"Please, sir, can I be Inkslinger?"
"Please, sir, can I be Coalheaver?"
"Shut up!" roared Mr. Bull, and the babble was quelled instantly. "We will draw lots as usual."
Lots were duly cast, and the names of the fortunate announced. Mr. Bull was not a great scholar: some of the "highbrow" members of the Staff professed to despise his humble attainments. But he understood the mind of extreme youth. Tell a small boy to pick up waste-paper, or fill an inkpot, or clean a blackboard, and he will perform these acts of drudgery with natural reluctance and shirk them when he can. But appoint him Lord High Scavenger, or Lord High Inkslinger, or Lord High Obliterator, with sole right to perform these important duties and power to eject usurpers, and he will value and guard his privileges with all the earnestness and tenacity of a permanent official.
Having arranged his executive staff to his satisfaction, Mr. Bull announced:--
"We"ll do a little English literature this morning, and start fair on ordinary work this afternoon. Sit absolutely still for ten minutes while I read to you. Listen all the time, for I shall question you when I have finished. After that you shall question me--one question each, and mind it is a sensible one. After that, a breather; then you will write out in your own words a summary of what I have read. Atten-_shun_!"
He read a hundred lines or so of _The Pa.s.sing of Arthur_, while the Nippers, restraining itching hands and feet, sat motionless. Then followed question time, which was a lively affair; for questions mean marks, and Nippers will sell their souls for marks. Suddenly Mr. Bull shut the book with a snap.
"Out you get!" he said. "The usual run--round the Founder"s Oak and straight back. And no yelling, mind! Remember, there are others." He took out his watch. "I give you one minute. Any boy taking longer will receive five thousand lines and a public flogging. Off!"
There was a sudden unheaval, a scuttle of feet, and then solitude.
The last Nipper returned panting, with his lungs full of oxygen and the fidgets shaken out of him, within fifty-seven seconds, and the work of the hour proceeded.
Each master had his own methods of maintaining discipline. Mr. Wellings, for instance, ruled entirely by the lash of his tongue. A schoolboy can put up with stripes, and he rather relishes abuse; but sarcasm withers him to the marrow. In this respect Mr. Wellings" reputation throughout the school--he was senior mathematical master, and almost half the boys pa.s.sed through his hands--was that of a "chronic blister."
Newcomers to his sets, who had hitherto regarded the baiting of subject-masters as a mild form of mental recuperation between two bouts of the Cla.s.sics, sometimes overlooked this fact. If they had a reputation for lawlessness to keep up they sometimes endeavoured to make themselves obnoxious. They had short shrift.
"Let me see," Wellings would drawl, "I am afraid I can"t recall your name for the moment. Have you a visiting card about you?"
Here the initiated would chuckle with antic.i.p.atory relish, and the offender, a little taken aback, would either glare defiantly or efface himself behind his book.
"I am addressing you, sir--you in the back bench, with the intelligent countenance and the black-edged finger-nails," Wellings would continue in silky tones. "I asked you a question just now. Have you a visiting card about you?"
A thousand brilliant repartees would flash through the brain of the obstreperous one. But somehow, in Wellings" mild and apologetic presence, they all seemed either irrelevant or fatuous. He usually ended by growling, "No."
"Then what is your name--or possibly t.i.tle? Forgive me for not knowing."
"Corbett." It is extraordinary how ridiculous one"s surname always sounds when one is compelled to announce it in public.
"Thank you. Will you kindly stand up, Mr. Corbett, in order that we may study you in greater detail?" (Mr. Wellings had an uncanny knack of enlisting the rest of the form on his side when he dealt with an offender of this type.) "I must apologise for not having heard of you before. Indeed, it is surprising that one of your remarkable appearance should hitherto have escaped my notice in my walks abroad. The world knows nothing of its greatest men: how true that is! However, this is no time for moralising. What I wanted to bring to your distinguished notice is this--that you must not behave like a yahoo in my mathematical set. During the past ten minutes you have kicked one of your neighbours and cuffed another: you have partaken of a good deal of unwholesome and (as it came out of your pocket) probably unclean refreshment; and you have indulged in several childish and obscene gestures. These daredevil exploits took place while I was writing on the blackboard; but I think it only fair to mention to you that I have eyes in the back of my head--a fact upon which any member of this set could have enlightened you. But possibly they do not presume to address a person of your eminence. I have no idea, of course, with what cla.s.s of society you are accustomed to mingle; but here--_here_--that sort of thing is simply not done, really! I am so sorry! But the hour will soon be over, and then you can go and have a nice game of shove-halfpenny, or whatever your favourite sport is, in the gutter. But at present I must ask you to curb your natural instincts. That is all, thank you very much. You may sit down now. Observe from time to time the demeanour of your companions, and endeavour to learn from them. They do not possess your natural advantages in the way of brains and beauty, but their manners are better. Let us now resume our studies."
Mr. Wellings used to wonder plaintively in the Common Room why his colleagues found it necessary to set so many impositions.
Lastly, Mr. Klotz. Mr. Klotz may be described as a Teutonic survival--a survival of the days when it was _de rigueur_ to have the French language taught by a foreigner of some kind. Not necessarily by a Frenchman--that would have been pandering too slavishly to Continental idiosyncrasy--but at least by some one who could only speak broken English. Mr. Klotz was a Prussian, so possessed all the necessary qualifications.
His disciplinary methods were modelled upon those of the Prussian Army, of which he had been a distinguished ornament--a fact of which he was fond of reminding his pupils, and which had long been regarded by those guileless infants as one of the most valuable weapons in their armoury of time-wasting devices.
Mr. Klotz, not being a resident master, had no special cla.s.sroom or key: he merely visited each form-room in turn. He expected to find every boy in his seat ready for work upon his arrival; and as he was accustomed to enforce his decrees at the point of the bayonet--or its scholastic equivalent--sharp scouts and reliable sentries were invariably posted to herald his approach.
Behold him this particular morning marching into Remove A form-room, which was situated at the top of a block of buildings on the south side of the quadrangle, with the superb a.s.surance and grace of a Prussian subaltern entering a beer-hall.
Having reached his desk, Mr. Klotz addressed his pupils.
"He who rount the corner looked when op the stairs I game," he announced, "efter lonch goms he!"
The form, some of them still breathless from their interrupted rag, merely looked down their noses with an air of seraphic piety.
"Who was de boy who did dat?" pursued Mr. Klotz.
No reply.
"Efter lonch," trumpeted Mr. Klotz, "goms eferypoty!"
At once a boy rose in his place. His name was Tomlinson.
"It was me, sir," he said.
"Efter lonch," announced Mr. Klotz, slightly disappointed at being robbed of a holocaust, "goms Tomleenson. I gif him irrecular verps."
Two other boys rose promptly to their feet. Their names were Pringle and Grant. They had not actually given the alarm, but they had pa.s.sed it on.
"It was me too, sir," said each.
"Efter lonch," amended Mr. Klotz, "goms Tomleenson, Brinkle, unt Grunt.
Now I take your names unt aitches."
This task accomplished, Mr. Klotz was upon the point of taking up _Chardenal"s First French Course_, when a small boy with a winning manner (which he wisely reserved for his dealings with masters) said politely:--
"Won"t you tell us about the Battle of Sedan, sir, as this is the first day of term?"
The bait was graciously accepted, and for the next hour Mr. Klotz ranged over the historic battle-field. It appeared that he had been personally responsible for the success of the Prussian arms, and had been warmly thanked for his services by the Emperor, Moltke, and Bismarck.
"You liddle Engleesh boys," he concluded, "you think your Army is great. In my gontry it would be noding--noding! Take it away! Vat battles has it fought, to compare----"
The answer came red-hot from thirty British throats:
"Waterloo!" (There was no "sir" this time.)
"Vaterloo?" replied Mr. Klotz condescendingly. "Yes. But vere would your Engleesh army haf been at Vaterloo without Blucher?" He puffed out his chest. "Tell me dat, Brinkle!"
"Blucher, sir?" replied Master Pringle deferentially. "Who was he, sir?"
"You haf not heard of Blucher?" gasped Mr. Klotz in genuine horror.
The form, who seldom encountered Mr. Klotz without hearing of Blucher, shook their heads with polite regret. Suddenly a hand shot up. It was the hand of Master Tomlinson, who it will be remembered had already burned his boats for the afternoon.
"Do you mean Blutcher, sir?" he inquired.
"Blutcher? Himmel! Nein!" roared Mr. Klotz. "I mean Blucher."