ee four
able-bodied sinners, who yesterday had given themselves to the study of
Nature, now kneeling together, to efface their penalty in our waters of
Lethe; but you must remember that they made no moan before the boys, and
no complaint against the master. The school received them with respect
when they came out, and Speug would indicate with a wink and a jerk of
his head that Bulldog had exceeded himself; but he was not to be trifled
with for an hour or two, and if any ill-mannered cub ventured to come
too near when Peter was giving his hands a cold bath, the chances are
that Peter gave the cub a bath, too, "just to teach him to be looking
where he had no business."

Possibly fear of consequences might hinder some weak-hearted boys, but
it never prevented any of the hardy ruffians from having their day out
when the fever seized them. Playing truant was the same thing for a boy
as bolting for a high-spirited horse; done once, the animal is bound to
try it again, and to both, the joy of their respective sins must be very
much the same. Boys did not plan a week ahead and then go astray in cold
blood, because this sin was not an act of malice aforethought--it was a
sudden impulse, not a matter of the will so much as of the blood. Had
one determined on Tuesday night to take Wednesday, it might have turned
out in our fickle climate a cheerless day, when a boy would as soon be
playing marbles in the breaks, or cricket in the dinner-hour, or, for
that matter, amusing himself in Moossy's class. No; a boy rose in the
morning ready to go to school, without a thought of wood or
water--arranging his marbles, in fact, for the day, and planning how to
escape a lesson he had not prepared; but he was helpless against Nature
if she set herself to tempt him. No sooner had he put his nose outside
the door than the summer air, sweet and fresh, began to play upon his
face and reminded him of a certain wood. As he went through the streets
of the town, a glimpse of the river, steely blue that morning in the
sunshine, brought up a pool where a fat trout was sure to be lying. As
he crossed the North Meadow, the wind was blowing free from the
Highlands, and was laden with the scent of hay and flowers, and sent his
blood a-tingling. The books upon his back grew woefully heavy, and the
Seminary reminded him of the city gaol frowning out on the fields with
its stately and unrelenting face. He loitered by the lade and saw the
clear water running br