ly. "He's
taken him with him to pick snails and frogs--an idiot! I hate that
chap, Dicksy, he's a beast."

"Yes, that he is."

"You can't shake hands with him, because you never know what he's
touched last. I think the Doctor ought to be more particular about the
sort of boys he--mumble--hum--hum hum hum!"

The buzzing of a humble-bee, and then silence.

"Ck!"

"Eh?"

"Ck!" ejaculated Mercer, uttering a stifled laugh. "Oh, I say, what a
game, and us hearing every word. Thinks the Doctor ought to be more
particular what sort of boys he has in the school. I suppose that's
meant for me. Well, my father is a gentleman, and could set his to make
him a pair of trousers if he liked. Can't shake hands with me, can't
he? Well, who wants him to? I wish I could fight, I'd make him smell
my hands--my fists. He'd know then what they'd touched. But he can
fight, and licked me horrid. Lie still yet, or they'll see us get up; I
thought they were in the cricket-field. Tired, I suppose. Such a fuss
about making your hands a bit dirty. Daresay I keep 'em as clean as he
does his. I say, got stung?"

"A little," I said.

"Never mind; dock's the thing to cure that. All right. Gone. Now
then, over the stile, and do as I do."

He crept over the stile, and into the field, and began to run down
beside the hedge in a stooping position, while I followed suit, and we
did not rise up till we gained the shelter of the trees.

"There we are! This is the beginning of the woods. Oh, it's such a
place!"

"You've been before, then?" I said, as we began to wind in and out
among large beech-trees, whose smooth grey trunks were spotted with
creamy and green moss.

"Lots of times. I go everywhere when I can get away. It's a famous
place here for moths. There's old Dame Durden again. This way--now
down here; we shall soon be there."

I followed him for about a quarter of an hour through the dim, mossy
glades of the grand old wood, till all at once it grew lighter, and we
stepped out beside a broad sheet of water dotted with lilies and patches
of rush and reed, while about fifty yards farther along the bank of the
broad pool there was a roughly-thatched boat-house, with a mossy old
punt moored to one of the posts by a rusty chain.

"Now, then, what do you think of this, eh?" said Mercer.

I looked round at the smooth sheet of water glistening in the bright
sunshine, completely shut in by giant old trees whose grea