eady-made clothes
warehouse into which we had entered. We went upstairs, and I was soon
equipped with three excellent suits. My grief had now settled down into
a sullen resentment, agreeably relieved, at due intervals, by
breath-catching sobs. The violence of the storm had passed, but its
gloom still remained. Seeing the little gladness that the possession of
clothes, the finest I had yet had, communicated to me, my director could
not avoid giving himself the pleasurable relief of saying, "Sulky little
brute!" A trunk being sent for, and my wardrobe placed in it, we then
drove to three or four other shops, not forgetting a hatter's, and in a
very short space of time I had a very tolerable fit-out. During all
this time, not a word did my silent companion address to me.

At length, the coach no longer rattled over the stones. It now
proceeded on more smoothly, and here and there the cheerful green
foliage relieved the long lines of houses. After about a half-hour's
ride, we stopped at a large and very old-fashioned house, built in
strict conformity with the Elizabethan style of architecture, over the
portals of which, upon a deep blue board, in very, very bright gold
letters, flashed forth that word so awful to little boys, so big with
associations of long tasks and wide-spreading birch, the Greek-derived
polysyllable, ACADEMY! Ignorant as I was, I understood it all in a
moment. I was struck cold as the dew-damp grave-stone. I almost grew
sick with terror. I was kidnapped, entrapped, betrayed. I had before
hated school, my horror now was intense of "Academy." I looked
piteously into the face of my persecutor, but I found there no sympathy.
"I want to go home," I roared out, and then burst into a fresh torrent
of tears.

Home! what solace is there in its very sound! Oh, how that blessed
asylum for the wounded spirit encloses within its sacred circle all that
is comforting, and sweet, and holy! 'Tis there that the soul coils
itself up and nestles like the dove in its own downiness, conscious that
everything around breathes of peace, security, and love. Home!
henceforward, I was to have none, until, through many, many years of
toil and misery, I should create one for myself. Henceforth, the word
must bring to me only the bitterness of regret--henceforth I was to
associate with hundreds who had that temple in which to consecrate their
household affections--but was, myself, doomed to be unowned, unloved,
an