ness.

boy, and bidding him to go home about his busiThe boy was however conveyed safely into the room, when he thus addressed himself to the president.

Jack. Sir, an please your worship, as I was looking about this morning for sticks in the hedge over against our house, I found this buckle. So I thought to myself, sure this must belong to the rascal that broke our windows. So I have brought it to see if any body in the school would own it.

Presid. On which side of the hedge did you find it?

Jack. On the other side from our house, in the close.

Presid. Let us see it.

Gentlemen, this is so

smart a buckle, that I am sure I remember it at once, and so I dare say you all do.

All. It is Riot's.

Presid. Has any body observed Riot's shoes to-day.

One Boy. Yes, he has got them tied with strings.

Presid. Very well, gentlemen; we have nothing more to do, than to draw up an account of all the evidence we have heard and lay it before his lordship. Jack, you may go home.

Jack. Pray, sir, let somebody go with me, for I am afraid of Riot, who has just been threatening me at the door.

Presid. Master Bold will please to go along with the boy.

The minutes of the court were then drawn up, and the president took them to the judge's chamber. After the judge had perused them, he or

dered an indictment to be drawn up against Peter Riot, "for that he meanly, clandestinely, and with malice aforethought, had broken three panes in the window of Widow Careful, with a certain instrument called a top, whereby he had committed an atrocious injury on an innocent person, and had brought a disgrace upon the society to which he belonged." At the same time, he sent an officer to inform master Riot that his trial would come on the next morning.

Riot, who was with some of his gay companions, affected to treat the matter with great indifference, and even to make a jest of it. However, in the morning he thought it best to endeavour to make it up; and accordingly, when the court was assembled, he sent one of his friends with a shilling, saying that he would not trouble them with any further enquiries, but would pay the sum that had been issued out of the public stock. On the receipt of this message, the judge rose with much severity in his countenance, and observing, that by such a contemptuous behaviour towards the court the criminal had greatly added to his offence, he ordered two officers with their staves immediately to go and bring in Riot, and to use force, if he should resist them. The culprit thinking it best to submit, was presently led in between two officers; when being placed at the bar, the judge thus addressed him :

"I am sorry, sir, that any member of this society can be so little sensible of the nature of a crime, and so little acquainted with the principles of a court of justice, as you have shewn yourself to be, by the proposal you took the impro

per liberty of sending to us. If you mean it as a confession of your guilt, you certainly ought to have waited to receive from us the penalty we thought proper to inflict, and not to have imagined that an offer of the mere payment of damages would satisfy the claims of justice against you. If you had only broken the window by accident, and on your own accord offered restitu tion, nothing less than the full damages could have been accepted. But you now stand charged with having doue this mischief meanly, secretly, and maliciously, and thereby have added a great deal of criminal intention to the act. Can you then think that a court like this, designed to watch over the morals, as well as protect the properties, of our community, can so slightly pass over such aggravated offences? You can claim no merit from confessing the crime, now that you know so much evidence will appear against you. And if you choose still to plead not guilty, you are at liberty to do it, and we will proceed immediately to the trial, without taking any advantage of the confession implied by your offer of payment.”

Riot stood silent for some time, and then begged to be allowed to consult with his friends, what was best for him to do. This was agreed to, and he was permitted to retire, though under guard of an officer. After a short absence, he returned with more humility in his looks, and said that he pleaded guilty, and threw himself on the mercy of the court. The judge then made a speech of some length, for the purpose of convincing the prisoner, as well as the bystanders,

of the enormity of the crime. He then pronounced the following sentence:

“You, Peter Riot, are hereby sentenced to pay the sum of half a crown to the public treasury, as a satisfaction for the mischief you have done, and your attempt to conceal it. You are to repair to the house of Widow Careful, accompanied by such witnesses as we shall appoint, and there, having first paid her the sum you owe her, you shall ask her pardon for the insult you offered her. You shall likewise, to-morrow, after school, stand up in your place, and before all the scholars ask pardon for the disgrace you have been the means of bringing upon the society; and, in particular, you shall apologize to Master Luckless, for the disagreeable circumstance you were the means of bringing him into. Till all this is complied with, you shall not presume to come into the play ground, or join in any of the diversions of the school; and all persons are hereby admonished not to keep you company till this is done."

Riot was then dismissed to his room; and in the afternoon he was taken to the widow's, who was pleased to receive his submission graciously, and at the same time to apologize for her own improper treatment of Master Luckless, to whom she sent a present of a nice ball by way of amends.

Thus ended this important business.

THE LEGUMINOUS PLANTS.

Tutor-George-Harry.

G. What a delightful smell!

H. Charming! It is sweeter than Mr. Essence's shop.

T. Do you know whence it comes?

G. O-it is from the bean-field on the other side of the hedge, I suppose.

T. It is. This is the month in which beans are in blossom. See-the stalks are full of their black and white flowers.

H. I see peas in blossom, too, on the other side of the field.

G. You told us some time ago of grass and corn flowers, but they make a poor figure compared to these.

T. They do. The glory of a corn-field is when it is ripe; but peas and beans look very shabbily at that time. But suppose we take a closer view of these blossoms. Go, you, George, and bring me a bean plant; and you, Harry, a pea.

[They go and bring them.] T. Now let us sit down and compare them. Do you think these flowers much alike?

H. O no-very little.

G. Yes-a good deal.

T. A little and a good deal! How can that be? Come, let us see. In the first place they do not much resemble each other in size or colour.

G. No-but I think they do in shape.

T. True. They are both irregular flowers, and have the same distribution of parts. They are of the kind called papilionaceous, from papilio