fraught with terror. It begins to loom upon them from
the commencement of their second year, and all their efforts must be
concentrated to avoid the disgrace and hindrance of a pluck. There are
regular tutors to cram Poll men for this necessary ordeal, and the
processes applied to introduce the smallest possible modicum of
information into the heads of the victims, the surgical operations
necessary to inculcate into them the simplest facts, would, if narrated,
form a curious chapter in morbid psychology. I suggest this merely as a
pregnant hint for the future historian of Camford; personally I am only
acquainted by report with the system resorted to.

Hazlet began to be in a fright about the Little-go from the very
commencement of his second October. His mother well knew that the
examination was approaching, and thought it quite impossible that her
ingenuous and right-minded son could fall a victim to the malice of
examiners. Hazlet was not so sure of this himself, and as the days had
passed by when he could speak of the classics with a holy indignation
against their vices and idolatry, he was wrought up by dread of the
coming papers into a high state of nervous excitement.

I will not betray the mistakes he made, or dish up in this place the
"crambe repetita" of those Little-go anecdotes, which at this period of
the year awaken the laughter of combination-rooms, and dissipate the
dulness of Camford life. Suffice it to say that Hazlet displayed an
ignorance at once egregious and astounding; the ingenious perversity of
his mistakes, the fatuous absurdity of his confusions, would be
inconceivable to any who do not know by experience the extraordinary
combinations of ignorance and conceit. The examiners were very lenient
and forbearing, but Hazlet was plucked; plucked too in Scripture
History, which astonished everybody, until it became known that he had
attributed John the Baptist's death to his having "danced with
Herodias's daughter"--traced a connection between the Old and New
Testaments in the fact of Saint Peter's having cut off the ear of
Malachi the last of the prophets--and stated that the substance of Saint
Paul's sermon at Athens, was "crying vehemently about the space of two
hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians!"

It is a sad pity that such ludicrous associations should centre round
the word "pluck." It is anything but a laughing matter to those who
undergo the process; they have tried hard and work