A SEVERE DOMINIE.
The ghastliest s hool legend I ©vor heard rcas at Mr Poppletona'a academy for young gentlemen from nine to fourteen years of age, I have since had reason to believe that some particulars of it were borrowed from a dreadful incident (hat happened durine the last century at the University cf Cambridge ; hut all Poppleton'a boys believed it to be origiua', indigenous, and true m every particular, and so of course did I. The discipline of the school was severe m rcy time, bat my Poppleton wsb said to ha»/a been on angel of mercy compared to Mi father, who presided over the establishment before him. In his latter days however, his conduct had been almost Ghriatinn ;he came in r (to the educational biuiness) like a lion, but went out like. a lamb, m consequence of the follow* ing incident : — A young gentleman — Bodgor by name— bad been gent to this school at the beginning of the Eeq'er term ; whereat, from his dulioate constitution and nervous temperament, he ought to have been sent to a girl's sohool. The wicked Poppleton so terrified. him that he ran away the next day, but was overtaken by P, upon a pony, and brought back captive, it was averred, with a rope round his little neck. He was sent to his dormitory with the, comforting remark to sleep upon that on the morrow morning he would be caned to within an inch of his life, but no measures were taken for his security. It was thought the brokenspirited youth would not dare to run away again. When the morning came, howavee, no Bodgee was to bo loand. The wioked Poppleton started eff once more on ponnyback with the rope, but when he ieturned In the evening he had nobody at the end of it. The country was tcoured, and a number of little boys were taken up but none of them the right one. Bodger's papa arrived post-haste op the fifth day of his son's absence and " pitched into.Foppleton " to that extent vhat t'.iere was no school for a week afterwards. There was even a vague report that Bodger, senior, had slain the common enemy; bet the delight which that intelligence infused m ovory youthful bosom was only temporary. The headmaster reappeared, but without his cane. His evil temper was subdued, and the boys took the greatest possible advantage of it. They chalked lip, "Who .billed young Bodgei " and " Who hid the body?" upon the paling 3 round his private garden m the largest Roman hands. On Mb front door were once found the words "Who ate him 1 " engraved so deeply tint they had to be erased with a plane. And yet these terrible inuendoes were hardly less awful than* the thing which had actually occurred. There wai a cartaln room over the laundry where the boxes which the boys brought with them were kept untityhey went home for the holidays, and nothing else was kflpt there, so that it was not visited for months together. Into this apartrceut poor Bodger had fled, and shut himself np m his own box — which was dear, to him, perhaps, as having come from his home. It wsb the siory of the «« Mistletoe Bough," with this sad addition, that he could have got out if he liked, for there waa no pprlng lock. The unusual number of blue bottle flies which came m and dni of the to Dm through a crevice m the door at last attracted somebody to the spot. This hideous incident was the thing most insisted upon by the narrators of Ihe story, and considered most satisfactory by the hearers. We never saw a bluebottle fly at Poppleton's without exclaiming " Hooray, here's Bodger J" or something to that effect— From school legends, by James Payn,
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Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1571, 30 May 1887, Page 3
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637A SEVERE DOMINIE. Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1571, 30 May 1887, Page 3
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