hour, or sat in their desks reading or looking over
copies, and keeping such order as was possible. But the lower-fourth
was just now an overgrown form, too large for any one man to attend
to properly, and consequently the elysium or ideal form of the young
scapegraces who formed the staple of it.

Tom, as has been said, had come up from the third with a good character,
but the temptations of the lower-fourth soon proved too strong for him,
and he rapidly fell away, and became as unmanageable as the rest.
For some weeks, indeed, he succeeded in maintaining the appearance of
steadiness, and was looked upon favourably by his new master, whose eyes
were first opened by the following little incident.

Besides the desk which the master himself occupied, there was another
large unoccupied desk in the corner of the great school, which was
untenanted. To rush and seize upon this desk, which was ascended by
three steps and held four boys, was the great object of ambition of the
lower-fourthers; and the contentions for the occupation of it bred such
disorder that at last the master forbade its use altogether. This, of
course, was a challenge to the more adventurous spirits to occupy it;
and as it was capacious enough for two boys to lie hid there completely,
it was seldom that it remained empty, notwithstanding the veto. Small
holes were cut in the front, through which the occupants watched the
masters as they walked up and down; and as lesson time approached, one
boy at a time stole out and down the steps, as the masters' backs were
turned, and mingled with the general crowd on the forms below. Tom and
East had successfully occupied the desk some half-dozen times, and were
grown so reckless that they were in the habit of playing small games
with fives balls inside when the masters were at the other end of the
big school. One day, as ill-luck would have it, the game became more
exciting than usual, and the ball slipped through East's fingers, and
rolled slowly down the steps and out into the middle of the school, just
as the masters turned in their walk and faced round upon the desk. The
young delinquents watched their master, through the lookout holes, march
slowly down the school straight upon their retreat, while all the boys
in the neighbourhood, of course, stopped their work to look on; and not
only were they ignominiously drawn out, and caned over the hand then
and there, but their characters for steadiness were gone from t