delayed, we
must be victorious at last; that there can be no hanging down of the
hands, no lassitude, no idleness, no want of occupation through life, no
want of excitement. I don't care what grumblers may say; I maintain,
with my father, that this is a very glorious world to live in, with all
its faults; and still more should we be grateful that we are placed in
it, when we remember that it is the stepping-stone to eternity."

Ernest was, perhaps, somewhat beyond his years in his remarks, but it
must be remembered that he was an unusual boy, and that there were not
many like him. Still he was but a boy. Anybody observing him would
probably have remarked that he was a good-looking, intelligent boy, but
might have failed to discover any super-excellencies in him. Indeed I
think that I have before remarked that he owed his success at school to
the fact, that all the talents he possessed by nature had been
judiciously cultivated, and allowed a full and free growth. Certainly
no boy stood higher in the estimation both of his master and
schoolfellows. He could not help discovering this, and he resolved by
all means to maintain and deserve their good opinion. He had sometimes
a difficult task in keeping to his resolution.

I have said that Blackall for some weeks had appeared to be much less
dictatorial and inclined to bully; but by degrees his former habits
returned with greater force, from having been put under some restraint
for a time. Ellis and Eden, and even Bouldon and Buttar, came in for a
share of his ill-treatment; so did a new boy, John Dryden by name, a
sturdy, independent little fellow, who, for his size, was as strong as
he was brave, but, of course, could not compete with a boy of so much
greater bulk and weight.

A considerable number of fellows vowed that they would stand this
conduct no longer; yet what could they do? Blackall alone might have
been managed; but several big fellows had united with him, and had taken
it into their heads that they should like to introduce fagging. They
got, indeed, two or three fellows--Dawson, Barber, and others--to
undertake to be fags, just to set the system going, those young
gentlemen hoping very soon to become masters themselves. They talked
very big about the matter; they thought it would be a very fine thing:
their school was first-rate as it was, and if fagging were introduced it
would be fully equal to any public school. Of course, the affair was to
be