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"You shall have every thing which is reasonable, my boy," replied Mr. Dalben; "be steady, with the Divine help, in your lesson hours, and you shall have every indulgence I can give you in your hours of amusement. But let us finish our day—you must come in at six o'clock, and we will fill up our evening till nine with geopraphy, drawing, composition, and our type book, finishing with a few chapters in the Bible, the servants being present."

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"And," said Henry, may Maurice sit in a corner of the study and carry on his writing, and summing, and reading? Poor Maurice! he has gone back sadly whilst we have been away.”

"With all my heart," replied Mr. Dalben; "I love the poor boy; and if he could but read well, he might be a comfort to me, as I get older, when you are gone, my Henry."

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Gone!" repeated Henry, colouring and looking uneasy.

"When you are at the University," replied Mr. Dalben.

Henry repressed a sigh, jumped up and hastened away for his books, all of which looked none the better for the sundry battles at Clent Green, in which, although their master had

never been engaged, they had not unseldom performed the part of missiles, flying from the hands of one first-form-man against the sconce of another.

CHAP. VIII.

A pleasant Discourse agreeably interrupted.

HENRY Milner had now arrived in one of those verdant and peaceful vallies through which, according to good old John Bunyan, the way of the pilgrim doth sometimes pass in the course of his journey from the city of destruction to that land where all tears are wiped from every eye; and he saw before him the journey of two prophetic days-by which my young reader is to understand as many years-extending before him in one unbroken line.

These quiet and harmless solitudes were the sweeter to him because of the tumultuous scenes through which he had lately travelled; scenes where he had heard nought but the din and jargon of worldly persons, calling his attention to every object but that which his holy instructor had set before him, and persecuting him

PART 111.

H

with that which of all others young people most dread, viz. mockery and ridicule, or, in other words, quizzing and scoffing, whenever he endeavoured to keep that direction in which his foot had been set by those who had had the charge of his infancy.

Things went quietly on for several weeks after the arrangements above mentioned had been settled by Mr. Dalben for the studies and amusements of Henry, and in the meantime no important interruptions had occurred. During that period, studies of a dry, and studies of a more pleasing nature, had succeeded each other in regular routine, being diversified by pleasant walks and interesting labours; for Henry had completed his arbour to his utmost satisfaction, Mr. Dalben having kindly given his opinion, and permitted him to have every assistance from the carpenter and Thomas; in consequence of which, it was as complete a concern of the kind, as any which all the county round could exhibit. In the first place, there was a sort of hut, of the form of a bee-hive, only that the entrance was much wider and larger in proportion; the inside being lined with moss, and having rustic seats all round it, formed of the boughs of trees, so arranged as to make arms, legs, and backs; in the centre was a round deal table, on which

Henry could arrange his book, when the temperature of the air permitted him to study out of doors, which he had great pleasure in doing, as there he enjoyed the murmur of many rural sounds, such as the hum of bees, the song of birds, and the rush of waters; for Mr. Dalben's garden was not far from one of the falls of that same brook into which Henry once had fallen on a certain occasion, which shall not be mentioned in this place, as it was a tale of which the youth did not much like to hear, any more than he did of the extraordinary mistake of that worthy personage, Mrs. Jennings-for which account I refer my reader to my second volumeHenry not yet being old enough to hear and speak of the misadventures of his very early life with that ease and coolness with which we older persons are enabled to do. But to return to Henry's arbour in the front of it was a sort of porch or veranda, the pillars of which were to be adorned with creepers, but as yet there were none of these, for the season when they should be planted was not arrived. The arbour stood in Henry's garden, and when it was finished there was much to be done to the garden, to make it correspond with the arbour; and when the garden was in perfect order, then Henry bethought himself of separating it from

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