the entrance of his new home, and
mounted the steps. A double knock, sounding hollow and rumbling, was
answered quickly by an individual who performed at once the duties of
butler and general fatigue man of the school.

"Name, sir?" he asked politely.

"Western," answered Phil.

"Ah! you're the new boy, sir! Glad to see you. Let me help you with
the box;" and in a twinkling Phil was relieved of his baggage.

Then he was ushered into a big room, where he waited, not without some
feelings of uneasiness, for the appearance of the master.

"I wonder what he'll be like!" he thought. "I've heard of masters of
his sort before. I wonder whether that cabby was rotting! Perhaps he
wasn't, and perhaps I shall really be catching it hot. Never mind. I
was happy at Haddington, and will be here too."

Phil was in the act of sketching for himself a big, heavy-looking man,
with a hard unrelenting face, as his master, when there was a quick step
outside, the door burst open, and a clean-shaven little gentleman, with
a smiling, pleasant face, entered the room.

"By Jove! He's awfully like Uncle Joe, and would be just his image if
he were a little fatter," Phil thought in an instant.

"Ah, Philip Western, the boy who has been in difficulties, I believe!"
said the stranger, extending a hand and shaking Phil's heartily. "Glad
to see you, my lad. Let me look at you. Yes--we shall be good friends,
I hope." Then, murmuring to himself, he continued, "Larky--
high-spirited--full of go, but no vice--no vice, I will swear. Yes, we
shall be good friends."

Mr Ebden--for he it was--pushed Phil into the light and rapidly
surveyed him, muttering audibly all the while.

"So you are a disappointment to your father!" he continued. "Come, tell
me all about it, my lad. Let there be no secrets between us. Tell me
the whole trouble; why you have come here, and in what manner you have
proved such a deep worry to your people."

"I can't help it, sir," Phil blurted out. "I've done my level best to
act as father wished, but somehow or other I am always in trouble. They
said I was upsetting the discipline of the school, and that is one of
the reasons for which I was sent away." Then he proceeded to describe
what had happened, and how he had laid a booby-trap for the mayor, and
afterwards played a prank with the town barge.

Mr Ebden listened, and, much to Phil's relief, laughed heartily when he
heard how he and his friends had af