As he passed the temple, the metal plate was sounding as a signal for the termination of the school, and on looking towards the portico with an ill-natured curiosity, he saw a young acquaintance of his, a youth of about twenty, coming out of it, leading a boy of about half that age, with his satchel thrown over his shoulder.

“Well, Arnobius,”[2] he cried, “how does rhetoric proceed? are we to take the law line, or turn professor? Who’s the boy? some younger brother?”

“I’ve taken pity on the little fool,” answered Arnobius; “these schoolmasters are a savage lot. I suffered enough from them myself, and ‘miseris succurrere disco.’ So I took him from under the roof of friend Rupilius, and he’s under my tutelage. How did he treat thee, boy?”

“He treated me like a slave or a Christian,” answered he.

“He deserved it, I’ll warrant,” said Jucundus; “a pert, forward imp. ’Twas Gete against Briton. Much good comes of schooling! He’s a wicked one already. Ah, the new generation! I don’t know where the world’s going.”

“Tell the gentleman,” said Arnobius, “what he did first to you, my boy.”

“As the good gentleman says,” answered the boy, “first I did something to him, and then he did something to me.”

“I told you so,” said Jucundus; “a sensible boy, after all; but the schoolmaster had the best of it, I’ll wager.”

“First,” answered he, “I grinned in his face, and he took off his wooden shoe, and knocked out one of my teeth.”

“Good,” said Jucundus, “the justice of Pythagoras. Zaleuchus could not have done better. The mouth sins, and the mouth suffers.”

“Next,” continued he, “I talked in school-time to my chum; and Rupilius put a gag in my jaws, and kept them open for an hour.”

“The very Rhadamanthus of schoolmasters!” cried Jucundus: “and thereupon you struck up a chant, divine though inarticulate, like the statue of Memnon.”

“Then,” said the boy, “I could not say my Virgil, and he tore the shirt from off my back, and gave it me with the leather.”

“Ay,” answered Jucundus, “ ‘arma virumque’ branded on your hide.”

“Afterwards I ate his dinner for him,” continued the boy, “and then he screwed my head, and kept me without food for two days.”

“Your throat, you mean,” said Jucundus; “a cautious man! lest you should steal a draught or two of good strong air.”

“And lastly,” said he, “I did not bring my pence, and then he tied my hands to a gibbet, and hung me up in terrorem.”

“There I came in,” said Arnobius; “he seemed a pretty boy, so I cut him down, paid his æra, and took him home.”

“And now he is your pupil?” asked Jucundus.