to go down and come up in the basket; the cords hurt, I can tell you.'

13. Accordingly, that very night, the supper being distributed as usual by the head boy, the basket was left in its ordinary place, but the following morning nobody could find it. Where it was hidden, and how, I cannot tell; but the next play-hour saw it in the box-room. To prevent the possibility of their letting go the rope, when the basket contained the boy or the apples, they secured it round an iron bar that was by the hole, and wound or unwound it as need required.

CLOVERBOBS.

PART II.

1. For some days our depredations went on, and now our revenge was at hand. The boys knew it was Mrs. Pinnicker's time for fetching fruit for the Sunday pies, and scouts hid about here and there to watch her into the room. They saw her put her bright key into the lock, and go in and close the door behind her. Would she never come out? Were they to wait in vain for the pleasure of seeing her horror-stricken face? The bell rang, the play-time was up, they were forced to forego their delight; but they saw her in the house, in the dormitory at night, and she looked troubled and perplexed.

1

2. They were sure she had complained to the Doctor, but he must have told her it was fancy, that the apples couldn't go through the key-hole, and that

Dormitory, bedroom,

the heaps were not diminished as she fancied. Nevertheless, they thought it best to rest a while, and allowed her to make another visit, without being beforehand with her. At last, thinking that she was satisfied, they went to work again, and the diminished heaps left no doubt in Mrs. Pinnicker's mind that thieves there were somewhere; but she had told the Doctor, and the Doctor had told her she was mistaken, but that if she saw any fresh symptoms of a like nature, she had better let him know, and say nothing about it to any one else.

3. So she went to him again with more consternation than the Doctor thought all the apples of Devonshire or Herefordshire were worth; but, as there was moral delinquency involved in their abstraction, he took a somewhat serious view of it, and said he would see the apples and judge for himself; for by an occasional visit he would be qualified to decide upon the question of theft or no theft: so he took the key.

4. Mrs. Pinnicker seemed so quiet about her second loss, that the boys thought they might venture a fresh excursion into her treasury; and as it chanced they on the roof, hidden by its ins and outs, and the Doctor on the walk beneath, were making their way at the same time to the same spot. He had let himself in, and was looking at the fruit, when he thought he heard a noise above him. He waited, and heard voices. He was almost as much frightened to find he had caught the thieves, as he would have been if they had caught him.

1 Moral delinquency, an offence against the rules of right and wrong.

5. In nervous expectation, he waited, wondering where he should see them appear, when the basket slowly made its way through the chimney-hole, and gradually settled on the hearth, the small boy in it not expecting any company, least of all the Doctor. When he saw him (which at first he had not done, as his back was towards him) he was so overcome with fear that he could not utter a sound. The Doctor observed this, and immediately took advantage of it: he put his finger on his lips, indicating silence.

6. 'Safe?' cried a voice above, which the Doctor knew to be his nephew's. The Doctor made signs to the trembling urchin to say 'Yes,' which he did, but in a very husky voice.

'Load away, then,' said several voices, whereupon the Doctor, making signs to him of his intentions, and looking at the thickness of the rope, whispered to him to call the accustomed signal when he had taken his usual time for filling the basket. Then settling himself with some difficulty in it, he allowed himself to be drawn up, to the utter confusion of the small boy, who devoutly wished he had never seen an apple in his life.

7. 'A jolly good lot this time,' said the Doctor's nephew.

He's coming up with them,' said another. 'Mind the rope, don't let it slip-give it another twist. Well, I think we shall have enough to last this time!'

While they were rejoicing in the coming spoils, the nearest caught sight of the Doctor's hat, and soon his face was visible, to the electrification of all. 'Don't let me down among the apples, boys,' he said.

"I have had some trouble to come up, and should like to stay here a little while, if you please.'

8. There was no escape, no help for it: they went on pulling and twisting till he was fairly landed on the floor.

'My dear lads,' he exclaimed, when he was out of the basket, 'how could you drive me to make such a journey? I wouldn't for all the apples in England do it again, not even if I got them honestly.'

9. Seeing so little anger in his face, they clustered round him and made an awkward attempt at an apology, though they knew none was sufficient.

'Boy's,' he said, 'I can't forgive you, don't ask me. It is so very disreputable1an affair, that I wash my hands of it, and will forget it immediately. I am only very glad that no one knows it but ourselves. Are any other of the boys concerned in it?'

They said they had trusted none younger than the one below.

I

'I am glad of it, for your sakes. Here, let us put these boxes straight, and untwist these cords. wouldn't have Mrs. Pinnicker know that you could so far forget your duty to yourselves and to me, for anything.'

10. They could have borne a scolding, learnt a lesson, or stood a caning; but this way of meeting their delinquency completely overcame them. They resolved one and all, inwardly, never to engage in anything unworthy again. The boxes were speedily replaced and the ropes put right, and to save the characters of the thieves, the Doctor got out by their help from the chimney. Directly he got into the

'Disreputable, disgraceful,

house, he sent for his housekeeper, and said, 'There are too many apples there by half, Mrs. Pinnicker. I am sure the boys cannot have had enough; mind that they have in future. In fact, to prevent their falling into the hands of the thieves, as you fancy they do, it is better you should give the key to the senior boys, and let them take a sufficient quantity.'

'Remember, lads, not to be imprudent!' he added, filling up the confusion of the thieves.

II. If that wasn't enough to conquer any heart, I don't know what would be,' said one of the boys many years after, in speaking of it. It had the effect of making us forgive the housekeeper; for how could we resent, who had been so nobly pardoned, and. more than that, it gave effect to the Doctor's moral and religious teaching which was most valuable to us. We were sure he was sincere; we saw that he had none of the meanness that he dealt so gently with, while he must have despised it; and we were thoroughly ashamed of ourselves.

12. A boy seldom left Cloverbobs without an impression that a true gentleman could neither be mean, nor selfish, nor disingenuous. Many, too many, left with no more than the conviction; but there were some who were so captivated by the light that shone in the good Doctor, that they were led to seek its source, and to learn from the perfect Pattern that he had studied.

' Disingenuous, not open, artful.