He came smiling, and declared he may have been mistaken, perhaps it was two other boys; he hoped we should not be punished, etcetera.

Smith was nearly breaking out once or twice during this, and it was all I could do to keep him in.

Hawkesbury was thanked and dismissed, and then, with the assistance of Miss Henniker, Mr Hashford, and Mr Ladislaw, Smith and I were birched, and forbidden the playground for a fortnight, during which period we were required to observe absolute silence.
So ended our little adventure out for a puff of free air! Among our fellows we gained little enough sympathy for our misfortunes.

Flanagan was the only fellow who seemed really sorry.

The rest of the ill- conditioned lot saw in the affair only a good opportunity of crowing over their ill-starred adversary, and telling me it served me right for chumming up to such a one.
One day, greatly to my surprise, when the Henniker was away superintending the flogging of Flanagan for some offence or other, Hawkesbury came over and sat beside me.
"Oh," said he, softly, "Batchelor, I've been wanting to tell you how sorry I am I helped get you into your scrape.