“That fellow civil and attentive?” he said, giving his Malacca cane a wave in the direction of Wrench.
“Yes, father; very nice and obliging.”
“Give him that,” said the Colonel, slipping a crown-piece into his son’s hand; “and, let’s see; you get your month’s allowance regularly. Not overrunning the constable, I hope—not getting into debt?”
The boys shook their heads, and after a few words more the Colonel marched off, erect and soldierly, while the boys rather slowly and unwillingly returned to their room to give a finishing touch or two to their rather hasty morning toilet.
Chapter Seventeen.
The Professor makes a Request.
Morris, being off duty, as he termed it, walked down the road to clear his head a little of mathematical calculations, as well as to devise an examination paper intended for the improvement of his pupils; not that he looked upon it in that light, for as soon as he had mentally got it into shape, ready for committing to paper, he laughed to himself and rubbed his white hands over and over again in his intense satisfaction.
“That will puzzle their brains,” he said maliciously. “That will give some of them a headache;” and as he spoke, on his way back, he suddenly awakened to the fact that he was just coming to the damaged hedge, where a couple of men were for the second time, by Ramball’s orders, restaking, half-cutting through, and bending down for interlacing purposes sturdy old growths of hawthorn.