24 THE EARLY DAYS OF 



of course, must know it too. A short time after, I heard what to 

 me was really a dreadful sound. Like Alexander Selkirk, I gave a 

 start when anyone called my name out loud. In answer to the 

 summons, I went to the writing master, who seemed to sit uneasy 

 in his chair, and on his desk lay an open letter, which I recognised 

 at once. He said, but not unkindly, that a ridiculous mistake had 

 taken place, for my mamma had mistaken him for the carpenter, 

 and ordered him to make a box for me. I might perhaps have said 

 that anyone who did not know him would proclaim himself unknown ; 

 but I had learnt the golden rule of silence, and was dismissed with 

 the remark that the necessary order should be given, hut in the proper 

 quarter. 



So far so good, I thought ; but when the playbox came, and was 

 duly deposited in the covered-playground, I had no property what- 

 ever to put in it. I had not long to wait, however. It was autumn 

 time, and the air was redolent with apples — a scent agreeable to 

 boys as toasted cheese is to a half-starved mouse. I sniffed the 

 tainted gale ; and presently saw a man struggling behind a barrow 

 which contained a hamper of unusual size, on which there fluttered 

 on the breeze a label bearing the name of a little boy I knew. I 

 hastened to him, told him the joyful news, and soon my newly 

 acquired key was drawn from my pocket and transferred to the 

 depths of his. Then I strolled away, and ran over in my mind the 

 apples which I liked the best. 



Such were my thoughts when, with a wild hurrah, I saw my friend 

 shot out of the parcel-room, followed by his hamper, supported by 

 as many stalwart lads as could find a place around it, whilst a cry of 

 " Apples ! apples ! " re-echoed from the walls of the quondam inn, 

 and was passed from mouth to mouth, until pretty well the whole 

 school took up the scent and had assembled there. 



At length the covered playground was reached, and then the 

 surging mass of boys was so great around my box, that little hope 

 remained that anything destructible could hold together. It was 

 quite impossible to get near ; but I heard my property cracking from 



