CHAPTER VII.
FOXY After the expulsion of the master, the Twentieth School fell upon evil days, for the trustees decided that it would be better to try "gurl" teachers, as Hughie contemptuously called them; and this policy prevailed for two or three years, with the result that the big boys left the school, and with their departure the old heroic age passed away, to be succeeded by an age soft, law-abiding, and distinctly commercial.
The spirit of this unheroic age was incarnate in the person of "Foxy" Ross.

Foxy got his name, in the first instance, from the peculiar pinky red shade of hair that crowned his white, fat face, but the name stuck to him as appropriately descriptive of his tricks and his manners.

His face was large, and smooth, and fat, with wide mouth, and teeth that glistened when he smiled.

His smile was like his face, large, and smooth, and fat.

His eyes, which were light gray--white, Hughie called them--were shifty, avoiding the gaze that sought to read them, or piercingly keen, according as he might choose.
After the departure of the big boys, Foxy gradually grew in influence until his only rival in the school was Hughie.