Part 39 (2/2)

'What do you base that verdict on?' said King stiffly.

'He came to me after prayers--with all his conscience.'

'Poor old Pater. Was it the mouse?' said little Hartopp.

'That, and what he called his uncontrollable temper, and his responsibilities as sub-prefect.'

'And you?'

'If we had had what is vulgarly called a pi-jaw he'd have had hysterics. So I recommended a dose of Epsom salts. He'll take it, too--conscientiously. Don't eat me, King. Perhaps, he'll be a K.C.B.'

Ten o'clock struck and the Army cla.s.s boys in the further studies coming to their houses after an hour's extra work pa.s.sed along the gravel path below. Some one was chanting, to the tune of 'White sand and grey sand,'

_Dis te minorem quod geris imperas_. He stopped outside Mullins' study.

They heard Mullins' window slide up and then Stalky's voice:

'Ah! Good-evening, Mullins, my _barbarus tortor_. We're the waits. We have come to inquire after the local Berserk. Is he doin' as well as can be expected in his new caree-ah?'

'Better than you will, in a sec, Stalky,' Mullins grunted.

'Glad of that. We thought he'd like to know that Paddy has been carried to the sick-house in ravin' delirium. They think it's concussion of the brain.'

'Why, he was all right at prayers,' Winton began earnestly, and they heard a laugh in the background as Mullins slammed down the window.

''Night, Regulus,' Stalky sang out, and the light footsteps went on.

'You see. It sticks. A little of it sticks among the barbarians,' said King.

'Amen,' said the Reverend John. 'Go to bed.'

A TRANSLATION

HORACE, Bk. V. _Ode 3_

There are whose study is of smells, And to attentive schools rehea.r.s.e How something mixed with something else Makes something worse.

Some cultivate in broths impure The clients of our body--these, Increasing without Venus, cure, Or cause, disease.

Others the heated wheel extol, And all its offspring, whose concern Is how to make it farthest roll And fastest turn.

Me, much incurious if the hour Present, or to be paid for, brings Me to Brundusium by the power Of wheels or wings;

Me, in whose breast no flame hath burned Life-long, save that by Pindar lit, Such lore leaves cold: I am not turned Aside to it

More than when, sunk in thought profound Of what the unaltering G.o.ds require, My steward (friend but slave) brings round Logs for my fire.

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