trifling repairs. Acton suggested, therefore, that the half-hour
before dinner should be devoted to putting things to rights, and to
making some small additions in the shape of pebbles for waistcoat
buttons, and other trifling adornments.

Mr. Welsby kept the boys at the table for nearly a quarter of an hour
after the meal was finished, talking over his plans for the coming term,
and when at last he finished there was a regular stampede for the
playground. Acton was leading the rush; he dashed through the garden
doorway, and then stopped dead with an exclamation of dismay. All those
who followed, as they arrived on the spot, did the same. Every vestige
of the snow man, which had been left barely an hour ago standing such a
work of art, had disappeared. Certainly a portion of the pedestal still
remained, looking like the stump of an old, decayed tooth; but the
figure itself had been thrown down, trodden flat, and literally stamped
out of existence!

The little crowd stood for a moment speechless, gazing with woebegone
expressions on their faces at the wreck of their hopes and handiwork;
then the silence was broken by a subdued chuckle coming from the other
side of the wall on their left, and every one, with a start and a sudden
clinching of fists, cried simultaneously: "The Philistines!"

The words had hardly been uttered when above the brickwork appeared the
head and shoulders of a boy a size or so bigger than Acton;
a dirty-looking brown bowler hat was stuck on the very back of his head,
and rammed down until the brim rested on the top of his ears; and it
will be quite sufficient to remark that his face was in exact keeping
with the manner in which he wore his hat. Once more everybody gave vent
to their feelings by another involuntary ejaculation--"Young Noaks!"