EXTRACTS FROM AN ANONYMOUS JOURNAL. 49 



clean was quite in accordance with the eternal fitness of 

 things. During the process of tidying up which therefore 

 necessarily followed, a locker was opened, and its contents, 

 consisting of heaps of old newspapers, torn leaves of 

 worm-eaten books, and other miscellaneous debris, were 

 consigned to the nearest dust bin. It so happened that one 

 of the members, who had gone out on business in con- 

 nexion with the new establishment, observed, while 

 returning home, that a number of street boys were busy 

 annexing the papers in the bin, and one of them was tear- 

 ing the leaves off what looked like a foolscap-size Letts's 

 Diary. There was something so inviting in that book 

 with its dirty cover and neatly written pages that it 

 naturally roused the curiosity of the student to inquire 

 into its contents. He, thereupon, gently tapped the 

 boy on the shoulder, and asked him to be allowed 

 to have a look at the book. Not understanding 

 the meaning of the intrusion, the boy stared vacantly for 

 a few seconds, chucked the book at him, and ran away ' 

 as fast and as far as his lithe little legs would carry him. 

 Minutes, quarters, half-hours passed; yet, oblivious of time, 

 hunger, and thirst, our student stood by the side of the 

 bin, reading that mysterious manuscript. A dust-stained 

 label on the cover of the journal bore the follow- 

 ing title, "Notes and Memoranda on miscellaneous 

 subjects" None of the pages were signed or even initi- 

 alled, so that it was absolutely impossible to discover the 

 authorship of the manuscript. All conscientious attempts 

 in this direction having failed, it was unanimously 



04 



