"How many boys were there at your last school?" said a sixth.

"Were there any fags there?" asked a seventh.

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'I say, Harry Milner-I say, Milner," exclaimed Roger, drowning the voices of the lesser boys, and silencing them with his superior authority; "I say, Harry Milner-I say, will you tumble with Jack Reese for a wager, and Mr. Perkins to be umpire? Smith says he'll bet you against Jack, and Thomson and I will take Jack against you; I think the odds are fair enough, hang me if I don't; to be sure Jack's legs are longest, but then Harry's the nimblest, and, so you see its a good match; don't you say so, Mr. Perkins?"

While all this was passing, Henry was looking with wondering eyes, not only on Roger, but on Mr. Perkins; and being wholly at a loss what reply to make, he fairly stated that he did not understand one word of all that had been said to him.

Mr. Perkins then undertook to explain to him what was intended, namely, that he and Jack Reese were to try who could roll and tumble best in the shortest time, and to the greatest distance; and, that, if Jack Reese proved to be the best tumbler, those who backed him were to gain the bets which were laid in his favour, and vice versâ.

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"Oh!" said Henry, "I now understand it; then we are to be like horses at a race, and you like the jockies." Ay, to be sure," said Roger; "but where could you have been reared not to have understood this before."

"Are not there such things as donkey races?" asked Henry, calmly.

"To be sure," said Roger, "there's one every year at Parson's-green, just across the common there."

"And, I suppose," said Henry, "none but donkies are admitted to those races ?"

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Surely not," returned Roger.

"The spectators then are all donkies?" asked Henry. "What a fool you are, Henry Milner," said Roger, "the spectators all donkies! why, we all go, that's all the big boys, excepting Marten; we were all there last summer. Mr. Perkins got leave, and we had rare fun, that we had."

"Indeed," said Henry, "and I dare say you found yourselves quite at home."

"Why, Milner," said Roger, "I take you to be the greatest fool that was ever seen or heard of."

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Softly, my master," said Mr. Perkins, smiling, "I doubt whether, if wit could be turned into gold, Henry Milner would not turn out to be quite as rich as you are."

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Well, but about the wager and the tumbling," said Roger; "are you for the undertaking, Henry ?—will you tumble against Jack Reese?"

"Who is Jack Reese!" "said Henry; if he should turn out to be a woolsack, I should have no objection to tumble against him."

"Who is he," said Roger, "who is he but our butcher's boy-you may see him any day; he's a funny lad, is not he, Mr. Perkins ?"

"If he should be armed with his father's knife," replied Henry," he would not be a very agreeable companion in a tumble; and so Mr. Clayton, if you please, I will decline having any thing to do in the affair." So saying, he walked away, and mixed with the rest of his companions.

"There's a rum concern," said Roger to Mr. Perkins, as he looked after Henry.

"He is a shrewd boy, Clayton," replied the usher; "you must mind what you are about with him."

"Mind!" said Roger, "why should I mind?—I don't care what he says of me; but I wish he had never come here. I will be even with him, however; sure, Smith, he won't be going to talk about Jack Reese to the doctor."

"What should he have to say about Jack Reese?" said Smith, "but, I wish, Clayton, you had not said any thing about Reese to him: you are so fond of fancying everybody you see to be a fool."

"Oh!" replied the usher, "that is because he sees his own image in every stranger's eye. I suppose his nurse taught him to look for the baby in her eye; and he cannot leave off the habit of looking for it now."

By this time the walking party had come to the brow of a little eminence, from whence they looked into a narrow valley, which was terminated by a range of small hills, most of which were wooded to their summits. One of these hills, which was considerably forwarder than the rest, stood directly opposite to them; and its steep acclivities were richly diversified with a beautiful VOL. I.-K

waterfall, which, appearing in one place, and disappearing in another, dashed in a rich and sparkling cascade of about twenty feet, into a small circular pond at the bottom of the hill.

"Oh!" exclaimed Henry, "how beautiful, how very beautiful!"—but, though he was surrounded by his fellow creatures, there was not one present who could enter into his feelings-no one capable of pointing out the glorious analogies to be found in Scripture between these natural charms, and the revelations of future events; nor any one, indeed, who had even the most ordinary discernment of the visible beauties of creation.

Henry was too observant not to see immediately that no one present had a fellow feeling with himself on these subjects. He therefore shut his mouth quite close, and walked on in silence.

Near the summit of this lovely wood, and half concealed by the trees, stood an old brick house, from the chimney of which arose a thick smoke, which, curling high above the trees, added not a little to the beauty of the scene.

"Mr. Perkins," said Roger, "Tom Jones is at home, I see; I wonder whether he has got Wellings's ferret." "That's your business, Mr. Clayton, not mine;" said Mr. Perkins, giving a look towards Henry—“ You know, I suppose, that Dr. Matthews does not approve of ferrets."

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Humph!" said Roger; "tace is Latin for a candle." "On with you;" said Mr. Perkins, shaking a little cane he had in his hand at some of the lesser boys: and at the same time mending his own pace, the party soon reached the bottom of the valley, and winding round the foot of the hill, began to ascend a steep and narrow lane, which in some places was completely embowered with the branches of the neighbouring trees. Being arrived at the top of this cart-way, they came out upon a kind of common, and saw behind them other hills, and on their left a thick grove of nut trees.

The house which they had before seen now appeared to their right, facing the common; and at the door of it a man and two boys, all of whom had a wild and fierce aspect. The man was dressed in a short jacket, with a leathern cap on his head, and black gaiters on his legs. His back was however turned on the boys; but on Roger crying out, "How is it with you, Tom?" he faced

about, grinned a savage smile, and answered, “Oh, Mr. Clayton, be you there?—I have just seed a monstrous rat, and I was going to loose the ferret at him."

No sooner had he uttered these words than the usher and all his boys rushed forward to see the sport, leaving Henry standing alone at the entrance of the nut grove.

Such sports as that which was then proposed had been held up as not only unchristianlike but ungentlemanlike to Henry; and, though he knew that rats and other such vermin must be killed, he was equally assured that no truly humane or polished person could ever take delight in witnessing their sufferings. He therefore made up his mind at once not to take any part in the present entertainment, and accordingly stepped a little way into the wood, and, sitting down on the brow of a rising ground, cast his eyes around on the wide horizon, which extended itself before him; there he had not sat a minute, before he heard a step behind him, and little George appeared, saying, "Master Milner, may I stay with you?"

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"To be sure you may,” said Henry; come, sit by me; and you shall repeat your grammar over once again."

"How good you are," said the little boy; "I shall begin to love my lessons, if you take such pains with me." And the child began to repeat with all his might and main. Henry heard him twice over, and fagged him in one or two difficult parts; and then, putting the grammar in his pocket, he said, "We will have another push at it while we are walking home; and now, George," he said, 66 can you tell me the name of those lovely hills

far away?"

The little boy looked to the point to which Henry's finger directed him, and then said, "Oh! those are the Malvern hills!"

"The Malvern hills," said Henry; "the Malvern hills -Oh, dulce, dulce domum !" and, being unable to restrain his tears, he leaned his head upon his knees, and for a moment gave free way to his feelings.

Little George seemed affected, and asked him what grieved him.

"I am very foolish," said Henry, raising his head, and dashing away his tears; "but the sight of those hills has brought so many things to my mind. But, I shall be very happy here, I hope-and particularly, little George,

if you will be my companion: I think I could like you better than the other boys."

"Oh! I shall like to be your companion; I mean, your little boy, your servant-I will be your servant," replied George. "My bedfellow, who was my master, went last week, and I have no new bedfellow. So, I shall ask to sleep with you; and then I can wait on you. You won't beat me, I know; or pull my nose, to wake me in a morning.".

"And then I shall make you learn your lessons, sir, I promise you," said Henry.

"I wish you would," said the little boy: "I do wish you would force me to learn; for I do hate learning, that I do. But, hark! what's that noise? I dare say the ferret has found the rat ;" and he was springing up to join his companions, when Henry, taking him by the arm, said, "Sit still, sir, or I have done with you. I will not have a rat-catcher, or a badger-hunter, or a ferret-keeper for my companion; for I hate such doings; so sit down, sir, or else we break our agreement."

Little George immediately sat down, and said, "Is it wrong to hunt with ferrets, Master Milner ?"

"Call me Henry, and not master, if you please," said the other: "and if you will not go to see the ferret, I will tell you the story of my white rabbit, and how I was taught to be kind to animals."

George drew nearer to Henry, and heard the whole history of the white rabbit, a history which is to be found at full length in the first part of these marvellous and interesting memoirs. How delighted good Mr. Dalben would have been, could he have witnessed the eager looks of love and gratitude with which the young boy thus drank up the sweet instruction conveyed by the elder.

Henry had just concluded his story, when his ears were saluted by a hoarse laugh close to him; and, on looking round him, he saw Roger couched down behind a bush, where he heard a few of the last sentences of the story.

"Here they are! here they are, Mr. Perkins!" cried Roger, hallooing to the usher.

"And here we have been all the time you have been rat-hunting," said little George.

"Be quiet," whispered Henry.

The remark, however, seemed to have startled Roger;