8 WANDERINGS IN SOUTH AMERICA 



Mrs. Atkinson, who begged us a play-day for our 

 success. 



''On Easter Sunday Mr. Storey always treated 

 us to 'Pasche eggs.' They were boiled hard in a 

 concoction of whin-flowers, which rendered them 

 beautifully purple. We used them for warlike 

 purposes, by holding them betwixt our forefinger 

 and thumb with the sharp end upwards, and as 

 little exposed as possible. An antagonist then ap- 

 proached, and with the sharp end of his own egg 

 struck this egg. If he succeeded in cracking it, 

 the vanquished egg was his ; and he either sold it 

 for a halfpenny in the market, or reserved it for 

 his own eating. When all the sharp ends had been 

 crushed, then the blunt ends entered into battle. 

 Thus nearly every Pasche egg in the school had 

 its career of combat. The possessor of a strong 

 egg with a thick shell would sometimes vanquish 

 a dozen of his opponents, all of which the con- 

 queror ultimately transferred into his own stom- 

 ach, when no more eggs with unbroken ends 

 remained to carry on the war of Easter Week. 



"The little black and white bitch once began to 

 snarl, and then to bark at me, when I was on a 

 roving expedition in quest of hens' nests. I took 

 up half a brick and knocked it head over heels. 

 Mr. Storey was watching at the time from one of 

 the upper windows ; but I had not seen him, until 

 I heard the sound of his magisterial voice. He 

 beckoned me to his room there and then, and 

 whipped me soundly for my pains. 



''Four of us scholars stayed at Tudhoe during 

 the summer vacation, when all the rest had gone 

 home. Two of these had dispositions as malicious 



