ern friend had led him to expect. Nor did the sixty or seventy
fellows who clustered in the common room strike him as exactly the
lowest stratum of Fellsgarth society. Yorke, the captain, for instance,
with his serene, well-cut face, his broad shoulders and impressive voice
hardly answered to the description of a lout. Nor did Ranger, of the
long legs, with speed written in every inch of his athletic figure, and
gentleman in every line of his face, look the sort of fellow to be
mistaken for a cad. Even Fisher major, about whom the younger brother
had been made to feel decided qualms, could hardly have been the hail-
fellow-well-met he was with everybody, had he been all the new boy's
informant had recently described him.

Indeed, Fisher minor, when presently he gathered himself together
sufficiently to look round him, was surprised to see so few traces of
the "casual-ward" in his new house. True, most of the fellows might be
poor--which, of course, was highly reprehensible; and some of them might
not be connected with the nobility, which showed a great lack of proper
feeling on their part. But as a rule they held up their heads and
seemed to think very well of themselves and one another; while their
dress, if it was not in every case as fashionable as that of the
temporary owner of Fisher minor's half-crown, was at least passably well
fitting.

Fisher minor, for all his doubts about the company he was in, could not
help half envying these fellows, as he saw with what glee and self-
satisfaction they entered into their own at Wakefield's. They were all
so glad to be back, to see again the picture of Cain and Abel on the
wall, to scramble for the corner seat in the ingle-bench, to hear the
well-known creak on the middle landing, to catch the imperturbable tick
of the dormitory clock, to see the top of Hawk's Pike looming out, down
the valley, clear and sharp in the falling light.

Fisher minor and Ashby, as they sat dismally and watched all the fun,
wondered if the time would ever come when they would feel as much at
home as all this. It was a stretch of imagination beyond their present
capacity.

To their alarm, Master Wally Wheatfield presently recognised them from
across the room, and came over patronisingly to where they sat.

"Hullo, new kids! thinking of your mas, and the rocking-horses, and
Nurse Jane, and all that? Never mind, have a good blub, it'll do you
good."

Considering how near, in strict s