such valuable books. In my distress, the licking, the bet, and the club, were all forgotten. But he, of course, would listen to no reason, so putting up the damaged volumes, and clearing away the tables and chairs, he made immediate preparations for the punishment.

It then suddenly occurred to me that I had white trousers on, and that they were of the thinnest possible material. It was clearly impossible to be licked at that moment; and perhaps I had a chance, by an appeal, of getting off altogether. But no: the whole literary feeling of the house-all the admiration for white vellum and gilt edges-would be brought to bear upon me. What was I to do? I made a rapid calculation: as three cuts in white trousers are to six cuts in thick woollen ditto, so must be my decision. And then, with much the same feelings as those by which dentists lose half their patients, who, on hearing their teeth ought to come out, promise to call again, I decided to appeal. The præpostor advised me not, as the house would be sure to confirm his judgment, and I should only be worse licked in the

hall. But I was fixed more firmly in my idea of putting off the evil hour as long as possible; so the house was appealed to. But nothing I could say would influence it, and accordingly I was licked, with great eclat, by the monitor, and received six cuts in the thickest woollen bags which my wardrobe afforded. I may add that the pain was atrocious, and that I had the felicity of showing six well-defined marks to my friends, and spending half an hour in arranging the looking-glasses of my room so as to see them myself; when, after having distinctly seen that there was something to cry for, I incontinently burst into tears: a weakness wherein I resembled my little sister, who never used to cry because she hurt herself, until she had been shown the bleeding cut or the inflamed bump. The bet was being gradually won. The sporting monitor next made a dead set against the quiet, impeccable member; but he was for some time unsuccessful, and very nearly lost all chance of the remaining two, by being himself recommended to leave the house. At last he found the opportunity so eagerly watched for.

The practice of throwing bread about after dinner was at one time carried to such a pitch, that the elder boys determined to put it down: large crusts and great pieces of bread used to be flung about till the hall was strewed all over with fragments; it had therefore been ruled that a "study-licking" would be the penalty of any one who threw bread about. Our faultless friend having rolled up two or three crumbs lying by the side of his plate into a small pill, sent it across the table to attract the attention of a schoolfellow, who, not relishing a pellet on his nose, returned it full in the face of the other. The sporting eye was upon them, and after dinner they were both summoned in succession. My steady friend refused point-blank to be licked; and, without appealing to the house at all, said he would walk straight up to the headmaster, and lay the bet and the bread-pill before him, and leave the whole matter to his decision. As bullies are often, though not always, cowards, and the tyrant saw that the Doctor would probably object to hall-lickings being made a subject of wagers and betting-books, he gave in, on some

technical ground which I forget; such as that he was not on duty that day, and that the monitor on duty had not seen the pellet. Thus the whole matter was quashed; my faultless friend escaped, and the bet was lost.

But though a monitor of this kind caused great personal unhappiness, and led his own fags a most disagreeable life, it was the weak and incapable monitors who caused the most pain, and were responsible for the grossest bullying and the greatest excesses. Our "house," during the whole five years I was a member of it, was very well officered; it always contained more than its proportion of monitors, and they all erred rather on the side of strictness and severity, than on that of leniency. Thus it was a very hard-fagged house, but one in which there was no amount of regular bullying: a few isolated cases only occurred, in studies far away from monitorial ears, or in bedrooms whose captain was a big boy, but without any rank in the school except that which physical strength must always give.

CHAPTER XIV.

A DARK VIEW OF HARBY.

"Ye cruel, cruel that combine

The guiltless to pursue."

CAMPBELL.

IN glancing back over the preceding pages, I feel I may have given a much too glowing picture of our school life; that I have painted Harby rather as I felt it, and as it appeared to me, than as it may have really been to others. Happily placed as I was, in one of the best houses of the school, where monitorial power under all its best auspices was in full exercise, I may have seen the system in a favourable light, and have depicted it in colours too brilliant, and with shadows too soft: it is right, therefore, to present the dark side of the picture. But this I must declare is taken from no personal recollections or actual experience