Ninian held up both his hands. "Carried unanimous!" he said.
"I don't know!" Henry objected. "I used to think it'd be rather nice to be a parson ... standing in the pulpit in a surplice and talking like that to people!"
Gilbert got up from the grass where they were sitting. "He'll have to be scragged," he said.
"Righto!" said Ninian, and the three of them seized Henry and flung him to the ground and sat on him until he swore by the blood of his forefathers that he would never, never consent to be a clergyman. "Or give pi-jaws of any sort!" said Gilbert.
"Lemme go!" Henry squeaked, struggling to throw them off his back.
"When you've promised!..."
"Oh, all right, then!"
They released him and he stood up and straightened his clothes and searched his mind for something of a devastating character to say. "Funny ass!" he said at last, and then they scragged him again for being cheeky.
But he would have submitted to any amount of scragging from them because they were his friends and because he loved Gilbert and because they, too, in their turn submitted to being scragged.