ad no military genius. He would bind himself an apprentice
to a country carpenter, and make pigsties--he would turn usher, and the
boys should bump him for an ass--he would run away. He did the latter.

Leaving the firemen to see all safe, Mr Root to deplore his defaced
school-room and his destroyed property, Mrs Root to prepare for an
immensity of cases of cold, and burnt faces and hands,--I shall here
conclude the history of the famous barring out of the fifth of November,
of the year of grace, 18---. If it had not all the pleasures of a real
siege and battle except actual slaughter, I don't know what pleasure is;
and the reader by-and-by will find out that I had afterwards
opportunities enough of judging upon this sort of kingly pastimes, in
which the cutting of throats was not omitted.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

IS FULL OF MORAL AND RELIGIOUS DISQUISITIONS, THEREFORE IT BEHOVETH THE
GENERAL READER TO LOOK AT AND PASS IT BY WITH THAT INATTENTION THAT
READERS GENERALLY HAVE FOR MORALITY AND RELIGION.

When the boys came downstairs, there was as comfortless a scene
displayed before them as the most retributive justice could have wished
to visit on the rebellious. The morning raw and cold, the floor
saturated with water, and covered with cases of exploded fireworks; the
school-room in horrible confusion, scarcely a pane of glass
unshattered--the walls blackened, the books torn--and then the masters
and ushers stole in, looking both suspicious and discomfited. Well, we
went to prayers, and very lugubriously did we sing the hymn:--

"Awake, my soul, and with the sun,
Thy daily course of duty run."

Now, that morning, no one could tell whether the sun had waked or not,
at least he kept his bed-curtains of fog closely drawn; and, about
twenty-five of the scholars gave a new reading to "thy daily course of
duty run," as, immediately after they had paid their doleful orisons,
they took the course of running their duty by running away. There were
no classes that day. Mr Root did not make his appearance--and we had a
constrained holiday.

On the 7th, to use a nautical expression, we had repaired damages, and
we began to fall into the usual routine of scholastic business: but it
was full a week before our master made his appearance in the
school-room, and he did so then with a green shade over his eyes, to
conceal the green shades under them. He came in at the usual hour of
noon--the black list was handed up to