Young Brooke alone remains on the ground by the time the Doctor gets
there, and touches his hat, not without a slight inward qualm.
"Hah! Brooke. I am surprised to see you here. Don't you know that I
expect the sixth to stop fighting?"
Brooke felt much more uncomfortable than he had expected, but he was
rather a favourite with the Doctor for his openness and plainness of
speech, so blurted out, as he walked by the Doctor's side, who had
already turned back,--
"Yes, sir, generally. But I thought you wished us to exercise a
discretion in the matter too--not to interfere too soon."
"But they have been fighting this half-hour and more," said the Doctor.
"Yes, sir; but neither was hurt. And they're the sort of boys who'll be
all the better friends now, which they wouldn't have been if they had
been stopped, any earlier--before it was so equal."
"Who was fighting with Brown?" said the Doctor.
"Williams, sir, of Thompson's. He is bigger than Brown, and had the best
of it at first, but not when you came up, sir. There's a good deal of
jealousy between our house and Thompson's, and there would have been
more fights if this hadn't been let go on, or if either of them had had
much the worst of it."
"Well but, Brooke," said the Doctor, "doesn't this look a little as
if you exercised your discretion by only stopping a fight when the
School-house boy is getting the worst of it?"
Brooke, it must be confessed, felt rather gravelled.
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