"Here comes Schoolmaster!" shouted one, at a venture.
At that moment, indeed, the Schoolmaster appeared in the doorway.
"What's this noise about?" he demanded. "You, Link Andrew?
I thought your interest was to avoid trouble for twenty-four hours."
II.
By the Industrial Schools Act of 1866, 29 & 30 Vict. c. 118, it is
ordained that any youngster apparently under the age of fourteen
found begging, or wandering destitute, or consorting with thieves, or
obstinately playing truant from school, or guilty of being neglected
by his parents, or of defying his parents, or of having a parent who
has incurred a sentence of penal servitude--may by any two justices
be committed to a certified Industrial School, there to be detained
until he reaches the age of sixteen, or for a shorter term if the
Justices shall so direct. Such an Industrial School was the
ex-battleship _Egeria_.
She had carried seventy-four guns in her time; and though gunless now
and jury-masted, was redolent still of the Nelson period from her
white-and-gold figure-head to the beautiful stern galleries which
Commander Headworthy had adorned with window-boxes of Henry Jacoby
geraniums.
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