change of feeling in his master. He grew
careless and dispirited, nor was it till in the very heat of the final
competition that he felt his energies fully revived.

Half the form were as eager about the examination as the other half were
indifferent; but none were more eager than Eric. He was much hindered
by Barker's unceasing attempt to copy his papers surreptitiously; and
very much disgusted at the shameless way in which many of the boys
"cribbed" from books, and from each other, or used torn leaves concealed
in their sleeves, or dates written on their wristbands and on their
nails. He saw how easily much of this might have been prevented; but
Mr Gordon was fresh at his work, and had not yet learned the practical
lesson (which cost him many a qualm of sorrow and disgust), that to
trust young boys to any great extent is really to increase their
temptations. He _did_ learn the lesson afterwards, and then almost
entirely suppressed the practice, partly by increased vigilance, and
partly by forbidding _any_ book to be brought into the room during the
time of examination. But meanwhile much evil had been done by the
habitual abuse of his former confidence.

I shall not linger over the examination. At its close, the day before
the breaking up, the list was posted on the door of the great
schoolroom, and most boys made an impetuous rush to see the result. But
Eric was too nervous to be present at the hour when this was usually
done, and he had asked Russell to bring him the news.

He was walking up and down the garden, counting the number of steps he
took, counting the number of shrubs along each path, and devising every
sort of means to beguile the time, when he heard hasty steps, and
Russell burst in at the back gate, breathless with haste and bright with
excitement.

"Hurrah! old fellow!" he cried, seizing both Eric's hands; "I never felt
so glad in my life," and he shook his friend's arms up and down,
laughing joyously.

"Well! tell me," said Eric.

"First, Owen and Williams aequales," said he; "you've got head-remove,
you see, in spite of your forebodings, as I always said you would; and I
congratulate you with all my heart."

"No?" said Eric, "have I really?--you're not joking? Oh! hurrah!--I
must rush in and tell them," and he bounded off.

In a second he was back at Russell's side. "What a selfish animal I am!
Where are you placed, Russell?"

"Oh! magnificent; I'm third--far higher than I expect