Good-Bye Mr Chips Author:James Hilton James Hilton's story about the warm and tender schoolmaster who devoted his life to teaching at an English boarding school has long been hailed as a classic in both America and Great Britain. — Mr. Chips came to the Brookfield school as a young man almost fresh from college. And though he was retired now, living at Mrs. Wickett's across the stree... more »t, he loved to sit by the fire with his cup of tea and recall his first days at Brookfield-- more than fifty years ago.
How nervous he had been that first day, especially when he had to take prep (study hall). There was a hush as Chips took his place on the platform. He scowled to cover his inward nervousness. Suddenly, someone dropped a desk lid. Chips felt he must show there was no nonsense about him.
"You there in the fifth row-- you with the red hair-- what's your name?" "Colley, sir." "Very well, Colley, you have a hundred lines." No trouble at all after that.
Years later, when Colley was an alderman of London, he sent his son (also red-haired) to Brookfield, and Chips would say: "Colley, your father was the first boy I ever punished when I came here twenty-five years ago. He deserved it then and you deserve it now." How they all laughed; and how Sir Richard Colley laughed when his son wrote home about the story
There were many such times at Brookfield. And by the time he retired to Mrs. Wickett's, Mr. Chips had become the most beloved master anyone could remember. Now... that wonderful old man has taken his rightful place as one of the most beloved characters in all children's literature.« less