l manly sports. He was the most patient of
trainers, and the most long-suffering of "coaches." Nearly all his
spare time was given up to the public service. Every afternoon you
would be sure to find him in his flannels running along the bank beside
some boat, or standing to be bowled at by aspiring young cricketers in
the meadow, or superintending a swimming party up at the Willows.

Boys didn't give Mr Parrett credit for all the self-denial he really
underwent; for he had a way of seeming to enjoy even the drudgery of his
self-imposed work, and it rarely occurred even to the most hopeless of
"duffers" to imagine that all the trouble spent over him was anything
but a pleasure to the master who spent it.

Mr Parrett had his reward, however, in the good will of the boys
generally, which he prized highly, and nowhere was he more popular than
among the juniors of his own house.

What was their dismay, therefore, at the accident of that unlucky
afternoon, and with what doleful faces did they present themselves in a
melancholy procession at the door of his room at the appointed hour!

"Come in," said Mr Parrett, who was still in his flannels, and had not
quite done tea. "Oh, you are the boys that I met on the river this
afternoon. All except one belonging to my house, I see."

"Yes, sir," exclaimed Telson, who was the distinguished exception,
"they're all Parretts except me, and it was all my fault, sir, and
I'm--"

"No," interrupted Parson, "it was all my fault; I was steering."

"It was all our faults," said Lawkins.

"Oh," said Mr Parrett, who could not help looking a little amused at
the eager faces of the young culprits. "Perhaps it was my fault for not
looking where I was coming to."

"Oh, sir," said Parson, "that wouldn't have been any good. We ran you
down on purpose."

"Eh?" said Mr Parrett, not quite sure whether he had heard correctly.

"That is, we didn't know it was you, sir; we thought it was a
schoolhouse--" (here Telson looked threatening)--"I mean we thought it
was some one else. We wouldn't have done it if we thought it was you,
sir--indeed we wouldn't."

"No, sir, that we wouldn't," chimed in the chorus.

"And who did you think it was, pray?" inquired Mr Parrett.

"A schoolhouse fellow," replied Parson, avoiding Telson's glances.

"Which schoolhouse boy?" asked the master.

"Any one, sir. It didn't matter much which."

"Indeed. And what has the schoolhouse done to you?" said Mr