"It is shameful, Dobson! Here, a new boy has done better than you have. Your idleness is disgraceful."
A writing exercise followed; and Ralph was bending over his book, when flop!—a wad of wet blotting-paper hit him in the cheek. He looked up, but every one seemed busy with their work, so wiping his cheek he put the wet mass on one side, and went on with his task. Flop! A second wad came. Ralph noted the direction, and saw that at the end of the form Dobson was seated, and Ralph had his suspicions. Pretending to be absorbed in his work, he kept a covert watch; and presently he was rewarded by seeing Dobson extract a third wad from his mouth, where he had been chewing it into a convenient pellet, and under cover of the boy in front of him prepare to fire it by a flick of his thumb. Ralph raised his eyes and looked him full in the face, and, somehow, Dobson seemed confused. He turned red, and bent over his work hastily; and no more pellets were fired at Ralph that afternoon.
It seemed rather a wearisome afternoon to the boy, used as he was to his open-air life, but he worked away with all his might; and presently the bell rang and work was over; and then Warren, the boy beside whom he had sat, came to him and held out his hand.
"I am first monitor of our form," he said, "and I hope that we shall be friends. If you come with me I will take you round the school."
"Rexworth."
Ralph turned as his name was called; his master stood there.
"I want you a few minutes. Warren, you can take him round afterwards. I want to arrange about his study."
"We have only got one vacant, sir," the monitor said. "Charlton has that."
"I know," was the quiet answer; and then, when Warren ran off, the master turned to Ralph.
"Rexworth," he said, "I must explain that in our form every two boys have one study between them, and as you heard Warren say, we have only one study that is not fully occupied. A lad named Charlton has it, and you must chum with him. It is about him I want to speak to you."