It was all his friends could do to restrain the ardent Bramble from summoning a meeting on the spot to denounce the _Dominican_ and all its "crams." But they managed to hold him steady while they read on.
"The Doctor never did a more--pat--pat--ri--what do you call it?-- patriotic deed than this!"
"Hullo, I say, look here!" cried Stephen, turning quite yellow; "the Doctor"s in it, they say, Bramble. "The small animals"--that"s you and Padger--"are to be kept in their own quarters." Whew! there"s a go."
"What!" shrieked Bramble, "who says so? The Doctor never said so. I shall do what I choose. He never said so. Bother the Doctor! Who"s coming to the meeting, eh?"
But at that moment the grave form of Doctor Senior appeared in the midst of the group, just in time to hear Master Bramble"s last complimentary shout.
The head master was in the most favourable times an object of terror to the "guilty-conscienced youth" of the Fourth Junior, and the sight even of his back often sufficed to quell their tumults. But here he stood face to face with his unhappy victims, one of whom had just cried, "Bother the Doctor!" and all of whom had by word and gesture approved of the sentiment. Why would not the pavement yawn and swallow them? And which of them would not at that moment have given a thousand pounds (if he had it) to be standing anywhere but where he was?
"Go to your cla.s.s-room," said the Doctor, sternly, eyeing the culprits one by one, "and wait there for me."
They slunk off meekly in obedience to this order, and waited the hour of vengeance in blank dismay.
Dr Senior did not keep them long in suspense, however. His slow, firm step sounded presently down the corridor, and at the sound each wretched culprit quaked with horror.
Mr Rastle was in the room, and rose as usual to greet his chief; the boys also, as by custom bound, rose in their places. "Good morning, Mr Rastle," said the Doctor. "Are your boys all here?"
"Yes, sir, we have just called over."
"Ah! And what cla.s.s comes on first?"
"English literature, sir."
"Well, Mr Rastle, I will take the cla.s.s this morning, please--instead of you."
A groan of horror pa.s.sed through the ranks of the unhappy Guinea-pigs and Tadpoles at these words. Bramble looked wildly about him, if haply he might escape by a window or lie hid in a desk; while Stephen, Paul, Padger, and the other ringleaders, gave themselves up for lost, and mentally bade farewell to joy for ever.
"What have the boys been reading?" inquired Dr Senior of Mr Rastle.
"Grey"s _Elegy_, sir. We have just got through it."
"Oh! Grey"s _Elegy_!" said the Doctor; and then, as if forgetting where he was, he began repeating to himself,--
"The curfew tolls the knell of parting day, The lowing herds wind slowly o"er the lea."
"The first boy,--what can you tell me about the curfew?" The first boy was well up in the curfew, and rattled off a "full, true, and particular account" of that fine old English inst.i.tution, much to everybody"s satisfaction. The Doctor went on repeating two or three verses till he came to the line,--
"The rude Forefathers of the hamlet sleep."
"What does that line mean?" he asked of a boy on the second desk.
The boy scarcely knew what it meant, but the boy below him did, and was quite eager for the question to be pa.s.sed on. It was pa.s.sed on, and the genius answered promptly, "Four old men."
"Four rude old men," shouted the next, seeing a chance.
"Four rude old men who used to sleep in church," cried another, ready to cap all the rest.
The Doctor pa.s.sed the question on no further; but gravely explained the meaning of the line, and then proceeded with his repet.i.tion in rather a sadder voice.
Now and again he stopped short and demanded an explanation of some obscure phrase, the answers to which were now correct, now hazy, now brilliantly original. On the whole it was not satisfactory; and when for a change the Doctor gave up reciting, and made the boys read, the effect was still worse. One boy, quite a master of elocution, spoilt the whole beauty of the lines,--
"Nor Grandeur hear with a disdainful smile The short and simple annals of the Poor,--"
by reading "animals" instead of "annals"; while another, of an equally zoological turn of mind, announced that--
"On some fond _beast_ the parting soul relies,--"
instead of "breast."
But the climax of this "animal mania" was reached when the wretched Bramble, finally pitched upon to go on, in spite of all his efforts to hide, rendered the pa.s.sage:--
"Haply some h.o.a.ry-headed swain may say, Oft have we seen him at the peep of dawn," etcetera, as--
"Happy some hairy-headed swine may say."
This was a little too much.
"That will do, sir," said the Doctor, sternly. "That will do. What is your name, sir?"
"Bramble, please, sir."
"Well, Bramble, how long have you been in this cla.s.s?"
"Two years, sir."
"And have you been all the while on the bottom desk?"
"Yes, please, sir."
"Sir, it displeases me. You are a dunce, sir."
And then, to Bramble"s utter despair and to the terror of all the other unprofitable members of the cla.s.s, the Doctor proceeded to catechise sharply the unhappy youth on his general knowledge of the subjects taught during the term.
As might be expected, the exhibition was a miserable one; Bramble was found wanting in every particular. The simplest questions could hardly coax a correct answer out of him, whereas an ordinary inquiry was hopelessly beyond his powers. He mixed up William the Conqueror and William of Orange; he subtracted what ought to be multiplied, and floundered about between conjunctions and prepositions in a sickening way. The Doctor did not spare him. He went ruthlessly on--exposing the boy"s ignorance, first in one thing, then another. Bramble stood and trembled and perspired before him, and wished he was dead, but the questions still came on. If he had answered a single thing correctly it would have been a different matter, but he knew nothing. I believe he did know what twice two was, but that was the one question the Doctor did not ask him. As to French, Latin, Grammar, and Euclid, the clock on the wall knew as much of them as Bramble. It came to an end at last.
"Come here, Bramble," said the Doctor, gravely; "and come here, you, and you, and you," added he, pointing to Stephen and Paul and four or five others of the party who had been reading the _Dominican_ that morning.
The luckless youngsters obeyed, and when they stood in a row before the dreaded Doctor, the bottom form and half of the bottom form but one were empty.
"Now, you boys," began the head master, very gravely, "I hadn"t intended to examine you to-day; but, from something I heard one of you say, I felt rather anxious to know how some of you are doing in your studies.
These half-dozen boys I was particularly anxious to know of, because I heard them talking to-day as if they were the most important boys in the whole school. They _are_ the most important; for they are the most ignorant, and require, and in future will receive, the closest looking after. You, little boys," said the Doctor, turning to the row of abashed culprits, "take a word of warning from me. Do not be silly as well as dunces. Do not think, as long as you know least of any one in the school you can pretend to rule the school. I hope some of you have been led to see to-day you are not as clever as you would like to be.
If you try, and work hard, and stick like men to your lessons, you will know more than you do now; and when you do know more you will see that the best way for little boys to get on is not by giving themselves ridiculous airs, but by doing their duty steadily in cla.s.s, and living at peace with one another, and submitting quietly to the discipline of the school. Don"t let me hear any more of this recent nonsense. You"ll be going off in a day or two for the holidays. Take my advice, and think over what I have said; and next term let me see you in your right minds, determined to work hard and do your part honestly for the credit of the good old school. Go to your places, boys."
And so the Doctor"s visitation came to an end. It made a very deep impression on the youthful members of the Fourth Junior. Most of them felt very much ashamed of themselves; and nearly every one felt his veneration and admiration for the Doctor greatly heightened. Only a few incorrigibles like Bramble professed to make light of the scene through which they had just pa.s.sed, and even he, it was evident, was considerably chastened by his experience.
That evening, after the first bed-bell, Dr Senior requested some of the masters to meet with him for a few minutes in his study.