Through the whole course of lessons, at play-time, in my bed, and round to morning bell, I was hunting my father in an unknown country, generally with the sun setting before me: I ran out of a wood almost into a brook to see it sink as if I had again lost sight of him, and then a sense of darkness brought me back to my natural consciousness, without afflicting me much, but astonishing me.

Why was I away from him?
I could repeat my lessons in the midst of these dreams quite fairly; it was the awakening among the circle of the boys that made me falter during a recital and ask myself why I was there and he absent?
They had given over speculating on another holiday and treat from my father; yet he had produced such an impression in the school that even when I had descended to the level of a total equality with them, they continued to have some consideration for me.

I was able to talk of foreign cities and could tell stories, and I was, besides, under the immediate protection of Heriot.

But now the shadow of a great calamity fell on me, for my dear Heriot announced his intention of leaving the school next half.
'I can't stand being prayed at, morning and evening, by a fellow who hasn't the pluck to strike me like a man,' he said.

Mr.Rippenger had the habit of signalizing offenders, in his public prayers, as boys whose hearts he wished to be turned from callousness.