instructress, were divided. Thy learned rector and his
four subordinate dominies; thy strange old porter of the tall form and
grizzled hair, hight Boee, {72} and doubtless of Norse ancestry, as his
name declares; perhaps of the blood of Bui hin Digri, the hero of
northern song--the Jomsborg Viking who clove Thorsteinn Midlangr asunder
in the dread sea battle of Horunga Vog, and who, when the fight was lost
and his own two hands smitten off, seized two chests of gold with his
bloody stumps, and, springing with them into the sea, cried to the scanty
relics of his crew, "Overboard now, all Bui's lads!" Yes, I remember all
about thee, and how at eight of every morn we were all gathered together
with one accord in the long hall, from which, after the litanies had been
read (for so I will call them, being an Episcopalian), the five classes
from the five sets of benches trotted off in long files, one boy after
the other, up the five spiral staircases of stone, each class to its
destination; and well do I remember how we of the third sat hushed and
still, watched by the eye of the dux, until the door opened, and in
walked that model of a good Scotchman, the shrewd, intelligent, but warm-
hearted and kind dominie, the respectable Carson.

And in this school I began to construe the Latin language, which I had
never done before, notwithstanding my long and diligent study of Lilly,
which illustrious grammar was not used at Edinburgh, nor indeed known.
Greek was only taught in the fifth or highest class, in which my brother
was; as for myself, I never got beyond the third during the two years
that I remained at this seminary. I certainly acquired here a
considerable insight in the Latin tongue; and, to the scandal of my
father and horror of my mother, a thorough proficiency in the Scotch,
which, in less than two months, usurped the place of the English, and so
obstinately maintained its ground, that I still can occasionally detect
its lingering remains. I did not spend my time unpleasantly at this
school, though, first of all, I had to pass through an ordeal.

"Scotland is a better country than England," said an ugly, blear-eyed
lad, about a head and shoulders taller than myself, the leader of a gang
of varlets who surrounded me in the playground, on the first day, as soon
as the morning lesson was over. "Scotland is a far better country than
England, in every respect."

"Is it?" said I. "Then you ought to be very thankful fo