Cox tore the paper off and saw the milky liquid, and eagerly pulled out the cork to smell it. It was so strong, that he jerked the contents over King’s coat.
“He laughs loudest who laughs last,” said Mr. Cottenham, smiling. “That joke has cost you threepence, at all events.”
The boys ran off quickly, and turned round the corner of the street before they stopped.
“What a little fool you are,” said King, “to bring that stinking stuff! I must wash my coat or it will smell in the cathedral.”
King rubbed his jacket with his moistened handkerchief, but he could not get rid of the smell.
Now it happened that his seat was close to the dean’s, and as they were returning from morning service, walking down the cloisters, the dean called to one of the boys to send King to him.
“How dare you eat strong onions just before a service?” demanded the dean, who had been head-master of one of the big public schools. “Once a schoolmaster always a schoolmaster,” which means that when a man has been a schoolmaster, he always treats every one afterwards, whether men or boys, just as if they were schoolboys under him.
“If you please, sir, I haven’t been eating onions,” replied King.