hree doors in the
playground--one the entrance from the garden, another opening into the
lane, and a third into the field, the two latter being usually kept
locked.

Locker's Lane was a short cut to Chatford, yet Rule 21 in The Birches
Statute-Book ordained that no boy should either go or return by this
route when visiting the town; the whole road was practically put out of
bounds, and the reason for this regulation was as follows:

At the corner of the playing field the lane took a sharp turn, and about
a quarter of a mile beyond this stood a large red-brick house, shut in
on three sides by a high wall, whereon, close to the heavy double doors
which formed the entrance, appeared a board bearing in big letters the
legend--

HORACE HOUSE,
Middle-Class School for Boys.
A. PHILLIPS, B.A., Head-master.

The pupils of Mr. Phillips had been formerly called by Mr. Welsby's boys
the Phillipians, which title had in time given place to the present
nickname of the Philistines.

I have no doubt that the average boy turned out by Horace House was as
good a fellow, taking him all round, as the average boy produced by The
Birches; and that, if they had been thrown together in one school, they
would, for the most part, have made very good friends and comrades.
However, in fairness both to them and to their rivals, it must be said
that at the period of our story Mr. Phillips seemed for some time past
to have been unusually unfortunate in his elder boys: they were
undoubtedly "cads," and the character of the whole establishment, as far
as the scholars were concerned, naturally yielded to the influence of
its leaders.

It had been customary every term for the Birchites to play a match
against them either at cricket or football; but their conduct during a
visit paid to the ground of the latter, back in the previous summer, had
been so very ungentlemanly and unsportsmanlike that, when the next
challenge arrived for an encounter at football, Mr. Welsby wrote back a
polite note expressing regret that he did not see his way clear to
permit a continuation of the matches. This was the signal for an
outbreak of open hostilities between the two schools: the Philistines
charged the Birchites in the open street with being afraid to meet them
in the field. These base insinuations led to frequent exchanges of
taunts and uncomplimentary remarks; and, last of all, matters were
b