e Philpot very uncomfortable.

It was a relief to all parties when the powders were at last pronounced
to be dry.

"Now," said Philpot, taking up one of the small papers gently on the
flat of his hand, "we shall have to be careful."

"That little lot won't make half a flare," suggested Pilbury; "let's
have two or three at once."

So saying he lifted up one of the other papers and emptied its contents
into the paper on Philpot's hand.

"Look out," said Philpot, "it'll blow up."

"Eh, what?" cried Cusack, jumping off the table in his excitement at the
glorious news.

As he did so Philpot uttered a cry, which was accompanied by a loud
crackling explosion, and a dense volume of blue smoke, which made the
boys turn pale with terror. For a moment neither of them could move or
utter a sound except Philpot, who danced round and round the room in the
smoke howling and wringing his hand.

When at last they did recover presence of mind enough to inquire of
their preceptor if he was injured, it was in tones of terrible alarm.

"Oh, Phil, old man, are you hurt? What was it? We're so awfully sorry.
Is your hand blown off?"

"No," said Philpot, continuing to wring his injured hand, but otherwise
considerably recovered, "it was your fault jumping off the table. The
beastly stuff goes off almost if you look at it. It's lucky it wasn't
all dry, or I might have had my eyes out!"

It was a great relief to find matters were no worse, and that in a very
few minutes Philpot's hand had recovered from the smart of the
explosion. This accident, however, decided the young enthusiasts that
for the present they had perhaps had enough chemistry for one lesson.

In a few days, however, they had all sufficiently got over the shock of
the last afternoon's experiments to decide on a fresh venture, and these
lessons continued, on and off, during the rest of the term. It can
hardly be said that by the end of the term Pilbury or Cusack knew any
more about chemistry than they had known this first day. They
persistently refused to listen to any of Philpot's "jaw," as they rudely
termed his attempts at explanation, and confined themselves to the
experiments. However, though in many respects they wasted their time
over their new pursuit, these volatile youths might have been a good
deal worse employed.

In fact, if every Welcher had been no worse employed that house would
not have brought all the discredit on Willoughby which it did.