on the road to knowledge, is the poor little
dunce's Christmas.

It wants an hour to dinner-time on Christmas-
day, and children play about the garden-
walks, noisy with health, ruddy with constant
running through the clear cold air. Miss
Lizzie, a sporting character of nine years old,
with a fine silken mane of her own, wishes to
know who will be her horse. " I want somebody
who's quick," says the fast young
damsel; I 'll have Tommy Pilby." Now it will
be seen that, although Master Pilby, considered
as a grammarian, was slow, yet was he quick
and lively when considered as a horse, or,
generally speaking, as a playfellow.
Subjected now, therefore, to the coercion of a pair
of packthread reins, and whipped severely
with a lash of worsted, he is scampering and
curvetting in an extraordinary manner, with
Miss Lizzie at his heels, along the carriage-
drive. Now near the gate, while he is forcing
a whole Christmas-load of happiness into
a tremendous neigh, he is confronted by a
guest, no less portentous than his terrible
head master. Pilby may hesitate, Miss
Lizzie, with inflamed ambition, shouts as the
Doctor bursts upon her, "Here's a big horse!"
With astonishment does Master Pilby see
the Doctor yield to the solicitations of the
little maid, and thrust his arms into the
noose removed from his own now- liberated
person. But there is a joyousness about the
face of Dr. Grum which there is no distrusting,
and he gives the little dunce a cheery
greeting, as he lumbers off clumsily enough,
in answer to the " Come up!" of his mistress.
But Miss Lizzie soon cries out that he is
very stupid, and advertises to her playfellows
that there is a horse to be disposed of. Master
Pilby answers the advertisement, and
joyously assumes the reins; the Doctor prances;
Pilby lays about his portly person the
innocuous whip, and shouts at him impatiently,
"How slow you are!" The bell sounds
through the garden, and the dunce and the
dominie caper together in the direction of
their Christmas dinner.

Elsewhere, at the same hour, a door in
town is knocked at modestly by a young
man, whose faded suit of black has been put
on with care and neatly brushed, who has
evidently laboured at his toilet to produce
the utmost attainable demonstration of
respectability out of the materials in his
possession. To-day, if Dr. Grum were passing,
he would take his usher lovingly by the
hand; on any other day a friendly,
condescending nod would be the Doctor's greeting.
But there is one within this house who has
been listening this half-hour for that modest
little knock, and the poor usher knows well who
is opening the door, and who it is that would
kiss him as heartily as she now does every day,
though every day were dreary for a thousand
years, if they could live as long, and be together.

But, lest a servant come, they must not
linger too long in the hall. On any other day
Papa might frown; Mamma might fret at the
unprofitable match : but when they see the
deep joy in their daughter's eyes, they whisper
by looks to one another, that, after all, it is
God's Christmas-day, and brighten the modest
face of the poor usher with the affection of
their welcome.

When they will marry, they commit to Him
who holds love blessed to determine; but in
a quiet room apart from all the Christmas
guests, the maiden tells the usher how two
months ago she made as many notches in a
card as there were days till Christmas, and
tore one off daily when she went to bed, and
how her heart beat when there came to be
but four — three — two; and how she prayed
and feared lest accident might disappoint her
when there was but one. What the usher
told the maiden in reply, her heart retains to
feast upon until there shall return another
Christmas-day.

Here is a grand ball in the country work-
house, and your Polish balls are nothing
to it! All the parish schoolboys and schoolgirls
have been botanizing for a whole week,
and the white-washed walls of the schoolroom
are superb with holly, and festoons of winter
foliage and flowers. The meat is to be got
over; never mind the meat — " Please, sir, may
we give three cheers when the pudding comes?"
No wonder they can dance; and what a lucky
thing it is that schoolmaster knows how to
play the fiddle! The men and women and the
old crones come in, and Christmas-day, by
order of the Board of Guardians, is celebrated
by a workhouse ball. Real negus is served
out, and the convivialities are so kept up, that
the very children do not go to bed till half-
past nine o'clock.

How is it with the faint-hearted little diners
in the dingy room, who keep their Christmas-
day at the twenty pound schools where there are
no vacations? Who shall peep into the mystery ?

But at Dr. Trout's, which is quite another
sort of place, we know how it is. Dr. Trout
and Mrs. Trout have thirteen children
of their own, and a fine flourishing school
into the bargain. They dine at home on
Christmas-day, surrounded by old pupils
and hearty friends. And there are some of
those old pupils whose race in the world has
caused them to become wiser, even in his
own way, than the simple-hearted Doctor,
and a great deal wiser in the way of
what the world calls wisdom. But none
of those whom he has taught regard him as
an equal; all look affectionately up. Very
little can a man be conscious of the worth, for
good or evil, of his own mind, who does not
feel something that is very earnest in the
presence of another, who, whether for good or
evil, has exerted a large influence upon his
character. Nothing but good was ever
attributed to Dr. Trout; and, therefore, his old
pupils look up to him with reverent affection.
Perhaps somewhat less Greek and Latin, with
a little more French, German, and Italian,