Acton's Feud: A Public School Story

, it is true-caused quite a little breeze of surprise to circulate around the other houses, which

selfishness, and how Raven and Worcester had worked like horses, and mown down the opposition-"Fifth Form opposition!" said the fags, with a lift of th

st came up to his ears. There was a bright fire in the grate, and though Todd's room was not decorative compared with most of the other fellows' dens, yet it was cheerful enough. Cotton had come back from the match hungry and a trifle bruised from a smart upset, only to find his own fire out, and preparations for tea invisible. Having uttered dire threats against his absent, erring fag, he moved into his friend's room, a

?" said Gus, surveying the

me down like a

ai

t to go down if he cat

beautifully to let Biffen's

ve been on the touch-line watching those Biffenites at their new tricks. Your opinion then

ly classical t

e had over it. I'm going now to have a tub, and then we'll get th

ntedly. "There is that beastly Perry Schol

ramming and a-guzzling for that all this afternoon? Yo

crammer's heart, and then crawl into the Army through the Militia

then, with a sly smile, he added, "Shilling a game,

bait with forlorn eagerness; "I'll have

Todd's anxiety to pick up a small sum. "Clear

arried it bodily into Cotton's room, and then returned with his fr

s muster in the schools. Old Corker knew his capabilities to a hair, and would now and then, when Gus offered up some hazy, specious guess-work, blister him with a little biting sarcasm. Todd feared the Doctor as he feared no one else. Todd's chief private moan was that he never had any money. His father was a rich man, but had some ideas which were rather rough on his weak-kneed son. He tipped poor Gus as though he were som

, but the shackles of his old serfdom were still about him. When he showed signs of being restive to the old claims, and recommended Cotton to do his own classics and mathematics, Cotton coolly and calmly demanded repayment of sundry loans contracted of

-looking face. He was wonderfully stupid in the schools, but was quite clever enough to know it. He had some good qualities. He

t is the good of sweating all the term? Hodgson's

of Hodgson if you wo

e mud to keep the beaks from worrying me to death. I tried Philips for a week, but he did such weird screeds in the 'unseen

as his classical and mathematical hack. Besides, there was something about Gus's easy-going lackadaisical temperamen

ding half a worthless novel, and skimming through a magazine, and feeling muddled and discontented in consequence. He had the uneasy feeling th

er the board when he was "going to mate in five moves." Cotton thereupon said he had had enough, but Gus avariciously tried to reconstruct the positions. He failed dismally, and Cotton laughed sweetly. Now Cotton's laugh would almost make his chum's hair curl, so he retorted p

!" said Todd, knocking over mor

s my usual habit, of course. They may carry off th

g occasionally, as at some very fantastic idea. At last he sai

t! Biffen's are r

"Look here, I'll bet you evens B

talk about betting, for

eness in his character, but t

that. I've paid all I'

n his own mind for a moment

ou mean-" began

ton; "shut up, confou

n's are not cock-

out his note-book; "and straight, Todd,

pay if I lose, man. What do you want

Taylor up if you howl li

then, that if our house should meet 'em in the rounds you will do your little best to put a stopper on their caree

a white rage, "you are a bounder! Think

's skin. "You don't stomach insults any more than I do

ring good terms, for it is hardly likely that Biffen's can really be cock-house. There's Corker's house, with

some relief at the anticipat

rwards they were amiably entertaining each other. Cotton was putting up a pair of dumb-bells three hundred times, and his crony was counting and criticising his form. The Per