Frank Fairlegh | Page 7

of
them, rather." ~11~~"I assure you," interrupted I, eagerly, "I never was
more distressed in my life; it was quite a mistake."
"Pretty good mistake--Hodgson's pale ale for Muddytub's swipes--eh,
Mull?" rejoined Coleman.
"I believe you," replied Mullins.
"Well, now for entering your name; that's important, you know," said
Lawless; "you had better ring the bell, and tell Thomas to bring the
books."
I obeyed, and when Thomas made his appearance informed him of my
desire to enter my name in the books of the establishment, which I
begged he would bring for that purpose. A look of bewilderment that
came over his face on hearing my request changed to an expression of
intelligence, as, after receiving some masonic sign from Lawless, he
replied:--
"The books, sir; yes, sir; bring 'em directly, sir ".
After a few minutes he returned with two small, not overclean, books,
ruled with blue lines. One of these Lawless took from him, opened with
much ceremony, and, covering the upper part of the page with a bit of
blotting paper, pointed to a line, and desired me to write my name and
age, as well as the date of my arrival, upon it. The .same ceremony was
repeated with the second.

"That's all right: now let's see how it reads," said he, and, removing the
blotting paper, read as follows: "'Pair of Wellingtons, £1 15s.; satin
stock, 25s.; cap ribbon for Sally Duster, 2s. 6d.; box of cigars, £1 16s.
(mem. shocking bad lot)--5th Nov., Francis Fairlegh, aged 15'.--So
much for that; now, let's see the next: 'Five shirts, four pair of stockings,
six pocket-handkerchiefs, two pair of white ducks--5th Nov., Francis
Fairlegh, aged 15'."
Here his voice was drowned in a roar of laughter from the whole party
assembled, Thomas included, during which the true state of the case
dawned upon me, viz.--that I had, with much pomp and ceremony,
entered my name, age, and the date of my arrival in Mr. George
Lawless's private account and washing books!
My thoughts, as I laid my aching head upon my pillow that night, were
not of the most enviable nature. Leaving for the first time the home
where I had lived from childhood, and in which I had met with
affection and kindness from all around me, had been a trial under which
my fortitude would most assuredly have given way, but for the brilliant
picture my imagination had very obligingly sketched of the happy
family of which I was about to become a member; in the foreground of
which stood a group of fellow-pupils, a united brotherhood of
congenial ~12~~souls,, containing three bosom friends at the very least,
anxiously awaiting my arrival with outstretched arms of welcome. Now,
however, this last hope had failed me; for, innocent (or, as Coleman
would have termed it, green) as I then was, I could not but perceive that
the tone of mock politeness assumed towards me by Cumberland and
Lawless was merely a convenient cloak for impertinence, which could
be thrown aside at any moment when a more open display of their
powers of tormenting should seem advisable. In fact (though I was little
aware of the pleasures in store for me), I had already seen enough to
prove that the life of a private pupil was not exactly "all my fancy
painted it"; and, as the misery of leaving those I loved proved in its
"sad reality" a much more serious affair than I had imagined, the result
of my cogitations was, that I was a very unhappy boy (I did not feel the
smallest inclination to boast myself man at that moment), and that, if
something very much to my advantage did not turn up in the course of

the next twenty-four hours, my friends would have the melancholy
satisfaction of depositing a broken heart (which, on the principle of the
Kilkenny cats, was all I expected would remain of me by that time) in
an early grave. Hereabouts my feelings becoming too many for me at
the thought of my own funeral, I fairly gave up the struggle, and,
bursting into a flood of tears, cried myself to sleep, like a child.
CHAPTER II
-- LOSS AND GAIN
"And youthful still, in your doublet and hose, this raw rheumatic day?"
"His thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskilful singer, he
kept not time.... Convey, the wise it call. 'Steal!' foh! a fico for the
phrase!"-- Shakspeare.
"From Greenland's icy mountains."--Heber.
AMONGST the minor phenomena which are hourly occurring in the
details of everyday life, although we are seldom sufficiently close
observers to perceive them, there is none more remarkable than the
change wrought in our feelings and ideas by a good night's rest; and
never was this change more strikingly exemplified than on