188 THE STORY OF MY LIFE [1847
At the end of August I returned to Harrow.
To MY MOTHER.
"Harrow, Sept. 10. Alas! our form is under Mr. Oxenham. He has the power of flogging, and does flog very often for the least fault, for he really enjoys it. He is such an old man, very old, very sharp, very indolent, very preachy. Sometimes he falls asleep when we are in form, and the boys stick curl-papers through his hair, and lie never finds it out. He always calls his boys 'stupid little fools,' without meaning anything particular by it. This morning he said to me, ' Stuff and nonsense, stupid little fool; don't make yourself a stupider little fool than you are.' He is always called c Billy.'"
"Sept. I have been racket-fagging all afternoon. It is such dismal work. You have to stand in one corner of the square court and throw all the balls that come that way to the 'feeders,' who throw them to the players when they are wanted. The great amusement of P., one of those I fag for, is to hit the racket-balls with all his might at the fags, and he tried to cut me off a great many times, but missed. At last P. said, c I '11 go and get another fag instead of that young beast Hare,' and he went, but he never came back, or the fag either.
" One day our room bought a pipkin, saucepan, and frying-pan to cook things in, but Mrs. Collins (the matron) took away the frying-pan, and the others were bagged. But we got another pipkin, and one night as we were cooking some potatoes, in little slices as we have them at home, they made such a smell that Mrs. Collins came up, and told Simmy, and he was very angry, and would not let us have fires for a week, and said we should all have extra pupil-room; but fortunately he forgot about that." lii.iHV