rousers. "Don't you go to
anybody at all--you just stand out; say you won't fag--they'll soon
get tired of licking you. I've tried it on years ago with their
forerunners."

"No! did you? tell us how it was," cried a chorus of voices, as they
clustered round him.

"Well, just as it is with you. The fifth form would fag us, and I and
some more struck, and we beat 'em. The good fellows left off directly,
and the bullies who kept on soon got afraid."

"Was Flashman here then?"

"Yes! and a dirty little snivelling, sneaking fellow he was too. He
never dared join us, and used to toady[22] the bullies by offering to
fag for them, and peaching[23] against the rest of us."

[22] #Toady#: seek favor in a mean way.

[23] #Peaching#: telling.

"Why wasn't he cut,[24] then?" said East.

[24] #Cut#: the same as "Sent to Coventry."

"Oh, toadies never get cut, they're too useful. Besides, he has no end
of great hampers from home, with wine and game in them; so he toadied
and fed himself into favor."

"THE MUCKER."

The quarter-to-ten bell now rang, and the small boys went off
up-stairs, still consulting together, and praising their new
counsellor, who stretched himself out on the bench before the hall
fire again. There he lay, a very queer specimen of boyhood, by name
Diggs, and familiarly called "The Mucker."[25] He was young for his
size, and a very clever fellow, nearly at the top of the fifth. His
friends at home, having regard, I suppose, to his age, and not to his
size and place in the School, hadn't put him into tails;[26] and even
his jackets were always too small; and he had a talent for destroying
clothes, and making himself look shabby. He wasn't on terms with
Flashman's set, who sneered at his dress and ways behind his back,
which he knew, and revenged himself by asking Flashman the most
disagreeable questions, and treating him familiarly whenever a crowd
of boys were around him. Neither was he intimate with any of the other
bigger boys, who were warned off by his oddnesses, for he was a very
queer fellow; besides, amongst other failings, he had that of
impecuniosity[27] in a remarkable degree. He brought as much money as
other boys to school, but got rid of it in no time, no one knew how.
And then, being also reckless, borrowed from any one, and when his
debts accumulated and creditors pressed, would have an auction in the
Hall of everything he possessed in the world, selling even his
schoolb