He did not attempt to teach him Latin--which would, he thought, be altogether useless to him--but gave him a thorough grounding in English and Indian history, and arithmetic, and insisted upon his spending a certain time each day in reading standard English authors.
Tom Pearson, who was five years younger than his sister, had come out to India four years after her.

He was a lad full of life and energy.

As soon as he left school, finding himself the master of a hundred pounds--the last remains of the small sum that his father had left behind him--he took a second-class passage to Calcutta.

As soon as he had landed, he went round to the various merchants and offices and, finding that he could not, owing to a want of references, obtain a clerkship, he took a place in the store of a Parsee merchant who dealt in English goods.

Here he remained for five years, by which time he had mastered two or three native languages, and had obtained a good knowledge of business.
He now determined to start on his own account.