me to write my name and
age, as well as the date of my arrival, upon it. The .same ceremony was
repeated with the second.

"That's all right: now let's see how it reads," said he, and, removing
the blotting paper, read as follows: "'Pair of Wellingtons, L1 15s.;
satin stock, 25s.; cap ribbon for Sally Duster, 2s. 6d.; box of cigars,
L1 16s. (mem. shocking bad lot)--5th Nov., Francis Fairlegh, aged
15'.--So much for that; now, let's see the next: 'Five shirts, four pair
of stockings, six pocket-handkerchiefs, two pair of white ducks--5th
Nov., Francis Fairlegh, aged 15'."

Here his voice was drowned in a roar of laughter from the whole party
assembled, Thomas included, during which the true state of the case
dawned upon me, viz.--that I had, with much pomp and ceremony, entered
my name, age, and the date of my arrival in Mr. George Lawless's private
account and washing books!

My thoughts, as I laid my aching head upon my pillow that night, were
not of the most enviable nature. Leaving for the first time the home
where I had lived from childhood, and in which I had met with affection
and kindness from all around me, had been a trial under which my
fortitude would most assuredly have given way, but for the brilliant
picture my imagination had very obligingly sketched of the happy family
of which I was about to become a member; in the foreground of which
stood a group of fellow-pupils, a united brotherhood of congenial
~12~~souls,, containing three bosom friends at the very least, anxiously
awaiting my arrival with outstretched arms of welcome. Now, however,
this last hope had failed me; for, innocent (or, as Coleman would have
termed it, green) as I then was, I could not but perceive that the tone
of mock politeness assumed towards me by Cumberland and Lawless was
merely a convenient cloak for impertinence, which could be thrown aside
at any moment when a more open display of their powers of tormenting
should seem advisable. In fact (though I was little aware of the
pleasures in store for me), I had already seen enough to prove that the
life of a private pupil was not exactly "all my fancy painted it"; and,
as the misery of leaving those I loved proved in its "sad reality"
a much more serious affair than I had imagined, the result of my
cogitations was, that I was a very unhappy boy (I did not feel the
smallest inclination to boast myself _man_ at that moment), and that, if
something very much to my advantage did not t