The Cock-House at Fellsgarth Part 32

The Fellsgarth Shop will be opened this day from 11 to 12, And 4 To 8, and daily (sundays excepted) till further notice.

The following prime goods, at the cheap prices affixed.

[Here followed a list of the stores.]

Ready money. No tick. Change given.

no more stomach-ache!!

Real jam!

Ripe fruit!

Fresh pastry!

All the season's novelties. Nothing stale.

Boys of Fellsgarth-- Come in your thousands!

No risk to man or boy.

No favour.

Masters and f.a.gs treated alike.

All the profits for the clubs.

Treasurer, Mrs Stratton.

Managing directors, Nine gentlemen, Carefully Selected.

President, Mr Stratton.

Plenty for all. No questions asked.

All are welcome.

Come early and stay late.

_By Order_.

This soul-stirring manifesto, which had the hearty approval both of the president and treasurer (who carefully revised the spelling), threw some satisfactory light on the mystery. Who were the "carefully selected gentlemen" was still obscure, although it was generally held that Fellsgarth only contained nine individuals answering to that particular description. What was more important was that Mr and Mrs Stratton were at the back of the venture. If so, it was not a swindle, and the grub was pretty sure to be right. The new price list, moreover, was very satisfactory, and on the whole the hours were approved of.

When the eleven o'clock bell sounded, on the Wednesday morning, a general movement was made for the Watch-Tower Gate, where, firmly entrenched behind a clean counter piled up with the good things a schoolboy holds dear, demurely stood D'Arcy and Lickford, looking very anxious and scared.

At judiciously selected points among the crowd their friends looked on sympathetically.

After the laughter which had greeted the discovery had died away, an awkward pause ensued. No one exactly liked to start. The seniors present felt their dignity would be compromised. The middle-boys did not like to do what the seniors were too shy to do. The juniors were afraid some one might laugh if they led off. Consequently for a minute or two every one stared at the two shopmen, who cast down their eyes, and blushed and simpered.

At length, however, the ice was broken in a very pretty way. For Mrs Stratton on her way out of the school looked in, and taking in the situation, advanced to the counter and said--

"A bottle of ginger-beer, if you please, Lickford."

Lickford, who, to use his own polite phrase, was "bossing the drinks and fruit" for the day, nearly tumbled down with the shock of this sudden challenge, and made a wild grab at the nearest bottle within reach. The eyes of Fellsgarth were upon him; he lost his head entirely, and made herculean efforts to draw the cork without loosing the wire. His contortions were terrible.

When he could not hold the bottle firm enough between his knees, he tried gripping it between his feet. Then in a hot whisper he besought D'Arcy to hang on to the end, and for a time the bottle was invisible under the two. Then he took another, amid the enthusiastic cheers of the spectators, and was proceeding to release the corkscrew from the refractory vessel, when Mrs Stratton said in her pleasant way--

"I see you keep the new kind of bottles that have the corks wired down.

They are much better than the old, and it's very little trouble undoing the wire."

This saved Lickford. In a moment the wire was removed, and the cork burst out triumphantly, even before it was pulled, showering a grateful froth of fizz into the waistcoat of the operator.

"It's beautifully well up. Thank you, Lickford, how much?" said Mrs Stratton.

"They're a shilling a dozen. I mean three-halfpence each," said D'Arcy.

"We can give you change."

"Here's twopence. I'll take a halfpenny apple. That will make it right, won't it?"

And amid loud cheers she departed.

The ice thus broken, a rush took place, as Ridgway, who was poetical, said--

"Fellows may step in where angels didn't fear to tread."

Then did D'Arcy and Lickford pant and perspire, and wish they had never been born. Hands reached in from all sides, and helped themselves to cakes and tarts, and coppers showered in on them from n.o.body could tell where.

They found themselves handing change out into s.p.a.ce, and sowing sweets broadcast among the crowd.

The other directors meanwhile, as in duty bound, n.o.bly rallied round them, and added to their embarra.s.sment.

"Walk up, walk up!" shouted Wally. "Try our brandy-b.a.l.l.s, eight a penny. Eight brandy-b.a.l.l.s for Dalton; you chaps, look sharp. Change for a sov. for Clapperton; beg pardon, sixpence (didn't know he kept such small coins). Hullo, hullo! stand by for my young brother Percy!

He's just a-going to begin. Fifteen jam tarts, half a pound of peppermints, half a dozen ginger-beer. Bite his money hard, D'Arcy; see there are no bad 'uns. I know the chap!"

"Bah! I hope they've got better toffee here than that muck you make,"

said Percy.

"Come, wake up!" cried Cash. "I've been waiting five minutes for my cake."

"Can't have 'em; we've run out," said D'Arcy.

"Well, you must be a green one only to get such a few," said a middle- boy, who had also built his hopes on the same delicacy.

"Very sorry," said Percy to the company generally. "You must excuse these chaps--raw hands--they don't know how to manage at present. Give 'em time. They'll do better; won't you, Lickford? Takes some time to get a notion into Lickford's head, but when it gets there, my word, it sticks. Get in a double lot of cakes to-morrow, do you hear, or I shall give you the sack."

Despite these pleasant recriminations the business went on merrily. The "tuck" was p.r.o.nounced a great advance on anything Robert had provided, and rumours of its excellence penetrated into quarters which had never contributed customers to the old shop.

In the afternoon the crowd was less, but the business more steady. Mr Stratton dropped in for a slice of cake, and Mrs Wakefield and the three little Wakefields came to patronise the undertaking. One or two fellows, too, sent their f.a.gs to secure "extras" for tea, and one or two left orders for another day. Inquiries were made, moreover, for certain articles, such as lemons, tea-cakes, etcetera, which the shopmen took a note of as worth laying in a stock of. And the lack of demand for a few of the things they had, suggested to the same astute young merchants that they might be dispensed with in future.

Of course, a few boys tried to interfere with the regulations by demanding "tick," and wanting to make bargains. But they were promptly met by a _non possumus_ from the directors present, and finally brought to reason by being referred to Mr Stratton.

The day pa.s.sed without the necessity of any appeal to the president. An anxious consultation was, however, held in his room after closing time.

Naturally, owing to the exceptional rush, the accounts were a little out, but as they happened to be on the right side this was a matter for congratulation rather than distress. Nearly two pounds had been taken, and the stock left on hand was valued at five shillings, so that actually it was possible to repay half of the thirty shillings lent, after the very first day. Mr Stratton, however, advised that only ten shillings should be repaid this time, and the other five shillings put into a reserve fund, in case of need.

"Of course, you can't expect to do as big a business as this every day,"

said he. "It will settle down to a regular jog-trot in a few days, and then we shall be able to judge much better how we stand. I shall be very well satisfied if we make about five shillings clear a day."

"I think you boys have started very well," began the treasurer, but her husband held up his finger admonishingly.

"I should have been very disappointed with them if they had not," said he. "It's easy enough to start, the thing will be to keep it up."

"Remember," he added, "it will be better not to brag out of doors about our profits or that sort of thing. It will be time enough to talk about that when we are able to hand over a good lump sum to the clubs. Now it's time you went to preparation. Good night all."

"I tell you what," said Lickford to his fellow-shopman as they walked across the Green, "we shall have to be pretty smart to-morrow if we're to get to the club meeting."

"Why," said D'Arcy, "I thought none of you Modern cads were going to show up?"

"We heard you'd all funked it," said Wally.