ain on the gymnastic poles.

Blackall was going up a ladder hand over hand, without using his feet,
while Lemon was swarming up a pole. When they reached the top, giddy as
was the height, they crossed each other and descended, one by the pole
and the other by the rope, head foremost; then, without stopping, each
climbed on some horizontal bars.

Lemon first hung by his hands to the bar he had seized, and then he drew
himself up until his chest touched the bar; then, lowering himself, he
passed one of his feet through his hands, and hitched his knee over the
bar; then he swung backwards, and came up sitting on the bar with one
leg; it was easy enough to draw the other leg after him. Throwing
himself off, he caught the bar again by his hands, and curled his body
over it.

"That's all very fine," exclaimed Blackall, who had been sitting on a
bar observing him; "but, old fellow, can you do this?"

Blackall, as he spoke, threw himself off the bar, grasping it with both
hands; then he passed the left knee through the right arm, so as to let
the knee rest in the elbow; then he passed the right knee over the
instep of the left foot, and letting go his left hand, he grasped his
right foot with it. Thus he hung, suspended by his right hand, and
coiled up like a ball. After hanging thus for a couple of minutes, he
caught the bar by his other hand, and, uncoiling himself, brought his
feet between his arms and allowed them to drop till they nearly touched
the ground. Then he turned back the same way. Once more lifting
himself up, he threw his legs over the bar, and dropping straight down,
hung by his bent knees, with his head towards the ground. A little
fellow passing at the moment, he called him, and lifted him off the
ground; a feat which called forth the loud applause of all his admirers.
This excited him to further efforts, and he was induced to continue
still longer when he found that Lemon did not seem inclined to vie with
him.

While the exercises I have described were going forward, the Doctor made
his appearance at the door of the yard, accompanied by a boy who looked
curiously round at what was taking place. After waiting a minute or so,
the Doctor led him on through the grounds.

"I wonder who that chap is!" observed Tommy Bouldon. "He looks a
regular-built sawney."

"Oh, don't you know? He's the new fellow," answered Bobby Dawson. "I
heard something about him from Sandon, who lives in the same county,