land sales and bought pretty largely. For he was
always looking out for "investments," and the local auctioneers
addressed him with great respect as "sir." Why, upon the occasion of
the dinner given at the "George," when he took the chair after the
laying of the first stone of the new school-buildings by Sir Appleton
Burr, the county member, whose name was down for ten pounds, the
Reverend Henry Lambent, the vicar, made his chin sore with his very
stiff cravat, rolling his head to give due emphasis to the very
sermon-like speech, the text of which was that Mr William Forth Burge
was an honour to the place of his birth; and the finale, received with
vociferous cheering and stamping of feet, was the proposal of this
gentleman's health.

He was a very modest, mild man, this donor of a piece of land of the
value of some three hundred and fifty pounds to the parish; and though
an ex-butcher, had probably never slain innocent lamb, let alone sheep
or ox, in his life. When he rose to respond he broke forth into a
profuse perspiration--a more profuse perspiration than usual; and his
application of a fiery orange silk handkerchief to his face, neck, and
hands, almost suggested that its contact with his skin would scorch him,
or at least make him hiss, what time he told people that he left Plumton
thirty year ago, after being two year with old Marks the butcher, etc.,
and then went on to speak of himself as if he were an oyster, for every
few moments he announced to his fellow-townsmen that he was a native,
and that he was proud of being a native, and that he did not see how a
native could better show his love for his native place than by giving
his native place a piece of ground for the erection of the new schools;
and so on, and so on.

Of course, Sir Appleton Burr, M.P., said that it was a charmingly
_naive_ piece of autobiography, and that Plumton All Saints ought to be
very proud of such a man, and no doubt Plumton was proud of him, for
where was the need of grammar to a man with fifty thousand pounds;
especially as Mr William Forth Burge, besides having no grammar, had no
pride.

In due time, the money was found, with the help of a grant from the
Committee of Council on Education, the schools being meanwhile erected--
a long red-brick semi-Gothic central building, with houses for the
schoolmaster and mistress at either end, each standing in its neat
garden, the central school building being so arranged that, by drawi