-artery--decussate--wonder what this other fool says
(_rustling leaves_). They all contradict one another, and old
Rutherland will never believe you when you tell him so.

[_A new quarrel arises at the upper end of the room between Jo Bentley
and Tad_.

CHIRNSIDE (_starting to his feet_). Lay down that book, Bentley! Do you
hear? I know Tad is a fool, and needs his calf's head broken. But do it
with another book--Calderhead's _Mind and Matter_, or _T. and
T._--anything but that. Take the poker or anything! But lay down that
book. Do you hear me, Bentley?

[_The book is laid down_.

CHIRNSIDE (_continuing_). What am I in such a funk about? No, it's not
because it is a Bible, though a Bible never makes a good missile. I
always keep an _Oliver and Boyd_ on purpose--one of the old
leather-backed kind that never wears out, even when half the leaves are
ripped out for pipe-lights.

[_Tad Anderson asks a question_.

Why am I so stung up about that book? Tell you fellows? Well, I don't
mind knocking off a bit and giving you the yarn. That Bible belonged to
Fenwick Major. Never heard of Fenwick Major! What blessed ignorant
chickens you must be! Where were you brought up?

[_Chirnside slowly lights his pipe before speaking again_.

Well--I entered with Fenwick Major when I came up as a first year's man
in Arts. I was green as grass, or as you fellows last year. Not that you
know much yet, by the way.

Now, drop that _Medical Ju_, Bentley! Hand me the _Lancet_. It makes
good pipe-lights--about all it's good for. Oh--Fenwick Major? Well
(_puff-puff-puff_), he came up to college with me. Third-class
carriage--our several _maters_ at the door weeping--you know the kind of
thing. Fenwick's governor prowling about in the background with a
tenner in an envelope to stick in through the window. His mother with a
new Bible and his name on the first leaf. I had no governor and no
blooming tenner. Only my old _mater_ told me to spend my bursary as
carefully as I could, and not to disgrace my father's memory. Then
something took me, and I wanted to go over to the other side of the
compartment and look out at the window. Good old lady, mine, as ever
they make them. Ever felt that way, fellows?

[_Chirnside's pipe goes out. Jo Bentley and Tad shift their legs
uneasily and cross them the other way_.

So we came up. Fenwick Major's name stands next to mine on the
University books. You know the style. Get your money all ready. Make o