MEMORIES OF MISCHIEF. 35 



until school broke up, and we returned home to batten on our 

 luxuries. Then there were the roast apples, which, like joints, were 

 suspended by a string from the stalk, and swung from the brass crane 

 to hiss and spurt before the heat. That they were taken up half done 

 and the mouth burnt by eating them too hot, were conditions as es- 

 sential to such a treat as the apples themselves. Spanish liquorice- 

 water, and orange-peel-water, were each luxuries in their way, though 

 we soon came to regard them as treats more adapted for girls or very 

 young boys- certainly not for such as called each other "fellows." 

 The putting of milk into bottles, and churning it into butter, was an 

 amusement which we never tired of, though many a scolding for steal- 

 ing the milk, and many a threat to *' take away that nasty bottle,' 

 made us wary how we were detected in that class of experiments. 

 We were very young indeed when we made coffee " on the sly " in a 

 table-spoon ; but we never entirely got rid of one dream, which was 

 that of having nothing but toasted currant-buns for breakfast — a 

 fancy which haunts us even now occasionaly, and which, strange to 

 say, we have never realized. 



Pocket-money was always an important matter. The boy who 

 could afford to buy a whole cocoa-nut — and a Jew always stood near 

 the school to tantalize us with a bag-full, while he held several open 

 ones in his hands, and offered ** 'arf a nut for twopence ; a 'ole un for 

 fourpence," — a boy who could do that was accounted very rich, and 

 was looked at many times in the course of a morning's conning ; the 

 younger lads especially eyeing him as if to ascertain whether he ex- 

 hibited any unusual traits in his features. The amount of money 

 which a boy had very much determined his rank in the world. The 

 more money he had, the older he was regarded, and hence the better 

 entitled to smoke pieces of cane, or even to chew tobacco if bethought 

 proper. If either of these operations made him sick, not a word was 

 said about it ; but if a poor boy, or one who seldom spent money, 

 ventured on so bold a step, he became a target for ridicule, and was 

 so jeered by his comrades, that life, for at least another year, must be 

 a burthen to him. 



Then there is the strange hope which possesses boyhood — the 



strange hope in the future. They talk about what they intend to be ; 



and how they like this trade or that trade, or this or that profession. 



Life is all mystery to them ; yet they are not wholly dead to a sense 



of what its reality may be ; and as their years grow towards youth. 



