ht now be declared; and Jock Howieson, ever a daring and rash
spirit, declared we should repent it if we were not ready against one
o'clock. Speug and Dunc were however of opinion that nothing was likely
to take place that day except desultory skirmishes, and that the whole
day ought to be spent in accumulating a store of snowballs against
Friday, when there was no question that we should have to face the
united schools in a decisive battle. This was the only instance where
our captains ever made a mistake, and they atoned for their error of
judgment by the valour and skill with which they retrieved what seemed a
hopeless defeat.

As the hours wore on to one o'clock Speug could be seen glancing
anxiously out at the window, and he secured an opportunity with Dunc for
a hasty conference during the geometry lesson. About a quarter to one he
turned from his slate and cocked his ear, and in two minutes afterwards
every boy in Bulldog's class-room understood that the war had begun and
that we had been taken by surprise. Scouts from McIntyre's, as we
afterwards learned, had risked the danger of playing truant, which in a
school like theirs cost nothing, and had visited our playground. They
had carried back news that we were not yet prepared for battle, and our
firm opinion was that the authorities of Penny's and McIntyre's had
allowed their schools out at half-past twelve, in order to take us at a
disadvantage. Before the bell rang and the senior classes were dismissed
the Seminary knew that our enemies had seized the field of battle, but
we did not know until we came out the extent of the disaster.

The Pennies had come down the back street and had established
themselves opposite the narrow entrance between two sheds through which
three only could walk abreast from our playground to the street. They
had also sent a daring body of their lighter and more agile lads to the
top of the sheds which separated our playground from the street, and
they had conveyed down an enormous store of ammunition, so that the
courtyard was absolutely at their mercy, and anyone emerging from the
corridor was received with a shower of well-made and hard snowballs
against which there was no standing. Even if we ran this risk and
crossed the open space we could then be raked by the fire from the shed,
and a charge through the narrow passage to the street would be in the
last degree hazardous. There were twelve feet of passage, and there were
not many