which I arrive half an hour before the train starts; but however early I may be, others are already there, like me, full of joyous anticipations and glorious spirits. Some are going up to town, where to see Buckstone or Wright seems to be the summit of their hopes; others are to have a day's hunting, or a day's shooting, as the case may be, and will bring back to Harby accounts of feats performed by them which we shall find it difficult to believe, or proofs of their prowess which we shall easily consume; several are silent as to what particular enjoyment of the next thirty hours they look forward to most eagerly, happy to feel, though they would be ashamed to confess, that a kiss from mama is the "ultima Thule" of their desire. For my part, a good long walk or ride over a very grassy country, divided by numberless gates, in company of one of the most agreeable cousins I know, would be my answer to the universal question, "What do you look forward to most?" The train seemed to go very slow, besides being half an hour late in starting; anxiously I looked out of the window to see if any one was there to meet

me, and recognized with delight the jaunting car which was to convey me to my friends; the cousin who was driving being nearly distracted by the tremendous chatter kept up all the way, in a school language which he had much difficulty in comprehending.

To recount all the events of the next few hours would be tedious here, though they were far too brief then, like all perfect happiness. In looking back at those short delightful visits through a vista of years full of eventful passages, one wonders how any quietly disposed people could have endured the endless succession of stories, poured upon them in an unintermittent current of slang, for so many hours; and one feels new gratitude for the pleasure those single days gave. But the hour for departure is come; the car is again waiting for me. I can hardly believe that the time is already passed; though, when I think of all that I have done-how I have ridden over twenty miles of beautiful country, lunched at one place, where I met many home faces, dined at another, and finally supped at a third - it seems more like a week than a day. I can

not conceive now how so much happiness could have been forced into thirty hours, or how so short a change could infuse so many new ideas, and so much freshness of spirit as it did.

On returning to Harby, how dirty everything looked! how unworthy even my pretty little study looked of the roses I had brought: it seemed cruel to have torn them from the pretty porch to place them here. And my bedroom, how cold and noisy in comparison to the pleasant little room I slept in last night, with the stuffed birds over the mantelpiece, while the unfeeling order to "hurl a boot at the candle," was a strange contrast to the loving voice, which only the night before had inquired, “Are you sure you want nothing? please mind you put your candle out." But the whole holiday must not make us discontented with school; nor has it that effect, after sleep has removed it backward twelve hours; the lessons, however, hung rather heavy the next day, and, perhaps, the little boys are more kindly dealt by for a week after that day, full of the happy influence of home ties and home affections. But the recollection of

the whole holiday soon passes away, and takes its place as a past milestone on which is engraved the word "gratitude," in characters which years will not render illegible.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE SICK ROOM.

"Perchance that in that place had been

Dramas of many a cloudy scene."-MILNES.

"Secrets revealing,

We shall be stealing

Things that most surely the world does not know."-IBID.

THE sick-room! What scenes of languor and suffering, redolent of black dose and powders, of plasters and gruel, it brings to my recollection. It was a large room looking out on to the yard (of that more anon), and was in the quieter part of the house: the wing in which the housekeeper reigned quite supreme, where fags were objects of tender care, and monitors were but elder boys. It was seldom tenanted by invalids, strange as this may seem, considering its name: a bad cold brought on by house-leaping, or an indigestion in