moment, clear the summit, when they in turn became the besieged. It
was a good, rough, dirty game, and of great use in counteracting the
sneaking tendencies of the school. Then others of the boys spread over
the downs, looking for the holes of humble-bees and mice, which they
dug up without mercy, often (I regret to say) killing and skinning the
unlucky mice, and (I do not regret to say) getting well stung by the
bumble-bees. Others went after butterflies and birds' eggs in their
seasons; and Tom found on Hazeldown, for the first time, the beautiful
little blue butterfly with golden spots on his wings, which he had never
seen on his own downs, and dug out his first sand-martin's nest. This
latter achievement resulted in a flogging, for the sand-martins built in
a high bank close to the village, consequently out of bounds; but one of
the bolder spirits of the school, who never could be happy unless he
was doing something to which risk was attached, easily persuaded Tom to
break bounds and visit the martins' bank. From whence it being only a
step to the toffy shop, what could be more simple than to go on there
and fill their pockets; or what more certain than that on their return,
a distribution of treasure having been made, the usher should shortly
detect the forbidden smell of bull's-eyes, and, a search ensuing,
discover the state of the breeches-pockets of Tom and his ally?

This ally of Tom's was indeed a desperate hero in the sight of the boys,
and feared as one who dealt in magic, or something approaching thereto.
Which reputation came to him in this wise. The boys went to bed at
eight, and, of course, consequently lay awake in the dark for an hour or
two, telling ghost-stories by turns. One night when it came to his turn,
and he had dried up their souls by his story, he suddenly declared that
he would make a fiery hand appear on the door; and to the astonishment
and terror of the boys in his room, a hand, or something like it, in
pale light, did then and there appear. The fame of this exploit having
spread to the other rooms, and being discredited there, the young
necromancer declared that the same wonder would appear in all the rooms
in turn, which it accordingly did; and the whole circumstances having
been privately reported to one of the ushers as usual, that functionary,
after listening about at the doors of the rooms, by a sudden descent
caught the performer in his night-shirt, with a box of phosphorus in his
g