There was a laugh among the boys.

"I will punch your head if you don't shut up, Sankey," Mather said
angrily; "there's no ink bottle for you to shy here."

Ned turned very white, but he checked himself with an effort.

"I don't want to fight today--it's the first day of the half
year, and after such a speech as we've heard I don't want to have
a row on this first morning. But you had better look out; another
time you won't find me so patient. Punch my head, indeed! Why, you
daren't try it."

But Mather would have tried it, for he had for the last year been
regarded as the cock of the school. However, several of the boys
interfered.

"Sankey is right, Mather; it would be a beastly shame to be fighting
this morning. After what Porson said there oughtn't to be any rows
today. We shall soon see whether he means it."

Mather suffered himself to be dissuaded from carrying his threat
into execution, the rather that in his heart of hearts he was not
assured that the course would have been a wise one. Ned had never
fought in the school, but Tompkins' account of his fight on the
moor with Bill Swinton, and the courage he had shown in taking upon
himself the office of spokesman in the rebellion against Hathorn,
had given him a very high reputation among the boys; and in spite
of Mather's greater age and weight there were many who thought
that Ned Sankey would make a tough fight of it with the cock of