more of the penitent the next morning than did any of his pupils. He was
by no means displeased, therefore, to see them drop in about the usual
hour. They came, however, not one by one, but in compact groups, each
officered by two or three of the larger boys; for they feared that,
had they entered singly, he might have punished them singly, until his
vengeance should be satisfied. It was by bitter and obstinate struggles
that they succeeded in repressing their mirth, when he; appeared at his
desk with one of his eyes literally closed, and his nose considerably
improved in size and richness of color. When they were all assembled,
he hemmed several times, and, in a woo-begone tone of voice, split--by
a feeble attempt at maintaining authority and suppressing his
terrors--into two parts, that jarred most ludicrously, he briefly
addressed them as follows:--

"Gintlemen classics, I have been now twenty-six years engaged in
the propagation of Latin and Greek litherature, in conjunction wid
mathematics, but never, until yesterday, has my influence been spurned;
never, until yesterday, have sacrilegious hands been laid upon my
person; never, until yesterday, have I been kicked--insidiously,
ungallantly, and treacherously kicked--by my own subjects. No,
gintlemen,--and, whether I ought to bestow that respectable epithet
upon you after yesterday's proceedings is a matter which admits of
dispute,--never before has the lid of my eye been laid drooping, and
that in such a manner that I' must be blind to the conduct of half of
my pupils, whether I will or not. You have complained, it appears, of
my want of impartiality; but, God knows, you have compelled me to be
partial for a week to come. Neither blame me if I may appear to look
upon you with scorn for the next fortnight; for I am compelled to turn
up my nose at you much against my own inclination. You need never want
an illustration of the _naso adunco_ of Horace again; I'm a living