"Because I am not sure of being able

to pay.'

Bah! you evade,' cried Arthur angrily. 'Avow frankly what I have always suspected, that you are the son of some miserable shoemaker in London, and that you have quitted the paternal shop because you were ashamed of your father.'

"Greenhorn became purple. 'My father was a gentleman,' he said, 'for he would have blushed to insult the poverty of a comrade.'

"I approve of Greenhorn's proceedings,' cried another wit. He views the subject in its proper light, and I will give him the counsel of a friend. During the vacations, which he ordinarily spends here, he can employ himself in mending all our old shoes. Let us give him our patronage, and enable him to buy a new coat, for this has shown the cord these two years.'

"Let us settle his genealogy first' said the chief accuser, 'before we admit him to the order of St. Crispin,' and he began to sing:

'Mon père, illustre savetier,
Ma mère.'

"But before he could speak another word, Greenhorn sprang upon him, and caught him by the throat. Do not speak of my mother,' said he. His eyes flashed, the lamb had become a lion. He was surrounded instantly, and assailed on all sides, but he held the insulter in a convulsive grasp, and seemed insensible to the blows which fell around him. Just then a blind was opened, and a voice cried, Fie! cowards! have you no mothers? There was a general cessation, and Greenhorn let go his prey, and turned to look for his defender. It was Mlle. Susette. She had assisted unseen at the last part of the drama. The young Englishman regarded her for a moment as he would his mother had she been there, and then he turned to defy us. This time there was no one ready to pick up the gauntlet, and at the end of ten minutes he slowly left the court. Mademoiselle Susette met him in the passage with ex

Greenhorn, you are a brave boy, and your mother is happy mother.' Greenhorn uttered a suppressed cry of anguish and passed on. "Ah!' said Mademoiselle Susette sadly, 'I might have known he was an orphan! We did not care to encounter Mademoiselle's eyes just then, and the leaders were suddenly left alone. The army deserted, completely demoralized by this interference. A truce was proclaimed until vacation, which was rendered easy by the absence of Greenhorn, who went to attend the general concourse, where he obtained the first Latin prize; a triumph for which Arthur and Adolph vowed to make him pay dearly on the reopening of the classes.

"But when that day arrived, we learned, not without some consternation, that Greenhorn had finished his studies, had been promoted by M. Bénignet to the office of usher, and would that year superintend our class. Arthur de Montmeillan was furious. He would never submit to such a humiliation. He would write to his father, and break his engagements with M. Bénignet. It was intolerable. He, submit to recite his lessons to Greenhorn. He would throw the books in his face first. No doubt it was Mademoiselle Susette who had obtained such promotion for her favorite, but she might cry 'Fie!' as much as she chose, he was determined to put him down.

"His invectives met with a feeble response. Many who had composed the band of Montmeillan had left the school, others had deserted the flag, and the newcomers were not disposed to embark in an affair so doubtful. I felt curious to see how Greenhorn would bear his new honors. Would he not avail himself of them to take revenge upon his old persecutors? Certainly he had pretexts enough. Yet nothing in his conduct betrayed the slightest shade of irritation or resentment. There was no alteration in him. He wore the same coat, a little seedier; the same placid countenance, a little paler, from an attack of fever, which had only yielded to the incessant cares of Mademoiselle Susette.

"Montmeillan and the little band he had collected round him, left no means untried to weary his patience, but in vain. To all their petty annoyances he opposed a spirit of meekness which would have disarmed any league, save of school-boys.

He

"Accordingly it was prepared, and one Saturday when Greenhorn supplied the place of an absent professor, the spy of Montmeillan was called upon to read his theme first. He began:

"Cucurmis arguitur prodidisse scholares ideo jussus est ab scholae discedere, nisi turba scholarum minare mortem, maledico Cucurmi.

"All eyes were turned upon the professor's chair, expecting an explosion, but as attentive and impassible as if he had listened to a passage in Homer or Virgil, Greenhorn turned to me. "Translate, Monsieur.'

"I would like to have known,' he added after a pause, an obscure master, an unknown philosopher, who, exposed to calumnies, to insult, still persists in doing his duty. Ancient or modern, it is a salutary example, and will be useful to me despite the barbarisms of the composition."

"And so our bombshell, prepared with so much care, and aimed with so much audacity, was extinguished in the other copybooks among which Greenhorn laid it. Montmeillan could not contain his rage. Another such victory, and he would be hopelessly defeated. No one could deny that, pawn as he was, the Englishman had met the attack bravely. Certainly, he had courage. We were not without our own private apprehensions as to the result.

Benignant as he was, M. Bénignet could not refuse to make an example of the ringleaders at the request of the master. The next morning we awaited the hour for dismissal with some anxiety, but not a word was said. We knew that Greenhorn had held a long conference with the principal early in the morning, and we looked forward to punishment as a certainty. Some held that the vengeance was only deferred, but the majority felt grateful to Greenhorn for not depriving us of a holiday.

66

The next day our surprise was greatly increased by the appearance of a new visage, an unknown pawn. What had become of Greenhorn? Remorse awakened in our consciences. The most timorous blamed themselves for his disappearance. Perhaps, driven to despair by our evil conduct, he had hung or drowned himself. Then we were real homicides. Montmeillan laughed, and maintained that finding M. Bénignet indisposed to engage in his quarrel, he had decamped without sound of trumpet. Others imagined that he had gone to lay his complaints before the police, and would return accompanied by some members of that formidable body. Every one felt disturbed, and each ring at the door-bell made us start. Nothing could be learned of the cause of this sudden eclipse. I did not fail to observe Mademoiselle Susette, and I saw that her blue spectacles were frequently obscured, and that her eyes were red and swollen. Did she weep for Greenhorn or for his departure?

"One day, two, three passed without bringing any explanation of the mystery, but on the next the spy of Montmeillan, who had hitherto listened at the key-holes in vain, came into the court, triumphant.

"I have found the enigma. Here are two pages of the famous journal that has troubled us so much. I found it under Greenhorn's bed, but I did not get it without trouble, I assure you. I had to climb on the roof and get in at the window. You see the date is the same with that of the day Cucurmis was written.'

666

'Read, and spare us your remarks if you please,' said Arthur.

"I can read the date well enough. Ciphers are of all languages, but that is all. I don't understand a word of this British jargon.'

"Notwithstanding his feigned indifference, he was dying with curiosity to know what the journal contained. I had studied English, and they all stood grouped around me while I read."

Here the narrator paused and took from his pocket-book a piece of paper, yellow with time, and covered with close writing.

"I keep it as a precious relic," he said, "and read it often, and never without profit.

"SATURDAY MORNING, Oct. 27. "There is some new plot against me. I judge so by the dark looks thrown at me by the leader, and the half-curious, halftroubled glances of those who follow in his train. I have been left undisturbed for two whole days; I find no more pins in my chair when I go to sit down, no threads stretched across my way, no insults written at the top of the lesson I am to hear. But it is but the deceitful calm which precedes the tempest. I could easily know what I am to expect if I chose. Two or three pupils, among others the confidant of Arthur de Montmeillan.'

"It is false,' exclaimed that individual, coloring to his forehead.

"Let me go on,' said I.

"Two or three pupils, among others the confidant of M., throw themselves continually in my way, and only await a word, a question to betray the secrets of their comrades. But God forbid that I should encourage such baseness.

"Saturday evening I was not deceived They have accused me (in vile Latin, it is true) of having betrayed them, and menace me with death, if I do not leave the school. It is absurd, it is puerile, and yet I suffer, because at the bottom of this childish spite, I see the base persecution of the weak by the strong. Thou art poor, thou art an orphan, therefore thou shall be driven away. Thy work, thy perseverance, shall not avail. Thou hast won by thy labor thy daily bread, but we will make it so bitter that thou must renounce it and die of hunger. We have been committed to thy care, but we are a troop of wild beasts who will devour our shepherd.'

"I was interrupted by exclamations on all sides. 'Is that so? Are you sure you translate right?' but I read steadily

vidly expressed here, and I took a bitter pleasure in chastising my own feebleness, and that of many others who thought as I did.

"It is then true that man is born evil. But no. One bad heart, spoiled by vanity and fortune, is enough to lead many others astray. These children know not what they do. My God! give me also the grace to say, 'Father, forgive them,' even as my sainted mother prayed upon her death-bed for those who had persecuted her. I seem still to hear her words. "My son," she said to me, "the greatest evil our enemies can do to us, is to awaken like envy or hatred in our hearts. Avoid this contagion. If thou canst possess thine own soul, thou art invulnerable, and each trial will but make thee more generous and more brave."

"Sunday morning I wake calm, almost joyful. O my mother! thou wert right! A victory over one's self leaves neither trouble nor remorse. I am no longer irritated against any one. But have I nothing to reproach myself with? Am I not reserved? proud? Have I not always made my poverty a haughty line of demarkation between my companions and myself?

"I have just been interrupted by a packet from England. After being forgotten so long, I am recalled in haste. My grandfather is dying and desires to see me. He wishes to repair, alas! too late, the wrong he did my mother. He repents his long injustice, his abandonment of her after my father's death. He believes her living, and implores our pardon. What will they say here? That I am afraid, that I have fled. No matter, if my duty commands me to go. I shall not quit without regret this mansion of austere studies, of sad trials, since I have found here a noble heart whose deep and silent devotion was first attracted by my misfortunes; a heart which recalls thine own, O beloved mother! Blessed be the roof, and all which it shelters! Whatever happens, I will return.'

"Two years later the promise was fulfilled. Greenhorn came back to lay a noble name and an ample fortune at the feet of Mademoiselle Susette, who saw nothing marvellous in the constancy. Would she not have done the same if she had been rich? But happiness made Mlle. Susette look young and pretty. The blue spec

THE WEATHER-the most important,the most universally interesting of all sublunary themes. The scorching heat of summer, the biting cold of winter, the rain with its floods, the snow with its avalanches, the tempest with its thunder and its lightning-how many associations do they embosom, how many hours of joy, of disappointment, and of grief, do they recall! Who but remembers the bright summer suns under which they trod the green carpet of Nature, culling the flowers which enamelled it, and inhaling the fragrance which they breathed? Who can forget the voice from above which first spoke to them from the thunder cloud, or the all-piercing eye which seemed to gleam from its fire? Who has not stood in awe under the solemnity of a sea-storm, or wept over friends that have been engulfed in its waves?

But it is not merely with our feelings that the weather is associated. It painfully interferes with our every-day duties and amusements. Our household arrange

* The Climate of London deduced from Meteoro

logical Observations made in the Metropolis and at various places around it. By LUKE HOWARD, Gent. 3 vols. 8vo. Second Edition. London, 1833.

A Cycle of Eighteen Years in the Seasons of Britain. By LUKE HOWARD, Gent. 8vo. London, 1842.

Papers on Meteorology, relating especially to the Climate of Britain and to the Variations of the Barometer. Parts I. and II. of the Appendix to Barometrographia. By LUKE HOWARD, Esq. F.R.S. 4to. London, 1854.

ments, too, depend upon its changes, and even our dress must take its character from the weather. While the pilgrim on our western coast spends half the year swathed in water-proofs and erect in India-rubbers under the domicile of an umbrella, the inhabitant of the east is shrouded in a cloud of vapor, shivering under the sirocco that breathes from its shores.

Interests of a still higher kind are involved in the weather and its changes. It predominates with a despotic sway over all our most important physical wants, and famine and pestilence are among the scourges which it wields. In spring time and harvest-under the summer's heat and the winter's cold, the husbandman trembles with anxiety for the capital which he has entrusted to the soil, and the heat that withers, the rain that rots, and the wind and the hail that crush vegetable life, are the principal enemies, whose visits he can neither anticpate nor control.

The weather with its changes is, therefore, a subject of daily and even hourly interest-a subject, indeed, upon which everybody has something to say, because it is the only one on which everybody is equally informed.* The fool and the

"The generality of this interest," says Professor Daniell, "is so absolute, that the common form of salutation among many nations is a meteorological wish; and the first introduction between strangers a meteorological observation."

*

It is certainly a strange fact that the science of the weather, in which we have the greatest interest, should be the one of which we know the least, and that phenomena within our daily observation, and from which we hourly suffer in person or in property, should have been less studied than those of any other branch of natural science. During the last century, several intelligent individuals, and a few public bodies, kept registers of the weather, in which the weight, the temperature, the moisture of the air, and the direction and force of the winds have been recorded; but it is only in our own day that wise and liberal Governments, among whom we can on this occasion number our own, have organized establishments for promoting a science of the highest national importance.

One of the earliest attempts in this country to establish registers of the weather, on an extensive scale, was made by the Royal Society of Edinburgh in 1820. In order to obtain measures of the mean temperature of Scotland in its various localities, they printed a schedule for observations on the thermometer, and received no fewer than seventy registers, by which the mean temperature of seventy places was determined for the year 1821. A great number of these were discontinued in subsequent years, but several registers containing observations with the barometer, thermometer, and rain-gauge, and indications of the direction and force of the wind, were maintained for several years.

Anxious to obtain more general results than observations made twice a day could be expected to yield, the Royal Society of Edinburgh established hourly thermometric observations at Leith Fort, where they were continued for four years, from 1824 to 1828, and gave results of very great interest. Following this excellent example, the British Association

Important, however, as these observavations are, they are comparatively insignificant when they were placed beside those of the late Mr. Robert Thom of Ascog, who carried on at Rothesay, in the Isle of Bute, hourly meteorological observations for twelve years, from 1828 to 1842. This Register, which exhibits the daily and annual distribution of heat on the West coast of Scotland, where the climate is essentially different from that on the East coast, gives results which confirm, in a remarkable manner, those which were obtained from the Leith, Inverness, and Kingussie observations.

A very extensive System of Meteorological Observations has been established and carried on for many years in a great number of localities in the State of New York, and the thermometric results have a peculiar importance, from their being made in longitudes not very remote from one of the cold meridians of the globe.

A very great impulse was given to meteorological research by the interest which was excited on the subject of magnetism by the publication of Professor Hansteen of Christiana's celebrated work, "On the Magnetism of the Earth," and by his subsequent investigation of the intensity of the magnetic force in different parts of the globe. This valuable work was first made known in England by two articles published in the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal for 1820,† and an account of his observations, drawn up by himself, appeared in the Edinburgh Journal of Science for 1826.

The importance of these observations, and the method of making them, were first

vember 1, 1830, to November 1, 1839, contains also *The Kingussie Register for the years from Noobservations with the rain-gauge; and on the state of the winds, as indicated by the words calm, breeze, and wind. It contains also a list with descriptions of the aurora boreales, which appeared in that locality during the year.

Vol. iii. p. 138, and vol. iv. p. 114. Edinburgh Journal of Science, vol. v. p. 65, June 1826. Vol. iv. p. 323, and vol. v. p. 218.