an owl. _He_ didn't know what I was drivin' at; but
King jolly well did. That was really why he hove us out. Ain't you
grateful? Now shut up. I'm goin' to write the 'Ballad of the Learned
Lipsius.'"

"Keep clear of anything coarse, then," said Stalky. "I shouldn't like to
be coarse on this happy occasion."

"Not for wo-orlds. What rhymes to 'stenches,' someone?"

In Common-room at lunch King discoursed acridly to Prout of boys with
prurient minds, who perverted their few and baleful talents to sap
discipline and corrupt their equals, to deal in foul imagery and destroy
reverence.

"But you didn't seem to consider this when your house called
us--ah--stinkers. If you hadn't assured me that you never interfere with
another man's house, I should almost believe that it was a few casual
remarks of yours that started all this nonsense."

Prout had endured much, for King always took his temper to meals.

"You spoke to Beetle yourself, didn't you? Something about not bathing,
and being a water-funk?" the school chaplain put in. "I was scoring in
the pavilion that day."

"I may have--jestingly. I really don't pretend to remember every remark
I let fall among small boys; and full well I know the Beetle has no
feelings to be hurt."

"May be; but he, or they--it comes to to same thing--have the fiend's
own knack of discovering a man's weak place. I confess I rather go out
of my way to conciliate Number Five study. It may be soft, but so far,
I believe, I am the only man here whom they haven't maddened by
their--well--attentions."

"That is all beside the point. I flatter myself I can deal with them
alone as occasion arises. But if they feel themselves morally supported
by those who should wield an absolute and open-handed justice, then I
say that my lot is indeed a hard one. Of all things I detest, I admit
that anything verging on disloyalty among ourselves is the first."

The Common-room looked at one another out of the corners of their eyes,
and Prout blushed.

"I deny it absolutely," he said. "Er--in fact, I own that I personally
object to all three of them. It is not fair, therefore, to--"

"How long do you propose to allow it?" said King.

"But surely," said Macrea, deserting his usual ally, "the blame, if
there be any, rests with you, King. You can't hold them responsible
for the--you prefer the good old Anglo-Saxon, I believe--stink in your
house. My boys are complaining of it now."

"What can you expect? Y