ward, and Burr here won't
tell about fat-headed Dicksee, so now you can go."

"And you'd better keep to it," said the boy, looking at me fiercely; but
I did not feel afraid, for Mercer's project about the gloves had sent a
glow through me, and, as he said, our time would come.

But I felt anything but comfortable an hour later, when I was back in
school, after the breakfast had been cleared, for I could see that the
boys had their eyes upon us, and were whispering, and I knew it related
to the punishment to come.

The worst moments were when the Doctor entered and took his place in his
pulpit amidst a suppressed rustle, and I set my teeth as I stood up, and
shrank down again at the earliest opportunity, feeling as if the
Doctor's eye was fixed upon me, and, as it happened, just as I was
wishing he would speak, and, as I felt it, put me out of my misery, he
uttered one of his tremendous coughs, which had far more effect in
producing silence than Mr Rebble's words.

"Thomas Mercer, Burr junior," he said loudly, "come up here."

"I wish I had run away this morning," was my first thought, but it was
gone directly, and I was glad I had not, as I walked as firmly as I
could, side by side with my brother offender, right up to the front of
the Doctor's desk, where he sat frowning upon us like a judge without
his wig and gown.

"Hah!" he ejaculated in his most awe-inspiring tones, as he looked at us
searchingly. "No doubt about it. Disgraceful marks, like a pair of
rough street boys instead of young gentlemen. So you two have been
fighting?"

"Yes, sir."

"Yes, sir."

"I am glad that you have frankness enough to own to it. You, Mercer,
knew better; but you, sir, had to learn that you have broken one of the
most rigid rules of my establishment. I object to fighting, as savage,
brutal, and cruel, and I will not allow it here. Mr Rebble, give these
boys heavy impositions, and you will both of you stop in and study every
day for a fortnight under Mr Hasnip's directions. Some principals
would have administered the cane or the birch, but I object to those
instruments as being, like fighting, savage, brutal, and cruel, only to
be used as a last resource, when ordinary punishments suitable for
gentlemen fail. I presume that you make no defence?" He continued
rolling out his words in a broad volume of sound. "You own that you
have both been fighting? Silence is a full answer. Return to your
places."

I heard Mer