very much on one side, and his nervous, confused manner generally, tended strongly to confirm. On seeing me for

the first time, he grinned, always with his head askew, as if focussing me in a favourable angle, laughed, and rubbed his right hand through his toused-looking hair, by way of preparation, before offering it for my acceptance.

"Well," he said, squeakily, "howde-do? Hope we shall be good friends." I hoped so too; but neither of us seemed particularly sanguine as to the future. His voice bore the sort of family resemblance to that of Punch, that might be expected to come from Punch's nephew on the Judy side.

My father surveyed us both benignly. He had nothing to say as to classics, or mathematics, as to school hours, training, or, in short, as to any subject connected with my educational course. He had brought me down there himself, and, I imagine, felt himself somehow out of place, beginning, perhaps, to wish he had confided me to a clerk, a butler, or an uncle, or to anyone who would have relieved him of this responsibility. After politely declining Mr. Keddy's proffered hospitality of sherry and biscuits, my father was about to take leave of me, when Mr. Keddy, who had been staring at the tip of his own boot, as he rested his foot on the fender, suddenly squeaked out—

"Would you like to see your boy's room, Sir John?"

"Thank you," said my father, with an air of great satisfaction.

My poor father! he had been troubled about many things just at this time, whereof I was then, of course, profoundly ignorant, and he was too glad to be quit of me, for a time, to be at all critical as to the lodging provided for me. I think, too, he was as much puzzled by this first view of Holyshade as I was, and, on the whole, was confusedly impressed by the atmosphere of the place.

An elderly maid-servant conducted us to a passage on the first floor. On both sides were ranged the boys' rooms, looking like a corridor in a miniature model prison.

The third apartment, on the left, was to be mine.

It was neatly furnished, with a small table, a turn-up bedstead, a cabinet, containing in the upper part two or three bookshelves, in the middle an escritoire, while its lower part was divided into three drawers. In a corner stood a common wash-stand. The room looked, with its bright fire lighted in joyful celebration of my arrival, snug and cheerful enough, and I was so highly delighted and taken with the notion of having a room, at school, all to myself, that I was really only half sorry when I saw my father drive off in his fly, in order to catch the express for town. He was going to spend the evening with the Cavanders.

I felt a choking in my throat and a difficulty in bidding him farewell, which I was fearful of his noticing, lest he should set down this ebullition of emotion to cowardice, and should depart hopeless of my ever being made a man of, and despairing even of the efficacy of Holyshadian treatment. Uncle Van has since told me that he talked of me and of Holyshade, for several days after, whenever an opportunity occurred; from which I have inferred that the choking sensation at the moment of bidding adieu was not solely confined to my throat. My father loved me in his own peculiar way; and as all the Colvins will insist in doing everything in their own peculiar way, so neither of us at this time at all events was any exception to the rule. By his example I was brought up to understand that any show of affection was childish, and had better be restrained in its very commencement. Such a check is as dangerous to some constitutions as is a sharp frost in May to the promising fruit-trees.

Only some of the lower boys had returned. This information I received from my tutor's butler, a jolly, round, and red-faced man, with a square-looking nose, named Berridge, who always seemed to me to smell more or less of oil, and was perpetually in his shirt sleeves cleaning glasses. After him came George, a livery servant, a good

natured lout, who looked as though he had been torn from the plough and shoved into a swallow-tailed dirty-yellow livery coat, with flat metal buttons, in which costume he bore a striking resemblance to a very big bird.

These two carried my boxes upstairs, and assisted to cheer me, not a little. I took possession of my cupboardlike apartment with a new feeling of proprietorship. It was all mine, every inch of it. Here I could do what I liked: just exactly what I liked. As a commencement, I made myself free of the place by the simple, but expressive ceremony, of poking the fire. The fiery coals answered to the poker, like a fiery steed to the spur. The fireplace and I warmed to one another, and Mr. Berridge's face reflected the glow, and beamed on me, encouragingly.

"You'll want," said Mr. Berridge, thoughtfully, while I was laying out my wardrobe, "some candles and a lamp for your room."

Of course I should. I had not brought them. I had overlooked this, as well as various other necessary articles of furniture.

"That's no matter," said Mr. Berridge, kindly; "you can get 'em all here easy enough. You'd better have 'em of me. All the young gentlemen does."

Certainly anything that every other Holyshadian did, must, I concluded, be right.

"A candle-lamp is what you want," continued Mr. Berridge, decisively, "with a nice glass shade."

I thanked him for his consideration. I had seen a candle-lamp in Old Carter's study.

"You won't want it just yet," said Berridge; "I'll bring it you in a hour's time about."

That would do. In fact, at that moment anything that would have suited Berridge, even a cut-glass chandelier, would have suited me.

"I'll put a candle in for you," he said, "and you'd better have a packet o' Palmers besides."

By all means. This was my first

venture in lamps and candles. I felt as if I were about to give a party.

"Then that's all at present," said Berridge, looking round, cheerfully. "You don't want nothing else, I think, just now. Sarah, that's the maid, will bring you your kettle and tea-things, roll and butter. When the other young gentlemen come back, you'll mess with some one."

He gave one look at my small hamper, wherein our cook at home had stowed away a tongue, a cake, and a pot of strawberry jam.

There was such pleasure in anticipation of a meal all by myself, in my own room-an idea I could not sufficiently enjoy-that, at first, I really had no wish to go out of doors.

Mr. Berridge returned, in about half an hour, bringing with him the lamp, candles, and a box of matches. It was a very bright affair, of slightly gingerbready material, I'm afraid, with a ground-glass shade.

To one unaccustomed to its use it was comparatively dangerous, as, if in attempting to put a candle in, you didn't screw the top on, which struggled and resisted on its own account with quite remarkable power, the candle flew out, as if discharged from a catapult, and either broke something, or smashed itself against the wall, or ceiling, greasing the carpet in its fall. It was, therefore, some time before I mastered this firework. It was a deceptive thing, too, as the candle always appeared the same length, and when you were in the middle of a most exciting story, there was a sudden click, a sharp vicious sputter, and, the next instant, you were in

darkness.

However, as a commencement towards housekeeping, it served its purpose, or rather it served my tutor's excellent butler's-Mr. Berridge's-purpose, who, being a chandler by trade, and having lamp and candle shop "down town," was naturally disinterested in recommending this admirable invention to my notice. I paid Mr. Berridge five shillings and threepence for it, and he, condescendingly, gave me a receipt.

Berridge's only chance of profit was, I subsequently found, with the new boys. When the old ones returned, and we became acquainted, one of the first questions was, "Got one of that old humbug Berridge's lamps?"

Berridge must have taken a secret and peculiar pleasure in these transactions, as, in spite of their having done considerable harm to any future dealings, he never omitted a chance of passing off one of these lamps on a new boy, apparently in preference to doing a steady and regular business with us throughout the year. The masters and townspeople, however, dealt with him largely, I believe, and this, therefore, was only, so to speak, a little "fancy retail trade."

I suppose it was my loneliness at first at Holyshade-and I was the more solitary on account of no longer having such a companion as Austin Comberwood had been to me-that developed in me a taste for diary-keeping. I was then in my fourteenth year, and, until I had friends to talk to among the Holyshadians, my great amusement was to keep accounts of time, doings, and expenditure, to write to Austin, occasionally too receiving and answering a letter from Miss Alice, and making up for Austin's absence by applying myself to the study of the best novels within my reach.

I soon got accustomed to all the miseries of the Lower Fourth Form. The candle-light dressing, the raw mornings, the shivering little wretches in the old oak-panelled school-room, dimly lighted by guttering tallow candles stuck in iron sockets, the master as irritable as he was drowsy; in short, the whole sickly farce of half an hour's duration, at the end of which, the great clock struck its welcome note, and we tumultuously rushed forth to throng the pastrycooks' shops for coffee, hot buttered buns, hot rolls, or rusks and butter.

I have no doubt, now, but that the coffee was gritty, thick, and, with the unwholesome greasy buns, not worth the matutinal outlay of fourpence. But of all refreshments whereof I have partaken at all times and in all places,

I do not remember-with the single exception of the hot soup and the demipoulet-rôti, at Calais, after the sea-voyage -anything so acceptable, or which so thoroughly served its customer's purpose, as those same buns and coffee at Bob's, Poole's, or Stepper's, in the old Holyshade Lower Fourth days.

When, afterwards, I had attained a higher form, we took our coffee later, and patronized, chiefly, Stepper's, which was frequented by the fastest and biggest Holyshadians, on account of such luxuries as hot sausages, grilled chicken, and ham and eggs, being served up in the back parlour by the fair hands of the two sisters, Louey and Dolly Stepper; the latter being what we used to consider a "doosid fine girl," and a great attraction to the more adventurous among those who wore the manly tail and the single white tie.

Apropos of costume, stick-up collars. were never worn. I remember one innovator who came out with them. He braved public opinion for a day, attempted to lead the fashion, but, finding tradition and custom too much for him, he gave in, and followed it with the

rest.

Our dress was black jacket and black tie in a sailor's knot for small boys; and black coat and white tie, without collars, for the big ones. All wore hats. A Holyshadian Fourth Form boy's hat would have made Christy rejoice: the necessity for a new hat would have been so evident to that eminent tradesman. It was to my hat I owed my sudden leap from the status of a nobody into that of a popular celebrity. How this chanced I will forthwith proceed to relate.

CHAPTER XX.

SHOWING HOW SOME HAVE GREATNESS THRUST UPON THEM-THE EPISODE OF MY HAT.

HOLYSHADIAN initiation begins with hat smashing.

When I appeared in the cloisters for the first time, well-nigh friendless among all the boys (for, as yet, I had only made a few acquaintances at my tutor's),

waiting the egress of the masters from their solemn conclave in chambers, I was surrounded by some not much bigger than myself. They gradually swarmed. Never before had I seen so many boys all at once; and of so many sizes too. Such a humming and buzzing about me, as though I had been a drone trespassing at the entrance of a hive. They came upon me one by one, two by two, threes, fours, as birds do from all quarters to a large crumb, and then began pecking. "What's your name?" asked a boy. "Colvin," I answered, peaceably. "Calvin!" shouted a bigger idiot, wilfully mistaking my pronunciation. "Hallo!" cried a third. Luther!"

"Here's

At this witticism, there was a burst of laughter, in which I feebly attempted to join, just to show I was equal to taking a joke, even at my own expense.

"What's your name?" inquired another earnestly, as if really asking for information.

"Colvin."

"Then take that, Colvin," he returned, illogically, smashing my hat over my eyes.

"How are you, Colvin ?" shouted twenty different voices at once, and while struggling to set my hat straight, I dropped my book, and was hustled from one to another, being passed on with a kick, a hit, a pinch, or a cuff, as occurred to the particular fancy and humour of the boy to whose lot I happened, for the moment, to fall.

"Where's your hat, Curly?"

I did not know. Scarcely had I placed it on my head, and begun to take breath, than at a blow, from some skilful hand, it disappeared into the school-yard.

Bully! Bully!" was then the cry. I perfectly agreed with the sentiment. I considered that I had been grossly bullied, but I could not understand why those who were shouting so loudly "Bully! "should be the very ones to run viciously at my unfortunate hat, and treat it like a football.

In another second I saw it sky'd up into the air, when, its line of descent being suddenly inclined at an acute angle

by a playful breeze, which could not any longer keep out of the sport, where a hat was concerned, it comfortably fell and settled itself, in rakish fashion, over the crown which adorned the head of the Royal Founder's statue, that stands, with a ball and sceptre (it had better have been a bat) in its hands, on a pedestal in the centre of the College quadrangle.

This incident was greeted with such an uproarious shout, as brought the masters out of chambers sooner than

had been expected. Aware of this result, a malicious boy in the crowd, pretending great sympathy for my exposed situation, offered to give me a back over the railings which surrounded the figure. This I accepted, and had scarcely got myself safely landed inside the barrier, when a fresh sort of hubbub arose, and I saw the boys shuffling off in gangs towards different doors in the cloisters, while most of the masters, all in academical costume, an entire novelty to me, were standing in a corner, apparently puzzled to account for the recent extraordinary disturbance, which had not yet completely subsided.

One of these was an old gentleman, something over the middle height, with white hair brushed away behind the ears, and bulging out at the back from under his college cap. His face was of a somewhat monkeyish type, for his forehead receded sharply, and his upper jaw was heavy and protruding, his features being as hardly cut as those of the quaint little figures carved out of wood by a Swiss peasant. He used goldenrimmed eye-glasses suspended round his neck by a broad black ribbon. He wore a frill which feathered out in front, suggesting the idea of his shirt having come home hot from the wash and boiled His collar and cuffs were of velvet. He invariably stood, and walked, leaning to one side, out of the perpendicular, as if he had been modelled on the plan of the Tower of Pisa.

over.

This was Dr. Courtley, Head Master of Holyshade.

"Bleth my thoul !" lisped Dr. Courtley, holding up his glasses, and almost closing his eyes in his efforts to see

distinctly. "Bleth my thoul! Whath that?"

He pronounced his "a" very long and very broadly, giving it the sound it has in "hay."

"A boy, I think," said a squat, sleek master, with a mouth like a slit in an orange. I subsequently learnt that this was Mr. Quilter, the most severe of all the tutors, the development of whose smile varied in proportion to the magnitude of the task which he might be setting as a punishment. He was a rigid disciplinarian, but strictly just, and never accused of favouritism.

"It is," chirped a third, a dapper little man in such tightly strapped trousers that walking seemed almost impossible. When he had uttered his opinion he sniffed, put his head on one side like a feloniously-inclined magpie, and having smiled at his neighbour, and been smiled upon in return, he appeared satisfied. His name I found out in time was Mr. Perk; he was familiarly known among the boys as Johnny Perk.

A stout, ruddy-faced, clean-shaven master, with a very low vest, and a college cap right at the back of his head -purposely put there on account of his great display of forehead-stepped from the group, and shouted brusquely

"Here! hi! you sir! Come here, sir!" Please, sir, I can't, sir," I replied from my prison.

I was very unhappy.

"Can't!" exclaimed the brusque master. "You got in there. Eh?"

"Please, sir, I came in for my hat." "Come out with your hat, then," retorted the master impatiently.

"I can't get it, sir," I urged, plaintively. "Please, sir, the statue's got it on his head."

All eyes were now turned upwards. In another second they were all grinning. "Bleth my thoul!" said Dr. Courtley; "I knew the proper place for a hat wath over a crown-but-he! he! he-hith Maathethty in a lower-boy'th hat an inthtanth of thub tegmine fagi -eh?"-he looked round at his companions, as, in uttering the quotation, he made the penultimate syllable short, and the "g" hard, for the sake of an aca

demic pun.

His assistants were of course immensely tickled. Three or four groups of boys, still hanging about their schoolroom doors, waiting the arrival of their respective masters, passed round the joke about "faggy" and fagi, and Dr. Courtley was gratified by youthful appreciation.

In the meantime the Doctor's servant, Phidler, of gouty tendencies, and a scorbutic countenance, was shuffling towards me with a ladder.

"You get up," he said, gruffly, when he had fixed it, firmly resting on the railings, and reaching up to King Henry's head.

I obeyed, and fetched down my hat. I heard a slight cheer, which, as in a court of justice, was immediately repressed.

"Come here, sir," called out the portly master with the intelligent forehead. As I was approaching, I heard him saying to his dapper companion, "Like Pat Jennings-'regained the felt, and felt what he regained,'' whereat the Mr. Perk smiled, and moved off, being followed into a distant room by a troop of boys.

I had some idea that I should be expelled, or at least flogged there and then.

"What part of the thchool are you in?" asked Dr. Courtley.

"Lower Fourth, sir."

"Take off your hat," he said; for in my nervousness, and forgetful of the presence in which I stood, I had quietly replaced it on my head.

"Who threw your hat there?" he went on.

"I don't know, sir," I answered, adding by way of satisfactory explanation, "I've only just come here this half, sir."

"Whatth your name?"

"Colvin, sir," I answered, almost expecting him to make a jest of it, and perhaps some further rough treatment from the three masters who were still with their superior. To them he turned, saying, in a tone of genuine annoyance

"It'th iniquitouth! really motht iniquitouth! It'th an old barbarouth cuthtom I thould like to thee abolithed.