"The Head! The Head! The Head!" That call stilled the tumult for a
minute, and Stalky, leaping to a desk, shouted, "He went and sucked the
diphtheria stuff out of Stettson major's throat when we thought he was
in town. Stop rotting, you asses! Stettson major would have croaked if
the Head hadn't done it. The Head might have died himself. Crandall
says it's the bravest thing any livin' man can do, and I"--his voice
cracked--"the Head don't know we know!"

McTurk and Beetle, jumping from desk to desk, drove the news home among
the junior forms. There was a pause, and then, Mason behind him, the
Head entered. It was in the established order of things that no boy
should speak or move under his eye. He expected the hush of awe. He was
received with cheers--steady, ceaseless cheering. Being a wise man, he
went away, and the forms were silent and a little frightened.

"It's all right," said Stalky. "He can't do much. 'Tisn't as if you'd
pulled the desks up like we did when old Carleton took prep. once. Keep
it up! Hear 'em cheering in the studies!" He rocketed out with a yell,
to find Flint and the prefects lifting the roof off the corridor.

When the Head of a limited liability company, paying four per cent., is
cheered on his saintly way to prayers, not only by four form-rooms of
boys waiting punishment, but by his trusted prefects, he can either
ask for an explanation or go his road with dignity, while the senior
house-master glares like an excited cat and points out to a white and
trembling mathematical master that certain methods--not his, thank
God---usually produce certain results. Out of delicacy the Old Boys
did not attend that call-over; and it was to the school drawn up in the
gymnasium that the Head spoke icily.

"It is not often that I do not understand you; but I confess I do not
to-night. Some of you, after your idiotic performances at prep., seem to
think me a fit person to cheer. I am going to show you that I am not."

Crash--crash--crash--came the triple cheer that disproved it, and the
Head glowered under the gas. "That is enough. You will gain nothing. The
little boys (the Lower School did not like that form of address) will do
me three hundred lines apiece in the holidays. I shall take no further
notice of them. The Upper School will do me one thousand lines apiece in
the holidays, to be shown up the evening of the day they come back. And
further--"

"Gummy, what a glutton!" Stalky whispered.

"For