ure Tom on his future
conduct, holding himself up as a living example of the benefits
which were sure to accrue to a man who never did anything he was
told to do. The soundness of his reasoning, however, was somewhat
shaken by the dean, who, on the same afternoon, managed to catch
him in quad; and, carrying him off, discoursed with him
concerning his various and systematic breaches of discipline,
pointed out to him that he had already made such good use of his
time that if he were to be discommonsed for three more days he
would lose his term; and then took of his cross, gave him a book
of Virgil to write out and gated him for a fortnight after hall.
Drysdale sent out his scout to order his punishment as he might
have ordered a waistcoat, presented old Copas with a
half-sovereign, and then dismissed punishment and gating from his
mind. He cultivated with great success the science of mental
gymnastics, or throwing everything the least unpleasant off his
mind at once. And no doubt it is a science worthy of all
cultivation, if one desires to lead a comfortable life. It gets
harder, however, as the years roll over us, to attain to any
satisfactory proficiency in it; so it should be mastered as early
in life as may be.

The town and gown row was the talk of the college for the next
week. Tom, of course, talked much about it, like his neighbors,
and confided to one and another the Captain's heresies. They were
all incredulous; for no one had ever heard him talk as much in a
term as Tom reported him to have done on this one evening.

So it was resolved that he should be taken to task on the subject
on the first opportunity; and, as nobody was afraid of him, there
was no difficulty in finding a man to bell the cat. Accordingly,
at the next wine of the boating set, the Captain had scarcely
entered when he was assailed by the host with--

"Jervis, Brown says you don't believe a gentleman can lick a cad,
unless he is the biggest and strongest of the two."

The Captain, who hated coming out with his beliefs, shrugged his
shoulders, sipped his wine, and tried to turn the subject. But,
seeing that they were all bent on drawing him out, he was not the
man to run from his guns; and so he said quietly:

"No more I do."

Notwithstanding the reverence in which he was held, this saying
could not be allowed to pass, and a dozen voices were instantly
raised, and a dozen authentic stories told to confute him. He
listened patiently, a