took
the thirty shillings that my dear parents had given me, and said he
should put them into the poor-box at church; and, after having made a
long discourse to the boys about meanness and usury, he said, "Take off
your coat, Mr. Stubbs, and restore Bunting his waistcoat." I did, and
stood without coat and waistcoat in the midst of the nasty grinning
boys. I was going to put on my coat,--

"Stop!" says he. "TAKE DOWN HIS BREECHES!"

Ruthless, brutal villain! Sam Hopkins, the biggest boy, took them
down--horsed me--and I WAS FLOGGED, SIR: yes, flogged! O revenge! I,
Robert Stubbs, who had done nothing but what was right, was brutally
flogged at ten years of age!--Though February was the shortest month, I
remembered it long.

MARCH.--SHOWERY.

When my mamma heard of the treatment of her darling she was for bringing
an action against the schoolmaster, or else for tearing his eyes out
(when, dear soul! she would not have torn the eyes out of a flea, had it
been her own injury), and, at the very least, for having me removed from
the school where I had been so shamefully treated. But papa was stern
for once, and vowed that I had been served quite right, declared that
I should not be removed from school, and sent old Swishtail a brace
of pheasants for what he called his kindness to me. Of these the old
gentleman invited me to partake, and made a very queer speech at dinner,
as he was cutting them up, about the excellence of my parents, and his
own determination to be KINDER STILL to me, if ever I ventured on such
practices again. So I was obliged to give up my old trade of lending:
for the Doctor declared that any boy who borrowed should be flogged, and
any one who PAID should be flogged twice as much. There was no standing
against such a prohibition as this, and my little commerce was ruined.

I was not very high in the school: not having been able to get farther
than that dreadful Propria quae maribus in the Latin grammar, of which,
though I have it by heart even now, I never could understand a syllable:
but, on account of my size, my age, and the prayers of my mother, was
allowed to have the privilege of the bigger boys, and on holidays to
walk about in the town. Great dandies we were, too, when we thus went
out. I recollect my costume very well: a thunder-and-lightning coat, a
white waistcoat embroidered neatly at the pockets, a lace frill, a pair
of knee-breeches, and elegant white cotton or silk stockings. Thi