secured by a strap, but a
fall with these may prove a very serious matter, and the Doctor would
not allow them to be used.

It was good fun on stilt day to see the greater part of the school
mounted up high above the ground, and striding away at a rapid rate over
the fields; to hear the shouts and shrieks of laughter, especially if
any unfortunate wight put the end of his stilt into a ditch deeper than
he expected, and, unable to draw it out again, dropped on his nose.
Monsieur Malin generally led the party, and no one cheered and laughed
more than he did. This year it was arranged that a steeple-chase should
take place; so it was called; but in reality it was not a steeple which
formed the goal, but a low object--a white gate, which could only be
seen from an elevation; therefore the boys with the highest stilts were
the best able to keep it in sight.

Fancy upwards of eighty boys collected on a fine clear frosty afternoon,
mounted up five or six feet off the ground, some even more, stalking
away as fast as they could go over the fields, shouting, and laughing,
and hallooing to each other.

As usual, Ernest was one of the most active. He and Buttar took the
lead, but they were closely followed by Tom Bouldon, who was very great
upon stilts. The exercise suited his temperament. He had been at the
school ever since Monsieur Malin introduced them, and so he was
well-practised in their use. He thus had an advantage Ernest did not
possess. He went steadily on across hedges and ditches, and across
ploughed fields, and moist meadows and marshes, till he overtook Buttar,
and then he came up with Ernest, who was beginning to fag, and then he
went ahead, and finally got in at the winning-post half a field's length
before anybody else.

Two days after that the school broke up, and the boys, in high spirits
at the anticipation of the amusements they were to enjoy, started off in
all directions to their respective homes.

CHAPTER TWELVE.

THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS. SKATING AND OTHER WINTER AMUSEMENTS.

Ernest liked his school very much, but he had good reason to love his
home still more, for such a home as his--or rather its inhabitants,
which constituted it his home--was well worthy of all the affection of
his warm affectionate heart. His father and mother were so wise and
sensible and kind, so just and so indulgent. The expression of their
countenances and their general personal appearance at once showed that
t