St. Winifred's; or, The World of School

by F. W. Farrar

  CHAPTER THREE.

  NEW BOYS.

  _Parolles_.--I find my tongue is too foolhardy.

  All's Well that Ends Well, Act four, scene 1.

  The Famulus--"familiar"--as the boys called him, directed Walter acrossthe court to the rooms of his housekeeper, who informed him about theplaces where his clothes and his play-boxes would be kept, and thedormitory where he was to sleep. She also gave him a key of the desk inthe great schoolroom, in which he might, if he chose, keep his portableproperty. She moreover announced, with some significance, that sheshould be glad to do anything for him which lay in her humble power, andthat the day after to-morrow was her birthday. Walter was a littlepuzzled as to the relevancy of the latter piece of information. Helearnt it at a subsequent period, when he also discovered that MrsHiggins found it to her interest to have periodical birthdays, recurringtwo or three times at least every half-year. The years which must havepassed over that good lady's head during Walter's stay at SaintWinifred's--the premature rapidity with which old age must havesubsequently overtaken her, and the vigour which she displayed at soadvanced a period of life--were something quite extraordinary of theirkind.

  Towards the great schoolroom Walter accordingly directed his steps. Thekey turned out to be quite superfluous, for the hasp of the lock hadbeen broken by Walter's predecessor, who had also left the trace of hisname, his likeness, and many interesting though inexplicable designs andhieroglyphics, with a red-hot poker, on the lid. The same gentleman, tojudge by appearances, must have had a curious entomological collectionof spiders and earwigs under his protection, and had bequeathed toWalter a highly miscellaneous legacy of rubbish. Walter contemplatedhis bequest with some dismay, and began busily to dust the interior ofthe desk, and make it as fit a receptacle as he could for his writingmaterials and other personal possessions.

  While thus engaged he could not help being secretly tickled by theproceedings of a group of boys standing round the large unlighted stove,and amusing themselves, harmlessly for the most part, with theinexperience and idiosyncrasies of various newcomers. After tiringthemselves with the freaks of a mad Irish boy who had entered into thespirit of his own cross-examination with a high sense of buffoonerywhich refused to grow ill-tempered, they were now playing on the extremegullibility of a heavy, open-mouthed, bullet-headed fellow, namedPlumber, from whom the most astounding information could extract nogreater evidence of sensation than a little wider stare of the eyes, andan unexcited drawl of "Really though?" One of the group, namedHenderson, a merry-looking boy with a ceaseless pleasant twinkle of theeyes, had been taxing his own invention to the uttermost without in theleast exciting Plumber's credulity.

  "You saw the fellow who let you in at the school gates, Plumber?" saidHenderson. "Yes; I saw someone or other."

  "But did you notice him particularly?"

  "No, I didn't notice him."

  "Well, you should have done. That man's called `the Familiar.' Askanyone if he isn't? But do you know why?"

  "No," said Plumber.

  "It's because he's got a familiar spirit which waits on him," saidHenderson mysteriously.

  "Really though," said Plumber, and this time he looked so frightenedthat it was impossible for the rest to avoid bursting into a fit oflaughter, during which Plumber, vaguely comprehending that he wasconsidered a very good joke, retired with discomfiture.

  "You fools," said Henderson; "if you'd only given me a little more timeI'd have made him believe that Lane had a tail, and wore his gown toconceal it, except when he used it to flog with; and that before beingentered he would have to sing a song standing on his head. You've quitespoilt my game by bursting out laughing."

  "There's another new fellow," said Kenrick, one of the group. "Comehere, you new fellow!" called two or three of them.

  Walter looked up, thinking that he was addressed, but found that thesummons was meant for a boy, rather good-looking but very slender, whoseself-important attitude and supercilious look betrayed no slight amountof vanity, and who, to the apparent astonishment of the rest, wassurveying the room and its appurtenances with a look of greataffectation and disdain.

  "So you don't much seem to like the look of Saint Winifred's," saidKenrick to him, as the boy walked up with a delicate air. "Not much,"lisped the new boy; "everything looks so very common."

  "Common and unclean to the last degree," said Henderson, imitating hismanner.

  "And is this the only place you have to sit in?"

  "O, by no means," said Henderson; "each of us has a private apartmentfurnished in crimson and gold, according to the simple yet elegant tasteof the owner. Our meals are there served to us by kneeling domestics onlittle dishes of silver."

  "I suppose you intend that for wit," said the new boy languidly.

  "Yes; to do you, to wit," answered Henderson; "but seriously though,that would be a great deal more like what you have been accustomed to,wouldn't it, my friend?"

  "Very much more," said the boy.

  "And would you politely favour this company," said Henderson, withobsequious courtesy, "by revealing to us your name?"

  "My name is Howard Tracy."

  "Oh, indeed!" said Henderson, with an air of great satisfaction, andmaking a low bow.

  "I am called Howard Tracy because I am descended lineally from boththose noble families."

  "My goodness! are you really!" said Henderson, clasping his hands inmock transport. "My dear sir, you are an honour to your race andcountry! you are an honour to this school. By Jove, we are proud, sir,to have you among us!"

  "Perhaps you may not know that my uncle is the Viscount Saint George,"said Tracy patronisingly.

  "Is he, though, by George!" said Henderson yawning. "Is that SaintGeorge who--

  "`Swinged the dragon, and e'er since Sits on his horseback at mine hostess' door?'"

  But finding that the boy's vanity was too obtuse to be amusing anylonger, he was about to leave him to the rest, when Jones caught sightof Walter, and called out:--

  "Halloa, here's a new fellow grinning at the follies of his kind. Comehere, you dark-haired chap. What's your name?"

  "Evson," said Walter, quietly approaching them. Before getting any funout of him it was necessary to see what kind of boy he was; and as Joneshardly knew what line to take, he began on the commonest and most vulgartack of catechising him about his family and relations. "What's yourfather?"

  "My father is a gentleman," said Walter, rather surprised at therudeness of the question.

  "And where do you live?"

  "At Semlyn."

  "And how old are you?"

  "Just thirteen."

  "And how many sisters have you?"

  Walter rather thought of asking, "What's that to you?" but as he saw noparticular harm in answering the question, and did not want to seem toostiff-backed, he answered, "Three."

  "And are they very beautiful?"

  "I don't know; I never asked them. Are yours?" This last question wasso perfectly quiet and unexpected, and Jones was so evidentlydiscomfited by it, that the rest burst into a roar of laughter, andHenderson said, "You've caught a tartar, Jones. You can't drop salt onthis bird's tail. You had better return to Plumber, or Saint George andthe dragon. Here, my noble Viscount, what do you think of your coeval?Is he as common as the rest of us?"

  "I don't think anything about him, if you mean me by Viscount," saidTracy peevishly, beginning at last to understand that they had beenmaking a fool of him.

  "Quite right, Saint George; he's beneath your notice." Tracy ran hishand through his scented hair, as if he rather Implied that he was; andbeing mortified at the contrast between his own credulous vanity andWalter's manly simplicity, and anxious if possible to regain hisposition, he said angrily to Walter, "What are you looking at me for?"

  Not wishing to be rude, Walter turned away, while someone observed, "Acat may look at a king."

  "Ay, a cat at a king, I grant you," answered Henderson; "but not a mereson of E
ve at any Howard Tracy."

  "You are laughing at me," said Tracy to Walter again, in a still angriertone, seeing Walter smile at Henderson's remark.

  "I've not the slightest wish to laugh at you," said Walter.

  "Yes he has. Shy this at him," said Jones, putting a great bit oforange peel into Tracy's hand.

  Tracy threw it at Walter, and he without hesitation picked it up, andflung it back in Tracy's face.

  "A fight! a fight!" shouted the mischief-making group, as Tracy made ablind blow at Walter, which his antagonist easily parried.

  "Make him fight you. Challenge him," said Jones. "Invite him to themilling-ground behind the chapel after first school to-morrow morning."

  "Pistols for _two_, coffee for four, at eight to-morrow," saidHenderson. "Trample on the Dragon's tail, someone, and rouse him to theoccasion. What! he won't come to the scratch? Alack! alack!

  "`What can ennoble fools or cowards Not all the blood of all the Tracys, Dragons, and Howards!'"

  He continued mischievously, as he saw that Tracy, on taking note ofWalter's compact figure, showed signs of declining the combat.

  "Hush, Henderson," said Kenrick, one of the group who had taken no partin the talk; "it's a shame to be setting two new fellows fighting theirfirst evening."

  But Henderson's last remark had been too much for Tracy. "Will youfight?" he said, walking up to Walter with reddening cheeks. For Tracyhad been to school before, and was no novice in the ways of boys.

  "Certainly not," said Walter coolly, to everybody's great surprise.

  "What! the other chap showing the white feather, too. _All_ the newfellows are cowards it seems this time," said Jones. "This'll never do.Pitch into him, Tracy."

  "Stop," said Kenrick; "let's hear first why he won't fight?"

  "Because I see no occasion to," said Walter; "and because, in the secondplace, I never could fight in cold blood; and because, in the thirdplace--"

  "Well, what in the third place?" said Kenrick, interested to observeWalter's hesitation.

  "In the third place," said Walter, "I don't say it from conceit--butthat boy's no match for me."

  To anyone who glanced at the figures of the two boys this was obviousenough, although Walter was a year the younger of the two. The restbegan to respect Walter accordingly as a sensible little man, but Tracywas greatly offended by the last remark, and Jones, who was a bully andhad a grudge against Walter for baffling his impertinence, exclaimed,"Don't you be afraid, Tracy. I'll back you. Give him something to heathis cold blood."

  Fired at once by taunts and encouragements, Tracy did as he was bid, andstruck Walter on the face. The boy started angrily, and at first seemedas if he meant to return the blow with compound interest, but suddenlychanging his intention, he seized Tracy round the waist, and in spite ofall kicking and struggling, fairly carried the humiliated descendant ofthe Howards and Tracys to a far corner of the room, where, amid a shoutof laughter, he deposited him with the laconic suggestion, "Don't you bea fool."

  Walter's blood was now up, and thinking that he might as well show, fromthe very first, that he was not to be bullied, or made a butt withimpunity, he walked straight to the stove, and looking full at Jones(who had inspired him already with strong disgust), he said, "You calledme a coward just now; I'm not a coward, though I don't like fighting fornothing. I'm not a bit afraid of _you_, though you forced that fellowto hit me just now."

  "Aren't you? Saucy young cub! Then take that," said Jones, enforcingthe remark with a box on the ear.

  "And you take that," said Walter, returning the compliment with as muchenergy as if he had been playing at the game of _Gif es wetter_.

  Jones, astonished beyond measure, sprang forward, clenched his twofists, squared, and blustered with great demonstrativeness. He was muchWalter's senior, and was utterly taken by surprise at his audacity; buthe seemed in no hurry to avenge the insult.

  "Well," said Walter, heaving with indignation, "why don't you hit meagain?"

  Jones looked at his firm and determined little assailant with somealarm, slowly tucked up the sleeves of his coat, turned white and red,and--didn't return the blow. The tea-bell beginning to ring at thatmoment gave him a convenient excuse for breaking off the altercation.He told his friends that he was on the point of thrashing Walter whenthe bell rang, but that he thought it a shame to fight a newfellow--"and in cold blood, too," he added, adopting Walter's language,but not his sincerity.

  "Don't call me a coward again then," said Walter to him as he turnedaway.

  "I say, Evson, you're a regular brick, a regular stunner," said youngKenrick, delighted, as he showed Walter the way to the Hall where theboys had tea. "That fellow Jones is no end of a bully, and he won't bequite so big in future. You've taken him down a great many pegs."

  "I say, Kenrick," shouted Henderson after them, "I bet you five to one Iknow what you're saying to the new fellow."

  "I bet you don't," said Kenrick, laughing.

  "You're saying--it's a quotation, you know, but never mind--you'resaying to him, `A sudden thought strikes me: let's swear an eternalfriendship.'"

  "Then you're quite out," answered Kenrick. "I was saying come and sitnext me at tea."

  "And go shares in jam," added Henderson: "exactly what I said, only inother words."