They fancy themselves a jolly sight too much." "Dicky Brown told me," said I, "they were sure of both the jumps and the Quarter-mile and the Tug--and that Selkirk's were going to pull off the others, all except the Half-mile Handicap; and we may get that, he says, because they'll probably give us fifty or sixty yards' lead." "Howling cheek!" exclaimed every one in furious rage.

The idea of being given sixty yards' start in a half-mile by a day boy was too much even for a Philosopher.
Whereupon we solemnly considered the list of events "under 15," and divided them out among ourselves, with a vow to eat our heads if we didn't pull off as many for Sharpe's as all the rest of the school put together.
We decided to postpone making our entries till the last moment, so as to delude the enemy into the impression that we were shirking the sports altogether.

Then we would, as Warminster politely put it, "drop down and rot the lot." Before we adjourned for the night the question of Tempest and Crofter came up, _a propos_ of a report, which some one mentioned, that Tempest had entered for the Open Mile against Redwood, and was expected to prove a warm customer.
"Is Crofter in ?" "No--Pridgin is, but of course he won't come up to scratch, and Wales only enters for the show of the thing." "Crofter couldn't look in at Tempest over the Mile," said Langrish, "but he ought to enter, for all that." "Can he look in at Tempest over anything ?" said I.
"Don't ask questions, and you won't be told no whoppers," astutely replied Trimble.

"I wonder if he expects us to back him up ?" "I sha'n't," said one.

"Nor shall I," said one or two others.
"I vote we let him alone," said Coxhead.