h me in
declaring that, returning to school, after the vacation, is a dismal
affair, and that, during the first week or fortnight, certain rebellious
feelings are prominent, which it would be treason to breathe.

The close of the holidays had arrived, and it was decided that Louis
should return to school with his brother, notwithstanding his great
wish to the contrary; but now his principles were firmer, his father
was of opinion that mixing with a large party of boys was more calculated
to supply what was wanting in his character than staying at home with his
mother and sister, and, consequently, a day or two after the reopening
of Ashfield House, Reginald and Louis were placed by their father safely
in a coach that started from Norwich, and, in a rather sorrowful mood,
began their long journey.

I have no adventures to mention; romantic incidents are rarely met
with in a school-boy's life; nor was there any thing remarkable to
relate in the day and a half's travel, beyond the stoppage for meals,
and the changes of vehicle. Louis and his brother generally patronized
the top of the coach, but as they drew near Bristol, Louis grew so sleepy
and tired, from the length of the journey, as well as the imperfect
slumber obtained inside the preceding night, that he preferred changing
his quarters, to the risk of falling from his perch above. It so happened
that the coach was empty inside, and Louis indulged himself by stretching
at full length on one of the seats, and soon lost the recollection of
his troubles in sleep. How long he had slept he could not tell, when the
stopping of the coach disturbed him, and rising lazily, he looked out to
see where they were. Instead, however, of the "White Lion," in Bristol,
or the "Roadside Inn," with the four waiting horses, there was opposite
the window a pretty house, standing in a moderately sized garden, gay
with countless flowers, green grass, and waving trees. It was such
a house as Louis with his romance loved; low and old-fashioned,
with a broad glass door in the centre, on one side of which was a
long casement-window, and on the other, two thick sashes. The house,
extending to some length, displayed among the evergreen shrubs,
delicate roses and honey-suckles, a variety of odd windows, from
the elegant French to the deep old-fashioned bay; and over the front,
almost entirely concealing the rough gray stucco, was a vine, the
young grapes of which fell gracefully over the little b