shilling a drop, you couldn't
have been more chary of it. There's not an 'a', 'an', or 'the'
throughout, nor a comma, nor an adjective, and the contractions are
masterly. We're all born commercial clerks, that's what we are!"

"Ethel and Lucy have undertaken the necessary barrow-borrowing,"
remarked Jack, casually. "We sha'n't want more than six or eight
wheel-barrows, and that pair can get anything if it goes together. Lucy
represents the dauntless cheek, and Ethel the irresistible charm. What
more is required?"

"What do you mean, Brady? We won't have the day-boys sticking their
fingers into this pie!" cried Escombe Trevelyan.

"We couldn't do the job alone," said Jack quietly. "It would take us
twice as long."

A loud murmur of disapprobation ran through the room.

Jack turned rather pale, and pinched the edge of the table nervously.
His eyes wandered from face to face. All were vexed, all displeased.
Then, with a sudden impulse he sprang to his feet, and spoke his
mind--rapidly, earnestly.

"Look here, I can't understand it! What makes you all so beastly
to the day-boys--to my pals? You began it, not they! They came to
Brincliffe without the least idea of any unfriendly feeling, and you
hated them before you'd seen them or heard their names. Is that
fair--straight--English? If it were, I'd wish to be French or German.
Where's the fun in this constant worrying of each other? As boarders,
it's your place to put out a hand first, and I think I can promise that
the day-boys will shake it. Bah! I know I can never talk you round; it's
no good attempting to. I'm not in a comic mood, and can't make you
laugh, like Cadbury, and I haven't Vickers's gift of the gab. But wasn't
last Friday's lesson enough? Wasn't the sight of that knife--"

[Illustration]

"Hush!" came from many mouths.

"Oh, we want to forget it! Yes, we don't want to talk about it, I know.
But I've got to this once. If there had been an accident--to
Armitage--it wouldn't have been wholly the March Hare's fault. It was
those who first started the quarrel between boarders and day-boys, those
who put the notion of ill-feeling into his silly little head. I see
you're thinking of the swimming-baths, and Toppin's dive. Now I happen
to know, and Toppin can bear me out, that the kid asked to be pushed,
and that Armitage would have saved him next moment if the March Hare
hadn't jumped in and hindered things. And everyone of you who have
listened and nodded