21 SO VICHTHYOLOGICAL ENIGMA. And the fish which is verging on sin; (4) And the fish which holds birds in a cage, (9) The insignificant fish you could stand on, (10) And the mark of a blow in a rage. (11)-R. E. 5. Though my presence may often occasion you fear, 6. My first an article is, though small; 'Tis one of two, yet found in all, You'll see it whether in cottage or hall. I EDITED BY HERR HARRWITZ. PROBLEM No. XVIII.-BY MR. A. G. M'COMBE, of Glasgow.-White playing first, mates in 5 moves. 1. P. to K. 4. 2. P. to Q. 4. 3. K. B. to Q. 3. 4. P. to K 5. 5. P. to K. R. 4. 6. Q. to K. R. 5. (ch.) 7. Q. takes Q. (ch.) 8. P. to K. B. 3. 9. P. to Q. B. 3. 10. Q. Kt. to R. 3. 11. Q. B. to K. B. 4. 12. Q. Kt. to Kt. 5. 13. P. takes P. 14. Q. Kt. to Q. 4. (b.) 15. Kt. takes Kt. 16. Castles. 17. P. to K. Kt. 4. 18. P. to K Kt. 5. 19. P. to K. Kt. 6. (ch.) 20. R. takes R. 21. Kt. takes Kt. 22. R. to K. Kt. Black-Mr. H. E. Bird. 2. P. to K. 3. 3. Q. to K. 2. (a.) 4. P. to Q. Kt. 3. 5. Q. B. to Kt. 2. 6. Q. to K. B. 2. 7. K. takes Q. 8. Q. Kt. to B. 3. 9. K. B. to K. 2. 10. P. to Q. 3. 11. K. Kt. to R. 3. 12. P. takes K. P. 13. P. to Q. R. 3. 14. Q. R. to Q. sq. 15. B. takes Kt. 16. Kt. to K. B. 4. 17. Kt. takes R. P, 18. Kt. takes B. P. 19. P. takes P. 20. R. takes R. 21. B. takes Kt. 22. P. to K. Kt. 4. 23. B. takes Kt. P. 24. R. takes R. 25. K. to B. 2. 26. B. takes R. P. 27. K. to Kt. 3. 28. K. to Kt. 4. 23. R. to K. R. 8. (c.) 24. B. takes B. (ch.) 25. B. takes R. 26. B. to K. 5. (ch.) 27. K. B. to B. 5. 28. P. to K. Kt. 4. and Mr. Hughes resigned. FRANK MEANWELL; OR, MISTAKEN PURPOSES. CHAPTER VII. THE letters which had been received by Mr. Keen were both upon the same subject, the one being from the master of the school, and the other from his son. At that time, as now, it was not uncommon in schools for the masters to require that all letters from the boys to their parents or friends should be left unsealed, to afford them the opportunity to peruse them if they pleased a mistaken piece of discipline. As, however, the boys at Rochester had reason to believe that the master rarely exercised his right, from want of time, they had been wont to communicate their thoughts very freely to their relatives and friends, without any dread of supervision by the master's eye. It appeared that a friendship had been formed in the school between a boy named Joseph Splasher, and another lad, named Harvey, a distant relative of Parker, the secretary of the Grand Marine Joint-Stock Mining Company. Joseph was one of a numerous class in the school, who thought to gain importance among his fellows by the wonderful tales he could relate about himself, and what he had seen of the world. His intimate, Jonathan Harvey, was a quiet, sly boy, who listened attentively and said little; he was therefore well suited for Splasher to inflict his rigmarole stories upón. In one of his communicative humours, the latter related that he had been one of a party who had found the body of a man near the Kensington Gardens, and garnished the outset of the story with some original variations and exaggerations from his inventive brain. Harvey felt inclined at once to tell him that the man who had been found was a relative, but loving a romantic story, he let Splasher rattle on. He proceeded to relate a new version of what he had learned from his companions had occurred to Gregory and Sam at Mrs. Mallalieu's, substituting himself for Sam, and representing Master Joseph Splasher as the hero of the whole VOL. III.-NO. XXXI. story. Harvey expressed his great admiration of Splasher's acquaintance with the world, and Splasher felt rewarded. The latter, indeed, felt so highly satisfied with himself, and the applause of his companion, that he could not be satisfied until he had acted upon somebody else, and received a repetition of the expressions of wonder, which he thought so highly flattering to himself. At this juncture, Harvey, on account of idleness, was in disgrace, and was punished by confinement from his schoolfellows. Being exasperated, he determined to spend the time he was shut up in writing home, representing the wrongs inflicted upon him by the master. Having lost his patient listener, Splasher thirsted for fresh audience, and fixed upon James Keen, to whom, with new exaggerations, he related his story; and the latter, knowing the interest his father had taken in the circumstances attendant upon Parker's death, wrote home, stating that there was a schoolfellow who seemed to know a good deal about the circumstances which had created so general a sensation. In the meantime, guessing in how angry a spirit Harvey would be likely to write home, the master of the school exercised his prerogative to open and read his letter. At the close of a tirade against the cruelty which he had endured, the boy went on to state that a lad named Joseph Splasher knew some curious particulars with reference to the death of his cousin, George Frederick Parker, of Zara Cottage. The Reverend Dr. Lyon, who was upon very friendly_terms with Mr. Keen, wrote to that gentleman, and by the same post despatched letters to the respective fathers of the two boys named Splasher and Harvey, stating the circumstances, and requesting their attendance at Rochester on the following day. The letter from James Keen, and the communication from Dr. Lyon, had been delivered together, as related in the last chapter. It was a delicious day, towards the end of June, when Mr. Keen and Frank arrived at the old-fashioned, but comfortable hotel at Rochester; but though they had travelled long, the weather had made them more thirsty than hungry, and the dinner was soon despatched. It had been explained to Frank, that if this story which had been related had any ground in facts, H it might throw an important light upon To a vaulted room, that appeared at some time to have been a portion of a sacred edifice, and through whose gothic windows, with diamond panes, no more light was admitted than was absolutely necessary, the visitors were shown by a servant; and there, presently afterwards, a tall and muscular man, with stiff collars, and blue chin, bald head, and tufty black whiskers, entered to them, with a solemn, imperial demeanour, that was calculated to strike terror into the hearts of all rebellious youths. The reverend doctor believed that fear was a more powerful agent than love, and, acting accordingly, did his part to perpetuate the feelings of anger and revenge, and resistance by force, in those whom he sent out into the world. While he efficiently directed the intellect, he left the heart worse than uncultivated; and his influence, therefore, was limited to his powers of detection. He had no moral control over the actions of the boys when they felt they were removed from his surveillance; and instead of stimulating their love of truth and honour, the system (for that was at fault more than the man) seemed to offer a premium to deception. Knowledge was dressed in a robe of terrors, and her attractions and beauties hidden; so that those who ought to have sought after Wisdom for her loveliness, were repulsed from her by the disguise in which the system shrouded her. And so it happened that as soon as the compulsion to attend her shrine was removed, they rushed to the temple of Pleasure, where Ignorance and Sin took them for companions. The teaching by fear is a mistaken purpose. The occasion which had brought Mr. Keen and Frank was one of mighty solem nity to Dr. Lyon, who, even in the presence of friends, could not entirely throw off the cast-iron demeanour which he had thought it his duty to assume; and he opened the subject, and explained the circumstances with reference to Harvey and Splasher with tedious precision and formality, just in the manner schoolmasters are still accustomed to dilate upon the construction of a Greek sentence, or the far-fetched history of an obsolete word, to a class of boys to whom it can never be of the slightest interest or The date of the day of the discovery of the contents of Harvey's letter having been mentioned, the time of the day was also to be described, and was stated to be, in the pedagogue's words, "pre-cisely sixteen min-yeuts ahf-ter the time of rising from dinner; which would, upon calc-yulation, be found to indicate, by Green-wich time, forty-six min-yeuts ahf-ter one o'clock in the day." The surgeon listened in patience, and Frank in awe, till the schoolmaster had concluded, when Mr. Keen inquired if the other parties who had been invited to be present, had answered the letter. The doctor replied by a solemn nod, after the fabled manner of Jupiter of Olympus. The surgeon then inquired if any of the parties were likely to be present, and if so, at what time they might be expected. "Harvey's friends will come- -Splasher's friends will not," replied the doctor. "By my gold-repeater, it is now twenty-seven min-yeuts and a few seconds ahf-ter six o'clock, and Harvey's friends cannot arrive till half-past, and will occupy at least five min-yeuts in walking from the coach-office to my door-step, as the distance by measure-ment is exactly five hundred and eightysix yards, and two feet, which, as the arithmetic master teaches, can be walked in the twelfth part of an hour, at the rate of four miles an hour. Is that not so, my young friend?" The quiet and gentle boy, thus suddenly appealed to, had been contemplating the awful doctor with reverential attention, but was at once thrown into a state of excited confusion; and, with the greatest difficulty, could speak to the effect, that "he did not know." 66 "Then," replied the triumphant schoolmaster, in his most pedantic manner, "then you ought to know, sir-you ought to know; you ought to be taught." The pedagogue would have forthwith proceeded to have impressed upon Frank's mind, that five hundred and eighty-six yards, and two feet, constituted the third of a mile English, and that consequently a person could walk But poor Frank was spared the infliction by the announcement from the servant, that Mr. and Mrs. Harvey, and Miss Harvey, were coming up the stairs; upon which the doctor direeted that Mrs. Doctor Lyon should be requested to be present; and Mr. and Mrs. Harvey, and Miss Harvey, should be admitted to the library, in which they were then sitting. The conference lasted for some time, inasmuch as the schoolmaster felt it his duty, with the same precision, to state to Mr. and Mrs. Harvey, and Miss Harvey, the manner in which "the circumstances to which he had alluded in his letter, bearing date the 18th instant, had come to his knowledge, and how it reflected the highest credit upon that system of supervision which he (Doctor Lyon) exercised over the boys under his control." He then proposed to call in "the boy Joseph Augustus Splasher, of the second division of the third form," whom he had directed Mr. Stiff, the usher, to order to be in readiness to appear before them. The chairs were forthwith arranged in the shape of a half circle, in the centre of which sat the schoolmaster in his official capacity, with the letter of Harvey, and copies of his own, laid before him. Master Splasher was then called in, and instantly appeared, accompanied by Mr. Stiff, who bowed to the company in delivering his prisoner, and disappeared. It was a most humiliating scene. Splasher equivocated, and attempted to excuse himself; but, being driven into a corner by the doctor's cross-examination, he admitted that there was some truth, but much falsehood, in the statement which had been made to Harvey. Master Harvey being called, was frightened into the volubility which his friend had lost, and gave an ample detail of the matter. At the moment when the judge was in doubt how to decide between the conflicting statements, Mr. Keen stated that he believed a similar communication to that mentioned by Harvey had been made by Splasher to his own son, whom he now wished to be called in the presence of the other two boys. The testimony of James Keen confirming that of Harvey, the author of the story was compelled to admit that. he had mis-stated and misrepresented the facts, and that, personally, he knew nothing more about the finding of the body than what had occurred in the park; the rest, he said, had been told to him by one of the other boys who were there, whose name was Gregory Homespun. In the meantime, Frank Meanwell listened to every word which might tend to exculpate his father from the charges against him. The doctor took down the statements in writing, and having required each of the parties to sign them, dismissed the boys, and declared that his part in the business was now concluded. After interviews had taken place between the visitors and their relatives, Mr. Keen and Mr. Harvey proposed to return to the inn, and there take legal advice upon the disclosures of the boy Splasher, and upon what steps should be taken to gain the more important information which Gregory Homespun might be able to give. This was agreed upon. It At this point of the story incidents press close upon each other. Mr. Keen and Frank returned to London with Mr. Harvey the next day, and immediately communicated with Gregory's friends. appeared that the lad was fatherless, and that his mother, who had been in better circumstances, had been reduced to poverty by her desire to "keep up appearances,' and had been unable to send her son to the school where he had been hitherto educated. Thus he had fallen into idle company, and had, she believed, gone to sea. She had heard nothing of him for several weeks, and the last news was, that he was in company with a dissolute companion, named Samuel Oliver. Mrs. Homespun stated that Gregory had come home on one occasion in rags, and that as she could obtain no explanation of what had become of his better clothes, she accused him of having sold them, and beat him severely, though he had denied the charge. The pursuit was not relinquished. Mr. Harvey and Mr. Keen forthwith put themselves cautiously in communication with the relatives of Samuel Oliver, who, as the reader will be prepared to find, was the |