"The first boy,--what can you tell me about the curfew?" The first boy was well up in the curfew, and rattled off a "full, true, and particular account" of that fine old English institution, much to everybody's satisfaction. The Doctor went on repeating two or three verses till he came to the line,-- "The rude Forefathers of the hamlet sleep." "What does that line mean?" he asked of a boy on the second desk. The boy scarcely knew what it meant, but the boy below him did, and was quite eager for the question to be passed on. It was passed on, and the genius answered promptly, "Four old men." "Four rude old men," shouted the next, seeing a chance. "Four rude old men who used to sleep in church," cried another, ready to cap all the rest. The Doctor passed the question on no further; but gravely explained the meaning of the line, and then proceeded with his repetition in rather a sadder voice. Now and again he stopped short and demanded an explanation of some obscure phrase, the answers to which were now correct, now hazy, now brilliantly original. On the whole it was not satisfactory; and when for a change the Doctor gave up reciting, and made the boys read, the effect was still worse. One boy, quite a master of elocution, spoilt the whole beauty of the lines,-- "Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile The short and simple annals of the Poor,--" by reading "animals" instead of "annals"; while another, of an equally zoological turn of mind, announced that-- "On some fond _beast_ the parting soul relies,--" instead of "breast." But the climax of this "animal mania" was reached when the wretched Bramble, finally pitched upon to go on, in spite of all his efforts to hide, rendered the passage:-- "Haply some hoary-headed swain may say, Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn," etcetera, as-- "Happy some hairy-headed swine may say." This was a little too much. "That will do, sir," said the Doctor, sternly. "That will do. What is your name, sir?" "Bramble, please, sir." "Well, Bramble, how long have you been in this class?" "Two years, sir." "And have you been all the while on the bottom desk?" "Yes, please, sir." "Sir, it displeases me. You are a dunce, sir." And then, to Bramble's utter despair and to the terror of all the other unprofitable members of the class, the Doctor proceeded to catechise sharply the unhappy youth on his general knowledge of the subjects taught during the term.