Small
holes were cut in the front, through which the occupants watched the
masters as they walked up and down; and as lesson time approached, one
boy at a time stole out and down the steps, as the masters' backs were
turned, and mingled with the general crowd on the forms below. Tom and
East had successfully occupied the desk some half-dozen times, and were
grown so reckless that they were in the habit of playing small games
with fives balls inside when the masters were at the other end of the
big school. One day, as ill-luck would have it, the game became more
exciting than usual, and the ball slipped through East's fingers, and
rolled slowly down the steps and out into the middle of the school, just
as the masters turned in their walk and faced round upon the desk. The
young delinquents watched their master, through the lookout holes, march
slowly down the school straight upon their retreat, while all the boys
in the neighbourhood, of course, stopped their work to look on; and not
only were they ignominiously drawn out, and caned over the hand then
and there, but their characters for steadiness were gone from that time.
However, as they only shared the fate of some three-fourths of the rest
of the form, this did not weigh heavily upon them.
In fact, the only occasions on which they cared about the matter were
the monthly examinations, when the Doctor came round to examine their
form, for one long, awful hour, in the work which they had done in the
preceding month.
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