The work of the form they could manage to get through pretty easily, keeping a good enough place to get their regular yearly remove; and not having much ambition beyond this, their whole superfluous steam was available for games and scrapes.

Now, one rule of the house which it was a daily pleasure of all such boys to break was that after supper all fags, except the three on duty in the passages, should remain in their own studies until nine o'clock; and if caught about the passages or hall, or in one another's studies, they were liable to punishments or caning.

The rule was stricter than its observance; for most of the sixth spent their evenings in the fifth-form room, where the library was, and the lessons were learnt in common.

Every now and then, however, a prepostor would be seized with a fit of district visiting, and would make a tour of the passages and hall and the fags' studies.

Then, if the owner were entertaining a friend or two, the first kick at the door and ominous "Open here" had the effect of the shadow of a hawk over a chicken-yard: every one cut to cover--one small boy diving under the sofa, another under the table, while the owner would hastily pull down a book or two and open them, and cry out in a meek voice, "Hullo, who's there ?" casting an anxious eye round to see that no protruding leg or elbow could betray the hidden boys.