 who had concealed both periwigs
in the cellar, and now having enjoyed his trick, carried them back unperceived
to the places from which they had been removed.
    A whole week elapsed before the master recovered so much temper as to appear
decently in public; and even then his countenance was stormy, and his resentment
against the authors of his disgrace so intense, that he promised a reward of
five guineas to any boy that would discover the principal actor, or any of the
accomplices concerned in this audacious intrigue; declaring that no
consideration should screen the offenders from condign punishment, could they
once be convicted of the trick.
    Pickle had not conducted this Jeu d'esprit without participation, and some
there were privy to the affair whose fidelity was not incorruptible; but their
secrecy was secured by the terror of Peregrine, whose authority and influence
was such as to baffle the master in all his endeavours to unravel the
conspiracy.
    This extraordinary reserve, and the recollection of several other mortifying
jokes he had undergone, inspired him with ungenerous suspicions of Mr. Jennings,
who he could not help thinking had been at the bottom of them all, and spirited
up principles of rebellion in the school, with a view of making himself
independent. Possessed with this chimera, which was void of all foundation, the
German descended so low as to tamper in private with the boys, from whom he
hoped to draw some very important discovery; but he was disappointed in his
expectation; and this mean practice reaching the ears of his usher, he
voluntarily resigned his employment, and finding interest to obtain holy orders
in a little time after, left the kingdom, hoping to find a settlement in some of
our American plantations.
    The departure of Mr. Jennings produced a great revolution in the affairs of
Keypstick, which declined from that moment, because he had neither authority to
enforce obedience, nor prudence to maintain order among his scholars; so that
the school degenerated into anarchy and confusion, and he himself dwindled in
the opinion of his imployers, who looked upon him as superannuated, and withdrew
their children from his tuition.
    Peregrine seeing this dissolution of their society, and finding himself
every day deprived of some companion, began to repine at his situation, and
resolved, if possible, to procure his release from the jurisdiction of a person
whom he both detested and despised. With this view he went to work, and composed
the following billet, addressed to the commodore, which was the first specimen
of his composition in the epistolary way.
 
        Honoured and loving uncle,
            Hoping you are in good health, this serves to inform you, that
