"Let's have it by all means, Harry," said Charles Larkyns. "It must be an interesting document; and I am curious to hear what it is that you consider a model for epistolary communication from an undergraduate to his maternal relative." [Illustration] "Off she goes then;" observed Mr. Bouncer; "lend me your ears--list, list, O list! as the recruiting-sergeant or some other feller says in the Play. 'Now, my little dears! look straight for'ard--blow your noses, and don't brathe on the glasses!'" and Mr. Bouncer read the letter, interspersing it with explanatory observations:-- "'_My dearest mother,--I have been quite well since I left you, and I hope you and Fanny have been equally salubrious._'--That's doing the civil, you see: now we pass on to statistics.--'_We had rain the day before yesterday, but we shall have a new moon to-night._'--You see, the Mum always likes to hear about the weather, so I get that out of the Almanack. Now we get on to the interesting part of the letter.--'_I will now tell you a little about Merton College._'--That's where I had just got to. We go right through the Guide Book, you understand.--'_The history of this establishment is of peculiar importance, as exhibiting the primary model of all the collegiate bodies in Oxford and Cambridge. The statutes of Walter de Merton had been more or less copied by all other founders in succession; and the whole constitution of both Universities, as we now behold them, may be, not without reason, ascribed to the liberality and munificence of this truly great man._'--Truly great man! that's no end good, ain't it? observed Mr. Bouncer, in the manner of the 'mobled queen is good' of Polonius.--'_His sagacity and wisdom led him to profit by the spirit of the times; his opulence enabled him to lay the foundation of a nobler system; and the splendour of his example induced others, in subsequent ages, to raise a superstructure at once attractive and solid._'--That's piling it up mountaynious, ain't it?--'_The students were no longer dispersed through the streets and lanes of the city, dwelling in insulated houses, halls, inns, or hostels, subject to dubious control and precarious discipline._'--That's stunnin', is'nt it? just like those Times fellers write.--'_But placed under the immediate superintendence of tutors and governors, and lodged in comfortable chambers. This was little less than an academical revolution; and a new order of things may be dated from this memorable era. Love to Fanny; and, believe me your affectionate Son, Henry Bouncer._'--If the Mum don't say that's first-rate, I'm a Dutchman! You see, I don't write very close, so that this respectably fills up three sides of a sheet of note-paper. Oh, here's something over the leaf. '_P.S. I hope Stump and Rowdy have got something for me, because I want some tin very bad._' That's all! Well, Giglamps! don't you call that quite a model letter for a University man to send to his tender parient?"