much afraid while Mr. Caryll stamped upon them
one by one, deriding their cowardice. They threw paper darts and paper
pellets with unerring aim: they put drawing-pins in the seat of a fat
and industrious German called Wertheim: they filled up all the ink-pots
in the form with blotting-paper and crossed every single nib. They
played xylophonic tunes with penholders on the desk's edge and carved
their initials inside: they wrote their names in ink and made the
inscription permanent by rubbing it over with blotting-paper. They were
seized with sudden and unaccountable fits of bleeding from the nose to
gain a short exeat to stand in the fresh air by the Fives Courts. They
built up ramparts of dictionaries in the forefront of their desks to
play noughts and crosses without detection: they soaked with ink all the
chalk for the blackboard and divested Levy of his boots which they
passed round the form during 'rep': they made elaborate jointed rods
with foolscap to prod otherwise unassailable boys at the other end of
the room and when, during the argument which followed the mutual
correction by desk-neighbours of Mr. Caryll's weekly examination paper,
they observed an earnest group of questioners gathered round the
master's dais, they would charge into them from behind so violently that
the front row, generally consisting of the more eager and laborious
boys, was precipitated against Mr. Caryll's chair to the confusion of
labour and eagerness. Retribution followed very seldom in the shape of
impots; and even they were soon done by means of an elaborate
arrangement by which six pens lashed together did six times the work of
one. Sometimes Michael or Alan would be invited to move their desks out
close to Mr. Caryll's dais of authority for a week's disgrace; but even
this punishment included as compensation a position facing the class and
therefore the opportunity to play the buffoon for its benefit. Sometimes
Michael or Alan would be ejected with vituperation from the class-room
to spend an hour in the corridor without. Unfortunately they were never
ejected together, and anyway it was an uneasy experience on account of
Dr. Brownjohn's habit of swinging round a corner and demanding a reason
for the discovery of a loiterer in the corridor. The first time he
appeared, it was always possible by assuming an air of intentness and by
walking towards him very quickly to convey the impression of one upon an
urgent errand; but when Dr. Brown