The Further Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Under-Graduate: Being a Continuation of "The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman"Bede, Cuthbert
History
The Further Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Under-Graduate: Being a Continuation of "The Adventures of Mr. Verdant Green, an Oxford Freshman"
Bede, Cuthbert
University of Oxford -- Fiction
waistcoat; and here, you see, I've got the wire end in the palm of my
hand. Then, I slip out the card I want, and hook it on to the wire, so
that I can have it just before me as I write. Then, if any of the
examiners look suspicious, or if one of them comes round to spy, I just
pull the bit of string that hangs under the bottom of my waistcoat, and
away flies the card up my coat sleeve; and when the examiner comes
round, he sees that my hand's never moved, and that there's nothing in
it! So he walks off satisfied; and then I shake the little beggar out of
my sleeve again, and the same game goes on as before. And when the
string's tight, even straightening your body is quite sufficient to
hoist the card into your sleeve, without moving either of your hands.
I've got an Examination-coat made on purpose, with a heap of pockets, in
which I can stow my cards in regular order. These three pockets," said
Mr. Bouncer, as he produced the coat, "are entirely for Euclid. Here's
each problem written right out on a card; they're laid regularly in
order, and I turn them over in my pocket, till I get hold of the one I
want, and then I take it out, and work it. So you see, Giglamps, I'm
safe to get through!--it's impossible for them to plough me, with all
these contrivances. That's a consolation for a cove in distress, ain't
it, old feller?"
Both our hero and Charles Larkyns endeavoured to persuade Mr. Bouncer
that his conduct would, at the very least, be foolhardy, and that he had
much better throw his pack of cards into the fire, wash the Kings of
Israel and Judah off his shirt, destroy his strings and hooked wires,
and keep his Examination-coat for a shooting one. But all their
arguments were in vain; and the infatuated little gentleman, like a
deaf adder, shut his ears at the voice of the charmer.
What between the Cowley cricketings, and the Isis boatings, Mr. Verdant
Green only read by spasmodic fits; but, as he was very fairly up in his
subjects--thanks to Charles Larkyns and the Rector--and as the Little-go
was not such a very formidable affair, or demanded a scholar of
first-rate calibre, the only terrors that the examination could bring
him were those which were begotten of nervousness. At length the lists
were out; and our hero read among the names of candidates, that of
"GREEN, _Verdant, è Coll. Æn. Fac._"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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