CHAPTER II.

THE SHOW.

That

Of the two boys standing there, one was of a tall, powerful frame, almost a man. That was Jenniker. The other was tall also, but slight and delicate. was Fisher. In point of fact, Fisher was an overgrown dandy of sixteen, wearing a gold chain across his waistcoat, and two rings on his left little finger; a garnet set round with pearls, and an emerald studded with paste diamonds. His hands were white, his nails faultless, and his coat was cut in the height of fashion. His manner was slow; his brains were not particularly bright. He had been reared in the heart of London, had scarcely ever been beyond it, until this visit, which he was paying to some friends in Whittermead. In his utter ignorance of country sights and country habits, Dr Robertson's pupils, with whom he was brought in contact, felt inclined to convert him into a sort of butt for their mocking sport. What with his dandy-cut coats, his white hands, his rings, his effeminacy altogether, and his real ignorance, the boys enjoyed a

treat.

"I say, Vane, what do you think?" called out Jenniker, at the top of his voice, as they approached. "Fisher, here, does not know one tree from another; can't tell an oak from an ash, or a birch from a willow. He says he only knows a poplar; and, that, because it's

tall and thin, like the wooden trees they sell with children's toys in Arcadia."

"I did not say in Arcadia," hastily corrected Fisher, "I said in the Lowther Arcade."

"Oh, the Lowther Arcade! is it not the same?” cried Jenniker, putting on the full tide of ridicule. "My patience and conscience! Not to know a tree when you see it! I've heard of girls not knowing lots of things, but I never did hear of a fellow not knowing trees. You are a curiosity worth taking about the country in a travelling caravan, Master Fisher."

"Why

"Be quiet, Jenniker," said William Allair. do you begin upon him? He has always lived in London, where there are no trees to be seen.”

"Right in the midst of it," put in Harry Vane. "By Aldgate Pump."

"No, I don't live by Aldgate Pump," resentfully spoke Fisher. "I have not seen Aldgate Pump above half-a-dozen times in my life." "It's by Temple Bar, then."

"Well, Temple Bar is not Aldgate Pump," retorted Fisher. "Aldgate Pump's down Whitechapel way."

"Are there any trees round Temple Bar, Master Fisher?" cried Jenniker, returning to the charge.

"You had better go up to London and see," retorted Fisher, who by no means relished their aggravating salutation of "Master." "If there are no trees in London, there are plenty outside it. At Clapham, where my aunt lives, they abound. I daresay I could tell the names of many, if I wanted to tell them."

"Let's hear, Fisher," said Harry Vane.

"Do you

know what these trees are?" pointing to those underneath which they were standing.

Fisher looked up at the trees.

He did not know

them, but he did not like to confess to the ignorance. Another moment, and his face brightened.

"Perhaps they are ivy?" suggested he.

The boys leaned against the trees in their agony of laughter, and the young ladies-who were not upon their drawing-room manners-shrieked aloud with it, driving Fisher wild. Other young ladies, other schoolboys were running up from various points in the distance, and the audience promised to be a large one.

"What is there to mock at?" asked Fisher. "Come! This is ivy that's around them. I know ivy when I see it, as well as you. My aunt's house at Clapham is covered with it."

"That's ivy, but the trees are not," jerked out Harry Vane, in the midst of his convulsion. "We'll give you three guesses of what the trees are, Fisher; and if you can't hit upon the right thing, you shall go up them and get down some boughs."

"Up a tree!" returned the dismayed Fisher, who had probably never in his experience climbed anything more formidable than to the top of an omnibus. "I wish you may get it! My hands and my clothes are not going to be torn, I can tell you."

At this moment a whole troop of new-comers came within hearing distance, many of Dr Robertson's scholars being amongst them.

"Fisher thought these trees were ivys," said Jenniker, with a very broad grin; Mr Jenniker being rather addicted to grinning, when he found he could annoy

any friend with it.

guesses, and if he

"We are going to give him three

can't hit upon the right name, he

pays forfeit and goes up the tree."

"Why don't you ask me to climb up to the moon at once?" cried Fisher. "You don't get me up the stem of a tree."

"The stem! the stem! ha, ha, ha! ho, ho, ho!" shook the boys, holding their sides. "He calls the trunk the

stem!"

"The trunk, then," said Fisher. "A thick, round, high trunk like that, where there's nothing to lodge your feet upon ! Go up yourselves, if you want somebody to go up. I'd as soon attempt to mount a greasy

pole at a fair."

"You'll have to try it," shouted the boys. "Let's hear the first guess. I'll bet the contents of my pockets against Dick Jenniker's, that Fisher does not name them."

"Wouldn't you like it, Harris!" returned Mr Dick Jenniker. "I have got a valuable bank note or two in mine."

Another laugh, at Jenniker's boast of bank notes. Of all the school, his pockets were generally the most empty; he was one who spent his money faster than it came in. Come, Fisher, we are waiting for you."

66

"Oh, well, I don't mind guessing," said Fisher, who was, on the whole, of an accommodating, peaceably inclined nature.

A shout of derision drowned the conclusion of Fisher's sentence. "Go ahead! That's the first guess."

"That was not a guess at all," disputed Fisher. knew they were not poplars."

I

"That's a fine shuffle!" cried a dozen disputing voices, eager to take any advantage, as boy's voices "You want to do us out of four

proverbially are.

guesses."

"He knows poplars. Jenniker said so," observed William Allair.

"He

"Yes, yes, let that go," said Harry Vane. said he knew poplars, before this was brought up." "Poplars are tall, straight, upright trees," said simple "You can't suppose I mistook these for

Tom Fisher.

poplars."

"As tall and as straight as those charming wooden trees that come out of Arcadia. He has been to Arcadia," added Jenniker in an aside explanation to the newcomers, "and knows the trees there. The shepherdesses stand underneath them all day with flowered crooks in their hands. You needn't stare, Mr Fisher. Go on and take your first guess."

"An elm," returned Fisher at a venture, thinking it might be as well not to say anything about Arcadia and the shepherdesses.

"A fir," hesitated Fisher, scanning the tree. "That's rich, that is! Go at it."

"Well, you give me no time to remember names." "Plenty of time. Off for the third."

"Is it a mountain-ash, then ?" concluded Fisher, who never having, to his knowledge, seen a mountain-ash, thought that might be a reason for this being

one.

"All over, all over! Why, you stupid, could

He has had his three guesses. you look up at these trees, and

B