hinkin' of it for two minutes."

They went to their study in more or less of silence. There they began to
laugh--laugh as only boys can. They laughed with their foreheads on the
tables, or on the floor; laughed at length, curled over the backs of
chairs or clinging to a book-shelf; laughed themselves limp.

And in the middle of it Orrin entered on behalf of the house. "Don't
mind us, Orrin; sit down. You don't know how we respect and admire you.
There's something about your pure, high young forehead, full of the
dreams of innocent boyhood, that's no end fetchin'. It is, indeed."

"The house sent me to give you this." He laid a folded sheet of paper on
the table and retired with an awful front.

"It's the resolution! Oh, read it, some one. I'm too silly-sick
with laughin' to see," said Beetle. Stalky jerked it open with a
precautionary sniff. "Phew! Phew! Listen. '_The house notices with pain
and contempt the attitude of indiference_' --how many f's in
indifference, Beetle?"

"Two for choice."

"Only one here--'_adopted by the occupants of Number Five study in
relation to the insults offered to Mr. Prout's house at the recent
meeting in Number Twelve form-room, and the House hereby pass a
vote of censure on the said study. That's all._"

"And she bled all down my shirt, too!" said Beetle.

"An' I'm catty all over," said McTurk, "though I washed twice."

"An' I nearly broke Beetle's brolly plantin' her where she would
blossom!"

The situation was beyond speech, but not laughter. There was some
attempt that night to demonstrate against the three in their dormitory;
so they came forth.

"You see," Beetle began suavely as he loosened his braces, "the trouble
with you is that you're a set of unthinkin' asses. You've no more brains
than spidgers. We've told you that heaps of times, haven't we?"

"We'll give the three of you a dormitory lickin'. You always jaw at us
as if you were prefects," cried one.

"Oh, no, you won't," said Stalky, "because you know that if you did
you'd get the worst of it sooner or later. _We_ aren't in any hurry. We
can afford to wait for our little revenges. You've made howlin' asses
of yourselves, and just as soon as King gets hold of your precious
resolutions to-morrow you'll find that out. If you aren't sick an' sorry
by to-morrow night, I'll--I'll eat my hat."

But or ever the dinner-bell rang the next day Prout's were sadly aware
of their error. King received stray members of that