ood family, who had been in early life attached in some diplomatic
capacity to a Legation, and had visited Constantinople. I think that he
had met with reverses, but having some capital, had been established by
his many friends as a schoolmaster. He was really a fine old gentleman,
with a library full of old books, and had Madeira in quaint little old
bottles, on which, stamped in the glass, one could read GREENE 1735. He
had a dear little wife, and both were as kind to the boys as possible.
Once, and once only, when I had really been very naughty, did he punish
me. He took me solemnly into the library (oh, what blessed beautiful
reading I often had there!), and, after a solemn speech, and almost with
tears in his eyes, gave me three blows with a folded newspaper! That was
enough. If I had been flayed with a rope's end, it would not have had a
greater moral effect than it did.

Everything was very English and old-fashioned about the place. The house
was said in 1835 to be a hundred and fifty years old, having been one of
the aristocratic Colonial manors. One building after another had been
added to it, and the immense elms which grew about testified to its age.
The discipline or training was eminently adapted to make young gentlemen
of us all. There was almost no immorality among the boys, and no
fighting whatever. The punishments were bad marks, and for every mark a
boy was obliged to go to bed an hour earlier than the others. Extreme
cases of wickedness were punished by sending boys to bed in the daytime.
When two were in a room, and thus confined, they used to relieve the
monotony of their imprisonment by fighting with pillows. Those who had
bad marks were also confined within certain bounds. Good boys, or those
especially favoured, were allowed to chop kindling wood, or do other
light work, for which they were paid three cents per hour.

The boy who was first down in the morning had an apple given to him. This
apple was greatly despised by the bolder spirits, who taunted those who
arose promptly with a desire to obtain it.

Candour compels me to admit that, as a teacher of learning, Mr. Greene
was not pre-eminent. He had two schoolrooms, and employed for each as
good a teacher as he could hire. But we were not at all thoroughly well
taught, although we were kept longer in the schoolroom than was really
good for us; for in summer we had an hour's study before breakfast, then
from nine till twelve, an