Billy Bunter's Benefit By Frank Richards - Friardale

Billy Bunter’s Benefit
By Frank Richards
and they really were more or less keen on a performance of Shakespeare.
A Shakespearean performance was rather ambitious for the Remove
Dramatic Society: and they were prepared to back up Wibley in making a
success of it. So there they were in No. I Study, sorting out their
scripts, with the intention of putting in the next hour mugging up their
parts. Judging by the specimen Bob Cherry had just delivered, some
mugging up was needed.
They had absolutely no use for William George Bunter at the moment, and
they all said “Scat” together as his fat face and glimmering spectacles
looked in at the study door.
Bunter, however, did not scat. He rolled in.
“We’re busy, Bunter,” Harry Wharton pointed out.
“Oh, really, Wharton—.”
“Travel!” said Johnny Bull.
“Oh, really, Bull—.”
“The superfluousness of the esteemed Bunter is terrific,” remarked
Hurree Jamset Ram Singh.
“It’s not a feed, Bunter,” explained Bob Cherry. “Nothing to interest you.
Run away and play.”
“And shut the door after you,” added Nugent.
Billy Bunter gave an impatient grunt, It was just like these fellows to be
thinking of their own affairs, when Bunter’s required attention.
“I say, you fellows, do let a fellow speak,” he exclaimed, irritably. “You’re
all jaw, like a sheep’s head! I’m going to have a new bike!”
“Good,” said Bob Cherry, “and good-bye!”
“I’ve wanted a new bike for a long time,” went on Bunter. “I had to walk to
Cliff House and back again yesterday. I could have cut over to-day after
class, to see whether that hamper’s come—I mean to see my sister
Bessie—if I had a bike! A chap needs a bike. I’ve explained that in my
letters home a lot of times, but the pater hardly ever answers my letters,
and when he does, he never mentions it.”
Bunter shook a fat head sorrowfully.
“Awfully good of you to tell us all about it,” said Bob. “Now go and tell
some other chaps. Where’s my script?”
“Oh, really, Cherry—.”
“How many thousands of my poorest subjects—is that where I begin,
Wharton?”
“Not unless we’re going to do Henry the Fourth instead of Hamlet,”
answered the Captain of the Remove.
“For goodness sake, chuck that rot for a bit,” said Bunter, peevishly. “I
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