that no one had discovered the theft. At length, however, I felt an inordinate desire to become possessed of a knife, an article which my aunt, in tender love to my person, had always denied me, and, watching an opportunity, I found the desk of its owner open, and carried it off in triumph. But this triumph was short. The knife happened to be no less valuable to its real proprietor than to myself; and, being very popular in the school, he had interest to move and carry a resolution-that the trunk of every boy should be opened, and

examined, in quest of it.

What could be done?

I first resisted the motion-then vehemently protested that the key was lost-then dexterously broke it in the lock. But all obstacles being overcome, the trunk was opened and the knife found, carefully wrapped up, together with my aunt's maxim, in the identical triple envelope in which she conveyed it to school. Here was irresistible evidence of my guilt; and

the master being called in, and detecting at once the cause and consequence of my crime, out of regard for the rest of his school, dispatched me to my aunt with this laconic

note:

"Madam,

"You have sent your boy to school with a "principle which has made him greedy, cruel, "and dishonest. It is but just that you, who "have given the disease, should endeavour to "cure it; and, therefore, I have sent him back

"to you.

Yours, &c. &c."

CHAP. V.

THE WAY TO TREAT AN HUMBLED

ADVERSARY.

IT would be very difficult, indeed, to paint the storm which raged in my aunt's mind (to say nothing of her countenance), upon her receipt of myself and the letter, of which I was the bearer. And as some thousands of writers, in prose and verse, have thought themselves privileged to employ, without any acknowledgment, the first Æneid for the description of all scenery of this kind, I shall take the more honest method of at once referring my readers to Virgil for a full and particular account of the whole transaction. Let them but conceive, which is by no means difficult, my aunt to be Juno, and her face to be the sea, and the business is accomplished in a moment.

I had entered the room, not only without a blush, but with considerable self-complacency for my very dutiful conformity to my aunt's wishes.-No sooner was the letter read by the two sisters than, as they had not heard the slightest breathing of my adventures at school, they both with eager voice demanded what could have led to so rapid and extraordinary a catastrophe. I told my story with much simplicity-expressed no little horror and amazement at the villainy of school-boys-almost intimated a suspicion of the accuracy of my aunt's maxim—and courageously assured her, that if I had attempted to "take care of Number One" much longer, the boys would not have left a sound inch of "Number One" to be taken care of.

My aunt wrung her hands-but whether in dismay at my folly-at my sufferings-at the wickedness of the school boys, or of the master

-or, finally, at the apparent fallibility of her infallible maxim, I am unable to say, as she said nothing herself. She then took a huge pinch, of snuff, put the letter into the fire, and hid her face in her hands. Rachel was, as I have before said, a most tender creature; and, though even a somewhat stern moralist would have scarcely condemned her for feeling a momentary triumph in this practical refutation of so hateful a principle-and of a principle, moreover, to which she had discovered so strong a repugnance-she felt no triumph at all. In fact, all her sister's sorrows were her own: therefore, taking her gently by the hand, she said "My dear sister, however much we may have differed about the value of this maxim, you, I am persuaded, no more foresaw or designed these consequences than I did. You did not mean Sancho to be greedy, cruel, or dishonest."