you take out your strap and warm him! And then he goes to get the
ball, and the other feller sings out, 'I told you to let that ball
alone! Come here, sir! Touch your toes!' So he warms him too; and
then we go on all jolly. It's awful fun, I can tell you!"

Master Verdant would think it awful indeed; and, by his own fireside,
would recount the deeds of horror to his trembling mother and
sisters, whose imagination shuddered at the scenes from which they
hoped their darling would be preserved.

Perhaps Master Charley had his own reasons for making matters worse
than they really were; but, as long as the information he derived
concerning public schools was of this description, so long did Master
Verdant Green feel thankful at being kept away from them. He had a
secret dread, too, of his friend's superior age and knowledge; and in
his presence felt a bashful awe that made him glad to get back from
the Rectory to his own sisters; while Master Charley, on the other
hand, entertained a lad's contempt for one that could not fire


[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 13]

off a gun, or drive a cricket-ball, or jump a ditch without falling
into it. So the Rectory and the Manor Green lads saw but very little
of each other; and, while the one went through his public-school
course, the other was brought up at the women's apron-string.

But though thus put under petticoat government, Mr. Verdant Green
was not altogether freed from those tyrants of youth, - the dead
languages. His aunt Virginia was as learned a Blue as her esteemed