“I expect,” said James Mather, who was one of the biggest boys in the school though still in the third class, “that it's all gammon, just to give himself a good name, and to do away with the bad repute the school has got into for Hathorn's flogging. You will see how long it will last! I ain't going to swallow all that soft soap.” Ned, who had been much touched at the master's address, at once fired up: “Oh! we all know how clever you are, Mather--quite a shining genius, one of the sort who can see through a stone wall. If you say it's gammon, of course it must be so.” There was a laugh among the boys. “I will punch your head if you don't shut up, Sankey,” Mather said angrily; “there's no ink bottle for you to shy here.” Ned turned very white, but he checked himself with an effort. “I don't want to fight today--it's the first day of the half year, and after such a speech as we've heard I don't want to have a row on this first morning. But you had better look out; another time you won't find me so patient. Punch my head, indeed! Why, you daren't try it.” But Mather would have tried it, for he had for the last year been regarded as the cock of the school. However, several of the boys interfered. “Sankey is right, Mather; it would be a beastly shame to be fighting this morning. After what Porson said there oughtn't to be any rows today. We shall soon see whether he means it.” Mather suffered himself to be dissuaded from carrying his threat into execution, the rather that in his heart of hearts he was not assured that the course would have been a wise one. Ned had never fought in the school, but Tompkins' account of his fight on the moor with Bill Swinton, and the courage he had shown in taking upon himself the office of spokesman in the rebellion against Hathorn, had given him a very high reputation among the boys; and in spite of Mather's greater age and weight there were many who thought that Ned Sankey would make a tough fight of it with the cock of the school. So the gathering broke up and the boys set to at their games, which were played with a heartiness and zest all the greater that none of them were in pain from recent punishment, and that they could look forward to the afternoon without fear and trembling. When at twelve o'clock the boys of the first class came out from school the others crowded round to hear the result of the morning's lessons. They looked bright and pleased. “I think he is going to turn out a brick,” Ripon, the head of the first class, said. “Of course one can't tell yet. He was very quiet with us and had a regular examination of each of us. I don't think he was at all satisfied, though we all did our best, but there was no shouting or scolding. We are to go in again this afternoon with the rest. He says there's something which he forgot to mention to us this morning.” “More speeches!” Mather grumbled. “I hate all this jaw.”