The Channings | Page 3

scarcely
believe it. He rubbed his eyes, and looked, and rubbed again. Bywater
there! and without his surplice! braving, as it were, the head-master!
What could he possibly mean by this act of insubordination? Why was
he not in his place in the school? Why was he mixing with the
congregation? But Mr. Pye could as yet obtain no solution to the
mystery.
The anthem came to an end; the dean had bent his brow at the solo, but
it did no good; and, the prayers over, the sheriff's chaplain ascended to
the pulpit to preach the sermon. He selected his text from St. John's
Gospel: "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit." In the course of his sermon he pointed out that
the unhappy prisoners in the gaol, awaiting the summons to answer
before an earthly tribunal for the evil deeds they had committed, had
been led into their present miserable condition by the seductions of the
flesh. They had fallen into sin, he went on, by the indulgence of their
passions; they had placed no restraint upon their animal appetites and
guilty pleasures; they had sunk gradually into crime, and had now to
meet the penalty of the law. But did no blame, he asked, attach to those
who had remained indifferent to their downward course; who had never
stretched forth a friendly hand to rescue them from destruction; who
had made no effort to teach and guide in the ways of truth and
righteousness these outcasts of society? Were we, he demanded, at
liberty to ignore our responsibility by asking in the words of earth's first
criminal, "Am I my brother's keeper?" No; it was at once our duty and
our privilege to engage in the noble work of man's reformation--to raise
the fallen--to seek out the lost, and to restore the outcast; and this, he
argued, could only be accomplished by a widely-disseminated
knowledge of God's truth, by patient, self-denying labour in God's
work, and by a devout dependence on God's Holy Spirit.
At the conclusion of the service the head-master proceeded to the
vestry, where the minor canons, choristers, and lay-clerks kept their
surplices. Not the dean and chapter; they robed in the chapter-house:
and the king's scholars put on their surplices in the schoolroom. The
choristers followed Mr. Pye to the vestry, Bywater entering with them.
The boys grouped themselves together: they were expecting--to use

their own expression--a row.
"Bywater, what is the meaning of this conduct?" was the master's stern
demand.
"I had no surplice, sir," was Bywater's answer--a saucy-looking boy
with a red face, who had a propensity for getting into "rows," and,
consequently, into punishment.
"No surplice!" repeated Mr. Pye--for the like excuse had never been
offered by a college boy before. "What do you mean?"
"We were ordered to wear clean surplices this afternoon. I brought
mine to college this morning; I left it here in the vestry, and took the
dirty one home. Well, sir, when I came to put it on this afternoon, it
was gone."
"How could it have gone? Nonsense, sir! Who would touch your
surplice?"
"But I could not find it, sir," repeated Bywater. "The choristers know I
couldn't; and they left me hunting for it when they went into the hall to
receive the judges. I could not go into my stall, sir, and sing the anthem
without my surplice."
"Hurst had no business to sing it," was the vexed rejoinder of the
master. "You know your voice is gone, Hurst. You should have gone
up to the organist, stated the case, and had another anthem put up."
"But, sir, I was expecting Bywater in every minute. I thought he'd be
sure to find his surplice somewhere," was Hurst's defence. "And when
he did not come, and it grew too late to do anything, I thought it better
to take the anthem myself than to give it to a junior, who would be safe
to have made a mess of it. Better for the judges and other strangers to
hear a faded voice in Helstonleigh Cathedral, than to hear bad singing."
The master did not speak. So far, Hurst's argument had reason in it.
"And--I beg your pardon for what I am about to say, sir," Hurst went on:
"but I hope you will allow me to assure you beforehand, that neither I,
nor my juniors under me, have had a hand in this affair. Bywater has
just told me that the surplice is found, and how; and blame is sure to be
cast upon us; but I declare that not one of us has been in the mischief."
Mr. Pye opened his eyes. "What now?" he asked. "What is the
mischief?"
"I