u may go."

It would have been very easy to see whether his nose was bleeding or
not, but the master was trying, very unsuccessfully at present, whether
implicit confidence would produce a sense of honour among the boys.

Wilton went out hardly concealing his laughter, and in ten minutes
returned with the verses, finished and written out. "There," he said,
"Ken did those for me; he knocked them off in five minutes. Ken's an
awfully clever fellow, though he never opens a book. Don't bore
yourself with verses any more; I'll get them done for you."

Charlie glanced at the paper, and saw at once that the verses were
perfectly done. "Do you mean to show up that copy as your own, Wilton?"

"Of course I do."

"But we are marked for them."

"Hear! hear! thanks for the information. So much the better. I shall
get a jolly good mark."

"Shut up, young innocence, and don't be a muff," said another Noelite.
"We all do the same thing. Take what heaven sends you and be glad to
get it."

"Thank you," said Charlie, looking round; "you may, but I'd rather not.
It isn't fair."

"Oh, how good we are! how sweet we are! what an angel we are!" said
Wilton, turning up the whites of his eyes, while the rest applauded him.
But if they meant their jeers to tell on Charlie's resolution, they
were mistaken. He looked quietly round at them all with his clear eyes,
gravely handed the paper back to Wilton, and quietly resumed his work.
They were angry to be so foiled, and determined that, if he would not
copy the verses, he should at least do them in no other way. One of
them took his paper and tore it, another split his quill pens by dashing
them on the desk, while a third seized his dictionary. The master,
observing that something was going on at that desk, came and stood by;
and as long as he was there, Charlie managed to write out what he had
done, while the others, cunningly inserting an occasional mistake, or
altering a few epithets, copied out the verses which Kenrick had done
for Wilton. But directly the master turned away again, a boy on the
opposite side of the table, with the utmost deliberation, took hold of
Charlie's fair copy, and emptied the inkstand over it in three or four
separate streams.

Vexed as he was--for until this time he had never known unkindness--he
took it quietly and good-humouredly. Next morning, before the rest of
the boys in his dormitory, who were mainly in his own form, were aware
of what he