Cut along!" shouted the youth.

They could not have heard me, surely.

The omnibus was actually moving! "Hi!" called I, beginning to follow, bag in hand; "wait for me." "Lamm it on, Jimmy," was the delighted cry from the knifeboard, as a score of heads craned over to witness the chase.

The spectacle of an ordinary youth giving chase to an omnibus crowded with roystering schoolboys is probably amusing enough; but when that youth has his white collar outside the collar of his great-coat, and wears brilliant tan boots and a flat-topped billycock, it appears, at least so it seemed to me, to be exceedingly funny for the people on the omnibus.
"Put it on," called one or two, encouragingly; "you're gaining!" "Forge ahead, Jimmy; here comes the bogey man!" cried another.
"Whip behind!" suggested a third.
"Anybody got a copper for the poor beggar ?" asked a fourth.
By a desperate effort, at last I succeeded in coming up with the runaway omnibus, when to my disgust I discovered that it was one of those forbidding vehicles of which the step disappears when the door is closed.

So that I had nothing to hold on to, still less to climb on to; and to continue to run with my nose at the door, like a well-trained carriage dog, suited neither my wind nor my dignity.
So I gave up the chase and dropped behind, covered with dust and perspiration, amid frantic cheers from the knifeboard and broad grins from the passengers on the pavement.
In such manner, I, an exhibitioner and a living exponent of the latest "form," entered Low Heath! I was almost more grieved for the school than for myself.