ortation. I was so earnestly
desirous to do the correct thing, that I was nearly doing nothing at
all, and finally found myself standing almost alone on the platform with
the last omnibus ready to start.

Surely they might make some arrangement, thought I, for meeting
exhibitioners and taking them up. How did I know this omnibus was not a
town-boys' vehicle, or one dedicated to the service of the inferior
boys? Perhaps it would be better--

"Right away, Jimmy; off you go!" called one of the youths on the
knifeboard, whom I recognised as my late travelling companion.

At this point I decided I would risk it, and go up by omnibus after all.

"Wait!" I called. "I'm coming too."

"Fire away, Jimmy. Cut along!" shouted the youth. They could not have
heard me, surely. The omnibus was actually moving!

"Hi!" called I, beginning to follow, bag in hand; "wait for me."

"Lamm it on, Jimmy," was the delighted cry from the knifeboard, as a
score of heads craned over to witness the chase. The spectacle of an
ordinary youth giving chase to an omnibus crowded with roystering
schoolboys is probably amusing enough; but when that youth has his white
collar outside the collar of his great-coat, and wears brilliant tan
boots and a flat-topped billycock, it appears, at least so it seemed to
me, to be exceedingly funny for the people on the omnibus.

"Put it on," called one or two, encouragingly; "you're gaining!"

"Forge ahead, Jimmy; here comes the bogey man!" cried another.

"Whip behind!" suggested a third.

"Anybody got a copper for the poor beggar?" asked a fourth.

By a desperate effort, at last I succeeded in coming up with the runaway
omnibus, when to my disgust I discovered that it was one of those
forbidding vehicles of which the step disappears when the door is
closed. So that I had nothing to hold on to, still less to climb on to;
and to continue to run with my nose at the door, like a well-trained
carriage dog, suited neither my wind nor my dignity.

So I gave up the chase and dropped behind, covered with dust and
perspiration, amid frantic cheers from the knifeboard and broad grins
from the passengers on the pavement.

In such manner, I, an exhibitioner and a living exponent of the latest
"form," entered Low Heath! I was almost more grieved for the school
than for myself. Those fellows on the omnibus evidently didn't know who
I was. To-morrow, when they found out, and saw me arm-in-arm with
Tempest