Digby Heathcote Part 28

"I don't fancy buying friends in that way," answered Digby, laughing; "I should not trust much to a fellow who said he was my friend for a piece of cake or a spoonful of jam. If anybody else offered him a bigger piece, or more jam, he would very quickly leave me. I like fellows not for what they have got, but for what they are; and I want to be liked for the same reason myself."

"Oh, I see that you are a radical," said Spiller, sneeringly; "those are regular chartists' sentiments; but they won't go down with me, let me tell you."

Digby burst out into a regular fit of laughter.

"Well, I never should have supposed that it could be considered radical to like a fellow with a number of good qualities who was poor, in preference to a bad fellow who happened to be rich. I must repeat it, that I hope to find friends among the boys here, whom I shall like for their good qualities."

"As you please," remarked Spiller; "of course I can't force you to do as I recommend; but if, on thinking the matter over, you change your mind, come to me and I will help you. Those are my principles; I'm not ashamed of them, let me tell you."

What Spiller meant by his principles, Digby could not tell. Perhaps he might have explained more clearly, but he saw Paul Newland approaching, and he knew that he must abandon his designs for the present on Digby's strong box.

Digby told Paul how he had managed Spiller.

"Capital," exclaimed Paul. "I wish that we could get rid of all the disagreeable fellows in the school as easily as you have, for the present, of Spiller; but I want to tell you to be on your guard against that big bully, Scarborough. The fellows were talking about you just now, and mentioning the plucky way in which you behaved last night; instead of saying, as I am sure he ought, that you acted very rightly, he sneered and vowed that he would very soon take the pride out of you."

"Let him try, if he wishes," answered Digby, not particularly alarmed, for he never had been imbued with any especial dread of big fellows; his fearlessness, however, in reality, arose from his want of experience of the evil they had the power of inflicting; "if he knocks my nose off, he certainly will prevent me from feeling proud of my face, but otherwise, I don't see how he can very well alter my character."

Paul thought Digby a perfect hero, and wished for the time when he would be big enough to be c.o.c.k of the school. While they were speaking, Scarborough lounged by with his hand on the shoulder of another fellow, very much of his own character. There is a great similarity in the look of all bullies, not so much in figure as in expression of countenance; some are big, burly fellows, like Scarborough, others are tall and thin.

Of course, they all have more or less physical strength; some are dark and some are fair, but they one and all have an inexpressible resemblance to each other. Scarborough pa.s.sed close to Digby, and as he did so he put out his foot, and tried to trip him up; but Digby observed the action, and, guessing the intention, jumped off the ground, and escaped even being touched. He felt inclined to make some remark, but he restrained his temper, and left the bully without any excuse for picking a quarrel with him. Scarborough strolled to the end of the playground, and when he came back, he stopped, and looking hard at Digby, said--

"I suppose you are the new fellow who is going to do such mighty things in the school--well, I want you to understand that I shall not allow you to play any of your tricks with me; remember that."

Digby looked at the bully very steadily; he felt that he ought to answer him, if he could do so, quietly, so he said--

"I don't know of any tricks which I wish to play; but if you will just tell me what you don't like of what I have done, or have been said to have done, I will do my best not to offend you."

"It's very well for you to talk in that way," said the bully, disarmed for the moment; for even he could not venture to thrash a fellow without some pretext; "just remember to keep up to it, or you'll find yourself in the wrong box with me, my lad, that's all."

With this ambiguous threat, the bully moved on.

"Well done again," exclaimed little Paul, who had been trembling with alarm all the time for the result of the meeting; "he won't let you off without many another attack; but manage him as you have already done, and I do not think that he will annoy you much."

The moment the dinner-bell rang, there was another general rush into the dining-room. This was that the first comers might secure the best pieces of bread and mugs of beer, arranged up and down the tables.

Digby found only half a mugful of beer and a very small piece of bread remaining to his share; but he was not at all put out, and made no remark, resolving another day to be earlier in the field.

Grangewood School had existed for a number of years, and things were carried on there very much in the old-fashioned style in most respects.

Mr Sanford was a very good scholar and a gentleman, but he had no talent for the economical arrangements of a school. It is a favourite saying with some people, that boys are better fed than taught. He had resolved that, as far as he had the power, they should be well taught; but it did not occur to him, that it was inc.u.mbent on him to see that they were well fed and well looked after.

Mrs Pike was, fortunately for him, a conscientious person; but her notions were somewhat antiquated. She wished to attend to his interests, and she was not aware that they and those of the boys were identical; that is to say, that if the boys were thoroughly looked after, well fed as well as well taught, brought up as Christians and gentlemen, the school would flourish; and that if the boys were badly and coa.r.s.ely fed and treated, and neglected, the school would go down-hill.

Digby was very hungry; the novelty of his position did not spoil his appet.i.te. He turned his head in the direction of the table at which Mrs Pike, supported by Mr Yates, usually sat to superintend the serving out of provender, to see what was coming. Some huge dishes piled up with large white b.a.l.l.s were brought in, and plates, containing half of one of the b.a.l.l.s, were in succession thumped down before each of the boys. Digby turned over the ma.s.s with his fork to discover the contents, but finding nothing but a ma.s.s of dough and a strong smell of beer, he put it down; and when one of the maid-servants came by, held out his plate, and quietly said, that he would rather have meat before pudding. The maid-servant, who was not Susan, or she might have whispered a bit of good advice, seized his plate, and going up with it to Mrs Pike, said in a loud voice, so that all might hear:--

"The new boy, Master Digby Heathcote, marm, says that he likes meat before pudding."

Mrs Pike cast a withering glance at Digby; such a piece of insubordination had not been met with for a long time to her authority.

"We here give pudding before meat, young gentleman, if it suits us," she exclaimed, in a dictatorial tone; "if you do not choose to eat such excellent pudding as this is, you can have no meat. Take it back to him, Jane."

Again the plate was placed before him.

"You had better eat it," whispered Paul Newland. "It is very good yeast dumpling, and you will like it when you are accustomed to it."

"With all my heart," answered Digby, laughing. "I did not want to make such a fuss about the matter. I like duff very well, only I really thought that they had forgotten to put the meat on my plate."

"Don't touch the stuff, Heathcote, take my advice," exclaimed Spiller, in a low tone, across the table. "You have got plenty of good things in your box to feed on, I dare say. All new fellows have; and there is nothing like holding out against injustice."

"Thank you," said Digby, pretty well guessing Spiller's drift. "I had rather not lose my dinner. Very good stuff, though; capital duff; a little sugar and wine would make it perfect."

He ate it all up.

"Here, Jane," he exclaimed, holding out his plate; "say that I find it very good, and should like some more."

Jane, who was pretty well up to the tricks young gentlemen were capable of playing, looked suspiciously at his pockets, and then under the table, to ascertain whether he really had eaten up the dumpling; but even she was a.s.sured by his ingenuous countenance, and so she went up to the head table, and said that Master Digby Heathcote liked the yeast dumpling and wanted some more.

Mrs Pike looked, also, very suspiciously at Digby.

"I'll give him some," said Mr Yates, who was a.s.sisting in serving out the provisions.

Mrs Pike, with feminine tact, would have given a small piece, not to disgust him; but he, whether with malice or from thoughtlessness, put very nearly a whole one on the plate. Some brown sugar, however, was added by Susan on its way to Digby; and when he got it, he liked the taste so much, that although not aware that Mrs Pike's sharp eyes were on him, he sat manfully to work; and yeast dumpling being of a very compressible nature, he demolished the whole ma.s.s in a very short time.

It did occur to Mrs Pike's economical mind that it was fortunate the new boy liked pudding, or he would be very expensive to feed.

Digby felt rather thirsty, so he drank up his beer. That was rather sour; but he was not easily put out, and he felt already very much as if he had dined. When a huge dish of salt beef, with carrots and turnips, did come, he could do but little justice to it; but he was grateful to Mrs Pike's delicate attention, when, in a tone of which he did not discover the sarcasm, she pressed him to take a second helping.

He begged to have some more beer, though; but was told that one cupful was the allowance, and so had to quench his thirst with water.

"We have pudding first only twice in the week," observed Paul. "I have got accustomed to it, and rather like the variety, though I thought it odd at first. One day we have yeast, and another suet-dumpling. Then two days we generally have pease-soup, or some fellows do call it pease-porridge. It is rather thick, to be sure, and on those days we have porter instead of beer. I seldom after it have an appet.i.te, even for Irish-stew or toad-in-the-hole. On Wednesdays, Mrs Pike lets a cake-man come just before dinner with gingerbread and lollipops; and many fellows would rather spend their money on his grub than in any other way; and they are not so hungry on that day, and don't care so much what they have. We call that sc.r.a.p-and-pudding day, because we have hashes first and rice-dumplings afterwards. Mrs Pike, on that day, always talks about the immense sum she spends on currants and other groceries for the school."

However, enough about eating; Paul and Digby were philosophers in their way, and had no wish to make grievances out of trifles.

Mr Sanford himself would have been horrified had he known the light in which the domestic arrangements of his establishment were regarded; and it told among the elder boys with very injurious effect to his interests. Some of the best left; and their parents, knowing him to be a gentleman--cruelly, certainly--did not explain the real cause, and so he let things go on as before. The worst remained; those whose friends knew that they were not likely to get on well anywhere, and perhaps would not believe their statements. They, of course, leavened the rest.

The younger ones, by degrees, took up their notions and habits; and a first-rate school had not only diminished in size, but had deteriorated sadly in quality, by the time Digby went to it.

He, of course, did not find this out. The state in which he found things he supposed to be inseparable from schools in general, and he was disposed to make the best of them. However, he had resolved not to give in to the bad ways of others, when he once saw that they were bad. But he had yet to learn how insensibly a person may be drawn into the bad habits, and a bad style of thinking and speaking, and may adopt the erroneous notions of people among whom he lives. Digby was in a much more perilous position than he was aware of. He was of a dauntless disposition; he had always been accustomed to rely a good deal upon himself, and he was anxious to do his duty. More than that was wanted to preserve him. He had at home a pious mother and sisters, who never failed to offer up their prayers for his safety. Surely those prayers were not uttered in vain. It would have been doing, also, great injustice to the Squire of Bloxholme to say that he forgot his son, though those who knew him best might have supposed that his prayers might have been of a somewhat inarticulate nature. Still, certainly, there was fervency and sincerity in whatever e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.ns he uttered.

The subject is too serious to be touched on lightly. Only thus much may be said, that if more parents prayed for their children, and more children for their parents, the sacred ties of that relationship would not, as now is too often the case, be loosened or rudely torn asunder; and there would be more good parents and good children than are to be found.

Dinner was over; the boys rushed into the playground; neither the yeast dumplings nor the salt beef stuck in their throats. Most of them were hallooing, shoving against each other, trying to trip up those nearest them, slapping each other's backs, and, indeed, playing every conceivable trick of the sort.

Digby was soon overtaken by Scarborough.

"Well, jackanapes, how are you?" said the latter.

Digby ran on without taking any notice of the address.

"Did you hear me speak to you?" exclaimed the bully, catching Digby by the collar of his jacket.

"I heard some one speak to somebody, but I could not possibly tell that you meant to say anything to me. There are big monkeys as well as little ones. You might have been wishing to say something to a fellow of your own size."