nvenient
reference, but Phil and I and all the fellows told him we should be
only too glad to let bygones be bygones, and that he had really done the
square thing at the last.

He did come back, and Phil's letters to me tell me that his old enemy is
one of the most popular--deservedly--in the school, and his best friend.
They are inseparable, play back together at "footer," and are variously
called Gemini, Damon and Pythias, David and Jonathan, as the case may
be.

Biffen's are still cock-house at "footer;" Acton is going in again for
the "heavy"--this time without the Coon's help--and those "niggers,"
Singh Ram and Runjit Mehtah, to Worcester's intense disgust, are the
representatives of St. Amory's in gymnastics; and, altogether, Biffen's
House is, thanks to Acton's help, perhaps the most distinguished in the
school.

ACTON'S CHRISTMAS

I

SNOWED UP

A jollier going away for the Christmas holidays had not taken place for
an age.

An old Amorian had done "something good" in India, which had obtained an
extra week's holiday for his old school, and the Amorians, a day or so
before, had beaten the Carthusians, whose forwards had been led to the
slaughter by an International whose very initials spell unapproachable
football.

The station of St. Amory's was crowded with the fellows, all sporting
rugs of vivid patterns on their arms, and new and of-the-latest-shape
"bowlers" on their heads, and new and fancy trouserings on their
emancipated legs. No more Amorian cap--peak pointing well down the
neck--no more trouserings of sober grey-and-black, no more beakish
restraint for five weeks! Couples strolled up and down arm-in-arm; knots
of the Sixth and Fifth discussed matters of high state interest, and the
worthies of the lower forms made the lives of the perspiring porters a
misery and a burden to them. Prominent Amorians were cheered, and when
those old enemies, John Acton and Phil Bourne, tumbled out of their cab
as the greatest of chums, the fags quavered out their shrill rejoicings,
honouring the famous school backs who had stemmed the sweeping rush of
the Carthusians a day or so before.

There was a rumour that Acton had been asked to play for the
Corinthians, and the other athletes on the platform pressed round the
pair for information.

Our old friends, Wilson and Jack Bourne, had shut up by stratagem B.A.M.
Cherry in the lamp-room, and the piteous pleadings of that young
Biffenite were listened