Tom Brown at Rugby Part 14

One of the young heroes, however, ran out from the rest, and scrambled up behind; where, having righted himself, and nodded to the guard, with "How do, Jem?" he turned short round to Tom, and, after looking him over for a minute, began:

"I say, you fellow, is your name Brown?"

"Yes," said Tom, in considerable astonishment; glad, however, to have lighted on some one already who seemed to know him.

"Ah, I thought so; you know my old aunt, Miss East; she lives somewhere down your way in Berks.h.i.+re. She wrote to me that you were coming to-day, and asked me to give you a lift."[2]

[2] #Lift#: a.s.sistance of any kind.

Tom was somewhat inclined to resent the patronizing air of his new friend, a boy of just about his own height and age, but gifted with the most transcendent coolness and a.s.surance, which Tom felt to be aggravating and hard to bear, but couldn't for the life of him help admiring and envying,--especially when young my lord begins hectoring two or three long, loafing fellows, half porter, half stableman, with a strong touch of the blackguard, and in the end arranges with one of them, nicknamed Cooey, to carry Tom's luggage up to the School-house for sixpence.

"And heark'ee, Cooey, it must be up in ten minutes, or no more jobs from me. Come along, Brown." And away swaggers the young potentate, with his hands in his pockets, and Tom at his side.

"All right, sir," says Cooey, touching his hat, with a leer and a wink at his companions.

"Hullo, though!" says East, pulling up, and taking another look at Tom, "this'll never do. Haven't you got a hat? We never wear caps here. Only the louts wear caps. Bless you, if you were to go into the quadrangle[3] with that thing on, I--don't know what'd happen." The very idea was quite beyond young Master East, and he looked unutterable things.

[3] #Quadrangle#: a square piece of ground inclosed by buildings. English schools and colleges are quite generally built round a quadrangle or "quod" as it is commonly called.

Tom thought his cap a very knowing affair, but confessed that he had a hat in his hat-box; which was accordingly at once extracted from the hind-boot, and Tom equipped in his go-to-meeting roof, as his new friend called it. But this didn't quite suit his fastidious taste in another minute, being too s.h.i.+ny; so, as they walk up the town, they dive into Nixon's, the hatter's, and Tom is arrayed, to his utter astonishment, and without paying for it, in a regulation cat-skin[4]

at seven and sixpence; Nixon undertaking to send the best hat up to the matron's room, School-house, in half an hour.

[4] #Regulation cat-skin#: the hat prescribed by custom or school law.

"You can send in a note for a tile[5] on Monday, and make it all right, you know," said the Mentor.[6] "We're allowed two seven-and-sixers a half, besides what we bring from home."

[5] #Tile#: a tall silk hat.

[6] #Mentor#: a wise counsellor. See Homer's Odyssey.

Tom by this time began to be conscious of his new social position and dignities, and to luxuriate in the realized ambition of being a public-school boy at last, with a vested right of spoiling two seven-and-sixers in half a year.[7]

[7] #Two seven-and-sixers#, etc.: _i.e._, two hats, for each half year, costing seven s.h.i.+llings and sixpence ($1.80) each.

"You see," said his friend, as they strolled up toward the school-gates, in explanation of his conduct, "a great deal depends on how a fellow cuts up at first. If he's got nothing odd about him, and answers straightforward, and holds his head up, he gets on. Now you'll do very well as to rig, all but that cap. You see I'm doing the handsome thing by you, because my father knows yours; besides, I want to please the old lady. She gave me half-a-sov.[8] this half, and perhaps'll double it next, if I keep in her good books."[9]

[8] #Half-a-sov.#: half a sovereign ($2.50).

[9] #Keep in her good books#: keep on good terms with her.

There's nothing for candor like a lower-school boy, and East was a genuine specimen,--frank, hearty and good-natured, well satisfied with himself and his position, and chock full of life and spirits, and all the Rugby prejudices and traditions which he had been able to get together in the long course of one-half year during which he had been at the School-house.

And Tom, notwithstanding his b.u.mptiousness,[10] felt friends with him at once, and began sucking in all his ways and prejudices, as fast as he could understand them.

[10] #b.u.mptiousness#: domineering manner.

INTRODUCTION TO THE MATRON.

East was great in the character of cicerone;[11] he carried Tom through the great gates, where were only two or three boys. These satisfied themselves with the stock questions--"You fellow, what's your name? Where do you come from? How old are you? Where do you board? and, What form[12] are you in?"--and so they pa.s.sed on through the quadrangle and a small court-yard, upon which looked down a lot of little windows (belonging, as his guide informed him, to some of the School-house studies),[13] into the matron's room, where East introduced Tom to that dignitary; made him give up the key of his trunk, that the matron might unpack his linen, and told the story of the hat and of his own presence of mind; upon the relation whereof the matron laughingly scolded him, for the coolest new boy in the house; and East, indignant at the accusation of newness, marched Tom off into the quadrangle, and began showing him the schools, and examining him as to his literary attainments; the result of which was a prophecy that they would be in the same form, and could do their lessons together.

[11] #Cicerone#: guide.

[12] #Form#: here, cla.s.s.

[13] #Studies#: small private rooms occupied by the Rugby boys (two in a room) for study. They are distinct from the bed-rooms.

EAST'S STUDY.

"And now come in and see my study; we shall have just time before dinner; and afterward, before calling-over,[14] we'll do the close."

[14] #Calling-over#: roll-call.

Tom followed his guide through the School-house hall, which opens into the quadrangle. It is a great room, thirty feet long and eighteen high, or thereabouts, with two great tables running the whole length, and two large fire-places at the side, with blazing fires in them, at one of which some dozen boys were standing and lounging, some of whom shouted to East to stop; but he shot through with his convoy,[15] and landed him in the long dark pa.s.sages, with a large fire at the end of each, upon which the studies opened. Into one of these, in the bottom pa.s.sage, East bolted with our hero, slamming and bolting the door behind them, in case of pursuit from the hall, and Tom was for the first time in a Rugby boy's citadel.

[15] #Convoy#: literally, a merchant-vessel protected by a s.h.i.+p-of-war; here, a person under the care of another.

He hadn't been prepared for separate studies, and was not a little astonished and delighted with the palace in question.

It wasn't very large certainly, being about six feet long by four broad. It couldn't be called light, as there were bars and a grating to the window; which little precautions were necessary in the studies on the ground-floor looking out into the close, to prevent the exit of small boys after locking up, and the entrance of contraband articles.

But it was uncommonly comfortable to look at, Tom thought. The s.p.a.ce under the window at the further end was occupied by a square table covered with a reasonably clean and whole red and blue check table-cloth; a hard-seated sofa covered with red stuff occupied one side, running up to the end and making a seat for one, or by sitting close, for two at the table; and a good stout wooden chair afforded a seat to another boy, so that three could sit and work together. The walls were wainscoted half-way up, the wainscot being covered with green baize, the remainder with a bright-patterned paper, on which hung three or four prints, of dog's heads, Grimaldi[16] winning the Aylesbury steeple-chase,[17] Amy Robsart,[18] the reigning Waverley beauty of the day, and Tom Crib[19] in a posture of defence, which did no credit to the science[20] of that hero, if truly represented. Over the door was a row of hat-pegs, and on each side book-cases with cupboards at the bottom; shelves and cupboards being filled indiscriminately with school-books, a cup or two, a mouse-trap, and candlesticks, leather straps, a fustian bag, and some curious-looking articles which puzzled Tom not a little, until his friend explained that they were climbing irons, and showed their use. A cricket-bat and small fis.h.i.+ng-rod stood up in one corner.

[16] #Grimaldi#: the name of a race-horse.

[17] #Steeple-chase#: a race between hors.e.m.e.n across country to see which can first reach a certain distant object, as a church steeple.

[18] #Amy Robsart#: the heroine of Scott's Waverley novel, "Kenilworth."

[19] #Tom Crib#: a noted pugilist.

[20] #Science#: boxing or pugilistic science.

"OUR OWN" AND THE USE THEREOF.

This was the residence of East and another boy in the same form, and had more interest for Tom than Windsor Castle,[21] or any other residence in the British Isles. For was he not about to become the joint owner of a similar home, the first place he could call his own?

One's own,--what a charm there is in the words! How long it takes boy and man to find out their worth! how fast most of us hold on to them!

faster and more jealously, the nearer we are to that general home, into which we can take nothing, but must go naked as we came into the world. When shall we learn that he who multiplieth possessions multiplieth troubles, and that the one single use of things which we call our own is that they may be his who hath need of them?

[21] #Windsor Castle#: the princ.i.p.al residence of the English monarchs. It is on the Thames, about twenty miles west of London.

"And shall I have a study like this, too?" said Tom.

"Yes, of course, you'll be chummed with some fellow on Monday, and you can sit here till then."

"What nice places!"