cation during that time was far from progressing, for we did pretty well as we liked, though the Steward would now and then peep in, and catch us at fault. It was the custom when punishment was to be inflicted for us to be sent up to the Hall, and at times our black caps were to be seen there, which told the boys that some of the Tadds were about to receive retribution for their offences.

During the term of my transportation, which seems to me the most appropriate designation for the period of my stay in the infected ward, I had the misfortune to lose my former nurse, Mrs. Smith, who, having been indisposed for some time, left Hertford for change of air; but, to my sorrow and the universal regret of those entrusted to her care, never returned. Her absence then being announced as merely temporary, I bid her good-by without much sorrow, wishing her sincerely a speedy restoration to health.

187

CHAPTER XVII.

"Auspicious hope! in thy sweet garden grow
Wreaths for each toil-a charm for every woe;
Won by their sweets, in Nature's languid hour
The way-worn pilgrim seeks thy summer bower;
There, as the wild-bee murmurs on the wing,
What peaceful dreams thy handmaid spirits bring!
What viewless forms th' Eolian organs play,
And sweep the furrow'd lines of anxious thought
away."

CAMPBELL.

"PLEASE, Sir, may I leave off shaving?" was the cry that continually greeted Mr. Colbeck, the medical attendant, when he visited the doomed wards to examine the heads of the boys; an order from him to that effect being tantamount to a declaration of the cure of the disease, and was followed by an immediate removal to the quarantine ward.

The storm which for so long a time had

set directly against me, now abated in its

fury:

"The ocean has its ebbings-so has grief;

'Tis vent to anguish, if 't is not relief."

were

Thus the flood-gates of my sorrow opened; and after a residence in No. 2 ward for six months, I was pronounced in a fair way of recovery, and ordered to perform the customary term of quarantine. It were vain to picture the joy that animated me as I took up my play-box, filled with chaffs and articles of clothing, and lifting it to my shoulders, turned my face for the last time on my former abode. My imagination, which, for a long time, had almost precluded hope, now revelled in joyous prospects for the future; and the blood which had been so long stagnant in my veins, diffused its genial freshness over my emanci pated frame. I should soon possess the privilege of rejoining my former companions, and reposing once more in my own pleasant chamber, added to the anticipation of casting aside the

black velvet cap, the badge of the disease under which I had so long laboured.

All this was pleasant to contemplate, and almost made me beside myself; and when I retired to rest for the first time in my new dormitory, I did so, fully impressed with the beauty of the change, which had burst like the first beams of morning on the sickening gloom of night. The number of boys in the quarantine ward amounted to about twenty. A lady of the name of Hart was the nurse, and very kind indeed she was. We were as a little family, in comparison with the other wards, and though at present prohibited from mixing with the remainder of the boys, enjoyed considerable liberty. We were allowed the run of a small playground at the back of the ward, about the size of the gardens allotted to the nurses, and from the palings which separated it from the thoroughfare leading to the field, we were able to shake hands and talk with our former associates, as they passed to and fro.

Our meals were confined to ourselves, and took place in the day-room. Not being under the surveillance of the Steward, we talked and enjoyed ourselves in that moderate degree at meals which medical men consider so essential to proper digestion.

Our present dwelling having been the prisonhouse of many boys who had committed crimes of enormity, such as theft, or eloping from school, and who remained here until their case had been reported to the committee in London, by the Steward, we made the most of this circumstance, drawing largely on the ideal in our biographies of the several offenders. Stories of ghosts and goblins, allied to visits of invisible personages, fell from our lips when night came, and we often remained awake the greater part of that time, frightened at the creations of our own brain.

"The Arabian Nights rehearsed in bed,
The Fairy Tales in schooltime read

By stealth, 'twixt verb and noun!