Me seemed surprised at the great size of the postal order, but gave me a golden pound and told me to be careful of it. I was so excited that I very nearly got kept in at morning school, but I escaped; and when the time came I went to Gideon, and he walked up to the gym. with me to meet the creditors.
III
Ten chaps were assembled for the bankruptcy, but I jolly soon cleared out Stopford, because the sixpence he said I owed him had been paid at the beginning of the term, and Westcott was able to prove it. So Stopford went, but reluctantly. Steggles also went. He wanted me to take back my mortgaged bat and owe him about six shillings instead, but, knowing Steggles, I felt sure that something must have gone wrong with the bat, and when I examined it, I found that it was so. In fact, the bat was badly sprung; and Gideon said it was like Steggles, and a beastly, paltry thing to try to do. So Steggles also went, and that left eight fellows. These eight chaps were told to make their claims, and when they had, Gideon made me examine them to see they were all right. Only four claimed too much, and Mathers, who is an awfully kind-hearted chap, claimed too little.
So I said, "I'm afraid I owe you one and nine, not one and three, Mathers."
And he said, "That's all right. I knocked off a tanner when you won the house match against Browne's a week ago." Which shows the sort of chap that Mathers was.
I said, "Does anybody else feel inclined to knock off anything owing to my winning the house match against Browne's?"
But nobody did, and seeing that five of the creditors actually belonged to Browne's house I couldn't expect that they would.
"When you've admitted the claims," said Gideon, "I'll add them up myself."
So I went through the claims and had to admit them all.
Then Gideon added them up and said—