s morning, the boys seemed out of
sorts, and went back again up-stairs after they had finished, leaving
only Tom and myself in the refectory, while the old woman was removing
the breakfast things and putting on a clean table-cloth for dinner. She
quitted the apartment as soon as she had swept up the fireplace, placing
enough coal on the fire to last till the afternoon, and otherwise
completing her arrangements--then going down to the kitchen, from which
we knew she would not emerge until we came back from church again, when
it would be time to sound the gong for dinner--which meal was also an
hour later on Sundays than on week days; and, being generally of a more
sumptuous description, it required extra cooking.

This was the opportunity Tom and I had waited for all along, in
pursuance of our plan; so, long ere the old woman had reached her
sanctum below, we were at work, having taken advantage of the time we
were washing in the lavatory before breakfast to put our fireworks and
combustible matter in our pockets, whence we now quickly proceeded to
extract the explosive agents, and deposit them in certain fixed
positions we had arranged beforehand after much consultation.

Now, what I am going to relate I would much rather not tell about, as it
concerns what I consider a very shameful episode in my life. The only
thing I can urge in extenuation of my conduct is the lax manner in which
my earlier life was looked after in my uncle's house, where my worse
passions were allowed full play, without that judicious control which
parental guidance would perhaps have exercised on my inherent
disposition for giving vent to temper, with no thought whatever of the
consequences of any hare-brained act I might commit. I narrate,
therefore, the circumstances that led to my running away from school,
merely because my mad and wicked attempt to injure Dr Hellyer is a
portion of my life-history, and I wish to describe all that happened to
me truthfully, without glossing over a single incident to my discredit.
I thus hope that no boy reading this will, on the strength of my
example, be prompted to do evil, with the malicious idea of "paying off
a grudge." I may add that I entirely take all the blame to myself, for,
had it not been for me, Tom Larkyns, I am sure, would have had no hand
in the matter; and you will see later on, if you proceed with my story,
how, through the wonderful workings of Providence, I was almost
subjected to the s