er part, were his cups and saucers; and
in the centre his writing materials. In one corner was a chest,
containing a quantity of miscellaneous articles too numerous to name;
and in another was a cricket-bat and fishing-rod, while the walls were
adorned with some prints of sporting scenes, one or two heroes of the
stage, and another of the Duke of Wellington; a table, an arm-chair, and
three common chairs completing the furniture of the apartment.

"You are cozy here, Jack," said his brother, throwing himself into a
seat, and pulling Ernest into the arm-chair. "There's nothing like
independence!"

"As to that, we have enough of it, provided we stick to rules," answered
the Etonian. "However, I don't find much difficulty in the matter. I
like my tutor, and he is very considerate, so I get on very well."

"But, I say, Jack, what do you do? How do you amuse yourselves all the
year round," asked Tom Bouldon. "You Eton fellows seemed to me, as far
as I could make out, to do nothing else but play cricket and boat. All
other games you vote as low, don't you?"

"Not at all," answered Jack. "Let me see. At the beginning of the
year, between Christmas and Easter, we have fives. You know how to play
it. We have very good fives-courts. We play fifteen up. Then we have
hockey; that's a capital game. You play it at your school, don't you?
But, after all, there is nothing like making up a party to go jumping
across country. It is rare fun, scrambling through hedges, tearing
across ploughed fields, leaping wide ditches and brooks, and seeing
fellows tumbling in head over heels. Then we have running races in the
play-fields, of about a hundred yards, which is enough considering the
pace at which fellows go. Better fun still are our hurdle races; and a
fellow must leap well to run in them. But the greatest fun of all are
our steeple-chases, of about two and a-half miles, over a stiffish
country, let me tell you. There are no end of ditches, streams, and
brooks with muddy banks, into which half the fellows who run manage to
tumble, and to come out very like drowned chimney-sweepers. Those are
all good amusements for cold weather. From Easter to the end of July is
our great time for games. Of course, cricket and boating are the chief.
You understand that our playing-fields are divided between different
clubs. Every fellow subscribes to one or the other of our clubs. The
lowest is called the Sixpenny; that belongs