same time to make it as little pleasant as possible
for the perpetrator, even if he got thrashed himself. A bully or a
joker of practical jokes is not likely to do things which cause himself
a certain amount of discomfort, even if he succeeds in causing a still
greater amount to someone else.

Walter cared very little for this adventure. It certainly annoyed him a
little, and it showed him that some of the others in his dormitory must
be more or less brutes, if they could find it amusing to break the sleep
and play on the fears of a new boy the very night of his arrival among
them. But he thought no more about it, and was quite determined that it
should not happen often.

Far different was the case with poor little Arthur Eden, another new
boy, who, as Walter had observed, occupied the bed next to him. He had
been roused from his first sweet sleep in the same way, about the same
time as Walter. But no one had prepared him for this annoyance, and as
he was a very timid child, it filled him with terror; he was even so
terrified that he did not know what it was. He lay quite still, not
daring to speak, or make a sound, only clinging to his mattress with
both hands in an agony of dread. He was already worn and bewildered
with the events of the day. He had fallen amongst the Philistines; at
the very moment of his arrival he had got into bad hands, the hands of
boys who made sport of his weakness, corrupted his feelings, and
lacerated his heart. He was very young--a mere child of twelve--and in
the innocence of his simplicity he had unreservedly answered all their
questions, and prattled to them about his home, about his twin sister,
about nearly all his cherished secrets. In that short space of time he
had afforded materials enough for the coarse jeers of the brutal, and
the poignant ridicule of the cruel for many a long day. Something of
this derision had begun already, and he had found no secret place to
hide his tears. That they would call him a milksop, a molly-coddle, and
all kinds of horrid names, he knew, and he had tried manfully to bear-up
under persecution. It was not until after many hot and silent drops had
relieved the fever of his overwrought brain, that sleep had come to him,
and now it was broken thus.

O parents and guardians--anxious, yet unwise class--why, tell me why,
knowing all that you must know, do you send such children as this to
school? Eden's mother, indeed, had opposed the step, b