CHAPTER I.

THE SLIGHT ACT OF DISOBEDIENCE.

"How tiresome!" exclaimed Charles Warbeck;

"how very tiresome, Harry.

This is the third

You must have

"It is too bad!" "It is very ill-natured!"" " "It is just like him!" was echoed from various parts of the playground.

"How could I help it?" expostulated Henry Mertoun, the head boy of the school, a fine lad in his thirteenth year. "How could I help it, when he would give me nothing but full pitches ?"

Nonsense, Harry, you know very well you might have blocked them, if you had chosen."

"Block them, indeed," rejoined Mertoun, indignantly striking the ground with his bat as he spoke; "a nice thing to be blocking full pitchesa nice way to be out, I think-and to be blocking,

B

too, when we have twenty runs to get, and nobody but Tommy Brook to go in!"

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'Well, at any rate, you have taken an effectual way of preventing yourself or any one else from being out, by putting a stop to the game altogether."

Such were the discontented exclamations that proceeded from the playground of Charlton School, on the afternoon of the 18th of June, 184-. A few words will explain what had caused the temporary unpopularity of Henry Mertoun. It was a half-holiday, and the boys had been the whole afternoon engaged in the grand cricket match of the half-year. It had proved a most interesting contest, Warbeck's side had at one time decidedly the advantage; but, in his second innings, Mertoun had batted with such spirit and success, as bid fair to change the fortune of the day; and as the game approached its conclusion, its issue appeared so very doubtful, as to excite the utmost anxiety both among the spectators and the combatants. Unluckily, however, there was a drawback peculiar to the ground on which they played. It was bounded on one side by a brick wall, about nine feet high, and it occasionally happened that their matches were interrupted by the ball being struck over this barrier into an adjoining orchard. Now, whether it was owing to Warbeck's bad

bowling, as Mertoun had affirmed, or to Mertoun's own impetuosity, as the popular voice had declared, I cannot take upon myself to say; but, within one half-hour, he had three times struck the ball into the forbidden territory. Dr. Young, their master, had twice allowed them to go round to his neighbour, Squire Ellison, to whom the orchard belonged, with a request to his gardener to throw their ball back again into the playground: but he had warned them at the same time that, if the accident again occurred, he could not permit them to trouble Mr. Ellison's servant a third time. All the boys, young and old, knew that there was no chance of Dr. Young's departing from his word. No one, indeed, thought it worth while to make the attempt, so that it is not surprising that they thought it "too bad" and "very ill-natured," and declared that it was "done on purpose," and the like; and were withal very much disposed to be out of humour, whether reasonably or unreasonably, with the cause of the disaster, as it is the wont of boys and men to be, when any thing occurs to mar their enjoyment.

The cricketers wandered listlessly up and down the playground; for, after the excitement of the match, it was impossible to take interest in any fresh game. There was a cloud on every face. Some argued hotly on the probable result of the un

finished match: each party maintaining that there could be no doubt but that their side had had the advantage, and must have won if it had been concluded. Others vented their spleen in murmurs against every thing which seemed in any way connected with the mishap; and Mertoun's batting, Warbeck's bowling, Dr. Young, Squire Ellison, his orchard, his gardener, and, lastly, the wall of the playground—each came in for its share of censure. The wall in particular was the object of universal disfavour. Never, probably, was any composition of brick and mortar subjected to such severe criticism, as the ill-starred wall in question. "It ought to have had palings on the top;"-"It ought to be nothing but palings;"-" It ought to be a great deal lower;"—" It ought not to be there at all;"— "It ought to be there, and to be twice as high;"were all urged and all admitted: it not making, apparently, the slightest difference in the unanimity of the party, that no two agreed together in the fault they found. None of the party was more thoroughly out of temper than Mertoun himself. He was vexed at the interruption of his innings : he was vexed because he had ceased to be the object of general admiration: above all, he was vexed because he felt that it was chiefly his carelessness that had caused the accident. Discontent and idleness

generally lead to mischief, and so it proved on the present occasion.

"What a pity!" exclaimed Seymour, one of the first class boys, who had been very loud in his expressions of disappointment. "What a pity that abominable wall was not built a foot or two higher, or a foot or two lower!"

"A foot or two higher or lower," said West; "well, I do not see what good we should get if it was a foot or two lower. We should only lose our ball twice as often."

'If," replied Seymour, "it were a foot or two higher, there would be much less chance of the ball being knocked over; and if it were a foot or two lower, we might manage to get over, and bring it back."

"And why should we not get over as it is," suddenly exclaimed Mertoun, looking eagerly up at the wall," it would not be so very difficult?"

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"Oh, dear, no!" remarked Seymour ironically, particularly easy, I declare; and I really think, Harry, that as it was you who lost our ball, that you had better perform this particularly easy feat, and get it back again."

This taunt, and the general laugh that followed it, only stimulated Mertoun to make the attempt. But it was an easier thing to resolve on than to