How soon I again fell a victim to dawdling the sequel will show.
I had a long and painful struggle to recover my lost ground at Welford.
When a boy has once lost his name at school, when his masters have put him on the black book, when his schoolfellows have got to consider him as a "fellow in a row," when he himself has learnt to doubt his own honesty and steadiness--then, I say, it is uphill work for him to get back to the position from which he has fallen.

He gets little sympathy, and still less encouragement.

In addition to the natural difficulty of conquering bad habits, he has to contend against prejudices and obstacles raised by his own former conduct; no one gives him credit for his efforts, and no one recognises his reform till all of a sudden, perhaps long after its completion, it makes itself manifest.
And my reform, alas! consequently never arrived at completion at Welford.
For a few weeks all went well enough.

My lessons were carefully prepared; my exercises were well written, and my master had no more attentive pupil than I.

But, alas! I too soon again grew confident and self-satisfied.