over.

"His companions asked him if he would not play at cricket, tan, or
kits. Alas! he could not; so they played without him. In the meantime
Henry could hardly stand upon his legs; he went and sat down in a
corner very gloomily, while the children said one to another: 'What is
the matter with poor Henry, who used to skip about and be so merry?
See how pale and sorrowful he is!'

"The master came himself, and, seeing him, was quite alarmed. It was
all lost labor to interrogate him. Henry could not be brought to speak
a single word.

"By great good luck, a boy at length came forward in the secret; and
his information was that Henry's mother had sent him a great cake the
day before, which he had swallowed in an instant, as it were, and that
his present sickness was occasioned only by his gluttony. On this, the
master sent for an apothecary, who ordered him a quantity of physic,
phial after phial. Henry, as one would fancy, found it very nauseous,
but was forced to take the whole for fear of dying, which, had he
omitted it, would certainly have been the case. When some few days of
physic and strict regimen had passed, his health was re-established as
before; but his mother protested that she would never let him have
another cake."

_Percival_. He did not merit so much as the smell of such a thing. But
this is but one cake, father; and you informed me that there were
three, if you remember, in your story.

_Mr. G._ Patience! patience! Here is another cake in what I am now
going to tell.

"Henry's master had another scholar, whose name was Francis. He had
written his mother a very pretty letter, and it had not so much as a
blotted stroke; in recompense for which she sent him likewise a great
cake, and Francis thus addressed himself: 'I will not, like that
glutton Henry, eat up my cake at once, and so be sick as he was; no, I
will make my pleasure last a great deal longer.' So he took the cake,
which he could hardly lift by reason of its weight, and watched the
opportunity of slipping up into his chamber with it, where his box
was, and in which he put it under lock and key. At playtime every day
he slipped away from his companions, went upstairs a-tiptoe, cut a
tolerable slice off, swallowed it, put by the rest, and then came down
and mixed again with his companions. He continued this clandestine
business all the week, and even then the cake was hardly half
consumed. But what ensued? At last the cake grew dry, and