tance off, "you jest lend a hand here, and keep your eye on these pokemanties, while I step up to Cap'en Blunt's. And don't ye go playing none of yere games, lest I wallop ye!" he added in a warning voice, as the lad slouched up to mount sentry over my personal

effects.

"I don't play no games, never," muttered the boy in a tone of injured innocence-keeping, however, carefully out of reach of his father's long arm; and we started up the wooden pier for the shore.

Being very fond of the sea, I had come round from London in a trading steamer, instead of making the ordinary railway journey to Compton, and had been dropped, like a waif from the ocean, on the pier-head, while the vessel, which was not even moored for a moment in my honour, resumed her journey to the port of destination some twenty miles further down the southern coast. In fact, I was not due at Captain Blunt's establishment (where I was engaged to teach history, geography, the elements of fortification and so forth to over a dozen boys destined for the military, naval, and civil services) until the next day, and hardly knew how far I might be welcome in thus taking the proprietor unawares. All doubts, however, on that head were dissipated when my guide "landed me," as he called it, on the doorsteps of Ghuznee Villa, and a

well-made, wiry gentleman, whose bronzed and scarred face wore a most pleasant smile, came forward, shook me cordially by both hands, and said,—

"Mr. Orme, I presume? You are welcome, sir, heartily welcome, to my house; pray come in, and make yourself at home.”

I had never before been 'out' (as it is called); indeed, I had only just left my University to take up this appointment; and Captain Blunt's warm and evidently sincere reception of a stranger, who was joining him as an untried dependent, was as pleasant as it was unexpected. For I may as well at once confess that my head was filled with all sorts of horrible stories of the bodily and mental sufferings endured by ushers (for so I regarded the whole class of teachers, whether they were called professors, masters, or any other title) at the hands of proprietors, and I had come quite prepared to be little better than a slavish drudge, until my fortunes, which had met with a sad and sudden reverse, should materially improve. But from the first moment that my eyes encountered the kindly, genial gaze of Captain Blunt's, I knew that, at least as far as he was concerned, my preconceived notions were utterly false; while his affectionate, almost fatherly, manner put me at once at my ease. Bidding "Big Ben," by which name he addressed my stalwart guide fetch up

my baggage as soon as possible, Captain Blunt ushered me into his private sanctum with the cheery greeting,

"Head-quarters first, my lad" (I really was little more than a lad, and I suppose my manner showed I was not ashamed of my youth); "always report yourself first at head-quarters. Now what'll you have?"

I tried to excuse myself from taking any refreshments, on the grounds that I had lunched with the captain on board the steamer, but my host (for so he seemed determined to be) would not hear of a refusal.

"What! not wet your commission? That won't do at all, Mr. Orme; for though I seldom take anything myself out of regular times, I like a man to taste my sherry when he first comes into my house. Come, a glass of Manzanilla and a biscuit won't do you any harm?” He opened a cellarette, took out some wine and biscuits, and insisted on hob-nobbing with me in the hearty fashion of a bye-gone day, while a few moments more of his pleasant manner and cheerful conversation put me quite at my ease.

"Now for a little business, Mr. Orme," he said, after the arrival of Big Ben' with my traps, which one of the servants at once took upstairs: "You know pretty well from my letters what I want you for in an educational point of view; and I am quite satisfied,

from what your former tutors have told me, that you are fully competent as far as knowledge goes; but I don't know, they don't know, you don't know—no one can possibly know until you have had a trial-if you can teach. Can they now?"

"No, sir, they cannot; but I thought I mentioned I had no experience, but

"Quite so, quite so, Mr. Orme," he put in as if eager to reassure me.

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But," I went on, "I am so anxious, so very anxious, to make myself thoroughly useful, so desirous to learn how to teach, that if you will only give me a hint or two, and set me right when I go wrong, I am very sure I shall soon succeed, at least tolerably." I spoke eagerly, for I felt warmly. He watched me closely, but not at all unpleasantly, while I was speaking, and then his whole countenance beamed with kindness and satisfaction.

I

'Give me your hand, Mr. Orme; that is all I want. feel sure you will do what you say, and that is everything I desire. You see I am an old man "" (he looked in the prime of life, but his real age far outstripped his appearance), “and I suppose I have my crotchets, like every one else of my time of life. Now my pupils, you see, are rather different from most boys of their age. In the first place, they are all sons of men of

good family and large fortunes,—I selected you because you too are a gentleman of birth and education,—and all require the most careful attention, so that they may, by judicious training, become a credit to themselves, to their families, and to their instructors. I place confidence thoroughly in all who help me in my work, I expect the same; and therefore it is my duty to tell you that nearly every one of my pupils are sent to me labelled by those who know them best as 'backward,' idle,' 'headstrong' wild,' or 'unmanageable' (I do not believe in the latter, by the bye); and therefore they require to be dealt with somewhat differently from ordinary lads. Patience, firmness, honour, great kindness, and a judicious discipline-mind, not the slightest approach to harshness; true discipline has nothing in common. with that quality-are the weapons with which we must meet the evils I have mentioned; and I think I may add that I have never found them to fail yet.” He then went on to explain to me in detail his method of applying his principles; and while doing so involuntarily proved very clearly to my mind that he was complete master of his subject, and that no man in England could possibly be better qualified for dealing with the rather unpromising pupils consigned to his care. With the actual teaching, he