environ the fortunate youth returning to Oxford
after his first vacation; thrice fortunate, however, if, as
happened in our hero's case, it is Easter term to which he is
returning; for that Easter term, with the four days' vacation,
and the little Trinity term at the end of it, is surely the cream
of the Oxford year. Then, even in this our stern northern
climate, the sun is beginning to have power, the days have
lengthened out, great-coats are unnecessary at morning chapel,
and the miseries of numbed hands and shivering skins no longer
accompany every pull on the river and canter on Bullingdon. In
Christ Church meadows and the college gardens the birds are
making sweet music in the tall elms. You may almost hear the
thick grass growing, and the buds on tree and shrub are changing
from brown, red, or purple, to emerald green under your eyes; the
glorious old city is putting on her best looks, and bursting into
laughter and song. In a few weeks the races begin, and Cowley
marsh will be alive with white tents and joyous cricketers. A
quick ear, on the towing-path by the Gut, may feast at one time
on those three sweet sounds, the thud thud of the eight-oar, the
crack of the rifles at the Weirs, and the click of the bat on the
Magdalen ground. And then Commemoration rises in the background,
with its clouds of fair visitors, and visions of excursions to
Woodstock and Nuneham in the summer days--of windows open on to
the old quadrangles in the long still evenings, through which
silver laughter and strains of sweet music, not made by man,
steal out and puzzle the old celibate jackdaws, peering down from
the battlements, with heads on one side. To crown all, long
vacation, beginning with the run to Henley regatta, or up to town
to see the match with Cambridge at Lord's and taste some of the
sweets of the season, before starting on some pleasure tour or
reading party, or dropping back into the quiet pleasures of
English country life! Surely, the lot of young Englishmen who
frequent our universities is cast in pleasant places. The country
has a right to expect something from those for whom she finds
such a life as this in the years when enjoyment is keenest.

Tom was certainly alive to the advantages of the situation, and
entered on his kingdom without any kind of scruple. He was very
glad to find things so pleasant, and quite resolved to make the
best he could of them. Then he was in a particularly good humour
with himself, fo