Amabel Vaughan.*

"' Now , Wildish , you know you are telling a story—and one lie always maintains another . You'll please to come with me to the Steward ; ' and with that she puts on ] ier bonnet , and off she goes with him to Mr . Brooks , the Steward , a man we all respected , fox he was thoroughly just as a rule , and flogged his own son as much as any one when he deserved it . They call the officer now who rules the boys out of School the Warden ; but in our time it was the Steward , " Fitz explained .

" ' Please Sir , ' she began , ' I asked Wildish here to go into my room , and fetch a jug for me , when he said there wasn ' t one there . I come clown to inviet him , rheumatic as I was , and showed him the werry article , which standing it was , Sir , on my sideboard against the silver candlesticks , which they was my mother ' s . ' That isn ' t a jug , ' says he , ' it ' s a mug . ' Now , Wildish , I says , don ' t speak no falsehoods I says—for one lie always maintains another ; and as you knowSira jug ' s a jugand a mug ' s a mug

, , , , and if a jug ' s a mug , of course a mug must be a jug , —ancl I said to Wildish , one lie always maintains another , and you'll come down with me to the Steward . ' Well , Mr . Brooks didn ' t seem to see much in it ; but the old woman began again and told her story right through , —and I heard , ' a jug ' s a jug , and of course if a jug is a mug , a mug must be a jug , mustn't it , Sir ! ' until at last Mr . B . ' s patience being exhausted , he gave Wildish six cakes just to get rid of the pair . "

" Dear me , " remarked Miss Griss , " what a kind man !" " Very , " said Fitz , drily ; " but he didn't eat them . " "What does he mean , Mr . Seaton ? " Mabel put in . " Oh , cakes at Christ ' s Hospital is the slang term for cuts on the hand with a

cane . " Your astonishment reminds me of old Dr . R ., who was head master at that timeand who committed suicide whilst I was there . He found out that caning bore that euphonious name ; so he used to chaff the poor unfortunates who were sent up for six cakes , —and whilst they were writhing with pain , he would say pleasantly , ' Now hold out your hand , again , Sir . This is & plummy one ; this is a seedy one ; this is a plain oue ; ' accompanying each phrase with a stroke which raised the blood marks all over the fellow ' s hand . "

" Cruel 1 remarked Miss Griss over her work . " Wildish was the fellow who sent you down to the cook to have your mouth measured for a spoon , wasn ' t it , Fitz 1—he has a large one , ladies , you observe . " "Yes ; confound the fellow , —and didn't I get a tremendous box on the ears when I went down to the kitchen under the Great Hall for the first time , and told them , what I was sent for ?"

" Well , it wasn't any worse than sending that little Neale to the matron for a penny-worth of pigeon ' s milk , " the latter remarked . "Fitz , you must know , " Mark said to Mabel , ' " was head of a band of singers there , Ethiopian serenaders , who used to shout out their ditties in the Grammar School , and chant away ' Uncle Ted , ' 'Nellv Ely , ' ' Man the Life Boat , ' ' Row Brothers , row , ' and a multitude of other songs of the period ,- ^ -utterly regardless of the fact that they were

w school and supposed to be hard at work over their Virgil or Ovid , Anacreon , or whoever was the author , Latin or Greek , whose works they were translating . The master of the fifth form , in which most of them were at that time , was as deaf as a post , and never heard their dulcet melody—and , as a matter of course , he was always prepared to Wear that the harmony proceeded from no one in his classes . "The other masters couldn ' t make it out , for where there are 500 boys in one room , t is

J rather difficult to single out half-a-dozen who may be singing . At last , one day , ° hl T , another of the masters , who used always to say ' Fetch me the gravy spoon , ' when he was going to cane anybody , came stalking up to Fitz , whom he thought he detected : — " Now , ' he said sternly , ' some one was singing ; who was it V " Fitz looked up innocently from his book—be had been diligently parsing a minute Before , but somehow or other it was upside down—and said , without hardly moving a muscle , 'Yes , there was someone singing . I think it was that red-headed boy at the en d of the form in the Little Erasmus opposite " ( the Little and Great Erasmus were