er was he seated than Graham whispered,
"Williams, it's your turn to write out the Horace; I did last time,
you know."

Poor Eric. He was reaping the fruits of his desire to keep up
popularity, by never denying his complicity in the general cheating.
Everybody seemed to assume now that _he_ at any rate didn't think much
of it, and he had never claimed his real right up to that time of
asserting his innocence. But this was a step further than he had ever
gone before. He drew back--

"My _turn_, what do you mean?"

"Why, you know as well as I do that we all write it out by turns."

"Do you mean to say that Owen or Russell ever wrote it out?"

"Of course not; you wouldn't expect the saints to be guilty of such a
thing, would you?"

"I'd rather not, Graham," he said, getting very red.

"Well, that _is_ cowardly," answered Graham, angrily; "then I suppose I
must do it myself."

"Here, I'll do it," said Eric suddenly; "shy us the paper."

His conscience smote him bitterly. In his silly dread of giving
offence, he was doing what he heartily despised, and he felt most
uncomfortable.

"There," he said, pushing the paper from him in a pet; "I've written it,
and I'll have nothing more to do with it."

Just as he finished they were called up, and Barker, taking the paper,
succeeded in pinning it as usual on the front of the desk. Eric had
never seen it done so carelessly and clumsily before, and firmly
believed, what was indeed a fact, that Barker had done it badly on
purpose, in the hope that it might be discovered, and so Eric be got
once more into a scrape. He was in an agony of apprehension, and when
put on, was totally unable to say a word of his Rep. But low as he had
fallen, he would not cheat like the rest; he kept his eyes resolutely
turned away from the guilty paper, and even refused to repeat the words
which were prompted in his ear by the boys on each side. Mr. Gordon,
after waiting a moment, said--

"Why, Sir, you know nothing about it; you can't have looked at it. Go to
the bottom and write it out five times."

"_Write it out_" thought Eric; "this is retribution, I suppose;" and
covered with shame and vexation, he took his place below the malicious
Barker at the bottom of the form.

It happened that during the lesson the fire began to smoke, and Mr.
Gordon told Owen to open the window for a moment. No sooner was this
done than the mischievous whiff of sea air which entered the room began
to trifle a