eir authority. They would be Sixth men themselves soon, and then of
course they would expect the whole school to reverence them. But till
that time they resented the idea of bowing before these future comrades;
and not only that, they took every opportunity of asserting their
authority among the juniors, and claiming the allegiance for themselves
they refused to render to others. And they succeeded in this very well,
for they took pains to make themselves popular in the school, and to
appear as the champions quite as much as the bullies of the small fry.
The consequence was that while Tadpoles and Guinea-pigs quaked and
blushed in the presence of the majestic Sixth, they quaked and smirked
in the presence of the Fifth, and took their thrashings meekly, in the
hope of getting a Latin exercise looked over or a minor tyrant punished
later on.

Just at the present time, too, the Fifth was made up of a set of fellows
well able to maintain the peculiar traditions of their fellowship. They
numbered one or two of the cleverest boys (for their age) in Saint
Dominic's; and, more important still in the estimation of many, they
numbered not a few of the best cricketers, boxers, football-players, and
runners in the school. With these advantages their popularity as a body
was very great--and it is only due to them to say that they bore their
honours magnanimously, and distributed their kicks and favours with the
strictest impartiality.

Such was the company which assembled on this afternoon in their own
class-room, with closed doors, to deliberate on "private and important
business." About twenty boys were present, and the reader must let me
introduce a few of them, before his curiosity as to the occasion of
their assembling themselves together can be satisfied.

That handsome, jovial-looking boy of sixteen who is sitting there
astride of a chair, in the middle of the floor, biting the end of a
quill pen, is the redoubtable Horace Wraysford, the gentleman, it will
be remembered, who is in want of a fag. Wraysford is one of the best
"all-round men" in the Fifth, or indeed in the school. He is certain to
be in the School Eleven against the County, certain to win the mile race
and the "hurdles" at the Athletic Sports, and is not at all unlikely to
carry off the Nightingale Scholarship next autumn, even though one of
the Sixth is in for it too. Indeed, it is said he would be quite
certain of this honour, were it not that his f