LIFE OF QUINTUS FIXLEIN.
FIRST LETTER-BOX.
Dog-days Vacation. Visits. An Indigent of Quality.
Egidius Zebedæus Fixlein had just for eight days been Quintus,[1] and fairly commenced his teaching duties, when Fortune tabled out for him four refreshing courses and collations, besprinkled with flowers and sugar. These were the four canicular weeks. I could find in my heart, at this hour, to pat the cranium of that good-man who invented the Dog-days Vacation: I never go to walk in that season, without thinking how a thousand downpressed pedagogic persons are now erecting themselves in the open air; and the stiff knapsack is lying unbuckled at their feet, and they can seek whatsoever their soul desires; butterflies,—or roots of numbers,—or roots of words,—or herbs,—or their native villages.
The last did our Fixlein. He moved not, however, till Sunday,—for you like to know how holidays taste in the city; and then, in company with his Shock and a Quintaner, or Fifth-Form boy, who carried his Green nightgown, he issued through the gate in the morning. The dew was still lying; and as he reached the back of the gardens, the children of the
- ↑ For understanding many little hints which occur in this Life of Fixlein, it will be necessary to bear in mind the following particulars: A German Gymnasium, in its complete state, appears to include eight Masters; Rector, Conrector, Subrector, Quintus, Quartus, Tertius, &c., to the first or lowest. The forms, or classes, again, are arranged in an inverse order; the Primaner (boys of the Prima, or first form) being the most advanced, and taught by the Rector; the Secundaner, by the Conrector, &c., and therefore the Quartaner by the Quintus. In many cases, it would seem, the number of Teachers is only six; but, in this Flachsenfingen Gymnasium, we have express evidence that there was no curtailment.—Ed.
