52 DREAM-LIFE.
will take on a hard iron covering, that will flash out plenty of fire in his after contact with the world, but it will never never melt!
There are some tall trees that over shadow an angle of the school-house ; and the larger scholars play some very surprising gymnastic tricks upon their lower limbs; one boy for instance, will hang for an incredible length of time by his feet, with his head down ; and when you tell Charlie of it at night, with such additions as your boyish imagination can contrive, the old nurse is shocked, and states very gravely that it is dangerous ; and that the blood all runs to the head, and sometimes bursts out of the eyes and mouth. You look at that particular boy with astonishment afterward ; and expect to see him some day burst into bleeding from the nose and ears, and flood the school-room benches.
In time, however, you get to performing some modest experiments yourself upon the very lowest limbs, taking care to avoid the observation of the larger boys, who else might laugh at you : you especially avoid the notice of one stout fellow in pea-green breeches, who is a sort of bully among the small boys, and who delights in kicking your marbles about, very accidentally. He has a fashion too of twisting his
