faith of the boys. We all felt that we
had a part in the management of the place, and learnt with a good will,
desiring to do it credit. We had noble games out of hours, and plenty of
liberty, and the whole plan of the school was as superior to that of Salem
House as can be imagined. I soon became warmly attached to the place, the
teachers, and the boys, and in a little while the Murdstone and Grinsby
life became so strange that I hardly believed in it. Of course I wrote to
Peggotty, relating my experiences, and how my aunt had taken me under her
care, and returning the half guinea I had borrowed, and Peggotty answered
promptly, but although she expressed herself as glad in my gladness, I
could see that she did not take quite kindly to my Aunt as yet.

The days glide swiftly on. I am higher in the school,--I am growing great
in Latin verse, think dancing school a tiresome affair, and neglect the
laces of my boots. Doctor Strong refers to me publicly as a promising
young scholar, at which my aunt remits me a guinea by the next post.

The shade of a young butcher crosses my path. He is the terror of Doctor
Strong's young gentlemen, whom he publicly disparages. He names
individuals (myself included) whom he could undertake to settle with one
hand, and the other tied behind him. He waylays the smaller boys to punch
their unprotected heads, and calls challenges after me in the streets. For
these reasons, I resolve to fight the butcher.

We meet by appointment with a select audience. Soon, I don't know where
the wall is, or where I am, or where anybody is, but after a bloody tangle
and tussle in the trodden grass, feeling very queer about the head, I
awake, and augur justly that the victory is not mine. I am taken home in a
sad plight, to have beef-steaks put to my eyes, and am rubbed with vinegar
and brandy, and find a great white puffy place on my upper lip, and for
several days I remain in the house with a green shade over my eyes, and
yet feeling that I did right to fight the butcher.

I change more and more, and now I am the head boy. I wear a gold watch and
chain, a ring upon my little finger, and a long-tailed coat. I am
seventeen, and am smitten with a violent passion for the eldest Miss
Larkins, who is about thirty. She amuses herself with me as with a new
toy, wears my ring for a season, and then announces her engagement to a
Mr. Chestle. I am terribly dejected for a week or two, then I rally,
become a boy once mo