which has destroyed the symmetry, dear mother, of your son's Grecian proboscis. He messes with our second captain, Seton, and the one tells us to do one thing, and the other its contrary, so that their desired object of punching the fags' heads for disobedience is always attainable. These two are hollowing' lower boy' the whole day long; a cry which, if unanswered, drives me into my shut-up bedstead; for when no fag is forthcoming, they scour the house until they find one-and then woe be unto him!

My tutor is such a jolly fellow! There is not one of us with a fleeter foot than he, nor can we beat him at either steeple or paper chase. The torrent of invective which he will pour out upon a stupid pupil would be terrible enough; if it were not for the comforting end to which it always runs. Now, confound you, you young dunderhead, I won't stand this any longer, and that's the truth; you won't do these verses yourself, won't you? And you expect Doctor Gracechurch to do them for you, eh? Now, I will have you scourged with fish-hooks,-I will, upon my word and honour, you sir; it is picking your father's pocket to keep you here, it is indeed. Let me look at your verses, you stupid dog;-what is it you want, my good boy,—what is it you want?' And thereupon he gives us 'sense,'-rough English

prose to be translated,—enough to spread over a square mile of Latin hexameters.

"I am sorry to say, that that letter of introduction you sent to Dicky Elms, here, has not done me any permanent good, although I have only myself to blame for it. I breakfasted with his highness only yesterday, but I am afraid I shall never do so any more; for afterwards, while I was engaged in dazzling people out of my window with a looking glass, a dreadful circumstance happened. There was a little round man, with a very important air, talking in mid-street with a thin, starched one; the subject was evidently grave and interesting,-probably a scientific one,— therefore surely, thought I, they cannot but be gratified with my simple experiments connected with the solar system. So, first, I caused a little halo to play around their learned heads, and then I brought the brilliant focus right down upon the eyes of the stout gentleman. No good, shading them, my fine fellow,' said I, as he put his hand up; and then I turned the glass on the thin one. They both advanced in a determined manner towards the house, as if to complain of me; but concluding that they were only townspeople (whom Wintonians are born to despise), I dazzled them all the more. Fancy then my feelings, near-sighted wretch that I am, when, as they drew near, I

recognised in the stout gentleman Dicky Elms, changed from the jovial host of the morning, into the avenger of insulted dignity; and in the other, Mr. Bellairs, the strictest and most severe of the junior masters. For one instant I thought of Doctor Gracechurch, and his pitiless arm,—I heard the swish of that tremendous rod,-and then I rushed despairingly into my shut-up bedstead. Nor did I fear in vain. I could feel now no pleasure in sitting—in the extremely improbable case of his asking me at Dicky Elms' table, or indeed anywhere else, for days to come."

The life Master Adolphus led at Winton was, upon the whole, a very merry one; but it was excessively short. A near relative of his noble father's (a warrior, who had been concerned in the Walcheren expedition, and other military exploits) was appointed by a grateful country to the Master-Generalship of the Ordnance; and Mr. Hollis was not the man to throw away the advantage of an office of that sort being in the family. A nomination to the Military College at Sandwich, and a private note from the general, promising to "remember Dowb" the younger, in his future career, decided the Wintonian's fate, and he was removed from the public school to one of the "cramming" establishments upon Dimbledon Common forthwith.

CHAPTER X.

DURING these years Robert Birt's education was by no means neglected; although, of course, he had no opportunity of acquiring "the tone." He could write a better hand, and spell better by far than his aristocratic contemporary. Wintonians never can spell-and whatever he did know of arithmetic, geography, and history, by so much was he in advance of Master Adolphus Henry Plantagenet Brooks Hollis, who knew nothing at all. Mineton parish school was a very good school, for Mr. Pluckit was a far-sighted man, knowing what bitter fruit must needs grow upon the trees of Ignorance; and luckily for him, he had but few tenant-farmers to deal with in getting subscribed the extra forty pounds a-year necessary to secure that first-rate schoolmaster, Mr. Candid. By him the youth of Mineton were taught not only learning, but the way to teach themselves; and early as they took to getting their own living at the plough-tail, or in the fishing smack, they

knew how to value afterwards their village library and Institute. The Mineton boys were coarser to look at than the young grey coats of Senbury, but-in summer time at least-far cleaner, by reason of their continuous paddling in the brook, or in the sea. Their language, too, was broader than that of the collegians, but it was not onehalf so filthy; and although there was quarrelling enough, and fighting to spare, upon the Downland behind the school upon the hill, there were no refinements of tyranny, no fagging, and no bullying.

Robert got teased for a week or so, and was nicknamed the parson's pet, on account of the interest which Mr. Pluckit exhibited in him; but upon that gentleman's wise abandonment of such patronage, the boy got to be a favourite both with companions and master.

A sensible hard-headed self-confident lad he now showed himself to be, who could take a good deal of beating, both physically and intellectually, without giving in, and was the sort of Tortoise altogether to run the race of English life against the Hares, successfully. We are sorry to say he did not forgive very easily, and there was written within him, in figures that did not grow indistinct with time, a heavy reckoning against-some person or persons unknown-some system very real, but very vague.