doctor felt it
unjust to deal with his case scholastically while the question of his
punishment by the laws of the country was still pending. The only boy
who thought of anything practical was Smith, "Old Algebra," as they
called him. He went up privately to Mr Rabbits one day and said, "I
beg your pardon, sir, but might I speak to you for a moment?"

"Certainly, Smith," said Mr Rabbits; "what is it?"

"When you saw Buller getting in at the window by the light of your
magnesium wire, did you notice his skates?"

"Bless me!" cried Mr Rabbits; "now you mention it, I think--nay, I am
sure I did. They were hanging round his neck. To be sure; why, that
tends to corroborate his assertion that he went skating."

"Will it not be enough to clear him, sir?"

"Well, not quite, I fear. You see, they may say that he might have
started to go skating, and met with this poacher, and gone off with him
out of curiosity. But still it is worth something, and I shall make a
point of appearing before the magistrate and giving evidence on the
point. It was a very good idea of yours--very."

When the snow ceased, the boys took brooms with them to the gravel-pits
and cleared a space, which grew larger every time they went to skate on
it, some of the hangers-on of the school helping forward the work, for
what coppers and sixpences they could pick up. But they were lazy,
loafing dogs, and the boys did most of it for themselves. Buller did
not go to the ice any more, however; though not expressly forbidden, he
thought the doctor would not like it; it would look as if he did not
take his position seriously enough. It was for the sake of skating that
he had broken out at night and got into this scrape, and so now he would
deny himself.

The week passed, and Buller again went over with Dr Jolliffe to Mr
Elliot's house at Penredding, Mr Rabbits this time accompanying him.
The frost still held, and the boys went skating.

I have said that there was no recognised system of fagging at Weston;
yet, when a fellow in the head-master's class told a boy in the lowest
form to do anything, why, it so happened that he generally did it. So,
when Crawley observed:

"There's a beautiful bit of smooth ice under here. I say, you two,
Penryhn and Simmonds, suppose you take those brooms and clear a bit of
it."

Penryhn and Simmonds acted on the suggestion. After clearing some
twenty square yards of beautiful black ice, Simmonds turned up somet