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[Illustration: page153]
~153~~ It was in this way (as Mark informed me) my predecessor amused
himself in a morning by lying in bed and firing at the target, till,
unhappily, on one occasion the ball passed through a hole in the door,
the loop-hole window, and, crossing the quadrangle, entered whizzing
past the dignitary's ear and that of his family who were at breakfast
with him into the back of the chair he had but a moment before
providentially quitted to take a book from his library shelves.1 The
affair occasioned a strict search, and the door in question bore too
strong an evidence to escape detection; Rattle was rusticated for a
term, but, returning the same singular character, was always in some
scrape or other till his final expulsion. Having given the necessary
orders for repairs, Mark made one of his best bows, and produced a long
scroll of paper, on which was written a list of necessaries?{2} "which,"
said the ancient, "take notice, every gentleman provides on his taking
possession of his rooms." "And every gentleman's scout claims upon his
leaving, take notice" said I. Mark bowed assent.
I had now both seen and heard enough of college comforts to wish myself
safe back again at Eton in the snug, clean, sanded dormitory of my old
dame. Looking first at my purse and then at the list of necessaries, I
could not resist a sigh on perceiving my _new guinea_{3} to be already
in danger, that it would require some caution to steer clear of the
forest of debt,{4} and keep out of _south jeopardy_,{5} and some talent
to gain the _new settlements_{6} or prevent my being ultimately laid up
in the _river tick_{7} condemned in the _Vice-Chancellor's court_,{8}
and consigned, for the benefit of the captors, to _fort marshal_.
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