CHAPTER ONE.
DRY-ROT.
Bolsover College was in a bad temper.

It often was; for as a rule it had little else to do; and what it had, was usually a less congenial occupation.
Bolsover, in fact, was a school which sadly needed two trifling reforms before it could be expected to do much good in the world.

One was, that all its masters should be dismissed; the other was, that all its boys should be expelled.

When these little changes had been effected there was every chance of turning the place into a creditable school; but not much chance otherwise.
For Bolsover College was afflicted with dry-rot.

The mischief had begun not last term or the term before.