aving
found no better way (as indeed none better can ever be found by man or
boy), told them simply what had happened; how he had been to see
Arthur, who had talked to him upon the subject, and what he had said;
and for his part he had made up his mind, and wasn't going to use
cribs any more; and being quite sure of his ground, took the high and
pathetic tone, and was proceeding to say, "how, that, having learned
his lessons with them for so many years, it would grieve him much to
put an end to the arrangement, and he hoped at any rate that, if they
wouldn't go on with him, they should still be just as good friends,
and respect one another's motives--but----"

Here the other boys, who had been listening with open eyes and ears,
burst in:--

"Stuff and nonsense!" cried Gower. " Here, East, get down the crib and
find the place."

"Oh, Tommy, Tommy!" said East, proceeding to do as he was bidden,
"that it should ever have come to this. I knew Arthur'd be the ruin of
you some day, and you of me. And now the time's come"--and he made a
doleful face.

"I don't know about ruin," answered Tom; "I know that you and I would
have had the sack[1] long ago, if it hadn't been for him. And you know
it as well as I."

[1] #Had the sack#: got expelled.

"Well, we were in a baddish way before he came, I own; but this new
crotchet of his is past a joke."

"Let's give it a trial, Harry; come--you know how often he has been
right and we wrong."

"Now, don't you two be jawing away about young Squaretoes,"[2] struck
in Gower. "He's no end of a sucking wiseacre,[3] I dare say, but we've
no time to lose, and I've got the fives'-court at half-past nine."

[2] #Squaretoes#: an over-precise or "goody-good" sort of a
person.

[3] #Sucking wiseacre#: a young Solomon.

"I say, Gower," said Tom, appealingly, "be a good fellow, and let's
try if we can't get on without the crib."

"What! in this chorus?[4] Why, we sha'n't get through ten lines."

[4] #Chorus#: the chorus of a Greek play.

"I say, Tom," cried East, having hit on a new idea, "don't you
remember, when we were in the upper fourth, and old Momus[5] caught me
construing off the leaf of a crib which I'd torn out and put in my
book, and which would float out on to the floor, he sent me up to be
flogged for it?"

[5] #Momus#: the god of ridicule; here, a nickname for a
teacher.

"Yes, I remember it very well."

"Well, the Doctor, after he'd flo