his three or four private pupils, who had come to finish
letting off the fireworks, which they had favoured the squire with
partially exhibiting on the previous evening; but which the news of
Vernon's misadventure had prematurely cut short--and so the remainder of
the exhibition was postponed to the following evening--and that time
having then arrived, all the rest of the combustibles went off, one
after another, with very great _eclat_.

But where are those three uninteresting young damsels all this
time?--What has become of them? some of our readers may be inclined to
ask. For their satisfaction we beg to inform them, that these three
unprepossessing personages were merely acquaintances, who had dropped in
unexpectedly the evening before, and made use of the squire's residence
as a kind of inn or half-way house, on the way to visit some friends
some ten miles further on, to which place they had betaken themselves
soon after breakfast. And by way of clearing up as we go--The Misses
Potts, (for Potts they were called, there's no disguising that fact,)
the Misses Potts, we say, were at the time our two heroes first met them
returning homewards from a long ride; shortly after which, being
overtaken by a heavy shower, they betook themselves to a friend's house
not very far distant, where, owing to the unfavourable appearance of the
weather, they were induced to remain for the night, and Timothy was
accordingly sent home with a message to that effect.

They were very nice people indeed were the Potts's; and not only did
their two guests think so, but the whole country, far and wide around,
entertained precisely the same opinion. It is not, therefore, surprising
that two young men like Frank and Vernon should be well pleased with
their quarters, or that, having so early gotten into the slough of love,
they should daily continue to sink deeper into the mire. The young
poet's lame leg, though not a very serious affair, was still sufficient
to keep him for several days a close prisoner to the house; but if any
one had asked him--no, we don't go so far as to say that, for if any one
had so asked him he would not have answered truly; but if he had
seriously proposed the question to himself, his heart would have told
him, that notwithstanding all the pain and inconvenience attendant on
his then crippled state, he wouldn't have changed with his friend Frank,
to have been compelled to ramble abroad with the father, instead of
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