ve. "There's only five minutes more."

Charlie, with all the naturalness of innocence, knelt, as he was always
used to do, and said his prayers, adding a special petition for his dear
absent parents, and another for the poor boy who hadn't got a father.

He was wholly unaware of the curiosity he had excited by his entrance
into the dormitory, still less did he imagine the sensation which his
simple act of devotion was creating. Twenty pairs of eyes stared at the
unwonted spectacle of a boy saying his prayers, and many were the
whispered comments which passed from lip to lip. No one however (had
any been so inclined) stirred either to disturb or molest him--an
immunity secured to him as much perhaps by the fact of his being under
the protection of so redoubtable a champion as Halliday as by any
special feeling of sympathy for his act.

The good example was not, however, wholly lost, for that same night,
after the lights were out, and when silence reigned in the room, more
than one boy covered his head with his sheet and tried to recall one of
the early prayers of his childhood.

As for Charlie, with me and the knife under his pillow, he slept the
sleep of the just, and dreamt of home; and I can answer for it his weary
head never turned once the livelong night.

CHAPTER FIVE.

HOW MY MASTER ENTERED AND QUITTED THE HEAD MASTER'S STUDY TWICE IN ONE
MORNING.

Charlie's first care in the morning was, as I need hardly say, to pull
me out from under his pillow, and consult me as to the time. None of
his companions were astir, so that, not having anything particular to
do, he lay still, and abandoned himself to the luxury of an idle half-
hour in bed.

His spirits were so greatly revived by his night's rest that he forgot
both the novelty and the loneliness of his position, and fell to
polishing first his knife and then me as merrily as if he were at home.
What a difference a sound sleep often makes in the aspect of our
affairs! Twelve hours ago he had felt as if he could never be
sufficiently bold as to whistle within the walls of Randlebury, and now
the first sight and sound which greeted Halliday's returning senses, as
he sat up and rubbed his eyes, was his young _protege_ whistling to
himself like a lark, and brightening me up with all his might with the
corner of his blanket till I glowed again at nearly a red heat.

"Who's that kicking up that row whistling?" growled a voice from the far
end of the room