fortable, quiet place where invalid boys
enjoyed themselves. Poor Holt was in very low spirits; and Mrs Watson
was so kind that he could not help telling her that he owed a shilling,
and he did not know how he should ever pay it; and that Hugh Proctor,
who had been his friend till now, seemed on a sudden much more fond of
Dale; and this made it harder to be in debt to him.

The wet, smeared lining of the pockets had told Mrs Watson already that
there had been some improper indulgence in good things; and when she
heard what part Lamb had played towards the little boys, she thought it
right to tell Mr Tooke. Mr Tooke said nothing till Holt was in the
school again, which was on Thursday; and not then till the little boys
had said their lessons, at past eleven o'clock. They were drawing on
their slates, and Lamb was still mumbling over his book, without getting
on, when the master's awful voice was heard, calling up before him Lamb,
little Proctor, and Holt. All three started, and turned red; so that
the school concluded them guilty before it was known what they were
charged with. Dale knew,--and he alone; and very sorry he was, for the
intimacy between Hugh and him had grown very close indeed since
Saturday.

The master was considerate towards the younger boys. He made Lamb tell
the whole. Even when the cowardly lad "bellowed" (as his school-fellows
called his usual mode of crying) so that nothing else could be heard,
Mr Tooke waited, rather than question the other two. When the whole
story was extracted, in all its shamefulness, from Lamb's own lips, the
master expressed his disgust. He said nothing about the money part of
it--about how Hugh was to be paid. He probably thought it best for the
boys to take the consequences of their folly in losing their money. He
handed the little boys over to Mr Carnaby to be caned--"To make them
remember," as he said; though they themselves were pretty sure they
should never forget. Lamb was kept to be punished by the master
himself. Though Lamb knew he should be severely flogged, and though he
was the most cowardly boy in the school, he did not suffer so much as
Hugh did in the prospect of being caned--being punished at all. Phil,
who knew his brother's face well, saw, as he passed down the room, how
miserable he was--too miserable to cry; and Phil pulled him by the
sleeve, and whispered that being caned was nothing to mind--only a
stroke or two across the shoulders. Hug