Again, having agreed that we remembered the reign of William and Mary better than any other, we never read it over at all; and we found to our great consternation, that our examiners, in a sudden fit of Whiggism, had requested an essay on "the causes and results of the abdication and flight of James II."

At length it is all over, and the playground is itself again; the class lists will be out tomorrow, and we shall go home the day but one after. The masters will not divulge, and the printer's devil is inexorable: no persuasion will get a look out of the former, and the honesty of the latter is above all bribes; so we must perforce content ourselves with the fact, that we shall know all about it to-morrow; and with the consciousness that we shall not be in No. 1 list, even if we manage to be in that of No. 2.

A crowd-all the school in fact-surround the head-master as he reads forth all the names; and warmly is each favourite cheered as his honour is announced. All the second class consider they should have been in the first; all the third class are rather surprised at being anywhere; and all

the fourth class would rather not have had their names mentioned at all.

Then came the "speeches." These individually and separately considered, are dreary indeed; for who can be interested in Smith's view of the Eastern question, in Latin elegiacs; or in the severe criticism of Brown on Cromwell, in Greek iambics? But the speeches are great fun, this being the only perfectly legitimate occasion on which we may behave as wild beasts, and the only day during the half-year when we may make as much noise as we please.

Cheer follows cheer: perhaps the head-master's beautiful wife, surrounded with her pretty children, is more applauded than the holidays; but any how, these two toasts head the noisy list; then come the "Masters" and the "Eleven." No subject can be started that will not call forth a yell; and when our waggish friend gives three cheers for fagging, we hug our chains and give him one cheer more.

CHAPTER X.

AND HOW WE PLAYED.

"Arma virumque cano."

VIRGIL.

"While he whom toil has braced or manly play,

Has light as air each limb,

Each thought as clear as day."

OUR cricketing needs no eulogy from me; for wherever its votaries are to be found, there will the name of Harbeans be venerated, and our prowess respected.

During the months of May, June, August, and September, the whole school devoted themselves to the game. On two of the half-holidays out of the three which we had each week, some great schoolmatch was played, and the rest of the school looked on only; on the third half-holiday, numberless little games went on in every corner of the large cricket-ground.

To be a member of the school eleven was one of the most boasted honours; and he at once became a leader and an influential member of the school, who reached so high a position in the school game.

After cricket came foot-ball, ushered in by the first great match, called "the sixth against the school," in which the forty leaders and fagmasters played against the remaining body of the school-a complete refutation of all the rubbish I have often heard about the sixth form at public schools being only strong from and by the authority delegated to them by the masters.

"It is a mild sunny day, late in September; the grass is still green and untrodden; the glorious elms have lost none of their thick verdure; the rooks, so characteristic of the old close, are cawing their enjoyment of the pleasant September afternoon; while on the island, the trees, which always precede in decay their brethren of the playground, already giving signs of approaching autumn by their varied tints, at once soften and sombre the cheerful landscape of the whole scene, from the long line of the school

house, the schools, and the chapel, across the bright green fields, to where the gray spire rises out of woods, which remember Addison.

"But now the heroes of the day are assembled. Drawn up before one goal is the sixth form, a little band, forty in number: some huge, strong, massive; others light, smart, active; all eager, courageous, zealous. It is with them as with the warriors of old: not the weight, not the mass, but each man's individual prowess must gain the victory. How well is each acquainted with his particular post and duty!

"Nor do the adversaries present a less magnificent and orderly appearance; but, alas! it is a host as that of the Philistines. Of four hundred and sixty adversaries, two hundred stand forth to battle, leaving the countless multitude to guard the camp. There they stand in all the varied colours distinguishing the caps of the houses to which they belong: the scarlet and gold, the purple and silver star, the green and gold, the flushing red and crescent, the orange and silver, the black and silver cross; all stand in terrible array against the devoted band.