Part 2 (1/2)

3 Mrs Green

4 Mr Verdant Green

5 Miss Helen Green

6 Miss fanny Green

7 Miss Mary Green

[AN OXFORD FRESHMAN 21]

CHAPTER III

MR VERDANT GREEN LEAVES THE HOME OF HIS ANCESTORS

THE time till Easter passed very quickly, for much had to be done in it Verdant read upthat initiatory exa, and other college tortures

Hisin for him a new stock of linen, sufficient in quantity to provide hi hi it bran-new, and of the raved with the family crest, and the motto ”Semper virens”

Infatuated Mr Green! If you could have foreseen that those spoons and forks would have soon passed, - by a raduate powers can never fathom, - into the property of Mr Robert Filcher, the excellent, though occasionally erratic, scout of your beloved son, and from thence have melted, not ”into thin air,” but into a residuuht be expressed by the equivalent of coins of a thin and golden description, - if you could but have foreseen this, then, infatuated but affectionate parent, you would have been content to have let your son and heir represent the ancestral wealth by mere electro-plate, albata, or any sham that would equally well have served his purpose!

As for Miss Virginia Verdant, and the other woman portion of the Green community, they fully occupied their ti articles of feminine workht, in the land of the strangers, recall visions of home These were presented to hi of the day previous to that on which he was to leave the home of his ancestors

All the articles were useful as well as orna a triumph of art in the way of bead decoration, was also, it must be allowed, a very useful present, unless one happened to carry one's riches in a ~porte-monnaie~

There was a pair of braces from Mary, worked with an ecclesiastical pattern of a severe character - very appropriate for academical wear, and extremely effective for all occasions when the coat had to be taken off in public And there was a watch-pocket froht-capped head, and serve as a depository for the golden mechanical turnip that had been handed down in the faenerations And

[22 ADVENTURES OF MR VERDANT GREEN]

there was a pair of woollen coinia's own fair hands; and there were other woollen articles of domestic use, which were contributed by Mrs Green for her son's personal cohtfully added an infallible recipe for the toothache, - an infliction to which she was a eneral relief of which in others, she constituted herself a species of toothache ht, my dear Verdant, be seized with that painful disease, and not have > it”: which it was very probable he would not, if college rules were strictly carried out at Brazenface

All these articles were presented to Mr Verdant Green with reat cerenantly upon the scene, and his son beaed him constantly to wear) with the reat day of preparation, and one which it ell for the constitution of the household did not happen very often; for the house was reduced to that summerset condition usually known in domestic parlance as ”upside down” Mr Verdant Green personally superintended the packing of his goods; a perforth of the establishment Butler, Footman, Coachman, Lady's-maid, Housemaid, and buttons were all pressed into the service; and the coach a ht, was found to be of great use in effecting a junction of the locks and hasps of over-filled book-boxes It was astonishi+ng to see all the amount of literature that Mr Verdant Green was about to convey to the seat of learning: there was enough to stock a small Bodleian As the owner stood, with his hands behind hi the scene of preparation, a ht have possibly co to the fair,” that was then hanging just over his head; for no one could have set out for the great Oxford booth of this Vanity Fair withconfidence than Mr Verdant Green

When the trunks had at last been packed, they were then, by the thoughtful suggestion of Miss Virginia, provided each with a canvas covering, after the > fee direction-cards filled with thetheir owner and his destination

It had been decided that Mr Verdant Green, instead of reaching Oxford by rail, should ham and Oxford coach; - one of the few four-horse coaches that still ran for any distance; and which, as the enerally patronized by Mr Charles Larkyns in preference to the rail; for the coach passed within three miles of the Manor Green, whereas the nearest railas at a reater distance, and could not be so conveniently reached Mr

Green had deterht have the satisfaction of seeing hiht also himself form an acquaintance with a city of which he had heard soto him now that his son was enrolled a meht previous; for the rector had told Mr Green that so many men went up by the coach, that unless he made an early application,

---This well-known coach ceased to run between Birust 1852, on the opening of the Birham and Oxford Railway