sy and troublesome; I
can't bear school-boys."

"But perhaps I may turn out different," said Leslie, scarcely knowing
what to say in reply to the decided expression of the young lady.

"Well, perhaps so, but I have not much hope."

"Suppose I try to keep as I am now for your sake?"

"Ah, that would be nice, then I would ask mamma to invite you into the
parlour sometimes."

"An inducement," said Leslie, with a smile.

The time sped rapidly on, and the hour approached when Mr Ross was
compelled to leave, and, taking his son into the garden, he there
bade him farewell, saying, "Good-bye, my boy, mind and write home to
let us know how you get on; if I may judge from what I have seen of
the school, you will be comfortable here."

"Yes, papa, as comfortable as I can be away from home."

And Leslie thought so again, as at night he knelt down by his bedside,
to repeat his evening prayer.

[Illustration]

CHAPTER III.

PEA-SHOOTING AND WHAT CAME OF IT.

Leslie soon made himself at home with the boys, more especially those
of his own age or two or three years his senior; the elders of the
school, those who had discarded jackets and sported tailed-coats, he
looked at from a distance, and viewed with a certain amount of awe,
thinking he should never attain to their size or standing in the school;
and although these superfine gentlemen always gave him a friendly nod
when they chanced to meet, or employed him in running an errand, he
never presumed to be familiar with one of them. There were also several
boys in the school about Leslie's own age, with whom he did not care to
associate, whose dispositions, ways of thinking, and ordinary pursuits,
were quite opposed to his own. But with Arthur Hall, Johnnie Lynch,
Jones, and Moore, he was soon a close and firm friend. He was very
pleased to find that he was to occupy the same bedroom as that of his
friends.

The doctor, Leslie found to be a very kind but very firm master; while
he made every allowance for a boy's incapacity or sheer inability to
learn a particular task, he showed no mercy to those who could learn
and would not, either from idleness or inattention. There were three
other masters beside the doctor, who followed in the steps of their
principal.

Mrs Price extended many acts of kindness towards Leslie, for his
father's sake at first, but after she knew him better, for his own, so
that Leslie wrote home glowing accounts of the pleasures of school