Vernon was now slumbering deeply; his soft childish curls
fell off his forehead, and his head nestled in the pillow; but there was
an expression of uneasiness on his sleeping features, and the long
eyelashes were still wet with tears.
"Poor child," thought Eric; "dear little Vernon; and he is to be
flogged, perhaps birched, to-morrow."
He went off sadly to bed, and hardly once remembered, that _he_ too
would come in for certain punishment the next day.
CHAPTER IV
MR. ROSE AND BRIGSON
"Raro antecedentem scelestum
Deseruit pede Poena claudo."--HOR.
After prayers the next morning Dr. Rowlands spoke to his boarders on the
previous day's discovery, and in a few forcible vivid words set before
them, the enormity of the offence. He ended by announcing that the boys
who were caught would be birched,--"except the elder ones, Bull and
Brigson, who will bring me one hundred lines every hour of the
half-holidays till further notice. There are some," he said, "I am well
aware, who, though present yesterday, were not detected.
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