to a brisk fire of chaff.
One facetious class-mate, standing close to the sink, offered to sell
him by auction; and hammering on the stones with the fragment of a bat
handle, knocked him down for threepence to another joker, who said he'd
do for a pen-wiper.

"Sing a song, Bibbs!" cried one voice; "Where's your neck-tie?" asked
another; "What are you grinning at?" demanded a third; while the object
of these pleasantries stood, with a vacant smile upon his face,
nervously fumbling with his watch-chain.

"Go on!" cried Fletcher, who had descended from the platform to make
room for his colleague; "say something, you fool!"

"The magazine is to be written on exercise-book paper," began Bibbs, and
had only got thus far when he was interrupted by a perfect salvo of
paper bags which little "Rats" discharged in quick succession.

With an exclamation of wrath Fletcher made a dive in the direction of
the offender, and in a moment the whole gathering was in a state of
confusion. The majority of those present siding with "Rats," began to
hustle Fletcher, while two gentlemen having dragged Bibbs from his
perch, jumped up in his stead, and began to execute a clog-dance.

In the midst of this commotion Maxton elbowed his way through the crush,
and having pushed the two boys off the sink, mounted it himself,
crying,--

"Look here, I'm going to speak; just you listen a minute. The reason
why Bibbs wants to start a new magazine is because he wrote a novel
once, and sent it to _The Ronleian_ to come out so much each month,
and they wouldn't have it."

"Shut up, Maxton!" cried Fletcher, rushing to the spot; "you've only
come here on purpose to interrupt. Let's turn him out!"

"Yes, turn him out!" echoed the audience, who by this time were just in
the spirit for "ragging," and would have ejected friend or foe alike for
the sport of the thing--"turn him out!"

The two clog-dancers being quite ready to avenge the interruption of
their performance, formed themselves into a storming-party, and carried
the platform by assault. Maxton, struggling all the way, was dragged to
the door, and cast out into the playground. Most of the restless
spirits in the audience requiring a short breathing-space to recover
their wind after the tussle, there followed a few moments' quiet, which
Fletcher immediately took advantage of to mount the sink and resume the
business of the meeting.

"The magazine," he began, "is going to be written on exerc