shirts, collars, under-garments, a
valise, a low-crowned beaver hat for Sunday wear, and for week-days a
cap shaped like a concertina; where I was measured for two suits
after a pattern marked "Boy's Clarence, Gentlemanly," and where I
expended two-and-sixpence of my pocket-money on a piratical
jack-knife and a book of patriotic songs--two articles indispensable,
it seemed to me, to full-blooded manhood; and I will come to the day
when the Royal Mail pulled up before Minden Cottage with a merry
clash of bits and swingle-bars, and, the scarlet-coated guard having
received my box from Sally the cook, and hoisted it aboard in a
jiffy, Miss Plinlimmon and I climbed up to a seat behind the
coachman. My father stood at the door, and shook hands with me at
parting.

"Good luck, lad," said he; "and remember our motto: _Nil nisi recte!_
Good luck have thou with thine honour. And, by the way, here's half
a sovereign for you."

"Cl'k!" from the coachman, shortening up his enormous bunch of reins;
_ta-ra-ra!_ from the guard's horn close behind my ear; and we were
off!

Oh, believe me, there never was such a ride! As we swept by the
second mile stone I stole a look at Miss Plinlimmon. She sat in an
ecstasy, with closed eyes. She was, as she put it, indulging in
mental composition.

Verses composed while Riding by the Royal Mail.

"I've sailed at eve o'er Plymouth Sound
(For me it was a rare excursion)
Oblivious of the risk of being drown'd,
Or even of a more temporary immersion.

"I dream'd myself the Lady of the Lake,
Or an Oriental one (within limits) on the Bosphorus;
We left a trail of glory in our wake,
Which the intelligent boatman ascribed to phosphorus.

"Yet agreeable as I found it o'er the ocean
To glide within my bounding shallop,
I incline to think that for the poetry of motion
One may even more confidently recommend the Tantivy Gallop."

CHAPTER II.

I AM ENTERED AT COPENHAGEN ACADEMY.

Agreeable, too, as I found it to be whirled between the hedgerows
behind five splendid horses; to catch the ostlers run out with the
relays; to receive blue glimpses of the Channel to southward; to dive
across dingles and past farm-gates under which the cocks and hens
flattened themselves in their haste to give us room; to gaze back
over the luggage and along the road, and assure myself that the rival
coach (the Self-Defence