Year: 1867

Deprived of this pleasure, and having stopped in for a fortnight to work out his fine, the first use Wickham made of his regained liberty in the playground was to ask the Doctor to go and stand at one end of 1t, and let him have ''shy' at his hat at the other. Doctor Warr stood still, say Ing, ''If you think 1t will do you any good, you may''

 Wickham threw the ball almost as clev- erly as Tell shot his arrow, and knocked the Doctors hat off, but in doing so, the ball struck his head smartly, having caught the hat only just above the brim, and hurt Doctor Warr somewhat severely The five fingers went up.

 ''You gave me leave Doctor War;" re- monstrated Wickham.

 'I told you if you thought it would do me any good, George Wickham. You see it has not. /"

 I am not certain, but I think there was the least tinge of malice in this instance of the Doctors inficting fine whilst smart ing from the blow. Possibly he thought so too the next minute, for 1t was the only fine l can remember which was not en- forced.

 A fight was an incident of such rare oc currence ln our school, that 1 only vaguely remember having heard that the punish

 

 ted effectually to prevent it's repetition. had reason, however, to endorse the popu- lar belief from personal experience. lam afraid 1t must have been dreadfully hypo- critical of me to go on pretending that it was my aunt Campbell I was so anxious to see whenever l could get leave from school for 1t was no such thing

 went to my aunt's house not to see her. but my cousin Fanny. Fanny and I were engaged" in regular boy and girl en- gagement. We used to write to each oth- CT at least twice week, contriving to hand our notes clandestinely under the tea ta- ble, when absorbed. to all outward ap- pearance, in consumption of seed-cake and the rapt contemplation of tie gas-lightS. We contrived to go for walks together, too, whereof much of the enjoyment depended on their secrecy and the dread lest we should be found out. An, me! they were happy walks, when we lived in the sunshine of the golden presem-walks that come up Tn my mind as pleasant memories now though my wife, whose name is not Fanny has the book-marh she gave. me on my birthday! l must have dropped one of Fanny,s little notes from my pocket in the playground, for was startled to hear George Wickhams scome behind me reading Fanny's words, and making game of them before the other boys In an instant l flew at him like tiger, tore the note away, and struck him blow in the face He returned the blow directly, and in a minute we were fighting desperately, the 1 boys cheering us in turn as some well-de- ivered stroke gave one or the other a mo- mentary advantage. We were both closing for severe battle, l hot and wild with pas 1 sion, when the Doctor walked quietly be- tween, and without laying so much as a finger on either of ns, said, in his calm voice:

 Michael Green and George Wickman I wish to speak with you in the school 1 room"

 l He never looked back to see if we follow 1 ed, but walked leisurely indoors. Dr. l Warr was man whom to hear was to obey We instinctively followed him, dumb bleeding and panting.

 "I am sorry to find Michael Green and George Wickman," the Doctor began, opening his calm eyes very wide and fixing them on our flushed and burning faces, ''that you have not yet learnt one of the first lessons most people learnt in infancy the use of your hands You have both so obviously mistaken the purpose for which hands were given you, that I am afraid we must go back again to the first principles. 1t is not my fault if I treat you like children, but yours that you won't be like men. Until you know what your hands are for l cannot certainly allow you to use them any more, lest you do more mischief. To prevent mistakes till you know better am going to tie up your hands, Michael Green and George Wick ham,"

 Thereupon the doctor left the room, and | cn,o%1x ra+J1 e gravely tied our hands behind us. He then added: ''After what has occurred, I cannot consider 1t safe to trust you at large with the other boys, lest you do them any injury. You will therefore remain in the school room under my charge"

 At first was disposed to think the Doc tors treatment very slight and inadequate, though certainly chated and felt aDnoy- ed in being punished in manner so child ish

 We might sit and read or study, or do what we pleased, Wickham and I, but it was at a separate table from the other boys,-we could not be trusted near them. By and by began to find the punishment so nor tifying and irksome, that if my hands had been free really felt ready to have exer- cised them on Doctor Warr,-even in pref erence to Wickham' But the worst was at meal times. The Doctor himself brought our dinner into the school room. The food was cut up, because, he explained, since 1t was not safe to trust Qs with the use of our own hands, it would be sheer madness and culpable folly on his part to allow us dan gerous weapons like knives and forks Wlckham's hands being unloosed for the purpose, he was made to feed me with spoon before taking his own dinner. It was at once vexatious and ludicrous to be offered spoonful of cold mutton and po- tatoes by the very boy your smouldering passion would lead you even now to pum- mel. Had it not been for the comfort de- rived from feeling it must be at least as disagreeable to Wickham literally to carry out the precept, ''if thine enemy hunger, feed him, l believe even the ludicrous view of the subject would have proved in sufficient to induce me to have ''coals of fire" thus heaped upon my head But I was hungry and took in the cold mutton. at tea time there were more coals of fire with this diference,-I was stoker; my hands being unloosed this time for. the purpose of feeding Wickham Supper time passed in the same manner as dinner. 1 After this we were undone again, and |