good to eat. Shall I try one?"

"Don't you be an idiot," said the expert, looking up. "What have you
got hold of? Great Scott, no, don't eat that stuff."

"Why not? Is it poison?"

"No. But it would make you sick as a cat. It's Sal Ammoniac."

"Sal how much?"

"Ammoniac. You'd be awfully bad."

"All right, then, I won't. Well, what do you think of that thing?
It'll be rough on Cook's, won't it? You see they advertise a special
'public-school' tea, as they call it. It sounds jolly good. I don't
know what buckwheat cakes are, but they ought to be decent. I suppose
now everybody'll chuck Cook's and go there. It's a beastly shame,
considering that Cook's has been a sort of school shop so long. And
they really depend on the school. At least, one never sees anybody
else going there. Well, I shall stick to Cook's. I don't want any of
your beastly Yankee invaders. Support home industries. Be a patriot.
The band then played God Save the King, and the meeting dispersed.
But, seriously, man, I am rather sick about this. The Cooks are such
awfully good sorts, and this is bound to make them lose a tremendous
lot. The school's simply crawling with chaps who'd do anything to get
a good tea cheaper than they're getting now. They'll simply scrum in
to this new place."

"Well, I don't see what we can do," said Linton, "except keep on going