I'll bite their horrid cold feet if they stick
them against me, that's what I'll do."

"I'll keep a pin to stick into them," said another.

"I'll get some leeches and put on their legs," shouted another.

"I'll tell you what," said Stephen, changing the subject, "it's cool
cheek of them calling us `it,' as if we were things."

"So they have," exclaimed Paul; "oh, I say, that's too much; I'll let
them know _I'm_ not a thing."

"Yes, you are a thing, isn't he, Padger? A regular _it_," exclaimed the
vindictive Bramble. "Yah, boo, old `_its_,' both of you."

"Hold hard," said some one, just as the usual hostilities were about to
commence. "Listen to this." And he read the next "regulation":--

"Immediate steps are to be taken to pickle a Tadpole as a specimen for
the school museum. The following is a recipe for this. Take the
ugliest, dirtiest, noisiest, and most ignorant specimen that can be
found. Lift it carefully with a pair of tongs into a bath full of
vinegar. Close the lid and let it remain there to soak for a week. At
the end of that time lift it out and scrape it well all over with a
sharp substance, to get off the first coating of grime. Soak again for
another week and scrape again, and so on till the ninth or tenth coating
is removed. After that the creature will appear thinner than when it
began. Hang it up to dry in a clean place, and be sure no other
Guinea-pigs or Tadpoles come near it. Then put it in a clean gown, and
quickly, before it can get at the ink, put it in a large glass bottle
and fasten down the stopper. Label it, `Specimen of a curious reptile
formerly found at Saint Dominic's. Now happily extinct.'"

"There you are," said Paul, when, after much blundering and sticking at
words, this remarkable paragraph had been read through. "There you are,
Bramble, my boy; what do you think of that?" Bramble had no difficulty
in intimating what he thought of it in pretty strong language, and for
some little time the further reading of the _Dominican_ was suspended.

When, however, the row was over, the group had been joined by several of
the elder boys, who appeared to appreciate Simon's poem, "An Adventure
outside the Dormitory Door." It was called an "epick," and began thus.
The reader must be contented with quite a short extract:--

"Outside the Dormitory door
I walked me slow upon the floor
And just outside the Doctor's study
A youth I met all in a hurry;
His name pe