and sported tailed-coats, he looked at from a distance, and viewed with a certain amount of awe, thinking he should never attain to their size or standing in the school; and alt

ways of thinking, and ordinary pursuits, were quite opposed to his own. But with Arthur Hall, Johnnie Lynch, Jones, and Moore,

or sheer inability to learn a particular task, he showed no mercy to those who could learn and would not, either from

she knew him better, for his own, so that Leslie wrote home glowing accounts of the pleasures of sc

month he gave evident proof that this fault had not disappeared from, or been overcome in his character. He forgot the promise he had made to his papa, or t

but after dusk no one was permitted to be absent from the playground, and after the names were read over for the evening,

nted by farm-labourers and working-men. The outer door of each of these cottages opened into the sitting-room without any passage intervening, so that any

e preparing lessons for the next day, Leslie shut up his books with a bang, saying

shall be finished, then

his books into the desk, saying

ou; mind Wilson don't see you, or he

ead was turned on one side, slipped silently and unobserved from

ou going?" i

town," rep

ules, and if discovere

nd out; but don't com

t I don't see we are

l be no end

m all wi

f the hedge, so that we a

ght; go

n. The outskirts of the town were speedily reached, when, stopping before the first cottage was gained, Leslie pulled t

Do you take the right hand side, and I the left; mind and aim straight at the fac

igher up, so that the road may

shooter in the keyhole, fired a whole mouthful of peas at the glass face o

d the boys, who glided on to the next, and then to the next, producing a similar sensation and exclamati

," said Lynch, "I h

sed laughter was so great; but this soon gave way to alarm as t

t us turn into the field and cu

le, pitched head foremost into the grass, but before he could recover hims

led on to their feet and darted across the meadow, straight as the crow flies

"I fired so hard; but what a lark! how they all cried 'Lor-a-merc

e first to recover himself, "let us go

r absence, and the two adventurers gained the

ed on particular business for a few minutes. The doctor was absent for a short time, and then returned accompanied by a man and a boy dressed in the smock-frock of farm laboure

es at the entrance of the town last evening. I am unwilling to believe that any of my scholars are guilty, as the hour when the trick was accomplished, was one when no boy has leave to absent himself from the

s a dead

o Lynch, "I think

rection of the school?" inquired the

the boy, "for I chased 'em, I did, mo

r; "if any of you are guilty you

ich Leslie rose from his seat, and with a face quite scarlet in colour

s your comp

sir, I would r

sir!" sa

and wh

s no one

d you to play such a trick, as sh

a lark, sir,"

ou know what your

, s

hese good people and their families, you

e have," interrupted the man, "besides frightening Master Sparrow's go

uld have been guilty of such a thoughtless action; tell your friends from me that

as you have thought proper to break one, that of being absent from school after the proper hours, you must also bear the consequences; recollect no wrong can be done without punishment following it; you wil

ained for," said Lynch, m

plied Leslie, ret

a whole

being in

kept in, now,

, but it can'

'lark,' and must

should have been guilty of so thoughtless an action as that of last night; what do you think your father will say? If you do not overcome this weakness of yours it will lead you into many more troubles. You must ke

it was with the fall determination