him; and he asked her to give him a kiss, and she gave him one, and you must make the best of it you can, or the worst that you dare. And then

she passed on to her place by the fire with Frank and Harry, and Fred hanging to her skirts, and sat down to listen.

The court was opened by Erne. He said, "My elder brother is come home." There were expressions of surprise from Joe and Emma.

"Yes," said Erne. "He is come home. Emma, I want to ask you this: If you had a brother you had never seen, do you think you could love him?"

Emma said, "Yes. That she should certainly love him, merely from being her brother."

"But suppose," said Erne, "that you had never heard anything but evil about him. Should you love him then?"

Yes," said Emma; "I wouldn't believe the evil. And so I should be able to love him."

"But," said Erne, "that is silly nonsense. Suppose that you were forced to believe every thing bad against him?"

"Well," said Erne, after a pause, "that is the case, after all. But you needn't be so aggravating and determined; I only asked your opinion. I wanted you to-"

"To hound you on till you formed the faction against your brother, eh?" said Emma. " Now, you may be offended or not; you may get up and leave this room to-night; but you shall hear the truth. Joe and I have talked over this ever since you told us that your brother was expected a fortnight ago, and I am expressing Joe's opinion and my own. Every prejudice you take towards that man lowers you in the estimation of those who love you best. You sit there, I see, like a true gentleman, without anger; you encourage me to go on to the end and risk the loss of your acquaintance by doing so (it is Joe who is speaking, not I); but I tell you boldly, that your duty, as a gentleman, is to labour night and day to bring your brother once more into your father's favour. It will ruin you, in a pecuniary point of view, to do so; but, if you wish to be a man of honour and a gentleman, if you wish to be with us all the same Erne Hillyar that we have learnt to love so dearly, you must do so."

"I have two things more to say," continued Emma, whose colour, heightened during her speech, was now fading again. "Jim, your dear Hammersmith knew nothing whatever of this speech I have made you. It was composed by Joe, and I agree with every word, every letter of it; and that is all I have to say, Erne Hillyar."

To be continued.

"Ar what age ought a boy to go to school?" This question can no more be answered definitely than "At what age ought he to leave it?" Circumstances of many kinds will direct both, and determine both; but we will view as the time for the private school, with a free and indefinite margin on either side, the five years lying between the ages of nine and fourteen.

The close superintendence which a master is able to extend to a limited number of pupils embraces all the advantages of home-teaching, and avoids. some of its disadvantages; it secures the good government without granting the undue indulgence. It is proverbial that the health of a boy is better at school than at home: and I have known many a pale and weakly child, whom his mother sent forth in fear and trembling, return in six months a ruddy and healthy boy. This may doubtless be attributed in a great measure to the regularity of school life -regularity in hours of study, recreation, meals, rising and going to bed-and also to the increased mental activity which he experiences in his enlarged sphere of life, in the number of his companions, in the novelty and variety of his occupations, and the earnestness and energy with which he engages in them.

If the nursery training has been good, the boy will enter upon school-life with a fair prospect of a free and unbroken advance. There is no portion of life's race so dangerous as that which he has just cleared, and none more safe than that on which he is just entering: with judicious management he may so husband his strength as to come in fit for the next portion-again a trying one. The irritability of the nervous system accompanying early childhood is in a great measure past; several, if not all, of the ailments incidental to that period

of life have been encountered and overcome; the dangers arising from the abuse of some of the agents of growth are greatly lessened, and opportunities for a freer use of others presented.

Almost without exception, indeed, are the agents of growth and development more fully and sensibly administered at school than at home. This is, perhaps, especially the case with that of diet. It is remarkable how soon the pampered appetite of a petted child becomes adapted to the plainer, but more wholesome, fare of school. Let the schoolboy's diet be sufficiently varied and abundant, and the hours between the meals not too far apart, and he will not quarrel with the cooking; for the extreme activity of every organ during his waking hours necessitates a large and regular supply of nutriment. Observe the quantity of food he consumes, and it will be found sufficient for a full-grown labouring man; and rightly so, for there is no labourer in England, in field or at forge, in smithy or at loom, who will undergo so much exertion, in the form of voluntary muscular movement, as a healthy schoolboy.

And yet there is need of supervision on the other side. At school, where the wholesome, well-prepared food is unaccompanied by any artificial provoca tives in the shape of sauces or seasonings, or similar inducements to eat after the appetite is satisfied, there is little risk of eating too much; but, where the drink provided is beer, many boys drink much more than is needed, to the acquirement of a taste that will inevitably "grow by what it feeds on." Another pernicious practice, which might advantageously be restricted, is, the wasteful weekly, if not daily, expenditure of pocket-money and allowances upon the trash and abominations vended by confectioners. Many a respectable family in England subsists

upon a smaller income than is spent in this manner by self-indulgent schoolboys; and its injurious effect upon the health is far greater than is generally imagined.

Fully appreciating the importance of this agent, schoolmasters have given to it a share of attention greater than to any other affecting the material comfort of their pupils. While I have never observed any neglect or abuse of this one to warrant serious remark, on the other hand I have frequently, on entering a school dormitory, been painfully impressed with the defective arrangements for ventilation. That which is to be secured by a liberal expenditure of the hard-earned fees is liberally supplied; but that which is equally important to the health of the pupils-Air-is doled out to them in the most meagre allotments. That which encompasses the whole earth in one vast ocean, of a depth greater than ever plummet soundedthat which we rightly call the freest of all free things-is forbidden entrance to the place where our children spend their days and their nights; that which a merciful Creator has so constituted that it will rush with horse-power into every square foot of space from which it has been excluded, if we will grant it but entrance so constituted that, when unfit for our use, it will rise above our heads, if we will only build our dwellings lofty enough to give it space, and rush up our chimneys and out of our windows, if we will only leave them open for its passage is "cabined, cribbed, confined," until its very nature is changed.

But, independently of the admission of air, the detail of ventilating the dormitory is not sufficiently understood or practised. It is not enough that its every door and window should be opened when it is vacated by its inmates. They might remain so all day, and still the air in, under and around the bed, be impure-charged with the expired and excreted particles of the sleeper, exhaled from lungs and skin-lurking in the folds of the bed "furniture," and lingering between blanket, and mattress, and pillow. The only real and effective No. 53.-VOL. IX.

mode of bedroom ventilation is to expose each article of bed gear, as soon as the bed is empty, to the action and influence of the atmosphere, admitted through the channels just named; and this should be done regularly, daily, in summer and winter.

The same necessity for complete ventilation exists in the schoolroom, if possible, even more urgently; for pure air is also a valuable stimulus to mental activity-not the stimulus to undue exertion, but the agent chiefly conducive to the natural condition of perfect cerebral activity, which foul air deadens and retards. And yet, how often do we see master and pupil bending over their desks with flushed temples and aching brows, with dizziness in the brain and nausea in the stomach, irritation in the nerves and fever in theblood-all arising simply from the fact that, from carelessness or custom, they are content to breathe an impure instead of a pure atmosphere. The foul air is pressing up against the ceiling to get out; the pure air is rushing round the building, trying to get in; but the exit of the one, and the entrance of the other, are prevented by the closing of every known aperture. Strictly speaking, every schoolroom should be built specially for the purpose, with a welldefined and carefully-arranged system of warming, lighting, and ventilating (for the larger proportion of inmates to the space calls for a much larger provision in these respects than any ordinary dwelling-room): and the time is not far distant when parents will be unwilling to trust their children to any other But much of the existing evil arising from defective ventilation may be obviated by profiting, to the fullest extent, by the ordinary channels of doors and windows and flues, in the manner I have already recommended when speaking of the nursery; and, where the pupils are numerous, and the schoolroom large, by having ordinary ventilating windows opened in places where they would act most effectively.

1 Article Management of the Nursery," in Macmillan's Magazine, No. 30.

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In England, water is almost as plentiful and as easily obtained for all sanitary purposes as air, but it must be confessed, is almost as much neglected as an agent of health. How seldom do we find a school with proper provision for bathing. From the beginning of the half-year to the end of it-too often from one year's end to another-does the schoolboy dress himself, day after day, without any attempt to cleanse his skin from the impurities which are hourly accumulating upon it. In some schools the younger boys are washed in warm water once a week, while the elder are left to their own inclinations; and, provided their hands and faces are clean, nothing more is expected, nothing more is desired, and for nothing more has provision been made. Is it not possible to have a lavatory attached to every school, to which the boys could go straight from their dormitories, returning thence after their rapid and brief immersion? The time would be altogether inconsiderable; a few minutes would suffice for the entire operation. The trouble would be equally so; for the single attendant, to see that the established rules and regulations for its government were duly observed, might be one of the ordinary domestics of the establishment; and the expense would almost be limited to the original expense of the bath.

Where a river or inland stream is situated at a convenient distance from the school, open-air bathing may be carried on in the summer months with great advantage. The freshness of the water, the pleasantness of its temperature, and the freedom of motion both in the stream and on its banks, are all advantages over the house-bath. With young boys, however, the bulk of water, the difficulty of maintaining a footing, and the natural fear of drowning, are all apt to be difficulties at first, and will sometimes call for much care and patience. In taking a boy to the river the first object should be to give him confidence; let him be sure that no tricks will be played him; and, where several boys are bathing together, this will require watchfulness. With these

precautions, a boy may be taken to the river at a very early age, and may learn to swim not very long after he has learned to walk. This is a great gain in other points of view than the sanitary one; for swimming is an art, a difficult art-an art requiring much time, and much practice, and much attention-and, unless learned in boyhood, is seldom or never well learned; and, besides the safety and comfort which the power of swimming with ease bestows, it is one of those exercises which cultivate courage and self-confidence in a high degree. I have myself succeeded in teaching boys to swim, and swim well, as early as the sixth or seventh year.

Speaking in general terms, there is no fault to be found with the dress of the schoolboy; it gives sufficient warmth, and admits of complete freedom of movement. Indeed, it is only in the nursery that much evil from improper clothing is incurred. Get the child out of the nursery, get him away from mamma, and he is safe. Whence the danger? It arises from the most amiable of qualities

the love and pride of the parent in and for her darling; the ever-living solicitude for the comfort and beauty of the child, without perceiving in this respect what constitutes either the one or the other; the unsubduable desire to dress it, decorate it, beautify it, up to and beyond the received standard of fashion, that it may outshine and eclipse all other children, and become the observed of all child-observers-although such fashion be the unmeaning device of some ignorant tailor or milliner. But the schoolboy is emancipated from this slavery; the tailor has no powers in the playground. No man-milliner holds jurisdiction in nook or corner of that little healthy republic. Let him make the essay, let him hang on any boy's back a coat, in shape, colour, or material, chosen for ornament and not for use, and it will soon be laid where Raleigh's was-in the mud.

The allotment of the hours of study is, in general, well-chosen, well-distributed, and not exceeding the capacity of a healthy boy. In summer an hour's

study before breakfast may be safely undertaken, but in winter it should not be attempted. Let the body be invigorated by the morning meal, and warmed by a favourite game before the brainwork begins. For this is to be the effort of the day two or three consecutive hours are to be given to mental toil, unbroken, uninterrupted, save by such break and interruption as may be obtained in passing from one kind of lesson to another, and in alternating the difficult and irksome with the easy and pleasant

-an important point which should never be lost sight of. Some time should be given to recreation before dinner, and a clear hour, at the least, should invariably be allowed to elapse after dinner before the lessons are resumed. The drowsiness so often felt during the afternoon lessons arises entirely from the fact that digestion is still being actively carried.

on.

The master must use the large discretionary power reposed in him for directing the evening's occupations. Five or six hours of mental task-work is as much as any young brain can with advantage undergo; but-inasmuch as mere idleness is as fatiguing and as injurious as labour-when the work of the day is considered ended with the afternoon lessons, pursuits may be devised and encouraged which will give occupation to the mental faculties without straining them; care being taken when they are followed by artificial light, that it is abundant and well-placed. Nothing is so destructive to young eyes as feeble, uncertain, or badly-distributed light.

In an excellent school, with which I am acquainted, the work begins, summer and winter, at eight o'clock, and is carried on till one, an interval of an hour being given from ten till eleven. A single hour is given to study in the afternoon, and an hour and a half in the evening completes the day's work. The younger boys are forbidden access to the schoolroom except during the schoolhours-an arrangement which goes far to ensure the proper employment of the play-time, and, as there is plenty of competition going on, very much in

creases the attention and energy which the little fellows bestow upon their work at the appointed hours. The half-holidays, with both seniors and juniors, are devoted entirely to recreative exercises.

We sometimes find a master permitting, and parents encouraging, a child to devote himself entirely to his studies, and stimulating him by every means in their power to do so, even during the hours set apart for relaxation and exercise. The folly of this is so blind, the sin of it so great, that I would say it ought to be viewed as a delinquency punishable by law, did it not so surely bring of itself a punishment upon all concerned, more severe than any judicial court would, for pity, inflict. The discomfiture of the master's expectations, the annihilation of the parents' hopes, and the utter helplessness and hopelessness of the poor boy's break-down-for break down he must and will, and, once down, be ever after liable to a like fall, however firmly he may seem to have regained his feet-are most pitiable. Not unfrequently the coming disaster is perceived before it reaches actual catastrophe, and then parents, in consternation, are very apt to fly to the opposite extreme. The boy is hurriedly taken from school, all books are removed, all study is forbidden; from that which was his sole occupation he is entirely debarred. What is he to do? Lounge about, listless, purposeless, regretful, a weariness and trouble to himself and to every one about him. This error is scarcely less than the first. If we have gone astray we must retrace our steps footmark by footmark, and they will bring us again to the right track. If on the first indication of the boy's health giving way he had been gently, but firmly, led to apply the hours set apart for recreation and exercise; and, had these, as they became palatable, been augmented, the lost balance might have been restored. Parents are necessarily most anxious for their children's education; a boy's future career, his whole course of life, probably depends upon it, but this is not the way to secure it. Bend the bow till the string