m me: the fact was, my grandmother had triumphed, and I
was going to school.

CHAPTER FOUR.

As soon as I was clear of the door, I looked up into Ben's face and
said, "Father, where are we going?"

"Well," replied he, "I am going to take you to school."

"School! What am I going to school for?" replied I.

"For biting your grandmother, I expect, in the first place, and to get a
little learning, and a good deal of flogging, if what they say is true!
I never was at school myself."

"What do you learn, and why are you flogged?"

"You learn to read, and to write, and to count; I can't do either--
more's the pity; and you are flogged, because without flogging, little
boys can't learn anything."

This was not a very satisfactory explanation. I made no further
inquiries, and we continued our way in silence until we arrived at the
school door; there was a terrible buzz inside. Ben tapped, the door
opened, and a volume of hot air burst forth, all the fresh air having
been consumed in repeating the fresh lessons for the day. Ben walked up
between the forms, and introduced me to the schoolmaster, whose name was
Mr Thadeus O'Gallagher, a poor scholar from Ireland, who had set up an
establishment at half-a-guinea a quarter for day scholars; he was
reckoned a very severe master, and the children were kept in better
order in his school than in any other establishment of the kind in the
town; and I presume that my granny had made inquiries to that effect, as
there were one or two schools of the same kind much nearer to my
mother's house. Ben, who probably had a great respect for learning, in
consequence of his having none himself, gave a military salute to Mr
O'Gallagher, saying, with his hand still to his hat, "A new boy, sir,
come to school."

"Oh, by the powers! don't I know him?" cried Mr O'Gallagher; "it's the
young gentleman who bit a hole in his grandmother; Master Keene, as they
call him. Keen teeth, at all events. Lave him with me; and that's his
dinner in the basket I presume; lave that too. He'll soon be a good
boy, or it will end in a blow-up."

Ben put down the basket, turned on his heel, and left the schoolroom,
and me standing by the throne of my future pedagogue--I say throne,
because he had not a desk, as schoolmasters generally have, but a sort
of square dais, about eighteen inches high, on which was placed another
oblong superstructure of the same height, serving him for a seat; both
parts we