284 
BEAMBLES AND BAY LEAVES. 
thick of a strawberry-bed, in order to get at some green 
peaches, when there w T as a noise at the garden door, and 
we saw the servant busy scouring a tub. By this time 
several of my playmates had mounted the wall, and w r ere 
occupying themselves in bawling out directions and 
exhortations to us, thereby increasing our danger of 
detection. The noise of our companions attracted her 
attention, and she understood in a moment the meaning 
of their exhortations. She ran towards us : we dropped 
our fruit and ran also, but knew not whither. The dark 
boy made for a buttress of the wall, and began to ascend; 
I shot straight across a bed of celery, tripped over a 
frame, and fell sprawling, and the next moment the 
broom was belabouring my shoulders. My companion 
escaped, and regained his fellows; but I was dragged 
like a poacher to the county justice—into the presence 
of the grey-headed captain, who sat, in his velvet cap 
and slippers, smoking in the parlour. The old man 
looked at me through his spectacles, read me a lecture 
on the wickedness of theft, and then ordered my libera¬ 
tion. It was a loud “ pit pat ” my heart made against 
my waistcoat when, shy, pale, and trembling from head 
to foot, I sought my companions, and found they had 
taken the alarm and decamped, leaving me to my fate 
with the injured captain. 
But the supreme joy w T as blackberrying. Long before 
August had tipped the trees with red—before, indeed, 
there was a single gauze frill unfolded on the bramble— 
we began to arrange our blackberry-parties. Topo¬ 
graphical debates took place every day, much to the 
detriment of school studies, Yery soon the whole school 
