THE OVERCOMER



By Tessa Harvey







CHAPTER TWO
(Continued)



It was a moderately good school and the staff were in the main, capable and well trained.

They did not expect too much from the boys and consequently were seldom disappointed.

The exeat weekends never happened. Elias stayed almost alone at the school. He felt ashamed when one of the housemasters had to take him to buy new shoes. Had his family forgotten him?

If possible, his parents would have left him there for the holidays as business was booming. However, they engaged a tutor to keep the boy occupied.

Ginger and Ernie soon realised he was lonely and both invited him to their homes. Ginger's parents were generally happy, cheerful people who made him very welcome and always had time for him.

They lived in town not far from the swimming pool, fish and chip shop, cinema...Not far away was a large and rambling park.

The boy loved also to go to Ernie's home. It was large, full of many old rooms, attics, and cellars - and built on top of a large towering outcrop of grey granite.

From a distance it seemed to soar towards the sky. Descending from the house were beautiful gardens which gave way to woods, fields and streams. Over one swift flowing river a rope and wooden suspension bridge hung. It swung beautifully over the surging torrent and was best crossed on high windy days when spring floodwaters crashed and surged, delighting the boys, who now had the added thrill of a delicious sort of terror as their toes were almost touched by tossing foam.

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