of fellows."

"Yes, we all know that you are a Tory, Bullen; but people change, you
know. I hope we shall never see among the lists of Nihilists tried for
sedition and conspiracy, and sentenced to execution, the name of one
Godfrey Bullen."

"Oh, they wouldn't execute Bullen!" another said; "they would send him
to Siberia. Bullen's always good at fighting an uphill game, and he
would show off to great advantage in a chain-gang. Do they crop their
hair there, Bullen, and put on a gray suit, as I saw them at work in
Portsmouth dockyard last year?"

"I am more likely to see you working in a chain-gang at Portsmouth,
Wilkinson, when I come back, than I am to form part of a convict gang in
Siberia--at any rate for being a Nihilist. I won't say about other
things, for I suppose there is no saying what a fellow may come to. I
don't suppose any of the men who get penal servitude for forgery, and
swindling, and so on, ever have any idea, when they are sixteen, that
that is what they are coming to. At present I don't feel any inclination
that way."

"I should say you were not likely to turn forger anyhow, Bullen,
whatever you take to."

"Why is that, Parker?"

"Because you write such a thundering bad hand that you would never be
able to imitate anyone else's signature, unless he couldn't go farther
than making a cross for his name, and the betting is about even that you
would blot that."

There was a roar of laughter, for Bullen's handwriting was a perpetual
source of trouble to him, and he was continually losing marks for his
exercises in consequence. He joined heartily in the laugh.

"It is an awful nuisance that handwriting of mine," he said, "especially
when one is going to be a merchant, you know. The governor has talked
two or three times about my going to one of those fellows who teach you
to write copperplate in twenty lessons. I shouldn't be surprised if he
does let me have a course these holidays. I should not mind if he does,
for my writing is disgusting."

"Never mind, Bullen; bad handwriting is a sign of genius, you know. You
have never shown any particular genius yet, except for rowing and
boxing, and I suppose that is muscular genius; but you may blossom out
in a new line some day."

"I don't want to disturb the harmony of this last meeting, Parker, or I
should bring my muscular genius into play at your expense."

"No, no, Bullen," another boy said, "you keep that for Russia. Fancy
Bullen polishing