re so high that
neither light nor air can ever get to them. And they most of them
appeared so dirty and unhealthy that it made my heart ache to look at
them. I went home the next day, and never was better pleased in my life.
When I came to the top of the great hill, from which you have a prospect
of our house, I really thought I should have cried with joy. The fields
looked all so pleasant, and the very cattle, when I went about to see
them, all seemed glad that I was come home again.

MR. BARLOW: You see by this that it is very possible for people to like
the country, and to be happy in it. But as to the fine young ladies you
talk of, the truth is that they neither love nor would be contented in
any place. It is no wonder they dislike the country, where they find
neither employment nor amusement. They wish to go to London, because
they there meet with numbers of people as idle and as frivolous as
themselves; and these people assist each other to talk about trifles and
to waste their time.

TOMMY: That is true, sir, really; for when we have a great deal of
company, I have often observed that they never talk about anything but
eating or dressing, or men and women that are paid to make faces at the
playhouse or a great room called Ranelagh, where everybody goes to meet
their friends.

Which discourse led on to a story of the ancient Spartans, and their
superiority to the luxury-loving Persians.

_IV.--The Bull-Baiting_

The time had now arrived when Tommy was by appointment to go home and
spend some time with his parents. Mr. Barlow had been long afraid of
this visit, as he knew his pupil would meet a great deal of company
there who would give him impressions of a nature very different from
those he had, with so much assiduity, been labouring to excite. However,
the visit was unavoidable, and Mrs. Merton sent so pressing an
invitation for Harry to accompany his friend, after having obtained the
consent of his father, that Mr. Barlow, with much regret, took leave of
his pupils.

When the boys arrived at Mr. Merton's they were introduced into a
crowded drawing-room full of the most elegant company which that part of
the country afforded, among whom were several young gentlemen and ladies
of different ages who had been purposely invited to spend their holidays
with Master Merton.

As soon as Master Merton entered, every tongue was let loose in his
praise. As to Harry, he had the good fortune to be taken notice o