The Freshman opened the note with trembling fingers. Was it possible
that he had been singled out as a likely oar already?
* * * * *
The note was brief, but to the point. It said:
"_Dere Sir,
Please write larger.
Yours truly,
J. M----._"
III
However, this is a digression. Let us return for the last time to Arthur
Robinson's three divisions of youthful humanity. Class A he found
extraordinarily dull. They required little instruction and no
supervision; in fact, they were self-educators of the most automatic
type. Class B were a perpetual weariness to the flesh. They gave no
trouble, but their apathy was appalling. However, a certain amount of
entertainment could be extracted from studying their methods of evading
work or supplying themselves with refreshment. There was the ingenious
device of Master Jobling, for instance. Mr. Robinson noted that this
youth was in the habit, during lecture-time, of sitting with his elbows
resting on his desk and his chin buried in his hands, his mouth, or a
corner thereof, being covered by his fingers. His attitude was one of
rapt attention, and his eyes were fixed unwinkingly upon the lecturer.
Such virtue, coming from Master Jobling, roused unworthy suspicions in
the breast of Arthur Robinson. He observed that although the youth's
attitude was one of rigid immobility, his facial muscles were agitated
from time to time by a slight convulsive movement. Accordingly, one day,
he stepped swiftly across the room, and taking Master Jobling by the
hair, demanded an explanation. It was forthcoming immediately, in the
form of a long thin indiarubber tube, of the baby's-bottle variety; one
end of which was held between Master Jobling's teeth, while the other
communicated, _via_ his right sleeve, with a bottle of ginger-beer
secreted somewhere in the recesses of his person. From this reservoir he
had been refreshing himself from time to time by a process of suction.
Mr. Robinson, who believed in making the punishment fit the crime,
purchased a baby's "soother" from the chemist's, and condemned Jobling
to put it to its rightful use during every school-hour for the rest of
the week. He was only allowed to remove it from his lips in order to
answer a question.
Class C, the professional malefactors, Mr. Robinson found extremely
attractive. They appeared to possess all the character and quite half
the brains of the form. But this is a permanent characteristic of the
malefactor, and is most discouraging to the virtuous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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