Each boy, on his arrival, was allotted to a Præfect as his pupil, who was called his tutor, and was supposed to exercise a general superintendence over his morals and manners, to purge his exercises from the grosser faults, protect him from the unjust treatment of other boys, and generally to “Teejay”[3] him. It was ordinarily an advantageous arrangement to both parties. My old friend Dummy, however, was not fortunate in the selection made for him; he was handed over to a tutor, who, by way of taking a great interest in his welfare, prevented other boys from thrashing his pupil by operating on him so constantly himself, that they scarcely had any chance of so doing. The tutor was tall, thin, bullet-headed, and apparently about forty-five years of age, and he used, from time to time, to conduct his pupil into a quiet corner, and, with a cheerful smile beaming on his countenance, would give himself a few minutes’ healthy, but not too violent, exercise. He was economical, and found that a stout cane, tied with wax thread at the end, was a less expensive chest-opener than a ground-ash, which was not only very liable to break, but extracted less entertainment than the thicker weapon. He was not very muscular, or the consequences might have been serious. As it was, wherever Dummy went to bathe, a number of spectators always assembled to see his back, which, from the nape of his neck to his ankles, was a network of intersecting bruises. Dummy’s skin gradually got as tough as a hippopotamus’s, and I don’t think it did him much harm. At any rate, I saw him last year in rude health. He was delighted to see me; and he told me that, not long before, he had met his venerated tutor at a railway station in Northumberland, looking still about forty-five, and apparently a bishop or dean, or something of that sort, with a Gothic waistcoat, and a broad-brimmed hat, and altogether so little altered, that Dummy’s body gave an instinctive shrink as it passed him, in expectation of the never-failing blow or kick that used to follow immediately on his propinquity. A fortnight’s breathing-time was allowed to every new boy before he commenced Fagging, to give him the necessary leisure to learn what would be expected of him; at the expiration of which period his duties began, and he was said to be “in Course.” Such is the natural craving in the human mind for change, that I remember, in my case, I was quite impatient for the time of probation to expire, that I might indulge in the manly exercise of Fagging. [Illustration] CHAPTER V. THE JUNIOR IN CHAMBERS. Choosing Chambers—Furniture of Chambers—Junior’s Duties—Toy-time—Mess—Sound Sleepers—Sitting up—The Scheme—Toefitying—Spree Mess—Theatricals.