Baulked in this plan, he took up a volume of Dionysius's "Christian Ethics," then exhibiting upon the drawing-room table, and pretended to be deeply interested in the same, whereas he was employed in wondering whether that gentleman was setting down his appearance and leading features, with a view to his capture should he ever be driven to run away; he even began to squint and contort his countenance, in order to prevent this taking place, so that the principal, looking up upon a sudden, said to himself, "Very well, my young friend; you are making faces at me already, are you?"

Presently the ladies came down again, and after a considerable amount of civil lying, such as takes place on the like occasions, Mrs. Hollis took her departure. With the noise of her retreating chariotwheels died away all hope in the heart of her son. The whole of his pocket-money-one pound, fourteen shillings, a crooked sixpence, and a new farthing his two cakes and his basket of oranges, would he then have given for one kiss of his dear mother, had such a sacrifice been possible. He was at once consigned by Dionysius to one of the big boys, who was enjoined to take care of him and to keep him out of mischief; duties which he executed, we are bound to say, very imperfectly. He introduced him, however, basket in hand, to

his schoolfellows, and having transferred about a dozen oranges to his own pockets, distributed the rest, Pomona-like, with much liberality, even to the extent of shying one or two at the more exposed countenances in his vicinity. The effect of this generous conduct upon the part of his protector was not proportionably favourable to poor Adolphus.

"Well, you young fool, you've got us a halfholiday, of course," said one young gentleman.

"I think he'd better, or I'll show him," was the elliptical expression of another, with a black eye and a swollen face.

An explanation on the part of the new arrival that he had omitted to do so from ignorance, and an offer to rectify the error by a personal appeal to Dionysius, were received with contumely and contempt. It was only the "governors" of new arrivals, it seemed, who could obtain these favours.

It would puzzle the philosopher who asserts that man, when uninfluenced by passion, is a humane animal, to explain why these young gentlemen, yet yellow-mouthed with their new companion's oranges, should have set to work, like one boy, to kick him; but so it happened. It was some figleaf of shame still clinging to their natures, perhaps, that made them designate this attack as a game, a recreation, and they called it "the king

I

of the cobblers;" but it was very little fun for the king.

When he had received a great many contusions, and the moral sense (or whatever this healthy feeling may be called by the muscular-Christian educationalists) of the boys had been temporarily satisfied, Master Adolphus was permitted to limp away and enjoy his own society in a corner of the gymnasium. Soon, however, a young gentleman of about his own age, with a Greek cap stuck knowingly upon one side of his head, and a hand in the left pocket of his trousers clinking marbles, came up to him, to inquire, as he said, after his health and happiness. Health, he observed, was everything, particularly to the young, and begged him for his (the stranger's) sake to take care of his constitution. He volunteered to give him information upon all the ways of the place, avowing that any other boy but himself would have been sure to have "crammed" him, or tried to borrow some "tin:" he was much disgusted that Adolphus had not contrived to secrete some oranges about his person, a precaution," he remarked, "which might have occurred to the meanest capacity;" but was comforted by the intelligence that there were cakes, which he offered to convey to his new friend's bedroom, which he happened to share. Accordingly, when night arrived, this disinterested

youth, whose name was Legion, ran up to the dormitory first, and put something under Hollis's pillow; he then cut up a cake in public, distributing an enormous hunch to every occupant of the apartment. The biggest boy, who was called "Captain," and a conscientious person for a schoolboy, suggested that "the new beggar" should be permitted to partake of his own feast, but Legion, giving Hollis a nudge, answered for him that he was not hungry. Partly from the nudge, but principally from a sensation of crumbs in every corner of the bed, Adolphus began to suspect that the other cake was under his pillow, as indeed it was, and during the silent watches of the night Legion consumed very nearly all of it.

While the young gentlemen were gorging themselves, the new boy was requested to favour the company with a song; an expressed ignorance of words and tune being held as an untenable excuse, and replied to by a rain of slippers. The judicious Legion, however, suggested a compromise in the shape of a story, and (without the capacity of the improvisatore being considered in the least) a debate arose as to what it should be about. One pale melancholy youth entreated in a whisper that it should have no ghosts in it, and the Captain, who was fifteen, and considered himself to be in love with the maid-servant, insisted on its having

lots of sentiment. The bandit and murder party, however, were far the strongest, and (with a faint stipulation from a very small boy that it was to be "about a king") the author was enjoined to "make it horrible and cut along."

After about five minutes' "law," which he in vain attempted to give to compilation, Master Adolphus informed them that there was once upon a time a Prince (which he thought would meet the wishes of the gentleman who had last spoken, and yet not appear too like dictation), and he had three sons and three daughters. And here, like many more celebrated authors, our novelist made the mistake of raising more ghosts than he could lay, of conceiving more characters than he knew what to do with, for it took him the whole half-year to marry off these six high-born folks, which the little royalist (who, we are convinced, was of German extraction) and the gallant Captain both insisted upon his getting done. However, although rather hurried upon the night before the holidays (which was, as it were, the double number of the narration, and required everything to be satisfactorily wound up), and considerably interrupted by the bolsters of an illiterate and unsympathising few, he finally brought the story to a triumphant conclusion in the harrowing executions of all the principal characters.