ld looked round the room as she took her seat. There were a
couple of forms, notched and cut and inked all over; a small deal desk
perched on four legs, at which no doubt the master sat; a few
dog's-eared books upon a high shelf; and beside them a motley
collection of peg-tops, balls, kites, fishing-lines, marbles,
half-eaten apples, and other confiscated property of idle urchins.
Displayed on hooks upon the wall in all their terrors, were the cane
and ruler; and near them, on a small shelf of its own, the dunce's cap,
made of old newspapers and decorated with glaring wafers of the largest
size. But, the great ornaments of the walls were certain moral
sentences fairly copied in good round text, and well-worked sums in
simple addition and multiplication, evidently achieved by the same
hand, which were plentifully pasted all round the room: for the double
purpose, as it seemed, of bearing testimony to the excellence of the
school, and kindling a worthy emulation in the bosoms of the scholars.

'Yes,' said the old schoolmaster, observing that her attention was
caught by these latter specimens. 'That's beautiful writing, my dear.'

'Very, Sir,' replied the child modestly, 'is it yours?'

'Mine!' he returned, taking out his spectacles and putting them on, to
have a better view of the triumphs so dear to his heart. 'I couldn't
write like that, now-a-days. No. They're all done by one hand; a
little hand it is, not so old as yours, but a very clever one.'

As the schoolmaster said this, he saw that a small blot of ink had been
thrown on one of the copies, so he took a penknife from his pocket, and
going up to the wall, carefully scraped it out. When he had finished,
he walked slowly backward from the writing, admiring it as one might
contemplate a beautiful picture, but with something of sadness in his
voice and manner which quite touched the child, though she was
unacquainted with its cause.

'A little hand indeed,' said the poor schoolmaster. 'Far beyond all
his companions, in his learning and his sports too, how did he ever
come to be so fond of me! That I should love him is no wonder, but
that he should love me--' and there the schoolmaster stopped, and took
off his spectacles to wipe them, as though they had grown dim.

'I hope there is nothing the matter, sir,' said Nell anxiously.

'Not much, my dear,' returned the schoolmaster. 'I hoped to have seen
him on the green to-night. He was always foremost amon