Burr Junior Part 63

"I said, 'And then we must win.'"

"Yes, I heard you."

"Then why didn't you speak?"

"Because I was thinking about Burr major's watch."

"Oh, bother his watch!" said Mercer hastily. "I'm beginning to be glad that he has lost it. Now he won't be always flourishing it in your face and seeming to say, 'Poor fellow, I'm sorry you haven't got a watch too.'"

"Well, you needn't be so cross about it," I said.

"Why needn't I? One gets sick of his watch. There's always been a fuss about it ever since he came back with it. It's lost now, and a jolly good job too. Now we've heard the end of it. Old Eely's watch is regularly wound up."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR.

But we had not heard the end of it, for the Doctor was so much annoyed that he sent Mr Hasnip on a private diplomatic visit to his brother schoolmaster at Hastings, to speak of the trouble we were in, and to ask if it were possible that the watch had been taken by mistake.

Mr Hasnip's mission was as useless as the search made by the boys, who all stood round while the men took down the tent, so as to make sure that no strangers should be more successful than we were.

But the tent was carted away, poles, flags, and all, and then we resumed our search over the s.p.a.ce where the erection had stood, even up to the hedge, and boys were sent over it to peer about in the ditch beyond.

Every minute out of school hours was devoted to the search for Burr major's watch, but there was no result; and when Mr Hasnip returned, soon after the boys had again given up the hunt, and told the Doctor what he had done, he came away, and saw Mr Rebble, who told Burr major, and Burr major told Hodson who was the medium that conveyed to the boys generally the fact that the Doctor had shaken his head.

The next day came, and the next, and another day pa.s.sed, with the memories of the cricket match growing more faint. Burr major's watch was not found, and, after the first two days, the boys had ceased to look suspiciously at one another, and charge a school-fellow with having hid the watch "for a game." Lessons went on as usual, and my riding was kept up, but the cob was only brought over once a week.

I had a pretty good time at the drilling though, but that was only in company with the other boys.

Then the days grew to weeks, and we had our trip to Hastings; that is to say, our eleven; and, being free from headache this time, both Mercer and I played, all coming back in triumph, and nearly sending the private omnibus horses off at a wild gallop as we neared the school: for we came back to announce that we had beaten our adversaries in one innings, they having scored so badly that they had to follow on.

This trip revived the talk about Burr major's watch, but only for a day or two, and then once more the topic died out, though I heard incidentally from Mr Hasnip that the Doctor was bitterly grieved at such a loss taking place in his school.

I worked hard in those days, and made rapid progress, I afterwards found, though I did not grasp it at the time, and I had now grown to like my school life intensely.

Now and then a letter came from the General, asking leave for Mercer and me to go over to early dinner, the old gentleman welcoming us warmly, and making me give proofs of my progress in all parts of my education that had a military bearing. Then we were sent back in the dog-cart, generally with a crown a piece, and a big basket of fruit--a present, this latter, which made us very popular with the other boys, who envied our luck, as they called it, greatly, particularly our expeditions to the General's ponds, from which we brought creels full of trophies in triumph. But only to have our pride lowered by the cook, to whom we took our prizes, that lady declaring them all to be rubbish except the eels, and those, she said, were too muddy to be worth the trouble of taking off their skins.

Then, too, we had natural history excursions to make additions to the museum in the bin.

I thoroughly enjoyed these trips, and became the most enthusiastic of collectors, but I regret to say that with possession my interest ceased.

Mercer bullied me sharply, but it was of no good. If lizards were to be plunged in spirits and suspended by a silken thread or fine wire to the cork of the bottle, he had to do it; and though he showed me how, at least a dozen times, to skin a snake through its mouth, so as to strip off the covering whole and ready to fill up with sand, so as to preserve its shape, he never could get me to undertake the task.

Certainly I began to pin out a few b.u.t.terflies on cork, but I never ended them, nor became an adept at skinning and mounting quadrupeds and birds.

"It's all sheer laziness," Mercer used to say pettishly.

"Not it," I said. "I like the birds and things best unstuffed. They look a hundred times better than when you've done them your way."

"But they won't keep, stupid," he cried.

"Good thing too. I'd rather look at them for two days as they are, than for two years at your guys of things."

"What!" he cried indignantly. "Guys!"

"Well, so they are," I said. "Look at that owl; look at the squirrel, with one hind leg fat and the other lean, and his body so full that he seems to have eaten too many nuts."

"But those were some of the first stuffings," he pleaded.

"But the last are worse," I cried, laughing. "Then look at the rabbit.

Who'd ever know that was a rabbit, if it wasn't for his ears and the colour of his skin? He looks more like a bladder made of fur."

"But he isn't finished yet."

"Nor never will be," I cried merrily.

"Ah, you're getting tired of natural history," said Mercer, seating himself on the edge of the bin, and looking lovingly down at its contents, for this conversation took place up in the loft.

"Wrong!" I cried. "I get fonder of it every day; but I'm not going to skin and stuff things to please anybody, not even you."

"I'm sorry for you," said Mercer. "You're going to be a soldier. My father says I'm to be a doctor. You're going to destroy, and I'm going to preserve."

I burst out laughing.

"I say, Tom," I cried, as he looked up at me innocently, in surprise at my mirth, and I went and sat at the other end of the bin; "had one better kill poor people out of their misery than preserve them to look like that?" and I pointed down at the half-stuffed rabbit.

"Go on," he said quietly. "Scientific people always get laughed at. I don't mind."

"More do I."

"I've had lots of fun out of all these things, and it's better than racing all over a field, kicking a bag of wind about, and knocking one another down in a charge, and then playing more sacks on the mill, till a fellow's most squeezed flat. I hate football, and so do you."

"No, you don't," I said; "you love a game sometimes as much as I do.

What I don't like in it is, that when I'm hurt, I always want to hit somebody."

"Yes, that is the worst of it," he said quietly; "and since I've found out that I can fight, I'm ever so much readier to punch anybody's head."

"But you don't."

"No; I don't, because it don't seem fair. I don't care, though, how you laugh. I shall go on with my natural history even when I grow a man, and have to drive round like father does, giving people stuff. It gives you something to think about."

"Yes, it gives you something to think about," I said merrily. "I always get thinking about these."

"I say: don't," cried Mercer; "you've upset my owl on to that blackbird.

I wish you wouldn't be so fond of larking."

"All right, Tom; I won't tease you," I said. "It's all right, and I'll always go with you collecting. I never knew there were half so many things to see out of doors, till I went out with you. When shall we have a regular good walk through the General's woods?"