ne would ride away in the afternoon, on his pony. The wealth of his
grandfather was reported in the school to be prodigious. The Reverend Mr.
Veal used to compliment Georgie upon it personally, warning him that he
was destined for a high station; that it became him to prepare for the
lofty duties to which he would be called later; that obedience in the
child was the best preparation for command in the man; and that he
therefore begged George would not bring toffee into the school and ruin
the health of the other pupils, who had everything they wanted at the
elegant and abundant table of Mrs. Veal.

Whenever Mr. Veal spoke he took care to produce the very finest and
longest words of which the vocabulary gave him the use, and his manner
was so pompous that little Georgie, who had considerable humour, used to
mimic him to his face with great spirit and dexterity, without ever being
discovered. Amelia was bewildered by Mr. Veal's phrases, but thought him
a prodigy of learning, and made friends with his wife, that she might be
asked to Mrs. Veal's receptions, which took place once a month, and where
the professor welcomed his pupils and their friends to weak tea and
scientific conversation. Poor little Amelia never missed one of these
entertainments, and thought them delicious so long as she might have
George sitting by her.

As for the learning which George imbibed under Mr. Veal, to judge from
the weekly reports which the lad took home, his progress was remarkable.
The name of a score or more of desirable branches of knowledge were
printed in a table, and the pupil's progress in each was marked by the
professor. In Greek Georgie was pronounced _Aristos_, in Latin
_Optimus_, in French _Tres bien_, etc.; and everybody had prizes for
everything at the end of the year. Even that idle young scapegrace of a
Master Todd, godson of Mr. Osborne, received a little eighteen-penny
book, with _Athene_ engraved on it, and a pompous Latin inscription from
the professor to his young friend. An example of Georgie's facility in
the art of composition is still treasured by his proud mother, and reads
as follows:

_Example_: The selfishness of Achilles, as remarked by the poet Homer,
occasioned a thousand woes to the Greeks (Hom. II A 2). The selfishness
of the late Napoleon Bonaparte occasioned innumerable wars in Europe, and
caused him to perish himself in a miserable island--that of St. Helena in
the Atlantic Ocean.

We see by these ex