The lad returns shrewd, subtle, close and keen; With all the northern virtues, and the rules Taught to the thrifty in these thriving schools. There had he gone, and borne this trying part-- 180 But Richard’s mother had a mother’s heart. Now squire and rector were return’d to school, And spoke of him who there had sovereign rule: He was, it seem’d, a tyrant of the sort Who make the cries of tortured boys his sport; One of a race, if not extinguish’d, tamed-- The flogger now is of the act ashamed; But this great mind all mercy’s calls withstood; This Holofernes was a man of blood. “Students,” he said, “like horses on the road, 190 Must well be lash’d before they take the load; They may be willing for a time to run, But you must whip them ere the work be done. To tell a boy, that, if he will improve, His friends will praise him, and his parents love, Is doing nothing--he has not a doubt But they will love him, nay, applaud, without; Let no fond sire a boy’s ambition trust, To make him study, let him see he must.” Such his opinion; and, to prove it true, 200 At least sincere, it was his practice too. Pluto they call’d him, and they named him well: ’Twas not an heaven where he was pleased to dwell. From him a smile was like the Greenland sun, Surprising, nay portentous, when it shone; Or like the lightning, for the sudden flash Prepared the children for the thunder’s crash. O! had Narcissa, when she fondly kiss’d The weeping boy whom she to school dismiss’d, Had she beheld him shrinking from the arm 210 Uplifted high to do the greater harm, Then seen her darling stript, and that pure white, And--O! her soul had fainted at the sight; And with those looks that love could not withstand, She would have cried, “Barbarian, hold thy hand!” In vain! no grief to this stern soul could speak, No iron-tear roll down this Pluto’s cheek. Thus far they went, half earnest, half in jest, Then turn’d to themes of deeper interest; While Richard’s mind, that for awhile had stray’d, 220 Call’d home its powers, and due attention paid. TALES OF THE HALL. BOOK III. _BOYS AT SCHOOL._ The School--School-Boys--The Boy-Tyrant--Sir Hector Blane-- School-Boys in after Life, how changed--how the same--The patronized Boy, his Life and Death--Reflections--Story of Harry Bland. TALES OF THE HALL. BOOK III. _BOYS AT SCHOOL._