and, what East evidently thought of much more
importance, a half-holiday for the school by his success; Thorne, who
had run ten miles in two minutes over the hour; Black, who had held
his own against the cock of the town in the last row with the louts;
and many more heroes, who then and there walked about and were
worshipped, all trace of whom has long since vanished from the scene
of their fame; and the fourth-form boy who reads their names rudely
cut out on old hall tables, or painted upon the big side-cupboard
(if hall tables and big side-cupboards still exist), wonders what
manner of boys they were. It will be the same with you who wonder,
my sons, whatever your prowess may be, in cricket, or scholarship,
or foot-ball. Two or three years, more or less, and then the
steadily advancing, blessed wave will pass over your names as it
has passed over ours. Nevertheless, play your games and do your work
manfully--see only that that be done, and let the remembrance of it
take care of itself.

MORNING AND AFTERNOON CHAPEL.

The chapel-bell began to ring at a quarter to eleven, and Tom got in
early, took his place in the lowest row, and watched all the other
boys come in and take their places, filling row after row; and tried
to construe[8] the Greek text which was inscribed over the door with
the slightest possible success, and wondering which of the masters,
who walked down the chapel and took their seats in the exalted boxes
at the end, would be his lord. And then came the closing of the doors,
and the Doctor, in his robes, and the service, which, however, didn't
impress him much, for his feeling of wonder and curiosity was too
strong. And the boy on one side of him was scratching his name on the
oak paneling in front, and he couldn't help watching to see what the
name was, and whether it was well scratched; and the boy on the other
side went to sleep and kept falling against him; and on the whole,
though many boys even in that part of the School, were serious and
attentive, the general atmosphere was by no means devotional; and when
he got out into the close again, he didn't feel at all comfortable, or
as if he had been to church.

[8] #Construe#: translate.

But at afternoon chapel it was quite another thing. He had spent the
time after dinner in writing home to his mother, and so was in a
better frame of mind: and his first curiosity was over, and he could
attend more to the service. As the hymn after the pr