blade into the still water, and turned the head of the boat for the
Graysroof bank; and for the things that should be.



BOOK I
FIVE GAY YEARS OF SCHOOL


_Part I: Tidal Reaches_


CHAPTER I

RUPERT RAY BEGINS HIS STORY


§1

"I'm the best-looking person in this room," said Archibald Pennybet.
"Ray's face looks as though somebody had trodden on it, and
Doe's--well, Doe's would be better if it had been trodden on."

It was an early morning of the Kensingtowe Summer Term, and the
three of us, Archie Pennybet, Edgar Gray Doe, and I, Rupert Ray,
were waiting in the Junior Preparation Room at Bramhall House, till
the bell should summon us over the playing fields to morning school.
Kensingtowe, of course, is the finest school in England, and
Bramhall its best house. Now, Pennybet, though not himself
courteous, always insisted that Doe and I should treat him with