accustomed to bully. He therefore stopped
just before he got up to Lemon.

"Come," he said, "I don't want to quarrel. Let Eden remain, and I'll
cry _pax_."

"Certainly not, Blackall, you've let Eden do what is forbidden; you are
setting him a bad example. I shall therefore be glad to take him away
from you. He wishes to accompany me, and I shall let him do so," was
the answer.

"Oh, you're a puritanical saint, Lemon,--all the school knows that,"
said Blackall with a sneer with which he hoped to cover his own retreat.
He had been telling the fellows around him that he felt very seedy, and
as he looked at the firm front of his three antagonists he had no fancy
to commence a desperate fight with them.

"I wish to deserve the good opinion of my schoolfellows, and I do not
believe that they will agree with you," said Lemon. "If hating vice and
despising the low practices in which you indulge will make me a saint, I
am ready to acknowledge the impeachment, and I can only say that I hope
the poor little fellows may see the hideousness of sin, and loathe it as
much as they do the vile tobacco-leaves you give them to suck, and the
spirits and beer which you teach them to drink. Stop! hear me out.
There is nothing immoral in drinking a glass of beer or in smoking, but
in our case they are both forbidden by the Doctor, whom we are bound to
obey. Both become vices when carried to excess, as you, Blackall, carry
them, and would teach your pitiable imitators to carry them; and I warn
you and them that such practices can only bring you disgrace and misery
at last."

Lemon, without saying another word, turned on his heel, and, accompanied
by his two sturdy supporters, was walking away.

"Do you mean to say that I drink?" shouted Blackall, with an oath, as
soon as he could recover from the astonishment into which this unusual
style of address had thrown him.

Lemon turned round, looked him full in the face, and said, "I do." Then
he went on the way he had been going. Blackall did not say another
word, but staggered back to the bank on which he had been sitting, and
endeavoured to re-light the end of the cigar he had dropped when he got
up. He knew that Lemon had spoken the truth. Already he had that day
stopped at more than one road-side ale-house and drunk several glasses
of beer. "_In vino-veritas_," is a true saying. Blackall when sober
might pass for a very brave fellow: his true character came out when he
was