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قراءة كتاب Burr Junior
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me. “I say, Senna T, you’re in for it.”
“What for?”
“Old Dicksee says you gave him some stuff last night, and it’s made him so bad he can’t learn his lessons. He’s going to tell the Doctor.”
“Gammon! What do you want?”
“Less talking there,” said Mr Rebble sharply.
“Hark at old Reb!” whispered the new-comer. “I say, we’re going to have a holiday to-day, ain’t we?”
“No such luck.”
“Oh, but we must! I’ve written this out. You’ll sign, won’t you?”
My neighbour snatched a document consisting of about half a dozen lines, and pushed it back.
“He’ll keep us in if we do.”
“Not he. I know he wants to drive over to Hastings with the girls. Sign, there’s a good chap.”
“But you haven’t signed.”
“No. I shall put my name last.”
“Yah! Can’t catch old birds with chaff, Eely.”
“If you call me Eely again, I’ll punch your head.”
“You sign first, and I’ll put my name next.”
“Shan’t! and if you don’t put your name at once, I’ll tear up the paper. I don’t want a holiday; it was all for you boys.”
“Thank-ye,” said my neighbour derisively.
“Just you wait till we’re out in the field, Jalap, and I’ll serve you out for this.”
“Burr junior,” said a rich, deep, unctuous voice, which seemed to roll through the school, and there was a dead silence.
“Here, you!—get up. Go on.”
“Burr junior!” came in a louder, deeper voice.
“He means you,” whispered my neighbour.
“Say Adsum,” whispered the tall, thin boy, and, on the impulse given, I repeated the Latin word feebly.
“Go up to him,” whispered my neighbour, and, pulling my legs out from between the form and the desk, I walked up through the centre opening between the two rows of desks, conscious of tittering and whispering, two or three words reaching my ears, such as “cane,” “pickle,” “catch it certain.”
Then, feeling hot and confused, I found myself on the daïs in front of the desk, where the Doctor was looking searchingly at me through his gold-rimmed spectacles. Then, turning himself round, he slowly and ponderously crossed one leg over the other, and waved his hand.
“Come to the side,” he said, and feeling more conscious up there on the daïs, I moved round, and he took my hand.
“I am glad to welcome you among us, Frank, to join in our curriculum of study, and I hope you will do us all credit. Er—rum! Let me see. Burr—Frank Burr. We have another Burr here, who has stuck among us for some years.”
The Doctor paused and looked round with a very fat smile, in the midst of a peculiar silence, till Mr Rebble at the other end said loudly,—
“Ha! ha! Excellent!” and there was now a loud burst of laughter.
I thought that I should not like Mr Rebble, but I saw that the Doctor liked his appreciation of his joke, for he smiled pleasantly, and continued,—
“Let me see. I think we have a pleasant little custom here, not more honoured in the breach than in the observance. Eh, Mr Rebble?”
“Certainly, sir, certainly,” said that gentleman, and the Doctor frowned at his leg, as he smoothed it down. But his face cleared directly.
“Er—rum!” he continued, clearing his voice. “Of having a brief cessation from our studies upon the advent of a new boy. Young gentlemen, you may close your books for to-day.”
There was a hearty cheer at this, and the Doctor rose, thrust his hand into his breast beside his white shirt-frill, then, waving the other majestically, he turned to me as the cheering ceased.
“Burr junior,” he said, “you can return to your seat.”
I stepped back, forgetting all about the daïs, and fell rather heavily, but sprang up again, scarlet with mortification.
“Not hurt? No? That’s right,” said the Doctor; and amid a chorus of “Thank you, sir! thank you, sir!” he marched slowly out of the great room, closely followed by Mr Rebble, while I stood, shaken by my fall, and half dazed by the uproar.
Chapter Two.
How strange it all seemed! I had ridden down the previous day by the Hastings coach, which had left me with my big box at the old inn at Middlehurst. Here the fly had been ordered to take me the remaining ten miles on to the school, where I had arrived just at dusk, and, after a supper of bread and milk, I was shown my bed, one of six in a large room, and made the acquaintance of Mercer, who, after pretty well peppering me with questions, allowed me to go to sleep in peace, till the bell rang at six, when I sprang out of bed, confused and puzzled at finding myself there instead of at home. Then, as the reality forced itself upon me, and I was scowled at by five sleepy boys, all in the ill-humoured state caused by being obliged to get up before they pleased, I hurriedly dressed, thinking that I could never settle down to such a life as that, and wondering what my uncle and my mother would say if I started off, went straight back, and told them I did not mean to stop at school.
Everything looked cheerless and miserable, for there was a thick fog outside, one which had been wafted over from the sea, so that there was no temptation to go out, and, in spite of my low spirits, I was hungry enough to make me long for breakfast.
This was laid for us in the schoolroom, to which the boys flocked, as the big bell on the top of the building rang out again, and here I found that there were two long tables, as I supposed, till I was warned about being careful, when I found that they were not tables, but the double school-desks with the lids of the boys’ lockers propped up horizontal.
“And if you don’t mind, down they come, and your breakfast goes outside instead of in,” said Mercer.
Milk and water and bread and butter, but they were good and plentiful, and though I was disappointed at first, and began thinking of the hot coffee at home, I made a better breakfast than I had expected; and in due course, after a walk round the big building, of which I could see nothing for the chilly fog, the bell rang again, and I had to hurry back into the schoolroom, taking a seat pointed out for me by Mercer, with the result related in the last chapter.
“Here, come along!” cried my new friend: “What a game! You are a good chap. I wish a new boy would come every day. Hooray! old Rebble’s off. Bet sixpence he goes down to the river bottom-fishing. He never catches anything. Goes and sits in his spectacles, blinking at his float, and the roach come and give it a bob and are off again long before he strikes. Hi yi yi yi!” he shouted; “here we are again!” and, jumping on to the form and from there to the desk, he bent down, took lightly hold of the sides, threw up his heels, and stood on his head.
“Here, look at old Mercer!” cried a boy.
“Bravo, Senna T!” cried another.
A dictionary flew across the room, struck the amateur acrobat in the back, and fell on the floor, but not much more quickly than my new friend went over backwards, the blow having made him overbalance so that his feet came with a crash on the desk, the ink flew out of two little leaden wells, and the performer rolled off on to the form, and then to the floor, with a crash.
“Here!” he cried, springing up. “Who did that? Give me that book. Oh, I know!” he cried, snatching the little fat dictionary, and turning over the leaves quickly. “‘Eely-hezer Burr.’ Thanky, I wanted some paper. I’m all over ink. What a jolly mess!”
As he spoke, he tore out three or four leaves, and began to wipe the ink off his jacket.
“I say, Burr,” cried the big boy who had read about Penelope, “Mercer’s tearing up your dictionary.”
“You mind your own business!” cried Mercer, tearing out some more leaves, and then throwing the book