houses; that they should be able to punish all offences against school discipline, without rendering themselves liable to the "et tu quoque retort, "Why you do just the same yourself."

Their duties were numerous-they had to be constantly on the watch to prevent bullying and illegal fagging; to be in turn on duty in the schools and out of bounds; to read prayers, and keep order in their own houses; and-hardest task of all—to keep well with their school-fellows: to be neither too lax and undignified as masters, nor too severe and arrogant as friends. And, in most cases, they succeeded admirably: the greatest favourites of the school generally became monitors, and hardly a change was apparent in their deportment and manners. If they were treated with a little more respect by the little boys, they made up for it by increased protection and greater kindness than, as big boys only, they had been able to bestow.

To repay them for the hard duty they undertook, and to recompense them for these sacrifices they made, they were allowed to fag the younger boys: subject to certain fixed rules, and restrained

by many well-known customs.

Their breakfasts

were made and laid out ready for them in the morning; their studies were kept clean and neat: their fires were not allowed to go out for want of fuel in winter; their flowers and plants were not allowed to wither for want of water in summer; their books were carried to and from school in lesson time; their wickets were pitched and fielded for in play hours; their tea was made, and their bread toasted or buttered, in the evening; their suppers were taken to their studies at night; and their warm water, candles, lexicons, or novels, carried up to their rooms at bed time.

Such were the duties and such the privileges of monitors. In the next two chapters I will en

deavour to give a fag's amplification of the last paragraph.

CHAPTER XVIII.

THE SCHOOL-FAGS.

"Honour and shame from no condition rise;
Act well your part, there all the honour lies."

POPE.

"Well did I watch, much laboured, nor had power
To escape from many strange indignities."

WORDSWORTH.

THERE were, I think, about three hundred and twenty fags at Harby; and their duties were of two distinct kinds: "school-fagging" and house-fagging."

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School-fagging consisted in "fielding out," during practice hours, and scoring, or standing umpire at matches. The former was made much use of by amateurs in the monitorial class, in order to form good cricketers to replace any of the school "eleven" who might leave; in order

that the great public-school matches to come should maintain the Harbean reputation for cricket, unshorn of its laurels, and untarnished in its fame.

Many a boy with a sure eye, a strong wrist, and a manly form, would much have preferred passing his leisure in lying on the grassy slopes during the summer, and enjoying such intellectual recreation as the prose of Alexandre Dumas or the poetry of Byron afforded; but the head of the school had determined that he should become a great cricketer, and he was dedicated to the game. Day after day he is fagged for hours. At first he detests being compelled to stand up before a wicket and defend it (as well as his legs) from the swiftly-delivered balls of the head of the eleven, and the professional bowlers; but a few months after, he ties a blue silk ribbon round his straw hat, and walks the playground in the enviable position of a member of the school eleven, and is devoted to his quondam enemy the bat.

The posts of scorer and umpire in the great matches were much sought after; for then you commanded a good view of the exciting game, mixed with the leaders of the school for a few

hours, and afterwards constituted yourself a great critic of all that was well or ill done: imposing by your superior knowledge on your less fagged friends. But, with these exceptions, we found cricket-fagging hard, painful work. For two consecutive hours, day after day, did the new boy guard the wicket, in the hot summer afternoons; and if his friends (for no enemy would make so cruel a remark) said to him,

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Why, you will soon get rid of fagging, and will be glad to have learned all about cricket, and how to play well"—he might well have answered, "A black dose may cure you of an indigestion, and make you better afterwards, and the taste is soon out of your mouth; but that does not make it pleasanter to take.”

However, if you in any way distinguished yourself, you were instantly free, and could not be fagged again the same day: indeed, few boys in their second or third half-years were fagged at cricket for more than a few minutes. But there were many who hated cricket, and had no wish to learn, as they did not enjoy games; their health or bent of mind preventing their taking