Take  my  word  for  it,  he'll  never  get  to  his  little  go."

"  It  will  be  a  great  pity,  then,"  said  Tom.
"  So  it  will.  But  after  all,  you  see,  what  does  it  matter  to
him  ?  He  gets  rusticated  ;  takes  his  name  off  with  a  flourish
of  trumpets — what  then  ?  He  falls  back  on-  £5000  a  year  in
land,  and  a  good  accumulation  in  consols ;  runs  abroad,  or
lives  in  town  for  a  year.  Takes  the  hounds  when  becomes  of
age,  or  is  singled  out  by  some  discerning  constituency,  and
sent  to  make  laws  for  his  country,  having  spent  the  whole  of
his  life  hitherto  in  breaking  all  the  laws  he  ever  came  under.
You  and  I,  perhaps,  go  fooling  about  with  him,  and  get  rusti-
cated. We  make  our  friends  miserable.  We  can't  take  our
names  off,  but  have  to  come  cringing  back  at  the  end  of  our  year
marked  men.  Keep  our  tails  between  our  legs  for  the  rest  of
our  time.  Lose  a  year  at  our  professions,  and  most  likely  have
the  slip  casting  up  against  us  in  one  way  or  anotherforthe  next
twenty  years.  It's  like  the  old  story  of  the  giant  and  the  dwarf,
or  like  fighting  a  sweep,  or  any  other  one-sided  business,"


126  TOM  BSOWK  AT   OXPOfiD.
"  But  I'd  sooner  have  to  .fight  my  own  way  in  the  world
after  all ;  wouldn't  you  ?  "  said  Tom.
