At last one morning, his desk stood empty,
his room was peeped into and found to be
vacant, and a whisper went about among the
pale faces of our fellows that Old Cheeseman,
unable to bear it any longer, had got up early
and drowned himself.

The mysterious looks of the other masters
after breakfast, and the evident fact that Old
Cheeseman was not expected, confirmed the
Society in this opinion. Some began to
discuss whether the President was liable to
hanging or only transportation for life, and
the President's face showed a great anxiety
to know which. However, he said that a
jury of his countrymen should find him game;
and that in his address he should put it to
them to lay their hands upon their hearts, and
say whether they as Britons, approved of
Informers, and how they thought they would
like it themselves. Some of the Society
considered that he had better run away until he
found a Forest where he might change clothes
with a woodcutter, and stain his face with
blackberries; but the majority believed that
if he stood his ground, his father—belonging,
as he did, to the West Indies, and being worth
millions—could buy him off.

All our fellows' hearts beat fast when the
Reverend came in, and made a sort of a
Roman, or a Field Marshal, of himself with
the ruler; as he always did before delivering
an address. But their fears were nothing to
their astonishment when he came out with
the story that Old Cheeseman, "so long our
respected friend and fellow-pilgrim in the
pleasant plains of knowledge," he called him
—O yes! I dare say! Much of that! was
the orphan child of a disinherited young lady
who had married against her father's wish,
and whose young husband had died, and who
had died of sorrow herself, and whose
unfortunate baby (Old Cheeseman) had been
brought up at the cost of a grandfather who
would never consent to see it, baby, boy, or
man; which grandfather was now dead, and
serve him right—that's my putting in—and
which grandfather's large property, there
being no will, was now, and all of a sudden
and for ever. Old Cheeseman's! Our so long
respected friend and fellow-pilgrim in the
pleasant plains of knowledge, the Reverend
wound up a lot of bothering quotations by
saying, would "come among us once more"
that day fortnight, when he desired to take
leave of us himself in a more particular manner.
With these words, he stared severely
round at our fellows, and went solemnly out.

There was precious consternation among the
members of the Society now. Lots of them
wanted to resign, and lots more began to
try to make out that they had never belonged
to it. However, the President stuck up, and
said that they must stand or fall together,
and that if a breach was made it should be
over his body—which was meant to encourage
the Society: but it didn't. The President
further said, he would consider the position
in which they stood, and would give them his
best opinion and advice in a few days. This
was eagerly looked for, as he knew a good
deal of the world on account of his father's
being in the West Indies.

After days and days of hard thinking, and
drawing armies all over his slate, the President
called our fellows together, and made the
matter clear. He said it was plain that when
Old Cheeseman came on the appointed day,
his first revenge would be to impeach the
Society, and have it flogged all round. After
witnessing with joy the torture of his enemies,
and gloating over the cries which agony would
extort from them, the probability was that
he would invite the Reverend, on pretence of
conversation, into a private room—say the
parlor into which parents were shown, where
the two great globes were which were never
used—and would there reproach him with
the various frauds and oppressions he had endured
at his hands. At the close of his observations,
he would make a signal to a Prize-fighter
concealed in the passage, who would then
appear and pitch into the Reverend till he
was left insensible. Old Cheeseman would
then make Jane a present of from five to ten
pounds, and would leave the establishment in
fiendish triumph.

The President explained that against the
parlour part, or the Jane part, of these arrangements
he had nothing to say; but, on the
part of the Society, he counselled deadly
resistance. With this view he recommended
that all available desks should be filled with
stones, and that the first word of the
complaint should be the signal to every fellow to
let fly at Old Cheeseman. The bold advice
put the Society in better spirits, and was
unanimously taken. A post about Old Cheeseman's
size was put up in the playground,
and all our fellows practised at it till it was
dented all over.

When the day came, and places were called,
every fellow sat down in a tremble. There
had been much discussing and disputing as
to how Old Cheeseman would come; but it
was the general opinion that he would appear
in a sort of a triumphal car drawn by four
horses, with two livery servants in front, and
the Prize-fighter in disguise up behind. So
all our fellows sat listening for the sound of
wheels. But no wheels were heard, for Old
Cheeseman walked after all, and came into
the school without any preparation. Pretty
much as he used to be, only dressed in black.

"Gentlemen," said the Reverend, presenting
him, "our so long respected friend and
fellow-pilgrim in the pleasant plains of knowledge,
is desirous to offer a word or two. Attention,
gentlemen, one and all!"

Every fellow stole his hand into his desk,
and looked at the President The President
was allready, and taking aim at Old Cheeseman
with his eyes.

What did Old Cheeseman then, but walk
up to his old desk, look round him with a