nine in the morning
Ernest said no more ; he still felt that it was so discreditable to him to have allowed any confession to be wrung from him , that he could not press the promised amnesty for himself . It was during the `` Mother Cross row , '' as it was long styled among the boys , that a remarkable phenomenon was witnessed at Roughborough . I mean that of the head boys under certain conditions doing errands for their juniors . The head boys had no bounds and could go to Mrs Cross 's whenever they liked ; they actually , therefore , made themselves go-betweens , and would get anything from either Mrs Cross 's or Mrs Jones 's for any boy , no matter how low in the school , between the hours of a quarter to nine and nine in the morning , and a quarter to six and six in the afternoon . By degrees , however , the boys grew bolder , and the shops , though not openly declared in bounds again , were tacitly allowed to be so . I may spare the reader more details about my hero 's school days . He rose , always in spite of himself , into the Doctor 's form , and for the last two years or so of his time was among the praepostors , though he never rose into the upper half of them .