Published February, 1912

CONTENTS

CHAPTERPAGE
I.[Behind the Scenes]1
II.[Change and Chance]11
III.[Very Raw Material]21
IV.[Settling In]33
V.[Nicknames]43
VI.[Boy to Boy]53
VII.[Reassurance]62
VIII.[Likes and Dislikes]75
IX.[Coram Populo]90
X.[Elegiacs]105
XI.[A Merry Christmas]123
XII.[The New Year]133
XIII.[The Haunted House]146
XIV.[“Summer-Term”]163
XV.[Sprawson’s Masterpiece]174
XVI.[Similia Similibus]186
XVII.[The Fun of the Fair]196
XVIII.[Dark Horses]212
XIX.[Fame and Fortune]225
XX.[The Eve of Office]240
XXI.[Out of Form]250
XXII.[The Old Boys’ Match]259
XXIII.[Interlude in a Study]266
XXIV.[The Second Morning’s Play]277
XXV.[Interlude in the Wood]290
XXVI.[Close of Play]304
XXVII.[The Extreme Penalty]317
XXVIII.[“Like Lucifer”]328
XXIX.[Chips and Jan]336
XXX.[His Last Fling]349
XXXI.[Vale]360

FATHERS OF MEN

CHAPTER I
BEHIND THE SCENES

The two new boys in Heriot’s house had been suitably entertained at his table, and afterwards in his study with bound volumes of Punch. Incidentally they had been encouraged to talk, with the result that one boy had talked too much, while the other shut a stubborn mouth tighter than before. The babbler displayed an exuberant knowledge of contemporary cricket, a more conscious sense of humour, and other little qualities which told their tale. He opened the door for Miss Heriot after dinner, and even thanked her for the evening when it came to an end. His companion, on the other hand, after brooding over Leech and Tenniel with a sombre eye, beat a boorish retreat without a word.

Heriot saw the pair to the boys’ part of the house. He was filling his pipe when he returned to the medley of books, papers, photographic appliances, foxes’ masks, alpen-stocks and venerable oak, that made his study a little room in which it was difficult to sit down and impossible to lounge. His sister, perched upon a coffin-stool, was busy mounting photographs at a worm-eaten bureau.