l of this description was a
complete place of torment for the orphan, the unfriended, and the
deserted. Lads then stayed at school till they were eighteen and even
twenty, and fagging flourished in all its atrocious oppression.

CHAPTER TEN.

I GROW EGOTISTICAL, AND BEING PLEASED WITH MYSELF, GIVE GOOD ADVICE--A
VISIT; AND A STRANGE JUMBLE OF TIRADES, TEARS, TUTORS, TENDERNESS, AND A
TEA-KETTLE.

Let me now describe the child of nine years and a half old, that was
forced to undergo this terrible ordeal. We will suppose that, by the
aid of the dancing-master and the drill-sergeant, I have been cured of
my vulgar gait, and that my cockney accent has disappeared. Children of
the age above-mentioned soon assimilate their tone and conversation with
those around them. I was tall for my years, with a very light and
active frame, and a countenance, the complexion of which was of the most
unstained fairness. My hair light, glossy, and naturally, but not
universally, curling. To make it appear in ringlets all over my head,
would have been the effect of art; yet, without art it was wavy, and at
the temples, forehead, and the back of the head, always in full
circlets. My face presented a perfect oval, and my features were
classically regular. I had a good natural colour, the intensity of
which ebbed and flowed with every passing emotion. I was one of those
dangerous subjects whom anger always makes pale. My eyes were decidedly
blue, everything else that may be said to the contrary notwithstanding.
The whole expression of my countenance was very feminine, but not soft.
It was always the seat of some sentiment or passion, and in its womanly
refinement gave to me an appearance of constitutional delicacy and
effeminacy, that I certainly did not possess. I was decidedly a very
beautiful child, and a child that seemed formed to kindle and return a
mother's love, yet the maternal caress never blessed me; but I was
abandoned to the tender mercies of a number of he-beings, by many of
whom my vivacity was checked, my spirit humbled, and my flesh cruelly
lacerated.

I dwell thus particularly on my school-day life, in order, in the first
place, to prepare the reader for the singular events that follow; and in
the second (and which forms by far the most important consideration, as
I trust I am believed, and if _truth_ deserves credence, believed I am),
to caution parents from trusting to the specious representations of any
s