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 second place, I never could fight in cold blood; and because, in the third place--"
"Well, what in the third place?" said Kenrick, interested to observe Walter"s hesitation.
"In the third place," said Walter, "I don"t say it from conceit--but that boy"s no match for me."
To anyone who glanced at the figures of the two boys this was obvious enough, although Walter was a year the younger of the two. The rest began to respect Walter accordingly as a sensible little man, but Tracy was greatly offended by the last remark, and Jones, who was a bully and had a grudge against Walter for baffling his impertinence, exclaimed, "Don"t you be afraid, Tracy. I"ll back you. Give him something to heat his cold blood."
Fired at once by taunts and encouragements, Tracy did as he was bid, and struck Walter on the face. The boy started angrily, and at first seemed as if he meant to return the blow with compound interest, but suddenly changing his intention, he seized Tracy round the waist, and in spite of all kicking and struggling, fairly carried the humiliated descendant of the Howards and Tracys to a far corner of the room, where, amid a shout of laughter, he deposited him with the laconic suggestion, "Don"t you be a fool."
Walter"s blood was now up, and thinking that he might as well show, from the very first, that he was not to be bullied, or made a b.u.t.t with impunity, he walked straight to the stove, and looking full at Jones (who had inspired him already with strong disgust), he said, "You called me a coward just now; I"m not a coward, though I don"t like fighting for nothing. I"m not a bit afraid of _you_, though you forced that fellow to hit me just now."
"Aren"t you? Saucy young cub! Then take that," said Jones, enforcing the remark with a box on the ear.
"And you take that," said Walter, returning the compliment with as much energy as if he had been playing at the game of _Gif es wetter_.
Jones, astonished beyond measure, sprang forward, clenched his two fists, squared, and bl.u.s.tered with great demonstrativeness. He was much Walter"s senior, and was utterly taken by surprise at his audacity; but he seemed in no hurry to avenge the insult.
"Well," said Walter, heaving with indignation, "why don"t you hit me again?"
Jones looked at his firm and determined little a.s.sailant with some alarm, 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 that moment gave him a convenient excuse for breaking off the altercation.
He told his friends that he was on the point of thrashing Walter when the bell rang, but that he thought it a shame to fight a new fellow--"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 turned away.
"I say, Evson, you"re a regular brick, a regular stunner," said young Kenrick, delighted, as he showed Walter the way to the Hall where the boys had tea. "That fellow Jones is no end of a bully, and he won"t be quite 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 I know 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"re saying to him, "A sudden thought strikes me: let"s swear an eternal friendship.""
"Then you"re quite out," answered Kenrick. "I was saying come and sit next me at tea."
"And go shares in jam," added Henderson: "exactly what I said, only in other words."
CHAPTER FOUR.
FRIENDS AND FOES.
"He who hath a thousand friends hath not one friend to spare, And he who hath one enemy shall meet him everywhere."
Already Walter had got someone to talk to, someone he knew; for in spite of Kenrick"s repudiation of Henderson"s jest, he felt already that he had discovered a boy with whom he should soon be friends. It doesn"t matter how he had discovered it; it was by animal magnetism; it was by some look in Kenrick"s eyes; it was his light-heartedness; it was by the mingled fire and refinement of his face which spoke of a wilful and impetuous, yet also of a generous and n.o.ble nature. Already he felt a sense of ease and pleasure in the certainty that Kenrick--evidently no cipher among his schoolfellows--was inclined to like him, and to show him the ways of the school.
They went into a large hall, where the four hundred had their meals.
They sat at a number of tables arranged breadth-wise across the hall; twenty or thirty sat at each table, and either a master or a monitor (as the sixteen upper boys were called) took his place at the head of it.
"Now, mind you don"t begin to smoke," said Henderson, as Walter went in, and found most of the boys already seated.
"Smoke?" said Walter, taking it for a bit of good advice; "do fellows smoke in Hall? I never have smoked."
"Why, you"re smoking now," said Henderson, as Walter, entering among the crowd of strange faces and meeting so many pairs of eyes, began to blush a little.
"Don"t teaze him, Flip," said Kenrick. "Smoking is the name fellows give to blushing, Evson; and if they see you given to blushing, they"ll stare at you for the fun of seeing the colour mount up in your cheeks."
Accordingly, as he sat down, he saw that numerous eyes were turned upon him and upon Tracy, who happened to sit at the same table. Tracy, unaccustomed to such very narrow scrutiny, blushed all over; and, as he in vain looked up and down, this way and that, his cheeks grew hotter and hotter, and he moved about in the most uneasy way, to the great amus.e.m.e.nt of his many tormentors, until at last his eyes subsided finally into his teacup, from which he did not again venture to raise them until tea was over. But Walter was at once up to the trick, and felt thoroughly obliged to Henderson and Kenrick for telling him of it.
So he waited till he saw that a good dozen fellows were all intently staring at him; and then, looking up very simply and naturally, he met the gaze of two or three of them steadily in succession, and stared them out of countenance with a quiet smile. This turned the laugh against them; and he heard the remark that he was "up to snuff, and no mistake."
No one ever tried to make Walter smoke again, but for some time it used to be a regular joke to pa.s.s round word at tea-time, "Let"s make Tracy smoke," and as Tracy always _did_ smoke till he got thoroughly used to it, he was generally glad when tea-time was over.
In spite of Henderson, who poked fun at them all tea-time (till he saw that he really embarra.s.sed them, and then he desisted), Kenrick sat by Walter, and took him more or less under his protection; for an "old boy"
can always patronise a newcomer at first, even if they are of the same age.
From Kenrick Walter learnt, rather to his dismay, that he really would have no place to sit in except the big schoolroom, which he would share with some fifty others, and that he would be placed in a dormitory with at least five or six besides himself.
"Have you been examined yet?" asked Kenrick.
"No; but Dr Lane asked me what books I had read, and he told me that I was to go and take my chance in Mr Paton"s form. What form is that?"
"It"s what we call the Virgil form. Have you ever read Virgil?"
"No; at least only a few easy bits."
"I wish you joy, then."
"Why? what sort of a fellow is Mr Paton?"
"Mr Paton? he"s not a man at all; he"s a machine; he"s the wheel of a mill; he"s a cast-iron automaton; he"s--"
"The abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet,"
observed Henderson, who had caught a fragment of the conversation. "I"m in his form, too, worse luck!"
"Hush! shut up, Henderson, and don"t be profane," said Kenrick. "Well, Evson, you"ll soon find out what Paton"s like; anything but "a patten of bright gold" at any rate."
"Oh! oh! turn him out for his bad pun," said Henderson, hitting him with a pellet of bread, for which offence he immediately received "fifty lines" from the master at the other end of the table.
"Don"t abuse Paton," said a boy named Daubeny, which name Henderson had long ago contracted into Dubbs. "I always found him a capital master to be under, and really very kind."
"Oh, _you_--yes," answered Kenrick; "if we were all gifted with your mouselike stillness in school, my dear old Dubbs--"
"And your metallic capacity of grind, my dear old Dubbs," added Henderson.
"And your ostrich-like digestion of crabbed rules, my dear old Dubbs; why, then," said Kenrick, "we should all be boys after Paton"s heart."