Going through the school-room of the third, which is my own form, I chanced to see Saunders minor and Fowle there; and, just as I passed them, Saunders minor said that he wished he was dead.
This, from Saunders minor, was a bit out of the common, so I stopped and asked him why. He said—
"It’s only a manner of speaking, Thwaites; but, all the same, I do, because of the Good Conduct Prize."
"Well," I said, "you’re a snip for it; everybody knows that."
"Not now," he answered. "In fact, it’s all up, and the silver watch and chain are gone."
Of course, when young Saunders talked about a silver watch and chain, he didn’t mean Dr. Dunstan’s footling Good Conduct Prize, which is always a book of a particularly deadly kind, such as _Lays of Ancient Rome_; but he meant the special prize his father had promised him if he won the highest marks for good conduct in his class. And he was simply romping home when this happened.
"Of course, it’s that beast Foster," said Fowle. "I always hated Foster, and now, knowing he couldn’t win by fair means, he made that peculiar face at Saunders just as the Doctor came in to say prayers last night; and Saunders laughed, not knowing the Doctor had actually come in; and the Doctor took off five conduct marks at one fell swoop."
"Foster must win now," said Saunders. "But it’s a blackguard thing."
"And if Foster doesn’t win, you will," said Fowle to me.
Curiously enough, this was true. I had been going rather strong on good conduct this term for private reasons. In fact, my father had promised me—not a silver watch—but a flogging, or very likely two, if I came home again with a holiday punishment.
You must know that at Merivale there was a putrid system called ’holiday punishments,’ and if you didn’t get a certain number of good conduct marks in the term, instead of going home in glory with a good report, you went home with a holiday punishment. Well, owing to one thing and another, I had taken home a holiday punishment four terms running; and my father began to get rather nasty about it. As a rule, he is a sort of father who talks very ferociously but doesn’t do much; therefore, when he actually does flog me, which happens now and then, it comes as a great and unpleasant surprise. And I felt, in the matter of the good conduct marks, that if I went back with another holiday punishment, he would certainly keep his word and flog me to the best of his power. Therefore, I bucked up in a very unusual way, and though miles behind Saunders minor and Foster, was miles in front of the others; and when suddenly Fowle said this to me, that if Foster also smashed up as Saunders had done, I must get the Good Conduct Prize in the third, I felt quite giddy. Needless to say, I had never taken home a prize in my life. In fact, it seemed almost too much. My people would never believe it.