am was
from the West, raised on Indian corn and pork, which give a fuller
outline and a more humid temperament, but may perhaps be thought to
render people a little coarse-fibred. Her speciality was to look after
the feathering, cackling, roosting, rising, and general behavior of
these hundred chicks. An honest, ignorant woman, she could not have
passed an examination in the youngest class. So this distinguished
institution was under the charge of a commissary and a housekeeper, and
its real business was feeding girls to grain, roots, and meats, under
cover, and making money by it.

Connected with this, however, was the incidental fact, which the public
took for the principal one, namely, the business of instruction. Mr.
Peckham knew well enough that it was just as well to have good
instructors as bad ones, so far as cost was concerned, and a great deal
better for the reputation of his feeding-establishment. So he tried to
get the best he could without paying too much, and, having got them, to
screw all the work out of them that could possibly be extracted.

There was a master for the English branches, with a young lady
assistant. There was another young lady who taught French, of the
_ahvahng_ and _pahndahng_ style, which does not exactly smack of the
_asphalte_ of the Boulevard _trottoirs_. There was also a German teacher
of music, who sometimes helped in French of the _ahfaung_ and
_bauntaung_ style,--so that, between the two, the young ladies could
hardly have been mistaken for Parisians, by a Committee of the French
Academy. The German teacher also taught a Latin class after his
fashion,--_benna_, a ben, _gahboot_, a head, and so forth.

The master for the English branches had lately left the school for
private reasons, which need not be here mentioned,--but he had gone, at
any rate, and it was his place which had been offered to Mr. Bernard
Langdon. The offer came just in season,--as, for various causes, he was
willing to leave the place where he had begun his new experience.

It was on a fine morning, that Mr. Bernard, ushered in by Mr. Peckham,
made his appearance in the great schoolroom of the Apollinean Institute.
A general rustle ran all round the seats when the handsome young man was
introduced. The principal carried him to the desk of the young lady
English assistant, Miss Darley by name, and introduced him to her.

There was not a great deal of study done that day. The young lady
assistant had to poin