12 THE EARLY DAYS OF 



supreme contempt. At length, when his indignation would allow 

 him to speak, he said " Wot ! and haven't none of you never seen 

 nobody before?" and having uttered this specimen of Marlborough 

 grammar, he hurried off to report in a higher quarter, the anarchy 

 which prevailed, whilst we shot forth another shaft which remained 

 in our futile armoury. 



My would-be assassin, from whom I could hardly remove my 

 eyes, had ascertained that Rogers was the College butler's name ; 

 and he proposed, with the cordial approval of us all, that this high 

 official should henceforth be summoned. The suggestion was 

 accordingly carried out, in such shrill notes, that the only wonder 

 seemed that the roof did not fall in, or the floor open and swallow 

 up us all. No Rogers came, but in his place a master with a 

 formidable cane appeared, and then we learnt our first lesson, that 

 in future we must remain content with what the gods provided, and 

 no more. 



But whilst we had Scylla in the shape of hunger, on one hand, 

 on the other, we subsequently found, was the more dangerous 

 Charybdis — Mistake in gauging our appetites, and leaving food 

 upon our plates. 



" Waste not want not," is certainly a good motto to impress 

 on those who are over-burdened with this world's goods ; but at 

 Marlborough College when I was there, opportunity of having 

 anything to waste so seldom happened, that the aphorism might 

 fairly have been regarded as a dead letter, or one which did not 

 demand much notice. Those in authority however thought other- 

 wise ; and some time before we were dismissed from hall, a careful 

 scrutiny of all our plates was made, in order to ascertain whether 

 any young wolf among us was likely eventually to come to want, 

 through wasteful conduct. 



The grating noise, made by the master's chair as he rose to make 

 his rounds, or knout us in the school, is one of those familiar sounds, 

 which I imagine has often been recalled by many an old Marlburian. 

 I have fancied that I heard it in the lonely Indian jungles, and whilst 



