and, indeed, upon any boy who was on his road to Cornhill. He seemed to forget there might be some danger of such a sentiment reacting upon himself, but then he looked upon himself as the wisest, kindest, and best of parents; as I believe my grandfather, taking his conduct from quite another point of view, had done before him. People were paid to educate me-that was all my father knew of the matter, beyond the fact that these people, whoever they might be, were paid by him. Business might get better or worse, but he considered that his heir was laying up for himself such a store of knowledge for the future, as must achieve greatness by an easy and pleasant way; and, as to the sinews of war, had he not already provided for the improbable adversities of the future?

He was fond of delivering oracular precepts for my benefit, generally while he was dressing for a party, and I, ten years old, and seated on a chair, was intently watching the operation-being much interested in the watch and money, usually lying on the dressing-table.

"You must always," he used to observe, under the impression that he was enunciating some original philosophical doctrine, and deluding himself all the while with the idea that he was addressing a young man twice my age, "You must always look on both sides of a difficulty," here he would fold his cravat twice round, and tie it in the nattiest bow possible. "One day I might not be able to do all for you that I intend."

I am sure he felt a sort of pleasure in saying this, as if the contingency were too remote to be even possible, and, therefore, one on which he could safely expatiate. He continued: "Then you'll have plenty of friends to help you, and you'll only have to get up in court and make a speech, and they'll say, Hulloa! here's a clever fellow, by Jove!"-here he got into his coat and gave his whiskers a last brush; and then "-here his money and watch went into his pockets, and the chance of halfa-crown had vanished for that time"you'll be Lord Chancellor or some

thing"-here his brougham would be announced, and after saying, "Good night," he would sometimes, not often, stoop to kiss me-stooping not being an easy matter in such a stiff white tie as it was then the fashion to wear. Besides, to caress the child destroyed the illusion of my being his companionable grown-up son. As a child he treated me as an ideal man, without foreseeing that this would end in his treating the man as an ideal child. He always left home in more or less of a hurry, and after he had consulted his watch, and observed that it was past time, he would run downstairs and be driven off at a rapid pace, leaving me to my own devices for amusement. These I soon found in any books I could get hold of, and in my old friend the theatre, with Blue Beard and Co. (only on rather a larger scale, consistent with my increasing age and improved means), of which I used to give performances to the servants. My audience included the cook and her cousin-an enormous tall corporal in uniform-of whom I was at first very much afraid, but who really proved a most amiable person, and, considered as (in himself) the greater part of my "gentle public," most appreciative. My performances at this time were, for the most part, under the patronage of the cook and The Military.

After this came supper; and then the housemaid-to whose hands, during my holidays, I fell, in company with the grates and fire-irons-would intimate that it was time for me to retire for the night, "unless," she generally was obliged to add, "you wish your Pa to come 'ome and catch you hup."

She used to emphasize the "h's" very strongly. She had wonderful stories about her grandmother-who seemed to have been a sort of Mother Shipton, seeing strange forms in the sky. These stories I would get her to tell me with a view to inducing repose, but unsuccessfully, as I subsequently lay awake fancying all sorts of woes coming upon the earth in consequence of Anne's venerable relative having beheld a regi

ment of soldiers marching in a flash of lightning. This and a new Blue Chamber in "Blue Beard"-which I had lately purchased, and which was furnished with fearful skeletons in rosecoloured flames-impress my memory to this day so vividly and clearly, that, as I write, I seem to behold the bony creatures of my imagination dancing on the wall, as I had often seen them in those childish days, when unable to ring, or to scream, I sought safety under the bed-clothes, where after a time I fell asleep.

I dwell upon these incidents-slight and valueless in themselves, but of great weight as bearing upon my future: of great weight to parents who leave children to form themselves as best they can; of great weight to those who look forward to their children's companionship in later life; who, neglecting to Sow carefully, yet expect to reap profitably. To what purpose is this written? The least eventful life may point a moral. Dull, and monotonous, as the paid preacher's stereotyped discourses, are the sermons of the Rev. Father Time; and his sermons are experience. Who learns from them aught for his own guidance? We can apply the advice thus taught to our neighbours; they, we see, were fools not to have learnt by the experience of others; but for ourselves, circumstances alter cases, and we alone are judges of the circumstances. It is, indeed, a wise child who knows his own father so thoroughly as to avoid his faults, and improve upon his good qualities.

When I have said that Sir John was weak and impulsive; when I have said that his only idea concerning his son was, that there were those whom he paid for their duty of attending the youth, until the time should arrive for him to be his father's companion-when I have said this, I have said all I have to urge against the parental policy. Between him and myself there might have been the strongest attachment, had not he, in the first instance, kept so far apart from me, that the cord of our natural love, strained to the utmost,

was forced to yield to the force which, later on, was brought to bear upon it, and then it snapped in twain—but, thank God, not for ever.

Had my mother been spared, she would have had to suffer much, as this history will show, for what has fallen heavily on my father and myself would have fallen heaviest on her, and she would have been wounded through me, but by no fault or misdoing of mine.

No one could have been kinder to me than Nurse Davis. She was, certainly, for her station in life, a superior person, and before going to school I really possessed a very fair amount of knowledge, as far as reading and writing went, besides an intimate acquaintance with Oriental habits and customs as illustrated in "Blue Beard," on my stage, and the Eastern fairy tales in my dear old book; not to mention such an acquaintance with Germany as was to be met with in the play of "Der Freischütz," with Skelt's "Scenes and Characters," and in the legendary lore of the Brothers Grimm. So was it with Robin Hood and William Tell (whom I had seen in a pantomime, the first I ever witnessed, and who for years remained in my mind as a man with thin legs and an enormous head, who would pepper his son's nose and otherwise illtreat him at breakfast)-I say, with all these odds and ends, my knowledge-box was fairly stored, and, by the way, so was my school-box, wherein were a cake, apples, biscuits, and a small jar of mixed pickles, which Nurse considered a rare delicacy. At school my cake was divided among my new companions, as were also the apples and biscuits, everyone looking upon the distribution as a matter of course, calling for no expressions of gratitude towards the noble donor, who could not help himself, and what is more, could not prevent their being helped. As for the pickles, to the best of my recollection, I never set eyes on them after they had once been taken out of my box. I rather fancy I heard Miss Secunda Sharpe, the second sister, say something about pickles being very unwholesome, but I think this remark

must have only applied to them as eatables for boys, as I am pretty sure that, on Sunday, I recognized some well-known favourites of my nurse's, such as very small but very strong onions, at the upper end of the dinner-table, on the schoolmistresses' plates. But what is not, in the goose's opinion, sauce for the gosling, may be a very excellent relish for the goose herself.

Nurse, who had quitted my father's service, came, with Julie and Mr. Verney, to see me one Sunday during the summer time. Mr. Verney, on this occasion, was peculiarly light and airy, and wore a countrified hat, and turndown collars. He told me he took this opportunity of "courting the zephyrs which were trifling with the fragrant buttercups and the humble daisies in the luxuriant meadows." I did not understand him then, but I believe this to have been a mere poetical figure, signifying that having been deposited by the sixpenny 'bus at the corner, he had walked up the lane under the trees, and through the front garden to the school-house.

Julie was grown, and a little shy. I asked her if she'd like to come to my school, and she replied "No," which I considered at the time rather unkind. At parting, however, we cried a bit, all of us except Mr. Verney, who stood over us in the attitude of a benignant gaoler. He presently interrupted our sobs with an admonitory cough.

་

"Parting, Jane, as the bard has expressed it, is such sweet sorrow' that we shall be here till to-morrow, I'm afraid, unless we leave our excellent young friend to his scholastic duties, and catch the fleeting omnibus at the corner of the lane, where it will be within the next quarter of an hour. Farewell!"

When they'd gone, I didn't get over it for an hour or more, but sat alone, thinking of what they were doing now, and how happy they were in being free while I was still a prisoner. I managed to secrete the cake which had been given me, and shared it with a friend in the bed next to me,

eating it in haste as if it were a sort of Passover ceremony, due regard, by the way, not being paid to the necessary dress to be observed on such a solemn occasion, for we ate it at night, when the other boys were asleep, in our dormitory. We paid for it, in medicine, the following day. This did not prevent our repeating our gluttony on the occurrence of a similar oppor

tunity.

Of my time at this period I have very little worth recording. I cried on the first morning after my arrival, and was dazed by the formality of school prayers round the breakfast-table.

I remember that the first words to impress me with anything resembling & sentimentally religious feeling were in the collect commencing "Lighten our darkness," which was always read at night prayers, and imbued me with a mysterious dread of bedtime. This solemn petition used invariably to make me feel very sad; it seemed to be a sort of funeral service read over us boys previous to storing us away for the night. I fancy this impression had vanished by the time I had got into bed, or I should not have indulged in such reckless dissipation as cake-eating after the light was out.

It took me a long time to master my duty towards my neighbour in the Catechism, and I really do not think I ever rightly succeeded in acquiring the proper order of the sentences about being "true and just in all my dealings" (which always reminded me of shopkeepers), and about "hurting nobody by word or deed." In consequence of the Catechism I suffered a martyrdom, not for any conscientious objections to its doctrinal statements, but for the reason above mentioned; and it certainly was tiresome work on a hot Sunday afternoon, under the eye of an irritable mistress, who often hurt somebody "by deed," and that somebody was myself. Our punishments were various. One, of Chinese origin, was a stiff leather collar, which kept your chin up, and forced you to assume a proud bearing in spite of yourself, and greatly

to your own discomfort. The position of some people enjoying an elevated social position and paying its penalties, has forcibly recalled to my mind this collar. Then there was the ruler for the knuckles of the recalcitrant, which extracted from me many a sob on a cold morning. Bread and water was not much of a punishment for me, as I was very partial to dry bread, if I could only have enough of it.

I

My holidays were passed at home, where, except my Clym cousins, with whom I occasionally spent the day, I had no companions, save the servants and the corporal afore-mentioned. enjoyed their parties while my father went out to his. Of him I saw very little, except on Sundays, when he would send for me into the sitting-room (we were still in lodgings-on our road to a big house, my father having changed his intention on this subject several times -but no longer over the dairy), and would read two or three chapters "out of the Old Testament" to me -generally those wherein occurred the hardest and longest names, which he took great delight in hearing himself pronounce. He was proud of his reading, and considered the exercise as equivalent to a church service. Sometimes, of an afternoon, he would let me accompany him, in state, to a fashionable place of worship, of which all I remember is, that there was exquisite singing, accompanied by a great rustling of music-paper, and that the preacher, reader, and clerk were piled up one above the other, of each of whom only just so much was visible as can be seen of a punch-doll in the usual show. More often, however, he took me, on Sunday, to call on Grandmamma Colvin, and then to my other grandmamma, Mrs. Pritchard. He never came to see me at school, or asked me any educational questions. He appeared to be uninterested in me as long as I continued a child; it seemed such an age before I should be anywhere near manhood. Nothing short of my having been born a ready-made man would have satisfied him. It was clear that

both of us must wait. But my father was impatient.

Our

So far the stream of time bore me along, lazily, easily. Nurse Davis, Julie, and Frampton's Court I already seemed to have left far behind. Where on my voyage I might meet them again never entered into my head. The future gives a child no trouble, and the past but little pleasure. I had been happy with the Verneys, and I was happy without them. Be it remembered, I was alone, and therefore selfish. family archives record instances of selfish individuals among the Colvins. It is a theory that every man has in him some disease which will exhibit its fatal power if he live long enough for its development. Growing up within me was selfishness. I see, now, that nothing but the knife could have saved me. I know, now, that a true love had already taken root deep down in my heart, out of sight; and of its existence I should not be aware until the earth above should be broken by the strength of its first upward shoots.

My small boat was now to be delayed at a landing-stage, where I was to take in fresh stores and meet new characters. Already the pilots destined to betray their trust, to run both ship and boat upon the rocks, were awaiting us on this new shore.

CHAPTER VI.

OLD CARTER'S ACADEMY.-AS HINTED IN A FORMER CHAPTER, ONE OF MY IMPORTANT PERSONAGES APPEARS FOR THE FIRST TIME.

SOON the time came for jackets, and with a new suit I was sent to a new school, near Bromfield, in Kent, which I was informed was to be preparatory to going to Holyshade. This establishment was kept by the Rev. Thomas Carter, a pompous clergyman of the Evangelical school, who stood in great awe of his wife. Mrs. Carter ruled him, ruled the ushers-who did their best to render themselves agreeable to her-and ruled the boys. Here, I

made the acquaintance of that diabolical instrument the cane. Mrs. Carter generally looked in at the door · when any chastisement was being inflicted, and would keep her husband up to the mark by such words of encouragement as "That's not hard enough, Thomas; make him feel it, my dear," so that Mr. Carter, one day losing his temper, and getting very red in the face, cried out to her, "Perhaps you'd like to do it yourself," to which she at once replied that she wouldn't cane at all if she couldn't do it better than that, adding that "she'd like to cane him and the boys too," whereat the second usher put his head under the lid of his desk and laughed, while his senior smiled grimly, and took an enormous pinch of snuff. She was a dreadful little, freckled, shrivelled woman, and was quite my idea of a witch. With a broomstick and a sugarloaf hat she would have been perfect: only I pity the imp who would have dared to get within reach of her broomstick; he would have had a Walpurgis night not to be forgotten in a hurry.

Out of the fifty or sixty boys, there were only two in whom I was interested. One was the captain of the school, Percival Floyd, whom I admired and feared. The other was Austin Comberwood, of whom I was very fond. The head boy-we didn't call him captain-was Percival Floyd. He was nearly seventeen, and in the general opinion quite a man, if it had not been for his still wearing jackets, which gave him rather a nautical appearance, especially about the legs, of which, as may be imagined, we saw a good deal. He had a magnificent reputation for strength and prowess at fisticuffs. It was just a question whether he could thrash Stephen Harker, who was about his own age, and had lately gone into stick-ups and tails. These appendages caused Master Harker considerable embarrassment, on account of his having been christened, on his return in this new attire, "Pussy Cat," by the drawing-master, who was a wag in his way; but if his pleasantry was tolerated, out of deference to Art, that of

the juniors-who pretended to "miaow" when Harker's back was turned, and to be afraid of his tail coat-was visited with condign punishment whenever he succeeded in catching a delinquent, which was not often. Harker was strong in neckties of a rainbow pattern, and flattered himself that he was the admiration of a girls' school which frequented our church. He was the son of a Manchester manufacturer, reputed to be immensely wealthy, with mills and machinery in every direction. He was partial to sweet-smelling pomade, with which he used to plaster his black hair until it shone again, and his great amusement and delight was to watch the very gradual growth of some fluffy down on his upper lip, for which purpose he kept a small looking-glass fastened to the inside of the lid of his desk. This dark streak of down, looking like a smudge from a lead pencil, was as interesting to him as the first sprouts of a spring crop to a farmer. The drawing-master remarked that every pussy cat had moustachios, and this joke lasted us for some time, until Fatty Bifford asked Harker if he wouldn't like some cat'smeat, therewith imitating the cry of the purveyor of that article; whereupon, being unable to run away as quickly as he had intended, he was captured, and handled so severely, that we attempted to imitate the humorous Bifford, who, we considered, deserved all he had got, for his inability to escape the consequences.

never

There were two Biffords-Fatty and Puggy-brothers with so strong a family resemblance to each other, that it seemed as if they'd been originally intended for twins. They were not, however, and Fatty was the elder by two years. They were never known to agree on any one point, except that they should always be fighting, and no question ever arose between them, which was not at once decided by the ordeal of battle. Such a battle, too! where all was fair, except a blow below the lowest waistcoat button, which Fatty Bifford could not, and would not, stand. And this was the fatal blow that his bro