hitened, and their lives otherwise made a burden to them.

[1] #Bucolics#: short poems on country life.

[2] #Hecuba#: the name of a play.

[3] #Accidence#: the rudiments of grammar.

[4] #Argus#: in mythology, a monster with a hundred eyes.

The lower fourth, and all the forms below it, were heard in the Great
School, and were not trusted to prepare their lessons before coming
in, but were whipped into school three-quarters of an hour before the
lessons began by their respective masters, and there, scattered about
on the benches, with dictionary and grammar, hammered out their twenty
lines of Virgil and Euripides in the midst of Babel.[5] The masters of
the lower school walked up and down the Great School together during
this three-quarters of an hour, or sat in their desks reading or
looking over copies, and keeping such order as was possible. But the
lower fourth was just now an overgrown form, too large for any one man
to attend to properly, and consequently the elysium[6] or ideal form
of the young scapegraces who formed the staple[7] of it.

[5] #Babel#: confusion. See Genesis, Chapter XI.

[6] #Elysium#: in mythology, a dwelling-place for happy souls
after death; hence, any delightful place.

[7] #Staple#: principal part.

Tom, as has been said, had come up from the third with a good
character, but the temptations of the lower fourth soon proved too
strong for him, and he rapidly fell away, and became as unmanageable
as the rest. For some weeks, indeed, he succeeded in maintaining the
appearance of steadiness, and was looked upon favorably by his new
master, whose eyes were first opened by the following little incident.

Besides the desk which the master himself occupied, there was another
large unoccupied desk in the corner of the Great School, which was
untenanted. To rush and seize upon this desk, which was ascended by
three steps, and held four boys, was the great object of ambition of
the lower-fourthers; and the contentions for the occupation of it bred
such disorder, that at last the master forbade its use altogether.
This of course was a challenge to the more adventurous spirits
to occupy it, and as it was capacious enough for two boys to
lie hid there completely, it was seldom that it remained empty,
notwithstanding the veto.[8] Small holes were cut in the front,
through which the occupants watched the masters as they walked up and
down, and as lesson-time appro