interested in their occupation. They could
play, however, as well; for the matron
informed me that the mathematical young
gentleman was the best bowler, either in the
school or the village; and that the musical
one was hugely given to private theatricals,
on a stage where even pasteboard heroes
looked important. Another boy was designing
a plan for a new wing and outbuildings for
the school; and the elaborate completeness
of the details proved that, if not quite a
master mason, he had, at all events, some
knowledge of wood, bricks, and mortar. With
eyes beaming with pride, he conducted us
to the " Carpenter's shop," where he and
two others, of like constructive tastes, had
been employed upon a perfect town of pigeon-
houses and rabbit-hutches, besides some
joiner's work, of a more refined and difficult
character. All three were destined to
professions, for which their early amusements—
without depriving them of the refinements of
a fair general education—tended to qualify
them; but I found that, as scholars, they
were behind the rest. The old Latin and
Greek system recurred to my mind; and I
again thought how many useful men had
been lost to the world through a one-sided
system of instruction.

Everything in the school-room was neat
and orderly; the communication with the
library was direct; so that if a doubt or
discussion was raised during lesson time (an
event which the master never sought to
discourage), information was readily to be had.
The walls were decorated with specimens
of the pupils' talents, less artistic than those
in the library, but more rigidly useful. Maps,
carefully copied, on a large scale;
comparative charts of history and chronology—all
the work of boys, some of whom were still
hovering about the head class—were sufficient
stimuli to a healthy emulation.

The diary, or daily plan of study, was
especially worthy of notice. While every
boy was bound to observe the same hours as
the rest of his class, in spelling, writing, and
other too-often neglected items of English
education, the residue of his time was divided
in a manner calculated to develop the peculiar
bent, and to furnish means of attaining
the object, of each. Those who were pursuing
classics devoted their time to them, and were
not compelled to fritter away time in vain
attempts to study mathematics, or other
sciences, for which they had no taste. Above
all, everything seemed done with reference
to an end; as though, education were really
the means of gaining a living, instead of a
mere concession to a conventional custom of
society.

I regretted that it was not school-time,
that I might have witnessed the daily
enforcing of a system framed upon principles
so open and so natural; but the specimens
of labour, taste, and study, which met my
eyes, as fresh boys came in, and unfolded
their " lockers " to my view, were the proudest
testimonials that a master could have wished
to exhibit. No natural bent, consistent with
propriety, seemed to be discouraged; and
yet, in the clear, sensible language of the
boys, I discerned an attention to the
fundamental points of a good English education,
widely different from the slip-shod false shame
which appear to be the essence of schoolboy
English in general. Moreover, each
boy seemed to have been taught to make
one thing his strong point, and to seek for
means of substantiating his own views thereupon;
but to yield, in turn, to those better
informed upon other points.

Just as I was proceeding to visit the
playground and gymnasium, the Reverend Lucas
Springer entered. He briefly, but warmly,
apologised for his absence; but would not
allow me to leave the boys until I had seen
what I found was neither a neglected nor an
uncherished portion of the model school of
Gable College.

The number of ingenious contrivances for
twisting the body into those fantastic attitudes,
which, comical as they are, are nevertheless of
no small use in strengthening and increasing
muscular tone, were enough to provoke the
energetic rivalry of these juvenile acrobats,
and my fear for their necks and limbs was
hardly quieted by the softness of the sandy
loam which formed the substratum beneath.
But, few of those young fellows could not
have vaulted on a pony, as well as on the
shapeless four-legged block that now seemed
as great a favourite among them as
Bucephalus was with Alexander. To be sure, a
bruise did happen now and then, but the
matron was always ready with brown paper
and vinegar, and had been known to connive
at "breakfast in bed," sometimes at stray bits
of supper, for the invalid gymnast. Moreover,
she believed greatly in Dredge's Heal All,
and so did those boys who were most given to
breaking their shins or elbows. If clothes
were torn, too, and best suits deranged, who
but the matron could " fine draw " so
deceptively?

A glorious piece of greensward, quite large
enough for a fair game at cricket, and enclosed
swimming-bath, and a kind of poultry and
rabbit yard, completed the arrangements of
the play-ground. Yet, complete as were all
the arrangements for amusement, nothing
more important seemed neglected. Every
boy seemed to get on, because he was led in
the path that Nature pointed out, and inclination
followed. Where each boy is spending
on the average one third or one half of his
time in studies that he has neither head,
inclination, nor opportunity to profit by, and
this, perhaps, to the exclusion or half neglect
of the very pursuit that might have led to
greatness, the amount of idleness in an ordinary
school or college may readily be calculated.
Again, there is some industry to be
learnt, even at play. A listless, indolent boy