ld fag for them. I could do their
sums for them--I am good at sums--write their impositions for them,
gladly take upon myself their punishments, would they but return
my service with a little love and--more important still--a little
admiration."

But all I could find to say was, sulkily: "They do like me, some of
them." I dared not, aloud, acknowledge the truth.

"Don't tell lies," he answered; "you know they don't--none of them." And
I hung my head.

"I'll tell you what I'll do," he continued in his lordly way; "I'll give
you a chance. We're starting hare and hounds next Saturday; you can be a
hare. You needn't tell anybody. Just turn up on Saturday and I'll see to
it. Mind, you'll have to run like the devil."

He walked away without waiting for my answer, leaving me to meet Joy
running towards me with outstretched hands. The great moment comes
to all of us; to the politician, when the Party whip slips from
confabulation with the Front Bench to congratulate him, smiling, on his
really admirable little speech; to the youthful dramatist, reading in
his bed-sitting-room the managerial note asking him to call that morning
at eleven; to the subaltern, beckoned to the stirrup of his chief--the
moment when the sun breaks through the morning mists, and the world lies
stretched before us, our way clear.

Obeying orders, I gave no hint in school of the great fortune that had
come to me; but hurrying home, I exploded in the passage before the
front door could be closed behind me.

"I am to be a hare because I run so fast. Anybody can be a hound, but
there's only two hares, and they all want me. And can I have a jersey?
We begin next Saturday. He saw me run. I ran twice round the playground.
He said I was splendid! Of course, it's a great honour to be a hare. We
start from Hampstead Heath. And may I have a pair of shoes?"

The jersey and the shoes my mother and I purchased that very day, for
the fear was upon me that unless we hastened, the last blue and white
striped jersey in London might be sold, and the market be empty of
running shoes. That evening, before getting into bed, I dressed myself
in full costume to admire myself before the glass; and from then till
the end of the week, to the terror of my mother, I practised leaping
over chairs, and my method of descending stairs was perilous and
roundabout. But, as I explained to them, the credit of the Lower
Fourth was at stake, and banisters and legs equally of small acc