ad wasted our time on trivial
things, instead of things that mattered; and unless we turn away from
all this truck, trash and cant about athleticism, England is not going
to stand for anything worth having."

He sat down amid tempestuous applause. The audience were really excited.
They had gradually grown sick of games during the last two terms, and
now apparently they had the best authority for doing so. Everyone likes
being congratulated.

The opposition suffered in having Burgess to support them. We have heard
of him before. Years had not altered him much. He was the same
conceited, self-righteous puppet as of old. People got tired of
listening to him. There was a sound of shuffling, a window began to bang
with unnecessary noise. He sat down to an apathetic recognition.

Davenport then made a very biting speech against games.

"The Bull" was surprised to see him speaking on Ferrer's side. He was
in the Second Fifteen, and a very useful outside.

"Whatever we may have done before the war," he cried, "and we did many
foolish things, it is quite obvious that now this worship of sport must
cease. Let us hope it is not revived. We are sent here to be
educated--that is, to have our minds trained; instead of that, we have
our bodies developed, our minds starved. We play footer in the
afternoon, we have gym. at all hours of the day, and other experiments
in voluntary compulsion, such as puntabouts after breakfast. The result
is we work at our play, and play at our work...." He elaborated the
scheme in an amusing way. There was a lot of laughter. "The Bull" looked
fierce. Rudd, who had for a "rag" insisted on speaking for the
opposition, discoursed on the value of "_mens sana in corpore sano_."
Everyone shrieked with laughter.

He finished up thus:

"Well, look at me. I am the hardest-working fellow in the school." A
roar of laughter went up. Rudd had nearly been deprived of his position
of school prefect for doing so little work. "I am also a fine athlete.
To-day I clean bowled two people on the pick-up, and hit a splendid four
over short-slip's head. I am what I am because of our excellent system
of work and play. Look at me, I say, and vote for athleticism."

Buffoonery is often more powerful than the truest oratory.

The motion was put before the House.

A lot of people spoke. All in favour of the motion. It was great fun
watching "the Bull's" face grow gradually darker. Morgan said that only
fools and Philist