Daily American telegraph., 1852-06-07
BY CHARLES DICKENS.

summer, and found that the railway had cut
it up root and branch. A great trunk-line had
swallowed the play ground sliced away the
school-room, and pared off the corner of the
house, which, thus curtailed of its proportions
presented ITSELF in great stage of stucco, pro-
flewise towards the road, like a forlorn fiat
iron without handle standing on end
1t seemed as if our schools were doomed to
be the sport of change We have faint recol-
lections of Preparatory Day-School, which
we have sought in vain, and which must have
been pulled down to make IL new street. ages
ago We have dim impressions, scarcely amount
ing to a belief that it was over dyers shop.
We know that you went up steps to it; that
you frequently grazed your knees in doing SO );
that you generally got your leg over the scra-
per, in trying to scrape the mud off very un-
steady little shoe. The mistress the Establish
mcnt holds no place in our memory; but, ram
pant on one eternal door-mat in an eternal
entry long and narrow, is puffy pug-dog with
Il personal animosity towards us, who triumphs
over time. The bark of that baleful Pug, a
certain radiating way he had of swapping at
our undefended legs, the ghastly grinning of
his moist black muzzle and white teeth, and
the insolence of his crisp tail curled like pas
toral crook, all live and flourish From an
otherwise eunaccountable association of him with
II fiddle, we conclude that he was of French
extraction, and his name Fidele He belonged
to some female, chiefly inhabiting back par
lor, whose life appears to us to have been con-
sumed in shifting, and in wearing a brown
beaver bonnet. For her, he would sit up and
balance cake upon his nose, and not cat it un-
til twenty had been counted. To the best of
our belief we were once called in to witness
this performance; when, unable, even in his
p,;lJar 70 ta apIura pur ha in
stantly made at us. cake and all.
Why something in mourning called "Miss
Frost, should still connect itself with our pre-
paratory school, we are unable to say. We re-
tain no impression of the beauty of Miss Frost
if she were beautiful; or of the mental fascina-
tions of Miss Frost-if she were accomplished );
yet her name and her black dress hold an en-
during place in our remembrance. An equal
ly impersonal boy, whose name has long since
shaped itself unalterably into Master Mawls"
is not to be dislodged from our brain Retain
ing no vindictive feeling towards Mawls-no
feeling whatever, indeed-we infer that nei-
ther he nor we can have loved Miss Frost
Our first impression of Death and Burial is as
sociated with this formless pair. We all three
nestled awfully in a corner one wntry day,
when the wind was blowing shrill with Miss
Frosts pinafore over our heads and Miss Frost
told us in whisper about somebody being
screwed down. 1t is the only distinct rccoi-
lection VIC preserve of these impalpable crca-
turcs except a suspicion that the manners of
Master Mawls were susceptible of much i'm
provcment. Generally speaking, we may OBJ
serve that Whenever we see a child intent!y
occupied with its nose. to the exclusion of all
other subjects of interest, our mind rcvcrts in
flash to Master Mawls
But, the school that was our school before
the railroad came and overthrow it, was quite
another sort of place. We were old enough
to be put into Virgil when we went there, and
to get prizes for a variety Of polishing on which
the rust has long accumulated. 1t was a school
of some celebrity in its ghhOrhOod-nobody
could have said why-and we had the honor
to attain and hold the eminent position Of first
boy. The master was supposed among us to
to know nothing and one Of the ushers was
supposed to know everything. We are still in
clined to think the irst-named suppostion per-
fectly correct
We have general idea that it's subject had
been in the leather trade, and had bought us
meaning our school-of another proprietor, who
was immensely learned. Whether this belief
had any real foundation, we are not like ever
to know now The only branches Of education
which he showed the least acquaintance with,
were ruling, and corporally furnishing. He was
always ruling ciphering books with bloatcd
mahogany ruler, or smitng the palms OF offend
ers with the same diabolical instrument or
viciously drawing pair of pantaloons tight
with one of his large hands, and Gaming the
wearer with the other We have no doubt
whatever that this occupation was the princi-
pie solace Of his existence.
A profound respect for money prevaded our
school, which was of course, derived from its
Chief We remember an idiotic goggle-eyed
boy, with big head and half.crowns without
end, who suddenly appeared as parlor board
er, and was rumored to have come by sea from
some mysterious part of the earth, where his
parents rolled in gold. He was usually called
"Mr" by the Chief, and was said to feed in
the parlor on steaks and gravy likewise to