CHAPTEE XIV. 



FALCON AND NEVER MIND ON THE ROAD; THE COLTS MAY AND 

 DELLE ON THE TRACK. 



PUPIL. "Well pleased am I, my worthy master, to see 

 that the country trip has been of such great benefit to 

 your personal appearance. You seem quite rejuvenated, 

 and look as if the ravages of time for at least the last 

 decade of years, had been obliterated. I can hardly believe 

 your late asseveration, that all thoughts of matrimonial 

 felicity have been banished from your mind, and think 

 that some entrancing enchantress has fascinated you, till 

 the return of youthful feelings has been accompanied by 

 the resemblance of manhood's prime. You would be set 

 down by shrewd observers as still being on the sunny side 

 of forty, and I only know one feeling that can work such 

 a metamorphosis. 



PRECEPTOR. Your surmises are quite wide of the mark, 

 though there are sufficient reasons why the two weeks' 

 absence from the " sea-girt shore " has been attended with 

 such beneficial results, and I can assure you that my looks 

 do not belie my feelings. I feel like a four-year-old race 

 horse, and walk as if fifty pounds of useless flesh had 

 been removed, almost enabling me to rival the old light- 

 ness of step when tag and base ball were so keenly 

 relished. 



When I left here, I took the boat to Piennont, and 

 thence the New York and Erie cars to the pleasant vil- 

 lage which my old friend "Rex," of Knickerbocker fame 



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