y!" said the Doctor, after a conference in a low tone with Mr
Rebble. "I see. Er--rum! Dicksee, Hodson."

"Please, sir, I wasn't fighting," cried Hodson excitedly.

Mr Rebble whispered to the Doctor.

"An accessory, it seems, Hodson," said the Doctor. "You will come to my
room directly after dinner, with Mercer and Burr junior. I have not
heard the names of the other boys who were present," continued the
Doctor.

"Please, sir, Wilson was one," cried Dicksee.

"Thank you, Dicksee," said the Doctor drily, as he fixed him with his
glittering glasses; "I am obliged to you. History repeats itself.
There has always been one in every confederation ready to betray his
fellows to save his own skin. I am afraid, Dicksee, that your skin will
not be safe. Were you present, Wilson?"

"Yes, sir," said the little fellow.

"Fighting?"

"No, sir, I wasn't fighting; but--"

"But?" said the Doctor; "well, what?"

"Please, sir, I couldn't help liking it."

"Humph!" ejaculated the Doctor. "Well, you need not come this time. To
resume, I do not know the names of the boys who were present, and I do
not want to know. Dicksee was in too great a hurry. Now proceed with
your dinner."

The meal went on, but my face felt more stiff, and my appetite was
decidedly worse.

I was longing to go and do as a dog would under the circumstances,--go
and curl up somewhere out of sight till I got better, for my head ached,
so did my heart; my face throbbed and felt stiff; and altogether I was,
like Mercer, as "miserable as mizzer,"--so he put it,--when the Doctor
tapped the table again, we all rose, grace was said, and the words of
doom came rolling through the place:

"In a quarter of an hour's time, young gentlemen."

Then the Doctor marched sedately out of the room, the masters followed,
and the boys trooped into the ground, and we had to go too, feeling
doleful in the extreme, but that did give way to a sense of pride, for
there was a rush made for us directly; and as I was surrounded by a
crowd, all eagerly congratulating me on my conquest, there was poor Burr
major almost alone on the other side of the ground, dejected, deposed.
Not quite alone, for Hodson and Wilson both went and stood by his side.

It may appear strange, but, of course excepting Mercer, I felt as if I
liked those two boys at that moment better than any one in the school,
for, young as I was, I could not help thinking that if ever Burr major
and I had an