is lips trembled. His face was white now. He stood up, and
called before him the little boy who had informed. Hugh chose to go with
Holt, though Holt had not gone up with him about the letter, the other
day; and Holt felt how kind this was. Mr. Tooke desired to know who the
offenders were; and as they were named, he called to them to stand up in
their places. Then came the sentence. Mr. Tooke would never forgive
advantage being taken of his absence. If there were boys who could not
be trusted while his back was turned, they must be made to remember him
when he was out of sight, by punishment. Page must remain in school
after hours, to learn twenty lines of Virgil; Davison twenty; Tooke
forty----

Here everybody looked round to see how Tooke bore his father being so
angry with him.

"Please, sir," cried one boy, "I saw little Proctor throw a sponge at
Tooke. He did it twice."

"Never mind!" answered Tooke. "I threw it at him first. It is my
sponge."

"And Warner," continued the master, as if he had not heard the
interruption, "considering that Warner has got off too easily for many
pranks of late,--Warner seventy."

Seventy! The idea of having anybody condemned, through him, to learn
seventy lines of Latin by heart, made Holt so miserable, that the word
seventy seemed really to prick his very ears. Though Mr. Tooke's face
was still white, Holt ventured up to him--

"Pray, sir----"

"Not a word of intercession for those boys?" said the master. "I will
not hear a word in their favour."

"Then, sir----"

"Well."

"I only want to say, then, that Proctor told no tales, sir. I did not
mean any harm, sir, but I told, because----"

"Never mind that," cried Hugh, afraid that he would now be telling of
Harvey, Prince, and Gillingham, who had persuaded him to go up.

"I have nothing to do with that. That is your affair," said the master,
sending the boys back to their seats.

Poor Holt had cause to rue this morning, for long after. He was weary of
the sound of hissing, and of the name "tell-tale;" and the very boys who
had prompted him to go up were at first silent, and then joined against
him. He complained to Hugh of the difficulty of knowing what it was
right to do. He had been angry on Hugh's account chiefly; and he still
thought it _was_ very unjust to hinder their lessons, when they wished
not to be idle: and yet they were all treating him as if he had done
something worse than the boys with the mask. Hugh t