n hour here of the performance of
so many natural gymnastic tricks seemed to tame him down--these tricks
being much of a kind popular amongst caged monkeys, who often, for no
apparent object, spring about and hang by hands or feet, often by their
tail.

But he had one piece of enjoyment that would have driven a monkey mad
with envy. He had discovered among the lumber a very large
old-fashioned bottle-jack, and after hanging this from a hook and
winding it up, one of his greatest pleasures was to hang from that jack,
and roast till he grew giddy, when he varied the enjoyment by buckling
on a strap, attaching himself with a hook from the waist, and then going
through either a flying or swimming movement as he spun slowly round.

Then he had a rope-trick or two contrived by means of a long piece of
knotted together clothes-line, doubled, and hung from the rafters to
form a swing or trapeze.

Dexter had paid his customary morning visit to his pets, and carefully
fed them according to his wont; his plan, a very regular one among boys,
being to give them twice as much as was good for them one day, and a
starving the next--a mode said to be good with pigs, and productive of
streaky bacon, but bad for domestic pets. Then he had returned to the
house to go through his lessons, and sent long-suffering Mr Limpney,
BA, almost into despair by the little progress he had made, after which
he had gone down the garden with the expectation of meeting Dan'l at
some corner, but instead had come upon Peter, busy as usual with his
broom.

"Yer needn't look," said the latter worthy; "he's gone out."

"What! Dan'l has?"

"Yes; gone to see a friend who's a gardener over at Champney Ryle, to
buy some seeds."

It was like the announcement of a holiday, and leaving the groom making
the usual long stretches with his broom, Dexter went on aimlessly to the
river-side, where, for the first time for many months, he found Bob
Dimsted fishing.

"Hullo, old un!" was the latter's greeting, "how are you!"

Dexter gave the required information, and hesitated for a few moments,
something in the way of a collection of Helen's warnings coming vaguely
to his hand; but the volunteered information of the boy on the other
side of the river, that he had got some "glorious red wums," and that
the fish were well on the feed, drove everything else away, and in a few
minutes Dexter was sitting upon the crown of a willow pollard, ten feet
out over the rive