boys will be fit for
nothing afterwards."

"_Certainement_!" said the French master.

"But I suppose I must give orders for these seats to be placed;" and as
soon as he was outside he summoned Wrench--the pale-faced and red-nosed
official whose principal duty it was, with the assistance of a sturdy
hobbledehoy (Mounseer Hobby-de-Hoy, as the boys called him) to keep
well-blackened the whole of the boots in the big establishment--and gave
orders to carry out and run a line of forms all along the outer wall of
the great playground, which was continued farther on by the
cricket-field hedge.

"A great waste of time," said Morris; but he gave very strict orders to
the man-servant that the biggest and strongest form was to be chalked
"Number One," and reserved for the masters only.

There was a buzz in the dining-hall which grew into a roar as the door
closed. The boys, who had sat down to breakfast rather wanting in
appetite--from the fact that their consciences were not very clear
regarding studies in English and French or certain algebraic solutions
or arrangements in angles specified by "A B C" and "D E F," according to
the declarations of a well-known gentleman named Euclid--felt in their
great relief as if they would like another cup of coffee and two slices
more, for the holiday was quite unexpected.

It was about this time that Slegge gave his opinion to his following,
which was rather large, he being the senior pupil and considering
himself head-chief of the school, not from his distinguished position as
a scholar, but from the fact that his allowance of cash from home was
the largest of that furnished to any pupil of the establishment, without
counting extra tips. Slegge, Senior--not the pupil, for there was no
other boy of the same name in the school, but Slegge _pere_, as Monsieur
Brohanne would have termed him--being sole proprietor of the great
wholesale mercantile firm of Slegge, Gorrock and Dredge, Italian
warehousemen, whose place of business was in the City of London, and
was, as Slegge insisted, "not a shop."

"You fellows," he said, "can do as you like. Some of you had better set
up a wicket and the net, and come and bowl to me. Ha, ha! look at
Thames and the Nigger! It will just suit them. Those Indian chaps
think of nothing else but show. I shan't be at all surprised if the
nigger goes up to dress and comes down again in white muslin and a
turban.--I say! Hi! Thames! Rivers! What's your