me, in the business I was an utter cad, and instead of bringing all that row about my cap upon Bourne’s head, I ought to have burned my boots, and never kicked a football again.  There’s another matter, this time strictly between Bourne and self, in which I did him as big an injury as one fellow can do another.  He gave me a sound thrashing for it on the morning that you fellows went away last term, and Carr and Vercoe here assisted us in our little mill.  No one ever deserved a thrashing as I deserved that one, and now I’m glad I got it.  It was Bourne’s only score against me.  Fact is,” said Acton, with a grim smile, “I’d rather meet another Jarvis than Bourne.”

The fellows opened their eyes, and wondered what next.

“This term I’ve worked the whole school, and especially you monitors, against Bourne, to make his chance of getting the captaincy a very rocky one.  And I think I pretty well succeeded.  You all liked Bourne before I appeared on the scene, with good reason, and I do hope you will all give him your votes, for, and I say it absolutely sure of its truth, the best fellow in St. Amory’s is Bourne.  That is all I can say.”

Mivart got up before the fellows had time to recover from their astonishment, and said—­

“I have great pleasure in seconding Acton’s proposal.  I, too, consider Bourne out and out the best fellow to take Carr’s place.  Whilst Phil was under a cloud I was willing to stand for captain, but since we all know now that he stands where he did, the only proper thing to do is to give him the unanimous vote, for I do not mean to stand at all.”

The fellows blankly voted for Bourne, and, as Grim would be sure to say, “the proposition was carried nem. con.”

That evening Corker confirmed Phil’s appointment, and I spent as happy an evening as I can remember.  Acton said he should not come back to St. Amory’s again, as his record was too black to be used as a convenient reference, but Phil and I and all the fellows told him we should be only too glad to let bygones be bygones, and that he had really done the square thing at the last.

He did come back, and Phil’s letters to me tell me that his old enemy is one of the most popular—­deservedly—­in the school, and his best friend.  They are inseparable, play back together at “footer,” and are variously called Gemini, Damon and Pythias, David and Jonathan, as the case may be.

Biffen’s are still cock-house at “footer;” Acton is going in again for the “heavy”—­this time without the Coon’s help—­and those “niggers,” Singh Ram and Runjit Mehtah, to Worcester’s intense disgust, are the representatives of St. Amory’s in gymnastics; and, altogether, Biffen’s House is, thanks to Acton’s help, perhaps the most distinguished in the school.

ACTON’S CHRISTMAS

I

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