19 III--In which a hat floats down stream 34 IV--In which a young lady is left upon the bank 46 V--In which April is mistress 55 VI--In which four men meet a train 69 VII--In which Madge whistles in a wood 79 VIII--In which two adjectives are applied to Tommy 90 IX--In which Tommy climbs a stile 100 X--In which I receive two warnings, and neglect one 114 XI--In which Tommy is in peril 121 XII--In which Tommy makes a resolve 133 XIII--In which the poet plucks a foxglove 142 XIV--In which Tommy converses with the Pale Boy 153 XV--In which some people meet in a wheatfield 160 XVI--In which Tommy crosses the ploughing 169 XVII--In which Tommy takes the upland road 173 XVIII--And last 186 I IN WHICH FOUR MEN MAKE A PROMISE We were sitting round the fire, in the study--five men, all of us middle-aged and sober-minded, four of us bachelors, one a widower. And it was he who spoke, with an anxious light in his grey eyes, and two thoughtful wrinkles at the bridge of his military nose. "Tommy," he observed, "Tommy is not an ordinary boy." We were silent, and I could see the doctor's lips twitching beneath his moustache, as he gazed hard into the fire, and sucked at his cigar. The colonel knocked the ashes out of his pipe, and resumed: "I suppose," he said, "that it is a comparatively unusual circumstance to find five men, unrelated by birth or marriage, who, having been friends at school and college and having reached years of maturity, find themselves resident in the same village, with that early friendship not merely still existent, but, if I may say so, stronger than ever." We nodded. "It is unusual," observed the vicar.