back again, and take possession of us down to our very toes.

It was in this state that Master Tom lay at half-past seven on the
morning following the day of his arrival, and from his clean little
white bed watched the movements of Bogle (the generic name by which the
successive shoeblacks of the School-house were known), as he marched
round from bed to bed, collecting the dirty shoes and boots, and
depositing clean ones in their places.

There he lay, half doubtful as to where exactly in the universe he was,
but conscious that he had made a step in life which he had been anxious
to make. It was only just light as he looked lazily out of the wide
windows, and saw the tops of the great elms, and the rooks circling
about, and cawing remonstrances to the lazy ones of their commonwealth,
before starting in a body for the neighbouring ploughed fields. The
noise of the room-door closing behind Bogle, as he made his exit with
the shoe-basket under his arm, roused Tom thoroughly, and he sat up in
bed and looked round the room. What in the world could be the matter
with his shoulders and loins? He felt as if he had been severely beaten
all down his back, the natural result of his performance at his first
match. He drew up his knees and rested his chin on them, and went over
all the events of yesterday, rejoicing in his new life, what he had seen
of it, and all that was to come.

Presently one or two of the other boys roused themselves, and began to
sit up and talk to one another in low tones. Then East, after a roll or
two, came to an anchor also, and, nodding to Tom, began examining his
ankle.

"What a pull," said he, "that it's lie-in-bed, for I shall be as lame as
a tree, I think."

It was Sunday morning, and Sunday lectures had not yet been established;
so that nothing but breakfast intervened between bed and eleven o'clock
chapel--a gap by no means easy to fill up: in fact, though received with
the correct amount of grumbling, the first lecture instituted by the
Doctor shortly afterwards was a great boon to the School. It was lie in
bed, and no one was in a hurry to get up, especially in rooms where the
sixth-form boy was a good-tempered fellow, as was the case in Tom's
room, and allowed the small boys to talk and laugh, and do pretty much
what they pleased, so long as they didn't disturb him. His bed was a
bigger one than the rest, standing in the corner by the fireplace, with
a washing-stand and large basin by the si