r,
and was fresh out of gaol for debt. And when he came to, he said he'd
keep the school for less than our master that was gone. He couldn't do
anything else, you see.'

'And how did he teach you?'

'He knocked us about,' said Paul, drawing his shoulders together with an
unpleasant recollection; 'he wasn't so bad to me, because I liked getting
my tasks, and when he was in a good humour, he'd say I was a credit to
him, and order me in to read to him in the evening.'

'And when he was not?'

'That was when he'd been out. They said he'd been at the gin-shop; but
he used to be downright savage,' said Paul. 'At last he never thought it
worth while to teach any lessons but mine, and I used to hear the other
classes; but the inspector came all on a sudden, and found it out one day
when he'd hit a little lad so that his nose was bleeding, and so he was
sent off.'

'How long ago was this?'

'Going on for a year,' said Paul.

'Didn't the inspector want you to go to a training-school?' said Alfred.

'Yes; but the Guardians wouldn't hear of it.'

'Did you wish it?' asked Mr. Cope.

'I liked my liberty, Sir,' was the answer; and Paul looked down.

'Well, and what you do think now you've tried your liberty?'

Paul didn't make any answer, but finding that good-humoured face still
waiting, he said slowly, 'Why, Sir, it was well-nigh the worst of all to
find I was getting as stupid as the cows.'

Mr. Cope laughed, but not so as to vex him; and added, 'So that was the
way you learnt to be a reader, Paul. Can you tell me what books you used
to read to this master?'

Paul paused; and Alfred said, '"Uncle Tom's Cabin," Sir; he told us the
story of that.'

'Yes,' said Paul; 'but that wasn't all: there was a book about Paris, and
all the people in the back lanes there; and a German prince who came, and
was kind.'

'You must not tell them stories out of that book, Paul,' said Mr. Cope
quickly, for he knew it was a very bad one.

'No, Sir,' said Paul; 'but most times it was books he called philosophy,
that I couldn't make anything of--no story, and all dull; but he was very
savage if I got to sleep over them, till I hated the sight of them.'

'I'm glad you did, my poor boy,' said Mr. Cope. 'But one thing more.
Tell me how, with such a man as this, you could have learnt about the
Bible and Catechism, as you have done.'

'Oh,' said Paul, 'we had only the Bible and Testament to read in the
school, because they were t