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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Burr Junior, by G. Manville Fenn
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Burr Junior
+
+Author: G. Manville Fenn
+
+Illustrator: Harold C. Earnshaw
+
+Release Date: May 4, 2007 [EBook #21294]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BURR JUNIOR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Nick Hodson of London, England
+
+
+
+
+
+Burr Junior, by George Manville Fenn.
+
+_______________________________________________________________________
+
+I thought that it was unusual for Manville Fenn to set a novel in a
+boys' boarding school, since I had become used to exotic settings in
+Malaysia, or South America, for his tension-filled novels.  Here he
+certainly does not disappoint if it's tension and suspense you are
+expecting of him.  The last few chapters, in particular, are extremely
+nail-biting, but the book is quite hard to put down at any point.
+
+It is Burr who is telling the story, and from his first day at the
+school he is friendly with Mercer, who is not good at his school work,
+but who knows a great deal about natural history, and imparts it to
+Burr, and of course to the readers as well.  There is a gang of other
+boys who are inclined to bully, and at first they make life misery for
+Burr and Mercer--but this is soon got over.
+
+Other important figures are Hopley, the gamekeeper; his daughter Polly;
+the school Cook; Lomax, the school drill-sergeant; Magglin, a
+ne'er-do-well and poacher; Dr Browne, the headmaster, and Mrs Browne;
+Rebble and Hasnip, ushers at the school; Burr's mother, and his uncle,
+Colonel Seaborough; and the local big landowner, General Sir Hawkhurst
+Rye.
+
+It was a very enjoyable book to transcribe, and I am sure you will enjoy
+it.
+NH
+________________________________________________________________________
+
+BURR JUNIOR, BY GEORGE MANVILLE FENN.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ONE.
+
+"There'll be such a game directly.  Just listen to old Dicksee."
+
+I was very low-spirited, but, as the bright, good-looking lad at my side
+nudged me with his elbow, I turned from casting my eyes round the great
+bare oak-panelled room, with its long desks, to the kind of pulpit at
+the lower end, facing a bigger and more important-looking erection at
+the upper end, standing upon a broad dais raised a foot above the rest
+of the room.  For this had been the banqueting hall of Meade Place, in
+the good old times of James the First, when its owner little thought it
+would ever be the schoolroom of Dr Browne's "Boarding Establishment for
+Gentlemen's Sons."  In fact, there was a broad opening now, with a
+sliding door, right through the thick wall into the kitchen, so my
+companion told me, and that I should see the shoulders of mutton slip
+through there at dinner-time.
+
+So I looked at the lower pulpit, in which sat Mr Rebble, one of the
+ushers, a lank, pale-faced, haggard man, with a dotting of freckles,
+light eyebrows, and pale red hair which stood up straight like that upon
+a clothes-brush.
+
+He was resting his elbows on the desk and wiping his hands one over the
+other, as if the air was water and he had a piece of soap between his
+palms.  By him was a boy with a book, reading in a highly-pitched voice
+which did not seem to fit him, being, like his clothes, too small for
+such a big fellow, with his broad face and forehead all wrinkled up into
+puckers with the exertion of reading.
+
+"Tchish! tchish!  Silence!" said Mr Rebble, giving three stamps on the
+floor.  "Now go on, Dicksee."
+
+"I say, do listen," said the boy by my side.  "He isn't well, and I gave
+him a dose this morning."
+
+"You did?"  I said.  "You hit him?"
+
+"No, no," said the boy, laughing.  "I often do though--a miserable
+sneak.  I gave him a dose of medicine.  He had been eating too many of
+Polly Hopley's cakes.  My father is a doctor!" he added importantly.
+
+"Oh!"  I said.
+
+"I say, do listen.  Did you ever hear such a whine?"
+
+As he spoke, I heard the big, stoutly-built boy give a tremendous sniff,
+and then go on reading.
+
+"I love Penny Lope--Penny Lope is loved by me."
+
+"Pen-el-o-pe!" cried the usher angrily, as he snatched the book from the
+boy's hands, closed it, and boxed his ears with it, right and left, over
+and over again.  "You _dumkopf_!" he shouted; "you muddy-brained ass!
+you'll never learn anything.  You're more trouble than all the rest of
+the boys put together.  There, be off to your seat, and write that piece
+out twenty-five times, and then learn it by heart."
+
+"Ow, ow, ow! sniff, sniff, snork!"
+
+"Silence, sir, or I'll make the imposition fifty times!"
+
+The howl subsided into a series of subdued sniffs as the big fellow went
+back to his place, amidst the humming noise made by some fifty boys,
+who, under the pretence of studying their lessons, kept up
+conversations, played at odd or even for marbles, or flicked peas at
+each other across the school.
+
+"Old Reb wouldn't dare to hit him like that if the Doctor was here."
+
+"Your father?"  I said.
+
+"No, no--old Swish!  Doctor Browne."
+
+_Flick-tip_.
+
+A pea struck my companion on the ear, and dropped on the floor.
+
+"All right, Burr," said my neighbour; "did that with a pea-shooter.  I
+owe you one."
+
+"I didn't do it!"  I whispered eagerly.
+
+"Of course you didn't.  It was that long, thin boy yonder.  His name's
+Burr too.  He'll be Burr major now, and you'll be Burr junior."
+
+"Oh!"  I said, feeling much relieved.
+
+"You'll have to lick him.  Regular old bully.  Your name's Frank, isn't
+it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"His name's Eliezer.  We call him Eely, because he's such a lanky, thin,
+snaky chap.  I say, his father's a tailor in Cork Street, he's got such
+lots of clothes in his box.  He has a bob-tail coat and black kersey
+sit-upon-'ems, and a vesky with glass buttons, and all covered with
+embroidery.  Such a dandy!--What's your father?"
+
+I did not answer for a few moments, and he looked at me sharply.
+
+"Dead," I said in a low voice.
+
+"Oh!" said my companion softly too.  "I didn't know."
+
+"He was shot--out in India--Chillianwallah," I said.--"Died of his
+wounds."
+
+"Oh, I am sorry!  I wish my father had been there."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"He'd have cured him.  There's nobody like him for wounds.  But, I say,
+Chillian what's its name?"
+
+"Chillianwallah," I said.
+
+"Why, what a game!  That's where old Lomax was.  I remember now."
+
+"Is Lomax one of the boys," I asked wonderingly.
+
+"Yah! no.  You saw him last night, when you came in the fly.  That big
+chap who lives at the lodge, and helped lift down your box.  He had a
+shot through him, and nearly had his head cut off with a tully
+something.  He'll tell you.  He has a pension, and is our drill-master,
+and teaches boys riding."
+
+This was interesting, and I felt a desire to know old Lomax.
+
+"What's your mother?" said my companion, breaking in upon my musing.
+
+"A lady," I said proudly.
+
+"So's mine.  She's the nicest and best and--" At that moment I heard a
+loud, deep-throated cough, which was followed by a shuffling and
+stamping, as I saw all the boys rise in their places.
+
+"Get up--get up," whispered my neighbour.  "The Doctor."
+
+I rose in my place, and saw the tall, stout, clerical-looking gentleman
+I had seen when I reached Meade Place on the previous night, enter by
+the middle door, and look gravely and smilingly round.
+
+"Good morning, gentlemen," he said.  "Good morning, Mr Rebble;" and
+then he marched solemnly to the pulpit on the dais, took his place,
+waved his hand, there was a repetition of the rustling and shuffling as
+the boys reseated themselves, and then the humming murmur of the school
+recommenced.
+
+"I say, how old are you?" whispered my companion.
+
+"Sixteen--nearly," I replied.
+
+"Well, that is rum.  So am I.  So's lots of fellows here.  Where did you
+go to school before?"
+
+"Nowhere.  Had a private tutor at home."
+
+"Well, you must be a muff."
+
+"Why?"
+
+"To give up a private tutor all to yourself to come to school here."
+
+"Obliged to.  Uncle said I should grow into a--"
+
+I stopped short.
+
+"Well, what?"
+
+"Less talking there," said Mr Rebble.
+
+"Mind your own business," muttered my neighbour.  "What did he say you'd
+grow into?"
+
+"A milksop; and that I must come and rough it among other boys."
+
+"Ha! ha! what a game!  You will have to rough it too, here.  I say,
+who's uncle?"
+
+"My uncle, Colonel Seaborough."
+
+"What's he?--a soldier too?"
+
+"Yes; and I'm going to be a soldier by and by."
+
+"Well, you are a lucky one!  Wish I had an uncle who said I should be a
+soldier.  I shall have to be a doctor, I suppose."
+
+Just then, the tall, thin boy pointed out to me a few minutes before as
+Burr major, came across in a bending, undulating way, with an open book
+in his hand, glanced up and down to see that the Doctor and his
+lieutenant were both occupied, and then slipped into the seat at our
+long desk on the other side of my neighbour, who did not give him time
+to speak, but began rapidly,--
+
+"I say, this new chap says he'll give you such a leathering if you shoot
+peas at him."
+
+"Eh?  Like to see him begin," said the fresh comer, with a contemptuous
+look at me.  "I say, Senna T, you're in for it."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Old Dicksee says you gave him some stuff last night, and it's made him
+so bad he can't learn his lessons.  He's going to tell the Doctor."
+
+"Gammon!  What do you want?"
+
+"Less talking there," said Mr Rebble sharply.
+
+"Hark at old Reb!" whispered the new-comer.  "I say, we're going to have
+a holiday to-day, ain't we?"
+
+"No such luck."
+
+"Oh, but we must!  I've written this out.  You'll sign, won't you?"
+
+My neighbour snatched a document consisting of about half a dozen lines,
+and pushed it back.
+
+"He'll keep us in if we do."
+
+"Not he.  I know he wants to drive over to Hastings with the girls.
+Sign, there's a good chap."
+
+"But you haven't signed."
+
+"No.  I shall put my name last."
+
+"Yah!  Can't catch old birds with chaff, Eely."
+
+"If you call me Eely again, I'll punch your head."
+
+"You sign first, and I'll put my name next."
+
+"Shan't! and if you don't put your name at once, I'll tear up the paper.
+I don't want a holiday; it was all for you boys."
+
+"Thank-ye," said my neighbour derisively.
+
+"Just you wait till we're out in the field, Jalap, and I'll serve you
+out for this."
+
+"Burr junior," said a rich, deep, unctuous voice, which seemed to roll
+through the school, and there was a dead silence.
+
+"Here, you!--get up.  Go on."
+
+"Burr junior!" came in a louder, deeper voice.
+
+"He means you," whispered my neighbour.
+
+"Say _Adsum_," whispered the tall, thin boy, and, on the impulse given,
+I repeated the Latin word feebly.
+
+"Go up to him," whispered my neighbour, and, pulling my legs out from
+between the form and the desk, I walked up through the centre opening
+between the two rows of desks, conscious of tittering and whispering,
+two or three words reaching my ears, such as "cane," "pickle," "catch it
+certain."
+
+Then, feeling hot and confused, I found myself on the dais in front of
+the desk, where the Doctor was looking searchingly at me through his
+gold-rimmed spectacles.  Then, turning himself round, he slowly and
+ponderously crossed one leg over the other, and waved his hand.
+
+"Come to the side," he said, and feeling more conscious up there on the
+dais, I moved round, and he took my hand.
+
+"I am glad to welcome you among us, Frank, to join in our curriculum of
+study, and I hope you will do us all credit.  Er--rum!  Let me see.
+Burr--Frank Burr.  We have another Burr here, who has stuck among us for
+some years."
+
+The Doctor paused and looked round with a very fat smile, in the midst
+of a peculiar silence, till Mr Rebble at the other end said loudly,--
+
+"Ha! ha!  Excellent!" and there was now a loud burst of laughter.
+
+I thought that I should not like Mr Rebble, but I saw that the Doctor
+liked his appreciation of his joke, for he smiled pleasantly, and
+continued,--
+
+"Let me see.  I think we have a pleasant little custom here, not more
+honoured in the breach than in the observance.  Eh, Mr Rebble?"
+
+"Certainly, sir, certainly," said that gentleman, and the Doctor frowned
+at his leg, as he smoothed it down.  But his face cleared directly.
+
+"Er--rum!" he continued, clearing his voice.  "Of having a brief
+cessation from our studies upon the advent of a new boy.  Young
+gentlemen, you may close your books for to-day."
+
+There was a hearty cheer at this, and the Doctor rose, thrust his hand
+into his breast beside his white shirt-frill, then, waving the other
+majestically, he turned to me as the cheering ceased.
+
+"Burr junior," he said, "you can return to your seat."
+
+I stepped back, forgetting all about the dais, and fell rather heavily,
+but sprang up again, scarlet with mortification.
+
+"Not hurt?  No?  That's right," said the Doctor; and amid a chorus of
+"Thank you, sir! thank you, sir!" he marched slowly out of the great
+room, closely followed by Mr Rebble, while I stood, shaken by my fall,
+and half dazed by the uproar.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWO.
+
+How strange it all seemed!  I had ridden down the previous day by the
+Hastings coach, which had left me with my big box at the old inn at
+Middlehurst.  Here the fly had been ordered to take me the remaining ten
+miles on to the school, where I had arrived just at dusk, and, after a
+supper of bread and milk, I was shown my bed, one of six in a large
+room, and made the acquaintance of Mercer, who, after pretty well
+peppering me with questions, allowed me to go to sleep in peace, till
+the bell rang at six, when I sprang out of bed, confused and puzzled at
+finding myself there instead of at home.  Then, as the reality forced
+itself upon me, and I was scowled at by five sleepy boys, all in the
+ill-humoured state caused by being obliged to get up before they
+pleased, I hurriedly dressed, thinking that I could never settle down to
+such a life as that, and wondering what my uncle and my mother would say
+if I started off, went straight back, and told them I did not mean to
+stop at school.
+
+Everything looked cheerless and miserable, for there was a thick fog
+outside, one which had been wafted over from the sea, so that there was
+no temptation to go out, and, in spite of my low spirits, I was hungry
+enough to make me long for breakfast.
+
+This was laid for us in the schoolroom, to which the boys flocked, as
+the big bell on the top of the building rang out again, and here I found
+that there were two long tables, as I supposed, till I was warned about
+being careful, when I found that they were not tables, but the double
+school-desks with the lids of the boys' lockers propped up horizontal.
+
+"And if you don't mind, down they come, and your breakfast goes outside
+instead of in," said Mercer.
+
+Milk and water and bread and butter, but they were good and plentiful,
+and though I was disappointed at first, and began thinking of the hot
+coffee at home, I made a better breakfast than I had expected; and in
+due course, after a walk round the big building, of which I could see
+nothing for the chilly fog, the bell rang again, and I had to hurry back
+into the schoolroom, taking a seat pointed out for me by Mercer, with
+the result related in the last chapter.
+
+"Here, come along!" cried my new friend: "What a game!  You are a good
+chap.  I wish a new boy would come every day.  Hooray! old Rebble's off.
+Bet sixpence he goes down to the river bottom-fishing.  He never
+catches anything.  Goes and sits in his spectacles, blinking at his
+float, and the roach come and give it a bob and are off again long
+before he strikes.  Hi yi yi yi!" he shouted; "here we are again!" and,
+jumping on to the form and from there to the desk, he bent down, took
+lightly hold of the sides, threw up his heels, and stood on his head.
+
+"Here, look at old Mercer!" cried a boy.
+
+"Bravo, Senna T!" cried another.
+
+A dictionary flew across the room, struck the amateur acrobat in the
+back, and fell on the floor, but not much more quickly than my new
+friend went over backwards, the blow having made him overbalance so that
+his feet came with a crash on the desk, the ink flew out of two little
+leaden wells, and the performer rolled off on to the form, and then to
+the floor, with a crash.
+
+"Here!" he cried, springing up.  "Who did that?  Give me that book.  Oh,
+I know!" he cried, snatching the little fat dictionary, and turning over
+the leaves quickly.  "`Eely-hezer Burr.'  Thanky, I wanted some paper.
+I'm all over ink.  What a jolly mess!"
+
+As he spoke, he tore out three or four leaves, and began to wipe the ink
+off his jacket.
+
+"I say, Burr," cried the big boy who had read about Penelope, "Mercer's
+tearing up your dictionary."
+
+"You mind your own business!" cried Mercer, tearing out some more
+leaves, and then throwing the book at the tale-teller just as the tall,
+thin boy, who bore the same name as I, came striding up with his face
+flushed and fists doubled, to plant three or four vigorous blows in
+Mercer's chest and back.
+
+"How dare you tear my book?" he cried.  "Here, you, fat Dicksee, bring
+it here."
+
+"Thought you meant me to use it," cried Mercer, taking the blows
+good-humouredly enough.  "Oh, I say, don't! you hurt!"
+
+"Mischievous beggar!" said my senior taking the book and marching off.
+
+"Go on!  Ask your father to buy you a new one," cried Mercer derisively,
+as he applied a piece of blotting-paper to one leg of his trousers.
+"Hiss!  Goose!"
+
+"Do you wish me to come back and thrash you, Tom Mercer," said the tall
+boy, with a lordly manner.
+
+"No, sir, thank-ye, sir; please don't, and I'll never do so no more,
+sir."
+
+"Miserable beggar," said Burr major.  "Here, Dicksee, come down the
+field and bowl for me.  Bring five or six little uns to field."
+
+"Yah!  Tailor!" said Mercer, as his bully marched out.
+
+"I'll tell him what you said," cried Dicksee.
+
+"Hullo, Penny loaf! you there?  Yes, you'd better tell him.  Just you
+come to me for some physic, and you'll see how I'll serve you."
+
+"Don't ketch me taking any of your stuff again," cried the big, fat,
+sneering-looking fellow.  "I'll tell him, and you'll see."
+
+"Go and tell him then," said Mercer contemptuously.  "So he is a tailor,
+and his father's a tailor.  Why, I saw his name on a brass plate in Cork
+Street."
+
+"So's your father got his name on a brass plate," sneered Dicksee.
+
+"Well, what of that?  My father's a professional gentleman.  Here, come
+on, Burr, and I'll show you round.  Hooray! the sun's come through the
+mist.  Where's your cap?  All right.  You'll have to get a square
+trencher by next Sunday.  This way."
+
+He led me out into the big playground, and turned.
+
+"Ain't a bad house, is it?  Some big lord used to live here, and Magglin
+says his father says it was empty for years, and it was sold cheap at
+last to the Doctor, who only used to have four boys at first."
+
+"Who's Magglin?"
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Mercer; "he calls himself a gardener because he comes
+here to help dig, but I know: he's a poacher, that's what he is.  You
+ask Hopley."
+
+"But I don't know Hopley," I said, laughing.
+
+"You soon will.  He's General Rye's keeper.  I buy birds off him to
+stuff."
+
+"What, geese?"  I said, as I recalled that my companion spoke about a
+goose just before.
+
+"Geese? no.  Magpies and jays and hawks.  I stuff 'em with tow; I'll
+show you how.  Old Hopley says Magglin's a rank poacher, and first time
+he catches him on their grounds he'll pull him up before his master, you
+know.  General's a magistrate.  But he won't catch him.  Magg's too
+artful.  I say, got any money?"
+
+"Yes, I have some," I said.
+
+"That's right.  Don't you spend it.  You save up same as I am.  Magg's
+got a gun I want to buy of him.  He says he won't sell it, but I know
+better.  He will when we offer him enough.  I did offer him ten
+shillings, but he laughed at me.  I say!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It's such a beauty.  Single barrel, with a flint lock, so that it never
+wants no caps, and it comes out of the stock quite easy, and the barrel
+unscrews in the middle, and the ramrod too, so that you can put it all
+in your pocket, and nobody knows that you're carrying a gun."
+
+"But what's the good of a gun here at school?"
+
+"What?  Oh, you don't know because it's all new to you.  Why, there are
+hares in the fields, and pheasants in the coppices, and partridges in
+the hop-gardens, and the rabbits swarm in the hill-sides down toward the
+sea."
+
+"But you don't shoot!"
+
+"Not much, because I have no gun, only a pistol, and it don't carry
+straight.  I did nearly hit a rabbit, though, with it."
+
+"But can you get away shooting?"
+
+"Can I?  Should think I can.  We have all sorts of fun down here.  Can
+you fish?"
+
+"I went once," I said, "on the river."
+
+"But you didn't catch anything," said Mercer, grinning.
+
+"No," I said; "I don't think I had a bite."
+
+"Not you.  Just you wait a bit, I'll take you fishing.  There's the
+river where old Rebble goes, and the mill-pond where old Martin gives me
+leave, and a big old hammer pond out in the middle of General Rye's
+woods where nobody gives me leave, but I go.  It's full of great carp
+and tench and eels big as boa-constrictors."
+
+"Oh, come!"  I said.
+
+"I didn't say big boa-constrictors, did I? there's little ones, I
+daresay.  Here we are.  That's Magglin--didn't know he was here to-day."
+
+He pointed out a rough, shambling-looking young man down the great
+kitchen garden into which he had led me.  This gentleman was in his
+coat, and he was apparently busy doing nothing with a hoe, upon which he
+rested himself, and took off a very ragged fur cap to wipe his brow as
+we came up, saluting us with a broad grin.
+
+"Hallo, Magg! you here?  This is the new boy, Burr."
+
+"Nay," said the man in a harsh, saw-sharpening voice, "think I don't
+know better than that?  That aren't Master Burr."
+
+"No, not that one.  This is the new one.  This is Burr junior."
+
+"Oh, I see," said the man.  "Mornin', Mr Burr juner.  Hope I see you
+well, sir?"
+
+"Oh, he's all right," said Mercer.  "Give him a penny to buy a screw of
+tobacco, Frank."
+
+I gave the required coin, and Mr Magglin spat on it, spun it in the
+air, caught it, and placed it in his pocket.
+
+"Thank-ye," he said.
+
+"Got any birds for me?"
+
+"Nay, nary one; but I knows of a beauty you'd give your ears to get."
+
+"What is it?" cried Mercer eagerly.
+
+"All bootiful green, with a head as red as carrots."
+
+"Get out!  Gammon!  Think I don't know better than that?  He means a
+parrot he's seen in its cage."
+
+"Nay, I don't," said the man.  "I mean a big woodpecker down in Squire
+Hawkus Rye's woods."
+
+"Oh, Magg: get it for me!"
+
+"Nay, I dunno as I can.  Old Hopley's on the look-out for me, and if I
+was to shoot that there bird, he'd swear it was a fezzan."
+
+"Perhaps it is," said Mercer, laughing.
+
+"Nay, not it, my lad," said the man, with a sly-looking smile.  "If it
+was a fezzan I shouldn't bring it to you."
+
+"Why not?  I should like to stuff it."
+
+"Daresay you would, my lad, but if I did that, somebody would stuff me."
+
+"Ha, ha!" laughed Mercer.  "You'd look well in a glass case, Magg."
+
+"Shouldn't look well in prison," said the man, laughing.  "Why, what'd
+become o' the Doctor's taters?"
+
+"Oh, bother the taters.  I say, what about that gun, Magg?"
+
+"What about what gun?" said the man softly, as he gave a sharp glance
+round.
+
+"Get out!  You know."
+
+"Whish!" said the man.  "Don't you get thinking about no guns.  I
+wouldn't ha' showed it to you if I'd known.  Why, if folks knew I had a
+gun, there'd be no end of bother, so don't you say nothing about it
+again."
+
+"Well, then, sell it to me.  Burr here's going to join me."
+
+The man gave me a quick glance, and shook his head.  "I don't sell
+guns," he said.
+
+"Then will you shoot that woodpecker for me?"
+
+"Nay, I mustn't shoot, they'd say I was a poacher.  I'll try and get it
+for you, though, only it'll be a shilling."
+
+"Can't afford more than ninepence, Magg."
+
+"Ninepence it is then; I don't want to be hard on a young gentleman."
+
+"But if it's all knocked to pieces and covered with blood, I shall only
+give you sixpence."
+
+"Oh, this'll be all right, sir."
+
+"When shall you shoot it?"
+
+"Ha'n't I told you I aren't going to shoot it?"
+
+"How will you get it, then?"
+
+"Put some salt on its tail," said the man grinning.  "Get out!  Here, I
+say, could we catch some tench in the mill-pond to-day?"
+
+"Mebbe yes, mebbe no."
+
+"Well, we're going to try.  You have some worms ready for me--a
+penn'orth."
+
+"Tuppence, sir."
+
+"A penny.  Why, you've just had a penny for nothing."
+
+"All right, master.  Going?"
+
+"Yes, I'm showing him round," said Mercer.  "Come along, Burry, we'll go
+and see old Lomax now."
+
+He led the way out of the kitchen garden, and round by a field where the
+Doctor's Alderney cows were grazing, then through a shrubbery to the
+back of the thatched cottage I had dimly seen as the fly drove by the
+previous night.
+
+"Left, right!  Three quarters half face.  As you never were.  Left
+counter-jumper march!  Halt stare at pease!"
+
+All this was shouted by Mercer as we approached the cottage door, and
+had the effect of bringing out a stiff-looking, sturdy, middle-aged man
+with a short pipe in his mouth, which he removed, carried one hand to
+his forehead in a salute, and then stood stiff and erect before us,
+looking sharply at me.
+
+"Mornin', gentlemen," he said.
+
+"Morning," cried Mercer.  "'Tention!  Parade for introductions.  This is
+Field-Marshal Commander-in-Chief Drill-master and Riding-master Lomax.
+This is Burr junior, new boy, come to see you.  I say, Lom, he's going
+to be a soldier.  His father was a soldier in India.  He was killed at
+what's-its-name?--Chilly winegar."
+
+"Eh?" cried the old soldier.  "Glad to see you, sir.  Shake hands, and
+welcome to your new quarters.  Come inside."
+
+"No, not now, I'm showing him round.  We'll come another time, and bring
+you some tobacco, and you shall tell us the story about the fight with
+the Indian rajahs."
+
+"To be sure I will, lads.  Where are you going now?"
+
+"Going?  Let's see.  Oh, I know.  We'll go to Polly Hopley's."
+
+"Ah, I suppose so.  You boys are always going to Polly Hopley's.
+Good-bye."
+
+He shook hands with us, then drew himself up and saluted us
+ceremoniously, and, as I glanced back, I could see him still standing
+upright in his erect, military fashion.
+
+"You'll like old As-you-were," said Mercer, as we went on, now along the
+road.  "The Doctor got hold of him cheap, and he does all sorts of
+things.  Cuts and nails the trees, and goes messages to the town.  He's
+a splendid chap to get things for you."
+
+"But may we go right away like this?"  I said, as I saw we were now far
+from the grounds.
+
+"Oh yes, to-day.  He's very strict at other times, and we have to get
+leave when we want to go out, but this is free day, and I want to show
+you everything because you're new.  Nobody showed me anything.  I had to
+find it all out, and I was so jolly miserable at first that I made up my
+mind to run away and go back home."
+
+"But you did not?"  I said eagerly, for, though I felt better now in the
+interest of meeting fresh people and learning something about the place,
+I could fully appreciate his words.
+
+"No, I didn't," he said thoughtfully.  "You see, I knew I must come to
+school, and if I ran away from this one, if I hadn't been sent back, I
+should have been sent back to another one, and there would have been
+whackings at home, and they would have hurt my mother, who always hated
+to see me have it, though I always deserved it: father said so.  Then
+there would have been whackings here, and they'd have hurt me, so I made
+up my mind to stay."
+
+"That was wise," I said, laughing.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," he replied, wrinkling up his face; "the cane only
+hurts you outside, and it soon goes off, but being miserable hurts you
+inside, and lasts ever so long.  I say, don't you be miserable about
+coming away from home.  You'll soon get over it, and there's lots of
+things to see.  Look there," he cried, stopping at the edge of the road,
+"you can see the sea here.  The doctor will give us leave to go some
+day, and we shall bathe.  There it is.  Don't look far off, does it? but
+it's six miles.  But we've got a bathing pool, too.  See those woods?"
+
+"Yes," I said, as I gazed over the beautiful expanse of hill and dale,
+with a valley sweeping right away to the glittering sea.
+
+"Those are the General's, where the pheasants are, and if you look
+between those fir-trees you can just get a peep of the hammer pond where
+the big eels are."
+
+"Yes, I can see the water shining in the sun," I said eagerly.
+
+"Yes, that's it; and those fields where you see the tall poles dotted
+over in threes and fours are--I say, did you ever see hops?"
+
+"Yes, often," I said; "great, long, tight, round sacks piled-up on
+waggons."
+
+"Yes, that's how they go to market.  I mean growing?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Those are hops, then, climbing up the poles.  That's where the
+partridges get.  Oh, I say, I wish old Magg would sell us that gun.
+We'd go halves in buying it, and I'd play fair; you should shoot just as
+often as I did."
+
+"But he will not sell it," I said.
+
+"Oh, he will some day, when he wants some money."
+
+"And what would Doctor Browne do if he knew?"
+
+"Smug it!" said Mercer, with a comical look, "when he knew.  Look! see
+that open ground there with the clump of fir-trees and the long slope of
+sand going down to that hollow place!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Rabbits, and blackberries.  Such fine ones when they're ripe!  And just
+beyond there, at the sandy patch at the edge of the wood, snakes!--big
+ones, too.  I'm going to catch one and stuff it."
+
+"But can you?"
+
+"I should think so--badly, you know, but I'm getting better.  I had to
+find all this out that I'm telling you, but perhaps you don't care about
+it, and want to go back to the cricket-field?"
+
+"No, no," I cried; "I do like it."
+
+"That's right.  If we went back we should only have to bowl for old
+Eely.  Everybody has to bowl for him, and he thinks he's such a dabster
+with the bat, but he's a regular muff.  Never carried the bat out in his
+life.  Like hedgehogs?"
+
+"Well, I don't know," I said.  "They're so prickly."
+
+"Yes; but they can't help it, poor things.  There's lots about here.
+Wish we could find one now, we'd take it back and hide it in old Eely's
+bed.  I don't know though, it wouldn't be much fun now, because he'd
+know directly that I did it.  I say, you never saw a dog with a
+hedgehog.  Did you?"
+
+"No," I said.
+
+"It's the finest of fun.  Piggy rolls himself up tight like a ball, and
+Nip,--that's Magg's dog, you know,--he tries to open him, and pricks his
+nose, and dances round him and barks, but it's no good, piggy knows
+better than to open out.  I've had three.  Magg gets them for me.  He
+told me for sixpence how he got them."
+
+"And how's that?"  I said, eager to become a master in all this
+woodcraft.
+
+"Why, you catch a hedgehog first."
+
+"Yes," I said, "but how?"
+
+Mercer looked at me, and rubbed his ear.
+
+"Oh, that is only the first one," he said hurriedly.
+
+"But you must know how to catch the first one first."
+
+"Oh, I say, don't argue like that.  It is like doing propositions in
+Euclid.  You have to begin with one hedgehog, that's an axiom.  Then you
+take him in your pocket."
+
+"Doesn't it prick?"  I said.
+
+"Oh, I don't know.  How you keep interrupting!  And you go out at night
+when it's full moon, and then go and sit down on a felled tree right in
+the middle of an open place in the wood.  You get a bit of stick, a
+rough bit, and take hold of piggy's foot and rub his hind leg with the
+stick."
+
+"But suppose he curls up," I said.
+
+"Oh, bother!  Don't!  How am I to tell you?  You mustn't let him curl
+up.  You rub his hind leg with the stick, and then he begins to sing."
+
+"Oh, come!"  I said, bursting out laughing.
+
+"Well, squeal, then, ever so loud, and the louder he squeals, the harder
+you must rub."
+
+"But it hurts him."
+
+"Oh, not much.  What's a hedgehog that he isn't to be hurt a bit!  Boys
+get hurt pretty tidy here when the Doctor's cross.  Well, as soon as he
+squeals out, all the hedgehogs who hear him come running to see what's
+the matter, and you get as many as you like, and put 'em in a hutch, but
+you mustn't keep live things here, only on the sly.  I had so many, the
+Doctor put a stop to all the boys keeping things, rabbits, and white
+mice, and all.  That's why I stuff."
+
+"What is?"
+
+"Because you can keep frogs, and jays, and polecats, and snakes, and
+anything, and they don't want to be fed."
+
+"What a nice cottage!"  I said suddenly, as we came upon a red-brick,
+red-tiled place, nearly all over ivy.
+
+"Yes, that's Polly Hopley's--and hi! there goes old Hopley."
+
+A man in a closely fitting cap and brown velveteen jacket, who was going
+down the road, faced round, took a gun from off his shoulder and placed
+it under his arm.
+
+He was a big, burly, black-whiskered man, with brown face and dark eyes,
+and he showed his white teeth as he came slowly to meet us.
+
+"Well, Master Mercer?" he said.  "Why ain't you joggryfing?"
+
+"Whole holiday.  New boy.  This is him.  Burr junior, this is Bob
+Hopley, General's keeper.  Chuck your cap up in the air, and he'll make
+it full of shot-holes.  He never misses."
+
+"Oh yes, I do," said the keeper, shaking his head; "and don't you do as
+he says.  Charge of powder and shot's too good to be wasted."
+
+"Oh, all right.  I say, got anything for me?"
+
+"No, not yet.  I did knock over a hawk, but I cut his head off."
+
+"What for?  With your knife?"
+
+"No-o-o!  Shot.  You shall have the next.  Don't want a howl, I s'pose?"
+
+"Yes, yes, a white one.  Do shoot one for me, there's a good chap."
+
+"Well, p'raps I may.  I know where there's a nest."
+
+"Do you?  Oh, where?" cried Mercer.  "I want to see one, so does he--
+this chap here."
+
+"Well, it's in the pigeon-cote up agen Dawson's oast-house, only he
+won't have 'em touched."
+
+"What a shame!"
+
+"Says they kills the young rats and mice.  Like to go and see it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, I'm going round by Rigg's Spinney, and I'll meet you at the farm
+gates.  Jem Roff'll let you go up if I ask him."
+
+"How long will you be?"
+
+"Hour!  Don't forget!"
+
+"Just as if we should!" cried Mercer, as the keeper shouldered his gun
+again and marched off.  "It's rather awkward, though."
+
+"What is?"  I said.
+
+"Being friends with Magglin and Bob Hopley too, because they hate each
+other awfully.  But then, you see, it means natural history, don't it?"
+
+He looked at me as if he meant me to say it, so I said, "Yes."
+
+"An hour.  What shall we do for an hour?  'Tisn't long enough to go to
+the hammer pond, nor yet to hunt snakes, because we should get so
+interested that we should forget to come back.  But, I say, would you
+rather go back to the school field, where the other chaps are, or come
+back and pick out your garden?  We've all got gardens.  Or have a game
+at rounders, or--"
+
+"No, no no," I said.  "I like all this.  It's all new to me.  I was
+never in the country like this before."
+
+"Then you do like it?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"That's right.  Then you will not mind old Rebble's impositions, and the
+Doctor being disagreeable, and going at us, nor the boys pitching into
+you, as they all do--the big ones--when the Doctor's pitched into them.
+Why, you don't look so miserable now as you did."
+
+"Don't I?"
+
+"No.  It's awful coming away from home, I know, and I do get so tired of
+learning so many things.  You do have to try so much to get to know
+anything at all.  Now, let's see what shall we do for an hour?"
+
+"Go for a walk," I suggested.
+
+"Oh, that's no good, without you're going to do something.  I know;
+we'll go back and make Magg lend us his ferret, and then we'll try for a
+rabbit."
+
+"Very well," I said eagerly.
+
+"No, that wouldn't do, because his ferret's such a beggar."
+
+"Is he?"  I said.
+
+"Yes; he goes into a hole in a bank and comes out somewhere else, far
+enough off, and you can't find him, or else he goes in and finds a
+rabbit, and eats him, and then curls up for a sleep, and you waiting all
+the time.  That wouldn't do; there isn't time enough.  You want all day
+for that, and we've only got an hour.  Wish I hadn't said we'd go and
+see the owls."
+
+"Shall we sit down and wait?"  I suggested.
+
+"No, no.  I can't wait.  I never could.  It's horrid having to wait.
+Here, I know.  It's lunch-time, and we're here.  Let's go into Polly
+Hopley's and eat cakes and drink ginger-beer till it's time to go."
+
+"Very well," I said, willingly enough, for walking had made me thirsty.
+
+"I haven't got any money, but Polly will trust me."
+
+"I've got some," I ventured to observe.
+
+"Ah, but you mustn't spend that.  You've got to help pay for the gun.
+Come on.--Here, Polly, two bottles of ginger-beer, and sixpenn'orth of
+bis--I say, got any fresh gingerbread?"
+
+This was to a stoutish, dark-eyed woman of about one-and-twenty, as we
+entered the cottage, in one of whose windows there was a shelf with a
+row of bottles of sweets and a glass jar of biscuits.
+
+"Yes, sir, quite new--fresh from Hastings," said the girl eagerly.  And
+she produced a box full of brown, shiny-topped squares.
+
+"Was it some of this old Dicksee had yesterday?" said Mercer.
+
+"Yes, sir.  I opened the fresh box for him, and he had four tuppenny
+bits."
+
+"Then we will not," said my companion sharply.  "Let's have biscuits
+instead."
+
+The biscuits were placed before us, and the keeper's daughter then took
+a couple of tied-down stone bottles from a shelf.
+
+"I say," cried Mercer, "I didn't introduce you.  Burr junior, this is
+Polly Hopley.  Polly, this is--"
+
+"Yes, sir, I know.  I heard you tell father," said the woman quickly, as
+she cut the string.
+
+_Pop_!
+
+Out came the opal-looking, bubbling liquid into a grey mug covered with
+stripes, and then _Pop_! again, and a mug was filled for my companion,
+ready for us to nod at each other and take a deep draught of the
+delicious brewing--that carefully home-made ginger-beer of fifty years
+ago--so mildly effervescent that it could be preserved in a stone
+bottle, and its cork held with a string.  A very different beverage to
+the steam-engine-made water fireworks, all wind, fizzle, cayenne pepper,
+and bang, that is sold now under the name.
+
+"Polly makes this herself on purpose for us," said Mercer importantly.
+"We boys drink it all."
+
+"And don't always pay for it," said Polly sharply.
+
+I saw Mercer's face change, and I recalled what he had said about
+credit.
+
+"Why--er--" he began.
+
+"Oh, I don't mean you, sir, and I won't mention any names, but I think
+young gen'lemen as drinks our ginger-beer ought to pay, and father says
+so too."
+
+I glanced at Mercer, whose face was now scarlet, and, seeing that he was
+thinking about what he had said respecting credit, I quietly slipped my
+hand into my pocket and got hold of a shilling.
+
+"It is beautiful ginger-beer," I said, after another draught.
+
+"Beautiful," said Mercer dismally, but he gave quite a start and then
+his eyes shone brightly as he glanced at me gratefully, for I had handed
+the shilling to the keeper's daughter, who took it to a jug on the
+chimney-piece, dropped it in, and then shook out some half-pence from a
+cracked glass and gave me my change.
+
+"Here, put your biscuits in your pocket, Burr," cried Mercer, "and we'll
+go on now."
+
+Saying which, he set the example, finished his ginger-beer, and made the
+keeper's daughter smile by declaring it was better than ever.
+
+"Glad you like it, sir; and of course you know I didn't mean you, as
+I've trusted before, and will again, because you always pay."
+
+"Thank-ye.  I know whom you mean," he replied.  "Come on."
+
+As soon as we were out of sight of the cottage, Mercer laid an arm on my
+shoulder.
+
+"I can't say what I want to," he said quickly, "but I liked that, and I
+won't ever forget it.  If ever old Eely hits you, I'll go at him, see if
+I don't, and I don't care how hard he knocks me about, and if ever I can
+do anything for you, to save you from a caning, I will, or from any
+other trouble.  You see if I don't.  I like you, Burr junior, that I do,
+and--and do come along, or we shall be late."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THREE.
+
+"What a fuss about nothing!"  I thought to myself, as we went on, down a
+beautiful lane, with tempting-looking woods on either side, and
+fox-gloves on the banks, and other wild-flowers full of attractions to
+me as a town boy.  There was a delicious scent, too, in the air, which I
+had yet to learn was from the young shoots of the fir-trees, growing
+warm in the sunshine.
+
+I had made no boy friendships up to then, and, as I glanced sideways at
+the pleasant, frank face of the lad walking quickly by me, just at a
+time when I had been oppressed by the loneliness of my position, fresh
+from home and among strangers, a strong feeling of liking for him began
+to spring up, and with it forgetfulness of the misery I had suffered.
+
+"Hi! look! there he goes," cried Mercer just then, and he pointed up
+into an oak tree.
+
+"What is it?"  I said excitedly.
+
+"He's gone now; wait a minute, and you'll soon see another.  There he
+is--listen."
+
+He held up his hand, and I stood all attention, but there was no sound
+for a few minutes.  Then from out of the woods came plainly.
+
+_Chop chop, chop chop_.
+
+"I can't see him," I said.  "Some one's cutting down a tree."
+
+Mercer burst into a roar of laughter.
+
+"Oh, I say, you are a Cockney!" he cried.  "Cutting down a tree!  Why,
+you don't seem to know anything about the country."
+
+"Well," I rejoined rather warmly, "that isn't my fault.  I've always
+lived in London."
+
+"Among the fogs and blacks.  Never mind, you'll soon learn it all.  I
+did.  Wish I could learn my Latin and mathicks half as fast.  That isn't
+anybody cutting wood; it's a squirrel."
+
+"A squirrel?"
+
+"Yes; there he goes.  He's coming this way.  You watch him.  He's cross,
+because he sees us.  There, what did I say?"
+
+I looked in the direction he pointed out, and saw the leaves moving.
+Then there was a rustle, and the little brown and white animal leaped
+from bough to bough, till I saw it plainly on a great grey and green
+mossy bough of a beech tree, not thirty feet away, where it stood
+twisting and jerking its beautiful feathery tail from side to side, and
+then, as if scolding us, it began to make the sounds I had before
+heard--_Chop, chop, chop, chop_, wonderfully like the blows of an axe
+falling on wood.
+
+"Wonder whether I could hit him," cried Mercer, picking up a stone.
+
+"No, no, don't!  I want to look at him."
+
+"There's lots about here, and they get no end of the nuts in the autumn.
+But come along."
+
+We soon left the squirrel behind, and Mercer stopped again, in a shady
+part of the lane.
+
+"Hear that," he said, as a loud _chizz chizz chizz_ came from a dry
+sandy spot, where the sun shone strongly.
+
+"Yes, and I know what it is," I cried triumphantly.  "That's a cricket
+escaped from the kitchen fireplace."
+
+Mercer laughed.
+
+"It's a cricket," he said, "but it's a field one.  You don't know what
+that is, though," he continued, as a queer sound saluted my ears,--a
+low, dull whirring, rising and falling, sometimes nearer, sometimes
+distant, till it died right away.
+
+"Now then, what is it?" he cried.
+
+"Knife-grinder," I said; "you'll hear the blade screech on the stone
+directly."
+
+"Wrong.  That's Dame Durden with her spinning-wheel."
+
+"Ah, well, I knew it was a wheel sound.  Is there a cottage in there?"
+
+"No," he said, laughing again; "it's a bird."
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"It is.  It is a night-jar.  They make that noise in their throats, and
+you can see them of a night, flying round and round the trees, like
+great swallows, catching the moths."
+
+I looked hard at him.
+
+"I say!"
+
+"Yes; what?"
+
+"Don't you begin cramming me, because, if you do, I shall try a few
+London tales on you."
+
+Mercer laughed.
+
+"There's an old unbeliever for you.  I'm not joking you; I never do that
+sort of thing.  It is a bird really."
+
+"Show it to me then."
+
+"I can't.  He's sitting somewhere on a big branch, long way up, and you
+can't find them because they look so like the bark of the tree, and you
+don't know where the sound comes from.  They're just like the
+corn-crakes."
+
+"I've read about corn-crakes," I said.
+
+"Well, there's plenty here.  You wait till night, and I'll open our
+bedroom window, and you can hear them craking away down in the meadows.
+You never can tell whereabouts they are, though, and you very seldom see
+them.  They're light brown birds."
+
+We were walking on now, and twice over he stopped, smiling at me, so
+that I could listen to the night-jars, making their whirring noise in
+the wood.
+
+"Now, was I cramming you?" he said.
+
+"No, and I will not doubt you again.  Why, what a lot you know about
+country things!"
+
+"Not I.  That's nothing.  You soon pick up all that.  Ever hear a
+nightingale?"
+
+"No, I don't think so."
+
+"Then you haven't.  You'll hear them to-night, if it's fine, singing
+away in the copses, and answering one another for miles round."
+
+"Why, this must be a beautiful place, then?"
+
+"I should think it is--it's lovely.  I don't mean the school; I hate
+that, and the way they bore you over the lessons, and the more stupid
+you are, the harder they are upon you.  I'm always catching it.  'Tain't
+my fault I'm so stupid."
+
+I looked at him sharply, for he seemed to me to be crammed full of
+knowledge.
+
+"The Doctor told me one day I was a miserable young idiot, and that I
+thought about nothing but birds and butterflies.  Can't help it.  I like
+to.  I say, we'll go egging as soon as we've seen the owls.  Wonder
+whether I can get an owl's egg for my collection.  I've got two
+night-jars'."
+
+"Out of the nest?"
+
+"They don't make any nest; I found them just as they were laid on some
+chips, where they were cutting down and trimming young trees for
+hop-poles.  Such beauties!  But come along.  Yes, he said I was a young
+idiot, but father don't mind my wanting to collect things.  He likes
+natural history, and mamma collects plants, and names them.  She can
+tell you the names of all the flowers you pass by, and--whisht--snake!"
+
+"Where?  Where?"
+
+"Only gone across here," said my companion, pointing to a winding track
+in the dusty road, showing where the reptile must have crossed from one
+side to the other.
+
+"Which way did he go?"  I said; "let's hunt him."
+
+"No good," said my companion quietly.  "He's off down some hole long
+enough ago.  Never mind him; I can show you plenty of snakes in the
+woods, and adders too."
+
+"They sting, don't they?"  I said.
+
+"No."
+
+"They do.  Adders or vipers are poisonous."
+
+"Yes, but they don't sting; they bite.  They've got poisoned fangs.  You
+can see an adder along here sometimes.  Perhaps we shall see one to-day,
+warming himself in the sun."
+
+But we did not, for a few minutes later we approached a swing gate, just
+as the keeper came round a curve in the opposite direction.
+
+"Here you are, then," he said, "just right.  Farmer Dawson's gone off to
+market, and so we shan't have to ask leave.  Come on, and let's see if
+we can find Jem Roff."
+
+He pushed open the gate, and we went along a cart track for some
+distance, and then on through one of the hop-gardens, with its tall
+poles draped with the climbing rough-leaved vines, some of which had
+reached over and joined hands with their fellows, to make loops and
+festoons, all beautiful to my town-bred eyes, as was the glimpse I
+caught of a long, low old English farmhouse and garden, with a row of
+bee-hives, as we went round a great yard surrounded by buildings--
+stables, barns, sheds, and cow-houses, with at one corner four tall
+towers, looking like blunt steeples with the tops cut off to accommodate
+as many large wooden cowls.
+
+"What are they?"  I asked.
+
+"Oast-houses."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Oast-houses, where they dry the hops over a fire on horse-hair sheets,"
+said Mercer.  "Look! that's the pigeon-cote," he continued, pointing to
+three rows of holes cut in the woodwork which connected the brick
+towers.  "The owl's nest's in one of those."
+
+Just then a middle-aged man, with a very broad smile upon his face, and
+a fork in his hand, came up.
+
+"Here, Jem," said the keeper, "the young gentlemen want to see the owl's
+nest."
+
+The smile departed from the man's face, which he wiped all over with one
+hand, as he frowned and shook his head.
+
+"Nay, nay," he said.  "The master's very 'tickler 'bout them howls.
+Why, if I was to kill one, he'd 'most kill me."
+
+"The young gents won't hurt 'em, Jem."
+
+"Nay, but they'd be wanting to take eggs, or young ones, or suthin'."
+
+"Well, I should like one egg," said Mercer.
+
+"Ah, I thowt so!  Nay, you mustn't goo."
+
+"Oh yes, let us go," said Mercer.  "There, I won't touch an egg."
+
+"An' you won't touch the birds?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Nor him neither."
+
+"Oh, I won't touch them," I said eagerly.
+
+"You see the master says they do no end of good, killing the mice and
+young rats."
+
+"And I say they do no end of mischief, killing the young partridges and
+fezzans and hares," said the keeper.  "Better not let me get a sight o'
+one down our woods."
+
+The man wiped his face again with his hand, and looked at us both
+attentively.
+
+"Young master here said he'd stooff a magpie for me if you shot one, Bob
+Hopley."
+
+"So I will," said Mercer, "if Mr Hopley shoots one for you."
+
+"That's a bargain then," said the man, rummaging in his pocket, after
+sticking the fork in the ground.  "Here, this way," he continued, as he
+drew out a bright key.  "Coming, Bob?"
+
+"No, I don't want to see owls, 'less they're nailed on my shed door."
+
+He seated himself on the edge of a great hay-rack, and we followed the
+farmer's man through a door into the dark interior of one of the
+oast-houses, where we looked up to see the light coming in through the
+opening at the side of the cowl, and then followed Jem up some steps
+into a broad loft, at one corner of which was a short ladder leading up
+to a trap-door in the floor overhead.
+
+"Mind your heads, young gents, ceiling's pretty low."
+
+We had already found that out by having our caps scraped by a rough beam
+under which we passed.
+
+"Now then, go up the ladder and push the trap-door open gently, so as
+not to frighten 'em.  Turn the door right over, and let it down by the
+staple so as it lies on the floor.  'Tain't dark; plenty o' light comes
+through the pigeon-holes."
+
+"Haven't you got any pigeons now, Jem Roff?"
+
+"No, nor don't want none.  Up wi' ye, and let me get back to my work."
+
+Mercer needed no further invitation, and, followed closely by me, he
+crossed to the corner where the ladder stood, climbed up, thrust the
+trap-door over, and disappeared--head--shoulders--body--legs.
+
+Then I climbed too, and found myself in a dirty, garret-like place, lit
+by the rays falling through about a score of pigeon-holes.
+
+For a few moments the place was dim, and I could hardly make out
+anything, but very soon after my eyes grew accustomed to the half light,
+and I was ready to join in Mercer's admiration as he cried,--"Isn't he a
+beauty!"
+
+For we were looking where, in one corner, sitting bolt upright, with his
+eyes half closed, there was a fine young owl, just fully fledged and fit
+to fly, while nothing could be more beautiful than his snow-white,
+flossy breast, and the buff colour of his back, all dotted over with
+grey, and beautifully-formed dots.
+
+"Oh, shouldn't I like him to stuff!" cried Mercer.  "He'll never look so
+clean and beautiful again."
+
+"But what's that?"  I cried, pointing at a hideous-looking goblin-like
+creature, with a great head, whose bare skin was tufted with patches of
+white down.  Its eyes were enormous, but nearly covered by a
+nasty-looking skin, which seemed to be stretched over them.  Projecting
+beneath was an ugly great beak, and its nearly naked body, beneath the
+toppling head and weak neck, was swollen and bloated up as if it would
+crack at a touch.  Altogether it was as disgusting a looking object as
+it was possible to imagine.
+
+"That's his young brother," cried Mercer, laughing.
+
+"Young nonsense!  It must be a very, very old owl that has lost all its
+feathers."
+
+"Not it.  That chap's somewhere about a fortnight old; and look there,
+you can see an egg in the nest, too.  Shouldn't I like it!"
+
+"Then it's the nest belonging to three pairs of owls?"  I said.
+
+"No.  That's the way they do--hatch one egg at a time.  They all belong
+to the same pair."
+
+I felt a little incredulous, but my attention was taken up then by a
+semicircle of little animals arranged about two feet from the
+nesting-place.
+
+"Why, they're all big mice," I said.
+
+"No; nearly all young rats," said Mercer, counting.  "Twenty-two," he
+cried, "and all fresh.  Why, they must have been caught last night.
+That's a fine mouse," he cried, taking one up by its tail.
+
+"Why, that must be a young rat," I said.  "That little one's a mouse."
+
+"No; this is a field mouse.  Look at his long tail and long ears.  The
+rats have got shorter, thicker tails, and look thicker altogether."
+
+"Now then, are you young gents a-coming down?" shouted Jem.
+
+"Yes.  All right.  Directly.  Oh, isn't that fellow a beauty!" he
+continued, throwing down the mouse he had lifted back into its place in
+the owls' larder.  "I say, don't the old ones keep up a good supply!"
+
+A second summons from the man made us prepare to descend, the full-grown
+owl making no effort to escape, but blinking at us, and making a soft,
+hissing noise.  The goblin-looking younger one, however, gaped widely,
+and seemed to tumble over backwards from the weight of its head.  It was
+so deplorable and old-looking a creature that it seemed impossible that
+it could ever grow into a soft, thickly feathered bird like the other,
+and I said so.
+
+"Oh, but it will," said Mercer; "all birds that I know of, except ducks
+and chickens and geese, are horridly ugly till they are fledged.  Young
+thrushes and rooks are nasty-looking, big-eyed, naked things at first.
+There: you go on down."
+
+I descended through the trap-door, and he followed, the man looking at
+us searchingly, as if he had not much faith in our honesty when face to
+face with such temptations as owls' eggs, but his look was only
+momentary, and he took it for granted that we had kept our word.
+
+"Where are the old birds, Jem?" said my companion.
+
+"Oh, right away somewhere in the woods, asleep.  Want to see them?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Then you must come at night, and you'll see these young ones sitting at
+one of the holes giving a hiss now and then for the old birds to come
+and feed them, and every now and then one of them flies up."
+
+"Yes, I know," said Mercer, "so still and softly that you can't hear the
+wings.  But I should like that egg."
+
+"Then you had better ask the master, and see what he says."
+
+"Well, my lads," cried Hopley, in his bluff, deep voice, "seen the
+owls?"
+
+"Yes; and now, I say, Bob Hopley, you'll let us go through the big
+beech-wood, and round by the hammer pond?"
+
+"What for?" said the keeper.
+
+"It's holiday to-day, and I want to show this chap, our new boy, round."
+
+"What! to teach him mischief like you know?"
+
+"Get out.  I don't do any mischief.  You might let us go."
+
+"Not my wood, it's master's."
+
+"Well, he wouldn't mind."
+
+"And I've got young fezzans in coops all about the place."
+
+"Well, we don't want the pheasants."
+
+"I should think not, indeed; and just you look here: I see you've got
+that chap Magglin up at work in your garden again; you just tell him
+from me that if ever I see him in our woods, I'll give him a peppering
+with small shot."
+
+"You carry your impudent messages yourself, or tell the Doctor," said
+Mercer sharply.
+
+"What?" cried the keeper, scowling at us.
+
+"I say, you take your impudent messages yourself.  You know you daren't
+shoot at him."
+
+"Oh, daren't I?  I'll let him see."
+
+"It's against the law, and your master's a magistrate.  You know you
+daren't.  What would he say?"
+
+The keeper raised his gun with both hands, breathed on the mottled
+walnut-wood stock, and began to polish it with the sleeve of his
+velveteen jacket.  Then he looked furtively at Jem Roff, then at me, and
+lastly at Mercer, before letting the gun fall in the hollow of his arm,
+and taking off his cap to give his head a scratch, while a grim smile
+began to play about his lips.
+
+"You've got me there, youngster," he said slowly, and Jem began to
+chuckle.
+
+"Of course I have," said Mercer confidently.  "Besides, what's that got
+to do with me?"
+
+"Why, he's a friend of yours."
+
+"That I'm sure he's not.  He's a nasty, mean beggar, who makes me pay
+ever so much for everything he does for me.  You ask him," continued
+Mercer, giving his head a side wag at me, "if only this morning he
+didn't make me give him twopence for a pen'orth of worms."
+
+"Yes, that he did," I said, coming to my companion's help.
+
+"Humph!" grunted the keeper.  "Well, youngsters, never you mind that,
+you pay him, and keep him at a distance.  He's no good to nobody, and I
+wonder at Doctor Browne, as teaches young gents to be gents, should keep
+such a bad un about his place.  He's a rank poacher, that's what he is,
+and there ain't nothing worse than a poacher, is there, Jem Roff?"
+
+"Thief," said that gentleman.
+
+"Thief?  I don't know so much about that.  Thieves don't go thieving
+with loaded guns to shoot keepers, do they?"
+
+"Well, no," said Jem.
+
+"Of course they don't, so that's what I say--there aren't nothing worse
+than a poacher, and don't you young gents have anything to do with him,
+or, as sure as you stand there, he'll get you into some scrape."
+
+"Who's going to have anything to do with him?" cried Mercer pettishly.
+
+"Why, you are, sir."
+
+"I only buy a bird of him, sometimes, to stuff."
+
+"Yes, birds he's shot on our grounds, I'll be bound, or else trapped
+ones."
+
+"Well, they're no good, and you never shoot anything for me.  P'r'aps he
+is a bad one, but if I pay him, he is civil.  He wouldn't refuse to let
+two fellows go through the big woods."
+
+"Thought you was going fishing."
+
+"Not till this evening, after tea."
+
+"Where are you going?"
+
+"Down by the mill."
+
+"Wouldn't like to try after a big carp, I s'pose, or one of our old
+perch?"
+
+"Wouldn't like!" cried Mercer excitedly.
+
+"No, I thought you wouldn't," said the keeper.  "There, I must be off."
+
+"Oh, I say, Bob Hopley, do give us leave."
+
+"What leave?"
+
+"To have an hour or two in the hammer pond.  There's a good chap, do!"
+
+"The master mightn't like it.  Not as he ever said I wasn't to let any
+one fish."
+
+"Then let's go."
+
+"No, my lads, I'm not going to give you leave," said the keeper, with a
+twinkle in his eyes; "but there's a couple o' rods and lines all right,
+under the thatch of the boat-house."
+
+"Yes, Bob, but what about bait?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know 'bout bait.  P'r'aps there's some big worms in the
+moss in that old tin pot in the corner."
+
+"Oh, Bob!" cried Mercer excitedly, while I felt my heart beat heavily.
+
+"Yes, now I come to think of it, there is some worms in that tin pot, as
+I got to try for an eel or two."
+
+"Then we may go?"
+
+"Nay, nay, don't you be in a hurry.  It won't do.  Why, if I was to let
+you two go, you might catch some fish, a big carp, or a perch, or one of
+they big eels."
+
+"Yes, of course we might."
+
+"And if you did, you'd go right back to the school and tell young
+Magglin, and he'd be setting night lines by the score all over the
+pond."
+
+"No; honour!  We'll never say a word to him!" we cried.
+
+"Then you'll tell all your schoolmates, and that big long hop-pole chap,
+what's his name?"
+
+"Burr major," said Mercer eagerly.
+
+"And that big fat-faced boy?"
+
+"Dicksee?"
+
+"Yes, that's him, and I'll give him Dicksee if he chucks stones at my
+Polly's hens.  We shall be having 'em lay eggs with the shells broke."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Bob!  We won't tell."
+
+"And them two, and all the others coming and wanting leave to go fishing
+too."
+
+"No, no, I tell you," cried Mercer, but the keeper, with a malicious
+twinkle in his eyes, kept on without heeding him.
+
+"And half of 'em'll be falling in, and t'other half tumble after 'em to
+pull 'em out, and the whole school getting drowned, and then, what would
+the Doctor say?"
+
+"I say, Jem Roff, just hark at him!" cried Mercer impatiently.
+
+"Oh, if you don't want to hear me talk, I can keep my mouth shut.  Good
+morning."
+
+He nodded shortly, and, shouldering his gun, marched off.
+
+"Oh, I say, isn't he provoking? and he never gave us leave.--Bob!"
+
+No answer.
+
+"Bob Hopley!"
+
+But the keeper strode on without turning his head, and Mercer stood
+wrinkling up his forehead, the picture of despair.
+
+"And there are such lots of fish in that pond," he cried, "and I did
+want to show my friend here, Jem Roff."
+
+"Well, why don't you go, then?  He's only teasing you."
+
+"Think so," cried my companion, brightening up.
+
+"Why, didn't he tell you where the rods and lines were, and the worms?
+You go on and fish.  I should."
+
+"You would, Jem?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"But there won't be time before dinner now," said Mercer thoughtfully.
+"I say, are you hungry?"
+
+"Not very," I said, "and I've got some biscuits left."
+
+"Then come on," cried Mercer.  "Don't tell him weave gone, Jem, and I
+will stuff that mag for you splendidly, see if I don't."
+
+"I shan't see him, my lad.  There, off you go."
+
+"Yes: come on!" cried Mercer excitedly; "and--I say, Jem, lend us a
+basket."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To put the fish in?"
+
+"You go and ketch 'em first, lad, and by and by I'll come round that way
+with one under my arm, and you might give a fellow an eel, if you get
+one."
+
+"You shall have all the eels, Jem."
+
+"Thank-ye.  Then look here! you bait one line with the biggest worms you
+can find, and do you know the penstock?"
+
+"What, down in the deep corner, under the trees?"
+
+"Yes; it's ten foot deep there.  You fish right on the bottom, in that
+corner, and you'll have some sport."
+
+"Hallo!" cried Mercer, laughing.  "I say, Burr, junior, hark at him.
+How does he know?  I say, Jem, how many eels have you caught there, eh?"
+
+"You go and begin," said the man, with a dry laugh.  "I won't forget
+about the basket."
+
+"Nor I about the eels.  Come on," cried Mercer.  "Here, look sharp;
+let's run!"
+
+He caught hold of my hand, raced me through the hop-garden, and out into
+the lane.
+
+"Now, down here," he said, as we reached a stile.  "We can get across
+this field, and then into the woods, and--quick, do as I do!"
+
+As he spoke, he dropped down on his knees, and began hunting about at
+the bottom of the hedge, while I made clumsy efforts to do the same.
+
+"What is it?"  I said eagerly.
+
+"Pretend it's a snake.  Can't you see?"
+
+"No."
+
+"There's Eely Burr and old Dicksee coming down the lane, and they'll
+want to come too.  Hist! don't look.  Lie down; p'r'aps they haven't
+seen us, and they'll go by."
+
+"But it's all stinging nettles," I said.
+
+"What of that?  Here, this way; they won't sting if you go down hard."
+
+And, throwing himself into a great bed of the venomous weeds, he lay
+perfectly still, and I was obliged to follow suit, but not without
+suffering two or three stings.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOUR.
+
+DOWN BY THE PENSTOCK.
+
+It seemed a long time before we heard anything, but at last there were
+steps and voices which soon became plain, and, to my surprise, I found
+that they were talking about me.
+
+"Oh, he can't fight, Dicksy," said one voice, which I recognised as the
+tall boy's--my namesake.  "Those London chaps are all talk and no do.  I
+shall give him a licking first chance, just to tame him down, and then
+you'd better have a go at him."
+
+"You think he can't fight, then?"
+
+"Tchah! not he.  You can lick him with one hand."
+
+"Then I will," said Dicksee.  "I wonder where he went."
+
+"Off with that old Senna T-pot," said Burr major scornfully.  "He's
+taken him with him to pick snails and frogs--an idiot!  I hate that
+chap, Dicksy, he's a beast."
+
+"Yes, that he is."
+
+"You can't shake hands with him, because you never know what he's
+touched last.  I think the Doctor ought to be more particular about the
+sort of boys he--mumble--hum--hum hum hum!"
+
+The buzzing of a humble-bee, and then silence.
+
+"Ck!"
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"Ck!" ejaculated Mercer, uttering a stifled laugh.  "Oh, I say, what a
+game, and us hearing every word.  Thinks the Doctor ought to be more
+particular what sort of boys he has in the school.  I suppose that's
+meant for me.  Well, my father is a gentleman, and could set his to make
+him a pair of trousers if he liked.  Can't shake hands with me, can't
+he?  Well, who wants him to?  I wish I could fight, I'd make him smell
+my hands--my fists.  He'd know then what they'd touched.  But he can
+fight, and licked me horrid.  Lie still yet, or they'll see us get up; I
+thought they were in the cricket-field.  Tired, I suppose.  Such a fuss
+about making your hands a bit dirty.  Daresay I keep 'em as clean as he
+does his.  I say, got stung?"
+
+"A little," I said.
+
+"Never mind; dock's the thing to cure that.  All right.  Gone.  Now
+then, over the stile, and do as I do."
+
+He crept over the stile, and into the field, and began to run down
+beside the hedge in a stooping position, while I followed suit, and we
+did not rise up till we gained the shelter of the trees.
+
+"There we are!  This is the beginning of the woods.  Oh, it's such a
+place!"
+
+"You've been before, then?"  I said, as we began to wind in and out
+among large beech-trees, whose smooth grey trunks were spotted with
+creamy and green moss.
+
+"Lots of times.  I go everywhere when I can get away.  It's a famous
+place here for moths.  There's old Dame Durden again.  This way--now
+down here; we shall soon be there."
+
+I followed him for about a quarter of an hour through the dim, mossy
+glades of the grand old wood, till all at once it grew lighter, and we
+stepped out beside a broad sheet of water dotted with lilies and patches
+of rush and reed, while about fifty yards farther along the bank of the
+broad pool there was a roughly-thatched boat-house, with a mossy old
+punt moored to one of the posts by a rusty chain.
+
+"Now, then, what do you think of this, eh?" said Mercer.
+
+I looked round at the smooth sheet of water glistening in the bright
+sunshine, completely shut in by giant old trees whose great branches
+hung down over the sides and even dipped their ends and seemed to be
+repeated in the mirror-like surface.  Here I could see silvery
+lily-blossoms, and there others of gold floating like cups amongst the
+broad round leaves, and, turning from the beautiful picture to my
+companion, I could only say two words:
+
+"It's glorious!"
+
+"I should think it is," he cried.  "We two are going to have no end of
+fun together.  You don't mind the other boys bullying you, and old Reb
+snarling and finding fault, and the Doctor boxing your ears with your
+books, when you've got places like this to come to.  Hi! look at the old
+moorhen, there, with her young ones," and he pointed to a
+curious-looking bird swimming about and flicking its black and white
+tail, as it went in and out among the rushes growing in the water, with
+six little sooty-looking, downy young ones swimming after it.  "Ever see
+one of them before?"
+
+"No," I said.  "There's another over there too."
+
+"No, it isn't; that's a bald coot.  It's got a white shield on the top
+of its head, and the moorhen's got a red one like sealing-wax.  Hi! look
+at that!"
+
+For all of a sudden there was a rush and splash close to the reeds, and
+the moorhen and five young ones went through the water with a dash to
+hide among the reeds.
+
+"Know what that was?"
+
+"They saw us, and were frightened.  Or did some one throw a big stone?"
+
+"There's no one to throw big stones here.  That was Mr Jack."
+
+"Well, did he throw stones?"  I said wonderingly.
+
+"No!  What a fellow you are!  A jack--a pike--a big fish--took one of
+the young moorhens for his dinner."
+
+"Why, I thought pike lived on fish," I cried.
+
+"They live on anything.  I've seen them swallow young ducks and
+water-rats and frogs--anything they can get.  We'll come and set a
+trimmer for that gentleman some day."
+
+"I suppose I'm very stupid," I said; "but I've always lived in London,
+and have very seldom been in the country.  I don't know anything about
+birds and fish."
+
+"You soon will.  There's always something to see here.  Herons come
+sometimes, but they don't stop, because it's too deep for them to wade
+except in one place; and there's a hawk's nest over yonder in an old
+fir-tree, but Bob Hopley shot the old birds, and you can see 'em nailed
+up against his lodge.  There was a magpie's nest, too, up in a big elm
+tree not far off; but never mind them now.  Let's catch some--Hist! look
+there.  See 'em?"
+
+"No," I said, looking down into the water where he pointed.
+
+"Come here.  Lie down flat, and slowly peep over the bank through that
+grass.  Go softly, or you'll frighten them off.  Then look down."
+
+I did as he told me, and as I looked down into the clear, deep water,
+that looked almost black from its depth, I could see quite a shoal of
+fish, with their sides barred with dark stripes, sailing slowly about
+between me and the dead leaves and rotten branches which strewed the
+bottom of the pool.
+
+"See 'em?"
+
+"Yes," I whispered; "perch, aren't they?"
+
+"Why, I thought you knew nothing about fish."
+
+"I've seen pictures of them in books," I said, "of course."
+
+"Yes, perch, all but that black, soft-looking chap close to the bottom.
+He's a tench.  But come on, and let's get the rods."
+
+He led the way to the boat-house, a green strip of coarse grass about
+five feet wide leading to the rough building, and Mercer looked
+longingly at the boat, which was half full of water.
+
+"We'll try her some day," he said; "but she seems very leaky.  Here we
+are."
+
+As he spoke, he took a couple of rough-looking, unjointed rods from
+where they were laid across some pegs driven into the side of the
+building just below the thatch eaves.
+
+"All right," he said, examining the stout, strong silk lines twisted
+lightly about them, and the hooks stuck in pieces of cork which were
+bound on to the butts of the rods.  "Now, then, come for the worms."
+
+He leaned the rods up against the roof of the boat-house, and led me
+into the open-sided building, where, as described by the keeper, we
+found an old watering-pot half full of moss, and in this damp moss, and
+below it, an abundance of fresh, lively-looking worms.
+
+"All right.  Now for some fish.  This way.  Take your rod, I'll carry
+the pot.  That's where we're going."
+
+He pointed to where the pool narrowed, and ran up among the trees almost
+to a point, where I could see some woodwork, and a post standing up in
+the middle, with a series of holes pierced through it, and as we walked
+round by the grassy margin which led to the spot,--
+
+"There, that's the place," cried Mercer.  "That's the penstock."
+
+"And what's a penstock."
+
+"Don't you see.  They pull up that post, and poke a peg in one of those
+holes, and that keeps it open, so as the water can run out down that
+gully behind there through the wood.  It's to empty the pond.  There
+used to be hundreds of years ago a great forge there, and the water
+turned a wheel to work the big hammers when they used to dig iron here,
+and melt it with charcoal.  But never mind that, I want to catch some
+fish.  Now, then, walk out along that woodwork.  There's just room for
+us both on the top of the penstock, and we'll fish from there.  Mind how
+you go, for it's precious deep."
+
+It looked ugly, and the old oak beams and piles were moist, and nearly
+covered with moss; but I stepped out, and reached the little platform
+through which the upright post ran, and turned round to look for my
+companion, who was by my side directly after.
+
+"There," he said; "there isn't too much room."
+
+"Shall I go and fish from the bank?"  I said.
+
+"Oh no, we'll manage.  Don't talk loud, only whisper, and don't move
+about.  I don't believe that fishes can hear all the same.  There," he
+added, as he baited my hook, "that's old Magglin's way.  Let's see, are
+you deep enough.  Yes, that will do.  Throw in."
+
+I dropped in my line, Mercer followed suit, and then, in the midst of
+the profound stillness of the lonely place, we stood on our little
+square platform, leaning against the post, watching the white tops of
+the cork floats, and waiting.
+
+"As you've been fishing before, you know what to do," whispered Mercer;
+"only don't be in a hurry, give 'em plenty of time, and don't strike
+till they take your float right down."
+
+Half an hour passed away, and my attention began to be drawn from my
+float to watch the birds that sailed over the pool, or the swallows that
+skimmed it in search of flies.
+
+"Not deep enough," said Mercer suddenly, and, taking out his line, he
+adjusted the float higher up, and I followed his example.
+
+Then we began to fish again; but with no better result, and I looked
+round at Mercer.
+
+"Oh, it's no use to be in a hurry," he said.  "Sometimes they won't
+bite, and then you have to wait till they will.  But look, something's
+at mine."
+
+I looked at his float, which had given a slight bob, and then another;
+but that was all.
+
+"Off again.  Didn't want worms," he said; "wants paste."
+
+There was another long pause.
+
+"Not deep enough," said Mercer again.  "Ought to have plumbed the
+depth."
+
+He altered his float, and I did the same, and we compared them to see
+that they were about alike, and the fishing went on, till my companion
+decided that we ought to have fresh worms, and selected a fine fresh one
+for my hook, and one for his own before throwing the old ones out into
+the water.
+
+"Well, now," he cried, "look at that!"
+
+I was already looking, for before the old baits had gone down many
+inches, we saw them both seized by largish fish, which seemed to dart
+out of some lilies a short distance to our left.
+
+"What are you going to do?"  I said.
+
+"Wait a minute and I'll show you," he whispered, laughing, and after
+attaching the bait, he brought down the floats till they were only about
+a foot away from the hooks.  "Now then, do as I do.  Throw your line out
+as near as you can to those floating leaves."
+
+He threw his own very cleverly, so that the bait dropped into the water
+with hardly a splash, and I followed his example.
+
+"Too far," he said, as my bait dropped on to a lily leaf, but the weight
+of the shot drew it slowly off the dark green leaf, and it glided into
+the water.
+
+"I've got a bite," said Mercer, in an excited whisper.  "Hi, look out!
+Strike! strike!" he cried, for at that moment the white top of my float
+descended suddenly, rose again and then began to glide in a sloping
+direction along the edge of the lily bed.
+
+I gave the rod a sharp, upward motion, and a thrill ran up my arm, as I
+felt the line tighten, and a curious tugging commence.
+
+"Hurrah! you've got him.  Don't let him go into the weeds, or you'll
+lose it.  Keep your rod up, and you'll have the gentleman."
+
+I heard all his instructions, but in the flurry of holding my first fish
+I did nothing but what, as the rod and line were both strong, was for
+the best.  That is to say, I held my rod with both hands, and kept it
+nearly upright, while the fish I had hooked darted here and there, and
+tried vainly to make a dive down for the bottom.
+
+"It's all right," said Mercer breathlessly.  "It's a big one, and you
+must have him.  Don't hurry."
+
+"Is it very big?"  I whispered excitedly.
+
+"I think it is--over a pound, I should say.  Let him get tired, or he'll
+break away.  Ah, it's of no use, you're caught fast, old gentleman,
+whatever you are.  It's a big carp or a tench.  I think it's a carp,
+it's so strong."
+
+The struggle went on for fully five minutes before the fish gave in.
+
+"Now we've got to land it," said Mercer.  "Can't do it here, or he'll
+break away.  I know.  Give me your rod to hold.  That's it.  Now you go
+back, and I'll pass it to you."
+
+He laid his own tackle down, and I walked carefully along the narrow
+woodwork, back to the shore, while he drew the fish round, and then
+reached toward me, till I could catch hold of the rod and feel the fish
+still feebly struggling.
+
+The next minute Mercer was by my side, the fish was drawn in close up
+amongst the sedge growing on the bank.  My companion went down flat,
+reached a hand into the water, and scooped out my capture, which lay now
+flapping feebly in all the glory of its golden scale armour, a short,
+thick, broad-backed carp.
+
+"There," cried Mercer, "didn't I tell you this was a grand place?  Why,
+it must be a two-pounder;" and I stood gloating over the vividly-bright
+colour of my capture, while Mercer knelt down, took out the hook, and
+finally deposited the fish in a hollow, and covered it with fern fronds.
+
+"Look! look!"  I cried just then.
+
+"Oh, bother!  Why, there's one on," said Mercer.  "Here, give me your
+rod;" and he stepped quickly out on to the penstock, and made a cast
+with my line, trying to throw it over the top part of his own rod, which
+was slowly sailing away, floating on the water with a curious motion
+going on at the end, which kept diving down, as if something was trying
+to draw it under water.
+
+It was all plain enough: a fish had hooked itself, and at the first tug,
+the light bamboo rod had glided off the penstock, to act as a big, long
+float, for the cork was deep down somewhere out of sight.
+
+I followed on to the penstock, and stood by as cast after cast was made,
+always cleverly over the rod, but the hook glided back on being drawn
+without taking hold.
+
+It was plain enough that in a few minutes the rod would be drawn out of
+reach, when Mercer made a more lucky cast, for in drawing back, the hook
+had caught a part of the other line, and directly after there was a
+steady tightening.
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated Mercer, and he drew in steadily till his own rod was
+within reach, and I lay down, leaned out as far as I could, and strained
+to reach it.
+
+"Take care.  Hold tight.  It's horrid deep here.  Mind, or you'll be
+in."
+
+But I was holding tightly by part of the woodwork, and, after a few more
+efforts, I touched the butt of the rod with the tips of my fingers,
+pushing it away, for it to rise again right into my hand, and I rose
+with it, safe.
+
+"Give it to me.  Take yours," cried Mercer, when the exchange was made,
+and I saw his face light up as he began to play a good-sized fish, but
+with my hook still attached to his line.
+
+"It's a big one," he panted, as the struggle went on, with, the fish
+fighting now to reach the water-lilies, but without success.  "That
+wouldn't do," he cried.  "If he once got in there, he'd wind the weeds
+about the line, and break away."
+
+So, by steady force, the fish was led back, and again I went ashore
+first, took Mercer's rod, and held it while he scooped out, and threw
+high our second capture, which proved to be another carp, nearly, but
+not quite so big as mine.
+
+We were soon fishing again from our old place, but without the slightest
+success now, the struggles with our golden prisoners having apparently
+scared away all the other fish.
+
+"This won't do," said Mercer at last; "we shall have to try somewhere
+else.  Here, I forgot all about Jem Roff; and look at 'em."
+
+"Look at what?"
+
+"Why, the eels.  Can't you see them?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Why, look at those bubbles coming up.  That's eels at work stirring up
+the mud at the bottom, or coming out of their holes.  We'll soon talk to
+them."
+
+His way of talking to the eels was to raise the floats so high, that,
+after trying several times, it became evident that he had adjusted the
+depth so that the bait touched the ground, and the floats lay half over
+on their sides.
+
+"Now then," he said, after examining the worms, "we ought to catch old
+Jem's supper pretty soon.  Throw in there, near me."
+
+I did as I was told, and the patient waiting began again, with changes
+of baits and moves in fresh positions, but without result, and I was
+beginning to get rather tired and hungry, when my companion said
+dolefully,--
+
+"Don't seem to bite.  They won't begin till it's nearly dusk, and we
+shall have to go back before very long, for we must have some tea.
+Wonder whether cook'll give us some meat?  I know: we'll get some eggs
+of Polly Hopley; she'll boil 'em for us, and we'll take 'em back."
+
+We fished for another hour.
+
+"It's no good," said Mercer; "I'm very sorry.  I wanted you to catch a
+big eel, and then you'd want to come again, and now you won't care about
+it."
+
+"Oh yes, I shall," I said.  "It was worth coming too, even if we didn't
+catch any more fish."
+
+"You think so?  Look! you've got him!"
+
+For my float was bobbing gently, and moving slowly away.
+
+"No, no, don't strike.  Yes--let him have it.  That's an eel biting, and
+he will not leave it.  You'll see."
+
+The gentle bob, bob, bob of the float went on as it glided slowly away
+foot after foot, till I could bear the excitement no longer, and I
+turned my eyes to my companion as if to say, "Do let me strike now--
+strike gently."
+
+"Yes," he cried, "he must have got it;" and I struck gently, and felt
+directly as if the hook was in a stump or a dead branch at the bottom of
+the pool.
+
+"It isn't a fish," I said, looking at Mercer.
+
+"What is it then?" he replied, laughing.  "It's an eel."
+
+"But it don't move or run about."
+
+"You wait a minute.  It's an eel, and a big one."
+
+My acquaintance with eels so far had been upon the slabs at the
+fishmonger's shops, or in pieces browned and garnished with fried
+parsley, and my line remained so tight and still that I still doubted my
+companion's words.
+
+"He has got his tail in a hole, or twined about a stump."
+
+"But don't you think the hook's in a stump?"
+
+"I never knew a stump bite at a worm, and run away with your float.
+There, he's loose now.  Keep him up, and don't let him go down low
+again."
+
+I heard his words, but felt that all I could do was to let the eel go
+where it liked.  For it started the fight by swinging its head rapidly
+from side to side in a succession of sharp jerks, and then began to make
+the line and the top of the rod quiver, as it worked its way backward,
+trying to descend to the bottom, while my efforts were, of course,
+directed towards pulling it to the top.
+
+"That's right; you've got him fast," said Mercer.  "It's of no use to
+try and play him, he'll keep on like that for long enough.  Give me the
+rod while you get back to the bank.  Then you must pull him out quickly,
+right up on to the grass, and put your foot upon him.  Not afraid of
+eels, are you?"
+
+"I don't know," I said.
+
+"Because the big ones will bite--hard."
+
+I handed the rod, and walked back along the woodwork that was like the
+isthmus of our tiny wooden peninsula, and as soon as I was ashore,
+Mercer left his rod again, and handed me mine, following directly after,
+as I felt the snaky-looking creature writhing and undulating at the end
+of the line, sending quite a galvanic thrill up my arms the while.
+
+"Now then," said Mercer, "pull steady; and when it is near the top, run
+it right out on to the grass."
+
+I tried to obey his orders; but when I saw the creature keeping up its
+rapid serpentine motion, I felt disposed to let it go down again into
+its watery depths.  I did not, however, but gradually swept the point of
+my rod round, drawing my prisoner nearly to the bank, and then with one
+good swing drew it right out on to the grass, where, in an instant, it
+tied itself right up in a knot, with the line twisted about it.
+
+"Oh my, what a mess!" cried Mercer, coming to my help.  "Ugh! you nasty,
+slimy wretch!  Mind, or he'll be off back into the--Ah, would you?"
+
+He seized the line, and drew the eel farther from the water's edge,
+waiting his opportunity, which came directly, for the fish rapidly
+untwined itself, plunged its head amongst the grass, and began to make
+its way like a snake when its course was checked by Mercer's foot
+planted firmly behind its head.
+
+"Ugh! how cruel!"  I said.
+
+"Serve him right.  He's grown to be as big as this by catching and
+eating all the poor little fish that went near him.  He's good to eat
+too, and what a big one!  Why, he must be over a pound.  Oh my, what a
+mess!" he continued.  "He has swallowed the hook right down, and there's
+no getting it out till he's dead.  Here, give me your handkerchief, I'll
+use mine when I catch one."
+
+I took out my handkerchief, and by his directions spread it upon the
+grass, when he raised his foot, lifted up the line, and the fish again
+twisted itself into a knot.
+
+"That's the way," he said.  "Now then, I'll drop him gently on to the
+handkerchief, and you take the cross corners and tie them over him
+tight, and then the other two.  Ready?"
+
+"Yes," I said, feeling no little repugnance to the slimy creature, but
+getting first one knot and then the other fast over the big round
+writhing fish, and this done to my companion's satisfaction, he whipped
+out his knife and cut the line.
+
+"There," he said, "we mustn't lose sight of him, or he'll eat his way
+out if he don't find another way through the folds.  No; I think he's
+safe.  I'll hang him here."
+
+"Here" was the rugged stump of a small branch of one of the nearest
+trees.
+
+"Now," he said, "I'll try and catch one too before we go, and we shan't
+have done so very badly."
+
+"But you've cut my hook off," I said.  "How am I to fish?"
+
+"You'll have to watch me, for I haven't another hook.  Come along.  We
+mustn't stop much longer, or we shan't be back to tea.  Stand your rod
+up against that tree."
+
+He was already half-way back to the penstock and caught up his rod, but
+no fish had attacked it this time, and we stood side by side once more,
+leaning against the post, watching his float, as he tried first in one
+place, then in another, without success.
+
+"We shall have to give it up and go," he said at last.  "We must get
+back to tea.  We'll give the carp to Polly Hopley, she likes fish, and
+the eel too."
+
+"Look! a bite," I whispered, for I distinctly saw a slight quivering of
+the top of the float.
+
+"No," he said despondently.  "I did that, shaking the top of the rod.
+I'm not so lucky as you.  Yes, it is.  Hooray!"
+
+For the faint quiver was repeated, then there were one or two little
+bobs, then others, and at last the float began to dance slowly away
+toward the shore.
+
+"He has got it, and is going to take it to his hole," whispered Mercer.
+"But he don't go here to-night.  He's going into the frying-pan, I
+think.  Hah!  Got him!"
+
+For he now struck sharply, and the rod bent tremendously.  There was no
+steady, motionless pull here, but a fierce shaking of the head and a
+hard, vibratory tugging at the line.
+
+"Bigger than yours," he cried.  "A thumper!  My, how he pulls!  Ah,
+would you?  No, you don't, my fine fellow.  He wants to get to the bank,
+I suppose, but he's coming out here into deep water, where there's
+nothing to twist about, and he's not going ashore till I go first."
+
+Just then the eel made a rush first in one direction, then in another,
+but with a heavy pressure kept up, and the rod bending nearly double.
+Then it made a rush for the shore, and Mercer raised the point of his
+rod and stepped back, while I uttered a cry, for the rod had struck me
+sharply on the ear.
+
+But it was not at the blow, but at the tremendous splash, for, forgetful
+in his excitement of where he stood, Mercer's step was off the narrow
+penstock right into the deep water, and as I clung to the post with one
+hand, I was looking down into the huge bubbling ring he had made, to see
+first the rod come up, then Mercer's hand, and then his face, close to
+his floating cap, but quite a dozen feet away from where I stood.
+
+I was too much startled to move for a few moments, while Mercer beat the
+water with his hands frantically for a bit, and then went under again,
+but rose and called to me hoarsely,--
+
+"Help!"
+
+"Swim!"  I shouted.  "Swim!"  But he only gazed at me wildly, and I saw
+him go down again.
+
+For an instant or two I stood as if turned to stone, then a thought
+struck me, and I ran along the woodwork to where I had left my rod, and,
+without thinking of the danger and the narrowness of the path, I ran
+back again in time to see Mercer rise again, beating the water
+frantically.
+
+"Here, quick!"  I shouted.  "Catch hold;" and I held out the thin bamboo
+pole to him, but it did not reach within a couple of yards of where he
+was beating the water.
+
+But it had its effect upon him.  It was a chance for life, and in a
+curious laboured way he struck out now to swim, but came on very slowly,
+being hampered in some way by his own rod.
+
+"Oh, try, try, try!"  I shouted, and I saw him set his teeth and swim on
+desperately till one hand closed upon the thin bamboo, and then the
+other caught hold.
+
+"Tight!  Hold tight," I shouted, and, dropping on my knees, I began to
+draw the rod through my hands slowly, as if it was a rope, my eyes
+feeling as if they were starting as I saw his wild pallid face and set
+teeth, for I was in momentary dread that he would let go.
+
+It seemed long enough before I had drawn him within reach and snatched
+at one of his wrists, then at the other, drawing myself back so as to
+get him closer.  Then I got tight hold of his jacket collar, and, as I
+did so, my knees glided away from me back over the other side of the
+penstock, and a curious sickening sensation came over me.  The water and
+Mercer's white face were blurred and swimming before me, and I was fast
+losing consciousness, but the faintness was not much more than
+momentary, and the sickening sensation began to wear away as rapidly as
+it came, as I fully realised the fact that I was half off the little
+platform, with my legs in the water, but holding my companion all the
+time with a desperate clutch, while he clung as tightly to my wrists.
+
+Then I tried to speak, but at first no words came, and it was all like
+some terrible dream.
+
+At last, though, the power of utterance came, and I cried loudly, in a
+voice which did not seem like mine,--
+
+"I've got you safe.  Now climb out."
+
+He did not move, only gazed wildly in my eyes till he seemed to irritate
+me.
+
+"Do you hear, you coward?"  I half screamed; "climb out on to here.  Do
+you want me to fall right in?"
+
+Still he did not reply, and I shouted at him again in my despairing
+rage, for a curious sensation of weakness crept through me, and the
+horrible thought came that sooner or later I must let him go.
+
+"Do you hear?  Don't play the fool.  Climb out."
+
+"Can't," he said in a husky whisper.  "I tried--hard."
+
+"Try again."
+
+In obedience to my fierce order, he made an effort, splashing the water
+a little, but ceased directly, and gazed at me wildly still.
+
+"Can't.  Line--round my legs."
+
+His words sent a flash of light through me, for they explained his
+miserable attempts to swim, and I realised that the stout silk line had
+been twisted about him by the eel in its efforts to escape.
+
+"Try again," I said in a voice as husky as his own.  "_You must_."
+
+He struggled feebly, but gave up at once.
+
+"I can't," he groaned.  "No strength."
+
+The poor fellow seemed paralysed, save that I could feel his hands
+grasping me with a clutch that did not relax for a moment, as I lay
+there on my chest, thinking what I must do.  It was evident that I
+should get no help from him: for the shock of the accident, and his
+discovery that he was fast bound and helpless, had completely unnerved
+him, and it was plain to me that before long his desperate clutch would
+relax, and, when I could hold him no longer, he would sink back and
+drown before my eyes.
+
+I looked despairingly round, but only to see deep water, and the bank so
+near and yet so far, for it was out of reach.
+
+At last my mind was made up.  I would get my knees on the penstock
+again, and then by main force drag him out, at all events into a sitting
+position, where I could hold him against the post while he recovered
+sufficiently to walk to the shore.
+
+I waited a few moments, and then began, but to my horror found that my
+feet glided over the slimy, rotten woodwork of the piles beneath the
+water, and that I could get no hold anywhere.  If I could have had my
+hands free for a few moments, it would have been easy enough, but I
+dared not let go of him, and, after a brief and weakening struggle, I
+gave up, and hung over panting, with for the only result the feeling
+that the water was now farther up my legs than before.
+
+I soon got my breath again, and made a fresh effort, but with a worse
+result, and this was repeated till a chilly sensation of dread ran
+through me, and I felt half stunned at the horror of my position.
+
+Then I recovered a little.  "Mercer," I said, "do you feel rested now?"
+
+He did not speak, only looked at me in a curious, half vacant way, and I
+shivered, for this was, I felt sure, the first step toward his losing
+consciousness and loosening his hold.
+
+"I say," I cried, "don't give up like that.  You've got to climb up on
+to these boards.  I'm going to help you, but I can't unless you help me
+too."
+
+There was no reply, only the same fixed stare in his dilated eyes, and
+in my horror I looked wildly round at the place I had thought so
+beautiful, but which was now all terrible to me, and felt how utterly we
+were away from help.
+
+I began again, twining my legs now about the nearest post, and this
+enabled me to hold on, but I could get up no farther.  I tried, though,
+to drag Mercer on to the woodwork, but my position crippled me, and I
+should have required double the muscular power I possessed.
+
+I believe I made other trials, but a curious sensation of weakness and
+confusion was coming over me, as I uttered one after the other my loud
+cries for help.
+
+It was horrible, and yet it seemed ridiculous that we two lads could not
+struggle up there into safety; but though I thought so then, I have
+often felt since that in my cramped position I was loaded down, as it
+were, with my companion's weight.
+
+The end seemed to be coming fast.  I had no dread for myself, since I
+felt that, once free of Mercer's tight clutch and the hold I had upon
+him, I could grasp the far edge of the woodwork, draw myself farther up,
+and sit and rest.  But before I could do this I knew that he would have
+sunk away from me, and in a confused fashion I began to wonder whether I
+should hear him scream out as he was drowning, or whether he would sink
+down gently without a sound.
+
+I shouted again, but my voice sounded weak, and as if it did not
+penetrate the trees which closed us in, and now it seemed to be all
+over, for the horrible sense of faintness was returning fast, and I made
+one more desperate effort before I felt that I too was going to sink
+back into the black water; and in that wild last fit of energy I uttered
+what was quite a shriek, and then felt half choked by the spasm of joy
+that seemed to rise into my throat.
+
+For from quite close at hand there came quite a cheery,--
+
+"Hillo!"
+
+"Here--quick--help!"  I gasped; and then I was silent, and hearing a
+loud ejaculation, as I felt the wood of the penstock tremble.
+
+"All right.  Hold tight, lad," said a familiar voice, and a hand grasped
+my collar.  "I've got you, and I've got him too.  Here, can you climb
+out?"
+
+"If--if you can hold him," I said.
+
+"I can hold him, and give you a help too.  That's the way--get tight
+hold of the edge, draw yourself up.  Well done.  Now sit down, and put
+your arm round the post."
+
+I had been conscious of a strong hand grasping my waistband and giving
+me a drag up, and now I was sitting trembling and holding tightly by the
+post.
+
+"Now then, Master Mercer, don't stare like that, lad.  I've got you
+safe.  There, out you come.  My word, you're wet!  Stop a moment,
+though; you'd better try and get ashore before I pull him right out.
+There ain't room for three of us.  Can you manage it now?"
+
+"Yes," I said, standing up with my teeth chattering.
+
+"Sure?  Don't tumble in."
+
+"I can do it," I said, and, trembling the while as if cold, I walked
+dripping along the woodwork to the shore, where I sank down on the grass
+as if my legs had suddenly given way, and crouched there watching, as I
+saw the man from the farm, Jem Roff, with his arm round Mercer, whom he
+had lifted right out, bring him streaming with water to the shore, and
+the fishing-rod behind, while, as he lowered him on to the grass, there
+was a horrible writhe from something wet close to me, which made me
+start away.
+
+"What have you two chaps been at?" cried Roff wonderingly.  "The line's
+all twissen round his legs,--and hold hard a minute till I get my knife.
+I must have that eel."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIVE.
+
+"He's a two and a half pounder, he is," said Jem Roff as, after a bit of
+a struggle, he got tight hold of the writhing monster.  "My word," he
+continued, holding it down, "he's a strong un!  Here, you just slip your
+hand into my jacket pocket and get out my knife.  Open it, will you?"
+
+I followed out his instructions, and handed him the opened knife, when
+with one clever cut he divided the eel's backbone, and its writhings
+almost ceased.
+
+"There," continued Jem, taking hold of the line, "let's get you off.
+What a tangle! why, it's reg'lar twissen all about your ankles.  I must
+break it.  Why, it's tough as--look ye here," he continued, tugging at
+the plaited silk, "it's strong enough to hold a whale.  I shall have to
+cut it.  Bob Hopley won't mind."
+
+_Snick_, and the line was divided, the eel thrown down, and Jem began to
+untwine the line from about Mercer's legs, as the poor fellow, looking
+terribly white and scared, now sat up on the grass, looking dolefully
+from one to the other.
+
+"My heye! you do look like a drownded rat, master," said Jem, chuckling.
+"Lucky I come, warn't it?"
+
+I looked angrily at the man, for he seemed horribly unfeeling, and then,
+turning to Mercer,--
+
+"How are you now?"  I said.
+
+"Very wet," he replied feebly.
+
+"Raw, haw!" laughed Jem.  "There, get up, you're clear now.  Couldn't
+swim a bit like that."
+
+"No," said Mercer, getting up shivering, and shaking the water from his
+hair.
+
+"Worse disasters at sea, lads.  Here, come on along o' me.  Let's put
+the rods back again;" and, taking the one he had dragged ashore with
+Mercer, he whipped the line round the other and pulled it ashore, swung
+the lines round both, and trotted with them to the boat-house, where he
+laid them on the pegs, and then came back to where we stood, so utterly
+upset that neither of us had spoken a word.
+
+"Now then," cried Jem, taking hold of the scrap of line to which the eel
+was attached and twisting it round his finger.  "This all you caught?"
+
+"No," I said helplessly; "there's an eel in that handkerchief hanging on
+the tree."
+
+Jem dropped the big eel again and trotted to the tree.
+
+"Big as t'other?" he said.  "Raw, haw!  Here's the hankerchy, but
+there's no eel.  Look ye here, he's worked a hole through and gone.  You
+didn't kill him first?"
+
+"It must be down there," I said.
+
+"Down here!" said Jem contemptuously; "he's found his way back to the
+water again.  Eels goos through the grass like snakes.  Ketch anything
+else?"
+
+"Two carp," I said.  "Here they are."
+
+"Ah, that's better, and all alive, oh!  I'll carry 'em.  Come along."
+
+He thrust a twig of willow through the gills of the fish, and led the
+way through the woods, and across some fields to a cottage, where a
+woman came to the door.
+
+"Here, missus," he said, "pitch some more wood on the fire.  Young
+squire here stepped into the pond."
+
+"Oh, a mercy me!" cried the woman.  "Pore dear, he do look bad."
+
+"Not he.  All right again direckly.  You let him warm himself, and I'll
+run up to the schoolhouse and fetch him some dry clothes."
+
+"No," cried Mercer, rousing himself now.  "We'll both run up, and get in
+without any one seeing us, and go and change our things."
+
+"Ay, that'll be best," said Jem; "and, if I was you, I'd start at once.
+Run all the way, and it'll warm you up."
+
+"Yes.  Thank you for coming and helping us," said Mercer, who had now
+quite found his tongue.
+
+"Oh, that's all right," said the man jocularly.  "That's a fine eel, but
+don't fish for 'em that way again.  Going in after 'em ain't the best
+way; you see they're quicker, and more used to the water than you are."
+
+Mercer shuddered.
+
+"Come along, Burr," he said feebly.
+
+"Wait a minute.  Here's your eel and the carp.  Where's that there rush
+basket, missus?"
+
+"Oh, we don't want the fish," said Mercer, with a shiver.  "Come along,
+Burr."
+
+He hurried out of the cottage, and into a lane.  "Keep listening," he
+said.  "If you hear any one, we'll go across the fields."
+
+"There's some one coming now," I said.
+
+"Oh dear! it's old Rebble.  He hasn't seen us.  This way."
+
+He stooped down, and ran to a gate, crept through, and then, leading the
+way, he walked fast along by the side of a hedge till we had crossed one
+field, and then began to trot, seeming to get stronger every minute,
+while I followed, with my wet trousers clinging to my legs, and the
+water going "suck suck" in my boots.
+
+We crossed two or three fields, and then Mercer drew up, panting, and
+with the natural colour coming back into his face.
+
+"We'll walk now," he said, "and go right round, and slip in through the
+garden.  Perhaps we can get in and up to our room without being seen."
+
+"Yes, do," I said, looking dolefully at my wet legs, and my jacket all
+covered with green from the penstock.  "Feel better now?"
+
+"Yes, I'm getting all right.  I say, didn't I seem like a horrid
+coward?"
+
+"I don't think so," I said.  "It was enough to frighten anybody."
+
+Mercer was silent for a few minutes.  Then he began again.
+
+"I never felt like that before.  I was going to swim, but the eel had
+gone about my legs, and as soon as I felt the line round them, and that
+horrid great thing twining it all over me, I tried hard to kick it off;
+but you haven't got much strength in the water, and then, as I felt that
+I couldn't get my legs clear, I came over all queer, and so horribly
+frightened that I couldn't do anything.  It was just like having a dream
+in the night, after eating too much cake."
+
+"It was very horrible," I said, with a shiver at the recollection,
+though I was beginning to feel warm.
+
+"Yes, wasn't it?  I say, don't go and think me a coward, there's a good
+chap."
+
+"I was not going to think you a coward," I said.  "It isn't likely."
+
+"But I must have seemed like one, because I can swim ever so far, but
+when I found myself like that, all the strength went out of me.--I say!"
+
+"Yes?"  I said, for he remained silent, and trudged on, looking hard at
+the ground.
+
+"I did like you for paying at Polly Hopley's, and I said I'd do anything
+for you, but I can't tell you what I feel now, for your helping me."
+
+"Don't wish you to tell me," I replied.  "Come along.  I want to get on
+some dry things."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Hold your tongue," I said.  "There's some one coming."
+
+He looked sharply in the indicated direction, and a shout saluted us.
+
+"It's some of the boys," he whispered.  "Come on."  He led the way to a
+hedge, forced his way through, and I followed, and once more he led me
+along at a trot, with the great house right before us among the trees,
+and then, striking off to the right, he went through field after field,
+and then through a gate, and along by the side of a deep ditch, to stop
+short all at once, as a man started out of the hollow, and tried to hide
+a small gun.
+
+"Why, Magglin," cried Mercer, "you're after rabbits."
+
+"Nay, nay; rats.  They comes after the taters.  Been fishing?"
+
+"Come on," whispered Mercer, and he ran along by the hedge, turning once
+more to the left, and at last pulling up in a clump of fir-trees, on the
+north side of the big house.
+
+"Now then," he said, "I daresay the Doctor hasn't come back, and the
+ladies are sure to be with him.  We'll creep in by the front door and
+get up-stairs.  Keep close to me."
+
+He paused for a few minutes to get breath, and then started off, through
+the shrubbery, across the lawn, and in at the front door.
+
+The hall was empty, and he sprang up the well-carpeted staircase,
+reached the first floor, ran lightly along a passage, and through a
+baize door, which separated the Doctor's part of the house from the
+boys' dormitories.
+
+"All right!" he whispered, as he held the baize door for me to pass
+through; "nobody saw us, and the boys will not be up here."
+
+He led the way down a long passage to another staircase, ran up, and I
+recognised the floor where our bed room was, when, just as we were
+making a rush for it, a door opened, and the big fat boy Dicksee came
+out, stared, and then burst into a roar of laughter.
+
+"Oh, here's a game!" he shouted.  "Old Senna's been diving after
+podnoddles, and giving the new chap lessons."
+
+Mercer rushed at him so savagely that Dicksee stepped back, and the next
+minute we had reached our room, rushed in, and banged the door.
+
+"Oh, isn't he a beast?" cried my companion, panting, and looking all
+aglow now.  "He'll go and tell the boys, but we mustn't say where we've
+been."
+
+Half an hour after, we went down, dressed in our other suits, feeling
+very little the worse for our adventure, and just as we reached the big
+schoolroom, the big clock up in the turret chimed.
+
+"Why, we're in good time for tea after all," said Mercer.  "They always
+have it late on holidays.  Quarter of an hour to wait.  Let's go and
+walk down to the boys' gardens."
+
+He led the way out and across the playground to a gate in the hedge,
+through which we passed, to come plump on the Doctor, three ladies, and
+Mr Rebble, who carried a creel by the strap, and had a rod over his
+shoulder.
+
+"So you've had no sport, Mr Rebble?" the Doctor was saying.
+
+"No, sir, none.  The wind was in the wrong quarter again."
+
+"Aha!" said the Doctor, as he caught sight of us; "our new young friend,
+Burr junior.  My dears, this is our new student.  Burr junior, my wife
+and daughters."
+
+We both took off our caps.
+
+"Friends already, eh?" said the Doctor.  "History repeats itself, the
+modern based upon the classic.  Quite a young Pylades and Orestes.
+Well, Burr, have you made acquaintance with all your schoolfellows?"
+
+I turned scarlet, and was at a loss as to what to say.  But there was no
+occasion for me to feel troubled--the Doctor did not want an answer.  He
+nodded pleasantly, the ladies bowed and passed on with him, while Mercer
+hurried me away.
+
+"What a game!" he said; "and you've only made friends with one.  I say,
+poor old Reb's been fishing all day again for roach, and never caught
+one.  He never does.  I wish he'd had the ducking instead of me."
+
+"Nonsense!"  I said.  "You don't."
+
+"Oh, but I just do," he said.  "I say, let's go round and see cook."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To ask her to dry our clothes for us.  This way."  He ran off, and I
+followed him, to pass through a gate into a paved yard, across which was
+a sloping-roofed building, at the side of the long schoolroom.
+
+Mercer tapped at a door, and a sharp voice shouted,--
+
+"Come in!"
+
+"Mustn't.  Forbidden," said Mercer to me, and he knocked again.
+
+"Don't want any!" shouted the same voice, and a big, sour-looking,
+dark-faced woman came to the door.
+
+"Oh, it's you, is it, Master Mercer?  What do you want?"
+
+"I say, Cookie, this is the new boy."
+
+"Nice pair of you, I'll be bound," she said roughly.
+
+"We've been out, and had an accident, and tumbled into a pond."
+
+"Serve you both right.  Wonder you weren't both drowned," she said
+sharply.
+
+"Don't tell anybody," continued Mercer, in no wise alarmed.  "We nearly
+were, only Jem Roff at Dawson's farm came and pulled us out."
+
+"Oh, my dear bairns," cried the woman, with her face and voice changing,
+"what would your poor mammas have said?"
+
+"It's all right, though," said Mercer, "only our things are soaked.  Do
+have 'em down and dried for us by the morning."
+
+"Why, of course I will, my dears."
+
+"And, Cookie, we haven't had any dinner, and it's only bread and butter
+and milk and water."
+
+"Yes; coming," cried the woman, as a door was heard to open, and a voice
+to call.
+
+"Go along," she said.  "They're calling for the bread and butter.  You
+look under your pillows when you go to bed."
+
+"It's all right," said Mercer.  "Come along.  She came from our town,
+and knows our people.  My father set her brother-in-law's leg once,
+after he'd tumbled off a hay stack.  Isn't she a gruff one when she
+likes!  This way.  Let's get in our places now."
+
+We went in to tea, which was only tea for Mr Rebble, who had a small
+black pot to himself, and a tiny jug of cream; but the bread and butter
+and milk and water were delicious, and I had made so good a meal that I
+had forgotten all about our visit to the cook till we had been in bed
+some time.  I was just dozing off to sleep, when I was roused up by
+Mercer's hand laid across my mouth.
+
+"Don't speak," he whispered; "the others are asleep.  Boiled beef
+sandwiches in a paper bag, and two jam puffs."
+
+"What?"  I whispered.  "Where?"
+
+"Here--in my fist.  They were tucked under my pillow.  Now, then, pitch
+in."
+
+I sat up in bed, and Mercer sat up in his.  It was so dark that we could
+hardly see each other, but the darkness was no hindrance to our eating,
+and the next minute there was a sound which may be best expressed as
+ruminating, varied by the faint rustle made by a hand gliding into a
+paper bag, followed after a long interval by a faint sigh, and--
+
+"Good-night."
+
+"Good-night."
+
+"Think we shall catch cold?"
+
+"I hope not."
+
+"If we do, I've got some capital stuff in a bottle to cure colds, and
+I'll give you some."
+
+"Thank you," I said, and there was a pause.
+
+"Are you asleep?"  I said after a time, during which I had lain thinking
+about our experience of the day.
+
+"No."
+
+"What are you thinking about?"
+
+"I was wondering whether Mr and Mrs Jem Roff ate all that eel."
+
+Mercer did not say any more just then, and I seemed to glide back into
+the cottage, where Mrs Roff was frying eel in a pan over the fire, and
+just as they had asked me to supper, and I was taking my place, a big
+bell began to ring, and Mercer shouted,--
+
+"Now, Burr junior, time to get up."
+
+I started and looked round, to see that the sunshine was flooding the
+room, and that the occupants of the other beds were sitting up grinding
+their knuckles into their eyes, and yawning as if in chorus.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIX.
+
+We were none the worse for our adventure at the pond, and I very soon
+settled down to my school life, finding it, as life is, a mixture of
+pleasure and pain, joy and sorrow, all just as intense to the boy fifty
+or sixty years ago as it is now that schools are conducted upon very
+different principles, and a much higher grade of education is taught.
+
+Perhaps a great deal of the teaching at Meade Place would be looked upon
+now as lax; but in those days the Doctor's school bore a very high
+character for the boys it had turned out, many of whom had gone into the
+East India Company's Service, and the principal drawing-room was
+decorated with presents sent to him by old pupils, Indian jars and
+cabinets, brass lotahs and trays, specimens of weapons from Delhi, and
+ivory carvings; while from pupils who had gone to China and Japan, came
+bronzes, porcelain, screens, and lacquer of the most beautiful kind.
+
+Neither were the ladies forgotten, Mrs Browne and her daughters being
+well furnished with Indian scarves, muslin, and Canton crape shawls.
+
+It was, of course, on account of his connection with so many officers
+that my uncle had chosen this school as the one most likely to prepare
+me for my future career.
+
+When I first went down, Mr Rebble was the only assistant the doctor
+had; but I soon learned that the French master came twice a week from
+Rye, that the other usher had left to go into partnership with a friend
+in a school at Lewes, and that another was coming in a few days.
+
+The Doctor was one of my informants, for, after passing me through a
+general examination as to my capabilities, he told me that I was in a
+most hopeless state of ignorance, and that as soon as the assistant
+master, Mr Hasnip, arrived, I should have to go under his special
+charge.
+
+"For we can't have boys like you, Burr junior," he said smiling.  "I
+don't know what would become of my establishment if many were as
+backward as you."
+
+"I'm very sorry, sir," I said humbly.
+
+"I am glad you are," he said; "for that means repentance for neglected
+opportunities, and, of course, a stern determination to make up for lost
+time."
+
+"Yes, sir, I'll try," I said.
+
+"That's right, and try hard.  Your English is very weak; your Latin
+terribly deficient; your writing execrable; and your mathematics
+absolutely hopeless.  There, go back to your place and work hard, my
+boy--work hard."
+
+I descended from the dais, with the eyes of the whole school upon me,
+and, as I walked between the two rows of forms, I could hear whispered
+remarks intended for me, and it was with a feeling of despair that I
+reseated myself, opened my desk and took out my Latin grammar, to begin
+turning over the leaves, looking hopelessly at the declensions and
+conjugations, with the exceptions and notes.
+
+"What's the matter?" whispered Mercer, who just then returned from Mr
+Rebble's end, where he had made one of a class in Euclid.
+
+"Doctor says I'm so terribly behindhand that he is ashamed of me."
+
+"Gammon!"
+
+"What?"
+
+"I said, gammon.  You're right enough.  Forwarder than I am, and I've
+been here two years."
+
+"Oh no," I said.
+
+"Yes, you are.  Don't contradict; 'tisn't gentlemanly.  He said your
+English was weak?"
+
+"How did you know?"
+
+"Your Latin terribly deficient?"
+
+"I say!"  I cried, staring.
+
+"Your writing execrable?"
+
+"Mercer!"
+
+"And your mathematics absolutely hopeless?"
+
+"But you were at the other end of the room when he said that," I cried
+aghast.
+
+"Of course; I was being wigged by old Rebble because I couldn't go
+through the forty-seventh of Book One; and I can't, and I feel as if I
+never shall."
+
+"I think I could," I said.
+
+"Of course you could; nearly every chap in the school can but me.  I can
+learn some things easily enough; but I can't remember all about those
+angles and squares, and all the rest of them."
+
+"You soon will if you try," I whispered.  "But how did you know the
+doctor said all that to me?"
+
+"Because he says it to every new boy.  He said it to me, and made me so
+miserable that I nearly ran away and if I hadn't had a very big cake in
+my box, that I brought with me, I believe I should have broken my
+heart."
+
+"But I am very ignorant," I said, after a pause for thought, during
+which my companion's words had rather a comforting effect.
+
+"So's everybody.  I'm awfully ignorant.  What would be the good of
+coming here if we weren't all behind?  Oh, how I wish things could be
+turned round!"
+
+"Turned round?"  I said wonderingly.
+
+"Yes, so that I could know all the books of Euclid by heart, and have
+old Rebble obliged to come and stand before me, and feel as if all he
+had learned had run out of his head like water out of a sponge."
+
+"Never mind," I said; "let's work and learn."
+
+"You'll have to, my lad."
+
+"Less talking there," said Mr Rebble.
+
+"Oh, very well," whispered Mercer, and then he went on half aloud, but
+indistinctly, repeating the problem in Euclid over which he had broken
+down.
+
+I glanced at Mr Rebble, and saw that he was watching us both intently,
+and I bent over my Latin grammar, and began learning the feminine nouns
+which ended in "us," while Mercer half turned his head towards me.
+
+"A little less noise at your end of the school, Mr Rebble, if you
+please," said the Doctor blandly.
+
+"Yes, sir," said Mr Rebble, and then, in a low, severe voice, "Mercer,
+Burr junior, come up."
+
+Mercer threw his leg over the form, and I followed his example,
+involuntarily glancing across at my namesake, who made a grimace, and
+gave himself a writhe, as if suggesting that I should have a cut from
+the cane after being reported to the Doctor, and I knew that he was
+watching us both as we went up to the usher's desk.
+
+"Close up, both of you," said Mr Rebble sternly, but in a low voice, so
+that his words should not reach the Doctor.
+
+We moved closer.
+
+"Now, sir," he said sternly, "I called for silence twice, and you,
+Mercer, and you, Burr junior, both kept on speaking.  I distinctly saw
+your lips moving--both of you.  Now, sir, I insist upon your repeating
+the words you said as I caught your eye."
+
+"Subtending the right angle, sir," said Mercer promptly.
+
+"And you, sir?" continued Mr Rebble, turning to me.
+
+"_Idus, quercus, ficus, manus_, sir," I replied innocently.
+
+"That will do.  Go back to your places, and if I do catch you talking
+again in school hours--"
+
+"Please, sir, that wasn't talking," said Mercer in expostulation.
+
+"Silence, sir.  I say, if I do catch you talking, I shall report you to
+the Doctor.  That will do."
+
+We went demurely enough back to our places, and this summons had the
+effect upon me of making me feel more ill-used than before.  As I once
+more went on with my Latin, I was conscious that Mercer was writing
+something on his slate, and when it was done, he wetted his hand, and
+gave me a nudge, for me to read what he had written.
+
+"He don't like you, because we're friends.  He don't like me.  Yah!  Who
+don't know how to fish?"
+
+I had barely read this, when Mercer's hand rapidly obliterated the
+words, and only just in time, for Mr Rebble left his desk and came
+slowly by us, glancing over our shoulders as he passed, but Mercer was
+safe, for he had rapidly formed a right-angled triangle on his slate,
+and was carefully finishing a capital A, as the usher passed on up to
+the Doctor's end.
+
+Those mornings glided away, and so slowly that it seemed as if the
+mid-day bell would never ring, but its sonorous tones rang through the
+place at last, and, hanging back, so as not to be called upon to form
+part of those who would have to go and field for Burr major and another
+of the bigger lads, Mercer and I waited our time, one day when I had
+been there about a fortnight, and then slipped off to the stable-yard,
+and then up into one of the lofts, which the boys were allowed to use as
+a kind of workshop.
+
+"What do you want to come here for?"  I said, as we ascended the rough
+ladder, and stood in the dimly lighted place.
+
+"I'll show you directly," he said.  "Don't you know what I've got up
+here?"
+
+"No."
+
+"My museum."
+
+I looked around, but nothing was visible but some willow chips, and a
+half-formed cricket bat which Dicksee was making, by the help of a
+spokeshave he had borrowed at the wheelwright's, and which promised to
+be as clumsy a stump defender as ever was held in two hands.
+
+"Well," I said, "where is it?"
+
+"Here," said Mercer triumphantly, as he led the way to where an old
+corn-bin stood beneath one of the windows, the lid securely held down by
+a padlock whose key my companion brought out of his pocket.
+
+"Never mind the old Latin and Euclid.  I'll let you come and help me
+here sometimes, and if old Burr major or Dicksee interferes, you'll have
+to help me, for I wouldn't have my things spoiled for ever so much."
+
+"Oh, I'll help you," I said, and I waited with some curiosity while he
+opened the lock, and, after hanging it on a nail, slowly raised the lid,
+and I looked in to see a strange assortment of odds and ends.  What
+seemed to be dead birds were mixed up with tow, feathers, wire, a file,
+a pair of cutting pincers, and a flat pomatum pot, on which was printed
+the word "poison."
+
+"What's that for?"  I said wonderingly.
+
+"Oh, that's soap," he said.
+
+"No, no, that--the poison."
+
+"Soap, I tell you.  Take off the lid."
+
+I hesitated for a moment, and then raised the lid, to see that the box
+was half full of a creamy-looking paste, which exhaled an aromatic
+odour.
+
+"Is that soap?"  I said.
+
+"Yes, to brush over the skins of things I want to preserve.  Don't touch
+it.  You have to wash your hands ever so many times when you've been
+using it.  Look, that's a starling I began to stuff, but it don't look
+much like a bird, does it?"
+
+"Looks more like a pincushion," I said.  "What's the cotton for?"
+
+"Oh, that's to keep the wings in their places till they're dry.  You
+wind cotton over them, and that holds their feathers down, but I didn't
+get this one right."
+
+"He's too big and fat," I said.
+
+"Yes, I stuffed him too much; but I'm going to try and do another."
+
+The starling was laid down, and a jay picked up.
+
+"That's another one I tried," he said sadly, "but it never would look
+like a bird.  They're ever so much handsomer than that out in the
+woods."
+
+"I suppose,"--I said, and then quickly--"Are they?"
+
+"Yes, you know they are," said Mercer dolefully.  "These are horrid.  I
+know exactly how I want them to look, but they will not come so."
+
+"They will in time," I said, to cheer him, for his failures seemed to
+make him despondent.
+
+"No," he said, "I'm afraid not.  Birds are beautiful things,--starlings
+are and jays,--and nobody can say that those are beautiful.  Regular old
+Guy Fawkes's of birds, aren't they?"
+
+"You mustn't ask me," I replied evasively.  "I'm no judge.  But what's
+this horrid thing?"
+
+"Frog.  Better not touch it.  I never could get on with that.  It's more
+like a toad than a frog.  It's too full of sand."
+
+"Sand!  Why, it's quite light."
+
+"I mean, was too full of sand; it's emptied out now.  I told you that's
+how you stuff reptiles, skin 'em, and fill 'em full of sand till they're
+dry, and then pour it out."
+
+"Oh yes, I remember; but that one is too stout."
+
+"Yes," said Mercer, "that's the worst of it; they will come so if you
+don't mind.  The skins stretch so, and then they come humpy."
+
+"And what's that?"  I asked.  "Looks like a fur sausage."
+
+"You get out with your fur sausages.  See if you could do it better.
+That's a stoat."
+
+I burst out laughing now, and he looked at me in a disconsolate way, and
+then smiled sadly.
+
+"Yes, it is a beast after all," he said.  "My father has got a book
+about anatomy, but I never thought anything about that sort of thing
+till I tried to stuff little animals.  You see they haven't got any
+feathers to hide their shape, and they've got so much shape.  A bird's
+only like an egg, with a head, and two wings on the side, so that if you
+make up a ball of tow like an egg, and pull the skin over it, you can't
+be so very far wrong; but an animal wants curves here and hollows there,
+and nicely rounded hind legs, and his head lifted up gracefully, and
+that--Ugh! the wretch!  I'll burn it first chance.  I won't try any more
+animals."
+
+"A squirrel looks nice stuffed," I observed, as I recalled one I had
+seen in a glass case, having a nut in its fore paws, and with its tail
+curved up over its back.
+
+"Does it?" said Mercer dolefully; "mine don't."
+
+"You have stuffed squirrels?"  I said.
+
+He nodded sadly.
+
+"Two," he replied.  "I didn't skin the first properly, and it smelt so
+horrid that I buried it."
+
+"And the second one?"
+
+"Oh, that didn't look anything like a squirrel.  It was more like a
+short, fat puppy when I had finished, only you knew it was a squirrel by
+its tail.--What say?"
+
+"I didn't speak," I said, as he looked up sharply from where he had been
+leaning down into the old corn-bin.
+
+"I thought you said something.  There, that's all I shall show you
+to-day," he went on disconsolately.  "I never knew they were so bad till
+I brought you up to see them."
+
+"Oh, they're not so very bad," I said, trying to console him by my
+interest in his works.
+
+"Yes, they are.  Horrible!  I did mean to have a glass case for some of
+them, and ornament them with dried moss and grass, but I'm afraid that
+the more you tried to ornament these, the worse they'd look."
+
+This sounded so perfectly true that I could not say a word in
+contradiction; and I stood staring at him, quite at a loss for words,
+and he was staring at me, when there was a shout and a rush along the
+loft floor, and I saw Burr major and Dicksee coming toward us fast, and
+half a dozen more boys crowding up through the trap-door into the place.
+
+"Caught you then!" cried Burr major.  "Come along, boys, old Senna's
+going to show us his museum and his doctor's shop."
+
+Mercer banged down the lid of the corn-bin, and was struggling hard to
+get the hasp over the staple and the padlock on, when Burr major seized
+him and dragged him away.
+
+"No, no," roared Mercer.  "Here, Burr junior, catch hold."  He threw the
+padlock to me, but the key dropped out, and one of the boys pounced upon
+it, while Dicksee threw his arms round me and held me tight.
+
+"No, you don't," he cried.
+
+"That's right," said Burr major.  "Hold him, boys.  The artful beggars
+had sneaked up here to have a tuck-in.  We'll eat it all for them."
+
+"There's nothing in the box--there's nothing there!" cried Mercer,
+struggling vainly, but only to be dragged down on the floor.
+
+"Here, two of you, come and sit on him," said Burr major.  "Hold that
+other beggar tight, Dicksee.  Keep quiet, will you, or I will chuck you
+down the stairs."
+
+By that time, under our tyrant's orders, two boys had come to Dicksee's
+help, and had seized me by a wrist each, so that I was helpless.
+
+"Now then," continued Burr major, "we'll just see what my gentleman
+keeps locked up here.  He's always sneaking up after something."
+
+"You let that box alone," shouted Mercer, after an ineffective struggle
+to get free.
+
+"Shan't.  You're not going to do just as you like, Physic," said Burr
+major, and he threw up the lid, looked in, and then uttered a
+contemptuous "Pah!"
+
+"What a mess!" he cried.  "Look here, Dicksee."
+
+The latter crossed to him eagerly, and I stood there a prisoner, but
+burning with indignation and an intense desire to hit some one.
+
+"I'll tell the Doctor," cried Mercer.  "It's a shame!"
+
+"Oh, is it?  You'd better tell tales--do.  Oh, I say, boys, lookye here.
+This is a rumtummikos incomprehensibus.  What a beast!"
+
+He had taken hold of the unfortunate stoat by the tail and held it out
+amidst roars of laughter.  "We'll have a fire and burn him.  What's
+next?"
+
+He dived down into the great chest, and brought out the starling.
+
+"Here you are, boys," he cried again.  "This is the speckled pecker, or
+measly short-tail."
+
+Another roar of laughter.
+
+"And here's the blue-winged cockatooral-looral-looral."
+
+The boys shouted again, and I saw Mercer heave up in his rage, and
+nearly send the boys off who were sitting upon him, while I wished I had
+strength enough to send our tormentors flying.
+
+"Hallo! here we are then," cried Burr major.  "I knew it.  They were
+going to have a tuck-out.  Look, boys, they meant to have `toad in the
+hole' for supper, and here's the toad."
+
+This was as he held out the bloated skin of the unfortunate frog.
+
+"Hooray!" shouted the boys, who were looking on with rapturous delight,
+and the more we struggled to get free, the greater their enjoyment
+seemed.
+
+"You coward!--you brute!" panted Mercer.  "How would you like your box
+turned out?"
+
+"Ever so.  Come and do it and you'll see.--Oh!"
+
+This last was with quite a shout.
+
+"What is it?" cried the boys who held us.  "Let's look, Burr."
+
+"You take it out if you dare," cried Mercer, who, however, as he told me
+afterwards, had not the least idea what was coming next.
+
+"Oh yes, I'll take it out," said Burr major.
+
+"You coward! you miserable old Eely tailor!"
+
+"Hold your tongue, will you!" cried Burr major, turning sharply round
+and giving Mercer a savage kick as he lay on his back, with one boy
+sitting on his chest, another on his legs.
+
+"Brute!" cried Mercer, setting his teeth and trying hard not to let the
+tears come.
+
+"You great long coward!"  I cried; "you wouldn't dare to do that if he
+were not down."
+
+"You hold your row," he cried, and as I stood thus held, I received a
+sharp, back-handed blow on the mouth, which made my lip bleed.
+
+"Bring it out, Dicksee."
+
+The latter wanted no second telling, but dived down into poor Mercer's
+treasure-chest, and brought out the pot of preserving paste.
+
+"There!" cried Burr major, taking up the pot with a face wrinkled up
+with disgust; "now we've found him out.  See this, boys.  Poison!"
+
+"Oh!" chorused the little party of his parasites.
+
+"That's the way he does it.  He's worse than a witch.  This is what he
+keeps to give to the fellows, and pretends it's physic, same as his
+nasty old father uses."
+
+"I don't, boys--it isn't true; and my father's a gentleman, not an old
+snip."
+
+"Do you want me to kick you again?" said Burr major savagely.
+
+"Yes, if you dare," cried Mercer defiantly.
+
+"Just you wait a bit, my lad, till I'm done.  Yes, boys, that's it
+Dicksee, he gave you some of that, and it made you so ill the other
+day."
+
+"Then we'll show it to the Doctor," cried Dicksee.
+
+"I didn't!" cried Mercer.  "That's to preserve with."
+
+"Yes, that's it," cried Burr major--"to preserve with.  Do you hear,
+boys?  He keeps that to put in jam."
+
+There was a shout at this, and I saw Mercer writhe in his impotence.
+
+"Tell you what, we'll rout out the whole lot, and take them down in the
+stable-yard and burn them."
+
+"You let them alone," cried Mercer frantically, as Burr major scraped
+out a double handful of the hoarded treasures and threw them on the
+floor.
+
+"Hold him down tight, or I shall hurt him," said Burr major
+contemptuously.
+
+But his words came too late, for Mercer made a sudden heave, which threw
+the boy on his chest off sidewise, sprang up into a sitting position,
+and hit out at the boy on his legs, who howled on receiving a crack on
+the ear; and this so roused me to action that I too wrested myself free
+and followed suit.  I flew at Dicksee, and struck him full in the
+breast, sending him in his surprise down in a sitting position, just as
+Mercer struck our tyrant a sounding smack on the cheek.
+
+Burr major staggered back and held his hand to his face.
+
+"Oh, that's it, is it?" he said with a snarl.  "All right, boys, Senna
+Tea wants me to boil him up again."
+
+"You stand by me, Burr junior, won't you?" cried Mercer, who looked now
+as if he were a little startled at his daring.
+
+"Yes," I said desperately, though I felt horribly afraid.
+
+"Oh no, you don't," said Burr major, taking off his jacket; "I don't
+want to knock your silly head off.  You wait till I've thrashed Master
+Physic, and then old Dicksee shall give you your dose."
+
+I saw Dicksee look at him with rather a startled aspect, but Burr major
+took no notice beyond giving him a contemptuous glance, as he neatly
+folded up his jacket, and then removed his waistcoat.
+
+"Here, Bill Ducie, go down and shut the stable door, and lock it
+inside," continued Burr major in a lofty tone; "we don't want to be
+interrupted before we've polished off these two beggars."
+
+The boy ran down, and it sounded very formidable to hear the door bang
+and the rusty lock turned.
+
+"Now then, off with that coat, sir," said Burr major, as he began
+rolling up his shirt over his thin white arms.  "I'm not going to wait
+all day.  The bell will ring for dinner directly.  Hold my clothes, one
+of you; I don't want them dirty."
+
+I saw Mercer set his teeth as he pulled off his jacket and vest, and he
+pitched them both into the big bin, looking very stubborn and determined
+the while.
+
+"Here, Dicksee, you come and second me, I'll second you afterward.  You
+new boy, you'd better second old Senna.  Pah! how physicky he smells!"
+
+I had the vaguest notions of what I had to do, but I imitated Dicksee as
+well as I could, as the boys stood on one side breathless with
+excitement, and Burr major and Mercer faced each other with their fists
+clenched.
+
+Then there was a due amount of sparring, followed by a few blows given
+and taken, and Burr major drew back and sat down on Dicksee's knee,
+Mercer taking his place on mine.
+
+"Did he hurt you much?"  I whispered.
+
+"Horrid," was whispered back, "and I can't half get to hit at him."
+
+Then some one shouted, and they fought again, with the result that my
+blood seemed to boil as poor Mercer came staggering back.
+
+"Had enough?" said Burr major in lofty tones.
+
+For answer Mercer flew at him, and there was another long, fierce round,
+which seemed to consist in Mercer's adversary driving him about the
+place, knocking him about just as much as he liked, and ending by
+sending him staggering back, so that he would have fallen all in a heap
+had I not caught him in my arms.
+
+"Had enough, Doctor?" cried Burr major contemptuously, and as I
+supported Mercer he uttered a low sob of misery.
+
+"Yes, he's done.  Now, Dicksee, I'll second you.--Off with your togs and
+polish him off till his face shines.  Now then, look sharp, Senna,
+you've got to back your chap."
+
+I heard Mercer grind his teeth, and I felt giddy with excitement as he
+whispered to me,--
+
+"Don't be afraid of him, he's a coward.  Take off your things, and you
+try hard if you can't lick him."
+
+"Must I fight?"  I said.
+
+"Now then, you sir, off with that jacket," cried Burr major, "or he'll
+give you the coward's blow."
+
+This roused me, and I stripped for the battle, feeling very nervous and
+uncomfortable, while Mercer drew a long breath, mastered the pain he was
+in, and, after throwing my jacket and waistcoat in the bin with his own,
+began to whisper his instructions to me.
+
+"Now then, off you go," said Burr major.  "Be smart, Dicksee, the bell
+will go directly."
+
+Dicksee made a savage run at me as I put up my arms, there were a few
+blows, all of which came to my share, and there was a roar of laughter
+as the round ended in a struggle, and I went down, with Dicksee on me,
+and my head giving a stunning rap on the boards.
+
+"Don't let him wrestle with you," whispered Mercer excitedly, as he
+helped me up, and I sat upon his knee, feeling very dizzy and half blind
+with rage.
+
+"There," shouted Burr major, "finish the beggar this time, Dicky!"
+
+I have some recollection of our encountering again, and feeling blow
+after blow on my face, on my ear, chest, and shoulders; and our going
+down once more in another wrestling match.
+
+"Never mind," whispered Mercer; "you're doing splendidly."
+
+"Am I?"  I gasped.
+
+"Yes; only keep him off more, and hit straight out like he does."
+
+"Now then," cried Burr major again, "I want to go and wash my hands.
+Come along, new boy, and lay your nose against old Dicksy's left, and
+your left eye against his right, and then he'll smooth your cheeks over
+and lay you on the boards, and by that time I think you'll be about
+cooked."
+
+"Don't let him lick you," whispered Mercer imploringly.  "Do give it him
+this time.  Hit him on the nose always, he don't like that."
+
+"There!" roared Burr major, as, giddy and confused, I was swinging my
+arms about, hitting nothing half the time, and never getting one blow
+home with any force to signify, and at last, after a few minutes of
+burning rage and confusion, during which I had received quite a shower
+of blows, I found myself, giddy and panting, seated upon the floor,
+listening to Burr major's voice.
+
+"That's enough, Dicky; that'll do the beggars no end of good, and make
+'em behave themselves when they meet gentlemen.  Come on, boys.  Here,
+you two, go and wash yourselves, and make yourselves right.  The bell
+will ring directly, and if old Reb sees you've been fighting, he'll
+report you both to the Doctor, and you'll get no end of punishment."
+
+This seemed the unkindest cut of all, and as soon as the boys had gone
+racing down into the yard, where Dicksee gave vent to a loud
+"Cock-a-doodle-doo," I slowly rose to my feet and faced Mercer, who was
+gazing straight before him.
+
+"I say," I panted, for I was breathless still, "did I win?"
+
+"You?  No," he cried savagely.  "You can't fight any more than I can,
+and the brutes have beaten us both.  Here, let's look at you.  Oh, you
+ain't much marked, only your nose bleeds a bit.  That's where you ought
+to have hit him."
+
+"I did try to," I said despondently; "but he wouldn't let me."
+
+"Never mind, put on your things.  I say, are my eyes swollen?"
+
+"One of them's puffed up a bit, and your lip's cut like mine is."
+
+"Never mind.  Come and have a wash."
+
+"Shan't you lock up your museum?"
+
+"Not now.  I don't care for it after what they've done.  Yes, I do; I'll
+come up afterwards," he continued, rapidly replacing the pot of
+preserving paste.  "Come along, and try and look as if nothing was the
+matter."
+
+I followed him as soon as we had put on our clothes, and then we hurried
+to the row of basins and towels, barely completing our ablutions when
+the bell rang, and not looking so very much the worse.
+
+"Never mind, old chap," whispered Mercer, as we went into the schoolroom
+to dinner, with the boys all watching us and making remarks; "wait a
+bit, and we'll have revenge."
+
+"How?"  I said, as with a horrifying rapidity the pot of poison came
+into my mind.
+
+"Never you mind;" he whispered tragically.  "Bitter revenge!  Only you
+wait."
+
+There was a tapping on the end table just then, and all the boys rose.
+Then the Doctor's deep, bland voice uttered the word,--
+
+"Grace!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVEN.
+
+I ate that dinner very uneasily.  For one thing, I had no appetite,
+having had enough before I took my place.  For another, I was worried by
+the furtive grins and whispers of the boys near me, the news of the
+fight having run like lightning through the school.  Then I was in a
+constant state of dread lest my appearance should be noticed by either
+Mr Rebble, the Doctor, or the new assistant master, who was dining on
+the principal's left, for the Doctor made our dinner his lunch and of
+course had his late.  I had not had a chance to look in a glass, and, as
+my face ached and felt tight, I imagined terrible black eyes, a horribly
+swollen nose, and that my top lip was puffed out to a large size.  In
+fact, I felt that I must be in that state; and as I glanced at Mercer, I
+was surprised to see that he hardly showed a mark.  Lastly, I could not
+get on with my dinner, because my mouth would not open and shut
+properly, while every attempt to move my lower jaw sidewise gave me
+intense pain.
+
+I was in hopes that this was not noticed, and to get over the difficulty
+of being seen with my plate of meat untouched, I furtively slipped two
+slices, a potato, and a piece of bread under the table, where I knew
+that the two cats would be foraging according to their custom.
+
+I thought the act was not noticed, but the boy on my right had been
+keenly watching me.
+
+"Can't you eat your dinner?" he whispered.
+
+There was no other course open save making a paltry excuse, so I said
+gruffly,--
+
+"Never mind, old chap," he said, to my surprise.  "Lots of us laugh at
+you, but--.  I say, don't tell 'em I said so."
+
+"I don't sneak and tell tales," I said morosely.
+
+"No, of course you wouldn't.  I was going to say lots of us laugh at
+you, but lots of us wish you and Senna Tea had given those two bullies
+an awful licking."
+
+"Thank-ye," I said, for these words were quite cheering, and I glanced
+at Mercer, who was fiddling his dinner about, and cutting the
+pink-looking cold boiled beef up in very small squares.
+
+"Can't you get on?"  I whispered.
+
+"No.  'Tain't likely; but just you wait."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Never mind!"
+
+The dinner went on, with the clattering of knives and forks upon plates,
+and, the meat being ended, the pudding came along, round, stodgy slices,
+with glittering bits of yellow suet in it, and here and there a raisin,
+or plum, as we called it, playing at bo-peep with those on the other
+side,--"Spotted Dog," we used to call it,--and I got on a little better,
+for it was nice and warm and sweet, from the facts that the Doctor never
+stinted us boys in our food, and that, while the cook always said she
+hated all boys, she contrived to make our dinners tasty and good.
+
+"Try the pudding," I whispered to Mercer.
+
+"Shan't.  I should like to shy it bang in old Burr major's face."
+
+"Oh, never mind."
+
+"But I do mind; but just you wait!"
+
+"Well, I am waiting," I said.  "Why don't you tell me what you mean?"
+
+Mercer was silent.
+
+"I say!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"You're not going to give him anything nasty, are you?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Oh!"
+
+"You wait and see!"
+
+"But you mustn't; it wouldn't do."
+
+"Wouldn't it?  Ah, just you wait.  We'll make 'em sorry for this."
+
+"I'm not going to do anything nasty," I said sturdily.
+
+"Yes, you are; you're going to do as I do.  We're mates, and you've got
+to help me as I helped you."
+
+I thought of the pot marked "poison;" of Dicksee being bad through
+taking something Mercer had given him; and a curious sensation of
+sickness came over me, and I left half my pudding, just as Mercer took
+up his fork, chopped his disk up into eight pieces, and began to bolt
+them fiercely.
+
+"Eat your pudding," he said, noticing that I had left off.
+
+"Can't.  I've had enough."
+
+"You must.  I want you to grow strong.  I shall give you some tonic
+stuff my father prescribes for people."
+
+I looked at him in horror, but he was glaring at the last piece of
+pudding on his fork.
+
+"Just you wait!" he said gloomily.
+
+"I will not help him in anything I think wrong," I said to myself; and a
+few minutes after, Mercer leaned towards me.
+
+"Look!" he whispered; "there's Eely Burr and Fathead grinning at us.
+Wait a bit!  They don't know what a horrible revenge we're going to have
+on them."
+
+"But if it's _we_," I said, "you ought to tell me what the revenge is
+going to be."
+
+"I'll tell you some time," he whispered.  "Perhaps to-morrow, perhaps
+to-night.--You wait!"
+
+"Oh, how I do hate being treated like that!"  I thought to myself, and I
+was about to beg of him to tell me then, and to try to persuade him not
+to, do anything foolish, when the Doctor tapped the table with the
+handle of his cheese-knife, grace was said, and we all adjourned to the
+play-field for the half-hour at our disposal before we resumed our
+studies.
+
+I had no further opportunity for speaking to Mercer that afternoon, for,
+when we returned to the schoolroom, the Doctor made us a speech, in
+which he said he, "regretted deeply to find."--Here he stopped to blow
+his nose, and I turned hot, cold, and then wet, as I felt that we two
+would be publicly reproved and perhaps punished for fighting.
+
+"That," continued the Doctor, "many of the boys had been going back in
+minor subjects."
+
+I breathed more freely at this.
+
+Mr Hasnip, whom he now publicly presented to us, was an Oxford
+gentleman, who would take our weak points in hand, strengthen them, and
+help him, the Doctor, to maintain the high position his establishment
+had held for so many years.
+
+Of course we all looked very hard at the new usher, who was a pale,
+yellowish-looking man, with eyes hidden by smoked glasses, which enabled
+him to see without being seen, and he now smiled at us as if he were
+going to bite, and was nicknamed Parsnip by Mercer on the instant.
+
+"He'll be a teaser," whispered Mercer.  "Going to strengthen our weak
+parts, is he?  Wish he could strengthen mine in the way I want.  I
+suppose we shall be turned over to him.  Can't be worse than old Reb."
+
+Mercer was right; we two were the first boys turned over to the new
+usher, and this was fortunate for us, for he knew nothing about our
+personal appearance; and the swellings that did come on, and which would
+have been noticed directly by Mr Rebble, passed unheeded by him.
+
+I was very glad when tea-time came, for my head was so confused that Mr
+Hasnip was quite right in telling me I was a very stupid boy, for I was
+that afternoon--very.
+
+But the meal-time did come, and as soon as tea was over, instead of
+going into the play-field with the others, I sat down alone, sore,
+aching, and disconsolate, to try and master some of the things Mr
+Hasnip had said I was behindhand in.
+
+I had just taken up my book, with my head feeling more hazy than ever,
+and the shouts of the boys floating in at the open window, when Mercer
+came in hurriedly.
+
+"Here, put that book away," he said quickly.
+
+"What for?  I don't want to come out."
+
+"But you must.  I've been and put away my specimens, and that settled
+it.  Come along."
+
+"But why must I come out?  I don't want to play, and the other fellows
+will only laugh at us."
+
+"No, they will not.  They're not going to see us.  Come along.
+Revenge!"
+
+I got up and took my cap unwillingly, but, as we got out in the soft
+evening air, I began to think that perhaps I could keep him back if he
+were going to do anything wrong, so I walked on by his side with more
+alacrity.
+
+"Going for a walk?"  I said, as I found that he avoided the play-field.
+
+"No.  You wait and you'll see."
+
+"Well, you needn't be so disagreeable with me," I said gruffly.
+
+"I'm not, only I ache and burn, and I'm full of it.  Come on."
+
+To my surprise, he led me down to the lodge cottage, where the big,
+soldierly-looking fellow was enjoying his evening pipe in his
+neatly-kept little garden.
+
+"Evening, young gents," he said, saluting us.  "When do you two begin
+your drill?"
+
+"I don't know, Lomax.  When the new master's done thumping Latin and
+Euclid into us."
+
+"Humph!  Well, gentlemen, I hear that the Romans were very fine
+soldiers, and Euclid's all about angles and squares, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Well, they're right enough in infantry formation--squares are, and the
+angles in fortification, which is a thing I don't know much about,
+having been in the cavalry; but when you are ready, so am I, and I'll
+set you up and make men of you as your fa--" he glanced at me and pulled
+himself up short--"as your people shall be proud of."
+
+"That's right, Lom, and I'll bring you some prime tobacco soon as I can.
+I say, you can fight, can't you?"
+
+"Well," he said, smiling and drawing himself up, "they used to say I
+could once upon a time.  There's my old sword hanging up over the
+chimney-piece, and if it could speak--"
+
+"Yes, yes, I know, and you've been wounded," cried Mercer hastily; "but
+I don't mean with swords and pistols, I mean with your fists."
+
+"Oh, I see.  Boxing."
+
+"Yes," cried Mercer eagerly.
+
+And I was still so dull and confused by the knocking about I had
+received, that I had not a glimmer of what he was aiming at.
+
+"Yes; boxing.  I want you to teach us."
+
+"Yes, I was a dabster at it when I was in the ---th.  We had no end of
+it, and we lads used to have a regular subscription round to buy new
+gloves.  Oh yes, I gave lessons to the officers regularly.  Long time
+since I've had the gloves on, but I could handle my fists as well as
+ever, I daresay."
+
+"Then you'll teach us?"
+
+"Teach you?  No, no, my lads.  Infantry drill; clubs and dumb-bells;
+singlestick and foil; riding with a military seat; but--use of the
+gloves!  Oh dear no!  What do you think the Doctor would say?"
+
+"But he won't know, Lom, and we'll pay you, honour bright."
+
+"I know you would, Master Mercer; and if this young gent, whose father
+was in the cavalry--"
+
+"Yes, at Chilly--" began Mercer.
+
+"Wallah, sir," said Lomax severely.  "If he says he'll pay me, of course
+he would.  But no, sir, no.  Besides, we've got no gloves, and
+boxing-gloves--two pairs--cost money."
+
+"Of course.  I know they would, but we'd buy them, or you should for us,
+and then we could come here now and then, and you could teach us in your
+room, and nobody would know."
+
+"No, sir, no," said the sergeant, shaking his head.
+
+"I say, Lom, look at us both," said Mercer.  "See anything?"
+
+"Well, yes, I do, plain, my lads.  You two don't want any teaching.
+You've got swelled lips, and mousy eyes rising, and your noses are a bit
+puffy.  You have both been fighting."
+
+"Yes, Lom, and see how we've been knocked about."
+
+"Well, boys who will fight must take what they get and not grumble."
+
+"But we didn't want to fight.  They made us."
+
+"Why, I thought you two were such friends and mates already.  Bah! lads,
+you shouldn't fight without there's good reason."
+
+"But we didn't fight," cried Mercer angrily.
+
+"Why, just look at you both! your faces say it as plain as your lips."
+
+"But I mean not together.  Eely Burr and big Dicksee came and thrashed
+us.  They would not leave us alone."
+
+"Oh, come: that's bullying," said Lomax, shaking his head, "and it isn't
+a fair match; they're a good two years older than you, and used to
+fighting, and you ain't."
+
+"No," said Mercer excitedly; "and it's cruel and cowardly.  I'm not a
+bit afraid of him, and Burr junior wasn't of his man, and we did the
+best we could, but they knocked us about just as they liked, and hit us
+where they pleased, and we couldn't hurt them a bit."
+
+"No, you wouldn't be able of course," said the old sergeant
+thoughtfully, taking our arms and feeling our muscles.  "Well, it was
+very plucky of you both to stand up and face 'em, that's all I can say.
+Is that why you want to learn to use your fists?"
+
+"Yes, and as soon as we can both box well, we want to give them both
+such lickings!" cried Mercer eagerly.
+
+The old sergeant began to laugh in a quiet way, and wiped the tears out
+of his eyes.
+
+"Then you want to learn on the sly, and astonish 'em some day?"
+
+"Yes, yes," I said eagerly, for I was as excited as my companion, whose
+idea of revenge, now it was explained, seemed to me to be glorious.
+
+"Well, it is tempting," said the sergeant thoughtfully.
+
+"And you'll teach us?"
+
+"And his father fought at Chillianwallah!  Yes, it is tempting.  You
+ought to be able to take your own part if big cowards tackle you."
+
+"Yes, Lom.  Then do teach us."
+
+"No.  What would the Doctor say?"
+
+"He never should know.  We'd never tell, either of us, would we, Burr?"
+
+"Never!"  I cried.
+
+"I believe you, boys, that I do," said the old man; "and it was never
+forbidden.  Never even mentioned," he continued thoughtfully.  "I should
+like to oblige an old soldier's son."
+
+"And I mean to be an army surgeon," said Mercer.
+
+"And you couldn't do better, my lad."
+
+"Then you'll teach us?" cried Mercer, and I hung upon his answer, with
+the spirit of retaliation strong within me now.
+
+"Do you know what it means, my lads?  Deal of knocking about."
+
+"We don't care how much, do we, Burr?"
+
+"No," I cried excitedly.  "You may knock me down hundreds of times, if
+you'll teach me how to knock you down."
+
+"But the gloves will cost about a pound."
+
+"A pound!" said Mercer in dismay.  Then a happy thought struck him.
+
+"We shall have to give up buying Magglin's gun for the present," he
+whispered to me.  Then aloud--
+
+"All right Lom.  If we bring you the money, will you buy the gloves?"
+
+"Yes, my lads, I will; and good ones."
+
+"And you will teach us?"
+
+"I'll teach you," said the sergeant, "for the sake of helping to make a
+strong man of the son of a brave officer, who died for his country.
+There!"
+
+"Hooray!" cried Mercer; "and how much will you charge for the lessons,
+Lom? because you must make it a little more, as we shall have to go tick
+for a bit, because of paying so much for the gloves."
+
+"How much?" said the sergeant thoughtfully.  "Let me see.  First and
+foremost, your words of honour that you'll never tell a soul I taught
+you how to fight, for it might lead to unpleasantness."
+
+"On my honour, I'll never tell!" cried Mercer.
+
+"And on my honour I never will!"  I said excitedly.
+
+"Right, then, so far," said Lomax.  "Now about those gloves.  If I
+recollect right, they're eight-and-six a pair, and two pairs are
+seventeen shillings."
+
+"And the carriage," said Mercer.
+
+"Stop a bit.  I think, being an old soldier, and teaching, the makers'll
+take something off for me.  I know they'll send 'em down carriage paid,
+and Jem Roff'll get 'em for me from the cross when the waggon goes in.
+Got your money?"
+
+"I've got half a sovereign," said Mercer.
+
+"I've got seven shillings," I said.
+
+"Hand over then," said the sergeant, and we lightened our purses
+tremendously.
+
+"That's right," said Lomax.  "Now about the pay for the lessons.  I want
+that in advance."
+
+"Oh!" we both ejaculated in dismay.
+
+"We can't pay now, Lom," said Mercer, "but we will."
+
+"Yes, you can."
+
+"But how?"
+
+"Give me your fists, both of you, in a hearty soldier's grip, my lads.
+That's my pay in advance, and if in less than six months you two don't
+give those two bullies a big dressing down, why, I'm a Dutchman."
+
+"Oh, Lom!"
+
+"Oh, thank you!"  I cried.
+
+"Thank you, my lads, and God bless you both.  Fighting's generally bad,
+but it's good sometimes.  There, be off, both of you, and I'll write a
+letter for those gloves to-night."
+
+We left him with our hearts beating high.
+
+"I don't mind my face swelling a bit now," said Mercer.
+
+"I should like to begin learning to-morrow," I said, and then we were
+both silent for a few minutes, till Mercer turned round with a queer
+laugh on his swollen face.
+
+"I say," he cried, with a chuckle, "I wonder whether old Dicksee will
+cry cock-a-doodle-doo next time when we've done."
+
+"Let's wait and see," said I; and that night I dreamed that I was a
+wind-mill, and that every time my sails, which were just the same as
+arms, went round, they came down bang on Dicksee's head, and made him
+yell.
+
+I woke up after that dream, to find it was broad daylight, and crept out
+of bed to look at my face in the glass, and shrank away aghast, for my
+lip was more swollen, and there was a nasty dark look under my eye.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHT.
+
+I stood gazing into the little looking-glass with my spirits sinking
+down and down in that dreary way in which they will drop with a boy who
+wakes up in the morning with some trouble resting upon his shoulders
+like so much lead.
+
+I was more stiff and sore, too, at first waking, and all this combined
+to make me feel so miserable, that I began to think about home and my
+mother, and what would be the consequences if I were to dress quickly,
+slip out, and go back.
+
+She would be so glad to see me again, I thought, that she would not be
+cross; and when I told her how miserable I was at the school, she would
+pity me, and it would be all right again.
+
+I was so elated by the prospect, and--young impostor that I was--so glad
+of the excuse which the marks upon my face would form to a doting
+mother, that I began to dress quickly, and had got as far as I could
+without beginning to splash in the water and rattle the little white jug
+and basin, when the great obstacle to my evasion came before me with
+crushing power, and I sat on my bed gazing blankly before me.
+
+For a terrible question had come for an answer, and it was this:
+
+"What will uncle say?"
+
+And as I sat on the edge of my bed, his handsome, clearly-cut face, with
+the closely-cropped white hair and great grey moustache, was there
+before me, looking at me with a contemptuous sneer, which seemed to say,
+"You miserable, despicable young coward!  Is this the way you fulfil
+your promise of trying to be a man, worthy of your poor father, who was
+a brave soldier and a gentleman?  Out upon you for a miserable young
+sneak!"
+
+That all came up wonderfully real before me, and I felt the skin of my
+forehead wrinkle up and tighten other parts of my face, while I groaned
+to myself, as if apologising to my uncle,--
+
+"But I can't stop here, I am so miserable, and I shall be horribly
+punished for what I could not help.  The boys say the Doctor is very
+severe, sometimes."
+
+There was my uncle's stern face still, just as I had conjured it up, and
+he was frowning.
+
+He will be horribly angry with me, I thought, and it would make poor
+mamma so unhappy, and--
+
+"I can't go, and I won't go," I said, half aloud.  "I don't care if the
+Doctor cuts me to pieces; and I won't tell how I got the marks, for, if
+I do, all the boys will think I am a sneak."
+
+"Fill the tea-cup--fill the tea-cup--fill the tea-cup!  High up--high
+up--high up!  Fine morning--fine morning--fine morning!"
+
+The notes of a thrush, sounding exactly like that, with the help of a
+little imagination; and I rose, went to the window, gazed out, and there
+was the sun, looking like a great globe of orange, lighting up the mists
+in the hollows, and making everything look so glorious, that I began to
+feel a little better.
+
+Turning round to look at my schoolfellows asleep in their little narrow
+beds, all in exceedingly ungraceful attitudes, and looking towzley and
+queer, I saw that, as I held the blind on one side, the sunlight shone
+full on Mercer, and I hurt myself directly by bursting out into a silent
+fit of laughter, which drew my bruised face into pain-producing puckers.
+But it was impossible to help it, all the same, for Mercer's phiz
+looked so comic.
+
+The swelling about his eyes had gone down, and there were only very
+faint marks beneath them, but his mouth was twisted all on one side, and
+his nose looked nearly twice as big as usual.
+
+He's worse than I am, I thought, as I stood gazing at him, and this
+brought up our visit to the lodge the previous evening, and a grim
+feeling of satisfaction began to make me glow, as I dwelt upon Mercer's
+plans, and in imagination I saw myself about to be possessed of a
+powerful talisman, which would enable me to retaliate on my enemies, and
+be always one who could protect the weak from the oppressor.  And as I
+stood thinking all this, I turned again to look out of the window, where
+the lovely landscape of the Sussex weald lay stretched out before me,
+and listened to the birds bursting forth into their full morning song,
+as the sun literally cut up the mists, which rose and dispersed just as
+the last of the mental mists were rising fast from about me.  There was
+the glorious country, with all its attractions for a town boy, and close
+by me lay Mercer, who seemed to me quite a profound sage in his
+knowledge of all around, and I felt that, after all, I had got too much
+budding manliness in me to give up like a coward, who would run away at
+the first trouble he had to meet.
+
+I was a natural boy once again, and, going back to Mercer's bedside, I
+began to think that there was no fun in seeing him sleeping away there
+while I was wide awake; so, stealing softly to his little wash-stand, I
+took the towel, dipped one corner carefully in the jug, and then, with a
+big drop ready to fall, I held it close to his nose, squeezed it a
+little, and the drop fell.
+
+The effect was instantaneous.
+
+Mercer gave a spring which made his bed creak, and sat up staring at me.
+
+"What are you doing?" he said.  "Why can't you be quiet?  Has the bell
+rung?"
+
+"I don't know," I said.  "I haven't heard it."
+
+"Why--why, it's ever so early yet, and you're half dressed.  Oh, how my
+nose burns!  I say, is it swelled?"
+
+"Horribly!"  I said.
+
+He leaped out of bed, ran to the glass, stared in, and looked round
+again at me.
+
+"Oh my!" he ejaculated, as he gazed at me wildly; "there's no getting
+out of this.  Bathing won't take a nose like that down.  It ought to
+have on a big linseed meal poultice."
+
+"But you couldn't breathe with a thing like that on."
+
+"Oh yes, you could," he said, with the voice of authority.  "You get two
+big swan quills, and cut them, and put one up each nostril, and then put
+on your plaster.  That's how my father does."
+
+"But you couldn't go about like that."
+
+"No, you lie in bed on your back, and whistle every time you breathe."
+
+I laughed.
+
+"Ah, it's all very fine to laugh, but we shall be had up to the Doctor's
+desk this morning, and he'll want to know about the fighting."
+
+"Well, we must tell him, I suppose," I said.  "They began on us."
+
+"No," said Mercer, shaking his head, and looking as depressed as I did
+when I woke; "that wouldn't do here.  The fellows never tell on each
+other, and we should be sent to Coventry.  It's precious hard to be
+licked, and then punished after, when you couldn't help it, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes," I said.  "Then you won't tell about Burr major and Dicksee."
+
+"Oh no.  Never do.  We shall have to take it and grin and bear it,
+whether it's the cane or impositions.  Worst of it is, it'll mean ever
+so much keeping in.  I wouldn't care if it had been a month or two ago."
+
+"What difference would that have made?"
+
+"Why, it was all wet weather then.  Now it's so fine, I want for us to
+go and collect things, and I'm not going to be beaten over that
+stuffing.  Next time I shall look at a live bird ever so long before I
+try to stuff one, and then you'll see.  We'll be on the watch next time,
+so that old Eely shan't catch us, and--ha, ha, ha!  Oh my! oh my! oh
+my!" he cried, sitting down on the edge of his bed, rocking himself to
+and fro, and kicking up his bare feet and working his toes about in the
+air.
+
+"What are you laughing about?"  I said, feeling glad to see that he too
+was getting rid of the depression.
+
+"Wait a bit," he whispered.  "Won't we astonish them!  Oh, my nose, how
+it does hurt!" he added, covering the swollen organ with his hand, and
+speaking in a snuffling tone.  "I shall aim straight at old Eely's snub
+all the time, so as to make it twice as big as mine is.  He will be so
+mad, for he's as proud of himself as a peacock, and thinks he's
+handsome.  What do you think he does?"
+
+"I don't know," I said.
+
+"Puts scent on his handkerchief every morning--musk.  Oh, he is a dandy!
+But wait a bit!  Seventeen shillings!  Isn't it a lot for two pairs of
+gloves?  And, I say!"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"He's an awful dandy about his gloves too.  By and by, when he's had his
+licking,--two lickings, for you shall give him one too,--I'll tell you
+what we'll always say to him."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"We'll say, `What sized gloves do you take?'"
+
+"But he will not know anything about the gloves," I said, interrupting a
+laugh.  "We shan't have gloves on then."
+
+"No more we shall.  What a pity!  That spoils my joke.  Never mind.
+Let's dress, and go and look at the gardens--perhaps there may be some
+good butterflies out in the sunshine; and as soon as cook's down, I'll
+beg some hot water to bathe my nose."
+
+But Mercer did not put in a petition for the hot water.  "It's no good,"
+he said, when we were down by the gardens, soon after we were dressed.
+"It's like physic; we've got to take it, so we may as well face it all
+out and get it over."
+
+Very good philosophy, of course, but I did not feel hopeful about what
+was to come.
+
+It all began at breakfast, where we were no sooner seated, than Mr
+Rebble came by with the new assistant master.
+
+"Bless me!  Good gracious!  Look, Mr Hasnip.  Did you ever see such a
+nose?  No, no, Mercer: sit up, sir."
+
+Poor Mercer had ducked down to hide his bulbous organ, but he had to sit
+up while Mr Hasnip brought his smoke-tinted spectacles to bear upon it.
+
+"Terrible!" he said.  "The boy must have been fighting."
+
+"Yes; and here's the other culprit," cried Mr Rebble.  "Look at this
+boy's eye and mouth.  Have you two boys been fighting?"
+
+"Yes, sir," I said in a low voice.
+
+"Disgraceful!  Well, the Doctor must know of it, and he will punish you
+both severely."
+
+The two masters moved off to their table, and a buzz of excitement ran
+through the nearest boys, while, as I looked up, I could see Burr major
+standing up in his place and looking over toward us.
+
+"I say," whispered Mercer, "here's a game; they think we two have been
+fighting together like old Lom did.  Let 'em think so.  Don't you say a
+word."
+
+"But it will be so dishonest," I expostulated.
+
+"No, it won't.  If they ask you who you fought with, you must say
+nothing."
+
+"Not tell them?"
+
+"No.  The Doctor will say you are stubborn and obstinate, and threaten
+to expel you; but he don't mean it, and you've got to hold your tongue,
+as I told you before.  We never split on each other here."
+
+"Will the Doctor know, do you think?"  I asked, as we went on with our
+breakfast.
+
+"Sure to.  Old Reb's safe to go and tell him directly he comes."
+
+I soon heard that this opinion was shared, for one of the bigger boys
+came over from his seat near Burr major.
+
+"I say," he said, "Reb's sure to tell the Doctor about you two.  Shall
+you say that you had a round with big Burr and old Fatsee?"
+
+"Did Eely tell you to come and ask?" said Mercer, glancing toward where
+Burr major was anxiously watching in our direction.
+
+"Never you mind.  Are you going to tell?"
+
+"What is it to you?"
+
+"A good deal.  You tell, and half a dozen of us mean to wallop you two,
+and you won't like that."
+
+"Oh, I shouldn't mind, and Burr junior wouldn't.  I know old Squirmy
+sent you to ask because--there, look at him--he's all in a fiddle for
+fear the Doctor should punish him--a great coward!--for knocking smaller
+boys about."
+
+"Look here," whispered the ambassador, "don't you be quite so saucy."
+
+"Shall if I like.  You go and tell old Eely, old slimy Snip, that I'm
+not like his chosen friend Dicksee, a miserable, tale-telling sneak.  I
+shan't let out about Burr major being such a coward, and Burr here won't
+tell about fat-headed Dicksee, so now you can go."
+
+"And you'd better keep to it," said the boy, looking at me fiercely; but
+I did not feel afraid, for Mercer's project about the gloves had sent a
+glow through me, and, as he said, our time would come.
+
+But I felt anything but comfortable an hour later, when I was back in
+school, after the breakfast had been cleared, for I could see that the
+boys had their eyes upon us, and were whispering, and I knew it related
+to the punishment to come.
+
+The worst moments were when the Doctor entered and took his place in his
+pulpit amidst a suppressed rustle, and I set my teeth as I stood up, and
+shrank down again at the earliest opportunity, feeling as if the
+Doctor's eye was fixed upon me, and, as it happened, just as I was
+wishing he would speak, and, as I felt it, put me out of my misery, he
+uttered one of his tremendous coughs, which had far more effect in
+producing silence than Mr Rebble's words.
+
+"Thomas Mercer, Burr junior," he said loudly, "come up here."
+
+"I wish I had run away this morning," was my first thought, but it was
+gone directly, and I was glad I had not, as I walked as firmly as I
+could, side by side with my brother offender, right up to the front of
+the Doctor's desk, where he sat frowning upon us like a judge without
+his wig and gown.
+
+"Hah!" he ejaculated in his most awe-inspiring tones, as he looked at us
+searchingly.  "No doubt about it.  Disgraceful marks, like a pair of
+rough street boys instead of young gentlemen.  So you two have been
+fighting?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I am glad that you have frankness enough to own to it.  You, Mercer,
+knew better; but you, sir, had to learn that you have broken one of the
+most rigid rules of my establishment.  I object to fighting, as savage,
+brutal, and cruel, and I will not allow it here.  Mr Rebble, give these
+boys heavy impositions, and you will both of you stop in and study every
+day for a fortnight under Mr Hasnip's directions.  Some principals
+would have administered the cane or the birch, but I object to those
+instruments as being, like fighting, savage, brutal, and cruel, only to
+be used as a last resource, when ordinary punishments suitable for
+gentlemen fail.  I presume that you make no defence?"  He continued
+rolling out his words in a broad volume of sound.  "You own that you
+have both been fighting?  Silence is a full answer.  Return to your
+places."
+
+I heard Mercer utter a low sigh, and my breast felt overcharged as we
+went back to our desks, where we were no sooner seated than Mercer
+whispered,--
+
+"Never mind, old chap! we'll help one another; and he never asked who we
+had been fighting with, so we didn't get extra punishment for being
+stubborn.  Oh dear me, what a rum place school is!"
+
+Poor Mercer, he had yet to learn, as I had, that the school was only the
+world in miniature, and that we should find our life there almost
+exactly the same when we grew up to be men.
+
+"I wonder what Mr Hasnip will set us to do," I thought, as the clock at
+last told that the morning's studies were nearly at an end, and I was
+still wondering when the boys rose, and Eely Burr, Dicksee, and the
+other big fellow, Hodson, came round behind us, and the first
+whispered,--
+
+"Lucky for you two that you didn't tell.  My!  I shouldn't have liked to
+be you, if you had."
+
+"Go and scent your handkerchief," said Mercer angrily.  "I'd tell if I
+liked."
+
+"If they weren't here, I'd punch your ugly head," whispered Eely, and
+they all three went out, leaving us two alone in the great schoolroom,
+with the ushers at one end, and the Doctor, contrary to his usual
+custom, still in his desk at the other.
+
+"Stand, Thomas Mercer and Burr junior," he said.  "Or no--Mercer can
+keep his seat."
+
+I rose with Mercer, who resumed his place.
+
+"Burr junior," said the Doctor, rolling out his words slowly, as if they
+were so precious that they ought to make a proper impression, "I
+sentenced you to a certain series of punishments, to endure for fourteen
+days; but you are new, untrained, and have been so unfortunate as to
+receive such education as you possess by private tuition.  Under these
+circumstances, you are wanting in social knowledge, especially of the
+kind bearing upon your conduct to your fellow-workers in a school like
+this.  In consequence, I shall make a point of looking over this your
+first offence, and exonerating you.  That will do."
+
+I murmured my thanks, and remained in my place.
+
+"Well," said the Doctor, as Mr Hasnip coughed to take my attention,
+"why are you waiting?"
+
+"For Mercer, sir."
+
+"But I have not excused him.  He is not a new boy; and besides, I am
+sure you would like him to be punished."
+
+"No, no!"  I said eagerly; "and I don't want to be let off if he is
+not."
+
+"Hum!  Hah!" ejaculated the Doctor, looking at me benevolently through
+his spectacles.  "Well--er--er--yes--I like that.  Mercer, you are
+excused too.  That will do."
+
+"Thank you, sir; thank you, sir," cried Mercer joyfully; and we both
+bowed and hurried away to the loft, Mr Rebble shaking his head at us as
+we passed his desk, and Mr Hasnip, as I thought, looking sadly
+disappointed as far as I could judge, though I could not see his eyes.
+
+On reaching the loft, Mercer was in such a state of exultation that he
+relieved his feelings by standing upon his head on the corn-bin; but I
+did not feel so glad, for I had not spoken out, and the Doctor had been
+acting under a misconception, and I said so.
+
+"Oh, never mind," cried Mercer, speaking with his heels in the air.  "We
+couldn't explain, and it don't matter.  Oh, I say, won't old Eely be
+pleased that we've got off!"
+
+I did not answer, for I still felt that I should like to go and tell the
+Doctor frankly everything that had passed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINE.
+
+Mercer was terribly exercised in mind about Magglin's gun, and his
+having to give that up for the sake of his revenge, but a letter from
+home containing five shillings revived his hopes, and it was put aside
+as a nest-egg, so that the amount might be raised at last, though what
+the amount was we had no idea.
+
+Our injuries soon became better, and were forgotten, as the days went
+rapidly by, while I grew so much at home that the arrival of a new pupil
+made me feel quite one of the old boys.  I had my patch of garden given
+me, and took great pride in digging and planting it, and as soon as my
+interest was noticed by my namesake, he coolly walked across it twice,
+laughing at me contemptuously the while, as if he knew that I dared not
+retaliate.
+
+And all this time I worked hard with my lessons, with more or less
+success, I suppose, for Mr Hasnip, who was a kind of encyclopaedia, and
+seemed to know everything, did not scold me and box my ears with the
+book he held every day.
+
+We did not have another fishing trip, for the keeper met us one day and
+informed us that we owed him two shillings for damage done to his lines,
+and this debt I undertook to repay as soon as I obtained some more money
+from home.  But we had several afternoons in the woods, and brought back
+treasures which were safely deposited in Mercer's box, ready for
+examination at some future time.
+
+Some people would not have called them treasures, though they were
+looked upon as such by Mercer, who was exceedingly proud of a snake-skin
+which he found in a patch of dwarf furze, and of a great snail shell
+that was nearly white, and had belonged to one of the molluscs used by
+the Romans for their soup.
+
+Among other things was an enormous frog, which was kept alive in some
+fresh damp moss stuffed into a fig drum, into which a certain number of
+unfortunate flies were thrust every day through a hole, filled directly
+after by a peg.  Whether those flies were eaten by the frog, or whether
+they got out again, I never knew, but Mercer had perfect faith in their
+being consumed.
+
+Just about this time, too, my chosen companion got in debt.
+
+It was in this wise.  We went down the garden one day, talking very
+earnestly about how long it was before the gloves needed for our lessons
+came down, wondering, too, that we had never been able to catch sight of
+the old sergeant, when Mercer suddenly became aware of the fact that
+Magglin, who was hoeing weeds, was also making mysterious signs to us to
+go round to his side of the garden; and when we reached him he whispered
+to my companion, after looking cautiously round to see that we were not
+observed,--
+
+"You don't want to buy a ferret, do you, Master Mercer?"
+
+"Yes," cried the latter eagerly; "I do want a ferret to hunt the rats in
+the stable.  No, I don't," he said sadly; "I haven't got any money."
+
+"You not got no money!" said the gipsy-looking fellow.  "Oh, I like
+that, and you a gentleman."
+
+"How much is it?" said Mercer.
+
+"Oh, only five shillin'.  It's like giving it away, only a chap I know
+wants some money, and he ast me to see if any of the young gents would
+like to buy it."
+
+"'Tisn't your old ferret, then?"
+
+"Oh no, sir; I got rid o' that long enough ago, because I thought people
+would say I kep' it to catch rabbids.  They are so disagreeable.  But
+this is an out and outer to catch rabbids," he whispered.
+
+"But five shillings is such a lot of money for a ferret, Magg."
+
+"Lot!  Well, there!  It's giving of it away.  Why, if I wanted such a
+thing, and had the chance to get such a good one as this, I'd give ten
+shillin' for it."
+
+"But is it a good one, Magg?"
+
+"Splendid.  You come and look at it.  I've got it in the tool-house in a
+watering-pot."
+
+"Let's go and see it, Frank," cried Mercer, and we followed the
+slouching-looking fellow into the tool-shed, where a watering-pot stood,
+with a piece of slate over the half open top and a piece of brick laid
+on that.
+
+"There!" cried Magglin, removing the cover and taking out a
+sandy-coloured snaky-looking animal, with sharp nose and pink eyes, one
+which writhed about almost like an eel.
+
+"Why, it's your old one, Magg, that you had in the hedge that day."
+
+"Nay, not it.  It's something like it, but this is an ever so much
+better one.  Why, don't you recollect?  That one used to get in the
+holes and wouldn't come out again for hours and hours."
+
+"Oh yes, I recollect, and how cold it was.  This is it."
+
+"Why, don't I keep telling of you it ain't.  This is a hever so much
+better one as I've got to sell for a chap for five shillin': but if you
+don't want to buy it, you needn't keep finding fault with it.  I dessay
+Mr Big Burr will buy it.  It's a beauty--ain't yer?"
+
+"But I do want to buy it," said Mercer, watching the man as he stroked
+and caressed the thin creature, "but I haven't got any money to spare."
+
+"That don't matter.  If you like to buy the ferret, I dessay the chap'll
+wait and take a shillin' one time and a shillin' another, till it's all
+paid off."
+
+"Oh," cried Mercer, "if he'll sell it like that I'll have it; but you're
+sure it's not your old one?"
+
+"Sartain as sartain.  That's a ferret as'll do anybody credit."
+
+"But will it hunt rabbits up into holes, and stop sucking their blood?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know nothing about rabbids," said Magglin.  "It won't do so
+with me; 'tis yours then."
+
+"Will it bite?"  I asked.
+
+"Rats, sir.  You try him, he's as tame as a kitten.  But I must get back
+to my work.  Where'll you have it?"
+
+"I want it up in my box--the old corn-bin up in the loft, Magg.  Will
+you take it and put it in if I give you the key?"
+
+"Course I will, sir."
+
+"And bring me back the key?"
+
+"Course I will, sir."
+
+"I don't like to take it myself, because one of the fellows might see
+me, and they'd want to know what I'd got."
+
+"All right, sir, I'll take it; and am I to put it in the box?"
+
+"No.  I forgot.  It would eat the skins and things."
+
+"That he would and no mistake," said Magglin, grinning hugely.  "Shall I
+leave him in the can?  There is a stone in the spout so as he can't
+squeeze his way out, for he'll go through any hole a'most."
+
+"Yes; put it right up in the dark corner at the far end."
+
+"Right, sir.  And you owe me five shillin'."
+
+"No, it's to your friend."
+
+"All the same, sir.  Thank-ye."
+
+"I'm afraid he has cheated me," said Mercer thoughtfully, as we walked
+away.  "Now I come to recollect, his old ferret had a bit nipped out of
+the top of its little ear like that has, and Magg said a rat bit it out
+one day."
+
+"If he has cheated you, I wouldn't pay for it," I said.
+
+"I don't know how it is," continued Mercer thoughtfully, "but it seems
+to me as if people like to cheat schoolboys.  We never did two shillings
+worth of damage to those fishing lines--and I've got a horrible thought,
+Burr!"
+
+"What is it?"  I said.
+
+"Why, it's all that time since we gave old Lom the money, and for the
+first week he was always winking and laying his finger up against the
+side of his nose every time he saw us, and now we can't ever see him at
+all."
+
+"Oh!"  I ejaculated.  "No.  Impossible!  He's an old soldier, and he
+couldn't cheat us like that."
+
+"Well, if he has, I'll tell the Doctor, and have him punished."
+
+"You couldn't tell," I said dolefully.
+
+"No, I forgot that.  Well, let's go and see if he's at home now.  Why,
+he hasn't done any drilling this week!  Why's that?"
+
+I shook my head, feeling horrified at the idea of such a fine-looking,
+frank old soldier being guilty of a piece of trickery, and I said so,
+but declared that I would not believe it.
+
+"I don't want to, but people do cheat us.  Even Polly Hopley charges us
+double for lots of the things we have."
+
+By this time we had reached the lodge, but the door was shut, and Mercer
+looked at me very gloomily.
+
+"There's all our money gone," he said; "and I'll never trust anybody
+again.  I wish I hadn't bought that ferret.  You see if it don't cheat
+us too, and run away.  This makes eight times we've come to look for old
+Lom, and he must be--What?"
+
+"Look," I said eagerly.  "I knew he couldn't do such a thing.  There he
+is in that cart."
+
+Sure enough, there was the sergeant; and then as the cart drew nearer,
+it was pulled up, and the old man leaped down, thanked the farmer for
+giving him a lift, and walked toward his cottage, carrying a big long
+carpet-bag.
+
+"Ah, Mr Lomax!"  I cried, as I hurried towards him, but he laid his
+finger to the side of his nose, nodded, frowned, unlocked his door and
+went in.
+
+"There, that's how he always goes on now," said Mercer spitefully.  "It
+was all gammon, and he never meant to teach us, and we shan't be able to
+serve those two out.  Come on."
+
+We were moving off disconsolately, I with quite a feeling of pain in my
+breast, when a voice said, "Hi!" and, looking round, there was the
+sergeant beckoning to us.
+
+My heart seemed to leap again, and I hurried back.
+
+"How are you both?" he said, putting his hand in his pocket and taking
+out a flat steel tobacco-box which opened with a spring.  "I had to go
+up to town more than a week ago to an inspection and about my pension,
+and while I was up I thought I'd go and see my sisters, and then I
+thought I'd go and see about those--you know what."
+
+"And did you?"  I cried eagerly.
+
+"Wait a moment," he said, taking out four shillings and handing them to
+us--two to each.  "I did write about them, and they asked so much that I
+wrote to another place, and they were dear too; and then, as I had to go
+up, I went to a place I remembered, and saw the man, and told him what I
+wanted, and he brought out two pairs of his best, which had been in the
+shop three years, and got faded to look at, but he said they were better
+than ever, and he let me have 'em for thirteen shillings."
+
+"Oh, Lom!" cried Mercer excitedly.  "But when are they coming down?"
+
+"They are down.  Didn't you see?"
+
+"No, I didn't see."
+
+"They were in the carpet-bag," I cried.  "Oh, do let's look!"
+
+"No, not to-day, my lads.  They're all right, and if you like to get up
+to-morrow morning and come to me at five o'clock, I'll give you your
+first lesson.  Now I must go and report myself to the Doctor, or he'll
+be drumming me out of the regiment for not doing my work."
+
+He saluted us and marched off, while we went round to the back and made
+our way to the stables and up into the loft, for Mercer to have a peep
+at the ferret, which tried hard to get out.  Then, closing the slate
+down close, he spun round, cut a caper, struck an attitude, and began
+sparring and dancing round me in the most absurd manner.
+
+"Oh, only wait!" he cried, pausing to take breath.  "I do feel so glad!
+But, I say, we mustn't have that ferret there.  I know.  I'll put it in
+the bin, watering-pot and all, or it'll either get out, or some of the
+boys'll come and look, and let it go."
+
+"But you haven't got the key."
+
+"I forgot.  I didn't get it from old Magg, again.  Let's go and find
+him.  No, it's all right.  He has put it in the padlock."
+
+The bin was thrown open; but the pot was not placed therein, for Mercer
+remembered a box with a lid, which, as he expressed it, lived in there,
+and it was emptied and brought forth.
+
+"Just make him a splendid little hutch!" he cried, "Here, come along,
+Sandy."
+
+He thrust his hand into the pot, took hold of the ferret, and was about
+to place it in the box; but it gave a wriggle and writhe, glided out of
+Mercer's hand, crept under the corn-bin, and, as he tried to reach it, I
+saw it run out at the back, and creep down a hole in the floor boards,
+one evidently made by a rat.
+
+"Oh!" ejaculated Mercer dolefully.  "There goes five shillings down that
+hole.  What an unlucky beggar I am!"
+
+"Oh, he'll soon come out again," I said.
+
+"Not he; and that's the worst of you, Burr--you will make the best of
+things so.  He won't come out--he'll live down there hunting the rats;
+and I'm sure now that we shall never get him again, for it is the one
+Magg used to have, and he has tricked me.  I know it by that bit out of
+its ear.  It is his ferret."
+
+"Well, you haven't paid him for it," I said, laughing.  "And if he has
+cheated you, I wouldn't pay."
+
+"But I said I would," replied Mercer, shaking his head; "and one must
+keep one's promises, even with cheats.  But never mind; old Lom's got
+the gloves, and if Magg gives me any of his nonsense, I'll thrash him,
+too, eh?"
+
+"Tea!"  I cried, for just then the bell began to ring.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TEN.
+
+That evening after tea, while Mercer and I were down by the gardens,
+where I found that somebody had been dancing a jig on my newly-raked
+beds, we heard a good deal of chattering and laughing over in the
+play-field, and Burr major's voice dominating all the others so queerly
+that I laughed.
+
+"I say, isn't it rum!" said Mercer, joining in.  "I hope we shan't be
+like that by and by.  Hodson is sometimes.  There, hark!"
+
+I listened, and Burr major was speaking sharply in a highly-pitched
+voice, that was all squeak, and then it descended suddenly into a gruff
+bass like a man's.
+
+"Do you know what old Reb said he was one day?" said Mercer, wiping his
+eyes, for a chance to laugh at his tyrant always afforded him the most
+profound satisfaction.
+
+"No.  A dandy?"
+
+"A hobbledehoy! and he looks it, don't he?  It did make him so savage
+when he heard, and he said he wasn't half such a hobbledehoy as old Reb
+was, and Dicksee said he'd go and tell."
+
+"And did he?"
+
+"Did he?  You know how my nose was swelled up."
+
+"Of course."
+
+"Well, that was nothing to Dicksee's.  His is a nose that a tap will
+swell up, and when old Eely regularly hammered till it was soft, it
+looked dreadful, and when he said he'd go straight to the Doctor, Eely
+hammered him again till he went down on his knees and begged Eely's
+pardon, and promised to say it was done by a cricket-ball.  I say, hark!
+they've got something over there.  Let's go and see."
+
+We went down along the hedge to the gate, and as soon as we passed
+through we could see Burr major standing up tall and thin in the midst
+of a group of boys, to whom he was showing something, and, our curiosity
+being excited, we strolled up to the group, to find that a general
+inspection was going on of a little bright new silver watch which Burr
+major had received in a box along with some new clothes that day from
+his father in London.
+
+The great tall, thin fellow was giving himself the most ridiculous airs,
+and talking in a haughty condescending way to the boys about him, just
+as if watches were the commonest things in the world to him.
+
+"Then, you know," he was saying, as we drew nigh, "you press on that
+little round place very lightly with your nail, and the back flies
+open--see."
+
+He pressed the spring, the back opened, showing the polished interior of
+the case, and then shut it with a snap two or three times, the case
+flashing in the evening light; and as I glanced at Mercer, I quite
+wondered to see the eager look of interest and longing he directed at
+that watch.
+
+"I say, how do you wind it up?" cried a small boy.
+
+"Why, you just push the key in that little hole, and turn it a few times
+so.  Oh, I forgot--I did wind it up before."
+
+"Why, you wound it up six times," said Dicksee, with a sneer.
+
+"Well, it's my own watch, isn't it, stupid?  I can wind it up a hundred
+times if I like," cried Burr major contemptuously.
+
+"I say, how much did it cost?" said Hodson.
+
+"How should I know?  I'm not going to ask my father how much a thing
+costs when he gives me a present.  Lot of money--ten or fifteen pounds,
+I daresay."
+
+"Yah!  Silver watches don't cost so much as that," sneered Dicksee.
+
+"Look here, Dicky," cried Burr major, "you're getting too cheeky.  I
+shall have to take you down a peg or two."
+
+"Oh, never mind old Fatsides," cried another boy.  "Here, Burr, old
+chap, show us the works."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, boys!  I'm going to put it away now," said Burr major,
+opening and shutting the back, so as to make a loud snapping noise.
+
+"I say, I should have a gold chain if I were you, Burr," said another
+boy.
+
+"No, I don't think I shall," said the big fellow nonchalantly; "not for
+school.  Silver would be good enough when a fellow's playing cricket or
+football."
+
+"Oh, I say, do show us the works!" said the boy who had spoken before.
+
+"Oh, very well.  What young noodles you are!  Any one would think you
+had never seen a watch before.  You see this is one of the best class of
+watches, and you open the glass by pressing your nail in there.  That's
+it, you see; and then you stick your nail on that little steel thing,
+and then it comes open--so.  Here, keep back, some of you.  Breathing on
+the works spoils a watch."
+
+"Oh, what a beauty!" rose in chorus, and I saw Mercer press forward with
+his eyes dilated, and an intense look of longing in his countenance, as
+he gazed at the bright yellow works, and the tiny wheel swinging to and
+fro upon its hair-spring.
+
+"Yes, it's a good watch," said Burr major, in a voice full of careless
+indifference.  "Not the same make as my father's.  His is gold, of
+course, and when you open it, there's a cap fits right over the top--
+just over there.  His is a repeater, and when you touch a spring, it
+strikes the quarters and the hours."
+
+Mercer looked on as if fascinated.
+
+"Like a clock," said Hodson.
+
+"Of course it does like a clock," said Burr major contemptuously.  "It's
+jewelled, too, in ever so many holes.  It cost a hundred guineas, I
+think, without the chain."
+
+"Oh!" rose in chorus.
+
+"Is that jewelled in lots of holes?" said one of the boys.
+
+"Of course it is.  My father wouldn't send me a watch without it was."
+
+"I can't see any holes," said one.
+
+"And I don't see any jewels," said another.
+
+"Where are they, then?" said Hodson.
+
+"The other side, of course."
+
+"Then what's the good of them?"
+
+"Makes a watch more valuable," said Burr major haughtily.  "There, don't
+crowd in so.  I'm going to put it away now."
+
+"What jewels are they?" said a boy.  "Pearls?"
+
+"Diamonds," said Mercer, with his eyes fixed on the watch, "to make hard
+points for the wheels to swing upon, because diamonds won't wear."
+
+"Oh, hark at him!" cried Burr major.  "Old Senna knows all about it.
+Hardly ever saw a watch before in his life."
+
+"Haven't I?" cried Mercer.  "Why, my father has a beauty, with second
+hands--a stop watch."
+
+"Ha, ha, ha!" cried Burr major, closing his new present with a loud
+snap.  "A stop watch! that's an old one that won't go, boys.  Poor old
+Mercer!--poor old Senna Tea!  Did your father buy it cheap?"
+
+There was a roar of laughter at this, for the boys always laughed at
+Burr major's jokes.
+
+"No; I know," said Hodson.  "One of old Senna's patients that he killed,
+left it him in his will."
+
+I saw Mercer turn scarlet.
+
+"Did you ever take it to pieces, and stuff it again, Senna?" and there
+was another roar of laughter.
+
+"He did, I know, and that's why it won't go."
+
+"Come along," whispered Mercer to me, for, now that the watch had
+disappeared in its owner's pocket, the attraction which had held my
+companion there seemed to have gone, and we began to walk away.
+
+"There they go," cried Burr major; "pair of 'em.  Burr junior's getting
+on nicely with his stuffing.  I say, young un, how many doses of physic
+has he made you take?"
+
+"Come away," whispered Mercer; "let's go back to the gardens.  If I stop
+here, I shall fly out at him, and get knocked about again."
+
+"Ah!  Oh!  Go home!" was shouted, Burr major starting the cry, and his
+followers taking it up in chorus till we had passed through the gate,
+when Mercer clenched his fists, and gave both feet a stamp.
+
+"And him to have a watch like that!" he cried; "and I've longed for one
+ever since I was ten.  Oh, I do hate that chap!  Shouldn't you have
+liked to hit him?"
+
+"No," I said.  "I felt all the time as if I should have liked to kick
+him."
+
+"Oh, I felt that too.  But, I say, shouldn't you like a watch the same
+as his?"
+
+"Yes," I said, "of course.  Perhaps we shall have watches some day."
+
+"Let's save up and buy one between us, and you have it one week, and me
+the other."
+
+"But you wanted to save up and buy the gun that takes to pieces, so that
+we could go shooting."
+
+"Yes, so I did," said Mercer--"so I do.  But I should like that watch."
+
+"Perhaps he'll get tired of it soon," I said, "and want to sell it."
+
+"No; he isn't that sort of fellow.  He always sticks to his things, and
+you never know him give anything away.  But, I say, it is a beautiful
+watch, isn't it?"
+
+"Yes; so new and bright.  It was going, too."
+
+"Wish he'd lose it when he was jumping or playing cricket, and I could
+find it."
+
+"But you couldn't keep it, if you did find it.  You'd know it was his."
+
+"But perhaps I mightn't know he'd lost it, and it was his.  Then I might
+keep it, mightn't I?"
+
+I burst out laughing at him.
+
+"Why, you've taken quite a fancy to that watch, Tom," I said, and he
+looked at me with his forehead all puckered up.
+
+"Yes, I suppose so," he said dreamily.  "I felt as if I'd give
+everything I have got to have it."
+
+"Stuffed birds, and the frog, and the ferret, and the boxing-gloves?"  I
+said merrily.
+
+"No, no, no! that I wouldn't.  There, I'm not going to think about it
+any more.  I say, the gloves--to-morrow morning.  Oh!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER ELEVEN.
+
+"I say, isn't it time to get up?"
+
+It was a low whisper in my ear, and I started into full wakefulness, to
+find it was dark, and that Mercer was sitting on the edge of my bed,
+while the other boys were snoring.
+
+"What time is it?" was my first and natural question.
+
+"I don't know.  If I'd got old Eely's watch, I could have had it under
+my pillow, and seen directly."
+
+"No, you couldn't," I said grumpily, for I was sleepy and cross; "it's
+too dark."
+
+"Well, I could have run my finger over the hands, and told by the touch.
+You see, I should have held the watch perfectly upright, and then the
+twelve would have been by the handle, and I could have told directly."
+
+"But you haven't got a watch, and so you don't know."
+
+"No," he said, with a sigh, "I haven't got that watch.  Old Eely's got
+it--a nasty, consequential, bully dandy."
+
+"Do go and lie down again," I said.  "I am so sleepy!"
+
+"What for?  It's time to get up."
+
+"It can't be; see how dark it is."
+
+"Oh, that's only because it's a dark morning.  Get up and dress, and
+don't be so grumpy because I've woke you up."
+
+"But I haven't had sleep enough," I grumbled, "and I don't believe it's
+twelve o'clock yet.  Look at the stars shining."
+
+"Well, they always do shine, don't they?  What's that got to do with
+it?"
+
+"But it isn't daylight, and we were not to go to Lomax till five."
+
+"By the time we're washed and dressed, the sun will be up, and then
+there won't be any waiting."
+
+"Hark!"  I said, for the turret clock, below the big bell, chimed.
+
+One, two--three, four--five, six--seven, eight.
+
+Then a long pause.
+
+"Five o'clock," whispered Mercer.
+
+_Chang_!
+
+We waited as the stroke of the striking hammer rang out loudly, and we
+could hear the vibration of the bell quivering in the air.
+
+"Well, go on, stupid," said Mercer at last.
+
+"Go on indeed!"  I said angrily.  "What's the good of coming and
+disturbing a fellow like this?  It's only one o'clock."
+
+"Don't believe it.  That clock's wrong.  Now, if I had had a watch--"
+
+"Bother the watch!--bother the clock!--bother you!"  I cried.  "If you
+don't be off, I'll give you bolster."
+
+"Oh, very well," he said.  "But I couldn't sleep.  It must be four,
+though.  I'll go and lie down for a bit longer."
+
+He stole back to his bed, and, with a sigh of relief, I sank back into a
+delicious nap, from which my tormentor roused me twice more, to declare
+it must be time to get up; but there was not a faint gleam of light yet
+at the window, and I resolutely refused to rise, sending my companion
+back to bed, and going off again, to wake at last with the sun shining
+brilliantly in by the curtain.  This time I jumped up, with the full
+impression upon me that I had overslept myself; while there lay Mercer
+on his back, with his mouth wide-open, and giving vent every now and
+then to a guttural snore.
+
+And now we shall be too late, I thought, as I hurried on my trousers,
+slipped out of the dormitory door, to run down to the end of the
+passage, where I could look out and see the sun shining brightly on the
+gold letters of the clock face, where, to my great delight, the hands
+pointed to half-past four.
+
+Plenty of time, and I went back and roused up Mercer, who started into
+wakefulness, looking quite guilty.
+
+"All right!" he said.  "I only just shut my eyes.  What's o'clock?"
+
+"Time you were dressed," I whispered.  "Don't talk loud, or you'll wake
+the others."
+
+We washed and dressed with wonderful celerity, and then crept out and
+down-stairs, to open one of the schoolroom windows, jump out, and close
+it after us.  Then, in the delicious fresh morning, with the trees all
+dewy, we started off to go through the shrubbery, and were half-way to
+the lodge, when Mercer caught me by the arm.
+
+"Look!" he said.  "Magglin!" and there, going across one of the fields
+beyond the road, was that individual, with the pockets of his jacket
+seeming to be sticking out; and the same idea struck us both.
+
+"He's been poaching!"
+
+But he passed out of sight directly, and we hurried on down to the
+lodge, to find Lomax standing at the door smoking his morning pipe.
+
+"Five minutes before your time," he said.  "That's a good sign.  You
+both want to learn, so you'll learn quickly.  Wait a minute, I've just
+done my bad habit.  I learned that years ago, and it's hard to break
+oneself of it.  There, that'll do," he continued, lifting up one foot,
+and bending down, so as to knock the ashes out of his pipe by tapping
+the bowl on his heel.  "Come along!  I've cleared the decks for you."
+
+In fact, as we entered the room, we found that the table and chairs had
+been taken out, and the little square of carpet and hearthrug rolled up
+together and stood in a corner, while on the window sill lay the two
+pairs of boxing-gloves, like four hugely swollen giants' hands, and they
+looked so ridiculous that we both laughed.
+
+"'Tention!" cried Lomax, shutting and bolting the door.  "Business!  You
+can laugh after.  Now then, put them on."
+
+We readily obeyed, and as each glove was put on, Lomax tied them
+securely in their places by the stout strings at the wrists, and once
+more our comical aspect was too much for us, and we laughed more
+uproariously than before.
+
+"'Tention, I say, boys.  Silence!  Now then, I don't do so in drilling
+you, but the best way to teach a man anything is by letting him go his
+own way, and then correcting his mistakes.  Now, are you ready, both of
+you, and done with your nonsense?"
+
+"Yes, we are quite serious now," I said.
+
+"Then, to begin with, you, Master Burr, stand up before me, and hit me
+hard in the chest."
+
+"But it will hurt you," I said.
+
+"You do as I tell you.  Hit me in the chest as hard as you can."
+
+I stood up in front of him, and punched him with the soft glove just
+below his chin.
+
+"Do you call that hard?  Try again."
+
+I struck him again.
+
+"Better," he said; "but it wouldn't have killed a blue-bottle.  Now you,
+Master Mercer."
+
+"I'll hit you hard, then, if you will not mind."
+
+"Tchah! just as if you could hurt me!  Go on."
+
+Mercer flew at him and struck with all his might.
+
+"Better," said Lomax; "that might have killed a blue-bottle.  But it is
+just as I thought; you're both wrong."
+
+"Wrong?" we echoed.
+
+"Of course you are.  So those two gave you both a good thrashing, eh?"
+
+"Yes," I said bitterly.
+
+"Of course they would if you behaved like that.  What are those hanging
+down by your sides?"
+
+"Arms," I said wonderingly.
+
+"Then why do you treat 'em as if they were wind-mill sails, and swing
+'em round that fashion?"
+
+"Then you ought to hit straight out," I said, "and not swing your arms
+round?"
+
+"Of course," said our instructor; "but that isn't all.  You both hit at
+me with your right glove."
+
+"Of course.  The right arm's the stronger."
+
+"Exactly, my lad; so keep it to use as a shield."
+
+"But you want to beat a boy when you fight him," I said.
+
+"To be sure you do, and to beat him you must be strong and able to hold
+out, and to do this you must be ready to keep him first of all from
+injuring you.  It's self-defence, so you keep your best arm to keep the
+enemy from making your nose swelled like yours was, Master Mercer, and
+from sticking his fist in your eye like Master Dicksee did in yours,
+Master Burr.  And that isn't all.  If you are keeping him from hurting
+you, he goes on getting tired and more tired, and then your turn comes,
+and you can thrash him."
+
+"I see," cried Mercer.
+
+"No, you don't; you're only getting a peep yet."
+
+"But mustn't you ever hit with your right fist?"
+
+"Oh yes, at proper times.  Wait: I'll tell you when."
+
+"But shall we begin fighting now?"  I said eagerly.
+
+"No, not till you know what you're going to do.  Now look here, boys; I
+daresay some people would teach you very differently to what I do, but
+you've asked me, and I shall teach you my way.  Some people let those
+they teach put the gloves on and begin knocking each other about, but
+that's all waste of time.  I want everything you do with your right or
+your left to be for some reason.  Those two boys can't fight, but they
+thrashed you two because I can see you swung your arms about anyhow, and
+while you were coming round with one of your wind-mill swings, they hit
+straight out and you had it.  Do you see?"
+
+"Not quite," I said.
+
+"Then look here.  See that round table turned up in the corner?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Suppose, then, two flies started from the edge to get to the opposite
+edge, and one went round and the other right across straight, which
+would get there first?"
+
+"Oh, I know that," said Mercer, rubbing his nose with the back of his
+glove; "the one that went across the diameter ever so much sooner than
+the one that went half round the circumference."
+
+"Yes," I said; "the chord is shorter than the arc."
+
+"Never mind about your fine way of putting it," said Lomax.  "I see you
+understand, and that's what I mean.  The enemy would diameter you while
+you tried to circumference him."
+
+The serjeant laughed at his ready adoption of our words, and we laughed
+too, but he cried "'Tention!" again, and now made us stand face to face
+on guard, manipulating us and walking round till he had us exactly to
+his taste, when he suddenly remembered something, and, taking a piece of
+chalk from his pocket, he drew a line between us, and then raised our
+hands with their huge gloves to the pitch he considered correct.
+
+"There you are, boys," he said; "that couldn't be better.  Now, bear in
+mind what I said; self-defence is the thing you've got to aim at, just
+as a general manages his regiments and fences with them till the proper
+time comes, and then he lets them go.  Now, to begin with, you must be
+the enemy, Master Mercer, and Master Burr here's got to thrash you."
+
+"Oh!" cried Mercer.
+
+"Well, your turn will come next.  Now then.  Ready?"
+
+"Yes," we cried.
+
+"Then you, Mercer, hit him in the chest."
+
+"And what shall I do?"
+
+"Don't let him.  You've got your right ready, haven't you?  Now then,
+off!"
+
+We were both terribly excited, and I was on my guard as Mercer hit at me
+with his soft glove, and I caught the blow on my right arm.
+
+"Good!" cried Lomax; "bravo! well stopped.  But that's all you did,
+because you didn't know any better.  If you had known better, Master
+Mercer would be sitting on the floor."
+
+"What ought I to have done, then?"  I said.
+
+"You wait and I'll show you.  Now, Mercer, hit at him again.  Hit this
+time.  That's a boxing-glove you've got on."
+
+"Well, I know it is."
+
+"Oh, I thought you fancied it was a snowball that you were going to
+throw at him."
+
+I burst out laughing.
+
+"Silence!  'Tention!  Now then, again.  Wait a minute.  Now, look here,
+Burr: as he hits at you, stop it with your right arm as you did before,
+and just at the same moment you push your left arm out full length, and
+lean forward straight at his face.  Don't hit at him, only keep your
+left out straight and lean forward suddenly--like this."
+
+He showed me what he meant, and I balanced myself on my legs, and
+imitated him as well as I could, to get the swing forward he wished, and
+we prepared for the next encounter.
+
+"I'm going to hit straight out this time, Frank, so look out."
+
+"Oh yes, he'll look out," cried Lomax.  "Now, then, take it on your
+right arm, my lad.  Off with you."
+
+Mercer struck out at me awkwardly, and, as I received the blow at my
+chest full on my forearm, I bent forward sharply, not striking, but
+giving what seemed to me to be a push with my stiffened left arm
+straight at Mercer's face, when, to my great astonishment, he went down
+on the floor and sat there staring at me holding the soft glove up
+against his nose.
+
+"What did you do that for?" he cried angrily.  "He said I was to hit,
+not you."
+
+"Because I told him," said Lomax, patting me on the shoulder.  "Bravo,
+bravo!  That was science against brute force, my lad; I thought it would
+astonish you."
+
+"But he hit ever so hard," cried Mercer, "and it took me off my guard,
+because it was I who was to hit."
+
+"And so you did, my lad, as hard as you could unscientifically, while he
+only just threw himself forward scientifically, and there you are on the
+ground."
+
+"But he hit so hard."
+
+"Oh no.  He just held his arm right, and threw the weight of his body
+behind it."
+
+"Here, let's change sides," cried Mercer.  "I want to try that."
+
+"Right," said Lomax, and the proceedings were reversed, with the effect
+that, after I had struck at my adversary, I realised that I had thrown
+my head forward just as he had thrust out his rigid left arm, backed by
+the whole weight of his body, and I in my turn went down sitting, almost
+as much astounded as Mercer had been.
+
+"Oh," he cried excitedly, "that's grand!  I wish I had known that when
+old Eely was giving it to me t'other day.  Why, I feel as if I could go
+and lick him now."
+
+"I daresay you do," cried Lomax laughing.  "Now, let's have that over
+again.  I want you both to see that a swing round blow, or even a
+straight out blow, is nothing to one like that, for you see you've got
+the weight of the body and the speed at which you are both moving to
+give it force.  Why, in a charge, when the men were at full gallop with
+swords or lances extended, we had--But never mind about that," he added
+quickly.  "Now do you see what I mean?"
+
+"Yes," we cried, and we went through the attack and defence over and
+over again, till the blows grew so vigorous that I began to feel as if I
+should like to hit harder.
+
+"That will do," said Lomax suddenly.  "You are both getting warm, and
+it's half-past six."
+
+"Nonsense!"  I cried.
+
+"It is, my lad; there goes the bell.  Now then, let me untie those
+gloves.  That's your first lesson.  What do you think of it?"
+
+"Think of it?" cried Mercer.  "I think old Eely Burr had better mind
+what he's up to, or he'll find he has made a mistake."
+
+"Hah!" said Lomax, "don't you get too puffed up, my lad.  You wait, for
+you don't know anything at all yet.  That's just the thin end of the
+wedge, but still I think you've learned something.  That's it," he
+continued, drawing off the gloves.  "By and by you'll have to fight
+against me, and I shall show you a few things that will startle you.
+But are you satisfied?"
+
+"Why, it's glorious!"  I cried.
+
+"What? to learn to fight with your fists?" said the old sergeant grimly.
+
+"No, but to feel that you need not let everybody bully you."
+
+"Why, you're getting as swollen up as Master Mercer here," said Lomax,
+laughing.  "There; when is it to be--to-morrow morning?"
+
+"Yes, every morning," said Mercer, and the door was unbolted, and we
+went out, feeling quite hot enough, with the sun shining brightly on the
+newly dew-washed leaves.
+
+"You'll spoil everything," I said, "if you begin to show that you can
+fight before we are quite ready."
+
+"Oh, but I'm not going to," he replied; "I'll be as quiet as can be, and
+let old Eely say and do what he likes for the present.  I feel as if I
+can bear it now.  Don't you?  There, come along up into the loft, and
+let's see if we can find our ferret.  It does seem hard to lose that
+directly.  Just, too, as one finds one has been cheated by old Magglin.
+I wish he'd sell that gun.  I say, I'll make him show it to you.  It is
+such a handy little thing."
+
+I felt that it would be very interesting to go out, as Mercer proposed,
+shooting specimens, which he would afterwards show me how to skin and
+preserve; but I could not help thinking that it would take a rather
+large supply of pocket-money to pay for all the things my companion
+wanted, especially if his wants included guns and watches.
+
+We went right up to the loft, and a search was made, and the floor
+stamped upon, and the boards tapped.  But there was no sign of the
+ferret, and we gave up the search at last in despair, as it was rapidly
+approaching the time when the bell would ring for breakfast, and we had
+our lessons to look up ready for Mr Hasnip, who now had us, as he
+called it, thoroughly in hand.
+
+We both smiled and looked at one another as we crossed the yard, for
+Burr major and Dicksee had come past together, the latter listening
+attentively to his companion's words.
+
+"Oh, I say, Burr, if they only knew!" whispered Mercer, with a chuckle.
+"They little think that we've been--Oh, I say, look; he's taking out his
+watch to see if it's right by the big clock.  Frank, I say: I do wish I
+had a watch like that!"
+
+I looked at him wonderingly once more, for that watch had completely
+fascinated him, and till breakfast-time he could talk of nothing else.
+
+"Think your uncle would give you a watch if you asked him?" he said.
+
+"I shouldn't like to ask him, because--well, I'm rather afraid of him."
+
+"What, isn't he kind to you?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," I said; "but he's a severe-looking sort of man, and
+very particular, and I don't think he'd consider it right for me to have
+a watch while I am at school."
+
+"That's what my father said when I was home for last holidays.  I wanted
+a watch then, but not half so bad as I feel to want one now.  I say!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I wonder how much old Eely's father gave for that one.  I don't think
+it could have cost a very great deal."
+
+I shook my head, for I had not the least idea, and then I found myself
+watching Burr major, who was still comparing his watch with the great
+clock.
+
+"I won't think about it any more," said Mercer suddenly.
+
+"Think of what?"  I said wonderingly.
+
+"That watch.  It worries me.  I was dreaming about it all last night,
+and wishing that I'd got it somehow, and that it was mine.  And it
+isn't, and never can be, can it?"
+
+"No," I said, and we walked into the big room, for the breakfast-bell
+began to ring, and very welcome it sounded to us, after being up so
+early, and indulging in such violent exercise.
+
+"Here comes Eely," whispered Mercer, "and old Dicksee too.  I say: that
+punch with the left!  Oh my!"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWELVE.
+
+Those were busy times at Meade Place, for Mr Hasnip worked me hard; Mr
+Rebble harassed me a little whenever he had a chance; and every now and
+then the Doctor made a sudden unexpected attack upon me with questions
+uttered in the severest of tones.
+
+All this meant long hours of what the masters called "private study" and
+the boys "private worry;" while in addition there were the lessons we
+inflicted upon ourselves, for we never once failed of being at the lodge
+by five o'clock on those summer mornings, to be scolded, punched, and
+generally knocked about by our instructor.
+
+Join to these, other lessons in the art of skinning and preserving
+birds, given by Mercer up in the loft; compulsory games at cricket, as
+they were called, but which were really hours of toil, fielding for Burr
+major, Hodson, and Dicksee; sundry expeditions after specimens, visits
+to Bob Hopley, bathing, fishing, and excursions and incursions
+generally, and it will be seen that neither Mercer nor I had much spare
+time.
+
+A busy life is after all the happiest, and, though my lessons often
+worried and puzzled me, I was perfectly content, and my friendly
+relations with Mercer rapidly grew more firm.
+
+"I say," he cried one morning, after Lomax had grumbled at us a little
+less than usual respecting our execution of several of the bits of
+guarding and hitting he put us through--"I say, don't you think we are
+perfect yet?"
+
+The serjeant opened his eyes wide, and then burst into a hearty laugh.
+
+"Well," he said, "you will grow into a man some day, and when you do, I
+daresay you will be a bit modest, for of all the cocksparrowy chaps I
+ever did meet, you are about the most impudent."
+
+"Thank-ye," said Mercer, and he went off in dudgeon, while Lomax gave me
+a comical look.
+
+"That's the way to talk to him," he said.  "If you don't, he'll grow up
+so conceited he'll want extra buttons on his jacket to keep him from
+swelling out too much."
+
+"Now, Burr, are you coming?" shouted Mercer.
+
+"Yes.  Good morning," I said to Lomax, and I hurried out.
+
+"I thought we should have learned long before this," said my companion,
+as we strolled leisurely back.  "I don't seem to get on a bit further,
+and I certainly don't feel as if I could fight.  Do you?"
+
+"No," I said frankly.
+
+"You see, it wants testing or proving, same as you do a sum.  Shall we
+have a fall out with them and try?"
+
+"No," I cried excitedly.  "That wouldn't do.  They might lick us.  We
+ought to try with some one else first."
+
+"But who is there?  If we had a fight with some other boys, Eely and
+Dicksee would know, and we should have no chance to fight them then.  I
+know.  Let you and I fall out and have a set to."
+
+I whistled, and put my hands in my pockets.
+
+"Wouldn't that do?" he said.
+
+"No, not at all.  It wouldn't be real, and--"
+
+"Hold your tongue.  Here's Magglin."
+
+"Morning, young gents," said the man coming up in his nasty, watchful,
+furtive way, looking first behind him, and then dodging to right and
+left to look behind us, to see if any one was coming.
+
+"Morning.--Hi! look out!  Keeper!" cried Mercer.
+
+"Eh?  Where? where?" whispered Magglin huskily.
+
+"Down in the woods," cried Mercer laughingly.  "Look at him, Burr; he
+has been up to some games, or he wouldn't be so frightened."
+
+"Get out!" growled the gipsy-looking fellow sourly.  "Doctor don't teach
+you to behave like that, I know."
+
+"Nor the gardener don't teach you to try and cheat people with ferrets."
+
+"Well, I like that," cried Magglin in an ill-used tone.  "I sells you
+for a mate of mine--"
+
+"No, you didn't, it was for yourself, Magg."
+
+"As good a farret as ever run along a hole."
+
+"As bad a one as ever stopped in and wouldn't come out again."
+
+"And you turn like that on a fellow."
+
+"You're a cheat, Magg, and you took us in.  That was your old ferret you
+sold me, and I wish I'd never paid you a shilling."
+
+"Nay, not you.  It's a good farret, and you've only paid me four
+shillin' out of them five."
+
+"And I don't think I shall pay you any more."
+
+"Nay, you must.  Gents can't break their words."
+
+"But they can break blackguards' heads, Magg."
+
+"I ain't a blackguard, and I sold you the ferret fair and square.  It
+weren't my fault you let it run down a hole in the loft."
+
+"When it proved directly that it was your old one, for there it stops."
+
+"I shouldn't pay him the other shilling till he got it out, Tom," I
+said.
+
+"I don't mean to.  How many times have you been to look for it, Magg?"
+
+"How many times?  I didn't count.  Every morn when I come to work have I
+gone down on my chestie in that there loft, watching o' them rat-holes."
+
+"Yes, and you've never caught him.  Four shillings did I pay you for
+that ferret--"
+
+"And a shillin' more to pay," said Magglin, grinning.  "And only once
+have I seen his nasty ugly little pink nose since, when he poked it out
+of a hole and slipped back again.
+
+"But then see how he must have kept down the rats," said the man.
+
+"Bother the rats.  I want my ferret."  Mercer turned sharply round to
+me.
+
+"I say," he whispered, "he's a blackguard and a cheat.  We wanted to
+practise.  Let's both pitch into him."
+
+I naturally enough laughed at the idea, and, looking round at the under
+gardener, I saw that he was watching us with his rat-like eyes.
+
+"I say," he whispered, with an accompaniment of nods and winks, "I was
+lying wait for you two."
+
+"We're not rabbits, Magg," I said.
+
+"Who said you was?" he cried, with a sharp look round behind him.
+
+"Nor yet hares, Magg," cried Mercer.
+
+"Now look ye here," said the fellow appealingly, "it's too bad on you
+two chuckin' things in a man's face like that now.  Ain't I always
+getting a honest living?  You talk like that, and somebody'll be
+thinkin' I go porching."
+
+"So you do," said Mercer.
+
+"What, porch?"
+
+"Yes.  I know.  Bob Hopley says so too."
+
+"Only hark at him," cried Magglin, "talking like that!  Why, Bob
+Hopley's a chap as must do something to show for his wage, and he'd take
+any man's character away.  He hate me, he do."
+
+"Yes, and you hate him, Magg," I said.
+
+The fellow turned on me sharply, but a curiously ugly smile began to
+make curves like parentheses at the corners of his lips, and he showed
+his teeth directly after.
+
+"Well, I ain't so very fond of him," he said.  "But look here, there
+ain't no harm in a rabbid, and I was looking out for you two to ast if
+you'd like to meet me, just by accident like, somewheers down to this
+side o' High Pines, where the sandhills is.  There's a wonderful lot o'
+rabbids there just now."
+
+"Yes, but when?" cried Mercer.  "I want a rabbit or two to skin and
+stuff."
+
+"And you'd gie me the rabbids to eat."
+
+"Of course.  When do you mean?"
+
+"I thowt as to-night'd do, 'bout seven, when they're beginning to lope
+about."
+
+"And you'd shoot some with that little gun of yours?"
+
+"Whisht!  Who's got a gun?  Nonsense!"
+
+"Ah, we know," cried Mercer.
+
+"But I mean farreting."
+
+"Wouldn't do," said Mercer decisively.  "Bob Hopley would be sure to
+come."
+
+"Nay, he's going to Hastings to-day, and won't be back till ten
+o'clock."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Little birds out in the woods tells me."
+
+"Magpies, eh?"  I said.  "Oh, I know."
+
+"Then we'll come," cried Mercer.  "But, I say, let us each have a shot
+with the little gun."
+
+"Nay, I'm a gardener, and ain't got no guns.  I meant farreting."
+
+"But you know I've lost the ferret," cried Mercer.  "You can't go
+ferreting without ferrets."
+
+Magglin was standing before us with a curious, furtive smile on his
+face, and his hands deep down in his pockets, and as Mercer finished
+speaking, he slowly raised one hand, so that we saw peering out over the
+top of his jacket pocket the sharp buff hairy head of a ferret, and we
+both uttered a cry of joy.
+
+"Why, you've got one!" said Mercer.  "Why--yes--it is.  It's my ferret."
+
+"Yes," said Magglin.  "I nipped him this morning.  He was out running
+about the loft, and I got hold of him at once.  He's eaten all the rats
+he could catch, and he was out smelling about, and trying to get into
+that old corn-bin, so as to have a feed on your stuffed things."
+
+"Lucky he didn't," cried Mercer.  "Oh, you are a good chap, and I'll
+give you the other shilling as soon as I can."
+
+"Ay, do, master, for that chap I knows wants it badly."
+
+"Come along, and let's shut it up safely," said Mercer.
+
+"S'pose you let me take care of him in the tool-shed.  I'll put him
+where he can't get out, and I shall have him ready when you come."
+
+"Very well then," cried Mercer, "you keep him.  At the High Pines, then,
+at seven o'clock."
+
+"That's it, sir," said Magglin, securing the ferret in his pocket.
+
+"Ah, good morning," said a voice; and we two turned sharply, to find
+that Mr Rebble and Mr Hasnip, who were out early for a constitutional,
+had come up behind us quietly.
+
+"Good morning, sir.--Good morning, sir," we said, and Magglin touched
+his cap and went off down the garden.
+
+"Very good, Mercer.  Very good, Burr junior," said Mr Hasnip blandly,
+as he brought his dark spectacles to bear upon us.  "I like to see this,
+and I wish the other boys would be as industrious, and get up these
+lovely mornings.  Been making plans with the gardener about your little
+gardens, I see.  That's right--that's right.  But, as I was saying,
+Rebble," he continued, turning away, "Galileo's opinion, when combined
+with that of Kepler and Copernicus, is all buzz-buzz-buzz--"
+
+So the latter part of his speech sounded to us, as they went on toward
+the bottom of the garden.
+
+"All buzz buzz buzz," whispered Mercer; "and that's what lots of others
+of those old folks' opinions sound like to me--all buzz buzz buzz in my
+poor head.  I say, wasn't it lucky they didn't see the ferret?"
+
+"They think we were speaking to him about gardening."
+
+"Yes.  What a game!  We must go down to our gardens now, and pretend we
+got up early to work."
+
+"I shan't," I said shortly.  "I hate being so deceptive, and I wish you
+wouldn't be, Tom."
+
+"Well, it don't sound nice, does it?" he replied thoughtfully.  "But
+it's so easy."
+
+"Perhaps we had better not go after the rabbits."
+
+"Oh, but we must now.  Don't you sneak back.  I shall go, and nobody
+will know."
+
+I felt doubtful, but I ended by promising.
+
+"I say," cried Mercer suddenly, "what time is it?  Oh, I do wish I had a
+watch!  You can't see the clock from here, but my clock inside says it's
+breakfast-time."
+
+"Let's go and see, then," I said, and we went toward the schoolroom.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTEEN.
+
+That was a most unfortunate day for me in school, for, as happens
+sometimes, I was wrong over one of my lessons, and was sent down, and it
+seemed to upset all the others, so that it was just like setting up a
+row of dominoes, then you touch one and it sends all the rest over.
+
+Scold, find fault, grumble,--Mr Hasnip was just as if his breakfast had
+not agreed with him because he got up too early; and at last I was back
+in my seat, with my face burning, my head aching, and a general feeling
+of misery troubling me, which was made the worse by the keen enjoyment
+Burr major and his parasites found in triumphing over me, and coming by
+my place every now and then to whisper--"Poor fellow, then!--turned
+back--going to be caned," and the like, till I ground my teeth, clenched
+my fists, and sat there bent over the exercises before me, seeing
+nothing but the interior of Lomax's cottage, and listening to his
+instructions how to stop that blow and retort with another, till in
+imagination I could fancy myself thrashing my enemies, and making for
+myself a lasting peace.
+
+"Never mind, old chap," whispered Mercer.  "Rabbits to-night, and some
+day such a licking for old Eely and Dicksee."
+
+The thoughts of the expedition that night were comforting, and I tried
+to think of the High Pines and the sandy slope with the holes where I
+had often seen the rabbits pop in and out, but my head ached all the
+same; and in spite of our half-hour in the play-field before dinner, I
+had no appetite.  During the afternoon, when my time came to go up to
+Mr Hasnip's desk, I felt more stupid than ever, and on casting my eyes
+sideways in search of a flying thought, there was Mr Rebble watching me
+intently.
+
+This made me more confused, and my next answer more blundering, so that
+I was at last sent back to my desk in greater disgrace than ever, to
+find Mercer, who was always constructing something, boring the edge of
+his desk with a penknife, so as to make powder holes for a slate pencil
+cannon.
+
+"Catching it again?" he said.
+
+"Yes," I replied dolefully.
+
+"Didn't say you were to stop in and study, did he?"
+
+"No, he didn't say that."
+
+"Oh, that's all right, then."
+
+"But it isn't all right.  He scolded me horribly."
+
+"Pooh! what of that?  Every boy gets scolded.  Never mind.  I say, I
+daresay we shall get a whole lot of rabbits.  How would it be to ask
+cook to make us a rabbit pie of two of them."
+
+"Nonsense!"
+
+"Oh, would it be?  We could keep it up in the bin, and go and have jolly
+feeds."
+
+"Keep it up there, along with that poison stuff and nasty-smelling
+skins!  Ugh!"
+
+"Well, it would be queer perhaps.  I didn't think of that."
+
+"Mr Rebble's looking at you two," whispered the boy nearest, and we
+hurriedly went on with our work, but not for long.  Mercer was too full
+of the coming expedition, and soon began whispering again.
+
+"But how are we to get away?"  I said.  "Some one is sure to see us."
+
+"Oh, that's easy enough," he whispered.  "There's going to be a bit of a
+match to-night."
+
+"But suppose they want us to field?"
+
+"Then they'll want, for they will not be able to find us.  You leave it
+to me."
+
+That was a long, dreary afternoon, and tea-time seemed as if it would
+never arrive.  When it did come round, though, with the cool air of
+evening my headache began to go off, and as I grew better, the
+excitement of the coming expedition, and the thoughts of how we were
+going to elude the notice of the other boys, completed the cure.
+
+We had half an hour's walk before us, to reach the High Pines by seven,
+so that, as it grew near the time I began to be anxious.
+
+We were in the schoolroom, deep in private study, and as Mercer studied,
+he kept on turning his eyes to gaze round the room, repeating his
+lessons all the while, so that he would not have looked particular if
+any one had been watching us, but no one was visible.  Every now and
+then the voices of the boys in the play-field floated toward us, and we
+sat in momentary expectation of being seen by one of the bigger fellows,
+and ordered off into the field by our tyrants; but the moments still
+glided by, and at last Mercer thrust his book into his desk.
+
+"Now, then," he said in a low voice, "we must make a run for it, or old
+Magg will think we are not coming."
+
+"Which way are you going?"  I asked.
+
+"Right out through the garden, and by the back of the lodge.  You follow
+me, and, whatever you do, don't look back, as if you were afraid of
+being seen."
+
+It was risky work, I knew, but there was nothing to be gained by
+hesitating, and it seemed to me that the very boldness of our attempt
+helped us to a successful issue, for we went on, hearing voices from the
+field, and once that of the Doctor, as he was walking up and down the
+lawn with one of the ladies, whose light dress was seen for a few
+moments through the trees.  Then we were out in the road, walking fast
+towards the General's woods, and soon after we passed into a field,
+reached a copse, and Mercer uttered a faint "Hurrah!"
+
+"I was expecting to hear some one shout after us every minute," he
+cried, as we now hurried steadily along.  "Oh dear, how you do fancy
+things at a time like this!"
+
+The evening was now delightful, and the fresh, sweet scent of the grass
+we crushed beneath our feet was supplemented every now and then by that
+of the abundant field camomile.
+
+"Look out!" said Mercer; "there he goes.  Isn't he early?  I say, I
+wonder whether that's one of old Dawson's owls."
+
+For, as we passed along by the edge of the wood, a great white-breasted
+bird flew by, and went softly along by the side of the trees, till it
+disappeared far ahead.
+
+"There's a rabbit," I said, as I caught sight of the white tuft of fur
+which so often betrays the presence of the little creatures, and
+directly after a sharp _rap, rap_--the warning given by them of danger--
+was heard ahead, and a dozen ran rushing out of the field into the
+shelter of the wood.
+
+"Look at them, how they swarm!" cried Mercer.  "Why we might catch a
+hundred, and no one would be a bit the worse for it.  Here, make haste,
+or I shall be shouting at them, and we ought to be quiet now."
+
+"Close there, aren't we?"  I said.
+
+"Yes; just through that next patch, and we shall be there."
+
+"And suppose Magg hasn't come?"
+
+"Why, we'll catch some without him."
+
+"Without the ferret?"
+
+"Oh, how stupid I am!" cried Mercer, and he went on, now in silence,
+through some stunted firs, in and out by patches of gorse, with the
+character of the ground quite changed, and then up a hilly slope crowned
+with spruce trees, round which we skirted, to stop at last, breathless,
+at the bottom of the slope facing south, with the dark green,
+straight-stemmed trees above us; and Mercer gave his foot an angry stamp
+as he looked round at the deserted place, where the pine branches glowed
+of a ruddy bronze in the sunset light, and cried,--
+
+"Oh, what a jolly shame!"
+
+"Not here?"  I said.
+
+"No; and it's a nasty, mean trick to drag us all this way.  I wish I had
+kept the ferret instead of trusting him."
+
+"What's to be done?"
+
+"Oh, nothing," he replied despondently.  "It's always the way, when I've
+made up my mind for a bit of fun, something happens to stop it."
+
+"Let's wait," I said.  "He may come yet."
+
+"Wait?  Why, it'll be too dark to see to do anything in less than an
+hour.  Oh, won't I pay him out for--"
+
+"There he is," I whispered, for I had just caught sight of a figure
+lying down by a patch of furze; and we started off at a dog-trot, and
+soon reached the spot.
+
+"Why, I thought you hadn't come, Magg," cried Mercer excitedly.
+
+"That's what I was thinking," said the man.  "There, chuck yourselves
+down; if you stand up like that, somebody may see you."
+
+I did not like this, for it was going in for more hiding and
+secretiveness, but all the same it was fascinating, and, dropping on our
+knees in the short, wiry grass, we waited for our instructor in the art
+of ferreting rabbits to begin.
+
+"Well," I said, as we stared at him, and he stared back at us, "aren't
+you going to begin?"
+
+"No," he said coolly.
+
+"Then what's the good of our coming?"
+
+"Oh, do begin, Magg!  We shall soon have to run back.  Where's old
+longbody?"
+
+"Yonder," said Magglin coolly, nodding his head at the slope just above
+us.
+
+"Not loose?"
+
+"Yes, he's loose."
+
+"But--"
+
+"Why, can't you see, lad? and do be quiet, or the rabbits won't bolt.  I
+put him in one of the holes ten minutes ago."
+
+A flush of excitement seemed to run through me now, as I noted that
+every here and there were places in the turfy bank where the sandy soil
+had been scraped out, and the next moment I saw what had escaped me
+before, that every hole I could see was covered with a fine net.
+
+Mercer had seen it too, and I saw him rub his hands softly as if
+delighted with the promise of sport, but another ten minutes passed, and
+the rabbits made no sign of being anxious to rush out and be caught, and
+I began to grow impatient.
+
+"Hadn't you better try another place?"  I whispered, but the man held up
+his hand, drew his knees under him, and crouched in an attitude that was
+almost doglike in its animal aspect.
+
+Then there was a rushing noise just above us, and Magglin scrambled
+forward and dashed his hands down upon a rabbit which came bounding out
+of a hole and rolled down the slope, tangled in the net.
+
+The next minute it had received a chop on the back of the neck, ceased
+struggling, been transferred to Magglin's pocket, and the net was spread
+over the hole again.
+
+"That's a bad farret, ain't it, Master Mercer?" said Magglin, showing
+his teeth.  "You'd best sell un back to me; I should be glad on it for
+five shillings."
+
+"Hush!  I thought I heard one, Magg," whispered Mercer, ignoring the
+remark.  "I say, let me catch the next."
+
+"Either of you may if you can," he replied; and we waited again for some
+time.
+
+"Try some fresh place," whispered Mercer.
+
+"Nay; they all run one into another; the ground under here's like the
+rat-holes up at the old house.  There goes one."
+
+For a rabbit bolted from a hole higher up, turned on seeing us, and
+darted up toward the pines.
+
+"Farret's working beautifully," said Magglin.
+
+"How many holes have you covered?"  I asked.
+
+"'Bout four-and-twenty, and all my nets.  You young gents ought to pay
+me for the use of them."
+
+"Here's one!" cried Mercer, making a leap in a similar fashion to that
+of the under gardener, and he too caught an unfortunate rabbit, whose
+rush had been right into one of the little loose nets, in which it was
+tangled directly.
+
+"Here, let me kill un for you," said Magglin.
+
+"No; I know now.  I can do it," said Mercer.  Then I sprang to my feet,
+and my first impulse was to run, my second to stand fast, for how he got
+up to us so close from behind without being seen was a mystery to me;
+but there, just in the midst of the confusion and excitement of
+capturing the second rabbit, was Bob Hopley, the keeper, his big, sturdy
+form seeming to tower above us, and, caught, as we were in this
+nefarious act, filling me with dread.
+
+"Got you this time then," he said gruffly.
+
+"There, what did I say?" cried Magglin, in a sharp, acid voice that
+sounded almost like a woman's.  "I told you that you oughtn't to be
+catching them rabbids, and now you see what trouble you're in."
+
+"Oh, you told 'em so, did you, my lad?" said the keeper in a deep, angry
+voice, and he seemed like a great mastiff growling at a common-looking
+cur.  "Then I 'spose it's their ferret in yon burrows, eh? there it is!"
+he continued, as the buff-looking, snaky animal now came out of one of
+the holes close by us, and Mercer stooped and picked it up as it made
+for the dead rabbit.
+
+"Oh yes, it's their farret, 'tarn't mine," said Magglin quickly.
+
+"Yes, it's my ferret, Mr Hopley," Mercer said dolefully.
+
+"And their nets, eh?  Here, you stand still.  You try to run away, and
+I'll send a charge o' small shot after you, and that can run faster than
+you can."
+
+"More'n you dare do, big Bob Hopley," cried Magglin, backing away up the
+hill; and I thought how cowardly the man's nature must be, for him to
+propose this expedition and then sneak away from us like that.  But
+almost at the same moment I saw a tall, stern gentleman appear from
+among the pine trees toward which Magglin was backing, for the keeper
+had presented his gun, evidently to take the labourer's attention, as I
+saw that, if matters went on in the way in which they were going, our
+companion would back right up into the new-comer's arms.
+
+"You stop, will you!" cried the keeper.
+
+"You stop yourself," cried Magglin.  "You've got them as belongs to the
+ferret and was rabbiting.  Good-night."
+
+"Will you stop, or am I to shoot?" cried Hopley.
+
+"Yah!" came back; and as the keeper dropped his gun into the hollow of
+his arm with a grim smile on his face, there was a loud _thwack_ and a
+startled, "Oh!" for the tall gentleman had stood still, Magglin had
+reached him, and a stick fell heavily across the poacher's shoulders.
+
+"You scoundrel!" he roared, making a snatch at Magglin's collar, but the
+man was too slippery.  He dropped on his knees, rolled down the slope a
+few yards, sprang up, and dashed off.
+
+"Don't matter, Sir Hawkus!" shouted the keeper.  "I know my gentleman,
+and can send him a summons.  Now, young gents, you've got in for it this
+time.  Bad company's done for you."
+
+"Oh, Bob," whispered Mercer, "let us go this time! let's run."
+
+"Nay, here's Sir Hawkus coming; and here's some one else too," he
+continued, as I saw two figures come trotting up by the way we had
+reached the slope, to get to us nearly as soon as the tall,
+stern-looking gentleman.
+
+"Who are these?" he cried.  "Boys from the Doctor's school?  You young
+dogs, you!" he shouted, shaking his cane.  "Who are you?"
+
+"Two of our pupils, Sir Hawkhurst," said Mr Rebble, panting and out of
+breath.  "You wretched boys, has it come to this?"
+
+Mercer looked at the speaker, then at Mr Hasnip's smoked spectacles,
+and then at me, as General Sir Hawkhurst Rye from the Hall, a gentleman
+of whom I had often heard, but whom I had never seen, exclaimed,--
+
+"Well, they are caught red-handed.  Rabbits, poaching engines--and
+what's that?"
+
+"A ferret, sir," said Mercer humbly.
+
+"Humph, yes.  Now, Mr Schoolmaster, what's it to be?  Do you take these
+boys now, to bring them up before me and another magistrate to-morrow,
+or shall I have them marched off by my keeper to the lock-up?"
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FOURTEEN.
+
+Those were terrible moments, and I remember wishing that it would
+suddenly turn into darkest night, as we two lads stood there, shrinking
+from the eyes of those four men, at whom I glanced in turn, and they all
+impressed me differently.  The general's mouth was pursed up, and his
+walking cane, which, I perfectly recollect was a thick malacca with an
+ivory head, shook in his hand as if he was eager to lay it across our
+backs.  Bob Hopley stood with his arms crossed over his gun, looking, as
+I thought, hurt, pained, and as if we had committed a most terrible
+crime.  But there was no pain or trouble, as it seemed to me, in either
+Mr Rebble's or Mr Hasnip's face.  It struck me that they were on the
+whole pleased and satisfied in having found us out in a deed that would
+give them an opportunity to punish us with heavy impositions.
+
+All these thoughts had passed rapidly through my mind as I stood waiting
+to hear Mr Rebble's response to the General's question.
+
+"I will take charge of the boys, sir," he said importantly; "and I shall
+lay the matter at once before the notice of Doctor Browne."
+
+"Hang Doctor Browne!" said the General fiercely.  "I want to know what
+he meant by bringing his confounded school and setting it up close under
+my nose.  What did he mean?  Eh?"
+
+"I am Doctor Browne's assistant master, Sir Hawkhurst," replied Mr
+Rebble, with dignity, "and I cannot answer for his reasons."
+
+"Humph!  You can't, eh?  You there in the dark barnacles," cried the
+General, turning upon Mr Hasnip, "what have you to say?"
+
+"That the boys must be severely punished, sir," said Mr Hasnip, who
+looked quite startled.
+
+"Punished!  I should think so indeed.  If I were not a magistrate, I'd
+give the wretched young poachers a severe trouncing.  How dare you,
+eh?--how dare you, I say, come trespassing on my grounds and poaching my
+rabbits?"
+
+The only answer that I could find was, "I'm very sorry, sir.  I did not
+think; and I'll never do so any more;" but it seemed so ridiculous as I
+thought it, that I held my tongue.
+
+"Pretty scoundrels, 'pon my word!" cried the General.  "Gentlemen's
+sons, eh? nice gentlemen's sons.  They've both got poacher written in
+their face, and I can see what the end will be--transportation, or hung
+for killing a keeper.  That's it, eh, Hopley?"
+
+"Well, sir," said Bob, giving us each a pitying look, "I wouldn't go
+quite so far as that."
+
+"No, because you are an easy-going fool.  You let people rob me right
+and left, and you'd stand still and let the young scoundrels shoot you.
+There, take them away, the pair of them.  You two, I mean--you
+pedagogues.  I'll come and see the Doctor myself to-morrow morning, and
+I'll have those two fellows flogged--soundly flogged.  Do you hear, you
+boys?--flogged.  How many rabbits have you got?"
+
+"Only this one, sir," I said.
+
+"What?  You dare to tell me only one?"
+
+"There was another, only Magglin put it in his pocket."
+
+"Got a dozen hid somewhere," cried the General.  "Where have you hid
+them, you dog?  Stuffed in some burrow, I suppose.  Where are they,
+sir?"
+
+"I told you," I said sharply, for his doubt of my word made me feel hot
+and angry.  "We only caught those two.  I shouldn't tell you a lie,
+sir."
+
+"Humph!  Oh!" cried the old gentleman, looking at me searchingly, "you
+wouldn't tell a lie about it, wouldn't you?"
+
+"Of course not," I replied; "and we did not mean any harm, sir.  We
+thought it would be good fun to come and catch some rabbits."
+
+"Oh, you did?  Then I suppose it would be good fun to bring guns and
+come and shoot my pheasants.  Perhaps you'd like to do that, eh?"
+
+"I should," said Mercer innocently.
+
+"What!" roared the old gentleman.  "Here, you two, take 'em both into
+scholastic custody, and tell Dr Browne I'm coming in the morning to put
+a stop to this sort of thing once and for all.  Hopley, where's that
+ferret?"
+
+"Pocket, Sir Hawkus," said the keeper bluntly.
+
+"`_In--my--pocket_,' sir!" cried the old gentleman angrily.  "I pay you
+wages, sir, as my servant, and I've a right to proper answers.  Let's
+see the ferret."
+
+The keeper took it out of the big pocket inside his velveteen jacket,
+and held it up, twisting and writhing to get free and down into one of
+the rabbit-holes.
+
+"Throw it down and shoot it," said the General.
+
+"No, sir, please don't do that!" cried Mercer excitedly, "It's such a
+good ferret--please don't kill the poor thing!"
+
+The General looked at him sharply.
+
+"Not kill it?"
+
+"No, sir.  Please let it go."
+
+"To live on my rabbits, eh?  There, put it in your pocket.  And now, you
+be off with you, and if I don't have your skins well loosened to-morrow,
+I'll--You'll see."
+
+He marched off in one direction, while our guard took us in the other,
+talking at us all the time.
+
+"Disgraceful!"  Mr Rebble said.  "The Doctor will be nearly
+heart-broken about such a stigma upon his establishment.  I don't know
+what he'll say."
+
+"They will be expelled, I presume," said Mr Hasnip softly.  "It is very
+sad to see such wickedness in those so young."
+
+"I'm afraid so," replied Mr Rebble; and they kept up a cheerful
+conversation of this kind till we reached the school, where we were at
+once ordered up to our dormitory, and dropped down upon the sides of our
+beds to sit looking at each other.
+
+"I say, you've done it now," said Mercer at last; "and I did think we
+were going to have such fun."
+
+"Fun!"  I said; "it's dreadful!"
+
+"It was capital fun till they all came and spoiled it for us.  I
+wouldn't care about being expelled--at least not so much, only my father
+will be so disappointed."
+
+This made me think of my mother, and of what my uncle would say if I
+were dismissed from the school in disgrace; and I shivered, for this was
+the most terrible part of all.
+
+"I tell you what," said Mercer, "we're in for it, and no mistake; and we
+didn't do it to steal.  We only wanted a bit of sport and some rabbits
+to stuff.  Let's tell the doctor we're very sorry, and ask him to flog
+us.  It would be too bad to expel us in disgrace.  What do you say?"
+
+"They may flog me," I said sadly; "but I couldn't go home again in
+disgrace like that."
+
+"Of course not; and it's too bad to call it poaching.  I'm sorry we
+went, though, now."
+
+"Yes," I said, "I'm sorry enough;" and we sat there, miserable enough,
+waiting till the other boys came up, and it was time to go to bed.
+
+We had not begun to undress, when the door was opened, and three heads
+were thrust in, and to our disgust, as we looked up, we saw that they
+belonged to our three principal tormentors, who began at us in a jeering
+way.
+
+"Hallo, poachers!" said Burr major; "where are the rabbits?"
+
+"I say," cried Hodson, "you fellows are going to be expelled.  Leave us
+the stuffed guys, Senna."
+
+"He won't," cried Dicksee; "he'll want the skins to make a jacket--a
+beggar!"
+
+"You're a set of miserable cowards," I said indignantly, "or you
+wouldn't come and jump upon us now we are down."
+
+"You give me any of your cheek, Burr junior, and I'll make you smell
+fist for your supper."
+
+"Pst!  Some one coming!" whispered Hodson, and the three scuffled away,
+for there were footsteps on the stairs, and directly after Mr Rebble
+appeared.
+
+"Mercer, Burr junior," he said harshly, "Doctor Browne requests that you
+will not come down till he sends for you in the morning.  As for you,
+young gentlemen, you will take no notice of the door being fastened; I
+shall be up here in time to let you out.  Good-night."
+
+He went out, and closed and locked the door, and we heard him take out
+the key and go down the stairs.
+
+"Well, that's a rum one!" cried Mercer.  "I say, Burr, old Rebble made
+an Irish bull, or something like it.  How can we go down if the door's
+locked?"
+
+"It's because they're afraid we shall run away," I said bitterly.  "They
+needn't have thought that."
+
+And somehow that first part of our punishment seemed to be the most
+bitter of all.  It kept me awake for hours, growing more and more
+low-spirited; and, to make me worse, as I lay there listening to the
+loud breathing of the boys, Mercer having gone off like the rest, as if
+nothing was the matter, I could hear an owl come sailing about the
+place, now close at hand, and now right away in the distance, evidently
+in Sir Hawkhurst's old park, where, no doubt, it had a home in one of
+the great hollow beeches.  Every now and then it uttered its mournful
+_hoi, hoi, hoi, hoi_! sounding exactly like some one calling for help,
+and at times so real that I was ready to awaken Mercer and ask him if he
+thought it was a bird; but just as I had determined to do so, he spoke
+half drowsily from his pillow.
+
+"Hear the old owl," he said.  "That's the one I told you about the other
+night.  It isn't the same kind as we saw in old Dawson's oast-house.
+They screech.  Get out, you old mouser!  I want to sleep."
+
+The owl kept on with its hooting; but Mercer had what he wanted, for he
+dropped asleep directly, and I must have followed his example
+immediately after, for the next thing I remember is feeling something
+warm on my face, which produced an intense desire to sneeze--so it
+seemed, till I opened my eyes, to find that the blind had been drawn,
+and Mercer was tickling my nose with the end of a piece of top string
+twisted up fine.
+
+"Be quiet.  Don't!"  I cried angrily, as I sat up.  "Hallo! where are
+the other fellows?"
+
+"Dressed and gone down ever so long ago.  Didn't you hear the bell?"
+
+"No; I've been very sound asleep," I said, beginning to dress hurriedly.
+"Shall we be late?  Oh!"
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"I'd forgotten," I said; for the whole trouble of the previous evening
+had now come back with a rush.
+
+"Good job, too," said Mercer.  "That's why I didn't wake you.  Wish I
+was asleep now, and could forget all about it.  I say, it ain't nice, is
+it?"
+
+I shook my head mournfully.
+
+"It's always the way," continued my companion, "one never does have a
+bit of fun without being upset after it somehow.  We went fishing, and
+nearly got drowned; I bought the ferret, and we lost it; we went in for
+lessons in boxing, and I never grumbled much, but oh, how sore and stiff
+and bruised I've often been afterwards.  And now, when we go for just an
+hour to try the ferret, we get caught like this.  There's no real fun in
+life without trouble afterwards."
+
+"One always feels so before breakfast," I said, as dolefully as Mercer
+now, and I hurriedly finished dressing.  Then we went to the window, and
+stood looking out, and thinking how beautiful everything appeared in the
+morning sunshine.
+
+"I say, Tom," I said at last, "don't you wish you were down-stairs
+finishing your lessons, ready for after breakfast?"
+
+"Ah, that I do!" he cried; "and I never felt so before."
+
+"That's through being locked up like in prison," I said philosophically.
+
+"Yes, it's horrid.  I say, the old Doctor won't expel us, will he?"
+
+"I hope not," I said.
+
+"But he will old Magglin.  You see if he don't."
+
+"Well, I'm not sorry for him," I said; "he has behaved like a sneak."
+
+"Yes; trying to put it all on to us."
+
+We relapsed into silence for some time.  We had opened the window, and
+were looking out at the mists floating away over the woods, and the
+distant sea shining like frosted silver.
+
+"Oh, I do wish it was a wet, cloudy morning!"  I said at last.
+
+"Why?"
+
+"Because everything looks so beautiful, and makes you long to be out of
+doors."
+
+We relapsed into silence again, with our punishment growing more painful
+every moment, till our thoughts were chased away by the ringing of the
+breakfast-bell.
+
+"Ah, at last!" cried Mercer, and he turned to listen for footsteps.
+
+"I say," he cried crossly, "ain't they going to let us go down to
+breakfast?"
+
+"No; we're prisoners," I said bitterly.
+
+"Yes; but they don't starve prisoners to death," cried Mercer; "and I
+want something to eat."
+
+In spite of my misery, I too felt very hungry, for we had gone through a
+great deal since our evening meal on the previous day, and I was
+standing watching my companion as he marched up and down the bedroom
+like an animal in a cage, when we heard steps on the stairs.
+
+"Here's breakfast," cried Mercer joyfully, but his face changed as the
+door was opened, and Mr Rebble appeared, followed by one of the maids
+bearing a tray, which she set down on a little table and went away,
+leaving Mr Rebble looking at us grimly, but with the suggestion of a
+sneering laugh at the corners of his cleanly-shaven lips.
+
+We both glanced at the tray, which bore a jug and two mugs and a plate
+with a couple of big hunches of bread.  Then Mercer looked up half
+reproachfully at Mr Rebble, who was moving toward the door.
+
+"They've forgotten the butter, sir," he said.
+
+"No, my boy, no," replied the usher; "butter is a luxury reserved for
+the good.  The Doctor will send for you both by and by."
+
+He went out and locked the door, while we stood listening till the steps
+had died away.
+
+"It's a jolly shame!" cried Mercer.  "I'm not going to stop here and eat
+dry bread."
+
+"Never mind," I said; "I don't mind for once;" and, taking one of the
+pieces of bread, I lifted the jug to fill a mug, but set it down again
+without pouring any out.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Look," I said.
+
+Mercer darted to the table, looked into the jug, poured out a little of
+its contents, and set the vessel down, speechless for the moment with
+rage.
+
+"Water!" he cried at last, and dashing to the table again, he ran with
+it to the window, and threw both jug and contents flying out into the
+shrubbery below.
+
+"Oh!" he ejaculated, directly after; "I didn't know you were there."
+
+I ran to the window now, and looked down to see the cook's red face
+gazing up at us.
+
+"Eh? what say?" said Mercer, leaning out.
+
+"Hush! be quiet.  All at breakfast.  Got any string?"
+
+"Yes.  Oh, I know," cried Mercer joyfully, and he ran to his box and
+from the bottom dragged out a stick of kite string, whose end he rapidly
+lowered down to where cook stood, holding something under her apron.
+
+This proved to be a little basket with a cross handle when she whisked
+her apron off, and, quickly tying the end of the string to it, she stood
+watching till the basket had reached our hands, and then hurried away
+round the end of the house.
+
+"Oh, isn't she a good one!" cried Mercer, tearing open the lid, after
+snapping the string and pitching the ball quickly into the box.  "Look
+here; four eggs, bread and butter--lots, and a bottle of milk--no," he
+continued, taking out the cork and smelling, "it's coffee.  Hooray!"
+
+"What's that in the bit of curl paper?" and I pointed to something
+twisted up.
+
+"Salt," cried Mercer, "for the eggs.  Come on, eat as fast as you can."
+
+I took a piece of bread and butter, and he another, eating away as he
+poured out two mugfuls of what proved to be delicious coffee.
+
+"Who says we haven't got any friends?" cried Mercer, with his mouth
+full.  "What lots of butter.  'Tis good.  I say, wonder what old Rebble
+would say if he knew!  Have an egg."
+
+"No spoons."
+
+"Bet a penny they're hard ones."
+
+So it proved, and we cracked them well all over, peeled off the shells,
+which for secrecy we thrust into our pockets, and then, dipping the eggs
+into the salt, we soon finished one each, with the corresponding
+proportion of bread and butter.  Then the other two followed, the last
+slice of bread and butter disappeared, and the wine-bottle was drained.
+It was an abundant supply, but at our age the time consumed over the
+meal was not lengthy, and we then busied ourselves in rinsing out the
+bottle, which was hidden in my box, after being carefully wiped on a
+towel, the basket was placed in Mercer's, and as soon as the last sign
+of our banquet had disappeared, we looked at the two hunches of bread,
+of which mine alone had been tasted, and burst into a laugh.
+
+"I don't want any--do you?" said Mercer, and I shook my head.  "Oh, I do
+feel so much better!  I can take the Doctor's licking now, and hope it
+will come soon."
+
+"I don't," I said.
+
+"Why not?  It's like nasty physic.  Of course you don't like it, but the
+sooner you've swallowed it down, the sooner it's gone, and you haven't
+got to think any more about it.  That's what I feel about my licking."
+
+"Hist! here's some one coming."
+
+Mercer turned sharply round and listened.
+
+"Old Reb," he whispered, and we went and stood together near the window
+as the steps came nearer; the key was turned, and Mr Rebble appeared,
+glanced at the tray with its almost untouched bread, and then smiled
+maliciously.
+
+"Ho, ho!  Proud stomached, eh?  Oh, very well, only I warn you both you
+get nothing more to eat until that bread is finished.  Now, then, young
+gentlemen, this way please."
+
+He held the door open, and then led us into a small room at the end of
+the passage used for spare boxes and lumber.  Here we were locked in and
+left, and as soon as we were alone Mercer burst into a fit of laughter.
+
+"Oh, what a game!" he panted, wiping the tears from his eyes.  "I say,
+though, he never missed the water-jug.  What's the matter?"
+
+"Matter!"  I cried; "it's a shame to lock us up here like two prisoners
+in this old lumber-room."
+
+"Oh, never mind! it's only old Reb's nasty petty way.  I don't believe
+the Doctor knows.  He isn't petty; he scolds you and canes you if you've
+done anything he don't like, but as soon as you've had your punishment,
+it's all over, and he forgets what's past.  I say!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"He will not expel us; I'm not afraid of that."
+
+In about half an hour, we heard Mr Rebble's steps again.
+
+"Now then, the physic's ready," whispered Mercer.  "Don't you cry out.
+It hurts a good deal, and the Doctor hits precious hard, but the pain
+soon goes off, and it will only please old Rebble if you seem to mind."
+
+Just then the door was opened, and our gaoler appeared again.
+
+"This way," he said shortly, and we went out into the passage once more,
+while my heart began to flutter, and I wondered whether I could bear a
+caning without showing that I suffered, and, to be frank, I very much
+doubted my power in what would be to me quite a new experience.  I set
+my teeth though, and mentally vowed I would try and bear it manfully.
+
+It was all waste energy, for Mr Rebble threw open the door of our
+dormitory again, drew back for us to enter, and said, with a nasty
+malicious laugh, as if he enjoyed punishing us,--
+
+"Not a morsel of anything till that bread is eaten."
+
+Then the door was closed, sharply locked, the key withdrawn, and his
+steps died away.
+
+"What a take in!" grumbled Mercer, as we looked round the neat, clean
+bedroom, and realised that we had only been locked up in the other place
+while the maids came to make the beds.  "I was all screwed up tight, and
+would have taken my caning without so much as a squeak.  Couldn't you?"
+
+"I don't know," I said, "but I felt ready to go on with it, and now I
+suppose we shall have to wait."
+
+To our great disgust, we did have to wait hour after hour.  We heard the
+fellows go out from school, and their voices came ringing through the
+clear summer air, and then we heard them come in to dinner; but we were
+not called down, nothing was sent up to us, and, though we kept watch at
+the window looking down into the shrubbery, there was no sign of the
+cook, and the kite string remained unused.
+
+"But she's sure to come some time," said Mercer.  "She won't let old Reb
+starve us.  Hi! look there.  Old Lomax.  There he goes."
+
+Sure enough, the old sergeant marched down the road, and we watched till
+he was out of sight, but he did not see us.
+
+"I wonder what he thought when we did not go for our lesson this
+morning," I said.
+
+"Oh, he had heard of it, safe," cried Mercer.  "Hark, there they go out
+from dinner.  I say, I'm getting tired of this.  They must have us down
+soon."
+
+But quite an hour passed away, and we stood sadly looking out at the
+beautiful view, which never looked more attractive, and we were trying
+to make out where the hammer pond lay among the trees, when I suddenly
+nipped Mercer's arm, and we began to watch a light cart, driven by a
+grey-haired gentleman, with a groom in livery with a cockade in his hat
+seated by his side, and a big dark fellow in velveteen behind.
+
+"Is he coming here?" whispered Mercer, as we drew back from the window.
+
+We knew he must be, and, peering from behind the white window-curtains,
+we saw the great fiery-looking roan horse turn at a rapid trot through
+the open gates, then the wheels of the light, cart seemed to be pulled
+up at the front entrance, where we saw the groom spring down, and heard
+the jangle of the big front door bell.
+
+Then we sat down on our chairs by the heads of our beds and waited, and
+not long, for we soon heard steps on the stairs.
+
+"It's coming now," said Mercer, drawing a long breath.
+
+"Yes, it's coming now," I echoed softly, as a curious sensation of dread
+ran through me, and directly after the door was unlocked, and Mr Rebble
+appeared.
+
+"Now, young gentlemen," he said, with a perfectly satisfied air, "the
+Doctor will see you both in his room."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER FIFTEEN.
+
+We followed him, and as we turned through the baize door so as to go
+down the front staircase, Mercer and I managed to exchange a grip of the
+hand.
+
+Directly after, we caught sight of the great roan horse at the door
+champing its bit, and sending flakes of foam flying over its glossy
+coat, and I noticed even then that one white spot fell on the groom's
+dark brown coat.
+
+Then, once more drawing a deep breath, we walked in together through the
+door Mr Rebble threw open, and closed behind us, when, as if through a
+mist, I saw the Doctor sitting at a writing-table, looking very stern
+and portly, the General, grey, fierce, and rather red-faced, seated a
+little way to the Doctor's right, with his malacca cane between his
+legs, and his hands, in their bright brown gloves, resting on the ivory
+handle, so that his arms and elbows stood out squarely; while again on
+his right, about a couple of yards away, stood big, dark, and
+burly-looking Bob Hopley, in his best brown velveteen jacket.
+
+"Er-rum!" coughed the Doctor as the door was closed, and we looked
+sharply round at the stern faces before us, Bob Hopley favouring us with
+a solemn wink, which I interpreted to mean, "I forgive you, my lads."
+Then the Doctor spoke.
+
+"Stand there, Thomas Mercer and Frank Burr.  That will do.  Now, Sir
+Hawkhurst, will you have the goodness to repeat the charge in their
+presence."
+
+The old officer faced fiercely round on the Doctor.
+
+"Hang it all, sir!" he cried; "am I the magistrate, or are you?"
+
+"You are the magistrate, sir," said the Doctor gravely, "but I am the
+master.  The distinction is slight, but I allow no one to stand between
+me and my boys.  Unless you are going to proceed legally against them to
+punish I must request you to let me be their judge."
+
+"Beg pardon, beg pardon," said the General sharply, "Old soldier, sir--
+been much in India, and the climate made me hot.  Go on!"
+
+I glanced at him quickly as I heard him mention India, and he caught my
+eye, and shook his fist at me fiercely.
+
+"You young dog!" he roared; "how dare you come after my rabbits!"
+
+"Excuse me," said the Doctor.
+
+"Yes, yes, of course.  Well, Doctor Browne, my keeper and I were out
+taking a look round at the young pheasants in their coops last evening,
+when we took these confounded young dogs red-handed, ferreting rabbits
+with that scoundrelly poaching vagabond you have taken into your
+service, when nobody else would give him a job."
+
+"Ah, yes," said the Doctor blandly, "you complained of my employing that
+man, Sir Hawkhurst.  The fact is, he came to me, saying that he had been
+cruelly misjudged, that he was half starved, and begged me to give him a
+job.  I did so, to give him another chance.  Of course, after this, and
+the fact that my gardener gives him a very bad character and seems much
+dissatisfied, I shall not employ him again."
+
+"And very wisely," said the old officer.  "Well, sir, that's all I've
+got to say.  That is my evidence."
+
+"Thank you," said the Doctor magisterially.  "And you, my good man, were
+with your master, and saw the boys--my boys--engaged there?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Bob Hopley, touching the black curls over his forehead.
+"Rabbit and ferret produced."
+
+As he spoke, he pulled out of one big pocket the dead rabbit, and out of
+the other the twining and writhing ferret, at which the Doctor gazed
+with interest through his gold spectacles.
+
+"Singular animal!" said the Doctor, "specially designed by nature for
+threading its way through the narrow labyrinthine burrows of the rabbit
+and the rat."
+
+"Confound it all, sir!" said the General--"I beg pardon, I beg pardon."
+
+During the last few minutes the wheels of a carriage had been heard on
+the gravel drive, and the dog-cart had been driven aside.  Then the big
+bell had clanged, and all had been silent again.  For the moment, I had
+wondered whether it was a parish constable come for us, but the next I
+had forgotten all about it, till one of the maids entered, with a couple
+of cards on a tray, which she went round and handed to the Doctor.
+
+"Bless me!" he exclaimed, flushing, as the General made an impatient
+gesture, and relieved his feelings by shaking his fist at us both, while
+Bob Hopley began to smooth the ferret with his great brown, hairy hand.
+
+"Well, sir?" said the General.
+
+"Excuse me," said the Doctor.  "A most curious coincidence.  Two
+visitors."
+
+"No, sir, no visitors now; business, if you please.  Those two boys--"
+
+"Excuse me," said the Doctor blandly.  "The two visitors are the
+relatives of one of these boys."
+
+Mercer gave quite a start, and I pitied him.
+
+Poor Tom's father and mother, I said mentally, and then I gave a start
+too, for the General said fiercely,--
+
+"By George! then they couldn't have come better.  Show them in, and I'll
+have a word or two with the boy's father."
+
+The Doctor made a sign; the maid withdrew; and I pressed a little closer
+to Mercer, and pinched his arm.
+
+"I'll take my share," I whispered quietly, as the door was opened.  The
+Doctor and the General both rose, as there was the rustle of silk, and I
+uttered quite a sob as I was clasped in my mother's arms.
+
+"My dearest boy," she cried, as she kissed me fondly, while I shrank
+away, for my stern-looking, military uncle came in with her.
+
+"Why, Charley!" roared the General.
+
+"What, Hawk!" cried my uncle boisterously, and the two old officers
+grasped each other's hands, and stood shaking them heartily.
+
+"Why, my dear old man," cried the General, "this is a surprise!"
+
+"Surprise!  I should think it is," cried my uncle.  "I am delighted.
+Like old times, eh?"
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated the General, chuckling, and looking now transformed
+into a very genial old gentleman, while the Doctor stood softly stroking
+his shirt-frill and smiling benignantly.
+
+"But one moment," cried my uncle.  "My sister--poor old Frank Burr's
+wife."
+
+"Dear, dear, bless me!" cried the General, advancing with courtly,
+chivalric respect to shake hands with my mother.  "My dear madam," he
+said softly, "it is an honour.  I knew your poor husband well."
+
+As he dropped my mother's hand, she bent her head, and her veil sank
+down, while the General's eyes fell upon me, and the transformation was
+comic.
+
+"Here," he whispered to my uncle, as I looked from one to the other, and
+saw the Doctor smiling blandly.  "This--this boy--not--Frank Burr's--"
+
+"Yes," said my uncle, nodding to me.  "Pupil here.  Send him into the
+service by and by."
+
+"Bless my soul!--Oh dear me!--Here--I--that is--" stammered the General,
+looking from one to the other, till his eyes lit on Bob Hopley, when he
+flushed up angrily.
+
+"How dare you, sir!  How dare you stand there, with that rabbit and that
+wretched ferret!  Don't you see that there are ladies present, sir.
+'Tention!  Put them away.  Dress!"
+
+"Here, stop," said my uncle sharply, as he looked round, "We have
+interrupted some business."
+
+"No, no, no, no, my dear boy!--nothing, nothing!" cried the General.
+"Mere trifle."
+
+"Trifle, eh?" said my uncle, drawing himself up, and looking the fierce
+colonel of dragoons.  "Frank!"
+
+"Yes, uncle," I said shrinkingly.
+
+"You are in some scrape."
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"What have you been doing?"
+
+"Oh, Charles, pray--pray--" cried my mother.
+
+"Hush," he said, holding up his hand.  "Now, sir, speak out."
+
+"Really, my dear Charley--" cried the General.
+
+"Allow me, please, sir," said my uncle; and I caught sight of the Doctor
+raising his hand and making a sign to my mother, as he placed a chair
+for her, an act of politeness needed, for she was turning faint.  "Now,
+sir, speak out--the simple facts, please.  What have you been doing?"
+
+"Rabbiting with a ferret, uncle, us two, and this gentleman and Bob
+Hopley came and caught us."
+
+"Rabbiting--poaching?"
+
+"Yes, yes, yes," cried the General.  "A mere nothing, my dear madam.
+The boys were certainly on my grounds watching a poaching scoundrel, and
+I--yes, I thought I'd say a word to the Doctor.  Bad company for him, a
+poacher--eh, my dear Charley?"
+
+"Yes, rather," said my uncle dryly.
+
+"And now," said the General, "Doctor Browne here--my neighbour--will
+tell them not to do so any more--eh, Doctor, eh?"
+
+"Certainly," said the Doctor.  "I'm sure it will not occur again."
+
+"No, no, of course not," said the General.  "Hopley, you can go.  Stop!
+that ferret belongs to the boys, I think."
+
+"To you, Frank?" said my uncle.
+
+"No, uncle, it's his," I said.  "But I was helping to use it."
+
+"Hah! that's better," said my uncle sharply.
+
+"I bought the ferret," said Mercer, speaking for the first time, "but I
+don't want it.  I'll give it to you, Bob."
+
+"Yes, yes, very wise of you, my lad.  There, go now, Hopley," said the
+General.
+
+The keeper touched his forehead, and gave a look all round, then winked
+solemnly at Mercer and me, and left the room.
+
+"Hah!" said the General; "then that little bit of business is settled,
+Doctor, eh?  Just a word or two."
+
+"A few admonitions, my dear sir," said the Doctor blandly.  "And now, if
+you will excuse me for a while, I will retire with Mercer here."
+
+Tom gave me a look so full of appeal, that I ran across to the Doctor.
+
+"Don't punish him, sir!"  I said imploringly.  "We were both alike."
+
+"What's that, Frank?" said my uncle.
+
+"I asked the Doctor not to punish Tom Mercer, uncle."
+
+"No, no, no: of course not!" cried the General; "I endorse that appeal.
+Here, you sir, come to me.  Gentlemen don't do such things as that; and
+now we all know better, I've got some capital fishing in my ponds and
+lakes, and I shall be happy to see you two at any time.  There, shake
+hands."
+
+Tom jumped at him, and it was pleasant to see how delighted he looked as
+he turned and shot a grateful glance at the General before the door
+closed on him and the Doctor.
+
+Then the two old officers began chatting eagerly together about past
+times, while I sat by my mother as she held my hand, and I told her the
+history of my escapade, which was hardly finished when my uncle said,--
+
+"I'm sorry to come down and find you in disgrace, Frank.  Not the
+conduct of one who means to be an officer and a gentleman by and by."
+
+"No, no: don't say any more," said the General.  "The boy behaved very
+well.  Liked a bit of sport; all boys do.  He shall have a bit of
+rabbiting now and then."
+
+"Then I shall say no more," said my uncle.  "Try and be like your name,
+my boy, and you will find me ready to forgive your scrapes; but you must
+always be a gentleman."
+
+"Amen to that," said the General, rising.  "And now, my dear Mrs Burr,
+I will not say good-bye, but _au revoir_.  Seaborough here tells me you
+are both going to stay in Hastings for a few days.  I shall drive over
+and see you.  Good-bye."
+
+He showed the same courtly respect to her again, and was rising to go
+when the Doctor re-entered, and they parted the best of friends.
+
+"No, no, no," cried the General, as the Doctor was coming out with him,
+"stay with your visitors.  Odd meeting, wasn't it?  Here, you, Frank
+Burr, come and see me off.  Good-day, Doctor, good-day.  You and I must
+be better neighbours."
+
+"I shall be proud," said the Doctor, and then I went to the cart with
+the General, who stood holding my hand at the step, and I could feel a
+coin therein.
+
+"For you two boys," he said.  "There, good-bye, Frank Burr.  You must
+grow up into a brave gentleman like your father.  A thorough soldier,
+sir.  God bless you, my boy!  Good-bye."
+
+He took the reins and got in, the groom left the horse's head and
+mounted beside him, and as the cart was driven off, and I stood there
+with a sovereign in my hand, Bob Hopley, who was in his place behind,
+gave me another solemn wink, while, after noticing the hired carriage in
+which my mother and my uncle had driven over from Hastings, I went back
+into the room and stayed with them, and afterwards went to show them the
+building and grounds.
+
+An hour after, they were gone, while I hurried off to find Mercer and
+show him the sovereign.
+
+"Well," he said, "that's all right.  But, I say, don't some things turn
+out rum!  What are you going to do with all that money?"
+
+"Half's yours," I said.
+
+"Oh, is it?  Well, let's make a bank.  It'll do to pay old Lomax and
+lots of things."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SIXTEEN.
+
+My mother and my uncle came over to see me twice during their stay at
+Hastings, and during one of the visits my uncle spoke to the Doctor
+about the drill-master, and, after expressing a wish that I should pay
+attention to that part of my studies, with fencing, asked if this
+instructor had been in the foot or horse.
+
+"Oh, he was in the cavalry, uncle," I said.
+
+"Good; then, if Doctor Browne does not object, I should like him to give
+you a few preliminary lessons in riding, so as to get a military seat
+while you are young, boy."
+
+The Doctor expressed his willingness, but he said with a slight cough,--
+
+"Would not a horse be necessary, or a pony?"
+
+"Well, yes," said my uncle dryly, "I think it would, sir; but that
+difficulty will be got over.  Sir Hawkhurst Rye has offered the boy the
+use of a stout cob.  One of the grooms will bring it over two or three
+times a week; and, if you would allow me, I should like to have a few
+words with the old sergeant."
+
+The Doctor was perfectly agreeable; and when they were going, I had the
+pleasure--for it was a pleasure--of taking them down to Lomax's little,
+neatly-kept place, where the old sergeant stood ready to draw himself up
+and salute, with his eyes lighting up, and a proud look of satisfaction
+in his hard face.
+
+My uncle took him aside, and they remained talking together, while my
+mother walked up and down with me, holding my hand through her arm, and
+eagerly whispering her hopes--that I would be very careful, that I would
+not run into any danger with the riding, and, above all, mind not to do
+anything my uncle would not like.
+
+Of course I promised with the full intention of performing, and soon
+after my uncle marched back with Lomax--they did not seem to walk.
+Everything had apparently gone off satisfactorily, and after plenty of
+advice from my uncle, he handed my mother into the carriage, followed
+and they were driven off.
+
+I stood watching the carriage till it was out of sight, and then turned
+to Lomax, who was standing as upright as if he were on parade, till he
+caught my eye, and then he gave himself a jerk, thrust one hand into his
+pocket, and gave the place a slap.
+
+"You're a lucky one," he said, "to have an uncle like that, sir.  Hah!
+there's nothing like a soldier."
+
+"How am I lucky?"  I said rather sourly, for I was low-spirited from the
+parting I had just gone through.
+
+"Lucky to have a fine old officer like that to want me to make a man of
+you, and teach you everything you ought to know to become an officer and
+a gentleman."
+
+"Oh, bother!"  I said.  "Look here, Lomax; you're to teach me riding.
+Can you?"
+
+"Can I?" he said, with a little laugh; "wait till the horse comes round,
+and I'll show you, my boy."
+
+"I can ride, you know," I said; "but not military fashion."
+
+"You? you ride, sir?" said the old soldier scornfully.  "Rubbish!  Don't
+talk to me.  I know how you ride--like a sack of wool with two legs.
+Knees up to your chin and your nose parting the horse's mane all down
+his neck."
+
+"Oh, nonsense, Lom!"
+
+"Fact, sir, fact.  Think I don't know?  A civilian rides, sir, like a
+monkey, bumping himself up and down, and waggling his elbows out like a
+young chicken learning to fly.  There, you be easy, and I'll teach you
+how to ride same as I did how to fight."
+
+"But I don't know that you have taught me how to fight.  I haven't tried
+yet."
+
+Lomax chuckled.
+
+"Wait a bit," he said.  "You don't want to fight.  It's like being a
+soldier--a British soldier, sir.  He don't want to fight, and he will
+not if he can help it.  He always hangs back because he knows that he
+can fight.  But when he does--well, I'm sorry for the other side."
+
+"Then you think I could lick Eely if he knocked me about, or big
+Dicksee?"
+
+"No, I don't think anything about it, my boy.  You wait.  Don't fight if
+you can help it, but if you're obliged to, recollect all I've shown you,
+and let him have it."
+
+I did not feel in any hurry, and when I talked to Tom Mercer about what
+I had said to Lomax, he agreed with me that he felt a little nervous
+about his powers, and said that he should like to try a small boy or two
+first; but I said no, that would not do; it would be cowardly.
+
+"So it would," said Mercer; "besides, it would let the cat out of the
+bag, wouldn't it?  Look here, I know: we ought to have a quiet set to up
+in the loft some day."
+
+"But that would only be boxing," I said.
+
+"Why not make a fight of it?" suggested Mercer.
+
+"But we couldn't fight without there was a genuine quarrel."
+
+"Let's quarrel, then."
+
+"What about?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know.  Anything.  You call me a fool, and I'll hit you, and
+then you go at me again, and we should know then what we could do."
+
+"Get out!"  I said.  "I shan't call you a fool; but if I did, you
+wouldn't be such a beast as to hit me, and if you did, I should be so
+sorry that I shouldn't hit you again.  That wouldn't do."
+
+Tom Mercer scratched his head.
+
+"No," he said dryly, "that wouldn't do.  It seems precious rum, though."
+
+"What does?"
+
+"That I shouldn't care to hit you.  I feel as if I couldn't hit a fellow
+who saved my life."
+
+"Look here," I said angrily, "you're always trying to bring up that
+stupid nonsense about the holding you up on the penstock.  If you do it
+again, I will hit you."
+
+"Boo!  Not you.  You're afraid," cried Mercer derisively.  "Who pulled
+the chap out of the water when he was half drowned, and saved him?
+Who--"
+
+I clapped my hand over his mouth.
+
+"Won't do, Tom," I said.  "It's all sham.  We can't fight.  I daresay
+old Lom's right, though."
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"That we shall be able to knock Eely and Dicksee into the middle of next
+week."
+
+"But it seems to me as if they must feel that we have been learning, or
+else they would have been sure to have done something before now."
+
+"Never mind," I said, "let's wait.  We don't want to fight, as Lom says,
+but if we're obliged to, we've got to do it well."
+
+The occasion for trying our ability did not come off, though it was very
+near it several times; but as I grew more confident, the less I felt
+disposed to try, and Mercer always confessed it was the same with him,
+though the cock of the school and his miserable toady, Dicksee often led
+us a sad life.
+
+One morning, soon after the last visit of Uncle Seaborough, Lomax came
+to the schoolroom door, just as Mr Hasnip was giving me a terrible
+bullying about the results of a problem in algebra, on to which he had
+hurried me before I had more than the faintest idea of the meaning of
+the rules I had been struggling through.
+
+I suppose I was very stupid, but it was terribly confusing to me for the
+most part.  I grasped very well the fact that a plus quantity killed a
+minus quantity if they were of equal value, and that a little figure two
+by the side of a letter meant its square, and I somehow blundered
+through some simple equations, but when Mr Hasnip lit a scholastic fire
+under me, and began to force on bigger mathematical flowers from my
+unhappy soil in the Doctor's scholastic hothouse, I began to feel as if
+I were blighted, and as if quadratic equations were instruments of
+torture to destroy boys' brains.
+
+On that particular morning, I was, what fat Dicksee called, "catching
+it," and I was listening gloomily to my teacher's attempts at being
+witty at my expense.
+
+"How a boy can be so stupid," he said, "is more than I can grasp.  It is
+perfect child's play, and yet you have gone on getting the problem into
+a hopeless tangle--a ridiculous tangle.  You have made a surd perfectly
+absurd, and--"
+
+"Mr Hasnip!" came from the other end of the great room.  Mr Hasnip
+looked up.
+
+"The drill-master is here.  The horse has arrived for Burr junior's
+riding lesson.  Can you excuse him?"
+
+"Certainly, sir," and Mr Hasnip looked at me, showing his teeth in a
+hungry kind of smile, as if a nice morsel were being snatched from him,
+and I stood with my heart beating, and the warm blood tingling in my
+cheeks, conscious that all the boys were looking at me.
+
+"Here, take your book, Burr junior," said my tutor.  "Very glad to go, I
+daresay.  Now aren't you?"
+
+I looked up at him, but made no reply.
+
+"Do you hear me, sir?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"I said, `Aren't you glad to go?'"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Of course.  There, be off.  You'll never learn anything.  You are the
+stupidest boy I ever taught."
+
+My cheeks burned, and as I turned to go, there was fat Dicksee grinning
+at me in so provoking a way, that if we had been alone, I should in my
+vexation have tried one of Lomax's blows upon his round, smooth face.
+But as it was, I went back to my place, where Mercer was seated, with
+his hands clasped and thrust down between his knees, his back up, and
+his head down over his book, apparently grinding up his Euclid, upon
+which he kept his eyes fixed.
+
+"Oh ho!" he whispered; "here you are.  Without exception, sir, the
+stupidest boy I ever taught."
+
+"I'll punch your head by and by, Tom, if you're not quiet," I said.
+
+"Who made the surd absurd?"
+
+"Did you hear what I said?"
+
+"Yes.  Oh, you lucky beggar!  Who are you, I should like to know, to be
+having your riding lessons?"
+
+"Less talking there, Burr junior."
+
+This from Mr Rebble, and I went out, passing close to Burr major, who
+looked me up and down contemptuously, as he took out his watch, and said
+to the nearest boy,--
+
+"Rank favouritism! if there's much more of it, I shall leave the
+school."
+
+But I forgot all this directly, as I stepped out, where I found Lomax
+standing up as stiff as a ramrod, and with a walking cane thrust under
+his arms and behind his back, trussing him like a chicken, so as to
+throw out his chest.
+
+He saluted me in military fashion.
+
+"Mornin', sir.  Your trooper's waiting.  Looks a nice, clever little
+fellow."
+
+"Trooper?"  I faltered in a disappointed tone.  "What do you mean?  I
+thought it was the horse come."
+
+"So it is."
+
+"But trooper?"
+
+"Of course.  Well, charger, then.  Officers' horses are chargers; men's
+horses, troopers."
+
+"Oh!"  I cried, brightening up, but with a feeling of nervousness and
+excitement making my heart beat more heavily still.  "Where is it?"
+
+"Paddock!" said Lomax shortly, and without the slightest disposition to
+be conversational.  In fact, he became more military every moment, and
+marched along by me, delivering cuts at nothing with his cane, as if he
+were angry with the air.
+
+Then all at once he glanced at me, looking me up and down.
+
+"Humph!  No straps to your overalls," he said snappishly.
+
+"Overalls?"
+
+"Well, trousers, sir.  They'll be crawling all up your legs.  Get some
+buttons put on by next time."
+
+He turned into the field devoted to the Doctor's cows and to the junior
+boys' football, and there I saw the General's groom holding a fiery,
+untamed-looking steed, as it seemed to me, arching its neck and
+snorting, as it stood champing its bit till the white foam flew from its
+mouth.
+
+The groom touched his hat to me as we came up.
+
+"Master's compliments, sir, and as he wants me," he said, "would you
+mind riding the cob back to the house?"
+
+"Oh yes, of course," I said, glancing at the fierce-looking animal, and
+mentally asking myself whether he would allow me to ride him home.
+"Is--is he quiet?"
+
+"Quiet, sir! why, he's like a lamb.  Bit playful sometimes, but no more
+vice in him than there is in an oyster.  Mornin', sir."
+
+The man touched his hat and went off, leaving Lomax and me with the
+horse, which looked enormous then.
+
+Lomax strode round the animal, examining it, and making remarks as he
+went on.
+
+"Very well groomed," he said.  "Saw your old friend Magglin before
+breakfast.  Good legs.  Like to get taken on again, he says.  Tail wants
+topping--too long.  Lucky for him he didn't get before the magistrates.
+Doctor won't have him again.  Very nice little nag, but too small for
+service.  I told him that all he was fit for was to enlist; some sharp
+drill-sergeant might knock him into shape in time.  He's no use as he
+is.  Now, then, ready?"
+
+"Yes," I said shrinkingly, "I suppose so."
+
+"That's right," cried Lomax, and, lifting up the flap of the saddle, he
+busied himself, as I supposed, tightening the girths, but all at once
+they dropped to the ground, and, with the rein over his arm, Lomax
+lifted off the saddle and placed it upon the hedge.
+
+"Now then," he cried, "come along and I'll give you a leg up."
+
+"But you've taken the saddle off."
+
+"Of course I have.  I'm going to teach you how to ride."
+
+"Without a saddle or stirrups?"
+
+"Of course.  A man wants to feel at home on a horses, so does a boy.
+Now then, I'll give you a leg up."
+
+I was like wax in his hands.  On lifting one leg as he bade me, the next
+moment I was sent flying, to come down on the horse's back astride, but
+so much over to the right that I had to fling myself forward and clutch
+the mane.
+
+"Bravo!  Well done!" cried Lomax sarcastically.
+
+"I'm all right now," I cried.
+
+"All right!  Here, come down, sir.  Do you know what would have happened
+if that had been some horses?"
+
+"No," I said, dismounting clumsily.
+
+"Well, then, I'll tell you.  They'd either have sent you flying over
+their heads, or bolted."
+
+"I'm very sorry," I faltered.
+
+"Sorry!  I should think you are.  Got up like a tailor, sir, and you've
+come down like one.  Bah!  It's horrible."
+
+"Well, but you've got to teach me better," I cried.
+
+"True.  Good lad.  So I have.  Now then, give me your leg.  That's it.
+Steady.  Up you go."
+
+"That's better," I cried, settling myself into my place.
+
+"Better!  No, it isn't.  It's not so bad only, sir.  Now, then, sit up
+so that a line dropped from your temple would go down by your heel.
+Better.  Get your fork well open."
+
+"What?"
+
+"Sit close down on the horse's back, then.  No, no, you don't want to
+scratch your ear."
+
+"Well, I know, that," I said, laughing.
+
+"Then what did you cock up your knee that way for?  Let your legs hang
+down.  That's better.  Toes up and heels well down."
+
+"What for, Lomax?"
+
+"Don't ask questions.  Do as I tell you.  Well, there you're right.
+Toes up so that they just rest in the stirrups."
+
+"But I haven't got any stirrups."
+
+"Then act as if you had."
+
+"But why don't you let me have some?"
+
+"Silence in the ranks, sir.  Now then, keep your balance.  Advance at a
+walk."
+
+The horse started.
+
+"Halt!" shouted Lomax, and the horse pulled up so short that I went
+forward.
+
+"What are you doing, sir?  You don't want to look into the horse's
+ears."
+
+"I wasn't trying to," I said sharply.
+
+"What were you going to do, then?--whisper to him to stop?"
+
+"I say, don't tease me, Lom," I said appealingly; "you know I couldn't
+help it."
+
+"Right, my lad, I know.  But 'tention; this won't do.  I've got to teach
+you to ride with a good military seat, and we're not friends now.
+You're a private, and I'm your riding-master."
+
+"Yes, but one minute, Lom--"
+
+"Sergeant Lomax, sir."
+
+"Yes, Sergeant Lomax.  I say, do let me have a saddle."
+
+"What for, sir?"
+
+"It's so much more comfortable."
+
+"A soldier, sir, is a man who scorns comfort and takes things as they
+come.  You've got to learn to ride."
+
+"Of course.  Then where's the saddle?"
+
+"When you can ride well without a saddle, you shall have one.  Now: no
+more talking.  'Tention!  By your right--March!"
+
+The horse started off without my influencing him in the slightest
+degree, but before we had got ten yards, the sergeant's stern, "Halt!"
+rang out again, and the horse stopped as suddenly as before, but I was
+aware of it this time, and gripped him hard with my knees.
+
+"Good.  Well done.  But you went too far forward.  Take a good hold with
+your knees.  And that's not the way to hold your reins.  Look here, one
+rein--no, no, not the curb--the snaffle--that's it now--one rein outside
+your little finger and one in, and the rest of the rein through your
+hand, between your forefinger and thumb.  Good.  Now pick up the curb
+rein off your horse's neck and let it rest lightly in your hand."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"Don't ask questions.  Because it's right.  Ready for use if the horse
+pulls too much or bolts."
+
+"Is he likely to pull too much or bolt?"
+
+"Don't ask questions.  No, he isn't.  Soldiers generally ride on the
+curb, but a horse like this don't want it.  He has been ridden with
+cavalry, too.  Now then, once more at a walk--March!"
+
+The horse started again, with his soft, warm back feeling terribly
+slippery, but I sat quite stiffly upright, and he walked straight up the
+paddock, and seemed as if he were going to leap the hedge, making me
+wonder which side I should fall; but just as we were close up, the
+sergeant's voice rang out,--
+
+"Right wheel!"
+
+The horse turned to the right instantly, and had gone a dozen yards when
+the sergeant shouted again, "Right wheel!" and directly after,
+"Forward!" with the result that we were now facing him, and went slowly
+down the paddock, till the sergeant shouted, "Halt!" just as I was
+beginning to feel a little more comfortable, and not as if I must slide
+off right or left at any moment.
+
+"Well, that's pretty fair, sir," cried Lomax, as the horse stopped
+short.  "Chest out more, back hollow.  Keep your knees well in.  Capital
+horse for you to learn on.  Knows all his work.  Well, we won't waste
+time walking.  You shall do that now at a trot."
+
+"Without a sad--"
+
+"'Tention.  No talking in the ranks."
+
+The horse didn't want to be turned, but came round quickly, almost on a
+pivot, very much disturbing my equilibrium again; but by gripping
+tightly with my legs I managed to hold on, and looked anxiously at
+Lomax.
+
+"Ah," he shouted, "eyes straight for the horse's ears!  Now then, you
+will sit firm, elbows close to your sides.  'Tention!  The squadron will
+advance at a walk.  Forward--tr-r-r-ot!"
+
+The horse had only walked a few paces when the second order came, and he
+broke directly into a trot, which sent me bumping up and down, now a
+little inclined to the right, then more to the left, then my balance was
+gone.  I made a desperate effort to save myself, and then, perfectly
+certain that the horse would trample me to death beneath his feet, down
+I went on my back, and began to scramble up, with my mount stock still
+beside me.
+
+"Not hurt a bit!" cried Lomax, running up and handing me my cap, which
+had come off.
+
+"No," I said, beginning to feel myself all over; "I don't think anything
+is broken."
+
+"And I'm sure there isn't," cried Lomax.  "Now then, I'll give you a leg
+up."
+
+"Am I to get up again--now?"  I faltered.
+
+"Without you want to say you haven't pluck enough to learn to ride."
+
+"No," I said; "I haven't pluck enough to say that."
+
+"Not you.  Up you go.  There.  Now that is better.  Stick on this time."
+
+"I could if I had stirrups," I said, "and a saddle."
+
+"No, you couldn't, sir, so don't talk nonsense.  You've just learnt the
+finest thing a lad who wants to ride can learn--the thing that gives him
+plenty of confidence."
+
+"What's that?"  I asked; "that it's very hard to keep on?"
+
+"No; that it's very easy to come off and roll on the ground without
+hurting yourself a bit.  Off you go again.  Forward--trot!"
+
+The horse snorted and went on, shaking me almost to pieces, and
+sometimes I was nearly off on one side, sometimes nearly off on the
+other, but I kept on.
+
+"Right wheel!" came from the other end of the field, then, "Right
+wheel!" again.  "Forward!" and the horse was taking me--for I had
+nothing whatever to do with him--back toward where the sergeant stood.
+
+I kept my balance pretty well, but my trousers were running up my legs,
+and I felt as if everything belonging to me was shaken up.  Then once
+more my balance was gone, and off I went on to my back, and over and
+over a few yards from the sergeant, who ran up, the horse once more
+stopping short by my side.
+
+"Bravo!" cried Lomax, as I sat up.  "You're getting on."
+
+"I thought I was getting off," I said dolefully.
+
+"Rubbish, sir; improving fast.  Here, up with you again.  It's all
+strange to you at first, but you've got to grow to that horse's back,
+till it's like one animal--horse and man.  You've got to learn to grip
+him till you feel as if you can't tumble off."
+
+"But I never shall," I cried.
+
+"Don't tell me.  I'll make you.  Now then; there you are.  Now you just
+trot down to the bottom and back without coming off like a sack of
+shavings.  Never mind the reins.  Let him have his head, and you put all
+your sperrit into your knees.  Keep your position and preserve your
+balance."
+
+"I know I shall fall again soon."
+
+"Very well, then, fall.  But I don't believe you will.  Now then, once
+more."
+
+He gave the order, the horse walked a few steps, then at the second
+order broke into a trot, and, to my utter astonishment, as I drove my
+knees into the warm soft sides, away we went, wheeled to the right, then
+to the right again, and trotted back to the sergeant, who shouted,--
+
+"Halt!  Bravo!  There, what did I say?  Make much of your horse."
+
+The lesson was kept on for fully two hours, and then, to make up, I
+suppose, for a good deal of bullying, my instructor was loud in his
+praise, and, opening the gate after replacing the saddle, he signed to
+me to mount, but I tried and could not, for my legs felt stiff and
+stretched, my back ached, and there was a peculiar sensation of soreness
+about the knees.
+
+"Shall I trot him back?" said Lomax.
+
+"If you would, please," I said.  "I do feel so stiff."
+
+"I will, my lad.  To-morrow morning same time; and I'll get some of that
+stiffness out of you."
+
+"Thank you," I said rather dolefully; and then I could not help watching
+the old dragoon with a feeling of envy as he placed one foot in the
+stirrup, drew himself up till he stood upright, then deliberately threw
+the right leg over the horse's back, slowly dropped into his place as
+upright as a dart, and trotted steadily out into the road and away out
+of sight, while, after closing the gate, I began to retrace my steps in
+the direction of the school, just as the boys came trooping out for
+their regular run till the room was ventilated, and the cloth laid for
+dinner.
+
+"Oh, I say, it's rank favouritism!" came from the middle of a group.  "I
+shall speak to the Doctor about it."
+
+Some one answered this, but I did not hear the words, and I hobbled to
+the door, and went up to my room, wondering how any one could be envious
+of the sensations I was experiencing then.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.
+
+"How are your sore knees?" said Mercer one morning soon after my long
+first lesson in riding.
+
+"Oh, dreadful!"  I cried.  "They get a little better, and then the
+riding makes them bad again."
+
+"But why don't he let you have a saddle?"
+
+"He does now," I said--"that is, he did yesterday; but it's worse riding
+on a saddle, it's so slippery, and he will not let me have any
+stirrups."
+
+"When are you going again?"
+
+"To-day, I suppose.  The Doctor says I'm to get on as fast as possible,
+and make up with my other studies afterwards."
+
+"Wish I was going to learn to ride."
+
+"You wouldn't much like it if you had to," I replied.  "Oh, I don't
+know.  It looks very nice to see you going along.  But, I say, it does
+make Burr major so wild.  I heard him tell Dicksee he should make his
+father send him a horse, and Dicksee said he ought to, and I laughed."
+
+"Did he hear you?"
+
+"Yes, and gave me such a clip on the head with a cricket stump.  Feel
+here."
+
+I placed my hand where he suggested, and there was a good-sized lump.
+
+"What a shame!"  I cried indignantly.  "Didn't you hit him again?"
+
+"No; I only put it down.  We're going to pay it all back some day."
+
+"Yes; but when?"  I cried.
+
+Mercer shook his head.
+
+"I say," he continued, "I saw old Magglin this morning before
+breakfast."
+
+"What was he doing here?"
+
+"Dunno.  Wanted to see me, I suppose, and borrow a shilling."
+
+"Did you lend him one?"
+
+"Yes; I felt obliged to."
+
+Just then Burr major came by us, and looked us both over sharply.
+
+"Haven't you two got any lessons to get ready?" he said.
+
+"Yes," I replied.
+
+"Then go in and get them ready before I report you both to Mr Hasnip.
+Do you hear?"
+
+"Yes," I said; "but I'm going to have my riding lesson."
+
+"Your riding lesson!" he sneered; "you're always going to have your
+riding lesson.  I never saw such a school as it's getting to be.  It's
+shameful!  I shall go and ask Mr Hasnip if we boys are to be kept
+always at work, while you and Tom Mercer are idling about and enjoying
+yourselves."
+
+"All right," said Mercer oracularly, in a whisper to me, as Burr major
+walked off importantly for a few yards, attended by his satellites, and
+then stopped, drew out his watch with a flourish, looked at it, and put
+it back with an air that he intended to be graceful.
+
+"Look here, you, Tom Mercer--do you hear, Jollop?  You're not going to
+have riding lessons.  I give you five minutes to get back to your work,
+and if you are not there then--you'll see."
+
+"All right," said Mercer again; and then, as Burr major was out of
+hearing, "Any one would think he was the Doctor.  Oh, I should like
+to--" he continued, grinding his teeth.  "Think we could, Frank?"
+
+"I don't know," I said hesitatingly; "but when he talks like that, it
+makes me feel horribly mad, and as if I should like to try."
+
+"Never mind.  Wait a bit; the revolution isn't ripe yet," said Mercer
+darkly.  "Wish I'd got a watch like that."
+
+I was very angry, but my companion's sudden change from thoughts of
+revenge to covetousness seemed exceedingly droll.
+
+"What are you laughing at?" he said.
+
+"At you about the watch."
+
+"Well, I can't help it, Frank.  That watch seems always staring at me
+with its round white face, and holding out its hands to me.  I dream of
+it of a night, and I'm always longing for it of a day.  You can't tell
+how bad it makes me feel sometimes."
+
+"You shouldn't think about it, Tom."
+
+"I can't help it.  I don't want to, but the thoughts will come,
+dreadfully.  I say," he whispered darkly, "I don't wonder at chaps
+stealing sometimes, if they feel like I do."
+
+"What nonsense!"  I cried: "I say, here's Eely coming back."
+
+"Is he?" said Mercer sharply.  "Then I'm off in."
+
+"Why, you're never going to be such a coward as to be bullied into
+obeying his orders."
+
+"Oh yes, I am," replied my companion.  "Time isn't ripe yet.  But when
+it is--oh!"
+
+He gave vent to that exclamation with peculiar force, though it was only
+a low hiss, and I followed him with my eyes, half disposed to think that
+Tom Mercer would prove a rotten reed to lean upon if I wanted his
+support in a struggle against our tyrant; though, truth to tell, as Burr
+came rolling along with half a dozen boys about, all ready at a word
+from him to rush at me, I did not feel at all confident of being able to
+resist his authority, and I began to move off.
+
+"Hullo!" he cried.  "Here's the gallant horseman, boys.  Let's go and
+see him ride."
+
+"Yah! he can't ride," cried Dicksee; "he'll tumble off."
+
+"Not he," said Burr major.  "Old Lom ties his ankles together under the
+horse.  But he does look an awful fool when he's on board.  I say, Burr
+junior, you don't think you can ride, do you?"
+
+"No," I said quietly.
+
+"And you never will.  I say, boys, what an ugly beggar he grows!  I know
+why he's learning riding."
+
+"Do you?  Why?" cried Dicksee.
+
+"They're going to make a groom of him."
+
+The blood flushed up in my face, and I began to feel as if the time must
+be getting ripe.
+
+"Why, he was bragging about going to be a soldier!" cried another boy.
+
+"Him!  A soldier!  Ha, ha, ha!" cried Burr major.  "They wouldn't even
+have a big-eared-looking fellow like that for a parchment-whopper."
+
+"He said a horse soldier."
+
+"Horse sneak," said Burr major scornfully.  "A soldier!  Ho, ho, ho!
+Ha, ha, ha!  I say, boys--a soldier!"
+
+He burst into a yell of laughter, all forced, of course, and his
+satellites roared too, some of them, to curry favour, beginning to dance
+about him, and look eagerly in his face, as if for orders.
+
+Of course it was very absurd to mind, but I could not help it, and
+tingled all over.
+
+"Oh, I wish Mercer was here!"  I thought to myself.
+
+"The time must be ripe;" and I suppose my face showed something of what
+I felt, for Burr major cried,--
+
+"Look at the puppy, boys; he looks as if he wanted to bite.  Did you
+ever see such an impudent beggar?  I don't believe his name's Burr at
+all.  It's only a bit of a show-off."
+
+At that moment there was a hail from the paddock, and the school bell
+rang for the first lesson.
+
+"There, groom, you're wanted," said Burr major sneeringly.  "Go on and
+learn to ride, and mind you don't hurt yourself."
+
+"Yah!  Go on, ugly!" cried Dicksee, and the boys roared.
+
+"Do you hear, sham sodger?  Be off, and don't stand staring like that,"
+cried Burr major again.  "I told you to go."
+
+"Go yourself," I retorted, now thoroughly roused, and feeling reckless.
+"Go in to school and learn your lessons, and mind the Doctor don't cane
+you."
+
+"What?" cried the tall, thin fellow, flushing up, as he advanced upon me
+menacingly, while the bell was rapidly getting toward its last
+strokes,--"what's that you say?"
+
+"Go in and get to your lessons, and take that fat-faced booby with you."
+
+"Well!" cried Burr, "of all!" and he looked astounded.
+
+"That's it, is it?  Cheeking me because you know I can't stop now.  But
+all right, I shan't forget it.  If I do, Dicksee, you remind me after
+lessons that I've got to warm Jollop and this groom boy.  The Doctor's
+been spoiling them both lately, and they want taking down."
+
+"All in, all in, to begin!" was shouted from the doors.
+
+"Oh yes, we're coming soon," said Burr major, throwing up his head.
+"Wait a bit, you, sir, and I'll teach you to insult your seniors."
+
+"All in, all in!"
+
+"Here, Dicksee, go and hit that fellow on the mouth for shouting."
+
+"All in, all in!" came again, directed at our group.
+
+"Coming," cried Burr major.  Then to me: "After morning studies, you
+sir.  I don't suppose I shall forget."
+
+"If you do, I shan't, bully," I said, and he turned upon me more
+astonished than ever, and then burst into a fit of derisive laughter.
+
+"He's mad," he cried.  "Here, boys, Senna's been gammoning him into
+taking some of his physic, and he don't know what he's saying."
+
+"Dicksee--Burr major.  Come, boys."
+
+Mr Rebble was standing in the schoolhouse doorway, and all but Burr
+major ran off.  He took out his watch, and walked away importantly after
+the others, while I felt a peculiar nervous thrill run through me, and
+began wondering whether I had been too bold, as I went off hurriedly now
+to where Lomax was waiting with the horse.
+
+"I don't care," I said; "he may thrash me, but I won't be bullied like
+that, and insulted, without a try."
+
+"Come, young gentleman," cried the sergeant.  "I began to think you were
+going to shirk it."
+
+"Not I, Lom," I cried, and, feeling peculiarly excited, I went up to the
+horse's head and patted him, while the sergeant removed the stirrups.
+Then he gave me a leg up, and I was hoisted into my seat, and went
+through my lesson--walk, trot, and gallop, with the saddle seeming less
+slippery, and without coming off once.
+
+The sergeant, I noticed, was very severe, and barked and shouted at me
+and the horse, keeping us doing the same things over and over again, and
+growing more exacting as we went on.  But I hardly noticed him, for my
+head was all in a whirl, and I was thinking about after lessons, and
+what would happen then.  So occupied was I with my thoughts that I never
+once felt nervous, but as if all I had to do was to sit still and let
+the horse obey the orders.
+
+Lomax finished me off with a canter round the paddock, which was taken
+at a pretty good pace, and very easy the horse's pace was, but I was
+thinking of Burr major's sneering face all the time, and his long arms
+and bony white hands.  Then about Mercer, and what he would say--what he
+would do.
+
+"Are we both to have a good thrashing?"  I asked myself, as the horse
+cantered on, and, "Right wheel--left wheel--forward!" rang in my ears.
+"Are we to be made more uncomfortable than ever?"  I thought; "and shall
+we forget all about what old Lom taught us?"
+
+My arms did not move, my left hand held the reins on a level with my
+imaginary waist-belt, about which the sergeant talked, and my right hand
+hung steadily down just by my leg, but all the time I was on guard, and
+keenly on the watch for blows from those white bony hands that seemed to
+be flourished before me.  Then I fancied concussions and dizziness, and
+felt blows, and rolled over upon the grass, but not off the horse, for
+it was all fancy; and I was just seeing in my mind's eye poor Tom Mercer
+going down before a heavy blow from Dicksee's fat fist, when there rang
+out the word, "Halt!" and the horse stopped short.
+
+Lomax strode up in his stiff military fashion, and patted the cob on the
+neck.
+
+"Well?" he said sharply.  "What am I to say to you now?"
+
+"I--I don't know," I faltered.  "Shall we go through it again."
+
+"No, no let the trooper breathe a bit.  He has been kept at it pretty
+tightly.  Well, how do you feel--stiff?"
+
+"No," I said, flushing a little, full of a feeling of regret for my
+neglect in my lesson.
+
+"Bit sore about the knees, eh?"
+
+"Oh yes, my knees keep very sore," I faltered.
+
+"Of course they do.  Never so hard worked before.  Soon get better.  Let
+me see, this makes just a month you've been at it, eh?"
+
+"Yes, this is the end of the fourth week."
+
+"Then don't you think I deserve a bit of credit?"
+
+"Oh yes!"  I cried eagerly.  "You have taken great pains over me, Lom.
+I wish I had not been so stupid."
+
+"So do I," he said drily.  "Saddle feel very slippery this morning?"
+
+"Oh no, I didn't notice it," I replied.
+
+"Didn't long for the stirrups?"
+
+"I didn't think about them."
+
+"Felt as if you belonged to the horse now, eh, and could let yourself go
+with him?"
+
+"Oh yes," I said.
+
+"Well, then, all I've got to say, my boy, is, `Brayvo!'  You went
+through it all wonderfully this morning, and quite astonished me.
+Seemed as if you and the horse were one, and you never showed the white
+feather once.  Why, in another two or three months your uncle shall be
+proud of you."
+
+"Then I went through my lesson well?"  I said.
+
+"Splendidly, boy, splendidly.  Couldn't have done better.  Now, trot the
+nag down home.  Stop, you shall have the stirrups."
+
+"No, not to-day, Lomax," I said.  "I've got an--an engagement to keep.
+Please take him down yourself."
+
+"Right.  I will.  Hah! we've been longer than I thought, for the boys
+are coming out of school.  Then down you come, and good morning."
+
+I leaped off the horse, not feeling a bit stiff.  Lomax replaced the
+stirrups, mounted, and went off again in the upright, steady way I had
+before admired, while I stood there listening to the shouting of the
+boys, and thinking of the thrashing I was bound to receive.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.
+
+I had not been standing in the field many minutes, shut in by the hedge,
+and trying to rouse myself to go, before I heard a familiar voice
+calling me, and I answered with a feeling of relief, for anything was
+better than that sensation of shrinking expectancy, and, drawing a deep
+breath, I prepared myself for the plunge.
+
+"Oh, here you are!" cried Mercer, running up to me excitedly.  "I say,
+here's a go!  You've got to come up into the loft directly."
+
+"The loft!"  I said, feeling that here was something fresh.  "What for?"
+
+"Eely wants us.  He sent Dicksee to me to say that we were to go to him
+directly."
+
+"Do you know what for?"  I said huskily.
+
+"Yes, Dicksee told me.  He said he was going to punch our heads for
+being cheeky.  But I say, Frank, we're not obliged to go, are we?"
+
+I was silent for a few moments, and then said, with an effort,--
+
+"Yes, I suppose we must."
+
+"But he isn't everybody."
+
+"If we don't go, they'll come and fetch us."
+
+"But you're not going to let him punch your head, are you?"
+
+"I suppose so," I said dismally, for my anger had faded away, and I was
+quite cool.
+
+"But I'm sick of being knocked about."
+
+"So am I."
+
+"Then don't let's have it.  The time isn't anything like ripe, I know,
+and I don't believe a bit in being able to fight, but--"
+
+"But what?"  I said, after a pause.
+
+"I don't know.  I hate fighting."
+
+"So do I, Tom," I said dismally.  "I wish they'd leave us alone."
+
+"I wish they only would."
+
+"But why does Burr major want us to go into the loft?  Why couldn't he
+come here?"
+
+"Because he thinks he can lick us quietly up there, with only a few of
+his chaps with him, and two to be scouts.  Oh dear me, school ain't
+nice!"
+
+"Come on, Tom," I said, "and let's get it over."
+
+"What? do you mean to go?"
+
+"Yes," I said gloomily, "I suppose so."
+
+"And do you mean to fight?"
+
+"If I'm obliged.  You may just as well have a few cracks at him as take
+it all for nothing.  You'll come?"
+
+"Oh, all right, but we shall get an awful licking," said Tom huskily.
+"I can't fight a bit.  It's all gammon--that poking out your left arm
+and fending with your right.  I like to hit out with my right arm."
+
+"I don't like hitting out at all," I said gloomily.
+
+"But shall you try?"
+
+"I don't know, Tom," I replied in a desponding tone.  "Oh, I do wish
+boys wouldn't be such beasts!  Come on."
+
+"All boys ain't," said Mercer, as we moved off toward the yard.  "Oh,
+don't I wish the time had been quite ripe, and we could have astonished
+'em!  It's always the way.  I make such jolly plans, and think they're
+going to turn out all right, but they don't.  Never mind.  I never told
+you what I've got saved up in my box ready in case of accidents."
+
+"No," I said; "what is it?"
+
+"Some of the stuff my father uses for bruises.  I bought some--leastwise
+I got Lom to buy some for me at the chemist's when he went into the
+town."
+
+"What is it?"  I said carelessly, for I did not feel eager to know.
+
+"Arnica.  It's in a bottle, and you soak rags in it, and--"
+
+"Here they are," greeted us in chorus, and we were literally taken into
+custody by about a dozen boys, who hurried us round to the back, where
+Burr major, Dicksee, Hodson, Stewart, and three more were waiting like
+so many conspirators.
+
+I may as well own to it; my heart sank, and I felt as if I were going
+out to execution, or at the least to be severely punished, for Burr
+major was laughing and chatting to the boys about him, and turned
+sneeringly to us as we came up.
+
+"Oh, here they are, then," he cried contemptuously.  "Bring them up,
+boys;" and he turned off, entered the old stable, and went up the worn
+steps into the loft, while we were dragged and pushed unnecessarily till
+we were up at the top, to find Burr major seated on the big bin,
+swinging one leg about carelessly--acting as if he were judge and we
+were two criminals brought up before him.
+
+"Two of you keep the lower door and give notice if any one's coming,"
+said Burr major sharply.
+
+"Oh," cried one of the boys, "don't send us down, please.  We shan't see
+none of the fun."
+
+Nice fun for us, I thought, and then wondered whether it would hurt
+much.
+
+"All right, then," cried Burr major.  "I don't want to be hard.  You can
+keep a look-out from the window."  Then, turning sharply,--
+
+"Now, you two," he cried, "what have you got to say for yourselves?"
+
+"Nothing," I said.
+
+"More have I," cried Mercer defiantly.
+
+"Oh, very well," said Burr major.  "More cheeky than ever.  What shall I
+do, boys? give 'em stick or let 'em stand up and take it?"
+
+"A fight, a fight!" rose in chorus.
+
+"All right.  I'll dress the groom boy, and Dicksee shall give the other
+chap his dose."
+
+A curious sensation of trouble and bewilderment came over me, as I gave
+a quick glance round at the bare loft, with its cob-webbed windows and
+eager little crowd of boys, all expectant and flushed with desire for
+the scene.
+
+"Ah, look out! he's going to bolt," shouted Hodson.
+
+"I wasn't," I cried indignantly.
+
+"He'd better," said Burr major, coolly taking off his jacket and
+beginning to fold it up and lay it on the bin.  "Now then, major-general
+of cavalry, off with your duds.  I won't keep you long.  Just time
+before dinner."
+
+"But I say," cried Dicksee, "we ain't going to fight both together?"
+
+"No," said Burr major; "you shall dress Jollop down first, and I'll
+second you."
+
+"No; you do yours first."
+
+"Do as I tell you," cried Burr sharply, "and don't waste time.  I shall
+have to wash after thrashing that dirty groom."
+
+I gave him an angry glance in return for his insult, and then turned to
+Tom Mercer, who was standing with his brow all wrinkled up, slowly
+taking off his jacket, which he threw over a beam, and turning up his
+shirt sleeves above his sharp elbows.
+
+"I'm going to get such a licking," he whispered.
+
+"No, no; do win!"  I whispered back.
+
+"Can't.  He's so soft you can't hurt him.  He's just like a big football
+that you mustn't kick."
+
+"His head isn't soft," I whispered; "hit that."
+
+"Now then, ready!" cried Burr, and we faced round, to find Dicksee with
+his sleeves rolled up, and Burr patting him on the shoulder and giving
+him instructions.
+
+"Now, then, young Mercer, come up to the scratch," cried Burr.  "Stand
+back, you boys, and make a better ring."
+
+Then a shuffling of feet, a few suppressed sounds of excitement, and the
+boys who were to look out turned from the windows.
+
+"Remember old Lom," I said, feeling very nervous and doubtful as I
+whispered to my principal.  Then the boys were opposite to each other,
+Dicksee throwing his head about, dancing from leg to leg, and feinting a
+rush in, while Mercer stood well balanced on his legs, his brow
+wrinkled, and his fists up in the attitude we had been taught.
+
+"Now, Dicksy, give it up.  Go in at him.  Look sharp!"
+
+"All right; wait a moment," cried the boy, dancing and dodging about as
+if to avoid blows that had not been struck at him.
+
+"Go it, Fatty, go it!" shouted the boys.
+
+"Hush! not so much row," cried Burr.  "Go on, Fatty.  Now then."
+
+"All right; wait--"
+
+But Burr would not wait, for he gave his principal a heavy thrust,
+sending him forward right on to Tom, who contented himself with
+thrusting his antagonist back.
+
+"Oh, I say, that ain't fair," cried Dicksee.  "You wouldn't like it
+yourself.  You spoiled my plans."
+
+"Go on, then, and finish him off; I want my turn."  Then there was a
+burst of eager incitements, and, unable to defer the attack any longer,
+seeing, too, that Mercer did not mean to begin, Dicksee gave a final
+dance, which included a dodge to right and left, and then he rushed in
+at Mercer, who seemed just to shoot his left shoulder forward with his
+arm extended, when there was a dull sound, and Dicksee seated himself
+very suddenly on the floor.
+
+"Hallo! slip?" cried Burr, helping him up,--rather a heavy job,--while a
+look of perfect astonishment was in the fat face.
+
+"Yes--boards--awkward," he babbled.  "Ca-ca-can't we go on the grass?"
+
+"No, no.  Go in again."
+
+"Eh?" said Dicksee, with his hand to his face.
+
+"Well done, Tom!"  I whispered; "that's it."
+
+"It was right, wasn't it?" he said.
+
+There was no time for more.  Incited, almost driven by his second,
+Dicksee came on again, aimed a blow or two wildly, and was sent down
+again by Mercer almost without an effort.
+
+And now the wind of favour began to change, so that in the next round
+boys shouted encouragement to Mercer.
+
+"Hold that row!" cried Burr savagely; "do you want the Doctor to hear?
+Now, Dicksee, give it him this time."
+
+I must do the fat fellow the credit of saying that he now came on
+fiercely, swinging his arms wildly, and striking out with all his might,
+but not one blow took effect, and I had the satisfaction of seeing the
+triumph of Lomax's instructions, gaining confidence all the while, as
+Tom delivered a blow here and a blow there, and then one which sent his
+antagonist down to bump his head upon the boards.
+
+There was quite a little burst of cheers now.
+
+"Will you stop that row!" cried Burr fiercely.  "Silence!  You,
+Dicksee," he whispered, as he helped his principal up, "if you don't go
+in and lick him, I'll lick you."
+
+"Tom," I was whispering, "you're sure to win."
+
+"Am I?" he said stolidly; "but I don't like knocking him about--he can't
+fight at all."
+
+"Serve him right; he'll remember it in future.  Now then.  Ready!"
+
+The pair were facing each other again, and the encounter which followed
+was a little longer, but it ended in Mercer giving his adversary a sharp
+blow on the cheek, and directly after another on the nose, and Dicksee
+again seemed to sit down suddenly as if to wipe it, a duty which had
+certainly become necessary.
+
+"Silence!" cried Burr major, as a burst of cheers followed this last
+round, for it was seen that the fat lad did not intend to get up again.
+"Dicksee isn't well to-day; I believe old Jollop has given him
+something."  Then in a whisper, as he half-dragged his principal back,
+"You beggar!" he said; "I'll serve you out for this."
+
+"Hooray!" cried a small boy at the window; "old Senna has licked--"
+
+"Will you mind and watch that window," cried Burr.  "It's all right,
+boys; I shall have to dress Jollop down as soon as I've done the groom.
+Here, Hodson, you must second me."
+
+"Oh, Tom," I whispered, with my heart beating, "I wish I could fight
+like you!"
+
+"So you can," he replied; "better.  Look out, he's ready.  Take it
+coolly; never mind his show.  I wish I was going at him instead of you.
+I'm nice and warm now."
+
+"I wish you were," I said.
+
+"No, you don't."
+
+The next minute I was facing my tall adversary, who looked down at me
+contemptuously, after a smiling glance round at the boys, which seemed
+to say,--"Now you shall see."
+
+There was a faint cheer at this, followed by a smothered howl, which
+drew attention to Dicksee, who was now rocking himself to and fro as if
+in pain.
+
+Then there was what seemed to me a peculiarly ominous kind of silence,
+and I felt shocked and frightened, not so much of my adversary as at
+myself.  The feeling was mingled with shame, for I began to think that I
+must be a terrible coward, and I found myself wondering what my uncle
+would say if he knew how unfit I was to be trained to become a soldier.
+
+These thoughts were momentary, long as they take to describe, and I
+began to wonder whether it would be best to apologise to Burr major, and
+ask him to let me off, but as I thought that, I felt that I could not,
+and that I would sooner he half killed me.  This brought up thoughts of
+my mother's sweet, gentle face, and how she would suffer if she knew
+what was going on.
+
+Lastly, I began to think I must fight, and that I had better prepare to
+take care of myself, for Burr major deliberately threw himself into a
+graceful attitude and addressed me.
+
+"Now, you young sniveller," he said haughtily, "you have brought this on
+yourself.  I am going to give you a lesson that will teach you to behave
+yourself in future, and you too, Senna Tea.  You're fond of physic; you
+shall have such a dose.  Mind, you boys, that old Jollop doesn't sneak
+off."
+
+"All right!" rose in chorus; "he shan't go."
+
+"Mind he don't lick you, Eely," cried one of the boys at the window.
+
+"Mind Tommy Wilson don't sneak off either," said Burr major.  "All
+right, Tommy, I can't fight you, but I can stretch those ugly great ears
+for you."
+
+"Ow how! ow how!" cried the little fellow, sparring a peculiar yelling
+noise, but indulging in a broad grin to his nearest companion.  "Oh, my
+poor ears!  I say, Burr junior, you lick him, and then you can take care
+of me."
+
+I did not speak, for my antagonist had begun sparring at me, making
+feints and trying to throw me off my guard, but, as if by instinct now,
+I dropped into the positions and practice Mercer and I had been learning
+so long, and, as I thought, without avail; but I did begin to find out
+that it had been good advice to stand on my guard and to let my
+adversary show-off and tire himself.
+
+I felt very cool, and not so much alarmed now, when the first blow came,
+intended for my lips, but which I easily stopped, and so I did another
+and another, the round ending by Burr major making a fierce dash at me,
+over-reaching himself, and going down without my having delivered one
+blow.
+
+"How slippery these boards are!" said Burr, jumping up.
+
+"That's right!" whispered Mercer; "keep on as quiet as that, and wait
+your time."
+
+Then we began again, and I felt very much disinclined to hit out hard,
+as I felt that I could have done, for fear of hurting my antagonist--for
+the feeling of animosity and the memory of the insults, blows, and
+annoyance from which I had suffered had faded away.  But all at once, as
+we stood eyeing each other, Burr's fist came sharply in contact with my
+lips, there was a dull pain, a sensation of a tooth being loosened, a
+nasty faint salt taste in my mouth, followed by a short struggle, and I
+was thrown heavily.
+
+Burr major walked back and sat down on his second's knee, smiling round
+at the cheering boys, who began to crowd round him, while, as I rose,
+feeling painful throbbings in one elbow and arm, I was drawn down on
+Mercer's knee, and he whispered,--
+
+"Never mind.  Don't get excited over it.  Be quite cool.  Now then, he's
+ready again."
+
+So was I, for there was a buzzing in my temples and a hot feeling in my
+throat as I once more stood up before my adversary, who was still
+smiling contemptuously as he began sparring and then dashed forward, but
+stopped suddenly, and stood back, shaking his head, while I tightened my
+hand and saw the blood start from one of my knuckles.
+
+"Go on, Burr.  Give it him.  He's nearly done.  Go on, go on!" was
+chorused on all sides; and, looking very vicious now, Burr came at me
+with his fists wide apart, and then he rushed at me as if he meant
+mischief, but to his great surprise as much as to mine, he seemed to run
+his nose right on to my left fist, and dropped down on the floor.
+
+He was up again, though, directly, amid a buzz of excitement, and I felt
+that now he was going to avenge himself thoroughly, but, as I struck out
+with my left exactly as Lomax had instructed me, somehow Burr major went
+down again.
+
+It almost puzzled me.  I could hardly believe it, but it was forced upon
+me, and the blows which I seemed to deliver at the right time in the
+most effortless of ways, had a terrible effect, my antagonist going down
+three times to my once.
+
+And now some of the tide began to set in my direction--the tide of
+popularity.  First of all, little Wilson took heart and gave me a cheer,
+then he began to grow excited, and to cry in an eager whisper,--
+
+"Well done, Burr junior!  Hooray!  That's it.  Give it him.  Hooray!
+down again."
+
+Burr major got up, looking fierce as well as confused, and sat panting
+on his second's knee; and as I sat on mine, Tom Mercer gave me a hug.
+
+"Splendid!" he whispered.  "Hooray for old Lom!  You'll beat him if you
+keep quiet.  You boys, hold that row."
+
+There was a hush directly, and we two faced each other once more.
+
+The confident contempt for me had gone now, and there was no laughing
+looking round at the boys for their approval, but, pale, excited, and
+with marks beginning to show in an ugly way, Burr major seemed to be
+prepared to do his best to crush me by a fierce attack.
+
+For my part, I had been so much hurt that it was as if the shrinking was
+all knocked out of me, and I was no less eager to begin than he.  But we
+stood facing each other now, with the hum of excitement that greeted our
+coming forward hushed once more to silence.
+
+I could feel that I might now commence the attack, but my master's
+lessons all came clear and vivid before me, and knowing that, as the
+weaker, it was my duty to act on the defensive, I waited, while we
+watched each other cautiously, my adversary evidently expecting that I
+should begin.
+
+But, as I did not, he attacked again, and, though I managed to give him
+several telling blows, he closed with me before I could avoid him, and
+in the tussle which followed I went down heavily, my head coming in
+violent contact with the floor.
+
+Everything passed away then for a few moments except sparks dancing
+before my eyes, but I was conscious directly of Mercer's voice, as he
+whispered to me excitedly,--
+
+"Oh, don't let him lick you, Frank!--don't let him lick you, pray!"
+
+"No," I panted, with my breath coming rather short, "he isn't going to,
+but I'm so giddy."
+
+"Had enough of it?" cried Burr major, and the giddiness passed away
+directly as I rose and faced him.
+
+Satisfied by the result of his last manoeuvre, he tried it again, but
+this time I was prepared, and, stepping on one side, I gave him, or
+rather my fist of itself seemed to give him, a stinging blow on the ear,
+which had so staggering an effect that, as he swung round and came on
+again, I was able to follow up my blow with three or four more, and the
+poor fellow went down crash.
+
+It was his turn to look dazed and heavy now, and quite half the boys
+crowded round, giving me advice, bidding me, "go it," and working
+themselves up to a tremendous pitch of excitement.
+
+Then we were facing each other again, with all pity and compunction
+gone, and, after receiving one or two blows, I forgot everything but the
+fact that there was something before me that I must hit, and hit it I
+did, my deliveries, as it happened, being quite in accordance with
+Lomax's teaching, which somehow came natural to me; and then I found
+myself standing over Burr major who was seated on the floor, and with
+half a dozen boys all wanting to shake hands with me at once.
+
+"Here, I say, Burr major," cried one of his chief parasites, "ain't you
+going to lick old Senna now?"
+
+I felt sorry for him, for he looked around dazed and despairing, but my
+blood was up again directly, as I saw the miserable cur of a fellow who
+had spoken go closer, double his fist, and shake it so close to Burr
+major's face that he tapped his nose.
+
+"Serve you right!" he cried.  "Always knocking other people about.  How
+do you like it now?"
+
+"You let him alone," I cried hotly.
+
+"I shan't.  Mind your own--"
+
+"Business," I suppose he meant to say, but my fists had grown so excited
+by the fight that one of them flew out, and sent the miserable cur
+staggering against Mercer's chest.
+
+Then I stood upon my guard, but the boy only held his hand to his face,
+while the others set up a cheer, and I turned to Burr major, who was
+still seated on the floor.
+
+"I'm very sorry, Burr," I said apologetically.  "I didn't want to knock
+you about so much.  You'll shake hands, won't you?"
+
+He looked up at me with rather an ugly expression upon his face, but he
+made no movement to take my hand, only turned away.
+
+"Help me up, Stewart," he said huskily.  "I want to go to my room and
+wash, and--"
+
+"What is the meaning of all this, pray?" said a cold, harsh voice, and
+we all looked round to see Mr Rebble's white face just above the
+trap-door.
+
+"Burr Major and Burr Junior been having it out, sir," cried half a dozen
+voices at once, and the colour began to burn in my cheeks as I met the
+usher's eye.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER NINETEEN.
+
+Mr Rebble stepped up into the loft, closely followed by Mr Hasnip, who
+stared from one to the other with a peculiar smile upon his lip.
+
+"Fighting, eh?" said Mr Rebble.  "Disgraceful!  Why, Dicksee and Dean
+have been fighting too, and--yes--Mercer."
+
+"Yes, sir," cried little Wilson.  "Mercer and Dicksee had theirs first,
+then Burr major and Burr junior.  Bill Dean hasn't been fighting.  It
+was only that Burr junior gave him a wipe."
+
+I felt as if I were the chief offender, and as I heard these words, I
+longed not to deliver wipes, but to have a good wash.
+
+"Disgraceful!" exclaimed Mr Rebble.  "Who began it?  You, I suppose,
+Burr."
+
+My first instinct was to disclaim this excitedly, but I thought it would
+be cowardly, so I held my tongue, leaving it to Burr major to answer.
+
+To my surprise, though, he remained silent, and little Wilson squeaked
+out,--
+
+"No, sir, please, sir, it wasn't Burr junior, sir.  Eely Burr sent for
+Burr and Mercer to come and be licked; but," added the boy, with a
+malicious grin, "he hasn't licked them yet."
+
+"Disgraceful! disgraceful!" cried Mr Rebble.  "Well, the Doctor will
+decide what is to be done.  Quick, boys, the dinner bell will.--Ah,
+there it goes!"
+
+There was a hurried rush off at this, the boys being only too glad to
+get beyond hearing of the usher's scolding, and we who were left
+hurriedly scrambled on our jackets in a shamefaced way.
+
+"This matter will have to be thoroughly investigated," said Mr Rebble;
+"but be quick now and make yourselves presentable.  I shudder at what
+the Doctor would say if he saw you all in this condition.  Come,
+Hasnip."
+
+They both descended like pantomime demons through the trap, and we
+followed, Burr major going first, with his brow knit and his bruised
+face looking sulky and sour, while Dicksee turned to give Tom Mercer a
+savagely vindictive look which was not pleasant to see.
+
+"Won't you shake hands?"  I said, as my adversary was about to descend.
+
+He gave me a quick look, but made no answer.  Hodson however, spoke as
+we reached the stable.
+
+"Why, Burr," he said, "I didn't know that you could fight like that."
+
+"No," I said, "and I did not know either."
+
+Then we hurried in and ran up to our room, where I was glad to get soap
+and towel to my bruised face.
+
+"Oh, you are lucky, Tom!"  I panted, as I hurriedly bent over the basin,
+fully expecting to be reported for coming up to the dormitory out of
+hours.  "Why, you don't show a bit."
+
+"Nor you neither," he replied.
+
+"Oh!"  I gasped, as I looked in the glass.
+
+"Well, not so very much," he said.
+
+"But--but I don't hardly know myself," I said despondently.  "What a
+face!"
+
+"Well, it does look rather like a muffin," he cried.
+
+"Ah, you may laugh," I said.  "My eyes are just like they were when I
+was stung by a bee, and my lip's cut inside, and this tooth is loose,
+and--Oh dear, it's all growing worse!"
+
+"Yes, it's sure to go on getting worse for a day or two, and then it
+will begin to get better.  Ready?"
+
+"Ready!  No," I cried, as I listened to his poor consolation.  "I'm
+getting horrid.  I daren't go down."
+
+"You must--you must.  Come and face it out before you get worse."
+
+"But I don't seem to have got a face," I cried, glaring out of two slits
+at my reflection in the glass.  "It's just as if some one had been
+sitting on it for a week.  Oh, you ugly brute!"
+
+"So are you."
+
+"I meant myself, of course, Tom."
+
+"Never mind, never mind.  Hooray! hooray!" he cried, dancing round the
+room and snapping his fingers; "we've licked 'em--we've licked 'em! and
+you're cock of the school.  Hooray! hooray!"
+
+"But I half wish I hadn't won now," I said.
+
+"You will not to-morrow.  Oh dear! poor old Eely! didn't he squirm!  Oh,
+I say!  I wish I had given it to old Dicksee ten times as much."
+
+I couldn't help laughing, but it hurt horribly, and I was serious again
+directly.
+
+"I say," I said painfully, "old Lom did teach us well!"
+
+"Teach us!  It was splendid.  I feel as if I could go down and fight the
+Doctor."
+
+"Do you?"  I said dolefully.  "I feel as if he is going to fight us."
+
+"Not he; come on.  You can't afford to be afraid of anything now."
+
+"Hadn't I better stop?"  I suggested, with another look in the glass.
+
+"No; you must come.  If you don't, the Doctor is sure to send for you,
+and that will make it worse.  I say!"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"People who fight used to take the spoils of the vanquished.  I wish I
+could have taken old Dicksee's four-bladed knife, with the lancet and
+corkscrew to it, and you could have taken old Eely's watch."
+
+"I don't want his watch," I said snappishly.
+
+"I do, and I'd have changed with you.  Come on."
+
+We ran down-stairs, and, feeling very nervous, hurried to the
+schoolroom, from whose open windows came the clatter of knives and
+forks.
+
+Fortunately for us, we had to enter at the opposite end to where the
+Doctor would be seated, nominally taking his meal with us, and of course
+the ushers knew that we must be late, so with heads bent down we hurried
+in, conscious that every eye was upon us, and that the temporary
+cessation of the rattle on the plates was due to the boys leaving off
+eating to stare at our injuries.
+
+I saw both Mr Rebble and Mr Hasnip look up and frown as they caught
+sight of my damaged face, and I was congratulating myself on escaping
+the Doctor's eye, when he looked up, frowned, and went on with his
+lunch.
+
+"It's all right," whispered Mercer, scuffling into his place beside me,
+the boys around, to my great surprise, seeming to look at my marks with
+quite respectful eyes, and evidently as a conqueror's honours or
+laurels, when there was a sharp tapping on the table from the Doctor's
+knife-handle.
+
+Profound silence ensued, Mercer just gripping my knee and whispering,--
+
+"Oh, crikey!"
+
+"Mr Rebble," said the doctor in deep tones.
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"To the commercial man punctuality is the soul of business; to the
+gentleman it is the soul of honour; and to the scholastic pupil it is
+the soul of er--er--the soul of er--er--er--duty.  Be good enough to see
+that Mercer and Burr junior have impositions.  Er--rum!  Er--rum!"  The
+Doctor finished by coughing in a peculiar way, and the clatter of knives
+and forks began again.
+
+"He don't know yet about the fights," I whispered; "and, I say, look!"
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Eely hasn't come down yet."
+
+"Fatty has.  I say, just look at his eyes."
+
+"Horrid!"  I whispered.  "He looks fatter than ever.  But Eely--oh, I
+hope he isn't very bad!"
+
+"I hope he is," said Mercer maliciously.  "He's been fagging me these
+three years.  I know he's twice as bad as you, and serve him right."
+
+We began our dinners, but Mercer's appetite was as bad as mine.  The
+salt made my mouth smart, and every bite hurt my loose tooth.  But there
+were congratulatory smiles from all round whenever I looked up, and
+every boy who could reach me with his foot gave me a friendly kick under
+the table, Mercer coming in for his share.  In fact, I found that I had
+suddenly become the most popular boy in the school, though I did not at
+all appreciate the honour then.
+
+"Look: there's Eely," whispered Mercer, as a tall thin figure now
+appeared at the door, then suddenly grew shorter by the lad bending down
+as low as possible, and creeping toward his place by Stewart and
+Dicksee.
+
+But it was all in vain, the clatter of the knives and forks ceased, and
+the boys watched him, and whispered, drawing the Doctor's attention to
+the bent figure; and once more, after fixing his gold eyeglasses on the
+bridge of his nose by the hinge, and watching till my late adversary had
+crept into his place, he tapped the table with his knife-handle loudly.
+
+"Young gentlemen," he rolled out in sonorous tones, "have the goodness
+to button up your pockets, and to be on the _qui vive_.  I just saw the
+door darkened by a sinister-looking figure, which crept in as if to
+commit a burglary, a petty larceny, a scholastic form of shop-lifting,
+or some crime of that kind, so be upon your guard.  Did any one else see
+the figure?"
+
+There was a pause, then Dicksee spoke with a malicious grin upon his fat
+face.
+
+"Please, sir, I did.  It was Burr major."
+
+"Dear me!  Indeed?  Mr Burr, have the goodness to stand up and explain
+this extraordinary conduct."
+
+Oh, poor old Eely!  I thought sympathetically, as poor Burr major stood
+up, hanging his head, and looking much shorter than usual, and I
+heartily wished that Mercer had punished Dicksee more.
+
+"Dear me!  Burr major, what is the er--er--eh?  I beg your pardon, Mr
+Rebble."
+
+The Doctor bent toward his first lieutenant with great dignity, and the
+latter said a few words in a low tone.
+
+"Dear me!  Indeed?  Oh, I see!" said the Doctor.  "Burr major, you can
+sit down.  You will come to my room directly after dinner, and--er--er--
+what names did you say Mr Rebble?"
+
+"Oh dear!  It's coming, Frank," whispered Mercer.
+
+"Exactly!" said the Doctor, after a conference in a low tone with Mr
+Rebble.  "I see.  Er--rum!  Dicksee, Hodson."
+
+"Please, sir, I wasn't fighting," cried Hodson excitedly.
+
+Mr Rebble whispered to the Doctor.
+
+"An accessory, it seems, Hodson," said the Doctor.  "You will come to my
+room directly after dinner, with Mercer and Burr junior.  I have not
+heard the names of the other boys who were present," continued the
+Doctor.
+
+"Please, sir, Wilson was one," cried Dicksee.
+
+"Thank you, Dicksee," said the Doctor drily, as he fixed him with his
+glittering glasses; "I am obliged to you.  History repeats itself.
+There has always been one in every confederation ready to betray his
+fellows to save his own skin.  I am afraid, Dicksee, that your skin will
+not be safe.  Were you present, Wilson?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said the little fellow.
+
+"Fighting?"
+
+"No, sir, I wasn't fighting; but--"
+
+"But?" said the Doctor; "well, what?"
+
+"Please, sir, I couldn't help liking it."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the Doctor.  "Well, you need not come this time.  To
+resume, I do not know the names of the boys who were present, and I do
+not want to know.  Dicksee was in too great a hurry.  Now proceed with
+your dinner."
+
+The meal went on, but my face felt more stiff, and my appetite was
+decidedly worse.
+
+I was longing to go and do as a dog would under the circumstances,--go
+and curl up somewhere out of sight till I got better, for my head ached,
+so did my heart; my face throbbed and felt stiff; and altogether I was,
+like Mercer, as "miserable as mizzer,"--so he put it,--when the Doctor
+tapped the table again, we all rose, grace was said, and the words of
+doom came rolling through the place:
+
+"In a quarter of an hour's time, young gentlemen."
+
+Then the Doctor marched sedately out of the room, the masters followed,
+and the boys trooped into the ground, and we had to go too, feeling
+doleful in the extreme, but that did give way to a sense of pride, for
+there was a rush made for us directly; and as I was surrounded by a
+crowd, all eagerly congratulating me on my conquest, there was poor Burr
+major almost alone on the other side of the ground, dejected, deposed.
+Not quite alone, for Hodson and Wilson both went and stood by his side.
+
+It may appear strange, but, of course excepting Mercer, I felt as if I
+liked those two boys at that moment better than any one in the school,
+for, young as I was, I could not help thinking that if ever Burr major
+and I had another encounter, and I were to be beaten, they would all
+turn from me as quickly as they came over to my side.
+
+I was soon tired of hearing the same praise over and over again, and
+being asked to show this one and that one how I managed to hit out so
+well.  But Mercer and I had a quiet understanding that we would keep our
+own counsel about the matter, and let any one who wanted to learn how to
+box think it out for himself.
+
+I was not kept waiting long to muse over my position, and be stared at
+by all the boys, who took the greatest interest in my swellings, cuts,
+and marks, for Mr Rebble came to the door, and shouted,--
+
+"Now, young gentlemen, the Doctor is waiting."  I felt a curious shiver
+run through me, as I glanced round for Tom Mercer.
+
+He was close at hand, ready to whisper,--
+
+"It don't matter what he says, Frank; he can't undo what we have done,
+and old Eely will never dare to tackle you again."
+
+"Or you."
+
+"Oh, I didn't say that.  Come on."
+
+We went up to where Mr Rebble was standing, and found that Mr Hasnip
+was there too.
+
+As we went in, Mr Hasnip came close to my side.  "Nice object you look
+for a gentleman's son, sir!  Going to be a soldier, eh?"
+
+"Yes, sir!"
+
+"Then keep your fighting for the enemy, not for your schoolfellows."
+Then in a lower voice--"Gave him a thorough good thrashing, didn't you?"
+he said.
+
+"Yes, sir: I suppose so."
+
+"Humph! serve him right.  He wanted his comb cut.  Getting insufferable
+with his conceit!--By the way, you needn't tell any of your
+schoolfellows I said that, for, of course, you had no business to
+fight."
+
+"I didn't want to, sir, but Burr major made us fight.  He sent a lot of
+the boys to bring us into the loft, `to take the conceit out of us,' he
+said."
+
+"And you took the conceit out of him instead, eh?  Well, I daresay he
+wishes he had not sent for you now."
+
+"I'm afraid he does."
+
+"Yes.  Well, here we are.  I'm a terrible tartar to you over your
+lessons, but I'm not angry with you.  Had some fights too, when I was
+your age.  Now then, speak up like a man."
+
+The door was thrown open, and we had to walk in, the two ushers standing
+on either side of the door, like policemen dealing with culprits, and
+then ranging us before the Doctor's table, behind which he sat, leaning
+back in his great leather-covered chair.
+
+"Er--rum!" he coughed.  "Sit down, Mr Rebble--take a chair, Mr Hasnip.
+Let me see," he continued, adjusting his gold-rimmed eyeglasses.  "Burr
+major, Burr junior,--humph! ought to be Burr minor,--Natural History
+Mercer who loves poaching the General's rabbits, Dicksee, and Hodson."
+
+The Doctor looked severe, but not very, as he inspected us all.
+
+"Hah!" he ejaculated at last; "four as disreputable-looking fellows as
+it would be possible to find in the lowest town in Sussex.  Aren't you
+ashamed of yourselves?"
+
+"No answer, eh?" said the Doctor, after a pause.  "Well, Hodson, you are
+not like these four.  You did not fight, I suppose."
+
+"No, sir.  I was Burr major's second."
+
+"That's almost as bad as the fighting.  Come, you shall speak out.  Who
+was in the wrong?"
+
+"Please, sir, I'd rather not give an opinion."
+
+"Please, sir, I know!" cried Dicksee.
+
+"Thank you.  I would rather take some other boy's opinion," cried the
+Doctor sarcastically.  "Your eyes don't look as if you can see clearly.
+There, it is plain enough to me that you were all in the wrong, and I
+feel greatly annoyed to find my young gentlemen conducting themselves
+like the disreputable low boys who frequent the fairs and racecourses of
+the county.  Look at yourselves.  Did you ever see such a ghastly sight?
+Burr major, your face is horrible.  As for you, Dicksee, I am ashamed
+of you.  Suppose any of your relatives presented themselves at this
+moment, and wanted to see you.  What could I say?  There, actually, as I
+speak, I can hear wheels coming up the road, and, as they are light
+wheels, they must either be those of visitors, or of the butcher's
+cart--I--er--mean some trade-person's cart, which is not likely at this
+time of day.  Fighting, young gentlemen, is a brutal practice, dating
+back to the very earliest ages of mankind, and no doubt imitated from
+the wild beasts whom they saw around them.  Whereas you live in these
+later days, in the midst of civilisation in its highest, most cultivated
+forms, so that there is no excuse whatever for your acts."
+
+The Doctor coughed, and the two ushers looked at each other and nodded
+their approval.
+
+"Look at yourselves," continued the Doctor; and we all turned sharply to
+gaze in a small circular mirror at the end of the library.
+
+"No, no," said the Doctor blandly, "I did not mean at your bodily
+disfigurations in the glass, but at the mental blurs in your natures.
+I--There, boys!" he cried suddenly; "I am not in the vein to moralise in
+this way, so I must speak plainly.  I am ashamed of you, and, occupying
+as I do toward you the temporary position of parent, I honestly declare
+that if I did my duty by you, I should get a cane or a rod, and flog you
+all severely, but--"
+
+"May I come in?" said a pleasant voice, and the door was slightly
+opened.
+
+"Yes, my dear.  No! engaged.  What is it?"
+
+"That lady and gentleman have driven over from Rye about their sons,"
+said Mrs Doctor, coming right in; "and--Oh, my dears! what have you
+been doing?"
+
+"There, there, Matilda!" cried the Doctor hastily.  "Go back!  I'll come
+in a few minutes;" and he hurried the pleasant old lady out of the room,
+before turning to us.
+
+"There! you see," he cried,--"you see the effect your appearance has
+upon one who always takes the greatest of interest in you, and, er--Mr
+Rebble, I feel disposed to be lenient this time, as the boys have pretty
+well punished themselves.  I leave it to you.  Moderate impositions.
+There, go at once and shut yourselves up in your dormitories.  No, more
+fighting, mind, or I shall be as severe as the sternest tyrant you read
+of in your classic studies."
+
+He hurried out of the library, and the ushers took us all into custody
+again, and led us out into the playground.
+
+"There!" said Mr Rebble; "you heard the Doctor's orders.  Go to your
+rooms.  Not you, Hodson.  Come to my desk, and I'll set your imposition
+at once.  Nice and easily you have got off.  You can come down to-morrow
+morning, I suppose."
+
+The two masters went off with Hodson, and we four made our way to the
+back staircase so hurriedly, that we nearly wedged ourselves at the
+foot, with the result that we were once more face to face, Mercer and I
+against Burr major and Dicksee, as in the fight.
+
+I felt shocked now and more sorry than ever for Burr major, as I fully
+realised how terribly I had knocked him about.  My hand twitched, and I
+was about to raise it, and offer to shake hands, or say something about
+being sorry; but he checked it at once by giving me a virulent look, and
+saying,--
+
+"Wait a bit; I'll pay you out for all this," and, thrusting me aside, he
+sent me staggering against the wall, and rushed up-stairs, but only to
+trip and fall sprawling.
+
+"Serve you right," cried Dicksee.  "Yah!"  Then, turning to us, he held
+out his hand.  "Here, I'll be friends with you both."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY.
+
+Nearly a week had gone by before I saw Lomax, and of course there had
+been no more riding lessons.  Mr Rebble had given us our impositions,
+and we had taken our punishment patiently enough, for, as the smarting
+and pain went off, we could not help feeling proud and satisfied.  The
+boys had all turned wonderfully friendly, and I was evidently a great
+authority.  In fact, I had completely succeeded to Burr major's throne
+in the boys' estimation, while he went about the place almost alone,
+Hodson being the only fellow who tried to associate with him.
+
+As for the Doctor, he never alluded to the encounter again.
+
+The week, then, had passed, and Mercer and I had nearly grown
+respectable again, when one night, as we were going to bed, my companion
+turned to me.
+
+"I say," he whispered, "let's get up early to-morrow morning, and go and
+see old Lom."
+
+I shook my head.
+
+"I've had lessons enough in boxing," I said; "I don't want to fight any
+more."
+
+"I didn't mean a lesson," said Mercer.  "I want to go and tell him all
+about how we got on."
+
+I agreed that I should like to do that; and I awoke at sunrise, roused
+Mercer, and, leaving the other boys sleeping, we started for the lodge.
+
+"Oh, I say, what a lovely morning!" cried Mercer.  "Look at the dew on
+the leaves; it's all colours like a rainbow.  When are we going fishing
+again? and I want some birds to stuff; and to go rabbiting, and
+collecting, and all sorts, and we seem to have done nothing lately."
+
+"Hallo, Magglin!"  I cried, as we turned a corner, and came suddenly
+upon that individual, looking as if he had just come from the big yard.
+
+"Why, what are you doing here?" said Mercer.
+
+"No sir; on'y wish I was.  Just came up to see if the gardener's about,
+and he'd give me a job."
+
+"You know he wouldn't," I said.  "The Doctor will not have you about the
+place again."
+
+"And it's very hard," he whined.  "Everybody's agen me, and takes
+'vantage of me, even young gents as owes me money and won't pay."
+
+"Why, who owes you money, Magg?"
+
+"You do, sir; four shillin', which I wouldn't ask you for, but--"
+
+"I don't, Magg; I paid you everything I owed you," cried Mercer.
+
+"Oh no, sir; don't you go for to say that which you know aren't true.
+It's four shillin', and I wouldn't have asked you, only I'm that hungry
+as never was."
+
+"But I don't owe you anything; do I, Frank?"
+
+"No; he paid you," I said.
+
+"Oh, sir!  Master Burr junior knows as it's wicked to tell a lie.  I
+likes mates to stick up for one another, but it ain't right to get a
+trampling down of the pore.  Do pay me, Master Tom Mercer.  It's four
+shillin'."
+
+"I don't owe you a penny, Magg; and you're a cheat."
+
+"Nay, sir, that I aren't.  Well, pay me two on it, and I'll go on
+trusting you the rest."
+
+"But I'm sure I paid you everything I owed you, Magg."
+
+"Oh no, sir.  That's the way with you young gents.  You forgets, that's
+what you does.  I've lost lots o' money through the Doctor's boys; and
+it's very hard on a pore fellow who's trying his best to get a honest
+living, but as every one's agen."
+
+"Ah, that's all gammon, Magg!" cried Mercer.  "See how you left us in
+the lurch over our ferreting."
+
+"I was obliged to, sir; every one's agen me so.  Nobody believes in me.
+Do pay me the two shillin', sir."
+
+"I won't.  It's all humbug, and you don't deserve it," cried Mercer.
+
+"There, hark at him, Master Burr junior!  Aren't he hard on a pore
+fellow, who was always doing him kindnesses?  Look at the times I've sat
+up o' nights to ketch him rats and mice or mouldy-warps.  Didn't I climb
+and get you two squirls, and dig out the snake from the big bank for
+you?"
+
+"Yes; and cut his tail off with the spade," cried Mercer.  "You spoiled
+him."
+
+"Well, I couldn't help that, sir; and I must go now, 'fore the gardener
+comes along."
+
+"Why, you said you wanted to see him."
+
+"So I did, sir; but I don't think I will.  Everybody's so agen me now.
+Pay me the two shillin' you owe me."
+
+"I won't.  I don't owe you a penny."
+
+"Then pay a shilling of it now, sir.  I wouldn't ask you, sir, but I am
+so hungry, sir."
+
+"Let's give him a shilling, Tom," I said; "I'll be half."
+
+"Oh, very well," cried Mercer; and as I was banker that time, I placed a
+shilling in the man's very dirty hand.
+
+"Thank-ye, sir," he said.  "Then that makes three left, but I won't ask
+you for them to-day."
+
+"That's the worst of getting in debt," said Mercer, "and not keeping
+account of it.  I know I've bought things of him, and he has made me pay
+for 'em over and over again.  I wonder what he was doing about here so
+soon."
+
+We watched Magglin go off in a furtive way, with his head down and his
+back bent, so that people should not see him above the hedge, and then
+turned along down the path, with the gilt hands and figures of the clock
+looking quite orange in the morning sun.  In a few minutes after, we
+could smell tobacco smoke, and found Lomax bending his stiff back over
+one of the beds in his garden, which he was busily digging.
+
+"Ah!  Mornin', young gentlemen," he shouted.  "Come for a quiet lesson?"
+
+"Not this morning, Lomax," cried Mercer.
+
+"Going for a walk, then?"
+
+"Only as far as here," I replied, looking at him merrily.
+
+"Eh?  What?  Why, hallo!" he cried.  "I didn't know.  They said you were
+under punishment for something, but I didn't know what.  Why, yes: both
+of you.  Look at your eyes.  You've been fighting!"
+
+I nodded, and Mercer laughed.
+
+"We've come to tell you all about it."
+
+Lomax drove his spade down into the ground and left it standing in the
+bed.
+
+"Here, come along," he cried excitedly, and he led the way into the
+lodge, placed chairs for us, and re-lit his pipe, before standing
+smoking with his back to the fire.  "Now then," he cried, "let's have
+it."
+
+We described our encounter, and the old soldier laughed and chuckled
+with satisfaction.
+
+"Yes, that's it," he cried, as we came to an end, first one and then the
+other carrying on the thread of the narration to the conclusion.
+"That's science; that is just the same as with a well-drilled regiment,
+which can beat a mob of fifty times its size.  Well, I'm glad you won,
+and were such good pupils.  Shows you remembered all I taught you.  Now
+take my advice, both of you.  Don't you fight again till you are
+regularly obliged."
+
+"Not going to," I said.
+
+"That's right, boy.  You'll be like a man now who has got a blunderbuss
+in his house.  Thieves all about know that he has got one, and so they
+leave him alone.  Well when are you going to have another riding
+lesson?"
+
+"Let's begin again at once," I said; and he promised to send or go down
+to the General's, to ask the groom to bring up the horse in the morning.
+
+"I'll go myself if I can," said Lomax, "and ride him up pretty quickly.
+He'll have had such a rest that he'll be quite skittish."
+
+All this being settled, and it being yet early, we had time for a walk,
+and the discovery of sundry objects, which Mercer looked upon as
+treasures, and carefully placed in boxes and pieces of paper.
+
+The first was an unhappy-looking stag beetle which seemed to have been
+in the wars, for one of its horns was gone, while not a dozen yards
+farther on we came upon a dissipated cockchafer, with a dent in his
+horny case, and upon both of these Mercer pounced with delight,
+transferring them to a flat tin paste-blacking box, inside which we
+could hear them scratching to get out.
+
+The next thing to attract his attention was a fat worm, which, after a
+crawl in the cool, dewy night, had lost his way back to his hole, and
+was now crawling slowly by the roadside, with more sand sticking to him
+than could have been comfortable.
+
+"Oh, what a big one!" cried Mercer.  "I say, I must have him."
+
+"For a bait for an eel or carp?"  I said.
+
+"No.  To preserve."
+
+"Let the poor thing be," I cried, and, thrusting a piece of stick under
+the worm, I sent it flying amongst the wet grass.
+
+"Ugh! you cruel wretch!" cried Mercer.
+
+"Come, that's nice," I said.  "Better than letting you put it in a box,
+and carrying it in your hot pocket to kill."
+
+"I shouldn't kill it, I should keep it in a pot of earth."
+
+"Which would dry up, and the poor thing would crawl out and be trodden
+upon.  Come along."
+
+But he would not come along, for Tom Mercer was a true naturalist at
+heart, and found interest in hundreds of things I should have passed
+over.  For instance, that morning, as we strolled a little way along the
+lane, we stopped to peer over the gate into a newly ploughed field at
+some round-looking birds which rose directly with a loud whirr, and then
+went skimming along, to glide over the hedge at the bottom and
+disappear.
+
+"Partridges," cried Mercer.  "Daresay they've got a nest somewhere not
+far from here.  Oh, I do wish we had bought Magglin's gun.  It is such a
+handy one.  You see we could keep it up in the loft, and take it to
+pieces and bring it out without any one knowing, and shoot our own birds
+to stuff."
+
+"Mustn't shoot partridges.  They're game," I said.
+
+"Oh, I don't know," he replied.  "We shouldn't want them to eat, only to
+stuff, and--Hallo, look there!  I haven't found one of those for ever so
+long."
+
+He climbed over the gate, and picked up something cream-coloured from
+the hollow between two furrows.
+
+"What is it?"  I said, as he came back.
+
+"Worm-eater," and he opened his hand.
+
+"Why, it's a slug," I said.  "Throw the nasty slimy thing away."
+
+"'Tisn't slimy," he said, as I looked on with disgust at him poking the
+long-shaped creamy creature with one finger, as it lay in the palm of
+his left hand.  "You feel it.  Quite cool and dry."
+
+"I'm not going to touch the nasty thing," I cried.  "And what do you
+mean by a worm-eater?"
+
+"Mean he's one.  See how long and thin he is.  That's so that he can
+creep down the worm-holes and catch the worms and eat 'em."
+
+"Nonsense!  Slugs live on lettuces and cabbages, and other green
+things."
+
+"These don't," said Mercer quietly; "they live on worms."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because my father told me, and I've kept 'em in boxes and fed 'em with
+worms."
+
+"Well, throw it away, and come along; we ought to be getting back now."
+
+"Yes, so as to have time to go up to the museum first," he replied, but
+he did not throw away his last find.  That was tucked into a pill-box,
+with the promise that I should see it eat a live worm that night.
+
+We turned back and took the side lane which would lead us round by the
+keeper's cottage.
+
+"Let's see what Bob has got stuck up on the barn side," said Mercer.  "I
+daresay there'll be something fresh.  He always says he'll save me all
+the good things he shoots, but he forgets and nails them on.  Come on
+through the wood."
+
+"But we shall get our feet so wet," I said, as Mercer jumped the ditch.
+
+"That we won't.  It will be drier here."
+
+I followed him, and, knowing his way well, Mercer took me by a short cut
+among the trees, which brought us just to the back of the keeper's
+cottage, where dozens of the supposed enemies of the game were gibbeted.
+Jays, hawks, owls, little falcons, shrikes, weasels, stoats, and
+polecats.
+
+"There," said Mercer, pointing, "look at that beautiful fresh jay.  He
+might have let me--"
+
+Mercer stopped short, for we heard Polly Hopley's voice speaking loudly,
+evidently at the front of the cottage.
+
+"I don't want it, and I won't have it.  Give it to some one else."
+
+"No, I shan't," said a harsh voice, which we knew at once as Magglin's.
+"I bought it o' porpos for you, and you've got to wear it."
+
+"Then I shan't, and if you come talking to me again like that, I shall
+tell father."
+
+"No, you won't."
+
+"Indeed and I shall, and the sooner you go the better.  He isn't far
+off."
+
+"Yes, he is," said Magglin, "and won't be back for hours."
+
+"How do you know?"
+
+"Because I watched him."
+
+"Yes, that's what you poaching chaps always do, watch the keeper till
+he's out of the way," said Polly sharply.
+
+"Don't call me a poacher, Polly."
+
+"Yes, I shall; and that's what you are."
+
+"Come away," I whispered; "don't let's stop listening."
+
+"We can't help it, without going all the way back."
+
+"Poachers always make the best keepers, Polly, and I'm going to be a
+keeper now, and marry you."
+
+"Are you, indeed?" said the girl indignantly.  "That you just aren't,
+and if you ever dare to call me Polly again, I'll throw a bucket o'
+water over you."
+
+"Not you," said Magglin.  "I say, do have it.  It's real gold."
+
+"I don't care if it's real silver!" cried Polly.  "I've got brooches of
+my own, thank you, and I'll trouble you to go."
+
+"'Tarn't good enough for you, I suppose.  Well, I'll bring you something
+better."
+
+_Bang_.
+
+The cottage door was closed violently.  Then we heard footsteps, which
+ceased after a minute, and we went on out toward the lane.
+
+"Make haste!"  I said; "it must be getting late."
+
+"Ah," said Mercer, "if I'd got a watch like old Eely's, we could tell
+the time."
+
+"And as you haven't, we must guess it," I said.  "Look!"
+
+Mercer turned at my words, for he was looking back to see if Polly
+Hopley was visible at the cottage door, the news we had heard of her
+father being away robbing us of any desire to call.
+
+There, about fifty yards away, with his back to us, was Magglin, rubbing
+something on his sleeve.  Then he breathed upon it, and gave it another
+rub, before holding it up in the sunshine, and we could see that it was
+bright and yellow, possibly a brooch.
+
+The next minute the poacher had leaped into the wood and passed among
+the trees.
+
+"Oh, what a game!" said Mercer, as we walked away.  "If Bob Hopley
+knows, he'll lick old Magglin with a ramrod.  There, come on."
+
+We reached the school in good time, only two or three of the boys being
+about, and spent the next half-hour turning over Mercer's
+melancholy-looking specimens of the taxidermist's art, one of the most
+wretched being a half finished rabbit, all skin and tow.
+
+"Well, I would burn that," I said.  "It does look a brute."
+
+"Burn it?  I should think not," he cried indignantly.  "It looks queer,
+because it isn't finished.  I'm going to make a natural history scene of
+that in a glass case.  That's to be a rabbit just caught by a weasel,
+and I shall have the weasel holding on by the back of its neck, and the
+rabbit squealing."
+
+"Where's your weasel?"
+
+"Oh, I shall get Magglin or Bob Hopley to shoot me one some day.  Wish
+I'd got a gun of my own!"
+
+"You're always wishing for guns and watches, or something else you
+haven't got," I said, laughing.
+
+"Well, that's quite natural, isn't it?" cried Mercer good-humouredly.
+"I always feel like that, and it does seem a shame that old Eely should
+have tail coats and white waistcoats and watches, and I shouldn't.  But,
+I say, Frank, he can't fight, can he?"
+
+"No," I said, "but don't talk about it.  I hate thinking of it now."
+
+"I don't," said Mercer.  "I shall always think about it when I come up
+here, and feel as I did then, punching poor old Dicksee's big fat head.
+I say, won't it do him good and make him civil?  Look here," he
+continued, making a bound and pointing to a knot on the rough floor
+boards, "that's the exact spot where his head came down whop."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.
+
+We boys used to think the days at old Browne's very long and tedious,
+and often enough feel a mortal hatred of Euclid as a tyrant who had
+invented geometry for the sake of driving boys mad.  What distaste, too,
+we had for all the old Romans who had bequeathed their language to us;
+just as if English wasn't ten times better, Mercer used to say.
+
+"Bother their old declensions and conjugations!" he would cry.  "What's
+the good of them all?  I call it a stupid language to have no proper
+prepositions and articles and the rest of it: tucking i's, a's, and e's
+at the end of words instead."
+
+But what days they were after all--days that never more return!  The
+Doctor was pretty stern at times, and gave us little rest.  Mr Rebble
+seemed to be always lying in wait to puzzle us with questions, and Mr
+Hasnip appeared to think that we never had enough to learn; while the
+German and French masters, who came over twice a week from Hastings,
+both seemed to have been born with the idea that there was nothing of
+the slightest consequence in the way of our studies but the tongues they
+taught.  And oh, the scoldings we received for what they called our
+neglect and stupidity!
+
+"_Ach, dumkopf_!" the German master would cry wrathfully; while the
+French master had a way of screwing up his eyes, wrinkling his face, and
+grinding his teeth at our pronunciation.
+
+I'm afraid we hated them all, in complete ignorance of the other side of
+the case, and the constant unwearying application they gave to a set of
+reckless young rascals, who construed Latin with their lips and the game
+that was to be played that afternoon with their brains.
+
+I confess it.  I must have been very stupid in some things, sharp as I
+was in others, and I have often thought since that Mr Rebble's
+irritability was due to the constant trouble we gave him; that Mr
+Hasnip was at heart a thorough gentleman; and as for "Old Browne," as we
+called him, he was a ripe scholar and a genuine loveable old Englishman,
+with the health and welfare of his boys thoroughly at heart.
+
+We thought nothing of it.  A boy's nature does not grasp all these
+things.  To us it was a matter of course that, if we were ill, Mrs
+Doctor should have us shut up in another part of the house, and, with
+her two daughters, risk infection, and nurse us back to health.  I could
+not see then, but I can now, what patient devotion was given to us.  Of
+course I could not see it, for I was a happy, thoughtless boy, living my
+golden days, when to breathe and move was a genuine pleasure, and the
+clouds and troubles that shut off a bit of life's sunshine only made the
+light the brighter when it came again!
+
+Ah! it's a grand thing to be a boy, with all your life before you, and
+if any young sceptic who reads these words, and does not skip them
+because he thinks they are prosy preaching, doubts what I say, let him
+wait.  It is the simple truth, and I am satisfied, for I know that he
+will alter his tune later on.
+
+In spite, then, of the many troubles I had to go through, with the
+weariness of much of the learning, it was a delightful life I led, and
+though a little dumpy at leaving home after the holidays, I had
+forgotten my low spirits long before I got back to the Doctor's, and was
+looking forward longingly to seeing old faces, wondering what the new
+ones would be like, and eager to renew my friendly relations with Tom
+Mercer, Lomax, Bob Hopley, and Cook, and to give them the little
+presents I was taking back.
+
+These were mere trifles, but they went a long way with the recipients.
+Tom Mercer declared that the blade of the knife I gave him was the best
+bit of steel he ever saw.  It wasn't: for, unless the edge was
+constantly renewed, there never was such a knife to cut.
+
+Lomax's gift was more satisfactory, for my uncle got it for me with a
+grim smile, as he thought, I know, of his old soldiering days.  It was a
+quarter of a pound of very choice Virginia tobacco, and it delighted the
+old sergeant so, that I thought he would have hugged me.  I don't know
+how long that lasted, but I am sure he hoarded some of it up for nearly
+a year, and he would call my attention to its "glorious scent," as he
+called it, though to me it was very nasty indeed.
+
+Bob Hopley's present was a red and orange silk kerchief, which he wore
+proudly on Sundays, and Cook's was in a small box prepared by my
+mother--a cap with wonderful flowers and ribbons, which obtained for Tom
+Mercer and me endless little supper snacks as tokens of the woman's
+delight and gratitude.
+
+So, as time sped on, I had grown so accustomed to the life at "Old
+Browne's," that I felt little objection, as I have said, to returning
+after the Christmas holidays; though the weather was bad and there was a
+long while to wait before there could be much pleasure in out-door
+sports.  But the spring came at last with its pear and apple blossom,
+the hops began to run up the poles, May and June succeeded, and glided
+on so that I could hardly believe it when the midsummer holidays came
+without my feeling that I had advanced much in the past six months.
+
+I suppose I had, for I had worked hard, and the letter I bore home from
+the Doctor quite satisfied my mother who afterwards informed me in
+confidence that my uncle was greatly pleased.
+
+Six weeks' holidays were before me, but, before they were at an end, I
+was beginning to get weary, and longing for the day to come when my new
+things were brought home ready to try on, pack up, and return to school.
+
+To my studies and interviews with the masters?
+
+Oh, no! nothing of the kind; but to where there were woods and ponds,
+and the General's cob for my riding lessons, and the cricket-field.
+
+I'm afraid my mother must have thought me careless and unloving.  I hope
+I was not, in my eagerness to get back to Tom Mercer, who made my school
+life most interesting by his quaintness.  For I was always ready to
+enter into his projects, some of which were as amusing as they were new.
+
+I had seen little of my uncle when I was home last, but he wrote to me
+twice--stern, military-toned letters, each of which was quite a despatch
+in itself.  In these he laid down the law to me, giving me the best of
+advice, but it was all very Spartan-like.  He insisted above all things
+upon my recollecting that I was to be a soldier, and that a soldier was
+always a gentleman and a man of honour, and each time he finished his
+letter in these words,--
+
+"Never tell a lie, Frank; never do a dirty action; keep yourself smart
+and clean; and, by the way, I send you a sovereign to spend in trash."
+
+"Only wish I had such an uncle," Tom Mercer used to say.  "My father
+would send me money if he could spare it, but he says his patients won't
+pay.  They're civil enough when they're ill, but when he has wound up
+their clocks, and set them going again, they're as disagreeable as can
+be if he wants his bill."
+
+This was after I had gone back from the midsummer holidays.
+
+"Did you ask him for money, then?"
+
+"Yes, and he said that if he wrote at midsummer and asked for payment,
+the farmers told him they'd pay after harvest, and if he wanted it after
+harvest, they said they'd pay at.  Christmas, and when Christmas came,
+they told him to wait till midsummer.  Oh, won't I serve 'em out if ever
+I'm a doctor!"
+
+"What would you do?"  I said.
+
+"Give 'em such a dose!"
+
+"Not you, Tom."
+
+"Oh, won't I!  I don't care, though; father gave me a crown and mamma
+half a one."
+
+"And enough too.  What a fellow you are to grumble!"
+
+"That I'm not.  I wanted 'em to buy me a watch."
+
+"Get out!  What a fellow you are!  Next time the chaps want a nickname
+for you, I shall call you Watchman."
+
+"All right!  I don't mind; but I shan't be happy till I have a watch."
+
+"That's what you used to say about Magglin's take-to-pieces gun, but you
+never got it, and you've been happy enough without."
+
+"Oh, have I?" said Mercer.  "You don't know.  I used to long for that
+gun."
+
+Two or three days afterwards, in one of our strolls, when we were both
+coming back laden with odds and ends for the museum up in the loft,
+Mercer proposed that we should cross a field and get into the lower
+lane, so as to call at Polly Hopley's to get something to eat.
+
+I was nothing loth, and we struck off across country, got into the lane
+about a couple of hundred yards from the keeper's lodge, and then
+suddenly stopped short.
+
+"Hush!"  I said, as shouts and cries reached our ears.
+
+"There's something the matter," cried Mercer.  "Come on."
+
+We set off at a run, and as we passed a bend in the lane, we came full
+in sight of the keeper's cottage, and saw him in the middle of the road,
+holding a rough-looking figure by the collar, keeping it down upon its
+knees, while he vigorously used a stick upon the object's back, in spite
+of cries and protestations, till there was a sudden wrench, and whoever
+it was dragged himself away and ran down the lane, Polly Hopley standing
+at the cottage door laughing, while her father wiped his brow with the
+sleeve of his coat.
+
+"Hullo, young gents!" he cried.  "You were just too late to see the
+fun."
+
+"Saw some of it, Bob," I said.  "But who was it?"
+
+"Didn't you see, sir?"
+
+"I did," cried Mercer.  "It was old Magglin."
+
+"Yes, and I'll Magglin him!" cried Bob wrathfully.
+
+"What's he been doing?"  I said.  "Poaching?"
+
+"Eh?  Yes, sir, poaching, that's what he's been up to," said Bob, with a
+side glance at Polly, who threw her apron over her face, burst out
+laughing, and ran into the cottage.  "He've been told over and over
+again to keep away, but it's no good, so I've started this here hazel
+saplin' for him and I've been beating his carpet for him nicely.  I
+don't think he'll come any more."
+
+"What does he come poaching after, Bob--the sweets?" said Mercer.
+
+"Um!  Yes, the sweets," said Bob drily; "and he ain't going to have 'em.
+A lazy, poaching, dishonest scoundrel, that's what he is.  I did think
+we'd got rid of him lots o' times, but he's like a bad shilling, he
+always comes back.  Well, never mind him, sir.  When are you coming to
+have a day's fishing?  Sir Orkus told me only t'other day you was to be
+looked after if you come."
+
+"Oh, some day soon," I said.  "We've got a big cricket match coming on
+first."
+
+"Ay?  Well, I must come and see that, young gents.  I used to be fond of
+bowling myself."
+
+We shook hands with the keeper, and then went into the cottage to buy a
+couple of Polly's turnovers, and found her looking very red-faced and
+shy, but she was businesslike enough over taking the money, and we went
+off browsing down the lane upon Polly's pastry and blackberry jam.
+
+"Magg wants to marry Polly," I said oracularly.  "Don't you remember
+that day when we went round by the back, and heard her ordering him
+off?"
+
+"Yes, I remember," said Mercer, with his mouth full.  "I was thinking
+about it.  I don't wonder at Bob whacking him.  Polly's too good for
+such a miserable, shuffling, cheating fellow as he is.  I hate him now.
+I used to like him, though I didn't like him.  I liked him because he
+was so clever at getting snakes and hedgehogs and weasels.  He always
+knew where to find lizards.  But he's a cheat.  You pay him, and then he
+says you didn't, and keeps on worrying you for more money.  I'll never
+buy anything of him again."
+
+"That's what you always say, Tom," I replied, "and next time he has a
+good bird or anything, you buy it."
+
+"Well, I've done with him this time.  Look: there he is."
+
+For about fifty yards away there was Magglin, long-haired and
+dirty-looking, seated on the bank, with his elbows on his knees and his
+face buried in his hands.
+
+But he was so quick of ear, that, though we were walking along the
+grassy margin of the road, he heard us coming, and started up fierce and
+excited of aspect, but only to soften down and touch his cap, with a
+servile grin upon his face.
+
+"Hullo, Mr Mercer, sir," he whined; "looking for me?"
+
+"No," said my companion.  "Why should I look for you?"
+
+"Thought you wanted to pay me that shilling you owe me, sir."
+
+"I don't owe you a shilling."
+
+"Oh yes, you do, sir.  Don't he, Mr Burr junior?"
+
+"No," I said; "and if you ever have the impudence to say so again, I'll
+tell Bob Hopley to give you another thrashing."
+
+The gipsy-looking fellow's dark eyes flashed.
+
+"He'd better touch me again," he cried fiercely.  "He'd better touch me
+again.  Did you two see?"
+
+"Yes, we saw," said Mercer.  "I say, he did make you cry chy-ike."
+
+"He'd better touch me again."
+
+"He will," I said, "if you go hanging about after Polly Hopley."
+
+"What, did he tell you that?"
+
+"No," I said, "we knew well enough.  Bob Hopley didn't say a word.  Only
+called it poaching."
+
+Magglin's manner changed directly, and in a snivelling, whining way he
+began,--
+
+"Well, I can't help it, young gen'lemen.  I'm 'bliged to go there, and
+nothing I can do's good enough for her.  If I give her anything, she
+chucks it at me, because it aren't good enough."
+
+"I should think not, indeed," said Mercer.  "What decent girl's going to
+listen to such a ragged scaramouche as you are?"
+
+"Well, I can't help it, young gen'lemen."
+
+"Yes, you can.  Go to work like a man, and grow respectable," I said.
+"I should be ashamed to idle about as you do."
+
+"Why, aren't you two always idling about?"
+
+"No.  We do our work first," I said.
+
+"I say, Magg, here comes Bob Hopley!" cried Mercer mischievously.
+
+The poacher gave a quick glance up the lane in the direction from which
+we had come, caught sight of the keeper's velveteen coat, and shot into
+the copse and was gone.
+
+"I don't wonder at Bob thrashing him," I said.
+
+"No," replied Mercer, as we went on.  "I shall never deal with him
+again.  If I want a bird or anything, I shall ask Bob Hopley.  He's a
+man, he is.  If you give him anything, he says, `Thank-ye,' and if you
+don't, he never seems to mind.  He knows boys haven't always got any
+money.  I wish Magglin would go right away."
+
+The conversation turned then upon the coming cricket match; after which
+we dropped in upon Lomax, and talked to him about boxing, and I pleased
+him very much by telling him how satisfied my uncle had been at the way
+I had learned to ride a horse; when, with his eyes twinkling, the old
+soldier took a letter from his chimney-piece, and opened it to show me
+my uncle's words, thanking him for the way he, an old soldier, had
+trained the son of a soldier, and enclosing a five-pound note.
+
+"For a rainy day, Master Burr," he said.  "I've clapped that in the
+bank."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.
+
+If there was any one thing I dearly loved, it was a good game--a regular
+well-fought struggle--at cricket.  Oddly enough, I used to like to be on
+the losing side, with the eleven who were so far behind that their fight
+was becoming desperate, and every effort had to be made to steal a run
+here and another there, slowly building up the score, with the
+excitement gradually increasing, and the weaker side growing stronger
+and more hopeful hour by hour, till, perhaps, by the clever batting of
+one boy, who has got well to work, and who, full of confidence, sets at
+defiance the best efforts in every change of bowler, the score is lifted
+right up to the winning-point, and he comes back to the tent with the
+bat over his shoulder, amidst the cheers of all the lookers-on.
+
+I suppose I got on well with my education at Doctor Browne's.  I know I
+got on well at cricket, for whenever a match was made up for some
+holiday, I was in so much request that both sides were eager to have me.
+
+The Doctor had promised us a holiday to play the boys of a school at
+Hastings.  They were to come over on an omnibus, and a tent was to be
+set up in our field, where, after the game, a high tea was to be
+provided for the visitors before they returned to Hastings in the
+evening.
+
+I need hardly say that the day was looked forward to with the greatest
+eagerness, and that plans were made to give our visitors a thorough good
+thrashing.
+
+Burr major, as captain of the eleven, rather unwillingly, I'm afraid,
+but for the sake of the credit of the school, selected Mercer and me for
+the match.  I was to be wicket-keeper, and Mercer, from his clever and
+enduring running, and power to cover so much ground, was made long field
+off.
+
+Burr major and Stewart were to bowl, with Dicksee as a change when
+necessary, for he had a peculiar knack and twist in handling a ball, and
+could puzzle good players by sending in an innocent-looking,
+slowly-pitched ball, which looked as if it was going wide, and, when it
+had put the batsman off his guard, and induced him to change his
+position, so as to send the ball flying out of the field, it would
+suddenly curl round and go right into the wicket.
+
+All went well.  We practised every evening, and again for an hour before
+breakfast each morning, and, as I warmed up to my task, I easily stopped
+all Stewart's or Burr major's swiftest balls, and got to know how to
+deal with what Mercer called "old Dicksee's jerry sneaks."  The tent
+came from Hastings the day before, and was set up ready, and the next
+day was to be the match.
+
+But, as Burns says, "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft
+a-gley."  So it was here; our plans went very much "a-gley," for I awoke
+on the morning of the match with a headache, which I knew would
+completely upset me for the day.
+
+I did not know then, but I know now, that it was Polly Hopley's fault,
+and that her turnovers and cake were far too rich to be eaten in
+quantity by two boys sitting up in bed, and going to sleep directly
+after, in spite of the crumbs and scales of crust.  I just remember that
+I had a bad night, full of unpleasant dreams, all connected with the
+cricket match in some way.  Now I was being horribly beaten; now I was
+running after the ball, which went on and on, far away into space, and
+would not be overtaken, and it was still bounding away when I awoke with
+a start.  Then I fell asleep again, and lay bound and helpless, as it
+seemed to me, with Burr major taking advantage of my position to come
+and triumph over me, which he did at first by sitting on my chest, and
+then springing up to go through a kind of war-dance upon me, while I
+stared up at him helplessly.
+
+Then Dicksee came with his face all swollen up, as it was after the
+fight, but he was grinning derisively at me, and while Burr major seemed
+to hold me down by keeping one foot pressed on my chest, Dicksee knelt
+by my side, and began to beat my head with a cricket bat.
+
+_Bang, bang! bang, bang_!  Blows that fell with the regularity of the
+beats of a pendulum, and it seemed to me that he beat me into a state of
+insensibility, for both Burr major and he faded from my eyesight, though
+the blows of the bat were still falling upon my head when I awoke in the
+morning; that is to say, they seemed to be falling, and it was some
+minutes before I fully understood that I was suffering from a bad
+bilious headache.
+
+"Now then, why don't you jump up?" said Mercer, as I lay with my eyes
+shut, and at this I got up slowly, began to dress, and then, feeling too
+giddy to stand, sat down by my bed.
+
+"What's the matter?" cried Mercer.
+
+"So ill.  Head's so bad."
+
+"Oh, that will be all right when you've had your breakfast.  Mine aches
+too.  Look sharp.  It's ever so late."
+
+I tried to look sharp, but I'm afraid I looked very blunt, and it took
+me a long time to get dressed and down-stairs, and out in the fresh
+morning air, where I walked up and down a bit, and then suffered myself
+to be led into the play-field to see what a splendid tent had been
+raised, with its canvas back close up to the hedge which separated the
+Doctor's grounds from the farm, with the intervening dry ditch, which
+always seemed to be full of the biggest stinging nettles I ever saw.
+
+It was a glorious morning, the turf was short and beautifully level, the
+boys having joined hands the previous night to drag the great roller
+well over it.  But the sunshine, the blue sky, and the delicious green
+of the hedges and trees were all nothing to me then, and I let Mercer
+chatter on about the chances of the other side, which, as far as I was
+concerned, promised to be excellent.
+
+The breakfast-bell rang, and we went in, but that morning meal did not
+fulfil Mercer's prophecy and carry off my ailment, for I could not touch
+a bit.
+
+"Oh, you are a fellow!" cried my comrade.  "Well; perhaps you are right.
+My father says it's best not to eat and drink when you have a bad
+headache.  But look sharp and get well; the chaps will be over in good
+time."
+
+By and by the news reached the captain of our eleven, and he came to me
+all smiles and civility, for all Burr major's ideas of revenge seemed to
+have died out, as I thought, because I never presumed upon my victory.
+
+"Oh, I say, Burr junior," he cried, "this won't do!  You must look sharp
+and get well."
+
+"I want to," I replied dolefully; "but I'm afraid I shan't be able to
+play."
+
+"But you must.  If you don't, they'll be sure to beat us, and that would
+be horrid."
+
+"You mustn't let them beat you," I said, wishing all the while that he
+would go, for my head throbbed more than ever, and varied it with a
+sensation as of hot molten lead running round inside my forehead in a
+way that was agonising.
+
+"But what are we to do for a wicket-keeper?"
+
+"You must take my place," I said feebly.  "You are the best
+wicket-keeper we have."
+
+"No," he cried frankly, "you are; but I think I'm the best bowler."
+
+"Well, you will be obliged to keep wicket to-day," I said, with a groan.
+"I shall never be able to stir, I'm sure."
+
+"Well, you do look precious mouldy," he cried.  "It's a nuisance, and no
+mistake.  I suppose we must make shift, then?"
+
+"Yes; let Dicksee and Hodson bowl all the time."
+
+"And I can put Senna on now and then for an over or two."
+
+"I can't bowl well enough," said Mercer.
+
+"Oh yes, you can when you like," said Burr major.  "And, I say," he
+cried, taking out his watch, "it's getting close to the time."
+
+Mercer's eyes glistened as the watch was examined, and it seemed to me
+that my companion sighed as the watch was replaced.
+
+Just then Hodson came up.
+
+"How is he?"
+
+"Too bad to play, he says.  Isn't it beastly?"
+
+"Do you mean it, Burr junior?"
+
+"Yes," I said.  "I'm very, very queer.  I couldn't play."
+
+"You ain't shamming, are you?"
+
+"Look at me and see," I replied faintly, and directly after I felt a
+cool hand laid on my burning forehead.
+
+"There's no gammon about it," said Hodson.  "We must do the best we can.
+Look sharp, Senna."
+
+"Yes," said Burr major; "he'll have to take a turn at the bowling."
+
+"I shan't play if Frank Burr don't," said Mercer stoutly.
+
+"What?" cried the two boys together.
+
+"You must put some one else on instead of me; I've got a headache too."
+
+"Oh, I say," cried Hodson, and he and Burr both tried hard to shake
+Mercer's sudden resolution.  I too tried, but it was of no use; he grew
+more stubborn every minute; and after Burr major had again referred to
+his watch, the two lads went off together, disappointed and vexed.
+
+"You might have gone and played with them, Tom," I said.
+
+"I know that," he replied; "but I wasn't going without you.  I'm going
+to stop and talk."
+
+"No, no, don't," I said.  "I only want to be quiet till--Oh, my head, my
+head!"
+
+"Why, Burr junior, what's this?" cried Mr Hasnip, coming up and
+speaking cheerily.  "Bad headache? not going to play?"
+
+"No, sir, I feel too ill."
+
+"Oh, come, this is a bad job.  Hi, Rebble!"
+
+The latter gentleman came up.
+
+"Here's Burr junior queer.  Does he want a doctor, do you think?"
+
+Mr Rebble looked at me attentively for a few moments, and then said
+quietly,--
+
+"No; only a bilious headache, I should say.  Go and lie down for an hour
+or two, my lad, and perhaps it will pass off."
+
+I gladly crawled up to our dormitory, took off my jacket and boots, and
+lay down on the bed, when I seemed to drop at once into a doze, from
+which I started to find Mercer seated by the window looking out.
+
+"Better?" he said, as I stirred.
+
+"Better!  No; I feel very ill.  But what are you doing here?"
+
+"Come to sit with you," he said stolidly.
+
+Just then there was a burst of cheering, and the crunching noise made by
+wheels.
+
+"Here they are," cried Mercer excitedly.  "Oh, I say, I do wish you were
+better!  I should like to lick those Hastings chaps."
+
+"Then why don't you go?"  I said pettishly.  "Go and bowl."
+
+"Shan't, without you," was the only reply I could get, and I lay turning
+my head from side to side, trying to find a cool spot on the pillow, to
+hear every now and then a shout from the field, and then a burst of
+plaudits, or cries of, "Well run!"
+
+"Bravo!"
+
+"Well fielded!" and more hand-clapping, all borne faintly in at the
+window, where Mercer sat with his arms folded, gazing out, but unable to
+see the field from where he was.
+
+After a time I once more dropped off into a doze and woke again with a
+start, under the impression that I had been asleep all day.
+
+My head was not quite so bad, and, after lying still, thinking, and
+listening to the shouts from the cricket-field, I said weakly,--
+
+"Have they nearly done, Tom?"
+
+"Done!  No, of course not."
+
+"What time is it?"
+
+"Don't know.  Haven't got a watch."
+
+"Well, what time do you think it is?"
+
+"'Bout two.  They've just gone to the wickets again after lunch."
+
+"Why don't you go and join them now?"
+
+"You know.  How's your head?"
+
+"A little better, I think."
+
+"Well enough to come down and look on?"
+
+"Oh no," I said, with a shudder; "I feel too sick and ill for that."
+
+"Have another snooze, then, and you'll be better still."
+
+"But it's too bad to keep you out of the fun," I said.
+
+"I didn't grumble.  Go to sleep."
+
+I determined that I would not, but I did, and woke again, to repeat my
+question about the time, and receive the answer that my companion had
+not got a watch.
+
+"How long have I been asleep, then?"  I asked.
+
+"'Bout an hour.  Here! hi! what are you going to do?"
+
+"Get up, and go down in the field," I said.
+
+"Hooray!  Then it's all right again?"
+
+"No," I replied; "but it's a little better, and I should like to go and
+lie down under the big hedge, and see our fellows win."
+
+"Come, I do like that," cried Mercer eagerly, as I went to the
+wash-stand, well bathed my temples, and then, feeling very sick and
+faint, but not in such pain, I put on my jacket and boots, and we went
+slowly down-stairs, and out into the field, where every one was too
+intent to take much notice of us, as Tom led me up to the big hedge,
+where I lay down on the grass about fifty yards from where the tent
+stood close up; and from time to time I saw the boys who were about to
+go in to bat, go to the tent to take off their jackets and vests, and
+come out ready for the fight.
+
+Our boys were in, and I saw Dicksee change and go to the wicket to come
+back with a "duck's egg," as we called it.  Then Hodson went in and made
+a stand, but a quarter of an hour later, the boy who faced him was
+caught, and Burr major walked up to the tent, disappeared, and came out
+again all in white, with a brand-new bat over his shoulder.
+
+Just then Mercer, who had been round to the scorers, came back, and
+stood watching Burr major as he marched off.
+
+"Oh, I say," he said, "don't you wish you were in it, Frank?"
+
+"Yes," I said, with a sigh.  Then--"How's the game now?"
+
+"We're a hundred behind 'em, and our fellows can't stand their bowling.
+If Eely and Hodson don't make a big stand, we shall have a horrid
+licking.  Better?"
+
+"Yes, a little," I said faintly, and then I lay watching the game, while
+Mercer walked about--now going up to the empty tent where the boys'
+clothes were, now coming back to me to talk about the game.  Once he
+went and lay down near the tent.  Another time he went by it out of
+sight, but he was soon back to see how I was, and off in the other
+direction, this time to go right round the field and come back by the
+tent, and throw himself down by my side.
+
+"What do you think of it now?  Oh, look!  Hooray! hooray!  Run! run!
+run!" he roared, and then joined in the hand-clapping, for Hodson had
+made a splendid leg hit, which brought us in four, and two more from an
+overthrow.
+
+This excited Tom Mercer to such an extent that he could not lie still,
+but went off again in the direction of the tent, while I began to know
+that I was better, from the interest I was able to take in the game.
+
+Then, after seeing Burr major and Hodson make hit after hit, for they
+were now well in, and punishing the bowling to a tremendous extent, I
+began to think about how good-companion-like it had been of Mercer to
+spoil his own pleasure so as to stay with me, and I lay there resting on
+my elbow, watching him for a few minutes, as he stood close up to the
+tent.
+
+"Well, Burr junior, how's the head?" cried Mr Hasnip, strolling up with
+Mr Rebble.
+
+"A good deal better, sir," I replied, "but very far from well."
+
+"You'll have to take a long night's rest before it will be quite right,"
+said Mr Rebble.  "By the way, Mrs Browne said I was to report how you
+were, so that she could send you something to take if you did not seem
+better."
+
+"Oh, I'm ever so much better, sir!"  I cried hastily, for I had a keen
+recollection of one of the good lady's doses which she had prescribed,
+and whose taste I seemed to distinguish then.
+
+"Oh yes, you'll be all right in the morning," said Mr Hasnip.  "Well,
+Mercer, how are we getting on?"
+
+"I haven't been to the scorers' table, sir," said Mercer, who had just
+come back from a spot near the tent, where he could get a better view of
+the field than from where I lay under the big oak tree.
+
+"Run and ask, my lad," said Mr Rebble, and he and Mr Hasnip sat down
+near me, and chatted so pleasantly that I forgot all about the way in
+which they tortured me sometimes with questions.
+
+In due time Mercer came back to announce that Hodson and Burr major had
+put on sixty-one between them, and that there were hopes that the game
+might be pulled out of the fire even then.
+
+Mercer sat down now beside me, and, the ground in front clearing a
+little, we had a good view of the game, which grew more and more
+interesting as the strangers fought their best to separate our two
+strongest men, and stop them from steadily piling up the score; the loud
+bursts of shouting stirring them on to new efforts, which resulted in
+the ball being sent here, there, and everywhere, for twos, threes, and
+fours, till the excitement seemed to have no bounds.
+
+Then came a check, just as the servants had been busy carrying urns,
+teapots, and piled-up plates into the tent, for it was getting late in
+the afternoon.
+
+The check was caused by a ball sent skying by Hodson and cleverly
+caught, with the result that one of our best cricketers shouldered his
+bat and marched off the ground, but proudly, for he had had a splendid
+innings, and quite a jubilation of clapping hands ran round the field.
+
+Another took his place, and helped Burr major to make a little longer
+stand, but the spirit had gone out of his play, which became more and
+more cautious.  He stole one here and sent the ball for one there, but
+made no more brilliant hits for threes and fours.
+
+At last after a good innings the fresh man was clean bowled, and another
+took his place.
+
+"Last of 'em," said Mercer.  "Oh, if they can only do it!  We only want
+five to win."
+
+But during the next quarter of an hour these five were not made.  The
+new-comer contented himself with playing on the defensive, and with the
+knowledge to trouble him of the game resting entirely on his shoulders,
+Burr major grew more and more nervous, missing excellent chances that he
+would have jumped at earlier in his innings.
+
+"Four to win."  Then the fresh boy got a chance, and made one which sent
+our lads nearly frantic.
+
+"Three only to win," and there seemed to be not a doubt of our success
+now,--for it was "our" success, though I had had nothing to do with the
+result.
+
+And now Burr major had a splendid chance, but he was too nervous to take
+it, and the over proved blank, as did the next.  But in the one which
+followed, the fresh boy sent a ball just by mid-wicket, a run was
+stolen, and I, too, grew so excited that I forgot my headache and rose
+to my knees.
+
+It was a fresh over, a change had been made in the bowling, and the
+first ball was delivered and stopped.
+
+The second ball went rushing by the wicket, but it was not wide; and now
+the third ball was bowled.  It seemed to be an easy one, and in the
+midst of the most profound excitement, Burr major gathered himself
+together for a big hit, struck out, and--the ball went flying out of the
+field?
+
+No; Burr major just missed it, the off-bail was bowled clean and fell a
+dozen yards away.
+
+We were beaten.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
+
+There was a tremendous burst of cheering and a rush for the tent by the
+boys who had left their jackets within, and among them Burr major,
+disappointed, but at the same time justly proud of the splendid score he
+had made, walked up to the door, disappeared amongst plenty of clapping,
+and soon after came out again in his jacket and vest.
+
+We had all clustered up round about the players, and two masters shook
+hands with the champion, who directly after caught sight of me.
+
+"Hallo!  How's the head?" he cried.
+
+"Getting better now."
+
+"I saw you watching the match," he continued.  "Nice time you had of it
+lying about under that tree, while we fellows did all the work."
+
+"I should have liked to be in it," I said rather drearily; "but I really
+was very bad."
+
+His attention was called off soon after, and then there was a summons to
+the tent for the festive high tea, which was to come off directly, as
+the Hastings boys had a long drive back.
+
+I was much better, but the thought of food in that crowded tent was
+nauseating, and, watching my opportunity, I slipped away, seeing Tom
+Mercer looking about as if in search of me before going into the tent.
+
+"I know what I'll do," I thought.  "I'll walk gently down along the lane
+to Bob Hopley's place, and ask Polly to make me a cup of tea and cut me
+some bread and butter."
+
+The plan was simple enough, and I strolled out and along the road, and
+then entered a gate, to make a short cut along the hedge side of the
+fields.
+
+The evening was glorious, and after a broiling day the soft moist odours
+that came from the copses dotted here and there seemed delightfully
+refreshing, and so I strolled on and on till I was only a short distance
+from the cottage, which was separated from me by a couple of fields,
+when I turned slowly toward a corner of the enclosure I was in, where
+there was a pond and a patch of moist land where weeds never noticed
+towered up in abundance, and, to my surprise, I caught sight of Magglin
+seated on the bank of the pond, with his feet hanging close to the
+water, and apparently engaged in his evening toilet.  It seemed to me
+that he must have been washing his face, and that he was now wiping it
+upon some great leaves which he plucked from time to time.
+
+"No, he isn't," I said to myself the next moment.  "He has been
+poaching, and saw me coming.  It's all a pretence to throw me off the
+scent;" and I went on, my way being close by him, and there he was
+rubbing away at his face with the leaves, while I glanced here and there
+in search of a wire set for rabbit or hare, though I shrewdly suspected
+that the wire he had been setting would be over in the copse beyond the
+pond, in the expectation of getting a pheasant.
+
+He was so quick of hearing that he could detect a footstep some distance
+off, but this time he turned round sharply when I exclaimed,--
+
+"Hallo, Magglin!"
+
+"Eh--I--Oh, how de do, sir?"
+
+"Better than you do," I said sharply.  "What have you been doing to your
+face?"
+
+"Face?  Oh, rubbing it a bit, sir, that's all.  Good as washing."
+
+"Dock leaves," I said.  "What, have you stung yourself?"
+
+"Oh yes, I forgot that, sir.  Just a little bit, sir.  I was coming
+through the hedge down below there, and a 'ormous old nettle flew back
+and hit me acrost the cheek.  But it aren't nothing."
+
+More than I should like to have, I thought to myself, as I went on, for
+his face was spotted with white patches, and I knew how they must
+tingle.
+
+Ten minutes after, I was in the lane, in time to meet Polly Hopley, in
+her best bonnet and with a key in her hand, going up to the cottage
+door.
+
+She smiled as she saw me, hurried to the cottage, unlocked the door, and
+stood back for me to enter.
+
+"Been out, Polly?"  I said.
+
+"Yes, sir, of course.  Father took me to see the cricket match.  Doctor
+Browne told father we might come into the field, and it were lovely.
+But why didn't you play?"
+
+I told her, and she expressed her sympathy.  Then, in a very decided
+way,--
+
+"Sweets and puffs aren't good for you, sir, and I won't sell you one
+to-day."
+
+"I don't want any, Polly," I replied.  "I was going to ask you to sell
+me a cup of tea."
+
+"And I won't do that neither, sir; but I'm going to make myself some
+directly, and if you'll condescend to sit down in father's big chair and
+have some, I should be glad."
+
+To the girl's great delight, I accepted her offer.  The kettle hanging
+over the smouldering fire of wood ashes was soon boiling, and I partook
+of a delicious tea, with fresh water-cresses from the spring, and cream
+in my tea from the General's dairy, while Polly cut bread and butter,
+and chatted about "father's" troubles with the poachers, and about the
+baits he had been getting ready for our next fishing visit to the ponds.
+Then again about the cricket match, and we were carrying on an animated
+conversation when the door was thrown quickly open, and Bob Hopley
+appeared.
+
+"Oh, dad, how you startled me!" cried Polly, jumping up.
+
+"Startled you, my lass?  I heerd loud talking and I'd been told young
+Magglin had come down this way, and I thought it was him."
+
+"I saw him just before I came in, over by the pond there by the copse,"
+I said.
+
+"He wasn't likely to be in here, father," said Polly primly.  "I should
+like to catch him trying to come in."
+
+"So should I," said the keeper grimly.  "I'd try oak that time 'stead o'
+hazel."
+
+"Hush, dad! do adone," whispered Polly.  Then aloud--
+
+"Master Burr's been poorly all day, and as they were all feasting and
+junketing at the school, he come down here to ask me to make him some
+tea, and he's very welcome, aren't he, father?"
+
+"I should just think he is, my lass.  But fill up his cup again, and
+he's got no fresh butter."
+
+"I've done," I said; "and oh, I do feel so much better now!  Do you know
+what a bad sick headache is?"
+
+"No, my lad, no.  I aren't had one since--"
+
+"Oh, father!"
+
+"Come, Polly, don't be hard on a man.  That was only the club feast."
+
+"I haven't patience with such feasts," said Polly sharply.  "I never go
+to feasts, and come back--"
+
+"Poorly, my lass, poorly," said Bob hastily.
+
+"Yes, very poorly," said Polly sarcastically, "and say, `My head's fit
+to split,' next day.  Seems to me that's all such heads are fit for
+then--to split and burn."
+
+"Nay, nay, my lass, they burn quite enough, I can tell 'ee.  Man does do
+stoopid things sometimes."
+
+Bob was very apologetic about sitting down to tea, with me there.  Then
+of course I apologised, and sat watching him drinking great draughts out
+of a basin and devouring huge slices of bread and butter.
+
+"Rare stuff kettle broth, sir," he said.  "Don't give you no headaches;
+do it, Polly?"
+
+"No, father."
+
+"She don't make it strong enough for that, Mr Burr, sir," he continued,
+giving me a wink.
+
+"Quite as strong as is good for you, father."
+
+"Right, my lass," said Bob, helping himself to some more cream, "and not
+so strong as is good for you."
+
+I rose to go soon after, and the keeper joined with his daughter in
+absolutely refusing to let me pay for my meal.
+
+"Glad to have seen you, sir; and now mind that as soon as ever your
+young friend Mas' Mercer--Mas' Bri'sh Museum, as I call him--is ready,
+and you can get a day, I'll take you to our stock pond, where the carps
+and tenches are so thick, they're asking to be caught.  You shall have a
+day."
+
+"Good-bye, Polly," I said, shaking hands.  "You've quite cured my head."
+
+"I am so glad, sir!" she cried; and I went back to the school, Bob
+seeing me part of the way, and saying to me confidentially as we
+walked,--
+
+"You see me leathering that poaching vagabond Magglin, sir.  It's like
+this.  The reason for it was--No, sir.  Good-night.  You're too young to
+talk about that sort o' thing.  Don't forget about the fish."
+
+He hurried away without another word, while I went on, and found Tom
+Mercer looking for me, and eager to hear where I had been.
+
+"What a shame!" he cried.  "The high tea was very jolly, but I missed
+you.  I wish I'd gone too.  I say, we were licked, but it was a splendid
+match after all.  Hallo! here's Hodson.  The chaps all went off on their
+'bus cheering and--Hooray, Hodson! what a day!"
+
+"Yes; but I say," said the lad, "Burr major's lost his watch."
+
+"His watch!" cried Mercer, giving quite a jump.  "Oh!"
+
+"Yes; he left it in his waistcoat in the tent when he stripped for his
+innings, and when he felt for it some time after, it was gone."
+
+"Then he didn't miss it directly?"  I said.
+
+"No, not till a little while ago.  A lot of the fellows are up in the
+field searching for it.  Haven't either of you seen it, have you?"
+
+"No," I said, and Mercer shook his head.
+
+"Come on and help look for it," cried Hodson; and we went up to the
+field, where the tent was still standing, it being understood that the
+men were to come and take it down in the morning.
+
+"Lucky they were not here," I said, "or some of them might have been
+suspected of taking it."
+
+"Yes, it would be ugly for them," assented Hodson.  "You see, nobody but
+our boys and the Hastings chaps went into the tent, except the servants
+to lay the tables, and of course they wouldn't have taken it."
+
+"But they may have found it," I said.  "He is sure to have dropped it
+somewhere in the grass."
+
+"Of course," cried Mercer; "and some one has put his foot on it and
+smashed the glass."
+
+"Get out, Senna! you always make the worst of every thing," cried Hodson
+merrily; and soon after, we reached the field, where the boys were
+spread about, looking in all kinds of possible and impossible places--
+impossible because Burr major had never been near them after he had put
+on his things.
+
+"Are you sure that you brought your watch out in the field," said Mr
+Hasnip, who was one of the group standing by Burr major.
+
+"Oh yes, sir, certain."
+
+"But it does not do to be too certain, my lad.  Have you been up in your
+bedroom, and looked there?"
+
+"No, sir, because I was so sure I brought it out."
+
+"Why were you so sure?"
+
+"Because--because I thought I would wear it, as we had strangers
+coming."
+
+"Never mind, you may have altered your mind.  Go and look.  You see we
+have thoroughly searched every place where you could have been."
+
+"I'll go and look, sir," said Burr major, "but it's of no use."
+
+He went off toward the schoolhouse, and Mr Rebble then coming up, the
+two masters began to talk about the missing watch.
+
+"It is so awkward," said Mr Rebble.  "We can't write and ask the party
+if either of them took a watch by mistake.  Stop!  I have it."
+
+"The watch?" cried Mr Hasnip eagerly.
+
+"No.  Wait till he comes back, and I think I can explain it all."
+
+We had not long to wait before Burr major came back to us.
+
+"No, sir," he said.  "I've looked everywhere; it isn't in my room."
+
+"Then I think I can help you," said Mr Rebble.  "What jacket and vest
+are those you have on?"
+
+"My third best, sir."
+
+"Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Burr major wonderingly.
+
+"Look at them," continued Mr Rebble.  "Are they really your own things,
+and not the clothes of one of our visitors taken by mistake, and he has
+taken yours."
+
+Burr major slipped off his jacket and held it up in the dusk to point
+out a label inside the collar, where, worked in blue silk upon white
+satin, was the name of the maker, his own father.
+
+"Yes, that's yours," said Mr Rebble in a disappointed tone.  "I thought
+that the mistake might have been made.  But the vest--are you sure of
+that?"
+
+"Oh yes," said Burr major, who then looked inside the collar and found
+the same maker's name.
+
+"I thought that, sir," said Burr major; "but I could feel that they were
+my things as soon as I put them on.  I say, has any fellow taken my
+watch for a game?"
+
+There was silence at first, then a murmur of, "No, no, no;" and, as it
+was getting too dark now to resume the search, we all trooped back to
+the schoolroom to sit and talk over the one event which had spoiled what
+would otherwise have been a most enjoyable day, for, as Tom Mercer said
+when we went up to bed,--
+
+"It's nicer for those Hastings chaps to have won.  They've gone back
+jollier.  By and by we shall be going over to play them, and then we
+shall be in the eleven, and must win."
+
+A pause.
+
+"I said, `And then we must win.'"
+
+"Yes, I heard you."
+
+"Then why didn't you speak?"
+
+"Because I was thinking about Burr major's watch."
+
+"Oh, bother his watch!" said Mercer hastily.  "I'm beginning to be glad
+that he has lost it.  Now he won't be always flourishing it in your face
+and seeming to say, `Poor fellow, I'm sorry you haven't got a watch
+too.'"
+
+"Well, you needn't be so cross about it," I said.
+
+"Why needn't I?  One gets sick of his watch.  There's always been a fuss
+about it ever since he came back with it.  It's lost now, and a jolly
+good job too.  Now we've heard the end of it.  Old Eely's watch is
+regularly wound up."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.
+
+But we had not heard the end of it, for the Doctor was so much annoyed
+that he sent Mr Hasnip on a private diplomatic visit to his brother
+schoolmaster at Hastings, to speak of the trouble we were in, and to ask
+if it were possible that the watch had been taken by mistake.
+
+Mr Hasnip's mission was as useless as the search made by the boys, who
+all stood round while the men took down the tent, so as to make sure
+that no strangers should be more successful than we were.
+
+But the tent was carted away, poles, flags, and all, and then we resumed
+our search over the space where the erection had stood, even up to the
+hedge, and boys were sent over it to peer about in the ditch beyond.
+
+Every minute out of school hours was devoted to the search for Burr
+major's watch, but there was no result; and when Mr Hasnip returned,
+soon after the boys had again given up the hunt, and told the Doctor
+what he had done, he came away, and saw Mr Rebble, who told Burr major,
+and Burr major told Hodson who was the medium that conveyed to the boys
+generally the fact that the Doctor had shaken his head.
+
+The next day came, and the next, and another day passed, with the
+memories of the cricket match growing more faint.  Burr major's watch
+was not found, and, after the first two days, the boys had ceased to
+look suspiciously at one another, and charge a school-fellow with having
+hid the watch "for a game."  Lessons went on as usual, and my riding was
+kept up, but the cob was only brought over once a week.
+
+I had a pretty good time at the drilling though, but that was only in
+company with the other boys.
+
+Then the days grew to weeks, and we had our trip to Hastings; that is to
+say, our eleven; and, being free from headache this time, both Mercer
+and I played, all coming back in triumph, and nearly sending the private
+omnibus horses off at a wild gallop as we neared the school: for we came
+back to announce that we had beaten our adversaries in one innings, they
+having scored so badly that they had to follow on.
+
+This trip revived the talk about Burr major's watch, but only for a day
+or two, and then once more the topic died out, though I heard
+incidentally from Mr Hasnip that the Doctor was bitterly grieved at
+such a loss taking place in his school.
+
+I worked hard in those days, and made rapid progress, I afterwards
+found, though I did not grasp it at the time, and I had now grown to
+like my school life intensely.
+
+Now and then a letter came from the General, asking leave for Mercer and
+me to go over to early dinner, the old gentleman welcoming us warmly,
+and making me give proofs of my progress in all parts of my education
+that had a military bearing.  Then we were sent back in the dog-cart,
+generally with a crown a piece, and a big basket of fruit--a present,
+this latter, which made us very popular with the other boys, who envied
+our luck, as they called it, greatly, particularly our expeditions to
+the General's ponds, from which we brought creels full of trophies in
+triumph.  But only to have our pride lowered by the cook, to whom we
+took our prizes, that lady declaring them all to be rubbish except the
+eels, and those, she said, were too muddy to be worth the trouble of
+taking off their skins.
+
+Then, too, we had natural history excursions to make additions to the
+museum in the bin.
+
+I thoroughly enjoyed these trips, and became the most enthusiastic of
+collectors, but I regret to say that with possession my interest ceased.
+
+Mercer bullied me sharply, but it was of no good.  If lizards were to be
+plunged in spirits and suspended by a silken thread or fine wire to the
+cork of the bottle, he had to do it; and though he showed me how, at
+least a dozen times, to skin a snake through its mouth, so as to strip
+off the covering whole and ready to fill up with sand, so as to preserve
+its shape, he never could get me to undertake the task.
+
+Certainly I began to pin out a few butterflies on cork, but I never
+ended them, nor became an adept at skinning and mounting quadrupeds and
+birds.
+
+"It's all sheer laziness," Mercer used to say pettishly.
+
+"Not it," I said.  "I like the birds and things best unstuffed.  They
+look a hundred times better than when you've done them your way."
+
+"But they won't keep, stupid," he cried.
+
+"Good thing too.  I'd rather look at them for two days as they are, than
+for two years at your guys of things."
+
+"What!" he cried indignantly.  "Guys!"
+
+"Well, so they are," I said.  "Look at that owl; look at the squirrel,
+with one hind leg fat and the other lean, and his body so full that he
+seems to have eaten too many nuts."
+
+"But those were some of the first stuffings," he pleaded.
+
+"But the last are worse," I cried, laughing.  "Then look at the rabbit.
+Who'd ever know that was a rabbit, if it wasn't for his ears and the
+colour of his skin?  He looks more like a bladder made of fur."
+
+"But he isn't finished yet."
+
+"Nor never will be," I cried merrily.
+
+"Ah, you're getting tired of natural history," said Mercer, seating
+himself on the edge of the bin, and looking lovingly down at its
+contents, for this conversation took place up in the loft.
+
+"Wrong!"  I cried.  "I get fonder of it every day; but I'm not going to
+skin and stuff things to please anybody, not even you."
+
+"I'm sorry for you," said Mercer.  "You're going to be a soldier.  My
+father says I'm to be a doctor.  You're going to destroy, and I'm going
+to preserve."
+
+I burst out laughing.
+
+"I say, Tom," I cried, as he looked up at me innocently, in surprise at
+my mirth, and I went and sat at the other end of the bin; "had one
+better kill poor people out of their misery than preserve them to look
+like that?" and I pointed down at the half-stuffed rabbit.
+
+"Go on," he said quietly.  "Scientific people always get laughed at.  I
+don't mind."
+
+"More do I."
+
+"I've had lots of fun out of all these things, and it's better than
+racing all over a field, kicking a bag of wind about, and knocking one
+another down in a charge, and then playing more sacks on the mill, till
+a fellow's most squeezed flat.  I hate football, and so do you."
+
+"No, you don't," I said; "you love a game sometimes as much as I do.
+What I don't like in it is, that when I'm hurt, I always want to hit
+somebody."
+
+"Yes, that is the worst of it," he said quietly; "and since I've found
+out that I can fight, I'm ever so much readier to punch anybody's head."
+
+"But you don't."
+
+"No; I don't, because it don't seem fair.  I don't care, though, how you
+laugh.  I shall go on with my natural history even when I grow a man,
+and have to drive round like father does, giving people stuff.  It gives
+you something to think about."
+
+"Yes, it gives you something to think about," I said merrily.  "I always
+get thinking about these."
+
+"I say: don't," cried Mercer; "you've upset my owl on to that blackbird.
+I wish you wouldn't be so fond of larking."
+
+"All right, Tom; I won't tease you," I said.  "It's all right, and I'll
+always go with you collecting.  I never knew there were half so many
+things to see out of doors, till I went out with you.  When shall we
+have a regular good walk through the General's woods?"
+
+"Any time we can get away," he cried, brightening up.  "I'm ready."
+
+"All right," I said; "then we will go first chance."
+
+"We must tell Bob Hopley we're going, or he may hear us in the wood, and
+pepper us, thinking it's old Magglin."
+
+"What?"
+
+"He said he would, if ever he caught him there."
+
+"Seen him lately?"  I said.
+
+"No; have you?"
+
+"Not since the cricket match day, when I was going to Bob Hopley's."
+
+"One of the boys said he saw him hanging about, twice over, and I
+suppose he was trying to see me, and get a shilling out of me.  I'm sure
+he's had nearly a pound out of me, that I didn't owe him.  I wish I
+wasn't so soft."
+
+"So do I."
+
+"Ah, now you're laughing at me.  Never mind, I've done with him now.
+Never a penny does he ever get out of me again."
+
+"Till next time, Tom," I said.
+
+"No, nor next time neither.  I don't suppose we shall see much more of
+him here, for Bob Hopley says that so sure as he catches him poaching,
+he shall speak out pretty plainly, so as to get him sent away.  He says
+that many a time he has let him off with a good licking, sooner than get
+him sent to prison, for he don't think prison's good for young men like
+him."
+
+"I suppose it isn't," I said thoughtfully, as I watched my companion,
+and saw how lovingly he arranged and rearranged his grotesque-looking
+creatures at the bottom and on the rough shelves of the bin that he had
+put up from time to time.
+
+And as I watched him, an idea entered my brain which tickled me so, that
+I had hard work to keep from laughing aloud, and being noticed.
+
+The idea came as he glanced at me, and moved the rabbit to the corner
+nearest to him--the absurd-looking object being carefully covered over,
+as if he was afraid I should begin joking him again about its unfinished
+state.
+
+All at once, moved by the impulse which had set me laughing, I leaned
+over and stretched out my hand toward the corner where he had placed the
+rabbit.
+
+"What are you going to do?" he cried excitedly, and he caught my wrist.
+
+"Only going to take out bunny, and see how he's getting on."
+
+"No, no, don't."
+
+"Why not?"  I cried merrily.
+
+"Because--because I don't want it touched."
+
+"But I can improve it so."
+
+"No, no: be quiet.  Oh, I say, Frank, pray don't touch it."
+
+"Oh, all right," I said, after a good-humoured struggle with him, in
+which I did not use much force, and I let him shut the bin, and sit on
+the lid.
+
+Dinner!
+
+For the bell began to ring, and I dashed down, to run out of the stable
+and across the yard, expecting that he would follow me, and running so
+blindly that I came right upon Dicksee, just leaving the stable door,
+and sent him down upon his hands and knees.
+
+"Hallo!"  I shouted; "what were you doing there?--listening?"
+
+"What's that to you?" grumbled the boy, as he rose slowly and carefully,
+examining his hands to see if the skin was off.  "You did that on
+purpose."
+
+"No, I didn't," I replied; "but I would have done it, if I had known you
+were sneaking and eavesdropping there."
+
+"Who was sneaking and eavesdropping?  What was there to listen to?" he
+retorted.  "'Tain't your stable.  I've as good a right there as you
+have.  Tom Mercer and you ain't going to have it all to yourselves for
+your old slugs and snails and dead cats."
+
+"You mind Tom Mercer doesn't catch you," I said.  "You don't want him to
+lick you again, I know."
+
+"Yah!" he shouted, and he ran off just as my companion came down.
+
+"Who was that?" he said.
+
+"Fatty Dicksee.  I told him you'd give him another dressing down if he
+came sneaking about here."
+
+"And so I will," cried Tom.  "He has never forgiven me, though, for the
+last.  I know he hates me.  So does Eely hate you."
+
+"Let 'em," I said, as we went on.
+
+"But they'll serve us out some day if they can."
+
+"Dinner--dinner!"  I cried.  "Come on!" and we set off at a trot, for
+the prospect of hot roast mutton and potatoes just then was of far more
+consequence to me than my school-fellow's prophecies of evil.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.
+
+I thought of my little plan that night when I went to bed, and I had it
+in my mind when I woke next morning, and laughed over it merrily as I
+dressed.
+
+It was the merest trifle, but it amused me; and I have often thought
+since of what big things grow sometimes out of the merest trifles.
+School-days are often so monotonous that boys jump at little things for
+their entertainment, and as there was some good-humoured mischief in
+this which would do no one any harm, only create a laugh, in which Tom
+Mercer would no doubt join after he had got over the first feeling of
+vexation, I had no hesitation about putting it in force.
+
+I had to wait for my opportunity, and it came that afternoon, when most
+of the boys were together cricketing and playing rounders.  I glanced
+round the field, and then slipped away unobserved, made my way round by
+the back, and crossed the open space toward the yard.
+
+It was absolutely necessary for me to meet no one, so as to avoid
+suspicion when Mercer found out what had been done, and I intended, as
+soon as I had executed my little plan, to slip back by the same way into
+the play-field, so as to be able to prove where I was on that afternoon.
+
+But, as a matter of course, just because I did not wish to meet any one,
+I must meet the cook just returning from the kitchen garden with a
+bundle of thyme in her hand.
+
+Everybody spoke of Cook as being disagreeable and ready to snap and
+snarl if she were asked for anything extra because a boy was sick; but
+they say, "Speak well of the bridge that carries you well over," and I
+always found her the most kindly of women; and she nodded and smiled.
+
+"What boys you and Master Mercer are!" she said.  "Why, you are always
+going and moping up in that loft instead of being in the fields at
+play."
+
+She went on toward the house, and I stood hesitating about carrying out
+my plan.
+
+"She knows I've come," I said, "and if there is a row, and questions
+asked, she may say that she saw me."
+
+"Nonsense! she'll never hear about it," I said, and, running into the
+dark stable, I stopped short, for I fancied there was a sound overhead;
+but I heard no more, and, thinking it was fancy, I ran to the steps,
+climbed up, and was crossing the floor when I heard a faint rustling in
+a heap of straw at the far end, in the darkest corner of the loft.
+
+"Rats," I said to myself, as I went on to the place where the big bin
+stood under a little window, passed it, and reached up to take the key
+from the beam upon which it was always laid, the simplicity of the
+hiding-place making it all the more secure.
+
+To my utter astonishment, the key was not there, but a second glance
+showed me that it was in the padlock.
+
+"Been up here and forgot to lock it," I said to myself.  "All the better
+for me.  Some one else may have been up, and done it through his leaving
+the key there."
+
+I laughed to myself as I took the padlock out and threw open the bin,
+with the intention of having what I called a game.
+
+This was to consist in my arranging the various stuffed creatures in as
+comical a way as I could; and my first thought was to take the rabbit,
+alter its position a little, and lay it upon an extemporised bed, with
+the doctor--the owl--holding one paw to feel its pulse, while all the
+other creatures looked on.
+
+"What shall be the matter with him?"  I thought.  Then directly--"I
+know: all his stuffing come out."
+
+I seized the owl, and found that I could easily twist the wire down its
+leg, so that the claw would appear to be grasping the rabbit's wrist,
+while the sage-looking bird stood on one leg; and, satisfied in this, I
+was about to arrange the jay and other birds, but thought I would do the
+rabbit first, and, taking it up, I thrust my hand in the orifice made in
+the skin when taking it off, and pulled out a good piece of tow, meaning
+to leave it hanging down.  Then I thrust my hand in again, and drew it
+out in astonishment, for I had taken hold of something hard and flat and
+round.  What it was I could not see; it was too much surrounded by the
+tow.  Then I laughed.
+
+"Why, it's a big leaden nicker!"  I said to myself.  "Why did he put
+that in?  I know.  There are holes in it to fix wire to, and--" I turned
+cold and queer the next instant, as I divided the soft tow, and stood
+staring down, with the light from the little window falling full upon
+that which I held in my hand.  Then I felt puzzled and confused; but the
+next minute I uttered quite a sob, for light flashed into my brain:
+memories of what I had so often heard my chosen companion say, the envy
+he had displayed, and the way in which all at once Burr major's watch
+had disappeared from his jacket in the cricket-field,--all came back
+with a force that seemed to cause a singing noise in my ears, for here
+before me was the end of it all,--the explanation of the disappearance
+of the watch, which was now lying in my hand, with the hands close
+together and pointing to twelve.  At last uttering a sound that was
+almost a groan, I muttered,--
+
+"Oh, Tom, Tom, how could you do such a thing as this?"
+
+The feeling of confusion came back like a thick mist floating over me,
+and I turned the watch over in my hand two or three times, asking myself
+what I should do.
+
+Should I take it to Burr major, and say I had picked it up?  Should I go
+and confide in Mr Hasnip?  Should I go straight to Tom Mercer and
+accuse him of taking it?
+
+No, no, no: I felt that I could do none of these things, and in a
+dreary, slow, helpless way, I thrust the watch back in amongst the tow,
+rammed more in after it, and then stood, after laying the rabbit down,
+asking myself what I should do next, while a poignant sense of misery
+and wretchedness seemed to make my position unbearable.
+
+It all came back now: how, ever since Burr major had that watch, Mercer
+had been envious, and longed for it.  Scarcely a day had passed that he
+had not said something about his longings; and now here it was plainly
+enough before me: he had gone on coveting that wretched toy till the
+desire had been too strong for him, and it had ended in my manly,
+quaint, good-tempered school-fellow descending to become a contemptible
+pickpocket and thief.
+
+The blood flushed up into my cheeks and made them burn, while my fists
+clenched hard, and I thought to myself that I had learned boxing for
+some purpose.
+
+"I can't go and tell tales of him," I said.  "I can't betray him, for it
+would disgrace him for ever.  He would be expelled from the school, and,
+shamefaced and miserable, go home to his father and mother, who would be
+nearly broken-hearted.  No.  I can't tell."
+
+Then I felt that, painful as it would be to confess all, and speak
+against the boy I had grown to care for as if he had been my brother, I
+ought to go straight to the Doctor and tell him.  It was my duty, and it
+might act beneficially for Tom Mercer.  The severe punishment might be
+such a lesson to him that it would check what otherwise might prove to
+be a downward course.  If I were silent, he might do such a thing again,
+as this had been so easy; and get worse and worse.  I must--I ought to
+tell, I said to myself; and then, as I dropped on my knees by the old
+bin, and rested my head on the edge, the hot tears came to my eyes, and
+my misery seemed greater than I could bear, for I felt it as bitterly as
+if I myself had been led into this disgraceful crime.
+
+I rose again with a clearer view of what I should do under the
+circumstances, for I had been having a terrible fight with bewildering
+thoughts; now thinking I would lock up the bin and go away as if I had
+not found the watch, and do nothing but separate myself from my
+school-fellow, now going in the opposite direction, in which I felt
+quite determined.
+
+"That's it," I said to myself.  "I shall break with Tom Mercer for ever,
+but I'll tell him why.  We've learned to box for something, and perhaps
+he'll be best man.  No, he won't.  I shall have right on my side, and as
+he is guilty he will feel cowardly.  I will thrash him till he can
+hardly crawl, and then, when he is weak and miserable, I'll tell him all
+I have found out, and make him go and put the watch back where Eely can
+find it, and then it will never be known who took it, and Mercer will
+not be expelled in disgrace as a common thief.  Why, it would break his
+mother's heart!"
+
+"Yes, that will be the way," I thought, feeling clearer and more
+relieved now.  "It shall be a secret, but I will punish him as severely
+as I can, and though we shall never be friends again, I'll try hard to
+check him from going downward like that, and though he will hate me for
+what I have done, he will thank me some day when he has grown up to be a
+man."
+
+I closed the lid of the bin and thrust the top of the padlock through
+the staple and locked it; withdrew the key, and had raised my hand
+mechanically to put it in its old hiding-place on the beam, but I
+altered my mind.
+
+"No," I thought; "I'll bring him up here, and give him the key then, and
+make him open the bin and take out the watch before I thrash him.  It
+shall be a lesson for him from beginning to end.  He must have some
+shame in him, and I want him to feel it, so that he can never forget it
+again."
+
+I thrust the key into my pocket and went down into the yard.  It was a
+glorious sunny afternoon when I went up into the loft, and the weather
+had not changed; but everything seemed to be overclouded and wretched
+now, as I started off for the play-field, determined to waste no time,
+but take the culprit to task at once.
+
+I looked about, and could see Burr major, but Mercer was not there, and
+I crossed to where I could see little Wilson, and asked if he had seen
+him.
+
+"Senna!" he cried; "yes, I saw him a little while ago.  Perhaps he's by
+the gardens, digging up grubs and things to make physic."
+
+I could not smile then, but went to the gardens.  He was not there, and,
+thinking he might have gone up to our room, I went into the house, and
+up to the dormitories; but my journey was vain, and I went down again,
+and once more sought the field, to look all over at the little parties
+playing cricket, dotted here and there, but no Mercer.  To my great
+surprise, though, I saw Dicksee talking earnestly to Burr major.
+
+"They've made it up," I thought, and it seemed to me very contemptible
+and small of Burr major to take up again with a boy who had behaved so
+despicably to him.
+
+I passed pretty near them as I went on across the field, and they both
+looked at me rather curiously--in a way, in fact, which made me think
+that they were plotting something against me.  Perhaps a fresh fight.
+
+"Well, I don't mind now," I said to myself.  "Nothing seems of any
+consequence but Tom Mercer's act.  Where can he be?"
+
+I had another look round, and then saw that Burr major, Hodson, and
+Dicksee had gone up to the house together, and directly after they
+disappeared, while I went on again, asking after Mercer, to find that
+every one nearly had seen him only a little while before, but they could
+not tell me where he was gone.
+
+I kept on looking about, though I half suspected that he must have gone
+off on some little expedition of his own, as it was half holiday; and,
+at the end of another half-hour, I was about to stand near the gate, to
+watch for his return, when I caught sight of him, apparently coming from
+the direction of the yard, as if he had been to the loft.
+
+"Oh, here you are then!" he cried, as, after catching sight of me, he
+ran to meet me, and began vehemently.  "I've been hunting everywhere for
+you."
+
+"I have been hunting everywhere for you," I said coldly.
+
+"Have you?  Well, look here, Frank, I was up in the loft last night, and
+I forgot to lock up the bin."
+
+It was just as I thought.
+
+"I forgot it once or twice before, thinking about something else; and
+now some one has been and locked it up, and taken the key away."
+
+"Indeed?"  I said coldly.
+
+"Yes.  Don't look at a fellow that way.  I didn't say you'd taken it,
+because, of course, if you had, you would have put it up on the beam.  I
+say, who could it have been?"
+
+"Ah! who could it have been?"  I said.
+
+"What's the matter with you?  How queer you are!  I tell you, I don't
+think it was you, but old fatty Dicksee; I've seen him sneaking about
+the yard a good deal lately, watching me, and he must have found out
+where we kept the key, and he has nailed it for some lark, or to tease
+me.  Yes, that's it.  You see if, next time we go, we don't find a dead
+dog, or a dead cat, or something nasty, tucked in the bin.  Some of 'em
+served me that way before, when Bob Hopley's old donkey died, and they
+put in its head.  What shall we do?"
+
+"Nothing," I said.  "I have the key."
+
+"You have?  Oh, I am glad!"
+
+"I went up and found the key there, so I locked it and put it in my
+pocket."
+
+"Why didn't you put it in the old place, and not give me all this
+fright?"
+
+"You know," I said solemnly.
+
+"I--er--er--know--er--er--" he drawled tragically.  "Dear me, how grand
+we are!" he added, with a forced laugh.  "No, I don't know."
+
+"Then come up there with me, and I'll show you," I said fiercely.
+
+"Oh, sir--no, sir--please, sir--don't, sir--I, sir--Oh, sir--I won't do
+so any more, sir.  Don't take me up there, sir, and punch my head, sir."
+
+"Don't play the fool, but come along with me."
+
+"Why, Frank, old chap, you aren't serious, are you?  What's the matter?"
+
+"Come up into the loft and see," I replied, as sternly as I could, but
+feeling so miserable that I could hardly keep my voice from quivering.
+
+"Oh, all right!  I'm ready," he said rather stiffly now.  "I've done
+nothing to offend you that I know of.  Come on."
+
+We moved toward the yard, but before we reached the gateway, without
+speaking now, our names were shouted, and, stopping and looking round, I
+saw Mr Hasnip and Mr Rebble coming after us, the former beckoning.
+
+We turned and walked toward him, with a cold sensation of dread running
+through me; for what I knew made me shiver with dread, lest the real
+cause of the disappearance of the watch should have been discovered; and
+I remembered now about my headache on the cricket match day, and how
+Mercer had hung about near me, going and coming between me and the tent.
+
+The next moment we were facing the two masters, and Mr Rebble spoke,
+looking at me very severely.
+
+"Burr junior," he said, "the Doctor wishes to see you in his room
+directly."
+
+I felt as if I had turned white, and I saw Mr Hasnip looking at me in a
+horrified way, as Mr Rebble continued:
+
+"And, Mercer, you are to come as well."
+
+"Poor Tom!"  I thought, as my hot anger against him died away.  "It is
+all found out.  What will we do?  I shall have to tell the whole truth."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SIX.
+
+Everything seemed to me as if we were in a dream, and I grew more and
+more troubled as we were marched in separately to the Doctor's library,
+where to my astonishment I found Burr major and Dicksee standing, while
+the Doctor sat back in his big chair, with one hand over his eyes.
+
+I glanced once at Mercer, but he did not meet my eyes, and we took our
+places as pointed out by Mr Rebble, who then stood waiting, and at last
+coughed softly.
+
+"Yes, Mr Rebble," said the Doctor huskily, as he dropped his hand, and
+I saw that there was a look of pain on his plump face that I had not
+seen before.  "Yes, Mr Rebble, I see.  I was trying to arrange my
+thoughts, so as to meet this painful case calmly.  Pray sit down, Mr
+Rebble--Mr Hasnip."
+
+The two ushers took chairs, and we boys alone remained standing, while
+the Doctor cleared his throat, and spoke in a way which drew me toward
+him as I had never felt drawn before, since, boy-like, I had been rather
+too apt to look upon my instructor as one of the enemies of my life.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said, "I look upon what I have learned as a catastrophe
+to my school, a trouble more painful than I can express, but, for all
+our sakes, I hope that the dark cloud will prove to be a mist of error,
+which by calm investigation we shall be able to disperse, for, be it
+understood, I make no accusation."
+
+Mr Rebble and Mr Hasnip both coughed, the Doctor sighed, glanced at
+me, and then went on.
+
+"Burr major, you have already told me that you had a presentation silver
+watch from your father."
+
+I had been hoping that I was in error, and that we were called in for
+reproof about some trivial matter, but now my spirits sank.
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And that, on the day of the cricket match, you left that watch in your
+vest on the form at the back of the cricket tent?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"That, when you returned to the tent, and resumed your garments, you
+afterwards found the watch gone?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"That every search was made, and that, though, as you say, you had
+suspicions, about which we will talk by and by, that watch was never
+found?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+I glanced at Mercer, but he was staring hard at Burr major.
+
+"Now, Dicksee," said the Doctor, "have the goodness to repeat what you
+told me a short time back."
+
+"Yes, sir," said Dicksee eagerly.  "I went up into the big loft over the
+stable this afternoon, to see if I could find some nice stout pieces of
+straw in one of the old trusses to make jackstraws with, when I heard
+somebody coming."
+
+I started as I remembered fancying I heard some one in the loft.
+
+"Yes; go on."
+
+"I looked out of the window, and saw it was Burr junior, so I went and
+hid myself in the straw."
+
+The rustling I thought was rats.
+
+"Why?" said the Doctor sharply.
+
+"Because Burr junior and Mercer are so jealous about any other boy going
+up there, and they would have knocked me about, as you know, sir, they
+did once before, for being up there."
+
+"It isn't true!"  I cried.
+
+"Silence, sir," said the Doctor.  "You shall be heard afterwards.  Go
+on, Dicksee."
+
+"Yes, sir, please, sir.  So I hid under the straw, and then I saw Burr
+junior come up into the loft, and look round, and out of the window, and
+everywhere but in the straw."
+
+"State what you saw simply, sir," said the Doctor sternly; "and
+recollect that you do not stand upon a very good pedestal, for you were
+playing one of the meanest parts a human being can take, that of a spy."
+
+"Hear! hear!" said the two masters together.
+
+"Please, sir, I was afraid," pleaded Dicksee.
+
+"Go on," said the Doctor.
+
+"And I saw Burr junior open the big bin where he and Mercer keep their
+rubbish."
+
+"It may not be rubbish to them," said the Doctor, "Go on, sir."
+
+"And after fiddling about a bit, and looking round to see if he was
+watched, Burr junior took up a stuffed rabbit, put his hand inside, and
+pulled out some tow, and then he opened that, and took out Burr major's
+silver watch."
+
+"How do you know it was?" said the Doctor sharply.
+
+"Because we saw it such lots of times, sir, and I knew it again
+directly."
+
+"It might have been any watch," said the Doctor.  "Go on."
+
+"Yes, sir.  And he looked at it, and played with it ever so long, and
+then wrapped it up in tow again, and stuffed it inside the rabbit, and
+then locked up the bin, put the key in his pocket, and went down."
+
+"And you?"
+
+"I waited till he had gone, sir, and then I ran and told Burr major,
+sir."
+
+"That will do.  Now, Burr major, add what you told me this afternoon;
+but bear in mind, sir, that it is your duty to be very careful, for this
+is a charge of theft--of a crime sufficient almost to ruin a
+school-fellow's career."
+
+Burr major spoke out quickly and eagerly, while I stood with my head
+down, feeling as if I were being involved in a tangle, out of which it
+seemed impossible to extricate myself.
+
+"On the day I lost my watch, sir, Burr junior and Mercer were a good
+deal about near the tent.  Burr junior would not play, because he said
+he had a bad headache, and Tom Mercer wouldn't play either."
+
+"Well, sir?"
+
+"I am very sorry to say it, sir," continued Burr major hesitatingly.
+"It's a very painful charge to make, and I never said anything before
+to-day, but I always suspected Burr junior of taking the watch."
+
+"Oh!"  I ejaculated indignantly, as I faced round, but he did not meet
+my eye.
+
+"And, pray, why?" said the Doctor.
+
+"Because, please, sir, he seemed to be hanging about so near the tent."
+
+I began to feel more confused, especially as the Doctor said then,--
+
+"Then now we will adjourn--to the loft."  I made a gesture as if to
+speak, but the Doctor raised his hand.
+
+"After a while, Burr," he said, "after a while.  Your turn will come."
+
+I felt in a whirl of emotion, for I was half stunned at the turn matters
+had taken, and I tried again to catch Mercer's eye, but he did not even
+glance at me, but stood opening and shutting his hands as he glared at
+Dicksee, who looked horribly alarmed, and as if he would like to run
+away.
+
+The Doctor signed to us to go, and we were taken through the house and
+servants' offices, so as not to attract the attention of the boys,
+reaching the yard at last, and entering the stable.
+
+My ears seemed to have bells ringing in them as we stood there, and I
+heard the Doctor say,--
+
+"Rather an awkward place for me to get up, Mr Rebble; but I suppose I
+must try."
+
+He made the effort after we had all gone before, and reached the top no
+worse off than by the addition of a little dust upon his glossy black
+coat.  Then, clearing his voice, as we all stood near the bin, in much
+the same positions as in the library, he began,--
+
+"Ah, that is the straw, I suppose.  Burr junior and Mercer have used
+this place a good deal, I believe, as a kind of atelier or workshop?"
+
+"Yes, sir," said Burr major promptly.
+
+"Then that is the bin, is it, Dicksee?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And you say you saw Burr junior lock it up.  Have you the key, Burr?"
+
+I stood gazing at him wildly without answering, and then I glanced at
+Mercer, who met my eye with a look of terror and misery that was piteous
+to see.  For now it was all to come out, and the theft would be brought
+home to him, for the poor lad to be expelled in disgrace and go home
+despairingly to those who loved him, and all because he could not
+restrain that horrible feeling of covetousness.
+
+"I said, `Have you the key, Burr junior?'" continued the Doctor more
+sternly, and I shuddered as the thought struck me now that I was
+becoming mixed up with the trouble, that they would not believe me if I
+told the truth--that truth which would be so difficult to tell for
+Mercer's sake.
+
+"Burr junior," cried the Doctor very sharply now, "have you the key of
+that padlock?"
+
+"Yes; sir," I faltered, giving quite a start now, as his words roused me
+as from a dream, and I felt horrified as I fully saw how guilty all this
+made me appear.
+
+"Take the key, Mr Rebble, if you please," continued the Doctor, looking
+more and more pained, as I withdrew the rusty little instrument from my
+pocket.  "Open the bin, please, and see if Dicksee's statement is made
+out."
+
+Mr Hasnip was, I found, looking at me, and I felt a choking sensation
+as he shook his head at me sadly.
+
+Then I glanced at Mercer, and found he was looking at me in a horrified
+way, and I let my eyes drop as I said to myself,--
+
+"Poor fellow!  I shall not have to speak; he'll confess it all.  I wish
+I could save him."
+
+And all the while the usher was unlocking the padlock, taking it from
+the staple, and throwing open the great lid back against the whitewashed
+wall, every click and grate of the iron and the creak of the old hinges
+sounding clear and loud amidst the painful silence.
+
+"Will you come and look, sir?" said Mr Rebble.
+
+"No," said the Doctor sternly.  "Is there a rabbit-skin there, as this
+boy described?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"Take it out."
+
+Mr Rebble obeyed, and once more I met Mercer's eyes gazing at me
+wildly, and, as I interpreted the look, imploring me not to speak.
+
+The miserable stuffed distortion was brought out, and I felt half
+disposed to laugh at it, as I thought of my school-fellow's queer ideas
+for a group in natural history.  But that was only a flying thought,
+succeeded by a mental pang that was most keen, as the rabbit was laid on
+the floor, and, acting on the Doctor's instructions, Mr Rebble went
+down on one knee, held the stuffed animal with one hand, and began to
+draw out the tow with the other.
+
+A great patch came out, and Mr Rebble pressed it together and then
+opened it out, and I fancied I heard the Doctor sigh with satisfaction
+at nothing being found.
+
+"It's further in, sir," cried Dicksee eagerly.
+
+"Ah! you seem to know a great deal about it, Dicksee," said the Doctor.
+
+"Yes, sir; I saw him put it in."
+
+Mr Rebble thrust in his hand again, and my spirits sank lower as he
+drew out another tuft of tow, compressed it, and then, frowning heavily,
+began to tear it open.
+
+"There is nothing there, then, Mr Rebble?" cried the Doctor eagerly.
+
+"I am sorry to say, sir, there is," said the usher, as he laid open the
+tow till it was like a nest, with the little silver watch lying
+glistening in the middle; and the Doctor drew a long breath, his
+forehead now full of deeply-cut lines.
+
+"Burr major," said the Doctor huskily.  "Have the goodness to look at
+that watch.  Is it yours?"
+
+My school-fellow stepped to the Doctor's side and looked.
+
+"Yes, sir," he said eagerly.  "That's the watch I lost."
+
+"How do you know, sir?"
+
+"My father had my initials cut in the little round spot on the case,
+sir.  There they are."
+
+The Doctor took the watch, glanced at the letters, and laid it down.
+
+"Yes," he said sadly, "that is quite right.--Mercer!"  Tom started as if
+he had received a blow, and looked wildly from one to the other.
+
+"Come here."
+
+"Oh, poor, poor Tom!"  I sighed to myself, and I looked at him
+pityingly, while he glanced at me.
+
+"Hah!" ejaculated the Doctor; "there seems to be some understanding
+between you.  Now, sir, that bin has been used by you for some time, has
+it not, for your collection?"
+
+"Yes, sir," faltered Mercer.
+
+"You and Burr junior have, I noticed, always been companions."
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"He joined you in collecting natural history objects?"
+
+"Yes, sir; a little."
+
+"Could he obtain access to that bin when he wished?  Had he a key?"
+
+"He could always get the key, sir, when he liked."  The Doctor sighed,
+and there was silence once more, while I glanced at Mercer wildly, and
+if he could have read my eyes, he would have known that they said,
+"Speak out now.  Confess, and ask the Doctor to forgive you for giving
+way to this terrible piece of covetousness."
+
+"Now," said the Doctor, and we both started at the firm, sonorous tones,
+"speak out frankly, sir.  This is no time for trying to conceal the
+truth so as to screen your friend, for I tell you that it would be an
+unkind act, and you would be injuring his future by such a mistaken
+policy.  Tell me, did you know that the watch was hidden there?"
+
+Mercer was silent.
+
+"Speak, sir," cried the Doctor.  "I insist!"
+
+"No, sir," faltered Mercer, after another appealing look at me; and in
+my agony, as I heard his words, I started forward.
+
+"Burr junior!" roared the Doctor; and I stopped as if fascinated.
+
+"Now, Mercer," he continued, "tell me.  Did you know that your
+school-fellow had that watch in his possession?"
+
+"Oh no, sir!" cried Mercer eagerly.  "I'm sure he hadn't."
+
+"Humph!" ejaculated the Doctor.  "That will do.--I wish, gentlemen," he
+continued, turning to the two masters, "to make this painful business as
+short as possible."
+
+I turned to him quickly, and as I met his eyes, I thought at first that
+he was looking at me sadly and pityingly, but his face was very stern
+next moment.
+
+"You are sure, Thomas Mercer," he said, "that you did not know the watch
+was in that bin--hidden away?"
+
+Tom looked at me again wildly, and then, with his brow all wrinkled up,
+he said in a hopeless tone full of sadness,--
+
+"No, sir--no, sir; I didn't know it was there."
+
+My hands clenched, and a burst of rage made me turn giddy for the
+moment.  For I felt as if I could have dashed at him, dragged him to his
+knees, and made him speak the truth.
+
+But that passed off as quickly as it came, and a feeling of pity came
+for the boy who, in his horror of detection, had felt himself bound to
+save himself at another's expense, and I found myself wondering whether
+under the circumstances I should not have done the same.
+
+These thoughts darted through my mind like lightning, and so did those
+which followed.
+
+"I want to save him," I said to myself, in the midst of the painful
+silence during which the Doctor stood thinking and softly wiping his
+forehead and then the palms of his hands upon his white pocket
+handkerchief; "but I can't take the credit of it all.  It is too
+horrible.  But if I tell all I know, he will be expelled, and it will
+ruin him.  Oh, why don't he confess?--why don't he confess?"
+
+It was as if the Doctor had heard these last words as I thought them,
+for he said now in a deep, grave voice, as he turned to me, just as I
+was feeling that it would be too cruel to denounce my companion,--
+
+"This is a sad--a painful affair, Burr junior.  I wanted to disbelieve
+in your guilt, I wanted to feel that there was no young gentleman in my
+establishment who could stoop to such a piece of base pilfering; but the
+truth is so circumstantially brought home through the despicable
+meanness of a boy of whose actions I feel the utmost abhorrence, that I
+am bound to say to you that there is nothing left but for you to own
+frankly that you have been led into temptation--to say that you bitterly
+repent of what you have done, and throw yourself upon my mercy.  Do this
+at once, boy, for the sake of those at home who love you."
+
+I felt my face twitch at these words and the picture they evoked, and
+then, numbed as it were, I stood listening, slightly buoyed up by the
+feeling that Mercer would speak directly and clear me.
+
+"You were entrusted to my care, Burr junior," continued the Doctor, "as
+a youth who was in future to enter upon one of the most honourable of
+careers, that of a soldier; but now that you have disgraced yourself
+like this--"
+
+"No, no, sir!"  I cried.  "Don't--pray don't think I took the wretched
+watch!"
+
+There was so much passionate agony in my voice that the Doctor paused
+for a few moments, before, in the midst of the solemn silence which
+ensued, he said coldly,--
+
+"Do you deny that you took the watch?"
+
+"Yes, yes.  Indeed, indeed I did not take it, sir!"  The Doctor sighed.
+
+"Do you deny that you were seen by Dicksee this morning with the watch
+in your hands?"
+
+"No, sir; that is true," I said, with a look at Mercer, who hung down
+his head.
+
+"Then I am bound by the statements that have been made, painful as it is
+to me, to consider that in a moment of weak impulse you did this base
+thing.  If I am wrong, Heaven forgive me, for _humanum est errare_.  The
+truth, however, seems too clear."
+
+"I--I found it there," I panted.
+
+The Doctor shook his head.
+
+"It is like charging your school-fellow with stealing the watch.  Do you
+do this?"
+
+I was silent.
+
+"Mr Rebble," said the Doctor, "you came here as a gentleman to aid me
+in the training of these youths.  Can you do anything to help me here?"
+
+"I--I," said Mr Rebble huskily, "would gladly do so, sir, if I could.
+I wouldn't trust Dicksee's word in anything.  He is as pitiful and
+contemptible a boy as ever came under my charge, but I am afraid he has
+spoken the truth here."
+
+"I fear so," said the Doctor.  "Mr Hasnip, you have--been but a short
+time among us, still you have learned the disposition of the pupils.
+Can you help me--help us?--for it is terrible to me to have to pass
+judgment in such a case."
+
+"Doctor Browne," cried Mr Hasnip warmly, and I saw the tears start to
+his eyes, "I would give anything to be able to say it is all a mistake."
+
+"But you feel that you can not?"
+
+Mr Hasnip shook his head, and turned away to hide the working of his
+face, while I stood wondering at the feeling he displayed.
+
+There was again a painful silence, and I stood there, shrinking, but
+with a hot feeling of anger swelling within me, waiting for Tom Mercer
+to speak out and save me from disgrace.  And with this hot tide of
+bitterness and rage that I should be so doubted and suspected, came a
+feeling of obstinacy that was maddening, while something within me
+seemed to say, "They would not believe you if you spoke."
+
+"No," said the Doctor at last, "I am afraid that you cannot; and I now
+address myself to you, Burr junior.  Do you confess that you are
+guilty?"
+
+"No, sir," I cried angrily, "I am not!" and again there was silence.
+
+"I think I will give you time for reflection," said the Doctor.  "Mr
+Rebble, I place Burr junior in your charge.  Of course he must be
+secluded.  I, too, want time for reflection before sending word to the
+unhappy lad's friends--a most painful task--a most painful task."
+
+He walked slowly toward the steps, and a fresh feeling of excitement
+surged up within me.  I wanted to speak now--to say something in my own
+defence, as I thought of the Doctor's letter going to my mother, and of
+her agony, then of my uncle learning this, and coming over.  It seemed
+too terrible, and I tried to call the Doctor back, but no words would
+come.  I saw him descend slowly, and Mr Hasnip sign to the boys to
+follow, after which, giving me a sad look, he too descended, leaving me
+alone with Mr Rebble, whose first words were so stern and harsh that I
+could not turn to him and confide and ask his sympathy and help.
+
+"This way, sir," he said sharply, and without a word I followed him down
+and across the stable-yard, passing cook at the door ready to give me a
+pitying glance for being in disgrace.
+
+Then, as if it was all a dream, I was led into the house, and up-stairs
+to a small room containing only one bed--a room whose window looked out
+away toward the General's estates.
+
+The door was closed behind me without a word, and as I stood there I
+heard it locked and the key withdrawn, followed by Mr Rebble's
+footsteps along the passage, and then I threw myself down on the bed in
+a passion of rage against Mercer.
+
+"You coward!"  I cried, and as I ground my teeth I indulged in a wish
+that I could have him there.
+
+"Oh!"  I cried, "only for half an hour, and then--" I did not finish my
+sentence, but bounded off the bed to stand up there alone, unconsciously
+enough in the position Lomax had taught me, and with my left hand raised
+to strike.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
+
+It was very different to be a prisoner now alone.  I longed for Mercer's
+companionship, but it was so that I might punish him for what I again
+and again called his miserable cowardice, which seemed to me to make his
+crime ten times worse.  And so I walked up and down the little room
+restlessly, thinking over the times when my school-fellow had talked
+about the watch, and his intense longing to possess it, or such a one.
+
+Nothing could be plainer.  He had given way at last, and taken it on
+that unlucky day when he was hanging about talking to me as I lay on the
+grass with my head throbbing, and then walking away toward the tent or
+to where he could get a good look at the cricketers.
+
+"Too much for him," I said,--"too much for him, and I am to take the
+credit of his theft.  But I will not.  If he is such a mean coward as to
+let me take his stealing on my shoulders, he is not worth sparing, and
+he shall take the credit for himself--upon his own shoulders and not
+mine."
+
+"Oh, what an ass I have been ever to make friends with such a fellow!"
+I cried, after a pause.  "I ought to have known better.  Never mind, I
+do know better now, and to-morrow morning I'll ask to see the Doctor,
+and I'll tell him everything, and--get him expelled!"
+
+That set me thinking once more about his people at home, and as I did, I
+began to waver, and call to mind how terrible it would be, and that I
+liked him too well in spite of all.
+
+For I did like him.  I had never had a brother, and he had seemed to
+fill his place, so that now, for the first time, I fully understood how
+we two lads had become knit together, and how terribly hard it would be
+to speak out.
+
+I sat down by the window at last, to let the cool breeze play upon my
+aching temples, and as I leaned my head against the side, the cheery
+voices of the boys in the field floated up to me, to make me more
+wretched still.
+
+"It's nothing to them," I said to myself.  "Nobody there cares, and Eely
+and Dicksee were only too glad to have their revenge upon me.  I don't
+know, though," I said; "they both thought I took the watch, and believed
+all they said.  But it was a triumph for them."
+
+I sat thinking.
+
+"I wonder what Lomax will say?  Will he believe that I am a common
+thief?
+
+"What is Tom doing now?  Out at play, I suppose, and glorying in his
+escape.  He knows I would not be such a sneak as to tell, and thinks I
+shall bear it all patiently--too ready to spare him, or too cowardly to
+say a word."
+
+I was interrupted by steps, and in my misery I hoped that they would
+pass the door, but a key was thrust in, and I caught a glimpse of Mr
+Rebble, who waited outside while one of the maids brought in my tea on a
+tray,--a plain mug, and a plate of bread and butter; then she gave me a
+look of commiseration, making my cheeks burn, as I wondered whether she
+knew that I was shut up because people thought I was a thief, and unfit
+to associate with the other boys.  But no word was spoken; she passed
+out, the door was shut and locked, and I rested my aching head once more
+against the side of the window, the very sight of food making me feel
+disgust; and there I stayed for how long I cannot say, but at last I
+started up, puzzled and wondering, to find that I must have dropped
+asleep, regularly wearied out, and that it was growing dusk, and the
+moon, like a thin curved streak, was sailing down in the faint glow of
+the heavens, not far from where the sun had gone.
+
+I shivered a little, for I was cold, but my head was better, and I began
+to go over the events of the afternoon again, wondering whether the
+Doctor would send for me in the morning, to say that Mercer had
+confessed, and that he was glad to be able once more to take me by the
+hand.
+
+Just then I heard a faint sigh, apparently coming up from the garden,
+and I involuntarily looked down, but could see nothing.
+
+The sigh rose again, and now I was able to locate it in a clump of
+evergreens at the edge of the lawn.  But I could see nothing save green
+leaves; and started again and drew back a little a few minutes later, as
+the sigh was again repeated, this time followed by a faint whisper, and
+I heard my name.
+
+"Frank--Frank Burr.  Hist!"
+
+"Yes; who called?"  I said.
+
+"Me.  Can't you hear?  Tom--Tom Mercer."
+
+I was silent, and stood, feeling hot and angry, gazing down into the
+grounds.
+
+"Frank!" came up again.  "I say!"
+
+I remained silent.
+
+"Have you got any string?  Let a piece down."
+
+I knew what that meant.  He had been to the kitchens and was going to
+send me up some supper.  In other words, he was going to try and smooth
+over his despicable behaviour.
+
+"A coward!  A sneak!  I hate him!"  I muttered, as I stood there close
+to the window, as if unable to drag myself away, but listening greedily
+all the while, as Mercer went on in an excited whisper, insulting me, as
+I called it.
+
+"Oh, I say, do speak, Frank," he said.  "I can't stop long, and there'd
+be a row if any one knew I came to you.  I am so sorry, Frank.  I've
+been down to Polly Hopley's, and bought a lot of her turnovers and some
+sweet tuck.  I want to send it up to you.  Haven't you any string?"
+
+I made no reply.
+
+"Frank!  I say: I know: tear up your handkerchiefs.  I'll give you some
+of mine to make up.  Tie the bits together so as to make a long string,
+and let it down.  Frank!"
+
+"Go away, you miserable, cowardly sneak!"  I cried passionately; "and
+never dare to speak to me again."
+
+He was silent for a few minutes, as if stunned by my fierce words.  Then
+he began again.
+
+"Oh, I say," he whispered, "don't turn on a chap like that when he was
+going to stick to you.  I couldn't help it."
+
+I knew that the temptation had been too strong for him, but I was none
+the less bitter against him, and my wrath reached its climax soon after,
+when he said eagerly,--
+
+"I say, Frank, I am indeed so sorry! and I'd have said it was I did it,
+if it would have got you off; but they wouldn't have believed me."
+
+_Bang_!
+
+That was the window, which, in my passion at his coolness, I shut down
+with all my might, and then went and threw myself on the bed, with my
+head aching violently, and the sensation of misery increasing, so that
+at times I felt as if I must try and break open the door, creep down in
+the night, and run away somewhere--anywhere, so as to end the trouble I
+was in.
+
+I never knew when, but I suppose the throbbing in my head must have
+lulled a little, and I once more dropped off to sleep, to wake up with a
+start in the darkness, wondering where I was, and whether I had been
+having a confused dream about a watch being stolen, and some one getting
+into trouble.  Who it was I could not quite tell, for my head ached, I
+felt sick, and everything was confused and strange.
+
+While I was trying hard to collect myself, I suppose I must have dropped
+to sleep again, for when I next opened my eyes, the sun was shining
+brightly, and, light-hearted and eager, I jumped off the bed to run and
+open the window, but, as my feet touched the floor, memory began to come
+back with its heavy load of misery.
+
+Why was I dressed even to my boots?  Why was I in a fresh room?  Where
+was Tom Mercer?
+
+The answers to my questions came, and I stood there with a sinking
+sensation of misery, increasing moment by moment, till with a sigh I
+roused myself a little and went toward the window.
+
+"Where is Tom Mercer?"  I said to myself again, with a bitter laugh.
+"Safe, and I am to take the blame for his miserable acts.  Where's Tom
+Mercer?"
+
+I was opening the window as I spoke, and there he was hiding behind a
+clump of Portugal laurel, where he had been watching, quite ready to
+spring up eagerly now, and begin to make signs, as he showed me a school
+bag with something heavy inside.
+
+I knew what it meant, of course, but the bitter feeling against him was
+too intense for me to accept aid in any form, and I drew back without
+noticing him further; and, as I did so, my head felt clearer for my
+night's rest, and I began to see the course that was open to me.
+
+I could not turn upon Tom and become his accuser, for, if the crime was
+brought home to him, it would be terrible, and I knew I should never
+forgive myself for saving my own credit by denouncing my companion.  No;
+I had fully made up my mind, in those few minutes since rising, to deny
+firmly and defiantly the charge of taking the watch.  Even if they
+expelled me, and I was sent away, they might call it in disgrace, but it
+would not be.  And even if Doctor Browne and the masters believed me
+guilty, I knew there was some one at home who would take my word at
+once, indignant at such a charge being brought against me.
+
+Yes, that was my course, plain enough: to maintain my innocence firmly,
+but to say no more.  They might find out about Tom Mercer.  I would not
+betray him.
+
+A stubborn feeling of determination came over me now, and all seemed to
+be as plain as could be.  I was actually beginning to wonder that I
+should have taken it all so much to heart.  "She will believe me," I
+said; "and they will have to at last."
+
+I had just arrived at this point in reasoning out my position, when I
+was brought to a sudden check by a fresh thought--one which made me turn
+cold.  It was, "What will uncle say?"
+
+I was thrown back into a state of the greatest misery again directly by
+this.  For my uncle was so stern a disciplinarian that in advance I saw
+with horror the impression such a charge hanging over me would make upon
+one who had so often impressed upon me the duties of him who would grow
+up to be a gentleman, and who was to occupy the position of an officer
+in a gallant service.
+
+"Shall I dare to hold out?"  I asked myself; "shall I be able to clear
+myself without accusing Tom?"
+
+I started, for there was a thud at my window, as if something moderately
+soft had struck the frame.
+
+But I could see nothing, and I was sinking back into my musing fit
+again, when something struck me on the back, and then fell with a dull
+sound upon the floor and rolled under the wash-stand.
+
+I stooped and picked it up, to find that it was one of the solid
+indiarubber balls we used for our games at rounders, and tightly
+fastened around it was a piece of thin twine, the strong, light string
+we used for kites.  The twine hung out of the window, and I knew that
+Mercer had thrown it up, and the second time sent it right in at the
+open sash,--no difficult task for him, as he was one of the most skilful
+throwers we had in the school, and he could generally hit a boy running
+fast when we were engaged in a game, while at cricket, the way in which
+he could field a ball, and send it up to the wicket-keeper, made him a
+special acquisition in a game.
+
+"I'm not going to be bribed into silence!"  I cried; "I'd sooner
+starve;" and, going quickly to the window, I hurled the ball down,
+before drawing back, and then approaching the opening again to peer down
+from behind one of the white dimity curtains, where, unseen myself, I
+could watch Mercer slowly winding up the string till the indiarubber
+ball reached his hands, when, after a doleful look up, he ducked down
+behind the bushes with the school bag and walked cautiously away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT.
+
+Human nature is a curious thing, and the older one grows the more
+strange and wonderful it seems.  There was I watching Tom Mercer from
+the window, and the minute before I felt as if I would have given
+anything to have him there alone with our jackets off, to put in force
+the old sergeant's teaching, knowing that I could in my passion nearly
+knock his head off.  The next minute, as I saw him walk dejectedly away
+with his head down, evidently bitterly hurt and disappointed, I found
+myself sorry for him, and wanting to call him back.
+
+And this was from no desire to partake of the good things he had, I was
+perfectly sure, in the bag, for in my misery I had no appetite or desire
+to eat anything, but from honest liking for the boy who had been my
+companion from the first.
+
+But I was too proud to call him back, and in my anger I mentally called
+him a contemptible, cowardly thief, and vowed that I would never speak
+to him again.
+
+Boys always keep those vows, of course--for an hour or two, and then
+break them, and a good thing too.  They would be horrible young
+misanthropes if they did not.
+
+So Tom Mercer was gone, with his bagful, string, and indiarubber ball,
+and I plumped myself down on a chair by the window, rested my crossed
+arms on the inner ledge, and, placing my chin upon them, sat staring out
+over the beautiful Sussex landscape, thinking about what was to come.
+
+But, mingled with those thoughts, there came plenty of memories of the
+past; as my eyes lit on the woods and fields, with a glint of one of the
+General's ponds where we boys had fished.
+
+Oh, how lovely it all looked that sunny morning, with the rays flashing
+from the dewy grass and leaves, and how impossible it seemed that I
+could be so unhappy, shut up there like a prisoner, and looked upon by
+every one as a thief!
+
+What should I do?  Wait for the truth to come out, or behave like any
+high-spirited boy would,--high-spirited and gallant from my point of
+view,--set them all at defiance, wait for my opportunity, and escape--go
+right away and seek my fortune?
+
+No, I did not want any fortune.  My uncle wished me to be a soldier, as
+my father had been, and that meant study for years, then training
+perhaps at Woolwich, and at last a commission.
+
+"I will not wait for that," I said to myself; "I'll be a soldier at
+once.  I'll go and enlist, and rise from the ranks, and in years to
+come, when I am a captain or a major, I will go back home, and tell them
+that I was perfectly innocent, and they'll be sorry they believed that I
+was a thief."
+
+These romantic thoughts put me in better spirits, and I began to plan
+what I would do, and how I could get away, for I could not see in my
+excitement what a young donkey I was to fill my head with such nonsense,
+and what a mean, cowardly thing it would be to go off, and make my
+supposed guilt a certainty with my uncle, break my mother's heart, and
+generally throw all my future to the winds--always supposing it possible
+that I could have found any recruiting sergeant who would have taken
+such a slip of a boy, as, of course, I could not; for to a certainty I
+should have been laughed at, and come away like a frightened cur, with
+my tail between my legs.
+
+I was mentally blind then, puffed up with vanity, and as bitter and
+angry as it is possible for a boy to be, and all I can say in
+extenuation is that I had had good cause to be upset by the trouble I
+had gone through.
+
+"I'll go," I said excitedly.  "To-night as soon as it is dark, and--"
+
+I stopped short, for I saw a familiar figure going along the road in
+front of the great house.  It was Lomax, having his morning pipe and
+walk before going back to his garden, and the sight of the old sergeant
+made me feel sorry for my determination.  He had been so friendly, and
+under his stiff military ways there had been so much kindliness.  He had
+been so proud of the way in which I had acquired the things he taught;
+and as he went on, tall, upright, and manly-looking, I began to wonder
+what he would say, and I exclaimed eagerly,--
+
+"He'll know that I have gone off to join the army, and say I have done
+well."
+
+Down came a wet blanket.
+
+"No," I said dolefully; "he will think I have run away because I was a
+thief."
+
+"I can't go.  It is impossible for me to go," I said passionately, as I
+began to pace the room, and sheets torn up and tied together with
+counterpane and blankets, to make out the rope down which I was to slide
+to liberty, fell away as if they were so much tinder; while the other
+plan I had of unscrewing the lock of the door, and taking it off with my
+pocket-knife, so as to steal down the stairs, tumbled to nothing, as
+soon as I thought that I must steal away.
+
+Just then I started, for there was a tap at the door--a very soft,
+gentle tap, and then a hoarse whisper.
+
+"Master Burr!  Master Burr!"
+
+"Yes," I said sourly.  "Who is it?  What do you want?"
+
+"It's me, my dear.  Cook.  I'm just going down.  Are you dressed yet?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"I heard last night that you were shut up.  Whatever is the matter?"
+
+I was silent.
+
+"Master Mercer came and told me, and asked me for something to eat for
+you, because he said he knew they'd only give you bread and water."
+
+"Master Mercer!"  I muttered to myself angrily; "and I'm to suffer for
+him!"
+
+"There, I won't bother you, my dear, but I'm very sorry, and I don't
+suppose it's anything much.  Have you broken a window?"
+
+"No, Cook."
+
+"Now don't say you've been stealing apples, because I'd have given you
+lots if you'd asked."
+
+"No," I said softly, for the woman's voice sounded so pleasant and
+sympathetic that I wanted her to stay.
+
+"Then I know: you've been breaking bounds.  Oh dear, boys will be boys,
+and it's quite natural, my dear, for you to want to get away, and run
+where you like.  I don't wonder, shut up as you all are, like being in a
+cage.  There, don't you fret, and it'll all come right.  I'll see that
+you have something beside bread and water.  Bread and water, indeed!
+Such stuff as is only to cook with.  Why, they might just as well feed
+you on flour."
+
+"What time is it, Cook?"  I asked.
+
+"Just gone six, my dear; and there: I mustn't stop gossiping, for I've
+my fire to light, my kitchen to do; but I hate people to be miserable.
+I can't abide it.  There's plenty of worries with one's work, as I told
+missus only yesterday.  There, good-bye, and don't you fret."
+
+I heard the rustling of her dress as she went along the passage, and I
+stood by the door till it died away, feeling sad but pleased, for it was
+satisfactory to know that there were people about the place who cared
+for me.  But I felt more low-spirited directly as I thought of what she
+might say as soon as she knew the real cause of why I was a prisoner.
+
+The bell rang for rising, and I heard some of the boys soon after out in
+their gardens; then, as I stood back from the window, I caught sight of
+one or two, and after a while heard the increasing hum and buzz of
+voices, and knew that some of them must be getting up lessons that had
+been neglected over-night.  And as I listened, I thought of the times
+when I had murmured and felt dissatisfied at being obliged to give so
+much time to such work, whereas now I was envying the happy boys who
+were seated at study, with no greater care upon their minds.
+
+Perhaps I was learning a great lesson then, one that I did not know.
+
+The time went on very slowly, and it seemed many hours since I awoke,
+when the breakfast-bell rang, and I sat picturing the scene, and
+fancying I could hear the boys talking and the mugs and spoons
+clattering, as the great piles of bread and butter disappeared.
+
+I was just thinking this when there were steps in the passage, and soon
+after the key was rattled in the lock, Mr Rebble appeared, and with him
+one of the maids, with a tray on which was a mug and a plate of bread
+and butter.
+
+He did not look at me, only admitted the maid to set down the tray, saw
+her out, and I was locked in again.
+
+It was very much like the old time, but Tom Mercer was not there to
+lighten my loneliness.
+
+As the door closed, I noticed that the mug was steaming, and found that
+I was not to have prison fare though I was a prisoner, for my breakfast
+was precisely the same as that of the other boys.
+
+"I can't touch it," I said, "It is impossible to eat."
+
+But I was feverishly thirsty, and I took up the mug of milk, just made
+warm by the addition of some boiling water.  It was pleasantly sweet,
+too, and I half fancied that Cook had put in an extra quantity of sugar.
+
+More from habit than anything else, for I felt sick and full of distaste
+for food, I broke off a piece of bread and butter and began to eat it
+mechanically, and now knew that I was right, for, instead of the salt
+butter we generally had, this was fresh and sweet.  Cook had certainly
+been favouring me, and that scrap led to the finishing of the slice, and
+finally to the disappearance of all that was on the plate, while the
+last drop of milk and water was drained from the big mug.
+
+As soon as the breakfast was finished, a morbid feeling of vexation came
+over me.  I was angry because I had touched it, and wished that I had
+sulked, and shown myself too much injured to go on as if nothing had
+happened.  But it was too late then.
+
+After a while, Mr Rebble came back, looking very severe.  He watched
+the maid as she took the tray, but the girl gave me a sympathetic look,
+and then I was once more left alone.
+
+Hard people think they do not,--they say, "Oh, he's only a boy; he'll
+soon forget,"--but boys suffer mentally as keenly, or more keenly, than
+grown people.  Of course they do, for everything about them is young,
+tender, and easily wounded.  I know that they soon recover from some
+mental injury.  Naturally.  They are young and elastic, and the sapling,
+if bent down, springs up again, but for the time they suffer cruelly.
+
+I know I did, shut up there in disgrace, and, as I sat or walked about
+my prison, it made no difference to me that it was a plainly furnished,
+neat bedroom, for it was as prison-like to me in my vein as if the floor
+had been stone, the door of iron-clamped oak with rusty hinges.  And as
+I moved about the place, I began to understand how prisoners gladly made
+friends with spiders, mice, and rats, or employed themselves cutting
+their names on the walls, carving pieces of wood, or writing long
+histories.
+
+But I had no insects or animals to amuse me, no wood to carve, no stone
+walls upon which to chisel my name.
+
+I had only been a prisoner for a few hours, you may say.
+
+Quite true, but, oh, what hours they were, and what agony I suffered
+from my thoughts!
+
+I spent most of my time at the window, forcing myself to think of how
+things were going on in school, and I pictured the boys at their
+lessons--at the Doctor's desk at Mr Rebble's, and Mr Hasnip's.  It was
+German day, too, and I thought about our quaint foreign master, and
+about Lomax drilling the boys in the afternoon.  He would be asking them
+where I was; and the question arose in my mind, would the boys tell him,
+or would they have had orders, as we did once before, about a year back,
+when a pupil disgraced himself, not to mention the affair outside the
+school walls.
+
+My spirits rose a little at this, for it would be horrible for Lomax to
+know, and go and think it over.  And I seemed to know that he would take
+it more to heart about me than if it were any other boy, for I was to be
+a soldier, and, as he would have expressed it, "One of ours."
+
+Dinner-time at last--the bell ringing, and the shouts and cries of the
+boys, "All in! all in!" though we used to want very little calling for
+meals.
+
+After a time, my dinner was brought up, as my breakfast had been, in
+silence, and I felt then that I should have liked Mr Rebble to speak,
+if it had only been to bully.  But he did not so much as look at me,
+only stalked into the room and out again.
+
+Who was going to eat and enjoy a dinner, brought like that?
+
+"It's like an animal in a cage being fed," I said angrily; and I was
+quite angry because the roast beef, potatoes, and greens smelt so nice
+that I was obliged to sit down and eat and enjoy the meal, for I was
+very hungry.
+
+After the tray had been fetched, I made up my mind that at any minute
+now the Doctor might send for me, to give me a severe examination, and I
+shivered at the idea of being forced to speak out, and say everything I
+knew.  I wished now that it was dark, so that I might have attempted to
+escape, if only to avoid that meeting.  But it was impossible.  Even if
+I could get off the lock, I should be seen, for certain, and brought
+back in an ignominious fashion, that would be terrible.
+
+But the afternoon wore away, as I sat listening to the shouts of the
+boys at play, thinking bitterly of how little they thought of me shut up
+there; and I began wondering where Mercer was, little thinking that he
+was watching me; but he was, sure enough, for, just close upon tea-time,
+I caught sight of him, lying down upon his chest, where he had crawled
+unseen among the shrubs, and there he was, with his elbows on the ground
+and his chin in his hands, watching me, just as a faithful dog might his
+master.
+
+I shrank away from the window, as soon as I saw him, and then waited
+till the bell rang for tea, when I peeped out again, to see that he was
+gone, but I could trace him by the movement of the laurels, bays, and
+lilacs, whose branches were thrust aside as he crept through.
+
+"He'll come back again after tea," I thought, and I was right.  I had
+only just finished my own, brought up as before, when, glancing from the
+window, there I saw him, gazing up at me like a whipped dog, asking to
+be taken into favour once again.
+
+"Why hasn't the Doctor sent for me?"  I asked myself; but I could find
+only one reason,--he meant me to come to his study quite late in the
+evening.
+
+But he did not, and that dreary time passed slowly away, as I watched
+the darkness come on, and the stars peer out one by one.  Then I saw the
+moon rise far away over the sea, shining brightly, till the sky grew
+cloudy, as my life seemed now to be.
+
+But no footstep--no summons to go down to the Doctor's room, and, though
+I kept on fancying that I heard steps on the stairs, I was always
+deceived, and it was not until I heard the bell ring for prayers and
+bed, that I knew I should not have to meet the Doctor that night.
+
+There were steps enough now in the corridors and on the stairs, and I
+sat near the door, for the sake of the company, naming the boys to
+myself, as I recognised the voices.  But I shrank away once, as two boys
+stopped by my door, and I heard them say,--
+
+"Wonder how old Burr junior's getting on?"
+
+"Ah! he's in for it now.  Don't talk, or he'll hear us."
+
+They passed on, and I heard their door close, after which there was a
+loud scuffling and bumping from the other sides accompanied by smothered
+laughter and dull blows.
+
+I knew directly what was going on, and sighed, as I recalled how many
+times I had engaged in the forbidden joys of a bolstering match.
+
+Their merriment only made me feel the pain the more bitterly, and I was
+glad when I heard a familiar cough at the end of the passage, and the
+tapping of a stick on the floor.
+
+All was silent in an instant, and by degrees every murmur died away, and
+I lay down and slept heavily, for mine was weary trouble.  There was no
+guilty conscience to keep me awake.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER TWENTY NINE.
+
+I was up in good time next morning, to find that Tom Mercer was
+beforehand with me, waiting in the shrubbery, and making signs now as
+soon as he saw me; but I turned away, and with a disconsolate look, he
+dropped down among the bushes, and crouched where he would be screened.
+
+He disappeared at breakfast-time, but he was back there before dinner,
+and for a time after, but he suddenly rushed away, and I supposed that
+some of the boys were coming round to that side of the great house.
+
+Then came another weary time of waiting, and I was beginning to think
+that I should escape again, when there were steps on the stairs--the
+decided, heavy steps of Mr Rebble, who always stamped when he came up
+by the boys' bedrooms--to give him importance, we used to say.
+
+It was not a meal-time, so I felt that at last I was to be taken down to
+the Doctor's library.  Then the door was unlocked, thrown open, and the
+master said loudly, "Burr junior, the Doctor wishes to see you in his
+room."
+
+My heart began to beat heavily as I followed him down-stairs, and then
+through the door on to the front staircase with its thick carpet.  The
+hall was reached, and Mr Rebble crossed to the library, waited till I
+was on the mat, threw the door wide-open and seemed to scoop me in.
+
+A low murmur of voices fell on my ear as the door was opened, and I knew
+that I was not to see the Doctor alone, but I did not anticipate facing
+such a gathering as I gazed at wildly, with my heart throbbing, my
+cheeks hot, and a film coming over my eyes.
+
+For there before me were the Doctor and his lady, Mr Hasnip, and
+Mercer, Burr major, and Dicksee.  I saw them at a glance, my eyes hardly
+resting upon them, for there were three strangers in the room, and I
+divined now why it was that I had not been fetched before.
+
+I was to meet those who had placed me at the school; while beside my
+mother and my uncle there stood the old General, gazing at me with a
+very severe scowl.
+
+For a few moments no one spoke, and I felt giddy.  A mist was before my
+eyes, and everything looked blurred and strange, but through it all I
+could see my mother's eyes gazing yearningly at me, and she half rose
+from her seat to take me to her heart, but my uncle laid his hand upon
+her arm and said firmly,--
+
+"Wait, dear.  Let us know the whole business first."
+
+And then, as my mother sank back into her seat, I saw Mrs Doctor take a
+seat by her side, whisper something, and my mother took her hand.
+
+"Now, Doctor Browne, if you please," said my uncle in his sharp, quick,
+military way, "we are all attention, and want to hear the truth of this
+miserable business before the boy himself."
+
+"Certainly, Colonel Seaborough," said the Doctor rather nervously, but
+he spoke firmly directly after.  "I thought it my duty first to ask you
+to come, as I naturally was most loth to proceed to extremities."
+
+"Naturally, sir, naturally," said my uncle sharply.  "A prisoner's
+allowed a fair court-martial, eh, Rye?"
+
+"Yes, yes, of course," said the General, and he opened a gold box and
+took snuff loudly.
+
+As soon as I could tear my eyes from my mother's, I looked across at the
+three boys defiantly: at Burr major, who turned his eyes away uneasily;
+at Dicksee, who was looking at me with a sneering grin upon his
+countenance, a grin which faded directly into a very uncomfortable look,
+and he too turned away, and whispered something to Burr major; but by
+this time my eyes were fixed fiercely upon Mercer, who met my gaze with
+a pitiful expression, which I read directly to mean, "Don't, pray don't
+say I did it.  They'd never forgive me.  They will you.  Pray, pray,
+don't tell!"
+
+I turned from him with a choking sensation of anger rising in my throat,
+and then stood listening, as all the old business was gone through, much
+as it had been up in the loft, but with this exception, that in the
+midst of Burr major's statement the General gazed at him so fiercely
+that my school-fellow faltered, and quite blundered through his answers.
+
+"One moment, Doctor Browne," said the General.  "Here, you, sir; you
+don't like Frank Burr, do you?"
+
+"Well, sir, I--"
+
+"Answer my question, sir.  You don't like him, do you?"
+
+"N-no, sir."
+
+"Thrashed you well, didn't he, for bullying?"
+
+"I had an encounter with Burr junior, sir."
+
+"Yes, and he thrashed you well, I know."
+
+"I beg your pardon, Sir Hawkhurst," said the Doctor warmly.  "My pupil
+here, Burr major, has, I am well aware, been exceedingly tyrannical to
+his schoolfellows, and when it reached my ears by a side wind that he
+had been soundly thrashed by his fellow pupil here, I must own to having
+been glad; but as his tutor it behoves me to say that he is a boy of
+strictly honourable feelings, and I do not believe he would speak as he
+has done if he did not believe the truth of all he has said."
+
+"Humph!" said the General.  "Quite right, Doctor, quite right.  I'm
+afraid I was unjust."
+
+Then Dicksee, who looked green, made his statement, and before he had
+done, the General thumped his stick down on the floor loudly.
+
+"Here, Doctor: this fellow won't do at all.  He's a sneak and a
+miserable, malicious scoundrel.  You can see it all over his face.
+You're not going to take up the cudgels for him, are you?"
+
+"I am sorry to say I cannot," replied the Doctor gravely; "and if this
+sad business rested upon his word alone, I should not have acted as I
+have; but, as you have heard and will hear, Sir Hawkhurst, we have
+terribly strong evidence.  I wish it were otherwise."
+
+And again the weary business went on, with my mental agony increasing as
+I saw my mother's eyes fixed upon me.  At first imploringly, then they
+seemed to be full of pain, and later on it seemed to me as if she, were
+suffering from a sorrow that was too hard for her to bear.
+
+Then she would flush up angrily, and turn a reproachful look upon my
+uncle, as he questioned the boys and the masters, entered into what
+seemed to be angry controversies with the Doctor, and generally went
+against me all through, until I began to look at him with horror, as the
+greatest enemy I had in the room.
+
+That I was not alone in my opinion was soon evident, for I heard the
+Doctor sigh, and look reproachfully at him, while twice over Sir
+Hawkhurst uttered a gruff,--
+
+"No, no, sir.  Oh, come, come, Seaborough, be just."
+
+"I am trying to be just," said my uncle sternly, after the General had
+said this last again.  "Recollect, sir, I stand in the position of this
+boy's father.  He is my dear sister's only child, and it has been my
+great desire to have him brought up as a worthy successor to his brave
+father,--as a soldier and a gentleman,--and because I speak firmly and
+feel warmly upon the subject, you say, `Be just.'"
+
+"Well, well," cried the General, "you have struck me several times as
+being hard."
+
+"Yes, Sir Hawkhurst," assented the Doctor; "perhaps too hard."
+
+"Absurd, gentlemen!" cried my uncle.  "I'm not the boy's mother, to
+forgive him after a few tears, and tell him he must be a good boy, and
+never do so again."
+
+"Colonel Seaborough," cried Mrs Doctor reproachfully, "and pray who is
+to forgive, if it is not a mother?"
+
+"A beautiful sentiment, madam," cried my uncle; "but you forget that,
+after building up my hopes on this boy's success in life, I am suddenly
+summoned, not to come ready to defend him from the foul charge, but to
+have it literally forced upon me that my nephew--No, I'll discard him.
+If this really is true, and he is proved to be a pitiful, unmanly,
+contemptible thief, I have done with him for ever."
+
+"No, no, sir," said the Doctor.  "You shall not say that.  You are a
+Christian, and you belie your own belief."
+
+"Belie it or no, sir, I cannot bear this!" cried my uncle fiercely.
+"Now, Frank, speak out.  Did you take that contemptible toy?"
+
+"No, uncle," I said firmly.
+
+"Come: that's something.  That's the truth or a lie.  That wretched
+fellow says he saw you with the watch in your hand: is that true?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"That he saw you hide it in the box?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"You locked it up there?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"Another question: did you know whose watch it was?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"And that it was stolen?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"And you were not going to speak about it being in your possession?"
+
+"No, uncle."
+
+There was a terrible pause, and in the midst of the silence, my uncle
+went on.
+
+"One word or two more, sir.  On the day the watch was missed, you
+refused to play?"
+
+"Yes, uncle."
+
+"And you went and lay down near the tent?"
+
+"Yes, uncle; I had been very ill."
+
+There was another pause, followed by a low murmur among those present,
+and then, in a fierce voice full of contemptuous rage, my uncle
+thundered,--
+
+"Now, sir, have you any more to say?" and my mother sank back in her
+seat with a low moan.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY.
+
+"Now, sir, have you any more to say?"
+
+A simple enough question, but when spoken to me sternly before those
+present, in my uncle's fierce, military voice, and accompanied by looks
+that seemed crushing in their contempt, they were very hard to bear in
+that strange silence which followed.
+
+There they all stood and sat about me, while I felt like a prisoner at
+the bar before my judge.  It was terrible, and I wavered.
+
+Should I speak, and accuse poor, weak, amiable Tom Mercer, and send him
+away in disgrace, or should I suffer now, and wait till the truth came
+out by and by?
+
+I was deciding on the latter, when I heard a sob which seemed to echo in
+my throat, and I looked up quickly from where my eyes had rested on a
+particular spot in the pattern of the library carpet, to see my mother's
+convulsed face and yearning eyes fixed upon me, as Mrs Doctor stood by
+her side, holding her hand quite affectionately.
+
+That look decided me.
+
+"Poor Tom," I said to myself, "I must throw you over for her sake;" and
+my lips parted to speak, when my uncle checked me by his stern, harsh
+voice.
+
+"Silent!  The silence of guilt!" he cried bitterly.  "I have--"
+
+"Stop a moment, Seaborough," cried the General.  "Let me have a word,
+for poor dead Burr's sake.  Frank, boy, I've always liked you, and
+believed in you, as the bright, manly son of a dear dead friend.  Don't
+let me go away feeling that I can never trust any one again.  I won't
+believe it--I can't believe it--that the blood and breed in your young
+veins would let you stoop to be a miserable, contemptible thief, and for
+the sake of a paltry silver watch.  Why, my dear boy, you must have
+known that, as soon as you were old enough to want a watch, you could
+have had a gold one of the very best.  Why, hang it all, sir, for your
+father's and mother's sake, I'd have hung you all over watches.  Come
+now, speak out before us all like a man, and tell us what all this
+mystery means.  Tell us that you did not steal this watch."
+
+"Why, of course he didn't!" cried a familiar voice, and as I started
+round at these hopeful words, which seemed to give me life, I saw Cook
+busily tying the strings of her best cap, the one my mother had sent
+her, before untying and snatching off her apron, as if she had come to
+the library in such a hurry that she had not had time to prepare.
+
+"Cook!" exclaimed Mrs Doctor sternly.
+
+"Oh, yes, ma'am, I know," cried Cook defiantly, as she reached back and
+caught somebody's arm just outside the door.  "Here, you come in, Polly
+'Opley; there's nothing to be ashamed of, my dear.  You come in."
+
+Polly Hopley, dressed in her best, suffered herself to be dragged in,
+and then, after whispering, "Do adone, do, Cook," began to make bobs and
+courtesies to everybody in turn.
+
+"Er--rum!" coughed the Doctor.  "My good woman," he cried severely,
+"what is the meaning of this intrusion?"
+
+"You may call it what you like, sir," cried Cook sharply; "and you too,
+mum," she continued, turning to Mrs Doctor, "and give me my month, or
+distant ismissal if you like."
+
+Cook meant to say, "instant dismissal," but she was excited, and, giving
+a defiant look round, she went on,--
+
+"I don't care, and I says it's a shame, not alone to keep the poor boy
+locked up like a prisoner, and badly fed, as does a growing boy no end
+of harm; and I will say it, mum," she continued, turning to my mother,
+"as dear and good a boy as ever came into this school, but to go and say
+he was a thief, as he couldn't be, sir.  You look in his eyes and see."
+
+This to the Doctor, who coughed again.
+
+"My good woman, I must insist upon you leaving the room."
+
+"A moment, Doctor," cried my uncle eagerly; "this person seems to know
+something.  Stop!"
+
+"I wasn't a-going, sir," said Cook sharply, "not till I've spoke out
+what I've come to say."
+
+"Then, for goodness' sake, speak, woman, and go," cried the Doctor
+angrily.  "We are engaged."
+
+"Which well I know it, sir, and I'm going to speak," said Cook, with
+dignity; "and if I'd known before Polly 'Opley--your keeper's wife's
+daughter, Sir Orkus," she continued, turning to the General.
+
+"Oh yes, yes, yes, I knew Polly when she was a baby," said the old
+gentleman, nodding at the girl, who courtesied to him; "but if you know
+anything about this--this terrible affair, speak out."
+
+"Which I will, sir, and if I lose my place, and you do happen to want a
+good plain--"
+
+"Cook, Cook, pray speak out," cried Mrs Doctor.
+
+"Which I'm trying to, ma'am, only you all flurry me so.  You see I
+knowed as Master Burr was shut up, something about some trouble or
+scrape--as boys will be boys, and always was, but being busy in my
+kidgen, and plenty to do, and the young gentlemen all forbid to say what
+it was about, so as I never knowed till this morning, when Polly 'Opley
+comes and tells me all about it, as Mr Lomax goes and tells her
+father--your keeper, sir--and Polly only this morning, and she never
+knowed it before, and then came on and told me something as'll make you
+all ashamed of treating a poor boy like that."
+
+"Yes, yes, yes," said my uncle impatiently; "but do you know anything
+about the watch?"
+
+"Which I'm telling you, sir," cried Cook, "though not a word did I know
+till Polly 'Opley comes just now, when I see it all as plain as
+pie-crust, and I says to her, `Polly,' I says, `they're all in the
+libery now, and you shall come and tell 'em the whole truth.'"
+
+"Then you know, Polly, my child?" said the General eagerly.
+
+"Yes, Sir Orkus, please, Sir Orkus," said Polly, blushing.
+
+"Then, then, tell us all at once, there's a good girl."
+
+"Yes, Sir Orkus.  Not as I ever encouraged him a bit to come to our
+cottage."
+
+"Humph!" said the Doctor; "you always bait your trap with sweets to get
+the boys to come, girl."
+
+"Please, sir, I didn't mean the young gentlemen, I meant Dick Magglin."
+
+"Eh, what?" cried the General.
+
+"Please, Sir Orkus, if I've ordered him away once, I've done it fifty
+times, and father's threatened him and beat him, but he would come."
+
+"What! did he want to marry you?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Orkus, but I wouldn't demean myself to listen to him."
+
+"Of course not! a poaching vagabond.  Go on, go on."  Every eye was
+fixed on Polly, whose cheeks were scarlet, as she gave me a sharp look,
+full of encouragement.
+
+"Yes, Sir Orkus, and he was always bringing me his rubbish, and wanting
+me to have it, hankychies, and ribbings, and a gilt brooch, as you could
+see wasn't gold."
+
+"And you wouldn't take them?"
+
+"No, Sir Orkus, never nothing, and then he said it was because I was too
+proud, and thought they wasn't good enough for me, and then he didn't
+come any more till one day when he brought me a silver watch."
+
+A curious murmur ran through the room, and my mother ran to my side and
+threw her arms about my neck.
+
+"Yes, go on, Polly," said the General, rubbing his hands.  "What sort of
+a watch was it?"
+
+"A little one, sir, with a fancy face and two letters cut in a round
+spot on the back."
+
+"What letters were they?" said the General.
+
+"A Hee and a B, sir."
+
+"Eliezer Burr," said the Doctor loudly.  "Hah!" and he took off his
+gold-rimmed spectacles, rubbed them, and began to beam.
+
+"Should you--" began my uncle.
+
+"No, no, no, Seaborough; allow me," said the General.  "My turn.  I was
+coming to that.  Now, Polly, be careful, and don't say anything rash,
+because this is very serious."
+
+"Oh yes, Sir Orkus."
+
+"Dear me, Doctor," said the General apologetically, "I am sorry we have
+no h's here."
+
+"Pray go on, Sir Hawkhurst," said the Doctor, smiling, and aspirating
+both in the name forcibly.
+
+"Now, Polly, should you know that watch?"
+
+"Oh yes, Sir Orkus; both the hands were together at twelve o'clock, and
+the glass was a bit scratched, and I told him I didn't believe he came
+by the watch honest, and that if ever he dared to come near the place
+again to want me to accept his rubbish, I'd take father's gun down out
+of the slings and give him a charge of shot in his legs."
+
+"Then, Polly, you didn't take the watch?"
+
+"Me, Sir Orkus!" cried Polly indignantly; "I should think not, indeed.
+I told him to be off, and he went away in a huff."
+
+"In a what?"
+
+"A huff, Sir Orkus, a huff--a passion."
+
+"Oh, I see.  And now tell me--be careful.  Give me the--the--thank you.
+Now, Polly, is that anything like the watch?"
+
+"Oh yes, Sir Orkus, that's the very one.  If you open it, you'll hear it
+shuts with a very loud snap."
+
+"So it does," said the General, putting it to the test.  "And now, tell
+me, when was this?  You don't recollect?"
+
+"Oh yes, I do, Sir Orkus.  It was nex' day after the cricket match,
+because I was cleaning my best shoes, as I wore at the match, when he
+come."
+
+"Very good, Polly," said the General, rubbing his hands.
+
+"Excellent!" said my uncle; "but that does not prove the man stole it."
+
+"Why, he must have crept along the ditch behind the tent," I cried
+involuntarily, "and pushed his arm through.  Yes, I know," I said,
+getting more excited, as my mother's arm tightened about me.  "I saw him
+that evening with his face all stung by nettles."
+
+"That ditch is full of nettles," cried Mr Hasnip.
+
+"Good! good!" cried the General.
+
+"But how came the watch hidden in that bin?" cried my uncle sternly.
+
+"I know," said Cook.  "Why, of course, he was afraid to keep it; and
+it's just like him."
+
+"I do not follow you," said my uncle.
+
+"Why, when he was at work in our garden, my smelling-bottle o' salts was
+stolen, and when I made a fuss about it, some one found it hid away
+behind the scullery door, where he put it."
+
+"Then you think this man hid it there?" said my uncle.
+
+"I'm sure of it, sir.  Why, didn't I catch him one morning early coming
+out of the stable, and, `What are you doing there?'  I says.  `Looking
+for the top of my hoe,' he says, `as I left here when I was at work.
+Ain't seen it, have you?' he says.  `No,' I says, `but I see the
+gardener just now coming to work, and I'll call him.'  `Never mind,
+mum,' he says, and he went off, and nobody's seen him about here since.
+Oh, look there!  Poor dear!"
+
+I just saved my mother from falling, and she was helped into a chair,
+clinging to my hand, though, all the time, as she burst into a
+hysterical fit of sobbing.  But she calmed down after a few minutes, and
+the gentlemen, who had been talking in a low voice earnestly together,
+now resumed their places, the Doctor clearing his voice loudly.
+
+"Burr junior," he said in his most magisterial tones, and then he
+stopped short, coughed again, blew his nose, and was silent.
+
+"Forgive me, gentlemen," he said at last.  "This has been a great
+trouble to me--I feel moved--I have painfully hurt the feelings of a
+dear, sweet lady, to whom I humbly apologise, and I--I make no
+favourites here, but I have wrongfully suspected--but on very strong
+evidence, gentlemen," he said, with an appealing look round; "and you
+agreed with me, Mr Rebble--Mr Hasnip?"
+
+"Yes, sir.  Yes, sir," they murmured.
+
+"Wrongfully suspected a boy to whom my wife and I were warmly attached.
+Burr junior--I--er--Frank, my boy, come here!"
+
+I went up to him, flushed now and trembling.
+
+"Shake hands, my boy," said the old man, "and thank God with me that the
+truth has at last prevailed.  But tell me, Burr, we do not know all yet.
+You have been very reticent.  You denied the charge stoutly, but your
+manner always impressed us with the belief that you knew more.  Now let
+us clear up this sad business once for all.  You will speak out now,
+will you not?"
+
+"Yes, sir," I said huskily, and my cheeks burned with shame as I glanced
+at Mercer, who was now making horrible grimaces at me to indicate his
+joy.
+
+"Then there was something?"
+
+"Yes, sir," I said, and I glanced at my mother, whose face was now pale
+with fresh alarm.  "Dicksee did see me find the watch there and hide it
+again."
+
+"Yes; go on."
+
+"Ever since Burr major had that watch, Mercer longed for it, and he was
+always talking about it, and wishing he had one."
+
+"Well, I couldn't help that, Frank," cried Mercer; "but of course I
+wouldn't have taken it."
+
+"No, Tom," I said, with a gulp, and my voice changing in spite of my
+efforts to be firm, and, a thorough schoolboy and companion once more, I
+blundered out, "but I was such a beast, I thought you had stolen it, and
+I wouldn't speak to save myself for fear you should be expelled."
+
+"Oh!" cried Mercer in the midst of the silence which now fell.
+
+Then, drawing a long breath, he went on,--
+
+"You thought I took it and hid it?"
+
+"Yes, Tom."
+
+"Oh, I say, Frank, when it was all at the worst, and you were locked up,
+I never thought a word against you; but--" He paused for a moment, and
+then, forgetting that we were not alone, he rushed at me and caught my
+hands.
+
+"Then you forgive me?"  I said.
+
+"Why, of course," he cried.  "Oh, Frank, I am glad!"
+
+The Doctor coughed loudly, and our action seemed to have given the
+gentlemen present colds.  Then the Doctor signed to his wife, whispered
+to her, and she left the room with Cook and Polly Hopley.  Next he
+signed to Mr Rebble and Mr Hasnip, who both came and shook hands with
+me, bowed to the General and my uncle, and they too left the room, with
+Burr major and Dicksee.
+
+"Mercer," said the Doctor then.
+
+"No, no," cried the General; "let him stop.  Come here, sir: over here."
+
+The General spoke in so severe a voice, and frowned so much, that Mercer
+looked at him shrinkingly, and the harder as the old man brought his
+hand down heavily upon his shoulder--Tom's face seeming to say, "What
+have I done now?"
+
+"So, sir, you have been longing for a watch all this time, have you,
+eh?"
+
+"Yes, Sir Hawkhurst," said Tom slowly.  Then, with animation, "But I did
+always try very hard not to want one."
+
+"Then you shall have one, as good a one as money can buy."
+
+Mercer's face was a picture of astonishment, changing to doubt and then
+to delight as he fully realised that the General meant it.
+
+"Do you hear, Frank?  Oh, I say!"  Then, catching the old man's hand in
+both of his; he cried, "May I have a hunter?"
+
+"You shall, my boy.  And Frank Burr, you shall have one too."
+
+"No," said my uncle, "that's my present.  Frank, my lad, we've all been
+wrong; but I can't apologise, for you led us astray."
+
+"Oh, that's enough, Seaborough," cried the General.  "The boys don't
+want to hear another word.  Eh?--you were going to speak, Doctor."
+
+"Only a few words, sir.  Colonel Seaborough, Mrs Burr, I cannot tell
+you how grieved I am for this painful episode--believe me."
+
+My mother went to the Doctor and placed her hand in his.
+
+"Pray say no more," she said gently.
+
+"I will not, my dear madam, for your looks tell me that I am forgiven
+for my share of the mental agony I have caused you.--Of course, you will
+take your son away and place him in another school?"
+
+"Eh?  What for?" said the General sharply.  "You don't want him to go,
+do you, stuffy boy?"
+
+"Oh no, sir," cried Mercer.
+
+"Do you want to go, Frank?"
+
+"No, sir," I said eagerly; "I should like to stay."
+
+"Of course," cried the General.  "He's to stop, eh, Seaborough?"
+
+"I should regret it, if he left," said my uncle.
+
+"To be sure you would, and I should miss him.  Don't expel him, Doctor."
+
+"I?  I should only be too glad if he stays."
+
+"Then that's all right," said the General.  "Ah, here is Mrs Brown."
+
+He crossed to place a chair for her, and then stood looking from one to
+the other.
+
+"Yes," he said, "that's it.  Ladies, will you honour a solitary old man
+with your company to dinner at my place this evening?  Doctor, will you
+bring your wife?  Seaborough and Mrs Burr, pray come over with me now,
+and, if the Doctor does not mind, I should like to take these two boys
+back with us."
+
+Consent was given directly, and the rest of that day was spent in a
+manner which made me pretty well forget the troubles which had gone
+before.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY ONE.
+
+The General pressed so hard that my mother and my uncle remained at his
+place for a couple of days longer, driving over in the General's
+carriage on the third day to say good-bye to me before returning home,
+and, to Mercer's great delight, a packet was placed in his hand after he
+had been fetched, with strict orders not to look at it till the carriage
+had gone.  I already had one in my pocket, and in addition a smaller one
+that I was charged to deliver elsewhere.
+
+Then the farewell was said, and, as soon as the carriage was out of
+sight, I looked at Mercer, he at me, and with a unity of purpose that
+was not surprising, we rushed off to the yard and up the rough steps to
+the loft, where we laid our packets down, and hesitated to cut the
+strings.
+
+Again we looked at each other, and Mercer at last said huskily,--
+
+"Hadn't we better open 'em?  I _am_ hungry, but they're rather small and
+square for cakes."
+
+"Get out!"  I said.  "Cakes indeed!  Here, let's see."
+
+"Whose shall we open first?" whispered Mercer.
+
+"Yours."
+
+"No, yours."
+
+"Both together then."
+
+"Right.  Draw knives--Open knives--Cut!"
+
+The strings were divided to the moment, and then the sealing-wax which
+fastened the brown paper further was broken, and two white paper packets
+were revealed, also carefully sealed up.  This wax was broken in turn,
+and with trembling hands we removed the white paper, to find within
+something hard and square wrapped in a quantity of tissue paper.
+
+We paused again, feeling breathless with excitement, and looked at each
+other.
+
+"Ready?"  I said, and we tore off the tissue till a couple of little
+morocco cases were revealed, and again we paused before unhooking the
+fastenings, and opening little lids lined with white satin, while below,
+in crimson velvet, tightly-fitting beds, lay a couple of bright silver
+watches.
+
+Oh, the delight of that first watch!  It fixed itself so in my memory
+that I shall never forget it.  The bright, dazzling look of the engine
+turning, showing different lights and seeming to be in motion as the
+position of the watch is changed; the round spot in the ring where the
+spring was pressed for the case to fly open and show the face with its
+Roman numerals; and then the ticking--that peculiar metallic sound like
+nothing else.  Words will not describe the satisfaction we boys felt as
+we stood examining our presents.
+
+"Why, they're both exactly alike," said Mercer at last.  "I say, take
+care, or we shall get 'em mixed."
+
+There was no fear of that after the first few minutes, for further
+examination showed that they were numbered, and those numbers were
+burned into our memories at once.
+
+"Oh, I say," cried Mercer at last, "talk about watches! these are
+something like.  Why, one of 'em's worth a dozen of old Eely's."
+
+"Don't talk about it!"  I said, with a shiver; and after carefully
+opening mine so as to gaze at the works, Mercer of course following
+suit, the watches were carefully returned to their cases and placed in
+our pockets.
+
+"What shall we do now?" asked Mercer; "go and show them to the boys?"
+
+"No; it will only make them disappointed.  Let's go down at once to Bob
+Hopley's."
+
+"What for?"
+
+"To take this."
+
+Mercer looked at the smaller packet I had for a few moments.
+
+"What is it?" he said.
+
+"A present from my mother for Polly."
+
+"Oh!  Why, it must be a watch."
+
+"No," I said; "I think it's a brooch or a pair of earrings."
+
+"Oh, won't she be pleased!"
+
+We walked down to the lodge, where Polly met us at the door, eager to
+point to a tin of jam pigs which she had just drawn from the oven.
+
+"I was wishing some of you young gentlemen would come," she said.
+"They're red currant and raspberry.  You're just in time."
+
+Polly's ideas of our visits to the cottage were always connected with
+tuck, and she looked at me wonderingly when I said we had not come for
+that.
+
+"There aren't nothing more the matter, is there?" she cried, as she set
+down her tin.
+
+I set her mind at rest by taking the packet from my breast.
+
+"Is--is that for me?" she said, with her face flushing with excitement.
+
+"Yes; open it."
+
+I saw her little red, rough hands tremble as she untied the string, and
+after removing one or two papers, all of which she carefully smoothed
+out flat, she came upon a thin morocco case.
+
+"Oh, it's earrings!" she cried; "and you two have bought 'em for me,
+because I--because I--because I--How do you open it?  Oh my!  It's a
+little watch."
+
+"Yes," I said, "a watch."
+
+"Yours, Master Burr junior?" she cried.  "Oh, it was good of you to come
+and show it to me!"
+
+"No, Polly," I cried, looking at it eagerly.  "I told you.  It's for
+you."
+
+"But--but--it can't be."
+
+"Yes," I said, pointing to a little three-cornered note.  "Open that and
+see what it says."
+
+Polly's trembling fingers hurriedly opened the paper, which she read,
+and then handed to me, Mercer looking over me as I held it out and read
+these simple words:--
+
+"For Mary Hopley, with a mother's thanks."
+
+I saw the tears start to the girl's eyes, and there was something very
+charming in her next act, which was to carefully fold the note and kiss
+it before placing it in her bosom.
+
+"I shan't never part with that," she said softly; and then she stood
+gazing down at the watch, till a shadow darkened the door, and big Bob
+Hopley came striding in.
+
+"Hullo, young gents!" he said; "how are you?  Why Polly!  What's--"
+
+"A present, father, from Mr Burr junior's mar.  Ought I to take it?"
+
+"Yes," I cried eagerly, "of course.  You don't know how happy you made
+me by what you said.  She is to keep it, isn't she, Bob Hopley?"
+
+"Well," said the big fellow, holding the little watch carefully and
+admiringly in his great brown hand,--"well, seeing, my lass, how it's
+give, and why it's give, and who give it, and so on, I almost think you
+might."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY TWO.
+
+A man once said to me that our brains are very much like a bee's
+honeycomb, all neat little cells, in which all our old recollections are
+stored up ready for use when we want them.  There lie all our adventures
+and the results of all our studies, everything we have acquired in our
+lives.
+
+Perhaps he was right--I don't know--I never saw my brains; but, if he
+is, some of us have got the cells so tightly packed together, and in so
+disorderly a way, that when we want some special thing which we learned,
+we cannot find it; it is so covered up, so buried, that it is quite
+hopeless to try and get at it.  This is generally the case with me, and,
+consequently, there are no end of school adventures during my long stay
+at "Old Browne's" that I cannot set down here, for the simple reason
+that I cannot get at them, or, if I do, I find that the cell is crushed
+and the memory mixed up all in a muddle with wax.
+
+I suppose I did not pack them into the comb properly.  Oddly enough, my
+recollections are clearest about the part of my days which preceded the
+trouble over the watch.
+
+After that, life seemed to go on at such a rapid rate that there was not
+time to put all the events away so that they could be found when wanted
+for further use.
+
+Still, I recall a few things which preceded my leaving the school for
+Woolwich.
+
+There was that hot June day down by the river--little stream it really
+was--that ran through a copse about half a mile from the school.  It was
+on Farmer Dawson's land, down in the hollow of the valley, up one side
+of which lay his big range of hop-gardens.
+
+The Doctor paid him a certain rent for the right of the boys going down
+to this place, where a great dam had been built up of clay and clinkers.
+It was not all new, but done up afresh after lying a couple of hundred
+years or so untouched.  All round it, Farmer Dawson used to send his men
+in the winter to cut down the coppice, trimming the ash and eating
+chestnut trees down to the stumps to make the young growth into
+hop-poles; but when the Doctor offered to take it and repair the dam,
+the hop-poles were left to grow and form a beautiful screen round this
+dell.
+
+I remember what interest we boys took in it during one winter, when the
+Doctor had set a lot of men who were out of work to dig and wheel the
+clinkers and clay, a barrowful of one, and then a barrowful of the
+other, along the dam; and with old Lomax to give orders, we all marched
+and counter-marched in our thickest boots over the top of the dam, to
+trample it all down strong and firm.
+
+You will think, perhaps, that it was easy enough to get clay, and so it
+was, for a thick bed lay only a few yards from the stream; but what
+about the clinkers?
+
+I'll tell you.  There was quite a mine of them, hard, shiny fragments,
+some of which had run just like so much black or brown glass.
+
+How did they get there, looking like so much volcanic slag?  Why, they
+were the refuse from a huge iron furnace that used to be in full blast
+in the days of Queen Elizabeth or King James, and the dam we were
+repairing, after it had been grown over with trees, and the water
+reduced to a little stream, belonged to one of the old hammer ponds
+whose waters were banked up to keep a sufficiency to turn the big wheel
+that worked the tilt-hammers and perhaps blew the iron furnace till it
+roared.
+
+For that peaceful rural part of Sussex was in those days a big forest,
+whose wood was cut down and made into charcoal.  The forest is gone, and
+only represented now by patches of copsewood saved for cutting down
+every ten years or so for poles; but the iron lies there still in great
+veins or beds, though it is no longer dug out, the iron of to-day being
+found and smelted north and west, where coal-pits are handy; and the
+ironmasters of Sussex, whose culverins and big guns were famous all the
+world round, have given place to farmers and hop-growers, where grimy
+men used to tend the glowing metal and send it running into form and
+mould.
+
+I have mentioned before how there used to be a furnace by Sir
+Hawkhurst's penstock pond, where the embankment was still firm, but
+there had been a far more extensive one here, and the refuse went, as I
+have said, to repair the dam.
+
+When this was done, the Doctor had a long low shed built and thatched
+and supplied with form-like seats, and a diving-board arranged, beside
+steps down in the shallow part for the younger boys, and the whole when
+finished made a glorious long pool of about an acre in extent, very deep
+by the dam, and sloping gradually up to a few inches only of water where
+the stream trickled in.  And there, on the hot sunny afternoons,
+beautifully shut in by green waving trees, and with the water when we
+came to bathe so clear that you could see every stone on the gravelly
+bottom, we boys used to collect for a regular water frolic.  But, as you
+may suppose, the water was not so clean when we had done, the paddling
+of the little fellows in the shallows discolouring it from end to end.
+
+That special hot June afternoon cricket had been voted too tiring, and
+we had all gone down to the bathing-place, the non-swimmers having
+strict injunctions not to pass a couple of posts about half-way between
+the stream and the dam.
+
+It was always Lomax's duty to come down with us at bathing times, and,
+with his walking cane under his arm, he used to stride to and fro along
+the bank, barking out orders to the lesser boys, who were constantly
+breaking the rules, and getting toward the deeper water.
+
+By that time I was a pretty fair swimmer, and had got over my natural
+nervousness to the extent that I was ready to dive off the board into
+the deepest part, and go anywhere with ease.  Mercer was better than I,
+and Hodson better still; Burr major, from being so long, bony, and thin,
+was anything, as Mercer used to say, but eely in the water,--puffing and
+working hard to keep himself afloat; while Dicksee, though naturally
+able to swim easily from his plumpness, was, I think, the greatest
+coward we had there.
+
+The water was delightfully warm that afternoon, but it soon got to be
+very thick, though that did not trouble us in the least, and we were in
+the full tide of our enjoyment, swimming races, diving, and playing one
+another tricks, while all the time, sharp and short from the bank,
+Lomax's orders would be snapped out.
+
+"You, young Jenkins, what did I tell you?  Phibbs, you're the wrong side
+of the posts.  Mullins, if I have to speak to you again, I shall report
+you.  Wilson, if you don't go up into the shallows, I shall fetch you
+out."
+
+"Can't," cried the impudent young dog.
+
+"Then I'll send a big boy to fetch you, sah.  How dare you, sah!  What
+do you mean, sah?"
+
+Then there would be the pad, pad, pad, pad of naked feet, as a boy ran
+along the diving-board, sprang out, and then splash he would be into the
+water.
+
+And so it went on, with some tiring, and going and sitting in the sun,
+which played the part of warm towel, till they would come in again, for
+it was declared to be the most delightful day we had had.
+
+Then Mr Rebble and Mr Hasnip came down to see how we were getting on,
+and stood cheering and encouraging the timid ones, who were loth to get
+duckings by learning to swim.
+
+I had been trying for some time, right out in the middle, to float
+without moving, while Mercer and Hodson in turn had their tries.  Burr
+major was swimming from side to side, blowing like a grampus, and other
+boys were about us unnoticed, for we were too much occupied over our own
+efforts to heed them, when all at once, as I lay back with the water
+nearly all over my face, and my hands right down paddling softly, a wave
+turned me a little on one side; I raised my head, and a horrible yell
+sent a cold chill through me.
+
+"What is it? the matter?" cried Mercer.
+
+"Help! help!" shrieked Burr major, who was only a few yards away,
+splashing the water heavily as he swam with all his might for the side.
+
+But he only shrieked out, "Help! help!" in a horror-stricken voice, and
+we all swam toward him as he made for the shore, all the lesser boys
+splashing out as fast as they could, to congregate shivering on the
+bank.
+
+"What is it?  What's the matter?" cried Mr Rebble, hurrying along the
+path, while Lomax came running round from the other side, for he had
+crossed the dam to act the part of water shepherd over some of his wet
+lambs.
+
+But Burr major only kept on shrieking, "Help! help!"
+
+"What's the matter, boys?" cried Mr Hasnip, who was now standing on the
+bank just where Burr major would land.
+
+"Don't know, sir."
+
+"He's frightened, sir."
+
+"Got the cramp."
+
+This, and half a dozen other replies, came in a confused chorus, as we
+swam on in a half circle behind Burr major ready to help him if he
+ceased to swim.
+
+But he was striking out strongly, though his voice grew hoarser and more
+weak as he neared the edge, where, ghastly-looking and shivering, he
+snatched at Mr Rebble's hand, and allowed himself to be helped out.
+
+"Don't make that noise, Burr major," cried the master.  "What's the
+matter with you?  Speak."
+
+"Gone down--drowning!  Oh--oh!"
+
+He said this last in a husky whisper, and with white rings showing round
+his wide-open eyes, he turned and pointed toward the middle of the great
+pool.
+
+"Who--who has?" cried Mr Hasnip frantically, and we looked eagerly from
+one to the other, but no one seemed to be missing.
+
+"Speak, sir.  Who is?  Where?" cried Mr Rebble, seizing Burr major by
+his wet shoulders and shaking him.  "Don't go on like that.  Speak."
+
+But Burr major made one gesticulation, and then his limbs seemed to
+double up beneath him, as he dropped fainting on the grass.
+
+"What is it? cramp?" cried Lomax, coming up, and taking off his coat.
+"I'll soon put that right."
+
+"No; he says some one is drowning."
+
+"What?" roared Lomax wildly.  "One of my lads!  Here, who's missing?"
+
+There was no answer, and the boys all gazed in a frightened way at each
+other.
+
+"Here, Burr major, rouse up," cried Mr Rebble, shaking the long, thin
+lad, as he knelt down on one knee.  "Who was it?  Any one with you?"
+
+The boy's eyes opened a little, he looked up wildly, and, trying to
+rise, pointed again to the middle of the pool.
+
+"Was--by me," he moaned--"went down."
+
+"Never mind who it is," roared Lomax, literally tearing off his clothes.
+"Now, boys--divers.  In with you!"
+
+His loudly-spoken command acted like magic upon us, and Mercer, Hodson,
+and I dashed into the water abreast, and swam for the middle of the
+pool, where in turn we began to dive down and try if we could find our
+luckless school-fellow, whoever he might be, but without result.
+
+"That's right," cried Lomax, as I came up, for he had joined us in an
+incredibly short space of time.  "Keep trying.  This way."
+
+He stretched out his arms, joined his hands as high as he could above
+his head, so that their weight should help to sink him, and he slowly
+went down out of sight, while, as fast as our efforts would allow, we
+boys went down and tried to search about, gradually extending the
+distance from each other in obedience to the orders shouted to us from
+the bank.
+
+I suppose it was in ten feet water, about thirty yards from the great
+embankment, where we dived down most, but our attempts became more
+feeble, and I found myself at last swimming heavily close to Lomax,
+whose fierce-looking head suddenly rose close to my hand.
+
+"Does nobody know anything about where the boy went down?" he roared;
+but there was no answer, and he panted out,--
+
+"Take care of yourselves, boys.  Don't overdo it.  We must keep on, but
+it's unkind work."
+
+We dived again and again, till I felt that I could do no more, and once
+more I was close up to Lomax, who had been down till he was almost
+completely exhausted.
+
+"Oh, my lad! my lad!" he groaned, as he began to tread water slowly,
+"I'd have given anything sooner than this should have happened.  Here,
+you, Burr junior, you're spent, boy.  Swim ashore."
+
+"I'm not," I said.  "I'm going down again."
+
+"I'm done," groaned Lomax.  "I seem to have no more strength."
+
+Shouts and orders came from the bank.
+
+"They're saying we don't dive," said Mercer piteously.
+
+"Not diving?" cried Lomax.  "Well!"
+
+As he spoke, he sank again, and the water closed in a swirl over his
+head, while, after taking a long breath, I dived under into the depths,
+with the water thundering in my ears, as, during what seemed to be a
+long space of time, though less than a minute, of course, I groped and
+swam about till a curious sensation of confusion came over me, and,
+frightened now, I touched something and clung to it wildly, believing in
+my startled state that it was Lomax.
+
+The next instant I was at the surface, surprised to see the old sergeant
+making a rush at me, as he uttered a shout.  Then he seized something by
+me, and I knew that I had brought one of my schoolfellows to the
+surface.
+
+We swam ashore, to reach it soon after Lomax, who had borne the white,
+limp figure we had rescued into the dressing shed.
+
+"Boys who can run!" shouted Mr Rebble.  "Blankets, quick!"
+
+A dozen boys dashed off, and Lomax panted,--
+
+"You two--work him like this--gently.  I'll relieve you directly."
+
+He left the two masters rubbing and moving the boy's arms to their full
+extent, and pressing them to his sides, while he hurried on some
+clothes, and, shivering with horror and exhaustion, we followed his
+example, while, with my ears ringing, I heard Mercer gasp out,--
+
+"Poor old Dicksee!  Oh, Frank, I hope he ain't drowned."
+
+But as, after our hurried dressing, we saw him lying there rigid and
+cold, it seemed as if the boy would never say another unkind word to a
+soul.
+
+By this time Lomax had relieved the two masters, and with all the vigour
+of his strong arms he was trying to produce artificial respiration
+somewhat after the fashion that has of late been laid down as a surgical
+law, but apparently without avail.
+
+The blankets had been brought, the boys, all but we few elder ones, sent
+back to the school, and a messenger had gone for the nearest medical
+man, so that nothing more could be done than was in progress.
+
+"I'm afraid it's a hopeless case," said Mr Rebble, with a groan.
+
+"Never say die, sir," cried Lomax.  "I remember a lad of ours in my
+regiment was swept with his horse down the torrent below where we were
+fording a river away yonder in India.  He seemed to be quite gone when
+we got him ashore half a mile lower down, but we rubbed and worked him
+about for quite three hours, taking it in turns, before he gave a sign
+of life.  But he opened his eyes at last, and next day he was 'most as
+well as ever.  What time do you expect Doctor Browne back, sir?"
+
+"Not till quite late to-night.  And what news for him!--what a shock for
+them both!"
+
+"Shock!" said Lomax.  "Here, you take a turn now, Mr Hasnip; we mustn't
+stop for a moment."
+
+Mr Hasnip, whose coat was off and sleeves turned up, sprang to his side
+and went on.
+
+"I'll relieve you again soon, sir," said Lomax, wiping his dripping
+forehead.  "But how was it, Mr Burr major?"
+
+"I--I don't know," said my school-fellow, starting.  "I think he
+suddenly remembered it was so deep, and he turned frightened, for he
+went under all at once and right down, and then I cried for help."
+
+"Better have lent him a hand," said Lomax gruffly.  "Well, Mr Hasnip,
+sir, feel him coming to?"
+
+"No, no," said the second master dolefully.  "He is dead! he is dead!"
+
+"Not he, sir," cried Lomax roughly.  "We're going to bring him round;
+all we've been doing has helped him, and it's a long way off three
+hours.  Here, let's have him out in the sunshine, please.  I believe in
+the sun."
+
+The poor fellow was carried out, the two masters each taking a corner of
+the blanket on which he lay, Lomax and I the others.
+
+It was quickly done, and then Lomax recommenced rubbing, working the
+boy's chest so as to make it contract and expand, and all the time with
+perspiration dropping from his brow.  Mr Rebble and Mr Hasnip both
+relieved him, and we boys did our best to help; but the afternoon glided
+on, no doctor arrived, and we felt chilled and hopeless, till all at
+once, after a rest, Lomax had begun again apparently as fresh as ever,
+and to our horror he suddenly began to whistle a merry tune.
+
+"Lomax!" cried Mr Hasnip.
+
+"What's the matter, sir?"
+
+"For goodness' sake--at a time like this--it is too--"
+
+"Why, haven't I got cause to whistle, sir?" cried the sergeant merrily.
+"What did I tell you?  Only wanted time and plenty o' muscle."
+
+"What! is he reviving?"
+
+"No, sir, he's revived," said Lomax.  "Look at the colour coming, and
+his eyelids quivering.  He'll be sitting up directly.  Here, you can
+feel his heart beating now."
+
+Mr Rebble went down on one knee and laid his hand upon Dicksee's
+breast; then, jumping up again, he caught Lomax by the wrist.
+
+"Heaven bless you for this!" he cried, and Mr Hasnip forgot his dignity
+as a master, and, taking off his hat, joined us boys in a hearty, "Hip!
+hip! hip! hooray!" which seemed to give the finishing impetus to our
+treatment, for Dicksee opened his eyes wide, struggled up into a sitting
+position, stared about him for a few moments, and then cried, in a
+harsh, unpleasant tone,--
+
+"Where's my clothes?"
+
+As he spoke, there was the sound of footsteps, and the medical man and
+the messenger who had been sent to bring him hurried up.
+
+"I'm very sorry," he said.  "I was right at the other end of the parish,
+and had to be fetched.  Is this the patient?"
+
+Dicksee had now huddled the blanket round him, and began in a whining,
+queer way,--
+
+"What's been the matter?  What are you all doing?  Here, somebody, I
+want my clothes."
+
+"No occasion to have fetched me," said the surgeon, smiling.  "You've
+brought him round, I see.  They're often like this when they've been
+nearly drowned.  Come, squire, can you dress yourself?"
+
+"Yes, if you'll all go away," cried Dicksee in a snarling tone.  "Who's
+a-going to dress with you all a-staring like that?"
+
+"Go into the shed, Dicksee," said Mr Rebble.  "Can you walk?"
+
+"Of course, I can, sir;" and he scrambled up.
+
+"Had a long job of course," said the surgeon; and then--"He don't seem
+very grateful for being brought back to life.  Well, gentlemen, there's
+little to do.  Let him go to bed soon, and have a good night's rest.  I
+don't suppose he will be much worse in the morning when I come."
+
+So little seemed to be the matter, that, when he was dressed, Dicksee
+walked slowly back to the school, Mercer and I following him with Lomax.
+
+"Rum thing," he said, "how crusty the being nearly drowned makes a lad.
+Hardly worth all the trouble we took over him, eh?"
+
+"Oh, don't talk like that, Lom!"  I cried.
+
+"But he was precious disagreeable," cried Mercer; "and after the way in
+which you saved his life too!"
+
+"I didn't," I said; "it was Lom here."
+
+"Nay, lad, you got hold of him diving, first.  If it hadn't been for
+you, I shouldn't have had anything to rub.  But I was thinking."
+
+"What of, Lom?"
+
+"Of how strange it is, lads, that we somehow have to help and do good to
+them who've always been our enemies.  That chap's always hated you, Mr
+Burr."
+
+"Yes, I'm afraid so, Lomax," I said, with a sigh.
+
+"And so you go into the water, and save his life."
+
+"Yes, 'tis rum," said Mercer.  "A nasty, disagreeable beggar.  I hate
+him.  But I am glad he wasn't drowned."
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY THREE.
+
+Dicksee only stayed till the following Christmas, and there was a
+general feeling of satisfaction in the school when it was known that he
+was not coming back after the holidays, Mr Hasnip forgetting himself so
+far as to say,--
+
+"And a good job too."
+
+It was a great relief to be rid of him, for, as I told Mercer, he was
+always ten times more sneaky and aggravating during the last half, and
+you couldn't stoop to hitting a fellow like that, especially when you
+knew how easily you could lick him.
+
+"Oh, couldn't you?" said Mercer.  "I could, and I would too, if he spoke
+to me as he does to you."
+
+"Not you," I said.
+
+"I would.  I believe he never forgave you for saving his life."
+
+It was during the autumn of the following year that Mercer and I, who
+had grown pretty big lads by that time, and had come to be looked up to
+by the others as captains of the cricket eleven and of the football,
+were standing at the window looking out over the woods talking, and
+watching the flickering of the lightning in the far east.  We had all
+come up to our dormitories, but, instead of going at once to bed, we two
+were talking in a low voice about what a dark, soft night it was, when
+all at once there was a flash that was not lightning, apparently a short
+distance away, followed by the report of a gun.
+
+"Oh, Tom!"  I cried; "poachers!"
+
+"Hush!  Listen!" he said; and hardly had the words left his lips before
+there was another report, this time without the flash being seen.
+
+"It is poachers," I said excitedly, "and they're in Long Spinney.  Why,
+where's Bob Hopley?  They're clearing off the pheasants."
+
+We listened, and there was another report, and another, and I was
+certain that it was in Sir Hawkhurst's best preserve, where I had seen
+Bob Hopley feeding the beautiful birds only a week before, and Mercer
+had come away with me feeling miserable because he could not have one to
+stuff.
+
+There was another report, and I grew more and more excited.
+
+"Tom," I whispered, "let's go down and slip out of the schoolroom
+window."
+
+"And go and see.  But suppose we're caught?"
+
+"We shan't be," I whispered; "let's go.  I can't bear to stand still
+here and listen to those birds being shot.  Sir Hawkhurst is so proud of
+them."
+
+"I should like to go."
+
+"Come on, then.  Bob Hopley must be asleep."
+
+"One moment," said Tom, hesitating.  "Let's ask the Doctor to let us
+go."
+
+"He wouldn't," I cried impatiently.
+
+"No, he wouldn't," said Tom.  "Come on."
+
+We opened our door softly, stole down, and reached the schoolroom
+unseen, after listening at the masters' sitting-room door, and hearing
+them chatting together.  One of the windows was open to ventilate the
+place after its crowded state all the evening, for, in that
+out-of-the-way part of the country, there was no fear felt of
+housebreakers, and, stepping up on the desk, I thrust out my legs, and
+dropped lightly into the playground, to be followed by Mercer, who was
+breathing hard with excitement.  Then, making for the grounds in front,
+we saw a light shining out before us on to the closely-cut lawn.
+
+The Doctor's window was open, and, as we crept by, sheltered by the
+shrubs, there was another report, and the Doctor came and looked out.
+
+"I'm afraid it's poachers, my dears," he said.  "Well, I'm not a
+gamekeeper."
+
+We hurried along the lawn, leaving him looking out, ran lightly along
+the grassy marge of the carriage drive, and passed through the swing
+gate, but stopped short.
+
+"Caught," I said to myself, as a tall, dark figure stepped out before
+us.
+
+"Hallo! where are you young gents going?"
+
+"Oh, Lom, don't tell," I panted.  "There are poachers down in Long
+Spinney."
+
+"I know," he said; "I heard 'em."
+
+"And we're going down to tell Bob Hopley."
+
+"On the sly?"
+
+"Yes; the Doctor don't know.  You won't get us into a scrape?"
+
+"Well, you know, I ought to; but--"
+
+"You won't, Lom?"
+
+"Well, not this time.  I was just going to bed when I heard them, and
+thought I'd run down and ask Bob Hopley if he wanted any help.  Look
+here!"
+
+He held up a big oaken stick, and, thoroughly in accord, we all started
+off at a trot, and in a very short time were in the lane where Bob
+Hopley's lodge stood.
+
+"He's off somewhere at the other side of the estate," whispered Lomax,
+"and they've watched him go.  I say, don't you boys come near if there's
+a row."
+
+"Hist!  Who's that?" said a familiar voice out of the darkness.
+"Father?"
+
+"No, my dear, it isn't your father."
+
+"Oh, Mr Lomax, what shall I do?  Father's been over to Hastings to-day,
+and hasn't come back.  There's a gang of poachers clearing the Long
+Spinney, and it will break his heart.  I thought it was him come back.
+There--there they go again."
+
+For there were several reports of guns not very far away.
+
+"I don't know what to do," said Lomax; "I've got plenty of fight in me,
+and I'm ready to charge down on them, but they'll be too much for one."
+
+"I'll come with you, and bring father's gun."
+
+"But you mustn't use it, my girl.  If we could frighten them somehow.
+Come on, and let's try.  I know--we'll all go close up and shout."
+
+"They won't mind that," said Polly; but we went on in the darkness so
+quickly and quietly, that we were soon alongside a black plantation of
+Scotch fir-trees, in time to hear two more shots, and the heavy thuds of
+falling bodies.
+
+"Now, are you ready?" whispered Lomax.
+
+"Yes," we said, but at that moment a figure darted by us, and entered
+the black wood.
+
+"One of them," said Lomax.  "Let's holloa, all the same."
+
+But, before we had drawn breath for the shout, there was a yell, a dull
+sound as of a stick striking a gun-barrel, then a crashing of the lower
+branches, cries, blows, and a loud voice calling to the poachers to give
+in.
+
+"Why, it's father got back," cried Polly Hopley.  "Oh, Mr Lomax, go and
+help, or they'll kill him!"
+
+The old sergeant's mettle was roused, and he dashed into the wood,
+while, with every pulse throbbing with excitement, we boys followed the
+direction taken, finding that the poachers were evidently retreating,
+from the sounds growing farther away.
+
+Then all at once there was the sharp report of a gun, followed by a wild
+shriek.
+
+"It's father!  They've shot him!" cried Polly, who, unknown to us, was
+close behind.  "Run, run!"
+
+We pressed on.  It was impossible to run in the darkness, and as we
+hurried along, a voice cried just in front,--
+
+"You've shot my mate.  Take that!"
+
+At almost the same time came a sharp rap, a loud report, and then a
+heavy, dull blow.
+
+"Father, father!" shrieked Polly, as we heard the rustling and breaking
+of branches, evidently caused by men in full retreat.
+
+"All right, my lass.  Quick: go back to the lodge for a lantern.  Man
+shot."
+
+She turned and ran back, while we kept on, and reached an opening in the
+wood, where we made out, dimly, two tall figures, and my blood turned
+cold at a piteous moaning from somewhere on the ground.
+
+"Who's there?" cried Bob Hopley's voice.
+
+"Only us, Bob," I said.  "Are you hurt?"
+
+"Nay, lad, not a bit.  I should ha' been, though, if Mr Lomax hadn't
+knocked up the barrel with his stick and then downed the man."
+
+"You've murdered my mate," came from close by our feet.  "You've shot
+him."
+
+"First time I ever did shoot anything without a gun," said the keeper.
+"One of you hit him, or he did it himself."
+
+"You shot him--you murdered him," cried the man who had spoken,
+struggling to his knees, and then crouching among the pine needles,
+holding his head with his hands as if it were broken, and rocking
+himself to and fro.
+
+"Oh, if that's it," said Bob Hopley, "I must have witnesses.  Mr Lomax,
+I've just come from Hastings.  I heard the shooting o' my fezzans, and I
+come on with this stick.  You see I've no gun, and you, too, young
+gents?"
+
+"Yah! you shot him," groaned the man, who was evidently in great pain;
+"and then you knocked me down with the bar'l o' the gun."
+
+"Oh, come, that won't do, lad," cried Lomax; "that was a cut from the
+left.  I gave you that, my lad, to keep you from shooting me."
+
+"Pair o' big cowards, that's what you are."
+
+"Cowards, eh?" cried Lomax.  "Not much o' that, Hopley.  Two men with
+sticks against a gang of you fellows with guns.  How many were you?"
+
+"Nine on us," groaned the man.  "Oh, my yed, my yed!"
+
+"Nine of you to two honest men.  Serve you right.  Should have stopped
+at home and earned an honest living, not come stealing game."
+
+"What!" cried the man fiercely; "'taren't stealing; they're wild birds,
+and as much our'n as his'n."
+
+"You're a donkey," said Lomax.  "Why, there'd be no pheasants if they
+weren't reared like chickens."
+
+"That's so," said Hopley.--"Why don't that gal bring a light?"
+
+"Here she comes," cried Mercer, for he caught sight of the dim glow of
+the horn lantern among the trees, and as it came nearer, Bob Hopley
+said,--
+
+"Hadn't you young gents better get back to bed? this here aren't no
+place for you."
+
+"No, no, don't send us away, Bob," I said; "we want to see."
+
+"Well, you will be witnesses," he growled, and the next minute he took
+the lantern from Polly, who was panting with excitement.
+
+"Oh, father dear," she cried, "are you hurt?"
+
+"Not a bit, my lass," he cried, stooping quickly and kissing her.  "Will
+you stay or go?  It's ugly."
+
+"Stay, father."
+
+"Right, my lass.  Now, Mr Lomax, what about this chap you downed," he
+continued, holding the lantern so that the light fell upon the kneeling
+man, whose forehead was bleeding freely.  "You give it him and no
+mistake," he chuckled.  "Here, tie this hankychy round your head, and
+don't bellow there like a great calf.  Master Burr junior, pick up and
+take charge of that gun, will you?  Stop! let's see if she's loaded.
+No.  All right.  I forgot.  She went off herself, I suppose," he added
+grimly, "when he tried to shoot Mr Lomax or me."
+
+"I didn't," whimpered the man.
+
+"There, don't make wuss on it by telling lies, you skulking hound,"
+cried Bob, who was as fierce now as could be.  "Mr Lomax, will you see
+as he don't get away?"
+
+"He'd better try to," said the old sergeant, making his stick whizz
+through the air.
+
+"Now, where's t'other?" said Hopley.  "Mind, keep back, you lads.  He's
+got a gun too, and he's hurt, and may be savage."
+
+"Oh, take care, father!" cried Polly.  "Let me go first--he wouldn't
+shoot a woman."
+
+"Want to make me ashamed of myself and get hiding behind a gal's
+petticutt!" cried Bob.  "G'long with you."
+
+He strode forward with the lantern for a few yards, and then held it
+down over the spot from which a low groaning had come, but which had
+ceased for some minutes now.
+
+It was very horrible, but the weird scene beneath those heavy boughs,
+with the keeper's burly form thrown up by the yellow glow of the lantern
+and the shadowy aspect of the trees around, with the light faintly
+gleaming on their trunks, fascinated us so that we followed Hopley with
+his daughter to where he stood.
+
+"Now, squire," he said, "where are you hurt?"
+
+The man, who seemed to be lying all of a heap, uttered a groan, and
+Hopley held the light nearer.
+
+"I'm fear'd he's got it badly, Polly," growled the keeper.  "Hah!"
+
+"Oh, father!"
+
+"None o' my doing, my lass.  Here, all on you.  This is a madgistrit's
+business, and I don't want to get credit for what I never did.  So just
+look."
+
+He held the lantern down for us to see.
+
+"He's got one o' them poaching guns, you see, with a short barrel as
+unscrews in the middle, and he must ha' been taking it to pieces when it
+was loaded, and shot hisself when running among the bushes."
+
+"Why, it's Magglin!"  I shouted excitedly.
+
+"What!" cried the keeper, holding the lantern lower, and Polly uttered a
+cry.  "Magglin it is!" he said, as the man opened his eyes, and gazed
+wildly up at the lantern.
+
+"Where are you hurt, my lad?" said the keeper quietly.
+
+"My arm! my arm!" groaned the man piteously.
+
+The keeper took out his knife, and, giving Mercer the lantern to hold,
+deliberately slit up the sleeves of the injured man's jacket and shirt.
+
+"Hah!" he ejaculated.  "He's put the whole charge o' shot through his
+arm, above the elbow;" and, hurriedly taking a piece of cord from his
+jacket pocket, Hopley made a rough tourniquet, and stopped the bleeding
+as much as he could.
+
+"You, Polly," he said as he worked, "go down to the house and see Sir
+Orkus.  Tell him all about it, and ask him to send help, and some one
+off for the surgeon.  One of the young gents'll go with you, I dessay."
+
+"I'll go with her," said Mercer, and they hurried away.
+
+"There," said Hopley, as he finished his rough dressing of the wound, "I
+can't do no more, and we can't carry him to my place.  We must wait."
+
+"Oh, Master 'Opley, sir," groaned the unfortunate man, "is it very bad?"
+
+"Wait and hear what the doctor says, when he comes.  I didn't do it, did
+I?"
+
+"No, sir; I was taking the gun to pieces, and she--Oh!"
+
+"Bear up, man, bear up."
+
+"I'll--I'll never go poaching any more," groaned Magglin, and his head
+fell back.
+
+"Never with two arms, my lad," said the keeper.  "Poor fellow! my
+fezzans do tempt 'em.  He's fainted.  Could you take the lantern, sir,
+and find your way to my cottage?"
+
+"Yes," I said eagerly; "what shall I do?"
+
+"Open the corner cupboard, sir, and you'll find a small flask on the top
+shelf--flask with a cup on it.  Bring it, please.  It's brandy: drop'll
+bring him round."
+
+I went off directly, saying a word to Lomax as I went, and returning
+pretty quickly with the spirit, which had the effect of reviving the
+sufferer.
+
+Then we waited, till at the end of half an hour we heard voices, then
+saw lights, and the General, with Polly, the butler, two gardeners, and
+the groom, came up, the coachman having driven off to fetch the doctor;
+and the wounded man was carefully raised, placed on a rug, and carried
+off by four men, Hopley and the General following with the other
+prisoner, who could walk, while Lomax and we two boys went slowly back
+toward the school, talking about the exciting scene.
+
+"I say, young gents," said Lomax suddenly, "it'll all come out about
+your breaking barracks."
+
+"Yes, Lom," I said; "we shall be found out."
+
+"Of course.  You'll have to go with me as witnesses."
+
+"Yes.  What had we better do?"
+
+"Go and make a clean breast of it to the colonel in the morning."
+
+"To my uncle?"
+
+"No, no; the Doctor.  Good-night."
+
+We slipped in as we had come out, reaching our room unheard, but it was
+a long time before excitement would let us sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
+
+It required some strength of mind to go straight to the Doctor's study
+next morning, tell him the whole truth, and ask for his forgiveness.
+But we did it, and though he looked very serious, and pointed out our
+wrong-doing strongly, he forgave us, and became deeply interested in the
+affair, making us relate all we had seen.
+
+"I heard of the encounter as soon as I came down," he said.  "Lomax
+ought to have sent you both back to your room.  So it was that labourer.
+Poor fellow!  I gave him a fresh chance twice over, but I'm afraid he
+is a ne'er-do-weel.  However, he is severely punished now."
+
+The man Lomax knocked down went before the magistrates, and was packed
+off to prison, but Magglin had to go up to London, to one of the great
+hospitals, and some months after, the chief magistrate in our district,
+that is to say, General Sir Hawkhurst Rye, had him up before him in his
+library, and punished him.
+
+Bob Hopley told me all about it, just after he had announced, with a
+good many grins and winks, that Polly was--"Going to be married to
+master's favourite groom, and they're to live at Number 2 lodge."
+
+"And how did he punish him, Bob?"  Mercer said eagerly.
+
+"Punished him, sir? why, he's took him on as a watcher under me.  Says
+poachers make the best keepers; but, o' course, he can't never be a
+keeper, with only one arm."
+
+"Ah," I said thoughtfully, "you said he would lose his arm."
+
+"Yes, sir, and they took it off pretty close.  But there, I think he'll
+mend now."
+
+My story, (or rather my random notes), of my old school-days is pretty
+well ended now, though I could rake out a good deal more from the dark
+corners of my memory.  For, after that adventure in the wood, the time
+soon seemed to come when Tom Mercer had to leave, to begin his course of
+training for a surgeon, while I was bound for Woolwich, to become a
+cadet.
+
+It was a sad day for me when I first went to "Old Browne's," but it was
+a sadder day when I left, for I felt very sore at heart, and it required
+all my strength of mind to keep up a brave show.
+
+For every one was very kind, and it was like parting from old friends
+whom I might never see again.  The boys were all out in the front drive,
+where the General's carriage stood waiting to take me and my mother to
+meet the London mail coach, and the two gentlemen were with us.  For my
+mother and my uncle had come down to fetch me, and say a few kind words
+to the Doctor and Mrs Doctor, as well as to visit Sir Hawkhurst.  I saw
+Lomax too, and Mr Rebble and Mr Hasnip, at the door, and it seemed as
+if there was always some one fresh to shake hands with, the old sergeant
+shaking mine with both his, and his voice sounded very husky as he
+said,--
+
+"You won't forget your drill, sir, nor your balance in the saddle; heels
+well down, and ride your horse on the curb, mind--don't forget, and--
+and--"
+
+The old fellow could get no further.  The tears started to his eyes, and
+to hide his emotion, and to save me from breaking down, he drew himself
+up stiffly and saluted me.
+
+Lastly, I found that the servants were all outside too, waiting to say
+good-bye, and I couldn't go without stepping aside to shake hands with
+Cook, who uttered a loud sob, snatched me to her, and gave me a sounding
+kiss.
+
+Then I was back on the steps saying my farewells to the Doctor and his
+wife, and I felt that I had bade every one now good-bye but Tom Mercer,
+who was to leave the following day, but, to my intense disappointment,
+he was missing; and, time pressing, I was at last obliged to climb into
+the britzska, where my mother, my uncle, and the General were already
+seated, the word was given, the coachman touched his horses as soon as
+the groom had climbed to his side, and the boys nearly frightened them
+into a headlong gallop, as they burst out into a volley of cheers,
+mingled with, "Good-bye, Burr junior!  Good luck to you, soldier!" and
+amidst the waving of caps from the lads, and handkerchiefs from the
+door, I stood up in the carriage and roared excitedly,--
+
+"Where's old Senna?"
+
+I faintly heard the words, "Don't know," and I stood looking about
+wildly, full of bitter disappointment at leaving without seeing him.
+
+I was standing up at the back, where my mother had the other seat, the
+two old officers being before us, but there was no Tom Mercer, and I was
+about to sit down, feeling that the poor fellow could not face the
+farewell, when, at the turn of the road, there on the bank stood Polly
+Hopley, with a parcel in one hand and a bunch of flowers in the other,
+and beside her, Bob Hopley in his brown velveteens, his gun under his
+left arm and his hat in his hand.
+
+As we trotted by, the parcel and bouquet fell into the carriage, and I
+waved my hand back to them till we were out of sight, when I found that
+my mother was holding the flowers, which had her name on a label like
+that used with a doctor's bottle, while the parcel was directed to me.
+
+I couldn't help my face working as I looked from one to the other.
+
+"Cheer up, my lad," cried the General, as my mother pressed my hand, for
+I had sunk down beside her on the seat.
+
+"Of course he will," cried my uncle; "soldiers cheer up directly.  I
+say, Frank, the Doctor gave you a splendid character, but it wasn't
+wanted.  Your popularity staggers me."
+
+"But I haven't seen poor old Senna," I cried.
+
+"Seen whom?" said my uncle, laughing.
+
+"Poor old Tom Mercer," I cried, when a hand from the back knocked my cap
+over my eyes, and a familiar voice shouted,--
+
+"'Bye, Frankie.  Hooray! 'ray! 'ray! 'ray!"
+
+There was Tom Mercer's face looking at us over the hood at the back, for
+he had darted out from the hedge as the carriage passed the corner half
+a mile from the school, climbed up behind, and was holding on with one
+hand as he clutched at me with the other.
+
+Then quickly--nay, more quickly than it has taken me to tell it--he let
+go and dropped down into the road, where I could see him standing waving
+his cap till a curve hid him from sight; and I once more sank into my
+place too low-spirited to think, for my happy school-days were at an
+end, and there before me in the dim distance, toward which I was being
+hurried fast as two good mares could trot, was the great gateway of a
+fresh life, through which lay the road to be followed in my progress to
+become a soldier and a man.
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Burr Junior, by G. Manville Fenn
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