alling-over bell rang, Tom and his new
comrades were all down, dressed in their best clothes, and he had the
satisfaction of answering "here" to his name for the first time, the
prepostor of the week having put it in at the bottom of his list. And
then came breakfast and a saunter about the close and town with East,
whose lameness only became severe when any fagging had to be done. And
so they whiled away the time until morning chapel.

It was a fine November morning, and the close soon became alive with
boys of all ages, who sauntered about on the grass, or walked round the
gravel walk, in parties of two or three. East, still doing the cicerone,
pointed out all the remarkable characters to Tom as they passed: Osbert,
who could throw a cricket-ball from the little-side ground over
the rook-trees to the Doctor's wall; Gray, who had got the Balliol
scholarship, and, what East evidently thought of much more importance,
a half-holiday for the School by his success; Thorne, who had run ten
miles in two minutes over the hour; Black, who had held his own against
the cock of the town in the last row with the louts; and many more
heroes, who then and there walked about and were worshipped, all trace
of whom has long since vanished from the scene of their fame. And the
fourth-form boy who reads their names rudely cut on the old hall tables,
or painted upon the big-side cupboard (if hall tables and big-side
cupboards still exist), wonders what manner of boys they were. It will
be the same with you who wonder, my sons, whatever your prowess may be
in cricket, or scholarship, or football. Two or three years, more or
less, and then the steadily advancing, blessed wave will pass over your
names as it has passed over ours. Nevertheless, play your games and do
your work manfully--see only that that be done--and let the remembrance
of it take care of itself.

The chapel-bell began to ring at a quarter to eleven, and Tom got in
early and took his place in the lowest row, and watched all the other
boys come in and take their places, filling row after row; and tried
to construe the Greek text which was inscribed over the door with the
slightest possible success, and wondered which of the masters, who
walked down the chapel and took their seats in the exalted boxes at the
end, would be his lord. And then came the closing of the doors, and the
Doctor in his robes, and the service, which, however, didn't impress him
much, for his feeling of w