easy enough now. I wish I could believe it was because you know
you have been doing wrong and disgracing the school, instead of merely
because I happened to have suffered by your bad conduct. But such
conduct must be put a stop to. For the remainder of the term each one
of you will lose one hour's play a day except Saturdays."

A shudder, half of anguish, half of relief, went round the small
assembly at this first clause of Mr Parrett's sentence. The next
clause was still more severe.

"For the remainder of this term, too, none of you will be allowed to go
into any house except your own, under any pretence, without _my_ leave,
or the Doctor's."

Telson and Parson looked at one another and groaned inwardly. They
could hardly realise what this cruel sentence involved, but they knew it
meant that life would hardly be worth living for the next six weeks.

"And," continued Mr Parrett, "I have one more thing to say. Some of
you here are in my house, and every one of you, I see, is in my form in
Third School. You are most of you idle boys, and, as you know, there
are plenty in the same Form better behaved and more industrious than
yourselves."

"Oh yes, sir," said Parson, frankly.

"What I shall do during the remainder of the term is this," said Mr
Parrett. "If I hear of any other case of disturbance between the boys
of different houses, in which any one of you are implicated, I intend to
punish the entire Form, and stop every boy's play for one day. It rests
with you, therefore, to decide whether such a thing shall take place or
not. But if you give me reason, I shall most certainly do it!"

Mr Parrett spoke severely, and looked as good as his word. He had
carefully weighed his words beforehand, and he knew tolerably well the
boys with whom he had to deal. They were noisy boys, and troublesome
boys, and cheeky boys, and idle boys, but they were honest on the whole,
and the master calculated pretty shrewdly on the effect which this last
decision would have on their conduct.

As long as it was a mere question of getting his own particular self
into a row, not one of these boys fixed any precise limit to his
disorderly instincts; but when it came to getting a whole lot of other
boys into the row too, a new and very embarrassing difficulty arose
which was fairly insurmountable.

Mr Parrett dismissed the boys sternly, and then, trusting he had done
right, and trusting still more to be able to turn the better