East and others of his young friends discovering this, kindly
allowed him to indulge his fancy, and take their turns at night fagging
and cleaning studies. These were the principal duties of the fags in the
house. From supper until nine o'clock, three fags taken in order stood
in the passages, and answered any praepostor who called Fag, racing to
the door, the last comer having to do the work. This consisted generally
of going to the buttery for beer and bread and cheese (for the great men
did not sup with the rest, but had each his own allowance in his study
or the fifth-form room), cleaning candlesticks and putting in new
candles, toasting cheese, bottling beer, and carrying messages about the
house; and Tom, in the first blush of his hero-worship, felt it a high
privilege to receive orders from, and be the bearer of, the supper of
old Brooke. And besides this night-work, each praepostor had three or
four fags specially allotted to him, of whom he was supposed to be the
guide, philosopher, and friend, and who in return for these good offices
had to clean out his study every morning by turns, directly after first
lesson and before he returned from breakfast. And the pleasure of seeing
the great men's studies, and looking at their pictures, and peeping into
their books, made Tom a ready substitute for any boy who was too lazy to
do his own work. And so he soon gained the character of a good-natured
willing fellow, who was ready to do a turn for any one.

In all the games too he joined with all his heart and soon became
well versed in all the mysteries of football, by continued practice at
the School-house little-side, which played daily.

The only incident worth recording here, however, was his first run at
Hare-and-hounds. On the last Tuesday but one of the half-year he was
passing through the Hall after dinner, when he was hailed with shouts
from Tadpole and several other fags seated at one of the long tables,
the chorus of which was "Come and help us tear up scent."

Tom approached the table in obedience to the mysterious summons, always
ready to help, and found the party engaged in tearing up old newspapers,
copy-books, and magazines, into small pieces, with which they were
filling four large canvas bags.

"It's the turn of our house to find scent for big-side Hare-and-hounds,"
exclaimed Tadpole; "tear away, there's no time to lose before
calling-over."

"I think it's a great shame," said another small boy, "to