was carrying two pails of milk to the dairy, and the
contents of both pails were spilt and wasted; he shut up a fighting
bantam cock and the stable cat into a barn, and left them fighting
furiously; he locked one of the farm-labourers in a hayloft, and pulled
away the ladder, so that he was not released for hours, and he proved
such an imp of mischief in the house that even his mother meditated
handing him over to his uncle to be whipped.

At last it came to a climax in school. He brought a lot of young frogs
in a handkerchief, put some of them in the master's desk, and amused
himself at intervals by slipping the others down the backs of the boys
seated in front of him. His corner was the most unruly one in the room,
and whilst waiting for another class to come down he began one of his
stories in a whisper to a most interested audience.

'I went to see a goblin once that I heard of. He lived in a tub on the
seashore, and he lived by gobbling up schoolmasters and governesses. He
used to cut their hair off, scrape them well like a horse-radish, and
then begin at their toes and gobble them up till he got to their
heads--their heads he boiled in a saucepan for soup. The boys and girls
used to bring their masters, when they didn't--'

'Edward Platt!'

Never had the master's voice sounded so stern. The frogs were
discovered!--and his wrath was not appeased by seeing the cluster
of heads round Teddy, and catching a few words of the delicious
story going on.

Teddy started to his feet.

'Who put these frogs here?'

'I did, sir.' The answer was boldly given.

'Come here!'

And amidst the sudden hush that fell on all the boys, Teddy walked up to
the master's desk with hot cheeks and bent head.

'Edward Platt, for the last three days you have been incorrigible. I
have kept you in, and given you extra tasks, but neither has had any
effect. Now I shall have to do what I have never yet done to you. Hold
out your hand.'

Teddy's head was raised instantly, and holding himself erect he bore
unflinchingly the three or four sharp strokes with the cane that the
master thought fit to give him.

'Now,' said the master, 'you can go home. I will dispense with your
attendance for the rest of this morning.'

Teddy walked out without a word: he felt the disgrace keenly, but it was
the means of bringing him to himself, and rushing away to a secluded
corner in a field he flung himself down on the ground and sobbed as if
his heart