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help me a great deal with the Dean and Chapter when I sug-
gest rebuilding your house.’
But Mr. Perkins’ most unpopular innovation was his sys-
tem of taking occasionally another man’s form. He asked
it as a favour, but after all it was a favour which could not
be refused, and as Tar, otherwise Mr. Turner, said, it was
undignified for all parties. He gave no warning, but after
morning prayers would say to one of the masters:
‘I wonder if you’d mind taking the Sixth today at eleven.
We’ll change over, shall we?’
They did not know whether this was usual at other
schools, but certainly it had never been done at Tercanbury.
The results were curious. Mr. Turner, who was the first vic-
tim, broke the news to his form that the headmaster would
take them for Latin that day, and on the pretence that they
might like to ask him a question or two so that they should
not make perfect fools of themselves, spent the last quarter
of an hour of the history lesson in construing for them the
passage of Livy which had been set for the day; but when he
rejoined his class and looked at the paper on which Mr. Per-
kins had written the marks, a surprise awaited him; for the
two boys at the top of the form seemed to have done very
ill, while others who had never distinguished themselves
before were given full marks. When he asked Eldridge, his
cleverest boy, what was the meaning of this the answer
came sullenly:
‘Mr. Perkins never gave us any construing to do. He
asked me what I knew about General Gordon.’
Mr. Turner looked at him in astonishment. The boys evi-