smiled vacantly, and nodded his head, and waved his hand, and
occasionally, when he caught sight of some particularly familiar friend,
brought it up vertically near his nose.

"Silence! Shut up! Hold your row for Pony!" yelled the chairman.

"Go ahead, Pringle!" cried the candidate's supporters.

"Speak out!" shouted the crowd.

"All right," said the unhappy orator, "what have I got to say, though?"

"Oh, anything--fire ahead. Any bosh will do."

Pringle ruminated a bit, then, impelled to it by the cheers of his
audience, he shouted, for lack of anything better to say, all he could
remember of his English history lesson of that morning.

"Gentlemen--(cheers)--the first thing Edward III did on ascending the
crown--(terrific applause, in which the seniors present joined)--was to
behead the two favourite ministers--(prolonged cheers)--of his mother."
(Applause, amidst which Pringle suddenly disappeared from view, and
Morrison, the Limpet, mounted the cricket-box. Morrison was a
politician after Willoughby's own heart.)

"I beg to move that Sir George Pony is a fit and proper member for
Willoughby," he screamed. "I think the Radicals ought all to be hung.
(Cheers.) They're worse than the Tories. (Counter-cheers.) One's
about as bad as the other. (United cheers.) We're all Whigs here.
(Applause.) I say down with everybody that isn't. (Cheers.) If the
Radical gets in I don't mind if the Constitution gets smashed." ("Nor
do we!") "It will serve them right for allowing the Radicals in."
(Mighty applause.)

I am not going to continue the report of this animated and intellectual
meeting. It lasted till call-over, was renewed again directly after
tea, and continued long after the speakers and audience were in bed.
Bosher got dreadfully mobbed, besides being hit on the ear with a stone
and hunted several times round the playground by the anti-Radicals.

Altogether Willoughby had gone a little "off its head," so to speak, on
the subject of the election. Riddell found himself powerless to control
the excitement, and the other monitors were most of them too much
interested in the event themselves to be of much service. The practice
for the Rockshire match, as well as the play of the newly-started
Welchers' club, was for the time completely suspended; and it was
evident that until the election was over there was no prospect of seeing
the school in its right mind again.

The day before the event was a busy