"Look here, Duffy, you need not talk about those sort of things; I shall grow up all right, never fear. What I want to know is who are in the swatting lot besides Warren and the scholarship boy? Find that out for me, will you?"
"No, indeed, I will not, unless you promise to join them, and I don"t believe you mean to do that, although you know father would like it."
"I wonder whether he joined a swatting club when he went to Torrington"s?" rejoined Leonard.
"I will ask him when he comes home," replied his sister. "Now I must begin my lessons; I have done them better lately, my governess says, and if I only work steadily on, I shall get a prize at Christmas.
Her brother whistled. "Half-a-crown book for six months" work. That game don"t pay except for duffers," he said in a tone of contempt.
"I would rather be a duffer than some people who think themselves so clever. Now don"t hinder me, but get on with your own lessons, and let me learn mine," said his sister.
"Swat! swat! swat! with fingers and brain and pen," sung her brother, while Florence propped her head on her hands and stared at her book.
Then the door opened, and Mrs. Morrison appeared.
"Lenny, I want to have a little talk with you. Playing again, my boy; I knew some one else who chose to play a great deal of his time away at school, but he has bitterly repented it since. Perhaps you had better take your books up to your own room, dear," she said, turning to Florence; "I thought you might help each other if you did them together again, but when I heard Lenny singing I knew it was no good."
Mrs. Morrison said that while Florence was gathering up her books, and when she had gone upstairs, she took her seat facing Leonard and had a long talk with him. She told him what his father had heard concerning one portion of the school; that it was becoming almost lawless in its determination not to learn more than the masters could force upon them. "He told you too that he heard to-day of a few boys who had separated themselves from this party, and were determined to profit by the instruction given, and learn the home lessons to the best of their ability."
Mrs. Morrison saw Leonard"s lip curl as she spoke in admiration of these lads. "They"re just a set of cads!" he muttered under his breath.
"No, they are not; and it is your father"s wish, and mine too, that you should join this section of the school, and learn your home lessons as well as you possibly can. We do all we can to help you, and Florence is quite willing to come back and do her lessons here, if you do not hinder her. Now will you promise me, Lenny, to turn over a new leaf, and set your mind steadily to the tasks that may be set for you, instead of wasting your time in play as you have done lately?"
"I don"t mind doing my lessons," grunted Leonard ungraciously, "but I don"t see why father should want me to join that scholarship lot at school."
"He wishes it because they are a steady set of lads, and you are easily led into mischief by your companions."
"What mischief have I done?" angrily demanded the boy.
"Well, I don"t know that there has been any particular mischief,"
admitted his mother; "but your father is not very satisfied with the way things have been going on at school lately. You know the last report was far from satisfactory, and your father said you were just wasting your time, instead of learning all you could. Now promise me, dear, that you will make a new beginning."
Leonard stared at his book and drummed on the table in silence, and Mrs. Morrison, feeling that she had said enough for once, rose and left the room. She hoped that Leonard would think over what she had said and act upon it, although he had not given the promise that she asked.
She went back to the drawing-room and sat down to think, and her thoughts wandered to that brother whom her son so strangely resembled; and she prayed that G.o.d would save her boy from wrecking his life and bringing misery to his friends, as this beloved brother had done.
Now Leonard chose to be half offended over what his mother had said to him. "Mother wants me to be like a duffing girl," he whispered to himself as she left the room. "I wonder who it is she was telling me about. Somebody who has got himself into a nice sc.r.a.pe, and been obliged to leave England. It was a nice thing to be told I was like this scapegrace," he muttered. But, in spite of his anger, he did manage to learn something of his lessons that night before he went to bed; and he might have got on fairly well in cla.s.s, if he had not met Taylor early in his walk to school. Taylor was br.i.m.m.i.n.g over with the importance of a piece of news he had heard.
"What do you think, Morrison? There are a lot of sneaks in the school who have set up a swatting club without saying a word to us about it!"
"Yes, I know; my pater has heard of it, and wants me to join it."
"You"ll never do it, Morrison!" exclaimed the elder lad.
"Not if I know it. What do you take me for? Isn"t it enough to be worried by the masters? No, thank you; I"m going to stick to my friends."
"Yes, and you must fight with them too, unless you want to see Torrington"s ruined as a school for gentlemen. That"s what my pater says, and I guess he knows as much as most. He has made his pile; means I shall be a gentleman, and that is all he cares for. Lessons be blowed! They"re all very well for scholarship boys and such cads. Your father ought to be ashamed of himself ever to have sent that board school boy among gentlemen, and the beggar will have to go!"
Leonard did not reply, for he did not like to hear any action of his father blamed, and so he walked along in silence, while Taylor poured out further angry denunciations until the school was reached.
During the course of the cla.s.s lessons that morning it became very evident that there was a dividing line between those who had carefully studied their subjects and the rest of the cla.s.s. Warren, Howard, and seven or eight other lads held the top part of the cla.s.s in all subjects, and Taylor, Morrison, and the rest of that part kept steadily at the bottom.
"I"ve had enough of this," said Taylor when they came into the playground after dinner. "That scholarship boy is at the bottom of the whole thing, and we must get rid of him."
"You"ve said that before," grumbled Curtis.
"Yes, I know I have, and I hoped Morrison would persuade his pater to do the job for us, as he brought him in; but it don"t seem as though he was going to move in the matter, and so _I_ shall, and little Morrison must help me."
"But what are you going to do?" asked Leonard.
"That"s my business. All you"ve got to do is what I tell you, and to ask no questions."
Curtis lifted his sleepy eyes and looked at Taylor with a little more interest.
"What is it to be?" he asked.
"Well, I mean to stink him out; it will all be done up in the stinkery."
"The stinkery"--or stink-room, to give it its proper t.i.tle--was a small slip-room divided from the laboratory by a close wooden part.i.tion with several ventilating shafts, under which noisome-smelling chemicals could be used without causing any annoyance to the students working in the general laboratory.
"That scholarship boy shall have enough of his precious slops. I"ll let Skeats know whether he shall favour a fellow because the rest of us have sent him to Coventry!"
"Why, what has Skeats done?" asked one of the lads; for the science master was a favourite among most of the boys.
"Can"t you see what he"s doing every day? That sneak from the board school pretends to have "an idea," whatever that may be, and goes talking to old Skeats about it, and so he lets him go up to the "lab."
every dinner-time to work at it. Don"t you see the little game? We can"t make him feel he is in Coventry, if he is taken out of our way.
But I am going to upset this family party, and I mean little Morrison shall help me. It"s only fair, as his father brought the fellow here, that he should be used to get rid of him."
"What do you want me to do?" asked Leonard, turning pale, and heartily wishing himself out of the way.
"Why, you shall get the stuff we want. Your father is a doctor, and so it will be easy enough."
"But the pater does not keep a store of chemicals," said Leonard.
"Who said he did? I said he was a doctor, and I suppose you can"t deny that, can you?"
Leonard looked offended, and was turning away, but Taylor soon fetched him back. "Look here, little Morrison, it"s no good funking. You can do this job better than anybody else, and you"ve got to do it. I don"t want you to steal your father"s stuff, but you must get two of his bottles, and go to get what I shall tell you, and if the people at the drug store ask you whether it is for your father, why, of course you must say, "Yes." Now mind, mum must be the word, for I"m not going to tell all the crowd what I"m going to do. Curtis is going to find half the money, and I"ll find the other half. Here"s half a sovereign. I don"t know what the things will cost, any more than the man in the moon, but I shall want the things I have put down in this paper; and tell them to fasten them down tight, so that they don"t leak out; for you"ll have to keep "em in your bag till I can use "em to-morrow."
"Must I get them to-night?" asked Leonard, wishing he could tell Taylor he would not do it.
"Yes, you _must_!" answered the "c.o.c.k of the walk" in a masterful tone. "Now, mind you don"t lose the money, and be sure you bring the right chemicals."
CHAPTER VII.
NEWS FOR MRS. MORRISON.