oys may remain always much the same in their tastes and dispositions,
but, as I have said before, school life and customs have undergone
great changes since my day. In consequence of having no properly
organized outdoor sports, we found methods of our own for letting off
steam, some of which were about as sensible as the antics of a kitten
or the mad gallop of a young colt. Boys who wished to establish and
keep up a reputation for hardihood and daring were prone to perform
some reckless feat, and then dare others to follow their example. Ben
Liddle, the acknowledged chief of the "Eagles," was much given to this
sort of thing, and a dozen or more of his escapades occur to my mind as
I write.

It so happened that this term Miles and I slept in a dormitory of which
Liddle was "cock;" an arrangement which might have been unpleasant for
us had it not been for the fact that the majority of the boys were
"Foxes," and formed a mutual defensive alliance, so that Liddle stopped
short of actual violence, knowing that anything of the kind would raise
a hornet's nest about his ears. Nevertheless, he was always passing
slighting remarks about us, and hinting that we were lacking in pluck
and daring; which taunts on one or two occasions nearly brought about a
free fight between the rival parties.

The weeks went by; we were close to the end of the half, and boys had
commenced to talk of holidays and home, when one night Liddle came up
to bed with something under his coat.

"Look here," he said; "I found this in a field this afternoon."

The article which he held up was an ordinary rope halter. He waved it
triumphantly in the air, and then flung it into a box by the side of
his bed.

"What on earth d'you want with that old thing?" cried one of his
followers, laughing; "it's no use to you. What made you bring it home?"

"You know that horse of old Smiley's that he's turned out to graze in
that big field--the second beyond the brook? Well, I'm going to make
him give me a ride. I've bet Maggers two to one in half-crowns that
I'll ride him bareback twice round the field without being thrown."

Seated on the next bed, winding an old turnip-shaped silver watch, was
a fellow named Rigby. Though professedly a stanch "Eagle," he seemed
lately to have grown rather jealous of Liddle, and to covet for himself
the post of leader. Whenever Liddle attempted to impress us with some
fresh act of bravado, Rigby either made light of it o