e list
of subscribers in his hand.

"He made a pleasant picture, as, in answer to the 'come in' which
followed his knock at the door, he opened it and stood on the threshold
of Mr. Sawyer's room--his bright, honest, blue-eyed, fair-haired 'English
boy' face smiling in through the doorway. With almost painful eagerness
the junior master bade him welcome; he liked Jack so much, and would so
have rejoiced could the attraction have been mutual. And this was the
first time that Jack had voluntarily sought Mr. Sawyer in his own
quarters since the bar-jumping affair. Mr. Sawyer's spirits rose at the
sight of him, and hope again entered his heart--hope that after all, his
position at Ryeburn, which he was beginning to fear it was nonsense to
attempt to retain, in face of the evident dislike to him, might yet alter
for the better.

"'I have not a good way with them--that must be it,' he had said to
himself sadly that very morning. 'I never knew what it was to be a boy
myself, and therefore I suppose I don't understand boys. But if they
could but see into my heart and read there how earnestly I wish to do my
best by them, surely we could get on better together.'

"'Well, Berkeley--glad to see you--what can I do for you?' said Sawyer,
with a little nervous attempt at off-hand friendliness of manner, in
itself infinitely touching to any one with eyes to take in the whole
situation and judge it and him accordingly. But those eyes are not ours
in early life, more especially in _boy_-life. We must have our powers
of mental vision quickened and cleared by the magic dew of sad
experience--experience which alone can give sympathy worth having, ere we
can understand the queer bits of pathos we constantly stumble upon in
life, ere we can begin to judge our fellows with the large-hearted
charity that alone can illumine the glass through which for so long we
see so _very_ 'darkly.'

"'I have come to ask you for a subscription for the fifth of November
fireworks, Mr. Sawyer,' said Jack, plunging, as was his habit, right into
the middle of things, with no beating about the bush. 'We've asked all
the other masters, and every one in the school has subscribed, and I was
to tell you, sir, from the committee that they'll be very much obliged by
a subscription--and--and I really think they'll all be particularly
pleased if you can give us something handsome.'

"The message was civil, but hardly perhaps, coming from pupils to a
master, 'of the