Billy Bunter's Benefit By Frank Richards - Friardale

Billy Bunter’s Benefit
By Frank Richards
“Ha, ha, ha!” yelled the Co.
“And you pinched it, thinking it was my Latin paper!” exclaimed the captain
of the Remove. “You fat villain! You ought to be sacked!”
“Oh, really, Wharton—.”
“Did you think I could write verses like that, or any other man at
Greyfriars could, you benighted bander-snatch?”
“Oh! ” gasped Bunter again. “I—I suppose Stewart knew it was from
Virgil, when I showed it to him, and that’s why he thought it so jolly good.
Well, I didn’t know. How was a fellow to know? I thought it was your
paper, of course.”
“Ha, ha, ha!”
“And did you think it fair play to bag a prize with another fellow’s paper,
if it had been, you fat brigand?”
“Eh? You didn’t want it, as you were standing out! Why shouldn’t I?”
“Oh, crumbs!”
“I wasn’t going to waste it,” said Bunter. “I—I wish I had now, though,” he
added with a wriggle.
“Ha, ha, ha!”
“I’ve had an awful licking, and I shan’t get the prize now,” went on Bunter.
“It’s all your fault, leaving that tosh about the study, and making me think
it was your Latin paper. Now you’ve landed me fairly in the soup. I was
banking on that three guineas to pay Parker. I’ve only got four pounds
four left out of seven pounds seven—.”
“It’s growing smaller by degrees, and beautifully less,” remarked Bob
Cherry.
“Case of going—going—gone!” grinned Nugent.
“Ha, ha, ha!”
“Well, what’s a fellow to do?” demanded Bunter. “I’ve got to pay Parker
pretty soon, or he will be going to the Head. It’s up to you, Wharton,
after landing me as you’ve done.”
“You fat villain—.”
“It’s like you to call a fellow names, after letting him down like this,” said
Bunter, bitterly. “Look here, will you lend me the three guineas?”
“As a reward for pinching a paper from my study?”
“Oh, really, Wharton—.”
“You should keep your absurd hands from the pickfulness and the
stealfulness, my esteemed fat Bunter,” said Hurree Jamset Ram Singh,
with a shake of his dusky head. “Honesty is the cracked pitcher that goes
longest to the well, as the English proverb remarks.”
“Look here, you fellows, it’s up to you, after Wharton practically took me
in over that Latin paper!” exclaimed Bunter, warmly.
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