ning three pairs of spectacles according to his
distance from the object in view. Nobody ever discovered the exact range
of these spectacles; but, to reckon broadly, three pairs at once were
necessary for an exercise on the desk before him and for the antics of
the back row of desks only one. Mr. Caryll was so deaf, that the loudest
turmoil in the back row reached him in the form of a whisper that made
him intensely suspicious of cribbing; but, as he could never remember
where any boy was sitting, by the time he had put on or taken off one of
his pairs of glasses, the noise had opportunity to subside and the
authors were able to compose their countenances for the sharp scrutiny
which followed. Mr. Caryll always expected every pupil to cheat and
invented various stratagems to prevent this vice. In a temper he was
apparently the most cynical of men, but as his temper never lasted long
enough for him to focus his vision upon the suspected person, he was in
practice the blandest and most amiable of old gentlemen. He could never
resist even the most obvious joke, and his form pandered shamelessly to
this fondness of his, so that, when he made a pun, they would rock with
laughter, stamp their feet on the floor and bang the lids of their desks
to express their appreciation. This hullabaloo, which reached Mr. Caryll
in the guise of a mild titter, affording him the utmost satisfaction,
could be heard even in distant class-rooms, and sometimes serious
mathematical masters in the throes of algebra would send polite
messages to beg Mr. Caryll kindly to keep his class more quiet.

Michael and Alan often enjoyed themselves boundlessly in Mr. Caryll's
form. Sometimes they would deliberately misconstrue Cicero to beget a
joke, as when Michael translated 'abjectique homines' by 'cast-off men'
to afford Mr. Caryll the chance of saying, "Tut-tut. The great booby's
thinking of his cast-off clothing." Michael and Alan used to ask for
leave to light the gas on foggy afternoons, and with an imitation of Mr.
Caryll's rasping cough they would manage to extinguish one by one a
whole box of matches to the immense entertainment of the Upper Fourth A.
They dug pens into the diligent Levy: they stuck the lid of his desk
with a row of thin gelatine lozenges in order that, when after a
struggle he managed to open it, the lid should fly up and hit him a blow
on the chin. They loosed blackbeetles in the middle of Greek Testament
and pretended to be very