all in, to begin!" was shouted from the doors.

"Oh yes, we're coming soon," said Burr major, throwing up his head.
"Wait a bit, you, sir, and I'll teach you to insult your seniors."

"All in, all in!"

"Here, Dicksee, go and hit that fellow on the mouth for shouting."

"All in, all in!" came again, directed at our group.

"Coming," cried Burr major. Then to me: "After morning studies, you
sir. I don't suppose I shall forget."

"If you do, I shan't, bully," I said, and he turned upon me more
astonished than ever, and then burst into a fit of derisive laughter.

"He's mad," he cried. "Here, boys, Senna's been gammoning him into
taking some of his physic, and he don't know what he's saying."

"Dicksee--Burr major. Come, boys."

Mr Rebble was standing in the schoolhouse doorway, and all but Burr
major ran off. He took out his watch, and walked away importantly after
the others, while I felt a peculiar nervous thrill run through me, and
began wondering whether I had been too bold, as I went off hurriedly now
to where Lomax was waiting with the horse.

"I don't care," I said; "he may thrash me, but I won't be bullied like
that, and insulted, without a try."

"Come, young gentleman," cried the sergeant. "I began to think you were
going to shirk it."

"Not I, Lom," I cried, and, feeling peculiarly excited, I went up to the
horse's head and patted him, while the sergeant removed the stirrups.
Then he gave me a leg up, and I was hoisted into my seat, and went
through my lesson--walk, trot, and gallop, with the saddle seeming less
slippery, and without coming off once.

The sergeant, I noticed, was very severe, and barked and shouted at me
and the horse, keeping us doing the same things over and over again, and
growing more exacting as we went on. But I hardly noticed him, for my
head was all in a whirl, and I was thinking about after lessons, and
what would happen then. So occupied was I with my thoughts that I never
once felt nervous, but as if all I had to do was to sit still and let
the horse obey the orders.

Lomax finished me off with a canter round the paddock, which was taken
at a pretty good pace, and very easy the horse's pace was, but I was
thinking of Burr major's sneering face all the time, and his long arms
and bony white hands. Then about Mercer, and what he would say--what he
would do.

"Are we both to have a good thrashing?" I asked myself, as the horse
cantered on, and, "Right wheel-