402 MB. SPONGE'S SrOETING TOUR. 



" Don't know ! you little stupid animal," snapped Miss 

 Howard, the cold air increasing the warmth of her temper. " I 

 wonder what you do know. Why did your ma say you were not to 

 come in ? " continued she, addressing the younger one. 



" Because — because," hesitated he, " she said the house was 

 full of trumpets." 



" Trumpets, you little scamp ! " exclaimed the lady, reddening 

 up ; " I'll get a whip and cut your jacket into ribbons on your 

 back." And thereupon she banged down the window and closed 

 the conversation. 



CHAPTER LV. 



THE RISING GENERATION. 



The lull that prevailed in the breakfast-room on Miss Howard's 

 return from the window was speedily interrupted by fresh arrivals 

 before the door. The three Master Baskets in coats and lay-over 

 collars, Master Shutter in a jacket and trousers, the two Master 

 Bulueys in woollen overalls with very large hunting whips, 

 Master Brick in a velveteen shooting-jacket, and the two Cheeks 

 with their tweed trousers thrust into fiddle-case boots, on all sorts 

 of ponies and family horses, began pawing and disordering the 

 gravel in front of Nonsuch House. 



George Cheek was the head boy at Mr. Latherington's classical 

 and commercial academy, at Flagellation Hall (late the Crown and 

 Sceptre Hotel and Posting House, on the Bankstone Eoad), where, 

 fur forty pounds a year, eighty young gentlemen were fitted for 

 the pulpit, the senate, the bar, the counting-house, or anything 

 else their fond parents fancied them fit for. 



George was a tall stripling, out at the elbows, in at the knees, 

 with his red knuckled hands thrust a long way through his tight 

 coat. He was just of that awkward age when boys fancy them- 

 selves men, and men are not prepared to lower themselves to their 

 level. Ladies get on better with them than men : either the 

 ladies are more tolerant of twaddle, or their discerning eyes see 

 in the gawky youth the germ of future usefulness. George was on 

 capital terms with himself. He was the oracle of Mr. Lather- 

 ington's school, where he was not only head boy and head swell, 

 but a considerable authority on sporting matters. He took in 

 BelFs Life, which he read from beginning to end, and " noted its 

 contents," as they say in the city. 



"I'll tell you what all these little (hiccup) animals will be 



