BOY

To see these little chaps—there are two orderlics to each mess—polishing up the mugs and cutting up huge bread and cheese in the swiltest and deftest manner 1s most entertaining. As soon as cverything is ready the bUO]L, sounds, and 4 small drummer stations himsclf by the door and beats a tattoo. Then,at the word, ‘fall in,"" the boys file in two abreast, after which there is another tattoo for attention, arace is said, and, at the final drum-beat, the hunary b()}\ fall to.

The day of my visit happened to be the one day of the week when there is no mecat provided. Instead, were enormous lumps of bread and cheese—which the boys unmistakably appreciated, and which they despatched with more activity than grace— followed by portions of hot plum- pud ling,

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LI SEWING

which one little lad condescendingly in- vited me to taste, remarking, * Herd's a plummy bit " [ could not discern a single portion which was not overrun and over- whelmed with plums, but anyvway it was excellent to the taste. As the boys gct Van Houten's cocoa for breakiast, meat and pudding cvery day but Ifriday for dinner, and bread and jam and milk for .xuppc,

they are tolerably well off in the matter of

dict. The mess-room is a big, cheerful room, with arms and lances ranged upon the upper part of the walls, beneath which,

on red scrolls, are engraved the names of

Waterloo, Balaclava, Tel-cl-Kebir, and other historic battles in which heroes who were tramed nside the walls of the Asvlium

SOLIDIERS

portions of

AND SAILORS. 147 have taken part. During dinner there is much clattering of tongucs and laughing, and 1t certainly adds to the lads’ enjoyment that their meal 1s not partaken 1n silence. Dinner over, the rest of the boys go out for a short play, whilst the small orderlics don their blouses, take away the things, and proceed to we sh and burnish bllflht]\ the mugs, pewter dishes, and mecat-tins. Their energy rather surprises you, tll you arc told that prizes arc given for the smartest mess-table, and when vou are further told that the prizes are tarts and

pics, vou understand the strength of the mcentive. What, perhaps, strikes the observer as

much as anything else 1s the curious and imteresting two-sidedness presented by the lads. Dulmo parade, gun drill, and duty

Koront,

generallyy - they are little automatons. Their prompt obedience, their precision, their sclf-control and dlxiplinc, astonish vou, and you begin to wonder whether anything of the original boy-nature re mzlin\‘; but sce them ten minutes later i the grounds playing rounders or cricket, or, better still, scrambling and fighting the tuck- shop for possession of * monster

sticks—which, by the bye, are all examined first by the resident medical officer—and our fears vanish.

The little tuck-shop, bearing upon its front the fascinating words, is in a recess of onc of the corridors, and is presided over by a capable dame, the wife of the gymna- stum master, who takes a great interest in