universe he was,
but conscious that he had made a step in life which he had been anxious
to make. It was only just light as he looked lazily out of the wide
windows, and saw the tops of the great elms, and the rooks circling
about and cawing remonstrances to the lazy ones of their commonwealth
before starting in a body for the neighbouring ploughed fields. The
noise of the room-door closing behind Bogle, as he made his exit with
the shoebasket under his arm, roused him thoroughly, and he sat up in
bed and looked round the room. What in the world could be the matter
with his shoulders and loins? He felt as if he had been severely beaten
all down his back--the natural results of his performance at his first
match. He drew up his knees and rested his chin on them, and went over
all the events of yesterday, rejoicing in his new life, what he had seen
of it, and all that was to come.

Presently one or two of the other boys roused themselves, and began to
sit up and talk to one another in low tones. Then East, after a roll
or two, came to an anchor also, and nodding to Tom, began examining his
ankle.

"What a pull," said he, "that it's lie-in-bed, for I shall be as lame as
a tree, I think."

It was Sunday morning, and Sunday lectures had not yet been established;
so that nothing but breakfast intervened between bed and eleven o'clock
chapel--a gap by no means easy to fill up: in fact, though received with
the correct amount of grumbling, the first lecture instituted by
the Doctor shortly afterwards was a great boon to the School. It was
lie-in-bed, and no one was in a hurry to get up, especially in rooms
where the sixth-form boy was a good-tempered fellow, as was the case in
Tom's room, and allowed the small boys to talk and laugh and do pretty
much what they pleased, so long as they didn't disturb him. His bed was
a bigger one than the rest, standing in the corner by the fireplace,
with a washing-stand and large basin by the side, where he lay in state
with his white curtains tucked in so as to form a retiring place--an
awful subject of contemplation to Tom, who slept nearly opposite, and
watched the great man rouse himself and take a book from under his
pillow, and begin reading, leaning his head on his hand, and turning his
back to the room. Soon, however, a noise of striving urchins arose, and
muttered encouragements from the neighbouring boys of "Go it, Tadpole!"
"Now, young Green!" "Haul away his blanket!" "Slipper h