the Den as the joke passed round,
and the phenomenon of the "green new kid" blushing scarlet all over
attracted general curiosity, and stopped the proceedings for several
minutes.

As soon as order was restored, other elections were proceeded with,
including the school librarian and the post fag, the duty of which
latter office was to distribute the letters which came by the post to
their respective owners. For this office there was always great
competition, each "set" being anxious to get one of its own members, on
whom it could depend.

The contest this year lay between Pauncefote, of Westover's, and
Duffield of Purbeck's, and ever since the term opened canvassing had
been going on actively on behalf of the respective candidates. I regret
to say the laws relating to elections at Templeton were not as rigid as
those which regulate public elections generally, and bribery and
corruption were no name for some of the unscrupulous practices resorted
to by the friends of either party to secure a vote. If a small boy
ventured to express so much as a doubt as to his choice, his arm would
be seized by the canvassing party and screwed till the required pledge
was given. And woe to that small boy if an hour later the other side
caught him by the other arm and begged the favour of his vote for their
man! Nothing short of perjury would keep his arm in its socket. Nor
was it once or twice only that the youth of Templeton would be made to
forswear itself over the election of post fag. Several times a day the
same luckless voter might be made to yield up his promise, until, at the
end of a week, he would become too confused and weary to recollect for
which side his word of honour had last been given. Nor did it much
matter, for his vote in Hall depended entirely on the company nearest
within reach of his arm; and if, by some grim fatality, he should chance
to get with one arm towards each party, the effort of recording his vote
was likely to prove one of the most serious undertakings of his mortal
life.

Our heroes, luckily for them, found themselves planted in the midst of
Pauncefote's adherents, so that they experienced no difficulty at all in
making up their minds how they should vote. They either did not see or
did not notice a few threatening shouts and pantomimic gestures
addressed to them by some of Duffield's supporters in a remote corner of
the room, and held up their hands for his opponent with the clear
consci