It was Sam Sylvester,a teacher at Hawkwood School,who started the trouble. Just along the road from Hawkwood there was another school called Greycoats. Parents paid a lot of money to send their children to Greycoats, and the children there were clean and tidy, wore expensive clothes, and did well in examinations.
At Hawkwood the parents did not pay any money and the children were much better at fighting than at passing examinations. They were happy about that. Passing examinations meant hard work, and who wanted to study every evening.
But Sam Sylvester was worried about the difference between the two school. He wanted Hawkwood to be as good as Greycoats, and he was always telling his class to work harder, to try and make a better life for themselves.
"That's the trouble with you lot", he said to his class one day.
" you do not care about anything".
"What do you want us to care about, sir?" asked Hoomey. He was a thin, serious child, who was too small for his age. His real name was Rossiter, but when someone spoke to him, he always said, " Who?Me?", so everyone called him " Hoomey".