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Title: Tales of St. Austin’s
Author: P. G. Wodehouse
Release Date: November, 2004 [EBook #6980] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on February 19, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF ST. AUSTIN’S ***
This eBook was produced by Suzanne L. Shell, Charles Franks and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
TALES OF ST AUSTIN’S
by P. G. Wodehouse
1903
PREFACE
Most of these stories originally appeared in
[Dedication] AD MATREM
CONTENTS
1 How Pillingshot Scored
2 The Odd Trick
3 L’Affaire Uncle John (A Story in Letters)
4 Harrison’s Slight Error
5 Bradshaw’s Little Story
6 A Shocking Affair
7 The Babe and the Dragon
8 The Manoeuvres of Charteris
9 How Payne Bucked Up
10 Author!
11 ‘The Tabby Terror’
12 The Prize Poem
13 Work
14 Notes
15 Now, Talking About Cricket—
16 The Tom Brown Question
[1]
HOW PILLINGSHOT SCORED
Pillingshot was annoyed. He was disgusted, mortified; no other word for it. He had no objection, of course, to Mr Mellish saying that his work during the term, and especially his Livy, had been disgraceful. A master has the right to say that sort of thing if he likes. It is one of the perquisites of the position. But when he went on to observe, without a touch of shame, that there would be an examination in the Livy as far as they had gone in it on the following Saturday, Pillingshot felt that he exceeded. It was not playing the game. There were the examinations at the end of term. Those were fair enough. You knew exactly when they were coming, and could make your arrangements accordingly. But to spring an examination on you in the middle of the term out of a blue sky, as it were, was underhand and unsportsmanlike, and would not do at all. Pillingshot wished that he could put his foot down. He would have liked to have stalked up to Mr Mellish’s desk, fixed him with a blazing eye, and remarked, ‘Sir, withdraw that remark. Cancel that statement instantly, or—!’ or words to that effect.
What he did say was: ‘Oo, si-i-r!!’
‘Yes,’ said Mr Mellish, not troubling to conceal his triumph at Pillingshot’s reception of the news, ‘there will be a Livy examination next Saturday. And—’ (he almost intoned this last observation)—’anybody who does not get fifty per cent, Pillingshot, fifty per cent, will be severely punished. Very severely punished, Pillingshot.’
After which the lesson had proceeded on its course.
