Oo!" of appreciation. Now it was Mason's turn. If Jack had been a
recruiting sergeant, and the sugar cigar the Queen's shilling, he could
scarcely have felt more anxious.

Mason put forward his thumb and finger, then hesitated and looked at
Jack with a twinkle in his eye.

"Now, shall I, Brady?"

[Illustration]

Jack nodded. He really dared not speak, for fear Mason should take it
into his head to go exactly contrary to him.

Hurrah! The cigar was taken!

From that moment Cadbury and Jack turned themselves into a couple of the
maddest, silliest clowns imaginable. But there was method in their
madness. Though they did not even own it to each other, they were making
themselves ridiculous and foolish to prevent the rest from feeling so.
Boys loathe sentiment, and many a quarrel drifts on and on, simply
because each party dreads "being made to feel a fool".

At Brincliffe on this particular day the two sides felt distinctly shy
of each other, and it was a real boon to have a pair of "giddy lunatics"
to scream at.

But when Cadbury had boxed Frere's ears for giving the dates of the
royal Georges correctly, and when Simmons had sharpened his pencil with
Vickers's knife without asking leave, the relations between boarders and
day-pupils grew easier.

* * * * *

There were few idle wheel-barrows in Elmridge on Saturday afternoon.

If you had passed along the dusty Brickland Road between four and five
o'clock, you would have encountered a droll procession. One passer-by
stopped to enquire if there was going to be a Battle of Flowers.

Six barrows, laden with flowering plants, each pulled by two boys, and
pushed by one, were slowly but steadily travelling towards the town, and
at the rear of all was a bath-chair in charge of Hallett and Armitage,
wherein sat a thin, delicate-looking man, whose bright eyes and flushed
cheeks spoke eloquently of gratitude and pleasure. That bath-chair was
Hallett's own idea, and he was very proud of it.

* * * * *

It was a warm and weary company of boy-labourers who gathered at eight
o'clock that evening round a very tempting supper-table, spread in the
Brincliffe dining-room, to which, by special invitation, the day-pupils
sat down with the boarders. But every face was bright, and the meal was
the merriest ever known.

By Mr. West's direction, the boys were left to enjoy it "un-mastered".

The clatter of knives and