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diff --git a/32224.txt b/32224.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6405f42 --- /dev/null +++ b/32224.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11424 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tom Brown's School Days, by Thomas Hughes + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Tom Brown's School Days + +Author: Thomas Hughes + +Release Date: May 2, 2010 [EBook #32224] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS *** + + + + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Emmy and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + +TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS. + +[Illustration: CHAIRING TOM IN THE QUADRANGLE. P. 358.] + + + + + +TOM BROWN'S + +SCHOOL DAYS + +BY AN OLD BOY + +[Illustration] + +With Illustrations by Arthur Hughes and Sydney Prior Hall + + New York + MACMILLAN AND CO. + 1880 + + + + + TO + + MRS. ARNOLD, + + OF FOX HOWE, + + THIS BOOK IS (WITHOUT HER PERMISSION) + + Dedicated + + BY THE AUTHOR, + + WHO OWES MORE THAN HE CAN EVER ACKNOWLEDGE OR FORGET + + TO HER AND HERS. + + + + +PREFACE + +TO THE SIXTH EDITION. + + +I RECEIVED the following letter from an old friend soon after the last +edition of this book was published, and resolved, if ever another +edition were called for, to print it. For it is clear from this and +other like comments, that something more should have been said expressly +on the subject of bullying, and how it is to be met. + + "MY DEAR ----, + + "I blame myself for not having earlier suggested + whether you could not, in another edition of Tom + Brown, or another story, denounce more decidedly + the evils of _bullying_ at schools. You have + indeed done so, and in the best way, by making + Flashman the bully the most contemptible + character; but in that scene of the _tossing_, and + similar passages, you hardly suggest that such + things should be stopped--and do not suggest any + means of putting an end to them. + + "This subject has been on my mind for years. It + fills me with grief and misery to think what weak + and nervous children go through at school--how + their health and character for life are destroyed + by rough and brutal treatment. + + "It was some comfort to be under the old delusion + that fear and nervousness can be cured by + violence, and that knocking about will turn a + timid boy into a bold one. But now we know well + enough that is not true. Gradually training a + timid child to do bold acts would be most + desirable; but _frightening_ him and ill-treating + him will not make him courageous. Every medical + man knows the fatal effects of terror, or + agitation, or excitement, to nerves that are + over-sensitive. There are different kinds of + courage, as you have shown in your character of + Arthur. + + "A boy may have moral courage, and a + finely-organized brain and nervous system. Such a + boy is calculated, if judiciously educated, to be + a great, wise, and useful man; but he may not + possess _animal courage_; and one night's + _tossing_, or bullying, may produce such an injury + to his brain and nerves that his usefulness is + spoiled for life. I verily believe that hundreds + of noble organizations are thus destroyed every + year. Horse-jockeys have learnt to be wiser; they + know that a highly nervous horse is utterly + destroyed by harshness. A groom who tried to cure + a shying horse by roughness and violence, would be + discharged as a brute and a fool. A man who would + regulate his watch with a crowbar would be + considered an ass. But the person who thinks a + child of delicate and nervous organization can be + made bold by bullying is no better. + + "He can be made bold by _healthy exercise_ and + _games_ and _sports_; but that is quite a + different thing. And even these games and sports + should bear some proportion to his strength and + capacities. + + "I very much doubt whether small children should + play with big ones--the rush of a set of great + fellows at football, or the speed of a + cricket-ball sent by a strong hitter, must be very + alarming to a mere child, to a child who might + stand up boldly enough among children of his own + size and height. + + "Look at half-a-dozen small children playing + cricket by themselves; how feeble are their blows, + how slowly they bowl. You can measure in that way + their capacity. + + "Tom Brown and his eleven were bold enough playing + against an eleven of about their own calibre; but + I suspect they would have been in a precious funk + if they had played against eleven giants, whose + bowling bore the same proportion to theirs that + theirs does to the small children's above. + + "To return to the _tossing_. I must say I think + some means might be devised to enable school-boys + to go to bed in quietness and peace--and that some + means ought to be devised and enforced. No good, + moral or physical, to those who bully or those who + are bullied, can ensue from such scenes as take + place in the dormitories of schools. I suspect + that British wisdom and ingenuity are sufficient + to discover a remedy for this evil, if directed in + the right direction. + + "The fact is, that the condition of a small boy at + a large school is one of peculiar hardship and + suffering. He is entirely at the mercy of + proverbially the roughest things in the + universe--great school-boys; and he is deprived of + the protection which the weak have in civilized + society; for he may not complain; if he does, he + is an outlaw--he has no protector but public + opinion, and that a public opinion of the very + lowest grade, the opinion of rude and ignorant + boys. + + "What do school-boys know of those deep questions + of moral and physical philosophy, of the anatomy + of mind and body, by which the treatment of a + child should be regulated? + + "Why should the laws of civilization be suspended + for schools? Why should boys be left to herd + together with no law but that of force or cunning? + What would become of society if it were + constituted on the same principles? It would be + plunged into anarchy in a week. + + "One of our judges, not long ago, refused to + extend the protection of the law to a child who + had been ill-treated at school. If a party of + navvies had given _him_ a licking, and he had + brought the case before a magistrate, what would + he have thought if the magistrate had refused to + protect him, on the ground that if such cases were + brought before him he might have fifty a-day from + one town only? + + "Now I agree with you that a constant supervision + of the master is not desirable or possible--and + that telling tales, or constantly referring to the + master for protection, would only produce ill-will + and worse treatment. + + "If I rightly understand your book, it is an + effort to improve the condition of schools by + improving the tone of morality and public opinion + in them. But your book contains the most + indubitable proofs that the condition of the + younger boys at public schools, except under the + rare dictatorship of an Old Brooke, is one of + great hardship and suffering. + + "A timid and nervous boy is from morning till + night in a state of bodily fear. He is constantly + tormented when trying to learn his lessons. His + play-hours are occupied in fagging, in a horrid + funk of cricket-balls and footballs, and the + violent sport of creatures who, to him, are + giants. He goes to his bed in fear and + trembling,--worse than the reality of the rough + treatment to which he is perhaps subjected. + + "I believe there is only one complete remedy. It + is not in magisterial supervision; nor in telling + tales; nor in raising the tone of public opinion + among school-boys--but in the _separation of boys_ + of _different ages into different schools_. + + "There should be at least _three_ different + classes of schools--the first for boys from nine + to twelve; the second for boys from twelve to + fifteen; the third for those above fifteen. And + these schools should be in different localities. + + "There ought to be a certain amount of supervision + by the master at those times when there are + special occasions for bullying, _e.g._ in the long + winter evenings, and when the boys are congregated + together in the bedrooms. Surely it cannot be an + impossibility to keep order, and protect the weak + at such times. Whatever evils might arise from + supervision, they could hardly be greater than + those produced by a system which divides boys into + despots and slaves. + + "Ever yours, very truly, + F.D." + +The question of how to adapt English public school education to nervous +and sensitive boys (often the highest and noblest subjects which that +education has to deal with) ought to be looked at from every point of +view.[A] I therefore add a few extracts from the letter of an old friend +and school-fellow, than whom no man in England is better able to speak +on the subject:-- + + "What's the use of sorting the boys by ages, + unless you do so by strength: and who are often + the real bullies? The strong young dog of + fourteen, while the victim may be one year or two + years older.... I deny the fact about the + bedrooms: there is trouble at times, and always + will be; but so there is in nurseries;--my little + girl, who looks like an angel, was bullying the + smallest twice to-day. + + "Bullying must be fought with in other ways,--by + getting not only the Sixth to put it down, but the + lower fellows to scorn it, and by eradicating + mercilessly the incorrigible; and a master who + really cares for his fellows is pretty sure to + know instinctively who in his house are likely to + be bullied, and, knowing a fellow to be really + victimised and harassed, I am sure that he can + stop it if he is resolved. There are many kinds of + annoyance--sometimes of real cutting persecution + for righteousness' sake--that he can't stop; no + more could all the ushers in the world; but he can + do very much in many ways to make the shafts of + the wicked pointless. + + "But though, for quite other reasons, I don't like + to see very young boys launched at a public + school, and though I don't deny (I wish I could) + the existence from time to time of bullying, I + deny its being a constant condition of school + life, and still more, the possibility of meeting + it by the means proposed...." + + "I don't wish to understate the amount of bullying + that goes on, but my conviction is that it must be + fought, like all school evils, but it more than + any, by _dynamics_ rather than _mechanics_, by + getting the fellows to respect themselves and one + another, rather than by sitting by them with a + thick stick." + +And now, having broken my resolution never to write a Preface, there are +just two or three things which I should like to say a word about. + +Several persons, for whose judgment I have the highest respect, while +saying very kind things about this book, have added, that the great +fault of it is, "too much preaching;" but they hope I shall amend in +this matter should I ever write again. Now this I most distinctly +decline to do. Why, my whole object in writing at all was to get the +chance of preaching! When a man comes to my time of life and has his +bread to make, and very little time to spare, is it likely that he will +spend almost the whole of his yearly vacation in writing a story just to +amuse people? I think not. At any rate, I wouldn't do so myself. + +The fact is, that I can scarcely ever call on one of my contemporaries +now-a-days without running across a boy already at school, or just ready +to go there, whose bright looks and supple limbs remind me of his +father, and out first meeting in old times. I can scarcely keep the +Latin Grammar out of my own house any longer; and the sight of sons, +nephews, and godsons, playing trap-bat-and-ball, and reading "Robinson +Crusoe," makes one ask oneself, whether there isn't something one would +like to say to them before they take their first plunge into the stream +of life, away from their own homes, or while they are yet shivering +after the first plunge. My sole object in writing was to preach to boys: +if ever I write again, it will be to preach to some other age. I can't +see that a man has any business to write at all unless he has something +which he thoroughly believes and wants to preach about. If he has this, +and the chance of delivering himself of it, let him by all means put it +in the shape in which it will be most likely to get a hearing; but let +him never be so carried away as to forget that preaching is his object. + +A black soldier, in a West Indian regiment, tied up to receive a couple +of dozen, for drunkenness, cried out to his captain, who was exhorting +him to sobriety in future, "Cap'n, if you preachee, preachee; and if +floggee, floggee; but no preachee and floggee too!" to which his captain +might have replied, "No, Pompey, I must preach whenever I see a chance +of being listened to, which I never did before; so now you must have it +all together; and I hope you may remember some of it." + +There is one point which has been made by several of the Reviewers who +have noticed this book, and it is one which, as I am writing a Preface, +I cannot pass over. They have stated that the Rugby undergraduates they +remember at the Universities were "a solemn array," "boys turned into +men before their time," "a semi-political, semi-sacerdotal fraternity," +&c., giving the idea that Arnold turned out a set of young square-toes, +who wore long-fingered black gloves and talked with a snuffle. I can +only say that their acquaintance must have been limited and exceptional. +For I am sure that every one who has had anything like large or +continuous knowledge of boys brought up at Rugby from the times of which +this book treats down to this day, will bear me out in saying, that the +mark by which you may know them, is, their genial and hearty freshness +and youthfulness of character. They lose nothing of the boy that is +worth keeping, but build up the man upon it. This is their _differentia_ +as Rugby boys; and if they never had it, or have lost it, it must be, +not because they were at Rugby, but in spite of their having been there; +the stronger it is in them the more deeply you may be sure have they +drunk of the spirit of their school. + +But this boyishness in the highest sense is not incompatible with +seriousness,--or earnestness, if you like the word better.[B] Quite the +contrary. And I can well believe that casual observers, who have never +been intimate with Rugby boys of the true stamp, but have met them only +in the every-day society of the Universities, at wines, +breakfast-parties, and the like, may have seen a good deal more of the +serious or earnest side of their characters than of any other. For the +more the boy was alive in them the less will they have been able to +conceal their thoughts, or their opinion of what was taking place under +their noses; and if the greater part of that didn't square with their +notions of what was right, very likely they showed pretty clearly that +it did not, at whatever risk of being taken for young prigs. They may be +open to the charge of having old heads on young shoulders; I think they +are, and always were, as long as I can remember; but so long as they +have young hearts to keep head and shoulders in order, I, for one, must +think this only a gain. + +And what gave Rugby boys this character, and has enabled the School, I +believe, to keep it to this day? I say fearlessly,--Arnold's teaching +and example--above all, that part of it which has been, I will not say +sneered at, but certainly not approved--his unwearied zeal in creating +"moral thoughtfulness" in every boy with whom he came into personal +contact. + +He certainly _did_ teach us--thank God for it!--that we could not cut +our life into slices and say, "In this slice your actions are +indifferent, and you needn't trouble your heads about them one way or +another; but in this slice mind what you are about, for they are +important"--a pretty muddle we should have been in had he done so. He +taught us that in this wonderful world, no boy or man can tell which of +his actions is indifferent and which not; that by a thoughtless word or +look we may lead astray a brother for whom Christ died. He taught us +that life is a whole, made up of actions and thoughts and longings, +great and small, noble and ignoble; therefore the only true wisdom for +boy or man is to bring the whole life into obedience to Him whose world +we live in, and who has purchased us with His blood; and that whether we +eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we are to do all in His name and to +His glory; in such teaching, faithfully, as it seems to me, following +that of Paul of Tarsus, who was in the habit of meaning what he said, +and who laid down this standard for every man and boy in his time. I +think it lies with those who say that such teaching will not do for us +now, to show why a teacher in the nineteenth century is to preach a +lower standard than one in the first. + +However, I won't say that the Reviewers have not a certain plausible +ground for their dicta. For a short time after a boy has taken up such a +life as Arnold would have urged upon him, he has a hard time of it. He +finds his judgment often at fault, his body and intellect running away +with him into all sorts of pitfalls, and himself coming down with a +crash. The more seriously he buckles to his work the oftener these +mischances seem to happen; and in the dust of his tumbles and struggles, +unless he is a very extraordinary boy, he may often be too severe on his +comrades, may think he sees evil in things innocent, may give offence +when he never meant it. At this stage of his career, I take it, our +Reviewer comes across him, and, not looking below the surface (as a +Reviewer ought to do), at once sets the poor boy down for a prig and a +Pharisee, when in all likelihood he is one of the humblest and truest +and most childlike of the Reviewer's acquaintance. + +But let our Reviewer come across him again in a year or two, when the +"thoughtful life" has become habitual to him, and fits him as easily as +his skin; and, if he be honest, I think he will see cause to reconsider +his judgment. For he will find the boy, grown into a man, enjoying +every-day life as no man can who has not found out whence comes the +capacity for enjoyment, and who is the Giver of the least of the good +things of this world--humble, as no man can be who has not proved his +own powerlessness to do right in the smallest act which he ever had to +do--tolerant, as no man can be who does not live daily and hourly in the +knowledge of how Perfect Love is for ever about his path, and bearing +with and upholding him. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[A] For those who believe with me in public school education, the fact +stated in the following extract from a note of Mr. G. De Bunsen, will be +hailed with pleasure, especially now that our alliance with Prussia (the +most natural and healthy European alliance for Protestant England) is +likely to be so much stronger and deeper than heretofore. Speaking of +this hook, he says,--"The author is mistaken in saying the public +schools, in the English sense, are peculiar to England. Schul Pforte (in +the Prussian province of Saxony) is similar in antiquity and +institutions. I like his book all the more for having been there for +five years." + +[B] "To him (Arnold) and his admirers we owe the substitution of the +word 'earnest' for its predecessor 'serious'"--_Edinburgh Review_, No. +217, p. 183. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PART I. + + CHAPTER I. + THE BROWN FAMILY 1 + + CHAPTER II. + THE VEAST 21 + + CHAPTER III. + SUNDRY WARS AND ALLIANCES 44 + + CHAPTER IV. + THE STAGE COACH 68 + + CHAPTER V. + RUGBY AND FOOTBALL 87 + + CHAPTER VI. + AFTER THE MATCH 112 + + CHAPTER VII. + SETTLING TO THE COLLAR 134 + + CHAPTER VIII. + THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE 158 + + CHAPTER IX. + A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS 184 + + + PART II. + + CHAPTER I. + HOW THE TIDE TURNED 213 + + CHAPTER II. + THE NEW BOY 228 + + CHAPTER III. + ARTHUR MAKES A FRIEND 245 + + CHAPTER IV. + THE BIRD-FANCIERS 262 + + CHAPTER V. + THE FIGHT 279 + + CHAPTER VI. + THE FEVER 300 + + CHAPTER VII. + HARRY EAST'S DILEMMAS AND DELIVERANCES 321 + + CHAPTER VIII. + TOM BROWN'S LAST MATCH 341 + + CHAPTER IX. + FINIS 367 + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. + + + PAGE + + THE NIGHT FAG 144 + + OLD THOMAS IN HIS DEN 155 + + TOM DISCOVERED BY VELVETEENS 202 + + CLIMBING THE FIR-TREE AFTER THE KESTREL'S NEST 268 + + THE DOCTOR'S COUNSEL TO YOUNG BROOKE 296 + + THE CONVERSATION DURING THE MATCH 351 + + CHAIRING TOM IN THE QUADRANGLE 366 + + + + +TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS. + +BY AN OLD BOY. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + "I'm the Poet of White Horse Vale, sir, + With liberal notions under my cap." + _Ballad._ + + +THE Browns have become illustrious by the pen of Thackeray and the +pencil of Doyle within the memory of the young gentlemen who are now +matriculating at the Universities. Notwithstanding the well-merited but +late fame which has now fallen upon them, any one at all acquainted with +the family must feel that much has yet to be written and said before the +British nation will be properly sensible of how much of its greatness +it owes to the Browns. For centuries, in their quiet, dogged, homespun +way, they have been subduing the earth in most English counties, and +leaving their mark in American forests and Australian uplands. Wherever +the fleets and armies of England have won renown, there stalwart sons of +the Browns have done yeoman's work. With the yew bow and cloth-yard +shaft at Cressy and Agincourt--with the brown bill and pike under the +brave Lord Willoughby--with culverin and demi-culverin against Spaniards +and Dutchmen--with hand-grenade and sabre, and musket and bayonet, under +Rodney and St. Vincent, Wolfe and Moore, Nelson and Wellington, they +have carried their lives in their hands; getting hard knocks and hard +work in plenty, which was on the whole what they looked for, and the +best thing for them; and little praise or pudding, which indeed they and +most of us are better without. Talbots and Stanleys, St. Maurs, and +such-like folk, have led armies, and made laws time out of mind; but +those noble families would be somewhat astounded--if the accounts ever +came to be fairly taken--to find how small their work for England has +been by the side of that of the Browns. + +These latter, indeed, have until the present generation rarely been sung +by poet, or chronicled by sage. They have wanted their "sacer vates," +having been too solid to rise to the top by themselves, and not having +been largely gifted with the talent of catching hold of, and holding on +tight to, whatever good things happened to be going,--the foundation of +the fortunes of so many noble families. But the world goes on its way, +and the wheel turns, and the wrongs of the Browns, like other wrongs, +seem in a fair way to get righted. And this present writer having for +many years of his life been a devout Brown-worshipper, and moreover +having the honour of being nearly connected with an eminently +respectable branch of the great Brown family, is anxious, so far as in +him lies, to help the wheel over, and throw his stone on to the pile. + +However, gentle reader, or simple reader, whichever you may be, lest you +should be led to waste your precious time upon these pages, I make so +bold as at once to tell you the sort of folk you'll have to meet and put +up with, if you and I are to jog on comfortably together. You shall hear +at once what sort of folk the Browns are, at least my branch of them; +and then if you don't like the sort, why, cut the concern at once, and +let you and I cry quits before either of us can grumble at the other. + +In the first place, the Browns are a fighting family. One may question +their wisdom, or wit, or beauty, but about their fight there can be no +question. Wherever hard knocks of any kind, visible or invisible, are +going, there the Brown who is nearest must shove in his carcase. And +these carcases for the most part answer very well to the characteristic +propensity; they are a square-headed and snake-necked generation, broad +in the shoulder, deep in the chest and thin in the flank, carrying no +lumber. Then for clanship, they are as bad as Highlanders; it is amazing +the belief they have in one another. With them there is nothing like the +Browns, to the third and fourth generation. "Blood is thicker than +water," is one of their pet sayings. They can't be happy unless they +are always meeting one another. Never were such people for family +gatherings, which, were you a stranger, or sensitive, you might think +had better not have been gathered together. For during the whole time of +their being together they luxuriate in telling one another their minds +on whatever subject turns up; and their minds are wonderfully +antagonist, and all their opinions are downright beliefs. Till you've +been among them some time and understand them, you can't think but that +they are quarrelling. Not a bit of it; they love and respect one another +ten times the more after a good set family arguing bout, and go back, +one to his curacy, another to his chambers, and another to his regiment, +freshened for work, and more than ever convinced that the Browns are the +height of company. + +This family training too, combined with their turn for combativeness, +makes them eminently quixotic. They can't let anything alone which they +think going wrong. They must speak their mind about it, annoying all +easy-going folk; and spend their time and money in having a tinker at +it, however hopeless the job. It is an impossibility to a Brown to leave +the most disreputable lame dog on the other side of a stile. Most other +folk get tired of such work. The old Browns, with red faces, white +whiskers, and bald heads, go on believing and fighting to a green old +age. They have always a crotchet going, till the old man with the scythe +reaps and garners them away for troublesome old boys as they are. + +And the most provoking thing is, that no failures knock them up or make +them hold their hands, or think you, or me, or other sane people in the +right. Failures slide off them like July rain off a duck's back +feathers. Jem and his whole family turn out bad, and cheat them one +week, and the next they are doing the same thing for Jack; and when he +goes to the treadmill, and his wife and children to the workhouse, they +will be on the look-out for Bill to take his place. + +However, it is time for us to get from the general to the particular; +so, leaving the great army of Browns, who are scattered over the whole +empire on which the sun never sets, and whose general diffusion I take +to be the chief cause of that empire's stability, let us at once fix our +attention upon the small nest of Browns in which our hero was hatched, +and which dwelt in that portion of the royal county of Berks which is +called the Vale of White Horse. + +Most of you have probably travelled down the Great Western Railway as +far as Swindon. Those of you who did so with their eyes open, have been +aware, soon after leaving the Didcot station, of a fine range of chalk +hills running parallel with the railway on the left-hand side as you go +down, and distant some two or three miles, more or less, from the line. +The highest point in the range is the White Horse Hill, which you come +in front of just before you stop at the Shrivenham station. If you love +English scenery, and have a few hours to spare, you can't do better, the +next time you pass, than stop at the Farringdon road or Shrivenham +station, and make your way to that highest point. And those who care for +the vague old stories that haunt country sides all about England, will +not, if they are wise, be content with only a few hours' stay; for, +glorious as the view is the neighbourhood is yet more interesting for +its relics of bygone times. I only know two English neighbourhoods +thoroughly, and in each, within a circle of five miles, there is enough +of interest and beauty to last any reasonable man his life. I believe +this to be the case almost throughout the country; but each has a +special attraction, and none can be richer than the one I am speaking of +and going to introduce you to very particularly; for on this subject I +must be prosy; so those that don't care for England in detail may skip +the chapter. + +O young England! young England! You who are born into these racing +railroad times, when there's a Great Exhibition, or some monster sight, +every year; and you can get over a couple of thousand miles of ground +for three pound ten, in a five weeks' holiday; why don't you know more +of your own birthplaces? You're all in the ends of the earth, it seems +to me, as soon as you get your necks out of the educational collar, for +midsummer holidays, long vacations, or what not. Going round Ireland, +with a return ticket, in a fortnight; dropping your copies of Tennyson +on the tops of Swiss mountains; or pulling down the Danube in Oxford +racing-boats. And when you get home for a quiet fortnight, you turn the +steam off, and lie on your backs in the paternal garden, surrounded by +the last batch of books from Mudie's library, and half bored to death. +Well, well! I know it has its good side. You all patter French more or +less, and perhaps German; you have seen men and cities, no doubt, and +have your opinions, such as they are, about schools of painting, high +art, and all that; have seen the pictures at Dresden and the Louvre, and +know the taste of sour krout. All I say is, you don't know your own +lanes and woods and fields. Though you may be chock-full of science, not +one in twenty of you knows where to find the wood-sorrel, or bee-orchis +which grows in the next wood or on the down three miles off, or what the +bog-bean and wood-sage are good for. And as for the country legends, the +stories of the old gable-ended farmhouses, the place where the last +skirmish was fought in the civil wars, where the parish butts stood, +where the last highwayman turned to bay, where the last ghost was laid +by the parson, they're gone out of date altogether. + +Now, in my time, when we got home by the old coach which put us down at +the cross-roads with our boxes, the first day of the holidays, and had +been driven off by the family coachman, singing "Dulce Domum" at the top +of our voices, there we were, fixtures, till black Monday came round. We +had to cut out our own amusements within a walk or ride of home. And so +we got to know all the country folk, and their ways and songs and +stories by heart; and went over the fields, and woods, and hills, again +and again, till we made friends of them all. We were Berkshire, or +Gloucestershire, or Yorkshire boys, and you're young cosmopolites, +belonging to all counties and no countries. No doubt it's all right--I +dare say it is. This is the day of large views and glorious humanity, +and all that; but I wish back-sword play hadn't gone out in the Vale of +White Horse, and that that confounded Great Western hadn't carried away +Alfred's Hill to make an embankment. + +But to return to the said Vale of White Horse, the country in which the +first scenes of this true and interesting story are laid. As I said, +the Great Western now runs right through it, and it is a land of large +rich pastures, bounded by fox-fences, and covered with fine hedgerow +timber, with here and there a nice little gorse or spinney, where +abideth poor Charley, having no other cover to which to betake himself +for miles and miles, when pushed out some fine November morning by the +Old Berkshire. Those who have been there, and well mounted, only know +how he and the stanch little pack who dash after him--heads high and +sterns low with a breast-high scent--can consume the ground at such +times. There being little plough-land and few woods, the vale is only an +average sporting country, except for hunting. The villages are +straggling, queer, old-fashioned places, the houses being dropped down +without the least regularity, in nooks and out-of-the-way corners by the +sides of shadowy lanes and footpaths, each with its patch of garden. +They are built chiefly of good grey stone, and thatched; though I see +that within the last year or two the red-brick cottages are multiplying, +for the vale is beginning to manufacture largely both brick and tiles. +There are lots of waste ground by the side of the roads in every +village, amounting often to village greens, where feed the pigs and +ganders of the people; and these roads are old-fashioned homely roads, +very dirty and badly made, and hardly endurable in winter, but still +pleasant jog-trot roads running through the great pasture lands, dotted +here and there with little clumps of thorns, where the sleek kine are +feeding, with no fence on either side of them, and a gate at the end of +each field, which makes you get out of your gig (if you keep one), and +gives you a chance of looking about you every quarter of a mile. + +One of the moralists whom we sat under in my youth,--was it the great +Richard Swiveller, or Mr. Stiggins?--says, "We are born in a vale, and +must take the consequences of being found in such a situation." These +consequences, I, for one, am ready to encounter. I pity people who +weren't born in a vale. I don't mean a flat country, but a vale--that +is, a flat country bounded by hills. The having your hill _always_ in +view, if you choose to turn towards him, that's the essence of a vale. +There he is for ever in the distance, your friend and companion; you +never lose him as you do in hilly districts. + +And then what a hill is the White Horse Hill! There stands right up +above all the rest, nine hundred feet above the sea, and the boldest, +bravest shape for a chalk hill that you ever saw. Let us go up to the +top of him, and see what is to be found there. Ay, you may well wonder +and think it odd you never heard of this before; but, wonder or not, as +you please, there are hundreds of such things lying about England, which +wiser folk than you know nothing of, and care nothing for. Yes, it's a +magnificent Roman camp, and no mistake, with gates, and ditch, and +mounds, all as complete as it was twenty years after the strong old +rogues left it. Here, right up on the highest point, from which they say +you can see eleven counties, they trenched round all the table-land, +some twelve or fourteen acres, as was their custom, for they couldn't +bear anybody to overlook them, and made their eyry. The ground falls +away rapidly on all sides. Was there ever such turf in the whole world? +You sink up to your ankles at every step, and yet the spring of it is +delicious. There is always a breeze in the "camp," as it is called; and +here it lies just as the Romans left it, except that cairn on the east +side left by her Majesty's corps of Sappers and Miners the other day, +when they and the Engineer officer had finished their sojourn there, and +their surveys for the Ordnance map of Berkshire. It is altogether a +place that you won't forget--a place to open a man's soul and make him +prophesy, as he looks down on that great Vale spread out as the garden +of the Lord before him, and wave on wave of the mysterious downs behind; +and to the right and left the chalk hills running away into the distance +along which he can trace for miles the old Roman road, "the Ridgeway" +("the Rudge," as the country folk call it), keeping straight along the +highest back of the hills;--such a place as Balak brought Balaam to, and +told him to prophesy against the people in the valley beneath. And he +could not, neither shall you, for they are a people of the Lord who +abide there. + +And now we leave the camp, and descend towards the west, and are on the +Ashdown. We are treading on heroes. It is sacred ground for Englishmen, +more sacred than all but one or two fields where their bones lie +whitening. For this is the actual place where our Alfred won his great +battle, the battle of Ashdown ("AEscendum" in the chroniclers), which +broke the Danish power, and made England a Christian land. The Danes +held the camp and the slope where we are standing--the whole crown of +the hill, in fact. "The heathen had beforehand seized the higher +ground," as old Asser says, having wasted everything behind them from +London, and being just ready to burst down on the fair vale, Alfred's +own birthplace and heritage. And up the heights came the Saxons, as they +did at the Alma. "The Christians led up their line from the lower +ground. There stood also on that same spot a single thorn-tree, +marvellous stumpy (which we ourselves with our very own eyes have +seen)." Bless the old chronicler! does he think nobody ever saw the +"single thorn-tree" but himself? Why, there it stands to this very day, +just on the edge of the slope, and I saw it not three weeks since; an +old single thorn-tree, "marvellous stumpy." At least if it isn't the +same tree, it ought to have been, for it's just in the place where the +battle must have been won or lost--"around which, as I was saying, the +two lines of foemen came together in battle with a huge shout. And in +this place, one of the two kings of the heathen, and five of his earls +fell down and died, and many thousands of the heathen side in the same +place."[C] After which crowning mercy, the pious king, that there might +never be wanting a sign and a memorial to the country side, carved out +on the northern side of the chalk hill, under the camp, where it is +almost precipitous, the great Saxon white horse, which he who will may +see from the railway, and which gives its name to the vale, over which +it has looked these thousand years and more. + +Right down below the White Horse is a curious deep and broad gulley +called "the Manger," into one side of which the hills fall with a series +of the most lovely sweeping curves, known as "the Giant's Stairs;" they +are not a bit like stairs, but I never saw anything like them anywhere +else, with their short green turf, and tender blue-bells, and gossamer +and thistle-down gleaming in the sun, and the sheep-paths running along +their sides like ruled lines. + +The other side of the Manger is formed by the Dragon's Hill, a curious +little round self-confident fellow, thrown forward from the range, and +utterly unlike everything round him. On this hill some deliverer of +mankind, St. George, the country folks used to tell me, killed a dragon. +Whether it were St. George, I cannot say; but surely a dragon was killed +there, for you may see the marks yet where his blood ran down, and more +by token the place where it ran down is the easiest way up the hillside. + +Passing along the Ridgeway to the west for about a mile, we come to a +little clump of young beech and firs, with a growth of thorn and privet +underwood. Here you may find nests of the strong down partridge and +peewit, but take care that the keeper isn't down upon you; and in the +middle of it is an old cromlech, a huge flat stone raised on seven or +eight others, and led up to by a path, with large single stones set up +on each side. This is Wayland Smith's cave, a place of classic fame now; +but as Sir Walter has touched it, I may as well let it alone, and refer +you to "Kenilworth" for the legend. + +The thick deep wood which you see in the hollow about a mile off, +surrounds Ashdown Park, built by Inigo Jones. Four broad alleys are cut +through the wood from circumference to centre, and each leads to one +face of the house. The mystery of the downs hangs about house and wood, +as they stand there alone, so unlike all around, with the green slopes +studded with great stones just about this part, stretching away on all +sides. It was a wise Lord Craven, I think, who pitched his tent there. + +Passing along the Ridgeway to the east, we soon come to cultivated land. +The downs, strictly so called, are no more; Lincolnshire farmers have +been imported, and the long fresh slopes are sheep-walks no more, but +grow famous turnips and barley. One of those improvers lives over there +at the "Seven Barrows" farm, another mystery of the great downs. There +are the barrows still, solemn and silent, like ships in the calm sea, +the sepulchres of some sons of men. But of whom? It is three miles from +the White Horse, too far for the slain of Ashdown to be buried +there--who shall say what heroes are waiting there? But we must get down +into the vale again, and so away by the Great Western Railway to town, +for time and the printer's devil press, and it is a terrible long and +slippery descent, and a shocking bad road. At the bottom, however, there +is a pleasant public, whereat we must really take a modest quencher, for +the down here is a provocative of thirst. So we pull up under an old oak +which stands before the door. + +"What is the name of your hill, landlord?" + +"Blawing STWUN Hill, sir, to be sure." + +[Reader. "_Sturm?_" + +AUTHOR. "_Stone_, stupid--the Blowing _Stone_."] + +"And of your house? I can't make out the sign." + +"Blawing Stwun, sir," says the landlord, pouring out his old ale from a +Toby-Philpot jug, with a melodious crash, into the long-necked glass. + +"What queer names!" say we, sighing at the end of our draught, and +holding out the glass to be replenished. + +"Be'an't queer at all, as I can see, sir," says mine host, handing back +our glass, "seeing as this here is the Blawing Stwun his self," putting +his hand on a square lump of stone some three feet and a half high, +perforated with two or three queer holes, like petrified antediluvian +rat-holes, which lies there close under the oak, under our very nose. We +are more than ever puzzled, and drink our second glass of ale wondering +what will come next. "Like to hear un, sir?" says mine host, setting +down Toby Philpot on the tray, and resting both hands on the "Stwun." We +are ready for anything; and he, without waiting for a reply, applies his +mouth to one of the rat-holes. Something must come of it, if he doesn't +burst. Good heavens! I hope he has no apoplectic tendencies. Yes, here +it comes, sure enough, a grewsome sound between a moan and a roar, and +spreads itself away over the valley, and up the hillside, and into the +woods at the back of the house--a ghost-like, awful voice. "Um do say, +sir," says mine host rising purple-faced, while the moan is still coming +out of the "Stwun," "as they used in old times to warn the country-side, +by blawing the stwun when the enemy was acomin'--and as how folks could +make un heered them for seven mile round; leastways, so I've heered +Lawyer Smith say, and he knows a smart sight about them old times." We +can hardly swallow Lawyer Smith's seven miles; but could the blowing of +the stone have been a summons, a sort of sending the fiery cross round +the neighbourhood in the old times? What old times? Who knows? We pay +for our beer, and are thankful. + +"And what's the name of the village just below, landlord?" + +"Kingstone Lisle, sir." + +"Fine plantations you've got 'ere?" + +"Yes, sir, the Squire's 'mazin' fond of trees and such like." + +"No wonder. He's got some real beauties to be fond of. Good day, +landlord." + +"Good day, sir, and a pleasant ride to 'e." + +And now, my boys, you whom I want to get for readers, have you had +enough? Will you give in at once, and say you're convinced, and let me +begin my story, or will you have more of it? Remember, I've only been +over a little bit of the hillside yet--what you could ride round easily +on your ponies in an hour. I'm only just come down into the vale, by +Blowing Stone Hill, and if I once begin about the vale, what's to stop +me? You'll have to hear all about Wantage, the birthplace of Alfred, and +Farringdon, which held out so long for Charles the First (the vale was +near Oxford, and dreadfully malignant; full of Throgmortons, Puseys, and +Pyes, and such like, and their brawny retainers). Did you ever read +Thomas Ingoldsby's "Legend of Hamilton Tighe?" If you haven't you ought +to have. Well, Farringdon is where he lived before he went to sea; his +real name was Hampden Pye, and the Pyes were the great folk at +Farringdon. Then there's Pusey, you've heard of the Pusey horn, which +King Canute gave to the Puseys of that day, and which the gallant old +squire, lately gone to his rest (whom Berkshire freeholders turned out +of last Parliament, to their eternal disgrace, for voting according to +his conscience), used to bring out on high days, holidays, and bonfire +nights. And the splendid old cross church at Uffington, the Uffingas +town;--the whole country-side teems with Saxon names and memories! And +the old moated grange at Compton, nestled close under the hillside, +where twenty Marianas may have lived, with its bright waterlilies in the +moat, and its yew walk, "the cloister walk," and its peerless terraced +gardens. There they all are, and twenty things besides; for those who +care about them, and have eyes. And these are the sort of things you may +find, I believe, every one of you, in any common English country +neighbourhood. + +Will you look for them under your own noses, or will you not? Well, +well; I've done what I can to make you, and if you will go gadding over +half Europe now every holidays, I can't help it. I was born and bred a +west-countryman, thank God! a Wessex man, a citizen of the noblest Saxon +kingdom of Wessex, a regular, "Angular Saxon," the very soul of me +"adscriptus glebe." There's nothing like the old country-side for me, +and no music like the twang of the real old Saxon tongue, as one gets it +fresh from the veritable chaw in the White Horse Vale: and I say with +"Gaarge Ridler," the old west-country yeoman, + + "Throo aall the waarld owld Gaarge would bwoast, + Commend me to merry owld England mwoast: + While vools gwoes prating vur and nigh, + We stwops at whum, my dog and I." + +Here at any rate lived and stopped at home, Squire Brown, J.P. for the +county of Berks, in a village near the foot of the White Horse range. +And here he dealt out justice and mercy in a rough way, and begat sons +and daughters, and hunted the fox, and grumbled at the badness of the +roads and the times. And his wife dealt out stockings, and calico +shirts, and smock frocks, and comforting drinks to the old folks with +the "rheumatiz." and good counsel to all; and kept the coal and clothes +clubs going, for yule tide; when the bands of mummers came round, +dressed out in ribbons and coloured paper caps, and stamped round the +Squire's kitchen, repeating in true sing-song vernacular the legend of +St. George and his fight, and the ten-pound Doctor, who plays his part +at healing the Saint--a relic, I believe, of the old middle-age +mysteries. It was the first dramatic representation which greeted the +eyes of little Tom, who was brought down into the kitchen by his nurse +to witness it, at the mature age of three years. Tom was the eldest +child of his parents, and from his earliest babyhood exhibited the +family characteristics in great strength. He was a hearty strong boy +from the first, given to fighting with and escaping from his nurse, and +fraternizing with all the village boys, with whom he made expeditions +all round the neighbourhood. And here in the quiet old-fashioned +country village, under the shadow of the everlasting hills, Tom Brown +was reared, and never left it till he went first to school when nearly +eight years of age,--for in those days change of air twice a year was +not thought absolutely necessary for the health of all Her Majesty's +lieges. + +I have been credibly informed, and am inclined to believe, that the +various Boards of Directors of Railway Companies, those gigantic jobbers +and bribers, while quarrelling about everything else, agreed together +some ten years back to buy up the learned profession of Medicine, body +and soul. To this end they set apart several millions of money, which +they continually distribute judiciously amongst the Doctors, stipulating +only this one thing, that they shall prescribe change of air to every +patient who can pay, or borrow money to pay, a railway fare, and see +their prescription carried out. If it be not for this, why is it that +none of us can be well at home for a year together? It wasn't so twenty +years ago,--not a bit of it. The Browns didn't go out of the county once +in five years. A visit to Reading or Abingdon twice a-year, at Assizes +or Quarter Sessions, which the Squire made on his horse with a pair of +saddle-bags containing his wardrobe--a stay of a day or two at some +country neighbour's--or an expedition to a county ball, or the yeomanry +review--made up the sum of the Brown locomotion in most years. A stray +Brown from some distant county dropped in every now and then; or from +Oxford, on grave nag, an old don, contemporary of the Squire; and were +looked upon by the Brown household and the villagers with the same sort +of feeling with which we now regard a man who has crossed the Rocky +Mountains, or launched a boat on the Great Lake in Central Africa. The +White Horse Vale, remember, was traversed by no great road; nothing but +country parish roads, and these very bad. Only one coach ran there, and +this one only from Wantage to London, so that the western part of the +Vale was without regular means of moving on, and certainly didn't seem +to want them. There was the canal, by the way, which supplied the +country side with coal, and up and down which continually went the long +barges, with the big black men lounging by the side of the horses along +the towing path, and the women in bright coloured handkerchiefs standing +in the sterns steering. Standing I say, but you could never see whether +they were standing or sitting, all but their heads and shoulders being +out of sight in the cozy little cabins which occupied some eight feet of +the stern, and which Tom Brown pictured to himself as the most desirable +of residences. His nurse told him that those good-natured-looking women +were in the constant habit of enticing children into the barges and +taking them up to London and selling them, which Tom wouldn't believe, +and which made him resolve as soon as possible to accept the +oft-proffered invitation of these sirens to "young Master," to come in +and have a ride. But as yet the nurse was too much for Tom. + +Yet why should I after all abuse the gadabout propensities of my +countrymen? We are a vagabond nation now; that's certain, for better for +worse. I am a vagabond; I have been away from home no less than five +distinct times in the last year. The Queen sets us the example--we are +moving on from top to bottom. Little dirty Jack, who abides in +Clement's Inn gateway, and blacks my boots for a penny, takes his +month's hop-picking every year as a matter of course. Why shouldn't he? +I'm delighted at it. I love vagabonds, only I prefer poor to rich +ones;--couriers and ladies' maids, imperials and travelling carriages, +are an abomination unto me--I cannot away with them. But for dirty Jack, +and every good fellow who, in the words of the capital French song, +moves about, + + "Comme le limacon, + Portant tout son bagage, + Ses meubles, sa maison," + +on his own back, why, good luck to them, and many a merry road-side +adventure, and steaming supper in the chimney corners of road-side inns, +Swiss chalets, Hottentot kraals, or wherever else they like to go. So +having succeeded in contradicting myself in my first chapter, (which +gives me great hopes that you will all go on, and think me a good fellow +notwithstanding my crotchet,) I shall here shut up for the present, and +consider my ways; having resolved to "sar' it out," as we say in the +Vale, "holus-bolus" just as it comes, and then you'll probably get the +truth out of me. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[C] "Pagani editiorem locum praeoccupaverant. Christiani ab inferiori +loco aciem dirigebant. Erat quoque in eodem loco unica spinosa arbor, +brevis admodum (quam nos ipsi nostris propriis oculis vidimus). Circa +quam ergo hostiles inter se acies cum ingenti clamore hostiliter +conveniunt. Quo in loco alter de duobus Paganorum regibus et quinque +comites occisi occubuerunt, et multa millia Paganae partis in eodem loco. +Cecidit illic ergo Boegsceg Rex, et Sidroc ille senex comes, et Sidroc +Junior comes, et Obsbern comes," &c.--_Annales Rerum Gestarum AElfredi +Magni, Auctore Asserio. Recensuit Franciscus Wise. Oxford_, 1722, p. 23. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE VEAST. + + + "And the King commandeth and forbiddeth, that from + henceforth neither fairs nor markets be kept in + Church-yards, for the honour of the + Church."--STATUTES: 13 _Edw. I._ Stat. II. cap. + VI. + + +AS that venerable and learned poet (whose voluminous works we all think +it the correct thing to admire and talk about, but don't read often), +most truly says, "the child is father to the man;" _a fortiori_, +therefore, he must be father to the boy. So, as we are going at any rate +to see Tom Brown through his boyhood, supposing we never get any +further, (which, if you show a proper sense of the value of this +history, there is no knowing but what we may,) let us have a look at the +life and environments of the child, in the quiet country village to +which we were introduced in the last chapter. + +Tom, as has been already said, was a robust and combative urchin, and at +the age of four began to struggle against the yoke and authority of his +nurse. That functionary was a good-hearted, tearful, scatter-brained +girl, lately taken by Tom's mother, Madam Brown, as she was called, from +the village school to be trained as nurserymaid. Madam Brown was a rare +trainer of servants, and spent herself freely in the profession; for +profession it was, and gave her more trouble by half than many people +take to earn a good income. Her servants were known and sought after for +miles round. Almost all the girls who attained a certain place in the +village school were taken by her, one or two at a time, as housemaids, +laundrymaids, nurserymaids, or kitchenmaids, and after a year or two's +drilling, were started in life amongst the neighbouring families, with +good principles and wardrobes. One of the results of this system was the +perpetual despair of Mrs. Brown's cook and own maid, who no sooner had a +notable girl made to their hands, than Missus was sure to find a good +place for her and send her off, taking in fresh importations from the +school. Another was, that the house was always full of young girls, with +clean shining faces; who broke plates and scorched linen, but made an +atmosphere of cheerful homely life about the place, good for every one +who came within its influence. Mrs. Brown loved young people, and in +fact human creatures in general, above plates and linen. They were more +like a lot of elder children than servants, and felt to her more as a +mother or aunt than as a mistress. + +Tom's nurse was one who took in her instruction very slowly,--she +seemed to have two left hands and no head; and so Mrs. Brown kept her on +longer than usual, that she might expend her awkwardness and +forgetfulness upon those who would not judge and punish her too strictly +for them. + +Charity Lamb was her name. It had been the immemorial habit of the +village, to christen children either by Bible names, or by those of the +cardinal and other virtues; so that one was for ever hearing in the +village street, or on the green, shrill sounds of, "Prudence! Prudence! +thee cum' out o' the gutter;" or, "Mercy! d'rat the girl, what bist thee +a doin' wi' little Faith?" and there were Ruths, Rachels, Keziahs, in +every corner. The same with the boys; they were Benjamins, Jacobs, +Noahs, Enochs. I suppose the custom has come down from Puritan +times--there it is at any rate, very strong still in the Vale. + +Well, from early morn till dewy eve, when she had it out of him in the +cold tub before putting him to bed, Charity and Tom were pitted against +one another. Physical power was as yet on the side of Charity, but she +hadn't a chance with him wherever head-work was wanted. This war of +independence began every morning before breakfast, when Charity escorted +her charge to a neighbouring farm-house which supplied the Browns, and +where, by his mother's wish, Master Tom went to drink whey, before +breakfast. Tom had no sort of objection to whey, but he had a decided +liking for curds, which were forbidden as unwholesome, and there was +seldom a morning that he did not manage to secure a handful of hard +curds, in defiance of Charity and of the farmer's wife. The latter good +soul was a gaunt angular woman, who with an old black bonnet on the top +of her head; the strings dangling about her shoulders, and her gown +tucked through her pocket-holes, went clattering about the dairy, +cheese-room, and yard, in high pattens. Charity was some sort of niece +of the old lady's, and was consequently free of the farm-house and +garden, into which she could not resist going for the purposes of gossip +and flirtation with the heir-apparent, who was a dawdling fellow, never +out at work as he ought to have been. The moment Charity had found her +cousin, or any other occupation, Tom would slip away; and in a minute +shrill cries would be heard from the dairy, "Charity, Charity, thee lazy +huzzy, where bist?" and Tom would break cover, hands and mouth full of +curds, and take refuge on the shaky surface of the great muck reservoir +in the middle of the yard, disturbing the repose of the great pigs. Here +he was in safety, as no grown person could follow without getting over +their knees; and the luckless Charity, while her aunt scolded her from +the dairy-door, for being "allus hankering about arter our Willum, +instead of minding Master Tom," would descend from threats to coaxing, +to lure Tom out of the muck, which was rising over his shoes and would +soon tell a tale on his stockings, for which she would be sure to catch +it from missus's maid. + +Tom had two abettors in the shape of a couple of old boys, Noah and +Benjamin by name, who defended him from Charity, and expended much time +upon his education. They were both of them retired servants of former +generations of the Browns. Noah Crooke was a keen dry old man of almost +ninety, but still able to totter about. He talked to Tom quite as if he +were one of his own family, and indeed had long completely identified +the Browns with himself. In some remote age he had been the attendant of +a Miss Brown, and had conveyed her about the country on a pillion. He +had a little round picture of the identical grey horse, caparisoned with +the identical pillion, before which he used to do a sort of fetish +worship, and abuse turnpike-roads and carriages. He wore an old +full-bottomed wig, the gift of some dandy old Brown whom he had valeted +in the middle of last century, which habiliment Master Tom looked upon +with considerable respect, not to say fear; and indeed his whole feeling +towards Noah was strongly tainted with awe; and when the old gentleman +was gathered to his fathers, Tom's lamentation over him was not +unaccompanied by a certain joy at having seen the last of the wig: "Poor +old Noah, dead and gone," said he, "Tom Brown so sorry! Put him in the +coffin, wig and all." + +But old Benjy was young Master's real delight and refuge. He was a youth +by the side of Noah, scarce seventy years old. A cheery, humorous, +kind-hearted old man, full of sixty years of Vale gossip, and of all +sorts of helpful ways for young and old, but above all for children. It +was he who bent the first pin, with which Tom extracted his first +stickleback out of "Pebbly Brook," the little stream which ran through +the village. The first stickleback was a splendid fellow, with fabulous +red and blue gills. Tom kept him in a small basin till the day of his +death, and became a fisherman from that day. Within a month from the +taking of the first stickleback, Benjy had carried off our hero to the +canal, in defiance of Charity, and between them, after a whole +afternoon's popjoying, they had caught three or four small coarse fish +and a perch, averaging perhaps two and a half ounces each, which Tom +bore home in rapture to his mother as a precious gift, and she received +like a true mother with equal rapture, instructing the cook +nevertheless, in a private interview, not to prepare the same for the +Squire's dinner. Charity had appealed against old Benjy in the meantime, +representing the dangers of the canal banks; but Mrs. Brown seeing the +boy's inaptitude for female guidance, had decided in Benjy's favour, and +from thenceforth the old man was Tom's dry nurse. And as they sat by the +canal watching their little green and white float, Benjy would instruct +him in the doings of deceased Browns. How his grandfather, in the early +days of the great war, when there was much distress and crime in the +Vale, and the magistrates had been threatened by the mob, had ridden in +with a big stick in his hand, and held the Petty Sessions by himself. +How his great uncle, the Rector, had encountered and laid the last +ghost, who had frightened the old women, male and female, of the parish +out of their senses, and who turned out to be the blacksmith's +apprentice, disguised in drink and a white sheet. It was Benjy too who +saddled Tom's first pony, and instructed him in the mysteries of +horsemanship, teaching him to throw his weight back and keep his hand +low; and who stood chuckling outside the door of the girls' school, when +Tom rode his little Shetland into the cottage and round the table, where +the old dame and her pupils were seated at their work. + +Benjy himself was come of a family distinguished in the Vale for their +prowess in all athletic games. Some half-dozen of his brothers and +kinsmen had gone to the wars, of whom only one had survived to come +home, with a small pension, and three bullets in different parts of his +body; he had shared Benjy's cottage till his death, and had left him his +old dragoon's sword and pistol, which hung over the mantelpiece, flanked +by a pair of heavy single-sticks with which Benjy himself had won renown +long ago as an old gamester, against the picked men of Wiltshire and +Somersetshire, in many a good bout at the revels and pastime of the +country-side. For he had been a famous back-sword man in his young days, +and a good wrestler at elbow and collar. + +Back-swording and wrestling were the most serious holiday pursuits of +the Vale--those by which men attained fame--and each village had its +champion. I suppose that on the whole, people were less worked then than +they are now; at any rate, they seemed to have more time and energy for +the old pastimes. The great times for back-swording came round once +a-year in each village, at the feast. The Vale "veasts" were not the +common statute feasts, but much more ancient business. They are +literally, so far as one can ascertain, feasts of the dedication, _i.e._ +they were first established in the churchyard on the day on which the +village church was opened for public worship, which was on the wake or +festival of the patron Saint, and have been held on the same day in +every year since that time. + +There was no longer any remembrance of why the "veast" had been +instituted, but nevertheless it had a pleasant and almost sacred +character of its own. For it was then that all the children of the +village, wherever they were scattered, tried to get home for a holiday +to visit their fathers and mothers and friends, bringing with them their +wages or some little gift from up the country for the old folk. Perhaps +for a day or two before, but at any rate on "veast day" and the day +after, in our village, you might see strapping healthy young men and +women from all parts of the country going round from house to house in +their best clothes, and finishing up with a call on Madam Brown, whom +they would consult as to putting out their earnings to the best +advantage, or how to expend the same best for the benefit of the old +folk. Every household, however poor, managed to raise a "feast-cake" and +bottle of ginger or raisin wine, which stood on the cottage table ready +for all comers, and not unlikely to make them remember feast time--for +feast-cake is very solid, and full of huge raisins. Moreover, feast-time +was the day of reconciliation for the parish. If Job Higgins and Noah +Freeman hadn't spoken for the last six months, their "old women" would +be sure to get it patched up by that day. And though there was a good +deal of drinking and low vice in the booths of an evening, it was pretty +well confined to those who would have been doing the like, "veast or no +veast," and on the whole, the effect was humanizing and Christian. In +fact, the only reason why this is not the case still, is that gentlefolk +and farmers have taken to other amusements, and have, as usual, +forgotten the poor. They don't attend the feasts themselves, and call +them disreputable, whereupon the steadiest of the poor leave them also, +and they become what they are called. Class amusements, be they for +dukes or plough-boys, always become nuisances and curses to a country. +The true charm of cricket and hunting is, that they are still more or +less sociable and universal; there's a place for every man who will come +and take his part. + +No one in the village enjoyed the approach of "veast day" more than Tom, +in the year in which he was taken under old Benjy's tutelage. The feast +was held in a large green field at the lower end of the village. The +road to Farringdon ran along one side of it, and the brook by the side +of the road; and above the brook was another large gentle sloping +pasture-land, with a footpath running down it from the churchyard; and +the old church, the originator of all the mirth, towered up with its +grey walls and lancet windows, overlooking and sanctioning the whole, +though its own share therein had been forgotten. At the point where the +footpath crossed the brook and road, and entered on the field where the +feast was held, was a long low road-side inn, and on the opposite side +of the field was a large white thatched farm-house, where dwelt an old +sporting farmer, a great promoter of the revels. + +Past the old church, and down the footpath, pottered the old man and the +child hand in hand early on the afternoon of the day before the feast, +and wandered all round the ground, which was already being occupied by +the "cheap Jacks," with their green covered carts and marvellous +assortment of wares, and the booths of more legitimate small traders +with their tempting arrays of fairings and eatables! and penny +peep-shows and other shows, containing pink-eyed ladies, and dwarfs, +and boa-constrictors, and wild Indians. But the object of most interest +to Benjy, and of course to his pupil also, was the stage of rough planks +some four feet high, which was being put up by the village carpenter for +the back-swording and wrestling; and after surveying the whole tenderly, +old Benjy led his charge away to the road-side inn, where he ordered a +glass of ale and a long pipe for himself, and discussed these unwonted +luxuries on the bench outside in the soft autumn evening with mine host, +another old servant of the Browns, and speculated with him on the +likelihood of a good show of old gamesters to contend for the morrow's +prizes, and told tales of the gallant bouts of forty years back, to +which Tom listened with all his ears and eyes. + +But who shall tell the joy of the next morning, when the church bells +were ringing a merry peal, and old Benjy appeared in the servants' hall, +resplendent in a long blue coat and brass buttons, and a pair of old +yellow buckskins and top-boots, which he had cleaned for and inherited +from Tom's grandfather; a stout thorn-stick in his hand, and a nosegay +of pinks and lavender in his button-hole, and led away Tom in his best +clothes, and two new shillings in his breeches-pockets? Those two, at +any rate, look like enjoying the day's revel. + +They quicken their pace when they get into the churchyard, for already +they see the field thronged with country folk, the men in clean white +smocks or velveteen or fustian coats, with rough plush waistcoats of +many colours, and the women in the beautiful long scarlet cloak, the +usual out-door dress of west-country women in those days, and which +often descended in families from mother to daughter, or in new-fashioned +stuff shawls, which, if they would but believe it, don't become them +half so well. The air resounds with the pipe and tabor, and the drums +and trumpets of the showmen shouting at the doors of their caravans, +over which tremendous pictures of the wonders to be seen within hang +temptingly; while through all rises the shrill "root-too-too-too" of Mr. +Punch, and the unceasing pan-pipe of his satellite. + +"Lawk a' massey, Mr. Benjamin," cries a stout motherly woman in a red +cloak, as they enter the field "be that you? Well I never! you do look +purely. And how's the Squire, and Madam, and the family?" + +Benjy graciously shakes hands with the speaker, who has left our village +for some years, but has come over for Veast-day on a visit to an old +gossip--and gently indicates the heir apparent of the Browns. + +"Bless his little heart! I must gi' un a kiss. Here Susannah, Susannah!" +cries she, raising herself from the embrace, "come and see Mr. Benjamin +and young Master Tom. You minds our Sukey, Mr. Benjamin, she be growed a +rare slip of a wench since you seen her, tho' her'll be sixteen come +Martinmas. I do aim to take her to see Madam to get her a place." + +And Sukey comes bouncing away from a knot of old school-fellows, and +drops a curtsey to Mr. Benjamin. And elders come up from all parts to +salute Benjy, and girls who have been Madam's pupils to kiss Master Tom. +And they carry him off to load him with fairings; and he returns to +Benjy, his hat and coat covered with ribands, and his pockets crammed +with wonderful boxes which open upon ever new boxes and boxes, and +popguns and trumpets, and apples, and gilt gingerbread from the stall of +Angel Heavens, sole vendor thereof, whose booth groans with kings and +queens, and elephants, and prancing steeds, all gleaming with gold. +There was more gold on Angel's cakes than there is ginger in those of +this degenerate age. Skilled diggers might yet make a fortune in the +churchyards of the Vale, by carefully washing the dust of the consumers +of Angel's gingerbread. Alas! he is with his namesakes, and his receipts +have, I fear, died with him. + +And then they inspect the penny peep-show, at least Tom does, while old +Benjy stands outside and gossips, and walks up the steps, and enters the +mysterious doors of the pink-eyed lady, and the Irish Giant, who do not +by any means come up to their pictures; and the boa will not swallow his +rabbit, but there the rabbit is waiting to be swallowed--and what can +you expect for tuppence? We are easily pleased in the Vale. Now there is +a rush of the crowd, and a tinkling bell is heard, and shouts of +laughter; and Master Tom mounts on Benjy's shoulders and beholds a +jingling match in all its glory. The games are begun, and this is the +opening of them. It is a quaint game, immensely amusing to look at, and +as I don't know whether it is used in your counties, I had better +describe it. A large roped ring is made, into which are introduced a +dozen or so of big boys and young men who mean to play; these are +carefully blinded and turned loose into the ring, and then a man is +introduced not blindfolded, with a bell hung round his neck, and his two +hands tied behind him. Of course every time he moves, the bell must +ring, as he has no hand to hold it, and so the dozen blindfolded men +have to catch him. This they cannot always manage if he is a lively +fellow, but half of them always rush into the arms of the other half, or +drive their heads together, or tumble over; and then the crowd laughs +vehemently, and invents nicknames for them on the spur of the moment, +and they, if they be choleric, tear off the handkerchiefs which blind +them, and not unfrequently pitch into one another, each thinking that +the other must have run against him on purpose. It is great fun to look +at a jingling-match certainly, and Tom shouts, and jumps on old Benjy's +shoulders at the sight, until the old man feels weary, and shifts him to +the strong young shoulders of the groom, who has just got down to the +fun. + +And now, while they are climbing the pole in another part of the field, +and muzzling in a flour-tub in another, the old farmer whose house, as +has been said, overlooks the field, and who is master of the revels, +gets up the steps on to the stage, and announces to all whom it may +concern that a half-sovereign in money will be forthcoming for the old +gamester who breaks most heads; to which the Squire and he have added a +new hat. + +The amount of the prize is sufficient to stimulate the men of the +immediate neighbourhood, but not enough to bring any very high talent +from a distance; so after a glance or two round, a tall fellow, who is a +down shepherd, chucks his hat on to the stage and climbs up the steps +looking rather sheepish. The crowd of course first cheer, and then chaff +as usual, as he picks up his hat and begins handling the sticks to see +which will suit him. + +"Wooy, Willum Smith, thee cans't plaay wi' he arra daay," says his +companion to the blacksmith's apprentice, a stout young fellow of +nineteen or twenty. Willum's sweetheart is in the "veast" somewhere, and +has strictly enjoined him not to get his head broke at back-swording, on +pain of her highest displeasure; but as she is not to be seen, (the +women pretend not to like to see the back-sword play, and keep away from +the stage,) and as his hat is decidedly getting old, he chucks it on to +the stage, and follows himself, hoping that he will only have to break +other people's heads, or that after all Rachel won't really mind. + +Then follows the greasy cap lined with fur of a half-gipsy, poaching, +loafing fellow, who travels the Vale not for much good, I fancy: + + "Full twenty times was Peter feared + For once that Peter was respected" + +in fact. And then three or four other hats, including the glossy castor +of Joe Willis, the self-elected and would-be champion of the +neighbourhood, a well-to-do young butcher of twenty-eight or +thereabouts, and a great strapping fellow, with his full allowance of +bluster. This is a capital show of gamesters, considering the amount of +the prize; so while they are picking their sticks and drawing their +lots, I think I must tell you, as shortly as I can, how the noble old +game of back-sword is played; for it is sadly gone out of late, even in +the Vale, and maybe you have never seen it. + +The weapon is a good stout ash-stick with a large basket handle, heavier +and somewhat shorter than a common single-stick. The players are called +"old gamesters"--why, I can't tell you,--and their object is simply to +break one another's heads: for the moment that blood runs an inch +anywhere above the eyebrow the old gamester to whom it belongs is +beaten, and has to stop. A very slight blow with the sticks will fetch +blood, so that it is by no means a punishing pastime, if the men don't +play on purpose, and savagely, at the body and arms of their +adversaries. The old gamester going into action only takes off his hat +and coat, and arms himself with a stick: he then loops the fingers of +his left hand in a handkerchief or strap which he fastens round his left +leg, measuring the length, so that when he draws it light with his left +elbow in the air, that elbow shall just reach as high as his crown. Thus +you see, so long as he chooses to keep his left elbow up, regardless of +cuts, he has a perfect guard for the left side of his head. Then he +advances his right hand above and in front of his head, holding his +stick across so that its point projects an inch or two over his left +elbow, and thus his whole head is completely guarded, and he faces his +man armed in like manner, and they stand some three feet apart, often +nearer, and feint, and strike, and return at one another's heads, until +one cries "hold," or blood flows; in the first case they are allowed a +minute's time, and go on again; in the latter, another pair of gamesters +are called on. If good men are playing, the quickness of the returns is +marvellous; you hear the rattle like that a boy makes drawing his stick +along palings, only heavier, and the closeness of the men in action to +one another gives it a strange interest and makes a spell at +back-swording a very noble sight. + +They are all suited now with sticks, and Joe Willis and the gipsy man +have drawn the first lot. So the rest lean against the rails of the +stage, and Joe and the dark man meet in the middle, the boards having +been strewed with sawdust; Joe's white shirt and spotless drab breeches +and boots contrasting with the gipsy's coarse blue shirt and dirty green +velveteen breeches and leather gaiters. Joe is evidently turning up his +nose at the other, and half insulted at having to break his head. + +The gipsy is a tough active fellow, but not very skilful with his +weapon, so that Joe's weight and strength tell in a minute; he is too +heavy metal for him: whack, whack, whack, come his blows, breaking down +the gipsy's guard, and threatening to reach his head every moment. There +it is at last--"Blood, blood!" shout the spectators, as a thin stream +oozes out slowly from the roots of his hair, and the umpire calls to +them to stop. The gipsy scowls at Joe under his brows in no pleasant +manner, while Master Joe swaggers about, and makes attitudes, and thinks +himself, and shows that he thinks himself, the greatest man in the +field. + +Then follow several stout sets-to between the other candidates for the +new hat, and at last come the shepherd and Willum Smith. This is the +crack set-to of the day. They are both in famous wind, and there is no +crying "hold;" the shepherd is an old hand and up to all the dodges; he +tries them one after another, and very nearly gets at Willum's head by +coming in near, and playing over his guard at the half-stick, but +somehow Willum blunders through, catching the stick on his shoulders, +neck, sides, every now and then, anywhere but on his head, and his +returns are heavy and straight, and he is the youngest gamester and a +favourite in the parish, and his gallant stand brings down shouts and +cheers, and the knowing ones think he'll win if he keeps steady, and Tom +on the groom's shoulder holds his hands together, and can hardly breathe +for excitement. + +Alas for Willum! his sweetheart getting tired of female companionship +has been hunting the booths to see where he can have got to, and now +catches sight of him on the stage in full combat. She flushes and turns +pale; her old aunt catches hold of her, saying, "Bless'ee, child, +doan't'ee go a'nigst it;" but she breaks away and runs towards the stage +calling his name. Willum keeps up his guard stoutly, but glances for a +moment towards the voice. No guard will do it, Willum, without the eye. +The shepherd steps round and strikes, and the point of his stick just +grazes Willum's forehead, fetching off the skin, and the blood flows, +and the umpire cries "Hold," and poor Willum's chance is up for the day. +But he takes it very well, and puts on his old hat and coat, and goes +down to be scolded by his sweetheart, and led away out of mischief. Tom +hears him say coaxingly, as he walks off-- + +"Now doan't'ee, Rachel! I wouldn't ha' done it, only I wanted summut to +buy'ee a fairing wi', and I be as vlush o' money as a twod o' veathers." + +"Thee mind what I tells'ee," rejoins Rachel saucily, "and doan't'ee kep +blethering about fairings." Tom resolves in his heart to give Willum the +remainder of his two shillings after the back-swording. + +Joe Willis has all the luck to-day. His next bout ends in an easy +victory, while the shepherd has a tough job to break his second head; +and when Joe and the shepherd meet, and the whole circle expect and hope +to see him get a broken crown, the shepherd slips in the first round and +falls against the rails, hurting himself so that the old farmer will not +let him go on, much as he wishes to try; and that impostor Joe (for he +is certainly not the best man) struts and swaggers about the stage the +conquering gamester, though he hasn't had five minutes really trying +play. + +Joe takes the new hat in his hand, and puts the money into it, and then +as if a thought strikes him and he doesn't think his victory quite +acknowledged down below, walks to each face of the stage, and looks +down, shaking the money, and chaffing, as how he'll stake hat and money +and another half-sovereign "agin any gamester as hasn't played already." +Cunning Joe! he thus gets rid of Willum and the shepherd, who is quite +fresh again. + +No one seems to like the offer, and the umpire is just coming down, when +a queer old hat, something like A Doctor of Divinity's shovel, is +chucked on to the stage, and an elderly quiet man steps out, who has +been watching the play, saying he should like to cross a stick wi' the +prodigalish young chap. + +The crowd cheer and begin to chaff Joe, who turns up his nose and +swaggers across to the sticks. "Imp'dent old wosbird!" says he, "I'll +break the bald head on un to the truth." + +The old boy is very bald certainly, and the blood will show fast enough +if you can touch him, Joe. + +He takes off his long flapped coat, and stands up in a long flapped +waistcoat, which Sir Roger de Coverley might have worn when it was new, +picks out a stick, and is ready for Master Joe, who loses no time, but +begins his old game, whack, whack, whack, trying to break down the old +man's guard by sheer strength. But it won't do,--he catches every blow +close by the basket, and though he is rather stiff in his returns, after +a minute walks Joe about the stage, and is clearly a staunch old +gamester. Joe now comes in, and making the most of his height, tries to +get over the old man's guard at half-stick, by which he takes a smart +blow in the ribs and another on the elbow and nothing more. And now he +loses wind and begins to puff, and the crowd laugh: "Cry 'hold,' +Joe--thee'st met thy match!" Instead of taking good advice and getting +his wind, Joe loses his temper, and strikes at the old man's body. + +"Blood, blood!" shout the crowd, "Joe's head's broke!" + +Who'd have thought it? How did it come? That body-blow left Joe's head +unguarded for a moment, and with one turn of the wrist the old gentleman +has nicked a neat little bit of skin off the middle of his forehead, and +though he won't believe it, and hammers on for three more blows despite +of the shouts, is then convinced by the blood trickling into his eye. +Poor Joe is sadly crestfallen, and fumbles in his pocket for the other +half-sovereign, but the old gamester won't have it. "Keep thy money, +man, and gi's thy hand," says he, and they shake hands; but the old +gamester gives the new hat to the shepherd, and, soon after, the +half-sovereign to Willum, who thereout decorates his sweetheart with +ribbons to his heart's content. + +"Who can a be?" "Wur do a cum from?" ask the crowd. And it soon flies +about that the old west-country champion, who played a tie with Shaw the +Life-guardsman at "Vizes" twenty years before, has broken Joe Willis's +crown for him. + +How my country fair is spinning out! I see I must skip the wrestling, +and the boys jumping in sacks, and rolling wheelbarrows blindfolded: and +the donkey-race, and the fight which arose thereout, marring the +otherwise peaceful "veast;" and the frightened scurrying away of the +female feast-goers, and descent of Squire Brown, summoned by the wife of +one of the combatants to stop it; which he wouldn't start to do till he +had got on his top-boots. Tom is carried away by old Benjy, dog-tired +and surfeited with pleasure, as the evening comes on and the dancing +begins in the booths; and though Willum and Rachel in her new ribbons +and many another good lad and lass don't come away just yet, but have a +good step out, and enjoy it, and get no harm thereby, yet we, being +sober folk, will just stroll away up through the churchyard, and by the +old yew-tree; and get a quiet dish of tea and a parle with our gossips, +as the steady ones of our village do, and so to bed. + +That's the fair true sketch, as far as it goes, of one of the larger +village feasts in the Vale of Berks, when I was a little boy. They are +much altered for the worse, I am told. I haven't been at one these +twenty years, but I have been at the statute fairs in some west-country +towns, where servants are hired, and greater abominations cannot be +found. What village feasts have come to, I fear, in many cases, may be +read in the pages of Yeast, (though I never saw one so bad--thank God!) + +Do you want to know why? It is because, as I said before, gentlefolk and +farmers have left off joining or taking an interest in them. They don't +either subscribe to the prizes, or go down and enjoy the fun. + +Is this a good or a bad sign? I hardly know. Bad, sure enough, if it +only arises from the further separation of classes consequent on twenty +years of buying cheap and selling dear, and its accompanying over-work; +or because our sons and daughters have their hearts in London Club-life, +or so-called Society, instead of in the old English home duties; because +farmers' sons are apeing fine gentlemen, and farmers' daughters caring +more to make bad foreign music than good English cheeses. Good, perhaps, +if it be that the time for the old "veast" has gone by, that it is no +longer the healthy sound expression of English country holiday-making; +that, in fact, we as a nation have got beyond it, and are in a +transition state, feeling for and soon likely to find some better +substitute. + +Only I have just got this to say before I quit the text. Don't let +reformers of any sort think that they are going really to lay hold of +the working boys and young men of England by any educational grapnel +whatever, which hasn't some _bona fide_ equivalent for the games of the +old country "veast" in it; something to put in the place of the +back-swording and wrestling and racing; something to try the muscles of +men's bodies, and the endurance of their hearts, and to make them +rejoice in their strength. In all the new-fangled comprehensive plans +which I see, this is all left out: and the consequence is, that your +great Mechanics' Institutes end in intellectual priggism, and your +Christian Young Men's Societies in religious Pharisaism. + +Well, well, we must bide our time. Life isn't all beer and +skittles,--but beer and skittles, or something better of the same sort, +must form a good part of every Englishman's education. If I could only +drive this into the heads of you rising Parliamentary Lords, and young +swells who "have your ways made for you," as the saying is,--you, who +frequent palaver houses and West-end clubs, waiting always ready to +strap yourselves on to the back of poor dear old John, as soon as the +present used-up lot (your fathers and uncles), who sit there on the +great Parliamentary-majorities' pack-saddle, and make belief they're +guiding him with their red-tape bridle, tumble, or have to be lifted +off! + +I don't think much of you yet--I wish I could; though you do go talking +and lecturing up and down the country to crowded audiences, and are busy +with all sorts of philanthropic intellectualism, and circulating +libraries and museums, and Heaven only knows what besides; and try to +make us think, through newspaper reports, that you are, even as we, of +the working classes. But, bless your hearts, we "ain't so green," though +lots of us of all sorts toady you enough certainly, and try to make you +think so. + +I'll tell you what to do now: instead of all this trumpeting and fuss, +which is only the old Parliamentary-majority dodge over again--just you +go each of you (you've plenty of time for it, if you'll only give up +t'other line,) and quietly make three or four friends, real friends, +among us. You'll find a little trouble in getting at the right sort, +because such birds don't come lightly to your lure--but found they may +be. Take, say, two out of the professions, lawyer, parson, doctor--which +you will; one out of trade, and three or four out of the working +classes--tailors, engineers, carpenters, engravers,--there's plenty of +choice. Let them be men of your own ages, mind, and ask them to your +homes; introduce them to your wives and sisters, and get introduced to +theirs: give them good dinners, and talk to them about what is really at +the bottom of your heart, and box, and run, and row with them, when you +have a chance. Do all this honestly as man to man, and by the time you +come to ride old John, you'll be able to do something more than sit on +his back, and may feel his mouth with some stronger bridle than a red +tape one. + +Ah, if you only would! But you have got too far out of the right rut, I +fear. Too much over-civilization, and the deceitfulness of riches. It is +easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. More's the pity. I +never came across but two of you, who could value a man wholly and +solely for what was in him; who thought themselves verily and indeed of +the same flesh and blood as John Jones the attorney's clerk, and Bill +Smith the costermonger, and could act as if they thought so. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +SUNDRY WARS AND ALLIANCES. + + +POOR old Benjy! the "rheumatiz" has much to answer for all through +English country sides, but it never played a scurvier trick than in +laying thee by the heels, when thou wast yet in a green old age. The +enemy, which had long been carrying on a sort of border warfare, and +trying his strength against Benjy's on the battle-field, of his hands +and legs, now, mustering all his forces began laying siege to the +citadel, and overrunning the whole country. Benjy was seized in the back +and loins; and though he made strong and brave fight, it was soon clear +enough that all which could be beaten of poor old Benjy would have to +give in before long. + +It was as much as he could do now, with the help of his big stick and +frequent stops, to hobble down to the canal with Master Tom, and bait +his hook for him, and sit and watch his angling, telling him quaint old +country stories; and when Tom had no sport, and detecting a rat some +hundred yards or so off along the bank, would rush off with Toby the +turnspit terrier, his other faithful companion, in bootless pursuit, he +might have tumbled in and been drowned twenty times over before Benjy +could have got near him. + +Cheery and unmindful of himself as Benjy was, this loss of locomotive +power bothered him greatly. He had got a new object in his old age, and +was just beginning to think himself useful again in the world. He feared +much too lest Master Tom should fall back again into the hands of +Charity and the women. So he tried everything he could think of to get +set up. He even went an expedition to the dwelling of one of those queer +mortals, who--say what we will, and reason how we will--do cure simple +people of diseases of one kind or another without the aid of physic; and +so get to themselves the reputation of using charms, and inspire for +themselves and their dwellings great respect, not to say fear, amongst a +simple folk such as the dwellers in the Vale of White Horse. Where this +power, or whatever else it may be, descends upon the shoulders of a man +whose ways are not straight, he becomes a nuisance to the neighbourhood; +a receiver of stolen goods, giver of love-potions, and deceiver of silly +women; the avowed enemy of law and order, of justices of the peace, +headboroughs, and gamekeepers. Such a man in fact as was recently caught +tripping, and deservedly dealt with by the Leeds justices, for seducing +a girl who had come to him to get back a faithless lover, and has been +convicted of bigamy since then. Sometimes, however, they are of quite a +different stamp, men who pretend to nothing, and are with difficulty +persuaded to exercise their occult arts in the simplest cases. + +Of this latter sort was old farmer Ives, as he was called, the "wise +man" to whom Benjy resorted (taking Tom with him as usual), in the early +spring of the year next after the feast described in the last chapter. +Why he was called "farmer" I cannot say, unless it be that he was the +owner of a cow, a pig or two, and some poultry, which he maintained on +about an acre of land enclosed from the middle of a wild common, on +which probably his father had squatted before lords of manors looked as +keenly after their rights as they do now. Here he had lived no one knew +how long, a solitary man. It was often rumoured that he was to be turned +out and his cottage pulled down, but somehow it never came to pass; and +his pigs and cow went grazing on the common, and his geese hissed at the +passing children and at the heels of the horse of my lord's steward, who +often rode by with a covetous eye on the enclosure, still unmolested. +His dwelling was some miles from our village; so Benjy, who was half +ashamed of his errand, and wholly unable to walk there, had to exercise +much ingenuity to get the means of transporting himself and Tom thither +without exciting suspicion. However, one fine May morning he managed to +borrow the old blind pony of our friend the publican, and Tom persuaded +Madam Brown to give him a holiday to spend with old Benjy, and to lend +them the Squire's light cart, stored with bread and cold meat and a +bottle of ale. And so the two in high glee started behind old Dobbin, +and jogged along the deep-rutted plashy roads, which had not been mended +after their winter's wear, towards the dwelling of the wizard. About +noon they passed the gate which opened on to the large common, and old +Dobbin toiled slowly up the hill, while Benjy pointed out a little deep +dingle on the left, out of which welled a tiny stream. As they crept up +the hill the tops of a few birch-trees came in sight, and blue smoke +curling up through their delicate light boughs; and then the little +white thatched home and patch of enclosed ground of farmer Ives, lying +cradled in the dingle, with the gay gorse common rising behind and on +both sides; while in front, after traversing a gentle slope, the eye +might travel for miles and miles over the rich vale. They now left the +main road and struck into a green tract over the common marked lightly +with wheel and horse-shoe, which led down into the dingle and stopped at +the rough gate of farmer Ives. Here they found the farmer, an iron-grey +old man, with a bushy eyebrow and strong aquiline nose, busied in one of +his vocations. He was a horse and cow doctor, and was tending a sick +beast which had been sent up to be cured. Benjy hailed him as an old +friend, and he returned the greeting cordially enough, looking however +hard for a moment both at Benjy and Tom, to see whether there was more +in their visit than appeared at first sight. It was a work of some +difficulty and danger for Benjy to reach the ground, which however he +managed to do without mishap; and then he devoted himself to +unharnessing Dobbin, and turning him out for a graze ("a run" one could +not say of that virtuous steed) on the common. This done, he extricated +the cold provisions from the cart, and they entered the farmer's wicket; +and he, shutting up the knife with which he was taking maggots out of +the cow's back and sides, accompanied them towards the cottage. A big +old lurcher got up slowly from the door-stone, stretching first one hind +leg and then the other, and taking Tom's caresses and the presence of +Toby, who kept however at a respectful distance, with equal +indifference. + +"Us be cum to pay'e a visit. I've a been long minded to do't for old +sake's sake, only I vinds I dwont get about now as I'd use to't. I be so +plaguy bad wi' th' rumatiz in my back." Benjy paused, in hopes of +drawing the farmer at once on the subject of his ailment without further +direct application. + +"Ah, I see as you bean't quite so lissom as you was," replied the farmer +with a grim smile, as he lifted the latch of his door; "we bean't so +young as we was, nother on us, wuss luck." + +The farmer's cottage was very like those of the better class of +peasantry in general. A snug chimney corner with two seats, and a small +carpet on the hearth, an old flint gun and a pair of spurs over the +fireplace, a dresser with shelves on which some bright pewter plates and +crockeryware were arranged, an old walnut table, a few chairs and +settles, some framed samplers, and an old print or two, and a bookcase +with some dozen volumes on the walls, a rack with flitches of bacon, and +other stores fastened to the ceiling, and you have the best part of the +furniture. No sign of occult art is to be seen, unless the bundles of +dried herbs hanging to the rack and in the ingle, and the row of +labelled phials on one of the shelves, betoken it. + +Tom played about with some kittens who occupied the hearth, and with a +goat who walked demurely in at the open door, while their host and Benjy +spread the table for dinner--and was soon engaged in conflict with the +cold meat, to which he did much honour. The two old men's talk was of +old comrades and their deeds, mute inglorious Miltons of the Vale, and +of the doings thirty years back--which didn't interest him much, except +when they spoke of the making of the canal, and then indeed he began to +listen with all his ears, and learned to his no small wonder that his +dear and wonderful canal had not been there always--was not in fact so +old as Benjy or farmer Ives, which caused a strange commotion in his +small brain. + +After dinner Benjy called attention to a wart which Tom had on the +knuckles of his hand, and which the family doctor had been trying his +skill on without success, and begged the farmer to charm it away. Farmer +Ives looked at it, muttered something or another over it, and cut some +notches in a short stick, which he handed to Benjy, giving him +instructions for cutting it down on certain days, and cautioning Tom not +to meddle with the wart for a fortnight. And then they strolled out and +sat on a bench in the sun with their pipes, and the pigs came up and +grunted sociably and let Tom scratch them; and the farmer, seeing how he +liked animals, stood up and held his arms in the air and gave a call, +which brought a flock of pigeons wheeling and dashing through the +birch-trees. They settled down in clusters on the farmer's arms and +shoulders, making love to him and scrambling over one another's backs to +get to his face; and then he threw them all off, and they fluttered +about close by, and lighted on him again and again when he held up his +arms. All the creatures about the place were clean and fearless, quite +unlike their relations elsewhere; and Tom begged to be taught how to +make all the pigs and cows and poultry in our village tame, at which the +farmer only gave one of his grim chuckles. + +It wasn't till they were just ready to go, and old Dobbin was harnessed, +that Benjy broached the subject of his rheumatism again, detailing his +symptoms one by one. Poor old boy! He hoped the farmer could charm it +away as easily as he could Tom's wart, and was ready with equal faith to +put another notched stick into his other pocket, for the cure of his own +ailments. The physician shook his head, but nevertheless produced a +bottle and handed it to Benjy with instructions for use. "Not as 't'll +do'e much good--leastways I be afeared not," shading his eyes with his +hand and looking up at them in the cart; "there's only one thing as I +knows on, as'll cure old folks like you and I o' th' rhumatis." + +"Wot be that then, farmer?" inquired Benjy. + +"Churchyard mould," said the old iron-grey man, with another chuckle. +And so they said their good-byes and went their ways home. Tom's wart +was gone in a fortnight, but not so Benjy's rheumatism, which laid him +by the heels more and more. And though Tom still spent many an hour with +him, as he sat on a bench in the sunshine, or by the chimney corner when +it was cold, he soon had to seek elsewhere for his regular companions. + +Tom had been accustomed often to accompany his mother in her visits to +the cottages, and had thereby made acquaintance with many of the village +boys of his own age. There was Job Rudkin, son of widow Rudkin, the most +bustling woman in the parish. How she could ever have had such a stolid +boy as Job for a child must always remain a mystery. The first time Tom +went to their cottage with his mother Job was not in-doors, but he +entered soon after, and stood with both hands in his pockets staring at +Tom. Widow Rudkin who would have had to cross Madam to get at young +Hopeful--a breach of good manners of which she was wholly +incapable--began a series of pantomime signs, which only puzzled him, +and at last, unable to contain herself longer, burst out with, "Job! +Job! where's thy cap?" + +"What! beant'e on ma' head, mother?" replied Job, slowly extricating one +hand from a pocket and feeling for the article in question; which he +found on his head sure enough, and left there, to his mother's horror +and Tom's great delight. + +Then there was poor Jacob Dodson, the half-witted boy, who ambled about +cheerfully, undertaking messages and little helpful odds and ends for +every one, which, however, poor Jacob managed always hopelessly to +embrangle. Everything came to pieces in his hands, and nothing would +stop in his head. They nicknamed him Jacob Doodle-calf. + +But, above all there was Harry Winburn, the quickest and best boy in the +parish. He might be a year older than Tom, but was very little bigger, +and he was the Crichton of our village boys. He could wrestle and climb +and run better than all the rest, and learned all that the schoolmaster +could teach him faster than that worthy at all liked. He was a boy to be +proud of, with his curly brown hair, keen grey eye, straight active +figure, and little ears and hands and feet, "as fine as a lord's," as +Charity remarked to Tom one day, talking as usual great nonsense. Lords' +hands and ears and feet are just as ugly as other folks' when they are +children, as any one may convince themselves if they like to look. Tight +boots and gloves, and doing nothing with them, I allow make a difference +by the time they are twenty. + +Now that Benjy was laid on the shelf, and his young brothers were still +under petticoat government, Tom, in search of companions, began to +cultivate the village boys generally more and more. Squire Brown, be it +said, was a true blue Tory to the backbone, and believed honestly that +the powers which be were ordained of God, and that loyalty and steadfast +obedience were men's first duties. Whether it were in consequence or in +spite of his political creed, I do not mean to give an opinion, though I +have one; but certain it is, that he held therewith divers social +principles not generally supposed to be true blue in colour. Foremost of +these, and the one which the Squire loved to propound above all others, +was the belief that a man is to be valued wholly and solely for that +which he is in himself, for that which stands up in the four fleshly +walls of him, apart from clothes, rank, fortune, and all externals +whatsoever. Which belief I take to be a wholesome corrective of all +political opinions, and, if held sincerely, to make all opinions equally +harmless, whether they be blue, red, or green. As a necessary corollary +to this belief, Squire Brown held further that it didn't matter a straw +whether his son associated with lords' sons, or ploughmen's sons, +provided they were brave and honest. He himself had played football and +gone birds'-nesting with the farmers whom he met at vestry and the +labourers who tilled their fields, and so had his father and grandfather +with their progenitors. So he encouraged Tom in his intimacy with the +boys of the village, and forwarded it by all means in his power, and +gave them the run of a close for a playground, and provided bats and +balls and a football for their sports. + +Our village was blessed amongst other things with a well-endowed school. +The building stood by itself, apart from the master's house, on an angle +of ground where three roads met; an old grey stone building with a steep +roof and mullioned windows. On one of the opposite angles stood Squire +Brown's stables and kennel, with their backs to the road, over which +towered a great elm-tree; on the third stood the village carpenter and +wheelwright's large open shop, and his house and the schoolmaster's, +with long low eaves under which the swallows built by scores. + +The moment Tom's lessons were over, he would now get him down to this +corner by the stables, and watch till the boys came out of school. He +prevailed on the groom to cut notches for him in the bark of the elm, so +that he could climb into the lower branches, and there he would sit +watching the school door, and speculating on the possibility of turning +the elm into a dwelling-place for himself and friends after the manner +of the Swiss Family Robinson. But the school hours were long and Tom's +patience short, so that soon he began to descend into the street, and go +and peep in at the school door and the wheelwright's shop, and look out +for something to while away the time. Now the wheelwright was a choleric +man, and, one fine afternoon, returning from a short absence, found Tom +occupied with one of his pet adzes, the edge of which was fast vanishing +under our hero's care. A speedy flight saved Tom from all but one sound +cuff on the ears, but he resented this unjustifiable interruption of his +first essays at carpentering, and still more the further proceedings of +the wheelwright, who cut a switch and hung it over the door of his +workshop, threatening to use it upon Tom if he came within twenty yards +of his gate. So Tom, to retaliate, commenced a war upon the swallows who +dwelt under the wheelwright's eaves, whom he harassed with sticks and +stones, and being fleeter of foot than his enemy, escaped all punishment +and kept him in perpetual anger. Moreover his presence about the school +door began to incense the master, as the boys in that neighbourhood +neglected their lessons in consequence: and more than once he issued +into the porch, rod in hand, just as Tom beat a hasty retreat. And he +and the wheelwright, laying their heads together, resolved to acquaint +the Squire with Tom's afternoon occupations; but in order to do it with +effect, determined to take him captive and lead him away to judgment +fresh from his evil doings. This they would have found some difficulty +in doing, had Tom continued the war single-handed, or rather +single-footed, for he would have taken to the deepest part of Pebbly +Brook to escape them; but, like other active powers, he was ruined by +his alliances. Poor Jacob Doodle-calf could not go to school with the +other boys, and one fine afternoon, about three o'clock (the school +broke up at four), Tom found him ambling about the street, and pressed +him into a visit to the school porch. Jacob, always ready to do what he +was asked, consented, and the two stole down to the school together. Tom +first reconnoitred the wheelwright's shop, and seeing no signs of +activity, thought all safe in that quarter, and ordered at once an +advance of all his troops upon the school porch. The door of the school +was ajar, and the boys seated on the nearest bench at once recognised +and opened a correspondence with the invaders. Tom waxing bold, kept +putting his head into the school and making faces at the master when his +back was turned. Poor Jacob, not in the least comprehending the +situation, and in high glee at finding himself so near the school, which +he had never been allowed to enter, suddenly, in a fit of enthusiasm, +pushed by Tom, and ambling three steps into the school, stood there, +looking round him and nodding with a self-approving smile. The master, +who was stooping over a boy's slate, with his back to the door, became +aware of something unusual, and turned quickly round. Tom rushed at +Jacob, and began dragging him back by his smock-frock, and the master +made at them, scattering forms and boys in his career. Even now they +might have escaped, but that in the porch, barring retreat, appeared the +crafty wheelwright, who had been watching all their proceedings. So they +were seized, the school dismissed, and Tom and Jacob led away to Squire +Brown as lawful prize, the boys following to the gate in groups, and +speculating on the result. + +The Squire was very angry at first, but the interview, by Tom's +pleading, ended in a compromise. Tom was not to go near the school till +three o'clock, and only then if he had done his own lessons well, in +which case he was to be the bearer of a note to the master from Squire +Brown, and the master agreed in such case to release ten or twelve of +the best boys an hour before the time of breaking up, to go off and play +in the close. The wheelwright's adzes and swallows were to be for ever +respected; and that hero and the master withdrew to the servants' hall, +to drink the Squire's health, well satisfied with their day's work. + +The second act of Tom's life may now be said to have begun. The war of +independence had been over for some time: none of the women now, not +even his mother's maid, dared offer to help him in dressing or washing. +Between ourselves, he had often at first to run to Benjy in an +unfinished state of toilet; Charity and the rest of them seemed to take +a delight in putting impossible buttons and ties in the middle of his +back; but he would have gone without nether integuments altogether +sooner than have had recourse to female valeting. He had a room to +himself, and his father gave him sixpence a week pocket-money. All this +he had achieved by Benjy's advice and assistance. But now he had +conquered another step in life, the step which all real boys so long to +make; he had got amongst his equals in age and strength, and could +measure himself with other boys; he lived with those whose pursuits and +wishes and ways were the same in kind as his own. + +The little governess who had lately been installed in the house found +her work grow wondrously easy, for Tom slaved at his lessons in order to +make sure of his note to the schoolmaster. So there were very few days +in the week in which Tom and the village boys were not playing in their +close by three o'clock. Prisoner's base, rounders, high-cock-a-lorum, +cricket, football, he was soon initiated into the delights of them all; +and though most of the boys were older than himself, he managed to hold +his own very well. He was naturally active and strong, and quick of eye +and hand, and had the advantage of light shoes and well-fitting dress, +so that in a short time he could run and jump and climb with any of +them. + +They generally finished their regular games half an hour or so before +tea-time, and then began trials of skill and strength in many ways. Some +of them would catch the Shetland pony who was turned out in the field, +and get two or three together on his back, and the little rogue, +enjoying the fun, would gallop off for fifty yards, and then turn round, +or stop short and shoot them on to the turf, and then graze quietly on +till he felt another load; others played peg-top or marbles, while a few +of the bigger ones stood up for a bout at wrestling. Tom at first only +looked on at this pastime, but it had peculiar attractions for him, and +he could not long keep out of it. Elbow and collar wrestling as +practised in the western counties was, next to back-swording, the way to +fame for the youth of the Vale; and all the boys knew the rules of it, +and were more or less expert. But Job Rudkin and Harry Winburn were the +stars, the former stiff and sturdy, with legs like small towers, the +latter pliant as india-rubber, and quick as lightning. Day after day +they stood foot to foot, and offered first one hand and then the other, +and grappled and closed and swayed and strained, till a well-aimed crook +of the heel or thrust of the loin took effect, and a fair back-fall +ended the matter. And Tom watched with all his eyes, and first +challenged one of the less scientific, and threw him; and so one by one +wrestled his way up to the leaders. + +Then indeed for months he had a poor time of it; it was not long indeed +before he could manage to keep his legs against Job, for that hero was +slow of offence, and gained his victories chiefly by allowing others to +throw themselves against his immoveable legs and loins. But Harry +Winburn was undeniably his master; from the first clutch of hands when +they stood up, down to the last trip which sent him on his back on the +turf, he felt that Harry knew more and could do more than he. Luckily, +Harry's bright unconsciousness, and Tom's natural good temper, kept them +from ever quarrelling; and so Tom worked on and on, and trod more and +more nearly on Harry's heels, and at last mastered all the dodges and +falls except one. This one was Harry's own particular invention and pet; +he scarcely ever used it except when hard pressed, but then out it came, +and as sure as it did, over went poor Tom. He thought about that fall at +his meals, in his walks, when he lay awake in bed, in his dreams,--but +all to no purpose; until Harry one day in his open way suggested to him +how he thought it should be met, and in a week from that time the boys +were equal, save only the slight difference of strength in Harry's +favour which some extra ten months of age gave. Tom had often afterwards +reason to be thankful for that early drilling, and above all for having +mastered Harry Winburn's fall. + +Besides their home games, on Saturdays the boys would wander all over +the neighbourhood; sometimes to the downs, or up to the camp, where they +cut their initials out in the springy turf, and watched the hawks +soaring, and the "peert" bird, as Harry Winburn called the grey plover, +gorgeous in his wedding feathers; and so home, racing down the Manger +with many a roll among the thistles, or through Uffington-wood to watch +the fox cubs playing in the green rides; sometimes to Rosy Brook, to cut +long whispering reeds which grew there, to make pan-pipes of; sometimes +to Moor Mills, where was a piece of old forest land, with short browsed +turf and tufted brambly thickets stretching under the oaks, amongst +which rumour declared that a raven, last of his race, still lingered; or +to the sand-hills, in vain quest of rabbits; and bird's-nesting, in the +season, anywhere and everywhere. + +The few neighbours of the Squire's own rank every now and then would +shrug their shoulders as they drove or rode by a party of boys with Tom +in the middle, carrying along bulrushes or whispering reeds, or great +bundles of cowslip and meadow-sweet, or young starlings or magpies, or +other spoil of wood, brook, or meadow; and Lawyer Red-tape might mutter +to Squire Straightback at the Board, that no good would come of the +young Browns, if they were let run wild with all the dirty village boys, +whom the best farmers' sons even would not play with. And the Squire +might reply with a shake of his head, that _his_ sons only mixed with +their equals, and never went into the village without the governess or a +footman. But, luckily, Squire Brown was full as stiff-backed as his +neighbours, and so went on his own way; and Tom and his younger +brothers, as they grew up, went on playing with the village boys, +without the idea of equality or inequality (except in wrestling, +running, and climbing,) ever entering their heads, as it doesn't till +it's put there by Jack Nastys or fine ladies' maids. + +I don't mean to say it would be the case in all villages, but it +certainly was so in this one; the village boys were full as manly and +honest, and certainly purer, than those in a higher rank; and Tom got +more harm from his equals in his first fortnight at a private school, +where he went when he was nine years old, than he had from his village +friends from the day he left Charity's apron-strings. + +Great was the grief amongst the village school-boys when Tom drove off +with the Squire, one August morning, to meet the coach on his way to +school. Each of them had given him some little present of the best that +he had, and his small private box was full of peg-tops, white marbles +(called "alley-taws" in the Vale), screws, birds'-eggs, whip-cord, +jews-harps, and other miscellaneous boys' wealth. Poor Jacob +Doodle-calf, in floods of tears, had pressed upon him with spluttering +earnestness his lame pet hedgehog (he had always some poor broken-down +beast or bird by him); but this Tom had been obliged to refuse by the +Squire's order. He had given them all a great tea under the big elm in +their playground, for which Madam Brown had supplied the biggest cake +ever seen in our village; and Tom was really as sorry to leave them as +they to lose him, but his sorrow was not unmixed with the pride and +excitement of making a new step in life. + +And this feeling carried him through his first parting with his mother +better than could have been expected. Their love was as fair and whole +as human love can be, perfect self-sacrifice on the one side, meeting a +young and true heart on the other. It is not within the scope of my +book, however, to speak of family relations, or I should have much to +say on the subject of English mothers,--ay, and of English fathers, and +sisters, and brothers too. + +Neither have I room to speak of our private schools: what I have to say +is about public schools, those much-abused and much-belauded +institutions peculiar to England. So we must hurry through Master Tom's +year at a private school as fast as we can. + +It was a fair average specimen, kept by a gentleman, with another +gentleman as second master; but it was little enough of the real work +they did--merely coming into school when lessons were prepared and all +ready to be heard. The whole discipline of the school out of lesson +hours was in the hands of the two ushers, one of whom was always with +the boys in their playground in the school, at meals--in fact, at all +times and everywhere, till they were fairly in bed at night. + +Now the theory of private schools is (or was) constant supervision out +of school; therein differing fundamentally from that of public schools. + +It may be right or wrong; but if right, this supervision surely ought to +be the especial work of the head-master, the responsible person. The +object of all schools is not to ram Latin and Greek into boys, but to +make them good English boys, good future citizens; and by far the most +important part of that work must be done, or not done, out of school +hours. To leave it, therefore, in the hands of inferior men, is just +giving up the highest and hardest part of the work of education. Were I +a private schoolmaster, I should say, let who will hear the boys their +lessons, but let me live with them when they are at play and rest. + +The two ushers at Tom's first school were not gentleman, and very poorly +educated, and were only driving their poor trade of usher to get such +living as they could out of it. They were not bad men, but had little +heart for their work, and of course were bent on making it as easy as +possible. One of the methods by which they endeavoured to accomplish +this, was by encouraging tale-bearing, which had become a frightfully +common vice in the school in consequence, and had sapped all the +foundations of school morality. Another was, by favouring grossly the +biggest boys, who alone could have given them much trouble; whereby +those young gentlemen became most abominable tyrants, oppressing the +little boys in all the small mean ways which prevail in private schools. + +Poor little Tom was made dreadfully unhappy in his first week, by a +catastrophe which happened to his first letter home. With huge labour he +had, on the very evening of his arrival, managed to fill two sides of a +sheet of letter-paper with assurances of his love for dear mamma, his +happiness at school, and his resolves to do all she would wish. This +missive, with the help of the boy who sat at the desk next him, also a +new arrival, he managed to fold successfully; but this done, they were +sadly, put to it for means of sealing. Envelopes were then unknown, they +had no wax, and dared not disturb the stillness of the evening +school-room by getting up and going to ask the usher for some. At length +Tom's friend, being of an ingenious turn of mind, suggested sealing with +ink, and the letter was accordingly stuck down with a blob of ink, and +duly handed by Tom, on his way to bed, to the housekeeper to be posted. +It was not till four days afterwards, that that good dame sent for him, +and produced the precious letter, and some wax, saying, "Oh, Master +Brown, I forgot to tell you before, but your letter isn't sealed." Poor +Tom took the wax in silence and sealed his letter, with a huge lump +rising in his throat during the process, and then ran away to a quiet +corner of the playground and burst into an agony of tears. The idea of +his mother waiting day after day for the letter he had promised her at +once, and perhaps thinking him forgetful of her, when he had done all in +his power to make good his promise, was as bitter a grief as any which +he had to undergo for many a long year. His wrath then was +proportionately violent when he was aware of two boys, who stopped close +by him, and one of whom, a fat gaby of a fellow, pointed at him and +called him "Young mammy-sick!" Whereupon Tom arose, and giving vent thus +to his grief and shame and rage, smote his derider on the nose, and made +it bleed--which sent that young worthy howling to the usher, who +reported Tom for violent and unprovoked assault and battery. Hitting in +the face was a felony punishable with flogging, other hitting only a +misdemeanour--a distinction not altogether clear in principle. Tom +however escaped the penalty by pleading "primum tempus;" and having +written a second letter to his mother, enclosing some forget-me-nots, +which he picked on their first half-holiday walk, felt quite happy +again, and began to enjoy vastly a good deal of his new life. + +These half-holiday walks were the great events of the week. The whole +fifty boys started after dinner with one of the ushers for Hazeldown, +which was distant some mile or so from the school. Hazeldown measured +some three miles round, and in the neighbourhood were several woods full +of all manner of birds and butterflies. The usher walked slowly round +the down with such boys as liked to accompany him; the rest scattered in +all directions, being only bound to appear again when the usher had +completed his round, and accompany him home. They were forbidden, +however, to go anywhere except on the down and into the woods, the +village being especially prohibited, where huge bulls'-eyes and unctuous +toffy might be procured in exchange for coin of the realm. + +Various were the amusements to which the boys then betook themselves. At +the entrance of the down there was a steep hillock, like the barrows of +Tom's own downs. This mound was the weekly scene of terrific combats, at +a game called by the queer name of "mud-patties." The boys who played +divided into sides under different leaders, and one side occupied the +mound. Then, all parties having provided themselves with many sods of +turf, cut with their bread-and-cheese knives, the side which remained at +the bottom proceeded to assault the mound, advancing upon all sides +under cover of a heavy fire of turfs, and then struggling for victory +with the occupants, which was theirs as soon as they could, even for a +moment, clear the summit, when they in turn became the besieged. It was +a good rough dirty game, and of great use in counteracting the sneaking +tendencies of the school. Then others of the boys spread over the downs, +looking for the holes of humble-bees and mice, which they dug up without +mercy, often (I regret to say) killing and skinning the unlucky mice, +and (I do not regret to say) getting well stung by the humble-bees. +Others went after butterflies and birds'-eggs in their seasons; and Tom +found on Hazeldown, for the first time, the beautiful little blue +butterfly with golden spots on his wings, which he had never seen on his +own downs, and dug out his first sand-martin's nest. This latter +achievement resulted in a flogging, for the sand-martins built in a high +bank close to the village, consequently out of bounds; but one of the +bolder spirits of the school, who never could be happy unless he was +doing something to which risk attached, easily persuaded Tom to break +bounds and visit the martin's bank. From whence it being only a step to +the toffy-shop, what could be more simple than to go on there and fill +their pockets; or what more certain than that on their return, a +distribution of treasure having been made, the usher should shortly +detect the forbidden smell of bulls'-eyes, and, a search ensuing, +discover the state of the breeches-pockets of Tom and his ally? + +This ally of Tom's was indeed a desperate hero in the sight of the boys, +and feared as one who dealt in magic, or something approaching thereto. +Which reputation came to him in this wise. The boys went to bed at +eight, and of course consequently lay awake in the dark for an hour or +two, telling ghost-stories by turns. One night when it came to his turn, +and he had dried up their souls by his story, he suddenly declared that +he would make a fiery hand appear on the door; and to the astonishment +and terror of the boys in his room, a hand, or something like it, in +pale light, did then and there appear. The fame of this exploit having +spread to the other rooms, and being discredited there, the young +necromancer declared that the same wonder would appear in all the rooms +in turn, which it accordingly did; and the whole circumstances having +been privately reported to one of the ushers as usual, that functionary, +after listening about at the doors of the rooms, by a sudden descent +caught the performer in his night-shirt, with a box of phosphorus in his +guilty hand. Lucifer-matches and all the present facilities for getting +acquainted with fire were then unknown; the very name of phosphorus had +something diabolic in it to the boy-mind; so Tom's ally, at the cost of +a sound flogging, earned what many older folk covet much--the very +decided fear of most of his companions. + +He was a remarkable boy, and by no means a bad one. Tom stuck to him +till he left, and got into many scrapes by so doing. But he was the +great opponent of the tale-bearing habits of the school, and the open +enemy of the ushers; and so worthy of all support. + +Tom imbibed a fair amount of Latin and Greek at the school, but somehow +on the whole it didn't suit him, or he it, and in the holidays he was +constantly working the Squire to send him at once to a public school. +Great was his joy then, when in the middle of his third half-year, in +October, 183-, a fever broke out in the village, and the master having +himself slightly sickened of it, the whole of the boys were sent off at +a day's notice to their respective homes. + +The Squire was not quite so pleased as Master Tom to see that young +gentleman's brown merry face appear at home, some two months before the +proper time, for Christmas holidays: and so after putting on his +thinking cap, he retired to his study and wrote several letters; the +result of which was that one morning at the breakfast-table, about a +fortnight after Tom's return, he addressed his wife with--"My dear, I +have arranged that Tom shall go to Rugby at once, for the last six weeks +of this half-year, instead of wasting them riding and loitering about +home. It is very kind of the Doctor to allow it. Will you see that his +things are all ready by Friday, when I shall take him up to town, and +send him down the next day by himself." + +Mrs. Brown was prepared for the announcement, and merely suggested a +doubt whether Tom were yet old enough to travel by himself. However, +finding both father and son against her on this point, she gave in like +a wise woman, and proceeded to prepare Tom's kit for his launch into a +public school. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "Let the steam-pot hiss till it's hot, + Give me the speed of the Tantivy trot." + _Coaching Song by R. E. E. Warburton, Esq._ + + +"NOW, sir, time to get up, if you please. Tally-ho coach for Leicester +'ll be round in half-an-hour, and don't wait for nobody." So spake the +Boots of the Peacock Inn, Islington, at half-past two o'clock on the +morning of a day in the early part of November, 183-, giving Tom at the +same time a shake by the shoulder, and then putting down a candle and +carrying off his shoes to clean. + +Tom and his father had arrived in town from Berkshire, the day before, +and finding, on inquiry, that the Birmingham coaches which ran from the +city did not pass through Rugby, but deposited their passengers at +Dunchurch, a village three miles distant on the main road--where said +passengers had to wait for the Oxford and Leicester coach in the +evening, or to take a post-chaise--had resolved that Tom should travel +down by the Tally-ho, which diverged from the main road and passed +through Rugby itself. And as the Tally-ho was an early coach, they had +driven out to the Peacock to be on the road. + +Tom had never been in London, and would have liked to have stopped at +the Belle Sauvage, where they had been put down by the Star, just at +dusk, that he might have gone roving about those endless, mysterious, +gas-lit streets, which, with their glare and hum and moving crowds; +excited him so that he couldn't talk even. But as soon as he found that +the Peacock arrangement would get him to Rugby by twelve o'clock in the +day, whereas otherwise he wouldn't be there till the evening, all other +plans melted away; his one absorbing aim being to become a public +school-boy as fast as possible, and six hours sooner or later seeming to +him of the most alarming importance. + +Tom and his father had alighted at the Peacock at about seven in the +evening, and having heard with unfeigned joy the paternal order at the +bar, of steaks and oyster sauce for supper in half an hour, and seen his +father seated cozily by the bright fire in the coffee-room with the +paper in his hand--Tom had run out to see about him, had wondered at all +the vehicles passing and repassing, and had fraternised with the boots +and ostler, from whom he ascertained that the Tally-ho was a tip-top +goer, ten miles an hour including stoppages and so punctual that all +the road set their clocks by her. + +Then being summoned to supper he had regaled himself in one of the +bright little boxes of the Peacock coffee-room on the beef-steak and +unlimited oyster-sauce and brown stout (tasted then for the first +time--a day to be marked for ever by Tom with a white stone); had at +first attended to the excellent advice which his father was bestowing on +him from over his glass of steaming brandy and water, and then begun +nodding from the united effects of the stout, the fire, and the lecture. +Till the Squire observing Tom's state, and remembering that it was +nearly nine o'clock, and that the Tally-ho left at three, sent the +little fellow off to the chambermaid, with a shake of the hand (Tom +having stipulated in the morning before starting, that kissing should +now cease between them,) and a few parting words. + +"And now, Tom, my boy," said the Squire, "remember you are going, at +your own earnest request, to be chucked into this great school, like a +young bear with all your troubles before you--earlier than we should +have sent you perhaps. If schools are what they were in my time, you'll +see a great many cruel blackguard things done, and hear a deal of foul +bad talk. But never fear. You tell the truth, keep a brave and kind +heart, and never listen to or say anything you wouldn't have your mother +and sister hear, and you'll never feel ashamed to come home, or we to +see you." + +The allusion to his mother made Tom feel rather chokey, and he would +have liked to have hugged his father well, if it hadn't been for the +recent stipulation. + +As it was, he only squeezed his father's hand, and looked bravely up and +said, "I'll try, father." + +"I know you will, my boy. Is your money all safe?" + +"Yes," said Tom, diving into one pocket to make sure. + +"And your keys?" said the Squire. + +"All right," said Tom, diving into the other pocket. + +"Well then, good night. God bless you! I'll tell Boots to call you, and +be up to see you off." + +Tom was carried off by the chambermaid in a brown study, from which he +was roused in a clean little attic by that buxom person calling him a +little darling, and kissing him as she left the room, which indignity he +was too much surprised to resent. And still thinking of his father's +last words, and the look with which they were spoken, he knelt down and +prayed, that, come what might, he might never bring shame or sorrow on +the dear folk at home. + +Indeed, the Squire's last words deserved to have their effect, for they +had been the result of much anxious thought. All the way up to London he +had pondered what he should say to Tom by way of parting advice, +something that the boy could keep in his head ready for use. By way of +assisting meditation, he had even gone the length of taking out his +flint and steel and tinder, and hammering away for a quarter of an hour +till he had manufactured a light for a long Trichinopoli cheroot, which +he silently puffed; to the no small wonder of Coachee, who was an old +friend, and an institution on the Bath road; and who always expected a +talk on the prospects and doings, agricultural and social, of the whole +county when he carried the Squire. + +To condense the Squire's meditation, it was somewhat as follows: "I +won't tell him to read his Bible and love and serve God; if he don't do +that for his mother's sake and teaching, he won't for mine. Shall I go +into the sort of temptations he'll meet with? No, I can't do that. Never +do for an old fellow to go into such things with a boy. He won't +understand me. Do him more harm than good, ten to one. Shall I tell him +to mind his work, and say he's sent to school to make himself a good +scholar? Well, but he isn't sent to school for that--at any rate, not +for that mainly. I don't care a straw for Greek particles, or the +digamma, no more does his mother. What is he sent to school for? Well, +partly because he wanted so to go. If he'll only turn out a brave, +helpful, truth-telling Englishman, and a gentleman, and a Christian, +that's all I want," thought the Squire; and upon this view of the case +framed his last words of advice to Tom, which were well enough suited to +his purpose. + +For they were Tom's first thoughts as he tumbled out of bed at the +summons of Boots, and proceeded rapidly to wash and dress himself. At +ten minutes to three he was down in the coffee-room in his stockings, +carrying his hat-box, coat, and comforter in his hand; and there he +found his father nursing a bright fire and a cup of hot coffee and a +hard biscuit on the table. + +"Now then, Tom, give us your things here, and drink this; there's +nothing like starting warm, old fellow." + +Tom addressed himself to the coffee, and prattled away while he worked +himself into his shoes and his great-coat, well warmed through; a +Petersham coat with velvet collar, made tight, after the abominable +fashion of those days. And just as he is swallowing his last mouthful, +winding his comforter round his throat, and tucking the ends into the +breast of his coat, the horn sounds, Boots looks in and says, "Tally-ho, +sir;" and they hear the ring and the rattle of the four fast trotters +and the town-made drag, as it dashes up to the Peacock. + +"Anything for us, Bob?" says the burly guard, dropping down from behind, +and slapping himself across the chest. + +"Young genl'm'n, Rugby; three parcels, Leicester; hamper o' game, +Rugby," answers ostler. + +"Tell young gent to look alive," says guard, opening the hind-boot and +shooting in the parcels after examining them by the lamps. "Here, shove +the portmanteau up a-top--I'll fasten him presently. Now then, sir, jump +up behind." + +"Good-bye, father,--my love at home." A last shake of the hand. Up goes +Tom, the guard catching his hat-box and holding on with one hand, while +with the other he claps the horn to his mouth. Toot, toot, toot! the +ostlers let go their heads, the four bays plunge at the collar, and away +goes the Tally-ho into the darkness, forty-five seconds from the time +they pulled up; Ostler, Boots, and the Squire stand looking after them +under the Peacock lamp. + +"Sharp work!" says the Squire, and goes in again to his bed, the coach +being well out of sight and hearing. + +Tom stands up on the coach and looks back at his father's figure as long +as he can see it, and then the guard having disposed of his luggage +comes to an anchor, and finishes his buttonings and other preparations +for facing the three hours before dawn; no joke for those who minded +cold, on a fast coach in November, in the reign of his late majesty. + +I sometimes think that you boys of this generation are a deal tenderer +fellows than we used to be. At any rate, you're much more comfortable +travellers, for I see every one of you with his rug or plaid, and other +dodges for preserving the caloric, and most of you going in those fuzzy, +dusty, padded first-class carriages. It was another affair altogether, a +dark ride on the top of the Tally-ho, I can tell you, in a tight +Petersham coat, and your feet dangling six inches from the floor. Then +you knew what cold was, and what it was to be without legs, for not a +bit of feeling had you in them after the first half-hour. But it had its +pleasures, the old dark ride. First there was the consciousness of +silent endurance, so dear to every Englishman,--of standing out against +something, and not giving in. Then there was the music of the rattling +harness, and the ring of the horses' feet on the hard road, and the +glare of the two bright lamps through the steaming hoar frost, over the +leaders' ears, into the darkness; and the cheery toot of the guard's +horn, to warn some drowsy pikeman or the ostler at the next change; and +the looking forward to daylight--and last, but not least, the delight of +returning sensation in your toes. + +Then the break of dawn and the sunrise; where can they be ever seen in +perfection but from a coach roof? You want motion and change and music +to see them in their glory; not the music of singing-men and +singing-women, but good silent music, which sets itself in your own head +the accompaniment of work and getting over the ground. + +The Tally-ho is past St. Alban's, and Tom is enjoying the ride, though +half-frozen. The guard, who is alone with him on the back of the coach, +is silent, but has muffled Tom's feet up in straw, and put the end of an +oat-sack over his knees. The darkness has driven him inwards, and he has +gone over his little past life, and thought of all his doings and +promises, and of his mother and sister, and his father's last words; and +has made fifty good resolutions, and means to bear himself like a brave +Brown as he is, though a young one. + +Then he has been forward into the mysterious boy-future, speculating as +to what sort of a place Rugby is, and what they do there, and calling up +all the stories of public schools which he has heard from big boys in +the holidays. He is chock full of hope and life, notwithstanding the +cold, and kicks his heels against the back board, and would like to +sing, only he doesn't know how his friend the silent guard might take +it. + +And now the dawn breaks at the end of the fourth stage, and the coach +pulls up at a little road-side inn with huge stables behind. There is a +bright fire gleaming through the red curtains of the bar-window, and the +door is open. The coachman catches his whip into a double thong, and +throws it to the ostler; the steam of the horses rises straight up into +the air. He has put them along over the last two miles, and is two +minutes before his time; he rolls down from the box and into the inn. +The guard rolls off behind. "Now, sir," says he to Tom, "you just jump +down, and I'll give you a drop of something to keep the cold out." + +Tom finds a difficulty in jumping, or indeed in finding the top of the +wheel with his feet, which may be in the next world for all he feels; +so the guard picks him off the coach-top, and sets him on his legs, and +they stump off into the bar, and join the coachman and the other outside +passengers. + +Here a fresh-looking barmaid serves them each with a glass of early purl +as they stand before the fire, coachman and guard exchanging business +remarks. The purl warms the cockles of Tom's heart, and makes him cough. + +"Rare tackle, that, sir, of a cold morning," says the coachman, smiling. +"Time's up." They are out again and up; coachee the last, gathering the +reins into his hands and talking to Jem the ostler about the mare's +shoulder, and then swinging himself up on to the box--the horses dashing +off in a canter before he falls into his seat. Toot-toot-tootle-too goes +the horn, and away they are again, five-and-thirty miles on their road +(nearly half way to Rugby, thinks Tom), and the prospect of breakfast at +the end of the stage. + +And now they begin to see, and the early life of the country-side comes +out; a market cart or two, men in smock-frocks going to their work pipe +in mouth, a whiff of which is no bad smell this bright morning. The sun +gets up, and the mist shines like silver gauze. They pass the hounds +jogging along to a distant meet, at the heels of the huntsman's hack, +whose face is about the colour of the tails of his old pink, as he +exchanges greetings with coachman and guard. Now they pull up at a +lodge, and take on board a well-muffled-up sportsman, with his gun-case +and carpet-bag. An early up-coach meets them, and the coachmen gather up +their horses, and pass one another with the accustomed lift of the +elbow, each team doing eleven miles an hour, with a mile to spare behind +if necessary. And here comes breakfast. + +"Twenty minutes here, gentlemen," says the coachman as they pull up at +half-past seven at the inn door. + +Have we not endured nobly this morning, and is not this a worthy reward +for much endurance? There is the low dark wainscoted room hung with +sporting prints; the hat-stand (with a whip or two standing up in it +belonging to bagmen who are still snug in bed) by the door; the blazing +fire, with the quaint old glass over the mantelpiece, in which is stuck +a large card with the list of the meets for the week of the county +hounds. The table covered with the whitest of cloths and of china, and +bearing a pigeon-pie, ham, round of cold boiled beef cut from a mammoth +ox, and the great loaf of household bread on a wooden trencher. And here +comes in the stout head waiter, puffing under a tray of hot viands; +kidneys and a steak, transparent rashers and poached eggs, buttered +toast and muffins, coffee and tea, all smoking hot. The table can never +hold it all; the cold meats are removed to the sideboard, they were only +put on for show and to give us an appetite. And now fall on, gentlemen +all. It is a well-known sporting-house, and the breakfasts are famous. +Two or three men in pink, on their way to the meet, drop in, and are +very jovial and sharp-set, as indeed we all are. + +"Tea or coffee, sir?" says head waiter, coming round to Tom. + +"Coffee please," says Tom, with his mouth full of muffin and kidney; +coffee is a treat to him, tea is not. + +Our coachman, I perceive, who breakfasts with us, is a cold-beef man. He +also eschews hot potations, and addicts himself to a tankard of ale, +which is brought him by the barmaid. Sportsman looks on approvingly, and +orders a ditto for himself. + +Tom has eaten kidney and pigeon-pie, and imbibed coffee, till his little +skin is as tight as a drum; and then has the further pleasure of paying +head waiter out of his own purse, in a dignified manner, and walks out +before the inn door to see the horses put to. This is done leisurely and +in a highly-finished manner by the ostlers, as if they enjoyed the not +being hurried. Coachman comes out with his way-bill, and puffing a fat +cigar which the sportsman has given him. Guard emerges from the tap, +where he prefers breakfasting, licking round a tough-looking doubtful +cheroot, which you might tie round your finger, and three whiffs of +which would knock any one else out of time. + +The pinks stand about the inn door lighting cigars and waiting to see us +start, while their hacks are led up and down the market-place on which +the inn looks. They all know our sportsman, and we feel a reflected +credit when we see him chatting and laughing with them. + +"Now, sir, please," says the coachman; all the rest of the passengers +are up; the guard is locking the hind boot. + +"A good run to you!" says the sportsman to the pinks, and is by the +coachman's side in no time. + +"Let 'em go, Dick!" The ostlers fly back, drawing off the cloths from +their glossy loins, and away we go through the market-place and down the +High Street, looking in at the first-floor windows, and seeing several +worthy burgesses shaving thereat; while all the shop-boys who are +cleaning the windows, and housemaids who are doing the steps, stop and +look pleased as we rattle past, as if we were a part of their legitimate +morning's amusement. We clear the town, and are well out between the +hedgerows again as the town clock strikes eight. + +The sun shines almost warmly, and breakfast has oiled all springs and +loosened all tongues. Tom is encouraged by a remark or two of the +guard's between the puffs of his oily cheroot, and besides is getting +tired of not talking; he is too full of his destination to talk about +anything else; and so asks the guard if he knows Rugby. + +"Goes through it every day of my life. Twenty minutes afore twelve +down--ten o'clock up." + +"What sort of a place is it, please?" says Tom. + +Guard looks at him with a comical expression. "Werry out-o'-the-way +place, sir; no paving to the streets nor no lighting. 'Mazin' big horse +and cattle fair in autumn--lasts a week--just over now. Takes town a +week to get clean after it. Fairish hunting country. But slow place, +sir, slow place: off the main road, you see--only three coaches a day, and +one on 'em a two-oss wan, more like a hearse nor a coach--Regulator--comes +from Oxford. Young genl'm'n at school calls her Pig and Whistle, and +goes up to college by her (six miles an hour) when they goes to enter. +Belong to school, sir?" + +"Yes," says Tom, not unwilling for a moment that the guard should think +him an old boy. But then having some qualms as to the truth of the +assertion, and seeing that if he were to assume the character of an old +boy he couldn't go on asking the questions he wanted, added--"that is to +say, I'm on my way there. I'm a new boy." + +The guard looked as if he knew this quite as well as Tom. + +"You're werry late, sir," says the guard; "only six weeks to-day to the +end of the half." Tom assented. "We takes up fine loads this day six +weeks, and Monday and Tuesday arter. Hopes we shall have the pleasure of +carrying you back." + +Tom said he hoped they would; but he thought within himself that his +fate would probably be the Pig and Whistle. + +"It pays uncommon, cert'nly," continues the guard. "Werry free with +their cash is the young genl'm'n. But, Lor' bless you, we gets into such +rows all 'long the road, what wi' their pea-shooters, and long whips, +and hollering, and upsetting every one as comes by; I'd a sight sooner +carry one or two on 'em, sir, as I may be a carryin' of you now, than a +coach-load." + +"What do they do with the pea-shooters?" inquires Tom. + +"Do wi' 'em! why, peppers every one's faces as we comes near, 'cept the +young gals, and breaks windows wi' them too, some on 'em shoots so hard. +Now 'twas just here last June, as we was a driving up the first-day +boys, they was mendin' a quarter-mile of road, and there was a lot of +Irish chaps, reg'lar roughs, a breaking stones. As we comes up, 'Now, +boys' says young gent on the box (smart young fellow and desper't +reckless), 'here's fun! Let the Pats have it about the ears.' 'God's +sake, sir!' says Bob (that's my mate the coachman), 'don't go for to +shoot at 'em, they'll knock us off the coach.' 'Damme, coachee,' says +young my lord, 'you ain't afraid; hoora, boys! let 'em have it.' +'Hoora!' sings out the others, and fill their mouths chock full of peas +to last the whole line. Bob seeing as 'twas to come, knocks his hat over +his eyes, hollers to his 'osses, and shakes 'em up, and away we goes up +to the line on 'em, twenty miles an hour. The Pats begin to hoora too, +thinking it was a runaway, and first lot on 'em stands grinnin' and +wavin' their old hats as we comes abreast on 'em; and then you'd ha' +laughed to see how took aback and choking savage they looked when they +gets the peas a stinging all over 'em. But bless you, the laugh weren't +all of our side, sir, by a long way. We was going so fast, and they was +so took aback, that they didn't take what was up till we was half-way up +the line. Then 'twas 'look out all,' surely. They howls all down the +line fit to frighten you, some on 'em runs arter us and tries to clamber +up behind, only we hits 'em over the fingers and pulls their hands off; +one as had had it very sharp act'ly runs right at the leaders, as though +he'd ketch 'em by the heads, only luck'ly for him he misses his tip, and +comes over a heap o' stones, first. The rest picks up stones, and gives +it us right away till we gets out o' shot, the young gents holding out +werry manful with the pea-shooters and such stones as lodged on us, and +a pretty many there was too. Then Bob picks hisself up again, and looks +at young gent on box werry solemn. Bob'd had a rum un in the ribs, +which'd like to ha' knocked him off the box, or made him drop the reins. +Young gent on box picks hisself up, and so does we all, and looks round +to count damage. Box's head cut open and his hat gone; 'nother young +gent's hat gone: mine knocked in at the side, and not one on us as +wasn't black and blue somewheres or another; most on 'em all over. +Two-pound-ten to pay for damage to paint, which they subscribed for +there and then, and give Bob and me a extra half-sovereign each; but I +wouldn't go down that line again not for twenty half-sovereigns." And +the guard shook his head slowly, and got up and blew a clear brisk +toot-toot. + +"What fun!" said Tom, who could scarcely contain his pride at this +exploit of his future school-fellows. He longed already for the end of +the half, that he might join them. + +"'Taint such good fun though, sir, for the folk as meets the coach, nor +for we who has to go back with it next day. Them Irishers last summer +had all got stones ready for us, and was all but letting drive, and we'd +got two reverend gents aboard too. We pulled up at the beginning of the +line, and pacified them, and were never going to carry no more +pea-shooters, unless they promises not to fire where there's a line of +Irish chaps a stone-breaking." The guard stopped and pulled away at his +cheroot, regarding Tom benignantly the while. + +"Oh, don't stop! tell us something more about the pea-shooting." + +"Well, there'd like to have been a pretty piece of work over it at +Bicester, a while back. We was six mile from the town, when we meets an +old square-headed grey-haired yeoman chap, a jogging along quite quiet. +He looks up at the coach, and just then a pea hits him on the nose, and +some ketches his cob behind and makes him dance up on his hind legs. I +see'd the old boy's face flush and look plaguy awkward, and I thought we +was in for somethin' nasty. + +"He turns his cob's head, and rides quietly after us just out of shot. +How that ere cob did step! we never shook him off not a dozen yards in +the six mile. At first the young gents was werry lively on him; but +afore we got in, seeing how steady the old chap come on, they was quite +quiet, and laid their heads together what they should do. Some was for +fighting, some for axing his pardon. He rides into the town close after +us, comes up when we stops, and says the two as shot at him must come +before a magistrate; and a great crowd comes round, and we couldn't get +the 'osses to. But the young uns, they all stand by one another, and +says all or none must go, and as how they'd fight it out, and have to be +carried. Just as 'twas gettin' serious, and the old boy and the mob was +goin' to pull 'em off the coach, one little fellow jumps up and says, +'Here--I'll stay,--I'm only going three miles further. My father's +name's Davis; he's known about here, and I'll go before the magistrate +with this gentleman.' 'What, be thee parson Davis's son?' says the old +boy. 'Yes,' says the young un. 'Well, I be mortal sorry to meet thee in +such company, but for thy father's sake and thine (for thee bi'st a +brave young chap) I'll say no more about it.' Didn't the boys cheer him, +and the mob cheered the young chap--and then one of the biggest gets +down, and begs his pardon werry gentlemanly for all the rest, saying as +they all had been plaguy vexed from the first, but didn't like to ax his +pardon till then, 'cause they felt they hadn't ought to shirk the +consequences of their joke. And then they all got down and shook hands +with the old boy, and asked him to all parts of the country, to their +homes; and we drives off twenty minutes behind time, with cheering and +hollering as if we was county members. But, Lor' bless you, sir," says +the guard, smacking his hand down on his knee and looking full into +Tom's face, "ten minutes arter they was all as bad as ever." + +Tom showed such undisguised and open-mouthed interest in his narrations, +that the old guard rubbed up his memory, and launched out into a graphic +history of all the performances of the boys on the road for the last +twenty years. Off the road he couldn't go; the exploit must have been +connected with horses or vehicles to hang in the old fellow's head. Tom +tried him off his own ground once or twice, but found he knew nothing +beyond, and so let him have his head, and the rest of the road bowled +easily away; for old Blow-hard (as the boys called him) was a dry old +file, with much kindness and humour, and a capital spinner of a yarn +when he had broken the neck of his day's work and got plenty of ale +under his belt. + +What struck Tom's youthful imagination most was the desperate and +lawless character of most of the stories. Was the guard hoaxing him? He +couldn't help hoping that they were true. It's very odd how almost all +English boys love danger; you can get ten to join a game, or climb a +tree, or swim a stream when there's a chance of breaking their limbs or +getting drowned, for one who'll stay on level ground, or in his depth, +or play quoits or bowls. + +The guard had just finished an account of a desperate fight which had +happened at one of the fairs between the drovers and the farmers with +their whips, and the boys with cricket-bats and wickets, which arose out +of a playful but objectionable practice of the boys going round to the +public-houses and taking the linch-pins out of the wheels of the gigs, +and was moralising upon the way in which the Doctor, "a terrible stern +man he'd heard tell," had come down upon several of the performers, +"sending three on 'em off next morning, each in a po-chay with a parish +constable," when they turned a corner and neared the milestone, the +third from Rugby. By the stone two boys stood, their jackets buttoned +tight, waiting for the coach. + +"Look here, sir," says the guard, after giving a sharp toot-toot, +"there's two on 'em; out and out runners they be. They come out about +twice or three times a week, and spirts a mile alongside of us." + +And as they came up, sure enough, away went two boys along the footpath, +keeping up with the horses; the first a light clean-made fellow going on +springs, the other stout and round-shouldered, labouring in his pace, +but going as dogged as a bull-terrier. + +Old Blow-hard looked on admiringly. "See how beautiful that there un +holds hisself together, and goes from his hips, sir," said he; "he's a +'mazin' fine runner. Now, many coachmen as drives a first-rate team'd +put it on and try and pass 'em. But Bob, sir, bless you, he's +tender-hearted; he'd sooner pull in a bit if he see'd 'em a gettin' +beat. I do b'lieve too as that there un'd sooner break his heart than +let us go by him afore next milestone." + +At the second milestone the boys pulled up short and waved their hats to +the guard, who had his watch out and shouted "4.56," thereby indicating +that the mile had been done in four seconds under the five minutes. They +passed several more parties of boys, all of them objects of the deepest +interest to Tom, and came in sight of the town at ten minutes before +twelve. Tom fetched a long breath, and thought he had never spent a +pleasanter day. Before he went to bed he had quite settled that it must +be the greatest day he should ever spend, and didn't alter his opinion +for many a long year--if he has yet. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +RUGBY AND FOOTBALL. + + "----Foot and eye opposed + In dubious strife." + SCOTT. + + +"AND so here's Rugby, sir, at last, and you'll be in plenty of time for +dinner at the School-house, as I tell'd you," said the old guard, +pulling his horn out of its case, and tootle-tooing away; while the +coachman shook up his horses, and carried them along the side of the +school close, round Dead-man's Corner, past the school gates, and down +the High Street to the Spread Eagle; the wheelers in a spanking trot, +and leaders cantering, in a style which would not have disgraced +"Cherry Bob," "ramping, stamping, tearing swearing Billy Harwood," or +any other of the old coaching heroes. + +Tom's heart beat quick as he passed the great school field or close, +with its noble elms, in which several games at football were going on, +and tried to take in at once the long line of grey buildings, beginning +with the chapel, and ending with the School-house, the residence of the +head-master, where the great flag was lazily waving from the highest +round tower. And he began already to be proud of being a Rugby boy, as +he passed the school-gates, with the oriel-window above, and saw the +boys standing there, looking as if the town belonged to them, and +nodding in a familiar manner to the coachman, as if any one of them +would be quite equal to getting on the box and working the team down +street as well as he. + +One of the young heroes, however, ran out from the rest, and scrambled +up behind; where, having righted himself and nodded to the guard with +"How do, Jem?" he turned short round to Tom, and, after looking him over +for a minute, began-- + +"I say, you fellow, is your name Brown?" + +"Yes," said Tom, in considerable astonishment; glad however to have +lighted on some one already who seemed to know him. + +"Ah, I thought so; you know my old aunt, Miss East; she lives somewhere +down your way in Berkshire. She wrote to me that you were coming to-day, +and asked me to give you a lift." + +Tom was somewhat inclined to resent the patronizing air of his new +friend--a boy of just about his own height and age, but gifted with the +most transcendent coolness and assurance, which Tom felt to be +aggravating and hard to bear, but couldn't for the life of him help +admiring and envying--especially when young my lord begins hectoring two +or three long loafing fellows, half-porter, half stableman, with a +strong touch of the blackguard, and in the end arranges with one of +them, nicknamed Cooey, to carry Tom's luggage up to the School-house for +sixpence. + +"And heark'ee, Cooey, it must be up in ten minutes, or no more jobs from +me. Come along, Brown." And away swaggers the young potentate, with his +hands in his pockets, and Tom at his side. + +"All right, sir," says Cooey, touching his hat, with a leer and a wink +at his companions. + +"Hullo though," says East, pulling up, and taking another look at Tom, +"this'll never do--haven't you got a hat?--we never wear caps here. Only +the louts wear caps. Bless you, if you were to go into the quadrangle +with that thing on, I----don't know what'd happen." The very idea was +quite beyond young Master East, and he looked unutterable things. + +Tom thought his cap a very knowing affair, but confessed that he had a +hat in his hat-box; which was accordingly at once extracted from the +hind boot, and Tom equipped in his go-to-meeting roof, as his new friend +called it. But this didn't quite suit his fastidious taste in another +minute, being too shiny; so, as they walk up the town, they dive into +Nixon's the hatter's, and Tom is arrayed, to his utter astonishment, and +without paying for it, in a regulation cat-skin at seven-and-sixpence; +Nixon undertaking to send the best hat up to the matron's room, +School-house, in half an hour. + +"You can send in a note for a tile on Monday, and make it all right, you +know," said Mentor; "we're allowed two seven-and-sixers a half, besides +what we bring from home." + +Tom by this time began to be conscious of his new social position and +dignities, and to luxuriate in the realized ambition of being a +public-school boy at last, with a vested right of spoiling two +seven-and-sixers in half a year. + +"You see," said his friend, as they strolled up towards the school +gates, in explanation of his conduct--"a great deal depends on how a +fellow cuts up at first. If he's got nothing odd about him, and answers +straightforward and holds his head up, he gets on. Now you'll do very +well as to rig, all but that cap. You see I'm doing the handsome thing +by you, because my father knows yours; besides, I want to please the old +lady. She gave me a half-a-sov. this half, and perhaps'll double it +next, if I keep in her good books." + +There's nothing for candour like a lower-school boy; and East was a +genuine specimen--frank, hearty, and good-natured, well satisfied with +himself and his position, and chock full of life and spirits, and all +the Rugby prejudices and traditions which he had been able to get +together, in the long course of one half year, during which he had been +at the School-house. + +And Tom, notwithstanding his bumptiousness, felt friends with him at +once, and began sucking in all his ways and prejudices, as fast as he +could understand them. + +East was great in the character of cicerone; he carried Tom through the +great gates, where were only two or three boys. These satisfied +themselves with the Stock questions,--"You fellow, what's your name? +Where do you come from? How old are you? Where do you board? and, What +form are you in?"--and so they passed on through the quadrangle and a +small courtyard, upon which looked down a lot of little windows +(belonging, as his guide informed him, to some of the School-house +studies), into the matron's room, where East introduced Tom to that +dignitary; made him give up the key of his trunk that the matron might +unpack his linen, and told the story of the hat and of his own presence +of mind: upon the relation whereof the matron laughingly scolded him, +for the coolest new boy in the house; and East, indignant at the +accusation of newness, marched Tom off into the quadrangle, and began +showing him the schools, and examining him as to his literary +attainments; the result of which was a prophecy that they would be in +the same form, and could do then lessons together. + +"And now come in and see my study; we shall have just time before +dinner; and afterwards, before calling over, we'll do the close." + +Tom followed his guide through the School-house hall, which opens into +the quadrangle. It is a great room thirty feet long and eighteen high, +or thereabouts, with two great tables running the whole length, and two +large fireplaces at the side, with blazing fires in them, at one of +which some dozen boys were standing and lounging, some of whom shouted +to East to stop; but he shot through with his convoy, and landed him in +the long dark passages, with a large fire at the end of each upon which +the studies opened. Into one of these, in the bottom passage, East +bolted with our hero, slamming and bolting the door behind them, in case +of pursuit from the hall, and Tom was for the first time in a Rugby +boy's citadel. + +He hadn't been prepared for separate studies, and was not a little +astonished and delighted with the palace in question. + +It wasn't very large certainly, being about six feet long by four broad. +It couldn't be called light, as there were bars and a grating to the +window; which little precautions were necessary in the studies on the +ground floor looking out into the close, to prevent the exit of small +boys after locking-up, and the entrance of contraband articles. But it +was uncommonly comfortable to look at, Tom thought. The space under the +window at the further end was occupied by a square table covered with a +reasonably clean and whole red and blue check table-cloth; a hard-seated +sofa covered with red stuff occupied one side, running up to the end, +and making a seat for one, or, by sitting close, for two, at the table; +and a good stout wooden chair afforded a seat to another boy, so that +three could sit and work together. The walls were wainscoted half-way +up, the wainscot being covered with green baize, the remainder with a +bright-patterned paper, on which hung three or four prints, of dogs' +heads, Grimaldi winning the Aylesbury steeplechase, Amy Robsart, the +reigning Waverley beauty of the day, and Tom Crib in a posture of +defence, which did no credit to the science of that hero, if truly +represented. Over the door were a row of hat-pegs, and on each side +bookcases with cupboards at the bottom; shelves and cupboards being +filled indiscriminately with school-books, a cup or two, a mousetrap, +and brass candlesticks, leather straps, a fustian bag, and some +curious-looking articles, which puzzled Tom not a little, until his +friend explained that they were climbing irons, and showed their use. A +cricket-bat and small fishing-rod stood up in one corner. + +This was the residence of East and another boy in the same form, and had +more interest for Tom than Windsor Castle, or any other residence in the +British Isles. For was he not about to become the joint owner of a +similar home, the first place which he could call his own? One's own! +What a charm there is in the words! How long it takes boy and man to +find out their worth! how fast most of us hold on to them! faster and +more jealously the nearer we are to that general home into which we can +take nothing, but must go naked as we came into the world. When shall we +learn that he who multiplieth possessions multiplieth troubles, and that +the one single use of things which we call our own is that they may be +his who hath need of them? + +"And shall I have a study like this too?" said Tom. + +"Yes, of course, you'll be chummed with some fellow on Monday, and you +can sit here till then." + +"What nice places!" + +"They're well enough," answered East patronizingly, "only uncommon cold +at nights sometimes. Gower--that's my chum--and I make a fire with paper +on the floor after supper generally, only that makes it so smoky." + +"But there's a big fire out in the passage," said Tom. + +"Precious little good we get out of that though," said East; "Jones the +praepostor has the study at the fire end, and he has rigged up an iron +rod and green baize curtain across the passage, which he draws at night, +and sits there with his door open, so he gets all the fire, and hears if +we come out of our studies after eight, or make a noise. However, he's +taken to sitting in the fifth-form room lately, so we do get a bit of +fire now sometimes; only to keep a sharp look-out that he don't catch +you behind his curtain when he comes down--that's all." + +A quarter-past one now struck, and the bell began tolling for dinner, so +they went into the hall and took their places, Tom at the very bottom of +the second table, next to the praepostor (who sat at the end to keep +order there), and East a few paces higher. And now Tom for the first +time saw his future school-fellows in a body. In they came, some hot and +ruddy from football or long walks, some pale and chilly from hard +reading in their studies, some from loitering over the fire at the +pastrycook's, dainty mortals, bringing with them pickles and +sauce-bottles to help them with their dinners. And a great big-bearded +man, whom Tom took for a master, began calling over the names, while the +great joints were being rapidly carved on a third table in the corner by +the old verger and the housekeeper. Tom's turn came last, and meanwhile +he was all eyes, looking first with awe at the great man who sat close +to him, and was helped first, and who read a hard-looking book all the +time he was eating; and when he got up and walked off to the fire, at +the small boys round him, some of whom were reading, and the rest +talking in whispers to one another, or stealing one another's bread, or +shooting pellets, or digging their forks through the table-cloth. +However, notwithstanding his curiosity, he managed to make a capital +dinner by the time the big man called "Stand up!" and said grace. + +As soon as dinner was over, and Tom had been questioned by such of his +neighbours as were curious as to his birth, parentage, education, and +other like matters, East, who evidently enjoyed his new dignity of +patron and Mentor, proposed having a look at the close, which Tom, +athirst for knowledge, gladly assented to, and they went out through the +quadrangle and past the big fives'-court, into the great playground. + +"That's the chapel, you see," said East, "and there just behind it is +the place for fights; you see it's most out of the way of the masters, +who all live on the other side and don't come by here after first lesson +or callings-over. That's when the fights come off. And all this part +where we are is the little side-ground, right up to the trees, and on +the other side of the trees is the big side-ground, where the great +matches are played. And there's the island in the furthest corner; +you'll know that well enough next half, when there's island fagging. I +say, it's horrid cold, let's have a run across," and away went East, Tom +close behind him. East was evidently putting his best foot foremost, and +Tom, who was mighty proud of his running, and not a little anxious to +show his friend that although a new boy he was no milksop, laid himself +down to the work in his very best style. Right across the close they +went, each doing all he knew, and there wasn't a yard between them when +they pulled up at the island moat. + +"I say," said East, as soon as he got his wind, looking with much +increased respect at Tom, "you ain't a bad scud, not by no means. Well, +I'm as warm as a toast now." + +"But why do you wear white trousers in November?" said Tom. He had been +struck by this peculiarity in the costume of almost all the School-house +boys. + +"Why, bless us, don't you know?--No, I forgot. Why, to-day's the +School-house match. Our house plays the whole of the School at football. +And we all wear white trousers, to show 'em we don't care for hacks. +You're in luck to come to-day. You just will see a match; and Brooke's +going to let me play in quarters. That's more than he'll do for any +other lower-school boy, except James, and he's fourteen." + +"Who's Brooke?" + +"Why that big fellow who called over at dinner, to be sure. He's cock of +the school, and head of the School-house side, and the best kick and +charger in Rugby." + +"Oh, but do show me where they play? And tell me about it. I love +football so, and have played all my life. Won't Brooke let me play?" + +"Not he," said East, with some indignation; "why, you don't know the +rules--you'll be a month learning them. And then it's no joke playing-up +in a match, I can tell you. Quite another thing from your private school +games. Why, there's been two collar-bones broken this half, and a dozen +fellows lamed. And last year a fellow had his leg broken." + +Tom listened with the profoundest respect to this chapter of accidents, +and followed East across the level ground till they came to a sort of +gigantic gallows of two poles eighteen feet high, fixed upright in the +ground some fourteen feet apart, with a cross bar running from one to +the other at the height of ten feet or thereabouts. + +"This is one of the goals," said East, "and you see the other across +there, right opposite, under the Doctor's wall. Well, the match is for +the best of three goals; whichever side kicks two goals wins: and it +won't do, you see, just to kick the ball through these posts, it must go +over the cross bar; any height'll do, so long as it's between the posts. +You'll have to stay in goal to touch the ball when it rolls behind the +posts, because if the other side touch it they have a try at goal. Then +we fellows in quarters, we play just about in front of goal here, and +have to turn the ball and kick it back before the big fellows on the +other side can follow it up. And in front of us all the big fellows +play, and that's where the scrummages are mostly." + +Tom's respect increased as he struggled to make out his friend's +technicalities, and the other set to work to explain the mysteries of +"off your side," "drop-kicks," "punts," "places," and the other +intricacies of the great science of football. + +"But how do you keep the ball between the goals?" said he. "I can't see +why it mightn't go right down to the chapel." + +"Why, that's out of play," answered East. "You see this gravel walk +running down all along this side of the playing-ground, and the line of +elms opposite on the other? Well, they're the bounds. As soon as the +ball gets past them, it's in touch, and out of play. And then whoever +first touches it, has to knock it straight out amongst the players-up, +who make two lines with a space between them, every fellow going on his +own side. Ain't there just fine scrummages then! and the three trees you +see there which come out into the play, that's a tremendous place when +the ball hangs there, for you get thrown against the trees, and that's +worse than any hack." + +Tom wondered within himself as they strolled back again towards the +fives' court, whether the matches were really such break-neck affairs as +East represented, and whether, if they were, he should ever get to like +them and play-up well. + +He hadn't long to wonder, however, for next minute East cried out, +"Hurra! here's the punt-about,--come along and try your hand at a kick." +The punt-about is the practice ball, which is just brought out and +kicked about anyhow from one boy to another before callings over and +dinner, and at other odd times. They joined the boys who had brought it +out, all small School-house fellows, friends of East; and Tom had the +pleasure of trying his skill, and performed very creditably, after first +driving his foot three inches into the ground, and then nearly kicking +his leg into the air, in vigorous efforts to accomplish a drop-kick +after the manner of East. + +Presently more boys and bigger came out, and boys from other houses on +their way to calling-over, and more balls were sent for. The crowd +thickened as three o'clock approached; and when the hour struck, one +hundred and fifty boys were hard at work. Then the balls were held, the +master of the week came down in cap and gown to calling-over, and the +whole school of three hundred boys swept into the big school to answer +to their names. + +"I may come in, mayn't I?" said Tom, catching East by the arm and +longing to feel one of them. + +"Yes, come along, nobody'll say anything. You won't be so eager to get +into calling-over after a month," replied his friend; and they marched +into the big school together, and up to the further end, where that +illustrious form, the lower fourth, which had the honour of East's +patronage for the time being, stood. + +The master mounted into the high desk by the door, and one of the +praepostors of the week stood by him on the steps, the other three +marching up and down the middle of the school with their canes, calling +out "Silence, silence!" The sixth form stood close by the door on the +left, some thirty in number, mostly great big grown men, as Tom thought, +surveying them from a distance with awe. The fifth form behind them, +twice their number and not quite so big. These on the left; and on the +right the lower fifth, shell, and all the junior forms in order; while +up the middle marched the three praepostors. + +Then the praepostor who stands by the master calls out the names, +beginning with the sixth form, and as he calls, each boy answers "Here" +to his name, and walks out. Some of the sixth stop at the door to turn +the whole string of boys into the close; it is a great match day, and +every boy in the school, will-he, nill-he, must be there. The rest of +the sixth go forwards into the close, to see that no one escapes by any +of the side gates. + +To-day, however, being the School-house match, none of the School-house +praepostors stay by the door to watch for truants of their side; there is +_carte blanche_ to the School-house fags to go where they like: "They +trust to our honour," as East proudly informs Tom; "they know very well +that no School-house boy would cut the match. If he did, we'd very soon +cut him, I can tell you." + +The master of the week being short-sighted, and the praepostors of the +week small and not well up to their work, the lower school boys employ +the ten minutes which elapse before their names are called, in pelting +one another vigorously with acorns, which fly about in all directions. +The small praepostors dash in every now and then, and generally chastise +some quiet, timid boy who is equally afraid of acorns and canes, while +the principal performers get dexterously out of the way; and so +calling-over rolls on somehow, much like the big world, punishments +lighting on wrong shoulders, and matters going generally in a queer, +cross-grained way, but the end coming somehow, which is after all the +great point. And now the master of the week has finished, and locked up +the big school; and the praepostors of the week come out, sweeping the +last remnant of the school fags--who had been loafing about the corners +by the fives' court, in hopes of a chance of bolting--before them into +the close. + +"Hold the punt-about!" "To the goals!" are the cries, and all stray +balls are impounded by the authorities; and the whole mass of boys moves +up towards the two goals, dividing as they go into three bodies. That +little band on the left, consisting of from fifteen to twenty boys, Tom +amongst them, who are making for the goal under the School-house wall, +are the School-house boys who are not to play-up, and have to stay in +goal. The larger body moving to the island goal, are the school-boys in +a like predicament. The great mass in the middle are the players-up, +both sides mingled together; they are hanging their jackets, and, all +who mean real work, their hats, waistcoats, neck-handkerchiefs, and +braces, on the railings round the small trees; and there they go by twos +and threes up to their respective grounds. There is none of the colour +and tastiness of get-up, you will perceive, which lends such a life to +the present game at Rugby, making the dullest and worst-fought match a +pretty sight. Now each house has its own uniform of cap and jersey, of +some lively colour: but at the time we are speaking of, plush caps have +not yet come in or uniforms of any sort, except the School-house white +trousers, which are abominably cold to-day: let us get to work, +bare-headed and girded with our plain leather straps--but we mean +business, gentlemen. + +And now that the two sides have fairly sundered, and each occupies its +own ground, and we get a good look at them what absurdity is this? You +don't mean to say that those fifty or sixty boys in white trousers, many +of them quite small, are going to play that huge mass opposite? Indeed I +do, gentlemen; they're going to try at any rate, and won't make such a +bad fight of it either, mark my word; for hasn't old Brooke won the +toss, with his lucky halfpenny, and got choice of goals and kick-off? +The new ball you may see lie there quite by itself, in the middle, +pointing towards the school or island goal; in another minute it will be +well on its way there. Use that minute in remarking how the +School-house side is drilled. You will see in the first place, that the +sixth-form boy, who has the charge of goal, has spread his force (the +goal-keepers) so as to occupy the whole space behind the goal-posts, at +distances of about five yards apart; a safe and well-kept goal is the +foundation of all good play. Old Brooke is talking to the captain of +quarters; and now he moves away; see how that youngster spreads his men +(the light brigade) carefully over the ground, half-way between their +own goal and the body of their own players-up (the heavy brigade). These +again play in several bodies; there is young Brooke and the +bull-dogs--mark them well--they are the "fighting brigade," the +"die-hards," larking about at leap-frog to keep themselves warm, and +playing tricks on one another. And on each side of old Brooke, who is +now standing in the middle of the ground and just going to kick off, you +see a separate wing of players-up, each with a boy of acknowledged +prowess to look to--here Warner, and there Hedge; but over all is old +Brooke, absolute as he of Russia, but wisely and bravely ruling over +willing and worshipping subjects, a true football king. His face is +earnest and careful as he glances a last time over his array, but full +of pluck and hope, the sort of look I hope to see in my general when I +go out to fight. + +The School side is not organized in the same way. The goal-keepers are +all in lumps, anyhow and nohow; you can't distinguish between the +players-up and the boys in quarters, and there is divided leadership; +but with such odds in strength and weight it must take more than that to +hinder them from winning; and so their leaders seem to think, for they +let the players-up manage themselves. + +But now look, there is a slight move forward of the School-house wings; +a shout of "Are you ready?" and loud affirmative reply. Old Brooke takes +half-a-dozen quick steps, and away goes the ball spinning towards the +School goal; seventy yards before it touches ground, and at no point +above twelve or fifteen feet high, a model kick-off; and the +School-house cheer and rush on; the ball is returned, and they meet it +and drive it back amongst the masses of the School already in motion. +Then the two sides close, and you can see nothing for minutes but a +swaying crowd of boys, at one point violently agitated. That is where +the ball is, and there are the keen players to be met, and the glory and +the hard knocks to be got: you hear the dull thud thud of the ball, and +the shouts of "Off your side," "Down with him," "Put him over," "Bravo!" +This is what we call a scrummage, gentlemen, and the first scrummage in +a School-house match was no joke in the consulship of Plancus. + +But see! it has broken; the ball is driven out on the School-house side, +and a rush of the School carries it past the School-house players-up. +"Look out in quarters," Brooke's and twenty other voices ring out; no +need to call though, the School-house captain of quarters has caught it +on the bound, dodges the foremost school-boys, who are heading the rush, +and sends it back with a good drop-kick well into the enemy's country. +And then follows rush upon rush, and scrummage upon scrummage, the ball +now driven through into the School-house quarters, and now into the +School goal; for the School-house have not lost the advantage which the +kick-off and a slight wind gave them at the outset, and are slightly +"penning" their adversaries. You say you don't see much in it all; +nothing but a struggling mass of boys, and a leather ball, which seems +to excite them all to great fury, as a red rag does a bull. My dear sir, +a battle would look much the same to you, except that the boys would be +men, and the balls iron; but a battle would be worth your looking at for +all that, and so is a football match. You can't be expected to +appreciate the delicate strokes of play, the turns by which a game is +lost and won,--it takes an old player to do that, but the broad +philosophy of football you can understand if you will. Come along with +me a little nearer, and let us consider it together. + +The ball has just fallen again where the two sides are thickest, and +they close rapidly around it in a scrummage; it must be driven through +now by force or skill, till it flies out on one side or the other. Look +how differently the boys face it! Here come two of the bull-dogs, +bursting through the outsiders; in they go, straight to the heart of the +scrummage, bent on driving that ball out on the opposite side. That is +what they mean to do. My sons, my sons! you are too hot; you have gone +past the ball, and must struggle now right through the scrummage, and +get round and back again to your own side, before you can be of any +further use. Here comes young Brooke; he goes in as straight as you, but +keeps his head, and backs and bends, holding himself still behind the +ball, and driving it furiously when he gets the chance. Take a leaf out +of his book, you young chargers. Here come Speedicut, and Flashman the +School-house bully, with shouts and great action. Won't you two come up +to young Brooke, after locking up, by the School-house fire, with "Old +fellow, wasn't that just a splendid scrummage by the three trees!" But +he knows you, and so do we. You don't really want to drive that ball +through that scrummage, chancing all hurt for the glory of the +School-house--but to make us think that's what you want--a vastly +different thing; and fellows of your kidney will never go through more +than the skirts of a scrummage, where it's all push and no kicking. We +respect boys who keep out of it, and don't sham going in; but you--we +had rather not say what we think of you. + +Then the boys who are bending and watching on the outside, mark +them--they are most useful players, the dodgers; who seize on the ball +the moment it rolls out from amongst the chargers, and away with it +across to the opposite goal; they seldom go into the scrummage, but must +have more coolness than the chargers: as endless as are boys' +characters, so are their ways of facing or not facing a scrummage at +football. + +Three-quarters of an hour are gone; first winds are failing, and weight +and numbers beginning to tell. Yard by yard the School-house have been +driven back, contesting every inch of ground. The bull-dogs are the +colour of mother earth from shoulder to ankle, except young Brooke, who +has a marvellous knack of keeping his legs. The School-house are being +penned in their turn, and now the ball is behind their goal, under the +Doctor's wall. The Doctor and some of his family are there looking on, +and seem as anxious as any boy for the success of the School-house. We +get a minute's breathing time before old Brooke kicks out, and he gives +the word to play strongly for touch, by the three trees. Away goes the +ball, and the bull-dogs after it, and in another minute there is a shout +of "In touch," "Our ball." Now's your time, old Brooke, while your men +are still fresh. He stands with the ball in his hand, while the two +sides form in deep lines opposite one another: he must strike it +straight out between them. The lines are thickest close to him, but +young Brooke and two or three of his men are shifting up further, where +the opposite line is weak. Old Brooke strikes it out straight and +strong, and it falls opposite his brother. Hurra! that rush has taken it +right through the School line, and away past the three trees, far into +their quarters, and young Brooke and the bull-dogs are close upon it. +The School leaders rush back shouting "Look out in goal," and strain +every nerve to catch him, but they are after the fleetest foot in Rugby. +There they go straight for the School goal-posts, quarters scattering +before them. One after another the bull-dogs go down, but young Brooke +holds on. "He is down." No! a long stagger, and the danger is past; that +was the shock of Crew, the most dangerous of dodgers. And now he is +close to the School goal, the ball not three yards before him. There is +a hurried rush of the School fags to the spot, but no one throws himself +on the ball, the only chance, and young Brooke has touched it right +under the School goal-posts. + +The School leaders come up furious, and administer toco to the wretched +fags nearest at hand: they may well be angry, for it is all +Lombard-street to a china orange that the School-house kick a goal with +the ball touched in such a good place. Old Brooke of course will kick +it out, but who shall catch and place it? Call Crab Jones. Here he +comes, sauntering along with a straw in his mouth, the queerest, coolest +fish in Rugby: if he were tumbled into the moon this minute, he would +just pick himself up without taking his hands out of his pockets or +turning a hair. But it is a moment when the boldest charger's heart +beats quick. Old Brooke stands with the ball under his arm motioning the +School back; he will not kick-out till they are all in goal, behind the +posts; they are all edging forwards, inch by inch, to get nearer for the +rush at Crab Jones, who stands there in front of old Brooke to catch the +ball. If they can reach and destroy him before he catches, the danger is +over; and with one and the same rush they will carry it right away to +the School-house goal. Fond hope! it is kicked out and caught +beautifully. Crab strikes his heel into the ground, to mark the spot +where the ball was caught, beyond which the School line may not advance; +but there they stand, five deep, ready to rush the moment the ball +touches the ground. Take plenty of room! don't give the rush a chance of +reaching you! place it true and steady! Trust Crab Jones--he has made a +small hole with his heel for the ball to lie on, by which he is resting +on one knee, with his eye on old Brooke. "Now!" Crab places the ball at +the word, old Brooke kicks, and it rises slowly and truly as the School +rush forward. + +Then a moment's pause, while both sides look up at the spinning ball. +There it flies, straight between the two posts, some five feet above the +cross-bar, an unquestioned goal; and a shout of real genuine joy rings +out from the School-house players-up, and a faint echo of it comes over +the close from the goal-keepers under the Doctor's wall. A goal in the +first hour--such a thing hasn't been done in the School-house match this +five years. + +"Over!" is the cry: the two sides change goals, and the School-house +goal-keepers come threading their way across through the masses of the +School; the most openly triumphant of them, amongst whom is Tom, a +School-house boy of two hours' standing, getting their ears boxed in the +transit. Tom indeed is excited beyond measure, and it is all the +sixth-form boy, kindest and safest of goal-keepers, has been able to do, +to keep him from rushing out whenever the ball has been near their goal. +So he holds him by his side, and instructs him in the science of +touching. + +At this moment Griffith, the itinerant vendor of oranges from Hill +Morton, enters the close with his heavy baskets; there is a rush of +small boys upon the little pale-faced man, the two sides mingling +together, subdued by the great Goddess Thirst, like the English and +French by the streams in the Pyrenees. The leaders are past oranges and +apples, but some of them visit their coats, and apply innocent looking +ginger-beer bottles to their mouths. It is no ginger-beer though, I +fear, and will do you no good. One short mad rush, and then a stitch in +the side, and no more honest play; that's what comes of those bottles. + +But now Griffith's baskets are empty, the ball is placed again midway, +and the School are going to kick off. Their leaders have sent their +lumber into goal, and rated the rest soundly, and one hundred and twenty +picked players-up are there, bent on retrieving the game. They are to +keep the ball in front of the School-house goal, and then to drive it in +by sheer strength and weight. They mean heavy play and no mistake, and +so old Brooke sees; and places Crab Jones in quarters just before the +goal, with four or five picked players, who are to keep the ball away to +the sides, where a try at goal, if obtained, will be less dangerous than +in front. He himself, and Warner and Hedge, who have saved themselves +till now, will lead the charges. + +"Are you ready?" "Yes." And away comes the ball kicked high in the air, +to give the School time to rush on and catch it as it falls. And here +they are amongst us. Meet them like Englishmen, you School-house boys, +and charge them home. Now is the time to show what mettle is in you--and +there shall be a warm seat by the hall fire, and honour, and lots of +bottled beer to-night, for him who does his duty in the next half-hour. +And they are well met. Again and again the cloud of their players-up +gathers before our goal, and comes threatening on, and Warner or Hedge, +with young Brooke and the relics of the bull-dogs, break through and +carry the ball back; and old Brooke ranges the field like Job's +war-horse, the thickest scrummage parts asunder before his rush, like +the waves before a clipper's bows; his cheery voice rings over the +field, and his eye is everywhere. And if these miss the ball, and it +rolls dangerously in front of our goal, Crab Jones and his men have +seized it and sent it away towards the sides with the unerring +drop-kick. This is worth living for; the whole sum of school-boy +existence gathered up into one straining, struggling half-hour, a +half-hour worth a year of common life. + +The quarter to five has struck, and the play slackens for a minute +before goal; but there is Crew, the artful dodger, driving the ball in +behind our goal, on the island side, where our quarters are weakest. Is +there no one to meet him? Yes! look at little East! the ball is just at +equal distances between the two, and they rush together, the young man +of seventeen and the boy of twelve, and kick it at the same moment. Crew +passes on without a stagger; East is hurled forward by the shock, and +plunges on his shoulders, as if he would bury himself in the ground; but +the ball rises straight into the air, and falls behind Crew's back, +while the "bravos" of the School-house attest the pluckiest charge of +all that hard-fought day. Warner picks East up lame and half stunned, +and he hobbles back into goal conscious of having played the man. + +And now the last minutes are come, and the School gather for their last +rush every boy of the hundred and twenty who has a run left in him. +Reckless of the defence of their own goal, on they come across the level +big-side ground, the ball well down amongst them straight for our goal, +like the column of the Old Guard up the slope at Waterloo. All former +charges have been child's play to this. Warner and Hedge have met them, +but still on they come. The bull-dogs rush in for the last time; they +are hurled over or carried back, striving hand, foot, and eyelids. Old +Brooke comes sweeping round the skirts of the play, and, turning short +round, picks out the very heart of the scrummage, and plunges in. It +wavers for a moment--he has the ball! No, it has passed him, and his +voice rings out clear over the advancing tide "Look out in goal." Crab +Jones catches it for a moment; but before he can kick, the rush is upon +him and passes over him; and he picks himself up behind them with his +straw in his mouth, a little dirtier, but as cool as ever. + +The ball rolls slowly in behind the School-house goal not three yards in +front of a dozen of the biggest School players-up. + +There stand the School-house praepostor, safest of goal-keepers, and Tom +Brown by his side, who has learned his trade by this time. Now is your +time, Tom. The blood of all the Browns is up, and the two rush in +together, and throw themselves on the ball, under the very feet of the +advancing column; the praepostor on his hands and knees arching his back, +and Tom all along on his face. Over them topple the leaders of the rush, +shooting over the back of the praepostor, but falling flat on Tom, and +knocking all the wind out of his small carcase. "Our ball," says the +praepostor, rising with his prize; "but get up there, there's a little +fellow under you." They are hauled and roll off him, and Tom is +discovered a motionless body. + +Old Brooke picks him up. "Stand back, give him air," he says; and then +feeling his limbs, adds, "No bones broken. How do you feel, young un?" + +"Hah-hah," gasps Tom as his wind comes back, "pretty well, thank +you--all right." + +"Who is he?" says Brooke. "Oh, it's Brown; he's a new boy; I know him," +says East, coming up. + +"Well, he is a plucky youngster, and will make a player," says Brooke. + +And five o'clock strikes. "No side" is called, and the first day of the +School-house match is over. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +AFTER THE MATCH. + + "----Some food we had."--_Shakspere._ + + [Greek: es potos hadys.]--THEOCR. _Id._ + + +AS the boys scattered away from the ground, and East leaning on Tom's +arm, and limping along, was beginning to consider what luxury they +should go and buy for tea to celebrate that glorious victory, the two +Brookes came striding by. Old Brooke caught sight of East, and stopped; +put his hand kindly on his shoulder and said, "Bravo, youngster, you +played famously; not much the matter, I hope?" + +"No, nothing at all," said East, "only a little twist from that +charge." + +"Well, mind and get all right for next Saturday;" and the leader passed +on, leaving East better for those few words than all the opodeldoc in +England would have made him, and Tom ready to give one of his ears for +as much notice. Ah! light words of those whom we love and honour, what a +power ye are, and how carelessly wielded by those who can use you! +Surely for these things also God will ask an account. + +"Tea's directly after locking-up, you see," said East, hobbling along as +fast as he could, "so you come along down to Sally Harrowell's; that's +our school-house tuck-shop--she bakes such stunning murphies, we'll have +a penn'orth each for tea; come along, or they'll all be gone." + +Tom's new purse and money burnt in his pocket; he wondered, as they +toddled through the quadrangle and along the street, whether East would +be insulted if he suggested further extravagance, as he had not +sufficient faith in a pennyworth of potatoes. At last he blurted out,-- + +"I say, East, can't we get something else besides potatoes? I've got +lots of money, you know." + +"Bless us, yes, I forgot," said East, "you've only just come. You see +all my tin's been gone this twelve weeks, it hardly ever lasts beyond +the first fortnight; and our allowances were all stopped this morning +for broken windows, so I haven't got a penny. I've got a tick at +Sally's, of course; but then I hate running it high, you see, towards +the end of the half, 'cause one has to shell out for it all directly one +comes back, and that's a bore." + +Tom didn't understand much of this talk, but seized on the fact that +East had no money, and was denying himself some little pet luxury in +consequence. "Well, what shall I buy?" said he; "I'm uncommon hungry." + +"I say," said East, stopping to look at him and rest his leg, "you're a +trump, Brown. I'll do the same by you next half. Let's have a pound of +sausages, then; that's the best grub for tea I know of." + +"Very well," said Tom, as pleased as possible; "where do they sell +them?" + +"Oh, over here, just opposite;" and they crossed the street and walked +into the cleanest little front room of a small house, half parlour, half +shop, and bought a pound of most particular sausages; East talking +pleasantly to Mrs. Porter while she put them in paper, and Tom doing the +paying part. + +From Porter's they adjourned to Sally Harrowell's, where they found a +lot of School-house boys waiting for the roast potatoes, and relating +their own exploits in the day's match at the top of their voices. The +street opened at once into Sally's kitchen, a low, brick-floored room, +with large recess for fire, and chimney-corner seats. Poor little Sally, +the most good-natured and much enduring of womankind, was bustling about +with a napkin in her hand, from her own oven to those of the neighbours' +cottages, up the yard at the back of the house. Stumps, her husband, a +short, easy-going shoemaker, with a beery humorous eye and ponderous +calves, who lived mostly on his wife's earnings, stood in a corner of +the room, exchanging shots of the roughest description of repartee with +every boy in turn. "Stumps, you lout, you've had too much beer again +to-day." "'Twasn't of your paying for, then."--"Stumps's calves are +running down into his ankles, they want to get to grass." "Better be +doing that, than gone altogether like yours," &c. &c. Very poor stuff it +was, but it served to make time pass; and every now and then Sally +arrived in the middle with a smoking tin of potatoes, which were cleared +off in a few seconds, each boy as he seized his lot running oft to the +house with "Put me down two-penn'orth, Sally;" "Put down three-penn'orth +between me and Davis," &c. How she ever kept the accounts so straight as +she did, in her head and on her slate, was a perfect wonder. + +East and Tom got served at last, and started back for the School-house +just as the locking-up bell began to ring; East on the way recounting +the life and adventures of Stumps, who was a character. Amongst his +other small avocations, he was the hind carrier of a sedan-chair, the +last of its race, in which the Rugby ladies still went out to tea, and +in which, when he was fairly harnessed and carrying a load, it was the +delight of small and mischievous boys to follow him and whip his calves. +This was too much for the temper even of Stumps, and he would pursue his +tormentors in a vindictive and apoplectic manner when released, but was +easily pacified by twopence to buy beer with. + +The lower school-boys of the School-house, some fifteen in number, had +tea in the lower-fifth school, and were presided over by the old verger +or head-porter. Each boy had a quarter of a loaf of bread and pat of +butter, and as much tea as he pleased; and there was scarcely one who +didn't add to this some further luxury, such as baked potatoes, a +herring, sprats, or something of the sort; but few, at this period of +the half-year, could live up to a pound of Porter's sausages, and East +was in great magnificence upon the strength of theirs. He had produced a +toasting-fork from his study, and set Tom to toast the sausages, while +he mounted guard over their butter and potatoes; "'cause," as he +explained, "you're a new boy, and they'll play you some trick and get +our butter, but you can toast just as well as I." So Tom, in the midst +of three or four more urchins similarly employed, toasted his face and +the sausages at the same time before the huge fire, till the latter +cracked; when East from his watch-tower shouted that they were done; and +then the feast proceeded, and the festive cups of tea were filled and +emptied, and Tom imparted of the sausages in small bits to many +neighbours, and thought he had never tasted such good potatoes or seen +such jolly boys. They on their parts waived all ceremony, and pegged +away at the sausages and potatoes, and, remembering Tom's performance in +goal, voted East's new crony a brick. After tea, and while the things +were being cleared away, they gathered round the fire, and the talk on +the match still went on; and those who had them to show, pulled up their +trousers and showed the hacks they had received in the good cause. + +They were soon however all turned out of the school, and East conducted +Tom up to his bedroom, that he might get on clean things and wash +himself before singing. + +"What's singing?" said Tom, taking his head out of his basin, where he +had been plunging it in cold water. + +"Well, you are jolly green," answered his friend from a neighbouring +basin. "Why, the last six Saturdays of every half, we sing of course; +and this is the first of them. No first lesson to do, you know, and lie +in bed to-morrow morning." + +"But who sings?" + +"Why everybody, of course; you'll see soon enough. We begin directly +after supper, and sing till bed-time. It ain't such good fun now though +as in the summer half, 'cause then we sing in the little fives' court, +under the library, you know. We take our tables, and the big boys sit +round, and drink beer; double allowance on Saturday nights; and we cut +about the quadrangle between the songs, and it looks like a lot of +robbers in a cave. And the louts come and pound at the great gates, and +we pound back again, and shout at them. But this half we only sing in +the hall. Come along down to my study." + +Their principal employment in the study was to clear out East's table, +removing the drawers and ornaments and table-cloth; for he lived in the +bottom passage, and his table was in requisition for the singing. + +Supper came in due course at seven o'clock, consisting of bread and +cheese and beer, which was all saved for the singing; and directly +afterwards the fags went to work to prepare the hall. The School-house +hall, as has been said, is a great long high room, with two large fires +on one side, and two large iron-bound tables, one running down the +middle, and the other along the wall opposite the fireplaces. Around the +upper fire the fags placed the tables in the form of a horse-shoe, and +upon them the jugs with the Saturday night's allowance of beer. Then +the big boys used to drop in and take their seats, bringing with them +bottled beer and song-books; for although they all knew the songs by +heart, it was the thing to have an old manuscript book descended from +some departed hero, in which they were all carefully written out. + +The sixth-form boys had not yet appeared; so, to fill up the gap, an +interesting and time-honoured ceremony was gone through. Each new boy +was placed on the table in turn, and made to sing a solo, under the +penalty of drinking a large mug of salt and water if he resisted or +broke down. However, the new boys all sing like nightingales to-night, +and the salt water is not in requisition; Tom, as his part, performing +the old west-country song of "The Leather Bottel" with considerable +applause. And at the half-hour down come the sixth and fifth form boys, +and take their places at the tables, which are filled up by the next +biggest boys, the rest, for whom there is no room at the table, standing +round outside. + +The glasses and mugs are filled, and then the fugleman strikes up the +old sea song-- + + "A wet sheet and a flowing sea, + And a wind that follows fast," &c. + +which is the invariable first song in the School-house, and all the +seventy voices join in, not mindful of harmony, but bent on noise, which +they attain decidedly; but the general effect isn't bad. And then follow +the "British Grenadiers," "Billy Taylor," "The Siege of Seringapatam," +"Three Jolly Postboys," and other vociferous songs in rapid succession, +including the "Chesapeake and Shannon," a song lately introduced in +honour of old Brooke; and when they come to the words-- + + "Brave Broke he waved his sword, crying, Now my lads, aboard, + And we'll stop their playing Yankee-doodle-dandy oh!" + +you expect the roof to come down. The sixth and fifth know that "brave +Broke" of the Shannon was no sort of relation to our old Brooke. The +fourth-form are uncertain in their belief, but for the most part hold +that old Brooke _was_ a midshipman then on board his uncle's ship. And +the lower school never doubt for a moment that it was our old Brooke who +led the boarders, in what capacity they care not a straw. During the +pauses the bottled-beer corks fly rapidly, and the talk is fast and +merry, and the big boys, at least all of them who have a fellow-feeling +for dry throats, hand their mugs over their shoulders to be emptied by +the small ones who stand round behind. + +Then Warner, the head of the house, gets up and wants to speak, but he +can't, for every boy knows what's coming; and the big boys who sit at +the tables pound them and cheer; and the small boys who stand behind +pound one another, and cheer, and rush about the hall cheering. Then +silence being made, Warner reminds them of the old School-house custom +of drinking the healths, on the first night of singing, of those who are +going to leave at the end of the half. "He sees that they know what he +is going to say already--(loud cheers)--and so won't keep them, but only +ask them to treat the toast as it deserves. It is the head of the +eleven, the head of big-side football, their leader on this glorious +day--Pater Brooke!" + +And away goes the pounding and cheering again, becoming deafening when +old Brooke gets on his legs: till, a table having broken down, and a +gallon or so of beer been upset, and all throats getting dry, silence +ensues, and the hero speaks, leaning his hands on the table, and bending +a little forwards. No action, no tricks of oratory; plain, strong, and +straight, like his play. + +"Gentlemen of the School-house! I am very proud of the way in which you +have received my name, and I wish I could say all I should like in +return. But I know I shan't. However, I'll do the best I can to say what +seems to me ought to be said by a fellow who's just going to leave, and +who has spent a good slice of his life here. Eight years it is, and +eight such years as I can never hope to have again. So now I hope you'll +all listen to me--(loud cheers of 'that we will')--for I'm going to talk +seriously. You're bound to listen to me; for what's the use of calling +me 'pater,' and all that, if you don't mind what I say? And I'm going to +talk seriously, because I feel so. It's a jolly time, too, getting to +the end of the half, and a goal kicked by us first day--(tremendous +applause)--after one of the hardest and fiercest day's play I can +remember in eight years--(frantic shoutings). The school played +splendidly, too, I will say, and kept it up to the last. That last +charge of theirs would have carried away a house. I never thought to see +anything again of old Crab there, except little pieces, when I saw him +tumbled over by it--(laughter and shouting, and great slapping on the +back of Jones by the boys nearest him). Well, but we beat 'em--(cheers). +Aye, but why did we beat 'em? answer me that--(shouts of 'your play.') +Nonsense! 'Twasn't the wind and kick-off either--that wouldn't do it. +'Twasn't because we've half-a-dozen of the best players in the school, +as we have. I wouldn't change Warner, and Hedge, and Crab, and the young +un, for any six on their side--(violent cheers.) But half-a-dozen +fellows can't keep it up for two hours against two hundred. Why is it, +then? I'll tell you what I think. It's because we've more reliance on +one another, more of a house feeling, more fellowship than the school +can have. Each of us knows and can depend on his next hand man +better--that's why we beat 'em to-day. We've union, they've +division--there's the secret--(cheers). But how's this to be kept up? +How's it to be improved? That's the question. For I take it, we're all +in earnest about beating the school, whatever else we care about. I know +I'd sooner win two School-house matches running than get the Balliol +scholarship any day--(frantic cheers). + +"Now, I'm as proud of the house as any one. I believe it's the best +house in the school, out-and-out--(cheers). But it's a long way from +what I want to see it. First there's a deal of bullying going on. I know +it well. I don't pry about and interfere; that only makes it more +underhand, and encourages the small boys to come to us with their +fingers in their eyes telling tales, and so we should be worse off than +ever. It's very little kindness for the sixth to meddle generally--you +youngsters, mind that. You'll be all the better football players for +learning to stand it, and to take your own parts, and fight it through. +But depend on it, there's nothing breaks up a house like bullying. +Bullies are cowards, and one coward makes many; so good-bye to the +School-house match if bullying gets ahead here. (Loud applause from the +small boys, who look meaningly at Flashman and other boys at the +tables.) Then there's fuddling about in the public-houses, and drinking +bad spirits, and punch, and such rot-gut stuff. That won't make good +drop-kicks or chargers of you, take my word for it. You get plenty of +good beer here, and that's enough for you; and drinking isn't fine or +manly, whatever some of you may think of it. + +"One other thing I must have a word about. A lot of you think and say, +for I've heard you, 'There's this new Doctor hasn't been here so long as +some of us, and he's changing all the old customs. Rugby, and the +School-house especially, are going to the dogs. Stand up for the good +old ways, and down with the Doctor!' Now I'm as fond of old Rugby +customs and ways as any of you, and I've been here longer than any of +you, and I'll give you a word of advice in time, for I shouldn't like to +see any of you getting sacked. 'Down with the Doctor!' is easier said +than done. You'll find him pretty tight on his perch, I take it, and an +awkwardish customer to handle in that line. Besides now, what customs +has he put down? There was the good old custom of taking the linch-pins +out of the farmers' and bagmen's gigs at the fairs, and a cowardly +blackguard custom it was. We all know what came of it; and no wonder the +Doctor objected to it. But, come now, any of you, name a custom that he +has put down." + +"The hounds," calls out a fifth-form boy, clad in a green cutaway with +brass buttons and cord trousers, the leader of the sporting interest, +and reputed a great rider and keen hand generally. + +"Well, we had six or seven mangey harriers and beagles belonging to the +house, I'll allow, and had had them for years, and that the Doctor put +them down. But what good ever came of them? Only rows with all the +keepers for ten miles round; and big-side Hare and Hounds is better fun +ten times over. What else?" + +No answer. + +"Well, I won't go on. Think it over for yourselves: you'll find, I +believe, that he don't meddle with any one that's worth keeping. And +mind now, I say again, look out for squalls, if you will go your own +way, and that way ain't the Doctor's, for it'll lead to grief. You all +know that I'm not the fellow to back a master through thick and thin. If +I saw him stopping football, or cricket, or bathing, or sparring, I'd be +as ready as any fellow to stand up about it. But he don't--he encourages +them; didn't you see him out to-day for half-an-hour watching us? (loud +cheers for the Doctor;) and he's a strong, true man, and a wise one too, +and a public-school man too. (Cheers.) And so let's stick to him, and +talk no more rot, and drink his health as the head of the house. (Loud +cheers.) And now I've done blowing up, and very glad I am to have done. +But it's a solemn thing to be thinking of leaving a place which one has +lived in and loved for eight years; and if one can say a word for the +good of the old house at such a time, why, it should be said, whether +bitter or sweet. If I hadn't been proud of the house and you--aye, no +one knows how proud--I shouldn't be blowing you up. And now let's get +to singing. But before I sit down I must give you a toast to be drunk +with three-times-three and all the honours. It's a toast which I hope +every one of us, wherever he may go hereafter, will never fail to drink +when he thinks of the brave bright days of his boyhood. It's a toast +which should bind us all together, and to those who've gone before, and +who'll come after us here. It is the dear old school-house--the best +house of the best school in England!" + +My dear boys, old and young, you who have belonged, or do belong, to +other schools and other houses, don't begin throwing my poor little book +about the room, and abusing me and it, and vowing you'll read no more +when you get to this point. I allow you've provocation for it. But, come +now--would you, any of you, give a fig for a fellow who didn't believe +in, and stand up for his own house and his own school? You know you +wouldn't. Then don't object to my cracking up the old School-house, +Rugby. Haven't I a right to do it, when I'm taking all the trouble of +writing this true history for all your benefits? If you ain't satisfied, +go and write the history of your own houses in your own times, and say +all you know for your own schools and houses, provided it's true, and +I'll read it without abusing you. + +The last few words hit the audience in their weakest place; they had +been not altogether enthusiastic at several parts of old Brooke's +speech; but "the best house of the best school in England" was too much +for them all, and carried even the sporting and drinking interests off +their legs into rapturous applause, and (it is to be hoped) resolutions +to lead a new life and remember old Brooke's words; which, however, +they didn't altogether do, as will appear hereafter. + +But it required all old Brooke's popularity to carry down parts of his +speech; especially that relating to the Doctor. For there are no such +bigoted holders by established forms and customs, be they never so +foolish or meaningless, as English school-boys--at least, as the +school-boy of our generation. We magnified into heroes every boy who had +left, and looked upon him with awe and reverence, when he revisited the +place a year or so afterwards, on his way to or from Oxford or +Cambridge; and happy was the boy who remembered him, and sure of an +audience as he expounded what he used to do and say, though it were sad +enough stuff to make angels, not to say head-masters, weep. + +We looked upon every trumpery little custom and habit which had obtained +in the school as though it had been a law of the Medes and Persians, and +regarded the infringement or variation of it as a sort of sacrilege. And +the Doctor, than whom no man or boy had a stronger liking for old school +customs which were good and sensible, had, as has already been hinted, +come into most decided collision with several which were neither the one +nor the other. And as old Brooke had said, when he came into collision +with boys or customs, there was nothing for them but to give in or take +themselves off; because what he said had to be done, and no mistake +about it. And this was beginning to be pretty clearly understood; the +boys felt that there was a strong man over them, who would have things +his own way; and hadn't yet learned that he was a wise and loving man +also. His personal character and influence had not had time to make +itself felt, except by a very few of the bigger boys, with whom he came +more directly in contact; and he was looked upon with great fear and +dislike by the great majority even of his own house. For he had found +school, and school-house, in a state of monstrous license and misrule, +and was still employed in the necessary but unpopular work of setting up +order with a strong hand. + +However, as has been said, old Brooke triumphed, and the boys cheered +him and then the Doctor. And then more songs came, and the healths of +the other boys about to leave, who each made a speech, one flowery, +another maudlin, a third prosy, and so on, which are not necessary to be +here recorded. + +Half-past nine struck in the middle of the performance of "Auld Lang +Syne," a most obstreperous proceeding; during which there was an immense +amount of standing with one foot on the table, knocking mugs together +and shaking hands, without which accompaniments it seems impossible for +the youth of Britain to take part in that famous old song. The +under-porter of the School-house entered during the performance, bearing +five or six long wooden candlesticks, with lighted dips in them, which +he proceeded to stick into their holes in such part of the great tables +as he could get at; and then stood outside the ring till the end of the +song, when he was hailed with shouts. + +"Bill, you old muff, the half-hour hasn't struck." "Here, Bill, drink +some cocktail," "Sing us a song old boy," "Don't you wish you may get +the table?" Bill drank the proffered cocktail not unwillingly, and +putting down the empty glass, remonstrated, "Now, gentlemen, there's +only ten minutes to prayers, and we must get the hall straight." + +Shouts of "No, no!" and a violent effort to strike up "Billy Taylor" for +the third time. Bill looked appealingly to old Brooke, who got up and +stopped the noise. "Now then, lend a hand, you youngsters, and get the +tables back; clear away the jugs and glasses. Bill's right. Open the +windows, Warner." The boy addressed, who sat by the long ropes, +proceeded to pull up the great windows, and let in a clear fresh rush of +night air, which made the candles flicker and gutter, and the fires +roar. The circle broke up, each collaring his own jug, glass, and +song-book; Bill pounced on the big table, and began to rattle it away to +its place outside the buttery-door. The lower-passage boys carried off +their small tables, aided by their friends, while above all, standing on +the great hall-table, a knot of untiring sons of harmony made night +doleful by a prolonged performance of "God save the King." His Majesty +King William IV. then reigned over us, a monarch deservedly popular +amongst the boys addicted to melody, to whom he was chiefly known from +the beginning of that excellent, if slightly vulgar, song in which they +much delighted-- + + "Come, neighbours all, both great and small, + Perform your duties here, + And loudly sing 'live Billy our king,' + For bating the tax upon beer." + +Others of the more learned in songs also celebrated his praises in a +sort of ballad, which I take to have been written by some Irish +loyalist. I have forgotten all but the chorus, which ran-- + + "God save our good King William, be his name for ever blessed: + He's the father of all his people, and the guardian of all the rest." + +In troth, we were loyal subjects in those days, in a rough way. I trust +that our successors make as much of her present Majesty, and, having +regard to the greater refinement of the times, have adopted or written +other songs equally hearty, but more civilized, in her honour. + +Then the quarter to ten struck, and the prayer-bell rang. The sixth and +fifth form boys ranged themselves in their school order along the wall, +on either side of the great fives, the middle fifth and upper-school +boys round the long table in the middle of the hall, and the +lower-school boys round the upper part of the second long table, which +ran down the side of the hall furthest from the fires. Here Tom found +himself at the bottom of all, in a state of mind and body not at all fit +for prayers, as he thought; and so tried hard to make himself serious, +but couldn't, for the life of him, do anything but repeat in his head +the choruses of some of the songs, and stare at all the boys opposite, +wondering at the brilliancy of their waistcoats, and speculating what +sort of fellows they were. The steps of the head-porter are heard on the +stairs, and a light gleams at the door. "Hush!" from the fifth-form boys +who stand there, and then in strides the Doctor, cap on head, book in +one hand, and gathering up his gown in the other. He walks up the +middle, and takes his post by Warner, who begins calling over the names. +The Doctor takes no notice of anything, but quietly turns over his book +and finds the place, and then stands, cap in hand and finger in book, +looking straight before his nose. He knows better than any one when to +look, and when to see nothing; to-night is singing night, and there's +been lots of noise and no harm done; nothing but beer drunk, and nobody +the worse for it; though some of them do look hot and excited. So the +Doctor sees nothing, but fascinates Tom in a horrible manner as he +stands there, and reads out the Psalm in that deep, ringing, searching +voice of his. Prayers are over, and Tom still stares open-mouthed after +the Doctor's retiring figure, when he feels a pull at his sleeve, and +turning round, sees East. + +"I say, were you ever tossed in a blanket?" + +"No," said Tom; "why?" + +"'Cause there'll be tossing to-night, most likely, before the sixth come +up to bed. So if you funk, you just come along and hide, or else they'll +catch you and toss you." + +"Were you ever tossed? Does it hurt?" inquired Tom. + +"Oh yes, bless you, a dozen times," said East, as he hobbled along by +Tom's side up-stairs. "It don't hurt unless you fall on the floor. But +most fellows don't like it." + +They stopped at the fireplace in the top passage, where were a crowd of +small boys whispering together, and evidently unwilling to go up into +the bedrooms. In a minute, however, a study door opened, and a +sixth-form boy came out, and off they all scuttled up the stairs, and +then noiselessly dispersed to their different rooms. Tom's heart beat +rather quick as he and East reached their room, but he had made up his +mind. "I shan't hide, East," said he. + +"Very well, old fellow," replied East, evidently pleased; "no more shall +I--they'll be here for us directly." + +The room was a great big one, with a dozen beds in it, but not a boy +that Tom could see, except East and himself. East pulled off his coat +and waistcoat, and then sat on the bottom of his bed, whistling, and +pulling off his boots; Tom followed his example. + +A noise and steps are heard in the passage, the door opens, and in rush +four or five great fifth-form boys, headed by Flashman in his glory. + +Tom and East slept in the further corner of the room, and were not seen +at first. + +"Gone to ground, eh?" roared Flashman; "push 'em out then, boys! look +under the beds:" and he pulled up the little white curtain of the one +nearest him. "Who-o-op," he roared, pulling away at the leg of a small +boy, who held on tight to the leg of the bed, and sung out lustily for +mercy. + +"Here, lend a hand, one of you, and help me pull out this young howling +brute. Hold your tongue, sir, or I'll kill you." + +"Oh, please, Flashman, please, Walker, don't toss me! I'll fag for you, +I'll do anything, only don't toss me." + +"You be hanged," said Flashman, lugging the wretched boy along, "'twont +hurt you,----you! Come along, boys, here he is." + +"I say, Flashy," sung out another of the big boys, "drop that; you heard +what old Pater Brooke said to-night I'll he hanged if we'll toss any +one against their will--no more bullying. Let him go, I say." + +Flashman, with an oath and a kick, released his prey, who rushed +headlong under his bed again, for fear they should change their minds, +and crept along underneath the other beds, till he got under that of the +sixth-form boy, which he knew they daren't disturb. + +"There's plenty of youngsters don't care about it," said Walker. "Here, +here's Scud East--you'll be tossed, won't you, young un?" Scud was +East's nickname, or Black, as we called it, gained by his fleetness of +foot. + +"Yes," said East, "if you like, only mind my foot." + +"And here's another who didn't hide. Hullo! new boy; what's your name, +sir?" + +"Brown." + +"Well, Whitey Brown, you don't mind being tossed?" + +"No," said Tom, setting his teeth. + +"Come along then, boys," sung out Walker; and away they all went, +carrying along Tom and East, to the intense relief of four or five other +small boys, who crept out from under the beds and behind them. + +"What a trump Scud is!" said one. "They won't come back here now." + +"And that new boy, too; he must be a good plucked one." + +"Ah! wait till he has been tossed on to the floor; see how he'll like it +then!" + +Meantime the procession went down the passage to Number 7, the largest +room, and the scene of tossing, in the middle of which was a great open +space. Here they joined other parties of the bigger boys, each with a +captive or two, some willing to be tossed, some sullen, and some +frightened to death. At Walker's suggestion, all who were afraid were +let off, in honour of Pater Brooke's speech. + +Then a dozen big boys seized hold of a blanket dragged from one of the +beds. "In with Scud, quick! there's no time to lose." East was chucked +into the blanket. "Once, twice, thrice, and away;" up he went like a +shuttlecock, but not quite up to the ceiling. + +"Now, boys, with a will," cried Walker, "once, twice, thrice, and away!" +This time he went clean up, and kept himself from touching the ceiling +with his hand; and so again a third time, when he was turned out, and up +went another boy. And then came Tom's turn. He lay quite still, by +East's advice, and didn't dislike the "once, twice, thrice;" but the +"away" wasn't so pleasant. They were in good wind now, and sent him slap +up to the ceiling first time, against which his knees came rather +sharply. But the moment's pause before descending was the rub, the +feeling of utter helplessness, and of leaving his whole inside behind +him sticking to the ceiling. Tom was very near shouting to be set down, +when he found himself back in the blanket, but thought of East, and +didn't; and so took his three tosses without a kick or a cry, and was +called a young trump for his pains. + +He and East, having earned it, stood now looking on. No catastrophe +happened, as all the captives were cool hands, and didn't struggle. This +didn't suit Flashman. What your real bully likes in tossing, is when the +boys kick and struggle, or hold on to one side of the blanket, and so +get pitched bodily on to the floor; it's no fun to him when no one is +hurt or frightened. + +"Let's toss two of them together, Walker," suggested he. + +"What a cursed bully you are, Flashy!" rejoined the other. "Up with +another one." + +And so no two boys were tossed together, the peculiar hardship of which +is, that it's too much for human nature to lie still then and share +troubles; and so the wretched pair of small boys struggle in the air +which shall fall a-top in the descent, to the no small risk of both +falling out of the blanket, and the huge delight of brutes like +Flashman. + +But now there's a cry that the praepostor of the room is coming; so the +tossing stops, and all scatter to their different rooms: and Tom is left +to turn in, with the first day's experience of a public school to +meditate upon. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +SETTLING TO THE COLLAR + + Says Giles, "Tis mortal hard to go; + But if so be's I must, + I means to follow arter he + As goes hisself the fust."--_Ballad._ + + +EVERYBODY, I suppose, knows the dreamy delicious state in which one +lies, half asleep, half awake, while consciousness begins to return, +after a sound night's rest in a new place which we are glad to be in, +following upon a day of unwonted excitement and exertion. There are few +pleasanter pieces of life. The worst of it is that they last such a +short time; for, nurse them as you will, by lying perfectly passive in +mind and body, you can't make more than five minutes or so of them. +After which time, the stupid, obtrusive, wakeful entity which we call +'I,' as impatient as he is stiff-necked, spite of our teeth will force +himself back again, and take possession of us down to our very toes. + +It was in this state that Master Tom lay at half-past seven on the +morning following the day of his arrival, and from his clean little +white bed watched the movements of Bogle (the generic name by which the +successive shoeblacks of the School-house were known), as he marched +round from bed to bed, collecting the dirty shoes and boots, and +depositing clean ones in their places. + +There he lay, half doubtful as to where exactly in the universe he was, +but conscious that he had made a step in life which he had been anxious +to make. It was only just light as he looked lazily out of the wide +windows, and saw the tops of the great elms, and the rooks circling +about, and cawing remonstrances to the lazy ones of their commonwealth, +before starting in a body for the neighbouring ploughed fields. The +noise of the room-door closing behind Bogle, as he made his exit with +the shoe-basket under his arm, roused Tom thoroughly, and he sat up in +bed and looked round the room. What in the world could be the matter +with his shoulders and loins? He felt as if he had been severely beaten +all down his back, the natural result of his performance at his first +match. He drew up his knees and rested his chin on them, and went over +all the events of yesterday, rejoicing in his new life, what he had seen +of it, and all that was to come. + +Presently one or two of the other boys roused themselves, and began to +sit up and talk to one another in low tones. Then East, after a roll or +two, came to an anchor also, and, nodding to Tom, began examining his +ankle. + +"What a pull," said he, "that it's lie-in-bed, for I shall be as lame as +a tree, I think." + +It was Sunday morning, and Sunday lectures had not yet been established; +so that nothing but breakfast intervened between bed and eleven o'clock +chapel--a gap by no means easy to fill up: in fact, though received with +the correct amount of grumbling, the first lecture instituted by the +Doctor shortly afterwards was a great boon to the School. It was lie in +bed, and no one was in a hurry to get up, especially in rooms where the +sixth-form boy was a good-tempered fellow, as was the case in Tom's +room, and allowed the small boys to talk and laugh, and do pretty much +what they pleased, so long as they didn't disturb him. His bed was a +bigger one than the rest, standing in the corner by the fireplace, with +a washing-stand and large basin by the side, where he lay in state, with +his white curtains tucked in so as to form a retiring place: an awful +subject of contemplation to Tom, who slept nearly opposite, and watched +the great man rouse himself and take a book from under his pillow, and +begin reading, leaning his head on his hand, and turning his back to the +room. Soon, however, a noise of striving urchins arose, and muttered +encouragements from the neighbouring boys, of--"Go it, Tadpole!" "Now, +young Green!" "Haul away his blanket!" "Slipper him on the hands!" Young +Green and little Hall, commonly called Tadpole, from his great black +head and thin legs, slept side by side far away by the door, and were +for ever playing one another tricks, which usually ended, as on this +morning, in open and violent collision: and now, unmindful of all order +and authority, there they were, each hauling away at the other's +bed-clothes with one hand, and with the other, armed with a slipper, +belabouring whatever portion of the body of his adversary came within +reach. + +"Hold that noise, up in the corner," called out the praepostor, sitting +up and looking round his curtains; and the Tadpole and young Green sank +down into their disordered beds, and then, looking at his watch, added +"Hullo, past eight!--whose turn for hot water?" + +(Where the praepostor was particular in his ablutions, the fags in his +room had to descend in turn to the kitchen, and beg or steal hot water +for him; and often the custom extended further, and two boys went down +every morning to get a supply for the whole room.) + +"East's and Tadpole's," answered the senior fag, who kept the rota. + +"I can't go," said East; "I'm dead lame." + +"Well, be quick, some of you, that's all," said the great man, as he +turned out of bed, and putting on his slippers, went out into the great +passage which runs the whole length of the bedrooms, to get his Sunday +habiliments out of his portmanteau. + +"Let me go for you," said Tom to East, "I should like it." + +"Well, thank'ee, that's a good fellow. Just pull on your trousers, and +take your jug and mine. Tadpole will show you the way." + +And so Tom and the Tadpole, in night-shirts and trousers, started off +down-stairs, and through "Thos's hole," as the little buttery, where +candles and beer and bread and cheese were served out at night, was +called; across the School-house court, down a long passage, and into the +kitchen; where, after some parley with the stalwart, handsome cook, who +declared that she had filled a dozen jugs already, they got their hot +water, and returned with all speed and great caution. As it was, they +narrowly escaped capture by some privateers from the fifth-form rooms, +who were on the look-out for the hot-water convoys, and pursued them up +to the very door of their room, making them spill half their load in the +passage. "Better than going down again though," Tadpole remarked, "as we +should have had to do, if those beggars had caught us." + +By the time that the calling-over bell rang, Tom and his new comrades +were all down, dressed in their best clothes, and he had the +satisfaction of answering "here" to his name for the first time, the +praepostor of the week having put it in at the bottom of his list. And +then came breakfast, and a saunter about the close and town with East, +whose lameness only became severe when any fagging had to be done. And +so they whiled away the time until morning chapel. + +It was a fine November morning, and the close soon became alive with +boys of all ages, who sauntered about on the grass, or walked round the +gravel walk, in parties of two or three. East, still doing the cicerone, +pointed out all the remarkable characters to Tom as they passed: Osbert, +who could throw a cricket-ball from the little-side ground over the rook +trees to the Doctor's wall; Gray, who had got the Balliol scholarship, +and, what East evidently thought of much more importance, a half-holiday +for the School by his success; Thorne, who had run ten miles in two +minutes over the hour; Black, who had held his own against the cock of +the town in the last row with the louts; and many more heroes, who then +and there walked about and were worshipped, all trace of whom has long +since vanished from the scene of their fame; and the fourth-form boy who +reads their names rudely cut out on the old hall tables, or painted upon +the big side-cupboard (if hall tables, and big side-cupboards still +exist), wonders what manner of boys they were. It will be the same with +you who wonder, my sons, whatever your prowess may be, in cricket, or +scholarship, or football. Two or three years, more or less, and then the +steadily advancing, blessed wave will pass over your names as it has +passed over ours. Nevertheless, play your games and do your work +manfully--see only that that be done, and let the remembrance of it take +care of itself. + +The chapel-bell began to ring at a quarter to eleven, and Tom got in +early and took his place in the lowest row, and watched all the other +boys come in and take their places, filling row after row; and tried to +construe the Greek text which was inscribed over the door with the +slightest possible success, and wondered which of the masters, who +walked down the chapel and took their seats in the exalted boxes at the +end, would be his lord. And then came the closing of the doors, and the +Doctor in his robes and the service, which, however, didn't impress him +much, for his feeling of wonder and curiosity was too strong. And the +boy on one side of him was scratching his name on the oak panelling in +front, and he couldn't help watching to see what the name was, and +whether it was well scratched; and the boy on the other side went to +sleep and kept falling against him; and on the whole, though many boys +even in that part of the School were serious and attentive, the general +atmosphere was by no means devotional; and when he got out into the +close again, he didn't feel at all comfortable, or as if he had been to +church. + +But at afternoon chapel it was quite another thing. He had spent the +time after dinner in writing home to his mother, and so was in a better +frame of mind; and his first curiosity was over, and he could attend +more to the service. As the hymn after the prayers was being sung, and +the chapel was getting a little dark, he was beginning to feel that he +had been really worshipping. And then came that great event in his, as +in every Rugby boy's life of that day--the first sermon from the Doctor. + +More worthy pens than mine have described that scene. The oak pulpit +standing out by itself above the School seats. The tall gallant form, +the kindling eye, the voice, now soft as the low notes of a flute, now +clear and stirring as the call of the light infantry bugle, of him who +stood there Sunday after Sunday, witnessing and pleading for his Lord, +the King of righteousness and love and glory, with whose spirit he was +filled, and in whose power he spoke. The long lines of young faces, +rising tier above tier down the whole length of the chapel, from the +little boy's who had just left his mother to the young man's who was +going out next week into the great world rejoicing in his strength. It +was a great and solemn sight, and never more so than at this time of +year, when the only lights in the chapel were in the pulpit and at the +seats of the praepostors of the week, and the soft twilight stole over +the rest of the chapel, deepening into darkness in the high gallery +behind the organ. + +But what was it after all which seized and held these three hundred +boys, dragging them out of themselves, willing or unwilling, for twenty +minutes, on Sunday afternoon? True, there always were boys scattered up +and down the School, who in heart and head were worthy to hear and able +to carry away the deepest and wisest words there spoken. But these were +a minority always, generally a very small one, often so small a one as +to be countable on the fingers of your hand. What was it that moved and +held us, the rest of the three hundred reckless, childish boys, who +feared the Doctor with all our hearts, and very little besides in heaven +or earth: who thought more of our sets in the School than of the Church +of Christ, and put the traditions of Rugby and the public opinion of +boys in our daily life above the laws of God? We couldn't enter into +half that we heard; we hadn't the knowledge of our own hearts or the +knowledge of one another; and little enough of the faith, hope, and love +needed to that end. But we listened, as all boys in their better moods +will listen (aye, and men too, for the matter of that), to a man who we +felt to be, with all Ins heart and soul and strength, striving against +whatever was mean and unmanly and unrighteous in our little world. It +was not the cold clear voice of one giving advice and warning from +serene heights to those who were struggling and sinning below, but the +warm living voice of one who was fighting for us and by our sides, and +calling on us to help him and ourselves and one another. And so, wearily +and little by little, but surely and steadily on the whole, was brought +home to the young boy, for the first time, the meaning of his life: that +it was no fool's or sluggard's paradise into which he had wandered by +chance, but a battle-field ordained from of old, where there are no +spectators, but the youngest must take his side, and the stakes are life +and death. And he who roused his consciousness in them showed them at +the same time, by every word he spoke in the pulpit, and by his whole +daily life, how that battle was to be fought; and stood there before +them their fellow-soldier and the captain of their band. The true sort +of captain, too, for a boy's army, one who had no misgivings and gave no +uncertain word of command, and, let who would yield or make a truce, +would fight the fight out (so every boy felt) to the last gasp and the +last drop of blood. Other sides of his character might take hold of and +influence boys here and there, but it was this thoroughness and +undaunted courage which more than anything else won his way to the +hearts of the great mass of those on whom he left his mark, and made +them believe first in him, and then in his Master. + +It was this quality above all others which moved such boys as our hero, +who had nothing whatever remarkable about him except excess of +boyishness; by which I mean animal life in its fullest measure, good +nature and honest impulses, hatred of injustice and meanness, and +thoughtlessness enough to sink a three-decker. And so, during the next +two years, in which it was more than doubtful whether he would get good +or evil from the School, and before any steady purpose or principle grew +up in him, whatever his week's sins and shortcomings might have been, he +hardly ever left the chapel on Sunday evenings without a serious resolve +to stand by and follow the Doctor, and a feeling that it was only +cowardice (the incarnation of all other sins in such a boy's mind) which +hindered him from doing so with all his heart. + +The next day Tom was duly placed in the third form, and began his +lessons in a corner of the big School. He found the work very easy, as +he had been well grounded, and knew his grammar by heart; and, as he had +no intimate companion to make him idle (East and his other School-house +friends being in the lower fourth, the form above him), soon gained +golden opinions from his master, who said he was placed too low, and +should be put out at the end of the half-year. So all went well with him +in School, and he wrote the most flourishing letters home to his mother, +full of his success and the unspeakable delights of a public school. + +In the house, too, all went well. The end of the half-year was drawing +near, which kept everybody in a good humour, and the house was ruled +well and strongly by Warner and Brooke. True, the general system was +rough and hard, and there was bullying in nooks and corners, bad signs +for the future; but it never got further, or dared show itself openly, +stalking about the passages and hall and bedrooms, and making the life +of the small boys a continual fear. + +[Illustration: THE NIGHT FAG. P. 141.] + +Tom, as a new boy, was of right excused fagging for the first month, but +in his enthusiasm for his new life this privilege hardly pleased him; +and East and others of his young friends discovering this, kindly +allowed him to indulge his fancy, and take their turns at night fagging +and cleaning studies. These were the principal duties of the fags in the +house. From supper until nine o'clock, three fags taken in order stood +in the passages, and answered any praepostor who called Fag, racing to +the door, the last comer having to do the work. This consisted generally +of going to the buttery for beer and bread and cheese (for the great men +did not sup with the rest, but had each his own allowance in his study +or the fifth-form room), cleaning candlesticks and putting in new +candles, toasting cheese, bottling beer, and carrying messages about the +house; and Tom, in the first blush of his hero-worship, felt it a high +privilege to receive orders from, and be the bearer of, the supper of +old Brooke. And besides this night-work, each praepostor had three or +four fags specially allotted to him, of whom he was supposed to be the +guide, philosopher, and friend, and who in return for these good offices +had to clean out his study every morning by turns, directly after first +lesson and before he returned from breakfast. And the pleasure of seeing +the great men's studies, and looking at their pictures, and peeping into +their books, made Tom a ready substitute for any boy who was too lazy to +do his own work. And so he soon gained the character of a good-natured +willing fellow, who was ready to do a turn for any one. + +In all the games too he joined with all his heart and soon became +well versed in all the mysteries of football, by continued practice at +the School-house little-side, which played daily. + +The only incident worth recording here, however, was his first run at +Hare-and-hounds. On the last Tuesday but one of the half-year he was +passing through the Hall after dinner, when he was hailed with shouts +from Tadpole and several other fags seated at one of the long tables, +the chorus of which was "Come and help us tear up scent." + +Tom approached the table in obedience to the mysterious summons, always +ready to help, and found the party engaged in tearing up old newspapers, +copy-books, and magazines, into small pieces, with which they were +filling four large canvas bags. + +"It's the turn of our house to find scent for big-side Hare-and-hounds," +exclaimed Tadpole; "tear away, there's no time to lose before +calling-over." + +"I think it's a great shame," said another small boy, "to have such a +hard run for the last day." + +"Which run is it?" said Tadpole. + +"Oh, the Barby run, I hear," answered the other; "nine miles at least, +and hard ground; no chance of getting in at the finish, unless you're a +first-rate scud." + +"Well, I'm going to have a try," said Tadpole; "it's the last run of the +half, and if a fellow gets in at the end, big-side stands ale and bread +and cheese, and a bowl of punch; and the Cock's such a famous place for +ale." + +"I should like to try too," said Tom. + +"Well then, leave your waistcoat behind, and listen at the door, after +calling-over, and you'll hear where the meet is." + +After calling-over, sure enough, there were two boys at the door, +calling out, "Big-side Hare-and-hounds meet at White Hall;" and Tom, +having girded himself with leather strap, and left all superfluous +clothing behind, set off for White Hall, an old gable-ended house some +quarter of a mile from town, with East, whom he had persuaded to join, +notwithstanding his prophecy that they could never get in, as it was the +hardest run of the year. + +At the meet they found some forty or fifty boys, and Tom felt sure, from +having seen many of them run at football, that he and East were more +likely to get in than they. + +After a few minutes' waiting, two well-known runners, chosen for the +hares, buckled on the four bags filled with scent, compared their +watches with those of young Brooke and Thorne, and started off at a long +slinging trot across the fields in the direction of Barby. + +Then the hounds clustered round Thorne, who explained shortly, "They're +to have six minutes' law. We run into the Cock, and every one who comes +in within a quarter of an hour of the hares'll be counted, if he has +been round Barby church." Then came a minute's pause or so, and then the +watches are pocketed, and the pack is led through the gateway into the +field which the hares had first crossed. Here they break into a trot, +scattering over the field to find the first traces of the scent which +the hares throw out as they go along. The old hounds make straight for +the likely points, and in a minute a cry of "forward" comes from one of +them, and the whole pack quickening their pace make for the spot, while +the boy who hit the scent first and the two or three nearest to him are +over the first fence, and making play along the hedgerow in the long +grass-field beyond. The rest of the pack rush at the gap already made, +and scramble through, jostling one another. "Forward" again, before they +are half through; the pace quickens into a sharp run, the tail hounds +all straining to get up with the lucky leaders. They are gallant hares, +and the scent lies thick right across another meadow and into a ploughed +field, where the pace begins to tell; and then over a good wattle with a +ditch on the other side, and down a large pasture studded with old +thorns, which slopes down to the first brook; the great Leicestershire +sheep charge away across the field as the pack comes racing down the +slope. The brook is a small one, and the scent lies right ahead up the +opposite slope, and as thick as ever; not a turn or a check to favour +the tail hounds, who strain on, now trailing in a long line, many a +youngster beginning to drag his legs heavily, and feel his heart beat +like a hammer, and the bad plucked ones thinking that after all it isn't +worth while to keep it up. + +Tom, East, and the Tadpole had a good start, and are well up for such +young hands, and after rising the slope and crossing the next field, +find themselves up with the leading hounds, who have over-run the scent +and are trying back; they have come a mile and a half in about eleven +minutes, a pace which shows that it is the last day. About twenty-five +of the original starters only show here, the rest having already given +in; the leaders are busy making casts into the fields on the left and +right, and the others get their second winds. + +Then comes the cry of "forward" again, from young Brooke, from the +extreme left, and the pack settles down to work again steadily and +doggedly, the whole keeping pretty well together. The scent, though +still good, is not so thick; there is no need of that, for in this part +of the run every one knows the line which must be taken, and so there +are no casts to be made, but good downright running and fencing to be +done. All who are now up mean coming in, and they come to the foot of +Barby Hill without losing more than two or three more of the pack. This +last straight two miles and a half is always a vantage ground for the +hounds, and the hares know it well; they are generally viewed on the +side of Barby Hill, and all eyes are on the look-out for them to-day. +But not a sign of them appears, so now will be the hard work for the +hounds, and there is nothing for it but to cast about for the scent, for +it is now the hares' turn, and they may baffle the pack dreadfully in +the next two miles. + +Ill fares it now with our youngsters that they are School-house boys, +and so follow young Brooke, for he takes the wide casts round to the +left, conscious of his own powers, and loving the hard work. For if you +would consider for a moment, you small boys, you would remember that the +Cock, where the run ends, and the good ale will be going, lies far out +to the right on the Dunchurch road, so that every cast you take to the +left is so much extra work. And at this stage of the run, when the +evening is closing in already, no one remarks whether you run a little +cunning or not, so you should stick to those crafty hounds who keep +edging away to the right, and not follow a prodigal like young Brooke, +whose legs are twice as long as yours and of cast-iron, wholly +indifferent to two or three miles more or less. However, they struggle +after him, sobbing and plunging along, Tom and East pretty close, and +Tadpole, whose big head begins to pull him down, some thirty yards +behind. + +Now comes a brook, with stiff clay banks, from which they can hardly +drag their legs, and they hear faint cries for help from the wretched +Tadpole, who has fairly stuck fast. But they have too little run left in +themselves to pull up for their own brothers. Three fields more, and +another check, and then "forward" called away to the extreme right. + +The two boys' souls die within them; they can never do it. Young Brooke +thinks so too, and says kindly, "You'll cross a lane after next field, +keep down it, and you'll hit the Dunchurch road below the Cock," and +then steams away for the run in, in which he's sure to be first, as if +he were just starting. They struggle on across the next field, the +"forwards" getting fainter and fainter, and then ceasing. The whole hunt +is out of ear-shot, and all hope of coming in is over. + +"Hang it all!" broke out East, as soon as he had got wind enough, +pulling off his hat and mopping at his face, all spattered with dirt and +lined with sweat, from which went up a thick steam into the still cold +air. "I told you how it would be. What a thick I was to come! Here we +are dead beat, and yet I know we're close to the run in, if we knew the +country." + +"Well," said Tom mopping away, and gulping down his disappointment, "it +can't be helped. We did our best anyhow. Hadn't we better find this +lane, and go down it, as young Brooke told us?" + +"I suppose so--nothing else for it," grunted East. "If ever I go out +last day again," growl--growl--growl. + +So they tried back slowly and sorrowfully, and found the lane, and went +limping down it, plashing in the cold puddly ruts, and beginning to feel +how the run had taken it out of them. The evening closed in fast, and +clouded over, dark, cold, and dreary. + +"I say, it must be locking-up, I should think," remarked East, breaking +the silence; "it's so dark." + +"What if we're late?" said Tom. + +"No tea, and sent up to the Doctor," answered East. + +The thought didn't add to their cheerfulness. Presently a faint halloo +was heard from an adjoining field. They answered it and stopped, hoping +for some competent rustic to guide them, when over a gate some twenty +yards ahead crawled the wretched Tadpole, in a state of collapse; he had +lost a shoe in the brook, and been groping after it up to his elbows in +the stiff wet clay, and a more miserable creature in the shape of boy +seldom has been seen. + +The sight of him, notwithstanding, cheered them, for he was some degrees +more wretched than they. They also cheered him, as he was now no longer +under the dread of passing his night alone in the fields. And so in +better heart, the three plashed painfully down the never-ending lane. At +last it widened, just as utter darkness set in, and they come out on to +a turnpike-road, and there paused, bewildered, for they had lost all +bearings, and knew not whether to turn to the right or left. + +Luckily for them they had not to decide, for lumbering along the road, +with one lamp lighted, and two spavined horses in the shafts, came a +heavy coach, which after a moment's suspense they recognised as the +Oxford coach, the redoubtable Pig and Whistle. + +It lumbered slowly up, and the boys mustering their last run, caught it +as it passed, and began scrambling up behind, in which exploit East +missed his footing and fell flat on his nose along the road. Then the +others hailed the old scarecrow of a coachman, who pulled up and agreed +to take them in for a shilling; so there they sat on the back seat, +drubbing with their heels, and their teeth chattering with cold, and +jogged into Rugby some forty minutes after locking-up. + +Five minutes afterwards, three small limping shivering figures steal +along through the Doctor's garden, and into the house by the servants' +entrance (all the other gates have been closed long since), where the +first thing they light upon in the passage is old Thomas, ambling along, +candle in one hand and keys in the other. + +He stops and examines their condition with a grim smile. "Ah! East, +Hall, and Brown, late for locking-up. Must go up to the Doctor's study +at once." + +"Well but, Thomas, mayn't we go and wash first? You can put down the +time, you know." + +"Doctor's study d'recly you come in--that's the orders," replied old +Thomas, motioning towards the stairs at the end of the passage which led +up into the Doctor's house; and the boys turned ruefully down it, not +cheered by the old verger's muttered remark, "What a pickle they boys be +in!" Thomas referred to their faces and habiliments, but they construed +it as indicating the Doctor's state of mind. Upon the short flight of +stairs they paused to hold counsel. + +"Who'll go in first?" inquires Tadpole. + +"You--you're the senior," answered East. + +"Catch me--look at the state I'm in," rejoined Hall, showing the arms of +his jacket. "I must get behind you two." + +"Well, but look at me," said East, indicating the mass of clay behind +which he was standing; "I'm worse than you, two to one; you might grow +cabbages on my trousers." + +"That's all down below, and you can keep your legs behind the sofa," +said Hall. + +"Here, Brown, you're the show-figure--you must lead." + +"But my face is all muddy," argued Tom. + +"Oh, we're all in one boat for that matter; but come on, we're only +making it worse, dawdling here." + +"Well, just give us a brush then," said Tom; and they began trying to +rub off the superfluous dirt from each other's jackets, but it was not +dry enough, and the rubbing made it worse; so in despair they pushed +through the swing door at the head of the stairs, and found themselves +in the Doctor's hall. + +"That's the library door," said East in a whisper, pushing Tom forwards. +The sound of merry voices and laughing came from within, and his first +hesitating knock was unanswered. But at the second, the Doctor's voice +said "Come in," and Tom turned the handle, and he, with the others +behind him, sidled into the room. + +The Doctor looked up from his task; he was working away with a great +chisel at the bottom of a boy's sailing boat, the lines of which he was +no doubt fashioning on the model of one of Nicias' galleys. Round him +stood three or four children; the candles burnt brightly on a large +table at the further end covered with books and papers, and a great fire +threw a ruddy glow over the rest of the room. All looked so kindly, and +homely, and comfortable, that the boys took heart in a moment, and Tom +advanced from behind the shelter of the great sofa. The Doctor nodded to +the children, who went out, casting curious and amused glances at the +three young scarecrows. + +"Well, my little fellows," began the Doctor, drawing himself up with his +back to the fire, the chisel in one hand and his coat-tails in the +other, and his eyes twinkling as he looked them over; "what makes you so +late?" + +"Please, sir, we've been out Big-side Hare-and-hounds, and lost our +way." + +"Hah! you couldn't keep up, I suppose?" + +"Well, sir," said East, stepping out, and not liking that the Doctor +should think lightly of his running powers, "we got round Barby all +right, but then--" + +"Why, what a state you're in, my boy!" interrupted the Doctor, as the +pitiful condition of East's garments was fully revealed-to him. + +"That's the fall I got, sir, in the road," said East, looking down at +himself; "the Old Pig came by--" + +"The what?" said the Doctor. + +"The Oxford coach, sir," explained Hall. + +"Hah! yes, the Regulator," said the Doctor. + +[Illustration: OLD THOMAS IN HIS DEN. P. 153.] + +"And I tumbled on my face trying to get up behind," went on East. + +"You're not hurt, I hope?" said the Doctor. + +"Oh no, sir." + +"Well now, run up-stairs, all three of you, and get clean things on, and +then tell the housekeeper to give you some tea. You're too young to try +such long runs. Let Warner know I've seen you. Good night." + +"Good night, sir." And away scuttled the three boys in high glee. + +"What a brick, not to give us even twenty lines to learn!" said the +Tadpole, as they reached their bedroom; and in half-an-hour afterwards +they were sitting by the fire in the housekeeper's room at a sumptuous +tea, with cold meat, "twice as good a grub as we should have got in the +hall," as the Tadpole remarked with a grin, his mouth full of buttered +toast. All their grievances were forgotten, and they were resolving to +go out the first big-side next half, and thinking Hare-and-hounds the +most delightful of games. + +A day or two afterwards the great passage outside the bedrooms was +cleared of the boxes and portmanteaus, which went down to be packed by +the matron, and great games of chariot-racing, and cock-fighting, and +bolstering, went on in the vacant space, the sure sign of a closing +half-year. + +Then came the making-up of parties for the journey home, and Tom joined +a party who were to hire a coach, and post with four horses to Oxford. + +Then the last Saturday, on which the Doctor came round to each form to +give out the prizes, and hear the masters' last reports of how they and +their charges had been conducting themselves; and Tom, to his huge +delight, was praised, and got his remove into the lower-fourth, in which +all his School-house friends were. + +On the next Tuesday morning, at four o'clock, hot coffee was going on in +the housekeeper's and matron's rooms; boys wrapped in great coats and +mufflers were swallowing hasty mouthfuls, rushing about, tumbling over +luggage, and asking questions all at once of the matron; outside the +School-gates were drawn up several chaises and the four-horse coach +which Tom's party had chartered, the post-boys in their best jackets and +breeches, and a cornopean player, hired for the occasion, blowing away +"A southerly wind and a cloudy sky," waking all peaceful inhabitants +half-way down the High Street. + +Every minute the bustle and hubbub increased, porters staggered about +with boxes and bags, the cornopean played louder. Old Thomas sat in his +den with a great yellow bag by his side, out of which he was paying +journey money to each boy, comparing by the light of a solitary dip the +dirty crabbed little list in his own handwriting with the Doctor's list, +and the amount of his cash; his head was on one side, his mouth screwed +up, and his spectacles dim from early toil. He had prudently locked the +door, and carried on his operations solely through the window, or he +would have been driven wild, and lost all his money. + +"Thomas, do be quick, we shall never catch the Highflyer at Dunchurch." + +"That's your money, all right, Green." + +"Hullo, Thomas, the Doctor said I was to have two-pound-ten; you've only +given me two pound."--I fear that Master Green is not confining himself +strictly to truth.--Thomas turns his head more on one side than ever, +and spells away at the dirty list. Green is forced away from the window. + +"Here, Thomas, never mind him, mine's thirty shillings." "And mine too," +"and mine," shouted others. + +One way or another, the party to which Tom belonged all got packed and +paid, and sallied out to the gates, the cornopean playing frantically +"Drops of Brandy," in allusion, probably, to the slight potations in +which the musician and post-boys had been already indulging. All luggage +was carefully stowed away inside the coach and in the front and hind +boots, so that not a hat-box was visible outside. Five or six small +boys, with pea-shooters, and the cornopean player, got up behind; in +front the big boys, mostly smoking, not for pleasure, but because they +are now gentlemen at large--and this is the most correct public method +of notifying the fact. + +"Robinson's coach will be down the road in a minute, it has gone up to +Bird's to pick up,--we'll wait till they're close, and make a race of +it," says the leader. "Now, boys, half-a-sovereign apiece if you beat +'em into Dunchurch by one hundred yards." + +"All right, sir," shouted the grinning post-boys. + +Down comes Robinson's coach in a minute or two with a rival cornopean, +and away go the two vehicles, horses galloping, boys cheering, horns +playing loud. There is a special Providence over school-boys as well as +sailors, or they must have upset twenty times in the first five miles; +sometimes actually abreast of one another, and the boys on the roofs +exchanging volleys of peas, now nearly running over a post-chaise which +had started before them, now half-way up a bank, now with a +wheel-and-a-half over a yawning ditch; and all this in a dark morning, +with nothing but their own lamps to guide them. However, it's all over +at last, and they have run over nothing but an old pig in Southam +Street; the last peas are distributed in the Corn Market at Oxford, +where they arrive between eleven and twelve, and sit down to a sumptuous +breakfast at the Angel, which they are made to pay for accordingly. Here +the party breaks up, all going now different ways; and Tom orders out a +chaise and pair as grand as a lord, though he has scarcely five +shillings left in his pocket and more than twenty miles to get home. + +"Where to, sir?" + +"Red Lion, Farringdon," says Tom, giving ostler a shilling. + +"All right, sir. Red Lion, Jem," to the post-boy, and Tom rattles away +towards home. At Farringdon, being known to the innkeeper, he gets that +worthy to pay for the Oxford horses, and forward him in another chaise +at once; and so the gorgeous young gentleman arrives at the paternal +mansion, and Squire Brown looks rather blue at having to pay two-pound +ten-shillings for the posting expenses from Oxford. But the boy's +intense joy at getting home, and the wonderful health he is in, and the +good character he brings, and the brave stories he tells of Rugby, its +doings and delights, soon mollify the Squire, and three happier people +didn't sit down to dinner that day in England (it is the boy's first +dinner at six o'clock at home, great promotion already), than the Squire +and his wife and Tom Brown at the end of his first half-year at Rugby. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE WAR OF INDEPENDENCE. + + "They are slaves who will not choose + Hatred, scoffing, and abuse, + Rather than in silence shrink + From the truth they needs must think: + They are slaves who dare not be + In the right with two or three." + LOWELL, _Stanzas on Freedom._ + + +THE lower-fourth form, in which Tom found himself at the beginning of +the next half-year, was the largest form in the lower school, and +numbered upwards of forty boys. Young gentlemen of all ages from nine to +fifteen, were to be found there, who expended such part of their +energies as was devoted to Latin and Greek upon a book of Livy, the +Bucolics of Virgil, and the Hecuba of Euripides, which were ground out +in small daily portions. The driving of this unlucky lower-fourth must +have been grievous work to the unfortunate master, for it was the most +unhappily constituted of any in the school. Here stuck the great stupid +boys, who for the life of them could never master the accidence; the +objects alternately of mirth and terror to the youngsters, who were +daily taking them up and laughing at them in lesson, and getting kicked +by them for so doing in play-hours. There were no less than three +unhappy fellows in tail coats, with incipient down on their chins, whom +the Doctor and the master of the form were always endeavouring to hoist +into the upper school, but whose parsing and construing resisted the +most well-meant shoves. Then came the mass of the form, boys of eleven +and twelve, the most mischievous and reckless age of British youth, of +whom East and Tom Brown were fair specimens. As full of tricks as +monkeys, and of excuses as Irish women, making fun of their master, one +another, and their lessons, Argus himself would have been puzzled to +keep an eye on them; and as for making them steady or serious for +half-an-hour together, it was simply hopeless. The remainder of the form +consisted of young prodigies of nine and ten, who were going up the +school at the rate of a form a half-year, all boys' hands and wits being +against them in their progress. It would have been one man's work to see +that the precocious youngsters had fair play; and as the master had a +good deal besides to do, they hadn't, and were for ever being shoved +down three or four places, their verses stolen, their books inked, their +jackets whitened, and their lives otherwise made a burden to them. + +The lower-fourth, and all the forms below it, were heard in the great +school, and were not trusted to prepare their lessons before coming in, +but were whipped into school three-quarters of an hour before the lesson +began by their respective masters, and there scattered about on the +benches, with dictionary and grammar, hammered out their twenty lines of +Virgil and Euripides in the midst of Babel. The masters of the lower +school walked up and down the great school together during this +three-quarters of an hour, or sat in their desks reading or looking over +copies, and keeping such order as was possible. But the lower-fourth was +just now an overgrown form, too large for any one man to attend to +properly, and consequently the elysium or ideal form of the young +scapegraces who formed the staple of it. + +Tom, as has been said, had come up from the third with a good character, +but the temptations of the lower-fourth soon proved too strong for him, +and he rapidly fell away; and became as unmanageable as the rest. For +some weeks, indeed, he succeeded in maintaining the appearance of +steadiness, and was looked upon favourably by his new master, whose eyes +were first opened by the following little incident. + +Besides the desk which the master himself occupied, there was another +large unoccupied desk in the corner of the great school, which was +untenanted. To rush and seize upon this desk, which was ascended by +three steps, and held four boys, was the great object of ambition of the +lower fourthers; and the contentions for the occupation of it bred such +disorder, that at last the master forbade its use altogether. This of +course was a challenge to the more adventurous spirits to occupy it, +and as it was capacious enough for two boys to lie hid there completely, +it was seldom that it remained empty, notwithstanding the veto. Small +holes were cut in the front, through which the occupants watched the +masters as they walked up and down, and as lesson time approached, one +boy at a time stole out and down the steps, as the masters' backs were +turned, and mingled with the general crowd on the forms below. Tom and +East had successfully occupied the desk some half-dozen times, and were +grown so reckless that they were in the habit of playing small games +with fives'-balls inside when the masters were at the other end of the +big school. One day, as ill-luck would have it, the game became more +exciting than usual, and the ball slipped through East's fingers, and +rolled slowly down the steps, and out into the middle of the school, +just as the masters turned in their walk and faced round upon the desk. +The young delinquents watched their master through the look-out holes, +march slowly down the school straight upon their retreat, while all the +boys in the neighbourhood of course stopped their work to look on: and +not only were they ignominiously drawn out, and caned over the hand then +and there, but their characters for steadiness were gone from that time. +However, as they only shared the fate of some three-fourths of the rest +of the form, this did not weigh heavily upon them. + +In fact, the only occasions on which they cared about the matter were +the monthly examinations, when the Doctor came round to examine their +form, for one long awful hour, in the work which they had done in the +preceding month. The second monthly examination came round soon after +Tom's fall, and it was with anything but lively anticipations that he +and the other lower-fourth boys came in to prayers on the morning of the +examination day. + +Prayers and calling-over seemed twice as short as usual, and before they +could get construes of a tithe of the hard passages marked in the margin +of their books, they were all seated round, and the Doctor was standing +in the middle, talking in whispers to the master. Tom couldn't hear a +word which passed, and never lifted his eyes from his book; but he knew +by a sort of magnetic instinct that the Doctor's under lip was coming +out, and his eye beginning to burn, and his gown getting gathered up +more and more tightly in his left hand. The suspense was agonizing, and +Tom knew that he was sure on such occasions to make an example of the +School-house boys. "If he would only begin," thought Tom, "I shouldn't +mind." + +At last the whispering ceased, and the name which was called out was not +Brown. He looked up for a moment, but the Doctor's face was too awful; +Tom wouldn't have met his eye for all he was worth, and buried himself +in his book again. + +The boy who was called up first was a clever merry School-house boy, one +of their set: he was some connection of the Doctor's, and a great +favourite, and ran in and out of his house as he liked, and so was +selected for the first victim. + +"Triste lupus, stabulis," began the luckless youngster, and stammered +through some eight or ten lines. + +"There, that will do," said the Doctor; "now construe." + +On common occasions, the boy could have construed the passage well +enough probably, but now his head was gone. + +"Triste lupus, the sorrowful wolf," he began. + +A shudder ran through the whole form, and the Doctor's wrath fairly +boiled over; he made three steps up to the construer, and gave him a +good box on the ear. The blow was not a hard one, but the boy was so +taken by surprise that he started back; the form caught the back of his +knees, and over he went on to the floor behind. There was a dead silence +over the whole school; never before, and never again while Tom was at +school did the Doctor strike a boy in lesson. The provocation must have +been great. However, the victim had saved his form for that occasion, +for the Doctor turned to the top bench, and put on the best boys for the +rest of the hour; and though, at the end of the lesson, he gave them all +such a rating as they did not forget, this terrible field-day passed +over without any severe visitations in the shape of punishments or +floggings. Forty young scapegraces expressed their thanks to the +"sorrowful wolf" in their different ways before second lesson. + +But a character for steadiness once gone is not easily recovered, as Tom +found, and for years afterwards he went up to the school without it, and +the masters' hands were against him, and his against them. And he +regarded them, as a matter of course, as his natural enemies. Matters +were not so comfortable either in the house as they had been, for Old +Brooke left at Christmas, and one or two others of the sixth-form boys +at the following Easter. Their rule had been rough, but strong and just +in the main, and a higher standard was beginning to be set up; in fact, +there had been a short foretaste of the good time which followed some +years later. Just now, however, all threatened to return into darkness +and chaos again. For the new praepostors were either small young boys, +whose cleverness had carried them up to the top of the school, while in +strength of body and character they were not yet fit for a share in the +government; or else big fellows of the wrong sort, boys whose +friendships and tastes had a downward tendency, who had not caught the +meaning of their position and work, and felt none of its +responsibilities. So under this no-government the School-house began to +see bad times. The big fifth-form boys, who were a sporting and drinking +set, soon began to usurp power, and to fag the little boys as if they +were praepostors, and to bully and oppress any who showed signs of +resistance. The bigger sort of sixth-form boys just described soon made +common cause with the fifth, while the smaller sort, hampered by their +colleagues' desertion to the enemy, could not make head against them. So +the fags were without their lawful masters and protectors, and ridden +over rough-shod by a set of boys whom they were not bound to obey, and +whose only right over them stood in their bodily powers; and, as old +Brooke had prophesied, the house by degrees broke up into small sets and +parties, and lost the strong feeling of fellowship which he set so much +store by, and with it much of the prowess in games and the lead in all +school matters which he had done so much to keep up. + +In no place in the world has individual character more weight than at a +public school. Remember this, I beseech you, all you boys who are +getting into the upper forms. Now is the time in all your lives probably +when you may have more wide influence for good or evil on the society +you live in than you ever can have again. Quit yourselves like men, +then; speak up, and strike out if necessary for whatsoever is true, and +manly, and lovely, and of good report; never try to be popular, but only +to do your duty and help others to do theirs, and you may leave the tone +of feeling in the school higher than you found it, and so be doing good, +which no living soul can measure, to generations of your countrymen yet +unborn. For boys follow one another in herds like sheep, for good or +evil; they hate thinking, and have rarely any settled principles. Every +school, indeed, has its own traditionary standard of right and wrong, +which cannot be transgressed with impunity, marking certain things as +low and blackguard, and certain others as lawful and right. This +standard is ever varying, though it changes only slowly, and little by +little; and, subject only to such standard, it is the leading boys for +the time being who give the tone to all the rest, and make the School +either a noble institution for the training of Christian Englishmen, or +a place where a young boy will get more evil than he would if he were +turned out to make his way in London streets, or anything between these +two extremes. + +The change for the worse in the School-house, however, didn't press very +heavily on our youngsters for some time; they were in a good bedroom, +where slept the only praepostor left who was able to keep thorough order, +and their study was in his passage; so, though they were fagged more or +less, and occasionally kicked or cuffed by the bullies, they were on the +whole well off; and the fresh brave school-life, so full of games, +adventures, and good fellowship, so ready at forgetting, so capacious at +enjoying, so bright at forecasting, outweighed a thousandfold their +troubles with the master of their form, and the occasional ill-usage of +the big boys in the house. It wasn't till some year or so after the +events recorded above, that the praepostor of their room and passage +left. None of the other sixth-form boys would move into their passage, +and, to the disgust and indignation of Tom and East, one morning after +breakfast they were seized upon by Flashman, and made to carry down his +books and furniture into the unoccupied study which he had taken. From +this time they began to feel the weight of the tyranny of Flashman and +his friends, and, now that trouble had come home to their own doors, +began to look out for sympathizers and partners amongst the rest of the +fags; and meetings of the oppressed began to be held, and murmurs to +arise, and plots to be laid as to how they should free themselves and be +avenged on their enemies. + +While matters were in this state, East and Tom were one evening sitting +in their study. They had done their work for first lesson, and Tom was +in a brown study, brooding, like a young William Tell, upon the wrongs +of fags in general, and his own in particular. + +"I say, Scud," said he at last, rousing himself to snuff the candle, +"what right have the fifth-form boys to fag us as they do?" + +"No more right than you have to fag them," answered East, without +looking up from an early number of "Pickwick," which was just coming +out, and which he was luxuriously devouring, stretched on his back on +the sofa. + +Tom relapsed into his brown study, and East went on reading and +chuckling. The contrast of the boys' faces would have given infinite +amusement to a looker-on, the one so solemn and big with mighty purpose, +the other radiant and bubbling over with fun. + +"Do you know, old fellow, I've been thinking it over a good deal," began +Tom again. + +"Oh yes, I know, fagging you are thinking of. Hang it all;--but listen +here, Tom--here's fun. Mr. Winkle's horse----" + +"And I've made up my mind," broke in Tom, "that I won't fag except for +the sixth." + +"Quite right too, my boy," cried East, putting his finger on the place +and looking up; "but a pretty peck of troubles you'll get into, if +you're going to play that game. However, I'm all for a strike myself, if +we can get others to join--it's getting too bad." + +"Can't we get some sixth-form fellow to take it up?" asked Tom. + +"Well, perhaps we might; Morgan would interfere, I think. Only," added +East, after a moment's pause, "you see we should have to tell him about +it, and that's against School principles. Don't you remember what Old +Brooke said about learning to take our own parts?" + +"Ah, I wish Old Brooke were back again--it was all right in his time." + +"Why yes, you see then the strongest and best fellows were in the sixth, +and the fifth-form fellows were afraid of them, and they kept good +order; but now our sixth-form fellows are too small, and the fifth +don't care for them, and do what they like in the house." + +"And so we get a double set of masters," cried Tom, indignantly; "the +lawful ones, who are responsible to the Doctor at any rate, and the +unlawful--the tyrants, who are responsible to nobody." + +"Down with the tyrants!" cried East; "I'm all for law and order, and +hurra for a revolution." + +"I shouldn't mind if it were only for young Brooke now," said Tom, "he's +such a good-hearted, gentlemanly fellow, and ought to be in the +sixth--I'd do anything for him. But that blackguard Flashman, who never +speaks to one without a kick or an oath--" + +"The cowardly brute," broke in East, "how I hate him! And he knows it +too; he knows that you and I think him a coward. What a bore that he's +got a study in this passage! don't you hear them now at supper in his +den? Brandy punch going, I'll bet. I wish the Doctor would come out and +catch him. We must change our study as soon as we can." + +"Change or no change, I'll never fag for him again," said Tom, thumping +the table. + +"Fa-a-a-ag!" sounded along the passage from Flashman's study. The two +boys looked at one another in silence. It had struck nine, so the +regular night-fags had left duty, and they were the nearest to the +supper party. East sat up and began to look comical, as he always did +under difficulties. + +"Fa-a-a-ag!" again. No answer. + +"Here, Brown! East! you cursed young skulks," roared out Flashman, +coming to his open door, "I know you're in--no shirking." + +Tom stole to their door, and drew the bolts as noiselessly as he could; +East blew out the candle. "Barricade the first," whispered he. "Now, +Tom, mind, no surrender." + +"Trust me for that," said Tom between his teeth. + +In another minute they heard the supper-party turn out and come down the +passage to their door. They held their breaths, and heard whispering, of +which they only made out Flashman's words, "I know the young brutes are +in." + +Then came summonses to open, which being unanswered, the assault +commenced: luckily the door was a good strong oak one, and resisted the +united weight of Flashman's party. A pause followed, and they heard a +besieger remark, "They're in, safe enough--don't you see how the door +holds at top and bottom? so the bolts must be drawn. We should have +forced the lock long ago." East gave Tom a nudge, to call attention to +this scientific remark. + +Then came attacks on particular panels, one of which at last gave way to +the repeated kicks; but it broke inwards, and the broken piece got +jammed across, the door being lined with green-baize, and couldn't +easily be removed from outside; and the besieged, scorning further +concealment, strengthened their defences by pressing the end of their +sofa against the door. So after one or two more ineffectual efforts, +Flashman and Co. retired, vowing vengeance in no mild terms. + +The first danger over, it only remained for the besieged to effect a +safe retreat, as it was now near bed-time. They listened intently, and +heard the supper-party resettle themselves, and then gently drew back +first one bolt and then the other. Presently the convivial noises began +again steadily. "Now then, stand by for a run," said East, throwing the +door wide open and rushing into the passage, closely followed by Tom. +They were too quick to be caught; but Flashman was on the look-out, and +sent an empty pickle-jar whizzing after them, which narrowly missed +Tom's head, and broke into twenty pieces at the end of the passage. "He +wouldn't mind killing one if he wasn't caught," said East, as they +turned the corner. + +There was no pursuit, so the two turned into the Hall, where they found +a knot of small boys round the fire. Their story was told--the war of +independence had broken out,--who would join the revolutionary forces? +Several others present bound themselves not to fag for the fifth-form at +once. One or two only edged off, and left the rebels. What else could +they do? "I've a good mind to go to the Doctor straight," said Tom. + +"That'll never do--don't you remember the levy of the School last half?" +put in another. + +In fact, that solemn assembly, a levy of the School, had been held, at +which the captain of the School had got up, and, after premising that +several instances had occurred of matters having been reported to the +masters, that this was against public morality and School tradition; +that a levy of the sixth had been held on the subject, and they had +resolved that the practice must be stopped at once; had given out that +any boy, in whatever form, who should thenceforth appeal to a master, +without having first gone to some praepostor and laid the case before +him, should be thrashed publicly, and sent to Coventry. + +"Well, then, let's try the sixth. Try Morgan," suggested another. "No +use"--"Blabbing won't do," was the general feeling. + +"I'll give you fellows a piece of advice," said a voice from the end of +the Hall. They all turned round with a start, and the speaker got up +from a bench on which he had been lying unobserved, and gave himself a +shake; he was a big loose-made fellow, with huge limbs which had grown +too far through his jacket and trousers. "Don't you go to anybody at +all--you just stand out; say you won't fag--they'll soon get tired of +licking you. I've tried it on years ago with their forerunners." + +"No! did you? tell us how it was," cried a chorus of voices, as they +clustered round him. + +"Well, just as it is with you. The fifth-form would fag us, and I and +some more struck, and we beat 'em. The good fellows left off directly, +and the bullies who kept on soon got afraid." + +"Was Flashman here then?" + +"Yes! and a dirty little snivelling, sneaking fellow he was too. He +never dared join us, and used to toady the bullies by offering to fag +for them, and peaching against the rest of us." + +"Why wasn't he cut then?" said East. + +"Oh, toadies never get cut, they're too useful. Besides, he has no end +of great hampers from home, with wine and game in them; so he toadied +and fed himself into favour." + +The quarter-to-ten bell now rang, and the small boys went off up-stairs, +still consulting together, and praising their new counsellor, who +stretched himself out on the bench before the Hall fire again. There he +lay, a very queer specimen of boyhood, by name Diggs, and familiarly +called "the Mucker." He was young for his size, and a very clever +fellow, nearly at the top of the fifth. His friends at home, having +regard, I suppose, to his age, and not to his size and place in the +school, hadn't put him into tails; and even his jackets were always too +small; and he had a talent for destroying clothes, and making himself +look shabby. He wasn't on terms with Flashman's set, who sneered at his +dress and ways behind his back, which he knew, and revenged himself by +asking Flashman the most disagreeable questions, and treating him +familiarly whenever a crowd of boys were round them. Neither was he +intimate with any of the other bigger boys, who were warned off by his +oddnesses, for he was a very queer fellow; besides, amongst other +failings, he had that of impecuniosity in a remarkable degree. He +brought as much money as other boys to school, but got rid of it in no +time, no one knew how. And then, being also reckless, borrowed from +anyone, and when his debts accumulated and creditors pressed, would have +an auction in the Hall of everything he possessed in the world, selling +even his school-books, candlestick, and study table. For weeks after one +of these auctions, having rendered his study uninhabitable, he would +live about in the fifth-form room and Hall, doing his verses on old +letter-backs and odd scraps of paper, and learning his lessons no one +knew how. He never meddled with any little boy, and was popular with +them, though they all looked on him with a sort of compassion, and +called him "poor Diggs," not being able to resist appearances, or to +disregard wholly even the sneers of their enemy Flashman. However, he +seemed equally indifferent to the sneers of big boys and the pity of +small ones, and lived his own queer life with much apparent enjoyment to +himself. It is necessary to introduce Diggs thus particularly, as he not +only did Tom and East good service in their present warfare, as is about +to be told, but soon afterwards, when he got into the sixth, chose them +for his fags, and excused them from study-fagging, thereby earning unto +himself eternal gratitude from them, and all who are interested in their +history. + +And seldom had small boys more need of a friend, for the morning after +the siege the storm burst upon the rebels in all its violence. Flashman +laid wait, and caught Tom before second lesson, and receiving a point +blank "No," when told to fetch his hat, seized him and twisted his arm, +and went through the other methods of torture in use:--"He couldn't make +me cry though," as Tom said triumphantly to the rest of the rebels, "and +I kicked his shins well, I know." And soon it crept out that a lot of +the fags were in league, and Flashman excited his associates to join him +in bringing the young vagabonds to their senses; and the house was +filled with constant chasings, and sieges, and lickings of all sorts; +and in return, the bullies' beds were pulled to pieces, and drenched +with water, and their names written up on the walls with every insulting +epithet which the fag invention could furnish. The war in short raged +fiercely; but soon, as Diggs had told them, all the better fellows in +the fifth gave up trying to fag them, and public feeling began to set +against Flashman and his two or three intimates, and they were obliged +to keep their doings more secret, but being thorough bad fellows, +missed no opportunity of torturing in private. Flashman was an adept in +all ways, but above all in the power of saying cutting and cruel things, +and could often bring tears to the eyes of boys in this way, which all +the thrashings in the world wouldn't have wrung from them. + +And as his operations were being cut short in other directions, he now +devoted himself chiefly to Tom and East, who lived at his own door, and +would force himself into their study whenever he found a chance, and sit +there, sometimes alone, sometimes with a companion, interrupting all +their work, and exulting in the evident pain which every now and then he +could see he was inflicting on one or the other. + +The storm had cleared the air for the rest of the house, and a better +state of things now began than there had been since Old Brooke had left: +but an angry dark spot of thunder-cloud still hung over the end of the +passage, where Flashman's study and that of East and Tom lay. + +He felt that they had been the first rebels, and that the rebellion had +been to a great extent successful; but what above all stirred the hatred +and bitterness of his heart against them, was that in the frequent +collisions which there had been of late, they had openly called him +coward and sneak,--the taunts were too true to be forgiven. While he was +in the act of thrashing them, they would roar out instances of his +funking at football, or shirking some encounter with a lout of half his +own size. These things were all well enough known in the house, but to +have his disgrace shouted out by small boys, to feel that they despised +him, to be unable to silence them by any amount of torture, and to see +the open laugh and sneer of his own associates (who were looking on and +took no trouble to hide their scorn from him, though they neither +interfered with his bullying or lived a bit the less intimately with +him,) made him beside himself. Come what might he would make those boys' +lives miserable. So the strife settled down into a personal affair +between Flashman and our youngsters; a war to the knife, to be fought +out in the little cockpit at the end of the bottom passage. + +Flashman, be it said, was about seventeen years old, and big and strong +of his age. He played well at all games where pluck wasn't much wanted, +and managed generally to keep up appearances where it was; and having a +bluff off-hand manner, which passed for heartiness, and considerable +powers of being pleasant when he liked, went down with the School in +general for a good fellow enough. Even in the School-house, by dint of +his command of money, the constant supply of good things which he kept +up, and his adroit toadyism, he had managed to make himself not only +tolerated, but rather popular amongst his own contemporaries; although +young Brooke scarcely spoke to him, and one or two others of the right +sort showed their opinions of him whenever a chance offered. But the +wrong sort happened to be in the ascendant just now, so Flashman was a +formidable enemy for small boys. This soon became plain enough. Flashman +left no slander unspoken, and no deed undone, which could in any way +hurt his victims, or isolate them from the rest of the house. One by one +most of the other rebels fell away from them, while Flashman's cause +prospered, and several other fifth-form boys began to look black at +them and ill-treat them as they passed about the house. By keeping out +of bounds, or at all events out of the house and quadrangle, all day, +and carefully barring themselves in at night, East and Tom managed to +hold on without feeling very miserable; but it was as much as they could +do. Greatly were they drawn then towards old Diggs, who, in an uncouth +way, began to take a good deal of notice of them, and once or twice came +to their study when Flashman was there, who immediately decamped in +consequence. The boys thought that Diggs must have been watching. + +When therefore, about this time, an auction was one night announced to +take place in the Hall, at which, amongst the superfluities of other +boys, all Diggs' Penates for the time being were going to the hammer, +East and Tom laid their heads together, and resolved to devote their +ready cash (some four shillings sterling) to redeem such articles as +that sum would cover. Accordingly, they duly attended to bid, and Tom +became the owner of two lots of Diggs' things;--lot 1, price +one-and-threepence, consisting (as the auctioneer remarked) of a +"valuable assortment of old metals," in the shape of a mouse-trap, a +cheese-toaster without a handle, and a saucepan: lot 2, of a villanous +dirty table-cloth and a green-baize curtain; while East for +one-and-sixpence purchased a leather paper-case, with a lock but no key, +once handsome, but now much the worse for wear. But they had still the +point to settle of how to get Diggs to take the things without hurting +his feelings. This they solved by leaving them in his study, which was +never locked when he was out. Diggs, who had attended the auction, +remembered who had bought the lots, and came to their study soon after, +and sat silent for some time, cracking his great red finger-joints. Then +he laid hold of their verses, and began looking over and altering them, +and at last got up, and turning his back to them, said, "You're uncommon +good-hearted little beggars, you two--I value that paper-case; my sister +gave it me last holidays--I won't forget;" and so tumbled out into the +passage, leaving them somewhat embarrassed, but not sorry that he knew +what they had done. + +The next morning was Saturday, the day on which the allowances of one +shilling a-week were paid, an important event to spendthrift youngsters; +and great was the disgust amongst the small fry to hear that all the +allowances had been impounded for the Derby lottery. That great event in +the English year, the Derby, was celebrated at Rugby in those days by +many lotteries. It was not an improving custom, I own, gentle reader, +and led to making books and betting and other objectionable results; but +when our great Houses of Palaver think it right to stop the nation's +business on that day, and many of the members bet heavily themselves, +can you blame us boys for following the example of our betters?--at any +rate we did follow it. First there was the great School lottery, where +the first prize was six or seven pounds; then each House had one or more +separate lotteries. These were all nominally voluntary, no boy being +compelled to put in his shilling who didn't choose to do so: but besides +Flashman, there were three or four other fast sporting young gentlemen +in the School-house, who considered subscription a matter of duty and +necessity, and so, to make their duty come easy to the small boys, +quietly secured the allowances in a lump when given out for +distribution, and kept them. It was no use grumbling,--so many fewer +tartlets and apples were eaten and fives'-balls bought on that Saturday; +and after locking-up, when the money would otherwise have been spent, +consolation was carried to many a small boy, by the sound of the +night-fags shouting along the passages, "Gentlemen sportsmen of the +School-house, the lottery's going to be drawn in the Hall." It was +pleasant to be called a gentleman sports man--also to have a chance of +drawing a favourite horse. + +The Hall was full of boys, and at the head of one of the long tables +stood the sporting interest, with a hat before them, in which were the +tickets folded up. One of them then began calling out the list of the +House; each boy as his name was called drew a ticket from the hat and +opened it; and most of the bigger boys, after drawing, left the Hall +directly to go back to their studies or the fifth-form room. The +sporting interest had all drawn blanks, and they were sulky accordingly; +neither of the favourites had yet been drawn, and it had come down to +the upper-fourth. So now, as each small boy came up and drew his ticket, +it was seized and opened by Flashman, or some other of the standers-by. +But no great favourite is drawn until it comes to the Tadpole's turn, +and he shuffles up and draws, and tries to make off, but is caught, and +his ticket is opened like the rest. + +"Here you are! Wanderer! the third favourite," shouts the opener. + +"I say, just give me my ticket, please," remonstrates Tadpole. + +"Hullo, don't be in a hurry," breaks in Flashman; "what'll you sell +Wanderer for, now?" + +"I don't want to sell," rejoins Tadpole. + +"Oh, don't you! Now listen, you young fool--you don't know anything +about it; the horse is no use to you. He won't win, but I want him as a +hedge. Now I'll give you half-a-crown for him." Tadpole holds out, but +between threats and cajoleries at length sells half for +one-shilling-and-sixpence, about a fifth of its fair market value; +however, he is glad to realize anything, and as he wisely remarks, +"Wanderer mayn't win, and the tizzy is safe anyhow." + +East presently comes up and draws a blank. Soon after comes Tom's turn; +his ticket, like the others, is seized and opened. "Here you are then," +shouts the opener, holding it up, "Harkaway! By Jove, Flashey, your +young friend's in luck." + +"Give me the ticket," says Flashman with an oath, leaning across the +table with open hand, and his face black with rage. + +"Wouldn't you like it?" replies the opener, not a bad fellow at the +bottom, and no admirer of Flashman's. "Here, Brown, catch hold," and he +hands the ticket to Tom, who pockets it; whereupon Flashman makes for +the door at once, that Tom and the ticket may not escape, and there +keeps watch until the drawing is over and all the boys are gone, except +the sporting set of five or six, who stay to compare books, make bets +and so on, Tom, who doesn't choose to move while Flashman is at the +door, and East, who stays by his friend, anticipating trouble. + +The sporting set now gathered round Tom. Public opinion wouldn't allow +them actually to rob him of his ticket, but any humbug or intimidation +by which he could be driven to sell the whole or part at an under value +was lawful. + +"Now, young Brown, come, what'll you sell me Harkaway for? I hear he +isn't going to start. I'll give you five shillings for him," begins the +boy who had opened the ticket. Tom, remembering his good deed, and +moreover in his forlorn state wishing to make a friend, is about to +accept the offer, when another cries out, "I'll give you seven +shillings." Tom hesitated, and looked from one to the other. + +"No, no!" said Flashman, pushing in, "leave me to deal with him; we'll +draw lots for it afterwards. Now, sir, you know me--you'll sell Harkaway +to us for five shillings, or you'll repent it." + +"I won't sell a bit of him," answered Tom, shortly. + +"You hear that now!" said Flashman, turning to the others. "He's the +coxiest young blackguard in the house--I always told you so. We're to +have all the trouble and risk of getting up the lotteries for the +benefit of such fellows as he." + +Flashman forgets to explain what risk they ran, but he speaks to willing +ears. Gambling makes boys selfish and cruel as well as men. + +"That's true,--we always draw blanks," cried one. "Now, sir, you shall +sell half, at any rate." + +"I won't," said Tom, flushing up to his hair, and lumping them all in +his mind with his sworn enemy. + +"Very well then, let's roast him," cried Flashman, and catches hold of +Tom by the collar: one or two boys hesitate, but the rest join in. East +seizes Tom's arm and tries to pull him away, but is knocked back by one +of the boys, and Tom is dragged along, struggling. His shoulders are +pushed against the mantelpiece, and he is held by main force before the +fire, Flashman drawing his trousers tight by way of extra torture. Poor +East, in more pain even than Tom, suddenly thinks of Diggs, and darts +off to find him. "Will you sell him for ten shillings?" says one boy who +is relenting. + +Tom only answers by groans and struggles. + +"I say, Flashey, he has had enough," says the same boy, dropping the arm +he holds. + +"No, no; another turn'll do it," answers Flashman. But poor Tom is done +already, turns deadly pale, and his head falls forward on his breast, +just as Diggs, in frantic excitement, rushes into the Hall with East at +his heels. + +"You cowardly brutes!" is all he can say, as he catches Tom from them +and supports him to the Hall table. "Good God! he's dying. Here, get +some cold water--run for the housekeeper." + +Flashman and one or two others slink away; the rest, ashamed and sorry, +bend over Tom or run for water, while East darts off for the +housekeeper. Water comes, and they throw it on his hands and face, and +he begins to come to. "Mother!"--the words came feebly and slowly--"it's +very cold to-night." Poor old Diggs is blubbering like a child. "Where +am I?" goes on Tom, opening his eyes. "Ah! I remember now," and he shut +his eyes again and groaned. + +"I say," is whispered, "we can't do any good, and the housekeeper will +be here in a minute," and all but one steal away; he stays with Diggs, +silent and sorrowful, and fans Tom's face. + +The housekeeper comes in with strong salts, and Tom soon recovers enough +to sit up. There is a smell of burning; she examines his clothes, and +looks up inquiringly. The boys are silent. + +"How did he come so?" No answer. + +"There's been some bad work here," she adds, looking very serious, "and +I shall speak to the Doctor about it." Still no answer. + +"Hadn't we better carry him to the sick-room?" suggests Diggs. + +"Oh, I can walk now," says Tom; and, supported by East and the +housekeeper, goes to the sick-room. The boy who held his ground is soon +amongst the rest, who are all in fear of their lives. "Did he peach?" +"Does she know about it?" + +"Not a word--he's a stanch little fellow." And pausing a moment he adds, +"I'm sick of this work: what brutes we've been!" + +Meantime Tom is stretched on the sofa in the housekeeper's room, with +East by his side, while she gets wine and water and other restoratives. + +"Are you much hurt, dear old boy?" whispers East. + +"Only the back of my legs," answers Tom. They are indeed badly scorched, +and part of his trousers burnt through. But soon he is in bed with cold +bandages. At first he feels broken, and thinks of writing home and +getting taken away; and the verse of a hymn he had learned years ago +sings through his head, and he goes to sleep, murmuring-- + + "Where the wicked cease from troubling, + And the weary are at rest." + +But after a sound night's rest the old boy-spirit comes back again. +East comes in reporting that the whole House is with him, and he forgets +everything except their old resolve, never to be beaten by that bully +Flashman. + +Not a word could the housekeeper extract from either of them, and though +the Doctor knew all that she knew that morning, he never knew any more. + +I trust and believe that such scenes are not possible now at school, and +that lotteries and betting-books have gone out; but I am writing of +schools as they were in our time, and must give the evil with the good. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +A CHAPTER OF ACCIDENTS. + + "Wherein I [speak] of most disastrous chances, + Of moving accidents by flood and field, + Of hairbreadth 'scapes."--_Shakspeare._ + + +WHEN Tom came back into school after a couple of days in the sick-room, +he found matters much changed for the better, as East had led him to +expect. Flashman's brutality had disgusted most even of his intimate +friends, and his cowardice had once more been made plain to the House; +for Diggs had encountered him on the morning after the lottery, and +after high words on both sides had struck him, and the blow was not +returned. However, Flashey was not unused to this sort of thing, and had +lived through as awkward affairs before, and, as Diggs had said, fed and +toadied himself back into favour again. Two or three of the boys who had +helped to roast Tom came up and begged his pardon, and thanked him for +not telling anything. Morgan sent for him, and was inclined to take the +matter up warmly, but Tom begged him not to do it; to which he agreed, +on Tom's promising to come to him at once in future--a promise which I +regret to say he didn't keep. Tom kept Harkaway all to himself, and won +the second prize in the lottery, some thirty shillings, which he and +East contrived to spend in about three days, in the purchase of pictures +for their study, two new bats and a cricket-ball, all the best that +could be got, and a supper of sausages, kidneys, and beef-steak pies to +all the rebels. Light come, light go; they wouldn't have been +comfortable with money in their pockets in the middle of the half. + +The embers of Flashman's wrath, however, were still smouldering, and +burst out every now and then in sly blows and taunts, and they both felt +that they hadn't quite done with him yet. It wasn't long, however, +before the last act of that drama came, and with it, the end of bullying +for Tom and East at Rugby. They now often stole out into the Hall at +nights, incited thereto, partly by the hope of finding Diggs there and +having a talk with him, partly by the excitement of doing something +which was against rules; for, sad to say, both of our youngsters, since +their loss of character for steadiness in their form, had got into the +habit of doing things which were forbidden, as a matter of adventure; +just in the same way, I should fancy, as men fall into smuggling, and +for the same sort of reasons. Thoughtlessness in the first place. It +never occurred to them to consider why such and such rules were laid +down; the reason was nothing to them; and they only looked upon rules as +a sort of challenge from the rule-makers, which it would be rather bad +pluck in them not to accept; and then again, in the lower parts of the +school they hadn't enough to do. The work of the form they could manage +to get through pretty easily, keeping a good enough place to get their +regular yearly remove; and not having much ambition beyond this, their +whole superfluous steam was available for games and scrapes. Now, one +rule of the House which it was a daily pleasure of all such boys to +break, was that after supper all fags, except the three on duty in the +passages, should remain in their own studies until nine o'clock; and if +caught about the passages or Hall, or in one another's studies, they +were liable to punishments or caning. The rule was stricter than its +observance; for most of the sixth spent their evenings in the fifth-form +room, where the library was, and the lessons were learnt in common. +Every now and then, however, a praepostor would be seized with a fit of +district visiting, and would make a tour of the passages and Hall and +the fags' studies. Then, if the owner were entertaining a friend or two, +the first kick at the door and ominous "Open here," had the effect of +the shadow of a hawk over a chicken-yard; every one cut to cover--one +small boy diving under the sofa, another under the table, while the +owner would hastily pull down a book or two and open them, and cry out +in a meek voice, "Hullo, who's there?" casting an anxious eye round to +see that no protruding leg or elbow could betray the hidden boys. "Open, +sir, directly; it's Snooks." "Oh, I'm very sorry; I didn't know it was +you, Snooks;" and then, with well-feigned zeal, the door would be +opened, young hopeful praying that that beast Snooks mightn't have heard +the scuffle caused by his coming. If a study was empty, Snooks proceeded +to draw the passages and Hall to find the truants. + +Well, one evening, in forbidden hours, Tom and East were in the Hall. +They occupied the seats before the fire nearest the door, while Diggs +sprawled as usual before the further fire. He was busy with a copy of +verses, and East and Tom were chatting together in whispers by the light +of the fire, and splicing a favourite old fives'-bat which had sprung. +Presently a step came down the bottom passage; they listened a moment, +assured themselves that it wasn't a praepostor, and then went on with +their work, and the door swung open, and in walked Flashman. He didn't +see Diggs, and thought it a good chance to keep his hand in; and as the +boys didn't move for him, struck one of them, to make them get out of +his way. + +"What's that for?" growled the assaulted one. + +"Because I choose. You've no business here; go to your study." + +"You can't send us." + +"Can't I? Then I'll thrash you if you stay," said Flashman, savagely. + +"I say, you two," said Diggs, from the end of the Hall, rousing up and +resting himself on his elbow, "you'll never get rid of that fellow till +you lick him. Go in at him, both of you--I'll see fair play." + +Flashman was taken aback, and retreated two steps. East looked at Tom. +"Shall we try?" said he. "Yes," said Tom, desperately. So the two +advanced on Flashman, with clenched fists and beating hearts. They were +about up to his shoulder, but tough boys of their age, and in perfect +training: while he, though strong and big, was in poor condition, from +his monstrous habits of stuffing and want of exercise. Coward as he was, +however, Flashman couldn't swallow such an insult as this; besides, he +was confident of having easy work, and so faced the boys, saying, "You +impudent young blackguards!"--Before he could finish his abuse, they +rushed in on him, and began pummelling at all of him which they could +reach. He hit out wildly and savagely, but the full force of his blows +didn't tell, they were too near him. It was long odds, though, in point +of strength, and in another minute Tom went spinning backwards over a +form, and Flashman turned to demolish East, with a savage grin. But now +Diggs jumped down from the table on which he had seated himself. "Stop +there," shouted he; "the round's over--half-minute time allowed." + +"What the ---- is it to you?" faltered Flashman, who began to lose +heart. + +"I'm going to see fair, I tell you," said Diggs with a grin, and +snapping his great red fingers; "'tain't fair for you to be fighting one +of them at a time. Are you ready, Brown? Time's up." + +The small boys rushed in again. Closing they saw was their best chance, +and Flashman was wilder and more flurried than ever: he caught East by +the throat, and tried to force him back on the iron-bound table; Tom +grasped his waist, and, remembering the old throw he had learned in the +Vale from Harry Winburn, crooked his leg inside Flashman's, and threw +his whole weight forward. The three tottered for a moment, and then over +they went on to the floor, Flashman striking his head against a form in +the Hall. + +The two youngsters sprang to their legs, but he lay there still. They +began to be frightened. Tom stooped down, and then cried out, scared out +of his wits. "He's bleeding awfully; come here, East, Diggs,--he's +dying!" + +"Not he," said Diggs, getting leisurely off the table; "it's all +sham--he's only afraid to fight it out." + +East was as frightened as Tom. Diggs lifted Flashman's head, and he +groaned. + +"What's the matter?" shouted Diggs. + +"My skull's fractured," sobbed Flashman. + +"Oh, let me run for the housekeeper," cried Tom. "What shall we do?" + +"Fiddlesticks! it's nothing but the skin broken," said the relentless +Diggs, feeling his head. "Cold water and a bit of rag's all he'll want." + +"Let me go," said Flashman, surlily, sitting up; "I don't want your +help." + +"We're really very sorry," began East. + +"Hang your sorrow," answered Flashman, holding his handkerchief to the +place; "you shall pay for this, I can tell you, both of you." And he +walked out of the Hall. + +"He can't be very bad," said Tom with a deep sigh, much relieved to see +his enemy march so well. + +"Not he," said Diggs, "and you'll see you won't be troubled with him any +more. But, I say, your head's broken too--your collar is covered with +blood." + +"Is it, though?" said Tom, putting up his hand; "I didn't know it." + +"Well, mop it up, or you'll have your jacket spoilt. And you have got a +nasty eye, Scud; you'd better go and bathe it well in cold water." + +"Cheap enough too, if we've done with our old friend Flashey," said +East, as they made off up stairs to bathe their wounds. + +They had done with Flashman in one sense, for he never laid finger on +either of them again; but whatever harm a spiteful heart and venomous +tongue could do them he took care should be done. Only throw dirt +enough, and some of it is sure to stick; and so it was with the fifth +form and the bigger boys in general, with whom he associated more or +less, and they not at all. Flashman managed to get Tom and East into +disfavour, which did not wear off for some time after the author of it +had disappeared from the School world. This event, much prayed for by +the small fry in general, took place a few months after the above +encounter. One fine summer evening Flashman had been regaling himself on +gin-punch, at Brownsover; and having exceeded his usual limits, started +home uproarious. He fell in with a friend or two coming back from +bathing, proposed a glass of beer, to which they assented, the weather +being hot, and they thirsty souls, and unaware of the quantity of drink +which Flashman had already on board. The short result was, that Flashey +became beastly drunk; they tried to get him along, but couldn't; so +they chartered a hurdle and two men to carry him. One of the masters +came upon them, and they naturally enough fled. The flight of the rest +raised the master's suspicions, and the good angel of the fags incited +him to examine the freight, and, after examination, to convoy the hurdle +himself up to the School-house; and the Doctor, who had long had his eye +on Flashman, arranged for his withdrawal next morning. + +The evil that men, and boys too, do, lives after them: Flashman was +gone, but our boys, as hinted above, still felt the effects of his hate. +Besides, they had been the movers of the strike against unlawful +fagging. The cause was righteous--the result had been triumphant to a +great extent; but the best of the fifth, even those who had never fagged +the small boys, or had given up the practice cheerfully, couldn't help +feeling a small grudge against the first rebels. After all, their form +had been defied--on just grounds, no doubt; so just, indeed, that they +had at once acknowledged the wrong and remained passive in the strife: +had they sided with Flashman and his set, the rebels must have given way +at once. They couldn't help, on the whole, being glad that they had so +acted, and that the resistance had been successful against such of their +own form as had shown fight; they felt that law and order had gained +thereby, but the ringleaders they couldn't quite pardon at once. +"Confoundedly coxy those young rascals will get, if we don't mind," was +the general feeling. + +So it is, and must be always, my dear boys. If the Angel Gabriel were to +come down from heaven, and head a successful rise against the most +abominable and unrighteous vested interest, which this poor old world +groans under, he would most certainly lose his character for many years, +probably for centuries, not only with upholders of said vested interest, +but with the respectable mass of the people whom he had delivered. They +wouldn't ask him to dinner, or let their names appear with his in the +papers; they would be very careful how they spoke of him in the Palaver, +or at their clubs. What can we expect, then, when we have only poor +gallant blundering men like Kossuth, Garibaldi, Mazzini, and righteous +causes which do not triumph in their hands; men who have holes enough in +their armour, God knows, easy to be hit by respectabilities sitting in +their lounging chairs, and having large balances at their bankers? But +you are brave, gallant boys, who hate easy-chairs, and have no balances +or bankers. You only want to have your heads set straight to take the +right side: so bear in mind that majorities, especially respectable +ones, are nine times out of ten in the wrong; and that if you see a man +or boy striving earnestly on the weak side, however wrong-headed or +blundering he may be, you are not to go and join the cry against him. If +you can't join him and help him, and make him wiser, at any rate +remember that he has found something in the world which he will fight +and suffer for, which is just what you have got to do for yourselves; +and so think and speak of him tenderly. + +So East and Tom, the Tadpole, and one or two more, became a sort of +young Ishmaelites, their hands against every one, and every one's hand +against them. It has been already told how they got to war with the +masters and the fifth form, and with the sixth it was much the same. +They saw the praepostors cowed by or joining with the fifth, and +shirking their own duties; so they didn't respect them, and rendered no +willing obedience. It had been one thing to clean out studies for sons +of heroes like old Brooke, but quite another to do the like for Snooks +and Green, who had never faced a good scrummage at football, and +couldn't keep the passages in order at night. So they only slurred +through their fagging just well enough to escape a licking, and not +always that, and got the character of sulky, unwilling fags. In the +fifth-form room, after supper, when such matters were often discussed +and arranged, their names were for ever coming up. + +"I say, Green," Snooks began one night, "isn't that new boy, Harrison, +your fag?" + +"Yes; why?" + +"Oh, I know something of him at home, and should like to excuse +him--will you swop?" + +"Who will you give me?" + +"Well, let's see; there's Willis, Johnson--No, that won't do. Yes, I +have it--there's young East, I'll give you him." + +"Don't you wish you may get it?" replied Green. "I'll tell you what I'll +do--I'll give you two for Willis if you like." + +"Who then?" asks Snooks. + +"Hall and Brown." + +"Wouldn't have 'em at a gift." + +"Better than East, though; for they ain't quite so sharp," said Green, +getting up and leaning his back against the mantelpiece--he wasn't a bad +fellow, and couldn't help not being able to put down the unruly fifth +form. His eye twinkled as he went on, "Did I ever tell you how the +young vagabond sold me last half?" + +"No; how?" + +"Well, he never half cleaned my study out, only just stuck the +candlesticks in the cupboard, and swept the crumbs on to the floor. So +at last I was mortal angry, and had him up, made him go through the +whole performance under my eyes: the dust the young scamp made nearly +choked me, and showed that he hadn't swept the carpet before. Well, when +it was all finished, 'Now, young gentleman,' says I, 'mind, I expect +this to be done every morning, floor swept, table-cloth taken off and +shaken, and everything dusted.' 'Very well,' grunts he. Not a bit of it +though--I was quite sure in a day or two that he never took the +table-cloth off even. So I laid a trap for him: I tore up some paper and +put half-a-dozen bits on my table one night, and the cloth over them as +usual. Next morning, after breakfast, up I came, pulled off the cloth, +and sure enough there was the paper, which fluttered down on to the +floor. I was in a towering rage. 'I've got you now,' thought I, and sent +for him, while I got out my cane. Up he came as cool as you please, with +his hands in his pockets 'Didn't I tell you to shake my table-cloth +every morning?' roared I. 'Yes,' says he. 'Did you do it this morning?' +'Yes.' 'You young liar! I put these pieces of paper on the table last +night, and if you'd taken the table-cloth off' you'd have seen them, so +I'm going to give you a good licking.' Then my youngster takes one hand +out of his pocket, and just stoops down and picks up two of the bits of +paper, and holds them out to me. There was written on each, in great +round text, 'Harry East, his mark.' The young rogue had found my trap +out, taken away my paper, and put some of his there, every bit +ear-marked. I'd a great mind to lick him for his impudence, but after +all one has no right to be laying traps, so I didn't. Of course I was at +his mercy till the end of the half, and in his weeks my study was so +frowsy, I couldn't sit in it." + +"They spoil one's things so, too," chimed in a third boy. "Hall and +Brown were night-fags last week: I called fag, and gave them my +candlesticks to clean; away they went, and didn't appear again. When +they'd had time enough to clean them three times over, I went out to +look after them. They weren't in the passages, so down I went into the +Hall, where I heard music, and there I found them sitting on the table, +listening to Johnson, who was playing the flute, and my candlesticks +stuck between the bars well into the fire, red-hot, clean-spoiled; +they've never stood straight since, and I must get some more. However, I +gave them both a good licking, that's one comfort." + +Such were the sort of scrapes they were always getting into: and so, +partly by their own faults, partly from circumstances, partly from the +faults of others, they found themselves outlaws, ticket-of-leave men, or +what you will in that line: in short, dangerous parties, and lived the +sort of hand-to-mouth, wild, reckless life which such parties generally +have to put up with. Nevertheless, they never quite lost favour with +young Brooke, who was now the cock of the house, and just getting into +the sixth, and Diggs stuck to them like a man, and gave them store of +good advice, by which they never in the least profited. + +And even after the house mended, and law and order had been restored, +which soon happened after young Brooke and Diggs got into the sixth, +they couldn't easily or at once return into the paths of steadiness, and +many of the old wild out-of-bounds habits stuck to them as firmly as +ever. While they had been quite little boys, the scrapes they got into +in the School hadn't much mattered to anyone; but now they were in the +upper school, all wrong-doers from which were sent up straight to the +Doctor at once: so they began to come under his notice; and as they were +a sort of leaders in a small way amongst their own contemporaries, his +eye, which was everywhere, was upon them. + +It was a toss-up whether they turned out well or ill, and so they were +just the boys who caused most anxiety to such a master. You have been +told of the first occasion on which they were sent up to the Doctor, and +the remembrance of it was so pleasant that they had much less fear of +him than most boys of their standing had. "It's all his look," Tom used +to say to East, "that frightens fellows: don't you remember, he never +said anything to us my first half-year, for being an hour late for +locking up?" + +The next time that Tom came before him, however, the interview was of a +very different kind. It happened just about the time at which we have +now arrived, and was the first of a series of scrapes into which our +hero managed now to tumble. + +The river Avon at Rugby is a slow and not very clear stream, in which +chub, dace, roach, and other coarse fish are (or were) plentiful enough, +together with a fair sprinkling of small jack, but no fish worth +sixpence either for sport or food. It is, however, a capital river for +bathing, as it has many nice small pools and several good reaches for +swimming, all within about a mile of one another, and at an easy twenty +minutes' walk from the school. This mile of water is rented, or used to +be rented, for bathing purposes, by the Trustees of the School, for the +boys. The footpath to Brownsover crosses the river by "the Planks," a +curious old single-plank bridge, running for fifty or sixty yards into +the flat meadows on each side of the river,--for in the winter there are +frequent floods. Above the Planks were the bathing places for the +smaller boys; Sleath's, the first bathing place where all new boys had +to begin, until they had proved to the bathing men (three steady +individuals who were paid to attend daily through the summer to prevent +accidents) that they could swim pretty decently, when they were allowed +to go on to Anstey's, about one hundred and fifty yards below. Here +there was a hole about six feet deep and twelve feet across, over which +the puffing urchins struggled to the opposite side, and thought no small +beer of themselves for having been out of their depths. Below the Planks +came larger and deeper holes, the first of which was Wratislaw's, and +the last Swift's, a famous hole, ten or twelve feet deep in parts, and +thirty yards across, from which there was a fine swimming reach right +down to the Mill. Swift's was reserved for the sixth and fifth forms, +and had a spring board and two sets of steps: the others had one set of +steps each, and were used indifferently by all the lower boys, though +each house addicted itself more to one hole than to another. The +School-house at this time affected Wratislaw's hole, and Tom and East, +who had learnt to swim like fishes, were to be found there as regular as +the clock through the summer, always twice, and often three times a day. + +Now the boys either had, or fancied they had, a right also to fish at +their pleasure over the whole of this part of the river, and would not +understand that the right (if any) only extended to the Rugby side. As +ill luck would have it, the gentleman who owned the opposite bank, after +allowing it for some time without interference, had ordered his keepers +not to let the boys fish on his side; the consequence of which had been, +that there had been first wranglings and then fights between the keepers +and boys; and so keen had the quarrel become, that the landlord and his +keepers, after a ducking had been inflicted on one of the latter, and a +fierce fight ensued thereon, had been up to the great School at +calling-over to identify the delinquents, and it was all the Doctor +himself and five or six masters could do to keep the peace. Not even his +authority could prevent the hissing; and so strong was the feeling, that +the four praepostors of the week walked up the school with their canes, +shouting S-s-s-s-i-lenc-c-c-c-e at the top of their voices. However, the +chief offenders for the time were flogged and kept in bounds, but the +victorious party had brought a nice hornets' nest about their ears. The +landlord was hissed at the School gates as he rode past, and when he +charged his horse at the mob of boys, and tried to thrash them with his +whip, was driven back by cricket-bats and wickets, and pursued with +pebbles and fives'-balls; while the wretched keepers' lives were a +burthen to them, from having to watch the waters so closely. + +The School-house boys of Tom's standing, one and all, as a protest +against this tyranny and cutting short of their lawful amusements, took +to fishing in all ways and especially by means of night-lines. The +little tackle-maker at the bottom of the town would soon have made his +fortune had the rage lasted, and several of the barbers began to lay in +fishing-tackle. The boys had this great advantage over their enemies, +that they spent a large portion of the day in nature's garb by the river +side, and so, when tired of swimming, would get out on the other side +and fish, or set night-lines till the keeper hove in sight, and then +plunge in and swim back and mix with the other bathers, and the keepers +were too wise to follow across the stream. + +While things were in this state, one day Tom and three or four others +were bathing at Wratislaw's, and had, as a matter of course, been taking +up and resetting night-lines. They had all left the water, and were +sitting or standing about at their toilets, in all costumes from a shirt +upwards, when they were aware of a man in a velveteen shooting-coat +approaching from the other side. He was a new keeper, so they didn't +recognise or notice him, till he pulled up right opposite, and began:-- + +"I see'd some of you young gentlemen over this side a fishing just now." + +"Hullo, who are you? what business is that of yours, old Velveteens?" + +"I'm the new under-keeper, and master's told me to keep a sharp look-out +on all o' you young chaps. And I tells 'ee I means business, and you'd +better keep on your own side, or we shall fall out." + +"Well, that's right, Velveteens--speak out, and let's know your mind at +once." + +"Look here, old boy," cried East, holding up a miserable coarse fish or +two and a small jack, "would you like to smell 'em and see which bank +they lived under?" + +"I'll give you a bit of advice, keeper," shouted Tom, who was sitting in +his shirt paddling with his feet in the river; "you'd better go down +there to Swift's, where the big boys are, they're beggars at setting +lines, and'll put you up to a wrinkle or two for catching the +five-pounders." Tom was nearest to the keeper, and that officer, who was +getting angry at the chaff, fixed his eyes on our hero, as if to take a +note of him for future use. Tom returned his gaze with a steady stare, +and then broke into a laugh, and struck into the middle of a favourite +School-house song-- + + As I and my companions + Were setting of a snare, + The gamekeeper was watching us, + For him we did not care: + For we can wrestle and fight, my boys, + And jump out anywhere. + For it's my delight of a likely night, + In the season of the year. + +The chorus was taken up by the other boys with shouts of laughter, and +the keeper turned away with a grunt, but evidently bent on mischief. The +boys thought no more of the matter. + +But now came on the may-fly season; the soft hazy summer weather lay +sleepily along the rich meadows by Avon side, and the green and grey +flies flickered with their graceful lazy up and down flight over the +reeds and the water and the meadows, in myriads upon myriads. The +may-flies must surely be the lotus-eaters of the ephemerae; the +happiest, laziest, carelessest fly that dances and dreams out his few +hours of sunshiny life by English rivers. + +Every little pitiful coarse fish in the Avon was on the alert for the +flies, and gorging his wretched carcase with hundreds daily, the +gluttonous rogues! and every lover of the gentle craft was out to avenge +the poor may-flies. + +So one fine Thursday afternoon, Tom having borrowed East's new rod, +started by himself to the river. He fished for some time with small +success, not a fish would rise at him; but, as he prowled along the +bank, he was presently aware of mighty ones feeding in a pool on the +opposite side, under the shade of a huge willow-tree. The stream was +deep here, but some fifty yards below was a shallow, for which he made +off hot-foot; and forgetting landlords, keepers, solemn prohibitions of +the Doctor, and everything else, pulled up his trousers, plunged across, +and in three minutes was creeping along on all fours towards the clump +of willows. + +[Illustration: TOM DISCOVERED BY VELVETEENS. P. 199.] + +It isn't often that great chub, or any other coarse fish are in earnest +about anything, but just then they were thoroughly bent on feeding, and +in half-an-hour Master Tom had deposited three thumping fellows at the +foot of the giant willow. As he was baiting for a fourth pounder, and +just going to throw in again, he became aware of a man coming up the +bank not one hundred yards off. Another look told him that it was the +under-keeper. Could he reach the shallow before him? No, not carrying +his rod. Nothing for it but the tree: so Tom laid his bones to it, +shinning up as fast as he could, and dragging up his rod after him. He +had just time to reach and crouch along upon a huge branch some ten feet +up, which stretched out over the river, when the keeper arrived at the +clump. Tom's heart beat fast as he came under the tree; two steps more +and he would have passed, when, as ill-luck would have it, the gleam on +the scales of the dead fish caught his eye, and he made a dead point at +the foot of the tree. He picked up the fish one by one; his eye and +touch told him that they had been alive and feeding within the hour. Tom +crouched lower along the branch, and heard the keeper beating the clump. +"If I could only get the rod hidden," thought he, and began gently +shifting it to get it alongside him; "willow-trees don't throw out +straight hickory shoots twelve feet along, with no leaves, worse luck." +Alas! the keeper catches the rustle, and then a sight of the rod, and +then of Tom's hand and arm. + +"Oh, be up ther' be 'ee?" says he, running under the tree. "Now you come +down this minute." + +"Tree'd at last," thinks Tom, making no answer, and keeping as close as +possible, but working away at the rod, which he takes to pieces: "I'm in +for it, unless I can starve him out." And then he begins to meditate +getting along the branch for a plunge and scramble to the other side; +but the small branches are so thick, and the opposite bank so difficult, +that the keeper will have lots of time to get round by the ford before +he can get out, so he gives that up. And now he hears the keeper +beginning to scramble up the trunk. That will never do; so he scrambles +himself back to where his branch joins the trunk, and stands with lifted +rod. + +"Hullo, Velveteens, mind your fingers if you come any higher." + +The keeper stops and looks up, and then with a grin says, "Oh! be you, +be it, young measter? Well, here's luck. Now I tells 'ee to come down at +once, and 't'll be best for 'ee." + +"Thank 'ee, Velveteens, I'm very comfortable," said Tom, shortening the +rod in his hand, and preparing for battle. + +"Werry well, please yourself," says the keeper, descending however to +the ground again, and taking his seat on the bank; "I bean't in no +hurry, so you med take your time. I'll larn 'ee to gee honest folk names +afore I've done with 'ee." + +"My luck as usual," thinks Tom; "what a fool I was to give him a black. +If I'd called him 'keeper' now I might get off. The return match is all +his way." + +The keeper quietly proceeded to take out his pipe, fill, and light it, +keeping an eye on Tom, who now sat disconsolately across the branch, +looking at keeper--a pitiful sight for men and fishes. The more he +thought of it the less he liked it. "It must be getting near second +calling-over," thinks he. Keeper smokes on stolidly. "If he takes me up, +I shall be flogged safe enough. I can't sit here all night. Wonder if +he'll rise at silver. + +"I say, keeper," said he meekly, "let me go for two bob?" + +"Not for twenty neither," grunts his persecutor. + +And so they sat on till long past second calling-over, and the sun came +slanting in through the willow-branches, and telling of locking-up near +at hand. + +"I'm coming down, keeper," said Tom at last with a sigh, fairly tired +out. "Now what are you going to do?" + +"Walk 'ee up to School, and give 'ee over to the Doctor; them's my +orders," says Velveteens, knocking the ashes out of his fourth pipe, and +standing up and shaking himself. + +"Very good," said Tom; "but hands off, you know. I'll go with you +quietly, so no collaring or that sort of thing." + +Keeper looked at him a minute--"Werry good," said he at last; and so Tom +descended, and wended his way drearily by the side of the keeper up to +the School-house, where they arrived just at locking-up. As they passed +the School-gates, the Tadpole and several others who were standing there +caught the state of things, and rushed out, crying "Rescue!" but Tom +shook his head, so they only followed to the Doctor's gate, and went +back sorely puzzled. + +How changed and stern the Doctor seemed from the last time that Tom was +up there, as the keeper told the story, not omitting to state how Tom +had called him blackguard names. "Indeed, sir," broke in the culprit, +"it was only Velveteens." The Doctor only asked one question. + +"You know the rule about the banks, Brown?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Then wait for me to-morrow, after first lesson." + +"I thought so," muttered Tom. + +"And about the rod, sir?" went on the keeper; "Master's told we as we +might have all the rods--" + +"Oh, please, sir," broke in Tom, "the rod isn't mine." The Doctor looked +puzzled, but the keeper, who was a good-hearted fellow, and melted at +Tom's evident distress, gave up his claim. Tom was flogged next +morning, and a few days afterwards met Velveteens, and presented him +with half-a-crown for giving up the rod claim, and they became sworn +friends; and I regret to say that Tom had many more fish from under the +willow that may-fly season, and was never caught again by Velveteens. + +It wasn't three weeks before Tom, and now East by his side, were again +in the awful presence. This time, however, the Doctor was not so +terrible. A few days before, they had been fagged at fives to fetch the +balls that went off the court. While standing watching the game, they +saw five or six nearly new balls hit on the top of the School. "I say, +Tom," said East, when they were dismissed, "couldn't we get those balls +somehow?" + +"Let's try, anyhow." + +So they reconnoitred the walls carefully, borrowed a coal-hammer from +old Stumps, bought some big nails, and after one or two attempts, scaled +the Schools, and possessed themselves of huge quantities of +fives'-balls. The place pleased them so much that they spent all their +spare time there, scratching and cutting their names on the top of every +tower; and at last, having exhausted all other places, finished up with +inscribing H. EAST, T. BROWN, on the minute-hand of the great clock. In +the doing of which they held the minute-hand, and disturbed the clock's +economy. So next morning, when masters and boys came trooping down to +prayers, and entered the quadrangle, the injured minute-hand was +indicating three minutes to the hour. They all pulled up, and took their +time. When the hour struck, doors were closed, and half the school late. +Thomas being sent to make inquiry, discovers their names on the +minute-hand, and reports accordingly; and they are sent for, a knot of +their friends making derisive and pantomimic allusions to what their +fate will be, as they walk off. + +But the Doctor, after hearing their story, doesn't make much of it, and +only gives them thirty lines of Homer to learn by heart, and a lecture +on the likelihood of such exploits ending in broken bones. + +Alas! almost the next day was one of the great fairs in the town; and as +several rows and other disagreeable accidents had of late taken place on +these occasions, the Doctor gives out, after prayers in the morning, +that no boy is to go down into the town. Wherefore East and Tom, for no +earthly pleasure except that of doing what they are told not to do, +start away, after second lesson, and making a short circuit through the +fields, strike a back lane which leads into the town, go down it, and +run plump upon one of the masters as they emerge into the High Street. +The master in question, though a very clever, is not a righteous man: he +has already caught several of his own pupils, and gives them lines to +learn, while he sends East and Tom, who are not his pupils, up to the +Doctor; who, on learning that they had been at prayers in the morning, +flogs them soundly. + +The flogging did them no good at the time, for the injustice of their +captor was rankling in their minds; but it was just at the end of the +half, and on the next evening but one Thomas knocks at their door, and +says the Doctor wants to see them. They look at one another in silent +dismay. What can it be now? Which of their countless wrong-doings can he +have heard of officially? However, it is no use delaying, so up they go +to the study. There they find the Doctor not angry, but very grave. "He +has sent for them to speak very seriously before they go home. They have +each been flogged several times in the half-year for direct and wilful +breaches of rules. This cannot go on. They are doing no good to +themselves or others, and now they are getting up in the School, and +have influence. They seem to think that rules are made capriciously, and +for the pleasure of the masters; but this is not so, they are made for +the good of the whole School, and must and shall be obeyed. Those who +thoughtlessly or wilfully break them will not be allowed to stay at the +School. He should be sorry if they had to leave, as the School might do +them both much good, and wishes them to think very seriously in the +holidays over what he has said. Good night." + +And so the two hurry off horribly scared: the idea of having to leave +has never crossed their minds, and is quite unbearable. + +As they go out, they meet at the door old Holmes, a sturdy cheery +praepostor of another house, who goes in to the Doctor; and they hear his +genial hearty greeting of the new-comer, so different to their own +reception, as the door closes, and return to their study with heavy +hearts, and tremendous resolves to break no more rules. + +Five minutes afterwards the master of their form, a late arrival and a +model young master, knocks at the Doctor's study-door. "Come in!" and as +he enters the Doctor goes on, to Holmes--"you see I do not know anything +of the case officially, and if I take any notice of it at all, I must +publicly expel the boy. I don't wish to do that, for I think there is +some good in him. There's nothing for it but a good sound thrashing." He +paused to shake hands with the master, which Holmes does also, and then +prepares to leave. + +"I understand. Good night, sir." + +"Good night, Holmes. And remember," added the Doctor, emphasizing the +words, "a good sound thrashing before the whole house." + +The door closed on Holmes; and the Doctor, in answer to the puzzled look +of his lieutenant, explained shortly. "A gross case of bullying. +Wharton, the head of the house, is a very good fellow, but slight and +weak, and severe physical pain is the only way to deal with such a case; +so I have asked Holmes to take it up. He is very careful and +trustworthy, and has plenty of strength. I wish all the sixth had as +much. We must have it here, if we are to keep order at all." + +Now I don't want any wiseacres to read this book; but if they should, of +course they will prick up their long ears, and howl, or rather bray, at +the above story. Very good, I don't object; but what I have to add for +you boys is this: that Holmes called a levy of his house after breakfast +next morning, made them a speech on the case of bullying in question, +and then gave the bully a "good sound thrashing;" and that years +afterwards, that boy sought out Holmes, and thanked him, saying it had +been the kindest act which had ever been done upon him, and the +turning-point in his character; and a very good fellow he became, and a +credit to his School. + +After some other talk between them, the Doctor said, "I want to speak +to you about two boys in your form, East and Brown: I have just been +speaking to them. What do you think of them?" + +"Well, they are not hard workers, and very thoughtless and full of +spirits--but I can't help liking them. I think they are sound good +fellows at the bottom." + +"I'm glad of it. I think so too. But they make me very uneasy. They are +taking the lead a good deal amongst the fags in my house, for they are +very active, bold fellows. I should be sorry to lose them, but I shan't +let them stay if I don't see them gaining character and manliness. In +another year they may do great harm to all the younger boys." + +"Oh, I hope you won't send them away," pleaded their master. + +"Not if I can help it. But now I never feel sure, after any +half-holiday, that I shan't have to flog one of them next morning, for +some foolish, thoughtless scrape. I quite dread seeing either of them." + +They were both silent for a minute. Presently the Doctor began again:-- + +"They don't feel that they have any duty or work to do in the School, +and how is one to make them feel it?" + +"I think if either of them had some little boy to take care of, it would +steady them. Brown is the most reckless of the two, I should say; East +wouldn't get into so many scrapes without him." + +"Well," said the Doctor, with something like a sigh, "I'll think of it." +And they went on to talk of other subjects. + + + + +TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS. + +PART II. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +HOW THE TIDE TURNED. + + "Once to every man and nation, comes the moment to decide, + In the strife of Truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil side: + + * * * * * + + Then it is the brave man chooses, while the coward stands aside, + Doubting in his abject spirit, till his Lord is crucified." + LOWELL. + + +THE turning-point in our hero's school career had now come, and the +manner of it was as follows. On the evening of the first day of the next +half-year, Tom, East, and another School-house boy, who had just been +dropped at the Spread Eagle by the old Regulator, rushed into the +matron's room in high spirits, such as all real boys are in when they +first get back, however fond they may be of home. + +"Well, Mrs. Wixie," shouted one, seizing on the methodical, active +little dark-eyed woman, who was busy stowing away the linen of the boys +who had already arrived into their several pigeon-holes, "here we are +again, you see, as jolly as ever. Let us help you put the things away." + +"And, Mary," cried another (she was called indifferently by either +name), "who's come back? Has the Doctor made old Jones leave? How many +new boys are there?" + +"Am I and East to have Gray's study? You know you promised to get it for +us if you could," shouted Tom. + +"And am I to sleep in Number 4?" roared East. + +"How's old Sam, and Bogle, and Sally?" + +"Bless the boys!" cries Mary, at last getting in a word, "why, you'll +shake me to death. There now, do go away up to the housekeeper's room +and get your suppers; you know I haven't time to talk--you'll find +plenty more in the house. Now, Master East, do let those things +alone--you're mixing up three new boys' things." And she rushed at East, +who escaped round the open trunks holding up a prize. + +"Hullo, look here, Tommy," shouted he, "here's fun!" and he brandished +above his head some pretty little night-caps, beautifully made and +marked, the work of loving fingers in some distant country home. The +kind mother and sisters, who sewed that delicate stitching with aching +hearts, little thought of the trouble they might be bringing on the +young head for which they were meant. The little matron was wiser, and +snatched the caps from East before he could look at the name on them. + +"Now, Master East, I shall be very angry if you don't go," said she; +"there's some capital cold beef and pickles up-stairs, and I won't have +you old boys in my room first night." + +"Hurrah for the pickles! Come along, Tommy; come along, Smith. We shall +find out who the young Count is, I'll be bound: I hope he'll sleep in my +room. Mary's always vicious first week." + +As the boys turned to leave the room, the matron touched Tom's arm, and +said, "Master Brown, please stop a minute, I want to speak to you." + +"Very well, Mary. I'll come in a minute: East, don't finish the +pickles--" + +"Oh, Master Brown," went on the little matron, when the rest had gone, +"you're to have Gray's study, Mrs. Arnold says. And she wants you to +take in this young gentleman. He's a new boy, and thirteen years old, +though he don't look it. He's very delicate, and has never been from +home before. And I told Mrs. Arnold I thought you'd be kind to him, and +see that they don't bully him at first. He's put into your form, and +I've given him the bed next to yours in Number 4; so East can't sleep +there this half." + +Tom was rather put about by this speech. He had got the double study +which he coveted, but here were conditions attached which greatly +moderated his joy He looked across the room, and in the far corner of +the sofa was aware of a slight pale boy, with large blue eyes and light +fair hair, who seemed ready to shrink through the floor. He saw at a +glance that the little stranger was just the boy whose first half-year +at a public school would be misery to himself if he were left alone, or +constant anxiety to any one who meant to see him through his troubles. +Tom was too honest to take in the youngster and then let him shift for +himself; and if he took him as his chum instead of East, where were all +his pet plans of having a bottled-beer cellar under his window, and +making night-lines and slings, and plotting expeditions to Brownsover +Mills and Caldecott's Spinney? East and he had made up their minds to +get this study, and then every night from locking-up till ten they would +be together to talk about fishing, drink bottled-beer, read Marryat's +novels, and sort birds' eggs. And this new boy would most likely never +go out of the close, and would be afraid of wet feet, and always getting +laughed at and called Molly, or Jenny, or some derogatory feminine +nickname. + +The matron watched him for a moment, and saw what was passing in his +mind, and so, like a wise negotiator, threw in an appeal to his warm +heart. "Poor little fellow," said she in almost a whisper, "his father's +dead, and he's got no brothers. And his mamma, such a kind sweet lady, +almost broke her heart at leaving him this morning; and she said one of +his sisters was like to die of decline, and so----" + +"Well, well," burst in Tom, with something like a sigh at the effort, "I +suppose I must give up East. Come along, young un. What's your name? +We'll go and have some supper, and then I'll show you our study." + +"His name's George Arthur," said the matron, walking up to him with Tom, +who grasped his little delicate hand as the proper preliminary to making +a chum of him, and felt as if he could have blown him away. "I've had +his books and things put into the study, which his mamma has had new +papered, and the sofa covered, and new green-baize curtains over the +door" (the diplomatic matron threw this in, to show that the new boy was +contributing largely to the partnership comforts). "And Mrs. Arnold told +me to say," she added, "that she should like you both to come up to tea +with her. You know the way, Master Brown, and the things are just gone +up, I know." + +Here was an announcement for Master Tom! He was to go up to tea the +first night, just as if he were a sixth or fifth-form boy, and of +importance in the school world, instead of the most reckless young +scapegrace amongst the fags. He felt himself lifted on to a higher +social and moral platform at once. Nevertheless, he couldn't give up +without a sigh the idea of the jolly supper in the housekeeper's room +with East and the rest, and a rush round to all the studies of his +friends afterwards, to pour out the deeds and wonders of the holidays, +to plot fifty plans for the coming half-year, and to gather news of who +had left, and what new boys had come, who had got who's study, and where +the new praepostors slept. However, Tom consoled himself with thinking +that he couldn't have done all this with the new boy at his heels, and +so marched off along the passages to the Doctor's private house with his +young charge in tow, in monstrous good humour with himself and all the +world. + +It is needless, and would be impertinent, to tell how the two young boys +were received in that drawing-room. The lady who presided there is still +living, and has carried with her to her peaceful home in the North the +respect and love of all those who ever felt and shared that gentle and +high-bred hospitality. Ay, many is the brave heart now doing its work +and bearing its load in country curacies, London chambers, under the +Indian sun, and in Australian towns and clearings, which looks back with +fond and grateful memory to that School-house drawing-room, and dates +much of its highest and best training to the lessons learnt there. + +Besides Mrs. Arnold and one or two of the elder children, there were one +of the younger masters, young Brooke--who was now in the sixth, and had +succeeded to his brother's position and influence--and another +sixth-form boy there, talking together before the fire. The master and +young Brooke, now a great strapping fellow six feet high, eighteen years +old, and powerful as a coal-heaver, nodded kindly to Tom, to his intense +glory, and then went on talking; the other did not notice them. The +hostess, after a few kind words, which led the boys at once and +insensibly to feel at their ease, and to begin talking to one another, +left them with her own children while she finished a letter. The young +ones got on fast and well, Tom holding forth about a prodigious pony he +had been riding out hunting, and hearing stories of the winter glories +of the lakes, when tea came in, and immediately after the Doctor +himself. + +How frank, and kind, and manly, was his greeting to the party by the +fire! It did Tom's heart good to see him and young Brooke shake hands, +and look one another in the face; and he didn't fail to remark, that +Brooke was nearly as tall, and quite as broad as the Doctor. And his cup +was full, when in another moment his master turned to him with another +warm shake of the hand, and, seemingly oblivious of all the late +scrapes which he had been getting into, said, "Ah, Brown, you here! I +hope you left your father and all well at home?" + +"Yes, sir, quite well." + +"And this is the little fellow who is to share your study. Well, he +doesn't look as we should like to see him. He wants some Rugby air, and +cricket. And you must take him some good long walks, to Bilton Grange +and Caldecott's Spinney, and show him what a little pretty country we +have about here." + +Tom wondered if the Doctor knew that his visits to Bilton Grange were +for the purpose of taking rooks' nests (a proceeding strongly +discountenanced by the owner thereof), and those to Caldecott's Spinney +were prompted chiefly by the conveniences for setting night-lines. What +didn't the Doctor know? And what a noble use he always made of it! He +almost resolved to abjure rook-pies and night-lines for ever. The tea +went merrily off, the Doctor now talking of holiday doings, and then of +the prospects of the half-year, what chance there was for the Balliol +scholarship, whether the eleven would be a good one. Every body was at +his ease, and every body felt that he, young as he might be, was of some +use in the little school world, and had a work to do there. + +Soon after tea the Doctor went off to his study, and the young boys a +few minutes afterwards took their leave, and went out of the private +door which led from the Doctor's house into the middle passage. + +At the fire, at the further end of the passage, was a crowd of boys in +loud talk and laughter. There was a sudden pause when the door opened, +and then a great shout of greeting, as Tom was recognised marching down +the passage. + +"Hullo, Brown, where do you come from?" + +"Oh, I've been to tea with the Doctor," says Tom, with great dignity. + +"My eye!" cried East. "Oh! so that's why Mary called you back, and you +didn't come to supper. You lost something--that beef and pickles was no +end good." + +"I say, young fellow," cried Hall, detecting Arthur, and catching him by +the collar, "what's your name? Where do you come from? How old are you?" + +Tom saw Arthur shrink back, and look scared as all the group turned to +him, but thought it best to let him answer, just standing by his side to +support in case of need. + +"Arthur, sir. I come from Devonshire." + +"Don't call me 'sir,' you young muff. How old are you?" + +"Thirteen." + +"Can you sing?" + +The poor boy, was trembling and hesitating. Tom struck in--"You be +hanged, Tadpole. He'll have to sing, whether he can or not, Saturday +twelve weeks, and that's long enough off yet." + +"Do you know him at home, Brown?" + +"No; but he's my chum in Gray's old study, and it's near prayer time, +and I haven't had a look at it yet. Come along, Arthur." + +Away went the two, Tom longing to get his charge safe under cover, where +he might advise him on his deportment. + +"What a queer chum for Tom Brown," was the comment at the fire; and it +must be confessed so thought Tom himself, as he lighted his candle, and +surveyed the new green-baize curtains and the carpet and sofa with much +satisfaction. + +"I say, Arthur, what a brick your mother is to make us so cosy. But look +here now, you must answer straight up when the fellows speak to you, and +don't be afraid. If you're afraid, you'll get bullied. And don't you say +you can sing; and don't you ever talk about home, or your mother and +sisters." + +Poor little Arthur looked ready to cry. + +"But please," said he, "mayn't I talk about--about home to you?" + +"Oh yes, I like it. But don't talk to boys you don't know, or they'll +call you home-sick, or mamma's darling, or some such stuff. What a jolly +desk! Is that yours? And what stunning binding! why, your school-books +look like novels!" + +And Tom was soon deep in Arthur's goods and chattels, all new and good +enough for a fifth-form boy, and hardly thought of his friends outside, +till the prayer-bell rung. + +I have already described the School-house prayers; they were the same on +the first night as on the other nights, save for the gaps caused by the +absence of those boys who came late, and the line of new boys who stood +all together at the farther table--of all sorts and sizes, like young +bears with all their troubles to come, as Tom's father had said to him +when he was in the same position. He thought of it as he looked at the +line, and poor little slight Arthur standing with them, and as he was +leading him up-stairs to Number 4, directly after prayers, and showing +him his bed. It was a huge high airy room, with two large windows +looking on to the School close. There were twelve beds in the room. The +one in the furthest corner by the fireplace, occupied by the sixth-form +boy who was responsible for the discipline of the room, and the rest by +boys in the lower-fifth and other junior forms, all fags (for the +fifth-form boys, as has been said, slept in rooms by themselves). Being +fags, the eldest of them was not more than about sixteen years old, and +were all bound to be up and in bed by ten; the sixth-form boys came to +bed from ten to a quarter-past (at which time the old verger came round +to put the candles out), except when they sat up to read. + +Within a few minutes therefore of their entry, all the other boys who +slept in Number 4 had come up. The little fellows went quietly to their +own beds, and began undressing and talking to each other in whispers; +while the elder, amongst whom was Tom, sat chatting about on one +another's beds, with their jackets and waistcoats off. Poor little +Arthur was overwhelmed with the novelty of his position. The idea of +sleeping in the room with strange boys had clearly never crossed his +mind before, and was as painful as it was strange to him. He could +hardly bear to take his jacket off; however, presently, with an effort, +off it came, and then he paused and looked at Tom, who was sitting at +the bottom of his bed talking and laughing. + +"Please, Brown," he whispered, "may I wash my face and hands?" + +"Of course, if you like," said Tom, staring; "that's your +washhand-stand, under the window, second from your bed. You'll have to +go down for more water in the morning if you use it all." And on he went +with his talk, while Arthur stole timidly from between the beds out to +his washhand-stand, and began his ablutions, thereby drawing for a +moment on himself the attention of the room. + +On went the talk and laughter. Arthur finished his washing and +undressing, and put on his night-gown. He then looked round more +nervously than ever. Two or three of the little boys were already in +bed, sitting up with their chins on their knees. The light burned clear, +the noise went on. It was a trying moment for the poor little lonely +boy; however, this time he didn't ask Tom what he might or might not do, +but dropped on his knees by his bedside, as he had done every day from +his childhood, to open his heart to Him who heareth the cry and beareth +the sorrows of the tender child, and the strong man in agony. + +Tom was sitting at the bottom of his bed unlacing his boots, so that his +back was towards Arthur, and he didn't see what had happened, and looked +up in wonder at the sudden silence. Then two or three boys laughed and +sneered, and a big brutal fellow, who was standing in the middle of the +room, picked up a slipper, and shied it at the kneeling boy, calling him +a snivelling young shaver. Then Tom saw the whole, and the next moment +the boot he had just pulled off flew straight at the head of the bully, +who had just time to throw up his arm and catch it on his elbow. + +"Confound you, Brown, what's that for?" roared he, stamping with pain. + +"Never mind what I mean," said Tom, stepping on to the floor, every +drop of blood in his body tingling; "if any fellow wants the other boot, +he knows how to get it." + +What would have been the result is doubtful, for at this moment the +sixth-form boy came in, and not another word could be said. Tom and the +rest rushed into bed and finished their unrobing there, and the old +verger, as punctual as the clock, had put out the candle in another +minute, and toddled on to the next room, shutting their door with his +usual "Good night, genl'm'n." + +There were many boys in the room by whom that little scene was taken to +heart before they slept. But sleep seemed to have deserted the pillow of +poor Tom. For some time his excitement, and the flood of memories which +chased one another through his brain, kept him from thinking or +resolving. His head throbbed, his heart leapt, and he could hardly keep +himself from springing out of bed and rushing about the room. Then the +thought of his own mother came across him, and the promise he had made +at her knee, years ago, never to forget to kneel by his bedside, and +give himself up to his Father, before he laid his head on the pillow, +from which it might never rise; and he lay down gently and cried as if +his heart would break. He was only fourteen years old. + +It was no light act of courage in those days, my dear boys, for a little +fellow to say his prayers publicly, even at Rugby. A few years later, +when Arnold's manly piety had begun to leaven the School the tables +turned; before he died, in the School-house at least, and I believe in +the other houses, the rule was the other way. But poor Tom had come to +school in other times. The first few nights after he came he did not +kneel down because of the noise, but sat up in bed till the candle was +out, and then stole out and said his prayers in fear, lest some one +should find him out. So did many another poor little fellow. Then he +began to think that he might just as well say his prayers in bed, and +then that it didn't matter whether he was kneeling, or sitting, or lying +down. And so it had come to pass with Tom as with all who will not +confess their Lord before men: and for the last year he had probably not +said his prayers in earnest a dozen times. + +Poor Tom! the first and bitterest feeling which was like to break his +heart was the sense of his own cowardice. The vice of all others which +he loathed was brought in and burned in on his own soul. He had lied to +his mother, to his conscience, to his God. How could he bear it? And +then the poor little weak boy, whom he had pitied and almost scorned for +his weakness, had done that which he, braggart as he was, dared not do. +The first dawn of comfort came to him in swearing to himself that he +would stand by that boy through thick and thin, and cheer him, and help +him, and bear his burdens, for the good deed done that night. Then he +resolved to write home next day and tell his mother all, and what a +coward her son had been. And then peace came to him as he resolved, +lastly, to bear his testimony next morning. The morning would be harder +than the night to begin with, but he felt that he could not afford to +let one chance slip. Several times he faltered, for the devil showed +him, first, all his old friends calling him "Saint" and "Square-toes," +and a dozen hard names, and whispered to him that his motives would be +misunderstood, and he would only be left alone with the new boy; whereas +it was his duty to keep all means of influence, that he might do good to +the largest number. And then came the more subtle temptation, "Shall I +not be showing myself braver than others by doing this? Have I any right +to begin it now? Ought I not rather to pray in my own study, letting +other boys know that I do so, and trying to lead them to it, while in +public at least I should go on as I have done?" However, his good angel +was too strong that night, and he turned on his side and slept, tired of +trying to reason, but resolved to follow the impulse which had been so +strong, and in which he had found peace. + +Next morning he was up and washed and dressed, all but his jacket and +waistcoat, just as the ten minutes' bell began to ring, and then in the +face of the whole room knelt down to pray. Not five words could he +say--the bell mocked him; he was listening for every whisper in the +room--what were they all thinking of him? He was ashamed to go on +kneeling, ashamed to rise from his knees. At last, as it were from his +inmost heart, a still small voice seemed to breathe forth the words of +the publican, "God be merciful to me a sinner!" He repeated them over +and over, clinging to them as for his life, and rose from his knees +comforted and humbled, and ready to face the whole world. It was not +needed: two other boys besides Arthur had already followed his example, +and he went down to the great School with a glimmering of another lesson +in his heart--the lesson that he who has conquered his own coward spirit +has conquered the whole outward world; and that other one which the old +prophet learnt in the cave in Mount Horeb, when he hid his face, and the +still small voice asked, "What doest thou here, Elijah?" that however we +may fancy ourselves alone on the side of good, the King and Lord of men +is nowhere without His witnesses; for in every society, however +seemingly corrupt and godless, there are those who have not bowed the +knee to Baal. + +He found too how greatly he had exaggerated the effect to be produced by +his act. For a few nights there was a sneer or a laugh when he knelt +down, but this passed off soon, and one by one all the other boys but +three or four followed the lead. I fear that this was in some measure +owing to the fact, that Tom could probably have thrashed any boy in the +room except the praepostor; at any rate, every boy knew that he would try +upon very slight provocation, and didn't choose to run the risk of a +hard fight because Tom Brown had taken a fancy to say his prayers. Some +of the small boys of Number 4 communicated the new state of things to +their chums, and in several other rooms the poor little fellows tried it +on; in one instance or so where the praepostor heard of it and interfered +very decidedly, with partial success; but in the rest, after a short +struggle, the confessors were bullied or laughed down, and the old state +of things went on for some time longer. Before either Tom Brown or +Arthur left the School-house, there was no room in which it had not +become the regular custom. I trust it is so still, and that the old +heathen state of things has gone out for ever. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +THE NEW BOY. + + "And Heaven's rich instincts in him grew, + As effortless as woodland nooks + Send violets up and paint them blue."--LOWELL. + + +I DO not mean to recount all the little troubles and annoyances which +thronged upon Tom at the beginning of this half-year, in his new +character of bear-leader to a gentle little boy straight from home. He +seemed to himself to have become a new boy again, without any of the +long-suffering and meekness indispensable for supporting that character +with moderate success. From morning till night he had the feeling of +responsibility on his mind; and even if he left Arthur in their study +or in the close for an hour, was never at ease till he had him in sight +again. He waited for him at the doors of the school after every lesson +and every calling-over; watched that no tricks were played him, and none +but the regulation questions asked; kept his eye on his plate at dinner +and breakfast, to see that no unfair depredations were made upon his +viands; in short, as East remarked, cackled after him like a hen with +one chick. + +Arthur took a long time thawing too, which made it all the harder work; +was sadly timid; scarcely ever spoke unless Tom spoke to him first; and, +worst of all, would agree with him in everything, the hardest thing in +the world for a Brown to bear. He got quite angry sometimes, as they sat +together of a night in their study, at this provoking habit of +agreement, and was on the point of breaking out a dozen times with a +lecture upon the propriety of a fellow having a will of his own and +speaking out; but managed to restrain himself by the thought that it +might only frighten Arthur, and the remembrance of the lesson he had +learnt from him on his first night at Number 4. Then he would resolve to +sit still, and not say a word till Arthur began; but he was always beat +at that game, and had presently to begin talking in despair, fearing +lest Arthur might think he was vexed at something if he didn't, and +dog-tired of sitting tongue-tied. + +It was hard work! But Tom had taken it up, and meant to stick to it, and +go through with it, so as to satisfy himself; in which resolution he was +much assisted by the chaffing of East and his other old friends, who +began to call him "dry-nurse," and otherwise to break their small wit on +him. But when they took other ground, as they did every now and then, +Tom was sorely puzzled. + +"Tell you what, Tommy," East would say, "you'll spoil young Hopeful with +too much coddling. Why can't you let him go about by himself and find +his own level? He'll never be worth a button, if you go on keeping him +under your skirts." + +"Well, but he ain't fit to fight his own way yet; I'm trying to get him +to it every day--but he's very odd. Poor little beggar! I can't make him +out a bit. He ain't a bit like anything I've ever seen or heard of--he +seems all over nerves; anything you say seems to hurt him like a cut or +a blow." + +"That sort of boy's no use here," said East, "he'll only spoil. Now, +I'll tell you what to do, Tommy. Go and get a nice large band-box made, +and put him in with plenty of cotton wool, and a pap-bottle, labelled +'With care--this side up,' and send him back to mamma." + +"I think I shall make a hand of him though," said Tom, smiling, "say +what you will. There's something about him, every now and then, which +shows me he's got pluck somewhere in him. That's the only thing after +all that'll wash, ain't it, old Scud? But how to get at it and bring it +out?" + +Tom took one hand out of his breeches-pocket and stuck it in his back +hair for a scratch, giving his hat a tilt over his nose, his one method +of invoking wisdom. He stared at the ground with a ludicrously puzzled +look, and presently looked up and met East's eyes. That young gentleman +slapped him on the back, and then put his arm round his shoulder, as +they strolled through the quadrangle together. "Tom," said he, "blest if +you ain't the best old fellow ever was--I do like to see you go into a +thing. Hang it, I wish I could take things as you do--but I never can +get higher than a joke. Everything's a joke. If I was going to be +flogged next minute, I should be in a blue funk, but I couldn't help +laughing at it for the life of me." + +"Brown and East, you go and fag for Jones on the great fives'-court." + +"Hullo, though, that's past a joke," broke out East, springing at the +young gentleman who addressed them, and catching him by the collar. +"Here, Tommy, catch hold of him t'other side before he can holla." + +The youth was seized, and dragged struggling out of the quadrangle into +the School-house hall. He was one of the miserable little pretty +white-handed curly-headed boys, petted and pampered by some of the big +fellows, who wrote their verses for them, taught them to drink and use +bad language, and did all they could to spoil them for everything[D] in +this world and the next. One of the avocations in which these young +gentlemen took particular delight, was in going about and getting fags +for their protectors, when those heroes were playing any game. They +carried about pencil and paper with them, putting down the names of all +the boys they sent, always sending five times as many as were wanted, +and getting all those thrashed who didn't go. The present youth belonged +to a house which was very jealous of the School-house, and always picked +out School-house fags when he could find them. However, this time he'd +got the wrong sow by the ear. His captors slammed the great door of the +hall, and East put his back against it, while Tom gave the prisoner a +shake-up, took away his list, and stood him up on the floor, while he +proceeded leisurely to examine that document. + +"Let me out, let me go!" screamed the boy in a furious passion. "I'll go +and tell Jones this minute, and he'll give you both the ---- thrashing +you ever had." + +"Pretty little dear," said East, patting the top of his hat; "hark how +he swears, Tom. Nicely brought-up young man, ain't he, I don't think." + +"Let me alone, ---- you," roared the boy, foaming with rage, and kicking +at East, who quietly tripped him up, and deposited him on the floor in a +place of safety. + +"Gently, young fellow," said he; "'taint improving for little +whippersnappers like you to be indulging in blasphemy; so you stop that, +or you'll get something you won't like." + +"I'll have you both licked when I get out, that I will," rejoined the +boy, beginning to snivel. + +"Two can play at that game, mind you," said Tom, who had finished his +examination of the list. "Now you just listen here. We've just come +across the fives'-court, and Jones has four fags there already, two more +than he wants. If he'd wanted us to change, he'd have stopped us +himself. And here, you little blackguard, you've got seven names down +on your list besides ours, and five of them School-house." Tom walked up +to him and jerked him on to his legs; he was by this time whining like a +whipped puppy. + +"Now just listen to me. We ain't going to fag for Jones. If you tell him +you've sent us, we'll each of us give you such a thrashing as you'll +remember." And Tom tore up the list and threw the pieces into the fire. + +"And mind you too," said East, "don't let me catch you again sneaking +about the School-house, and picking up our fags. You haven't got the +sort of hide to take a sound licking kindly;" and he opened the door and +sent the young gentleman flying into the quadrangle, with a parting +kick. + +"Nice boy, Tommy," said East, shoving his hands in his pockets and +strolling to the fire. + +"Worst sort we breed," responded Tom, following his example. "Thank +goodness, no big fellow ever took to petting me." + +"You'd never have been like that," said East. "I should like to have put +him in a museum:--Christian young gentleman, nineteenth century, highly +educated. Stir him up with a long pole, Jack, and hear him swear like a +drunken sailor!--He'd make a respectable public open its eyes, I think." + +"Think he'll tell Jones?" said Tom. + +"No," said East. "Don't care if he does." + +"Nor I," said Tom. And they went back to talk about Arthur. + +The young gentleman had brains enough not to tell Jones, reasoning that +East and Brown, who were noted as some of the toughest fags in the +school, wouldn't care three straws for any licking Jones might give +them, and would be likely to keep their words as to passing it on with +interest. + +After the above conversation, East came a good deal to their study, and +took notice of Arthur; and soon allowed to Tom that he was a thorough +little gentleman, and would get over his shyness all in good time; which +much comforted our hero. He felt every day, too, the value of having an +object in his life, something that drew him out of himself; and, it +being the dull time of the year, and no games going about which he much +cared, was happier than he had ever yet been at school, which was saying +a great deal. + +The time which Tom allowed himself away from his charge, was from +locking-up till supper-time. During this hour or hour-and-half he used +to take his fling, going round to the studies of all his acquaintance, +sparring or gossiping in the hall, now jumping the old iron-bound +tables, or carving a bit of his name on them, then joining in some +chorus of merry voices; in fact, blowing off his steam, as we should now +call it. + +This process was so congenial to his temper, and Arthur showed himself +so pleased at the arrangement, that it was several weeks before Tom was +ever in their study before supper. One evening, however, he rushed in to +look for an old chisel, or some corks, or other articles essential to +his pursuit for the time being, and while rummaging about in the +cupboards, looked up for a moment, and was caught at once by the figure +of poor little Arthur. The boy was sitting with his elbows on the table, +and his head leaning on his hands, and before him an open book, on +which his tears were falling fast. Tom shut the door at once, and sat +down on the sofa by Arthur, putting his arm round his neck. + +"Why, young un! what's the matter?" said he, kindly; "you ain't unhappy, +are you?" + +"Oh no, Brown," said the little boy, looking up with the great tears in +his eyes, "you are so kind to me, I'm very happy." + +"Why don't you call me Tom? lots of boys do that I don't like half so +much as you. What are you reading, then? Hang it, you must come about +with me, and not mope yourself," and Tom cast down his eyes on the book, +and saw it was the Bible. He was silent for a minute, and thought to +himself, "Lesson Number 2, Tom Brown;"--and then said gently-- + +"I'm very glad to see this, Arthur, and ashamed that I don't read the +Bible more myself. Do you read it every night before supper while I'm +out?" + +"Yes." + +"Well, I wish you'd wait till afterwards, and then we'd read together. +But, Arthur, why does it make you cry?" + +"Oh, it isn't that I'm unhappy. But at home, while my father was alive, +we always read the lessons after tea; and I love to read them over now, +and try to remember what he said about them. I can't remember all, and I +think I scarcely understand a great deal of what I do remember. But it +all comes back to me so fresh, that I can't help crying sometimes to +think I shall never read them again with him." + +Arthur had never spoken of his home before, and Tom hadn't encouraged +him to do so, as his blundering school-boy reasoning made him think +that Arthur would be softened and less manly for thinking of home. But +now he was fairly interested, and forgot all about chisels and bottled +beer; while with very little encouragement Arthur launched into his home +history, and the prayer-bell put them both out sadly when it rang to +call them to the hall. + +From this time Arthur constantly spoke of his home, and above all, of +his father, who had been dead about a year, and whose memory Tom soon +got to love and reverence almost as much as his own son did. + +Arthur's father had been the clergyman of a parish in the Midland +Counties, which had risen into a large town during the war, and upon +which the hard years which followed had fallen with a fearful weight. +The trade had been half ruined: and then came the old sad story, of +masters reducing their establishments, men turned off and wandering +about, hungry and wan in body and fierce in soul, from the thought of +wives and children starving at home, and the last sticks of furniture +going to the pawn-shop. Children taken from school, and lounging about +the dirty streets and courts, too listless almost to play, and squalid +in rags and misery. And then the fearful struggle between the employers +and men; lowerings of wages, strikes, and the long course of +oft-repeated crime, ending every now and then with a riot, a fire, and +the county yeomanry. There is no need here to dwell upon such tales; the +Englishman into whose soul they have not sunk deep is not worthy the +name; you English boys for whom this book is meant (God bless your +bright faces and kind hearts!) will learn it all soon enough. + +Into such a parish and state of society, Arthur's father had been thrown +at the age of twenty-five, a young married parson, full of faith, hope, +and love. He had battled with it like a man, and had lots of fine +Utopian ideas about the perfectibility of mankind, glorious humanity and +such-like, knocked out of his head; and a real wholesome Christian love +for the poor struggling, sinning men, of whom he felt himself one, and +with and for whom he spent fortune, and strength, and life, driven into +his heart. He had battled like a man, and gotten a man's reward. No +silver teapots or salvers, with flowery inscriptions, setting forth his +virtues and the appreciation of a genteel parish; no fat living or +stall, for which he never looked, and didn't care; no sighs and praises +of comfortable dowagers and well got-up young women, who worked him +slippers, sugared his tea, and adored him as 'a devoted man;' but a +manly respect, wrung from the unwilling souls of men who fancied his +order their natural enemies; the fear and hatred of every one who was +false or unjust in the district, were he master or man; and the blessed +sight of women and children daily becoming more human and more homely, a +comfort to themselves and to their husbands and fathers. + +These things of course took time, and had to be fought for with toil and +sweat of brain and heart, and with the life-blood poured out. All that, +Arthur had laid his account to give, and took as a matter of course; +neither pitying himself, or looking on himself as a martyr, when he felt +the wear and tear making him feel old before his time, and the stifling +air of fever dens telling on his health. His wife seconded him in +everything. She had been rather fond of society, and much admired and +run after before her marriage; and the London world, to which she had +belonged, pitied poor Fanny Evelyn when she married the young clergyman +and went to settle in that smoky hole Turley, a very nest of Chartism +and Atheism, in a part of the county which all the decent families had +had to leave for years. However, somehow or other she didn't seem to +care. If her husband's living had been amongst green fields and near +pleasant neighbours, she would have liked it better, that she never +pretended to deny. But there they were: the air wasn't bad after all; +the people were very good sort of people, civil to you if you were civil +to them, after the first brush; and they didn't expect to work miracles, +and convert them all off-hand into model Christians. So he and she went +quietly among the folk, talking to and treating them just as they would +have done people of their own rank. They didn't feel that they were +doing anything out of the common way, and so were perfectly natural, and +had none of that condescension or consciousness of manner which so +outrages the independent poor. And thus they gradually won respect and +confidence; and after sixteen years he was looked up to by the whole +neighborhood as _the_ just man, _the_ man to whom masters and men could +go in their strikes, and all in their quarrels and difficulties, and by +whom the right and true word would be said without fear or favour. And +the women had come round to take her advice, and go to her as a friend +in all their troubles; while the children all worshipped the very ground +she trod on. + +They had three children, two daughters and a son, little Arthur, who +came between his sisters. He had been a very delicate boy from his +childhood; they thought he had a tendency to consumption, and so he had +been kept at home and taught by his father, who had made a companion of +him, and from whom he had gained good scholarship, and a knowledge of +and interest in many subjects which boys in general never come across +till they are many years older. + +Just as he reached his thirteenth year, and his father had settled that +he was strong enough to go to school, and, after much debating with +himself, had resolved to send him there, a desperate typhus-fever broke +out in the town; most of the other clergy, and almost all the doctors, +ran away; the work fell with tenfold weight on those who stood to their +work. Arthur and his wife both caught the fever, of which he died in a +few days, and she recovered, having been able to nurse him to the end, +and store up his last words. He was sensible to the last, and calm and +happy, leaving his wife and children with fearless trust for a few years +in the hands of the Lord and Friend who had lived and died for him, and +for whom he, to the best of his power, had lived and died. His widow's +mourning was deep and gentle; she was more affected by the request of +the Committee of a Freethinking Club, established in the town by some of +the factory hands, (which he had striven against with might and main, +and nearly suppressed,) that some of their number might be allowed to +help bear the coffin, than by anything else. Two of them were chosen, +who with six other labouring men, his own fellow-workmen and friends, +bore him to his grave--a man who had fought the Lord's fight even unto +the death. The shops were closed and the factories shut that day in the +parish, yet no master stopped the day's wages; but for many a year +afterwards the townsfolk felt the want of that brave, hopeful, loving +parson, and his wife, who had lived to teach them mutual forbearance and +helpfulness, and had _almost_ at last given them a glimpse of what this +old world would be if people would live for God and each other, instead +of for themselves. + +What has all this to do with our story? Well, my dear boys, let a fellow +go on his own way, or you won't get anything out of him worth having. I +must show you what sort of a man it was who had begotten and trained +little Arthur, or else you won't believe in him, which I am resolved you +shall do; and you won't see how he, the timid weak boy, had points in +him from which the bravest and strongest recoiled, and made his presence +and example felt from the first on all sides, unconsciously to himself, +and without the least attempt at proselytizing. The spirit of his father +was in him, and the Friend to whom his father had left him did not +neglect the trust. + +After supper that night, and almost nightly for years afterwards, Tom +and Arthur, and by degrees East occasionally, and sometimes one, +sometimes another, of their friends, read a chapter of the Bible +together, and talked it over afterwards. Tom was at first utterly +astonished, and almost shocked, at the sort of way in which Arthur read +the book, and talked about the men and women whose lives were there +told. The first night they happened to fall on the chapters about the +famine in Egypt, and Arthur began talking about Joseph as if he were a +living statesman; just as he might have talked about Lord Grey and the +Reform Bill; only that they were much more living realities to him. The +book was to him, Tom saw, the most vivid and delightful history of real +people, who might do right or wrong, just like any one who was walking +about in Rugby--the Doctor, or the masters, or the sixth-form boys. But +the astonishment soon passed off, the scales seemed to drop from his +eyes, and the book became at once and for ever to him the great human +and divine book, and the men and women, whom he had looked upon as +something quite different from himself, became his friends and +counsellors. + +For our purposes, however, the history of one night's reading will be +sufficient, which must be told here, now we are on the subject, though +it didn't happen till a year afterwards, and long after the events +recorded in the next chapter of our story. + +Arthur, Tom, and East were together one night, and read the story of +Naaman coming to Elisha to be cured of his leprosy. When the chapter was +finished, Tom shut his Bible with a slap. + +"I can't stand that fellow Naaman," said he, "after what he'd seen and +felt, going back and bowing himself down in the house of Rimmon, because +his effeminate scoundrel of a master did it. I wonder Elisha took the +trouble to heal him. How he must have despised him." + +"Yes, there you go off as usual, with a shell on your head," struck in +East, who always took the opposite side to Tom; half from love of +argument, half from conviction. "How do you know he didn't think better +of it? how do you know his master was a scoundrel? His letter don't look +like it, and the book don't say so." + +"I don't care," rejoined Tom; "why did Naaman talk about bowing down, +then, if he didn't mean to do it? He wasn't likely to get more in +earnest when he got back to court, and away from the prophet." + +"Well but, Tom," said Arthur, "look what Elisha says to him, 'Go in +peace.' He wouldn't have said that if Naaman had been in the wrong." + +"I don't see that that means more than saying, 'You're not the man I +took you for.'" + +"No, no, that won't do at all," said East; "read the words fairly, and +take men as you find them. I like Naaman, and think he was a very fine +fellow." + +"I don't," said Tom, positively. + +"Well, I think East is right," said Arthur; "I can't see but what it's +right to do the best you can, though it mayn't be the best absolutely. +Every man isn't born to be a martyr." + +"Of course, of course," said East; "but he's on one of his pet hobbies. +How often have I told you, Tom, that you must drive a nail where it'll +go." + +"And how often have I told you," rejoined Tom, "that it'll always go +where you want, if you only stick to it and hit hard enough. I hate half +measures and compromises." + +"Yes, he's a whole-hog man, is Tom. Must have the whole animal, hair and +teeth, claws and tail," laughed East. "Sooner have no bread any day than +half the loaf." + +"I don't know," said Arthur, "it's rather puzzling; but ain't most right +things got by proper compromises, I mean where the principle isn't given +up?" + +"That's just the point," said Tom; "I don't object to a compromise where +you don't give up your principle." + +"Not you," said East, laughingly. "I know him of old, Arthur, and you'll +find him out some day. There isn't such a reasonable fellow in the +world, to hear him talk. He never wants anything but what's right and +fair; only when you come to settle what's right and fair, it's +everything that he wants, and nothing that you want. And that's his idea +of a compromise. Give me the Brown compromise when I'm on his side." + +"Now, Harry," said Tom, "no more chaff--I'm serious. Look here--this is +what makes my blood tingle;" and he turned over the pages of his Bible +and read, "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the +king, 'O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this +matter. If it _be_ so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from +the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us out of thine hand, O +king. But _if not,_ be it known unto thee, O king, that we will _not_ +serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.'" +He read the last verse twice, emphasizing the nots, and dwelling on them +as if they gave him actual pleasure, and were hard to part with. + +They were silent a minute, and then Arthur said, "Yes, that's a glorious +story, but it don't prove your point, Tom, I think. There are times when +there is only one way, and that the highest, and then the men are found +to stand in the breach." + +"There's always a highest way, and it's always the right one," said Tom. +"How many times has the Doctor told us that in his sermons in the last +year, I should like to know?" + +"Well, you ain't going to convince us, is he, Arthur? No Brown +compromise to-night," said East, looking at his watch. "But it's past +eight, and we must go to first lesson. What a bore!" + +So they took down their books and fell to work; but Arthur didn't +forget, and thought long and often over the conversation. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[D] A kind and wise critic, an old Rugboean, notes here in the margin: +The "small friend system was not so utterly bad from 1841-1847." Before +that, too, there were many noble friendships between big and little +boys, but I can't strike out the passage: many boys will know why it is +left in. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +ARTHUR MAKES A FRIEND. + + "Let Nature be your teacher: + Sweet is the lore which Nature brings; + Our meddling intellect + Mis-shapes the beauteous forms of things. + We murder to dissect-- + Enough of Science and of Art; + Close up those barren leaves: + Come forth, and bring with you a heart + That watches and receives."--WORDSWORTH. + + +ABOUT six weeks after the beginning of the half, as Tom and Arthur were +sitting one night before supper beginning their verses, Arthur suddenly +stopped, and looked up, and said, "Tom, do you know anything of Martin?" + +"Yes," said Tom, taking his hand out of his back hair, and delighted to +throw his Gradus ad Parnassum on to the sofa; "I know him pretty well. +He's a very good fellow, but as mad as a hatter. He's called Madman, you +know. And never was such a fellow for getting all sorts of rum things +about him. He tamed two snakes last half, and used to carry them about +in his pocket, and I'll be bound he's got some hedgehogs and rats in his +cupboard now, and no one knows what besides." + +"I should like very much to know him," said Arthur; "he was next to me +in the form to-day, and he'd lost his book and looked over mine, and he +seemed so kind and gentle, that I liked him very much." + +"Ah, poor old Madman, he's always losing his books," said Tom, "and +getting called up and floored because he hasn't got them." + +"I like him all the better," said Arthur. + +"Well, he's great fun, I can tell you," said Tom, throwing himself back +on the sofa, and chuckling at the remembrance. "We had such a game with +him one day last half. He had been kicking up horrid stinks for some +time in his study, till I suppose some fellow told Mary, and she told +the Doctor. Anyhow, one day a little before dinner, when he came down +from the library, the Doctor, instead of going home, came striding into +the Hall. East and I and five or six other fellows were at the fire, and +preciously we stared, for he don't come in like that once a-year, unless +it is a wet day and there's a fight in the Hall. 'East,' says he, 'just +come and show me Martin's study.' 'Oh, here's a game,' whispered the +rest of us, and we all cut up-stairs after the Doctor, East leading. As +we got into the New Row, which was hardly wide enough to hold the Doctor +and his gown, click, click, click, we heard in the old Madman's den. +Then that stopped all of a sudden, and the bolts went to like fun: the +Madman knew East's step, and thought there was going to be a siege. + +"'It's the Doctor, Martin. He's here and wants to see you,' sings out +East. + +"Then the bolts went back slowly, and the door opened, and there was the +old Madman standing, looking precious scared; his jacket off, his +shirt-sleeves up to his elbows, and his long skinny arms all covered +with anchors and arrows and letters, tattooed in with gunpowder like a +sailor-boy's, and a stink fit to knock you down coming out. 'Twas all +the Doctor could do to stand his ground, and East and I, who were +looking in under his arms, held our noses tight. The old magpie was +standing on the window-sill, all his feathers drooping, and looking +disgusted and half-poisoned. + +"'What can you be about, Martin?' says the Doctor; 'you really mustn't +go on in this way--you're a nuisance to the whole passage.' + +"'Please, Sir, I was only mixing up this powder, there isn't any harm in +it;' and the Madman seized nervously on his pestle and mortar, to show +the Doctor the harmlessness of his pursuits, and went off pounding; +click, click, click; he hadn't given six clicks before, puff! up went +the whole into a great blaze, away went the pestle and mortar across the +study, and back we tumbled into the passage. The magpie fluttered down +into the court, swearing, and the Madman danced out, howling, with his +fingers in his mouth. The Doctor caught hold of him, and called to us to +fetch some water. 'There, you silly fellow,' said he, quite pleased +though to find he wasn't much hurt, 'you see you don't know the least +what you're doing with all these things; and now, mind, you must give up +practising chemistry by yourself.' Then he took hold of his arm and +looked at it, and I saw he had to bite his lip, and his eyes twinkled; +but he said, quite grave, 'Here, you see, you've been making all these +foolish marks on yourself, which you can never get out, and you'll be +very sorry for it in a year or two: now come down to the housekeeper's +room, and let us see if you are hurt.' And away went the two, and we all +stayed and had a regular turn-out of the den, till Martin came back with +his hand bandaged and turned us out. However, I'll go and see what he's +after, and tell him to come in after prayers to supper." And away went +Tom to find the boy in question, who dwelt in a little study by himself, +in New Row. + +The aforesaid Martin, whom Arthur had taken such a fancy for, was one of +those unfortunates who were at that time of day (and are, I fear, still) +quite out of their places at a public school. If we knew how to use our +boys, Martin would have been seized upon and educated as a natural +philosopher. He had a passion for birds, beasts, and insects, and knew +more of them and their habits than any one in Rugby; except perhaps the +Doctor, who knew everything. He was also an experimental chemist on a +small scale, and had made unto himself an electric machine, from which +it was his greatest pleasure and glory to administer small shocks to any +small boys who were rash enough to venture into his study. And this was +by no means an adventure free from excitement; for, besides the +probability of a snake dropping on to your head or twining lovingly up +your leg, or a rat getting into your breeches-pocket in search of food, +there was the animal and chemical odour to be faced, which always hung +about the den, and the chance of being blown up in some of the many +experiments which Martin was always trying, with the most wondrous +results in the shape of explosions and smells that mortal boy ever heard +of. Of course, poor Martin, in consequence of his pursuits, had become +an Ishmaelite in the house. In the first place, he half-poisoned all his +neighbours, and they in turn were always on the look-out to pounce upon +any of his numerous live-stock, and drive him frantic by enticing his +pet old magpie out of his window into a neighbouring study, and making +the disreputable old bird drunk on toast soaked in beer and sugar. Then +Martin, for his sins, inhabited a study looking into a small court some +ten feet across, the window of which was completely commanded by those +of the studies opposite in the Sick-room Row, these latter being at a +slightly higher elevation. East, and another boy of an equally +tormenting and ingenious turn of mind, now lived exactly opposite, and +had expended huge pains and time in the preparation of instruments of +annoyance for the behoof of Martin and his live colony. One morning an +old basket made its appearance, suspended by a short cord outside +Martin's window, in which were deposited an amateur nest containing four +young hungry jackdaws, the pride and glory of Martin's life for the time +being, and which he was currently asserted to have hatched upon his own +person. Early in the morning, and late at night he was to be seen half +out of window, administering to the varied wants of his callow brood. +After deep cogitation, East and his chum had spliced a knife on to the +end of a fishing-rod; and having watched Martin out, had, after +half-an-hour's severe sawing, cut the string by which the basket was +suspended, and tumbled it on to the pavement below, with hideous +remonstrance from the occupants. Poor Martin, returning from his short +absence, collected the fragments and replaced his brood (except one +whose neck had been broken in the descent) in their old location, +suspending them this time by string and wire twisted together, defiant +of any sharp instrument which his persecutors could command. But, like +the Russian engineers at Sebastopol, East and his chum had an answer for +every move of the adversary; and the next day had mounted a gun in the +shape of a pea-shooter upon the ledge of their window, trained so as to +bear exactly upon the spot which Martin had to occupy while tending his +nurselings. The moment he began to feed, they began to shoot; in vain +did the enemy himself invest in a pea-shooter, and endeavour to answer +the fire while he fed the young birds with his other hand; his attention +was divided, and his shots flew wild, while every one of theirs told on +his face and hands, and drove him into howlings and imprecations. He had +been driven to ensconce the nest in a corner of his already too +well-filled den. + +His door was barricaded by a set of ingenious bolts of his own +invention, for the sieges were frequent by the neighbours when any +unusually ambrosial odour spread itself from the den to the neighbouring +studies. The door panels were in a normal state of smash, but the frame +of the door resisted all besiegers, and behind it the owner carried on +his varied pursuits; much in the same state of mind, I should fancy, as +a Border-farmer lived in, in the days of the old mosstroopers, when his +hold might be summoned or his cattle carried off at any minute of night +or day. + +"Open, Martin, old boy--it's only I, Tom Brown." + +"Oh, very well, stop a moment." One bolt went back. "You're sure East +isn't there?" + +"No, no, hang it, open." Tom gave a kick, the other bolt creaked, and he +entered the den. + +Den indeed it was, about five feet six inches long by five wide, and +seven feet high. About six tattered school-books, and a few chemical +books, Taxidermy, Stanley on Birds, and an odd volume of Bewick, the +latter in much better preservation, occupied the top shelves. The other +shelves, where they had not been cut away and used by the owner for +other purposes, were fitted up for the abiding places of birds, beasts +and reptiles. There was no attempt at carpet or curtain. The table was +entirely occupied by the great work of Martin, the electric machine, +which was covered carefully with the remains of his table-cloth. The +jackdaw cage occupied one wall, and the other was adorned by a small +hatchet, a pair of climbing irons, and his tin candle-box, in which he +was for the time being endeavouring to raise a hopeful young family of +field-mice. As nothing should be let to lie useless, it was well that +the candle-box was thus occupied, for candles Martin never had. A pound +was issued to him weekly as, to the other boys, but as candles were +available capital, and easily exchangeable for birds'-eggs or young +birds, Martin's pound invariably found its way in a few hours to +Howlett's the bird-fancier's, in the Bilton Road, who would give a +hawk's or nightingale's egg or young linnet in exchange. Martin's +ingenuity was therefore for ever on the rack to supply himself with a +light; just now he had hit upon a grand invention, and the den was +lighted by a flaring cotton-wick issuing from a ginger-beer bottle full +of some doleful composition. When light altogether failed him, Martin +would loaf about by the fires in the passages or Hall, after the manner +of Diggs, and try to do his verses or learn his lines by the fire-light. + +"Well, old boy, you haven't got any sweeter in the den this half. How +that stuff in the bottle stinks. Never mind, I ain't going to stop, but +you come up after prayers to our study; you know young Arthur; we've got +Gray's study. We'll have a good supper and talk about birds'-nesting." + +Martin was evidently highly pleased at the invitation, and promised to +be up without fail. + +As soon as prayers were over, and the sixth and fifth-form boys had +withdrawn to the aristocratic seclusion of their own room, and the rest, +or democracy, had sat down to their supper in the Hall, Tom and Arthur, +having secured their allowances of bread and cheese, started on their +feet to catch the eye of the praepostor of the week, who remained in +charge during supper, walking up and down the Hall. He happened to be an +easy-going fellow, so they got a pleasant nod to their "Please may I go +out?" and away they scrambled to prepare for Martin a sumptuous banquet. +This Tom had insisted on, for he was in great delight on the occasion; +the reason of which delight must be expounded. The fact was, this was +the first attempt at a friendship of his own which Arthur had made, and +Tom hailed it as a grand step. The ease with which he himself became +hail-fellow-well-met with anybody, and blundered into and out of twenty +friendships a half-year, made him sometimes sorry and sometimes angry at +Arthur's reserve and loneliness. True, Arthur was always pleasant, and +even jolly, with any boys who came with Tom to their study; but Tom felt +that it was only through him, as it were, that his chum associated with +others, and that but for him Arthur would have been dwelling in a +wilderness. This increased his consciousness of responsibility; and +though he hadn't reasoned it out and made it clear to himself, yet +somehow he knew that this responsibility, this trust which he had taken +on him without thinking about it, head-over-heels in fact, was the +centre and turning-point of his school-life, that which was to make him +or mar him; his appointed work and trial for the time being. And Tom was +becoming a new boy, though with frequent tumbles in the dirt and +perpetual hard battle with himself, and was daily growing in manfulness +and thoughtfulness, as every high-couraged and well-principled boy must, +when he finds himself for the first time consciously at grips with self +and the devil. Already he could turn almost without a sigh, from the +school-gates, from which had just scampered off East and three or four +others of his own particular set, bound for some jolly lark not quite +according to law, and involving probably a row with louts, keepers, or +farm-labourers, the skipping dinner or calling-over, some of Phoebe +Jennings' beer, and a very possible flogging at the end of all as a +relish. He had quite got over the stage in which he would grumble to +himself, "Well, hang it, it's very hard of the Doctor to have saddled me +with Arthur. Why couldn't he have chummed him with Fogey, or Thomkin, +or any of the fellows who never do anything but walk round the close, +and finish their copies the first day they're set?" But although all +this was past, he often longed, and felt that he was right in longing, +for more time for the legitimate pastimes of cricket, fives, bathing, +and fishing within bounds, in which Arthur could not yet be his +companion; and he felt that when the young 'un (as he now generally +called him) had found a pursuit and some other friend for himself, he +should be able to give more time to the education of his own body with a +clear conscience. + +And now what he so wished for had come to pass; he almost hailed it as a +special providence (as indeed it was, but not for the reasons he gave +for it--what providences are?) that Arthur should have singled out +Martin of all fellows for a friend. "The old Madman is the very fellow," +thought he; "he will take him scrambling over half the country after +birds' eggs and flowers, make him run and swim and climb like an Indian, +and not teach him a word of anything bad, or keep him from his lessons. +What luck!" And so, with more than his usual heartiness, he dived into +his cupboard, and hauled out an old knuckle-bone of ham, and two or +three bottles of beer, together with the solemn pewter only used on +state occasions; while Arthur, equally elated at the easy accomplishment +of his first act of volition in the joint establishment, produced from +his side a bottle of pickles and a pot of jam, and cleared the table. In +a minute or two the noise of the boys coming up from supper was heard, +and Martin knocked and was admitted, bearing his bread and cheese, and +the three fell to with hearty good-will upon the viands, talking faster +than they ate, for all shyness disappeared in a moment before Tom's +bottled beer and hospitable ways. "Here's Arthur, a regular young town +mouse, with a natural taste for the woods, Martin, longing to break his +neck climbing trees, and with a passion for young snakes." + +"Well, I say," sputtered out Martin, eagerly, "will you come to-morrow, +both of you, to Caldecott's Spinney, then, for I know of a kestrel's +nest, up a fir-tree--I can't get at it without help; and, Brown, you can +climb against any one." + +"Oh yes, do let us go," said Arthur; "I never saw a hawk's nest, nor a +hawk's egg." + +"You just come down to my study then, and I'll show you five sorts," +said Martin. + +"Ay, the old Madman has got the best collection in the house, +out-and-out," said Tom; and then Martin, warming with unaccustomed good +cheer and the chance of a convert, launched out into a proposed +birds'-nesting campaign, betraying all manner of important secrets; a +golden-crested wren's nest near Butlin's Mound, a moor-hen that was +sitting on nine eggs in a pond down the Barby Road, and a kingfisher's +nest in a corner of the old canal above Brownsover Mill. He had heard, +he said, that no one had ever got a kingfisher's nest out perfect, and +that the British Museum, or the Government, or somebody, had offered +L100 to any one who could bring them a nest and eggs not damaged. In the +middle of which astounding announcement, to which the others were +listening with open ears, already considering the application of the +L100, a knock came at the door, and East's voice was heard craving +admittance. + +"There's Harry," said Tom; "we'll let him in--I'll keep him steady, +Martin. I thought the old boy would smell out the supper." + +The fact was that Tom's heart had already smitten him for not asking his +"fidus Achates" to the feast, although only an extempore affair; and +though prudence and the desire to get Martin and Arthur together alone +at first had overcome his scruples, he was now heartily glad to open the +door, broach another bottle of beer, and hand over the old ham-knuckle +to the searching of his old friend's pocket-knife. + +"Ah, you greedy vagabonds," said East, with his mouth full; "I knew +there was something going on when I saw you cut off out of Hall so quick +with your suppers. What a stunning tap, Tom! you are a wunner for +bottling the swipes." + +"I've had practice enough for the sixth in my time, and it's hard if I +haven't picked up a wrinkle or two for my own benefit." + +"Well, old Madman, how goes the birds'-nesting campaign? How's Howlett? +I expect the young rooks'll be out in another fortnight, and then my +turn comes." + +"There'll be no young rooks fit for pies for a month yet; shows how much +you know about it," rejoined Martin, who, though very good friends with +East, regarded him with considerable suspicion for his propensity to +practical jokes. + +"Scud knows nothing and cares for nothing but grub and mischief," said +Tom; "but young rook pie, specially when you've had to climb for them, +is very pretty eating. However, I say, Scud, we're all going after a +hawk's nest to-morrow, in Caldecott's Spinney; and if you'll come and +behave yourself, we'll have a stunning climb." + +"And a bathe in Aganippe. Hooray! I'm your man!" + +"No, no; no bathing in Aganippe; that's where our betters go." + +"Well, well, never mind. I'm for the hawk's nest and anything that turns +up." + +And the bottled-beer being finished, and his hunger appeased, East +departed to his study, "that sneak Jones," as he informed them, who had +just got into the sixth and occupied the next study, having instituted a +nightly visitation upon East and his chum, to their no small discomfort. + +When he was gone, Martin rose to follow, but Tom stopped him. "No one +goes near New Row," said he, "so you may just as well stop here and do +your verses, and then we'll have some more talk. We'll be no end quiet; +besides, no praepostor comes here now--we haven't been visited once this +half." + +So the table was cleared, the cloth restored, and the three fell to work +with Gradus and dictionary upon the morning's vulgus. + +They were three very fair examples of the way in which such tasks were +done at Rugby, in the consulship of Plancus. And doubtless the method is +little changed, for there is nothing new under the sun, especially at +schools. + +Now be it known unto all you boys who are at schools which do not +rejoice in the time-honoured institution of the Vulgus, (commonly +supposed to have been established by William of Wykeham at Winchester, +and imported to Rugby by Arnold, more for the sake of the lines which +were learnt by heart with it, than for its own intrinsic value, as I've +always understood) that it is a short exercise, in Greek or Latin verse, +on a given subject, the minimum number of lines being fixed for each +form. The master of the form gave out at fourth lesson on the previous +day the subject for next morning's vulgus, and at first lesson each boy +had to bring his vulgus ready to be looked over; and with the vulgus, a +certain number of lines from one of the Latin or Greek poets then being +construed in the form had to be got by heart. The master at first lesson +called up each boy in the form in order, and put him on in the lines. If +he couldn't say them, or seem to say them, by reading them off the +master's or some other boy's book who stood near, he was sent back, and +went below all the boys who did so say or seem to say them; but in +either case his vulgus was looked over by the master, who gave and +entered in his book, to the credit or discredit of the boy, so many +marks as the composition merited. At Rugby vulgus and lines were the +first lesson every other day in the week, or Tuesdays, Thursdays, and +Saturdays; and as there were thirty-eight weeks in the school year, it +is obvious to the meanest capacity that the master of each form had to +set one hundred and fourteen subjects every year, two hundred and +twenty-eight every two years, and so on. Now to persons of moderate +invention this was a considerable task, and human nature being prone to +repeat itself, it will not be wondered that the masters gave the same +subjects sometimes over again after a certain lapse of time. To meet and +rebuke this bad habit of the masters, the school-boy-mind, with its +accustomed ingenuity, had invented an elaborate system of tradition. +Almost every boy kept his own vulgus written out in a book, and these +books were duly handed down from boy to boy, till (if the tradition has +gone on till now) I suppose the popular boys, in whose hands bequeathed +vulgus-books have accumulated, are prepared with three or four vulguses +on any subject in heaven or earth, or in "more worlds than one," which +an unfortunate master can pitch upon. At any rate, such lucky fellows +had generally one for themselves and one for a friend in my time. The +only objection to the traditionary method of doing your vulguses was, +the risk that the successions might have become confused, and so that +you and another follower of traditions should show up the same identical +vulgus some fine morning; in which case, when it happened, considerable +grief was the result--but when did such risk hinder boys or men from +short cuts and pleasant paths? + +Now in the study that night, Tom was the upholder of the traditionary +method of vulgus doing. He carefully produced two large vulgus-books, +and began diving into them, and picking out a line here, and an ending +there (tags, as they were vulgarly called), till he had gotten all that +he thought he could make fit. He then proceeded to patch his tags +together with the help of his Gradus, producing an incongruous and +feeble result of eight elegiac lines, the minimum quantity for his form, +and finishing up with two highly moral lines extra, making ten in all, +which he cribbed entire from one of his books, beginning "O genus +humanum," and which he himself must have used a dozen times before, +whenever an unfortunate or wicked hero, of whatever nation or language +under the sun, was the subject. Indeed, he began to have great doubts +whether the master wouldn't remember them, and so only threw them in as +extra lines, because in any case they would call off attention from the +other tags, and if detected, being extra lines, he wouldn't be sent back +to do two more in their place, while if they passed muster again he +would get marks for them. + +The second method pursued by Martin may be called the dogged, or prosaic +method. He, no more than Tom, took any pleasure in the task, but having +no old vulgus-books of his own, or any one's else, could not follow the +traditionary method, for which too, as Tom remarked, he hadn't the +genius. Martin then proceeded to write down eight lines in English, of +the most matter-of fact kind, the first that came into his head; and to +convert these, line by line, by main force of Gradus and dictionary, +into Latin that would scan. This was all he cared for, to produce eight +lines with no false quantities or concords: whether the words were apt, +or what the sense was, mattered nothing; and, as the article was all +new, not a line beyond the minimum did the followers of the dogged +method ever produce. + +The third, or artistic method, was Arthur's. He considered first what +point in the character or event which was the subject could most neatly +be brought out within the limits of a vulgus, trying always to get his +idea into the eight lines, but not binding himself to ten or even twelve +lines if he couldn't do this. He then set to work, as much as possible +without Gradus or other help, to clothe his idea in appropriate Latin or +Greek, and would not be satisfied till he had polished it well up with +the aptest and most poetic words and phrases he could get at. + +A fourth method indeed was used in the school, but of too simple a kind +to require a comment. It may be called the vicarious method, obtained +amongst big boys of lazy or bullying habits, and consisted simply in +making clever boys whom they could thrash do their whole vulgus for +them, and construe it to them afterwards; which latter is a method not +to be encouraged, and which I strongly advise you all not to practise. +Of the others, you will find the traditionary most troublesome, unless +you can steal your vulguses whole (experto crede), and that the artistic +method pays the best both in marks and other ways. + +The vulguses being finished by nine o'clock, and Martin having rejoiced +above measure in the abundance of light, and of Gradus and dictionary, +and other conveniences almost unknown to him for getting through the +work, and having been pressed by Arthur to come and do his verses there +whenever he liked, the three boys went down to Martin's den, and Arthur +was initiated into the lore of bird's-eggs, to his great delight. The +exquisite colouring and forms astonished and charmed him who had +scarcely ever seen any but a hen's egg or an ostrich's, and by the time +he was lugged away to bed he had learned the names of at least twenty +sorts, and dreamt of the glorious perils of tree-climbing and that he +had found a roc's egg in the island as big as Sinbad's and clouded like +a tit-lark's, in blowing which Martin and he had nearly been drowned in +the yolk. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +THE BIRD-FANCIERS. + + "I have found out a gift for my fair, + I have found where the wood-pigeons breed: + But let me the plunder forbear, + She would say 'twas a barbarous deed." + ROWE. + + + "And now, my lad, take them five shilling, + And on my advice in future think; + So Billy pouched them all so willing, + And got that night disguised in drink." + MS. BALLAD. + + +THE next morning at first lesson Tom was turned back in his lines, and +so had to wait till the second round, while Martin and Arthur said +theirs all right and got out of school at once. When Tom got out and ran +down to breakfast at Harrowell's they were missing, and Stumps informed +him that they had swallowed down their breakfasts and gone off +together, where, he couldn't say. Tom hurried over his own breakfast, +and went first to Martin's study and then to his own, but no signs of +the missing boys were to be found. He felt half angry and jealous of +Martin--where could they be gone? + +He learnt second lesson with East and the rest in no very good temper, +and then went out into the quadrangle. About ten minutes before school +Martin and Arthur arrived in the quadrangle breathless; and, catching +sight of him, Arthur rushed up all excitement and with a bright glow on +his face. + +"Oh, Tom, look here," cried he, holding out three moor-hen's eggs; +"we've been down the Barby Road to the pool Martin told us of last +night, and just see what we've got." + +Tom wouldn't be pleased, and only looked out for something to find fault +with. + +"Why, young un," said he, "what have you been after? You don't mean to +say you've been wading?" + +The tone of reproach made poor little Arthur shrink up in a moment and +look piteous, and Tom with a shrug of his shoulders turned his anger on +Martin. + +"Well, I didn't think, Madman, that you'd have been such a muff as to +let him be getting wet through at this time of day. You might have done +the wading yourself." + +"So I did, of course, only he would come in too to see the nest. We left +six eggs in; they'll be hatched in a day or two." + +"Hang the eggs!" said Tom; "a fellow can't turn his back for a moment +but all his work's undone. He'll be laid up for a week for this +precious lark, I'll be bound." + +"Indeed, Tom, now," pleaded Arthur, "my feet ain't wet, for Martin made +me take off my shoes and stockings and trousers." + +"But they are wet and dirty, too--can't I see?" answered Tom; "and +you'll be called up and floored when the master sees what a state you're +in. You haven't looked at second lesson, you know." Oh Tom, you old +humbug! you to be upbraiding any one with not learning their lessons! If +you hadn't been floored yourself now at first lesson, do you mean to say +you wouldn't have been with them? and you've taken away all poor little +Arthur's joy and pride in his first birds' eggs; and he goes and puts +them down in the study, and takes down his books with a sigh, thinking +he has done something horribly wrong, whereas he has learnt on in +advance much more than will be done at second lesson. + +But the old Madman hasn't, and gets called up and makes some frightful +shots, losing about ten places, and all but getting floored. This +somewhat appeases Tom's wrath, and by the end of the lesson he has +regained his temper. And afterwards in their study he begins to get +right again, as he watches Arthur's intense joy at seeing Martin blowing +the eggs and glueing them carefully on to bits of cardboard, and notes +the anxious loving looks which the little fellow casts sidelong at him. +And then he thinks, "What an ill-tempered beast I am! Here's just what I +was wishing for last night come about, and I'm spoiling it all," and in +another five minutes has swallowed the last mouthful of his bile, and +is repaid by seeing his little sensitive-plant expand again, and sun +itself in his smiles. + +After dinner the Madman is busy with the preparations for their +expedition, fitting new straps on to his climbing irons, filling large +pill-boxes with cotton wool, and sharpening East's small axe. They carry +all their munitions into calling-over, and directly afterwards, having +dodged such praepostors as are on the look-out for fags at cricket, the +four set off at a smart trot down the Lawford footpath straight for +Caldecott's Spinney and the hawk's nest. + +Martin leads the way in high feather; it is quite a new sensation to him +getting companions, and he finds it very pleasant, and means to show +them all manner of proofs of his science and skill. Brown and East may +be better at cricket and football and games, thinks he, but out in the +fields and woods see if I can't teach them something. He has taken the +leadership already, and strides away in front with his climbing-irons +strapped under one arm, his pecking-bag under the other, and his pockets +and hat full of pill-boxes, cotton wool, and other etceteras. Each of +the others carries a pecking-bag, and East his hatchet. + +When they had crossed three or four fields without a check, Arthur began +to lag, and Tom seeing this shouted to Martin to pull up a bit: "We +ain't out Hare-and-hounds--what's the good of grinding on at this rate?" + +"There's the Spinney," said Martin, pulling up on the brow of a slope at +the bottom of which lay Lawford brook, and pointing to the top of the +opposite slope; "the nest is in one of those high fir-trees at this +end. And down by the brook there, I know of a sedge-bird's nest; we'll +go and look at it coming back." + +"Oh, come on, don't let us stop," said Arthur, who was getting excited +at the sight of the wood; so they broke into a trot again, and were soon +across the brook, up the slope, and into the Spinney. Here they advanced +as noiselessly as possible, lest keepers or other enemies should be +about, and stopped at the foot of a tall fir, at the top of which Martin +pointed out with pride the kestrel's nest, the object of their quest. + +"Oh where! which is it?" asks Arthur, gaping up in the air, and having +the most vague idea of what it would be like. + +"There, don't you see?" said East, pointing to a lump of mistletoe in +the next tree, which was a beech: he saw that Martin and Tom were busy +with the climbing-irons, and couldn't resist the temptation of hoaxing. +Arthur stared and wondered more than ever. + +"Well, how curious! it doesn't look a bit like what I expected," said +he. + +"Very odd birds, kestrels," said East, looking waggishly at his victim, +who was still star-gazing. + +"But I thought it was in a fir-tree?" objected Arthur. + +"Ah, don't you know? that's a new sort of fir, which old Caldecott +brought from the Himalayas." + +"Really!" said Arthur; "I'm glad I know that--how unlike our firs they +are! They do very well too here, don't they? the Spinney's full of +them." + +"What's that humbug he's telling you?" cried Tom, looking up, having +caught the word Himalayas, and suspecting what East was after. + +"Only about this fir," said Arthur, putting his hand on the stem of the +beech. + +"Fir!" shouted Tom, "why, you don't mean to say, young 'un, you don't +know a beech when you see one?" + +Poor little Arthur looked terribly ashamed, and East exploded in +laughter which made the wood ring. + +"I've hardly ever seen any trees," faltered Arthur. + +"What a shame to hoax him, Scud!" cried Martin. "Never mind, Arthur, you +shall know more about trees than he does in a week or two." + +"And isn't that the kestrel's nest, then?" asked Arthur. + +"That! why, that's a piece of mistletoe. There's the nest, that lump of +sticks up this fir." + +"Don't believe him, Arthur," struck in the incorrigible East; "I just +saw an old magpie go out of it." + +Martin did not deign to reply to this sally, except by a grunt, as he +buckled the last buckle of his climbing-irons; and Arthur looked +reproachfully at East without speaking. + +But now came the tug of war. It was a very difficult tree to climb until +the branches were reached, the first of which was some fourteen feet up, +for the trunk was too large at the bottom to be swarmed; in fact, +neither of the boys could reach more than half round it with their arms. +Martin and Tom, both of whom had irons on, tried it without success at +first; the fir bark broke away where they stuck the irons in as soon as +they leant any weight on their feet, and the grip of their arms wasn't +enough to keep them up; so, after getting up three or four feet, down +they came slithering to the ground, barking their arms and faces. They +were furious, and East sat by laughing and shouting at each failure, +"Two to one on the old magpie!" + +[Illustration: CLIMBING THE FIR-TREE AFTER THE KESTREL'S NEST. P. 263.] + +"We must try a pyramid," said Tom at last. "Now, Scud, you lazy rascal, +stick yourself against the tree!" + +"I dare say! and have you standing on my shoulders with the irons on: +what do you think my skin's made of?" However, up he got, and leant +against the tree, putting his head down and clasping it with his arms as +far as he could. "Now then, Madman," said Tom, "you next." + +"No, I'm lighter than you; you go next." So Tom got on East's shoulders, +and grasped the tree above, and then Martin scrambled up on Tom's +shoulders, amidst the totterings and groanings of the pyramid, and, with +a spring which sent his supporters howling to the ground, clasped the +stem some ten feet up, and remained clinging. For a moment or two they +thought he couldn't get up, but then, holding on with arms and teeth, he +worked first one iron, then the other, firmly into the bark, got another +grip with his arms, and in another minute had hold of the lowest branch. + +"All up with the old magpie now," said East; and, after a minute's rest, +up went Martin, hand over hand, watched by Arthur with fearful +eagerness. + +"Isn't it very dangerous?" said he. + +"Not a bit," answered Tom; "you can't hurt if you only get good +hand-hold. Try every branch with a good pull before you trust it, and +then up you go." + +Martin was now amongst the small branches close to the nest, and away +dashed the old bird, and soared up above the trees, watching the +intruder. + +"All right--four eggs!" shouted he. + +"Take 'em all!" shouted East; "that'll be one apiece." + +"No, no! leave one, and then she won't care," said Tom. + +We boys had an idea that birds couldn't count, and were quite content as +long as you left one egg. I hope it is so. + +Martin carefully put one egg into each of his boxes and the third into +his mouth, the only other place of safety, and came down like a +lamplighter. All went well till he was within ten feet of the ground, +when, as the trunk enlarged, his hold got less and less firm, and at +last down he came with a run, tumbling on to his back on the turf, +spluttering and spitting out the remains of the great egg, which had +broken by the jar of his fall. + +"Ugh, ugh--something to drink--ugh! it was addled," spluttered he, while +the wood rang again with the merry laughter of East and Tom. + +Then they examined the prizes, gathered up their things, and went off to +the brook, where Martin swallowed huge draughts of water to get rid of +the taste; and they visited the sedge-bird's nest, and from thence +struck across the country in high glee, beating the hedges and brakes as +they went along; and Arthur at last, to his intense delight, was allowed +to climb a small hedgerow oak for a magpie's nest with Tom, who kept all +round him like a mother, and showed him where to hold and how to throw +his weight; and though he was in a great fright, didn't show it; and +was applauded by all for his lissomness. + +They crossed a road soon afterwards, and there close to them lay a heap +of charming pebbles. + +"Look here," shouted East, "here's luck! I've been longing for some good +honest pecking this half hour. Let's fill the bags, and have no more of +this foozling bird's-nesting." + +No one objected, so each boy filled the fustian bag he carried full of +stones: they crossed into the next field, Tom and East taking one side +of the hedges, and the other two the other side. Noise enough they made +certainly, but it was too early in the season for the young birds, and +the old birds were too strong on the wing for our young marksmen, and +flew out of shot after the first discharge. But it was great fun, +rushing along the hedgerows, and discharging stone after stone at +blackbirds and chaffinches, though no result in the shape of slaughtered +birds was obtained: and Arthur soon entered into it, and rushed to head +back the birds, and shouted, and threw, and tumbled into ditches and +over and through hedges, as wild as the Madman himself. + +Presently the party, in full cry after an old blackbird (who was +evidently used to the thing and enjoyed the fun, for he would wait till +they came close to him and then fly on for forty yards or so, and, with +an impudent flicker of his tail, dart into the depths of the quickset) +came beating down a high double hedge, two on each side. + +"There he is again," "Head him," "Let drive," "I had him there," "Take +care where you're throwing, Madman," the shouts might have been heard a +quarter of a mile off. They were heard some two hundred yards off by a +farmer and two of his shepherds, who were doctoring sheep in a fold in +the next field. + +Now, the farmer in question rented a house and yard situate at the end +of the field in which the young bird-fanciers had arrived, which house +and yard he didn't occupy or keep any one else in. Nevertheless, like a +brainless and unreasoning Briton, he persisted in maintaining on the +premises a large stock of cocks, hens, and other poultry. Of course, all +sorts of depredators visited the place from time to time: foxes and +gipsies wrought havoc in the night; while in the day time, I regret to +have to confess that visits from the Rugby boys, and consequent +disappearances of ancient and respectable fowls, were not unfrequent. +Tom and East had during the period of their outlawry visited the barn in +question for felonious purposes, and on one occasion had conquered and +slain a duck there, and borne away the carcase triumphantly, hidden in +their handkerchiefs. However, they were sickened of the practice by the +trouble and anxiety which the wretched duck's body caused them. They +carried it to Sally Harrowell's in hopes of a good supper; but she, +after examining it, made a long face, and refused to dress or have +anything to do with it. Then they took it into their study, and began +plucking it themselves; but what to do with the feathers,--where to hide +them? + +"Good gracious, Tom, what a lot of feathers a duck has!" groaned East, +holding a bagful in his hand, and looking disconsolately at the carcase, +not yet half plucked. + +"And I do think he's getting high too, already," said Tom, smelling at +him cautiously, "so we must finish him up soon." + +"Yes, all very well; but how are we to cook him? I'm sure I ain't going +to try it on in the hall or passages; we can't afford to be roasting +ducks about, our character's too bad." + +"I wish we were rid of the brute," said Tom, throwing him on the table +in disgust. And after a day or two more it became clear that got rid of +he must be; so they packed him and sealed him up in brown paper, and put +him in the cupboard of an unoccupied study, where he was found in the +holidays by the matron, a grewsome body. + +They had never been duck-hunting there since, but others had, and the +bold yeoman was very sore on the subject, and bent on making an example +of the first boys he could catch. So he and his shepherds crouched +behind the hurdles, and watched the party, who were approaching all +unconscious. + +Why should that old guinea-fowl be lying out in the hedge just at this +particular moment of all the year? Who can say? Guinea-fowls always +are--so are all other things, animals, and persons, requisite for +getting one into scrapes, always ready when any mischief can come of +them. At any rate, just under East's nose popped out the old guinea-hen, +scuttling along and shrieking "Come back, come back," at the top of her +voice. Either of the other three might perhaps have withstood the +temptation, but East first lets drive the stone he has in his hand at +her, and then rushes to turn her into the hedge again. He succeeds, and +then they are all at it for dear life, up and down the hedge in full +cry, the "Come back, come back," getting shriller and fainter every +minute. + +Meantime, the farmer and his men steal over the hurdles and creep down +the hedge towards the scene of action. They are almost within a stone's +throw of Martin, who is pressing the unlucky chase hard, when Tom +catches sight of them, and sings out, "Louts, 'ware louts, your side! +Madman, look ahead!" and then catching hold of Arthur, hurries him away +across the field towards Rugby as hard as they can tear. Had he been by +himself, he would have stayed to see it out with the others, but now his +heart sinks and all his pluck goes. The idea of being led up to the +Doctor with Arthur for bagging fowls, quite unmans and takes half the +run out of him. + +However, no boys are more able to take care of themselves than East and +Martin; they dodge the pursuers, slip through a gap, and come pelting +after Tom and Arthur, whom they catch up in no time; the farmer and his +men are making good running about a field behind. Tom wishes to himself +that they had made off in any other direction, but now they are all in +for it together, and must see it out. "You won't leave the young 'un, +will you?" says he, as they haul poor little Arthur, already losing wind +from the fright, through the next hedge. "Not we," is the answer from +both. The next hedge is a stiff one; the pursuers gain horribly on them, +and they only just pull Arthur through, with two great rents in his +trousers, as the foremost shepherd comes up on the other side. As they +start into the next field, they are aware of two figures walking down +the footpath in the middle of it, and recognise Holmes and Diggs taking +a constitutional. Those good-natured fellows immediately shout "On." +"Let's go to them and surrender," pants Tom.--Agreed.--And in another +minute the four boys, to the great astonishment of those worthies, rush +breathless up to Holmes and Diggs, who pull up to see what is the +matter; and then the whole is explained by the appearance of the farmer +and his men, who unite their forces and bear down on the knot of boys. + +There is no time to explain, and Tom's heart beats frightfully quick, as +he ponders, "Will they stand by us?" + +The farmer makes a rush at East and collars him; and that young +gentleman, with unusual discretion, instead of kicking his shins, looks +appealingly at Holmes, and stands still. + +"Hullo there, not so fast," says Holmes, who is bound to stand up for +them till they are proved in the wrong. "Now what's all this about?" + +"I've got the young varmint at last, have I," pants the farmer; "why +they've been a skulking about my yard and stealing my fowls, that's +where 'tis; and if I doan't have they flogged for it, every one on 'em, +my name ain't Thompson." + +Holmes looks grave, and Diggs's face falls. They are quite ready to +fight, no boys in the school more so; but they are praepostors, and +understand their office, and can't uphold unrighteous causes. + +"I haven't been near his old barn this half," cries East. "Nor I," "Nor +I," chime in Tom and Martin. + +"Now, Willum, didn't you see 'm there last week?" + +"Ees, I seen 'em sure enough," says Willum, grasping a prong he carried, +and preparing for action. + +The boys deny stoutly, and Willum is driven to admit that, "if it worn't +they, 'twas chaps as like 'em as two peas'n;" and "leastways he'll swear +he see'd them two in the yard last Martinmas," indicating East and Tom. + +Holmes had time to meditate. "Now, sir," says he to Willum, "you see you +can't remember what you have seen, and I believe the boys." + +"I doan't care," blusters the farmer; "they was arter my fowls to-day, +that's enough for I. Willum, you catch hold o' t'other chap. They've +been a sneaking about this two hours, I tells 'ee," shouted he, as +Holmes stands between Martin and Willum, "and have druv a matter of a +dozen young pullets pretty nigh to death." + +"Oh, there's a whacker!" cried East; "we haven't been within a hundred +yards of his barn; we haven't been up here above ten minutes, and we've +seen nothing but a tough old guinea-hen, who ran like a greyhound." + +"Indeed, that's all true, Holmes, upon my honour," added Tom; "we +weren't after his fowls; the guinea-hen ran out of the hedge under our +feet, and we've seen nothing else." + +"Drat their talk. Thee catch hold o' t'other, Willum, and come along wi +'un." + +"Farmer Thompson," said Holmes, warning off Willum and the prong with +his stick, while Diggs faced the other shepherd, cracking his fingers +like pistol shots, "now listen to reason--the boys haven't been after +your fowls, that's plain." + +"Tells 'ee I see'd 'em. Who be you, I should like to know?" + +"Never you mind, Farmer," answered Holmes. "And now I'll just tell you +what it is--you ought to be ashamed of yourself for leaving all that +poultry about, with no one to watch it, so near the School. You deserve +to have it all stolen. So if you choose to come up to the Doctor with +them, I shall go with you, and tell him what I think of it." + +The farmer began to take Holmes for a master; besides, he wanted to get +back to his flock. Corporal punishment was out of the question, the odds +were too great; so he began to hint at paying for the damage. Arthur +jumped at this, offering to pay anything, and the farmer immediately +valued the guinea-hen at half-a-sovereign. + +"Half-a-sovereign!" cried East, now released from the farmer's grip; +"well, that is a good one! the hen ain't hurt a bit, and she's seven +years old, I know, and as tough as whipcord; she couldn't lay another +egg to save her life." + +It was at last settled that they should pay the farmer two shillings, +and his man one shilling, and so the matter ended, to the unspeakable +relief of Tom, who hadn't been able to say a word, being sick at heart +at the idea of what the Doctor would think of him: and now the whole +party of boys marched off down the footpath towards Rugby. Holmes, who +was one of the best boys in the School, began to improve the occasion. +"Now, you youngsters," said he, as he marched along in the middle of +them, "mind this; you're very well out of this scrape. Don't you go near +Thompson's barn again; do you hear?" + +Profuse promises from all, especially East. + +"Mind, I don't ask questions," went on Mentor, "but I rather think some +of you have been there before this after his chickens. Now, knocking +over other people's chickens, and running off with them, is stealing. +It's a nasty word, but that's the plain English of it. If the chickens +were dead and lying in a shop, you wouldn't take them, I know that, any +more than you would apples out of Griffith's basket; but there's no real +difference between chickens running about and apples on a tree, and the +same articles in a shop. I wish our morals were sounder in such matters. +There's nothing so mischievous as these school distinctions, which +jumble up right and wrong, and justify things in us for which poor boys +would be sent to prison." And, good old Holmes delivered his soul on the +walk home of many wise sayings, and, as the song says-- + + "Gee'd 'em a sight of good advice"-- + +which same sermon sank into them all, more or less, and very penitent +they were for several hours. But truth compels me to admit that East at +any rate forgot it all in a week, but remembered the insult which had +been put upon him by Farmer Thompson, and with the Tadpole and other +harebrained youngsters, committed a raid on the barn soon afterwards, in +which they were caught by the shepherds and severely handled, besides +having to pay eight shillings, all the money they had in the world, to +escape being taken up to the Doctor. + +Martin became a constant inmate in the joint study from this time, and +Arthur took to him so kindly, that Tom couldn't resist slight fits of +jealousy, which, however, he managed to keep to himself. The kestrel's +eggs had not been broken, strange to say, and formed the nucleus of +Arthur's collection, at which Martin worked heart and soul; and +introduced Arthur to Howlett the bird-fancier, and instructed him in the +rudiments of the art of stuffing. In token of his gratitude, Arthur +allowed Martin to tattoo a small anchor on one of his wrists, which +decoration, however, he carefully concealed from Tom. Before the end of +the half year he had trained into a bold climber and good runner, and, +as Martin had foretold, knew twice as much about trees, birds, flowers, +and many other things, as our good-hearted and facetious young friend +Harry East. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE FIGHT. + + "Surgebat Macnevisius + Et mox jactabat ultro, + Pugnabo tua gratia + Feroci hoc Mactwoltro."--_Etonian._ + + +THERE is a certain sort of fellow--we who are used to studying boys all +know him well enough--of whom you can predicate with almost positive +certainty, after he has been a month at school, that he is sure to have +a fight, and with almost equal certainty that he will have but one. Tom +Brown was one of these; and as it is our well-weighed intention to give +a full, true, and correct account of Tom's only single combat with a +school-fellow in the manner of our old friend _Bell's Life,_ let those +young persons whose stomachs are not strong, or who think a good set-to +with the weapons which God has given us all, an uncivilized, +unchristian, or ungentlemanly affair, just skip this chapter at once, +for it won't be to their taste. + +It was not at all usual in those days for two School-house boys to have +a fight. Of course there were exceptions, when some cross-grained +hard-headed fellow came up who would never be happy unless he was +quarrelling with his nearest neighbours, or when there was some +class-dispute, between the fifth-form and the fags for instance, which +required blood-letting; and a champion was picked out on each side +tacitly, who settled the matter by a good hearty mill. But for the most +part the constant use of those surest keepers of the peace, the +boxing-gloves, kept the School-house boys from fighting one another. Two +or three nights in every week the gloves were brought out, either in the +hall or fifth-form room; and every boy who was ever likely to fight at +all knew all his neighbours' prowess perfectly well, and could tell to a +nicety what chance he would have in a stand-up fight with any other boy +in the house. But of course no such experience could be gotten as +regarded boys in other houses; and as most of the other houses were more +or less jealous of the School-house, collisions were frequent. + +After all, what would life be without fighting, I should like to know? +From the cradle to the grave, fighting, rightly understood, is the +business, the real, highest, honestest business of every son of man. +Every one who is worth his salt has his enemies, who must be beaten, be +they evil thoughts and habits in himself, or spiritual wickedness in +high places, or Russians, or Border-ruffians, or Bill, Tom, or Harry, +who will not let him live his life in quiet till he has thrashed them. + +It is no good for Quakers, or any other body of men, to uplift their +voices against fighting. Human nature is too strong for them, and they +don't follow their own precepts. Every soul of them is doing his own +piece of fighting, somehow and somewhere. The world might be a better +world without fighting, for anything I know, but it wouldn't be our +world; and therefore I am dead against crying peace when there is no +peace, and isn't meant to be. I am as sorry as any man to see folk +fighting the wrong people and the wrong things, but I'd a deal sooner +see them doing that, than that they should have no fight in them. So +having recorded, and being about to record, my hero's fights of all +sorts, with all sorts of enemies, I shall now proceed to give an account +of his passage-at-arms with the only one of his school-fellows whom he +ever had to encounter in this manner. + +It was drawing towards the close of Arthur's first half-year, and the +May evenings were lengthening out. Locking-up was not till eight +o'clock, and everybody was beginning to talk about what he would do in +the holidays. The shell, in which form all our dramatis personae now are, +were reading amongst other things the last book of Homer's "Iliad," and +had worked through it as far as the speeches of the women over Hector's +body. It is a whole school-day, and four or five of the School-house +boys (amongst whom are Arthur, Tom, and East) are preparing third lesson +together. They have finished the regulation forty lines, and are for +the most part getting very tired, notwithstanding the exquisite pathos +of Helen's lamentation. And now several long four-syllabled words come +together, and the boy with the dictionary strikes work. + +"I am not going to look out any more words," says he; "we've done the +quantity. Ten to one we shan't get so far. Let's go out into the close." + +"Come along, boys," cries East, always ready to leave the grind, as he +called it; "our old coach is laid up, you know, and we shall have one of +the new masters, who's sure to go slow and let us down easy." + +So an adjournment to the close was carried _nem. con._, little Arthur +not daring to uplift his voice; but, being deeply interested in what +they were reading, stayed quietly behind, and learnt on for his own +pleasure. + +As East had said, the regular master of the form was unwell, and they +were to be heard by one of the new masters, quite a young man, who had +only just left the university. Certainly it would be hard lines, if, by +dawdling as much as possible in coming in and taking their places, +entering into long-winded explanations of what was the usual course of +the regular master of the form, and others of the stock contrivances of +boys for wasting time in school, they could not spin out the lesson so +that he should not work them through more than the forty lines; as to +which quantity there was a perpetual fight going on between the master +and his form, the latter insisting, and enforcing by passive resistance, +that it was the prescribed quantity of Homer for a shell lesson, the +former that there was no fixed quantity, but that they must always be +ready to go on to fifty or sixty lines if there were time within the +hour. However, notwithstanding all their efforts, the new master got on +horribly quick; he seemed to have the bad taste to be really interested +in the lesson, and to be trying to work them up into something like +appreciation of it, giving them good spirited English words, instead of +the wretched bald stuff into which they rendered poor old Homer; and +construing over each piece himself to them, after each boy, to show them +how it should be done. + +Now the clock strikes the three-quarters; there is only a quarter of an +hour more; but the forty lines are all but done. So the boys, one after +another, who are called up, stick more and more, and make balder and +ever more bald work of it. The poor young master is pretty near beat by +this time, and feels ready to knock his head against the wall, or his +fingers against somebody else's head. So he gives up altogether the +lower and middle parts of the form, and looks round in despair at the +boys on the top bench, to see if there is one out of whom he can strike +a spark or two, and who will be too chivalrous to murder the most +beautiful utterances of the most beautiful woman of the old world. His +eye rests on Arthur, and he calls him up to finish construing Helen's +speech. Whereupon all the other boys draw long breaths, and begin to +stare about and take it easy. They are all safe; Arthur is the head of +the form, and sure to be able to construe, and that will tide on safely +till the hour strikes. + +Arthur proceeds to read out the passage in Greek before construing it, +as the custom is. Tom, who isn't paying much attention, is suddenly +caught by the falter in his voice as he reads the two lines-- + + [Greek: alla su ton epeessi paraiphamenos katerukes, + se t' aganophrosune kai sois aganois epeessi.] + +He looks up at Arthur. "Why, bless us," thinks he, "what can be the +matter with the young 'un? He's never going to get floored. He's sure to +have learnt to the end." Next moment he is reassured by the spirited +tone in which Arthur begins construing, and betakes himself to drawing +dogs' heads in his note-book, while the master, evidently enjoying the +change, turns his back on the middle bench and stands before Arthur, +beating a sort of time with his hand and foot, and saying, "Yes, yes," +"very well," as Arthur goes on. + +But as he nears the fatal two lines, Tom catches that falter and again +looks up. He sees that there is something the matter--Arthur can hardly +get on at all. What can it be? + +Suddenly at this point Arthur breaks down altogether, and fairly bursts +out crying, and dashes the cuff of his jacket across his eyes, blushing +up to the roots of his hair, and feeling as if he should like to go down +suddenly through the floor. The whole form are taken aback; most of them +stare stupidly at him, while those who are gifted with presence of mind +find their places and look steadily at their books, in hopes of not +catching the master's eye and getting called up in Arthur's place. + +The master looks puzzled for a moment, and then seeing, as the fact is, +that the boy is really affected to tears by the most touching thing in +Homer, perhaps in all profane poetry put together, steps up to him and +lays his hand kindly on his shoulder, saying, "Never mind, my little +man, you've construed very well. Stop a minute, there's no hurry." + +Now, as luck would have it, there sat next above Tom that day, in the +middle bench of the form, a big boy, by name Williams, generally +supposed to be the cock of the shell, therefore of all the school below +the fifths. The small boys, who are great speculators on the prowess of +their elders, used to hold forth to one another about Williams's great +strength, and to discuss whether East or Brown would take a licking from +him. He was called Slogger Williams, from the force with which it was +supposed he could hit. In the main, he was a rough good-natured fellow +enough, but very much alive to his own dignity. He reckoned himself the +king of the form, and kept up his position with a strong hand, +especially in the matter of forcing boys not to construe more than the +legitimate forty lines, he had already grunted and grumbled to himself, +when Arthur went on reading beyond the forty lines. But now that he had +broken down just in the middle of all the long words, the Slogger's +wrath was fairly roused. + +"Sneaking little brute," muttered he, regardless of prudence, "clapping +on the waterworks just in the hardest place; see if I don't punch his +head after fourth lesson." + +"Whose?" said Tom, to whom the remark seemed to be addressed. + +"Why, that little sneak Arthur's," replied Williams. + +"No, you shan't," said Tom. + +"Hullo!" exclaimed Williams, looking at Tom with great surprise for a +moment, and then giving him a sudden dig in the ribs with his elbow, +which sent Tom's books flying on the floor, and called the attention of +the master, who turned suddenly round, and seeing the state of things, +said-- + +"Williams, go down three places, and then go on." + +The Slogger found his legs very slowly, and proceeded to go below Tom +and two other boys with great disgust, and then, turning round and +facing the master, said, "I haven't learnt any more, sir; our lesson is +only forty lines." + +"Is that so?" said the master, appealing generally to the top bench. No +answer. + +"Who is the head boy of the form?" said he, waxing wroth. + +"Arthur, sir," answered three or four boys, indicating our friend. + +"Oh, your name's Arthur. Well now, what is the length of your regular +lesson?" + +Arthur hesitated a moment, and then said, "We call it only forty lines, +sir." + +"How do you mean, you call it?" + +"Well, sir, Mr. Graham says we ain't to stop there, when there's time to +construe more." + +"I understand," said the master. "Williams, go down three more places, +and write me out the lesson in Greek and English. And now, Arthur, +finish construing." + +"Oh! would I be in Arthur's shoes after fourth lesson?" said the little +boys to one another; but Arthur finished Helen's speech without any +further catastrophe, and the clock struck four, which ended third +lesson. + +Another hour was occupied in preparing and saying fourth lesson, during +which Williams was bottling up his wrath; and when five struck, and the +lessons for the day were over, he prepared to take summary vengeance on +the innocent cause of his misfortune. + +Tom was detained in school a few minutes after the rest, and on coming +out into the quadrangle, the first thing he saw was a small ring of +boys, applauding Williams, who was holding Arthur by the collar. + +"There, you young sneak," said he, giving Arthur a cuff on the head with +his other hand, "what made you say that"-- + +"Hullo!" said Tom, shouldering into the crowd, "you drop that, Williams; +you shan't touch him." + +"Who'll stop me?" said the Slogger, raising his hand again. + +"I," said Tom; and suiting the action to the word, struck the arm which +held Arthur's arm so sharply, that the Slogger dropped it with a start, +and turned the full current of his wrath on Tom. + +"Will you fight?" + +"Yes, of course." + +"Huzza, there's going to be a fight between Slogger Williams and Tom +Brown!" + +The news ran like wild-fire about, and many boys who were on their way +to tea at their several houses turned back, and sought the back of the +chapel, where the fights come off. + +"Just run and tell East to come and back me," said Tom to a small +School-house boy, who was off like a rocket to Harrowell's, just +stopping for a moment to poke his head into the School-house hall, where +the lower boys were already at tea, and sing out, "Fight! Tom Brown and +Slogger Williams." + +Up start half the boys at once, leaving bread, eggs, butter, sprats, and +all the rest to take care of themselves. The greater part of the +remainder follow in a minute, after swallowing their tea, carrying their +food in their hands to consume as they go. Three or four only remain, +who steal the butter of the more impetuous, and make to themselves an +unctuous feast. + +In another minute East and Martin tear through the quadrangle carrying a +sponge, and arrive at the scene of action just as the combatants are +beginning to strip. + +Tom felt he had got his work cut out for him, as he stripped off his +jacket, waistcoat, and braces. East tied his handkerchief round his +waist, and rolled up his shirt-sleeves for him: "Now, old boy, don't you +open your mouth to say a word, or try to help yourself a bit, we'll do +all that; you keep all your breath and strength for the Slogger." Martin +meanwhile folded the clothes, and put them under the chapel rails; and +now Tom, with East to handle him and Martin to give him a knee, steps +out on the turf, and is ready for all that may come: and here is the +Slogger too, all stripped, and thirsting for the fray. + +It doesn't look a fair match at first glance: Williams is nearly two +inches taller, and probably a long year older than his opponent, and he +is very strongly made about the arms and shoulders; "peels well," as the +little knot of big fifth-form boys, the amateurs, say; who stand outside +the ring of little boys, looking complacently on, but taking no active +part in the proceedings. But down below he is not so good by any means; +no spring from the loins, and feebleish, not to say shipwrecky, about +the knees. Tom, on the contrary, though not half so strong in the arms, +is good all over, straight, hard, and springy from neck to ankle, better +perhaps in his legs than anywhere. Besides, you can see by the clear +white of his eye and fresh bright look of his skin, that he is in +tip-top training, able to do all he knows; while the Slogger looks +rather sodden, as if he didn't take much exercise and ate too much tuck. +The time-keeper is chosen, a large ring made, and the two stand up +opposite one another for a moment, giving us time just to make our +little observations. + +"If Tom'll only condescend to fight with his head and heels," as East +mutters to Martin, "we shall do." + +But seemingly he won't, for there he goes in, making play with both +hands. Hard all, is the word; the two stand to one another like men; +rally follows rally in quick succession, each fighting as if he thought +to finish the whole thing out of hand. "Can't last at this rate," say +the knowing ones, while the partisans of each make the air ring with +their shouts and counter-shouts, of encouragement, approval, and +defiance. + +"Take it easy, take it easy--keep away, let him come after you," +implores East, as he wipes Tom's face after the first round with wet +sponge, while he sits back on Martin's knee, supported by the Madman's +long arms, which tremble a little from excitement. + +"Time's up," calls the time-keeper. + +"There he goes again, hang it all!" growls East as his man is at it +again as hard as ever. A very severe round follows, in which Tom gets +out and out the worst of it, and is at last hit clean off his legs, and +deposited on the grass by a right-hander from the Slogger. + +Loud shouts rise from the boys of Slogger's house, and the School-house +are silent and vicious, ready to pick quarrels anywhere. + +"Two to one in half-crowns on the big 'un," says Rattle, one of the +amateurs, a tall fellow, in thunder-and-lightning waistcoat, and puffy, +good-natured face. + +"Done!" says Groove, another amateur of quieter look, taking out his +note-book to enter it--for our friend Rattle sometimes forgets these +little things. + +Meantime East is freshening up Tom with the sponges for next round, and +has set two other boys to rub his hands. + +"Tom, old boy," whispers he, "this may be fun for you, but it's death to +me. He'll hit all the fight out of you in another five minutes, and then +I shall go and drown myself in the island ditch. Feint him--use your +legs!--draw him about! he'll lose his wind then in no time, and you can +go into him. Hit at his body too, we'll take care of his frontispiece by +and by." + +Tom felt the wisdom of the counsel, and saw already that he couldn't go +in and finish the Slogger off at mere hammer and tongs, so changed his +tactics completely in the third round. He now fights cautious, getting +away from and parrying the Slogger's lunging hits, instead of trying to +counter, and leading his enemy a dance all round the ring after him. +"He's funking; go in, Williams," "Catch him up," "Finish him off," +scream the small boys of the Slogger party. + +"Just what we want," thinks East, chuckling to himself, as he sees +Williams, excited by these shouts, and thinking the game in his own +hands, blowing himself in his exertions to get to close quarters again, +while Tom is keeping away with perfect ease. + +They quarter over the ground again and again, Tom always on the +defensive. + +The Slogger pulls up at last for a moment, fairly blown. + +"Now then, Tom," sings out East, dancing with delight. Tom goes in in a +twinkling, and hits two heavy body blows, and gets away again before the +Slogger can catch his wind; which when he does he rushes with blind fury +at Tom, and being skilfully parried and avoided, over-reaches himself +and falls on his face, amidst terrific cheers from the School-house +boys. + +"Double your two to one?" says Groove to Rattle, note-book in hand. + +"Stop a bit," says that hero, looking uncomfortably at Williams, who is +puffing away on his second's knee, winded enough, but little the worse +in any other way. + +After another round the Slogger too seems to see that he can't go in and +win right off, and has met his match or thereabouts. So he too begins to +use his head, and tries to make Tom lose patience and come in before his +time. And so the fight sways on, now one, and now the other, getting a +trifling pull. + +Tom's face begins to look very one-sided--there are little queer bumps +on his forehead, and his mouth is bleeding; but East keeps the wet +sponge going so scientifically, that he comes up looking as fresh and +bright as ever. Williams is only slightly marked in the face, but by the +nervous movement of his elbows you can see that Tom's body blows are +telling. In fact, half the vice of the Slogger's hitting is neutralized, +for he daren't lunge out freely for fear of exposing his sides. It is +too interesting by this time for much shouting, and the whole ring is +very quiet. + +"All right, Tommy," whispers East; "hold on's the horse that's to win. +We've got the last. Keep your head, old boy." + +But where is Arthur all this time? Words cannot paint the poor little +fellow's distress. He couldn't muster courage to come up to the ring, +but wandered up and down from the great fives'-court to the corner of +the chapel rails. Now trying to make up his mind to throw himself +between them, and try to stop them; then thinking of running in and +telling his friend Mary, who he knew would instantly report to the +Doctor. The stories he had heard of men being killed in prize-fights +rose up horribly before him. + +Once only, when the shouts of "Well done, Brown!" "Huzza for the +School-house!" rose higher than ever, he ventured up to the ring, +thinking the victory was won. Catching sight of Tom's face in the state +I have described, all fear of consequences vanishing out of his mind, he +rushed straight off to the matron's room, beseeching her to get the +fight stopped, or he should die. + +But it's time for us to get back to the close. What is this fierce +tumult and confusion? The ring is broken, and high and angry words are +being bandied about; "It's all fair,"--"It isn't,"--"No hugging;" the +fight is stopped. The combatants, however, sit there quietly, tended by +their seconds, while their adherents wrangle in the middle. East can't +help shouting challenges to two or three of the other side, though he +never leaves Tom for a moment, and plies the sponges as fast as ever. + +The fact is, that at the end of the last round, Tom seeing a good +opening, had closed with his opponent, and after a moment's struggle had +thrown him heavily, by the help of the fall he had learnt from his +village rival in the vale of White Horse. Williams hadn't the ghost of a +chance with Tom at wrestling; and the conviction broke at once on the +Slogger faction, that if this were allowed their man must be licked. +There was a strong feeling in the school against catching hold and +throwing, though it was generally ruled all fair within certain limits; +so the ring was broken and the fight stopped. + +The School-house are over-ruled--the fight is on again, but there is to +be no throwing; and East in high wrath threatens to take his man away +after next round (which he don't mean to do, by the way), when suddenly +young Brooke comes through the small gate at the end of the chapel. The +School-house faction rush to him. "Oh, hurra! now we shall get fair +play." + +"Please, Brooke, come up, they won't let Tom Brown throw him." + +"Throw whom?" says Brooke, coming up to the ring. "Oh! Williams, I see. +Nonsense! of course he may throw him if he catches him fairly above the +waist." + +Now, young Brooke, you're in the sixth, you know, and you ought to stop +all fights. He looks hard at both boys. "Anything wrong?" says he to +East, nodding at Tom. + +"Not a bit." + +"Not beat at all?" + +"Bless you, no! heaps of fight in him. Ain't there, Tom?" + +Tom looks at Brooke and grins. + +"How's he?" nodding at Williams. + +"So, so; rather done, I think, since his last fall. He won't stand above +two more." + +"Time's up!" the boys rise again and face one another. Brooke can't find +it in his heart to stop them just yet, so the round goes on, the Slogger +waiting for Tom, and reserving all his strength to hit him out should he +come in for the wrestling dodge again, for he feels that that must be +stopped, or his sponge will soon go up in the air. + +And now another new-comer appears on the field, to wit, the +under-porter, with his long brush and great wooden receptacle for dust +under his arm. He has been sweeping out the schools. + +"You'd better stop, gentlemen," he says; "the Doctor knows that Brown's +fighting--he'll be out in a minute." + +"You go to Bath, Bill," is all that that excellent servitor gets by his +advice. And being a man of his hands, and a staunch upholder of the +School-house, can't help stopping to look on for a bit, and see Tom +Brown, their pet craftsman, fight a round. + +It is grim earnest now, and no mistake. Both boys feel this, and summon +every power of head, hand, and eye to their aid. A piece of luck on +either side, a foot slipping, a blow getting well home, or another fall, +may decide it. Tom works slowly round for an opening; he has all the +legs, and can choose his own time: the Slogger waits for the attack, and +hopes to finish it by some heavy right-handed blow. As they quarter +slowly over the ground, the evening sun comes out from behind a cloud +and falls full on Williams's face. Tom darts in; the heavy right-hand is +delivered, but only grazes his head. A short rally at close quarters, +and they close; in another moment the Slogger is thrown again heavily +for the third time. + +"I'll give you three to two on the little one in half-crowns," said +Groove to Rattle. + +"No, thank'ee," answers the other, diving his hands further into his +coat-tails. + +Just at this stage of the proceedings, the door of the turret which +leads to the Doctor's library suddenly opens, and he steps into the +close, and makes straight for the ring, in which Brown and the Slogger +are both seated on their seconds' knees for the last time. + +"The Doctor! the Doctor!" shouts some small boy who catches sight of +him, and the ring melts away in a few seconds, the small boys tearing +off, Tom collaring his jacket and waistcoat, and slipping through the +little gate by the chapel, and round the corner to Harrowell's with his +backers, as lively as need be; Williams and his backers making off not +quite so fast across the close; Groove, Rattle, and the other bigger +fellows trying to combine dignity and prudence in a comical manner, and +walking off fast enough, they hope, not to be recognised, and not fast +enough to look like running away. + +Young Brooke alone remains on the ground by the time the Doctor gets +there, and touches his hat, not without a slight inward qualm. + +[Illustration: THE DOCTOR'S COUNSEL TO YOUNG BROOKE. P. 290.] + +"Hah! Brooke. I am surprised to see you here. Don't you know that I +expect the sixth to stop fighting?" + +Brooke felt much more uncomfortable than he had expected, but he was +rather a favourite with the Doctor for his openness and plainness of +speech; so blurted out, as he walked by the Doctor's side, who had +already turned back-- + +"Yes, sir, generally. But I thought you wished us to exercise a +discretion in the matter too--not to interfere too soon." + +"But they have been fighting this half-hour and more," said the Doctor. + +"Yes, sir; but neither was hurt. And they're the sort of boys who'll be +all the better friends now, which they wouldn't have been if they had +been stopped any earlier--before it was so equal." + +"Who was fighting with Brown?" said the Doctor. + +"Williams, sir, of Thompson's. He is bigger than Brown, and had the best +of it at first, but not when you came up, sir. There's a good deal of +jealousy between our house and Thompson's, and there would have been +more fights if this hadn't been let go on, or if either of them had had +much the worst of it." + +"Well but, Brooke," said the Doctor, "doesn't this look a little as if +you exercised your discretion by only stopping a fight when the +School-house boy is getting the worst of it?" + +Brooke, it must be confessed, felt rather gravelled. + +"Remember," added the Doctor, as he stopped at the turret-door, "this +fight is not to go on--you'll see to that. And I expect you to stop all +fights in future at once." + +"Very well, sir," said young Brooke, touching his hat, and not sorry +to see the turret-door close behind the Doctor's back. + +Meantime Tom and the staunchest of his adherents had reached +Harrowell's, and Sally was bustling about to get them a late tea, while +Stumps had been sent off to Tew the butcher, to get a piece of raw beef +for Tom's eye, which was to be healed off-hand, so that he might show +well in the morning. He was not a bit the worse except a slight +difficulty in his vision, a singing in his ears, and a sprained thumb, +which he kept in a cold-water bandage, while he drank lots of tea, and +listened to the Babel of voices talking and speculating of nothing but +the fight, and how Williams would have given in after another fall +(which he didn't in the least believe), and how on earth the Doctor +could have got to know of it,--such bad luck! He couldn't help thinking +to himself that he was glad he hadn't won; he liked it better as it was, +and felt very friendly to the Slogger. And then poor little Arthur crept +in and sat down quietly near him, and kept looking at him and the raw +beef with such plaintive looks, that Tom at last burst out laughing. + +"Don't make such eyes, young 'un," said he, "there's nothing the +matter." + +"Oh but, Tom, are you much hurt? I can't bear thinking it was all for +me." + +"Not a bit of it, don't flatter yourself. We were sure to have had it +out sooner or later." + +"Well, but you won't go on, will you? You'll promise me you won't go +on?" + +"Can't tell about that--all depends on the houses. We're in the hands of +our countrymen, you know. Must fight for the School-house flag, if so +be." + +However, the lovers of the science were doomed to disappointment this +time. Directly after locking-up, one of the night fags knocked at Tom's +door. + +"Brown, young Brooke wants you in the sixth-form room." + +Up went Tom to the summons, and found the magnates sitting at their +supper. + +"Well, Brown," said young Brooke, nodding to him, "how do you feel?" + +"Oh, very well, thank you, only I've sprained my thumb, I think." + +"Sure to do that in a fight. Well, you hadn't the worst of it, I could +see. Where did you learn that throw?" + +"Down in the country, when I was a boy." + +"Hullo! why what are you now? Well, never mind, you're a plucky fellow. +Sit down and have some supper." + +Tom obeyed, by no means loth. And the fifth-form boy next him filled him +a tumbler of bottled-beer, and he ate and drank, listening to the +pleasant talk, and wondering how soon he should be in the fifth, and one +of that much-envied society. + +As he got up to leave, Brooke said, "You must shake hands to-morrow +morning; I shall come and see that done after first lesson." + +And so he did. And Tom and the Slogger shook hands with great +satisfaction and mutual respect. And for the next year or two, whenever +fights were being talked of, the small boys who had been present shook +their heads wisely, saying, "Ah! but you should just have seen the fight +between Slogger Williams and Tom Brown!" + +And now, boys all, three words before we quit the subject. I have put in +this chapter on fighting of malice prepense, partly because I want to +give you a true picture of what every-day school life was in my time, +and not a kid-glove and go-to-meeting-coat picture; and partly because +of the cant and twaddle that's talked of boxing and fighting with fists +now-a-days. Even Thackeray has given in to it; and only a few weeks ago +there was some rampant stuff in the _Times_ on the subject, in an +article on field sports. + +Boys will quarrel, and when they quarrel will sometimes fight. Fighting +with fists is the natural and English way for English boys to settle +their quarrels. What substitute for it is there, or ever was there, +amongst any nation under the sun? What would you like to see take its +place? + +Learn to box, then, as you learn to play cricket and football. Not one +of you will be the worse, but very much the better for learning to box +well. Should you never have to use it in earnest, there's no exercise in +the world so good for the temper, and for the muscles of the back and +legs. + +As to fighting, keep out of it if you can, by all means. When the time +comes, if it ever should, that you have to say "Yes" or "No" to a +challenge to fight, say "No" if you can,--only take care you make it +clear to yourselves why you say "No." It's a proof of the highest +courage, if done from true Christian motives. It's quite right and +justifiable, if done from a simple aversion to physical pain and danger. +But don't say "No" because you fear a licking, and say or think it's +because you fear God, for that's neither Christian nor honest. And if +you do fight, fight it out; and don't give in while you can stand and +see. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +FEVER IN THE SCHOOL. + + "This our hope for all that's mortal, + And we too shall burst the bond; + Death keeps watch beside the portal, + But 'tis life that dwells beyond." + JOHN STERLING. + + +TWO years have passed since the events recorded in the last chapter, and +the end of the summer half-year is again drawing on. Martin has left and +gone on a cruise in the South Pacific, in one of his uncle's ships; the +old magpie, as disreputable as ever, his last bequest to Arthur, lives +in the joint study. Arthur is nearly sixteen, and is at the head of the +twenty, having gone up the school at the rate of a form a half-year. +East and Tom have been much more deliberate in their progress, and are +only a little way up the fifth form. Great strapping boys they are, but +still thorough boys, filling about the same place in the House that +young Brooke filled when they were new boys, and much the same sort of +fellows. Constant intercourse with Arthur has done much for both of +them, especially for Tom; but much remains yet to be done, if they are +to get all the good out of Rugby which is to be got there in these +times. Arthur is still frail and delicate, with more spirit than body; +but, thanks to his intimacy with them and Martin, has learned to swim, +and run, and play cricket, and has never hurt himself by too much +reading. + +One evening, as they were all sitting down to supper in the fifth-form +room, some one started a report that a fever had broken out at one of +the boarding-houses; "they say," he added, "that Thompson is very ill, +and that Dr. Robertson has been sent for from Northampton." + +"Then we shall all be sent home," cried another. "Hurrah! five weeks' +extra holidays, and no fifth-form examination!" + +"I hope not," said Tom; "there'll be no Marylebone match then at the end +of the half." + +Some thought one thing, some another, many didn't believe the report; +but the next day, Tuesday, Dr. Robertson arrived, and stayed all day, +and had long conferences with the Doctor. + +On Wednesday morning, after prayers, the Doctor addressed the whole +School. There were several cases of fever in different houses, he said; +but Dr. Robertson, after the most careful examination, had assured him +that it was not infectious, and that if proper care were taken, there +could be no reason for stopping the school work at present. The +examinations were just coming on, and it would be very unadvisable to +break-up now. However, any boys who chose to do so were at liberty to +write home, and, if their parents wished it, to leave at once. He should +send the whole School home if the fever spread. + +The next day Arthur sickened, but there was no other case. Before the +end of the week thirty or forty boys had gone, but the rest stayed on. +There was a general wish to please the Doctor, and a feeling that it was +cowardly to run away. + +On the Saturday Thompson died, in the bright afternoon, while the +cricket-match was going on as usual on the big-side ground: the Doctor +coming from his death-bed, passed along the gravel-walk at the side of +the close, but no one knew what had happened till the next day. At +morning lecture it began to be rumoured, and by afternoon chapel was +known generally; and a feeling of seriousness and awe at the actual +presence of death among them came over the whole School. In all the long +years of his ministry the Doctor perhaps never spoke words which sank +deeper than some of those in that day's sermon. "When I came yesterday +from visiting all but the very death-bed of him who has been taken from +us, and looked around upon all the familiar objects and scenes within +our own ground, where your common amusements were going on, with your +common cheerfulness and activity, I felt there was nothing painful in +witnessing that; it did not seem in any way shocking or out of tune +with those feelings which the sight of a dying Christian must be +supposed to awaken. The unsuitableness in point of natural feeling +between scenes of mourning and scenes of liveliness did not at all +present itself. But I did feel that if at that moment any of those +faults had been brought before me which sometimes occur amongst us; had +I heard that any of you had been guilty of falsehood, or of drunkenness, +or of any other such sin; had I heard from any quarter the language of +profaneness, or of unkindness, or of indecency; had I heard or seen any +signs of that wretched folly which courts the laugh of fools by +affecting not to dread evil and not to care for good, then the +unsuitableness of any of these things with the scene I had just quitted +would indeed have been most intensely painful. And why? Not because such +things would really have been worse than at any other time, but because +at such a moment the eyes are opened really to know good and evil, +because we then feel what it is so to live as that death becomes an +infinite blessing, and what it is so to live also, that it were good for +us if we had never been born." + +Tom had gone into chapel in sickening anxiety about Arthur, but he came +out cheered and strengthened by those grand words, and walked up alone +to their study. And when he sat down and looked round, and saw Arthur's +straw-hat and cricket-jacket hanging on their pegs, and marked all his +little neat arrangements, not one of which had been disturbed, the tears +indeed rolled down his cheeks; but they were calm and blessed tears, and +he repeated to himself, "Yes, Geordie's eyes are opened--he knows what +it is so to live as that death becomes an infinite blessing. But do I? +Oh, God, can I bear to lose him?" + +The week passed mournfully away. No more boys sickened, but Arthur was +reported worse each day, and his mother arrived early in the week. Tom +made many appeals to be allowed to see him, and several times tried to +get up to the sick-room; but the housekeeper was always in the way, and +at last spoke to the Doctor, who kindly, but peremptorily, forbade him. + +Thompson was buried on the Tuesday; and the burial service, so soothing +and grand always, but beyond all words solemn when read over a boy's +grave to his companions, brought him much comfort, and many strange new +thoughts and longings. He went back to his regular life, and played +cricket and bathed as usual: it seemed to him that this was the right +thing to do, and the new thoughts and longings became more brave and +healthy for the effort. The crisis came on Saturday, the day week that +Thompson had died, and during that long afternoon Tom sat in his study +reading his Bible and going every half-hour to the housekeeper's room, +expecting each time to hear that the gentle and brave little spirit had +gone home. But God had work for Arthur to do: the crisis passed--on +Sunday evening he was declared out of danger; on Monday he sent a +message to Tom that he was almost well, had changed his room, and was to +be allowed to see him the next day. + +It was evening when the housekeeper summoned him to the sick-room. +Arthur was lying on the sofa by the open window, through which the rays +of the western sun stole gently, lighting up his white face and golden +hair. Tom remembered a German picture of an angel which he knew; often +had he thought how transparent and golden and spirit-like it was; and he +shuddered to think how like it Arthur looked, and felt a shock as if his +blood had all stopped short, as he realized how near the other world his +friend must have been to look like that. Never till that moment had he +felt how his little chum had twined himself round his heartstrings; and +as he stole gently across the room and knelt down, and put his arm round +Arthur's head on the pillow, he felt ashamed and half angry at his own +red and brown face, and the bounding sense of health and power which +filled every fibre of his body, and made every movement of mere living a +joy to him. He needn't have troubled himself; it was this very strength +and power so different from his own which drew Arthur so to him. + +Arthur laid his thin white hand, on which the blue veins stood out so +plainly, on Tom's great brown fist, and smiled at him; and then looked +out of the window again, as if he couldn't bear to lose a moment of the +sunset, into the tops of the great feathery elms, round which the rooks +were circling and clanging, returning in flocks from their evening's +foraging parties. The elms rustled, the sparrows in the ivy just outside +the window chirped and fluttered about, quarrelling and making it up +again; the rooks young and old talked in chorus; and the merry shouts of +the boys, and the sweet click of the cricket-bats, came up cheerily from +below. + +"Dear George," said Tom, "I am so glad to be let up to see you at last. +I've tried hard to come so often, but they wouldn't let me before." + +"Oh, I know, Tom; Mary has told me every day about you, and how she was +obliged to make the Doctor speak to you to keep you away. I'm very glad +you didn't get up, for you might have caught it, and you couldn't stand +being ill with all the matches going on. And you're in the eleven too, I +hear--I'm so glad." + +"Yes, ain't it jolly?" said Tom proudly; "I'm ninth too. I made forty at +the last pie-match and caught three fellows out. So I was put in above +Jones and Tucker. Tucker's so savage, for he was head of the +twenty-two." + +"Well, I think you ought to be higher yet," said Arthur, who was as +jealous for the renown of Tom in games, as Tom was for his as a scholar. + +"Never mind, I don't care about cricket or anything now you're getting +well, Geordie; and I shouldn't have hurt, I know, if they'd have let me +come up,--nothing hurts me. But you'll get about now directly, won't +you? You won't believe how clean I've kept the study. All your things +are just as you left them; and I feed the old magpie just when you used, +though I have to come in from big-side for him, the old rip. He won't +look pleased all I can do, and sticks his head first on one side and +then on the other, and blinks at me before he'll begin to eat, till I'm +half inclined to box his ears. And whenever East comes in, you should +see him hop off to the window, dot and go one, though Harry wouldn't +touch a feather of him now." + +Arthur laughed. "Old Gravey has a good memory; he can't forget the +sieges of poor Martin's den in old times." He paused a moment, and then +went on. "You can't think how often I've been thinking of old Martin +since I've been ill; I suppose one's mind gets restless, and likes to +wander off to strange unknown places. I wonder what queer new pets the +old boy has got; how he must be revelling in the thousand new birds, +beasts, and fishes." + +Tom felt a pang of jealousy, but kicked it out in a moment. "Fancy him +on a South-Sea island, with the Cherokees or Patagonians, or some such +wild niggers;" (Tom's ethnology and geography were faulty, but +sufficient for his needs;) "they'll make the old Madman cock +medicine-man and tattoo him all over. Perhaps he's cutting about now all +blue, and has a squaw and a wigwam. He'll improve their boomerangs, and +be able to throw them too, without having old Thomas sent after him by +the Doctor to take them away." + +Arthur laughed at the remembrance of the boomerang story, but then +looked grave again, and said "He'll convert all the island, I know." + +"Yes, if he don't blow it up first." + +"Do you remember, Tom, how you and East used to laugh at him and chaff +him, because he said he was sure the rooks all had calling-over or +prayers, or something of the sort, when the locking-up bell rang? Well, +I declare," said Arthur, looking up seriously into Tom's laughing eyes, +"I do think he was right. Since I've been lying here, I've watched them +every night; and do you know, they really do come, and perch all of them +just about locking-up time; and then first there's a regular chorus of +caws, and then they stop a bit, and one old fellow, or perhaps two or +three in different trees, caw solos, and then off they all go again, +fluttering about and cawing anyhow till they roost." + +"I wonder if the old blackies do talk," said Tom, looking up at them. +"How they must abuse me and East, and pray for the Doctor for stopping +the slinging." + +"There! look, look!" cried Arthur; "don't you see the old fellow without +a tail coming up? Martin used to call him the 'clerk.' He can't steer +himself. You never saw such fun as he is in a high wind, when he can't +steer himself home, and gets carried right past the trees, and has to +bear up again and again before he can perch." + +The locking-up bell began to toll, and the two boys were silent, and +listened to it. The sound soon carried Tom off to the river and the +woods, and he began to go over in his mind the many occasions on which +he had heard that toll coming faintly down the breeze, and had to pack +up his rod in a hurry, and make a run for it, to get in before the gates +were shut. He was roused with a start from his memories by Arthur's +voice, gentle and weak from his late illness. + +"Tom, will you be angry if I talk to you very seriously?" + +"No, dear old boy, not I. But ain't you faint, Arthur, or ill? What can +I get you? Don't say anything to hurt yourself now--you are very weak; +let me come up again." + +"No, no, I shan't hurt myself: I'd sooner speak to you now, if you don't +mind. I've asked Mary to tell the Doctor that you are with me, so you +needn't go down to calling-over; and I mayn't have another chance, for I +shall most likely have to go home for change of air to get well, and +mayn't come back this half." + +"Oh, do you think you must go away before the end of the half? I'm so +sorry. It's more than five weeks yet to the holidays, and all the +fifth-form examination and half the cricket-matches to come yet. And +what shall I do all that time alone in our study? Why, Arthur, it will +be more than twelve weeks before I see you again. Oh, hang it, I can't +stand that! Besides, who's to keep me up to working at the examination +books? I shall come out bottom of the form as sure as eggs is eggs." + +Tom was rattling on, half in joke, half in earnest, for he wanted to get +Arthur out of his serious vein, thinking it would do him harm; but +Arthur broke in-- + +"Oh, please, Tom, stop, or you'll drive all I had to say out of my head. +And I'm already horribly afraid I'm going to make you angry." + +"Don't gammon, young 'un," rejoined Tom (the use of the old name, dear +to him from old recollections, made Arthur start and smile, and feel +quite happy); "you know you ain't afraid, and you've never made me angry +since the first month we chummed together. Now I'm going to be quite +sober for a quarter of an hour, which is more than I am once in a year; +so make the most of it; heave ahead, and pitch into me right and left." + +"Dear Tom, I ain't going to pitch into you," said Arthur piteously; "and +it seems so cocky in me to be advising you, who've been my backbone ever +since I've been at Rugby, and have made the school a paradise to me. Ah, +I see I shall never do it, unless I go head-over-heels at once, as you +said when you taught me to swim. Tom, I want you to give up using +vulgus-books and cribs." + +Arthur sank back on to his pillow with a sigh, as if the effort had been +great; but the worst was now over, and he looked straight at Tom, who +was evidently taken aback. He leant his elbows on his knees, and stuck +his hands into his hair, whistled a verse of "Billy Taylor," and then +was quite silent for another minute. Not a shade crossed his face, but +he was clearly puzzled. At last he looked up and caught Arthur's anxious +look, took his hand, and said simply-- + +"Why, young 'un?" + +"Because you're the honestest boy in Rugby, and that ain't honest." + +"I don't see that." + +"What were you sent to Rugby for?" + +"Well, I don't know exactly--nobody ever told me. I suppose because all +boys are sent to a public school in England." + +"But what do you think yourself? What do you want to do here, and to +carry away?" + +Tom thought a minute. "I want to be A 1 at cricket and football, and all +the other games, and to make my hands keep my head against any fellow, +lout or gentleman. I want to get into the sixth before I leave, and to +please the Doctor; and I want to carry away just as much Latin and Greek +as will take me through Oxford respectably. There now, young 'un, I +never thought of it before, but that's pretty much about my figure. +Ain't it all on the square? What have you got to say to that?" + +"Why, that you are pretty sure to do all that you want, then." + +"Well, I hope so. But you've forgot one thing, what I want to leave +behind me. I want to leave behind me," said Tom, speaking slow, and +looking much moved, "the name of a fellow who never bullied a little +boy, or turned his back on a big one." + +Arthur pressed his hand, and after a moment's silence went on: "You say, +Tom, you want to please the Doctor. Now, do you want to please him by +what he thinks you do, or by what you really do?" + +"By what I really do, of course." + +"Does he think you use cribs and vulgus-books?" + +Tom felt at once that his flank was turned, but he couldn't give in. "He +was at Winchester himself," said he; "he knows all about it." + +"Yes, but does he think _you_ use them? Do you think he approves of it?" + +"You young villain!" said Tom, shaking his fist at Arthur, half vexed +and half pleased, "I never think about it. Hang it--there, perhaps he +don't. Well, I suppose he don't." + +Arthur saw that he had got his point; he knew his friend well, and was +wise in silence, as in speech. He only said, "I would sooner have the +Doctor's good opinion of me as I really am than any man's in the world." + +After another minute, Tom began again: "Look here, young 'un; how on +earth am I to get time to play the matches this half, if I give up +cribs? We're in the middle of that long crabbed chorus in the +'Agamemnon;' I can only just make head or tail of it with the crib. Then +there's Pericles' speech coming on in Thucydides, and 'The Birds' to get +up for the examination, besides the Tacitus." Tom groaned at the thought +of his accumulated labours. "I say, young 'un, there's only five weeks +or so left to holidays; mayn't I go on as usual for this half? I'll tell +the Doctor about it some day, or you may." + +Arthur looked out of window; the twilight had come on and all was +silent. He repeated, in a low voice, "In this thing the Lord pardon thy +servant, that when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship +there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of +Rimmon: when I bow down myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon +thy servant in this thing." + +Not a word more was said on the subject, and the boys were again +silent--one of those blessed, short silences in which the resolves which +colour a life are so often taken. + +Tom was the first to break it. "You've been very ill indeed, haven't +you, Geordie?" said he, with a mixture of awe and curiosity, feeling as +if his friend had been in some strange place or scene, of which he could +form no idea, and full of the memory of his own thoughts during the last +week. + +"Yes, very. I'm sure the Doctor thought I was going to die. He gave me +the sacrament last Sunday, and you can't think what he is when one is +ill. He said such brave, and tender, and gentle things to me; I felt +quite light and strong after it, and never had any more fear. My mother +brought our old medical man, who attended me when I was a poor sickly +child; he said my constitution was quite changed, and that I'm fit for +anything now. If it hadn't, I couldn't have stood three days of this +illness. That's all thanks to you, and the games you've made me fond +of." + +"More thanks to old Martin," said Tom; "he's been your real friend." + +"Nonsense, Tom; he never could have done for me what you have." + +"Well, I don't know; I did little enough. Did they tell you--you won't +mind hearing it now, I know,--that poor Thompson died last week? The +other three boys are getting quite sound, like you." + +"Oh, yes, I heard of it." + +Then Tom, who was quite full of it, told Arthur of the burial-service in +the chapel, and how it had impressed him, and he believed all the other +boys. "And though the Doctor never said a word about it," said he, "and +it was a half-holiday and match-day, there wasn't a game played in the +close all the afternoon, and the boys all went about as if it were +Sunday." + +"I'm very glad of it," said Arthur. "But, Tom, I've had such strange +thoughts about death lately. I've never told a soul of them, not even my +mother. Sometimes I think they're wrong; but, do you know, I don't think +in my heart I could be sorry at the death of any of my friends." + +Tom was taken quite aback. "What in the world is the young 'un after +now?" thought he; "I've swallowed a good many of his crotchets, but this +altogether beats me. He can't be quite right in his head." He didn't +want to say a word, and shifted about uneasily in the dark; however, +Arthur seemed to be waiting for an answer, so at last he said, "I don't +think I quite see what you mean, Geordie. One's told so often to think +about death, that I've tried it on sometimes, especially this last week. +But we won't talk of it now. I'd better go--you're getting tired, and I +shall do you harm." + +"No, no, indeed I ain't, Tom; you must stop till nine, there's only +twenty minutes. I've settled you shall stop till nine. And oh! do let me +talk to you--I must talk to you. I see it's just as I feared. You think +I'm half mad--don't you now?" + +"Well, I did think it odd what you said, Geordie, as you ask me." + +Arthur paused a moment, and then said quickly, "I'll tell you how it all +happened. At first, when I was sent to the sick room, and found I had +really got the fever, I was terribly frightened. I thought I should die, +and I could not face it for a moment. I don't think it was sheer +cowardice at first, but I thought how hard it was to be taken away from +my mother and sisters, and you all, just as I was beginning to see my +way to many things, and to feel that I might be a man and do a man's +work. To die without having fought, and worked, and given one's life +away, was too hard to bear. I got terribly impatient, and accused God of +injustice, and strove to justify myself; and the harder I strove the +deeper I sank. Then the image of my dear father often came across me, +but I turned from it. Whenever it came, a heavy numbing throb seemed to +take hold of my heart and say, 'Dead--dead--dead.' And I cried out, 'The +living, the living shall praise Thee, O God; the dead cannot praise +Thee. There is no work in the grave; in the night no man can work. But I +can work. I can do great things. I _will_ do great things. Why wilt Thou +slay me?' And so I struggled and plunged, deeper and deeper, and went +down into a living black tomb. I was alone there, with no power to stir +or think; alone with myself; beyond the reach of all human fellowship; +beyond Christ's reach, I thought, in my nightmare. You, who are brave +and bright and strong, can have no idea of that agony. Pray to God you +never may. Pray as for your life." + +Arthur stopped--from exhaustion, Tom thought; but what between his fear +lest Arthur should hurt himself, his awe, and longing for him to go on, +he couldn't ask, or stir to help him. + +Presently he went on, but quite calm and slow. "I don't know how long I +was in that state. For more than a day, I know; for I was quite +conscious, and lived my outer life all the time, and took my medicine, +and spoke to my mother, and heard what they said. But I didn't take much +note of time; I thought time was over for me, and that that tomb was +what was beyond. Well, on last Sunday morning, as I seemed to lie in +that tomb, alone, as I thought, for ever and ever, the black dead wall +was cleft in two, and I was caught up and borne through into the light +by some great power, some living mighty spirit. Tom, do you remember the +living creatures and the wheels in Ezekiel? It was just like that: 'when +they went I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great +waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise +of an host; when they stood they let down their wings'--'and they went +every one straight forward; whither the spirit was to go they went, and +they turned not when they went.' And we rushed through the bright air, +which was full of myriads of living creatures, and paused on the brink +of a great river. And the power held me up, and I knew that that great +river was the grave, and death dwelt there; but not the death I had met +in the black tomb--that I felt was gone for ever. For on the other bank +of the great river I saw men and women and children rising up pure and +bright, and the tears were wiped from their eyes, and they put on glory +and strength, and all weariness and pain fell away. And beyond were a +multitude which no man could number, and they worked at some great work; +and they who rose from the river went on and joined in the work. They +all worked, and each worked in a different way, but all at the same +work. And I saw there my father, and the men in the old town whom I knew +when I was a child; many a hard stern man, who never came to church, and +whom they called atheist and infidel. There they were, side by side with +my father, whom I had seen toil and die for them, and women and little +children, and the seal was on the foreheads of all. And I longed to see +what the work was, and could not; so I tried to plunge in the river, for +I thought I would join them, but I could not. Then I looked about to see +how they got into the river. And this I could not see, but I saw myriads +on this side, and they too worked, and I knew that it was the same work; +and the same seal was on their foreheads. And though I saw that there +was toil and anguish in the work of these, and that most that were +working were blind and feeble, yet I longed no more to plunge into the +river, but more and more to know what the work was. And as I looked I +saw my mother and my sisters, and I saw the Doctor, and you, Tom, and +hundreds more whom I knew; and at last I saw myself too, and I was +toiling and doing ever so little a piece of the great work. Then it all +melted away, and the power left me, and as it left me I thought I heard +a voice say, 'The vision is for an appointed time; though it tarry, wait +for it, for in the end it shall speak and not lie, it shall surely come, +it shall not tarry.' It was early morning I know then, it was so quiet +and cool, and my mother was fast asleep in the chair by my bedside; but +it wasn't only a dream of mine. I know it wasn't a dream. Then I fell +into a deep sleep, and only woke after afternoon chapel; and the Doctor +came and gave me the sacrament, as I told you. I told him and my mother +I should get well--I knew I should; but I couldn't tell them why. Tom," +said Arthur, gently, after another minute, "do you see why I could not +grieve now to see my dearest friend die? It can't be--it isn't, all +fever or illness. God would never have let me see it so clear if it +wasn't true. I don't understand it all yet--it will take me my life and +longer to do that--to find out what the work is." + +When Arthur stopped there was a long pause. Tom could not speak, he was +almost afraid to breathe, lest he should break the train of Arthur's +thoughts. He longed to hear more, and to ask questions. In another +minute nine o'clock struck, and a gentle tap at the door called them +both back into the world again. They did not answer, however, for a +moment, and so the door opened and a lady came in carrying a candle. + +She went straight to the sofa, and took hold of Arthur's hand, and then +stooped down and kissed him. + +"My dearest boy, you feel a little feverish again. Why didn't you have +lights? You've talked too much and excited yourself in the dark." + +"Oh, no, mother; you can't think how well I feel. I shall start with you +to-morrow for Devonshire. But, mother, here's my friend, here's Tom +Brown--you know him?" + +"Yes, indeed, I've known him for years," she said, and held out her hand +to Tom, who was now standing up behind the sofa. This was Arthur's +mother. Tall and slight and fair, with masses of golden hair drawn back +from the broad white forehead, and the calm blue eye meeting his so deep +and open--the eye that he knew so well, for it was his friend's over +again, and the lovely tender mouth that trembled while he looked. She +stood there a woman of thirty-eight, old enough to be his mother, and +one whose face showed the lines which must be written on the faces of +good men's wives and widows--but he thought he had never seen anything +so beautiful. He couldn't help wondering if Arthur's sisters were like +her. + +Tom held her hand, and looked on straight in her face; he could neither +let it go nor speak. + +"Now, Tom," said Arthur, laughing, "where are your manners? you'll stare +my mother out of countenance." Tom dropped the little hand with a sigh. +"There, sit down, both of you. Here, dearest mother, there's room +here;--" and he made a place on the sofa for her. "Tom, you needn't go; +I'm sure you won't be called up at first lesson." Tom felt that he would +risk being floored at every lesson for the rest of his natural +school-life sooner than go, so sat down. "And now," said Arthur, "I +have realized one of the dearest wishes of my life--to see you two +together." + +And then he led away the talk to their home in Devonshire, and the red +bright earth, and the deep green combes, and the peat streams like +cairngorm pebbles, and the wild moor with its high cloudy Tors for a +giant background to the picture--till Tom got jealous, and stood up for +the clear chalk streams, and the emerald water meadows and great elms +and willows of the dear old Royal county, as he gloried to call it. And +the mother sat on quiet and loving, rejoicing in their life. The +quarter-to-ten struck, and the bell rang for bed before they had well +begun their talk, as it seemed. + +Then Tom rose with a sigh to go. + +"Shall I see you in the morning, Geordie?" said he, as he shook his +friend's hand. "Never mind though; you'll be back next half, and I +shan't forget the house of Rimmon." + +Arthur's mother got up and walked with him to the door, and there gave +him her hand again, and again his eyes met that deep loving look, which +was like a spell upon him. Her voice trembled slightly as she said, +"Good night--you are one who knows what our Father has promised to the +friend of the widow and the fatherless. May He deal with you as you have +dealt with me and mine!" + +Tom was quite upset; he mumbled something about owing everything good in +him to Geordie--looked in her face again, pressed her hand to his lips, +and rushed downstairs to his study, where he sat till old Thomas came +kicking at the door, to tell him his allowance would be stopped if he +didn't go off to bed. (It would have been stopped anyhow, but that he +was a great favourite with the old gentleman, who loved to come out in +the afternoons into the close to Tom's wicket, and bowl slow twisters to +him, and talk of the glories of bygone Surrey heroes, with whom he had +played in former generations.) So Tom roused himself, and took up his +candle to go to bed; and then for the first time was aware of a +beautiful new fishing-rod, with old Eton's mark on it, and a splendidly +bound Bible, which lay on his table, on the title-page of which was +written--"TOM BROWN, from his affectionate and grateful friends, Frances +Jane Arthur; George Arthur." + +I leave you all to guess how he slept, and what he dreamt of. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +HARRY EAST'S DILEMMAS AND DELIVERANCES. + + "The Holy Supper is kept indeed, + In whatso we share with another's need-- + Not that which we give, but what we share, + For the gift without the giver is bare: + Who bestows himself with his alms feeds three, + Himself, his hungering neighbour, and Me." + _The Vision of Sir Launfal._--LOWELL, p. 11. + + +THE next morning, after breakfast, Tom, East, and Gower met as usual to +learn their second lesson together. Tom had been considering how to +break his proposal of giving up the crib to the others, and having found +no better way (as indeed none better can ever be found by man or boy), +told them simply what had happened; how he had been to see Arthur, who +had talked to him upon the subject, and what he had said, and for his +part he had made up his mind, and wasn't going to use cribs any more: +and not being quite sure of his ground, took the high and pathetic tone, +and was proceeding to say, "how that having learnt his lessons with them +for so many years, it would grieve him much to put an end to the +arrangement, and he hoped at any rate that if they wouldn't go on with +him, they should still be just as good friends, and respect one +another's motives--but--" + +Here the other boys, who had been listening with open eyes and ears, +burst in-- + +"Stuff and nonsense!" cried Gower. "Here, East, get down the crib and +find the place." + +"Oh, Tommy, Tommy!" said East, proceeding to do as he was bidden, "that +it should ever have come to this. I knew Arthur'd be the ruin of you +some day, and you of me. And now the time's come,"--and he made a +doleful face. + +"I don't know about ruin," answered Tom; "I know that you and I would +have had the sack long ago, if it hadn't been for him. And you know it +as well as I." + +"Well, we were in a baddish way before he came, I own; but this new +crotchet of his is past a joke." + +"Let's give it a trial, Harry; come--you know how often he has been +right and we wrong." + +"Now, don't you two be jawing away about young Square-toes," struck in +Gower. "He's no end of a sucking wiseacre, I dare say, but we've no time +to lose, and I've got the fives'-court at half-past nine." + +"I say, Gower," said Tom, appealingly, "be a good fellow, and let's try +if we can't get on without the crib." + +"What! in this chorus? Why, we shan't get through ten lines." + +"I say, Tom," cried East, having hit on a new idea, "don't you remember, +when we were in the upper fourth, and old Momus caught me construing off +the leaf of a crib which I'd torn out and put in my book, and which +would float out on to the floor, he sent me up to be flogged for it?" + +"Yes, I remember it very well." + +"Well, the Doctor, after he'd flogged me, told me himself that he didn't +flog me for using a translation, but for taking it into lesson, and +using it there when I hadn't learnt a word before I came in. He said +there was no harm in using a translation to get a clue to hard passages, +if you tried all you could first to make them out without." + +"Did he, though?" said Tom; "then Arthur must be wrong." + +"Of course he is," said Gower, "the little prig. We'll only use the crib +when we can't construe without it. Go ahead, East." + +And on this agreement they started: Tom satisfied with having made his +confession, and not sorry to have a _locus poenitentiae_, and not to be +deprived altogether of the use of his old and faithful friend. + +The boys went on as usual, each taking a sentence in turn, and the crib +being handed to the one whose turn it was to construe. Of course Tom +couldn't object to this, as, was it not simply lying there to be +appealed to in case the sentence should prove too hard altogether for +the construer? But it must be owned that Gower and East did not make +very tremendous exertions to conquer their sentences before having +recourse to its help. Tom, however, with the most heroic virtue and +gallantry rushed into his sentence, searching in a high-minded manner +for nominative and verb, and turning over his dictionary frantically for +the first hard word that stopped him. But in the meantime Gower, who was +bent on getting to fives, would peep quietly into the crib, and then +suggest, "Don't you think this is the meaning?" "I think you must take +it this way, Brown;" and as Tom didn't see his way to not profiting by +these suggestions, the lesson went on about as quickly as usual, and +Gower was able to start for the fives'-court within five minutes of the +half-hour. + +When Tom and East were left face to face, they looked at one another for +a minute, Tom puzzled, and East chock-full of fun, and then burst into a +roar of laughter. + +"Well, Tom," said East, recovering himself, "I don't see any objection +to the new way. It's about as good as the old one, I think; besides the +advantage it gives one of feeling virtuous, and looking down on one's +neighbours." + +Tom shoved his hand into his back hair. "I ain't so sure," said he; "you +two fellows carried me off my legs: I don't think we really tried one +sentence fairly. Are you sure you remember what the Doctor said to you?" + +"Yes. And I'll swear I couldn't make out one of my sentences to-day. No, +nor ever could. I really don't remember," said East, speaking slowly and +impressively, "to have come across one Latin or Greek sentence this +half, that I could go and construe by the light of nature. Whereby I am +sure Providence intended cribs to be used." + +"The thing to find out," said Tom meditatively, "is how long one ought +to grind at a sentence without looking at the crib. Now I think if one +fairly looks out all the words one don't know, and then can't hit it, +that's enough." + +"To be sure, Tommy," said East demurely, but with a merry twinkle in his +eye. "Your new doctrine too, old fellow," added he, "when one comes to +think of it, is a cutting at the root of all school morality. You'll +take away mutual help, brotherly love, or in the vulgar tongue, giving +construes, which I hold to be one of our highest virtues. For how can +you distinguish between getting a construe from another boy, and using a +crib? Hang it, Tom, if you're going to deprive all our school-fellows of +the chance of exercising Christian benevolence and being good +Samaritans, I shall cut the concern." + +"I wish you wouldn't joke about it, Harry; it's hard enough to see one's +way, a precious sight harder than I thought last night. But I suppose +there's a use and an abuse of both, and one'll get straight enough +somehow. But you can't make out anyhow that one has a right to use old +vulgus-books and copy-books." + +"Hullo, more heresy! how fast a fellow goes down hill when he once gets +his head before his legs. Listen to me, Tom. Not use old +vulgus-books?--why, you Goth! ain't we to take the benefit of the +wisdom, and admire and use the work of past generations? Not use old +copy-books! Why you might as well say we ought to pull down Westminster +Abbey, and put up a go-to-meeting-shop with churchwarden windows; or +never read Shakespere, but only Sheridan Knowles. Think of all the work +and labour that our predecessors have bestowed on these very books; and +are we to make their work of no value?" + +"I say, Harry, please don't chaff; I'm really serious." + +"And then, is it not our duty to consult the pleasure of others rather +than our own, and above all that of our masters? Fancy then the +difference to them in looking over a vulgus which has been carefully +touched and retouched by themselves and others, and which must bring +them a sort of dreamy pleasure, as if they'd met the thought or +expression of it somewhere or another--before they were born perhaps; +and that of cutting up, and making picture-frames round all your and my +false quantities, and other monstrosities. Why, Tom, you wouldn't be so +cruel as never to let old Momus hum over the 'O genus humanum,' again, +and then look up doubtingly through his spectacles, and end by smiling +and giving three extra marks for it: just for old sake's sake, I +suppose." + +"Well," said Tom, getting up in something as like a huff as he was +capable of, "it's deuced hard that when a fellow's really trying to do +what he ought, his best friends'll do nothing but chaff him and try to +put him down." And he stuck his books under his arm and his hat on his +head, preparatory to rushing out into the quadrangle, to testify with +his own soul of the faithlessness of friendships. + +"Now don't be an ass, Tom," said East, catching hold of him, "you know +me well enough by this time; my bark's worse than my bite. You can't +expect to ride your new crotchet without anybody's trying to stick a +nettle under his tail and make him kick you off: especially as we shall +all have to go on foot still. But now sit down and let's go over it +again. I'll be as serious as a judge." + +Then Tom sat himself down on the table, and waxed eloquent about all the +righteousnesses and advantages of the new plan, as was his wont whenever +he took up anything; going into it as if his life depended upon it, and +sparing no abuse which he could think of of the opposite method, which +he denounced as ungentlemanly, cowardly, mean, lying, and no one knows +what besides. "Very cool of Tom," as East thought, but didn't say, +"seeing as how he only came out of Egypt himself last night at +bed-time." + +"Well, Tom," said he at last, "you see, when you and I came to school +there were none of these sort of notions. You may be right--I dare say +you are. Only what one has always felt about the masters is, that it's a +fair trial of skill and last between us and them--like a match at +football, or a battle. We're natural enemies in school, that's the fact. +We've got to learn so much Latin and Greek and do so many verses, and +they've got to see that we do it. If we can slip the collar and do so +much less without getting caught, that's one to us. If they can get more +out of us, or catch us shirking, that's one to them. All's fair in war, +but lying. If I run my luck against theirs, and go into school without +looking at my lessons, and don't get called up, why am I a snob or a +sneak? I don't tell the master I've learnt it. He's got to find out +whether I have or not, what's he paid for? If he calls me up, and I get +floored, he makes me write it out in Greek and English. Very good, he's +caught me, and I don't grumble. I grant you, if I go and snivel to him, +and tell him I've really tried to learn it but found it so hard without +a translation, or say I've had a toothache, or any humbug of that kind, +I'm a snob. That's my school morality; it's served me--and you too, Tom, +for the matter of that--these five years. And it's all clear and fair, +no mistake about it. We understand it, and they understand it, and I +don't know what we're to come to with any other." + +Tom looked at him pleased, and a little puzzled. He had never heard East +speak his mind seriously before, and couldn't help feeling how +completely he had hit his own theory and practice up to that time. + +"Thank you, old fellow," said he. "You're a good old brick to be +serious, and not put out with me. I said more than I meant, I dare say, +only you see I know I'm right: whatever you and Gower and the rest do, I +shall hold on--I must. And as it's all new and an up-hill game, you see, +one must hit hard and hold on tight at first." + +"Very good," said East; "hold on and hit away, only don't hit under the +line." + +"But I must bring you over, Harry, or I shan't be comfortable. Now, I +allow all you've said. We've always been honourable enemies with the +masters. We found a state of war when we came, and went into it of +course. Only don't you think things are altered a good deal? I don't +feel as I used to the masters. They seem to me to treat one quite +differently." + +"Yes, perhaps they do," said East; "there's a new set, you see, mostly, +who don't feel sure of themselves yet. They don't want to fight till +they know the ground." + +"I don't think it's only that," said Tom. "And then the Doctor, he does +treat one so openly, and like a gentleman, and as if one was working +with him." + +"Well, so he does," said East; "he's a splendid fellow, and when I get +into the sixth I shall act accordingly. Only you know he has nothing to +do with our lessons now, except examining us. I say, though," looking at +his watch, "it's just the quarter. Come along." + +As they walked out they got a message to say, "that Arthur was just +starting and would like to say good-bye;" so they went down to the +private entrance of the School-house, and found an open carriage, with +Arthur propped up with pillows in it, looking already better, Tom +thought. + +They jumped up on to the steps to shake hands with him, and Tom mumbled +thanks for the presents he had found in his study, and looked round +anxiously for Arthur's mother. + +East, who had fallen back into his usual humour looked quaintly at +Arthur, and said-- + +"So you've been at it again, through that hot-headed convert of yours +there. He's been making our lives a burthen to us all the morning about +using cribs. I shall get floored to a certainty at second lesson, if I'm +called up." + +Arthur blushed and looked down. Tom struck in-- + +"Oh, it's all right. He's converted already; he always comes through the +mud after us, grumbling and sputtering." + +The clock struck, and they had to go off to school, wishing Arthur a +pleasant holiday; Tom lingering behind a moment to send his thanks and +love to Arthur's mother. + +Tom renewed the discussion after second lesson, and succeeded so far as +to get East to promise to give the new plan a fair trial. + +Encouraged by his success, in the evening, when they were sitting alone +in the large study, where East lived now almost, "vice Arthur on leave," +after examining the new fishing-rod, which both pronounced to be the +genuine article, ("play enough to throw a midge tied on a single hair +against the wind, and strength enough to hold a grampus,") they +naturally began talking about Arthur. Tom, who was still bubbling over +with last night's scene, and all the thoughts of the last week, and +wanting to clinch and fix the whole in his own mind, which he could +never do without first going through the process of belabouring somebody +else with it all, suddenly rushed into the subject of Arthur's illness, +and what he had said about death. + +East had given him the desired opening: after a serio-comic grumble, +"that life wasn't worth having now they were tied to a young beggar who +was always 'raising his standard;' and that he, East, was like a +prophet's donkey, who was obliged to struggle on after the donkey-man +who went after the prophet; that he had none of the pleasure of starting +the new crotchets, and didn't half understand them, but had to take the +kicks and carry the luggage as if he had all the fun"--he threw his legs +up on to the sofa, and put his hands behind his head, and said-- + +"Well, after all, he's the most wonderful little fellow I ever came +across. There ain't such a meek, humble boy in the School. Hanged if I +don't think now really, Tom, that he believes himself a much worse +fellow than you or I, and that he don't think he has more influence in +the house than Dot Bowles, who came last quarter, and ain't ten yet. But +he turns you and me round his little finger, old boy--there's no mistake +about that." And East nodded at Tom sagaciously. + +"Now or never!" thought Tom; so shutting his eyes and hardening his +heart, he went straight at it, repeating all that Arthur had said, as +near as he could remember it, in the very words, and all he had himself +thought. The life seemed to ooze out of it as he went on, and several +times he felt inclined to stop, give it all up, and change the subject. +But somehow he was borne on; he had a necessity upon him to speak it all +out, and did so. At the end he looked at East with some anxiety, and was +delighted to see that that young gentleman was thoughtful and attentive. +The fact is, that in the stage of his inner life at which Tom had lately +arrived, his intimacy with and friendship for East could not have lasted +if he had not made him aware of, and a sharer in, the thoughts that were +beginning to exercise him. Nor indeed could the friendship have lasted +if East had shown no sympathy with these thoughts; so that it was a +great relief to have unbosomed himself, and to have found that his +friend could listen. + +Tom had always had a sort of instinct that East's levity was only +skin-deep; and this instinct was a true one. East had no want of +reverence for anything he felt to be real: but his was one of those +natures that burst into what is generally called recklessness and +impiety the moment they feel that anything is being poured upon them for +their good, which does not come home to their inborn sense of right, or +which appeals to anything like self-interest in them. Daring and honest +by nature, and outspoken to an extent which alarmed all +respectabilities, with a constant fund of animal health and spirits +which he did not feel bound to curb in any way, he had gained for +himself with the steady part of the School (including as well those who +wished to appear steady as those who really were so), the character of a +boy whom it would be dangerous to be intimate with; while his own hatred +of everything cruel, or underhand, or false, and his hearty respect for +what he could see to be good and true, kept off the rest. + +Tom, besides being very like East in many points of character, had +largely developed in his composition the capacity for taking the weakest +side. This is not putting it strongly enough; it was a necessity with +him; he couldn't help it any more than he could eating or drinking. He +could never play on the strongest side with any heart at football or +cricket, and was sure to make friends with any boy who was unpopular, or +down on his luck. + +Now though East was not what is generally called unpopular, Tom felt +more and more every day, as their characters developed, that he stood +alone, and did not make friends among their contemporaries, and +therefore sought him out. Tom was himself much more popular, for his +power of detecting humbug was much less acute, and his instincts were +much more sociable. He was at this period of his life, too, largely +given to taking people for what they gave themselves out to be; but his +singleness of heart, fearlessness and honesty were just what East +appreciated, and thus the two had been drawn into greater intimacy. + +This intimacy had not been interrupted by Tom's guardianship of Arthur. + +East had often, as has been said, joined them in reading the Bible; but +their discussions had almost always turned upon the characters of the +men and women of whom they read, and not become personal to themselves. +In fact, the two had shrunk from personal religious discussion, not +knowing how it might end; and fearful of risking a friendship very dear +to both, and which they felt somehow, without quite knowing why, would +never be the same, but either tenfold stronger or sapped at its +foundation, after such a communing together. + +What a bother all this explaining is! I wish we could get on without it. +But we can't. However, you'll all find, if you haven't found it out +already, that a time comes in every human friendship, when you must go +down into the depths of yourself, and lay bare what is there to your +friend, and wait in fear for his answer. A few moments may do it; and it +may be (most likely will be, as you are English boys) that you never do +it but once. But done it must be, if the friendship is to be worth the +name. You must find what is there, at the very root and bottom of one +another's hearts; and if you are at once there, nothing on earth can, or +at least ought to sunder you. + +East had remained lying down until Tom finished speaking, as if fearing +to interrupt him; he now sat up at the table, and leant his head on one +hand, taking up a pencil with the other, and working little holes with +it in the table-cover. After a bit he looked, up, stopped the pencil, +and said, "Thank you very much, old fellow; there's no other boy in the +house would have done it for me but you or Arthur. I can see well +enough," he went on after a pause, "all the best big fellows look on me +with suspicion; they think I'm a devil-may-care, reckless young scamp. +So I am--eleven hours out of twelve--but not the twelfth. Then all of +our contemporaries worth knowing follow suit, of course; we're very good +friends at games and all that, but not a soul of them but you and Arthur +ever tried to break through the crust, and see whether there was +anything at the bottom of me; and then the bad ones I won't stand, and +they know that." + +"Don't you think that's half fancy, Harry?" + +"Not a bit of it," said East bitterly, pegging away with his pencil. "I +see it all plain enough. Bless you, you think everybody's as +straightforward and kind-hearted as you are." + +"Well, but what's the reason of it? There must be a reason. You can play +all the games as well as any one, and sing the best song, and are the +best company in the house. You fancy you're not liked, Harry. It's all +fancy." + +"I only wish it was, Tom. I know I could be popular enough with all the +bad ones, but that I won't have, and the good ones won't have me." + +"Why not?" persisted Tom; "you don't drink or swear, or get out at +night; you never bully, or cheat at lessons. If you only showed you +liked it, you'd have all the best fellows in the house running after +you." + +"Not I," said East. Then with an effort he went on, "I'll tell you what +it is. I never stop the Sacrament. I can see, from the Doctor downwards, +how that tells against me." + +"Yes, I've seen that," said Tom, "and I've been very sorry for it, and +Arthur and I have talked about it. I've often thought of speaking to +you, but it's so hard to begin on such subjects. I'm very glad you've +opened it. Now, why don't you?" + +"I've never been confirmed," said East. + +"Not been confirmed!" said Tom in astonishment. "I never thought of +that. Why weren't you confirmed with the rest of us nearly three years +ago? I always thought you'd been confirmed at home." + +"No," answered East sorrowfully; "you see this was how it happened. Last +Confirmation was soon after Arthur came, and you were so taken up with +him, I hardly saw either of you. Well, when the Doctor sent round for us +about it, I was living mostly with Green's set--you know the sort. They +all went in--I dare say it was all right, and they got good by it; I +don't want to judge them. Only all I could see of their reasons drove me +just the other way. 'Twas 'because the Doctor liked it;' 'no boy got on +who didn't stay the Sacrament;' 'it was the correct thing,' in fact, +like having a good hat to wear on Sundays. I couldn't stand it. I didn't +feel that I wanted to lead a different life, I was very well content as +I was, and I wasn't going to sham religious to curry favour with the +Doctor, or any one else." + +East stopped speaking, and pegged away more diligently than ever with +his pencil. Tom was ready to cry. He felt half sorry at first that he +had been confirmed himself. He seemed to have deserted his earliest +friend, to have left him by himself at his worst need for those long +years. He got up and went and sat by East and put his arm over his +shoulder. + +"Dear old boy," he said, "how careless and selfish I've been. But why +didn't you come and talk to Arthur and me?" + +"I wish to heaven I had," said East, "but I was a fool. It's too late +talking of it now." + +"Why too late? You want to be confirmed now, don't you?" + +"I think so," said East. "I've thought about it a good deal; only often +I fancy I must be changing, because I see it's to do me good here, just +what stopped me last time. And then I go back again." + +"I'll tell you now how 'twas with me," said Tom warmly. "If it hadn't +been for Arthur, I should have done just as you did. I hope I should. I +honour you for it. But then he made it out just as if it was taking the +weak side before all the world--going in once for all against everything +that's strong and rich and proud and respectable, a little band of +brothers against the whole world. And the Doctor seemed to say so too, +only he said a great deal more." + +"Ah!" groaned East, "but there again, that's just another of my +difficulties whenever I think about the matter. I don't want to be one +of your saints, one of your elect, whatever the right phrase is. My +sympathies are all the other way; with the many, the poor devils who run +about the streets and don't go to church. Don't stare, Tom; mind, I'm +telling you all that's in my heart--as far as I know it--but it's all a +muddle. You must be gentle with me if you want to land me. Now I've seen +a deal of this sort of religion; I was bred up in it, and I can't stand +it. If nineteen-twentieths of the world are to be left to uncovenanted +mercies, and that sort of thing, which means in plain English to go to +hell, and the other twentieth are to rejoice at it all, why----" + +"Oh! but, Harry, they ain't, they don't," broke in Tom, really shocked. +"Oh, how I wish Arthur hadn't gone! I'm such a fool about these things. +But it's all you want too, East; it is indeed. It cuts both ways +somehow, being confirmed and taking the Sacrament. It makes you feel on +the side of all the good and all the bad too, of everybody in the world. +Only there's some great dark strong power, which is crushing you and +everybody else. That's what Christ conquered, and we've got to fight. +What a fool I am! I can't explain. If Arthur were only here!" + +"I begin to get a glimmering of what you mean," said East. + +"I say now," said Tom eagerly, "do you remember how we both hated +Flashman?" + +"Of course I do," said East; "I hate him still What then?" + +"Well, when I came to take the Sacrament, I had a great struggle about +that. I tried to put him out of my head; and when I couldn't do that, I +tried to think of him as evil, as something that the Lord who was loving +me hated, and which I might hate too. But it wouldn't do. I broke down: +I believe Christ himself broke me down; and when the Doctor gave me the +bread and wine, and leant over me praying, I prayed for poor Flashman, +as if it had been you or Arthur." + +East buried his face in his hands on the table. Tom could feel the table +tremble. At last he looked up, "Thank you again, Tom," said he; "you +don't know what you may have done for me to-night. I think I see now how +the right sort of sympathy with poor devils is got at." + +"And you'll stop the Sacrament next time, won't you?" said Tom. + +"Can I, before I'm confirmed?" + +"Go and ask the Doctor." + +"I will." + +That very night, after prayers, East followed the Doctor and the old +Verger bearing the candle, up-stairs. Tom watched, and saw the Doctor +turn round when he heard footsteps following him closer than usual, and +say, "Hah, East! Do you want to speak with me, my man?" + +"If you please, sir;" and the private door closed and Tom went to his +study in a state of great trouble of mind. + +It was almost an hour before East came back: then he rushed in +breathless. + +"Well, it's all right," he shouted, seizing Tom by the hand. "I feel as +if a ton-weight were off my mind." + +"Hurra," said Tom. "I knew it would be; but tell us all about it?" + +"Well, I just told him all about it. You can't think how kind and gentle +he was, the great grim man, whom I've feared more than anybody on earth. +When I stuck, he lifted me, just as if I had been a little child. And he +seemed to know all I'd felt, and to have gone through it all. And I +burst out crying--more than I've done this five years; and he sat down +by me, and stroked my head; and I went blundering on, and told him all; +much worse things than I've told you. And he wasn't shocked a bit, and +didn't snub me, or tell me I was a fool, and it was all nothing but +pride or wickedness, though I dare say it was. And he didn't tell me not +to follow out my thoughts, and he didn't give me any cut-and-dried +explanation. But when I'd done he just talked a bit--I can hardly +remember what he said yet; but it seemed to spread round me like +healing, and strength, and light; and to bear me up, and plant me on a +rock, where I could hold my footing, and fight for myself. I don't know +what to do, I feel so happy. And it's all owing to you, dear old boy!" +and he seized Tom's hand again. + +"And you're to come to the Communion?" said Tom. + +"Yes, and to be confirmed in the holidays." + +Tom's delight was as great as his friend's. But he hadn't yet had out +all his own talk, and was bent on improving the occasion: so he +proceeded to propound Arthur's theory about not being sorry for his +friends' deaths, which he had hitherto kept in the background, and by +which he was much exercised; for he didn't feel it honest to take what +pleased him and throw over the rest, and was trying vigorously to +persuade himself that he should like all his best friends to die +off-hand. + +But East's powers of remaining serious were exhausted, and in five +minutes he was saying the most ridiculous things he could think of, till +Tom was almost getting angry again. + +Despite of himself, however, he couldn't help laughing and giving it up, +when East appealed to him with "Well, Tom, you ain't going to punch my +head, I hope, because I insist upon being sorry when you got to earth?" + +And so their talk finished for that time, and they tried to learn first +lesson; with very poor success, as appeared next morning, when they were +called up and narrowly escaped being floored, which ill-luck, however, +did not sit heavily on either of their souls. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +TOM BROWN'S LAST MATCH. + + "Heaven grant the manlier heart, that timely, ere + Youth fly, with life's real tempest would be coping; + The fruit of dreamy hoping + Is, waking, blank despair." + CLOUGH. _Ambarvalia._ + + +THE curtain now rises upon the last act of our little drama--for +hard-hearted publishers warn me that a single volume must of necessity +have an end. Well, well! the pleasantest things must come to an end. I +little thought last long vacation, when I began these pages to help +while away some spare time at a watering-place, how vividly many an old +scene, which had lain hid away for years in some dusty old corner of my +brain, would come back again, and stand before me as clear and bright as +if it had happened yesterday. The book has been a most grateful task to +me, and I only hope that all you, my dear young friends who read it, +(friends assuredly you must be, if you get as far as this,) will be half +as sorry to come to the last stage as I am. + +Not but what there has been a solemn and a sad side to it. As the old +scenes became living, and the actors in them became living too, many a +grave in the Crimea and distant India, as well as in the quiet +churchyards of our dear old country, seemed to open and send forth their +dead, and their voices and looks and ways were again in one's ears and +eyes, as in the old school-days. But this was not sad; how should it be, +if we believe as our Lord has taught us? How should it be, when, one +more turn of the wheel, and we shall be by their sides again, learning +from them again, perhaps, as we did when we were new boys? + +Then there were others of the old faces so dear to us once, who had +somehow or another just gone clean out of sight--are they dead or +living? We know not; but the thought of them brings no sadness with it. +Wherever they are, we can well believe they are doing God's work and +getting His wages. + +But are there not some, whom we still see sometimes in the streets, +whose haunts and homes we know, whom we could probably find almost any +day in the week if we were set to do it, yet from whom we are really +farther than we are from the dead, and from those who have gone out of +our ken? Yes, there are and must be such; and therein lies the sadness +of old School memories. Yet of these our old comrades, from whom more +than time and space separate us, there are some, by whose sides we can +feel sure that we shall stand again when time shall be no more. We may +think of one another now as dangerous fanatics or narrow bigots, with +whom no truce is possible, from whom we shall only sever more and more +to the end of our lives, whom it would be our respective duties to +imprison or hang, if we had the power. We must go our way, and they +theirs, as long as flesh and spirit hold together; but let our own Rugby +poet speak words of healing for this trial:-- + + "To veer how vain! on, onward strain, + Brave barks! in light, in darkness too; + Through winds and tides one compass guides. + To that, and your own selves, be true. + + "But, O blithe breeze! and O great seas! + Though ne'er that earliest parting past, + On your wide plain they join again, + Together lead them home at last. + + "One port, methought, alike they sought, + One purpose hold where'er they fare. + O bounding breeze! O rushing seas! + At last, at last, unite them there."[E] + +This is not mere longing, it is prophecy. So over these two, our old +friends who are friends no more, we sorrow not as men without hope. It +is only for those who seem to us to have lost compass and purpose, and +to be driven helplessly on rocks and quicksands; whose lives are spent +in the service of the world, the flesh, and the devil; for self alone, +and not for their fellow-men, their country, or their God, that we must +mourn and pray without sure hope and without light; trusting only that +He, in whose hands they as well as we are who has died for them as well +as for us, who sees all His creatures + + "With larger, other eyes than ours, + To make allowance for us all," + +will, in His own way and at His own time, lead them also home. + + * * * * * + +Another two years have passed, and it is again the end of the summer +half-year at Rugby; in fact, the School has broken up. The fifth-form +examinations were over last week, and upon them have followed the +Speeches, and the sixth-form examinations for Exhibitions; and they too +are over now. The boys have gone to all the winds of heaven, except the +town boys and the eleven, and the few enthusiasts besides who have asked +leave to stay in their houses to see the result of the cricket-matches. +For this year the Wellesburn return match and the Marylebone match are +played at Rugby, to the great delight of the town and neighbourhood, and +the sorrow of those aspiring young cricketers who have been reckoning +for the last three months on showing off at Lord's ground. + +The Doctor started for the Lakes yesterday morning, after an interview +with the captain of the eleven, in the presence of Thomas, at which he +arranged in what School the cricket dinners were to be, and all other +matters necessary for the satisfactory carrying out of the festivities; +and warned them as to keeping all spirituous liquors out of the close, +and having the gates closed by nine o'clock. + +The Wellesburn match was played out with great success yesterday, the +School winning by three wickets; and to-day the great event of the +cricketing year, the Marylebone match, is being played. What a match it +has been! The London eleven came down by an afternoon train yesterday, +in time to see the end of the Wellesburn match; and as soon as it was +over, their leading men and umpire inspected the ground, criticising it +rather unmercifully. The Captain of the School eleven, and one or two +others, who had played the Lord's match before, and knew old Mr. +Aislabie and several of the Lord's men, accompanied them: while the rest +of the eleven looked on from under the Three Trees with admiring eyes, +and asked one another the names of the illustrious strangers, and +recounted how many runs each of them had made in the late matches in +_Bell's Life_. They looked such hard-bitten, wiry, whiskered fellows, +that their young adversaries felt rather desponding as to the result of +the morrow's match. The ground was at last chosen, and two men set to +work upon it to water and roll; and then, there being yet some half-hour +of daylight, some one had suggested a dance on the turf. The close was +half full of citizens and their families, and the idea was hailed with +enthusiasm. The cornopean-player was still on the ground; in five +minutes the eleven and half-a-dozen of the Wellesburn and Marylebone men +got partners somehow or another, and a merry country-dance was going on, +to which every one flocked, and new couples joined in every minute, till +there were a hundred of them going down the middle and up again--and the +long line of School buildings looked gravely down on them, every window +glowing with the last rays of the western sun, and the rooks clanged +about in the tops of the old elms, greatly excited, and resolved on +having their country-dance too, and the great flag flapped lazily in the +gentle western breeze. Altogether it was a sight which would have made +glad the heart of our brave old founder, Lawrence Sheriff, if he were +half as good a fellow as I take him to have been. It was a cheerful +sight to see; but what made it so valuable in the sight of the Captain +of the School eleven was, that he there saw his young hands shaking off +their shyness and awe of the Lord's men, as they crossed hands and +capered about on the grass together; for the strangers entered into it +all, and threw away their cigars, and danced and shouted like boys; +while old Mr. Aislabie stood by looking on in his white hat, leaning on +a bat, in benevolent enjoyment. "This hop will be worth thirty runs to +us to-morrow, and will be the making of Raggles and Johnson," thinks the +young leader, as he revolves many things in his mind, standing by the +side of Mr. Aislabie, whom he will not leave for a minute, for he feels +that the character of the School for courtesy is resting on his +shoulders. + +But when a quarter-to-nine struck, and he saw old Thomas beginning to +fidget about with the keys in his hand, he thought of the Doctor's +parting monition, and stopped the cornopean at once, notwithstanding the +loud-voiced remonstrances from all sides; and the crowd scattered away +from the close, the eleven all going into the School-house, where supper +and beds were provided for them by the Doctor's orders. + +Deep had been the consultations at supper as to the order of going in, +who should bowl the first over, whether it would be best to play steady +or freely; and the youngest hands declared that they shouldn't be a bit +nervous, and praised their opponents as the jolliest fellows in the +world, except perhaps their old friends the Wellesburn men. How far a +little good-nature from their elders will go with the right sort of +boys! + +The morning had dawned bright and warm, to the intense relief of many an +anxious youngster, up betimes to mark the signs of the weather. The +eleven went down in a body before breakfast, for a plunge in the cold +bath in the corner of the close. The ground was in splendid order, and +soon after ten o'clock, before spectators had arrived, all was ready, +and two of the Lord's men took their places at the wicket; the School, +with the usual liberality of young hands, having put their adversaries +in first. Old Bailey stepped up to the wicket, and called play, and the +match has begun. + + * * * * * + +"Oh, well bowled! well bowled, Johnson!" cries the captain, catching up +the ball and sending it high above the rook trees, while the third +Marylebone man walks away from the wicket, and old Bailey gravely sets +up the middle stump again and puts the bails on. + +"How many runs?" Away scamper three boys to the scoring-table, and are +back again in a minute amongst the rest of the eleven, who are collected +together in a knot between wicket. "Only eighteen runs, and three +wickets down!" "Huzza for old Rugby!" sings out Jack Raggles the +long-stop, toughest and burliest of boys, commonly called 'Swiper Jack;' +and forthwith stands on his head, and brandishes his legs in the air in +triumph, till the next boy catches hold of his heels, and throws him +over on to his back. + +"Steady there, don't be such an ass, Jack," says the captain; "we +haven't got the best wicket yet. Ah, look out now at cover-point," adds +he, as he sees a long-armed, bare-headed, slashing-looking player coming +to the wicket. "And, Jack, mind your hits; he steals more runs than any +man in England." + +And they all find that they have got their work to do now: the +new-comer's off-hitting is tremendous, and his running like a flash of +lightning. He is never in his ground, except when his wicket is down. +Nothing in the whole game so trying to boys; he has stolen three byes in +the first ten minutes, and Jack Raggles is furious, and begins throwing +over savagely to the further wicket, until he is sternly stopped by the +captain. It is all that young gentleman can do to keep his team steady, +but he knows that everything depends on it, and faces his work bravely. +The score creeps up to fifty, the boys begin to look blank, and the +spectators, who are now mustering strong, are very silent. The ball +flies off his bat to all parts of the field, and he gives no rest and no +catches to any one. But cricket is full of glorious chances, and the +goddess who presides over it loves to bring down the most skilful +players. Johnson, the young bowler, is getting wild, and bowls a ball +almost wide to the off; the batter steps out and cuts it beautifully to +where cover-point is standing very deep, in fact almost off the ground. +The ball comes skimming and twisting along about three feet from the +ground; he rushes at it, and it sticks somehow or other in the fingers +of his left hand, to the utter astonishment of himself and the whole +field. Such a catch hasn't been made in the close for years, and the +cheering is maddening. "Pretty cricket," says the captain, throwing +himself on the ground by the deserted wicket with a long breath; he +feels that a crisis has passed. + +I wish I had space to describe the whole match; how the captain stumped +the next man off a leg-shooter, and bowled slow lobs to old Mr. +Aislabie, who came in for the last wicket. How the Lord's men were out +by half-past twelve o'clock for ninety-eight runs. How the Captain of +the School eleven went in first to give his men pluck, and scored +twenty-five in beautiful style; how Rugby was only four behind in the +first innings. What a glorious dinner they had in the fourth-form +School, and how the cover-point hitter sang the most topping comic +songs, and old Mr. Aislabie made the best speeches that ever were heard, +afterwards. But I haven't space, that's the fact, and so you must fancy +it all, and carry yourselves on to half-past seven o'clock, when the +School are again in, with five wickets down and only thirty-two runs to +make to win. The Marylebone men played carelessly in their second +innings, but they are working like horses now to save the match. + +There is much healthy, hearty, happy life scattered up and down the +close; but the group to which I beg to call your especial attention is +there, on the slope of the island, which looks towards the +cricket-ground. It consists of three figures; two are seated on a bench, +and one on the ground at their feet. The first, a tall, slight, and +rather gaunt man with a bushy eyebrow and a dry humorous smile, is +evidently a clergyman. He is carelessly dressed, and looks rather used +up, which isn't much to be wondered at, seeing that he has just finished +six weeks of examination work; but there he basks, and spreads himself +out in the evening sun, bent on enjoying life, though he doesn't quite +know what to do with his arms and legs. Surely it is our friend the +young master, whom we have had glimpses of before, but his face has +gained a great deal since we last came across him. + +[Illustration: THE CONVERSATION DURING THE MATCH. P. 342.] + +And by his side, in white flannel shirt and trousers, straw hat, the +captain's belt, and the untanned yellow cricket shoes which all the +eleven wear, sits a stropping figure near six feet high, with ruddy +tanned face and whiskers, curly brown hair and a laughing dancing eye. +He is leaning forward with his elbows resting on his knees, and dandling +his favourite bat, with which he has made thirty or forty runs to-day, +in his strong brown hands. It is Tom Brown, grown into a young man +nineteen years old, a praepostor and captain of the eleven, spending his +last day as a Rugby boy, and let us hope as much wiser as he is bigger +since we last had the pleasure of coming across him. + +And at their feet on the warm dry ground, similarly dressed, sits +Arthur, Turkish fashion, with his bat across his knees. He too is no +longer a boy, less of a boy in fact than Tom, if one may judge from the +thoughtfulness of his face, which is somewhat paler too than one could +wish; but his figure, though slight, is well knit and active, and all +his old timidity has disappeared, and is replaced by silent quaint fun, +with which his face twinkles all over, as he listens to the broken +talk between the other two, in which he joins every now and then. + +All three are watching the game eagerly, and joining in the cheering +which follows every good hit. It is pleasing to see the easy, friendly +footing which the pupils are on with their master, perfectly respectful, +yet with no reserve and nothing forced in their intercourse. Tom has +clearly abandoned the old theory of "natural enemies," in this case at +any rate. + +But it is time to listen to what they are saying, and see what we can +gather out of it. + +"I don't object to your theory," says the master, "and I allow you have +made a fair case for yourself. But now, in such books as Aristophanes +for instance, you've been reading a play this half with the Doctor, +haven't you?" + +"Yes, the Knights," answered Tom. + +"Well, I'm sure you would have enjoyed the wonderful humour of it twice +as much if you had taken more pains with your scholarship." + +"Well, sir, I don't believe any boy in the form enjoyed the sets-to +between Cleon and the Sausage-seller more than I did--eh, Arthur?" said +Tom, giving him a stir with his foot. + +"Yes, I must say he did," said Arthur. "I think, sir, you've hit upon +the wrong book there." + +"Not a bit of it," said the master. "Why, in those very passages of +arms, how can you thoroughly appreciate them unless you are master of +the weapons? and the weapons are the language, which you, Brown, have +never half worked at; and so, as I say, you must have lost all the +delicate shades of meaning which make the best part of the fun." + +"Oh! well played--bravo, Johnson!" shouted Arthur, dropping his bat and +clapping furiously, and Tom joined in with a "Bravo, Johnson!" which +might have been heard at the chapel. + +"Eh! what was it? I didn't see," inquired the master; "they only got one +run, I thought?" + +"No, but such a ball, three-quarters length and coming straight for his +leg bail. Nothing but that turn of the wrist could have saved him, and +he drew it away to leg for a safe one. Bravo, Johnson!" + +"How well they are bowling, though," said Arthur; "they don't mean to be +beat, I can see." + +"There now," struck in the master, "you see that's just what I have been +preaching this half-hour. The delicate play is the true thing. I don't +understand cricket, so I don't enjoy those fine draws which you tell me +are the best play, though when you or Raggles hit a ball hard away for +six I am as delighted as any one. Don't you see the analogy?" + +"Yes, sir," answered Tom, looking up roguishly, "I see; only the +question remains whether I should have got most good by understanding +Greek particles or cricket thoroughly. I'm such a thick, I never should +have had time for both." + +"I see you are an incorrigible," said the master with a chuckle; "but I +refute you by an example. Arthur there has taken in Greek and cricket +too." + +"Yes, but no thanks to him; Greek came natural to him. Why, when he +first came I remember he used to read Herodotus for pleasure as I did +Don Quixote, and couldn't have made a false concord if he'd tried ever +so hard--and then I looked after his cricket." + +"Out! Bailey has given him out--do you see, Tom?" cries Arthur. "How +foolish of them to run so hard." + +"Well, it can't he helped, he has played very well. Whose turn is it to +go in?" + +"I don't know; they've got your list in the tent." + +"Let's go and see," said Tom, rising; but at this moment Jack Raggles +and two or three more came running to the island moat. + +"Oh, Brown, mayn't I go in next?" shouts the Swiper. + +"Whose name is next on the list?" says the Captain. + +"Winter's, and then Arthur's," answers the boy who carries it; "but +there are only twenty-six runs to get, and no time to lose. I heard Mr. +Aislabie say that the stumps must be drawn at a quarter past eight +exactly." + +"Oh, do let the Swiper go in," chorus the boys: so Tom yields against +his better judgment. + +"I dare say now I've lost the match by this nonsense," he says, as he +sits down again; "they'll be sure to get Jack's wicket in three or four +minutes; however, you'll have the chance, sir, of seeing a hard hit or +two," adds he, smiling, and turning to the master. + +"Come, none of your irony, Brown," answers the master. "I'm beginning to +understand the game scientifically. What a noble game it is too!" + +"Isn't it? But it's more than a game. It's an institution," said Tom. + +"Yes," said Arthur, "the birthright of British boys, old and young, as +_habeas corpus_ and trial by jury are of British men." + +"The discipline and reliance on one another which it teaches is so +valuable, I think," went on the master, "it ought to be such an +unselfish game. It merges the individual in the eleven; he doesn't play +that he may win, but that his side may." + +"That's very true," said Tom, "and that's why football and cricket, now +one comes to think of it, are such much better games than fives' or +hare-and-hounds, or any others where the object is to come in first or +to win for oneself, and not that one's side may win." + +"And then the Captain of the eleven!" said the master, "what a post is +his in our School-world! almost as hard as the Doctor's; requiring skill +and gentleness and firmness, and I know not what other rare qualities." + +"Which don't he wish he may get?" said Tom, laughing; "at any rate he +hasn't got them yet, or he wouldn't have been such a flat to-night as to +let Jack Raggles go in out of his turn." + +"Ah! the Doctor never would have done that," said Arthur, demurely. +"Tom, you've a great deal to learn yet in the art of ruling." + +"Well, I wish you'd tell the Doctor so, then, and get him to let me stop +till I'm twenty. I don't want to leave, I'm sure." + +"What a sight it is," broke in the master, "the Doctor as a ruler. +Perhaps ours is the only little corner of the British Empire which is +thoroughly, wisely, and strongly ruled just now. I'm more and more +thankful every day of my life that I came here to be under him." + +"So am I, I'm sure," said Tom; "and more and more sorry that I've got to +leave." + +"Every place and thing one sees here reminds one of some wise act of +his," went on the master. "This island--you remember the time, Brown, +when it was laid out in small gardens, and cultivated by frost-bitten +fags in February and March?" + +"Of course I do," said Tom; "didn't I hate spending two hours in the +afternoons grubbing in the tough dirt with the stump of a fives'-bat? +But turf-cart was good fun enough." + +"I dare say it was, but it was always leading to fights with the +townspeople; and then the stealing flowers out of all the gardens in +Rugby for the Easter show was abominable." + +"Well, so it was," said Tom, looking down, "but we fags couldn't help +ourselves. But what has that to do with the Doctor's ruling?" + +"A great deal, I think," said the master; "what brought island fagging +to an end?" + +"Why, the Easter Speeches were put off till Midsummer," said Tom, "and +the sixth had the gymnastic poles put up here." + +"Well, and who changed the time of the Speeches, and put the idea of +gymnastic poles into the heads of their worships the sixth form?" said +the master. + +"The Doctor, I suppose," said Tom. "I never thought of that." + +"Of course you didn't," said the master, "or else, fag as you were, you +would have shouted with the whole school against putting down old +customs. And that's the way that all the Doctor's reforms have been +carried out when he has been left to himself--quietly and naturally, +putting a good thing in the place of a bad, and letting the bad die +out; no wavering and no hurry--the best thing that could be done for the +time being, and patience for the rest." + +"Just Tom's own way," chimed in Arthur, nudging Tom with his elbow, +"driving a nail where it will go;" to which allusion Tom answered by a +sly kick. + +"Exactly so," said the master, innocent of the allusion and bye-play. + +Meantime Jack Raggles, with his sleeves tucked up above his great brown +elbows, scorning pads and gloves, has presented himself at the wicket; +and having run one for a forward drive of Johnson's, is about to receive +his first ball. There are only twenty-four runs to make, and four +wickets to go down; a winning match if they play decently steady. The +ball is a very swift one, and rises fast, catching Jack on the outside +of the thigh, and bounding away as if from india-rubber, while they run +two for a leg-bye amidst great applause, and shouts from Jack's many +admirers. The next ball is a beautifully pitched ball for the outer +stump, which the reckless and unfeeling Jack catches hold of, and hits +right round to leg for five, while the applause becomes deafening: only +seventeen runs to get with four wickets--the game is all but ours! + +It is "over" now, and Jack walks swaggering about his wicket, with the +bat over his shoulder, while Mr. Aislabie holds a short parley with his +men. Then the cover-point hitter, that cunning man, goes on to bowl slow +twisters. Jack waves his hand triumphantly towards the tent, as much as +to say, "See if I don't finish it all off now in three hits." + +Alas, my son Jack! the enemy is too old for thee. The first ball of the +over Jack steps out and meets, swiping with all his force. If he had +only allowed for the twist! but he hasn't, and so the ball goes spinning +up straight into the air, as if it would never come down again. Away +runs Jack, shouting and trusting to the chapter of accidents, but the +bowler runs steadily under it, judging every spin, and calling out "I +have it," catches it, and playfully pitches it on to the back of the +stalwart Jack, who is departing with a rueful countenance. + +"I knew how it would be," says Tom, rising. "Come along, the game's +getting very serious." + +So they leave the island and go to the tent, and after deep consultation +Arthur is sent in, and goes off to the wicket with a last exhortation +from Tom to play steady and keep his bat straight. To the suggestions +that Winter is the best bat left, Tom only replies, "Arthur is the +steadiest, and Johnson will make the runs if the wicket is only kept +up." + +"I am surprised to see Arthur in the eleven," said the master, as they +stood together in front of the dense crowd, which was now closing in +round the ground. + +"Well, I'm not quite sure that he ought to be in for his play," said +Tom, "but I couldn't help putting him in. It will do him so much good, +and you can't think what I owe him.". + +The master smiled. The clock strikes eight, and the whole field becomes +fevered with excitement. Arthur, after two narrow escapes, scores one; +and Johnson gets the ball. The bowling and fielding are superb, and +Johnson's batting worthy the occasion. He makes here a two, and there a +one, managing to keep the ball to himself, and Arthur backs up and runs +perfectly: only eleven runs to make now, and the crowd scarcely breathe. +At last Arthur gets the ball again, and actually drives it forward for +two, and feels prouder than when he got the three best prizes, at +hearing Tom's shout of joy, "Well played, well played, young 'un!" + +But the next ball is too much for a young hand, and his bails fly +different ways. Nine runs to make, and two wickets to go down--it is too +much for human nerves. + +Before Winter can get in, the omnibus which is to take the Lord's men to +the train pulls up at the side of the close, and Mr. Aislabie and Tom +consult, and give out that the stumps will be drawn after the next over. +And so ends the great match. Winter and Johnson carry out their bats; +and, it being a one day's match, the Lord's men are declared the +winners, they having scored the most in the first innings. + +But such a defeat is a victory: so think Tom and all the School eleven, +as they accompany their conquerors to the omnibus, and send them off +with three ringing cheers, after Mr. Aislabie has shaken hands all +round, saying to Tom, "I must compliment you, sir, on your eleven, and I +hope we shall have you for a member if you come up to town." + +As Tom and the rest of the eleven were turning back into the close, and +everybody was beginning to cry out for another country-dance, encouraged +by the success of the night before, the young master, who was just +leaving the close, stopped him, and asked him to come up to tea at +half-past eight, adding, "I won't keep you more than half-an-hour, and +ask Arthur to come up too." + +"I'll come up with you directly, if you'll let me," said Tom, "for I +feel rather melancholy, and not quite up to the country-dance and supper +with the rest." + +"Do by all means," said the master; "I'll wait here for you." + +So Tom went off to get his boots and things from the tent, to tell +Arthur of the invitation, and to speak to his second in command about +stopping the dancing and shutting up the close as soon as it grew dusk. +Arthur promised to follow as soon as he had had a dance. So Tom handed +his things over to the man in charge of the tent, and walked quietly +away to the gate where the master was waiting, and the two took their +way together up the Hillmorton road. + +Of course they found the master's house locked up, and all the servants +away in the close, about this time no doubt footing it away on the grass +with extreme delight to themselves, and in utter oblivion of the +unfortunate bachelor their master, whose one enjoyment in the shape of +meals was his "dish of tea" (as our grandmothers called it) in the +evening; and the phrase was apt in his case, for he always poured his +out into the saucer before drinking. Great was the good man's horror at +finding himself shut out of his own house. Had he been alone, he would +have treated it as a matter of course, and would have strolled +contentedly up and down his gravel-walk until some one came home; but he +was hurt at the stain on his character of host, especially as the guest +was a pupil. However, the guest seemed to think it a great joke, and +presently as they poked about round the house, mounted a wall, from +which he could reach a passage window: the window, as it turned out, +was not bolted, so in another minute Tom was in the house and down at +the front door, which he opened from inside. The master chuckled grimly +at this burglarious entry, and insisted on leaving the hall-door and two +of the front windows open, to frighten the truants on their return; and +then the two set about foraging for tea, in which operation the master +was much at fault, having the faintest possible idea of where to find +anything, and being moreover wondrously short-sighted; but Tom by a sort +of instinct knew the right cupboards in the kitchen and pantry, and soon +managed to place on the snuggery table better materials for a meal than +had appeared there probably during the reign of his tutor, who was then +and there initiated, amongst other things, into the excellence of that +mysterious condiment, a dripping-cake. The cake was newly baked, and all +rich and flaky; Tom had found it reposing in the cook's private +cupboard, awaiting her return; and as a warning to her, they finished it +to the last crumb. The kettle sang away merrily on the hob of the +snuggery, for, notwithstanding the time of year, they lighted a fire, +throwing both the windows wide open at the same time. The heap of books +and papers were pushed away to the other end of the table, and the great +solitary engraving of King's College Chapel over the mantelpiece looked +less stiff than usual, as they settled themselves down in the twilight +to the serious drinking of tea. + +After some talk on the match, and other indifferent subjects, the +conversation came naturally back to Tom's approaching departure, over +which he began again to make his moan. + +"Well, we shall all miss you quite as much as you will miss us," said +the master. "You are the Nestor of the School now, are you not?" + +"Yes, ever since East left," answered Tom. + +"By the bye, have you heard from him?" + +"Yes, I had a letter in February, just before he started for India to +join his regiment." + +"He will make a capital officer." + +"Aye, won't he!" said Tom, brightening; "no fellow could handle boys +better, and I suppose soldiers are very like boys. And he'll never tell +them to go where he won't go himself. No mistake about that--a braver +fellow never walked." + +"His year in the sixth will have taught him a good deal that will be +useful to him now." + +"So it will," said Tom, staring into the fire. "Poor dear Harry," he +went on, "how well I remember the day we were put out of the twenty. How +he rose to the situation, and burnt his cigar-cases, and gave away his +pistols, and pondered on the constitutional authority of the sixth, and +his new duties to the Doctor, and the fifth form, and the fags. Aye, and +no fellow ever acted up to them better, though he was always a people's +man--for the fags, and against constituted authorities. He couldn't help +that, you know. I'm sure the Doctor must have liked him?" said Tom, +looking up inquiringly. + +"The Doctor sees the good in every one, and appreciates it," said the +master, dogmatically; "but I hope East will get a good colonel. He won't +do if he can't respect those above him. How long it took him, even here, +to learn the lesson of obeying." + +"Well, I wish I were alongside of him," said Tom. "If I can't be at +Rugby, I want to be at work in the world, and not dawdling away three +years at Oxford." + +"What do you mean by 'at work in the world?'" said the master, pausing, +with his lips close to his saucerful of tea, and peering at Tom over it. + +"Well, I mean real work; one's profession; whatever one will have really +to do, and make one's living by. I want to be doing some real good, +feeling that I am not only at play in the world," answered Tom, rather +puzzled to find out himself what he really did mean. + +"You are mixing up two very different things in your head, I think, +Brown," said the master, putting down the empty saucer, "and you ought +to get clear about them. You talk of 'working to get your living,' and +'doing some real good in the world,' in the same breath. Now, you may be +getting a very good living in a profession, and yet doing no good at all +in the world, but quite the contrary, at the same time. Keep the latter +before you as your only object, and you will be right, whether you make +a living or not; but if you dwell on the other, you'll very likely drop +into mere money-making, and let the world take care of itself for good +or evil. Don't be in a hurry about finding your work in the world for +yourself; you are not old enough to judge for yourself yet, but just +look about you in the place you find yourself in, and try to make things +a little better and honester there. You'll find plenty to keep your hand +in at Oxford, or wherever else you go. And don't be led away to think +this part of the world important, and that unimportant. Every corner of +the world is important. No man knows whether this part or that is most +so, but every man may do some honest work in his own corner." And then +the good man went on to talk wisely to Tom of the sort of work which he +might take up as an undergraduate; and warned him of the prevalent +University sins, and explained to him the many and great differences +between University and School life; till the twilight changed into +darkness, and they heard the truant servants stealing in by the back +entrance. + +"I wonder where Arthur can be," said Tom at last, looking at his watch: +"why, it's nearly half-past nine already." + +"Oh, he is comfortably at supper with the eleven, forgetful of his +oldest friends," said the master. "Nothing has given me greater +pleasure," he went on, "than your friendship for him; it has been the +making of you both." + +"Of me, at any rate," answered Tom; "I should never have been here now +but for him. It was the luckiest chance in the world that sent him to +Rugby, and made him my chum." + +"Why do you talk of lucky chances?" said the master; "I don't know that +there are any such things in the world; at any rate there was neither +luck nor chance in that matter." + +Tom looked at him inquiringly, and he went on. "Do you remember when the +Doctor lectured you and East at the end of one half-year, when you were +in the shell, and had been getting into all sorts of scrapes?" + +"Yea, well enough," said Tom; "it was the half-year before Arthur came." + +"Exactly so," answered the master. "Now, I was with him a few minutes +afterwards, and he was in great stress about you two. And, after some +talk, we both agreed that you in particular wanted some object in the +School beyond games and mischief; for it was quite clear that you never +would make the regular school work your first object. And so the Doctor, +at the beginning of the next half-year, looked out the best of the new +boys, and separated you and East, and put the young boy into your study, +in the hope that when you had somebody to lean on you, you would begin +to stand a little steadier yourself, and get manliness and +thoughtfulness. And I can assure you he has watched the experiment ever +since with great satisfaction. Ah! not one of you boys will ever know +the anxiety you have given him, or the care with which he has watched +over every step in your school lives." + +Up to this time, Tom had never wholly given in to or understood the +Doctor. At first he had thoroughly feared him. For some years, as I have +tried to show, he had learnt to regard him with love and respect, and to +think him a very great and wise and good man. But, as regarded his own +position in the School, of which he was no little proud, Tom had no idea +of giving any one credit for it but himself; and, truth to tell, was a +very self-conceited young gentleman on the subject. He was wont to boast +that he had fought his own way fairly up the school, and had never made +up to, or been taken up by any big fellow or master, and that it was now +quite a different place from what it was when he first came. And, +indeed, though he didn't actually boast of it, yet in his secret soul he +did to a great extent believe, that the great reform in the School had +been owing quite as much to himself as to any one else. Arthur, he +acknowledged, had done him good, and taught him a good deal; so had +other boys in different ways, but they had not had the same means of +influence on the School in general; and as for the Doctor, why, he was a +splendid master, but every one knew that masters could do very little +out of school hours. In short, he felt on terms of equality with his +chief, so far as the social state of the School was concerned, and +thought that the Doctor would find it no easy matter to get on without +him. Moreover, his school Toryism was still strong, and he looked still +with some jealousy on the Doctor, as somewhat of a fanatic in the matter +of change; and thought it very desirable for the School that he should +have some wise person (such as himself) to look sharply after vested +School-rights, and see that nothing was done to the injury of the +republic without due protest. + +It was a new light to him to find, that, besides teaching the sixth, and +governing and guiding the whole School, editing classics, and writing +histories, the great Head-master had found time in those busy years to +watch over the career even of him, Tom Brown, and his particular +friends,--and, no doubt, of fifty other boys at the same time; and all +this without taking the least credit to himself, or seeming to know, or +let anyone else know, that he ever thought particularly of any boys at +all. + +However, the Doctor's victory was complete from that moment over Tom +Brown at any rate. He gave way at all points, and the enemy marched +right over him, cavalry, infantry, and artillery, the land transport +corps, and the camp followers. It had taken eight long years to do it, +but now it was done thoroughly, and there wasn't a corner of him left +which didn't believe in the Doctor. Had he returned to school again, +and the Doctor begun the half-year by abolishing fagging, and football, +and the Saturday half-holiday, or all or any of the most cherished +school institutions, Tom would have supported him with the blindest +faith. And so, after a half confession of his previous shortcomings, and +sorrowful adieus to his tutor, from whom he received two beautifully +bound volumes of the Doctor's Sermons, as a parting present, he marched +down to the School-house, a hero-worshipper, who would have satisfied +the soul of Thomas Carlyle himself. + +There he found the eleven at high jinks after supper, Jack Raggles +shouting comic songs, and performing feats of strength; and was greeted +by a chorus of mingled remonstrance at his desertion, and joy at his +reappearance. And falling in with the humour of the evening, was soon as +great a boy as all the rest; and at ten o'clock was chaired round the +quadrangle, on one of the hall benches, borne aloft by the eleven, +shouting on chorus, "For he's a jolly good fellow," while old Thomas, in +a melting mood, and the other School-house servants, stood looking on. + +And the next morning after breakfast he squared up all the cricketing +accounts, went round to his tradesmen and other acquaintance, and said +his hearty good-byes, and by twelve o'clock was in the train, and away +for London, no longer a school-boy; and divided in his thoughts between +hero-worship, honest regrets over the long stage of his life which was +now slipping out of sight behind him, and hopes and resolves for the +next stage, upon which he was entering with all the confidence of a +young traveller. + +FOOTNOTE: + +[E] CLOUGH. _Ambarvalia._ + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +FINIS. + + "Strange friend, past, present, and to be; + Loved deeplier, darklier understood; + Behold, I dream a dream of good, + And mingle all the world with thee." + TENNYSON. + + +IN the summer of 1842, our hero stopped once again at the well-known +station: and, leaving his bag and fishing-rod with a porter, walked +slowly and sadly up towards the town. It was now July. He had rushed +away from Oxford the moment that term was over, for a fishing ramble in +Scotland with two college friends, and had been for three weeks living +on oatcake, mutton-hams, and whiskey, in the wildest parts of Skye. +They had descended one sultry evening on the little inn at Kyle Rhea +ferry, and while Tom and another of the party put their tackle together +and began exploring the stream for a sea-trout for supper, the third +strolled into the house to arrange for their entertainment. Presently he +came out in a loose blouse and slippers, a short pipe in his mouth, and +an old newspaper in his hand, and threw himself on the heathery scrub +which met the shingle, within easy hail of the fishermen. There he lay, +the picture of free-and-easy, loafing, hand-to-mouth young England, +"improving his mind," as he shouted to them, by the perusal of the +fortnight-old weekly paper, soiled with the marks of toddy-glasses and +tobacco-ashes, the legacy of the last traveller, which he had hunted out +from the kitchen of the little hostelry; and being a youth of a +communicative turn of mind, began imparting the contents to the +fishermen as he went on. + +"What a bother they are making about these wretched Corn-laws; here's +three or four columns full of nothing but sliding-scales and fixed +duties.--Hang this tobacco, it's always going out!--Ah, here's something +better--a splendid match between Kent and England, Brown! Kent winning +by three wickets. Felix fifty-six runs without a chance, and not out!" + +Tom, intent on a fish which had risen at him twice, answered only with a +grunt. + +"Anything about the Goodwood?" called out the third man. + +"Rory-o-More drawn. Butterfly colt amiss," shouted the student. + +"Just my luck," grumbled the inquirer, jerking his flies off the water, +and throwing again with a heavy sullen splash, and frightening Tom's +fish. + +"I say, can't you throw lighter over there? we ain't fishing for +grampuses," shouted Tom across the stream. + +"Hullo, Brown! here's something for you," called out the reading man +next moment. "Why, your old master, Arnold of Rugby, is dead." + +Tom's hand stopped half-way in his cast, and his line and flies went all +tangling round and round his rod; you might have knocked him over with a +feather. Neither of his companions took any notice of him luckily; and +with a violent effort he set to work mechanically to disentangle his +line. He felt completely carried off his moral and intellectual legs, as +if he had lost his standing-point in the invisible world. Besides which, +the deep loving loyalty which he felt for his old leader made the shock +intensely painful. It was the first great wrench of his life, the first +gap which the angel Death had made in his circle, and he felt numbed, +and beaten down, and spiritless. Well, well! I believe it was good for +him and for many others in like case; who had to learn by that loss, +that the soul of man cannot stand or lean upon any human prop, however +strong, and wise, and good; but that He upon whom alone it can stand and +lean will knock away all such props in His own wise and merciful way, +until there is no ground or stay left but Himself, the Rock of Ages, +upon whom alone a sure foundation for every soul of man is laid. + +As he wearily laboured at his line, the thought struck him, "It may all +be false, a mere newspaper lie," and he strode up to the recumbent +smoker. + +"Let me look at the paper," said he. + +"Nothing else in it," answered the other, handing it up to him +listlessly.--"Hullo, Brown! what's the matter, old fellow--ain't you +well?" + +"Where is it?" said Tom, turning over the leaves, his hands trembling, +and his eyes swimming, so that he could not read. + +"What? What are you looking for?" said his friend, jumping up and +looking over his shoulder. + +"That--about Arnold," said Tom. + +"Oh, here," said the other, putting his finger on the paragraph. Tom +read it over and over again; there could be no mistake of identity, +though the account was short enough. + +"Thank you," said he at last, dropping the paper. "I shall go for a +walk: don't you and Herbert wait supper for me." And away he strode, up +over the moor at the back of the house, to be alone, and master his +grief if possible. + +His friend looked after him, sympathising and wondering, and, knocking +the ashes out of his pipe, walked over to Herbert. After a short parley, +they walked together up to the house. + +"I'm afraid that confounded newspaper has spoiled Brown's fun for this +trip." + +"How odd that he should be so fond of his old master," said Herbert. Yet +they also were both public-school men. + +The two, however, notwithstanding Tom's prohibition, waited supper for +him, and had everything ready when he came back some half-an-hour +afterwards. But he could not join in their cheerful talk, and the party +was soon silent, notwithstanding the efforts of all three. One thing +only had Tom resolved, and that was, that he couldn't stay in Scotland +any longer; he felt an irresistible longing to get to Rugby, and then +home, and soon broke it to the others, who had too much tact to oppose. + +So by daylight the next morning he was marching through Ross-shire, and +in the evening hit the Caledonian canal, took the next steamer, and +travelled as fast as boat and railway could carry him to the Rugby +Station. + +As he walked up to the town, he felt shy and afraid of being seen, and +took the back streets; why, he didn't know, but he followed his +instinct. At the school-gates he made a dead pause; there was not a soul +in the quadrangle--all was lonely, and silent, and sad. So with another +effort he strode through the quadrangle, and into the School-house +offices. + +He found the little matron in her room in deep mourning; shook her hand, +tried to talk, and moved nervously about: she was evidently thinking of +the same subject as he, but he couldn't begin talking. + +"Where shall I find Thomas?" said he at last, getting desperate. + +"In the servants' hall, I think, sir. But won't you take anything?" said +the matron, looking rather disappointed. + +"No, thank you," said he, and strode off again to find the old Verger, +who was sitting in his little den as of old, puzzling over +hieroglyphics. + +He looked up through his spectacles, as Tom seized his hand and wrung +it. + +"Ah! you've heard all about it, sir, I see," said he. + +Tom nodded, and then sat down on the shoe-board, while the old man told +his tale, and wiped his spectacles, and fairly flowed over with quaint, +homely, honest sorrow. + +By the time he had done, Tom felt much better. + +"Where is he buried, Thomas?" said he at last. + +"Under the altar in the chapel, sir," answered Thomas. "You'd like to +have the key, I dare say." + +"Thank you, Thomas--Yes, I should very much." And the old man fumbled +among his bunch, and then got up, as though he would go with him; but +after a few steps stopped short, and said, "Perhaps you'd like to go by +yourself, sir?" + +Tom nodded, and the bunch of keys were handed to him, with an injunction +to be sure and lock the door after him, and bring them back before eight +o'clock. + +He walked quickly through the quadrangle and out into the close. The +longing which had been upon him and driven him thus far, like the +gad-fly in the Greek legends, giving him no rest in mind or body, seemed +all of a sudden not to be satisfied, but to shrivel up, and pall. "Why +should I go on? It's no use," he thought, and threw himself at full +length on the turf, and looked vaguely and listlessly at all the +well-known objects. There were a few of the town boys playing cricket, +their wicket pitched on the best piece in the middle of the big-side +ground, a sin about equal to sacrilege in the eyes of a captain of the +eleven. He was very nearly getting up to go and send them off. "Pshaw! +they won't remember me. They've more right there than I," he muttered. +And the thought that his sceptre had departed, and his mark was wearing +out, came home to him for the first time, and bitterly enough. He was +lying on the very spot where the fights came off; where he himself had +fought six years ago his first and last battle. He conjured up the scene +till he could almost hear the shouts of the ring, and East's whisper in +his ear; and looking across the close to the Doctor's private door, half +expected to see it open, and the tall figure in cap and gown come +striding under the elm-trees towards him. + +No, no! that sight could never be seen again. There was no flag flying +on the round tower! the School-house windows were all shuttered up: and +when the flag went up again, and the shutters came down, it would be to +welcome a stranger. All that was left on earth of him whom he had +honoured, was lying cold and still under the chapel floor. He would go +in and see the place once more, and then leave it once for all. New men +and new methods might do for other people; let those who would worship +the rising star; he at least would be faithful to the sun which had set. +And so he got up and walked to the chapel door and unlocked it, fancying +himself the only mourner in all the broad land, and feeding on his own +selfish sorrow. + +He passed through the vestibule, and then paused for a moment to glance +over the empty benches. His heart was still proud and high, and he +walked up to the seat which he had last occupied as a sixth-form boy, +and sat himself down there to collect his thoughts. + +And, truth to tell, they needed collecting and setting in order not a +little. The memories of eight years were all dancing through his brain, +and carrying him about whither they would; while beneath them all, his +heart was throbbing with the dull sense of a loss that could never be +made up to him. The rays of the evening sun came solemnly through the +painted windows above his head; and fell in gorgeous colours on the +opposite wall, and the perfect stillness soothed his spirit by little +and little. And he turned to the pulpit, and looked at it, and then, +leaning forward with his head on his hands, groaned aloud. "If he could +only have seen the Doctor again for one five minutes; have told him all +that was in his heart, what he owed to him, how he loved and reverenced +him, and would by God's help follow his steps in life and death, he +could have borne it all without a murmur. But that he should have gone +away for ever without knowing it all, was too much to bear."----"But am +I sure that he does not know it all?"--the thought made him start--"May +he not even now be near me, in this very chapel? If he be, am I +sorrowing as he would have me sorrow--as I should wish to have sorrowed +when I shall meet him again?" + +He raised himself up and looked round; and after a minute rose and +walked humbly down to the lowest bench, and sat down on the very seat +which he had occupied on his first Sunday at Rugby. And then the old +memories rushed back again, but softened and subdued, and soothing him +as he let himself be carried away by them. And he looked up at the great +painted window above the altar, and remembered how when a little boy he +used to try not to look through it at the elm-trees and the rooks, +before the painted glass came--and the subscription for the painted +glass, and the letter he wrote home for money to give to it. And there, +down below, was the very name of the boy who sat on his right hand on +that first day, scratched rudely in the oak paneling. + +And then came the thought of all his old school-fellows; and form after +form of boys, nobler, and braver, and purer than he, rose up and seemed +to rebuke him. Could he not think of them, and what they had felt and +were feeling, they who had honoured and loved from the first, the man +whom he had taken years to know and love? Could he not think of those +yet dearer to him who was gone, who bore his name and shared his blood, +and were now without a husband or a father? Then the grief which he +began to share with others became gentle and holy, and he rose up once +more, and walked up the steps to the altar; and while the tears flowed +freely down his checks, knelt down humbly and hopefully, to lay down +there his share of a burden which had proved itself too heavy for him to +bear in his own strength. + +Here let us leave him--where better could we leave him, than at the +altar, before which he had first caught a glimpse of the glory of his +birthright, and felt the drawing of the bond which links all living +souls together in one brotherhood--at the grave beneath the altar of +him, who had opened his eyes to see that glory, and softened his heart +till it could feel that bond? + +And let us not be hard on him, if at that moment his soul is fuller of +the tomb and him who lies there, than of the altar and Him of whom it +speaks. Such stages have to be gone through, I believe, by all young and +brave souls, who must win their way through hero-worship, to the +worship of Him who is the King and Lord of heroes. For it is only +through our mysterious human relationships, through the love and +tenderness and purity of mothers, and sisters, and wives, through the +strength and courage and wisdom of fathers, and brothers, and teachers, +that we can come to the knowledge of Him, in whom alone the love, and +the tenderness, and the purity, and the strength, and the courage, and +the wisdom of all these dwell for ever and ever in perfect fulness. + + +THE END. + + + + +CHARLES KINGSLEY'S NOVELS AND TALES, ETC. + + + At Last; a Christmas in the West Indies. With + Illustrations. 12mo. $1.75. + + Two Years Ago. 12mo. $1.75. + + Westward Ho; Or the Voyages and Adventures of Sir + Amyas Leigh. 12mo. $1.75. + + Hypatia; Or, New Foes with an Old Face. 12mo. + $1.75. + + New cheap edition, paper, 60 cents; cloth, $1.00. + + Alton Locke, Tailor and Poet. With a prefatory + Memoir by THOMAS HUGHES. 12mo. $1.75. + + Yeast; a Problem. 12mo. $1.75. + + Hereward, the Last of the English. 12mo. $1.75 + + The Water Babies. A Fairy Tale for a Land Baby. + With Illustrations. 12mo. $1.75. + + The Heroes; Or, Greek Fairy Tales for my Children. + With Illustrations. 12mo. $1.75. + + Glaucus; Or, the Wonders of the Shore. With + Colored Illustrations. 12mo. $1.75. + + Madam How and Lady Why; Or, First Lessons in Earth + Lore for Children. With Illustrations. 12mo. + $1.75. + + Town Geology, 12mo. $1.75. + + + + +CHARLOTTE M. YONGE'S NOVELS AND TALES. + + New uniform Illustrated edition. 12mo. Cloth, gilt. + Per volume, $1.75. + + + The Heir of Redclyffe. + Heartsease. + The Daisy Chain. + + The Trial. More Links of the Daisy Chain. + Hopes and Fears. + Dynevor Terrace. + The Young Stepmother. + + The Dove in the Eagle's Nest. + The Caged Lion. + The Chaplet of Pearls. + + The Pillars of the House. Two volumes + My Young Alcides. + The Three Brides. + Magnum Bonum. + + The Danvers Papers and Lady Hester. + Womankind. + +***MACMILLAN & CO'S complete classified catalogue sent free by mail to +any address on receipt of six cents. + + MACMILLAN & CO. + 22 Bond Street, New York. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +In the list of illustrations, it is noted that "CHAIRING TOM IN THE +QUADRANGLE" is on page 366. In fact this illustration was used as the +frontispiece in the original text. This has been retained and in the +HTML version, clicking on the number will take the reader to the +frontispiece. + +Obvious punctuation errors have been corrected. + +Page 66, "t e" changed to "the" (in the dark for) + +Page 94, "talkiug" changed to "talking" (rest talking in whispers) + +Page 260, " a nd" changed to "head; and" (head; and to convert) + +Page 266, "misletoe" changed to "mistletoe" (lump of mistletoe) + +Page 365, "indifferent" changed to "in different" (so had other boys in +different) + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Tom Brown's School Days, by Thomas Hughes + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM BROWN'S SCHOOL DAYS *** + +***** This file should be named 32224.txt or 32224.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/2/2/32224/ + +Produced by Chris Curnow, Joseph Cooper, Emmy and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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