It's all rot.

Bless you, we get the same thing--" "D'Arcy," said the master, suddenly, "I was recommending the value of extra work, especially for clever boys.

Perhaps you will try the experiment with fifty lines of Virgil by this time to-morrow." "There you are," said D'Arcy, appealing to his neighbours; "didn't I tell you he talked rot?
Did you ever hear such a stale joke as that ?" The two new boys were tremendously impressed by this sudden swoop of vengeance, and gazed open-mouthed at the master for the rest of the class, stealing only now and again a hasty glance at D'Arcy to see how he was bearing up against his sore afflictions.
D'Arcy, to do him justice, appeared to be bearing up very well.

He was, in truth, engaged in a mental calculation as to how, during the coming term, he could most economically "job" out the impositions which usually fell to his share.

If his countenance now and then brightened as he met the awe-struck gaze of the two new boys, it was because in them he thought he discerned a lively hope of solving the problem creditably to himself and not unprofitably to them.
"Come along," said he as soon as the class was released; "let's get out into the fresh air and have a cool.