t to have known better.
I might have been sure, after what I had seen, that there was something
wrong. But then," he groaned, "I did fancy something was wrong, and I
went to try and keep Drew out of mischief. Oh, what an unlucky fellow I
am!

"It's of no use," was his next thought. "I shall never do any good
here, only keep on getting into trouble. Why, if this were to be known,
it would bring disgrace on my father and mother, and they would have to
leave court--father would perhaps lose his commission."

He sprang up again in horror at the very thought of this, drew up his
knees, and passed his arms round them, to sit for long enough packed up
with his chin upon his knees somewhat after the fashion of a Peruvian
mummy.

"It's horrible," he groaned to himself--"horrible, that's what it is.
And this is being what mother calls a good son. They'll be nice and
proud of me when they know.

"Ah-h-h-ah! There goes that wretched old clock over the gateway again!
It can't be five minutes since it chimed before. It seems to have been
chiming ever since I came to bed. What time is it, I wonder? Bah!
three-quarters past. Three-quarters past what? Oh dear, how thirsty I
am! and I've had three glasses of water since I came to bed. Going to
feed the ducks! Oh, I wish I'd said I'd go out and fight with Drew, and
pinked him as he calls it. He wouldn't have been able to lead me into
this scrape. But more likely he would have pinked me. Well, and a
precious good thing too. It would have been all right, and I couldn't
then have gone.

"Phew! how hot it is. My skin seems to prickle and tingle, as if
somebody had been playing tricks with the bed; and all this time I
believe that miserable dandy Drew is snoring away, and not troubling a
bit. There, if it isn't chiming again! It can't be a quarter of an
hour since I heard it last. Ting, tang. Last quarter. Well, go on;
four quarters, and then strike, and I shall know what time it is. What!
A quarter past? Well, a quarter past what? Oh, that clock's wrong.
It chimed three-quarters just now. It can't have chimed the four
quarters since, and struck the hour; it's impossible. I'm sure it must
be wrong."

He threw himself down again in despair, feeling as if sleep were farther
off than ever.

"Oh dear!" he moaned; "Drew told me I seemed a year older after that
row. I feel another year older since then; and if it goes on like this,
I shall be like an old man by