"Loose-boned by virtue of his youth, and cushioned by the carpeting, Herbert arrived at the bottom without breaking. He was shaken, of course, but he did not cry, for two years with Clarissa had taught him that crying did more harm than good. He merely sat up, rubbing his head, and looked around. And as his eyes turned left, to the wall opposite the matron's office door, he froze in an ecstasy of terror and delight. There was another child sitting at the bottom of another staircase and that child was wearing the same shirt and trousers and was rubbing his head, too. Herbert Rowbarge had discovered mirrors."
Herbert becomes entranced.
"Herbert stayed a full half hour in the entrance hall, perfectly content. For not only did the boy in the mirror move as he moved, and make the same faces, this boy was the possessor of the other lion from the Noah's Ark. He brought it out from a pocket just as Herbert was producing his own, and when Herbert pressed his lion to the surface of the glass, the other boy did the same, so that the two wooden animals were together again at last. Herbert smiled at the boy in the mirror, and the boy smiled back, and the time they spent together in the entrance hall was a time of sweet discovery and peace."
Herbert's dreams.
"He would find himself arm-in-arm with the boy in the entrance hall mirror. They would smile at each other, and float off together into a world that was neither the world of the mirror nor any other place he knew, but a far more magical place, a dim and watery place with little boats, a warm place far away. This was all that happened in the dream, but, dreaming it, he was eased. In the morning he would waken calm and cheerful, and the anger sometimes did not come back till long after breakfast."
Herbert Rowbarge by Natalie Babbitt, page 41 to 43.
"Herbert Rowbarge"
https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/449892.Herbert_Rowbarge
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