The Crowstarver Read Online Free PDF

he rode.
    â€˜He’s a beauty, that horse,’ Albie said to Tom as he went to fetch wheelbarrow and fork. ‘I’d love to have a ride on ee. All I ever gets to sit on is Pony – father lets me have a go round the orchard when the foreman ain’t looking.’
    â€˜You might get your dad’s job one day, when he retires,’ Tom said. Though my son, he thought, won’t ever be offered my job.
    Mister was as good as his word, and both he as a school governor and the vicar as another put the case of Spider Sparrow to Mr Pugh, the headmaster, with the result that, just before the end of the spring term, Kathie received a summons to bring her son in to the village school one afternoon.
    As they arrived, the children were just coming out to go home, the bigger ones by themselves, the smaller with their mothers, and as they streamed past, Kathie heard a lot of things said. Some were good-natured, like ‘Hullo, Spider!’ or ‘Good old Spider!’ but some children called out ‘Good un!’ in mockery, and some, she could see, were imitating Spider’s way of walking. Mercifully she did not hear a comment from one of the bigger boys.
    â€˜Ee’d have frightened Miss Muffet to death, ee would!’ he said, amid the sniggers of his cronies.
    Spider, she could see, was scared at the sight of so many children and her heart bled for him. How would he manage at school without her to protect him? How would he stand up for himself? How, with his limited and often strange speech, would he make his needs known to the teachers?
    One side of her wanted him to become a schoolboy, to learn, even if that learning was only to be of the most basic kind – to write his name, to read a few words, to know some numbers. The other side of her half-hoped, as they entered Mr Pugh’s office, that the headmaster would not feel able to offer him a place, so that he could stay at home, with her, safe and protected.
    In the event, it was no contest. Spider, already frightened by the crowd of children, now lost what wits he had. It mattered not that Mr Pugh was a kindly, fatherly sort of man, anxious to put at ease this boy of whom he already knew something from Major Yorke and the vicar. Spider simply clammed up.
    â€˜Now then, young man,’ said the headmaster, ‘let’s see how much you know.’ He wrotein large capital letters on a piece of paper the word: CAT.
    â€˜What does that say?’ he asked Spider.
    There was no answer.
    Mr Pugh pointed to each letter in turn, asking for their names, but Spider only looked up at his mother as though to say, ‘Take me away.’
    The headmaster opened a picture book, asking more questions about the illustrations but receiving no replies, except that when he showed a picture of a rabbit and asked what it was, Spider said in a small voice, ‘Barrit.’
    â€˜Can he write his name, Mrs Sparrow?’ asked Mr Pugh.
    â€˜No.’
    â€˜Does he know any numbers?’
    â€˜He knows how old he is.’
    â€˜How old are you, Spider?’ said Mr Pugh, but even then in his confusion the boy only held up four fingers and a thumb.
    â€˜He’s just six,’ Kathie said.
    There was a silence, while the headmaster looked at the little boy known as Spider and said to himself that there was no way such a child could be taught in his school.
    Nervously, Kathie said ‘He’s ever so clever in some ways, Mr Pugh. He’s wonderful withanimals, any sort of animal, and he can copy the noises they make, to the life.’
    â€˜Mrs Sparrow,’ said the headmaster, ‘it’s better if I’m frank with you. Your boy has got problems that I don’t think we can deal with. I’m sorry.’
    At these words Kathie suddenly and definitely felt, not disappointment, but relief. She watched Spider’s face as they walked home hand in hand, and the further they got from the school and the nearer to the