ned thing; the people gathered round the gates
before they left the fields and attacked them without any provocation."

"There must have been some provocation somewhere, Mr. Richards, if not
yesterday, then the day before, or the day before that," Dr. Litter
said, twirling his eye-glass by the ribbon. "A whole host of people do
not gather to assault forty or fifty boys without provocation. This sort
of thing must not occur again. I do not see that I can punish one boy
without punishing the whole School; but, at any rate, for the next week
fields must be stopped. I shall write to the Commissioner of Police,
asking that when they again go to Vincent Square some policemen may be
put on duty, not of course to accompany them, but to interfere at once
if they see any signs of a repetition of this business. I shall request
that, should there be any fighting, those not belonging to the School
who commit an assault may be taken before a magistrate; my own boys I
can punish myself. Are any of the boys seriously injured, do you think?"

"I hope not, sir," Mr. Richards said; "there are three or four in my
house, and there are ten at Mr. Sargent's, and two at Carr's, who have
gone on the sick list. I sent for the doctor, and he may have seen them
by this time; they all seemed to have been knocked down and kicked."

"There are four of the juniors at College in the infirmary," Mr. Wire,
who was in special charge of the Queen's Scholars, put in. "I had not
heard about it last night, and was in ignorance of what had taken place
until the list of those who had gone into the infirmary was put into my
hands, and then I heard from Williams what had taken place."

"It is very unpleasant," Dr. Litter said, in a weary tone of voice--as
if boys were a problem far more difficult to be mastered than any that
the Greek authors afforded him--"that one cannot trust boys to keep out
of mischief for an hour. Of course with small boys this sort of thing is
to be expected; but that young fellows like Williams and the other
seniors, and the Sixth town boys, who are on the eve of going up to the
Universities, should so far forget themselves is very surprising."

"But even at the University, Doctor Litter," Mr. Richards said, with a
passing thought of his own experience, "town and gown rows take place."

"All the worse," Dr. Litter replied, "all the worse. Of course there are
wild young men at the Universities." Dr. Litter himself, it is scarcely
neces