We all obeyed him implicity. The first Sunday was
"Cock-hat Sunday," the second "Rag Sunday," and the third (if I
may be pardoned) "Spit-in-the-pew Sunday." On the first Sunday we
all marched to church with our high hats at an extreme angle over
our left ears; on the second Sunday every boy had his handkerchief
trailing out of his pocket; on the third, I am sorry to say,
thirty-one little boys expectorated surreptitiously but
simultaneously in the pews, as the first words of the Litany were
repeated. I think that we were all convinced that these were
regularly appointed festivals of the Church of England. I know
that I was, and I spent hours hunting fruitlessly through my
Prayer Book to find some allusion to them. I found Sundays after
Epiphany, Sundays in Lent, and Sundays after Trinity, but not one
word could I discover, to my amazement, either about "Cock-hat
Sunday" or "Spit-in-the-pew Sunday." What can have been the origin
of this singular custom I cannot say. When I, in my turn, became
head-boy, I fixed "The Three Sundays" early in May. It so happened
that year that the Thursday after "Cock-hat Sunday" was Ascension
Day, when we also went to church, but, it being a week-day, we
wore our school caps in the place of high hats.
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