Amabel Vaughan.*

" How very dreadful , ' Mabel put m . * ' Fancy thrashing a hoy who laughed at your own funny story . " " Well , you see , " Fitz remarked , " the discipline of the School must be kept up , — and Fitz-George would probably have been called over the coals hy the head writing master if the boys in his class made a row . Of course he would have no idea that he was telling the boys anecdotes instead of teaching them sums . " " Talking about Fitz-George—do you remember how he used always to point a moral

to adorn his tale J" Fitz observed , seeing the ladies were apparently interested and amused with their recollections of the old School . " Yes , I should think I did , " Mark went on ; "it seems only yesterday that old Tucker was out ( out of the School he observed in explanation to Mabel ) . He was a lazy fellow , ' and never could work , —and I don't believe he got beyond the third form in the Grammar School when he left at fifteen—at which age all boys leave except the Mathemats . and Deps . "

"I suppose they are Founders , kin , " said Miss Griss who had heard from her brother of the privileges attaching to descendants of the Founders of the University Colleges , and fancied that these were names of people who had been great benefactors to the School . " No , " Mark explained ; " I meant the Mathematical boys , whose School was founded hy Charles II ., and who bear a silver badge on their left shoulder as a mark of their

position , —and the Deputy Grecians . " " Oh , indeed , " Miss Griss observed . " I beg your pardon for interrupting , " and she went on with her knitting sedulously . "Well , old Fitz-George came in looking very important one morning , and after we had read our history , done our writing lesson , and were all seated round , ready for our sumshe went up to the black-board with a long piece of chalk ( it was astonishing how

, beautifully he could write on that board with a lump of chalk ) and wrote out a sum in duodecimals for our behoof , and then he said : — " 'You all remember Tucker , boys , who left the other day V " ' Yes , Sir , ' the boys chorussed . " ' Well , now , I met him in Newgate Street this morning , and he came up to me and said : —

" ' Mr . Fitz-George , Sir , I very much regret ' that whilst I was under your able tuition I did not study more iu order to better fit myself for the position I wish to occupy . I wish I had taken advantage of your admirable lessons in arithmetic and writing , —ancl I only hope the boys now under your care will be more industrious and painstaking , and more hi ghly value your patient teaching . ' " The boys who knew Tucker very well , of course religiously believed that he used these very words , and left them as his last will and testament for the benefit of the class .

'" ' Indeed , Sir ! murmured Jacobs with well imitated reverent attention . " ' Yes , indeed ! ' Fitz-George added . ' But you all remember Tucker , and what sort of a boy he was . Well , now it was only the other day he came up to me at four o ' clock . I was keeping the boys in because they had clone their arithmetic very badly ; and said he to me , doubling himself up as if he was suffering the most awful pain : — _ " ' If you please , Sir , may I go out ; I feel very bad ; ' and here old Fitz-George imitated

the suffering youngster like the best comic actor out . " ' Certainly , my boy , certainly , I said , for I felt sorry to see the boy in such pain . ' Well , three minutes afterwards , boys , I saw that young scamp baking potatoes under the fire at the end of the School room . ' " The conclusion of the Master's story was greeted with a loud guffaw from a youngster at the end of the formwho ignorant who had forgotten the injunction

, was , or as to untimel y hilarity . " 'Who was that boy laughing , " said Fitz-George sternly , ' send him up here , ' and the poor innocent got four cakes for his pains . " " It seems to me your Masters were characters in their way , " the Vicar remarked