There was not a move. The idea that the Public School boy's code of
honour forces him to own up at once is entirely erroneous. Boys only own
up when they are bound to be found out; they are not quixotic.
"Well, then, as no one has spoken, I shall have to take forcible
measures. Everyone above IV. A (for the Lower School did their
preparation in the day-room) will do me a hundred lines every day till
the end of the term. Thank you."
That night there was loud cursing. Clarke had hardly a supporter, the
other prefects, with the exception of Ferguson, who did not count for
much in the way of things, agreed with Meredith, who said:
"If the Cockroach can't keep order, how can Clarke expect there should
be absolute quiet? It's the Chief's fault for making such prefects.
Damned silly, I call it."
The term did not end without a further row. There had been from time
immemorial a system by which corps clothes were common property.
Everyone flung them in the middle of the room on Tuesday after parade;
the matron sorted them out after a fashion; but most people on the next
Tuesday afternoon found themselves with two tunics and no trousers, or
two hats and only one puttee. But no one cared. The person who had two
tunics flung one in the middle of the floor, and then went in search of
some spare trousers. Everyone was clothed somehow in the end. There was
always enough clothes to go round. There was bound to be at least ten
people who had got leave off. It was a convenient socialism.
But one day FitzMorris turned up on parade in a pair of footer shorts, a
straw hat, and a First Eleven blazer. He was a bit of a nut, and finding
his clothes gone, went on strangely garbed, merely out of curiosity to
see what would happen. A good deal did happen.
As soon as the corps was dismissed there was a clothes inspection. And
the garments of FitzMorris were found distributed on various bodies.
Clarke again addressed the House. Anyone in future discovered wearing
anyone else's clothes would be severely dealt with. But the House was
not to be outdone. Every single name was erased from every single piece
of clothing: identification was impossible. FitzMorris turned up at the
next parade with one puttee missing, and a tunic that could not meet
across his chest. There was another inspection, but this time it
revealed nothing. Everyone swore that he was wearing his own clothes;
there was nothing to prove that he was not. For the time Clarke was
discomfited.
FitzMorris set out on his Easter holidays contented with himself and the
world, in the firm belief that he had thoroughly squashed that blighter
Clarke. The head of the House returned to his lonely home on the moors,
very thoughtful--the next term would be his last.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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