of the reach of Joel
Ham, B.A., and beyond all the trials and tribulations of the Higher
Fifth, and hearing other fellows being tested, and hectored, and caned,
was too tremendous for whisperings, and must be expressed in wild
rollings and contortions and convulsive kicking.

'Parrot Cann, will you kindly favour me with a few minutes on the floor?'

It was the old cracked voice, flavoured with an ominous irony. Dick
paused in the middle of a throw with a cocked ear and upturned eyes;
Jacker Mack grinned all across his broad face and winked meaningly. They
heard the shuffling of a pair of heavily shod feet, and then the voice
again.

'Parrot, my man, you are a comedian by instinct, and will probably live
to be an ornament to the theatrical profession; but it is my duty to
repress premature manifestations of your genius. Parrot, hold out!

They heard the swish of the cane and the school master's sarcastic
comments between the strokes.

'Ah-h, that was a beauty! Once more, Parrot, my friend, if you please.
Excellent! Excellent! We will try again. Practice of this kind makes for
perfection, you know, Parrot. Good, good--very good! If you should be
spoiled in the making, Parrot, you will not in your old age ascribe it to
any paltry desire on my part to spare the rod, will you, Parrot?'

'S'help me, I won't, sir!

There was such a world of pathos in the wail with which Parrot replied
that Dick choked in his efforts to repress his emotions. The lads heard
the victim blubbing, and pictured his humorous contortions after every
cut--for Parrot was weirdly and wonderfully gymnastic under
punishment--and Jacker hugged himself and kicked ecstatically, and young
Haddon bowed his forehead in the dirt and drummed with his toes, and gave
expression to his exuberant hilarity in frantic pantomime. The rough and
ready schoolboy is very near to the beginnings; his sense of humour has
not been impaired by over-refinement, but remains somewhat akin to that
of the gentle savage; and although his disposition to laugh at the
misfortunes of his best friends may be deplorable from various points of
view, it has not been without its influence in fashioning those good men
who put on a brave face in the teeth of tribulation.

'Gee-rusalem! ain't Jo got a thirst?' whispered Dick when the spasm had
passed.

'My oath, ain't he!' replied Jacker, 'but he was drunk up afore twelve.'

It is necessary to explain here that the school committee, in